Jake

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Flowers ended up posting something like .700-.750 OPS with a better defensive showing than he had last season -- which would be perfectly fine for him to keep his job until an obvious upgrade came forward. I of course wouldn't be surprised if he played like s***, too

There are some serious concerns about Phegley's defense that ought to be addressed on an everyday basis in Charlotte

Hoffman continues to be unimpressive. Not with #3. Whisper in his ear and make him pretend to be unsignable until round 2

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Mar 16, 2014 -> 11:42 PM) Why wouldn't they have filled that position with someone better to begin with, then? Because they're morons who saw a guy with a MiLB career that makes Leury Garcia look like Hank Aaron start off his MLB career with a hot run and assumed the latter was more relevant than the former. And, of course, he's a great fielder. He'll be a well-traveled utility player one day ... think Rey Ordonez as ceiling

This is bad news for Sox fans. Iglesias is a bad baseball player and Detroit will almost certainly fill the position with somebody better

Drove through blizzard-like conditions on I55 in Missouri today. What the hell

Castellanos, please

Yeah, I mean I'm not against trying to do it if you think there is some value in doing so...but there's way too much limitation when you can't even share over wi-fi. Getting new headphones seems like the thing

I like Jordan Danks a lot. I would rather have $16 million less based on a gamble on Adam Dunn than Jordan Danks.

Any contract with such length for a relief pitcher is incredibly risky

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Mar 14, 2014 -> 02:08 PM) I looked through their 40 man and top prospects and I'm not really sure who we would have targeted that is equal to or better than Davidson. I would guess that that means we were the ones who nixed the deal then

Much, much higher bust risk with Baez. He could potentially never start in the MLB at this point with that K rate and atrocious defense. Bryant has every bit as much ceiling and is ready enough that he'll at least get a very long MLB trial run.

Luckily, the Bulls franchise is in a much, much better position than LA

Young and Houston were 12th and 19th in PFF's pass rushing productivity, respectively out of 37 4-3 DE that played half or more of their team's snaps. It's kind of like eFG% in basketball, where it is (disruptions/passing snaps), but with added weight for QB hits and sacks. Houston and Young have very high rates of hurries (top 5 in NFL) but converted less often on hits and sacks. That doesn't necessarily mean you could stick them on Team X and they would do the same thing. PFF's ratings aren't like WAR, which tries to capture a player's true contribution, independent of external factors like luck, ballpark, teammates, etc. That's much harder to do with football. It is descriptive of how productive a player was.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Mar 13, 2014 -> 08:00 PM) Yeah but Houston is a legit title contender according to you know who Nah, if you lose to the Bulls it's clearly a fluke

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 13, 2014 -> 07:20 PM) I'd be surprised if Dunleavy knows his own name right now after that shot to the head. 2 rebounds, 2 layups, a made three, and took a charge so far. Wouldn't have guessed that after seeing that gash

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 13, 2014 -> 09:09 AM) I had to post this somewhere... So, New Jersey's Governor Christie passed an Administrative Action (no need for the legislature) that effectively bans all direct car dealerships. Cars MUST be sold by third parties. This move effects exactly one company - Tesla, who will have to close it's two dealerships in the state as a result. Leaving aside the amazing hypocrisy here, of Christie's touting of free markets and then doing the opposite and stifling competition... and leaving aside how awful it is for the government of a state to target a specific business this way to make other businesses happy, turning the state into a tool for businesses driving out competition... this, to me, is a great example of how the corporate money invading politics actually results in business-stupid policy. Here's the kicker... there are two other states that have passed similar laws or actions - Texas and Arizona. Funny thing, Tesla is right now looking to build it's new Giga battery factory, with seven thousand jobs at the beginning and more later, as well as a possible new vehicle plant nearby with thousands more jobs. There are four states in the running - Texas, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. This is called shooting yourself in the foot. Congratulations, TX and AZ (and NJ). Your "leaders" are lining their warchests with lobbying money, while costing jobs and tax revenue that would actually help people in your states. Republicanomics. While regulation doesn't always work the way it is intended, at least the left usually has a justifiable goal when they do it

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 13, 2014 -> 01:55 PM) I'm not sold on advanced metrics in the NFL right now. Didn't they rate J'Marcus Webb a little higher than Bushrod in 2012? Yes, mainly because he objectively gave up less pressure

QUOTE (scs787 @ Mar 13, 2014 -> 01:36 PM) Fantastic. Phil's not messing around in trying to fix that putrid run defense. Looks like he's striving for some balance, avoiding guys with iffy track records or one dimensional play

QUOTE (scs787 @ Mar 13, 2014 -> 01:34 PM) In the whole league or among FAs? Entire league

Young graded out very well on PFF, especially considering he didn't quite get full-time reps. They didn't like him in 2012 when he was playing less than half time, and they loved him in 2011 where he was one of the best-rated DE in the league despite limited reps. Of more interest... Stop % (how many tackles made for no gain or loss/run plays) among DEs: 1. Houston 2. Young Bear in mind that most of the snaps Young sits out are anticipated run plays, but then again he missed less than 20% of snaps which isn't uncommon for DL

No clue how Crean will continue to have a job next year. We get it, he got recruits and brought the program out of the dumps. But you'll never get any higher than you are now with Crean. He's Ron Zook

There was definitely a "things are going to be different now" tease in that article, Spring Training style

The baffling thing about Bertrand is how good he was last year. It seemed possible he'd get worse if we increased his role, but at this point his role has been reduced and he's still awful

Power hitting is not to be trifled with in today's MLB