Chisoxfn

Sucks. Love luck.

Random but probably very little known fact that Daver was one of the earliest Soxtalk admins/mods (before leaving Soxtalk for WSI).

The counter to this is what good did that do for Orton/Grossman. In fact, one could argue does going against the best defense actually help (or does it hurt because you are so disrupted you end up getting into bad habits). Either way, I do have faith in Nagy as a HC and I believe Trubisky will put in the work to continue to get better.

I have read most every article from the Bears. I haven't seen anything from Campbell or Biggs indicating Trubisky has been bad (or even not good).

I actually really haven't seen any bad reports from the major media people. The only people I've seen ripping on Mitch have been random local blogger X who is tweeting about literally every throw he makes. I get it and I enjoy those tweets, but you need to put those tweets in perspective. They are the equivalent of a Soxtalk game thread (in the sense that anyone who overreacts and/or reaches conclusions based upon individual plays is likely going to miss the forest from the trees).

Something to remind everyone but a lot of the people posting on twitter are not exactly NFL insiders. They also probably have zero experience watching other teams camps, etc, so they literally make a deal of every pass that falls incomplete, etc. I think the reality is, if Mitch was stinking it up, you'd hear about it...similarly if he was totally lighting it up, you'd hear about it. Mitch is the biggest question-mark on this team, in the sense that, to consistently win in the NFL, we need him to be better and more consistent than he was last year and with him being in this offense for a 2nd year, we should expect him to take a step forward (that said...just cause we expect it...doesn't mean it will happen). Jury is entirely wide open on Trubisky. He's shown enough to give you hope, but I also would probably put the odds at 50/50 whether he ends up being a good to very good QB vs. being a mediocre to slightly below average QB. And we also need him to play better to win the Superbowl.

I was actually listening to the Dodgers game and heard that exact comment. 20 year on pass for a ~6 WAR season. It is what it is...but this is one of those deals that could end up going down as one of the worst trades in baseball history.

If they just took on his contract, this would have been the perfect deal. All that said, I could see Astros flipping him in the off-season (and just buying him for the post-season push and than moving him elsewhere).

Ignore my original post. Deal makes way more sense now. I literally thought Cleveland traded BAUER for Puig.

Why? Why the hell didn’t sox find a way to get in on this. I’d take Bauer for next year.

Is he related to Ben Sheets?

Really?

The one thing we don't want is for him to fall of a cliff at the end of the year. I think we will see him bounce back and then he'll go into this off-season with more confidence and more time to continue to refine and tighten his improved mechanics (more from just the pure muscle memory perspective, etc). What I'd like to see is him grind through this year, with a nice finish, with a good offseason where he comes back next year adding back in his dominant curve to the mix. That is what will put Gio over the top (in terms of being a next level...true front-end (#1/#2 pitcher).

And the key point is...I wouldn't bet on all of these things, but what the Bulls can control is building up a young team that can contend, while maintaining flexibility. Focus on that and continuing to get better (while maintaining flexibility) and be aggressive when the opportunity strikes. I fully believe that Pax can do the first part...it is the bolded part that will be interesting to see as I think we've always been a bit more gun shy (and to some extent with good reason as they are probably too cautious on the "maintain flexibility" since the fear is if you bet wrong where you go aggressive, you don't capitalize). I also think people don't recognize that you can't just will things happen.

I am not ready to say it will happen, but build a good team with nice assets and flexibility and at least you have a chance. Odds are Davis & Bron crush it next year, but we don't know, Lebron truly could finally have age catch up to him and if that happened, all of a sudden, fans could get testy, etc, and things could go south fast. I wouldn't bet on this happening (as Lebron had his first long off-season in forever and should be coming in extremely fresh) but you just don't know. No one would have predicted what happened this past off-season a year ago. On a side note, I have seen some cap experts who have indicated Bulls could clear space (without Porter opting out) for a max contract. It would involve moving a lot of guys and probably surrounding a pick to dump Felicio, etc. But it is absolutely doable while maintaining Porter, Lavine, Mark, White.

What about muni bonds? There are some relatively low risk funds that should have minimal downside and tax adjusted could get you 4 percent or so.

Very rarely do teams win via free agency. Doesn't mean free agency can't be part of the plan, but don't expect it to be the catalyst to greatness. Expecting that, vs. player development, good drafting, and proactive trading is fools gold. I very much see the squad being aggressive in going after guys with a few years left (vs. going and handing out 7 yr deals to a starting pitcher).

The one Garland pitched in at Angel stadium?

And for those that are going to blame on that side, there is always the fact that the Sox were more comfortable with Christopher Sale's delivery than others and were able to land a guy who is a likely HOFer because of it.

Or maybe they just thought he needed some time to see the major leagues, get some game action, while learning how to work with pitchers, etc. Development is a marathon vs. a sprint.

Plus it’s been barely any games. It is worth giving him time to learn etc. the overreactions some people have on this board is just crazy. Especially for a team that isn’t contending this year.

I am okay grabbing a starting pitcher who can help us in the long-term during the deadline (at the right cost). Not sure that we'll be able to jump in and buy at the right price though.

I think it is clear that they also can't just rely on free agency, they need to do everything they can to continously make the team better (while maintaining flexibility) and they have to be able to pivot and capitalize when a player gets disgruntled. We don't know who the next disgruntled star will be, but it will happen again and the Bulls need to ensure they are a team that a player would be interested in going while having the flexibility and assets to be able to make a move.

I didn't imply Bulls are getting him..but more players potentially out there in a year where the Bulls should be a pretty solid team with cap space...the better. I haven't seen one good NBA analyst knock one thing the Bulls did this off-season. In fact, Lowe has been extremely complimentary of their entire off-season as well as the roster build-up. For being 2 years and a month removed from the Jimmy Butler trade...they have actually adjusted much quicker than most organizations who went down this path.

Bulls 2021 plan gets a little more interesting with Kwahi ending up on a 2+1 deal.