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You don't think the fans jumping all over him and booing him, given the issues he already has, had any effect on him? I think the fan negativity was a huge factor in him blowing up. And a lot of that negative fan backlash was due to the preseason expectations that he would be a middle of the order type slugger who would be an "RBI machine." Maybe he still blows up even with the proper preseason hype, but the booing and criticizing likely would have been lessened if Bradley hadn't been signed with the intent of being the missing power piece we needed. I thought the fans were rather good with Bradley. They really were starting to rally around him in June and July before he criticized them and said he didn't want to be there in late July/early August. Then it started to turn ugly.

Pena looked fine this spring. .237/.357/.441 line. Ramirez was put on waivers and Castillo optioned so Hill did win that job.

The Mariners sent the Cubs 9 million. And there's opportunity cost involved as well. Silva would likely have given positive WAR for the Cubs this year but he also would have taken up a roster spot that will likely be filled with somebody who will also likely give a positive WAR number. Giving 3.2 WAR over a year and a half (since Silva missed most of the second half of last year with injuries) is more valuable than giving 3.2 WAR over 3 years even if you have to pay for all 3 years.

I'm still wondering about the Cubs not announcing a backup catcher yet for precautionary reasons. Why would they need to be precautionary about announcing that Castillo would be sent down at the end of camp? I guess they might be wanting to sneak Ramirez though waivers and feel the secrecy might help in that. There's also a tiny chance that they have picked Castillo for the job-that would make more sense with why it hasn't been announced yet but it flies in the face of everything we've heard to this point.

From what reporters have said, Hendry did want to sign Soriano but the ownership made sure they got him by adding a couple years to what Hendry was willing to offer. (Bruce Miles has mentioned this several times for example) Reading between the lines on this, my guess is that ownership did have significant input into the contract but they probably still allowed Hendry to pick which one he wanted between Soriano and Carlos Lee for example.

If they're willing to make him one of the highest-paid coaches, that's as good a reason as any. I can't think of anyone that wouldn't leave their job if they were being offered nearly double the salary at another job. I don't know about that. I know several people who wouldn't take a job just because of higher pay. It's certainly an important consideration but hardly the only one. For a public example, look at Brad Stevens. He quit his job to take a job that was probably less than 1/2 the salary he was making before.

For the love of god, can we fire weber and back a truckload of money to this guy's house? No way Tim. That's the exact type of thing that Ron Gunether would never do. Brad could leave us someday. what's the story on Stevens? Is he really a die-hard IU fan like I'm hearing, just waiting for the opportunity to coach there? I'm not sure about that. He definitely has affection for IU. There was a line in today's IU Star where Stevens was listening to the Butler-Florida game 10 years ago because he was driving to Buffalo to go watch IU play (and that's an 8-8 1/2 hour drive so he's no casual fan). But I also think he just is mostly unconcerned about money. He never would have quit at Lilly if he was ultra concerned with his financial future. And I do think he wants to go somewhere where he just won't be another guy...where being a Butler guy and playing the right way will really mean something. So I don't think he'll leave unless it is the right situation. IU certainly might be the ultimate right situation for him but I would guess certain other situations might also interest him.

It's still possible to have all four of the Final Four be conference tournament winners. I wonder how often that has happened in the 64 team era.

This is the best part of all. Now release Koyie Hill and let's start the damn season. Well, the BEST part of all would be getting something for the sack of crap, but I can live with a release. Carlos Silva is probably not the best option for our 5th starter. As a team needing to make up some degree of ground for any hope at the playoffs, we need the upside play at #5. But let's not get out of hand here. Carlos Silva pitched well for us last year, to the tune of of 3.75 FIP and 3.90 xFIP. That's not to say he's particularly likely to repeat that, but he's certainly not without the potential to give us a decent number of league average innings. If there's a way to keep him around in the bullpen as a swingman without him being a negative clubhouse presence or the Cubs FO yanking one of our more deserving starters out of their spots to make room for him, I'd certainly like to see him stick around. If those criteria cannot be met, I'll be sad we had to cut a valuable asset... not relieved to be rid of that "sack of crap." Silva actually said all the right things about potentially going to the bullpen. He seems to realize that his performance this spring left himself vulnerable to this. I do think Hendry will not release Silva just yet for the reason he said on the broadcast yesterday. If you send somebody down to Iowa and decide to change your mind in 10-15 days then you can bring them back up. If you release somebody it's often not easy to get them back if you change your mind.

The SEC is the only conference with 2 teams left at this point (if OSU had won there would have been 8 conferences with 1 team left including every Big 6 conference). And of those 8 teams, 4 won their conference tournament and the other 4 made it to the finals of their conference tournament.

Where'd the .9 go? When they went to commercial there was 7.9 left. When they came back there was 7.0.

They'll fill those holes. With what? Aren't they up against the cap? That leaves the draft and trades besides James, Wade and Bosh what do they have to trade? They have the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions they can use to sign more players even if they're up against the cap. They can't sign any stars, but they don't need stars.

The problem is that he is supposed to be good defensively. So even if his bat isn't ready it could be conceivable that a team would take him and hide him as their 5th OF for a year. While this is more difficult for position players than pitchers, a situation like this rarely comes up where a position player is so talented and yet so far away from the majors at the time of being Rule 5 eligible. Usually a position player has either shown signs of promise and put on the 40 man or mostly flamed out by then.

I have a hard time believing that this was the optimal solution. It strikes me as a little strange as well but we know minor league contracts are a little restrictive. They could have signed him to a major league contract but that would have necessitated adding him to the 40 man immediately. Szczur might be eligible for the 4 option rule though if they are used consecutively (it depends on if he was in the minors long enough last season to count as a full season or not). So the Cubs will still have quite a bit of time before he has to be in the majors.

Back on topic please.

They were in transition much of the year and when they figured it out there was no chance for an impressive win because they already were in their conference schedule. They are an extremely dangerous team who has also gotten the bounces they've needed so far to survive the close games they tend to get into. Kansas is really the only team in the entire tournament that I wonder if Butler can match up to (of course, because of their tendency to get into close games they could easily get knocked out by any team).

Marwin is a minor leaguer who can play just about any position on the field. He's not any good but the major league team likes to bring players like that to ST games as insurance.

I have a feeling we'll find a way to hide Ramirez. Probably DL him to start the year. He could play [Tom Hanks' voice] BACKUP CATCHERRR! But wouldn't want to waste his potential in that spot he'd get more at bats on the DL. I dont see why he cant just be a bat off the bench. We carried both Cliff Floyd and Daryl Ward who essentially had no position. Why not Ramirez, who can be given looks at 1B, outfield, and emergency catcher? Has Ramirez played any OF? Floyd of course had a position since he was the starting RF. Ward was both a backup IF/OF which helped his case and also was a proven major league hitter. Ramirez is just an 1B/C who hasn't had success in the majors and hasn't had much success in the minors in a couple years. He's a pure upside play.

I've heard conflicting eyewitness reports on how good he is but it's nice to have another player that highly ranked. With his height he still has plenty of room to fill out as well.

Yeah, that's my favorite theory as well. Wrigley plays like two entirely different parks. Sometimes you need a fly ball pitcher and other times you need a strikeout/groundout type pitcher. Sometimes you need a lineup loaded with power hitters and other times you have to play more to contact. There's very little way for the Cubs to build a team that will dominate at home. I'm not sure there's another ballpark in baseball where that is true.

If you're watching on Gameday they won't report a pitch in ST unless something happened on that pitch. So a strikeout will be just 3 strikes, a ball put into play will be one pitch, and so on. Pitches that resulted in steals or wild pitches are also counted. This is not looking good for Cashner. With him not having gotten above 60 pitches in a game yet, having more walks then strikeouts, and he would have had an ERA above 6 if that game hadn't been cancelled the other day (which washed out his statistics but I bet the Cubs kept them anyway). All that has given the Cubs too easy of a reason to pick Silva based off of one good outing at the end of the spring.

I think it's just annoying. I don't blame them for banning it. It won't affect the game, but every time I see Boise State home game highlights I keep thinking "Damn, that's an ugly field." Teams have worn some terribly ugly uni's, and those haven't been banned. It's just so ridiculously trivial given the stuff the NFL is dealing with. Owners: We want more money, so we won't let the players play. Players: We want more money, so we're gonna fight you. Competition Committee: Hey, we can't ruin our game with an ugly color! I saw the conference call notes and Boise State's field wasn't specifically mentioned but Eastern Washington's field was. And the difference between that and uniforms is alternate uniforms make money for the NFL while alternate field colors wouldn't.

And the votes are in. Kickoffs will move up to the 35, touchbacks stay at the 20. Players can only have a 5 yard running start and 2 man wedges are still acceptable. Replay will now be handled by the booth on any scoring plays but coaches still get to use a third challenge if they win their first two. A couple other minor rule changes including one I chuckled at-the NFL passed a rule making sure that no one can change to a strange color field. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6247029

After the last 3 seasons I will have zero problem with somebody getting Creaned to make room for Harris. =D> : By any means necessary worked out well for you guys last time. Except Creaning doesn't violate any NCAA rules. :P I would be pretty upset if he actually cuts a player who wants to stay. I have no problem though with him sitting a player down and telling him where he stands and what his options are. A player like Capiobanco might not play 5 minutes a game next year and will almost certainly just get into blowout games in 2012. If Crean tells him that and he decides to transfer because of that I don't consider that a big deal.

In that case, then why not just keep Ramirez and have Colvin or Kosuke fill in at CF? They're both as good if not better defensive CFs than Johnson anyway. Bringing Ramirez is tricky. That means if you want to pinch-hit for Kosuke in the late innings you have to send Ramirez up to the plate and then replace him with Colvin in the field. You've burned 2 players in 1 inning, have no more OF's on the bench, and your best bench hitter is now in the lineup but won't come around in the order for awhile. If Reed comes up in that situation, he can come into the game and then Colvin will be available to pinch-hit against a right-hander in the next inning. With how many times managers bring in a tough left-hander to face Fukudome that will be a common scenario. Plus there will be extra pressure to DL the OF's if they're hurt for a few days.