Andy

this is how i feel as rational as i like to be, looking at those pictures is even worse somehow than what i was visualizing. [expletive] all that. There is nothing irrational about not wanting to see that on the uniforms. It will provide very little, if any, benefit to the team on the field. It will only serve to make the owner more rich. And it looks like [expletive]. Correct, all of this.

STL would be the team to get in over them just to piss me off

He looks frighteningly like Zac Efron in that photo. I'm very uncomfortable with it.

Colon scratched, Carlos Torres starting.

Even in a season where CFB is starting at the earliest possible date, the off-season seems to last forever. But finally, the AP poll is out and the first Saturday is 12 days away. I'll switch to the committee rankings (man, that's weird to say) starting with their first release on Oct. 28. Top 25 games ------------------------ Oklahoma State vs (1) Florida State – in Arlington, TX (8 pm, ABC) West Virginia vs (2) Alabama – in Atlanta (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) South Dakota at (3) Oregon (10:30 pm, Pac-12 Network) Louisiana Tech at (4) Oklahoma (7 pm) (5) Ohio State vs Navy – in Baltimore (12 pm, CBSSN) Arkansas at (6) Auburn (4 pm, SEC Network) (7) UCLA at Virginia (12 pm, ESPN) Jacksonville State at (8) Michigan State (7:30 pm Friday, BTN) (21) Texas A&M at (9) South Carolina (6 pm Thursday, SEC Network) SMU at (10) Baylor (7:30 pm Sunday, FS1) UC Davis at (11) Stanford (4 pm, Pac-12 Network – Regional) (16) Clemson at (12) Georgia (5:30 pm, ESPN) (14) Wisconsin vs (13) LSU – in Houston (9 pm, ESPN) Fresno State at (15) USC (7:30 pm, FOX) Rice at (17) Notre Dame (3:30 pm, NBC) Boise State vs (18) Ole Miss – in Atlanta (8 pm Thursday, ESPN) Weber State at (19) Arizona State (10:30 pm Thursday, Pac-12 Network) Stephen F. Austin at (20) Kansas State (7 pm) Florida Atlantic at (22) Nebraska (3:30 pm, BTN – Regional) Liberty at (23) North Carolina (6 pm, ESPN3) South Dakota State at (24) Missouri (3:30 pm, ESPNU) (25) Washington at Hawaii (10:30 pm, CBSSN) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- Abilene Christian at Georgia State (7 pm Wednesday, ESPNU) Eastern Illinois at Minnesota (7 pm Thursday, BTN) Wake Forest at UL Monroe (7 pm Thursday, ESPNU) Howard at Akron (7 pm Thursday, ESPN3) Presbyterian at Northern Illinois (7 pm Thursday, ESPN3) Chattanooga at Central Michigan (7 pm Thursday, ESPN3) Idaho State at Utah (7:30 pm Thursday, Pac-12 Network) Tulane at Tulsa (8 pm Thursday, CBSSN) Cal Poly at New Mexico State (8 pm Thursday, ESPN3) Temple at Vanderbilt (9:15 pm Thursday, SEC Network) Rutgers at Washington State (10 pm Thursday, FS1) Villanova at Syracuse (7:30 pm Friday, ESPN3) BYU at UConn (8 pm Friday, ESPN) Bowling Green at Western Kentucky (8 pm Friday, CBSSN) Colorado State vs Colorado – in Denver (9 pm Friday, FS1) UTSA at Houston (9 pm Friday, ESPNU) UNLV at Arizona (10:30 pm Friday, ESPN) Central Florida vs Penn State – in Dublin, Ireland (8:30 am, ESPN2) Appalachian State at Michigan (12 pm, ESPN2) North Dakota State at Iowa State (12 pm, FS1) Western Michigan at Purdue (12 pm, ESPNU) Indiana State at Indiana (12 pm, ESPNEWS) Youngstown State at Illinois (12 pm, BTN – Regional) Northern Iowa at Iowa (12 pm, BTN – Regional) UT Martin at Kentucky (12 pm, SEC Network) Delaware at Pittsburgh (12 pm, ESPN3) Georgia Southern at NC State (12:30 pm, ACC Network/ESPN3) Wofford at Georgia Tech (12:30 pm, FSN South/ESPN3) Colgate at Ball State (2 pm, ESPN3) Nicholls State at Air Force (2 pm, ESPN3) Boston College at UMass (3 pm, ESPN3) California at Northwestern (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) James Madison at Maryland (3:30 pm, BTN – Regional) William & Mary at Virginia Tech (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Duquesne at Buffalo (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Marshall at Miami (OH) (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Portland State at Oregon State (4 pm, Pac-12 Network – Regional) Elon at Duke (6 pm, ESPN3) Morgan State at Eastern Michigan (6 pm, ESPN3) Ohio at Kent State (6 pm, ESPN3) Idaho at Florida (7 pm, ESPNU) Austin Peay at Memphis (7 pm, ESPN3) Western Carolina at South Florida (7 pm, ESPN3) New Hampshire at Toledo (7 pm, ESPN3) Montana State at Arkansas State (7 pm, ESPN3) Southern at UL Lafayette (7 pm, ESPN3) Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Texas State (7 pm, ESPN3) Southern Miss at Mississippi State (7:30 pm, SEC Network) NC Central at East Carolina (8 pm, ESPNEWS) Samford at TCU (8 pm, FSN) North Texas at Texas (8 pm, LHN) Utah State at Tennessee (7 pm Sunday, SEC Network) Miami at Louisville (8 pm Monday, ESPN)

IT'S BEEN LIKE 10 GAMES. In which he tied the Cubs' record for mots HRs in the first 10 games of a career. Exactly. It's not like it's all been terrible. I mean, I think we all knew he'd look bad at times, but he's also looked exactly like a future star at times too. He certainly has, and I look forward to when he stops swinging at 55 foot pitches so he can look like it even more.

IT'S BEEN LIKE 10 GAMES. That's why I'm not going to do it. Just takes some patience and self-discipline when he looks as hopeless as he did in that AB.

I will not fret about Javier Baez. I will not fret about Javier Baez. I will not fret about Javier Baez.

It's not a Cubs/Mets series until a Met I've never heard of in my life homers.

Clarifying the earlier post and contrary to Fox Sports' report, the 4 mentioned players are not (yet) gone, but they will be held out of practice and competition until the investigation is complete.

Padres' 2012 1st-round pick Max Fried having Tommy John surgery. http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/padres-fried-tommy-john-surgery/

In before schadenfreude - ND found more academic fraud in an internal investigation. DaVaris Daniels (who already sat out the spring semester because of academics, way to go, pal), KeiVarae Russell (All-American level talented CB), Ishaq Williams and Kendall Moore, all starters, are gone. http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/2014/08/15/notre-dame-fighting-irish.html

Not giving up on him quite yet. I'm still hoping he solves his vision problem because it would make for an interesting lineup in 2015. Surely you would accept an above average fielding 3rd baseman, 25 HR and .270-280 hitter. You put Bryant in left and that's pretty sweet. It's not a vision problem. It's a can't make contact problem. Which is sort of a vision problem too, but it's not something he didn't have before 2013. He hit .288 with 28 HR in 2012. Nice try. In the minors.

This is incredible.

Jaxon got 2 outs on 4 pitches, then remembered he's Jaxon and that's not how things are supposed to work.

I think several people here, including the [expletive] pitching crowd, are on board with spending money on pitching this off-season. The idea isn't to never spend money on pitching, it's not to spend dumb money on pitching (like signing over-30 guys to extreme long-term, high-$ deals).

Les Miles doesn't understand why Hoke isn't putting it to a vote.

Why? I thought he had a solid night at the plate. Not today specifically, I could just use another Super-Javy night soon to get me jazzed. Too bad that first hit didn't go 5 feet farther.

Javy is making me sad.

Maybe that infamous Dempster nap on deadline day wasn't such a bad thing after all.

No. We get to have Addison Russell and still make a run for it next year. Yep. If Soler and Bryant are even close to the unstoppable monsters they are now in 2015, plus Lester and whatever other pitching we might get, we should contend.

Man, Rany really does love Epstein and Hoyer. He was the one that interviewed for a job with them, right? That being said, a good article, and just because it can't be said enough, [expletive] pitchers.

No. The Cubs won 97 games and actually underperformed. They were the best team in baseball pretty easily and the fact that they lost 3 in a row to LA was pretty much a fluke. Although my irrational side is still annoyed that we let Milwaukee surge into the playoffs when we would have faced the free-falling Mets if they hadn't.

Castro really hauled ass there.

Ugh