Chisoxfn

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ May 26, 2015 -> 10:18 AM) I guess I should have included facility specifications along with scheduling as reasons that the top seed doesn't play at home. Still, my point is that the NCAA does not arbitrarily award regionals to teams other than the top seed. I've been to games too where Fullerton has benefited (a lot of the schools on the west coast struggled to meet those requirements and Fullerton has benefited from this in the past). However, RPI outside of the top 20 and to get the top seed was fantastic for Titans. Nice late season push. They were looking much more like a 2 or even more likely a 3 seed about a month ago.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ May 26, 2015 -> 09:54 AM) Unless you have a scheduling conflict with your home stadium, those two things are a package deal. The top seeds all get to host. Actually the top seeds don't always host. There are certain requirements necessary to host and sometimes the top seed doesn't meet those requirements. It isn't just scheduling. For example, look at where the Santa Barbara regional is being played (Lake Elsinore, Ca, which is nowhere close to Santa Barbara). IIRC, the discrepancies tend to happen more with super regionals then with regionals.

I am stunned the Titans ended up hosting their regional and getting the top seed in their regional. Had a strong finish (similar to last year). Hopefully unlike last year, they can keep riding their hot streak to a title!!!

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ May 26, 2015 -> 07:38 AM) Thompson does not have a long term home in the organization right now, with no path to the majors. I think keeping him in AAA where he can be a force ups his trade value when the Sox need to make a move to address other areas of the ML roster. Thompson plays defense, so he should at least have some pathway to the majors because almost no one in our outfield does it very well (except for Eaton, presuming he gets back to playing D like he can).

I am 100% on board for taking Aiken.

I wonder if the Bulls bring in someone like Doug Collins to help groom Hoiberg and I wonder if Collins would have any desire. If he ever did, I have to presume the Bulls and Reinsdorf would be the one franchise he'd be willing to do it for.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 21, 2015 -> 03:08 PM) I went there hopeful, but Danks' Fangraphs page offers nothing exciting or encouraging. His velocity is the exact same it's been post injury, almost two full MPH lower on his heater, down to 88.4, his peripherals are slightly better than last year, but as he was bottom 5 in qualified starters last year in both xFIP and FIP, simply moving up to bottom 1/3 isn't very exciting. If anything he's now pitching like a decent 5th starter instead of an awful one. He is what he is. I don't think any of the quotes above were about him throwing harder, rather he feels he has better command and is able to get some more of his pitches to the right spot. He also seems to indicate that he might have some different deception based upon the changes (so guys aren't picking up stuff as well). I am not saying whether that is actually true or not, just stating that looking at velocity from fangraphs won't be able to validate what JD is crediting for his improvement.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 21, 2015 -> 12:11 PM) I did the independent contractor thing on a summer job in HS, no taxes were taken out initially but my employment was still IRS reported by the owner and I still had to pay them at the end of the year if income got high enough, so that's my version of it. Yeah, the employer has to 1099 you for anything you make in (as long as you make at least X amount...what that amount is I don't remember anymore). Unless of course they are doing it all under the table (which would be illegal) but that doesn't sound like the case. Their are also specific definitions as what defines a contractor, etc, but I'm not going to get into that either.

I'm sorry...that was on the ump. Harper shouldn't have been tossed. The ump and Williams couldn't finish their argument and then the ump got short with Harper, who had already gotten back in the box and then stepped out because of the continued back and forth between the ump and williams.

QUOTE (shipps @ May 21, 2015 -> 08:15 AM) Wow what a market out there for him. If the Bulls had any real intention of keeping him, I could assure you they would get a 1st round pick. Problem is, everyone knows that he's gone, so Bulls lost all their leverage in this public battle.

Fantastic outing for Johnson.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 19, 2015 -> 12:44 PM) Yes. I was going to say he'll need to have a career to make enough money to support the family. Must be a hard decision. If he's close to making the bigs, he could make a lot of money in a short period of time. If he's not going to make it, better to get going on a real job. But Party City won't cut it $$ wise. Baseball teams should cut out the "clubhouse fees." Embarrassing a billion dollar industry makes the minor leaguers pay for peanut butter sandwiches. The NBA is quite different, NFL too. No minor league. Just join the big leagues out of "college" and rake in the money. He switched from party city to another job, but point is, when you are playing baseball professionally, you aren't going to have an easy time finding a high paying part time position (when you will be gone most of the year). If you read the peace, he switched from party city to a different, more high paying job, and I presume now that he is retiring he will get into a profession that he sees fit. Best of luck Mike!!!

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 19, 2015 -> 01:11 PM) It is funny that these articles are coming out saying the Bulls would be so much better off when Thibs goes, and his offense is so horrible, yet Pau had his best offensive season in years, Butler developed like a #1 pick not #30, they have free agent minimum point guards every year do something. Be careful what you wish for. The Mayor may be a good coach, but he's replacing a good coach. If Thibs stayed, I'm sure, assuming he stayed healthy, McDermott would improve. Mirotic didn't suffer in Thibs offense. They make is sound like the Bulls struggled to get to 70 points. I agree with you. I think the biggest thing is they need to get in a room and both sides need to realize their aren't a better fit and they both need to adjust a bit. I just don't know how realistic that will be given how things ended. It would have been much easier if we made a deeper run. Both sides are at fault in this.

Kendall Gill's take. Interesting comment on Thibs and whether he would command the "respect" of the players. By all accounts, Hoiberg is supposed to have an infectious personality and be a fantastic people person, so you think he would be able to command the respect of the current NBA players.

Stacey King speaks out. Interesting comments and hard to disagree with anything said. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baske...0519-story.html

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 18, 2015 -> 10:51 AM) And neither will Derrick Rose. Agree on both parts, but the two of them with other good players, most certainly can, imo.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ May 18, 2015 -> 10:34 AM) Okay, well I promised lameness. I barely even remember the story and never thought much of it until now since I didn't know there's a potential Rose/Butler rift until reading this thread. After a recent game, both ended up going to RPM Steak. They were in a VIP area and the pretty much the only people around, iirc it was the upstairs area (never been there so not even sure if there is one). Rose was with a big group, his family and entourage and whoever. Butler was there with his agent and business partner to discuss some things. Basically, I guess it was extremely awkward and the two refused to acknowledge that the other was having dinner in the same room as one another. It became a game of who would go over to who at the egging on of Butler's agent, but Jimmy refused to in the end. I think the other people around just expected them to be bffs or whatever. There's more to the story and I'm not telling it right, but yeah its lame nonetheless. There's your nba tmz report for the day. You know...I've done that before, where I see someone I'm friends with but don't want to interrupt what they have going or maybe know that I have something important going and want to focus on that (say a business lunch). Not saying it is the case, but if I'm picking a player to build the franchise around, it is Butler, not Rose.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 15, 2015 -> 09:57 AM) No one will take Jo at this point, which is sad seeing what happened to him. If they can clear Taj and sign Marc, that's the best case scenario. Start Pau and Marc, Jo and Niko off the bench. Niko gets the Taj treatment until Pau retires. Jo is an expiring contract and would still be a guy people would trade for. How much we get would be less then in years past but no way someone wouldn't take him. I am not very down on Taj, but his ankles are definitely a concern.

On a sidenote, I want to say that I would still welcome Thibs back, but it would only be if the front office and Thibs could come to an agreement and get on the same page. If they can't, then someone needs to go and it clearly isn't going to be GarPax so at that point Thibs needs to go. Players can't keep dealing with this sort of stuff. Reality is after losing like this, Thibs and Front office won't come to terms.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 15, 2015 -> 09:53 AM) "Pau, talk to Marc. Tell him about the opera" I love all three of those guys and they would be great fits. However, If I'm giving the money, I'm probably giving it to Love. Make Cleveland weaker and get the guy that is 26 years old vs. two guys who are on the other side of 30.

QUOTE (scs787 @ May 15, 2015 -> 09:53 AM) With Butler set to get a max contract more than likely, wouldn't that put them over the tax threshold thus eliminating the MLE? Or can they sign their MLE then Butler? Wes Matthews would be pretty sweet if he decides he wants to take the MLE as a "Prove it" deal coming off an injury. I think even after signing Butler to the max deal, they will be below the tax threshold.

Evidently, if the Bulls were able to time things right with Jimmy Butler's max deal, they would be able to move Taj / Noah and be in a position to offer max money to one of Aldridge / Gasol / Love.

QUOTE (scs787 @ May 15, 2015 -> 09:24 AM) What can they realistically do? Hearing a lot of build around Rose, Niko, and Butler talk. Assuming Butler gets his max contract, I believe that's 14M, so 39M between those 3 guys. The cap is gonna be at 67m. The following year the cap is set to jump up 20M. Do back loaded contracts happen in the NBA? Who are people looking at this off season? Who are you lookin to dump? This was a championship caliber team if healthy. It didn't play like one though late and obviously we missed Pau during the season. The problem is "if healthy" becomes a pretty big caveat given some of the long-term health issues some of these guys have sustained. To me the biggest thing this team was missing was a true point guard. Aaron Brooks is hot garbage (as anything other then a guy you bring in when you need someone to jack up shots and see if he is hot...when he isn't on fire, he is absolutely worthless) and clearly Hinrich is past his prime. Rose you are stuck with and you have to hope that this postseason gave him confidence (even though he finished week) in his knee and he'll finally have an off-season where he can think about basketball and making improvements, which should be huge. Niko will get better and the team will have MLE money to add a quality player which should make us better.

I like poaching two guys from winning organizations. Hopefully these guys were key parts to that in Bmore and Denver, respectively.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ May 14, 2015 -> 10:18 PM) This is NOT a championship roster. Thibs deserves his fair share of the blame but this roster can't win a championship. Changes need to be made. Brooks +/- in the postseason had to be absurdly bad. That guy was such a liability.