apete6

@#$#@$ I want this so bad. I wish all FA chases had a deadline this. Nine days, no matter what. What would everyone be comfortable paying Tanaka? Would 6/$120 be ok? He'd be 31 when the contract ended. Or do people think the Dodgers are going to go in at like 10/$250 and blow everyone out of the water.

Hawks with 11 OT/shootout losses, most in the league. Detroit and NJ have 10 each. In related news, Hawks 4 points behind Anaheim (5 OT/shootout losses) for #1 seed. So, so dumb. Just make every game a 3 point game already.

It's big news! George Costanza IS GETTING MARRIED! http://momandpopgifs.tumblr.com/post/8606823436

Poll on Chicago Tribune website is currently 25% like the mascot, 75% don't, which is probably pretty accurate for people who would be on that website (adults of at least some intelligence level).

If the entire family were to die tomorrow, this is the Ricketts' Cubs legacy. So awesomely appropriate.

Excellent writeup. This is without mentioning the complete whiff on Cespedes.

LOL. Awesome. Let's hope he fixes that at the Stadium Series game!

Here's what I got for the draft thing: 14 DE STEPHON TUITT NOTRE DAME 51 S LAMARCUS JOYNER FLORIDA STATE 82 CB ANTONE EXUM VIRIGNIA TECH 113 DT ANTHONY JOHNSON LSU 144 RB DE’ANTHONY THOMAS OREGON 167 WR TEVIN REESE BAYLOR 175 C RUSSELL BODINE NORTH CAROLINA

If they are going to amnesty Boozer, sign Mirotic, and make a run at Carmelo, they could be just as good, if not better next year. Obviously it all depends on Rose returning at an extremely high level, but Rose/Butler/Mirotic/Carmelo/Noah with Taj, Dunleavy, Snell and filler on the bench is as good as what they had before.

Still, $22.5M this year will make it tough to rebuild the defense quickly without relying solely on the draft. Last year we added Bushrod, Martellus, Slauson, DJ, and Anderson for 8 mill total in cap hits over their 1st year. We've got plenty of room to make impact type moves. Those are the type of moves I think we'll see again this offseason. DJ will probably be back. The big Bushrod money will probably be spent on a DL or S. The Bennett/Slauson money will be spent on depth at CB/LB/DL. Then I think the Bears will draft DL and CB early. Also picking up another young S and LB. Works for me. Clearly Cliff Stein has proven his worth as the salary cap guy. Thanks for the comparison to last year, that really helped. Surprised the Bushrod cap hit was so low.

Agreed on the risk. However,, $22.5M this year will make it tough to rebuild the defense quickly without relying solely on the draft, possibly making 1 of the 3 guaranteed years very difficult to succeed in (as a team).

Duke out of the Top 10 for the first time in SIX YEARS! They're all the way down to #16. Say what you will about K and Duke, but that kind of consistency, in the day of 1 and dones and everything else that goes along with 18-22 year old kids, is very impressive.

Seems very interesting but I wouldn't be surprised if not enough teams approve it. MAJOR downfall comes when looking at when guys come out of college. Let's say LeBron 2.0 comes along and plays for Duke starting in 2020. The next 3 years #1 pick holding teams are: Toronto, Milwaukee, and Lakers. Does that kid stay in school for 3 years until he can be on the Lakers? Or, worse yet, play 1 season and then take 2 years off to train or goes and plays in Europe and comes back to be picked by a team of his choice (in this situation, the Lakers). Also, now you could have teams tanking entire 5 year stretches instead of just 1 or 2 seasons. I still think it has some legs and am not entirely opposed to it, but there are some big time downfalls.

How much of this "leadership" and "maturity" stuff really matters? Understandably he has to be a very good player for those things to really matter, but is there any tangible value in those things? Has Derek Jeter been so good because of those qualities or is he just a really damn good baseball player? I'm sure there's really no way you can analyze it, but it's becoming pretty commonplace for every story or writeup on Almora to focus on those things. Instead, can't they just say that his ceiling is a GG CF who wins the batting title and puts out a couple of 6+ WAR seasons? Then again, if Almora and Baez turn into Toews and Kane, I can deal with the narrative a heck of a lot better. I think the FO buys into the maturity and those types of qualities having some real level of impact on the likelihood of a player developing and fulfilling potential. Fair enough, but in baseball, I'd still rather have A-Rod than Jeter, despite the large gap in maturity/leadership or whatever you want to call it. He's just a better overall player and would have had an even more legendary career if he was on a team where he could have stayed at SS another 5 years. The individuality of the sport still generally rewards talent over maturity, particularly in an offensive player, though, obviously you'd like to have the combination of both. Unfortunately, the Cubs have a player that could be dis-proving my theory right now in Castro. Let's hope not.

Overall, though, I think they've been inflated by having 3 or 4 absolute beatdowns they've been on the wrong side of (Nashville, Colorado, Toronto). They didn't have many (any?) of those last year, so their numbers looked better overall. Goaltending will always be the main "weakness" of this team, despite being solid at worst. Now that Khabi has been sent out to pasture, I'm not all that worried about it unless Crawford can't regain his form. Even then, I'm not convinced they can't win the Cup with Raanta because the offense and defense are just so damn good.

How much of this "leadership" and "maturity" stuff really matters? Understandably he has to be a very good player for those things to really matter, but is there any tangible value in those things? Has Derek Jeter been so good because of those qualities or is he just a really damn good baseball player? I'm sure there's really no way you can analyze it, but it's becoming pretty commonplace for every story or writeup on Almora to focus on those things. Instead, can't they just say that his ceiling is a GG CF who wins the batting title and puts out a couple of 6+ WAR seasons? Then again, if Almora and Baez turn into Toews and Kane, I can deal with the narrative a heck of a lot better.

Alluding to the fact that it's a terrible interview is a bit of a reach. Deadspin is excellent, but this was neither funny or entertaining.

Eh, I was expecting worse by reading the comments beforehand. So he didn't engage about Lane Kiffin? And he seems genuinely unconcerned about stardom/fame? I'll take the boring interviews. It's not terrible. I was expecting a LOT worse. He's a country kid from South Carolina who was never really the biggest story on his team until the past few weeks. Rather have him act like this than TO. Deadspin reaching a bit on this one.

CREAN AND CRIMSON! I don't know what to think at this point but my faith in Crean as a coach is wavering a bit. He can certainly recruit but man...I feel like he is rolling out his own version of Dusty's dugout dice when it comes to substitutions and game situations. In the 8 seasons between having Dwyane Wade and Cody Zeller, he won 1 NCAA tournament game. He's not an awful coach, but he's not great, either. In 3 of those years he had a team Wade could beat 1 on 5. Not really fair. He also hasn't beaten a team seeded higher than 9 in the tourney since Wade was on his team. Probably cherry-picking stats a bit, but he's just an above average coach. Nothing wrong with that. Indiana will probably finish in the top 1/3rd of the B1G most years and make some sweet 16s and the occasional Final 4, but to think he's better than Izzo or Matta or even Beilein is probably wrong. And he's probably not quite as good as Bo Ryan when you take into account the level of talent they're dealing with (I know Bo has good players, but not as good as IU's).

Yes. And if that happens, there will be a LOT of beers consumed during that game. Would be so unexpectedly awesome.

CREAN AND CRIMSON! I don't know what to think at this point but my faith in Crean as a coach is wavering a bit. He can certainly recruit but man...I feel like he is rolling out his own version of Dusty's dugout dice when it comes to substitutions and game situations. In the 8 seasons between having Dwyane Wade and Cody Zeller, he won 1 NCAA tournament game. He's not an awful coach, but he's not great, either.

RON COOMER IS A MAN OF THE PEOPLE AND IS FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE!!!

I am a big time Cutler fan and hope he comes back, wins 3 in a row, and somehow gets them into the playoffs (and hopefully winning something) while playing extremely well. That being said, this performance by McCown is making it awfully difficult to justify a long term extension at Flacco/Ryan/Romo money for Cutler at this point. Besides some big throws and Red Zone play, McCown has outplayed him fairly obviously. The logical compromise is the franchise tag, but Emery seems to be against using the tag for Jay. This decision and subsequent full offseason will probably define Emery's tenure as GM. If he chooses wrong and they miss the playoffs a couple more years in a row, it will ruin him. I think the idea of tagging Jay and then trading him to a QB needy team such as Tennessee is probably the best option, but that would require using an extreme amount of applying the tag and not being able to complete a trade and hopefully they are willing to go into camp with a lame duck Jay who knew they tried to trade him, because it really is the best compromise--other than him taking a very big discount on a long term deal.

I get the desire to list everything they've Fd up but, the radio booth? I honestly hope your hope never comes true because that is going to lead to a good decade or more of continued crappiness. You say that like everything's not on that path already. If they basically do nothing this offseason, the Wrigley renovation won't be complete until the 2018 season (if they are able to start next year). If the team isn't any good at that point, the whole thing will be a failure anyway. The absolute worst case scenario is that the farm system doesn't turn out quite as good as we all hope, they STILL don't spend money, and the stadium renovations is that they don't start until 2022 when that stupid rooftop contract expires, potentially ending the worst decade in a terrible franchise's history. Awesome.

I doubt any of the teams are going to leave the Carolina League. The only way the Cubs are going to get in is to find another team willing to come with and expand the league. They could buy a team. The Cardinals own a number of their minor league affiliates. No idea of the costs involved. Red Sox did the same thing when Theo was in charge. I think it will happen. Not with #poortomricketts in charge.