cabiness42

I don't see the SEC agreeing to any arrangement that might potentially have one of their teams playing in Columbus or South Bend in December. They're afraid enough to play games in the north in September--no way they will do it in December.

You go up to 8 teams and you start to run into the problem of people not being able to go see their team play a quarterfinal in Florida, a semifinal in Texas, and a final in California. I realize that TV money >> ticket money, but how is that going to look when the quarterfinal games are all half-empty because fans are holding out for the later games.

I don't get how this leads to an 8 team playoff. Right now we are debating the #4 spot between a team that gave up 61 points in a game and a team that lost to 6-6 Virginia Tech. And people want to open up the playoffs to teams worse than those two?

Not a lot left for the Big 12 to choose from to get their membership back up to 12. Boise State? Colorado State? Houston? Rice?

**Groans** EDIT: He beat me to it.

Yes, TCU would be #1 and Arizona would definitely be in, but Mizzou would be a conference champion and have the same record as Alabama, and Wisconsin would have an argument as well. It would be hilarious if a team that lost to Indiana made the playoffs.

Would love to see a total chaos weekend: Mizzou over Alabama Arizona over Oregon Georgia Tech over Florida State Wisconsin over Ohio State Kansas State over Baylor

I've been there a couple times. Very tasty.

Most overrated person in the history of organized sport.

ALL THE OUTFIELDERS!

I turned down free tickets to that game.

Amanda by Boston. Absolutely love that song.

What is the record for longest thread about a player who never ended up on the Sox?

ALL THE LEFTIES! ALL THE CUBANS!

I agree 100%. They should non-tender him, but I don't think they will, and I think they'll be stuck with him.

It takes a lot of courage to admit to the world that you're an umpire.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/mich...troit/19777075/

Yes, if the Sox acquired Samardzija they would have to extend a qualifying offer at the end of the 2015 season in order to receive a draft pick, but that's a no-brainer. A healthy Samardzija is never taking a 1 year $16M (estimated) deal, and even if he did, that would still be fine as far as the Sox are concerned. So ultimately, you are trading for one year of Samardzija plus a draft pick, and Beane is certainly going to take that into account in calculating his return.

So today is the tender deadline for arbitration-eligible players.

I don't consider Anderson to be untouchable, but I wouldn't trade him for a player with only one year of control.

In 2014, Saunders was a more valuable player than De Aza despite half the plate appearances. Saunders is also likely to take less to acquire than other players of similar value, due to Seattle wanting to shed lefties from their lineup and Saunders in particular being out of favor.

Every time somebody mentions Johnson I always think, "You can't steal first base*" I hope I'm wrong but I don't see him being able to get on base enough in the majors to be a full-time starter. * - Unless you are AJ Pierzynski in Game 2 of the ALCS

I think the difference in the actual value of Reddick and Saunders is much smaller than the difference in the value it will take to acquire Reddick or Saunders.

Stab in the dark prediction: Viciedo + Beck to SEA for Saunders

You could make an argument that the Nebraska job is more attractive than even the Michigan job. Michigan is in the East with perennial power OSU, an MSU program that seems to be in the midst of prolonged success, and an Penn State program that has the potential to get back to the top. The West has only one program that has any track record of consistent success.