UMFan83

Of course... 4 runs of offense would have won Dempster 3 of his previous 5 starts (with the pen blowing the other 2), but this time he gives up more than 1 ER in a start for only the 2nd time this year.

because....?

I think you are confused...other way around. Every team except for 1 (KC) above SD is an NL team. San Diego had the least number of sacrifice bunts in the NL. Every team below them was an AL team. Edit: Wait I counted wrong. San Diego was 16th/30 but 15/16 in the NL. Arizona was behind them. Sorry about that, but I still think you had it backwards.

If it makes you guys feel better re: the front office and bunts... Sacrifice bunts: Boston 2011: 30/30 teams 2010: 29/30 teams San Diego: 2011: 16/30 teams (but 16/16 in the NL) 2010: OK well San Diego finished 2nd in the majors but I think Hoyers footprint was only really beginning to be felt last year

Meh, fathering Campana isnt all that great of an accomplishment

It's so awesome how quickly I went from meh about the Cubs to bitching about the manager. It feels good to care again..this team is somewhat enjoyable.

According to baseball-reference, Starlin Castro hasn't had a sacrafice bunt since September 4, 2010. I don't know about failed attempts, but I'd guess there hasn't been many of those either. He had 0 last year and 0 up to this point this year.

I was definitely on guard when he started his bunt tournament....but I figured that was just an icebreaker/bone thrown to the media to show a focus on fundamentals

You guys are just playing an elaborate prank on me right? Sveum didnt just have Castro put down a sacrifice bunt? This is getting a bit silly

I don't think its petty, its just how the game works. I think the arbitrator knew that he would probably get fired for siding with the players union, but I think I had read that he had sided with the MLB on a couple of recent arbitrations and figured he would definitely get canned by the union if he didnt side with them on this issue. He was damned either way.

Good point. Should they start Bryant against Oklahoma City or has Steve Blake overtaken him? I don't get the snark or the wasted hours of MJ research. Did he have a unwhelming game? Yes. That's all that this discussion was about. 17 points on 16 shots is underwhelming. Doesn't mean he's NOT an all time great or that no great players have bad playoff games, just that this particular game was bad. No need to make a mountain out of an anthill. Yes, you dropping that little nugget immediately after pages of people trying to make the argument that Kobe Bryant is overrated makes it ridiculous for anyone to assume that you too shared that opinion. lol...to be honest, I didn't read any of that argument, it didnt interest me. Guess I should have before posting that.

Good point. Should they start Bryant against Oklahoma City or has Steve Blake overtaken him? I don't get the snark or the wasted hours of MJ research. Did he have a unwhelming game? Yes. That's all that this discussion was about. 17 points on 16 shots is underwhelming. Doesn't mean he's NOT an all time great or that no great players have bad playoff games, just that this particular game was bad. No need to make a mountain out of an anthill.

His numbers in May (10 games) .146/.167/.220/.387 6-41 1 XBH (the HR) 1 BB 2 R 7 RBI 3 K

Did anyone catch Shark's interview on the Score this week? He came off as fairly cocky, but not necessarily in a bad way. They asked him what he would think if Theo and co decided to trade him, would be be disappointed, and his response was "yeah...they're not going to trade me" and then "If they did, I guess I'm just going to win a bunch of games for some other team." It was interesting.

17 points on 16 shots from an NBA great in a game 7. Bravo.

I can't decide if that was better than the Rays-Red Sox last day of the season last year. I'm gonna say today was better because it was for a title.

Wow that was freaking amazing. That's a once in a lifetime thing that just happened.

According to ESPN, he's on pace for 86 HRs and 195 RBIs this year. Unreal to still be on that type of pace in mid-May

Oh well, it would have been cool if Denver won....not looking very likely now

Right but we still have the MLE that we can use this year. The idea is if you amnesty boozer and resign 2 or 3 of Brewer, Watson and Korver, you will have more money to use for the MLE without going over the tax line, which is the real issue. The Bulls will not use more than the veterans minimum (~$1.2m) to replace 2 of those 3 guys (with Butler taking the other). If we amnestied Boozer and signed those 3, there is a $2.4 million difference in salaries, meaning hypothetically we could spend more on replacing boozer. So either $1.2 million to 2 different players, or $2.4 million for 1 player. PS this is all just a fantasy because I don't think there's anyway the Bulls will even consider amnesting Boozer.

My guess is if we had signed him, we'd be wondering if he still worked for the Cards secretly. I wonder at what point the age accusations start getting loud. Or we'd comment about how he sucks without his healthy diet of pixie dust.

That's actually kind of funny. It is. I actually laughed when it happened. I was right there up against the banister right next to my Cardinals jersey donning roommates. Passed right over me for the next guy in line. My roommates at the time are now married. They both have an Albert Pujols ball. Two autographed balls in one household. Not fair. That's funny. When my buddy and I were in the bleachers for the Cubs home opener in 2006 against the Cardinals, it was a crappy day so the Cardinals were taking BP under the RF bleachers and we got to chat with several Cardinals, Skip Schumaker (as a rookie, we asked him who the hell he was), Eckstein (asked him if he was legally considered a midget and he answered enthusiastically 'actually im up to 5'3 now!'), Larry Walker (then a hitting coach and said to us "somebody's got to teach these [expletive] how to hit"), and eventually Pujols. I was surprised at how talkative Albert was and he couldnt have been nicer, answering questions about the Cardinals new park, how he feels about the ASG winning league getting home field (have no idea how that one came up) etc. My friend eventually asked if he could sign something, but he didnt have anything to sign, so Albert went out of his way to go under the bleachers to the batting cage, grab a baseball, and when someone threw down a marker, signed it and threw it back to him even though we were obvious Cubs fans. I've always had respect for him since then, although that respect is tested whenever he has an under the radar douchebag moment as he has a couple times a year.

Wow what a collapse by the Lakers. I think they were up 15 with 6 minutes left in the 3rd and with 1 minute left its tied and the Lakers fans sound like James Loney just hit a grand slam.

Yeah that looks rather promising, especially Kiper having him as a 2nd round talent.

We can replace Brewer with Butler, but its gonna be tough to get similar production from Korver and Watson with the veterans minimum. As bad as they were in the playoffs, they were valuable in the regular season, and I think Korver really struggled getting open without Rose out there in the playoffs. Even without Rose, Korver remains basically our only dangerous shooter. I'm not sure who they are going to be able to get for the vet minimum who can come in and run around screen after screen to get open and hit 40% of his 3s. If the Bulls werent cheap, I'd suggest amnestying Boozer and resigning all 3. This way, you give Taj starter minutes, you keep most of your depth which carried us at times this year, and the difference between Boozer's contract and Brewer/Korver/Watson combined leaves you with $2.4 mil extra, which can be spent to replace backup PF and would probably net a better player than could be had for the vet minimum. But I just cannot see Reinsdorf willing to eat $50 million.