David

god it feels good to hear len and jd

don't even read all that it's just rambling

is there even one example of a great nba team that was built on an intentional tank? even one? because i can name a bunch that have yielded mediocrity at best. the closest thing i can come up with is the spurs, but that wasn't intentional...that was just a crazy confluence of good and bad luck with robinson missing that season. trading jimmy butler is a horsefeathering insane idea. [expletive] horsefeathering insane. it's not going to help you get better in any way. here's what'll happen if they push the magical "blow it up" button and tank. they'll be terrible and unwatchable for 3-5 years, a soul crushing irrelevant afterthought. then they'll eventually maybe have a year like this year, and people will get excited to watch "meaningful" games and maybe some playoffs. they have one of the best players in the league, he's still relatively young. put a squad around him. look at what adding a supporting cast (boozer, brewer, korver, cj watson in what was a really good job of recovering after being rejected by the heat guys) and a coach did in 2010. i'm not talking superstar pipe dream acquisitions. just a solid roster. and to be honest, until this past offseason's weirdness (namely rondo...because if wade falls in your lap, you might as well say horsefeathers it and take him), i've found it hard to find fault with what paxson has done OVERALL in his tenure (and i guess whatever the hell forman does - actually, what little i think can be separated, like the hoiberg thing, has been awful). they put together a few good teams, have had some awful luck, especially with rose (yeah, some insanely good luck that got them rose too), they picked jimmy butler 30th, etc. they can't put a gun to a superstar's head and force them to take their max offer. recent drafts have been shitty, though, and i have no problem with them going. i'm for it. i just don't think they were the disaster FO that seems to be the narrative. the whole thing with the coaches has been an embarrassment too (from VDN to the later thibs years and now this hoiberg mess). i wish basketball were baseball and you could just hire the smartest guys to figure it out and put together a championship team, but all you can do is hope you somehow end up with one of those 2-3 players if you really want to contend for titles. i'm not willing to completely sacrifice my semi daily enjoyment of watching basketball for years so that one year we might happen to have the lottery balls go our way the year that once a decade player shows up in the draft. or we can just get really shitty, get that pick, draft someone awesome like anthony davis, and still be the pelicans.

gross

oh, and maybe hire an actual coach. i'd be good with firing the FO if they actually hire someone good and not some more reinsdorf loyalty hires like randy brown or something

And.........An L. Blow it the horsefeathers up. the right answer is add good players around butler and wade in the offseason (much like they did in 2010), not blow it up and become irrelevant and unwatchable for years so that maybe they can end up with someone as good as jimmy if they're lucky and then we can be all excited about being mediocre but watchable for the first time in years. i am honestly not sure i'd stick around again after a repeat of 99-03. all in search of the pipe dream that is winding up with the next lebron on your roster, because short of that or the miracle that is managing to put together something like the warriors did, you're not truly contending for titles. not in the nba.

two times they blew 10 point leads in that game giving up 3 straight 3's. i don't know if i've ever seen that.

hey the bulls are fun when jimmy and wade handle the ball a lot. crazy. seriously though they're putting on a hell of a show tonight.

[tweet] [/tweet] Javy's getting a street sign

the recent discussion and my posting of this are completely coincidental. just popped up on my twitter feed. http://www.cubsinsider.com/ian-happs-improved-whiff-rate-means-next/

javy's was also heavily dependent on crazy good defense and he was big time protected from tough matchups at the plate, so i wouldn't get too crazy about the 600 pa pace. Eh I wouldn't get too crazy about the match ups piece. But that's the debate that may or may not get settled this year when Javy may or may not get the extra PAs against righties. Either way, I'm taking Javy's WAR/600 over Happ's for their rookie contracts. i mean, yeah, everyone is. I'm talking about the theoretical Happ that turns out to be what Law is saying he will be. if you actually buy javy as that type of offensive player, then sure, take him over that version of happ, but i don't.

i'm just saying that if he actually amounts to that (those numbers at the plate and average-ish fielding), he's probably our best longer term 2B once zobrist stops defying age. actually, that player would pretty much be the 4 win zobrist we saw last year. At "passable" defense I'd want to hear more about the OBP. Zo was a 4.0 win player with a .386 OBP and 18 HRs and -1.5 UZR/150. So if Happ is .270 at the top end of his estimated BA spectrum he'd need to match Zobrist's 15% walk rate for the 4 wins. I know that's taking the Zobrist comp and 4 wins super literally, but on the other hand Javy had the .272 BA and paced for about 19 HRs per 600 PAs with awesome defense. So I could Happ in a time share with Baez and outfield guys, but in my mind he'd have to outpace that 20 HR, come up with a lot of walks, or play better than passable D to overtake Javy. But luckily they both can play multiple positions and can function as a platoon, so I could both as a fit long term. javy's was also heavily dependent on crazy good defense and he was big time protected from tough matchups at the plate, so i wouldn't get too crazy about the 600 pa pace.

[tweet] [/tweet]so is this guy any good?

Damn, all you guys pining for Pujols and Fielder are amateurs; I raged hardest when the Cubs didn't sign Adam horsefeathering Dunn after 2010. Beat THAT. Fun fact: Adam Dunn only has a 16 bWAR for his entire CAREER. My 2 biggest WTF? signings/non-signings for the Cubs were not signing Carlos Beltran after 2004 and signing Milton Bradley after 2008. I feel like those held up pretty well. Then again, I had a full-on Nomar-ection for basically every day he was on the Cubs roster. the non signing of beltran was punctuated by the kick to the nuts that was trading sammy (which i guess didn't turn out so bad, considering fontenot's 08 was better than everything sammy did after combined) and replacing him by signing horsefeathering jeromy burnitz.

sounds like the type of player who could start at 2B for us if the defense is passable. I was being a bit facetious. But realistically, Happ's ability to start on our team hinges on Javy, Eloy and Zobrist. i'm just saying that if he actually amounts to that (those numbers at the plate and average-ish fielding), he's probably our best longer term 2B once zobrist stops defying age. actually, that player would pretty much be the 4 win zobrist we saw last year.

I don't have the write up, but he has Happ at 63 today. He sees him as a guy with a solid OBP, 20 homers a year and .260-.270. So good enough to start on most teams, just not our infield. sounds like the type of player who could start at 2B for us if the defense is passable.

that's dumb. if the cubs' biggest weakness going into next season is a lack of trevor cahills and adam warrens, i think they'll be ok. yeah, i mean, the team they project to 99 wins is vulnerable in the sense that any team is vulnerable if enough bad horsefeathers happens...but that's about as close to invulnerable as you get.

http://www.cubsinsider.com/looks-ground-ball-machine-brett-anderson-brings-cubs/

[tweet] [/tweet] what a strange click bait-ey tweet

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Wonder what will be on this video board, particularly during games. I am assuming they won't show the actual game, although potentially for road playoff games, making the plaza a gathering spot. i'd think it would be mostly promotional type clips/highlights and ads.

there was something of a vick apologists movement that had a base of support among Atlantans. that's not surprising but seems like a weird thing to hold atlanta accountable for. there are a lot of idiots in any big place.

i will very much enjoy seeing goodell have to hand brady and kraft a SB trophy if it comes down to that