Balta1701

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Apr 13, 2016 -> 01:17 PM) How much cap room will the Bulls have to work with if they let Gasol and Noah walk? Assuming the Bulls do not pick up options on Bairstow and Feliciano, the Bulls will have a total payroll of $65.71 million committed as of now. The cap is predicted to climb to the $90 million range. Durant's estimated 1st year deal comes in at $24.9 million, so the Bulls basically are right on the edge of that depending on exactly where the cap is.

So, in 10 minutes I get to walk to class past an this giant external death penis makes up for the one in my pants open carry rally in the middle of the protests that greet a standard donald trump rally. Happening right across the street. Legitimately hoping students don't get hurt today.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 7, 2016 -> 01:57 PM) He makes several good points. But I can't get my head around pushing it is the cause of the problem. DRose sat and sat and sat and sat, still sits for general soreness, and still gets hurt. If Noah sat out another week, maybe his shoulder doesn't get injured again, but I'm thinking sitting another week would cause that not to happen to be not so likely. I do think using the Suns way may help a bit, but once guys start having a history of breaking down, I don't think there really is much that is going to stop it from continuing. If you want to play your best players 25 minutes a game and sit out anytime they are sore, is that going to be a solution? At the very least, the reason I highlighted it is that "The Bulls have consistently lost the most time to injury since Thibs took over and their numbers right now are higher than any numbers for the previous decade" is a trend clear enough that there must be a cause. Maybe it's "adding extra injuries on top of normal injuries" that is making that trend happen, maybe it's something else in the conditioning, maybe it's systematically choosing players likely to break down, but this is a major, franchise damaging trend at this poitn.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 7, 2016 -> 12:34 PM) Gio was the one guy we clearly lost on, but Bassitt has no where near that ceiling. Pitching in Oakland will go a long way towards making his numbers look a lot better than they really are. So you're saying it's generally a bad idea to trade for people who are pitching in Oakland? (calmly walks away)

Detailed, must-read if you're hanging out in this thread.

Bernie gave a pretty poor interview to the NY Daily News on a variety of topics. Some people have been disappointed by the seeming lack of depth on his foreign policy views, but I'm going to highlight this response to it: Probably worth reading if you're interested in policy details and that has any impact on your vote.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 4, 2016 -> 07:48 PM) Most of those would go to private banks, but regardless, any kind of study would be nice, even if it was to just one category or another of the overall picture (IE, just TIF money, or just tax abatements, etc.) Honestly if someone did the research, it could be one of the most damning things that could be done to his campaign. Really? I feel like you're playing by rules that either never applied or at least don't apply today, where people would get called out for saying things that are completely made up, and still imagining that the Republican Party is a "small government, business minded" party in touch with reality, and I don't think that describes where his support has come from at all.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 4, 2016 -> 06:42 PM) Out of curiosity, has anyone out there ever totaled up the amount of money that Donald Trump has gotten from our various governmental agencies over the years? Between TIF money, tax abatement, tax forgiveness, low interest loans, etc, it has to be a ridiculous amount of money. I keep hearing about Trump doesn't need the government, but in large part, the government is who moved him from rich to ultra-rich. Does the research exist? I don't think it can because how do you count the debts discharged in bankruptcy?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 4, 2016 -> 04:54 PM) Finally saw Winter Soldier...it was awesome. Was Ant Man any good? Looks horrific from the previews I had saw but curious what the consensus was? Don't go into AntMan expecting it to be anything more than a summer popcorn film and you'll be ok. Doesn't hurt to see Age of Ultron first to keep that order together, a handful of references, but plot line will still be clear.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Apr 3, 2016 -> 03:36 PM) Gona be a fun playoffs for sure. Just glad my penguins have pressed their on switch and now playing legit. You better hope Murray is ready to contribute under playoff level pressure because I don't know that Fleury comes back this year.

QUOTE (soxfan18 @ Apr 3, 2016 -> 04:08 PM) Because this sport is stuck in the past and likes to keep up meaningless traditions. Every team starting on a Sunday makes too much sense for it to ever happen. I don't think that's it. They're putting marquee games on for Sunday and then starting the rest of the teams on Monday because people like me will sit around with baseball on TV all day Sunday because it's opening day and then I'll put my team on Monday (or maybe I'll watch these 3 games Sunday and buy tickets for my team's game on Monday) and thus they stretch out the opening day viewership and revenue.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 31, 2016 -> 05:52 PM) That isn't a realty anymore. Everyone has the ability to access care, and everyone has the right to have a pre-existing condition covered now. Unless you live in a Republican state that did not expand medicaid and your income level is too low to qualify for the exchanges.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Mar 30, 2016 -> 01:43 PM) Some team, might have been the Padres, had a scout play in a game the other day. I think everyone is ready for the real season to start. Every highlight I've seen has had pretty damn big crowds so I'm sure MLB isn't going to cut down the amount of spring games but we sure as hell don't need this many. Only concern would maybe be getting your starters innings ramped up but certainly they could just use more Milb guys and intrasquad games. FWIW, this gets said every year and I always 100% disagree with this. You're completely right about position players - they could be ready to go by mid-March, probably earlier if they had to given modern training techniques. However, the trick with baseball is the pitching staff. You're just not going to convince me that for most guys shortening ST is a good idea. There is a big difference between working out in the offseason and having an arm conditioned to throw 100 pitches as a starter or to come out and throw as hard as possible for 20 pitches out of the bullpen, and you're not going to get to that point unless you're facing live batters and build up 30-60-100 pitches over a couple starts. Heck, we see enough pitchers who don't get their full velocity until May as starters that I could see some guys benefiting from an even longer throwing program in the preseason. And no, simulated games aren't going to work for most guys, they're not putting the same effort in no matter how they do it. So, pitchers need game action, and they need to be facing live hitters actually trying to hit off them. Rodon had his "dead arm" start last time out, better in late March than on April 10.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Mar 29, 2016 -> 12:49 PM) Teams in basketball purgatory would take a shot on Drose. They would look at his improvement as the season progresses, being another year removed from the injury, etc, not to mention potential for a clean slate as reasons why they make the deal. They know they can't get anyone with the draw of Rose via FA so why not take a chance on a trade. Would the Knicks or Lakers do it, no, but if you are the Kings or some other franchise in a smaller market lacking enough stars to win, I see a lot of reasons why you take the chance on Rose, see if he takes off and you'd have his bird rights to offer more in FA (thus increasing odds you can resign him in the future if he continues to ascend). Plus, all reports are people like playing with Rose. We don't here the same about Butler, but I've never heard anyone say a bad thing about Rose as a teammate (and he's never once said a bad thing about his teammates). The "Why Not" would also be "possibility of walking as a free agent after 2017"

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 29, 2016 -> 12:39 PM) I think the Bulls could trade Rose pretty easily. It depends on what they would get back. The cap is going up significantly. You wouldn't get a superstar return for him. But if they don't plan on maxing him, why not take what you can get? I'm just wondering if, given his contract, you could get a first round pick for him. Maybe if you took back a longer contract perhaps? With the cap space you wouldn't have to match the guy coming back if both teams had money available.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Mar 29, 2016 -> 12:34 PM) Roster deserves blame but the front office imploded too. Everything is a mess and with the players imploding I have a hard time giving Hoiberg a pass either. Managing personalities and players was supposed to be his strong suit and he's failed miserably. It will never happen, but in a vaccum, everyone should be out. My ideal would be Paxson stays, hires a new GM, and they bring in a new coach, etc. It won't happen, I think all that goes is Gar, but I do think Hoiberg has a short leash. Maybe Hoiberg saves us and goes back to college. My guess based on my opinion of the ownership group is that they spend their FA money on someone who is neither gasol nor Durant and say this roster has one more good year coming, with no major changes other than that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 28, 2016 -> 02:15 PM) Nobody else will want Rose for his contract price. He is, however, an expiring contract at that price in 2016-2017. That might make him much more movable than previous. Similarly, the dramatically expanding cap will help. You might not get much for him, but facing reality - the Bulls have 3 guys, Rose, Gibson, and Mirotic, who are free agents at the end of 2016-2017. There will be the money to keep them but if this team is not a championship team, keeping them doesn't get you closer to one. Maybe you hold onto Mirotic and hope he takes a big step forward in year 3 compared to an honestly disappointing year 2, but the other 2 should be movable and Gibson might even bring a quality draft pick (late first/early 2nd) as a return.

Since we were chatting about this earlier, here's an update:

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Mar 27, 2016 -> 05:04 PM) Think there's a decent chance Gasol bolts to somewhere such as the Clippers in the off-season now also. The Bulls will have plenty of cap space to work with as long as they don't do anything as silly as signing Gasol for part of it, but as of right now I can no longer convince myself that even Durant turns this team into a title contender. And there's seemingly no way they'll work to turn Rose or Taj or Mirotic into additional players or draft picks, they'll go sign someone like Gasol to be that "last piece", then patch over the rest with low salary signings that occasionally are good or ok but don't make the difference. That's their way, the conservative way - never rebuild, no steps back. Then Mirotic, Taj, and Rose will all hit FA and they'll be left with a barren roster because they keep insisting they're competitive when they no longer are. That last line sounds darn familiar.

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 27, 2016 -> 12:13 PM) Mojo says it will make about 170 million. Short of projected 200 obviously but will see the following weeks. The following weeks are where the reviews will hurt. I hated the last one in this series, but might have been open to it on weekend 2 if everyone was saying "This is great!".

So I gotta go for this after the last week: There is zero reason why Fred Hoiberg should coach the Chicago Bulls next fall. He may be a better coach than this, he may be a better coach elsewhere, he could turn into the next Pop somewhere else and I will still think that dropping him now is the right call. As he was the handpicked choice of management, if removing management is necessary to accomplish this step, then I am similarly ok with that.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 26, 2016 -> 04:58 PM) Avila was never gonna stay healthy all season. He looks about ten years older than he is. I don't disagree, but the team needs him to.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 26, 2016 -> 04:52 PM) Very few swings and misses This is ST I don't care at all. Avila back soreness = more worrisome. Tired arm/building up innings/maybe throwing more fastballs/maybe working on the changeup/who knows. All plausible. he stayed in the game and threw 95 pitches. His job is to be on point for 100 pitches in 2 starts.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 26, 2016 -> 04:12 PM) Saw a tweet that Avila is 1-17 with 7 walks and 12 strikeouts. @scottmerkin Hector Sanchez caught the fourth inning for the White Sox, taking over for Alex Avila. @scottmerkin Avila has lower back stiffness. Day to day

(starting to breathe). Man that was a tough game. That was a battle.