Andy

It's as if he's been a productive but irratic player for his entire career! He's up to 4.4 WAR. What is a little odd is that in his entire time with the Cubs I'm not sure I remember any bad base running - forgetting the number outs earlier this year not withstanding - I'm thinking of taking an extra base or trying to score - he seemed to have that uncanny timing-spidey sense that told him he could make it. There obviously was some but I feel like they were few and far between - however I think I have seen 3 or 4 clips of bad base running in his time of the Mets - getting thrown out at 3rd for the 3rd out, doubled off on a bloop that was easily caught stuff I just don't remember him doing with the cubs. Rose colored glasses maybe. He definitely did the latter once this year. That was when Ross benched him and caused a kerfuffle.

Top 25 games ------------------------------ (1) Alabama at (11) Florida (3:30 pm, CBS) South Carolina at (2) Georgia (7 pm, ESPN) Nebraska at (3) Oklahoma (12 pm, FOX) Stony Brook at (4) Oregon (7 pm, Pac-12 Network) Kent State at (5) Iowa (3:30 pm, BTN - Regional) Georgia Tech at (6) Clemson (3:30 pm, ABC) New Mexico at (7) Texas A&M (12 pm, SEC Network) (8) Cincinnati at Indiana (12 pm, ESPN) Tulsa at (9) Ohio State (3:30 pm, FS1) (22) Auburn at (10) Penn State (7:30 pm, ABC) Purdue at (12) Notre Dame (2:30 pm, NBC) Fresno State at (13) UCLA (10:45 pm, Pac-12 Network) (14) Iowa State at UNLV (10:30 pm, CBSSN) (15) Virginia Tech at West Virginia (12 pm, FS1) (16) Coastal Carolina at Buffalo (12 pm, ESPN2) Tulane at (17) Ole Miss (8 pm, ESPN2) (19) Arizona State at (23) BYU (10:15 pm, ESPN) Georgia Southern at (20) Arkansas (4 pm, SEC Network) Virginia at (21) North Carolina (7:30 pm, ACC Network) Michigan State at (24) Miami (12 pm, ABC) Northern Illinois at (25) Michigan (12 pm, BTN) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------------------- Thursday Ohio at UL Lafayette (8 pm, ESPN) Friday UCF at Louisville (7:30 pm, ESPN) Maryland at Illinois (9 pm, FS1) Saturday TV Boston College at Temple (12 pm, ESPNU) Albany at Syracuse (12 pm, ACC Network) Western Michigan at Pittsburgh (12 pm, Marquee/ESPN3) UConn at Army (12 pm, CBSSN) Minnesota at Colorado (1 pm, Pac-12 Network) USC at Washington State (3:30 pm, FOX) Florida State at Wake Forest (3:30 pm, ESPN) Delaware at Rutgers (3:30 pm, BTN - Regional) SMU at Louisiana Tech (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Idaho at Oregon State (3:30 pm, Pac-12 Network) Mississippi State at Memphis (4 pm, ESPN2) Northwestern at Duke (4 pm, ACC Network) Colorado State at Toledo (4 pm, ESPNU) Sacramento State at California (4 pm, Pac-12 Network - Regional) Ball State at Wyoming (4 pm, Regional Sports Networks/Stadium) Arkansas State at Washington (4:15 pm, Pac-12 Network - Regional) Utah at San Diego State (7 pm, CBSSN) Central Michigan at LSU (7:30 pm, SEC Network) Utah State at Air Force (7:30 pm, FS2) UAB at North Texas (7:30 pm, Regional Sports Networks/Stadium) Stanford at Vanderbilt (8 pm, ESPNU) Oklahoma State at Boise State (9 pm, FS1) Northern Arizona at Arizona (10 pm, Pac-12 Network) San Jose State at Hawaii (12:30 am, FS1) Saturday Streaming Chattanooga at Kentucky (12 pm, ESPN+) Tennessee Tech at Tennessee (12 pm, ESPN+) Nevada at Kansas State (2 pm, ESPN+) Bryant at Akron (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Baylor at Kansas (3:30 pm, ESPN+) Elon at Appalachian State (3:30 pm, ESPN+) Long Island at Miami (OH) (3:30 pm, ESPN+) Murray State at Bowling Green (5 pm, ESPN3) Fordham at Florida Atlantic (6 pm, ESPN3) Old Dominion at Liberty (6 pm, ESPN3) East Carolina at Marshall (6 pm, Facebook) Middle Tennessee at UTSA (6 pm, ESPN+) Incarnate Word at Texas State (7 pm, ESPN3) Charlotte at Georgia State (7 pm, ESPN+) Florida A&M at South Florida (7 pm, ESPN+) Florida International at Texas Tech (7 pm, ESPN+) Grambling at Houston (7 pm, ESPN+) Troy at Southern Miss (7 pm, ESPN+) Furman at NC State (7:30 pm, ESPN3) Alcorn State at South Alabama (8 pm, ESPN3) Jackson State at UL Monroe (8 pm, ESPN3)

This did not help the ND outlook, but it was a hilarious finish.

If it helps, the likely multiple Notre Dame home losses the rest of the way will all air on NBC. This was a one-off, for this season at least.

Not official yet but they're all going to accept. Big 12 isn't going to be as good as the other 4 power leagues but it might be the most fun.

Early spread is only -5 or -6 on that one, which strikes me as odd.

Top 25 games ------------------------------ Mercer at (1) Alabama (4 pm, SEC Network) UAB at (2) Georgia (3:30 pm, ESPN2) (12) Oregon at (3) Ohio State (12 pm, FOX) Western Carolina at (4) Oklahoma (7 pm, PPV) (5) Texas A&M vs Colorado - in Denver (3:30 pm, FOX) South Carolina State at (6) Clemson (4 pm, ACC Network) Murray State at (7) Cincinnati (3:30 pm, ESPN+) Toledo at (8) Notre Dame (2:30 pm, Peacock) (10) Iowa at (9) Iowa State (4:30 pm, ABC) Ball State at (11) Penn State (3:30 pm, FS1) (13) Florida at South Florida (1 pm, ABC) Stanford at (14) USC (10:30 pm, FOX) (15) Texas at Arkansas (7 pm, ESPN) Kansas at (17) Coastal Carolina (7:30 pm Friday, ESPN2) Eastern Michigan at (18) Wisconsin (7 pm, FS1) Middle Tennessee at (19) Virginia Tech (2 pm, ESPN3) Austin Peay at (20) Ole Miss (7:30 pm, ESPN+) (21) Utah at BYU (10:15 pm, ESPN) Appalachian State at (22) Miami (7 pm, ESPNU) UNLV at (23) Arizona State (10:30 pm, ESPN2) Georgia State at (24) North Carolina (7:30 pm, ESPN3) Alabama State at (25) Auburn (12 pm, SEC Network) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------------------- Friday North Carolina A&T at Duke (8 pm, ACC Network) North Dakota at Utah State (9 pm, CBSSN) UTEP at Boise State (9:30 pm, FS1) Saturday TV Illinois at Virginia (11 am, ACC Network) Western Kentucky at Army (11:30 am, CBSSN) Pittsburgh at Tennessee (12 pm, ESPN) South Carolina at East Carolina (12 pm, ESPN2) Tulsa at Oklahoma State (12 pm, FS1) Indiana State at Northwestern (12 pm, BTN - Regional) Youngstown State at Michigan State (12 pm, BTN - Regional) Miami (OH) at Minnesota (12 pm, ESPNU) Kennesaw State at Georgia Tech (12 pm, Regional Sports Networks/ESPN3) Rutgers at Syracuse (2 pm, ACC Network) Purdue at UConn (3 pm, CBSSN) Air Force at Navy (3:30 pm, CBS) Buffalo at Nebraska (3:30 pm, BTN) California at TCU (3:30 pm, ESPNU) Georgia Southern at Florida Atlantic (3:30 pm, Regional Sports Networks/Stadium) Portland State at Washington State (6 pm, Pac-12 Network) Houston at Rice (6:30 pm, CBSSN) NC State at Mississippi State (7 pm, ESPN2) New Mexico State at New Mexico (7 pm, Regional Sports Networks/Stadium) Howard at Maryland (7:30 pm, BTN - Regional) Idaho at Indiana (7:30 pm, BTN - Regional) Missouri at Kentucky (7:30 pm, SEC Network) Washington at Michigan (8 pm, ABC) Jacksonville State at Florida State (8 pm, ACC Network) Vanderbilt at Colorado State (10 pm, CBSSN) San Diego State at Arizona (10 pm, Pac-12 Network) Idaho State at Nevada (10:30 pm, Regional Sports Networks/Stadium) Hawaii at Oregon State (11 pm, FS1) Saturday Streaming VMI at Kent State (11:30 am, ESPN3) Norfolk State at Wake Forest (12 pm, ESPN3) Wyoming at Northern Illinois (1:30 pm, ESPN+) Duquesne at Ohio (2 pm, ESPN3) Robert Morris at Central Michigan (3 pm, ESPN3) Temple at Akron (3:30 pm, ESPN+) South Alabama at Bowling Green (4 pm, ESPN+) Illinois State at Western Michigan (5 pm, ESPN3) Long Island at West Virginia (5 pm, ESPN+) Gardner-Webb at Charlotte (6 pm, ESPN3) Lamar at UTSA (6 pm, ESPN3) Bethune-Cookman at UCF (6:30 pm, ESPN+) NC Central at Marshall (6:30 pm, ESPN+) Nicholls at UL Lafayette (7 pm, ESPN3) Eastern Kentucky at Louisville (7 pm, ESPN3) Grambling at Southern Miss (7 pm, ESPN3) Hampton at Old Dominion (7 pm, ESPN3) SE Louisiana at Louisiana Tech (7 pm, ESPN3) Texas Southern at Baylor (7 pm, ESPN+) Southern Illinois at Kansas State (7 pm, ESPN+) Stephen F. Austin at Texas Tech (7 pm, ESPN+) Liberty at Troy (7 pm, ESPN+) Texas State at Florida International (7 pm, ESPN+) Memphis at Arkansas State (7 pm, ESPN+) Morgan State vs Tulane - in Birmingham (7 pm, ESPN+) North Texas at SMU (7 pm, ESPN+) McNeese at LSU (8 pm, ESPN+)

For all the hype around DC Marcus Freeman (hype I am completely in on, FTR), his first game featured as many 60+ yard plays given up as Clark Lea surrendered in 3 years, and more regulation points allowed than Lea had in all but one game of his 3 years. Hopefully it's just an adjustment period. Several top 10 teams looked less than perfect in week 1 so I'm not super concerned, but certainly a lot to fix. Jack Coan is awesome, though.

Graham Mertz was absolutely brutal in that game. Felt like every single red zone pass was into triple coverage. But obviously PSU defense gets some credit for making him look bad too. Let's hope they look past my Ball State Cardinals next week.

They tested negative. Guessing just a precaution after Jed and Ross tested positive.

That's also a good point. One would hope there would be a mechanism wherein guys who make the bigs very early would hit FA sooner than that.

It does seem like those types would be the collateral damage in that proposed system. They definitely wouldn't get as many chances as they currently do. That being said, that seems like a fairly reasonable and equitable solution, which means I'm probably missing something as there's no way the owners would actually propose something that acceptable this early in the process.

Temple/Rutgers moved from tonight to Saturday afternoon because of now-Tropical Storm Ida causing floods in the Northeast.

Oklahoma at Tulane moving to Norman because of Hurricane Ida.

It's ridiculous that he will get in, but he will hardly be the worst player to ever get in largely because he had the good fortune to be on teams with a bunch of players way better than he is, so whatever I guess

I'm not, like, a "East Coast fans all SUCK" guy, but man, the most fun player ever comes to your team and you hate him within a month, that's a you problem. It's not Javy's fault you suck.

Foregoing ticket revenue. What an adorable concept. This is a split doubleheader, 1:20 and 5:30. Weird because the last DH was 1:20 and 7:05. I figured since they were bunched closer together that they were one admission. Of course why wouldn't the Ricketts pass up a chance to charge full price and give the fans 7/9ths of what they paid for? It's getaway day, so I suppose that's why, but both teams are off tomorrow - and the Cubs aren't even leaving the city for their next series - so it's not like it was a pressing matter.

You should be able to edit the OP like any other post. When you do that, you can change the thread title as well. Davies G1 and Steele G2. Interesting that the games are back to back meaning the Cubs are foregoing a game worth of ticket revenue for this DH. I guess there goes any big FA signings this offseason. Foregoing ticket revenue. What an adorable concept. This is a split doubleheader, 1:20 and 5:30.

So what he's saying is that when the Cubs said this wouldn't be like 2012-14, they actually meant no, it'll be exactly like 2012-14. Except maybe without Edwin Jackson.

That came out last week and their AD Trev Alberts categorically denied those would be a thing this season. Many people noted the inclusion of the words 'this season'.

Preciado and Caissie had better win multiple MVP awards just to make up for having to watch this trash all year.

At this point I'm pretty sure Marquee is trolling Boog and JD (JD is again not here).

I'll be pedantic here; I think Arizona's, just by virtue of being spectacularly boring, were already worse, and it seems like SF's are being very poorly received (to me they're just meh and probably about as good/bad as the Cubs'). And I know some people dug Boston's, but holy hell do I hate those. These LA ones would probably be fine except for those oh so loud blue pants.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/08/18/mlb-proposes-salary-floor-lower-luxury-tax-mlbpa This is only a proposal, and it almost certainly won't make it through as initially described, but anything along these lines seems really bad for the Cubs. It would give the Ricketts' another excuse not to go over $180 million. Lower the LT to $180M? I know it’s the first round of negotiations but horsefeathers that. That’s laughable I think we pretty clearly learned during the COVID return to play negotiations last year that anything the owners propose is going to be absurd and ridiculous. The players are either going to have to accept whatever stupid demand the owners make or probably go on strike.

Hermosillo as part of the next core confirmed