Splendid Splinter

Wasn't Pie on Lansing? Dude... you're totally right. Haha But I was in Peoria in '05 when they came back there. Now that I'm thinking about it, who the heck did I see there that made me go watch a game??? Anyway... I need to go so to see Baez/Soler/etc...

Man... I haven't been back to Peoria ever since Felix Pie was on the team. Looks like I'm due to go back there again.

soriano has been under 23% his entire career I was going to say.. Sori doesn't K THAT much like Dunn/Reynolds/etc. He just looks so bad at the plate K'ing that it seems like he Ks 40% of the time.

I'd prefer that he master sacking the QB instead of dabbling around on offense. I don't mind it really. Wasn't Melton a FB at college his freshman year? So he's at least used to it. Plus... I imagine they would do this if it's goal line situation (not just any short yardage situation) so it would be only be a handful of times for Melton over a season.

Just imagine... If the refs weren't nuts in Game 2, Celtics would've won the series 4-1 and have a nice long break until the Finals. If Bulls/Heat/Celtics were all healthy, I think Celtics would give the Bulls a harder time and possibly beat them than the Heat (Pacers and Celtics are showing teams that you can beat them if you shut down Wade). I'm not sure if Bulls being healthy would be winning this series against the Celtics right now and that's with Avery Bradley out and Allen/Pierce not being 100%. They're playing great team basketball which is shocking because of how sloppy/crappy/horrible/etc they were against the Sixers. As far as LeBron finding that killer instinct... I think he needs a coach who has big enough balls to say in the huddle at the end game in front of Wade/Bosh, "It's your ball LeBron." Every single time. To the point where Bosh/Wade start complaining about it, but you still give it to LeBron. With the Cavs, there was no other options so LeBron had to have the ball at the end. Basically you're forcing LeBron to develop that killer instinct. He's too passive to do it on his own. Celtics/Spurs finals would be boring, but it would be a very interesting series IMO. 2 aging teams who execute well and 2 great coaches. It'll be like a chess match. Not to mention the KG/Duncan matchup and most likely one last final/title for either one.

??? They would have slot money for each pick next year (if they couldn't sign Appel)... Not sure what's so confusing about that.

Dude is a stud. A little bias since I go to Arkansas. I hope Cubs get #1 next year and Stanek improves his junior year.

They can offer that to him, but bonuses over 100K get subtracted from your slot amount. So teams would lose 2 mil from their pool. Oh ok. Thanks.

Just curious... lets say Vibrant last til the 11th round. What will stop teams from drafting him or other players who dropped cuz of signability and offering them $2 mil (alas Maples)??

No... There's better options out there already for next year IMO.

lmao. Sucks to be Houston. They lose his slot amount if he doesn't sign right? That's really rough. Except that they can't sign him, as they didn't draft him. I have to think that the Pirates are going all out this year, and plan to take the penalties and punt next year. Or they're gonna offer something and Appel decline it and they get 2 picks next year (most likely both top 10 as well) with a huge budget to spend.

lmao. Sucks to be Houston. They lose his slot amount if he doesnt sign right? That's really rough. Pirates drafted him... Not Houston.

Ahh... ok. That's what I was thinking of. I knew you could do something with that money. So how would that work? You can trade the money for players or what?

If not, can't Cubs save some of that money and it carries over to the following year? Am I thinking right or is that for something else? Then again... there'll probably be a draft in 2014 so it'll be for nothing anyway.

Not sure about that... Where are the Cubs at right now? mid-teens? That's a HUGE jump to get to top 3. It's possible, but it means everything gotta go Cubs way really (Baez/Szczur/Lake/etc... all hit for the rest of the season/signing Soler/Dempster traded for a legit top 10 guy (after everything is done)/Garza traded to Blue Jays/Diamondbacks for pitching prospects/a couple pitchers stepped up/having a great draft/etc). If that happens, then I can see Cubs having top 3 system...

And that's with him being worse than Garza at the plate for 3 weeks (K'ing like 50% of the ABs)...

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/06/chicago-cubs-rumors-saturday.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook Please.... Hopefully Blue Jays would want Garza or Dempster. They got a lot of pieces that I'm interested in.

This is awesome. Still sad that he has lost so much velocity but it sure beats the low 80's or wherever he was the last time he pitched for us. 90-92 isn't too far off from where he used to be. Looks like he threw 92-93 on average with his fastball according to fangraphs. I just hope that he'll pitch another 7-9 years as a shut down reliever. That would be awesome.

My (unsubstantiated) guess is weed. What a silly thing to flag someone for. Unless there is an MLB rule that bans anyone who smoked in college or HS. ??? Wouldn't you be suspended if you get caught with weed in your system in a drug test under MLB policy? If so, it's not a silly thing. No, it's a ridiculously silly thing because that's what 17-20 year olds do. They drink, they experiment with drugs, they want to sleep with hot chicks, etc. As long as they can handle themselves like normal humans, it really shouldn't be an issue. "Oh ARod, there's a little weed in your system, sorry we aren't going to draft you #1." Nope, don't think that's the way it's working. Read my quote again... MLB do test for weed and you do get a suspension on their first positive test. I checked after my first post. I meant it more as "Ok... So you did weed in high school/college. BIG DEAL. But... will he stop or not when we sign him? Is he a pothead or did he just experiment a few times..." I could see a case where a team talked to some friends or scouts and they said that he likes weed a lot and probably will continue to do it. Then he runs a greater risk of testing positive in a drug test which could result in a suspension. So no... it's not a silly thing IMO to flag him (only if he's seriously a pothead and will keep smoking weed). It can also lead to other drugs as well. Now... would it stop me from drafting someone if i was a GM and knew that he smoked weed in high school/college? No, but I wanna be assured that it won't a big issue down the road. A-Rod example is stupid. There was no drug testing back then. Bryce Harper, on the other hand, would work. I still would draft him tho.

My (unsubstantiated) guess is weed. What a silly thing to flag someone for. Unless there is an MLB rule that bans anyone who smoked in college or HS. ??? Wouldn't you be suspended if you get caught with weed in your system in a drug test under MLB policy? If so, it's not a silly thing.

Plus... Is it a good possiblity that Cubs could get him under slot? It'll make him extremely attractive then. Just wondering. Because it would be great he'll come under slot so Cubs could go a little over slot somewhere along the way (perhaps on both supplemental picks?)

So I decided to check out LeBron's #s in his career and one thing stands out to me. For his CAREER, he's averaging less than 2 fouls a game at 1.9. Seriously??? MJ only had 4 seasons under LeBron's highest of 2.3 and it was his last 4 seasons and from his rookie season to 95-96, MJ averaged 2.9 fouls a game.

Umm... I only know 5 for Celtics.... Allen/Garnett/Pierce/Pietrus/Dooling (how in the world was Dooling a lottery pick???)

Why? They haven't lost a game in forever. Sarcasm? Nope... 19 game winning streak so far (including playoff). So it's been awhile since the last time they lost.

I felt this way at first, but the last couple games have been particularly painful. Tonight's game was just...... No... 2006 was.... I'm not sure if I can put it into words. I mean... all you need to know is Pierre-Izturis. I have cochlear implants (lost my hearing that summer) and I still hear everything from that season and it haunts me to this day. The worst part of it was my brother thought they're going to WS because they got a "real" leadoff hitter in Pierre.