Jose Abreu

No, it would mean we choked, unless the first 4 games were a complete mirage. And for the record, if you asked me that before the season, I probably would've said no too. I *expected* 8 or 9 wins pre-Mack trade but would not have been happy with it, per se.

As a 19 year old college student, I prefer the night games so that I don't have to wake up before noon to watch the regular games

Nope, the Pats game is eligible to be flexed: http://www.nfl.com/flexible-schedules/ The random Bears highlight videos at the end of the Pats/Colts game just got me thinking. Some Twitter folks agreed that it was a weird hype video for a TNF game we weren't even playing in, so this is my theory.

Valid, but if JJ Watt didn't win it in 2014 (might be off by a year), I still don't like Mack's chances

Thinking they might flex the Bears/Pats game to SNF.

I was 8 when he was drafted. It's crazy to me that he's so (relatively) old now. It'll be a similar feeling when the Moncada/Kopech/Eloy types are somewhere playing baseball in their mid-30s. We're so used to thinking of these prospects and young players as, well, exactly that- young, up and coming stars- that once they're no longer young, it's just a strange feeling of shock.

Now they all think they're getting Harper and he'll save the day

Herm Schneider is his new Jose Abreu, apparently

Machado confirmed.

Got it. For whatever reason I thought you were talking about Madrigal, Moncada, Yolmer, etc. and I was not on board

Who are these bat-only players you speak of?

Watching him last season, yes. The good thing about him is that he actually has a good jump shot, so unlike the stereotypical "chucker", he should actually have decent percentages. Now that he's more acclimated I expect 18-20 PPG, 45% FG, 37% from deep, 82% from the line. I don't think it's too far-fetched because those are pretty much his exact stats from his last year in Minnesota.

Yeah losing a dozen games of Lauri doesn't suddenly make us a threat for a top pick IMO. This team is better than people think, and if they were trying at the end of games last year they would've won closer to 35ish games. Tanking sucks also because it really fucks with projections. Everyone sees the Bulls and thinks they won 27 games last year but the reality is that, in the normal pre-tanking NBA, they weren't that bad. I also think the defensive concerns are overblown. As in, we are indeed a bad defensive team but not nearly as bad as the media is saying. LaVine is actually a good on-ball defender. It's off-ball where he struggles but he claims he worked hard on that in the summer, so we'll see. The only player who I think is actually a major defensive liability is Parker.

I agree, he has crazy range but his issue is sometimes messing up on a ball that's hit almost right to him, usually due to footwork. Relatively easy problem to fix, and if he does, he's among the top fielding second basemen in the league.

What's funny is what he dismissed as a "pipe dream" is probably a more likely event than the chance that Moncada's problem is his weight

Moving a physically gifted defensive second baseman (as proven by his range stats) to third base because of a prospect who's still in single-A is pretty foolish and probably not something that has ever happened. It reminds me of the meathead "move Tim Anderson to center field!" stuff from May

Familiarizing players with sacrifice bunting is not something that would reassure me about Renteria's managing

I believe Jones' option is for the league minimum due to the clause that states him having elbow surgery prior to 2019 would make it so. He had elbow surgery in 2017. Easy keep for the price.

The Bucs defense is actually really good on the line. Linebackers and secondary, not so much. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised that we didn't use Howard much. I don't think it would've gone well. This win was as much on Trubisky as it was on Nagy's playcalling and coaching. Very stellar game all-around.

Hey this was solid despite being a month early

All things considered, a .715 OPS with 32 doubles, 17 homers, 6 triples, 67 walks, 12 stolen bases, and good defense (in my opinion, I know I'm in the minority there) from him this season is not bad at all. I have high hopes for him next year to cut the K rate and let these other numbers improve as a result.

And here's another, clearer one from 2014: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/24/upshot/facebook-baseball-map.html#6,39.284,-94.931