Con te Giolito

Except for the team Ohio State finished behind in the conference standings and lost to H2H.

Nothing here really refutes the point that if OSU were in PSU position they would've gotten in. All the excuse making in the world doesn't overcome the H2H loss. OSU fans will talk your ear off about how PSU won that game on a fluke, but I've yet to hear a convincing big picture argument that H2H is pointless. Or that conference championships are pointless. Or at least that a H2H victory and conference championship can be cancelled out by a stupid loss three months prior.

Melky is actually a pretty good player that a lot of teams that fancy themselves contenders could really use.

USC is better than their ranking, hell USC is better than Washington. But as already mentioned the three losses were too much to overcome, even if one of those losses was to Alabama. Penn State didn't lose to a turkey. If the roles were reversed and PSU went 11-1 with the loss being against OSU which meant a 10-2 OSU team won the B1G there wouldn't even be a debate. OSU would be in the playoff and nobody would really be whining about OSU's hypothetical early season loss to Pitt (just like nobody whined about OSU's early season loss to VA Tech). In any case I'm fairly confident PSU would've been more than just a speed bump for Clemson.

You can enjoy the NBA without being a rube.

Yea if organizational philosophy doesn't start valuing is own system guys as anything more than trade chips for declining assets this whole rebuild will bring us right back to where we were a year ago. 4 or 5 super studs surrounded by a rotating cast of garbage. Semien in particular really stings. He's developed into a good defender (now that he isn't changing positions every week) who hit 27 HR last year and he's going into his age 26 season. OBP hasn't come along yet, but there's a player who has gotten better every year and could easily enjoy a couple 4-5 WAR seasons through his prime. Traded away needlessly for 1 year of a declining asset, hopefully Zack Burdi rescues that disaster.

Well different guys have different aging patterns. Greg Jennings was already falling apart with the Packers.

Rodgers image has been crafted differently than Brady's so people aren't as keen to this, but Rodgers is more ruthless with his WR than even Brady. Brady has endured a lot of bad Julian Edelman plays but keeps going back to that well whereas Rodgers will probably never fully forgive Davante Adams for 2015. Bad WR really dont stick around long with him. Also- I hope the Bears draft Joe Mixon. Holy s*** can this kid play, I dont know if he's quite Leonard Fournette but there is no way Dalvin Cook or Christian McCaffery are better than this guy. He can probably be had in the 3rd too. Some trashy southern white woman drunkenly taunted him and called him a n***** in public and got what she had coming. He shouldn't have knocked her out but I hardly see it as a sign of bad character, just bad judgment.

My ideal, perfect world trade: Pirates: Quintana Yankees: Glasnow, Robertson Sox: Meadows, Rutherford ++

Donald Driver was a very good WR. Greg Jennings in his prime would've been good anywhere, age just caught up with him. Jordy Nelson is a good WR that plays like a great WR because of his chemistry with Rodgers. Randall Cobb is a useful NFL player, or at least has been the last few years. If you want to make an argument for Rodgers doing less than more it would be the fact that the the best RB he's ever had behind him is Ryan Grant.

I think Bell is a perfect fit. Maybe not as perfect as Meadows or Torres but pretty damn close. Good teams need players who can flat hit the ball and packing two switch hitters of Moncada and Bell's caliber together could be the foundation of a great lineup. Maybe in a lost season the Sox give him some run at RF, but I have confidence he'll turn into a good 1b at least. Keller, Newman, Glasnow + another would be a pretty great haul. Even if I am down on Glasnow I cannot deny that he would be an ideal third piece as a dominant reliever.

My favorite realistic offer starts with Meadows or Torres. The real question is what is the least you would be happy with. Would Glasnow + Newman + a couple low level pieces be OK? For me I dont think so. I also dont think I could stomach a Mateo-led return from the Yankees unless it was a mountain of depth. I cant even remember the last 5-for-1 swap, was the Johan Santana trade 5-for-1?

We were robbed of Penn State in the playoff. edit- we were really robbed of both these teams, but at least Washington had a better resume than USC.

Brady choked in 2007. Patriots had their lowest scoring game of the entire season against the Giants and Brady put up a 82.5 passer rating(Eli had an 87.3). Patriots let the Giants hang around mostly because Brady couldn't get it going and eventually paid the price. Get out of here with the "should be 6/6 crap"....Brady is not even close to deserving of that title and he knows it.

wrong thread

Frazier's only real trade value comes in his ability to grease larger deals. If the Sox have a prospect return they like being offered but their partner wants "just a little more" Frazier is the perfect guy to plug in to get a deal done. But if those deals come and go without needing the addition of Frazier he should be sold for scraps. Clear the $13.5m arbitration figure and get a T250 prospect. Frazier may be worth more than that but the Sox aren't getting more than that for him and the Sox need his AB's to see what Saladino and perhaps Davidson have.

Midseason. MLB teams would rather take a flier on than give up actual prospects for Gonzalez who, right now, is really not much better than those options. If Migo picks up where he left off last year he'll be gone sometime in June or July when one of those scrap heap guys fail or teams bearing playoff hopes that inexplicably go into the season with no rotation depth suffer an injury. He'll actually fetch something too, the lack of commitment actually helps his value as teams really prefer to f*** and not marry guys of his "caliber".

If Quintana and Frazier are dealt the Sox are probably still favorites for #1 overall. The cutthroat AL will provide more losses than the Padres AAA roster.

I'm guessing this starts to heat up again tomorrow, right? Or are we still in the holidays?

Redskins should probably think twice about paying Kirk Cousins the mountain of money he will demand. Long way to go.

Depends who they draft. If they grab Watson in the 2nd I have no problem throwing that guy right into the fire. He'll probably thrive in that kind of development. But Trubortlesky or Kizer? Probably not, but I have very little interest in either of those guys in the first place.

As far as I know there has been zero reporting or even whispers that Meadows is untouchable. I could be wrong though. Re: Glasnow The reality with Glasnow is if he walks 5 batters per 9 innings he will not be a starter. If the Sox dont think the control issues can be corrected then he's destined for the bullpen and he's not a headline piece. With Giolito they obviously recognized the Nationals bungling and they have confidence Kopech and Dunning can be developed. If the scouts and coaches are telling Rick Hahn that Glasnow is not a fit unless he's on the back end of the deal he will listen to them, not the general consensus from Baseball America.

They'll get healthy and a competent coaching staff will able to lean on Howard to make the offense decent. Who knows what will happen if the Bears go into a season without Cutler even on the roster, maybe they will activate a new mode.

Right, that cant happen again. I doubt it will though.

Barring some sort of disaster or humiliation Pace will be around for next year's draft. He deserves to have his own guy coaching this team.