Banedon

Not sure why that would leave Boldin any happier than he is now... at least in AZ he can still put up the numbers to eventually get paid. Not gonna happen with Orton, which is something that Marshall clearly realizes. Well AZ sure doesn't care whether Boldin is happy with the trade. I don't think he has an NTC does he? Maybe Denver doesn't want a "troublemaker" in return for Marshall, but that'd be the only problem I'd see there. But Boldin would probably leave the Broncos in the same situation they'd be trying to get out of by dealing Marshall, with an unhappy player that probably wants out... :dunno: Yeah...I see what you're getting at...and since neither team is ponying up the asked for cash, it might just end up being the same situation with diff players associated with diff teams. Anyway, I bet the rumors/discussions still happen.

Not sure why that would leave Boldin any happier than he is now... at least in AZ he can still put up the numbers to eventually get paid. Not gonna happen with Orton, which is something that Marshall clearly realizes. Well AZ sure doesn't care whether Boldin is happy with the trade. I don't think he has an NTC does he? Maybe Denver doesn't want a "troublemaker" in return for Marshall, but that'd be the only problem I'd see there.

That's probably not true. Sports radio is a niche market. But what does any of this have to do with his level of shrewdness? He was the right guy in the right place at the right time. He wasn't shrewd, he is an idiot. Idiots can be popular and make lots of money in a short period of time, and once you have popularity and money, it's a lot easier to keep making money, but the guy is an idiot who hasn't had success since an ill-advised contract expired. Where is the evidence that he is shrewd? The 5 year $1.5 million contract is the evidence for me. The guy negotiated a ridiculous contract for what is, like you just said, a niche market. It's local sports radio...yes, it's Chicago, so "local" is a pretty decent size, but at the time, they weren't web broadcasting or anything, so it was a very limited audience. Maybe I have a misconception of local talk radio salaries, and maybe this wasn't that out of line from other personalities, but that's my "evidence". 7 figure radio contracts are not at all abnormal. People get them quite frequently, and the good ones keep getting them. You don't have to be particularly shrewd to get them, you just have to get a large audience. For sports talk radio? In Chicago? http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/April-2007/Money-in-Chicago-2007/Who-Makes-What-Salaries-List/ That info is from 2007, but that's 4 years after he signed that deal, and there's still no other sports talk guys on there.

That's probably not true. Sports radio is a niche market. But what does any of this have to do with his level of shrewdness? He was the right guy in the right place at the right time. He wasn't shrewd, he is an idiot. Idiots can be popular and make lots of money in a short period of time, and once you have popularity and money, it's a lot easier to keep making money, but the guy is an idiot who hasn't had success since an ill-advised contract expired. Where is the evidence that he is shrewd? The 5 year $1.5 million contract is the evidence for me. The guy negotiated a ridiculous contract for what is, like you just said, a niche market. It's local sports radio...yes, it's Chicago, so "local" is a pretty decent size, but at the time, they weren't web broadcasting or anything, so it was a very limited audience. Maybe I have a misconception of local talk radio salaries, and maybe this wasn't that out of line from other personalities, but that's my "evidence".

Correct me if I'm wrong, but he was handed the midday slot from the very beginning of WSCR. It's possible that a lot of guys could have been pulling in ratings taking that slot for that station at that time. I don't have the ratings info to really be able to debate this with any facts backing me up, but the midday slot has been problematic since North left it though, so clearly it's not an "anybody can do it" situation. BTW...I hate you all for making me defend Mike North in any way.

Marshall for Boldin rumors in 3....2....1.....

Would Dusty Baker have gotten a huge major-league contract if he wasn't delivering the wins? Sometimes, being in the right place when good things happen can convince people that you made the good things happen. Dusty had a team full of good players that delivered wins. Mike North was the only guy on the radio...ok he shared time with some other guys that failed with other pairings...Buffone...Huebner...Jiggetts. People didn't listen because he had a kick butt producer or something. That's a terrible comparison.

Why not? He may of got a lucky break, but at some point you have to marketable, and he has been to warrant a contract that paid him 1.5 million a year. Is that pure luck? I never listened to this guy It doesn't take talent to talk and think like your idiot listeners. It takes talent to get people to listen to you that don't think like you. I don't know if North was able to do that, if he was... He wouldn't have gotten a $1.5 million contract from a local sports talk radio station if he wasn't delivering ratings.

The AL East is close, but it's the same old story. Yanks and Sawks. There are now just 4 games between 1st and 6th in the NL Cen. But I do realize we would have to have a 6 way tie for 1st to get any National notice. No, we just need to have a team in the division that is better than 5 games over .500. Being close isn't compelling. Being good is.

And shrewd.

I was 9 when the Bears won the Super Bowl. And of course, all of MJ's wins.

The Feds just charged the founder, who apparently declared bankruptcy about 5 times this decade. Which makes you wonder what North, who has shown himself to be pretty shrewd with his career, was thinking getting into business with this dude. Really? Shrewd? He was a hot dog vendor who was lucky to get a gig as a radio host then profited off the fact that so many fans are idiots that like to hear an idiot talk like them. He's still an idiot. He's still an idiot, but how many hot dog vendors become millionaire radio stars for the better part of a decade. It's not just luck. Exactly. The dude turned a hot dog vendor gig into a $1.5 million contract at the Score at one point. You have to make some right moves to make that happen. He surely had the ball bounce in his favor a few times, no doubt, but he still parlayed that into a pretty successful career, like him or not. (not!)

I don't think they'll be playing untelevised games. MLB only stands to lose money doing that. Put the All Star game around that time and take an extended ASB.

The Feds just charged the founder, who apparently declared bankruptcy about 5 times this decade. Which makes you wonder what North, who has shown himself to be pretty shrewd with his career, was thinking getting into business with this dude.

Ok, so Webio fired Mike North on Friday, but it looks like there's a lot more to that story. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-mike-north-webio-15-jun15,0,2220326.story

The Cubs would be a Super Bowl favorite.

This division may not be terrible, but it's surely not very good. A division full of teams at or near .500 is probably not going to get a whole lot of national discussion.

It's actually a considerably different pattern. Last year he started off pretty well, and slowly, gradually started to have his numbers fall off. 2008 OPS April .837 May .792 June .789 July .688 August .546 September .577 There was no really dramatic falloff. You could point to June-July-August, but that still is much more gradual than what he's experiencing right now. April 1.053 May .830 June .405 That's a MUCH more dramatic drop, from a whole lot better start. And it's happening a lot earlier than it did last season. I won't pretend to know a reason for it, but it's pretty clear to me that this is different than what happened last season. He never had a single month last season that was as bad as his June has been so far. Last year, you could point to pitchers adjusting, and him getting tired. He shouldn't be tired in June, and I don't think the pitchers are doing anything different. I think he's getting into some bad mechanics. Maybe Von Joshua helps...I dunno.

One Iglesias in town is not enough.

Way to bag on the only guy that's hit all season when he hits his first slump of the year.

Pedro for closer?

Drew Rosenhaus's twitter:

It would last about 5 minutes. They did pay money to get an exclusive WWE show recently, so they do have bit more original programming than they used to. They got WWE Superstars, which is essentially a recap show covering the "highlights" of RAW and Smackdown. Unless it's changed since I last watched that stuff.

Seriously. We now have Fontenot, Miles, Scales, and Blanco. What's the damn point of having so many 2b? Seems like a recurring problem for this team. 2006 middle infielders Neifi, Womack, Cedeno, Walker, Theriot, Hairston, Jr., Izturis

I thought I had heard on the Score this morning where Fields had been pretty good as of late, but looking at actual numbers, I see that's not actually the case.