UMFan83

lmao. Sucks to be Houston. They lose his slot amount if he doesnt sign right? That's really rough. Pirates drafted him... Not Houston. I know I just changed it. Had Astros on the brain from the post I was quoting.

lmao. Sucks to be Pittsburgh. They lose his slot amount if he doesnt sign right? That's really rough.

it's Castro's fault the Cubs are 18-36 this year.

Gotta marvel at this Kings run. 15-2 so far and their only 2 losses have come when they were already up 3-0 in the series. They have not lost a single pressure game the entire playoffs do far.

Not sure how credible Mike Rosenbaum is, but he is writing for Bleacher Report so that's a strike against him. Maybe you guys know him better than I do, as he writes for thegoldensombrero.com and prepbaseballreport.com. He's also a White Sox fan. Anyways, he gave grades for every pick tonight. The Almora pick was given an A, the Johnson pick a B+ and the Blackburn pick a B- (mostly due to signability which you guys have partially refuted). Also, B- was the lowest grade he gave out so I'm not sure what that means. He also has a video up where he gives Almora a Carlos Beltran comp. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1208052-2012-mlb-draft-results-pick-by-pick-grades-and-results

Whoops sorry, either way....

So for the gurus here, in your estimate where are the Cubs at currently in terms of spending? I guess based on the conversation here it looks like Almora is probably coming in at slot or slightly under. Johnson seems like an underslot pick and Blackman who knows...if they actually sign him it seems like he'll be a good deal overslot. Depending on what happens with Blackman, the Cubs might be in a good position to take an overslot player. Who is still available that would fit that description? The Blackman pick confuses me a bit. He is supposedly going to be a really tough sign as he's very committed to college, but at the same time from what I'm reading it doesn't seem like he has a high enough ceiling to go way overslot for him. If we were going to save on the 1st 2 picks and go wild with the 3rd I would have hoped for a higher ceiling player. Maybe Theo knows something we don't or has evaluated him as having a higher upside than many/most expect.

Yeah. Who exactly does this system benefit? The teams with a lot of money can't spend it, the teams without a lot of money can't invest in their minor league system, and the players don't get paid. It's a lose, lose, lose. It sucks and its bad for small market teams. It's been proven that small market teams can spend in the draft and build up their farm system, which was probably the best way they could build a contender. Now they have to invest in a great front office and scouting staff and hit on a high percentage of their picks to build a good team. If a big market team misses on picks, they have the option to fill spots via FA. Teams like the Royals and Rays do not. It's too bad, as Selig has been whining about small market inequality for years and then he does something like this right when small market teams were starting to take advantage of the draft.

Or they are gambling that Appel won't refuse to sign and sit out a year? It will be very interesting to see who wins battles like this in the new draft environment, the agent or the team. Previously, the team had nothing but their own budget stopping them from caving to get the kid signed.

Ugh, of course he finds his way to an NL Central team

Also as brutal as having your car broken into.

Ugh, Shark's only going to make it 5 innings at this rate.

Is this more or less the CFB offseason/playoff discussion thread? Not surprisingly if the Big Ten had its way, the BCS model would remain unchanged. http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8007923/big-ten-wants-selection-committee-pick-four-team-playoff

2013 - Top 12 protected 2014 - Top 10 protected 2015 - Top 8 protected 2016 - Unprotected As a reference point, here are the records of the teams that finished with the 8th, 10th and 12th pick this year. 12. Milwaukee - 31-35 (39-43 in 82 game season) 10. Minnesota - 26-40 (32-50 in 82 game season) 8. Toronto - 23-43 (29-53 in 82 game season) So if you keep that pick you have to gamble that the Bobcats will be on average a sub-30 win team for 5 consecutive years (this year and the next 4) and then you still have to deal with the draft lottery odds to see if you will get a top 3 pick out of it. If you look at the last 5 years in the NBA, only 1 team hasn't won 30 games in any of the last 5 seasons, and that was Minnesota who would have won 30 this year if A) it was a regular 82 game season or B) Rubio and Love didn't get hurt. I think it makes sense to hold onto the pick for another offseason, maybe 2 more offseasons depending on how the Bobcats do this year, and then trade while the value is likely at its highest.

This probably doesnt answer your question at all but I ended up selling the $140 bleacher seats that I stupidly bought for the Saturday night game for close to $200 a ticket. This was about a week before the season started though. I'm sure the demand is still high for Boston fans planning a last second trip, and they probably still believe that all games at Wrigley sell out so they need to buy from the resale market.

Hah, the last place Cubs are having trouble selling some of the worst seats in the park (in terms of view of the field at least) for $140? Sad thing is I bet you the Cubs are asking the Red Sox to email their fans the same message as well.

More about Bulls PG search: Guess I might be right about considering Andre Miller. It will of course all depend on how much of a pay cut he is willing to accept to play for a quasi-contender.

Meh, from the 6 minute mark of the 4th until he fouled out, he was 1-6 from the field and 1-2 from the FT line with 3 turnovers.

From CSN Chicago:

I know the Cubs are nowhere close, but what is the record for most consecutive road losses? Cubs at 10 in a row right now. Edit: Looked it up myself. The record is 24 consecutive road losses by the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. The modern record is 21 by the 1988 Orioles. Also, the Cubs are 6-20 on the road this year, on pace for a 19-62 road record. The worst road record in MLB history is 17-64 by the 1963 Mets and 2010 Pirates. The Cubs would have to go 11-44 to tie that record.

He's probably still hanging out at his old Fenway Park office. Either that or Ricketts invited him on his annual month long safari during the heart of the baseball season.

17.27/10

Almost definitely at least one, and probably two, of Brewer, Watson, and Korver will be gone before the season starts. And I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. We know what those guys do in the playoffs when it really matters, and when the playoffs roll around depth means a lot less than it does in the regular season. I just renewed my season tickets as well. It's going to be tough to get rid of some of those early season games. It's been speculated that all 3 of those guys will not be retained this offseason. The Bulls seem to have decided that they want to retain Asik and keep the Bulls superior front court depth and hope that it limits the dropoff of play from the bench. The more I think about it, it might not hurt the team as much as it seems. No doubt it will hurt, but if you can sign a backup PG for 2.5 million like Hinrich or Andre Miller, it might be an upgrade over Watson. Jimmy Butler will replace Brewer and the Bulls will likely take a great shooter with their 1st round pick to try to replace some of Korver's value Yep, just have Jimmy Butler become a great defender, have Andre Miller take a contract for less money than CJ Watson got and draft a great shooter with the 30th pick. Shouldn't be a problem. There's no way we're going to be able to replace those 3 with our cap situation, what I'm discussing is a scenario that limits the damage as much as possible. JB showed good defense in limited minutes last year, so I'm interested to see how he can respond next year. Won't be as good as Brewer but I think he'll contribute well in Thibs system. Andre Miller is just someone I saw speculated as an option RealGM. He's 36 and was a backup PG in Denver last year. It's not a stretch to suggest he's going to take a paycut from the $7 mil he was paid last year, will he take 2.5 million for 2 years for the chance to play with a contender (at least in 13-14)? I dunno but there are a couple of other options too that wouldnt be terrible. And considering how well the Spurs have done finding 3 point shooters late in the draft the last few years, I do believe its possible to get someone who can be a decent fill in for Korver. I'm sure he won't be as good, but again like I said it's a given that the Bulls are going to be downgrading this year. NBAdraft.net is projecting the Bulls take John Jenkins, who shot 48% from 3 as a Freshman and his jumpshot is rated 10/10 by them with his closest NBA comparison being JJ Redick. Are those comparisons usually huge stretches? Of course, but its not stupid to suggest the Bulls can get a good long range shooting threat with their draft pick (which is 29, not 30). Edit: Also if the Bulls miss out on Jenkins, there is Kevin Murphy out of Tennessee Tech who is an early second round projection and considered a good long distance shooter. Not sure if 42% from 3 in college is anything to write home about but supposedly he has NBA 3 point range. The question is whether these guys are athletic enough to run around using screens and getting themselves open with any regularity.

Wow that's a tough goal to give up for Brodeur. Gonna be kicking himself for that one. Kings up 2-0 going to LA....I wouldnt be surprised if they sweep Another pretty entertaining game to watch.

Ugh when will Soto or Castillo finally get off the DL?