Tracer Bullet

It may be nitpicking, but I don't think either fit a philosophy that includes "win now." Certainly not Soler, as he's a few years away, and it's debatable how much Cespedes will be able to contribute in 2012. That said, I do agree that given the apparent philosophy of the front office, I hope they're the top targets to this point. Is Cespedes any further from guaranteed production than Brett Jackson? Soler is further away but both fit better into the stated goals than Pujols or even Fielder, I would think.

I was talking about football at the time I wrote that post. Bigx education...minny would be proud.

Fewer, but, yes.

I do wonder if any of this is Delaney wagging his dick at ND to give them their last shot. ND isn't joining the bigx. I forgot, they're joining Conference USA cause it's a better fit. Conference USA is roughly as good a fit as the bigx.

I don't think tix on the secondary market have been terribly profitable for a while, save maybe some Sox or Cards games. I signed up thinking I wouldn't be up until I was about to retire and would have more time to go to games. There's no risk in being on the list so who cares.

To be fair, their other non con opponent is a Big East team... Oh I'm not commenting on the schedule. But McNeese St is the SEC football whore. Huh? Mcneese State has played 1 SEC school in the last 10 years. They usually play Big XII teams (and obviously when they scheduled Texas A&M they thought they were playing another one). Or do you just mean Division 1-AA schools in general? The latter. I'm surprised McNeese St has only played 1 SEC team in a decade but I was mocking the SEC for starting every year with a cupcake (thus, nothing says welcome to the SEC like playing a FCS school to start the year or whatever). It was a throw away joke.

I do wonder if any of this is Delaney wagging his dick at ND to give them their last shot. ND isn't joining the bigx. Purdue and ND commited to playing each other long term. I don't think MSU will drop ND either, given it's history. Esp if the bigx stays at an 8 game schedule. USC isn't giving up the ND game. The Pac 12 already made concessions for USC and Stanford to keep playing ND at the end of the season. Stanford may drop ND, but I'd be surprised. There are still a bunch of schools outside the bigx that ND can play to replace UM. And without UM taking up a coveted September slot, when nonconference scheduling is easier and southern schools will come up north, it shouldn't be a problem to make the Texas series long term or rotate SEC schools.

230 here. Looks like I'm taking the afternoon off.

I completely agree with this. These guys seem to fit much more into the mantra of winning now and the future, so hopefully they're the top targets all along.

I think you're overstating it. None of these people bought teams primarily to make money off them. I think you're overstating it. I can't believe you know that there isn't any sports franchise owner who bought a team for the profit potential. I would guess that the overwhelming majority of owners bought primarily for profit/tax write offs as opposed to ego/bucket list. You're mischaracterizing my post. I didn't say potential profit isn't a factor. I said profit isn't the primary factor. If they're great business people as you suggested, they'd find better investments if profit were the primary goal. And buying a team for the tax write-off directly contradicts your claim that these are profit making machines. Not when the tax write off maximizes your profits. One example is that a players' massive contracts can be depreciated over the "typical" length of a players' career. That's not a write off. That's an expense. That's deducted from revenue to calculate profit. If expenses exceed revenue, then you've got no profit (but instead have a loss). I don't know enough about the taxation of baseball team earnings and the finances of these owners to know if you can use the losses from a baseball team to lower taxable income from other sources, but it's pretty clear that you don't either. So maybe we should get back to talking baseball.

If someone's just looking for profit, there are much much better ways than a sports franchise. They do make money, but for these mega-rich guys, owning a team is more a bucket list type thing. Bucket list type things are sailing to Tahiti, owning a sports franchise may be an ego thing, but it's extremely profitable. The Cubs were sold to the Tribune Co. in 1981 for $20.5 million and then sold to Ricketts for $900 million in 2009. If you know a better way to make that much profit, let me know. Some of the worst owners in sports end up selling for a lot more than they paid for a franchise. Yet the Trib went bankrupt. You'd think with their investment expertise, they could have avoided such a fate. I'm sure being in the Newspaper business had nothing to do with that. There's probably a way to miss the point by a wider margin than you did, but I'm struggling to identify it.

I think you're overstating it. None of these people bought teams primarily to make money off them. I think you're overstating it. I can't believe you know that there isn't any sports franchise owner who bought a team for the profit potential. I would guess that the overwhelming majority of owners bought primarily for profit/tax write offs as opposed to ego/bucket list. You're mischaracterizing my post. I didn't say potential profit isn't a factor. I said profit isn't the primary factor. If they're great business people as you suggested, they'd find better investments if profit were the primary goal. And buying a team for the tax write-off directly contradicts your claim that these are profit making machines.

If someone's just looking for profit, there are much much better ways than a sports franchise. They do make money, but for these mega-rich guys, owning a team is more a bucket list type thing. Bucket list type things are sailing to Tahiti, owning a sports franchise may be an ego thing, but it's extremely profitable. The Cubs were sold to the Tribune Co. in 1981 for $20.5 million and then sold to Ricketts for $900 million in 2009. If you know a better way to make that much profit, let me know. Some of the worst owners in sports end up selling for a lot more than they paid for a franchise. Yet the Trib went bankrupt. You'd think with their investment expertise, they could have avoided such a fate.

To be fair, their other non con opponent is a Big East team... Oh I'm not commenting on the schedule. But McNeese St is the SEC football whore.

Open with McNeese St? WELCOME TO THE SEC

I think you're overstating it. None of these people bought teams primarily to make money off them.

It was cute when he pretended he was going to go to Indiana. What a weird recruitment. He commits to IU so UM, Bama, etc won't offer when he opens back up bc they don't want to lose their QBs (each of whom were much less heralded). ND has been lukewarm on him, then he re-opened and ND pursued him pretty strongly a month or two ago, but offered a QB shot to Fuller (a QB only in the D Rob as a freshman sense) weeks before Kiel announced. I'd love to have him commit to ND, but that's just an unusual set of circumstances. Guess I hope we land Fuller and he can learn to be a QB before he has to play.

Considering the circumstances, it's better than I could have hoped for Probably b/c it's not going to happy. I love that espn is making PSU look even worse. Munchak is the current target, even though he already told PSU that he's not interested. http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7395510/report-mike-munchak-tennessee-titans-penn-state-nittany-lions-top-coaching-choice

The Cubs did not "clear" 250 mil. They did have 258 mil in revenues. But 157 mil in player expenses. Add other expenses and they "cleared" 23 mil pre-tax. The Rickets likely can spend, but the numbers you use say the opposite. He didn't say profit. His statement was accurate.

I'm trying to figure out if I care about this. So I guess I don't.

Seriously?

I think there's a whole lotta Theo koolaide being passed around. Theo doesn't seem to get the same slack you gave Hendry.

every other coach in america turned them down (i'm including hs coaches)

It'd be great if this word didn't become a thing.

Did Lanie really break out the band, the Heismans and a Christmas tree? He should have played the hat game to really play up the drama.