UMFan83

They signed Josh Harrison and Joe Kelly but I don't think they've done anything major. Based on what I'm seeing on twitter they're pretty pissed about it. Edit: And I forgot Graveman before the lockout

it....doesn't work like that

As unlikely as it is, this is the scenario that clinches the WC spot for US tonight right? -USA beat Mexico -Panama lose to Honduras -Costa Rica lose to Canada And then USA can clinch top 4 with either scenario: -USA wins -Either Panama loses or Costa Rica loses (or either draws gives US a virtual clinch since the US goal differential would be a minimum of +9 over both) -USA draws -Costa Rica loses* * again not official but the US would be a minimum of +9 in GD

I believe Arizona' going to destroy Houston, not just because they beat the Illini, the Cougars had quite a few advantages over the Illini they won't have against the Wildcats. You can bet the game is going to be called more straight up, they're not going to be allowed the excess physicality that generated TOs against the Illini. They're not facing a banged up, eyes nearly swollen shut, mistaken prone, not playing very well team and, simply, Arizona has better players. Had the Illini somehow gotten past Houston I didn't think they'd beat Arizona either but, I sure would have liked to see that game. I'm convinced had Houston been playing that Illini team that faced Arizona in December, the Illini would have won. We'll see. Don't forget this Houston team went to the Final Four last year, albeit with a very favorable bracket. Their top 5 players this year are all upper classmen, though they did lose 2 guys from last year's team to the NBA. Like it or not Kenpom is a pretty good measuring tool and Kenpom has them as the 2nd best team in the country, ahead of Arizona (by a decent amount too). I haven't watched enough of either team to know how the matchups look in a game like this but on paper Houston has a solid chance of winning IMO.

Tyreek Hill to the....Dolphins? NFL is turning into a fantasy league.

Because the USMNT fanbase is equal parts toxic and paranoid. This. I don't blame the fanbase for being paranoid though given what happened in T&T. Everyone was reassuring doubters that there was no way that the US was not getting a result in T&T and even if they didn't there's no way Honduras and Panama were going to both beat Mexico and Costa Rica respectively. And no one was wrong for reassuring those doubters. That was a horrifically improbable occurrence that probably happens 1-2 times if you play those matches 100 times. But clearly that is stuck in many people's heads as we go to the final window. I will only truly start to worry if US falls to Mexico and Costa Rica beats Canada. Until then, I feel relatively safe despite the difficult window.

I'm still just so confused about the offense. Are they just hoping that a (potentially) better offensive line and not running Nagy's offense will put Fields in a better position for success next year? Worried about the weapons he has on the roster. I'm sure they'll go offense-heavy in the draft but rookies are rookies. My fear is that not having the weapons makes it hard for him to develop and then the new regime will have an excuse to go find their own handpicked QB.

I don’t doubt he’s important just like AC was very important. Lonzo probably more so. But I mean like we just lost to the Middletonless Bucks by 29. Last week we lost to the Suns without Paul and Crowder by 27. I’m just not sure Lonzo is going to be enough to compete with these teams.

I wonder how the end of this season is going to affect the offseason plans. Where do you go from here? Do you build on this core, do you maybe try to replace one of them? It’s a really weird situation the Bulls are in especially with Zach a FA.

It should tell you a lot when the head of the Chicago chapter of Chelsea supporters is going out of his way to protest this.

Ricketts family now viewed as favorites to purchase Chelsea according to this: https://www.cubsinsider.com/2022/03/22/ricketts-family-flying-to-london-to-pursue-chelsea-bid-currently-listed-as-underdogs/ At least the Marquee money is going somewhere

Waves and waves What's disheartening is it's unclear if the system is comparable to where it was in the early 2000s, where a number of high profile players didn't pan out despite significant hype (Harvey, Pawelek, C-Patt/E-Patt, Pie, Cruz, etc.), or if it's comparable to the system in the early/mid-2010s, where it seemed like the Cubs hit on every high level position player draft pick and trade target. I mean, it sucks that this system really hasn't done a whole lot since the Happ callup, but that's where we are now. You can see the possibilities, for better and for worse. Its a good point, we really have no idea. We've made a lot of changes to scouting and development recently but no guarantee that's going to make things better. When the best player you drafted outside of the first round for over a decade is David Bote, you tend to lose faith in these things. 27 Cubs draft picks outside of the 1st round since 2012 have made it to the majors. 13 of them have negative WAR. Of the 14 that have positive WAR, only 2 of them have been worth 1+ wins in the majors: Bote (3.4) and Cease (3.0). Yikes.

Which = at least 2 more seasons of the actual team being meh. Grand. Waves and waves I think they were talking about payroll fluctuations

Love how in our part of the world we're saying 'hopefully we can beat freaking Panama and get a point in CR or Mexico to make the world cup' and in Europe they have multiple contingencies in place in case a pot 1 team does not actually make the world cup.

Wouldn't quite say clinched but were 95% of the way there. Bulls still have the 7th hardest remaining schedule vs. 21st for Toronto and 16th for Cleveland. Next 5 are on the road where the Bulls are not nearly as good, but I'd say 2-3 on the road trip will make me feel pretty solid about finishing on the top 6. Definitely 2 or 3 very winnable games on the trip (which is @ Milwaukee, @ New Orleans, @ Cleveland, @ New York, @ Washington) After that 5 of the remaining 6 are at home, albeit against very strong opponents but If we're still 2-3 games up at that point I'll exhale lol No, the play-in at a minimum is clinched, since they have 42 wins and Washington/NY have 41 losses. So there will be postseason basketball for the Bulls for the first time in a while. I completely read that wrong. I read it as the win effectively clinches (not literally, just figuratively) us staying out of the play in. Yes, clinched at least the play in which is awesome.

Pulled away with a good stretch in the 3rd playing aggressive D and got points off turnovers. Toronto never really got it close after that. With tonight’s win the Bulls clinched at least a play-in game at minimum. Wouldn't quite say clinched but were 95% of the way there. Bulls still have the 7th hardest remaining schedule vs. 21st for Toronto and 16th for Cleveland. Next 5 are on the road where the Bulls are not nearly as good, but I'd say 2-3 on the road trip will make me feel pretty solid about finishing on the top 6. Definitely 2 or 3 very winnable games on the trip (which is @ Milwaukee, @ New Orleans, @ Cleveland, @ New York, @ Washington) After that 5 of the remaining 6 are at home, albeit against very strong opponents but If we're still 2-3 games up at that point I'll exhale lol

I don't blame you for feeling this way but there's a lot of interesting storylines to this season despite a likelihood of being a little worse than mediocre. 1. Is Suzuki actually a superstar? 2. Brennen Davis call up watch. 3. Is 2021 Schwindel a thing? What if he is? 4. To a lesser extent, same thing but Wisdom. 5. How good is Nick Madrigal? If he can sustain last year he's a valuable piece. 6. Killian call up watch. 7. Not about the big league squad but I'm really excited to see how all these prospects on the precipice of top 100 status do. 8. Nelson Velazquez watch. Maybe a thing? 9. Stroman doing his thing. I'm as disgusted as anybody with this payroll BS and the fact that they passed on a really good player at one of the biggest positions of need in the lineup, but there is a lot I'm looking forward to seeing this year. I’m with you. I’m very disillusioned but I’m still going to watch and follow the team. Don’t think I’ll go out of my way to go to any games but there enough interesting storylines to bring me a little excitement but I could change my tune quickly if the team looks terrible. Still storylines to follow but I’ll just read about them on here

This one is good too: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/4067391/michael-weathers 4 years of college basketball, 4 teams. Would not be surprised if he transfers again. Dude changes teams more frequently than Reggie Sanders back in the day. Edit: he actually might not have any more eligibility because he did not play in the COVID season. I'm guessing that means he doesn't get the added year of eligability.

Ricketts playing the long game and taking the money saved from the 2012-2014 rebuilds, last years salary dump and rebuild this year, and combining it with the extra revenue from Marquee to having a ridiculous 1 year spending frenzy to win the world series. Gonna have a $500m payroll, book it! Or giving it to a Russian Oligarch, one or the other

Doesn't sound like they are even talking, and it seems like they have already signed his replacement so they can trade him at the deadline. It reads like they've already decided his fate, not as much a 'go test the market and see what you find out there before coming back to us' situation. And on the surface it makes sense. 29 year old catcher, not really a superstar or anything. And if you look at Rizzo, Bryant, Schwarber, Javy and Willson, individually they all make sense to not extend I guess. But collectively it suggests a emotionless way of building your baseball team. Like I said, this might not be a point everyone agrees with me on, but I think there is some value to doing your fanbase a solid and let the occasional player stick around. It might be the better baseball decision, but I think it hurts fan connection with the team. Yes all of those guys got worse deals than offered the Cubs, I recognize that but it seems really curious to me that we tried to extend all of them and none of them signed. Did the QO survive this iteration of the CBA? I can't remember. If so, I could see the Cubs holding onto Willy at the deadline and extending a QO if the circumstances justify it. Otherwise, yeah. It's seems more likely than not that he's traded. And I 100% agree, there's real value in having players stick around occasionally. This front office has definitely been concerned with things like clubhouse chemistry, and having some of the old vets on the team is a part of that. But as you said, Willson isn't exactly a superstar. He's an above-average catcher about to hit the ugly portion of the aging curve. Best to get value while the getting is good. There are other ways to get consistent presences in the clubhouse. We've still got Hendricks, and he seems a better bet to age reasonably well and sign relatively cheaply. Heck, Ross is the manager. And maybe in a couple years when we're competing again we might bring back Rizzo or whoever as the DH. It's not so much the overall concept that I think people will argue with you about. It's just trying to shoehorn Willson in as that guy that doesn't really work. Shoehorning Willson in there is because he's the only one left lol (besides Heyward and Kyle). Do we even know what Willson would accept? He's never really said much except: 1) the cubs arent talking to him and 2) he wants to be on a winning team. I'm sure there's been some discussions behind the scenes and maybe he's made it clear he's not taking a team friendly deal which is his right. Which is why I'm not limiting my angst to one situation, its more the collective inability to extend a single position player from a championship core COMBINED with the 4 years of tanking followed by the promised competitive window that was torpedoed mid-window by a payroll cap. I have a lot of angst, some of it is justified, some of it is probably not. Fair to call out the stuff that isn't but combined it just leaves me in a general state of malice regarding the organization. I'm ranting about Spring Training games not being broadcast now lol. If everything else was rosy would I care at all? No. But its just another sign of the organization doing horsefeathers things at every turn.

Doesn't sound like they are even talking, and it seems like they have already signed his replacement so they can trade him at the deadline. It reads like they've already decided his fate, not as much a 'go test the market and see what you find out there before coming back to us' situation. And on the surface it makes sense. 29 year old catcher, not really a superstar or anything. And if you look at Rizzo, Bryant, Schwarber, Javy and Willson, individually they all make sense to not extend I guess. But collectively it suggests a emotionless way of building your baseball team. Like I said, this might not be a point everyone agrees with me on, but I think there is some value to doing your fanbase a solid and let the occasional player stick around. It might be the better baseball decision, but I think it hurts fan connection with the team. Yes all of those guys got worse deals than offered the Cubs, I recognize that but it seems really curious to me that we tried to extend all of them and none of them signed.

More very favorable analysis of Seiya: https://community.fangraphs.com/how-does-seiya-suzuki-stack-up/

Possibly the biggest game of the year for the Bulls tonight. If they win, they will effectively be 3.5 games up on the Raptors for the play in spot with 11 to play. (3 games ahead and clinch the tiebreaker due to 3-1 H2H) If they lose they will be just 0.5 games ahead of the play in spot with 11 to play and the tiebreaker would be up in the air (Bulls hold a slight lead in the 2nd tiebreaker which is conference win %) Bulls still have the 5th hardest remaining schedule in the league with games against Miami, Milwaukee x2, Cleveland, and Boston. They also have 5 consecutive road games after this where they are 16-19 for the season. Raptors are playing on a back to back on the road and their 3rd game in 4 nights. The Bulls have had 2 days off since their last game. Patrick Williams is returning in an unknown role. It's at home. Should be several things in our favor. If we win I feel pretty confident that we'll get a top 6 seed. If we lose I don't feel good at all about it.

This franchise really is terrible in every conceivable way It seems like Jed is taking an emotionless approach to team building. This may not be a popular opinion here but you need likable players like Willson to get you through the lean years. Heck I grew up in 80s and 90s and my love for the Cubs was centered around Ryno, Grace, Dunston, Dawson, Sosa, etc. They were garbage most years but those were my stars growing up. My kids are already so disillusioned with the Cubs because all of the players they liked aren't here anymore. I get that the point is to win and winning will cure all ills. But we're not the Rays, we can extend likable players and possibly suffer a couple decline years AND still spend money wisely to build a contender.

15th highest payroll in the league, I'm surprised they are having so much trouble having people buy the most expensive tickets in baseball.