IlliniKrush

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 25, 2014 -> 12:03 PM) Paul Konerko. He's been with the Sox seemingly as long as I've been a die-hard. I grew up with him, went to college with him, became an adult with him. I will miss him - the ultimate pro. I remember working at Blockbuster when they'd just struck a deal with DirecTV, so I could put the games on. PK called out Frank Thomas! Holy crap, what's this kid doing?! Many years, many bombs later, PK is a World Champion and I can't thank him enough for the mega hits he got during that run. I am excited to be there on the day his statue is unveiled. Despite the obvious playoffs and World Series heroics, my favorite memory is his 3 homerun game. I was sitting behind homeplate like 20 rows, and it was glorious. The insane, mega 1st half he had in 2012 (.329 average, .932 OPS) at age 36 is a testament to his work ethic. We love you, PK. Good summary. Konerko has more of a connection to me than Thomas does, partly because of the age factor as you pointed out.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 25, 2014 -> 12:44 PM) The only thing the "name" gets you is a better floor. With a different staff and less effort OSU would recruit in the 20's and 30's as far as team rankings. Football is a lot different than bball recruiting. Even in the 20's and 30's, it's not the 90's. The NFL has no built in floor like that.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 25, 2014 -> 11:47 AM) Even though he's a glorified mascot, whose being on the roster this year cost the Sox at least the divsion if not more in the standings, and probably valuable Jordan Danks development time, I think the Sox won the trade in which they acquired him. I'm going to miss Paulie. He obviously wasn't the same after his wrist procedure in 2012, and with the JR quote about the doctors and his hips, and Gonzo's write up about the pain he played with in his back and hips, his body was failing him more than we ever knew. Still, he never made excuses . He is a great example for his teammates and White Sox minor leaguers. I hope at least a couple take advantage of it. Completely unnecessary first paragraph in an appreciation thread. And the bold is laughable.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 25, 2014 -> 11:06 AM) If you think that is how recruiting works you are off base. The way you get good classes is a combination of working your tail off and support from staff and institution. Check out the budget for recruiting, facilities and staff at schools in the conference and you will see heavy correlation towards who gets the best classes. Teams with coaches are arent good at organizing recruiting fall back into the pack very easily. Teams that just "sit back" become irrelevant very quickly. In the NFL you have an even larger budget to scout and keep players for longer periods of time. You are also dealing with professionals instead of families/handlers/rules bulls***. You know exactly what I'm saying, I don't mean sit back and do absolutely nothing. The name Ohio State does a lot to recruit by itself. 5 stars want to go to Ohio State, and there are enough 4 and 5 stars that want to go there so it makes it way easier to recruit. It doesn't mean they aren't working at it, but it's way easier to recruit at some schools compared to others. You have guys who dream of going to OSU and getting an offer there. The leverage game is much different than recruiting at say, Illinois. There are for sure coaches who work just as hard, if not harder, than Ohio St at recruiting, but can't get the same results because it isn't the destination Ohio St is. THAT'S the advantage I'm talking about. No matter what, you still have more control over your roster. It's the Calipari example. He could stay at Kentucky and have the 5 stars come to him and almost always have more talent than anyone, or he can go to the NBA and be constrained by whatever finds its way onto the roster. He doesn't get the first 5 picks in each NBA draft to give him an advantage.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 25, 2014 -> 10:53 AM) I think their last two coaches have proven that its fairly difficult. Recruiting is increasingly competitive and it makes it very tough to maintain top tier status in football. It's a year long job with ridiculous rules and procedures to follow. It's not exactly easy. My point is that you have more control over the talent. In the NFL, you can't just get better guys than the other teams based on a sales pitch/history of the program etc. You think OSU would be as good as they are if they had to draft prospects and sign free agents and work under a cap? Meyer loves to sit back and have the 5 stars come to him, in the NFL he'd be playing with the same hand as everyone else. I think guys would play for Harbaugh, and Michigan has enough history that they could get right back into good recruiting classes, IMO.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 25, 2014 -> 10:17 AM) Having it be more competitive to build a decent roster and sustain success isn't exactly a positive trait of the college game. Disagree based on the program he'd be taking over and the (currently) weak conference it's in.

Almost forgot Moore is here this weekend.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 24, 2014 -> 08:16 PM) He can't be THAT much of an idiot running that board. I'm sure he's making a ton of money doing little more than what we all do here. And I thought I read that his twitter was hacked? Maybe that was a joke someone tweeted. I had a big road trip from Florida the last 2 days so I listened to a bunch of podcasts on UI basketball, recruiting and Coleman. He's a legit, top tier talent. Best or one of the top 2-3 shooters in the country. Scouting guys were comparing him to JJ Redick, a taller Ben Gordon and Jamal Crawford. Potential obviously, but still. Most also think we're REAL good with Thomas and that unless OSU blows Evans away we could be looking at a historic class. Top flight PG, tons of shooters on the perimeter and wing and then a legit 5 in the post. Illinois could easily be back on the map and that's before they've won anything. /homer post, I know. But damn it's exciting. He wasn't hacked. He's had crazy rants on twitter before. He's a weird dude. What podcasts did you listen to?

I remember really wanting the Bears to draft Bailey when they had the chance, instead they traded that pick to Washington and then took McNown a few picks later.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 24, 2014 -> 04:26 PM) Keep in mind for College jobs: - They are starting to pay just as much in some cases (see Texas' helicopter drop of money at Saban) - Your assistants do much of the recruiting - You have much, much more time off And you control your roster, getting more talent than other teams, making it easier to win. In the NFL you basically control none of that. You can't just recruit better players.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 24, 2014 -> 02:37 PM) This is why dasox must access the commish's account and destroy the league for its own good. I'd be sending an email to the entire league, so they know what happened. And honestly, I'd seriously consider leaving the league. Stuff like this is how leagues end up falling apart.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 24, 2014 -> 02:16 PM) What if he'd just told some random owner and the same thing happened? I mean, s***ty commish, but nothing went wrong. It's not like he knew of the deal because he's the commish, he knew of the deal because his roommate is a silly, trusting bastard. This is akin to when the Tigers stole Miggy from Kenny Williams. QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 24, 2014 -> 02:20 PM) He said he specifically told him so that he, as commish, could get the trade pushed through. Exactly. That's the thing, he didn't tell some random owner. Since he was the commissioner, he was able to pull this off. If I'm dasox, I'm pissed. If I'm anyone else in the league, I'm pissed too, I didn't have the chance to "one up" the trade either, only he did since he's commissioner. Something did go wrong. Commissioner used his power to get someone else to back out of a deal that was already proposed, by that guy, and agreed to via email or text or whatever. The only way he knew of the trade was because he was the commish. This happens all the time in leagues, where someone will let the commish know to push a trade through quickly please so we can make corresponding roster moves. Just because dasox didn't hit "accept" on the little button doesn't open the door to let commish do whatever he wants. He was already going to do so when they got back in. You can't say he's a s***ty commish but also that nothing went wrong. It's one or the other.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2...state-wisconsin

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 24, 2014 -> 11:48 AM) There it is. Sure, the commish was a dick, but he undercut a deal that was not yet agreed-to on the league page. It was s***ty, but in the end it's your fault. I'm not excusing the commissioner for a clear abuse of power. I put 95% on the commish and 5% on him. You simply can't have a commish that is a dick or pulling shady stuff.

It's still wrong, because he's the only person in the league that had the opportunity to play the "hey don't do that trade I'll offer you more" card. Whether or not you hit "accept" doesn't make a difference to me because the other guy proposed it, so it was officially out there, and you had already went over it. His actions caused the other guy to cancel it, and the only reason he could was because he was the commissioner. That's not right.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Sep 24, 2014 -> 12:19 AM) Alright, I have to pose this scenario and y'all tell me if I have a right to be mad or not. Currently, I'm pretty pissed... My roommate is also my league commissioner for a league with all of our old college buddies. We were out at dinner when I got a trade offer I had worked all day on getting. Our league doesn't do official veto's, so the commish just accepts all trades as soon as the 2 parties agree. So I ask him "Hey, when we get home, will you go ahead and approve a trade I just made?" He says sure, then he asks who I traded for. I tell him because I didn't think it was a big deal. Apparently while we were eating, he texts our buddy who I made the trade with and tells him he'll up the offer and to cancel the one he made to me. That's f***ed up, right? I would never tell anyone else in my fantasy league about a potential trade. But because he's our commish and I need his approval to push it through, I thought it would be fine. He's completely in the wrong, right? If he wasn't the commish, I'd have never even mentioned the trade. He abused his power, correct? I know it's just fantasy football, so I feel a little stupid being mad over this. But I can't help it. That's bulls***, indeed. No one else in the league had a chance to "one up" the offer, so he abused power here. You guys had agreed to a trade that was fair, and he took it off the table to help his own team. Can't do that. What would stop him from doing this for every trade ever accepted? Just because it wasn't officially emailed out via Yahoo doesn't make it correct (or maybe it was, for all to see and then wonder what happened). The only way something like this would fly is if your league had a rule (and some leagues do) that when a trade is accepted, it gets put out to everyone, and teams have a day or whatever to propose a better one that either manager can accept, otherwise it goes through. That way, no b****ing about "I would have offered you way more!" You guys don't have this rule, so it's crap what he did and you have every right to be pissed off. You aren't being stupid at all, I'd be furious and I'd be letting him and everyone else know about it.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Sep 24, 2014 -> 12:09 AM) Thanks for the response. I don't really need another WR at the moment, but I'm trying to flip Dez for Le'Veon Bell. So in that case, I would need another WR. Also, the trade fell through so it's a moot point. Long story, but the guy cancelled the offer due to some backstabbing by my roommate/league commissioner. That sounds like a bad league.

Can someone catch me up to speed on this rant Dan from IL went on this afternoon? What'd I miss?

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 11:15 PM) Buddy, c'mon for chrissakes. I didn't necessarily know if Vizquel actually had better range precisely at age 42 than Jeter did at age 22. I didn't think a sentence like that would read like something I was swearing my life to, but I would stand behind the more general point that Vizquel waaaayyy late in his career still was better defensively than Jeter at his most athletic (or virtually any time in his career). Looks like Vizquel was not a full timer at 42, no. But at age 40 he was and Fangraphs has him at his career best defensive season at 30.2. Other defensive metrics agree, UZR of 23.9. etc., etc. Yes, Jeter was 22 in '96. You proved your "point," you were absolutely correct. Even without "proof" watching games would tell you Jeter had terrible range his entire career, and Vizquel was still solid in later years.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 08:34 PM) Neither one of those guys were as successful as Harbaugh. I think you're overestimating how much success plays into it, I think the exact reasons he would leave would be the Saban train of thought. Have control over everything, and control your own players, not rely on GM/draft/etc. In the NFL you can't just go get better talent than everyone else.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 07:21 PM) I genuinely like Groce, barring some unforeseen terrible act by him I will root for him no matter where he goes. He's got a real bright future and I'm glad Thomas recognized it. I'm going to pretend you didn't say this.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 03:48 PM) I was offered Cordarrelle Patterson for Vernon Davis and Terrence Williams. My other TEs are Kelce and Witten. I'm tempted to make it, especially because I think CP's value is at a low point. But I have zero trust in Witten. And while I feel better about Kelce, he still splits time with Fasano and his QB is Alex Smith. Any thoughts? If you have confidence in CP I'd do it, I think Kelce will be good, his snaps keep increasing. I think Witten is close to done. Do you need the upgrade at wideout?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 02:03 PM) Awesome, can really use a good shooter 2015-16 is going to have shooters all over the place, can't wait.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 01:42 PM) Lights out 3 pt shooter and very good ballhandler for a 2 from what I can tell. From Indiana, too. Apparently gets buckets. JFG in Texas today with Thomas and Evans. Man if you land one of those two...

TOLD YOU SOMETHING WAS GOING TO HAPPEN YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS