bmags

We need to be risk-on this year. I want the margarita aisle vendors to just serve people by holding the nozzle in our mouths until we puke it back up.

My grumpy old man thing is exclusively about the lines and waiting. Don't want to hear about the mobile app, feels like I wait just as long thinking 20 minutes was ample time to give them for prep. Would much rather them simplify the menu to get food and drink out the door quickly then putting these over-the-top food items to get some buzzy press that take the vendors way longer to make and hold up everything. There is a reason everyone associates popcorn, pretzels, cracker jack, hot dogs with ballpark fare. That stuff is lindy. I don't need saffron rice and crispy chicken-skin covered pork ribs.

For Six years the Sox avoided tanking. We were treated to the most lethargic, boring baseball. I’d have watched 2017 10x over than a single game in 2015. I’ll say 5 years actually I loved the 2010 team.

Watched jackass forever in a theatre by myself last night (literally empty theater) and it was the best night ever.

I mean April baseball definitely sucks. Every year I try to hold off until May, every year I can’t do it, go to a game in soaking wet weather while I wait 4 innings for a hot dog because the vendor staff isn’t up to speed yet. but most of that would just become May baseball

I think smaller clubs would say they've found ways to be competitive without spending so don't force them to. 2010s were a small market decade with Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Cincy, St Louis, Tampa, Minnesota and Cleveland all fielding successful eras and even several world series appearances between them.

Charles London (former Bears RB coach for Nagy's first 2 years) rumored to be meeting for Vikings OC job. Would be quite funny to me if a Nagy Tree spawned with Dave Ragone (ATL OC) and London ever getting HC jobs (yes I know they would not say they are part of the Nagy tree).

I knew the moment I actually got fed up the clouds would part.

Do these guys realize they aren't on TV and nobody cares about these theatrics?

If anyone hasn't watched this, highly recommended. It is so fun

Harper, Guerrero Jr and ...the mariners in the playoffs is a better playoffs.

Finally get word that Masi is out this year. Glad they are getting rid of the team lobbying. It was entertaining though clearly a bad idea.

MLBPA should try to create some sort of bird rights for players like Abreu. 8+ years on same team and over 34 years old can be re-signed without luxury tax implications.

Or Levine doesn’t know who the hell they are talking about when they tell him and it takes him weeks to catch up

31 for Coby 35+ for Demar again. Simply incredible. Also Sabonis is trash.

More than anything I'm confused why so many gave the lakers high marks this offseason. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2947752-grading-every-nba-teams-offseason Lakers: B+ Chicago: B

Yep. It has to be a little frustrating for Washington that by all accounts they've tried to re-sign their guys with strong offers that never lined up well enough. maybe they waited too long, but I'm sure they are looking around at Acuna in ATL and Franco in TB and kicking themselves.

A very boring conversation that occurs around this time is the NFL hall of fame discussion. I have no idea what hall of fame worthy in the NFL is. I couldn't confidently tell you what players were even in the hall of fame. Baseball, def could.

We've all read the dayton moore quote but it's not like the only way to have that same thing happen is with the current affiliate system. They could provide better partnership opportunities for independent leagues, help expand baseball leagues to foreign markets, etc. The affiliates are a player development tool, and they can focus their marketing and growth in other areas that don't get collectively bargained.

Yeah, and I have to wonder if teams are also in the process of reconsidering whether the affiliate system is the be-all, end-all after the use of complexes during the pandemic. Playing real games is important, but we also know that players don't really do mid-season adjustments because it's too hard. Would it be better to just be in a complex, back-field league for the youngest players? Learning technique daily, working on swings, and playing games, etc. One thing though, is I don't know if Front Offices are consulted at all in these negotiations. I'd love to know their perspective on what they would push for in terms of game changes. I'm sure they would like the International market getting sorted out. I know Adam Silver did engage with NBA front offices in 2020 to get their ideas for how to make it work.

Gotta say I'm not really sure I understand why he has sat out this year. But obviously if he chose the bulls you'd assume he was ready to play for them.

Early in year Donovan played a bunch of guard-heavy lineups and the playoffs past few years have seen quite a few small lineups play in. I hope Bulls can sign him. The bulls interior defense will be decided by getting Ball/Caruso back. Getting Moses smith or whomever these guys are will barely nudge a needle.

I actually think a reduced minor leagues would tend to benefit the marginal MLB player. If teams have less of a pool to develop players they know can do the job, they will need to lean more on players who have been in league. I think Kevin Goldstein is right that the better way to handle the smaller owners is just to push them to remove the caps. If an org wants to have a large minor league system, let them. If they want a small one, let them. While logic would say the Dodgers, Yankees would have large minors systems, you'd probably have smaller revenue teams that try to win with bigger ones as well. They'll be some amount that makes more sense to spend on the lower cost minor league guys to find more cost-controlled players each year. But anyway, I find it tedious to follow the ins and outs of these negotiations. The amount of hyperventilating reading every line in a proposal. They are helpful to figure out what's moving in and out. This is likely just a dumb fake leverage line, something that it makes the owners feel like they are moving toward the players by giving into it despite it not actually being a big driver of their concern. Instead it's hundreds of ZOMG the OWNERS want to MAKE ALL HOT DOGS TURKEY HOT DOGS

Had not looked at standings in a week, nice that bulls taking care of business put some space between them and the 6th seed.