SRQCub

Unwad those panties, sweetheart. I'm not saying that Ole Miss is doing anything that all the other Power 5 football schools (sans the Vandy's and Northwestern's of the world) do not. Of course every program is dirty to some degree; it's the nature of "amateur" athletics. My comment is more a reflection of the Ole Miss fans I know who have insisted that this is a fine, upstanding Christian southern gentlemen, coaching a prestigious program that doesn't need to resort to such tactics to entice large young black males to come play the foosball at that school. As you said, every school does it and every coach who wants to be worth a [expletive] does it. But, hey, at least you aren't Tennessee, Georgia or Baylor, right? Vandy's head coach interfered with a player's rape accusation. Please don't mention them with Northwestern. And now he's Penn State's coach, naturally. Guess they'll have Briles and Butch Jones on the short list if Jimmy Franklin ever gets fired.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/mock-draft-4-0/#P40V3U3ZD4ubwkZ0.97 Moniak at 1 seems odd to me.

I honestly don't think the NCAA employs enough people to investigate every incidence of things like this throughout college athletics. It happens everywhere that gives a damn about being good at a particular sport. As an FSU fan, I'm not idiotic enough to believe that "good ol' Christian" JImbo Fisher is doing it "the right way." And I tell my stupid friends who love Clemson and Miami that their good ol' Christian coaches Dabo and Saint Richt aren't doing it "the right way" either. Unfortunately, "the right way" is the dirty way if you want to win.

Excerpt from the Yahoo Sports article: Come to find out, the poor kid spent more than seven months driving various loaner vehicles from an Oxford car dealership that had ties to Ole Miss athletics. In August 2014, Tunsil took his 2002 Impala in for repairs and kept a 2012 Nissan Titan loaner for 10 weeks. On another occasion in 2015 – after being told to Just Say No to Loaners by the university compliance office – Tunsil kept one for nearly three months. Then there was a third loaner he used for a month, and a fourth for another month. And then there was the Dodge Challenger that Tunsil actually "bought" from the dealership with a $3,000 down payment he never really put down. What college kid doesn't get that treatment from the local dealership, right? According to the school's response to the NOA, Ole Miss compliance became aware of the Titan loaner late in the game and took corrective action. But even after that – and in the midst of a publicized ongoing NCAA investigation – Tunsil still managed to acquire three other loaners for long periods of time without the school knowing. That's one sneaky offensive tackle.

Typical Ole Miss. Imagine that- their choirboy coach is a lying, cheating sleazeball. Who'd have guessed? Well, at least he didn't cover up a persistent rape culture. So there's that. And I'll laugh in your face if you think that A) there is a single Power 5 football team that doesn't cheat their ass off, and B) there is a head coach at one of those schools that isn't sleazy. Bottom line is that Ole Miss got caught doing things that every other school does solely because Laremy Tunsil's loser stepfather was being cut off the gravy train because Tunsil's mom was divorcing him and he wanted to get Laremy and Ole Miss in trouble so he went up to Indianapolis and squealed. Seriously though, Tunsil must have been bought by Ole Miss for the price of a happy meal since the NCAA NOA describes him driving around town in a 2002 Chevy Impala. That cat definitely got paid the big bucks. Yet this is on the level according to blowhards like Cowherd who claimed yesterday that Bama doesn't cheat. http://img.bleacherreport.net/img/images/photos/002/892/230/ca5b591c7723cc9c25d3138b5c182c2f_crop_exact.jpg?w=1500&h=1500&q=85 I have no problem with people pointing and laughing at Ole Miss for this. No problem at all. I would do the same to any other program. Schaedenfreunde is delightful. However, the fact that blowhards in the media are acting like this is some isolated incident in the clean and noble world of college football is quite annoying. Unwad those panties, sweetheart. I'm not saying that Ole Miss is doing anything that all the other Power 5 football schools (sans the Vandy's and Northwestern's of the world) do not. Of course every program is dirty to some degree; it's the nature of "amateur" athletics. My comment is more a reflection of the Ole Miss fans I know who have insisted that this is a fine, upstanding Christian southern gentlemen, coaching a prestigious program that doesn't need to resort to such tactics to entice large young black males to come play the foosball at that school. As you said, every school does it and every coach who wants to be worth a horsefeathers does it. But, hey, at least you aren't Tennessee, Georgia or Baylor, right?

Typical Ole Miss. Imagine that- their choirboy coach is a lying, cheating sleazeball. Who'd have guessed?

This. 1,000 times, this.

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Your jimmies got fully rustled here.

Yes, it is. But he little guy is perfectly able to comprehend that this one special type of HR is called a "grand slam."

And then Heyward opts out and Bryant convinces his old Vegas buddy to join the fun. Trout, CF Harper, RF Bryant, 3B Rizzo, 1B Zobrist, 2B Schwarber, LF Russell, SS Contreras, C .

The typical catcher over the past 3 years puts up a .680, maybe .690 for the decade. The position has far and away the lowest standards of any position on the field. He was a top 10 pitch framer last year according to StatCorner and top 15 the year before that. d'Arnaud's only macro flaw as a player is durability, and his injury history is more bone chips, backswing contact, foul ball contact, and general soreness than the catastrophic, major surgery, long term type. This isn't someone likely to be available anytime soon anyway, so this seems pretty pointless. It's pointless as far as the Cubs are concerned, certainly. But with Plawecki on the roster and d'Aranud's durability concerns, I could see the Mets moving him for something this summer. As I said, we can agree to disagree on TdA. I've always liked him as a prospect and a young player, but he has not lived up to all that promise, and has given significant reason to question that he ever will. He's good, yes, but I can't see the debate for "one of the best." Basically, if you take his career numbers to this point, he's exactly Jason Castro over the same timeframe. Baseball Reference has an even more unflattering comparison of Michael McKenry. His glove work behind the plate is really good, yes (StatCorner has him as the #10 C in 2015, in terms of +Call rate... one spot ahead of Plawecki), but his arm is not good. He's outside the Top 30 in terms of CS%, and his dWAR was outside the Top 40 in both 2014 and 2015. Again, you're right in that there's probably nothing to be gained by chasing this hypothetical tangent. I only address it as a situation where one of our opponents has room to improve, and I hope they don't (which, in spite of the specific title of the thread, IS the general thought behind it... not wanting to see our biggest obstacles in the NL improving.) Carry on.

Well this turned into a completely different conversation arguing against things no one has said. Very few, if any, players are worth more to another team than the one they are currently with. If the Mets actually made d'Arnaud available and picked up a Lucroy there would still be a line around the corner because he's cheap and one of the best all around catchers in the league when on the field. Any franchise worth their salt would somehow find a way to work around his durability issues because of the bat and defense when on it, maybe even try some tricks to keep him healthier. In the context of the Cubs they have a pretty nice setup in 2016 and 2017 for a catcher like d'Arnaud. Seems like a solid buy low guy if the situation arises. There's actually a handful of high pedigree, young or fairly young, struggling catchers out there that I wouldn't mind the Cubs picking up (Zunino, Hedges, Norris, d'Arnaud, Swihart/Vazquez all come to mind). We can agree to disagree. HIs career .719 OPS and his defensive metrics don't play as "one of the best all around catchers in the league." I loved him as a prospect, and he may still live up to his promise, but I don't see it yet. He can't stay healthy enough to become the offensive player scouts thought he would be.

As a reserve? Sure. However they wanted to title it would be fine with me in this hypothetical. There's just nothing in his history to suggest that we could expect anything close to full-time AB's from him. He's fragile, and his bat doesn't profile anywhere else helpful. If you could get 120 games out of him, he'd be worth it. But at the 90 games you'd actually get, what would he be worth giving up? He's worth more to the Mets than he is to other teams because they own him, they need offense, and no one is going to pay much for him, imo.

I don't see d'Arnaud's fragile body being an honest-to-goodness part of their progression, and can see merit in the Lucroy suggestion. But I don't want to see them do anything to that offense. Their pitching across 7 games is scary, and I don't want Jake and Lester to have to be Cy Young each time out to feel good about our chances. I hope the Cubs would be glad to take d'Arnaud off their hands. As a reserve? Sure.

I don't see d'Arnaud's fragile body being an honest-to-goodness part of their progression, and can see merit in the Lucroy suggestion. But I don't want to see them do anything to that offense. Their pitching across 7 games is scary, and I don't want Jake and Lester to have to be Cy Young each time out to feel good about our chances.

So, throwing someone better than Lackey in the playoffs would serve us well?

Well, then that's on you. You can miss the forest for the trees (I.E, getting hung up on their ranking of the Top 25 teams in history), or you can look at elite Run Differentials and Playoff outcomes.

Also names Teheran, Archer, Moore, and Odorizzi So basically every SP who's been in a rumor since winter who hasn't gotten hurt? Got it So, you're the cynical sort, huh?

Most of those teams were pre-playoffs. All you had to do was be the best in the league to make the world series. That's something the elite RD teams were very likely to do. Valid points. How have the elite RD teams of the playoffs era performed? This link gives some good insights into elite RD: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1781362-ranking-the-top-25-regular-season-teams-in-mlb-history/page/3

No one mocks past the first round, let alone all the way down to 104, so there's not much out there about the Cubs. I'm just a baseball fan.

SInce 2008, only one team who led the league in RD won a World Series. So we are due for the top dog to win it again. Also, I was more curious of how the elite RD teams have fared, maybe the top 10 or 15 RD teams since the LCS format started? Last years Blue Jays are the best team in RD since 1999, I believe. I'll look some later. RD is not as essential as you'd think.

Most of those teams were pre-playoffs. All you had to do was be the best in the league to make the world series. That's something the elite RD teams were very likely to do. Valid points. How have the elite RD teams of the playoffs era performed? SInce 2008, only one team who led the league in RD won a World Series.

I agree that this is a weighted crapshoot (that word just looks funny now that I've read it 1,000 times in the past 10 minutes), but I think some of these statistical probabilities also oversimplify the equation. I'm not suggesting that complicating it more would drastically alter the chances, but I also don't believe that a 23% generalization actually plays out the same if you're hypothetically sending Arrieta/Lester/Jose Fernandez out to the hill in the playoffs, versus sending Arrieta/Lester/Lackey. Maybe it increases us to a 24% probability team, but that 1% would feel significant enough to me (in actua game play) to warrant doing what it takes to add a guy like that.

This is also in a vacuum, assuming the 89-win team played the same teams that the 109-win team played, given the exact same variables.