rawaction

For someone who hit 4 HRs in a 5-game span at one point this year, Candelario has an ISOP of .070 for the last 2 months. Not going to complain about that too much though as the dude doesn't even turn 19 til Thanksgiving, and already has an acceptable walk rate. But he seems to have too much natural power to go that long without displaying it.

Got the #1 pick in my 12-team redraft this week. Debating on Foster vs. Rice. Heavily leaning toward Rice. I think I'm confident enough in my ability to get a good QB and WRs, that I'm not going to take Rodgers or Calvin Johnson. Thoughts?

Peoria scored all their runs one at a time. Basically, none of their run scoring hits were multiple RBI hits. HR was a solo shot. 2 bases loaded singles only scored 1 run. Double with runners at 1st and 2nd only scored 1. Lot of station to station, but got the job done with 10 runs.

Summers was extremely intriguing. He's 6'5" and made some great "high-point" catches in preseason. But I don't think the Bears would have been able to sneak him to the practice squad. Someone will pick him up for their P-squad though, or maybe a team with a deep WR corps will keep him as their 6th to develop.

Sucks for him. If he plays opening day next year, it will be his first game that matters since 12-4-2010. That's a span of 33 months.

Really?

Lot and gloom and doom about last night around the web. I didn't think it was that bad. Obviously the team didn't play as well as they should nor as well as they can, but I thought the pass blocking was fine. Cutler took no sacks in 21 throws. He only got hit a couple times. Once in the endzone when Garza missed a blitzer and late in the half when Rachal and Williams (2 guys that may not be on the team this time next week) came into the game. The only time he got really hurried is when Williams missed block, and I think he would have run for the 1st down if it was a regular season game. I thought Webb did an adequate job pass blocking. Carimi was OK. The starting interior OL was OK. Run blocking was pretty bad, but the Bears have never been a big, "blow you off the ball" type of running team. Even last year when the Bears did a pretty good job running the ball, it was done by getting to the edge and getting more blockers out front than the defense had there. Forte's 2 runs against the 2nd string D was an indicator of the run game's success from last year. The major problem last night was that Evan Rodriguez isn't a very good blocker. He consistently missed assignments or blew blocks from the Hback/FB position all night. Forte should be able to make 1 guy miss, but when you got a guy coming thru the hole the play is intended to go thru meeting you there behind the line of scrimmage, there's nothing you can do. Cutler was pretty off on his throws last night. He went 9-21, with 2 of the completions being catches by 6'4" WRs with a CB draped all over them (both would have been pick 6's if Knox was out there and not Jeffery and Marshall). Bennett dropped one, but Cutler missed him wide open for a would-be TD earlier in the game. Cutler missed Forte open twice. He overthrew 6'7" Kellen Davis. Cutler's body language and shouting made it seem like the communication was off with the receivers, but he threw the ball terribly, that's not going to happen much in the regular season. As for the defense, they've always had trouble vs. speedy RBs with quick-cutting ability (see Jahvid Best MNF last year). They shutdown anyone else who tried to run for the Giants. Tillman made 2 really bad plays vs. Barden by guessing fade on slant and slant on fade. The other PI call was bogus.

and those strikeouts were in the same game. he only struck out in 1 of his first 10 games in peoria. Didn't realize that. Pretty crazy. He struck out in 11 of his 14 games in Arizona.

Good news, Daytona played baseball today. Bad news, the Cubs got 1-hit over the last 8 1/3 of the game. To be fair, the Cubs only allowed 3 singles themselves in the final 8 1/3. But Whitenack had already given up 3 runs (2 unearned) by that point. Baez 0-3, with a walk and a K. Villanueva was 0-4 with 2 Ks. Torreyes with a hit and a walk. Soler with an RBI double in 4ABs for Peoria. 11 RBIs in 11 games for him. Jensen has only allowed an unearned run on 2 hits (0 BBs) and 5 Ks in 7 innings so far. Lake with 2 walks for Tennessee.

There was a blog that mentioned the possibility of Khalil Bell not making the roster. Hmmm. Wonder where I saw it. http://www.mr-irrelevantpgh-chi.blogspot.com/

Wouldnt do the Cam trade. Hate losing early picks

If its ppr, definitely keep Sproles. If not, id probably still lean Sproles

Like McNeil a lot. He's firmly in my top 30. I'm really big on the "frame" of a player. McNeil is a good athlete with a very good "baseball body". He throws high 80s-low 90s with some sink, also throws a slider and change. Looks pretty wiry right now, but is a guy that I feel is going to be able to up the fastball a couple ticks (has hit 93 in the past, not sure how velo is as a pro so far). Hearing good things about his delivery too. He's going to need time, but he has the frame to add some lower body strength/mass, and get the fastball to the point he's working at 92-94, touching 95-96 and if he refines the breaking ball, I think he's a guy to keep a real close eye on.

Jorge Soler, 0-3 having seen 4 pitches.

28% of the starting QBs in the NFL this year will be 24 years old or younger. 5 rookies starting and 4 second year players.

FWIW, I really liked Legree coming out ofthe draft a couple years ago. Believe he had a 10 INT seasonas a junior at FS. Athleticism is an issue jIthough.

More like Zylch, amirite?

What's most messed up is that the rain seems to ONLY be happening to the Daytona Cubs. The rest of the FSL slate has gone on as scheduled the last 2 days. In fact, Daytona has been rained out 8 times (9 games) in the last 30 days, and has been the only game rained out on 5 of those days. Twice only 1 other game was rained out. And only once (first of the rainouts) was most of the FSL schedule rained out. All but 1 of the games rained out were in Daytona, as the rain did follow them to Lakeland for 1 trip. In fact, I believe I counted 5 times they were rained out when scheduled to play Lakeland, not including the rained out DH. Maybe they'd be Ok moving somewhere else in the FSL?

I'm not doing any stats, but starters today are: Iowa- Yoanner Negrin Tennessee-Dallas Beeler Daytona-Matt Loosen and Eduardo Figueroa Peoria- Yao-Ling Wang Boise- Tayler Scott

That's going to be the key to their season. If Tice can help make the O-Line respectable, they will have a great season. Everyone always says that, but the Bears had a terrible OL last year and would have won 11 games had Cutler stayed healthy. And teams have won the Superbowl recently without the OL even being respectable (Steelers, Giants). The key is and has always been getting the ball in the endzone and racking up yards and first downs thru the air to keep the D off the field and maximize their abilities.

They weren't that bad. Skins brought a lot of delayed blitzes on the short side and the OL couldn't account for that man.

Defense doing a good job containing RG3. Throwing a lot of looks out there. Sending nickel, safety, stunting, dropping DEs. Roach is no Urlacher though.

Throwing [expletive] darts! OL looks damn near amazing!

And is 0-2 with a K. Baez with a single and SB in 3 ABs. Ball in play all 3 times. Villanueva is 2-3 with a double and RBI. Peralta having another good game after a bad one. 5Ks thru 4 innings, 3 hits allowed, 0 BBs. Well damn. All 3 of those hitters struck out in their subsequent AB, and Peralta struck out 2 more, but gave up a HR and now has runners at 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs.