David

More like 5 weeks if it is, in fact, through the All Star break. But yea.

Shouldn't that be +3 (for the Cards at least)? I remember looking earlier today and seeing that they had outperformed their pythag.

Alcoholic? There's a big difference between being a young person that "parties" too much and actually being an alcoholic....

No, most people were saying it was a really good deal. But many also didn't understand why the White Sox would be doing that at this point. Not that it matters. It's not like the same people who think the Sox are legit have to be the people who were questioning the move (or the timing of it) at the time.

Is that dude in the middle with the mustache someone from TV?

I seriously heart Kobe Bryant.

It's what I expect people to SAY in the heat of the moment during a game, but in a format like this, you have to actually type it out and then hit submit, which should allow even just a little restraint. Yea, I've always thought the same thing. While I'll swear at the TV and say stuff like "Damnit Aramis, you suck, WTF!" I've never actually felt inclined to type it out and post it... :confused:

Imagine if we were in last place instead of having the best record in baseball. Some people will bitch about the stupidest stuff no matter what. My favorite is the freaking out about Kerry Wood coming in to save a 1 run lead. You'd think he was awful. Yeah, a 3 run lead turns into a 1 run lead. What fan would care about that? Had nothing to do with Wood's level of talent. *shrug* I was never worried. I would've been pissed had they actually blown the lead, but we pretty much have the best team in baseball. What's to get so stressed about? :) I do remember getting extremely pissed when the 95-96 Bulls would lose, but those were extremely rare and I was 12.

I'll be ignorant and say it's a terrible hire now. Out of all the coaches out there, we take a guy that had zero coaching experience. The team he worked for didn't even interview him for their head coaching vacancy. What does that tell you? This is quite embarrassing, but I'll let it play out since I have no other choice. Hopefully Pax and Del Negro prove me wrong. I think this has more to do with the fact that they're a veteran team on their last couple seasons than anything else. It's not a good match to bring in a young coach with guys like Shaq and even Nash, IMO. Once again, I'll wait till I hear about what he intends to implement before I pass judgment.

Benson is officially gone per ESPN1000.

Sun-Times reporting that Benson showed up at Halas Hall today and was sent home by the team. Doesn't sound good for Ced.

An interesting note - over the past few years, the Suns were said to have coveted a few of the players the Bulls had drafted (Thabo immediately comes to mind). Considering Del Negro's position with the team, he may have had something to do with that.

Certainly, I'm not saying that this should only be looked at in hind-sight. I am saying, though, that there's plenty of information that's available to Pax right now that isn't to us. That includes interviews, word from other people that have worked with him, etc. This is information we have no access to. I mean, we literally have ZERO to judge him on (aside from a Q&A session on the Suns website that doesn't say a whole lot). This isn't the case for Paxson. I've never been one that's huge on experience if you think the guy in question can do the job. I suppose it's similar (although for obvious reasons, it's not a perfect analogy) to my stance with players. Lots of people prefer bad veterans over younger unknowns. I don't. By the same token, I don't think a guy necessarily has to have experience to be the "right" guy to hire. I can totally understand how people would think it's generally not a good idea to hire inexperienced, and I suppose that's a valid argument. But it's the only strike I can see being put against the hiring with the information we have, and if it turns out that he does run the type of system that I want to see implemented, that totally trumps the experience factor in my mind. As an aside, I feel like the fan outcry would be a lot less and the response much more "ho-hum" had we hired a mediocre (or even bad) coach with experience (like a Doug Collins). People really overrate experience, IMO.

No, it doesn't. Also, I didn't realize that we had to get lucky for Paxson's evaluation of the guy to be right. There's no way Paxson's evaluation can be based on anything but "gut" because nobody's ever seen the guy coach, that's why. You mean job interviews are worthless and mean nothing? This hiring was just based on gut? I'm not even trying to defend the hiring. I know nothing about the guy. When all of you know nothing about the candidate, and Paxson obviously knows enough that he took a risk on the guy, it's pretty ridiculous to think that you can deem this a bad hire on the day it's made. I honestly don't know if it's good or not. That said (and this isn't meant as being a defense of the Del Negro hiring), I was pretty sure Collins would be a bad hire and a terrible fit (given the system he ran and his seemingly Skiles-like reputation in terms of rubbing players the wrong way). So I'm pretty relieved about that.

You mean the guy that told us to screw off after a little bit of heat in an interview with JR, and instead took on the mess in NY? BTW, I'm pretty sure Paxson KNOWS what kind of system VDN plans to bring in. I'm not the one making the hire. He is. That first question is pretty irrelevant.

No, it doesn't. Also, I didn't realize that we had to get lucky for Paxson's evaluation of the guy to be right.

Also...for the record, if he is, in fact, bringing in a D'Antoni style system, it's a good hire in my mind. All the other crap....experience, leadership, name, whatever, means very little to me compared to the actual system that is being implemented. Bring in an uptempo style and a player like Derrick Rose and you're essentially making the most you can of the talent on this roster (while hopefully making some sort of consolidation trade), IMO. This is why I was not at all enthused about bringing in Collins and his slow-as-molasses style. Again, that's entirely contingent on Del Negro bringing in the PHX (or similar) system. There's really no way of knowing if he will or not, other than the fact that he worked with it and scouted for it while there.

Or not. You really don't know anything about him to know whether or not it's a terrible choice. Sure, he has no formal coaching experience (he has "coached" with the Suns during his time there, although obviously not from the bench). I'd sure as hell take it over one of these retreads we were looking at. Given the fact that Paxson has interviewed him (and a ton of other candidates) and I'm sure done a fair amount of research and still put his ass on the line with him, I'll give it time before I deem it a "terrible, terrible" choice. My hope is that he's a D'Antoni type of guy. There's really no way of knowing, though, until we hear (and see) more about him. So you're saying it's a good choice because nobody knows anything about him? How does that work, exactly? I'll give it time too. That's not really the question though, is it. The question is, how can Del Negro be the best choice when nobody has an inkling how he will do, including Paxson? For all he (or anyone else) knows, Del Negro will simply fold under the pressure of being a coach. Obviously we all hope it works out. But even if it does, this simply can not have been the best choice. We're now relying on luck. Tell me where I said anything like that. The fact is, we know about 1/100000th as much as Paxson knows about the guy. There's no way it can, on the first day, be deemed a bad (or TERRIBLE) hire by people who know absolutely nothing. I didn't know that the hire had to be deemed (or could be) either good or bad the day it was made, especially when we have little to nothing to go on to make such an evaluation.

New stuff on Prior... http://www.cubsfx.com/2008/06/did-mark-priors-career-begin-to-end-in.html

Or not. You really don't know anything about him to know whether or not it's a terrible choice. Sure, he has no formal coaching experience (he has "coached" with the Suns during his time there, although obviously not from the bench). I'd sure as hell take it over one of these retreads we were looking at. Given the fact that Paxson has interviewed him (and a ton of other candidates) and I'm sure done a fair amount of research and still put his ass on the line with him, I'll give it time before I deem it a "terrible, terrible" choice. My hope is that he's a D'Antoni type of guy. There's really no way of knowing, though, until we hear (and see) more about him.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/chicago-cubs-mark-cuban-jun06,1,2038655.story

Yep. Says he's gonna pull out all the stops. I really like what I'm hearing and the fact that it's so important to him is encouraging. I could see him doing everything possible to try and sway things in his favor. Not holding my breath but definitely keeping my fingers crossed.

Cuban interview is the first thing that comes up on the podcast.

Was about to post that. Thanks. Now to listen.

I was as frustrated as Brenly with the pitch selection to Pierre in the 9th, especially when you consider the way they were playing him defensively.