Jenksismyhero

But this is nonsense from the players perspective. Those last 2 years were not guaranteed. They were contingent on plate appearances. Who controls plate appearances? That is why he is now in San Diego. Because the White Sox wouldn't give him an opt out and wouldn't guarantee him the money. Don't let the spin zone from Kenny and Rick fool you.

No, because it's the White Sox FO and they don't have the skills to pull this off.

They've been deaf to fans complaints for years, so my point remains: they couldn't care less about any "fall out." They're not waking up this morning with a sense of urgency to save the off season by signing Harper.

They had "interest" insomuch as they had hope they could sign both for cheap deals because of the alleged depressed market. Of course, the market ended up being right where everyone thought it would be from the beginning.

So, to be clear, it's your belief the Sox were unable to come up with an extra 50 million to get Machado because they already earmarked 350 million for Harper.... You are living in a dreamworld my friend.

This times 1000. https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2019/2/20/18232714/manny-machado-white-sox-whiff-free-agency

You don't honestly believe they sit around and read Twitter do you? They couldn't care less what the reaction is. This is a FO that has continually and repeatedly disappointed their fans and have shown zero remorse for it.

"Williams on the Padres going to $300 million: "That level wasn't feasible to us because we still have to project putting together a total winning roster and keeping the young players that will ultimately earn into greater dollars themselves."" He's talking generally here. There's no way to read this the way you are, that it was limited to negotiations with Machado. It makes no sense for him to say we don't have 300 million to spend because we have to build a complete roster, but oh, if it's another player besides Machado, we do.

I think you're ignoring the exact words Kenny and Hahn said yesterday. They don't have 300 mil guaranteed to offer. I love how fans believe these guys are suave negotiators who play the media perfectly when everything about this organization for my lifetime (3-4 decades) has shown the exact opposite. They are not smart. They are not clever. There is no reason to believe they are capable of anything like this.

Possibly. He could also be hurt by this if Philly plays hard ball. If Harper is down to two teams, Philly and the White Sox, the White Sox all but admitted yesterday they aren't giving Harper 300 million and based on Hahn's comments, i'm not even sure they're at the table anymore (saying that they would use the money on other players this year or in the future...sure seems like this was a one and done chance from Jerry). It's possibly Philly is really the only team still in on Harper, so they could try and low ball him. This is just so monumentally stupid of the Sox though. Harper isn't the player Machado is but he's way more valuable. The dude immediately puts the Sox on the list of top 5 most interesting/recognizable teams to the national baseball audience. He's going to sell a ton of tickets and ad revenue. Machado doesn't help you with that, even if he is worth a few more wins. I always wanted them to go after Harper more than Machado (but would have been thrilled with either).

I think there's a chance, only because if they do finish at 11-9 they could finish 6th in the conference, if not 5th. If they make it to the tourney final they would have to beat a couple other bubble teams to get there. Would the committee really put in an average (and tanking) OSU or Minnesota team with a worse conference record and an early tourney exist over a team that finishes like 14-2 to finish the season? Who has a .500ish record against a brutal schedule? I mean there's no way they're going to finish the season like this, I fully realize that, but it's fun to dream.

It's not going to happen, but....they're 10-15. 6 games left. @Wis, PSU, @Pur, NW, IN, @PSU. Let's say they go 5-1 and end up at 11-9 in conference and 15-16 for the season. Two wins in the tourney to make them 17-17....Bubble team?

https://www.cwbchicago.com/2019/02/smollett-two-others-in-active.html The Jussie Smollet story is so strange. Gets weirder and weirder by the day. First it was a grinder date gone bad. Now the whole thing was possibly staged. Why on earth would this guy make this up (attention?) and then double down on it by going on national TV? Like he wouldn't get caught? He better be charged for wasting CPD time and filing a false report if this story ends up being true.

Nah, I was just tired of repeating myself. I said earlier that if the team didn't show improvement this year Whitman should move on from Underwood. Thankfully, there are signs of improvement, most notably with Giorgi and Ayo. Even guys like Feliz and De La Rosa have looked a lot better as the season has progressed. There is also ample regression though - I just do not understand how Kipper Nichols is so bad given his athleticism/body. Same with Damonte Williams. While I'm thrilled with the result, last night could have very easily ended in the same way about 8 games this year have - an epic 2nd half collapse. MSU went on a 22-5 run. Illinois went without a basket for over 8 minutes. They got two huge buckets from Ayo and made a couple of key defensive stops. Kudos to the the team for not quitting on the season and for continuing to get better and learn from some of those painful early season mistakes. I'm still not 100% sold on Underwood though. What good to great coach out there has a team that goes on 5-8 minute droughts nearly every game? Yes, it's a young team, but come on, at least manufacture some points. You should be able to do that at the collegiate level. I hope i'm wrong. I hope he gets his guys and builds his system and it works. I'll happily admit I was wrong if it works out.

Not really. Not an all star in the bunch IMO. And the draft picks are all going to be late 1st round. The Pelicans would be crazy to trade him now before anyone knows how the draft will play out. You could be looking at another franchise player (Zion) versus a bunch of crap the Lakers are trying to get rid of.

100% this. If i'm going to be stuck in the snow/cold weather, at least give me a mountain to look at, not a cement jungle. I love what this city has to offer, but it has the absolute worst weather imaginable. Unbearable in the winter, unbearable in the summer. We get about 4 total weeks of perfect weather out of the entire year.

You guys had a different experience with RDR2 than I did. IMO it is/was both extremely mundane and boring, but also open and limitless (to an extent) at the same time. I played a lot of it the first week it came out, but then got pretty bored with it. It followed the same trajectory for me as most of the GTA games. I still go back to it for 20 minutes here and there. I'll do a mission, maybe two. But I don't have the time or desire to explore 99% of the world they created. That's been my beef with the recent trend of open world games. I used to love Assassins Creed, but the last two games were too big. There's just too much stuff to do and most of it is not different, there's just more of it. Everything becomes too repetitive. Luckily they allow you to play the game as you want (e.g., without doing all the side stuff) so you don't get burned out, but my gaming OCD kicks in and I feel bad for not exploring every inch of the map or not clearing/discovering every area that you can. I almost prefer the simplicity of Nintendo games and/or movie-like games like Uncharted these days.

Yep, here we go. Bulls sending out KC to start the process:

It's not funny cuz it's got a 50% chance of being true 😢

I think it was a stars-aligned kind of game but it's nice to see Ayo starting to assert himself. He's played really well the last 4-5 games. Giorgi too when he stays out of foul trouble.

No chance given the salary savings. Bulls are all about the $$ not wins.

if you're the Bears back up the Brinks truck and give Fangio HC-type money. Keep this thing rolling.

I agree with this but there are a ton of coaching mistakes too that make me wonder if he's good enough. Yesterday was a great example - you can't even get a shot off to try and win the game. That's on the coach for not having something set up. They had 6 or 7 shot clock violations against Indiana. They consistently go on extensive offensive droughts. Well coached teams don't do that. You manufacture some points with set plays to end a drought. He just lets them play until someone eventually makes a shot. Young players make mistakes. I get that. But it's a consistent problem. It hasn't gotten better. That's a failure of the coach to get his players in position to succeed.

You don't turn around a program and win championships in 4 years, but you certainly improve year to year. He hasn't shown any improvement really. Yes, last year is a throwaway but this year has been almost more of a regression than anything. As someone mentioned above, his rotations are terrible, his offense is basically passing the ball around the three point line until someone can jack up a shot and his defense which was pretty good last year (at least at turning the other team over) has gone away. Ever single "close" game they've had this year follows the same script - winning or about even at halftime, go on an extended 6-8 minute drought, lose the lead and go down big, then have a #fakerally in the last few minutes. Where is Griffin? Why was Jones sidelined for 25% of the season? They're not winning a lot of games this year, so play the young guys and see what they can do. Williams, Feliz and Nichols aren't good enough/consistent enough, so give the freshman those minutes. Getting Kofi and being in on his Oak Hill teammate (another top 100 wing) and Terrance Shannon means Underwood gets one more year after this. He probably had it anyway, but that seals it regardless of how this dumpster fire season turns out.

Millions + you move to a different city and 90% of the people there have no idea who you are or what you did in your previous job. Plus, if you end up making a FG to win a game, all that crap is usually forgotten.