Andy

To be (somewhat) fair, OSU has added future series with TCU, Texas and Oregon since Tressel left. (Also Boston College, but they're Boston College.)

I'm choosing to believe that this move had nothing to do with the IFA signings, because the alternative would be really, really stupid.

Rizzo off today, so Navarro hitting 3rd. Holy [expletive] Chicago Cubs @Cubs #Cubs lineup vs. @Nationals 8/19: Lake CF, Barney 2B, Navarro C, Schierholtz RF, Castro SS, Murphy 3B, McDonald LF, Ransom 1B, Samardzija P

He was due 6.5M next year if we kept him according to Baseball-Reference, so I guess that sort of explains it.

I don't remember what he did to specifically piss everyone off, but he was the giant Alabama homer who made a thousand excuses as to why his team got clobbered by Utah in a bowl game a few years ago. He'd be an...interesting person to have back given the state of college football these days.

Per multiple reports

I'm very excited for Georgia-Clemson. That should be a really great game, and the Death Valley crowd will presumably be insane.

Yadier [expletive] Molina

Castro is just [expletive] trolling us at this point

Are you kidding me Wood?

The old "blow scoring opportunity then immediately give up runs" move. Oy. Limit the damage, Travis.

Life was better when Rizzo was good

I pay more than that for the Extra Innings package now and would easily pay double if it meant getting a channel with more Cubs content, pre and post game shows and all (or most) of the games no matter what the state of the team. Hell, just not having to listen to the other teams' announcers on the road would be worth it. I pay quite a bit for EI as well, and while I do watch other games, if I could just get a Cubs channel with all the games, I'd probably do that and drop EI without thinking twice. I'm sure lots of others would too. Yeah, I have MLB.TV and there's no way I'd keep it if I could just pay for a Cubs network.

I argued Sammy Sosa over Barry Bonds in 2001 based largely on his RBI total. I also thought slugging percentage had something to do with walking and that was why Bonds' was so high.

Finally it's time, with the release of the preseason AP poll, for the Week 1 thread. Everything's the same as last year with these threads. Houston's playing all their home games in other stadiums (Reliant, the Dynamo's field and Rice Stadium) in prep for their new stadium next year, so keep that in mind. And with that, begin! Top 25 games ------------------------ (1) Alabama vs Virginia Tech – in Atlanta (5:30 pm, ESPN) Buffalo at (2) Ohio State (12 pm, ESPN2) Nicholls State at (3) Oregon (4 pm, Fox Sports 1) (5) Georgia at (8) Clemson (8 pm, ABC) North Carolina at (6) South Carolina (6 pm Thursday, ESPN) Rice at (7) Texas A&M (1 pm, ESPN) Ohio at (9) Louisville (3:30 pm Sunday, ESPN) Toledo at (10) Florida (12:20 pm, SEC Network/ESPN3) (11) Florida State at Pittsburgh (8 pm Monday, ESPN) (12) LSU vs (20) TCU – in Arlington, TX (9 pm, ESPN) Mississippi State vs (13) Oklahoma State – in Houston (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) Temple at (14) Notre Dame (3:30 pm, NBC) New Mexico State at (15) Texas (8 pm, Longhorn Network) UL Monroe at (16) Oklahoma (7 pm) Central Michigan at (17) Michigan (3:30 pm, BTN – Regional) Wyoming at (18) Nebraska (8 pm, BTN – Regional) (19) Boise State at Washington (10 pm, Fox Sports 1) Nevada at (21) UCLA (10 pm, Pac-12 Network) (22) Northwestern at California (10:30 pm, ESPN2) UMass at (23) Wisconsin (12 pm, BTN – Regional) (24) USC at Hawaii (11 pm Thursday, CBS Sports) Eastern Washington at (25) Oregon State (6 pm, Pac-12 Network) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- Liberty at Kent State (6 pm Thursday, ESPN3) Presbyterian at Wake Forest (6:30 pm Thursday, ESPN3) Indiana State at Indiana (7 pm Thursday, BTN – Regional) UNLV at Minnesota (7 pm Thursday, BTN – Regional) Illinois State at Ball State (7 pm Thursday, ESPN3) Akron at Central Florida (7 pm Thursday, ESPN3) Southern Utah at South Alabama (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN3) Utah State at Utah (8 pm Thursday, Fox Sports 1) Ole Miss at Vanderbilt (9:15 pm Thursday, ESPN) Rutgers at Fresno State (10:30 pm Thursday, ESPNU) Morgan State at Army (7 pm Friday, CBS Sports) Samford at Georgia State (7 pm Friday, ESPN3) Florida Atlantic at Miami (8 pm Friday, ESPNU) Texas Tech at SMU (8 pm Friday, ESPN) Western Michigan at Michigan State (8 pm Friday, BTN) North Dakota State at Kansas State (8:30 pm Friday, Fox Sports 1) Southern at Houston (8:30 pm Friday, ESPN3) Northern Arizona at Arizona (10 pm Friday, Pac-12 Network) Southern Illinois at Illinois (12 pm, BTN – Regional) Purdue at Cincinnati (12 pm, ESPNU) William & Mary at West Virginia (12 pm, Fox Sports 1) Villanova at Boston College (12 pm, ESPNEWS) Elon at Georgia Tech (12 pm, ESPN3) Florida International at Maryland (12:30 pm, FSN South/ESPN3) Louisiana Tech at NC State (12:30 pm, ACC Network/ESPN3) BYU at Virginia (3:30 pm, ESPNU) Syracuse vs Penn State – in East Rutherford, NJ (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) Northern Illinois at Iowa (3:30 pm, BTN – Regional) UL Lafayette at Arkansas (4 pm, FSN South/ESPN3) NC Central at Duke (4 pm, ESPN3) Howard at Eastern Michigan (6 pm, ESPN3) Austin Peay at Tennessee (6 pm, ESPN3) Miami (OH) at Marshall (7 pm, CBS Sports) Kentucky vs Western Kentucky – in Nashville (7 pm, ESPNEWS) Washington State at Auburn (7 pm, ESPNU) McNeese State at South Florida (7 pm, ESPN3) UAB at Troy (7 pm, ESPN3) Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Arkansas State (7 pm, ESPN3) Murray State at Missouri (7 pm, ESPN3) Wofford at Baylor (7:30 pm, FSN) Colorado vs Colorado State – in Denver (6 pm Sunday, CBS Sports)

I'm posting the Week 1 thread, so feel free to transition talk of issues affecting Week 1 to that one if you like.

In a a word, yes. Bedeviling the STL lineup. 5 backward K's

Yes, safety squeeze

This thread is for a nearly two-month-old game and to answer your original question, you can't listen online unless you buy MLB Gameday Audio. It's 20 bucks or so for the season, which is a good value if you plan to listen to a lot of games.

It'd be nice if Castro did something besides hit routine grounders to short today

Not watching super close, but pretty sharp. Had a nice 0-1 breaking pitch to Matt Carpenter. Nothing hit real hard yet except a hot shot back to him.

And then the Cubs network. Although I for one would be kind of shocked if pay TV is still going in its current form by that point.

Of all the players on this team that have any reasonable chance of being here next year, Schierholtz, Travis Wood and a couple of middle relievers are pretty much the only ones playing at least as well as they ought to be (add Valbuena too, forgot him since he's been DL'd). So yay for that.

God, this team is a [expletive] train wreck

Len and JD just said Arrieta will join the rotation and Villanueva is going back to the pen. Can't remember the last time the TV guys actually were the first source to make me aware of a Cubs' move.