UMFan83

Wow I had never seen that exchange and now I'm mad I missed 9 years of remembering it fondly.

Hockey talk is really down here this year. Anyways, look the Hawks are selected for ANOTHER Winter Classic https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/blackhawks-bruinswinter-classic-notre-dame/

Oh man, looking through his Twitter page, he just got that plane like 3 weeks ago and pretty much all of his recent tweets are about how much he loves flying and loves the plane etc.

What in the hell? RIP :(

What in the horsefeathers? [tweet] [/tweet]

Doesn't that probably happen every year though? It stands to reason that Cy Young candidates are pitching for playoff teams and are going to make multiple starts in any playoff series. Not really... Looking at ALCS and NLCS teams the last few years. If a Cy Young finalist played for the team in question, I went down 1 spot in the voting. 2017 Dodgers: 0 out of 15 games (although we don't know who is 4th in NL Cy Young voting, so not sure who to replace Kershaw with. If its Greinke, then 1 out of 15 games) 2017 Cubs: 5 out of 10 games (Strasburg x2, Scherzer, Kershaw x2) 2017 Astros: 5 out of 18 games (Sale, Severino x2, Kershaw x2) 2017 Yankees: 2 out of 12 games (Kluber x2 - Same as Dodgers, don't know who finished 4th) 2016 Dodgers: 6 out of 11 games (Scherzer x2, Lester x2, Hendricks x2) 2016 Cubs: 6 out of 17 games (Bumgarner, Kershaw x2, Kluber x3) 2016 Blue Jays: 2 out of 9 games (Kluber x2 - Kluber is the only pitcher in the Top 10 of voting that the Jays faced that year) 2016 Indians: 5 out of 15 games (Porcello, Lester x2, Hendricks x2) 2015 Mets: 5 out of 14 games (Kershaw x2, Greinke x2, Arrieta) 2015 Cubs: 1 out of 9 games (Cole) 2015 Royals: 3 out of 16 games (Kuechel, Price x2) 2015 Jays: 0 out of 11 games 2014 Giants: 2 out of 16 games (Wainwright x2) 2014 Cardinals: 4 out of 9 games (Kershaw x2, Bumgarner x2) 2014 Royals: 0 out of 15 games 2014 Orioles: 0 out of 7 games So on average, a team faced a starter who is a Cy Young finalist 46 times in 204 games (23% of the time). The highest percentages in a run were the 2016 Dodgers (55%), 2017 Cubs (50%), , 2014 Cardinals (44%), 2015 Mets (36%) and 2016 Cubs (35%). Of course its kind of limiting to draw the line at Top 3 Cy Young finishers as there are plenty of extremely good pitchers who didn't finish top 3 for whatever reason. BTW, in the games the Cubs didn't face Kershaw, Strasburg and Scherzer, they faced Alex Wood (2.72 ERA), Gio Gonzalez (2.96 ERA) x2, Rich Hill (3.32 ERA), Yu Darvish (3.44 ERA). Edit: Correction, for some reason I missed 1 Hendricks start against the 2016 Dodgers. Dodgers faced one 55% of the time, most of any team over the last 4 postseasons.

Is that all it would take to get him? I'm all for bringing him on board at a low cost, we are definitely a team in position to give him every chance to succeed. That said, I personally don't have particularly high hopes for him from what I've read. I have absolutely no hope for his defense which I've read is terrible and beyond redemption and his rebounding rate is particularly poor for a big man. I feel like the hope for him is to become a 2004-2005 Eddy Curry type player. I am basing this only on stats and what I've read and I've seen very little of him so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. If that's the case, I would not really consider him a foundation for the rebuild, but I'd still be all about taking a chance on him regardless. Edit: I should also mention that he's not a great fit for the "new NBA" or Fred's offense but I wouldn't worry about fitting pieces around Hoiberg or anything. He does have a great post game and while he won't stretch the floor at all, there is still some value to that.

Bears are back. They are favorites against the Packers. If you believe the road team gets 3 points then Vegas is saying that the Bears, coming off a bye week are barely better than the Packers with their backup QB on a short week. Yay? Would be awesome to see an improvement from Mitch after the bye

Yeah there was a split between whether the Cubs overpaid or not. The people that said the Cubs didn't overpay pointed to his consistently high WAR production. The people that said he did either ignored WAR as a stat or felt that fielding and baserunning metrics are not as accurate as we think they are. Regardless of whatever side people were on, almost no one expected it to be an albatross contract and definitely not so soon into the deal. Here is the thread (from the archives) on Heyward: http://www.northsidebaseball.com/archive/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=64666

Aaron Leming made an interesting comparison on twitter between the 2016 Rams and 2017 Bears. Both teams have good defenses and putrid offenses led by high profile rookie QBs. Finally both teams have veteran head coaches who don't seem to be getting results.

Random thought but I didn't realize Tommy Hunter had such a great season under Hickey last year http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1157&position=P Or heck even Joe Smith put together a pretty good year last year (not under Hickey). I know relievers are notorious for being fickle year to year but it really makes me think....Hunter in 15, Smith in 16, Wilson in 17, 3 deadline acquisitions meant to fortify the pen and I believe the 3 of them were on the roster for just 1 of the 8 playoff rounds the Cubs have played the last 3 years (including 15 WC game) - Wilson in this years NLDS where he was certainly the last pitcher included and was then removed before the NLCS. There are probably a lot of reasons Theo and Co decided to go in a different direction from Boz, but listening to Theo's comments on the radio throughout the second half of the season about Wilson, he sounded super frustrated that this was happening again.

I looked at his numbers and thought 'damn these look shitty, I'd hope Almora is better than that' but then I saw his splits are pretty much as extreme as Almora's. If Almora can't provide a defensive value approaching Pillar, I can't see him playing most of the time against RHP.

I think something along the lines of kiermaier is his offensive upside. unfortunately, it really doesn't look like his defense will live up to that comp on that side. it's pretty funny that he was the one prospect we had whose defense was lauded big time coming up, with guys like russell and baez having their question marks, and KB's seen as a liability. If Almora and Kiermaier could combine into one offensive player (almora vs lh, kiermaier vs rh) they'd be pretty awesome. That's a pretty good comp though...I'd take it even though like you said the defense will likely fall well short.

Random question/discussion (and posted here because I don't see an Almora thread): When Almora was drafted people raved about his ability to make contact and his overall hit tool. For a high schooler he seemed like a pretty safe pick (right?). But in the minors he struggled quite a bit to the point where we was in the second tier (or maybe even third tier) of a stacked Cubs farm. When he got called up, I wasn't expecting a ton but felt like he could still develop into a solid hitter. 1.5 years later and I'd say the results have been pretty good though short of great. .334 wOBA in 2017, 16% K rate, 103 wRC+ all slightly above average numbers. The caveat is that he was very selectively used this year mostly against left handers and in situations he could succeed...make him an everyday player and those numbers probably don't look as nice. So I guess my question is, how do you project Almora going forward? On opening day he will be a few weeks shy of 24 so he's still got time to develop. What have you seen from him that suggests he can be an above average overall hitter (or at least above average overall player with defense and baserunning considered)? Do you still have hope of him developing into an All Star caliber hitter? I felt extremely comfortable with him hitting against left handers the 2nd half of the season and playoffs but overall I guess I can't get a feel for his progression and development.

Bottom line there is some questions with this team, questions that can easily be solved in the offseason. The foundation is there and its strong which is why they are clearly a top 10 team despite needing to replace their closer and 40% of their rotation. If they address their issues properly as we expect them to they will be looked at as a top 5 team heading into the season IMO. And then ultimately when they come out of the gate kicking ass everyone will anoint them once again.

horsefeathering pissed someone posted the power rankings thing before me

I swear everytime I watch the Bulls he misses every shot he takes. I don't think I've seen him hit a 3 live yet that's uh some pretty unfortunate timing? fwiw I've watched maybe 20 mins total but yeah it always seems like I turned it on and he misses multiple shots and then I turn it off

Would you take the Cubs cover over theirs?

I swear everytime I watch the Bulls he misses every shot he takes. I don't think I've seen him hit a 3 live yet

Yu think this will lower Darvish's value this offseason?

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was reading stories on Deadspin about the Astros literally drawing a 0.0 rating for their games. Now their fans are annoying and obnoxious. you mean nobody watched when they were terrible and losing 100 games a year but now people in houston are excited and enjoy their team doing well? no horsefeathering way. Yeah that's to be expected. I'm not making any sort of point, I'm just saying it doesn't feel like very long ago I was reading articles like that and now we're here.

Living in Texas I will have to vehemently oppose this viewpoint. Astros fans are annoying and obnoxious. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was reading stories on Deadspin about the Astros literally drawing a 0.0 rating for their games. Now their fans are annoying and obnoxious. Edit: Yep 2013 - https://deadspin.com/the-astros-drew-a-0-00-nielsen-rating-1372996857

Don't be so hard on him, he's obviously saving up for Harper.

I never watch the Winter Olympics outside of hockey. I can see why it appeals to the general public but its not for me. For whatever reason, the Summer Olympics appeal a lot more to me. With no pros playing in the hockey events I'm not sure I'll even watch hockey.

They can' really start it any earlier than 5 Pacific. The problem is the games are going north of 4 hours. Why can't they start it earlier than 5 PT? 76% of the US population lives in the eastern or central time zone. Start the game at 4 PT IMO