Balta1701

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Jan 18, 2011 -> 11:56 AM) The Cardinals have known this was coming for the past 6 years, they must have been thinking about for at least the past 3. If they haven't resigned him when they are the only team who can even talk to him, what are the chances of resigning him when every team can throw money at him? If they don't extend him before spring training, then I believe they have either really shot themselves in the foot or have known all along they weren't going to. I don't think they've shot themselves in the foot here...what else could they have done? Tear up Albert's previous contract and offer him 10/$350? That might have gotten him signed already, but it'd probably be an overpay. There really is no comparison for an Albert Pujols hitting the market right now. Other, worse 1b are getting $25 million a year in their 37 year old seasons. There's a reasonable chance that they'll still sign him if he hits the FA market and actually wants to return. He's worth more to them than to other franchises, so if he goes out on the market and the Yankees offer 10/$300, if he came back to the Cardinals and asked them to beat it, they probably should, and that benefits Pujols as well.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Jan 18, 2011 -> 11:44 AM) I agree. Quentin had that one good year but he's the one guy I wouldn't be sorry to see go at this point. Clearly there's good reason to keep Quentin and try him for one more year. Even if he's bad, he's not going to be so bad that you can't win with him, even considering his defense. Quentin bad, we've seen, and he still hits 25 HR. Next year though, Quentin will be in his 2nd arbitration-eligible year, and depending on how things look in the minors and in FA, he becomes a DFA candidate if he puts up a 2011 that looks like 2009/2010.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 18, 2011 -> 11:24 AM) He couldn't have started this process like a year ago? http://www.cnbc.com/id/41131176 Oh that's right, he was too busy with health care reform, the emergency we were facing at the time. Yeah, Congress didn't do anything in 2010 regarding the financial system.

QUOTE (Felix @ Jan 18, 2011 -> 12:19 AM) I don't doubt it, but I'm just saying, as a whole, their schedule has been fairly easy so far. And the numbers back me up on that. Really, I don't even care and it doesn't really matter. All the schedule talk is an interesting tangent more than anything. As an impartial bystander, I do think Orlando is a better team that'll make more noise in the postseason than Chicago, especially after their trades. Chicago is a good team, and it's certainly possible that when they get fully healthy they'll reach a new level previously unseen, but I don't think they can be considered the elite in the Eastern Conference until their shooting guard situation gets fixed. Their schedule was the toughest in the league for the first month, and probably the easiest in the league for the 2nd month. Considering they got through the first month with no Boozer, had a winning record on the circus trip, and were in first place, I was content. It'll get tougher than what it's been for the last few weeks...but this team ought to get better if they can ever get their frontcourt together at once. In the long term though...the Bulls will probably finish with the weakest strength of schedule of any division winner this year...because the rest of their division stinks. Indiana, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Cleveland form the rest of their division and the Bulls will play more games against them than teams out of their division. The Bulls are the only division-leading team in the league without another winning team in their division. So by the end of the season, they should have a fairly weak strength of schedule, which makes that opening month that much more impressive to me.

QUOTE (Springfield SoxFan @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 10:30 PM) Still quiet on the arbitration front especially for Danks.................Gonzalez predicts it will be completed by SoxFest, I sure hope so. Are you Mark Gonzalez trying to gin up publicity for your own columns? How else would you ask this question only hours after your article on Danks and arbitration goes to press?

Link

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jan 15, 2011 -> 11:49 AM) You called it. Now what does this mean to Mariano Rivera? Maybe a plan for the future by the Yanks? This means Rivera doesn't have to pitch the 8th inning, and if he ever gets hurt the Yankees have a backup plan. He'll be their Closer as long as his body holds up as their closer.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 18, 2011 -> 03:45 AM) And making contact is by far the most important aspect of hitting, and isn't an easy thing to improve without sacrificing power. Joe Borchard had better power than that, I assume a better arm, and similar speed, but has been relegated to AAA because he can't make contact. They did well to get a guy with good tools, but as was said, this is Tom Gorzelanny we're talking about here, the Nationals aren't going to trade a monster prospect for him. Which of course makes one ask the question...why did the Cubs need to do this? They probably didn't get better long term, and they probably didn't get better this year.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 10:41 PM) Even if you assume he's "only" a 5 WAR player, this is still a steal for Cincinnati. It's only a steal if you compare it to a hypothetical world where every player that comes up qualifies for FA after their first season.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 09:49 PM) I could see the Angels being a great fit for him. It will be interesting to see how LA's ownership situation is at that time too. The question will be what Kendry Morales does when he comes back. I doubt Albert's going to be thinking "I want to be a DH" when he hits FA, and that might be the best place for him in LAA since they'd want to keep him healthy.

The Bears definitely play better when you count them out.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 06:19 PM) i think deng will be the X factor for the bulls have a chance to beat miami in the playoffs. he showed today that he is very dynamic when he is on his game. Gay is no lebron james, but deng completely shut him down today. if he can play defense with the same intensity, and knock threes when he is open, the bulls will be a tough out for miami. I think the X-factor is health. I still barely know what a healthy Bulls team will look like.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 05:11 PM) Half of those penalties were caused by Peppers and the other half were caused by the Packers being dumb. I'd say more like 2/3 were caused by Peppers.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 05:11 PM) What did the Bears buy? You win this round.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 05:06 PM) I wonder what effect the extra day of rest will have for the Packers. Will they look fresher? Probably not. The Bears are coming off a buy week while the Packers have been playing playoff-level games for about 6 weeks now. Besides, the Bears aren't on short rest either.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 03:58 PM) If Viciedo steps foot in the OF, it should be in LF only and he should get months of reps in AAA out there, IMO. Why not RF? That place actually sorta fits him since he has the arm to handle it.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 03:47 PM) Right on point with everything here. Really though, historically, there's not that huge of an impact of "Who's playing" on the NFL viewing audience, at least not as much as "Is it a good game".

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 03:13 PM) This deal really makes no sense when you think about it. Even assuming Votto has 2-3 more seasons like he had in '10, would he really have made that much more through arbitration than what he'll be making now? Possibly. With an MVP on his rep this year, he could legitimately win a $10 million case this year and go from there.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 02:51 PM) potential changes? like resodding? I don't think you could do that 5 days in advance in the dead of winter without making things worse.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 02:06 PM) Wow, you're right. I didn't know he still had 3 arb years left. I figured he had 1. That's why I didn't get too excited about this, they didn't get any extra years bought out, so it's only avoiding arb.

Brett Favre once again filed retirement papers with the league today.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 01:28 PM) Can we just stick Dayan in RF already? His ceiling is too high to just trade, his age allows us to develop him at RF, and his bat belongs on the MLB roster. If Gonzalez is writing it, I'll bet there's a good chance someone upstairs has said something along those lines.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 12:04 PM) Strongly disagree about the talent. When they got rid of Moss, Brady had much inferior talent. Tate is a decent player and they have some decent TE's, but Branch was their best WR and he's nothing to write home about. Welker really isn't all that good, he's just sneaky and is good for underneath routes. Manning has Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne. Two guys alone who make Indy's defense so much better. I will say Brady has a better RB, but not by much. For this year though, Manning didn't have Dallas Clark. He had Wayne, but he had Wayne, Garcon, and that was pretty much it. Jacob Tamme might someday be something, but he's no where near the level of the other 2. Just look at how night and day the difference was for manning in games where he had Collie as one extra receiving target. Indy also gave up a ton more points/game on defense than NE this year.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 11:15 AM) Sucks if true. I wonder if we've even made an attempt to bring him back. Mark Teahen and I guess De Aza as our current backup outfielders makes my stomach hurt a little. If De Aza is healthy, I wouldn't be surprised at all if he makes you quite happy next year.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 17, 2011 -> 12:05 PM) You should be. Always a good thing to me when a team can lock up their homegrown talent. Gonna be fun watching Votto and Bruce s*** on the Cubs for the foreseeable future. They didn't really lock him up at all though.