champaignchris

Illinois went through similar circumstances with Beckman and handled things about as badly as things could possibly be handled. They waited to fire Beckman until a couple weeks before the start of the season, despite the investigation beginning towards the end of the prior season. They let the AD stay on until the middle of the football season before deciding to fire him, too. They didn’t immediately hire a replacement AD, but instead let their interim AD extend the interim head coach one year. Then, just before the start of spring practice, they finally hired their new AD and forced him to decide whether to go another season with a lame duck interim or try to make a long term hire outside the normal coach hiring cycle. Illinois basically lost three recruiting classes and ended up with Lovie Smith as head coach. He wasn’t able to fill out his staff with great options because of the off-cycle hire and wasn’t able to improve the staff in his second season because he had to assure his original staff that they’d get more than one season to get them there in the first place. So by his third season he was still trying to rebuild his staff while coaching essentially a ju-co team of only freshmen and sophomores. Smith got a lot of criticism for his time at Illinois - much of it deserved - but he moved that program from full on dumpster fire to a merely bad football program. So, to not repeat the mistakes Illinois made, NW got a good start by dumping Fitz now instead of waiting longer. Now, NW needs to fire its AD immediately and have the new AD in place well before the hiring cycle for a new HC starts in November.

Goldschmidt makes a lot more sense to trade than Arenado.

Yeah. I looked up the Dodgers after the fact and was not particularly ashamed of having missed it.

Took one look and suddenly realized that my general hockey knowledge ended in about 1998. I know those two logos are for the Predators and the Wild, but I couldn’t name a single player that ever played for either team.

Bill Buckner never had a 200 hit season with the Dodgers?!?! Topped out at 193. Had 200 hits with both the Cubs and Red Sox. Ugh.

Looking to next year, three of five starting pitching slots are up for grabs, with Taillon holding down one of the two. They have maybe half a bullpen. They have major questions at 1B, DH and CF, and definite concerns at 3B and RF. Payroll looks to be about $180 million before even signing a free agent. That’s really freaking grim.

From today’s game I learned that I didn’t appreciate how good Miguel Tejada was.

Ok. Pretty much must win this game now. Can’t squander this.

Estimated start time 6 pm.

Walk, single and RBI since I complained about him. Anything else I should gripe about?

Tauchman 2 for his last 20. Is the magic over?

I got a .5% with my Phillies/Tigers pick for (sentimental favorite ex-Cub) Willie Hernandez. I got a .3% for Blue Jays 40 HR because I mixed up Tony Batista with Jose Bautista. I probably shouldn’t get credit for that one.

They’re doing that 1 for 10 with RISP thing again.

Even after seeing this list, I’m still pretty sure nobody’s ever actually played for both teams. I was absolutely sure either Robb Nen or Troy Percival played for both teams. Wrong on both accounts.

The BABIP gods are angry.

Just looking at the names on the backs of the jerseys, there’s no way this Phillies team should be scoring fewer runs per game than the Cubs.

Not a huge sample size, but Madrigal has been the guy the Cubs thought they were getting from the Sox since he was brought back up from Iowa.

WSCR said Taillon earlier this morning.

Clint Frazier is apparently back to being Clint Frazier and OPSing .559 for the White Sox.

I wish it would give you the top 3 or 5 answers after your guesses, instead of just the percentage of your guess. Family Feud style.

Your backup first baseman for the first-place Orix Buffaloes is currently slashing .294/.286/.382 in the Japan Western League. The rare lower OBP than BA is quite a feat!

I’m not saying Yadier Molina doesn’t belong in the Hall. I am saying that Joe Mauer, Buster Posey, Thurmon Munson, Bill Freehan and Jorge Posada all belong in the Hall more.

He’s 2 for his last 33 with 16 Ks.

He said “if” the Cubs sell. I think it’s reasonable that if the Cubs sell, Bellinger is a likely candidate and the Yankees are a possible destination. We know it’s possible for this team to radically swing the opposite direction from their little hot streak of the last couple weeks. It was just 2021 when the Cubs were 41-33 and tied for first place on June 22. They only won 3 of their next 16 and started the selling with Joc Pederson on July 15.

i put in Babe Ruth. So I can’t test this, but Fergie Jenkins won 25 games for Texas in 1974, while batting .500. (1 for 2.)