WrigleyField 22

http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=chicagocubs&id=20375&city=chicago&src=desktop I don't think I've seen this posted yet. Talks about a big motivation for the Cubs manager search being able to communicate with Latin American players. Not sure I totally buy the motivation, but based on the candidates we're hearing, wouldn't be totally shocking. If it is true it screams Starlin Castro. That being said it's Jesse Rodgers and I know he isn't held in the highest esteem as far as info goes.

He has the smile of a QB All American and the eyes of Voldermort. Love it.

Debt servicing could technically be considered part of the budget and push the total higher. While I'm not sure that still would make the total expenditures higher, since revenue also is down, maybe as a ratio it's higher. None of us have ever seen a MLB budget from top to bottom and few of us would even be equipped to understand it fully, so I don't think you can really say horsepoop in response.

Pick two Alshon Jeffery @ Wash DeSean Jackson vs Dal Antonio Brown vs Bal Mike Wallace vs Buf

Sounds like another year to get a highly rated hitter at the top, either HD or College and a big HS arm at two. Presumably followed by a lot more arms.

I don't think they'll fool anyone as stars, but they seem more serviceable than that.

No but a few catchers making the list...

Well you included their best WR under "and co." So sure.

[expletive] maybe there is no such thing as 100% when coming back from a major injury and you have to ease back into it and extra time isn't going to make a difference.

Well we did have some AAA players but that was after the annual sell off and some injuries.

My idea of Baez busting is to bust his nut all over Cardinal pitching for the next decade+.

I dunno sounds redundant bro ... Love playing second fiddle to Mirotic

Because a draft isn't run by one man a few weeks leading up to the draft. It's a collaborative effort in which the GM is like director and starts as early as August of the year prior. I know all of our draft prep starts around the time of the combine but not an NFL scouting department. I just don't think you can discount the relatively short time frame Emery or must GMs have from the time of being hired to the draft with all the other aspects of running a team. Plus add in the fact if a GM uses a different scouting/grading/language system. Which Emery did/does and implemented after the first draft. So properly managing a draft is as much about your management of your team of employees as it is about scouting ability (not to discount scouting because it's still really important, especially being the guy at top with the final word). And anyone who claims to run the show alone is a lying blowhard, sucks at drafting, Bill Bellicheck, or some combination of the three. None of that excuses a horrible pick. This isn't rocket scientist. That same mistake can be made in year 4 as easily as year 1. I'm not interested in excusing the pick if you read my first post. No added weight or to later picks or anything. A failure in year one is the same as a failure in year four if I'm evaluating the job he has done 4 years from now. Just interested in projecting what to expect going forward. Early returns from year two are much better. Time may still show that to just be variance and luck, but I feel pretty good about everything I've ever read about Emery and how he evaluates talent and his background as scouting director. I think some people have a romanticized view of sports GMs as brilliant guys or duds who make or break teams, but the truth is the brilliant ones do a better job surrounding themselves with other talented people and evaluating their opinions alongside their own. To that point, I have to emphasize the shift in added scouts, promotions, and dismissals that occurred after his first draft, particularly the additions. There are resources going to scouting that either Angelo chose not to use, allocated the resources elsewhere (though I couldn't tell you where that could be) or wasn't able to convince the people with the money that it was important. Either way, Emery gets credit for bringing up our scouting department to the level that it was needed, which by many accounts was lacking behind many of the top NFL franchises. So that makes me feel much better about things going forward verse year one.

Because a draft isn't run by one man a few weeks leading up to the draft. It's a collaborative effort in which the GM is like director and starts as early as August of the year prior. I know all of our draft prep starts around the time of the combine but not an NFL scouting department. I just don't think you can discount the relatively short time frame Emery or must GMs have from the time of being hired to the draft with all the other aspects of running a team. Plus add in the fact if a GM uses a different scouting/grading/language system. Which Emery did/does and implemented after the first draft. So properly managing a draft is as much about your management of your team of employees as it is about scouting ability (not to discount scouting because it's still really important, especially being the guy at top with the final word). And anyone who claims to run the show alone is a lying blowhard, sucks at drafting, Bill Bellicheck, or some combination of the three.

Obviously it goes on his record, but I'm not worried its like some sign of things to come as it was his first draft and the Bears have made a much larger commitment to scouting and have brought in new faces since then. You can look at two of his picks and their failure was more about injury and character as they were about talent evaluation. That's just learning to better manage risk. I'm not saying a GMs first draft is less important in his overall evaluation record, but it's definitely less important when projecting what to expect in the future (for good or bad). As far as McClellin, I'm not sure if it was a case of him caring too little about position fit, if he carried over his evaluations of him as a scout of a 3-4 team, or just an entire whiff on their evaluation of him as a 4-3 player. I think he would definitely benefit from a move to a 3-4, but even then can expect him to be JJ Watt or Clay Matthews, but you might still be able to squeeze some value out of him as a situational player in a 4-3 or some other team in a 3-4 will realize his value as a OLB. But even with a move to OLB he could benefit from some added strength so they should just introduce him to the guys at Balco either way.

The other thing that makes that threat hard to seem credible is the Cubs own Wrigley and a lot of the surrounding area. They have every business reason to make Wrigley work.

DeAngelo, but maybe Brown depending on your roster and how willing required you are to go high risk high reward.

Start Ridley. Sit Conb

Might as well save that so you can CP it into the real game threads in 2015. The NL gets a DH and it's not Vogelbach? Cue Rage.

Brady.

hawks will roll the blues crawford regresses and the next 2 season are wasted by goaltending. kane and toews, disenchanted with the organization after 2 first round exits, leave for winnipeg and buffalo. the 2 stanley cups quickly become a distant memory as the hawks fade into bolivia. Why Bolivia?

Jeffery, Nicks Pick 1 Flex, 1WR Spiller vs Cin D. Jackson @ TB A. Brown @ NYJ D. Bowe vs Oak I also have Jeffery, but ATM I'm planning on him being my WR1.

You're looking at it all wrong. The prospect of having a manager like Girardi convinced Sweeeny to sign 12M below market value.

Once you get good, not really. The Cubs have been "lucky" they could give a flier to any waived player because there was always an expendable piece they could part with. As we improve and get a fuller 40/25 man roster, that gets harder to justify fliers.

picking CHI over a winless NYG team on a short week when half of Bears Dline is dead scares me. Gaines Adams was like 3 years ago, enough excuses Oh man, I'd say "too soon" but I still remember when it happened and like half the fans' reaction was, "so do we still have to give up our second rounder?"