rawaction

Mostly skipped a generation unfortunately for me. But I have a brother that played on Cincinnati Bearcats final four team with Van Exel and Corie Blount. His son is a freshman on a basketball scholarship at Urbana U, but will be a D1 transfer. Have 3 other college aged nephews playing football. One D1 for ULM. One for FCS SIU, but he will be drafted next year. Another playing D3, but he was on scholarship at Oklahoma until he blew that with grades. Had 2 uncles and a much older cousin be all state basketball players in Indiana, one of which went pro in Greece. I also have a niece that's a contender for all state in HS basketball. And a 6' tall 13-year old nephew who's dad is in the NFL. And my soon to be 5-year old son is ridiculously good at basketball for his age (can maintain a dribble and make baskets on a full size rim with a girl's ball or from about 10-12 feet with a kids size ball). Sorry for the not so humble bragging. If it makes people feel any better, I sucked in high school at baseball and was just a mediocre football player. I did make IU's team as a walk-on but quit while like 6th on the depth chart at OLB. Lol

Yeah McCarthy was good as a Yankee, likely gets a multi year deal (3?). But i don't really like Masterson or Peavy. I think Martin would be almost invaluable to the pitching staff. He's really good.

ozzie as a 3B coach or bench coach or something harmless like that would be hilarious i like also like having people around who fans of other teams tend to hate That's what Javy is for.

Why is this happening? Stop supporting Ozzie Guillen in this organization in any capacity.

Another of my nephews plays for ULM. 8 catches for 88 yards today and an 8 yard pass.

I can't physically handle this. I die a little every time Rose falls. That ankle turn almost forced me to turn the tv off.

To put some names to it, Id basically go after Seattle guys. KJ Wright might be somewhat of a splash signing, but low key. I also like Walter Thurmond III despite him being out for the year for the Giants. And Jeron Johnson is backup SS who I liked in the draft and Seattle has kept around as a strong backup and special teamer. Then draft Shaq in the 1st and the best DB or OT in the next couple of rounds.

I wouldn't go after a splash unless Suh or similar just fall into our laps, kinda like Allen did. I'd rather go after a few pieces. I could see free agents at RT, S, DT, CB, or LB. A couple of those could be starters and the others quality depth.

Last year Price, Moore, and Smyly(along with several relievers) all made extensive use of a cutter. Both Price and Smyly threw it more with the Rays than with the Tigers. I was going to say Price for sure threw it a bunch. Before he got traded, I think I saw him K 9 Pirates using primarily his cutter to RH hitters. Nice to have some facts with it. Not that I can imagine he'd interfere with the pitching coach (assuming its still Bosio) with the guys already throwing it (Arrieta). It seems like he doesn't want guys who are doing just fine with their regular stuff adding a cutter, but that wouldn't stop him from having a pitching coach introduce a cutter to a guy who has been less effective without it. Yeah. Maddon could probably say he wants half his staff to learn to throw with their left hands so the staff is perfectly balanced, and I'd probably buy it. I'm all in on Maddon.

Last year Price, Moore, and Smyly(along with several relievers) all made extensive use of a cutter. Both Price and Smyly threw it more with the Rays than with the Tigers. I was going to say Price for sure threw it a bunch. Before he got traded, I think I saw him K 9 Pirates using primarily his cutter to RH hitters. Nice to have some facts with it. Not that I can imagine he'd interfere with the pitching coach (assuming its still Bosio) with the guys already throwing it (Arrieta).

They don't bother me that much. I think it's clear that they are currently not a top 4 team. How is it clear? Because they don't play 60 great minutes every week? They still have the best player in college football, loads on NFL talent, and haven't lost a game in like 2 years.

All these articles are the same. "The defense and special teams are terrible. But Cutler turns the ball over!" The Bears are 0-5 when they lose the turnover battle. Ok. But the Bears are also 0-4 when their opponent punts less than 2 times. And if the Bears are losing the turnover battle, the teams aren't not punting because the Bears are taking the ball away. Granted, I still put most of the onus on the offense for not scoring enough early or late or consistently. But even if Cutler had perfect games, that's only 2 more wins. And both of those losses still took game winning drives late in the game by the opposing team to win it (Buffalo OT, and Carolina).

I would like another defensive guy back there to defend the really good PGs in the league. Butler takes the best wing on every team. Snell can help, like was stated. But I'd like a guy with some length in the backcourt. However, that would come at the extent of Dunleavy and/or probably Snell, losing an extra wing defender. But I agree, this is a good team D. And the Bulls have always pretty much been constructed the same way without a great on the ball PG defender.

This is the Brian Roberts trade all over again isn't it.

Probably go with Jones in the 1st. I like the sure thing over a guy coming off injury, even though the sure thing isn't that good. Green, Hawkins, Forsett if Green plays.

Every NFL coach will want to bring in his own coordinators. That makes complete sense. Unlike Trestman though, Arians has ties to some actual good defensive minds.

I thought maybe that was his LOSS percentage at first glance, but even that's way wrong.

Really impressed with McBuckets' defense. Seems to have really taken to coaching well. Going to be interesting to see the end of close games lineup. Is it possible Noah is the one on the bench late up front?

But he doesn't scream, so I don't think he's playing hard.

But the point is, you're giving a lot of those ABs to Baez and Alcantara who failed to produce anything close to a .700 OPS in a decent sample size this year. And throw in that Bryant isn't guaranteed to not struggle either. All while hoping for repeats from Castro, Rizzo, Soler over 140+ games, and the journeymen in the OF platoons. That is indeed the point. By all means, the Cubs should try and field a competitive team next season - not least because they should have been trying harder to do that for the last three years, and because they're adding one of the best managers in the game. They should spend money, and try to add pieces that can help win games in 2015 and beyond. But if you're going to commit to playing guys like Baez, Bryant, Soler and Alcantara every day - as I think you should - then I think you have to accept that the Cubs are not as far along in this process as the Royals were going into 2013. Unless you're going to sell-out the long-term plan, as Theo is so fond of saying, it's probably not realistic to think the Cubs are going to be playoff contenders next season. They should announce to the world that they plan to be, and act accordingly - but that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep our expectations reasonable. If there's 1 thing the Cubs have going for them that the Royals didn't is that Rizzo is probably slightly ahead of 2012 Butler, maybe more when you consider one actually plays a position. Castro is probably a little lesser than Gordon, but plays a premium position. And Arrieta is a good bit better than Guthrie was in 2012. So, if the Cubs do like they did and add an ace (they got Shields) and get lucky with a secondary arm (they got Santana while waiting on Ventura), then I could see a playoff appearance, but the Cubs also had further to go as a team and in a tougher division.

But the point is, you're giving a lot of those ABs to Baez and Alcantara who failed to produce anything close to a .700 OPS in a decent sample size this year. And throw in that Bryant isn't guaranteed to not struggle either. All while hoping for repeats from Castro, Rizzo, Soler over 140+ games, and the journeymen in the OF platoons.

Was he the really large African American behind home plate with the Giants jacket on? If anything it prevented that obnoxious fan in the orange Marlins top from sitting there and he had to stand in the aisle all game. The guy is a lawyer from Fort Lauderdale who obviously has way too much money and time on his hands. Yep

Williams and Smith, until Colts prove they can make a stop and RG3 proves he's healthy.

Wow. Is that really true? Are you really that shocked? Rose has played ten games in the past 30 months or something. Not really shocked. It just seems like Butler has been around and a major part of this team longer than that. I was thrown back last night when the announcers for the Magic/Pelicans game said Eric Gordon was in his 7th year. Which obviously was 3 bad years for IU and 2 good years and then last year, but still to think of it as 7 years was weird to me.

Wow. Is that really true?