UMFan83
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Everything posted by UMFan83
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Thank you. It was a sunk cost and the Cubs already decided that Z wasn't coming back. I forget where I read it but I remember seeing something that suggested that the players pretty much did not want Z to come back. They were mad he "quit" on them and angry that he continues to pull this [expletive] year after year. Not a great environment to start the Theo Epstein era. Now you can say 'tough [expletive] they are professionals they will work it out', but whats the point in a lost season? Z is not a bad pitcher but he is what he is at this point. He's a FA after this year, so making the move now makes sense. I know the counter is, what if Z pitches lights out to start the year, as he is a relatively streaky pitcher at this point. Fine that's a risk but you also risk being completely unable to trade him with poor play and/or another blow up. Bottom line, Z's career with the Cubs was over that night in Florida (or wherever it was) and to get at least 1 young pitcher with upside is a positive IMO. -
Since it doesn't seem like many read the fangraphs article posted on page 11, I'll post the Volstad bit. This was in an article talking about the top 5 SIERA Underperformers: I don't mind Volstad being the main player coming back at all. We all wanted Theo in part due to his ability to use statistics to find undervalued players, yet when it comes to acquiring these people we immediately revolt. I say let Theo succeed or fail before we completely judge his moves as horrible.
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Heck, I only count 6 Cubs that were on the 08 playoff roster (I don't think Koyie Hill was) Dempster Shark Marmol Soto Soriano Reed Johnson And of those 6, Reed left and came back, and Shark spent significant time in the minors the next 2 seasons after 08, so really only those other 4 have continuously been on Cubs since 08
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wow... um... shark? no idea Dempster's been here since the end of 2004, that'd be my guess.
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I think people are forgetting how low Z's value is. I don't think teams were buying Theo's words about being willing to keep Z. He had to go. There were whispers that the team would not at all be ok with him coming back into the clubhouse after what he did last year. Even getting $2 million dollars and a young major league player and prospect is great IMO. I'll guess that they could have eaten less but since the payroll is so low opted to eat more to get a better return. I can't remember why but I remember really liking Volstad a year or two ago. Obviously his numbers have been rather poor but I like the potential he brings. I like that there are a couple of wild cards in the rotation between Wood and Volstad. It's better than Zambrano who you know what you are getting, a high 3's/low 4's ERA, frustratingly inconsistent performances and at least one humiliating blowup.
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For who though?
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He's so much better than Neil Funk. Then again, I think many of us on here could call a game better than Neil Funk can. I actually prefer Funk to Larivee. But Tom Dore needs to come back God no. I hated Tom Dore. In terms of recent announcers for the Bulls, here is my order: Swirsky > King > Wennington > Kerr (RIP) > Funk > Dore > Larrivee The only complaint I have about Swirsky and Wennington is some times they talk way too long during FT attempts and you have to rely on crowd noise to determine if they made them. Sometimes they don't tell you at all and you have to rely on them telling you the score to figure it out.
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His wife and kids are still in Boston. Probably didn't want to uproot during school year. He goes back for 2 days a week, I think is what I read. If anything, I'm glad he's working, rather than taking time off. That's fine that he works out of Boston. I just find it weird that he feels the need to occasionally do work for the Cubs at Fenway Park. It can't be that hard to make an office in your house or rent out a furnished office somewhere in the Boston area for a couple of months at a time. Ricketts would probably pay for it. Like I said, its not really that big of a deal and it doesn't effect anything at all, its just something that doesn't sit well with me. I'd rather him make a clean break with the Red Sox and not continue to linger around there.
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I know this is something I should care very little about, but how odd is it that he keeps doing work for the Chicago Cubs at his old Fenway Park office? It just seems rather odd. If Walt Jocketty is in St. Louis and needs to make a conference call, does he call up his old friends at Busch Stadium and ask them for an office to conduct a conference call? While I acknowledge that its not a big deal, I'd rather Theo sever all his ties with Boston and get an office in his house to do that stuff when he's in Boston.
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Probably not. The dude is a one-trick pony. IT'S OVER GUYS!!!!!!! Well that's a huge exaggeration of what I was implying. Just saying there were a lot of factors that might have compelled him to stay in Boston. Making a massive big market rebuild a bit harder might have caused him to think twice. I'm pretty sure Theo is going to do fine here, and I suspect he is not crying over the CBA. But it certainly makes his job harder.
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I wonder if Theo would have left Boston if he knew the details of the new CBA beforehand.
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I understand. He came to storied Michigan program to join a team that was 3 points away from a National Championship game and then went 3-9, 5-7 and 7-5 (with a 38 point bowl loss). He was part of the worst class in Michigan history. To turn it around like that and beat OSU, get to a BCS game, win it, and win the MVP pretty much makes it all worthwhile for him. That's not even including all the coaching changes he had to endure. Very cool that all the seniors get to go out with a Sugar Bowl victory and an 11-win season. Those guys had to go through a lot of [expletive]. Wasn't even thinking about the fact that he was recruited by Lloyd Carr and redshirted Carr's last year. Damn that guy has seen it all.
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Haha, since we were talking about Funk, I am watching a replay of the 4th quarter (thanks for the link) and on one of Korver's 3 attempts, it hits the back of the rim almost hitting the backboard, and Funk causally calls the shot short. That's what I can't stand about him. By itself it wouldn't be a big deal, but he makes like 25 of those kinds of mistakes a game. Annoying.
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I actually really liked Funk when he was on the radio. I applauded the move to TV. It was then I realized all the humiliating errors he makes on a nightly basis. Here is one example: Last year there was a situation where someone hit a 2 point shot, CLEARLY a 2 point shot. He had a full foot inside the line, you could clearly see a large gap between his feet and the line. But Funk said that the player hit a 3. Ok whatever, he'll figure it out pretty quickly when he looks at the score. Nope he continued for the next 3-4 minutes mentioning the incorrect score for some reason, never questioning why the score on the TV monitor was different than his made up score. Eventually they went to commercial, and when they came back, he was confused about why the score was now 1 point less than before, and speculated that the refs must have looked at the play again and changed the call. Let me remind you that the player was CLEARLY inside the line, with a huge gap between his foot and the line, and that the scoreboard at the arena and on TV displayed the correct score the entire time. Just bizarre.
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I understand. He came to storied Michigan program to join a team that was 3 points away from a National Championship game and then went 3-9, 5-7 and 7-5 (with a 38 point bowl loss). He was part of the worst class in Michigan history. To turn it around like that and beat OSU, get to a BCS game, win it, and win the MVP pretty much makes it all worthwhile for him.
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I never understood why they have this huge presentation with confetti for a meaningless football game. They didn't win the championship. I mean what do the players do, instead of holding up a finger and say 'we're number 1!', they hold up 2 hands and yell 'we're probably number 10 or so!"?
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Elbow came in bounds first before the rest of his body landed out of bounds. Should have been a TD, given the ruling on the field. I actually agree. 3 factors that should have made it upheld: 1) The elbow hit 1st in bounds. That's the same as a foot, and it doesn't matter if the rest of the arm landed out of bounds. Once the elbow hits, if it is not touching the line, it's in bounds. 2) The ball did not move when it hit the ground. From my understanding, that is a catch. 3) The call on the field was a TD so it had to be conclusive to overturn. It was not. I'll certainly take it though!
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They did...and I was wrong. UM WINS! 5th 11 win season in school history! I don't know how they won that.
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UM, don't be conservative like UGAs coach yesterday.....cost them the game
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Hoke calls a TO there with 40 seconds to play, VT may just go for it on 4th and 2. Well that's his stupid fault if he wants to put the game on the line there instead of taking the easy 3 points and likely going to OT, where Va Tech probably has a significant advantage due to their ability to play offense.
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Given how the game has gone, OT does not favor Michigan at all.
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Why isn't Hoke calling a TO? He's just conceding OT? There were 45 seconds left and Va Tech was making ST gaffes all game.
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The VT side is probably the same side as the press box where that pic was taken. So the teams all have to fill an entire side of the stadium? Don't they get like 20,000 tickets allotted? Ugh, Michigan's D fails them when its been their rock almost all year.
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Didn't take very long for VT to gain 50 yards and get just outside FG range
