Regular Show

Alex Caruso deserved more votes and I'm honestly surprised by how few he got (maybe all the missed time played a factor). I said before the postseason began that PWill has a chance to be our most impactful defender because of his size/athleticism/length and I was wrong; Caruso was clearly the MVP on defense in that 1st-round loss. He was crazy impressive in game two (I believe he had 8 forced turnovers!) and the main reason they won that game.

lmao I cant even being to comprehend how the Lakers would be able to fit LaVine onto their roster. LaVar likes to run his mouth and say crazy stuff, but you can't completely discount it as he has a direct connection to the Bulls in Lonzo. In the interview he said Zach did not like being the second fiddle to DeMar last year and that's why he's looking to leave. 99% sure its BS though. He's just trolling and spreading gossip... The Lakers are desperate to move Russell Westbrook this offseason and that is their top priority. I have no idea how LaVine could end up in LA. Also, he says Zach didn't like being second fiddle to DeMar, but he'll love being second fiddle to Lebron lol? He would be the clear third option behind Lebron and a healthy AD over there. Yeah, I don't think Lonzo told his dad any legit inside information about the Bulls' chemistry. I don't think his sons take him seriously anymore or ask for fatherly advice. LaVar is a joke with very little influence now.

That is probably the rub. If you have a bottom 5 MLB team and a bottom 5 farm system, how good are your odds of swaying his opinion in 2 years? And the opportunity cost is pretty significant because we've seen even elite players don't command enormous packages as they get closer to FA. Not anymore, but that might be different for Juan Soto because he's so special. Yeah, the Nats have to trade Soto because they won't be good enough in a couple years to convince him to stay long-term. You can't just lose him for a draft pick like Bryce Harper (and the team did try to move him in a trade to Houston before ownership vetoed it). Jed and this FO have been preparing for this moment by making those trades last year and trying to boost the farm system... I just don't think the farm system is good enough to beat other teams when comparing potential trade packages. Mike Rizzo is an old-school GM and that team likes the well known, shiny Top 100-type prospects in trades/MLB draft. They go more quality over quantity, unlike Cleveland who takes the opposite approach. So a trade for Juan Soto would have to start with Brennen Davis and 4-5 more pieces. The Cubs are not trading Seiya Suzuki + prospects to get Juan Soto btw (that's dumb). Suzuki is a big part of the core going forward.

I'm assuming most Bulls fans here know this already, but maybe some ppl missed it:

That hypothetical 3-team trade is horsefeathering terrible for the Bulls. LaVine isn't from LA; just went to school there for one year. He also can't just force his way there. He would need the Bulls to cooperate to get paid. The Lakers' FO is also NOT considered well-run and is more akin to when GarPax was in charge here. Maybe not quite that bad in reputation, but it's not good... EDIT: Also, that graphic in the tweet above is off... NBA teams are not allowed to trade consecutive 1st round picks (the 2027 & 2028 1st round picks from Lakers) because of the Stepien Rule. Only way an NBA team can do that is if they have multiple picks in one of those years, and I'm pretty sure the Lakers don't have extra picks.

Well, I'm happy for Detmers (and Rendon). I was really hoping Detmers would fall to the Cubs' 1st round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft (probably too many teams between the Angels and the Cubs for that to happen, if the Angels had gone in another direction).

I think this holds true for most people, but some people certainly know they're evil and what they're doing is evil. Putin knows he's an horsefeathers, the "bad guy" and he simply doesn't care. Same thing with Trump. Depends on how deep they are into the conspiracy horsefeathers. Tons of those folks legitimately believe (or are convincing themselves) that Trump or Putin are actually saving kidnapped children from Satanic cabals, or purging the globalist Deep State, or destroying the bio-labs that created COVID, etc., etc.. I agree about those people that are into the deep waters of conspiracy horsefeathers... Hard to parse whether they truly believe this horsefeathers, or are just going along because it aligns with their political beliefs and makes them feel good in some perverse way. I guess it's hard to call those people evil if they genuinely believe this horsefeathers. But all the people who generated those conspiracies and that [expletive] and spread that misinformation? They are a special breed of evil and know exactly how dangerous their activity is. All these COVID conspiracies and misinformation has cost lives and destroyed families, and even affects something relatively trivial by comparison like professional sports. Anyway, back to my original point about certain people recognizing that they're evil and not the heroes of their own stories... I immediately thought of this scene in Breaking Bad between Walt and Jesse in S5:

he sounded non-committal in his remarks and KC Johnson even said Bulls fans are freaking out, can you give us some indication of where the bulls stand, and his response was equally non-commitattal. That said, I think that's just how zach talks and he doesn't want JR to low ball him. If the Bulls offer him the max he will sign I believe the Bulls and AKME intend to offer the full max to him. I'm really not sweating the details and/or him meeting with other teams. I would put it at a 90-95% confidence level that he re-signs with the Bulls. Now, if the Bulls decided to continue with GarPax and didn't meaningfully improve the roster... yeah, then he would say "horsefeathers this" and bounce for another team.

Everyone is the hero in their own story. I think this holds true for most people, but some people certainly know they're evil and what they're doing is evil. Putin knows he's an horsefeathers, the "bad guy" and he simply doesn't care. Same thing with Trump. Also, petition to change the thread title because I've always hated Bauer and thought he was an horsefeathers (even before I discovered he was a Trump supporter). He's not continuing to get worse; he's always been a terrible human being. Shame on anyone here that wanted to sign him as a FA.

I think you're 100% wrong on this... They don't fire execs and Ken Williams was bumped upstairs. It's a well-known joke inside MLB about how much job security you have when you work for Reinsdorf and that organization. I guarantee TLR gets fired before they ever demote/fire Hahn.

Angel Hernandez horsefeathering sucks and should have lost his job a long time ago.

Oh you sweet summer child... we were always gonna lose this series. Only possible way we win is if Giannis gets hurt.

Javy got quite the boost to his career fWAR as well, which I'm delighted to see. This makes all the Javy skeptics/haters look even worse now.

I'm stealing this from Rob -- these pitches and their insane movement is like prime Kerry Wood stuff. I knew Matt Brash was nasty (and I've seen his slider before in clips), but this is just unhittable stuff and it seems impossible to make good contact when his command is on.

Are there rules on how you have to use it? Like, can Contreras wear it out there but not use it if a runner doesn't get to second base? I think that's the only real competitive advantage at this point, but not sure if they'll let you wear it out there and not use it. Ah, I honestly have no idea... I imagine because the device is new that you're allowed to wear it out there, but don't have to use it everytime. In the article I was reading about it, the catcher said when the pitch is selected an audio response is sent to the pitcher/infielders and also in the catcher's earpiece. The catcher was worried that it was too loud and that the hitter might have overheard it. You can control the volume, but I can understand the catcher being paranoid about that. I'm pretty sure the catcher can use traditional signs along with this device during the game. More info on the PitchCom tech: https://theathletic.com/3246725/2022/04/12/red-sox-trevor-story-guardians-jose-ramirez-pitchcom/ The article mentions the pros and cons, but it mostly seems positive in the early going.

Ah, it's clearly not too soon now... You can go ahead and start that thread (or someone else). He definitely deserves it.

Who would they sell it to? MLB is not going to let some free-spending, paradigm shifting group come in and change the way things are done. Mark Cuban wasn't allowed to buy the team for a reason and there are now specific rules in place to combat Steve Cohen's spending. After all the lockout back and forth I find it very hard to believe MLB would let an owner in who "wanted to win" over "wanting to make money". You sound a lot like Reds president Phil Castellini (not a compliment btw): He apologized for making those remarks. There are plenty of ownership groups out there that are SO much better than the Ricketts... I'm mostly just referring to the political stuff and how they supported the first former US president to commit a coup and fail in spectacular fashion. The family is all kinds of awful ranging from the douchebag brother that is governor of Nebraska, the other terrible brother that is the finance chairman for the RNC, the racist patriarch of the family that said a bunch of heinous horsefeathers in leaked emails... Tom is the Chairman of the Cubs so he tries to steer clear of politics, but I bet he donates large sums to plenty of awful Republicans and their Super PACs. This also includes getting Sinclair Broadcasting involved when creating their own RSN, and many fans were outraged over this. This isn't really about spending or the lack thereof. Yeah, we all wish they spent more money on the team these past few offseasons to better support the team, but it's an open question how much of an impact it might have had looking back. The Ricketts signed-off on signing Heyward after the 2015 season and we all know how that turned out... Anyway, spending and supporting a large payroll when the team is contending is just one facet of a good ownership group. I care about the other stuff as well (as do many here).

He's going to be a reliever (and very much relies on the fastball) at the next level. Scouts have been impressed and he's rising up draft boards. He would go in the 3rd-round currently, and I think maybe rises all the way to early 2nd-round area by draft time as long as he stays healthy. Yes, college pitching sucks this year, but no one takes a pure reliever in the 1st round (for those wondering why he wouldn't go higher).