caulfield12

Wonder what happens to DePodesta now...back to baseball? Guess not! Step One: Hire a general manager who will vibe with chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta, who has earned responsibility from within the organization and is reportedly running the head coaching search. My vote is for Eagles vice president of football operations Andrew Berry, who is bright and highly regarded and is believed to be in the running for the position. If Berry doesn’t work out, the key here is to hire someone smart that DePodesta can be tied to at the hip. yahoo.com/sports

Viciedo and Borchard perhaps the two best examples from 2000’s...

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28400906/john-dorsey-browns-general-manager

Well, that’s probably true about the majority of Economics and AP Lit teachers who also love baseball. But the last time I was this hyped about a season like now was following the 2009 Birmingham Barons. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/minors/teams/stats.asp?Y=2009&T=10110 Honestly, can hardly believe over a decade has passed since then...

They also have Duran, Severino and Balazovic...OSU’s Larnach, Lewis, Kiriloff, Rooker. Pretty darned impressive system but top heavy like ours. Definitely could trade Romero, Kepler, Larnach or Rooker to fill in holes.

They have only won that one series against the A’s since they last won the WS in 1991. Seventeen consecutive playoff losses, fifteen against NYY. http://twinsdaily.com/articles.html/_/minnesota-twins-news/hayes-twins-to-sign-rich-hill-homer-bailey-r8781?st=75#commentsStart Here’s the take of Twins’ fans, some spinning Bailey as better than Bumgarner and Fanny Pack Hill as an improvement on Keuchel...when he won’t pitch until June/July. Both deals without club options. Hill can earn up to $9.5 million with some pretty realistic half season incentives in terms of starts and IP.

Wow, all the posters from the past are beginning to show up again... The big question, though, how do you follow up a post like this? Seems to be all downhill from here.

Jose Martinez didn’t make the cut due to the 2000’s cutoff, but he had a nice little career renaissance as well. Eduardo Escobar similarly falls into that category...where all their impact has been in 2000’s. It’s also not counting Montas, Junior Guerra...players that slipped through our fingers. Of course, conversely, the Mets get credit for Jose Quintana.

When I first joined over a decade ago, after all the skirmishes with Ncorgbl at chisox.com MLB boards, Chisoxfn, Southsider2k5 and Balta were probably the three best posters. Fathom was always the most reliable/faithful gameday poster, and his Cubs' obsession was amusing, although that obviously changed to an extent after 2016. Dick Allen and I were sworn enemies, and then that transformed, probably or likely as a result of the infamous FILIBUSTER. Now there is only KyLle Ren and occasional Rabbit appearances. There's a couple of posters who departed that I miss (along with Scenario on the minor league side), but it was probably the best thing for the board. I suppose the vitriol of political arguments in some ways got refocused into "whose side are you on?" arguments over the last three plus years of rebuilding, and your personal beliefs about the contributions of Hahn, KW and Reinsdorf to that malaise. Thankfully, that's OVER, at least until Opening Day. The last time there was this much shared excitement in the fanbase was the Cabrera/LaRoche/Robertson off-season or early August, 2012. It's long overdue that MOSTLY everyone can be optimistic/hopeful/positive.

It would make no sense for an organization to offer to combine two years to get to 160 IP unless they believed he was an elevated injury risk by that point. Keuchel's battled health issues the last 2-3 years, but not any significant ones like TJ or rotator cuff/labrum.

You're forgetting Marcus Semien's numbers, which were huge the last 2-3 years with Oakland (especially 2019). Not sure if that's counting Escobar, Devenski, Montas and Bassitt, probably just Dragon and Chris.

The Knights of Ren will be sent to track you down if these pseudo-intellectual, Benetti-esque cracks persist.

Yeah, Lucy Lawless and her have a lot of similarities....

Infinite Jest Meets Joyce’s Ulysses.

Ohio State is going to leave that game with about ten “what ifs,” easily could have put the game away in the first twenty minutes...especially with Higgins out, then a bunch of untimely penalties extending Clemson drives. Lawrence and Venables pulled if off again, though. Entertaining game, thankfully. Still think LSU is the best team, but we’ll see in two weeks.

The scale/scope of everything just got of whack in the movies...but the much smaller and yet more impactful storytelling in the 6+ hour t.v. show is really winning out. I mean, it was possible to care more about an inanimate nurse droid than all the characters in TLS put together...or even Nick Nolte’s character. That’s saying something. Gina Carano is perhaps the only thing I don't really like about it so far.

I’m not sure that one has to force themselves to watch every single meaningless game from midseason 2016 through the end of 2019 to be considered a real fan. Everyone has different ways of dealing with disappointment. If the biggest problem the White Sox have is fighting over delineating bandwagon vs. true diehard fans, it’s a nice problem to have. There’s always been a very clear correlation (in MLB) between attendance increases following playoff success, rather than the other way around. In the end, does it really matter why each fan or family that comes to GRF enters the turnstiles?

Oklahoma still hasn't won a CFP game in four tries. They’s already lost some key players due to suspension, but this game looks like the Globetrotters against the Washington Generals. Sad way for Jalen Hurts to finish his career. Alabama’s the only team that could have given them a game. 7 TD passes in one half is crazy. And Burrow never started a single time at Ohio State...

What the heck? This makes about as much sense as OU’s defensive game-plan against LSU.

Calhoun passed him in the eyes of organization, end of story. Injured, didn't progress as hoped, Rangers lineup already too left-handed.

This is the first season since 2016 that the MILB package wasn't preferable to MLB. It’s still easy to wonder if we had guys like Adell, Benintendi, Buehler and Tatis...how much more dominant this run could have been, or even if we hadn’t lost those 10 guys to injuries in the last 18 months, but just knowing they have a realistic shot to compete this year is enough for now. We deserve good things. Maybe it means that Robert, Kopech or Madrigal will be the capstone on everything we’ve been patiently waiting for to kick this whole thing into another gear. While these new veterans are seemingly closer to Ver. 2014-16 than 2004-05, there’s also never been such a young core in this organization since that 1987-90 run of draft picks by Himes.

Carl Edwards, Jr., is worth a look, still just 28.

Stiever, Dunning, Rodon and Lopez/Cease provide a lot of insurance there. Would still like to see at least one veteran signing, though.

Except there’s a huge dropoff from Top 4 to Collins...then again to all those pitchers like Stiever, Thompson and Dahlquist. Steele Walker is now #12 for the Rangers, for example.

Go Hawkeyes! Breaking the string of six losses in a row to USC. Slovis going down completely changed the game. Smith Marsette looking like he will be first Hawkeye wide receiver/KR in ages to make it in the NFL. Probably will lose Epenesa and Wirfs to the pros after four early departures last year. Duncan has been one of the best kickers in Iowa history as well. Pretty nice TE tradition w/ Clark, Kittle, Hockenson and Fant. La Porta the next...has some Gronkowski to him, albeit not as explosive. Stanley goes down as top 5 Iowa QB along with Chuck Long, Rick Stanzi, Matt Rodgers, Drew Tate.