UMFan83

Only my teams

(80s player for opponent) homers to left center.

I could care less about these NSBB memes. Mineaswell spend more time talking baseball.

Bulls @ Hawks on at 6:30 PM

**Fictional** Expected Muskat article Theo Remains Upbeat Despite Giants Nabbing Lester You could forgive Cubs President Theo Epstein for seeming down Tuesday night as reports indicated highly prized free agent starter Jon Lester agreed to terms on a 7 year, $156 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. After all, Lester now joins Yu Darvish, Anibal Sanchez and Masahiro Tanaka as failed free agent pursuits in the Epstein regime. But an upbeat Epstein said Tuesday night that the Cubs will not deviate from his plan to build the Cubs into contenders - even if it means missing out on high profile targets. etc etc etc

http://i.imgur.com/Bh9BOyD.jpg

I always see the Raiders a lot on Sunday ticket because they are one of the 3 late games on. He looks decent for a rookie QB on a [expletive] team. I think he has a chance to be good. I can't stand how his eyes always look like he's wearing a ton of eyeliner though.

lol, just saw this on twitter:

Brees is going to light up this horrible defense. I was going to point out that Brees isn't the same on the road in the cold as at home, but he has actually played better statistically on the road this season, and the long range forecast has Chicago at a high of 50 and low of 32 on Monday.

I did have a high variance in scoring early in the season but it was consistently higher later in the year. The biggest reason is that I lost 4 games by 2 points or less. One of the games I lost by 0.5 points, another one I played the team with the most points in the league the 2nd to last week of the season. On Sunday morning at like 10 I find out that Arian Foster is unexpectedly out as well as my bye week TE. Scrambling to find replacements, McFadden and Tamme (backup DEN TE) get me 4.8 points instead of the 32 points Foster and the TE (forget who) were expect to get. I lose by 1.8 points. If any of those games goes my way, I actually finish 6-7, and 5th in the league, and beat the 4 seed by 50 points this week.

How bad was he with Oakland? His ERA was only 4.26 but his FIP was 5.10. Home and Road splits were interesting. 2.43 ERA in Oakland and 5.76 ERA on the road....his 7 road starts were Texas (twice), Houston (twice), Atlanta, SF, Seattle, so mostly hitters parks. Anyways, what production should we be expecting for $9 mil a year? Something inbetween what he did with the Cubs and what he did with Oakland?

I think I saw somewhere on Twitter that the Sox only have $65 mil committed to next season. Is this really true?

I really wanted the Browns to make the playoffs. I always kind of cheer for them as an AFC team...sucks that they are probably going to fall short. I think they look pretty good on tiebreakers though if they win out, so maybe there's a chance. If they win out, and the Bengals lose to Denver, and Pittsburgh to Houston, I think they win the division regardless of how the Pittsburgh/Cincinnati game ends up in Week 17

I agree. He's going to SF. The Red Sox flew to see Lester last week and everyone dismisses it but the Giants meet with Lester's agent while they are both at the Winter Meetings and he's definitely going to SF? The Cubs and Dodgers could have met with him too yesterday, but went unreported. The meetings have squat to do with it. I just think SF has the most to offer, period. If the contracts are comparable, I think he goes to the Giants. If the Dodgers (who I'm still not absolutely convinced are all-in here) or Red Sox give him a 7th guaranteed year and the Giants (iffy) or Cubs (no chance) don't, I think he ends up going to whichever team does. And if it came down to the Dodgers and Red Sox with 7 years, I think he goes back to Boston even if it's a little less money. I said from the beginning with Martin that the key was the 5th year - if someone offered it, the Cubs were out. Same is true with the 7th year and Lester, I'm guessing. The difference is, even if no one offers a 7th year it's probably only about 30% at best Lester picks the Cubs, and Martin probably would have chosen them if the Jays hadn't kicked in the 5th year. I don't know if he goes to SF if contacts are comparable. Yes they've won 3 WS in 5 years, but they already lost Sandoval and are probably losing Vogelsong and Peavy and possibly Romo. Doesn't mean they can't win it next year, or cant pick up most/all of that value in FA/prospects but I don't think they are overwhelmingly a better bet to win championships over the next 6-7 years than the Dodgers, Red Sox or Cubs.

I know no one gives 2 shits about my rants but it helps me cope with this [expletive] season. I wish I was making this up...now that I'm out of the playoffs in all 3 of my leagues, I finished with the most points in the league in ALL 3 LEAGUES this week...meaning I would have won any playoff matchup this week. So to recap....my big time money league, I finish with the 2nd most points in the league, but because I lost 4 games by 2 points or less, I finished 5-8 and missed the playoffs in a league where 8 of the 12 teams make it. I have no idea of that level of bad luck has ever been reached in fantasy. This week with no game because I'm out, I finish with the most points in the league, as if the fantasy gods are taunting me. [expletive] fantasy.

I agree. He's going to SF. The Red Sox flew to see Lester last week and everyone dismisses it but the Giants meet with Lester's agent while they are both at the Winter Meetings and he's definitely going to SF? The Cubs and Dodgers could have met with him too yesterday, but went unreported.

So now Kenny Williams might resign from the Sox to take Toronto job. What exactly is the appeal of Toronto here? Is it a huge promotion?

Getting an early start on doing nothing, amirite? Chatting up Justin Mastersons agent to see if he will take a contract that defers payment until 2020

Vikings win. Perhaps with a little luck we can finish as high as 7th I think we'd have to pass the Giants and Panthers for that. Next weeks Bears Saints game will have a lot to say about draft positioning. The Saints looked so bad today I'm concerned the Bears might win.

Well the Lions win officially eliminated the Bears from the playoffs so what else is there to do but root for a good draft pick and maybe with a disaster pus last 3 weeks the removal of Trestman.

Well good news for the Bears today... Rams (6-7), Giants (4-9) and Panthers (4-8-1) are going to win today. Jets and Vikings are going to OT. I think we root for the Vikings here because passing a potentially 3-10 Jets team might be too difficult with 3 games left.

I just want to see a playoff where every team in the league has a legit chance to play for a title. 8 teams, power 5 conference champions, 2 wild cards and highest rated team outside power 5. That gives a little extra meaning to winning the 1 seed too as you will likely play a weaker team.

I think the justification would be: each week the rankings are based on "if the season ended today". TCU beat a 2-10 team at home, FSU beat the #11 team at a neutral site and OSU gave the #13 team a historic upset with their third string QB starting at a neutral site. This TCU's SOS is diminished and FSU (which was never going to be left out being the only undefeated team in the country) and OSU had major boosts to their SOS.

From Rapport. Great reporting