almagest

Not sure I'd count the 80s. Signing Fisk was great, but they only had 3 above .500 seasons and were flat out bad from 86-90. Also I don't think Reinsdorf had anything to do with '83, as Hemond had been the GM since the early 70s. Reinsdorf ended up chasing him out, too. 1990-2008 were very good, with four division titles, a WS win, and a bunch of competent teams that had a shot.

I'm sure every team is showing interest in every young guy with some talent and projectability on the Sox roster. I really doubt any of them will be traded.

So... how's about those new coaches!!

Darwin was an alright 5th starter in '97. Alvarez was a solid #2. Hernandez was a damn good closer. Do the Sox overtake Cleveland that year if they don't make the trade? Maybe. Certainly doesn't seem impossible like Reinsdorf said, as Cleveland only won 86 games. A better question is - what if the Sox traded for Mark McGwire instead of the Cardinals? The prospects were pretty mediocre in that return (the best of them was an okay middle reliever), so I'm sure the Sox could've beaten that. Imagine 97 and 98 with Thomas and McGwire alternating at 1B/DH, with Albert Belle also in the middle of the lineup? This team ABSOLUTELY could've won more than 86 in 1997. Cleveland only won 89 in 1998 too, while the Sox won 80, so maybe they could've challenged for the division in 1998 too. We also wouldn't have been able to trade Keith Foulke for Billy Koch, so even if they didn't win the Central from 97-99 we'd still have that. I'd also bet the Sox still win the Central in 2000 even without Foulke and Howry.

I don't know enough about either of them to form much of an opinion, but KC had some very nice pitching performances last year from unexpected contributors, so I'm intrigued.

Bears out-gained the Bengals by 80 yards, were +3 on turnovers (really +2 not counting the Hail Mary pick) and won time of possession by 9 minutes and STILL almost lost. That is really hard to do, so... kudos to the defense and special teams!

I like being wrong

Almost no pressure on him either.

He pretty much won 3 of the 4 games for the Dodgers, so yes I think so

Good lord everything is by the skin of their teeth for both teams

Jays have had their chances in this one

From the names in the article, I'd be fine with: Martin Perez again - he was good when he could pitch and shouldn't be expensive Anthony DeSclafani - seems like a reunion with Bannister might help Cody Ponce seems like a good guy to bet on given his success in the KBO with good stuff, though there will probably be competition for him Anthony Kay - throws strikes and generates grounders in NPB The rest don't seem as intriguing to me, and this is even including my love for unknown Japanese pitchers with NPB numbers they have no hope of reproducing here.

Maybe. I know it's all hypothetical, but even if they scored 2 touchdowns and Caleb didn't throw that interception they still lose. The Ravens seemed to figure out how to attack our defense after the first quarter and there was nothing the Bears could do about it. I think that happens even if they're down 14-0 because it'd still be early and Harbaugh is a smart coach.

Caleb ended up with ~67% accuracy, 285 yards. If you told me that was his line before the game I'd have assumed they won. He made two costly mistakes - the interception (which was also a good play by the DB), and missing that pass over the middle. Otherwise he was a bit shaky but probably good enough to win. The big underlying problem was the defense couldn't get off the field. The Bears had the ball for 12:41 in the first quarter, Ravens for 2:19. The Ravens beat the Bears in time of possession from the second quarter on 28:11 to 16:49. The Ravens had the ball almost TWELVE MINUTES longer. That's almost a full quarter. I'm not sure how the offense is supposed to get any momentum going with that huge of a disparity for 3/4 of the game, and it absolutely magnified the mistakes on offense. The secondary isn't going to be healthy for next week so it'll likely be more of the same. Hopefully the Bears can rebound and put some points up on a legit bad defense (not a fake bad one like the Ravens before they got healthy this week).

No, it was instituted in 1994. Just didn't have one for obvious reasons.