Exile on Waveland

Seconding the facts that (1) MLB's blackout rules are nonsensical and (2) hope Ramirez is not booed by the fans (though I remain thankful the Cubs didn't re-sign him).

I keep having this nightmare scenario play through my head: 2012: We were too bad last season to make it worth adding a big-time contract. 2013: Ditto 2014: We almost made it to .500, but there's only a couple of impact players on the market, and the Dodgers and Yankees went to insane numbers on them and we should be thankful we didn't try to match that. 2015: Attendance has been down the last few years because of all the awful teams, and we still don't have the cable megadeal like those big market teams, so we have to be prudent. And/or the current management team proves as smart as we all hope/think they are, succesfully build from within, and enter the free agency season "one player away!" And the best player on the free agent market is . . . Alfonso Soriano II.

That would be fun*; I really enjoyed the IU-KU series in the early 90s. The Damon Bailey-Jacque Vaughn overtime game in Lawrence in the 1993-94 season was a classic (even though KU won). *The caveat being that since this seems to be a replacement for UK, I'd much rather play UK. If I had my druthers, I'd play both though.

They should never have let Rafa go, honestly. I never wanted him gone. The fan base was somewhat divided over him; however, that move was non-football related more than anything.

I honestly know very little about Phoenix, but I'm happy not to be playing Nashville. And the Hawks beat the Red Wings. And finished with 100+ points. Good day.

I'd say there's little chance he gets "fired." However, I think there is an excellent chance he steps down at the end of the season. He was brought in to stabilise and improve, as far as I recall - so I can't imagine him being in the dugout next season. He probably should have looked to move on earlier; but who will they get in his place? Not sure there are many great options for Liverpool at this point . . . AVB? Benitez, even?

Nah, forget good/talented players. The Cubs will have the most cost efficient team.

He was my other thought, for what it's worth.

Yeah, I feel a bit lost this year (after the Andrew Luck pick, obviously). The Colts are changing schemes/style and need help all over the field, unlike past years. I also had a pretty decent feel for the types of players Bill Polian wanted, and when/where he'd pick certain positions. Now, I have little idea. I think they probably would take Coby Fleener if he had dropped, which he almost did. Otherwise, I'd probably guess defensive line, secondary, or potentially wide receiver here. For the new defensive line, I like Alameda Ta'amu, but this is most likely too early to take him. Kendall Reyes, too, who Mel Kiper has them taking, for what that's worth. Reyes . . . ?

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a315/Matt_2108/lannistersnuggieparty.gif I cannot stop laughing at this. Thrilled about the DirecTV-WGN deal, though I'll be taking a long, late lunch break to watch the game today.

This.

I'd say there's little chance he gets "fired." However, I think there is an excellent chance he steps down at the end of the season.

They're one Zeller away from a bottom third finish. Hopefully he wises up and cashes in. he will be there all 4 years. Then he's as dumb as he looks. I guess if he blows out a knee his big bro can throw him some cash. Or he could just take out a multi-million dollar insurance policy that would pay him, you know, multi-millions of dollars if he got hurt. (Which I would hope he does immediately, assuming he's coming back.)

They're one Zeller away from a bottom third finish. Hopefully he wises up and cashes in. he will be there all 4 years. I doubt that. I'd be absolutely thrilled to get three years from him.

I mean, things are pointed in the right direction. But has he really exceeded your expectations? Absolutely. I didn't think he'd get Cody Zeller. I certainly didn't think he'd get Yogi Ferrell. IU's long-term recruiting is on more stable ground than it has been since the early 1990s. I thought Crean would comfortably settle IU into 20ish wins and 10ish loss seasons with better seasons randomly sprinkled in; it seems very likely I was overly pessimistic. That said, I cannot stop you from myopically viewing Crean's tenure through the prism of his first three years as if those years have predictive quality.

Let's irrationally ignore all context! Fun times!

I'm no longer sure about Smart; I would have thought Illinois was on that list. As for Stevens, he'd leave for IU, Duke, surely North Carolina, and I think Notre Dame. One would think Kansas. I'm less sure about Kentucky (poor, um, fit . . .) and UCLA (distance). Other than that, I'm not really sure -- though I doubt this is an exclusive list. He's honestly happy at Butler.

Ha ha, I was hilariously all kinds of wrong in that thread. Crean has certainly exceeded my expectations for him -- but it's hard to compare him with recent UK coaches like Pitino and Calipari (who I do not like, at all, but he wins).

Who are you talking about? A few yokels/trolls? I certainly don't recall anyone here saying so. It's pretty difficult to say with a new coach, but Illinois should be pretty good (and I'm assuming Meyers Leonard leaves). (Though, in the yokels/trolls defense, Illinois went 6-12 last year in the Big Ten, figures to lose an NBA Lottery pick, and does not have much of a recruiting class. While it may be likely that the talented young players improve and Groce is an upgrade over Weber, neither of those things are a certainty.) Sosa21MVP about two pages ago. Ugh, I missed that. Well, he also doesn't think losing Watford will hurt, so . . . I did not say it will not hurt at all. I just don't think it would hurt the team as much as you think it would given the overall talent level we'll still have on the roster. Given a choice, I'd rather have Watford back. Hollowell kind of blew up this last high school season, I'd give him a fair shot at replacing some of that production. Perea is more of a raw talent so yeah between the two, it would be my hope Jeremy can step up. And yes, I was trolling Bruce Weber. I thought it was fairly obvious but apparently not. :P Yeah, it was obvious you were trolling Weber; I just missed your comment the first time around. (Which made my initial post look rather foolish, oh well.) The overall talent level on next year's team will certainly be higher (assuming Zeller stays, of course). And I love Hollowell -- as you mentioned, he pretty much blew up; and I don't think he'll be at IU for four years (and not in the Watford way). He and Perea certainly would be capable of potentially replacing Watford's production of twelve points and six rebounds per game. But basketball isn't baseball; merely "replacing" production doesn't necessarily equate to replacing the player. The roster -- in depth, experience, and versatility -- just looks much, much better with Watford.

Eek, seriously? Where's he projected to go now ? I always liked him at Arizona State and his NFL potential. Hmm . . .

Who are you talking about? A few yokels/trolls? I certainly don't recall anyone here saying so. It's pretty difficult to say with a new coach, but Illinois should be pretty good (and I'm assuming Meyers Leonard leaves). (Though, in the yokels/trolls defense, Illinois went 6-12 last year in the Big Ten, figures to lose an NBA Lottery pick, and does not have much of a recruiting class. While it may be likely that the talented young players improve and Groce is an upgrade over Weber, neither of those things are a certainty.) I don't see how anyone with any objectivity can say that Groce could be worse than Weber was the past 4 to 5 years. As a program-builder or as a tactical coach? I have little doubt that the next four or five years at Illinois will be better than the last four to five years. But I'm not sure that inherently means that Groce will have an identifiable impact next year with the players that struggled under Weber; maybe, but maybe not.

LOL I'm stretching a bit lol. Although I don't get what those two are waiting for? I was pretty surprised by Smart, I thought he'd take the Illinois job. I don't think he'll end up getting a better job from VCU than Illinois. Stevens I wasn't surprised by; he's perfectly content and will only leave for a few specific jobs (and not even necessarily "better" jobs than Illinois, I think he'd likely leave for Notre Dame, if that became available). I know who should hire him in a few years, though they'll surely mistakenly hire a disciple.

I think he was intentionally trolling Bruce Weber. Thumbs up on "trokel."

Who are you talking about? A few yokels/trolls? I certainly don't recall anyone here saying so. It's pretty difficult to say with a new coach, but Illinois should be pretty good (and I'm assuming Meyers Leonard leaves). (Though, in the yokels/trolls defense, Illinois went 6-12 last year in the Big Ten, figures to lose an NBA Lottery pick, and does not have much of a recruiting class. While it may be likely that the talented young players improve and Groce is an upgrade over Weber, neither of those things are a certainty.) Sosa21MVP about two pages ago. Ugh, I missed that. Well, he also doesn't think losing Watford will hurt, so . . . I thought Watford was a he'll of a matchup problem. Is he for sure gone? Not for sure. It's just sounding like that and some of us, at least, have expected it for awhile. Watford is inconsistent and can be pretty frustrating -- so I can sort of understand the pooh-poohing of his potential departure -- but he's a quality player that is definitely a matchup problem in college.

Who are you talking about? A few yokels/trolls? I certainly don't recall anyone here saying so. It's pretty difficult to say with a new coach, but Illinois should be pretty good (and I'm assuming Meyers Leonard leaves). (Though, in the yokels/trolls defense, Illinois went 6-12 last year in the Big Ten, figures to lose an NBA Lottery pick, and does not have much of a recruiting class. While it may be likely that the talented young players improve and Groce is an upgrade over Weber, neither of those things are a certainty.) Sosa21MVP about two pages ago. Ugh, I missed that. Well, he also doesn't think losing Watford will hurt, so . . .