Chisoxfn

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 7, 2017 -> 01:18 PM) I was thinking about this last night. I wonder if his back is 100%. Obviously he has nothing at the plate. Nothing at all. Even defensively, he's made some really nice plays, and is so sound fundamentally ( I admire his practicing backhanded flips before games) but he has booted a few this year he normally has no problem with. I'm convinced something is going on with Saladino. He's no world beater at the plate, but he looked more then solid there over the past two years and has completely cliff dived this year to a point beyond expectation. His solidish bat combined with the defense and versatility is a solid depth guy and he hasn't been that. I presume there is more to the story and we will all hear about it in the off-season. Fundamentally he is such a sound player

Haven't seen anyone talk about it, but Lauri Markkanen is destroying it in the Euro tourney. #1 player on Finland and has been straight balling. Below are some excerpts from an article in the ringer. https://www.theringer.com/nba/2017/9/6/1625...anen-cedi-osman

Or are we just listing that on the report only to switch them to inactive on game day? Wouldn't be shocked if that was the case.

Also surprised Trubisky is the #2 (who will be active).

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 6, 2017 -> 11:44 AM) I would say that Long, McPhee, and Amukamura being listed as active counts as a surprise They are all playing? Wow...color me surprised.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 6, 2017 -> 09:44 AM) Maybe I haven't squared up with how little our WR and QB talent (with Glennon not Trubs tha God) will hurt our offense or schedule, but I am heading into this season feeling pretty positive. I don't know. I just think we could really inflate our performance with power run offense plus TE pass game, and a top 10 defense. Pretty good shot we start the year 1-5 / 0-6. That isn't even indicative of us being bad or anything along those lines but purely on the fact that we are going to be playing teams better than us each of the 1st six weeks. Most of which are significantly better than us.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Sep 6, 2017 -> 08:40 AM) In this day and age of OBP Anderson will always have that glaring weakness along with his Jose Valentin defense. I don't think you kick him to the curb but there are certainly issues to address. Garcia can't seem to stay healthy either so that doesn't help. Jose Valentin made errors, but advanced defensive metrics loved him.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Sep 5, 2017 -> 05:49 PM) Right. And now that he has come around with the bat, he deserves a shot at the SS job. Anderson should not be annointed as the starting SS but should have to earn it. Let them both compete for the job next year. Tim Anderson has put up a .723 OPS in the 2nd half of the season and is coming off a really strong 6 weeks. He also had a cup of coffee last year where he put up a near 3 WAR in

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 6, 2017 -> 06:53 AM) Absolutely brutal, especially for 2 playoff-aspirational teams I presume both teams had a say in things?

Right move. If we kept him and dropped Gentry, I'd be annoyed. We still might not keep Gentry but at least it isn't for Victor Cruz (who just isn't the player he once was).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 1, 2017 -> 08:25 AM) Yeah, I said Tigers, I meant Astros. Houston seems to value their prospects way higher than money. It wouldn't have taken much more prospects to land them a Gray or Quintana, but they didn't. Instead they got an older and way more expensive pitcher who has had some pretty bad years recently, who is signed up for a really long time. Verlander is under contract for 2 more years, which I would not describe as a very long time. That said, I know he has a vesting option in 2020 so maybe that kicks in and it means he's under contract for 3 more years. You also reference him coming off "bad" seasons, but last year he put up a WAR of 6.6 and this year he is basically at 4 (with a few more starts left). The year before he put up a WAR of 2 (over 20 starts) and that was the only year in his career (outside of his rookie year where he threw 186 innings) where he didn't throw 200 innings. I will qualify that by saying it is debatable whether he will get to that mark this year (or not). He should have a shot though (28 innings away). Verlander is still pretty good. Not as great as he once was, but for the Astros, they seemed okay taking on the additional money vs. giving up the prospects for a guy who absolutely makes them a more formidable world series contender, imo.

I'd sign some players who we think we can spin at the deadline. We don't have enough arms in the minors ready to sit in bullpen roles. Not to mention, I just don't think it is good for a team's morale to go into the season with hot garbage everywhere. You want to close out the games you are leading (even if there aren't a lot of them) and you can spin those players for assets. Find a vet closer on a 1yr deal or take a flyer on a few guys.

So nervous about what future 1st round pick Josh Allen does to the Hawkeyes.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Sep 1, 2017 -> 08:02 AM) The Bulls don't own their own 2018 or 2019 2nd round pick. They are eating Pondexter's contract in order to obtain New Orleans' 2018 2nd rounder. This is a good deal. It's ironic though that they traded their 2017 2nd for $3 million and now are eating $3 million plus on Pondexter's deal to acquire a 2nd round pick. Completely agree with you.

I'm okay with it. 2nd round picks aren't crazy valuable but hey, its something. I just don't like when we "sell" them for cash vs. future picks.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 1, 2017 -> 05:42 AM) Shaw got injured. Twice. And Sanchez wasn't available as emergency QB I guess? It is weird that they didnt play Sanchez at all? I presume they know he isn't very good, but you'd have thought you'd let him get some snaps since he has had pretty limited snaps in game action (during the preseason). I recognize he has plenty of NFL experience so that can be fine, but odd that the Bears let Trubisky drop back late in that game after Shaw was hurt twice. At least it didn't seem like there were any serious injuries in the game (even though the game was an epic disaster). But if we were going to get crushed in a preseason game, let it be the 4th one, haha.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 1, 2017 -> 04:59 AM) I absolutely love that this is how the Astros choose to trade their prospects and blow their money on. Hardly the END of the world for them or anything, but man they had many other easier options out there. I hope they lose so bad. I actually think in hindsight, they did well getting Verlander and they got him just in the nick of time. They gave up some talent, but I like what we got from the Cubs more. That said, Tigers did well. I wonder if Harvey played into this at all and the Astros front office decided they wanted to make a major push to try and create something for Houston to be excited for (in the midst of all the tragedy and what will be a long recovery).

QUOTE (Wanne @ Aug 29, 2017 -> 06:31 PM) Sorry guys...that's still a ton of quiche/assets to have to fork over for one guy. I'm on board with staying the course with the rebuild and wait for guys like Jimenez, Moncada, Robert, Rutherford, Burger, etc... to develop. When the Sox are primed for a big run...Stanton will probably be 32 years old. Not that that's old...but I'd hate to be saddled with an albatross contract for someone that age. I sure as hell don't want to give up any of the young talent... 32 years old? That is 5 years from now. If we are talking 5 years to be primed for a big run, things have gone really wrong. To me Stanton should be in his prime when you are contending for a series and he should also help you get to contention faster (as long as you are using cash / lesser prospects to get that piece (I'm not dealing a top 200 guy at the time, since there is a major risk Stanton ops out more near term). If the Marlins wanted something to show face, I'd trade Abreu and Fulmer for Stanton. I like the idea of keeping Abreu around, but I'd be interested in Stanton for being a key piece to our long-term rebuild (who really speeds up the process for 2019 wild card contention with what you hope is an upward trajectory from there).

QUOTE (Soxnfins @ Aug 29, 2017 -> 05:09 PM) May be going against everyone here, but I'd give them Carson Fulmer, especially if the organization projects him as a reliever. Although that could be too high. I'd make that trade without thinking twice. I'd probably be willing to give up Fulmer / Adolfo...those type of guys.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 29, 2017 -> 04:17 PM) I'll go against the grain here and say I'd absolutely be interested in Stanton. Obviously, it depends on what you'd have to give up but even if that contract bites you in the ass in the last few years he really has a chance to put you over the top these next 5 or so when our current group of prospects is ready to make moves. I'm with you. I figure he'll opt out in a couple years, but I think he's the perfect fit for what we are trying to do. And if you can get him by taking on salary (which we actually have the capacity to do)...you go for it, imo. Even if it isn't until 2019 we are contending for a wildcard, you are talking about one "wasted" year and not giving up key prospects. I think we'd be crazy not to be involved (if it is more of a dollar play than a prospect play). If it is a prospect play, I agree, we should not be involved.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Aug 31, 2017 -> 09:12 AM) I know I've said this before and people can fire away again. If they have an awful season next year with that plan, the rebuild has failed and they will need to start again. If the rotation is Rodon, Lopez, Giolito and Kopech, all players they are counting on for the rebuild, they better not lose 90 games. They will struggle but they can't ALL struggle that badly. I don't agree, guys usually need to take a bit of lumps. The key to me is how you finish. If we are finishing the season playing really poor baseball, we have a problem. I expect we will be really really bad for the first half of next year.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/08/29/chi...ic-expectations Thought this was a really really good read. Agree with pretty much everything he says, with the obvious key how the QB position emerges, especially in the second half of the season. Highly possible we are going to get dug into a big hole with that start of the season, but if we could put on a strong finish, from Fox's perspective, it could be the way to save his job (and I don't think he's a bad coach and I like the idea of continuity and him staying around vs. restarting thing) while creating good positive momentum for 2018. Trubisky is key to all of this, but defense is so much better than a few years ago, albeit we still have a lack of playmakers in the secondary. To be honest, we are a developed QB, a wideout, and a strong DB from being what I'd call a damn good team. The QB is the hard piece, but we have a guy who could be that with time (he may not too...but we've at least invested in a guy who has a shot at doing that). Knowing this is going to be a process and the start of the year might be rough (and I think we should all recognize that) but big picture, It has been a long time when I've been this excited looking forward as a Bear fan!!!

The Kopech / Collins stuff point me on the path that the Sox want to get as many guys as feasibly ready up next year to get some of their "lumps" early so that they can truly be positioned to turn a corner in 2019 (and presumably so the front office has an idea what they have vs. don't have) as part of that process. I presume we'll see Eloy on a similar timetable as put out for Collins (presuming Eloy keeps doing his thing). In terms of Fulmer, no surprise there.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Aug 30, 2017 -> 08:39 AM) I've been swamped at work the last few days, but even after further discussion, reading and reflection, this season was a bummer. There were moments here or there that were awesome, the ending is where we basically wanted to be, but how we got there and what they had to do to change the characters to fit those end points was pretty much unforgivable. 1) Tyrion. I'm fine with him "losing" to Cersei/Jaime when it comes to battle strategy. That makes sense, he's not a soldier. So whatever, first misstep of taking Casterly Rock and letting Highgarden left unguarded is a reasonable mistake. But all this nonsense about bringing a wight to Cersei, and then TRUSTING that Cersei would abide be her word, is against everything we've ever been told about Tyrion. He's an amazing statesman, a great judge of people/character, and a man who knows his history. NOTHING about his knowledge of Cersei would have let him believe that she would honor that deal. Pretty much exactly what I said 3 weeks ago about this stupid plan - that she would just leave Jon and Dany to fight the Night King while she sits back and watches her enemies die and/or become weaker - came true. It's inconceivable that Tyrion wouldn't see through that or at the very least know that there is a STRONG likelihood that she won't honor the deal. The pregnancy revelation, to me, doesn't change that equation. Now, to be fair, we don't quite know the end game here. Is Tyrion pulling a double cross somehow? Is he not trusting Cersei but playing along with her false promise for another reason? I guess we'll see. 2) Arya/Sansa - I mean, that's the worst part of the season. The fact that the writers believed that the audience would buy that there would be a rift between these two is downright offensive. They essentially asked us to believe that Arya and Sansa (and the audience) would disregard the prior 6 seasons and the experience they went through to get where they are now. We're supposed to throw all that out the window and believe that they're little kids again, bickering about kid s***. And unfortunately this wasn't a huge ruse to trick Littlefinger into believing that his comments to Sansa may actually work. No, Arya and Sansa really did have a rift. Sansa really did consider killing Arya. According to the actor that played Bran, there was a deleted scene involving Sansa finally realizing she could talk to Bran and see what was true/what was not, and that was what prevented her from going after Arya. 3) Littlefinger - obviously the death was what everyone wanted, but it was a season or two late, it had little emotional impact and it again reversed everything we learned about a character from the prior 6 seasons and even the advice Littlefinger was giving Sansa just last week - always keep your options open and make sure you know your enemy's plays before they do. And yet we're supposed to believe that he honestly though he could divide the Stark house after Bran and Arya returned? After his altercation with Jon? Please. His death should have been immediately after the battle of the bastards. Sansa should have called up what's his face from the Vale, explained what happened with his mom and had LF killed off RIGHT after he saved Sansa/Jon. At least then it would have been believable that LF didn't give himself an out. In the scenario that played out this season, LF should have left Winterfell for the protection of the Vale on at least two or three different occasions but he didn't because, what, love? Meh. Now I could be misremembering this a little from the book, but I'm pretty sure they depicted the stuff between Sansa and the boy in the Vale in the show, i.e., that he loved her. So the knights of the Vale would have been loyal to Sansa, especially since LF was threatening the lords of the Vale. 4) Jaime - nothing they did was really terrible with him this season, but I think his decision to finally leave Cersei due to her lack of honor is a bit weak. He didn't leave her after she destroyed the sept, he didn't leave her after she pressed on with this unwinnable war vs dragons, but now that she didn't honor her pledge to fight the dead with Dany and Jon, that's the final straw? I mean, I buy it, but it's not the best way to get Jamie to the "good guys" side. And I feel like the show has flip flopped on Jaime being a good guy/bad guy so much anyway, who knows what we're supposed to think. On the first point, maybe Tyrion knew that all along but thought by going through this process, he could at least get Cersei to not attach while they are dealing with the north while also poaching Jamie, who was the leader of her armies and presumably has some clout (so I would think the potential to actually have people loyal to Jamie switch allegiences could be possible). Obviously we have to see what happens to Jamie, but it seems clear that he intends to help in the battle with the witewalkers (and he seemed to indicate his intent was to lead the armies north...Cersei certainly will have some say in that dyanmic).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 29, 2017 -> 11:26 AM) This is absolutely consistent with what Rick Hahn has said about believing 2019 is when his window re-opens. Yep and to do that, you need to at least ensure you are getting your guy's feet wet in 2018 (or a good variety of them). It takes time and not everyone is just going to emerge overnight and some will never emerge.