BigbadB

The NFL owners can still block this move, and they actually should considering how this whole thing has gone down. The following is a quote, but sums up this entire mess: "They are leaving a city they don’t really want to leave and one that doesn’t want them to go. They are moving to move, to a city they don’t really want to be in and one that doesn’t want them to come. Or, at best, doesn’t care."

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-chargers-to-la-plaschke-20170111-story.html This is a pretty interesting article. It doesn't paint a very pretty picture for an LA/Charger relationship. Where is the hoopla in LA today? My Facebook feed is littered with a lot of hate and anger today directed at Spanos.

There is still the possibility of sharing the Coliseum. There are field issues to contend with because the soccer team plays at the same time as NFL, so there is no guarantee that the soccer team can have the NFL tearing up their field several times over the course of a season. Also, the Chargers changed their uniforms in 2012, and you can only change them so often, so the thought process is to keep them as the Chargers for one more season. They would much rather rebrand completely if they could, from what I've read.

I'm trying to find information on how soon Spanos can sell the team now that he's moving them to LA. I heard from someone he can't sell the team for 15 years after a move, but I can't find anything that says that. I'm pretty sure that if there is no requirement to hang onto the team after moving them, he will have it sold before they ever move into Kroenke Field. The guy is a total douchebag. He could have easily worked something out with the city, but he hasn't negotiated in good faith ever since he started talking about moving the team after Sterling sold the Clippers for $2 billion.

I still don't know why they hate Jason Hammel so much. He is the perfect 5/6 for this situation. Maybe he's just a pain in Maddon's ass and they didn't want to deal with him anymore, but the $/production would have been fine, particularly because they are in the Luxury Tax anyway. I read somewhere that a shoulder issue kept him off the playoff roster and the shoulder concerns might be creating a buyer beware tag on a long term deal. Whether there is truth to that or the Cubs left him off the roster for the more typical reasons a 5th starter gets left off a playoff roster, I have no idea. It was always assumed Hammel would try to collect a long term deal this offseason, and the Cubs released him from the 2017 obligation so that he could do just that. That no one is pursuing him even this late in the offseason when pitching is thin in availability, but thick in need is odd. It won't cost anyone a draft pick and he's probably a nice middle rotation add to more than half the teams in the league. I think the Cubs really want to give Montgomery a shot, so I don't think the Cubs would show any interest in Hammel even if he wanted to come back on a one year deal, or even the one year deal they could have had him for when the season ended.

Montgomery can't be counted on for much more than 140-150 innings, if even that many. He has logged that many in the minors, but that's been a few years back. A 6 man rotation earlier than last year makes even more sense than it did last year. There is also the possibility that Montgomery isn't effective in the rotation, and slipping Ross into his spot when he's ready and moving Montgomery into a long reliever or spot starter. Best case scenario, both are effective and will be options in the rotation long term when Lackey and possibly Arrieta move on.

I was getting legally drunk during that game. Damn I'm old. I was 9 when the Bears won, but I didn't get into football until much, much later, and I don't remember watching it. I was into the Bears even at 9 years old, but there weren't many fond memories of those teams outside of watching Butkus and Buffone. I did like Bobby Douglass as a QB, but probably because he was left handed and would take off running a lot, and I didn't know much about football then.

I was getting legally drunk during that game. Damn I'm old.

Isn't this more of an element of always being several scores down in a game?

I have such a hard time with the idea of the LA Chargers horsefeathers that horsefeathers It's a weird situation. We will know a lot more on January 15th, which is the last day they can announce a move to LA.

McCoy is already as good as gone. I suppose if the team were to move to LA, he could end up staying. But Charger fans absolutely despise McCoy. The pitchforks are out and opposing team fans have taken over the stadium. Every interview these days asks McCoy what he thinks about the possibility that he's out of a job for next year, which is kind of a stupid question to ask a coach, because what can he really say? "Yeah, I know, so I'm not going to give my best out there from now on since I'm getting fired anyway!" He gives the typical "I can't worry about next year or what might happen. I have a team to get ready for next week and that's all I'm focused on". Spanos has pissed off these fans so badly at this point, they want the Chargers to leave. And they truly have normally been a pretty loyal bunch.

Ugh.

I actually met him at the first WBC at Petco. We met up for drinks beforehand with a few other NSBB peeps and then sat together at the game. He seemed alright THEN.

I'm sure you meant Derek, but that you gave him a first name, but not Dalton or Prescott, and that he was a first pick bust kinda makes this funny. But it's also relevant to the discussion.

Dude, I didn't send it back to them in pieces. I walked right in the front door and cut it up in front of a line of customers at check out. Did you not read this entire thread? I entered this masterpiece into this contest myself.

How many other teams legitimately look to be shopping QB in the first round. San Fran seems like a given. Cleveland again? Houston? Denver? Jets? What are the possibilities of trading down a handful of spots and still getting one of the top QB's? Are there any teams that would trade up to draft one of those guys?

Padres fans were sad to see him go. They don't talk a lot of baseball since they are in an endless cycle of small market wheel spinning with no real direction, but he roped quite a few doubles in a low amount of innings. He was also their prime lead off hitter and hit .299 in that role. He also doesn't strike out much. He seems like a nice addition to what is still a busy outfield, but doesn't block a significant addition in the near future.

in a 180 game season a manager will make some bad decisions. I'm not going to whine about it a month after winning the World Series.Not whining about the bad decision. No asking for an apology. Saying it's out of character for Maddon to mic drop and weirdly crusty coming from a guy who likely knows that horsefeathers was a bad move. I don't really see it as a mic drop, because he did offer some explanations. Given the results, there is no real reason to dwell on them. I think a lot of his decisions that are being questioned were him trying to do as much as humanly possible to avoid this organization suffering another meltdown loss, and this time under his watch. He didn't want Hendricks facing the lineup a 3rd time through with veterans like Lester and even Lackey available in the pen if necessary. He had one of the most dominant closers in the game at his disposal, and he wanted to use him in a much higher leverage situation rather than a late game save opportunity, "because that's what you are supposed to do with closers". These decisions could have cost them the World Series. If so, Joe would probably be first in line to take the blame. Instead, it added to the dramatics that made this one of the best World Series wins of all time. Now, next year let's just win the World Series 4-0 and leave all the drama out of it with heavenly dongs. I would imagine some people will bring some of these questions up again in Spring Training, and maybe Joe will offer more. But I certainly don't need any closure from him.

This is a good thing. This is not a bad thing! Say it again with me, a little louder this time. THIS IS A GOOD THING! THIS IS NOT A BAD THING!

LOL. You think the Cubs give a sh*t about anything other than your money and their public image (which also increases money for them)? You DO know that this is the billionaire Ameritrade family that supported Donald Trump, right? (http://www.si.com/mlb/2016/09/21/ricketts-family-endorses-donald-trump-campaign-chicago-cubs) So you didn't REALLY lose your season tickets afterall? All of this was just a big lie?

But anyone with a decent sized bank account can "invest thousands of dollars for years". The Cubs want to be sure that someone is also investing their "TIME" in the team. How much time did you invest this year? I can afford a few season tickets. Tell me why I should deserve them over someone who actually lives in Chicago and wants to actually go to the games.

I'm not talking about single game profit. If they have the ability to track all of your season ticket movement through Stub Hub, they can determine what your true intentions are. There is clearly verbiage in the contract for season tickets that says that if you are behaving as a baseball ticket broker with your season tickets, you will lose your tickets.

Care to share how much you profited off the sale of your season tickets this year? I would almost bet that the amount you made on your tickets was a much larger factor in you losing your season ticket account over selling all of your tickets. And I ask this because I could totally understand someone losing their season tickets if it gives any appearance that the sole purpose of the use of those season tickets is to make a living/ridiculous profit. I think it's great that sports teams are able to monitor/control that type of behavior, as it wasn't what season tickets was designed for. There are so many people waiting for tickets that would truly use them for what they were designed for, and they are getting hosed by those who only have the tickets because they want to expand their wallet. I would bet quite a few other people did lose their season tickets in this fashion. But I'll also bet that the Chicago Cubs are using due diligence in making sure the people they are taking away season tickets from are deserving so.

=D> In a season where they were favored to win the World Series before the season ever started, had a line up loaded with such likeable and talented players, if you can't make an honest attempt to go to a respectable amount of games (I live in California and I made it to a game this year), you probably should be giving up your season tickets to someone who could make better use of them. Better use meaning actually seeing the product actually play rather than capitalizing on their success by selling the tickets for profit.

How dare you beat me to the punch by one minute.