Hairyducked Idiot

The problem with any sort of minor-league system for the NFL is that by time a player is done developing, his career is probably half-over.

475 foot single to left-center.

This is the first game I've gotten to watch on an actual TV this year. Awesome.

He wanted to stay and they dumped him for a better player. He has a right to be annoyed.

The qualities it takes to be good as baseball and the qualities it takes to understand baseball have virtually no intersection.

Anybody taking him wouldn't make sense. He's got a huge contract.

Four runs isn't good.

Not his fault. Yes, it is. It's his fault for not being good enough to deserve more.

It's very heavily frontloaded. The idea is that it's more like an eight-year deal, with four years of tiny salaries added on at the end. The reason is that the salary cap hit is the average yearly salary. So they basically gave him an 8-year, $8 million (or so) per year deal, but got away with a $5.2 million cap hit.

It's Bolland that's irking me, I guess. He's not a bad No. 2, per se, but he's not exactly elite at that position either.

Madden is a perfect fit. Won the selke once and finished 2nd twice. Two cups and is one of the best PKers in the league. We now have a bevy of forwards and can actually afford to deal one or more of our extra wingers (buff, ladd, versteeg, Brouwer, eager) for a solid defenseman. This team is loaded. Campbell, Seabrook, Keith, Barker, Hjarlmarsson, Sopel and others. We don't need another D-man. I wouldn't mind an upgrade at center, but realistically, we are pretty much set here. We'll trade for draft picks, if anything, to save cap space.

I don't mind Madden as long as he is on the 3rd line. It looks like the centers are Toews/Bolland/Madden/Kopecky. Unless Bolland or Toews takes a big step forward, that's not a great bunch, but our strengths are going to be at wing and D.

Unless someone really wants to trade for him, I don't see why not.

Filling the Pahlsson role, the Hawks appear to have signed John Madden (no, not him) to a one-year, 2.75 million deal. I don't get this obsession with having the best wingers money can buy while trying to scrap together centers behind Toews, but this isn't a bad deal within that strategy.

Ok, here is the Blackhawks' cap situation for 2010-2011. http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=CHI They have a little over $31 million committed to Hossa, Sharp, Byfuglien, Kopecky, Campbell, Seabrook, Sopel and Huet. That goes up past $35 million when you include Bolland's new deal. The cap was $56.7 million last year, and despite rumors it would go down, it will be $56.8 million next season. Kane, Toews and Keith will all be RFAs before the 2010-11 season, so they are not included in that 35 million. If the cap more or less stays level, you have roughly $21 million left for Keith, Toews, Kane and eight other players to make a 20-man roster, the bare minimum. Even if you can get those eight others for $7 million combined (which would mean nothing but cheap prospects, high picks will have higher cap hits immediately), that leaves you with just $14 million in space for those three players. Realistically, you won't be able to fill the roster that cheaply and you'll have $12 million in space for those guys. I really doubt that's enough. One of three things will have to happen happen: 1) Tallon finds a way to deal Campbell or Huet, maybe Sharp 2) Tallon gets Keith, Toews and Kane to sign super-long, cap-friendly deals 3) Either Keith or Kane will be let go for the huge RFA compensation haul they'd bring. My heart says keep Kane, my head says keep Keith.

I love Havlat, but Hossa is a huge upgrade in total, he's better offensively and defensively, and he's getting a better cap number than Havlat had last year to boot. This was more or less a straight swap in the roster of Havlat for Hossa, and that's a great deal (especially because it weakens Detroit as well). Your wingers are now Hossa, Sharp, Kane, Ladd, Byfuglien, Versteeg, Eager, Burish, plus a couple of prospects ready to break in (Skille for sure, I doubt Beach will be ready next year). Technically Sharp can play center, but he's not as good there. Any more wingers would be a waste of resources. Meanwhile, our centers, afaik, are Toews, Kopecky, Bolland, Fraser? That still doesn't seem Cup ready to me. We need another top-line center for the eight millionth offseason in a row. Edit: Wait, Burish is a center, right? That still doesn't quite do it for me.

Apparently, Hossa will make less than $1 million a year for the last four years, and they could just stick him in the minors and ditch the $5.2 million cap hit if he hasn't retired by then. This was a brilliantly crafted deal.

A 5.2 million cap hit for a top-flight winger is nothing. They are actually saving cap space over Havlat. They are losing quite a few guys off the cap this off-season. I, for once, am not worried about the cap.

I'm torn here. On the one hand, I love Hossa. Hossa is a big step up from Havlat (and that's not a dig on Havlat), and I know Detroit wanted him. But we didn't need another winger. We need a top-notch center. The one we got is decent, but not what we really needed.

Can't get too upset about this one. Probably helps that I missed the first half.

Do I care that Soto did something illegal? No. But I think it's important to get the facts correct within the discussion.

You aren't getting it. The card is administered by your state. States can say it's okay. It doesn't matter. The Federal government still considers it illegal. You could have a personally signed piece of parchment from the governor of your state, with permission to own as much cannabis as you want for whatever reason outlined in beautiful calligraphy. It doesn't matter. It's illegal at the federal level.

It will still be illegal. It is classified at as Schedule I drug (the strictest classification) under the Controlled Substances Act, and will always be federally illegal until that is changed, regardless of what states do.

By default, that would have to mean that some guys perform better. but not that the better peformance is due to them being a special kind of player or something like that. i believe a player can become worse if he's in his head too much or can't handle the pressure. i'm not even necessarily talking about a specific player. it could just be a team in a really bad slump If some pitchers get worse in clutch situations, and some batters don't, then those batters would by default have the appearance of clutch hitting, and it would show up in statistical analysis.

By default, that would have to mean that some guys perform better.