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champaignchris

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Everything posted by champaignchris

  1. champaignchris
    Meh. They have close to $90 million in payroll coming off the books next year assuming Stroman opts out. If they go over this year, they’ll easily be able to reset next year while still adding a few good free agents and/or extending some youngsters. Not saying Britton is the guy you go over for, but I’m not worried about it one way or the other. It won’t affect the team over the long haul.
  2. champaignchris
    Both Big 10 games I watched this weekend - Illinois/Rutgers, NW/Purdue - featured the refs swallowing the whistle and allowing hand-to-hand combat. There seemed to be contact on every single shot attempt. Illinois/Rutgers stayed aesthetically pleasing, but that second half of NW/Purdue was as hard to watch as a rock fight. One of the speculated reasons for the Big 10 not living up to expectations in the Tournament has been that the rest of college basketball does not officiate games the way the Big 10 does. Every year the Big 10 says it’s going to clean the game up, and every year by the end of the season, it’s right back to caveman basketball.
  3. champaignchris
    I think some people undervalue Lebron’s accomplishments for the same reason Wilt Chamberlain’s accomplishments got undervalued; he’s such a physical specimen that people just assume that he’s going to get his numbers no matter what. And LeBron is a complete physical/athletic freak. He’s Oscar Robertson’s game in Karl Malone’s body. And he keeps himself in immaculate condition, both mind and body. I’m not going into the Jordan-Lebron debate, but one thing Lebron has over Jordan is that he kept himself mentally able to play for two decades. Jordan walked away from the game physically healthy but burnt out, not once but twice. People sometimes criticize Lebron’s lack of intensity, but I have a hard time believing he makes it 20 years if he had kept himself in a state of competitive rage the way Jordan did.
  4. champaignchris
    I’m not saying the Cubs should have signed Dex to the contract he got with the Cardinals. However, a major part of why the Cubs were never able to repeat is that they were never able to replace Dex in either the field or at the top of the batting order.
  5. champaignchris
    The only real platoon opportunity I see is at catcher. Gomes mashes lefties. Barnhart hits righties better than Gomes does, but it’s not as pronounced. I’ll be curious if they play the catcher based on who’s pitching for the Cubs or who’s pitching for the opponent. If/when Mervis comes up, there will be some platoon opportunities at 1B/DH. Looking at handedness, Madrigal would be far more useful if he were a left handed hitter. His only place on this team right now seems to be insurance against Hoerner or Swanson getting hurt.
  6. champaignchris
    Rolen is a top 10 offensive third baseman and top 5 defensive third baseman. Are there eligible guys who deserve to be in before him? Sure. But 40? Maybe a half dozen if you exclude steroid scandal guys. I count 15 guys with 60+ WAR that aren't in who aren't eligible yet, either banned, steroids guys, from the 1800s. Lou Whitaker, Bobby Grich, Dwight Evans, and Luis Tiant are probably the biggest misses on that list. Whittaker’s absence from the Hall at this point is inexplicable. Except that a majority of the guys in that 60+ WAR range that aren’t in the Hall (and aren’t steroid guys) all played in that same 70-80s time frame. Grich, Evans and Tiant all fill the same bill. As do Reuschel, Nettles, Buddy Bell, Willie Randolph, Reggie Smith, Tommy John, Bando, and Keith Hernandez. Throw in Thurman Munson who played the same position and had a higher WAR than Campanella while dying three years younger than Campanella was when he had his career ending accident. (To be fair, Campanella didn’t make his MLB debut until age 26 due to segregation, while Munson debuted at age 22.)
  7. champaignchris
    Rolen is a top 10 offensive third baseman and top 5 defensive third baseman. Are there eligible guys who deserve to be in before him? Sure. But 40? Maybe a half dozen if you exclude steroid scandal guys.
  8. champaignchris
    Yeah, I'm going to guess this will be similar. I kind of feel bad for the rest of the QBs in the AFC, because the conference is loaded with young talent. Herbert- does he repeat Philip Rivers and be good, but always on the outside looking in? Jackson- if he stays, he's on one of the best run, well coached organizations in the sport Tua- he's shown what he can do when healthy and has weapons Pickett- may never be great, but his coach has never had a losing season, so he will get his shots Lawrence- a better prospect than all of them, now has good coaching, but tough place to win And that doesn't include young guys like Watson (who has a passing title last time he played a full season) or the 1-2 picks in the draft that will potentially be QBs in Indianapolis and Houston or potentially the Jets if they can somehow make something out of Zach Wilson. On the NFC side of thing, there’s an avenue there for Fields to be one of the top 2 QBs in the conference as early as next year and for the foreseeable future if he can take another step up in development and the Bears can get him some help.
  9. champaignchris
    The NFC Super Bowl team will either have the youngest (Purdy) starting QB in Super Bowl history or the 6th youngest (Hurts).
  10. champaignchris
    Assuming Mahomes goes next week, the starting quarterbacks’ ages in the conference championship games will be 27, 26, 24 and 23. Without looking it up, I’m assuming that’s the youngest combined age in a long, long time, if not ever.
  11. champaignchris
    Put another way, he's about 2016 Addison Russell. Maybe not quite the defender, but with a little more pop. 2016 Addison Russell was a very good player. He was also about the 7th best player on that team, pitchers included. Swanson is likely one of the top 3 players on this year's team, again pitchers included, and therein lies the problem. Russell and Swanson were born 18 days apart. We can almost envision Swanson's contract as the extension Russell would have been signed to had he not disintegrated as both a baseball player and a human being.
  12. champaignchris
    .260/.360/.420 slash, High 20s HRs/year, lots of Ks, good to great defense. He's not a difference maker, but he raises the win total floor. Maybe a little higher SLG and little lower OBP, but yeah, basically this.
  13. champaignchris
    I’m 5’10”. I remember walking around Illinois’ campus when I was a student in the 90s and being amused that I was taller than a couple Illini basketball players who’d been listed at 6’2”.
  14. champaignchris
    And the guy who was point guard for the first half of the season no longer being on the team seems to have helped the offense, too. I have no idea what the full story is, but the whispers of a toxic locker room have all gone quiet.
  15. champaignchris
    I think the expansion to 12 teams in the playoffs will help - more schools can credibly claim to have a shot. I think NIL keeping more kids in school longer will also help - fuller rosters will trickle some of that talent down to more programs. We won’t see actual parity. But instead of maybe 2 or 3 schools with a legit title shot every year, we might get 5 or 6.
  16. champaignchris
    Why exactly would the Ravens not franchise or extend Lamar? Are they blowing it up? The only reason I could possibly see Baltimore not franchising Jackson is if his knee is way worse than has been reported. It is concerning that the “1-3 week sprain” has now gone into week 5 without Jackson even practicing.
  17. champaignchris
    Less than a year after an extension. Bet he has some coaching offsets, so it will be interesting if he hits up the media gigs for a few years (could do ncaa as well as nfl) Saban will get someone to hire Bill O'Brien and then bring Kliff in as Bama OC. It might as well already be done. He majors in this (no pun intended). My first thought, too. It seems so set in stone that it may as well have already happened.
  18. champaignchris
    So, who’s going to give the Bears the best package for that pick?
  19. champaignchris
    What a dumpster fire. Since beating #2 Texas at MSG and looking like they were heading for a top 10 ranking, they’ve lost to Penn St by 15, Missouri by 22 and Northwestern by 13. Clark was supposed to be an elite pg recruit. He’s either been hurt or underperforming. The two big time transfers have both been underwhelming. Shannon has mostly played well but tends to disappear on the offensive side of the ball. Mayer has been an enigma, seemingly losing focus and falling asleep on both ends of the floor. Their best returner, Hawkins, looks like he’s forgotten how to play basketball, making bizarre shot and passing choices. No one seems to have any clue what they’re doing in the offensive side of the court. Underwood is screaming his lungs out, and outside looking in, it really looks like he’s lost the team.
  20. champaignchris
    Not arguing any of the broader points in the article or your post, but it’s really weird the article says the Dodgers are “The closest thing baseball has to a dynasty these days,” when the Astros have gone to 4 of the last 6 World Series.
  21. champaignchris
    Was just looking at our payroll, Spotrac and and Fangraphs shows Hendricks has a vesting option for next year for $16 mil. Anyone what know what that is as it’s not listed the benchmarks and if it’s easily attainable? If it looks like it’s pretty easy to hit there could maybe be a contract rework and add 1-2 years so save maybe $2-5 mil in LT money. Hendricks option vests with a Top 3 Cy Young finish. I’d love for that to happen, but clearly not likely.
  22. champaignchris
    This is going to be fascinating to watch over the next decade. Are the Mets going to be paying a guy with a degenerative knee condition (or whatever it is) not to play baseball for a decade to the tune of $26 million a year?
  23. champaignchris
    Get used to it! (False bravado is the only bravado we have.)
  24. champaignchris
    Not college, but wasn't Sean Payton OC at Illinois? Per Wikipedia, he was QB coach in 1996 and then took the same position with the Eagles the next year.
  25. champaignchris
    It shouldn’t be a big surprise given how bad the program has been over the last 30 years, but I’m having a really hard time thinking of any other former Illini assistants to eventually become head coaches. Ironically given Ryan Walters kicked off this discussion, the only other guy I can think of is his predecessor at Purdue who was QB coach at Illinois before becoming OC at UAB.
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