Chisoxfn

Oh and I'll also point out that the Thunder (yes the team a lot on here widely consider the 3rd best in the NBA) lost to the Nets. Guess they should blow things up too.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 24, 2016 -> 09:10 PM) Am I the only one who thinks Toronto could take Cleveland? I've watched a few of their games in the last week or so. These boys can play. They're legit 10-deep. They're athletic, versatile, and can go small on you without losing much on the boards or defensively. How great can they be, the Bulls have owned the Raptors and by your accounts the Bulls aren't any good.

QUOTE (CB2.0 @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 09:38 PM) There was when the Rox signed Parra.... I hope that's dead. I was talking to Caufield12, though. He apparently thinks he's good (which...no). Supposedly CarGo is not the outfielder there are shopping. Parra went there to play with CarGo.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 03:12 PM) I think you are being a little dramatic and putting a little too much power in the presidential position. I think Trump Cruz are insane, but nothing about Clinton, O'Malley, Sanders, Rubio, Bush/etc scream anomaly to our political history. In my personal opinion, Sanders would be a total anomaly. Dude is full blown socialist. Whether you or anyone else agrees with that or not is not my perogative and Hillary has her own massive issues. I would agree if you referenced Rubio or Bush as being pretty normal. John Kerry would win this election in a landslide. Honestly, I've never disliked the top 4 candidates (2 on each side) more than in this election.

By the way, biggest issue with this team is the fact that the young players have gotten significantly worse. Is that an issue with Hoiberg being too melo. Niko and Snell have taken steaming s***s this year (Doug has been better...but that probably happens anyway given his injury last year). I always felt the biggest misconception on Thibs was that he didn't develop people...in fact, I always felt it was one of his biggest strength's (his ability to develop young players). His attention to detail ensured the young players had to be so focused and were so damn prepared to be in the right spots / know there roles. Bright side is that Butler is very good and Rose is starting to play really good. To be honest, if Rose keeps this ascent, long term, this makes things a s***load easier (despite the laying of the egg by the young players). Rose clearly needs to figure out how to be good at scoring and making others better though but this is a process and since that mask came off (and even more the past two weeks), he's been an entirely different player (for the positive). Problem is, as his offensive game has taken off (scoring / efficiency perspective), his turnovers / passing has gone to pure s***.

27.5 pretty much has to assure everyone that he opts out (cause the remaining money on that deal would be way less than a deal a year from now...unless he is hurt or totally tanks). That is a real hefty price to pay for 1 year (that said I don't blame the Mets). Clearly Cespedes wanted to stay in New York and leveraged everyone else and unless someone offered him a legit longer term deal with a lot of guaranteed money, he was going to go to the Mets. Now things are finally going to get interesting. Lets see how the Sox pivot. Maybe Desmond and Jackson or Desmond and a trade.

QUOTE (ozzfest @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 06:34 PM) You are a garpax apologist bro. Enjoy being mediocre. I'm a pax apologist but I could give a s*** about Gar. By all accounts he's a dick and while Pax might be fiery, he changed the entire culture in the org and while he's had his issues, Gar was the guy who ran Thibs out of town (yes, stuff eventually happened that got Pax and JR to side with Gar, but Gar is going to get the axe). He won't be around next year, I'm convinced of it. I honestly wonder if he's even around by the time we sell some assets at the deadline (and I truly think we'll see some retooling...no not tanking or anything like that, but we'll see this team try and reposition and I expect Pax to be the guy leading that process).

How does this team keep starting so f***ing bad. I honestly don't think Gar survives the season.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 07:36 PM) The thing is they brought Hoiberg in because he was supposed to work well with this specific team. That was the talk, thibs was The problem and Hoiberg was the fix. Now the players don't fit? Come on now Yet I still see people whine about Thibs. If one thing hasn't become crystal clear, it is that Thibs was legit. f***ing irritates me that we dumped Thibs. That said, maybe Holberg will learn (NBA is a lot different than college) but I just don't see him having the personality to push this and we don't have a rockstar coaching staff. That said, I have never felt Doc is a great coach and is more of the personality guy but when he surrounded himself with elite assistants, the combo of his personality and ability to get people to get along, to go with having the right people (and obviously having talented rosters) did allow him to win a title. Maybe Holberg can do that too. Hell if I know. I just know Niko is awful. I would really try and build a 3 team trade around Niko / Gasol / picks / others with the Kings and someone else for Boogie.

Bears name Ragone new QB coach. I didn't realize this, but he worked with Josh McCown when he was in the CFL. Given that relationship and how close Cutler / McCown were, I presume that means he's at least on paper, well on board with the move. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0122-story.html

Oh and I realize we all say they aren't electable, but here we are in January and they haven't gone anywhere yet. So at some point are we all going to go, wow, everyone was wrong while one of them is actually elected president?

Quite frankly..none of the top 4 candidates on either party are electable in my opinion.

I'd be exstatic if Paxson took back over the helm and ultimately picked a new GM. I thought the below was an interesting perspective from Paul Shirley on Forman (it is a dated piece). https://web.archive.org/web/20130820083122/...-is-a-class-act

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 01:26 PM) Thibs would be a great coach if he didn't have to deal with people. Thibs is a great coach people.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 01:19 PM) It's telling that the Thibodeau rumors have been sparse since his firing in Chicago. I don't think so. Thibs isn't going to interview just anywhere. I'm pretty convinced he'll be the next Lakers coach.

Wohooo.

I was pretty anti Avi most of the year, but when you change the role / expectations for him, I think he becomes a far more serviceable player who still does possess some upside. He'll provide nice depth and flexibility and get plenty of at bats during the season. I really like LaRoche / Avi sharing at bats (as long as we get a legit 2+ WAR outfielder as a starter).

At the very least, Avi would be in a platoon spot getting plenty of at bats (and probably doing a pretty good job in that role).

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 06:20 AM) Nate Silver's new premise....GOP establishment is even more concerned with Cruz winning http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/one-bi...tical-of-trump/ I think Cruz has a better shot so I can see why and I can't stand him.

Last 10 games Rose is PER is just under 18 and last 5 games it is over 20.

Welp...should be picking up the car on Saturday (pending some surprise...which in the car business is always possible). Love the online method of gathering quotes, than finding lower prices and than making up lowest prices and circling the wagon until finally figuring out who will move lower and lower until you get the lowest process. Thanks to online, you can do it all pretty quick as well. Ended up getting it about 1K lower than the lowest TrueCar offer (after going through the full exercise). Plus got some free services thrown in. A little more than 7K under MSRP ain't too shabby for a 2016 (thank you low gas prices for helping in those efforts).

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 09:02 AM) Their owner is about as wealthy as anyone, and their payroll is well down from last season. I just don't see the fit. I am probably wrong, but I think if they really are engaged, they may be trying to get the Sox or another team to offer more years and keep him off the Mets. This could very well be true, I just think with what happened with Upton, the reality is Cespedes is getting at least 4 years @ 20M+/year and I'd be surprised if the Sox were willing to go there. I think the Sox effort is likely to be creative and put more options / incentives to try and hedge themselves (which is smart) but the reality is, someone else is going to make the bigger offer (given who else is out there).

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 09:02 AM) Oh no they didnt do that did they? One of the only things that annoys me about my jeep tech is the heated/cooled seats and steering wheel are two taps into the touch screen. I would rather have buttons for that. They did. Whole thing is a gigantic touch screen. Obviously steering wheel has volume controls (so that helps), but I'm really not a big fan of touch screens in cars. Buttons are just so much easier and less distracting (cause you can use feel and thus not take your eyes off the road).

QUOTE (shipps @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 09:02 AM) I got Pants one time back in grammar school. Well Ricky, I hope you learned your lesson. Now close the deal with Fowler before the Big 3 market officially closes and Fowler ends up being the primary target (might already be too late and Fowler's agent is already knowing he isn't going to dance until the Cespedes saga plays out).

After seeing the Upton deal, I have been saying there is zero chance the Sox get Cespedes. Realistically, there is no way, given there current motive of operatis, that they are prepared to pay the money Cespedes is going to get. My personal opinion is the only shot the Sox had was to aggressively play him when multiple other options were out there (vs. the slow play). Also, when it comes to the Nats, they have a track record of giving big money and signing big free agents, so when I put two and two together, I find it very unlikely the Sox are going to win this whole deal. The reality is the org needs to stop pretending and be proactive on the alternative options before they get caught with there pants down. Hopefully they are doing just that. PS: I had to create a new thread cause I hate mega threads. That is all