Andy

I never played organized baseball, but this was my basketball experience. To this day I have not forgotten the companies Fafard and Carither's Real Estate because their names were on my basketball shirts in consecutive years.

That would be the most logical reason not to change but I don't think anyone currently on the boards has had that problem (at least not recently), so it doesn't make much difference to me either.

No, it was '05, '06 was the year we were awful largely because Neifi played more.

I didn't really think through the comparison that much, 2005 was just the one that came to mind for a team that's kinda sorta in contention much of the season but not really and the year ends up being mostly boring as a result (I'll assume we're not going to have a guy competing for the Triple Crown into the summer in this one, though).

I still remember writing an article called "2009: The Pre-Playoffs" where my thesis was the division was bad enough the Cubs were definitely going to win it and the season was all about preparing to not crap out in the playoffs for once. I don't think I wrote any more after that.

Voted 81-85. I get 2005 vibes from this team. Not in a good way. Hope I am wrong.

NM I'm in there already

The short version of my story is that I lived in S Carolina from ages 4-10 and picked up the Atlanta Braves somewhere in there as my 'team', even though in reality I didn't watch many of their games. Then I moved to Indiana and the first friend I made basically made it his personal mission to convert me to the Cubs, which he successfully did at some point between the 1999 and 2000 seasons.

I've watched less CBB this year than probably any year since I was 13 or something, so I knew any attempt at picking brackets would go hilariously wrong, but I predicted the Final Four teams to win exactly one combined game in this tournament (FAU; had each of the other 3 being upset). That's impressive.

Micah Shrewsberry reportedly leaving Penn State for Notre Dame. Feels like an exciting move for the Irish, and excitement is something they really needed after this mess of a season.

Mike Brey consistently sucked butt in the tournament until by pure luck he got a team with two NBA players on it and caught some matchup luck and all of a sudden he was a minute and a half away from beating an unbeaten team and making the Final Four. Then he caught even more matchup luck and made the Elite 8 again the next year. I think this stuff is pretty much like baseball - get as many cracks as you can and hope for lucky breaks.

Sharing only for informational purposes. Ball is never playing again.

It could easily be bad enough - depending on who they draft at 1. Their QB is either going to be a rookie with no weapons (seriously, their best WR is probably Laviska Shenault, who iirc they were offering around, and their starting RB right now is probably Chuba Hubbard. OL is decent and D should be solid, but they will likely struggle to score points. Laviska was a Jag, who had him on the market. The Panthers traded for him last year. But yeah, he's basically his game is what we can hope Velus Jones becomes. I'd say Terrace Marshall is their best WR. He didn't have great numbers, but did get 17.4 yards per catch. He was Part 3 of that LSU team with Jefferson and Chase, so I think they have high hopes for him, but he hasn't quite put it together yet. He was probably most hurt by the QB issues there. Their defense though, while I can see the potential for it to be solid, they were below average in all phases last year. They were also wildly inconsistent. Gave up 3 points to Tampa, but they followed with 37 allowed to Atlanta. Two weeks later only allowed 15 the 2nd time vs Atlanta. Then they gave up 30 to the same Tampa team they shut down earlier. For whatever it's worth, that 2nd Tampa game featured both their starting CBs being out with injuries and Tampa scored 3 TDs by Brady just chucking up long balls to Mike Evans knowing the #3 CB couldn't beat him for the ball. But yes, it's very feasible that the Panthers might suck butt next year.

Nobody asked, but it horsefeathering hurts giving up DJ Moore, who is a great player no one knows because he's been in a horrific situation his entire career. You're going to love him. The report from The Athletic said league sources believe this move up is for CJ Stroud, which is good with me. I'm still a bit enamored with Bryce Young, but I can't complain if it's Stroud, who impressed me in the 2 games I watched most closely (Notre Dame and Georgia). I will be extremely pissed if it's anyone else. Carolina probably gave up too much in this trade but anyone who gets the #1 pick but doesn't want a QB is going to get a bonanza in today's NFL, so there you are. The Panthers absolutely must take a WR at 40 unless they have a big FA signing at WR up their sleeves, and probably even then. For my sake I hope this works out better than the last time Tepper went all in on someone he liked (rhymes with Bat Pool).

This jives with what I read as well - Moore being the cost for not giving up another 1st.

C - William Contreras $75 1B - Matt Olson $100 2B - Marcus Semien $75 SS - Bo Bichette $75 3B - Austin Riley $150 LF - Kyle Schwarber $200 CF - Julio Rodriguez $75 RF - Mookie Betts $100 DH - Yordan Alvarez $150 Total $1,000 Will PM bench players

Personally I've assumed he's never playing again ever since we got the bad news this offseason.

That was ridiculous.

I Googled this and didn't see a clear answer. Batters are allowed to call time once per plate appearance but it's not specified if it has to be with more than 8 seconds left; I guess that means it doesn't have to be?

I dont have an issue with the players stealing signs during play, or coaches/managers clueing in players in the dugout or via a 1st or 3rd base coach, but when you've got organizational dudes using a camera in the outfield, sending in signals to some dude who's banging on a tub I feel like you crossed a line. Plus horsefeathers Houston Yeah. Let the players and coaches try to figure out signs. I have no problem with that whatsoever. But once people start using specialized equipment (cameras, binoculars, trash cans) and various other employees, it has gone too far. The simple way to put it is if you're using crap unavailable to the other team to do your horsefeathers, you suck.

Man, I am so out of the loop I didn't even hear about this. Be the Ricketts actually gave him a bonus under the table. yeah he was vocally very supportive of kanye (yeah, yeah) and kyrie's BS a few months ago. I didn't look at it so much as him being supportive of Kyrie, though that may have been in there, as it was pure whataboutism. If I had to read one more Tweet from him complaining that Kyrie's crap getting more attention than Brett Favre's - a hypothesis I'm not sure was accurate to begin with - was purely because of racism I was going to lose it so I just unfollowed instead.

What's really funny is those are still there but someone took the time to add a Google+ entry as well - and never got rid of it.

Aw crap, he found it Insider's has no real purpose anymore, it can be dumped.

I must have missed those ABs because the one I did see he looked absolutely hopeless.

I don't know if you have some sort of hack and were able to do it anyway, but that discount is no more. The MLBPAA site does not list it among the benefits of your membership. I see it listed here: https://www.mlb.com/mlbpaa/membership/fans Nice catch. I guess it does still work!