almagest

"Great pivot" to sign a 40 year old with a .383 SLG instead of an actual good player like Bregman.

A good chunk of Bregman's salary is deferred plus it's a shorter term deal. Cubs could've found time for Shaw at 3B/1B/DH or used him to find pitching help. I'm also not convinced a 5'9" third baseman is going to produce, good minors numbers or not.

Most Cubs fans I know were convinced they were getting Bregman. I look forward to their tears.

I remember when I wanted to trade for/sign Drury at 2B.

I doubt anyone will claim Wilson, so he'll be in AAA if/until they feel they need him.

Even though the quote wasn't intended the way I'm thinking about it, I actually think "orgs win championships" is true. They win by finding very good players, making sure they have the right supporting cast and coaching around them, and they keep finding good players to supplement the roster through drafting, free agency and trades. These orgs always seem to "luck" into stars via draft or trade, then they know what to do with them. I would love for the the Bulls to get back there, but they likely won't with this front office and ownership.

The only time Reinsdorf won anything in the NBA was when he had a team with two and then four hall of famers on it, one of whom is a top 3 player of all time at worst. So of course he thinks you need to do the opposite of that!

Of course it’s the Angels.

Yea, it's a problem they've had forever though. Since probably the mid 00s. For internal development start to finsh, you had guys like Maggs and Lee, then Rowand, then not a whole lot comes to mind until TA. Plus, some of the ones who were actually promising (like Semien & Tatis Jr) they traded. Hopefully they can figure it out, but 20 years of history does not make me incredibly hopeful.

If anything, Law was way more positive than I've seen here.

The rest of the writeups make sense to me, too. Mason Adams sounds like a quality control pitcher. Nastrini and Iriarte lost velocity, plus Nastrini couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, so I see why they fell. Meidroth has a similar profile to Madrigal so the comp makes sense, and it was more of a "he needs to hit the ball hard so he doesn't turn into Madrigal" than a "he is Madrigal". A 3% barrel rate in AAA is terrible. He needs some more time there to see if he can make more solid contact against AAA pitching. The Jacob Gonzalez writeup is interesting - he faced the best college pitching in the SEC and more than held his own, but can't hack it in the minors, and Law doesn't know why. If he could turn into at least a league average SS that helps dull the impact of Montgomery switching to 3rd, but that seems unlikely now. Hopefully he figures something out during the offseason, otherwise what a wasted pick. The writeup on Zavala is rough, but it's all stuff we heard during the season - bad swing decisions and a bad attitude will tank a career quickly. Hopefully he had a wakeup call.

This is just who Keith Law is. He's a glass half empty guy, but he can usually back it up because he knows what he's doing. The Colson report sounds like what we all knew - he might have trouble sticking at short and he had a bad season where he was too passive. Law is right to question the back injury, too. Who knows how that plays long-term. I'm hopeful due to Colson's rebound at the end of the year, but back injuries can kill careers, so I get the pessimism.

People down here DESPISE Press Taylor. I think he's fine in a reduced role like this - his offenses also weren't "terrible" in previous years, and he was there to help bring TLaw back from the Urban Meyer disaster.

Jared Goof strikes thrice in the first half

https://www.nfl.com/news/deion-sanders-cowboys-have-mutual-interest-in-vacant-dallas-head-coaching-job

The Eagles made Swift look good, so I think the issues are more run blocking and scheming than personnel. Jeanty would be awesome but he'd look pedestrian behind this awful line. I'd rather go heavy o and d line this draft then look for an RB in the 3rd/4th. Maybe someone like Cam Skattebo.

Caleb has much worse advanced stats and people are really worried about his accuracy. I think these are valid, but I also think advanced stats are WAY more team dependent than they are in baseball, so I don't know how much of this is due to the dumpster fire coaching situation the Bears had. For example - is Caleb inaccurate because he sucks, or is it one (or more) of the following? Footwork wasn't properly tied to routes WRs and Caleb not on same page on how routes finished Routes/WRs couldn't create separation or were run too close together Caleb coached to not create interception opportunities so most deep routes were essentially throwaways Effectively zero run game

Absolutely. The depth was terrible. Basically all their best prospects were from trades and their high first round picks. Almost nothing after that.

Henry sure helps, but the Ravens have been much better with Monken than without, even with Lamar: Ravens with Monken: 2024: 1st in yards and 3rd in points. 2023: 5th in yards and 4th in points. Ravens without Monken: 2022: 16th in yards and 19th in points. 2021: 6th in yards and 17th in points. 2020 19th in yards and 7th in points.

You wont be so skeptical when our friend Whiteso turns into the next KatyPerrysBootyHole

I love random Twitter nonsense.

Bullpen? Yes. Starter? No way. I can see why he wasn't resigned.

Plus, every position player who carried over from 2023 regressed or stagnated. Really just the confluence of every possible thing going wrong.

Really good numbers in 2023, decent last year. Had a nice postseason. Wonder if Walker McKinven also vouched for him.

Now we just need someone with the last name "Harpar" and we'll have our "Bryce Harper" at home