UMFan83

Any word on Pulisic yet?

Rex Brothers blows

Too bad we go back to playing real teams this week

It’s crazy that despite his unbelievably bad hitting he still has a positive fWAR this year, albeit just 0.1. He’s still a positive fielder and baserunner. I would consider keeping him if he accepted a very reduced role of 25th man, used only for late inning defense and pinch running. If we’re paying him either way why not use him in a way that gives us value? Also he’s a great clubhouse guy to have assuming he accepts the reduced role with professionalism. That said, I’m not sure Ross would use him in that way if he’s on the roster. I hate to infer this because his job should be to put his roster in the best position to win but I get the feeling he will do everything he can to make sure his buddy gets every opportunity in the world to play everyday. Maybe I’m wrong…he did eventually release Arrieta, though I think that release came several starts too late and Jake had to give us 3 IP, 6 ER games for a couple of months before the trigger was pulled. Also, I get that Ross doesn’t make roster decisions like that but I’m sure he had some influence, especially when the deadline happened and there was nothing to play for.

Football is a little tougher without Deshaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence at QB

1 more win to avoid 100 losses

That was a fun comeback. 5 in a row and 8 of 11. Hurting draft positioning but I’m still enjoying some life from this almost completely new team of scraps

Season ERA up to 4.65. It was 3.61 at the deadline

2 batters in HRendricks gives up a bomb

12 seems spot on to me. They could be a top 10ish team if JF comes in relatively quick, doesn’t get murdered, and makes a bunch of big plays. Or they could be a bottom 10-15 team if things don’t go quite right. Not sure how to interpret your post. I'm not sure if you caught that the rating is for 12th out of 16 teams in the NFC. I’m not sure why you all are saying 12 when what I posted said 14th lol. Anyways the Bears lost 8 of their final 11 games last year, only beating 3 terrible teams (Texans, Vikings, Jaguars). Their 5-1 start included multiple miraculous comebacks. They lost depth in multiple position groups and they have the hardest schedule in the league (at least based on last years performance). There are also improvements in several areas so I’m not necessarily counting out the bears completely but I don’t blame anyone who has a pessimistic outlook on the bears season.

Funner fact: it’s not even close to the highest in the league The Lakers have 58 all star Appearances between them LeBron - 17 Anthony - 10 Westbrook - 9 Howard - 8 Davis - 7 Rondo - 4 M Gasol - 3

Not sure if less money is true. Anyways they just waived a guy to make room. The Bulls had the BAE to use for that roster spot which I believe is close to $4m. Not sure what Millsaps contract is, but I would guess the Nets didn't have a lot of options for signing him so it would be a smaller deal Edit: Maybe the Nets also had their BAE I'm not sure.

How the horsefeathers do the Nets still have roster space? Annoying that 2 players the Bulls really could have used to round out the team both signed with the Nets for reduced roles and less money.

There's still plenty of time for the other shoe to drop but Schwindel just keeps hitting. Just for fun here are some slash lines over the last 28 days, which represents most of the games since the deadline: Schwindel: .330/.382/.649/1.031 Happ: .275/.313/.571/.884 Chirinos: .269/.377/.442/.819 Wisdom: .207/.266/.552/.818 Ortega: .256/.322/.415/.737 Everyone else sucks like expected: OPS - Alcanara - .698 Duffy - .677 Heyward - .660 Bote - .560 one of the romines - .401 Through 7/29 the Cubs combined slashline for the season was .227/.308/.398/.705. Since the deadline it is .240/.293/.401/.694. Not as much of a dropoff as I would have thought considering they lost Javy, Rizzo, Bryant and Contreras for most of that period.

cubs are 6-3 in their last 9 games. They are definitely playing better than they were after the deadline, but its also just a sign of baseball randomness and a schedule with the Rockies, Twins and Pirates.

NFL Execs voted the Bears to be 14th in the NFC this year: https://theathletic.com/2803927/2021/09/03/nfl-execs-rank-the-nfc-1-16-bucs-and-packers-in-front-nfc-west-power-and-weakness-up-front-with-giants-and-bears/

Never change Pirates

How bad is 1 point here?

We jinxed it

Cubs were down 3-0 until the 7th when Ortega and Happ hit 3 run and 2 run homers respectively. Coming into today the Cubs were 9-21 since the deadline. In the 30 games before the deadline the Javy/Rizzo/Bryant Cubs were….9-21

Tied it up Dumb comment but I always assumed “concacaf’d” was only used when the better team is on the road.

Had to go very far back to find this thread. Sometimes I forget Willson Contreras is still on the Cubs. Anyways, he talked about extensions today and seemed to sound more like he did earlier in the season than he did after the deadline. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/cubs-willson-contreras-desire-extension-show-me-plan

I think I like the overton window being moved away from service time as a metric, and my guess is this gets more money to younger players which would be good. As an ownership proposal I'm sure it doesn't add up to the right amounts, but age-guaranteed FA with more money paid to pre-FA players is a loose idea I could see leading to a better result than the current system. This is interesting I'm trying to think whether this would help or hurt late bloomers. Teams like the Cubs keep taking a shot at guys like Wisdom with the hopes that they breakout late and then they have team control over them for a few years. If Wisdom is 29 years old do the Cubs sign him knowing that even in the unlikelihood of Wisdom breaking out, he will be a FA after the season and could easily be outbid for him? On the flip side, those late bloomers will very likely never have a real shot at FA so the ones that breakout will never hit their earning potential.

94 - I was 11, my only memories of the WC were: my dad going to the opening match through his work, my grandfather taking me to the Germany-Belgium game and not really appreciating the enormity of it until I was walking up to Soldier Field and the fans were chanting and just wild. I vaguely remember the own goal against Colombia, but the WC was more of a curiosity to me 98 - My friend in HS was from France so I got behind them in this World Cup. The only thing I remember from the US standpoint was a sportscenter segment talking about how the US technically finished dead last in the tournament. I learned a lot more about this WC from the US standpoint from the Men in Blazers Podcast series American Fiasco 02 - Similar to IMB, was in college at this point and this is the first WC I was into soccer even though all the games were overnight. The hype going into the US-Mexico game was incredible though I don't think I 100% understood how important the rivalry was at this point. The night before the Germany game, I had a few too many beverages and felt like horsefeathers the next day, so I went to bed at a normal time, woke up 5 minutes before the game started, laid there nearly comatose watching it (though the handball controversy got me jumping off the couch) and then going back to sleep sad immediately after. It sucked to lose but naively I thought that this was just part of the US's steady progression into contenders. Whoops. 06 - This is the first WC I started really watching the whole thing and not just the US. I actually met up with an old NSBB guy sethuel and a bunch of his friends at what is now AJ Hudsons (drawing a blank on the previous name) for the Italy game. First time really in a soccer bar during an important game so I enjoyed being the only team to take points from Italy during that WC even though we played shorthanded most of the game. Was disappointed to not get out of the group, but it allowed me to focus my attention on the other teams 10 - I was so hyped for US-England and thrilled to draw there. The Algeria game I was watching at work on my computer and really depressed the entire time since we wouldn't finish and were so close to going out in the group stage. I had no idea anyone else in my office was watching it but when the US scored I heard yelling from about 80% of the people in the office. Turns out everyone was hiding a browser with the game on like I was. 14 - My boss in 2014 was a gigantic soccer guy, so he'd shut down our office during every game. When the Wondo missed that chip shot at the end of the Portugal game, he walked out of the office and didn't return until the next day lol. I remember being disappointed but also hopeful because Julian Green scored in ET lol. 18 - It was definitely canceled, but in my mind the Women's World Cup took the place of the 18 WC. Our whole office was into it and we had all the games on the TV, so that was fun. A bunch of people who didn't care about soccer at all, or sports in general got into it.

I wasn't even thinking about the White Sox part when I posted that tweet from Phil Rogers, was more interested in his informed speculation that the Ricketts don't plan on spending for awhile. Phil Rogers is a boob though so who knows what his agenda is and how accurate that info is.