fromthestretch

He did not, thankfully. Ordonez did bat 2nd though in 6 games.

Maybe I'm in the minority here, and I'm sure this has been discussed elsewhere, but I'm not a fan of not having a separate forum for transactions. During this time of year, the trade deadline, and the offseason, I was constantly checking the transactions forum.

Is the bold part of this prediction the thinking that it will take us that long to hate Hosmer?

Same here.

Don't know why more teams haven't pressed Purdue more often. Their little guards can't see over the defenders and their big guys don't have good enough handles to help with the clear. Not having Jenkins on the floor the final 90 seconds was a mistake in my opinion. He handles the ball better than Loyer, and with Smith and Morton already out there, Jenkins would give them another point guard on the floor.

Honest question...number of remaining options aside, can some explain the appeal of McKinstry over Mastrobuoni? Or is it really just that the former is out of options and the latter isn't?

Beltre never really bottomed out though, outside of 2009. His overall numbers in Seattle weren't to the same level as his MVP season with the Dodgers, but his oWAR was still solid despite playing in a horrible hitting environment.

Eric Davis was mediocre to awful during the 1991 through 1993 seasons (his age 29, 30, and 31 seasons). He still had injury issues after that but managed to get his hitting back up to pretty damn good levels. There may be others, but that's one that popped into my head.

Even if it's not automated, maybe just have the game threads for the entire schedule created before opening day and then adjust accordingly when rainouts happen and such.

My apologies if someone already asked this, but how easy will it be to change my username after the cutover?

Just did this and had to laugh at the fact there are still listings for Yahoo and AOL messenger on our profile settings.

Seriously though, this is a great place, and I want to echo what CubinNY said.

Freshman guards man. Same problem Illinois is having. Tired legs, bad decisions, amped up pressure are all having a huge effect on those guys. The biggest thing I've notice in particular is Epps from Illinois can't get a 3 to drop to save his life at this point and he shot very well early in the season. Loyer falls in the same category. He was deadly from behind the line through the fist two weeks of January. I don't think yesterday had a lot to do with the Freshmen guards (Furst, Morton, Jenkins, and Gillis were a combined 1-10 from 3, the team missed 11 of 33 FTs), but you're not wrong with regard to this 6 game stretch. Loyer actually had some good shot selection in the lane yesterday. He had at least 4 shots that went inside the cylinder and came back out. He seems really reluctant to shoot from 3. Smith is still doing some very good things, but he had unbelievable poise for the first 24 games. He falls apart 2 or 3 times a game now. The biggest problem that I'm seeing is teams are constantly fouling Purdue. It has obviously become the playbook against Purdue. Most get called, some don't. The team is losing it's composure as this happens. They need to take on the attitude that they are NOT going to get the calls and just accept it. The thing is, Purdue got plenty of open looks so it's not like the offense is completely failing. They just could not hit a damn shot. There are enough shooters on this team that I would have hoped they wouldn't all go cold at the same time, but that was obviously wishful thinking. The one good takeaway is Loyer getting back into double figures in scoring, even though he was cold from outside. He had been pretty much shut down the previous three games. Smith seems a little hesitant to pull the trigger on open threes lately, and I wish he'd get some confidence back with respect to that. Percentage wise, he's the best three-point shooter on the roster. Painter has to make some adjustments and get things back on track before the conference tournament.

I don’t buy his arm is good at all regardless of what the numbers say, he has a noodle just trusting the eye test. Plus he has no range (not that you need it at third) but the quick reactions I don’t see either and he’s so small he covers less ground when he has to dive to glove or hand side. I think he’ll grade out terribly at 3B if our idiot manager plays him there for meaningful innings. I'm not saying this as an endorsement of him getting time at third, but I disagree with the "noodle arm" assessment. I remember seeing him shifted over against right-handers and making multiple strong throws to first. That said, I think the Cubs have numerous better options at third.

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

Anyone planning on going to any spring training games? I've got my tickets for March 16-17.

It's almost like they're penalizing those guys for simply being big, like they think "he's big, he can handle getting hit more than smaller players." The whistle should be blown when there is a foul, regardless of who fouled or who was fouled. If Edey turns and elbows someone in the head, call a foul. If guys are hanging off his arms while he's trying to rebound, call a foul.

I think that's a fair assessment. I'm hoping it's the kind of scare that can re-focus them for the tourney run. The strange thing is that Purdue has faced full-court pressure from a variety of solid teams earlier in the season and did not have much trouble with it prior to the last few games. The big thing I would like to see changed is to have Smith NOT randomly jump in the air before he figures out where the hell he's passing the ball. That part of his game seems to have gotten much worse lately. We saw it on that huge turnover in the IU game, and he did it multiple times yesterday. Do I think there should have been more fouls called yesterday? Absolutely. Edey was getting mauled. However, I also know that Purdue missed several wide open looks from the perimeter and Northwestern did an amazing job shutting down Loyer. Purdue played flat in the second half, and that has been a disturbing trend the past 5-6 games.

That's how we do. Purdue is definitely good about keeping fouls to a minimum, but that was a horribly officiated game both ways.

Except he doesn't freely elbow guys in the head. Last year was a different story, but he's been much more under control this season on both ends of the court. The guy doesn't get into foul trouble because he changed his defensive style of play. On offense, he's gone to the right hook a lot more this year and isn't leading with his elbows nor lowering his shoulder into people. And yeah, if he was four inches shorter he wouldn't be as dominant. But the fact remains that he is 7'4 and has progressed tremendously for a guy that's only been playing for 5.5 years. I'll admit I haven't watched him as much this year, so if he's gone less brute force, then good on him and Painter cleaning that up. And he is very talented and certainly worthy of the praise he receives. I was just pointing out that those 4 inches make a huge difference - and he uses them to his advantage very well. He's definitely made a conscious effort to avoid foul trouble this year on both ends of the floor. The guy that really needs to work on that aspect of the game is Kaufman-Renn. Every post move he makes to the basket consists of him lowering his shoulder hard into the defender. He has a lot of talent, but he's not going to be able to get 20 minutes a game until he cleans that up.

Pretty much since AJ Hammons freshman year (2012-13), we've had a 7-footer on the roster. Haas came in during the 2014-15 season, with Haarms joining three years later. Edey's freshman season would have been Haarms' senior year, but Haarms transferred that season. We also had Williams and Swanigan, who were both under 7 feet but played bigger.

Except he doesn't freely elbow guys in the head. Last year was a different story, but he's been much more under control this season on both ends of the court. The guy doesn't get into foul trouble because he changed his defensive style of play. On offense, he's gone to the right hook a lot more this year and isn't leading with his elbows nor lowering his shoulder into people. And yeah, if he was four inches shorter he wouldn't be as dominant. But the fact remains that he is 7'4 and has progressed tremendously for a guy that's only been playing for 5.5 years.

And if NBA teams have doubts about how his game will translate to the professional level, perhaps he stays for his senior year, and Purdue returns not only the front-runner for national player of the year, but also returns every single other player that gets any kind of regular playing time this season, except Jenkins. In addition, they currently have a 7'2 center redshirting this year, and it would be great for him to get some quality minutes backing up Edey next season. I think it's easy for people to overlook the fact that the starting point guard and shooting guard are both true freshmen. And while the IU game wasn't going on Smith's highlight reel, he has been phenomenal as a freshman starting point guard this year.

A no shortstop offseason would have been a lot more viable if it was the plan from the beginning. Add an Abreu or Bell, go harder on SP, etc. I think at this point the top tier no SS offseason is probably something like - Trade for Danny Jansen - Sign Nate Eovaldi - Sign the best DH option available (Michael Brantley?) - Sign someone who can cover 3B and/or SS. I'd prioritize offense and do someone like Justin Turner - Go fairly hard on the bullpen, but guys who are already good rather than those you think you can make good, something like Taylor Rogers and Adam Ottavino But like if they're drawing such a hard line on keeping the powder dry, even the above plan you have to have doubts around Jed's appetite for the modest prospect costs of Jansen and Eovaldi's QO. In this scenario, which is far from ideal, do you get someone like Segura for 2B (keeping Hoerner at SS), or do you sacrifice a live chicken in the hopes that it wakes up Madrigal's bat?

I'd wondered earlier if they would dangle Tatis for a potential Ohtani trade. How are they able to stay under the LT threshold? Keep in mind, they have a decent chunk of salary coming off the books after 2023, with Darvish and Snell hitting free agency and Machado most likely opting out. I doubt they'll lose much sleep if they go over it for one season.