squally1313

And here I thought I was being reasonable by wanting more of what's probably the best football game I've ever seen. Should we do a coin flip before the wild card game to see who gets to be the home field? Or draw cards to see which pitcher from the rotation gets to start? Maybe just decide it's half an inning, flip a coin to see who's pitching and who's hitting, and go from there? If you want to win just do it bro.

Teams that win the coinflip in playoff OT are 10-1.

Similar to college OT, both teams start at the 50, 2 minutes on the clock, each team gets one time out (for purely clock purposes) per OT period. Would be open to making FGs illegal after like, 2 OTs.

I could squint and see them really liking Ayo as the offense off the bench (along with Vuc as a second string killer if they pick up a big), and hoping they can get by with Zach/Ayo/some veteran FA signing at the point until March. But as I type that I realize we don't know much about Zach's timeline. Though as I type that I realize that if Zach is out for an extended period of time our expectations are probably significantly lowered anyways. Probably just stay the course for the time being, the minutes will be a great opportunity for Coby and Ayo, see where we're at in a couple weeks.

I don't think the FCC can do anything in this case. They don't regulate profanities on cable. People can file complaints, but the FCC will just toss them. I thought you can only say so much before 9 or 10 PM, then it’s more free reign

Go Australia, horsefeathers this guy.

Yeah, I love watching defenses cause chaos and there was a lot of that. Scoring wise obviously it wasn’t all that exciting especially in the first half. But I came away from this game thinking there are future NFL defensive studs on both teams. I worded that post poorly and didn’t mean to make it sound like I didn’t enjoy the game. I just meant I didn’t think it was an instant classic like the other couple. But still a really fun game to watch. Regardless of whatever bets I had, I was getting pretty excited for Bama to get down to the red zone, figure out a way to punch it in and set up a massive 2 pt conversion and then either Georgia ball or OT. So the TAINT made for a pretty anticlimactic last minute of game time (which felt like 15 minutes of real time). But the most dominant defense in the country sealing the win with a pick 6 is pretty cool.

Like you said, that’s the game. This was a fun game to watch and not just because I’m happy Bama didn’t win. I didn’t think I’d be investing my entire evening into it but it was worthwhile. Yep. Not an amazing game like those couple Bama-Clemson games when Watson was there or even the first Bama-Georgia game. But the game wasn’t over until there was less than a minute left. Loved watching this game. I'll still take a future of QB duels going forward, but was so fun watching the linebackers from each team just get everything in the backfield while the safeties and DBs held down the secondary.

I had a response to your original plan that said it was pretty similar to this one. The obvious issue is that the major league teams and their fans just don't care nearly enough about the MLB draft. Speaking of plans that would never happen, if I were commissioner/dictator, I'd move the ASB back to the middle of August, but if you weren't within, let's say, 10 games of a playoff spot, your season was over. Schedule for the rest of the season is determined over the break, all games would be between teams fighting for the same playoff spots. Few better threats against tanking than shutting down the last 40 games of your schedule.

Unless I’m missing something, wouldn’t you have an issue if your junior circuit playoff champion didn’t automatically qualify for the senior circuit through the league? I think it would have to be like the top 3 of each division automatically qualify for the next senior circuit, and then the top four from the junior circuit playoff fills out the spots? Still think there's some serious timing issues there, though his idea of idea of spreading the senior circuit playoff throughout the year would help a little?

Eh. Get it out the way now (and hope all the built in protection holds up), and hopefully everyone gets a little better on the defensive end. Should be good for Ayo to keep getting bigger minutes too.

That F1 ending seemed 1000% scripted.

Saw 'kind of enforcer type' and figured I misread 'aggressively anti-homophobia' but no...seems like a good dude, so good for them.

This is the closest we have to an answer to that question, from Mooney: I don't want to parse the wording too much, but I think the middle of the road interpretation is short of 'we're gonna trade Willson and start you 120 times'. As for why Gomes would take that deal, teams offering more playing time than that are likelier to be non-competitive and probably offering less, and a 2nd year might've been too much for competitive/rich teams looking for backups. Or maybe Gomes looked around and said 'I'm 34 and only have so much earning potential, I'm gonna get paid before the lockout' and the Cubs were fastest on the draw. Or maybe the Cubs actually said we're gonna start you 120 times after we trade Willson, there's lots of reasonable possibilities. Bottom line, the skepticism here seems to be suspicious that the Cubs did too well in filling a current hole, so that must mean they're going to trade away talent to justify it instead of just wanting a better roster. It's a reflection of the assumptions and predispositions people had before the signing, and that's why I don't think it means much in one direction or another. But the other 'middle of the road' interpretation, even setting aside 'will we trade Contreras', is 'we are going to play our best player less' right? Or we're assuming there's going to be a DH and then it makes you question the Frazier signing where he's just the 5th or 6th dude projected to throw up an OPS in the low to mid 700s, only he can't play anywhere in the field. The skepticism isn't 'the Cubs did too well'. It's that the Cubs signed a dude who is used to getting the majority of the catching innings. Just as I'm guilty of not looking at the full picture, this absolutely makes a Contreras trade less surprising. They don't have to make the trade first and then fill the position. Right now we have an objectively terrible lineup where 5 starters are going to make easily under $5m, and we just dropped $6m on a 'backup' catcher.

For the same reason they signed Wade Miley? Because they know they can't walk into opening day next year with an $80m payroll, so signing dudes like these that can soak up innings and PAs either until the trade deadline or through the meaningless games of August/September while keeping their books clear long term seems like the easiest way to do that? You're right, Jed hasn't come out and said they're shopping Willson. But when you see, at a minimum, 3 opening spots in the rotation, two second basemen but no shortstop, two career minor leaguers riding a combined 5 months of success at the corners, etc etc etc, and this is the second move they make, it seems pretty rational to be a little....disappointed? expecting the worst? Is the same not true if they had given Roberto Perez 1/5 or Wilson Ramos 2/7? I'm not trying to be dense, I get why it can feel underwhelming that there aren't other moves of significance to go with Gomes yet, and I'm annoyed they haven't been more decisive with SP and/or SS. But I don't think signing a particular catcher to a team that really needs some type of catcher is any type of additional signal in any direction. You're right in that it's unfair to comment on the whole plan without seeing the whole offseason. But kicking off the offensive offseason, alliteration aside, with a catcher who has played in at least half the games for the last 5 years and is coming off a fairly productive campaign just worries and discourages me. Why did he sign here? What was promised to him? We're going to pay you a premium to play significantly less games than in the past? With the amount of money we have, there was a way to be NL Central relevant for a couple years while building up the next league wide contender. We've done pretty much nothing to show we are considering that route, and this move leads a lot of people (potentially even Contreras himself) to believe we're going with 'blow it up and see you in 2024, maybe'. Maybe we're still going with Plan A, but this move doesn't show it.

This is the heart of it, why does that make it more likely? Because he's not horrible? Because he's making 2 million more than we may have mentally earmarked for a backup? If they're committing to trading Contreras and fully committing to teardown then why would they care about the marginal improvement and expense of Gomes over a different FA or some waiver pickup who would have a longer term future? For the same reason they signed Wade Miley? Because they know they can't walk into opening day next year with an $80m payroll, so signing dudes like these that can soak up innings and PAs either until the trade deadline or through the meaningless games of August/September while keeping their books clear long term seems like the easiest way to do that? You're right, Jed hasn't come out and said they're shopping Willson. But when you see, at a minimum, 3 opening spots in the rotation, two second basemen but no shortstop, two career minor leaguers riding a combined 5 months of success at the corners, etc etc etc, and this is the second move they make, it seems pretty rational to be a little....disappointed? expecting the worst?

Was going to just edit the above but this is a unique enough point I guess, which is that I'm starting to be a little bit over the whole 'well if only we could find the perfect workload for Contreras, he'd really blossom into a star'. He OPSed 40 points higher in the second half than the first half last year, and ended up with all of 10 more PAs than 49 year old Yadi. If he's really an elite catcher, his playing time (935 innings) should be right in line with the Sal Perez' (1002 innings), JT Realmuto's (973 innings), Will Smith's (1004 innings), Christian Vasquez' (1051 innings), and Sean Murphy's (923 innings) of the world right? If he's already broken from past overuse, then maybe the ship has sailed, and you turn him into someone who DHs half the year, which leads you to question the Frazier signing.

You'll forgive us for being a little skeptical and disappointed that this is the biggest offensive free agent pickup since Jason Heyward, especially considering it either pushes Contreras to the (still theoretical!) DH spot, which makes yesterday's other signing more of a mystery, or it makes it more likely that they are going to trade our best offensive player. But go ahead, get pumped over a mid 30s catcher signing a multiple year deal I guess. I don't understand the binary here. Do you think Gomes is going to catch 120 games whether Contreras is on the roster or not? If they had paid Gomes 2/7 and the same news came out about playing time would that give you the same reaction? It's strange to me that the Cubs paying a slight premium(if that, Roberto Perez is clearly worse and got 5 mil) to get the only worthwhile FA C before the lockout when they have a need regardless of Contreras's future or role is something that can only portend negative things. I'm just not going to get excited for a catcher in their mid 30s on a two year deal when our timeline is increasingly looking like two years of rebuilding, especially when this deal makes it more likely we trade Contreras and fully commit to the rebuild. Yeah, we have a backup catcher need, we also have about 37 other needs and most of them are more pressing. Maybe some big moves are coming! Probably not! But at least with a Miley you can hope he goes on a BABIP streak and turns into a higher end prospect. This is just the guy they can point to and say 'we were able to deal from a position of depth' when Contreras gets turned into two double A prospects, only for Gomes himself to get traded for some rookie ball pitcher in 2023.

"Complimentary players who could help a team trying to contend" is a very nice way of saying "the 2022 versions of Scott Feldman".

You'll forgive us for being a little skeptical and disappointed that this is the biggest offensive free agent pickup since Jason Heyward, especially considering it either pushes Contreras to the (still theoretical!) DH spot, which makes yesterday's other signing more of a mystery, or it makes it more likely that they are going to trade our best offensive player. But go ahead, get pumped over a mid 30s catcher signing a multiple year deal I guess.

Didn't we just slot Contreras into the DH spot for like half the year? Are we just going to run a Frazier/Contreras/Rivas/Schwindel platoon at this position that may or may not exist?

Hearing rumors about Baez to Seattle. Couple that with the KB rumors about ending up there, and with a newborn coming in late January, could definitely get into a Baez/KB infield for those late nights.

I got a text a couple weeks ago asking if I needed any help renewing, which I ignored, and then a couple days later got an email from her saying she was taking a different job within the organization. Haven't heard anything since, so maybe I just slipped through the cracks? Should probably make sure there's no auto-renew thing going on. If it was Hannah she got promoted. My new rep is Ariel. Yep, same thing. Must not have gotten to me on her list yet, if I'm even on the list. Can't imagine my 3 years of 2 bleacher tickets ranks very high.

My new STH rep called me yesterday to try & talk me out of not renewing after I let them know I'm done because the owners don't care about winning. Surely they can't be that desperate. I got a text a couple weeks ago asking if I needed any help renewing, which I ignored, and then a couple days later got an email from her saying she was taking a different job within the organization. Haven't heard anything since, so maybe I just slipped through the cracks? Should probably make sure there's no auto-renew thing going on.

Pretty incredible goal there to equalize.