apete6

Cost the Bears the playoffs to boot in a season where the Bears could have made some noise after getting Jay back. [expletive] that guy forever.

Yeah, i'd take that team in a heartbeat. Not overly unrealistic, though I agree with the assessment of the Span trade and I still think Tampa trades Hellickson or Moore before Cobb. If they're willing to move Moore, the Cubs should be on that immediately. Moore hasn't even come close to tapping his potential and he's still been a solid pitcher. Hellickson, on the other hand, I want nothing to do with. That would be a solid starting 8, though I would change the order up a bit and put Rizzo in front of Soler and Valbuena in front of Baez. Castillo is about as good as you're going to get as an 8 hitter--decent pop, good eye. I'm OK going with him until (if) Schwarber is ready. Solid all around ballplayer.

Yeah. When Gregg Popovich straight up benches 1/2 of his team a handful of times per year on back to backs, I would trust that it does matter. Heat rested Wade, what, 20 games last year? It matters. Not for injury, for rest.

That's the problem. Or at least could be the problem.

I think Mirotic might have to work his way in to that big rotation (the positive comments today are a good sign) but I expect McDermott to be in the rotation pretty much immediately. I expect him to be critical and make them work, etc. But I also know that I'd rather have him immediately have the chance with 15 minutes/game from the get-go rather than pushing Joakim, Pau, and Taj for 30+ minutes each right out of the gate. A nice distribution in minutes would be something like: C/PF (96 minutes/game) Noah 30 Taj 30 Pau 25 Mirotic 10 Nazr/Bairstow 1-garbage time SF/SG (96 mins) Butler 35 Dunleavy 25 McDermott 15 Snell 10 Hinrich 10 Moore 1-garbage time PG (48) Rose 30 Brooks 8-10 Hinrich 8-10

Paraphrasing, but it seems like Thibs is up to his old tricks, says it's basically impossible for a contending team to have 2 rookies in the rotation (so, see ya to McDermott or Mirotic) and that he hasn't been impressed with Snell. So, basically another year of a 7 or 8 man rotation ending in everyone being injured at the end of the season. If anyone could have his eyes opened that bench guys will be fine with a few more minutes and starters with a few less, you would think it would be the guy who rode CJ Watson, Nate Robinson, Mike James, and DJ Augustin to top-4 eastern conference seeds the past few years. Christ.

Bernard Pierce. Go right to hell.

Full PFF anyone?

They just lost to Tampa. At home. Nothing is easy money for a team capable of that.

I think the Bears win this one as well. Defense is quite worrisome, but Cam is more similar to Kaepernick or Smith than he is to Aaron Rodgers. Unless Jay turns it over a bunch, I don't think the Bears lose. Bears 31, Panthers 23

The Twins asked Hughes if he wanted to pitch 1/3 of an inning over the weekend to get the incentive, and Hughes declined. What a moron. When he's old and pissed all of his money away on some ponzi scheme, he'll wish he had that $500k. It's not like the owner needs it or anything. At the very least, take it and donate it to charity.

DeSean Jackson can eat a bag of dicks. 1 catch for 9 yards, huh?

Could still screw them on HFA in the Wild Card playoff game. You guys do know that they ended up finishing that game, right?

That guy is at every home game, and they "feature" him on the jumbotron being all Chris Farley-ish Glad to see you're alive. Thought that dude from the .GIF might have eaten you (though I don't think you're in C-Bus anymore).

I don't think it will be pretty, but I think the Bears win this one. Trestman seems to be able to handle Dom Capers way better than the previous Bears offensive "minds". They scored 27 and 28 points in the 2 games last year and should have won both. Packers are desperate and Bears haven't faced an elite passing QB yet, but Matthews might not play for the Packers D. I'll say Bears 24, Packers 23 in an excellent game. If that actually happens, the Bears are in a pretty darn good spot considering they were a half of football vs. the 49ers away from possibly being done for the season.

I think they used the bribe of hosting an all star game in 2016 during the course of negotiating for the Wrigley renovation. It was tied into the Cubs moving into Weegham (Wrigley) in 1916. 2016 is supposed to be an AL park, though. So who knows. They'll probably wait until the renovations are complete at this point, so 2018.

Anyone have the full PFF grades?

surrounding states don't really help for attendance on 81 game seasons. I'm speaking in terms of fan support, not ticket sales. Even then, the gulf coast is easily navigable. Mobile is only 2 hours away from New Orleans. Gulfport/Biloxi, MS only an hour. And they got Baton Rouge not too far away. New Orleans is a day trip for people on the gulf coast. When people plan to go to Braves games they need to plan out well in advance and secure lodging and you spend, at minimum, a half day travelling. There would be lots of people taking the drive over to go see a baseball game and driving back after in New Orleans. They do it already for Saints games, and sure it wouldn't be every home game for a baseaball team because there's so many games, but it also wouldn't be one game a year like many have to treat a Braves game, which is the closest ML team that people support. Atlanta is the 9th largest metro area in the US, New Orleans is 45th. It would be a horrible spot for major league baseball. Yeah, I love New Orleans as much as anyone who has never lived there, but it would be a disaster. There is very little business community (impacts suite purchases, etc...), the Pelicans have limited fan support and the freaking Saints were exploring moving to San Antonio before Katrina made the owner feel bad and keep the team there. New Orleans is a great place and their LSU and recent Saints fan support is excellent, but it is not a very good candidate for a MLB franchise.

For now, absolutely. Long term, I find it hard to believe it doesn't get better there,but possibly not good enough to support a MLB team. The environmental concerns, though, could force it to an inside stadium. Attracting free agents, however, would be the main issue, wouldn't it?

Long term, Mexico City and Montreal would be excellent. Put Montreal in the NL East and have their fans in a blood feud with DC and put Mexico City in the AL West and establish "rivalries" with Texas and Houston. That 2nd tier of cities listed would be good to use as leverage for relocations. Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic just don't have enough income to support teams any time in the foreseeable future. I don't see any of the other options (smaller US cities or new team in an established market) ever happening for multiple reasons.

Hub Arkush and a few other people are on record saying that they think it will happen and that there are plenty of people in the administration there who think it's quite possible.

This is OU's toughest road game all season. I'm worried about this. I still think OU wins, but I've been to several night games in Morgantown and it's quite a scene. They beat a decent Auburn team and a very strong Louisville team when I was there. Those hillbillies can certainly hold an entertaining event. I just don't think WVU's defense can do enough to beat a very good OU team. I'd take the points, but OU wins a close one, probably.

I'll pay handsomely for the video footage!

Any chance Oklahoma has their annual Bob Stoops game and West Virginia can beat them at home? That place is going to be insane for a night game and they played BAMA tough and ran up over 600 yards @ Maryland.

The only fun time to bet on baseball is to bet on the big underdog. True. But it also proves that betting on baseball (or hockey) is pretty much a guaranteed poor ending if done consistently. At least you have a (small) chance in basketball and football.