Jake

This might be a stretch, but I'd like to go with Chris Beck. There have been some big question marks about his production vs peripherals, so I think he is a good candidate to really put it into overdrive and grab some starts in MLB at the end of the year.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 21, 2013 -> 12:19 PM) ...and speaking on this thread, this is actually a very interesting subject. I know quite a few people that view me as rich, and I'm really not, but it would be impossible to convince them of that. In comparison, it may appear that way, but a lot of the reality behind it is overlooked. First, my wife is a stay at home mom, we have two kids, etc. Outside of my mortgage, I have no debt. Now, an interesting thing about Facebook, Twitter, and other such social media is it allows us to do is silently observe people. It doesn't take long for me to realize why I'm viewed as rich because I always seem to have money, while they view themselves as poor. All one needs to do is look at their timeline to see where they spend all their money ... which is eating out seemingly EVERY DAY. The last place I ate out at was Buffalo Wild Wings...29$. Meanwhile, I see picture after picture of these "poor" people at Blackhawks games, Bears games, restaurants, etc... Yes, I'm rich then. Because I don't spend more than I make. The worst part ... when your success is attributed to luck. Yes, my company pays me what they pay me because I'm lucky. That's what it is. There is actually a lot of research demonstrating the relative opposite of what you're describing (but exactly what you're embodying in your observation). When we "silently observe people" via Facebook, we see the best possible version of their life. People think their friends on facebook are happier and richer than they really are. This is because they will post pictures from the Blackhawks game, but not of the ramen for dinner/breakfast or the trailer they live in, etc. If people with little money want to save up to see hockey games, so be it. At some point, many people realize the system is going to f*** them and they just want to squeeze some happiness out of their existence. If I was told it wouldn't be financially prudent to ever go to pro sports games, eat out, etc. I'd spend "frivolously" to make sure it did happen when I could make it happen.

You don't spend just because you feel bad if you don't spend $X. Our available money will determine how much we can spend, but not how much we will. Hahn isn't going to hand out/take on crap contracts just to make sure we hit our budget ceiling. It just gives him the flexibility to spend the maximum appropriate amount on a given player.

McCown is smart and tough. He's not afraid of the spotlight or the pressure and is reasonably good at not making backbreaking mistakes because of it. His mistakes will be due to the deficiencies in his talent. There are too many weapons on offense to try to tear it down and roll the dice on a random rookie QB. It almost never makes sense to "rebuild" in the NFL anyway since it typically can be done in very short order

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1889carnegie.asp Andrew Carnegie

I would definitely try to sign him. I'd offer a lot. I wouldn't, necessarily, offer the most. If, for instance, we can push the Cubs into giving a catcher $20 million for 5 years...that sounds great to me.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 21, 2013 -> 10:11 AM) supposed to be released this afternoon. Emery has a press conference scheduled for around 1:30, Trestman at 12:30 They've suggested that word on the MRI will come sometime after those press conferences

http://espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/stark_j...more-parity-nfl http://espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/stark_jayson/id/7420412/ http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...lb&c_id=mlb Each progressively gets more out of date, but the good points remain. People just look at salary discrepancy and assume MLB has less parity, when it arguably has more. Especially consider the amount of games played. If the NFL has parity, that means you need lots of games to figure out who is best. They don't play a lot of games, especially in the postseason. Some of their change is likely random variation, where random variation is much less likely to explain playoff position in baseball, given they have 162 games to sort it all out. Then you get into the playoffs and play actual series to determine the best team, rather than one game that again is highly susceptible to flukes. The NFL passes off flukes as parity and still doesn't have the parity of MLB

The treatment of D Rose in that NBA 2K14 highlight is bogus. He shows up for a second, then gets dunked on by Kobe, then they let Anthony Davis dunk on people and look awesome while you never see Rose again. Get your s*** together.

I like Pablo, but yeah, you can't give up long-term pieces to get a guy like that on the last year of his deal.

bleh, my "tough luck" team really earned its loss this week. Lost Foster in the first quarter while DeSean Jackson, Giovani Bernard, Tony Gonzalez, Vincent Brown all played like s***. Rivers was mortal as well. Wasted great games from Gronk, NE defense, Adam Vinatieri

If you want to think of this season as almost lost regardless of a Cutler injury due to the defense, then maybe a Cutler injury would be a blessing in disguise as it should really drive his price down.

It's going to be pretty sweet if Derrick has somehow improved

I don't have much sympathy for teams that have "world series heartbreaks"

It's the fans, not the team. It's a well run team (that can spend with the big boys, by the way)

I guess I hate Cubs fans more, but at least Cubs fans would be correct in acting like they never get to win anything

I think it is undeniable that this defense would be better if Lovie Smith was coordinating. Might not be any good, but even the players have thought that Tucker hasn't maximized his players. Today, the pass rush was much better and we got a lot of penetration on runs. Linebackers aren't great and secondary is really bad. With Briggs and Tillman out at the end, it is no surprise that we lost. That whole drive was helped by a bad officiating call though. Couple big imaginary penalties in this one. McCown is a solid dude. I hope Jay can make it back, though. I think we should be in pretty good shape coming out of the bye so long as Jay isn't out. Get this D healthy!

We're in a shootout with Josh McCown at QB

Josh is a real solid backup. I don't know that he can win it for us, but I don't expect him to lose it either

f*** the Cardinals. Worst fans in baseball

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 11:51 PM) Reading the common fans thoughts is hilarious. I'd say 90% want to bring back MB & AJ no matter what the price Exactly. You read an article about anything White Sox related and the commenters will tell you that the fall of the White Sox can be traced to the loss of Mark Buehrle and the complete collapse is enabled by the loss of AJ

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 16, 2013 -> 01:59 PM) In more important news, 10 days until Cliff Alexander visits/commits to Illinois. I've heard (from a source only a tick more reliable than "random internet person") that Illinois boosters are ponying up for whatever it requires to get him to the 'Paign. QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 18, 2013 -> 09:58 AM) Egwu could be playing himself into the NBA if he keeps developing. He's got the body for it. Sounds like he's worked a ton on his offensive game over the summer. edit: from the highlights, wow is Darius Paul huge. I hope we don't lose another guy to the NBA right before he would get really good. Meyers Leonard would have been in a much better position right now had he stayed for senior year. Illinois could have been a Top 10-15 team and he probably would have been the number one pick (in that draft, at least). Not to say Egwu has the ceiling of Leonard, but it will be irritating if another guy departs before he is done developing and can take us to the promised land

f*** it, I'd be much happier with 16-32 team playoff. Reduce regular season length if necessary. Every other level and sport can do it. Eliminate the stupid bowls. You're 6-6, you don't deserve a postseason

Now they're saying nothing has been decided re:Gronk. Normally I'd say it's a Belichik smoke screen, but who knows with this fiasco

ACLs are fickle, my friend. Besides, you never know when LeBron's bully ball might end up with him bonking his head or something like that and missing time