UMFan83

I saw a mock earlier today that had the Bears ending up with the following haul via 2 trades: Will Anderson (1.04), 2024 1st (HOU), 2024 1st (IND), 2023 2nd (HOU), 2023 2nd (IND), 2023 3rd (IND). Imagine getting 2 1st's, 2 2nd's and a 3rd while still getting the top player off the board. I'm trying not to let my mind drift too much here because its bound to lead to disappointment

The Ringer has a good article today about Poles' decisions as he attempts to trade 1.01 and the possibility of overplaying his hand. Of course its littered with Rounders references because its still a Bill Simmons website

While acknowledging that its stupid to draw much from Spring Training performances, I really hope Edwin Rios becomes a thing. Could really use an extra power bat.

Hawks are now 3 points behind Columbus for worst record. I didn't realize this but the difference between finishing with the worst record and second worst record is huge in terms of odds of #1 overall. Worst team has 25.5% odds 2nd worst team has 13.5% odds If the Blackhawks can just suck a little harder they will have 12% better odds of Bedard. Regardless of your views on tanking, if you are gonna tank and are in mid-March of an already lost season, tank your ass off

Have the Bulls dropped like completely off the radar for anyone else? I didn't even realize that "accomplishment" against the Pacers. I vaguely remember seeing that they lost the game, but I've lost all will to care about this particular team. They need to switch things up in the offseason because this is a hatable squad, but I don't think they will.

Barkley, Pollard and Jacobs were all tagged over the last 2 days. Running back market is getting pretty thin.

I'll still believe a double trade down when I see it happen. Never seen that happen at the top of the 1st round, so seems too good to be true. Edit: Nevermind, I just read the article and saw that this has happened twice before. I am still dubious but hey if they can pull it off thats amazing.

Michigan actually has a great draw for someone in their position. They get a Q1 game against Rutgers which will possibly be an elimination game for one of them. Then they get a chance to make a statement with a Q1-A game against Purdue. If they win that somehow, they could get MSU on Saturday. MSU 31 in NET right now, 1 spot away from being another Q1 win for Michigan, so they may be in a situation where regardless of result they walk out with a Q1 win. So win 2, lose 1 but gain 3 Q1 wins. Maybe still not enough for Michigan, but they'd at least be in the conversation on Sunday. Why do I keep talking myself into having hope with this damn team?!!

MEH TBH all the options sort of blur together me but that's one I see toward the top of people's lists, and figure with Poles' KC connection and the vast resources we have its noteworthy. PFF grades in KC were good, not great and he was a lot better in Baltimore. At the very least it gives the Bears another option to play with. He'd certainly be a solid upgrade at RT even if he isn't everyone's choice.

LETS GO

He'll draw it out if he feels he needs to but I get the impression he really wants to close this out before FA

That's what I want at this point. I'm taking a guess that Carolina is the team they are talking about that might be offering this year's first, second and third, next year's first, second and third and then the first in 2025. If someone is offering that, how can you say no? Hell, I'd take that without the 2024 second and third. I seriously doubt they can get that much, but it is going to be fun watching the process play out these next few months. I'd love to know the 4 teams. I guess Carolina, Las Vegas, Indi, and the Texans. The article mentions that one of the teams is farther back in the 1st round than you would expect. Not sure how I feel about that but I'm sure the haul would be massive if we moved down that far. Without putting too much thought into it, I'm thinking Washington at 16, Tampa Bay at 19, and Baltimore at 23 seem like possibilities. The Ravens don't have a 2nd round pick this year, so you can probably eliminate them. The Commanders and Bucs don't really have a surplus of picks in early rounds, so I don't see how they can make an attractive enough offer unless they is a player involved..someone like Godwin or McLaurin. Another thing the article points out is that you can only trade draft picks from 2023, 2024 and 2025. On draft night you can also trade 2026 picks. None of those teams have surplus picks in the first 3 rounds of those 3 drafts so I'd say the trade would have to be like 2023 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2024 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2025 1st, 2nd or something crazy like that.

Well Illinois is going to the NCAA tournament and because of the last 2 painful OT losses Michigan almost certainly isnt, so yes. But I have noticed that a ton from Illinois. Gotta be frustrating. Michigan's issue was not the last 2 games....it was what they did before February. Obviously. The last 2 games were an extension of a season long problem. They have lost 6 games this year when they had an 80+% win probability in the second half. 5 of them were Q1 games, and the other was the resume anchor loss to Q4 CMU. Win one of those games and they are probably in the field right now by a hair. 12 of their 14 losses have been by 1-2 possessions or OT. Insane how this team repeatedly falls apart when it matters most. They have true Freshman and a sophomore playing 4 of the 5 most minutes on the team so in a sense I get it, but its still crazy.

A ton of great info from Poles here, read all the way til the end. He seems convinced that he’s gonna get 1sts in 2024 and 2025 for 1.01 and that there are at least 4 teams he’s talking with. Some of this could definitely be negotiating through the media but I’m super excited to see how this plays out https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/03/06/ryan-poles-chicago-bears-nfl-combine-draft-peter-king-fmia/?cid=fmiatw

Would you trade Michigan’s end game collapses for Illinois’ seeming need to be punched in the face (almost literally) before they wake up and realize that there’s a game going on? They turned the ball over in their first 4 possessions and allowed Purdue to score in their first 5 to go down 11 points three minutes into the game, had to play catch up the rest of the way and end up losing by 5. I’m looking around the Internet to find Illinois’ first half vs second half point differentials. It’s got to be substantial. Well Illinois is going to the NCAA tournament and because of the last 2 painful OT losses Michigan almost certainly isnt, so yes. But I have noticed that a ton from Illinois. Gotta be frustrating.

If you were asked to design the most excruciatingly painful way for Michigan to lose 2 games with their entire season on the line (and I’m sure many would jump at the chance), you wouldn’t have written a script as painful as what Michigan has just endured No one is going to feel sorry for Michigan basketball after the past decade but man, this really horsefeathering hurts to be in the position Michigan was in the last 2 games and lose them both. Up 7 with 1:49 left against Illinois, up 12 midway through the 2nd half against Indiana. Had the ball in a tie game with the shot clock off 4 times in the last 2 games and couldn’t convert once. Winning either game probsbly puts them in the bracket, at least for now. Now they’ll have to win the big ten Michigan is a NCAA tournament caliber team but fell apart too many times in crunch time, in many cases rather improbably.

Just for fun, lets be optimists and say the Cubs are pretty decent/good this year. Which of these 6 NL teams would you say is most likely to be the weak link that the Cubs can steal a playoff spot from? Dodgers Padres Cardinals Braves Mets Phillies The Cardinals maybe?

I see a batter step up to the plate, my wife asks me a brief question, I answer and look back towards the TV and the count is 3-2. This is wild. Question: are batters still allowed to call time after the pitch clock goes below 8 seconds?

Hmm

Blackhawks turn Kane trade into a social media video production. Interesting to see the process play out though

Calling the trash can a "tub" had me doing some frantic Googling for a few seconds. That story was briefly a LOT more wild than I remembered. Just in the last 10 years we got the Astros scandal and the Cardinals hacking scandal. The MLB knows how to produce a good scandal

Fine but they drafted in the top 10 five straight years before making the playoffs in 2009 and had 15 total picks in the first 2 rounds of those drafts. Whether it was purposeful, due to ineptitude or due to frugality, it had the same affect as a gut rebuild would have

I dont think he's saying that, I think he's saying that no other "big city" has seen their teams embrace the tank across sports (baseball, football, basketball, hockey etc) quite like Chicago has in the last 20 years or so I can’t think of another big market team that has done what the Blackhawks did this year, in terms of blatant over the top tanking. I think teams have unintentionally became really bad. Then you have the Bears pulling the almost unheard of move of a new guy bringing in absolutely nothing in his first year, and sabotaging a first round QB with zero help. The Cubs pulled off their 2nd tank in less than a decade and blamed it on the pandemic their owners political party claimed wasn’t real. It’s all rather disgusting. When NY teams perform this poorly, heads roll. But Chicago applauds it. And all the teams are doing it together. The Knicks have been mostly terrible for 20 years, the Nets are good maybe 1/3 of the seasons, the Devils had a bad run for awhile as you mentioned, the Jets are a national laughing stock, the Giants made the playoffs for the first time in 5 years this year, the Mets have made the playoffs 4 times in the last 22 years. The Yankees and Rangers are the only consistently good teams. They may roll heads but its not helping them build good teams. They have a bunch of mediocrity and below average teams because their teams don't gut rebuild. Now look at championships since 2010. New York: 2011 Giants Chicago: 2010 Blackhawks, 2013 Blackhawks, 2015 Blackhawks, 2016 Cubs (all built off the backs of gut tank jobs) I'm mostly writing this as a devil's advocate post just to see how venomous goony's response will be. I hate gut rebuilds. They fail more often than they succeed and you are just pissing way multiple seasons with the hope that something goes right. Chicago does them a lot and it sucks, especially when every team in the city sucks at the same time. I'd kill for one Chicago team that has its horsefeathers together and you can count on being at least good every season like the Yankees. But we're left with this crap. I still think given where the Hawks were when Bowman was fired, this one made sense. I would have kept Debrincat or Dach or both though.

There is a free YouTube documentary being released over the next 3 days called "Last Comiskey" that is pretty cool. Detailing Comiskey Park and particularly the last season. Obviously we're Cubs fans, but I didn't mind the Sox through the 90s. I went to multiple games at Old Comiskey and remember its charm...not to Wrigley's degree but it was a cool ballpark. The last game I went to in that final season I distinctly remember 2 things: it was snowing during the game, and Sammy Sosa was playing RF for the Sox. Thought I'd share in case anyone else has fond memories of going there. Part 1:

Not adding to or detracting to any point made, just thinking about Jersey's comment about all the tanking going on in this city....here are the recent tanks and my rating for how much of a tank they were 2022- - Bears 6/10 - Doesn't seem like its designed to be a long term rebuild, but they went all the way for one season to ensure they got a top pick 2022- - Blackhawks 10/10 - Clearly removing every valuable asset from the organization to rebuild from ground up 2021- - Cubs 5/10 - Traded away virtually all their best players, but have yet to try to completely bottom out 2017-2020 - Bulls 8/10 - Tried to rebuild through high draft picks, but kept good players on the roster that prevented them from having top 5 lottery odds (this could be by design or more likely incompetence) 2017-2019 - White Sox 10/10 - Gut rebuild 2010-2014 - Cubs 10/10 - Gut rebuild Our new issue is teams not wanting to tank so hard and ending up stuck in mediocrity, which arguably is worse. The Cubs are trending towards mediocrity, the Bulls have completely embraced it, the White Sox wallowed in mediocrity for several years before rebuilding, the Blackhawks were mediocre at best for a half decade before pulling the plug.