Chisoxfn

So my ideal season would have had Fields stepping up and being a top 7 QB. I am on record as saying he isn’t that and he hasn’t shown anything to me to say there is 50 percent chance he becomes it. Quite frankly he is so poor in the middle of the field and on regular timing plays that I suspect he won’t be more than a 12-20 ranked qb but I admit there might be a 5 percent chance he puts it together and maximizes his physical tools which are top 7. But with what he has shown this year, or what he hasn’t shown, I am squarely in the draft a qb camp. I probably say screw it and draft the guy at 1 but I also get that these assessments are total crapshoots so I am kind of intrigued by the Commanders. Commanders are at 3 - hungry owner - does he want Williams so badly Bears could get an absolute haul, move down 2 spots and basically take the 2nd qb while getting a ton of extra draft capital and a player. Part of me says don’t get cute, but so many drafts in last decade has the best qb not been the first one. Odds are at 3 - if Washington stays there - you are getting 2nd best qb with Arizona grabbing MHJ at 2.

This - I think Flus could be one of those good lockeroom coaches who may not be the X’s and O’s Expert but does a lot else right as the actual manager. With that said I have no hurt feelings if they hit reset but I give him some credit for the youth on defense developing and for the team trending up. Players too and Poles as well. If they stick with Fields - than I am pretty square in the stick with Flus for another year camp. If they take a qb - than as much as I think Flus has earned the next year I just don’t like the idea of not resetting the coaching clock either the qb. But I hate the idea of starting back from square one too.

Love it - so we are officially locked in at top 2 than?

What about Cardinals? They are still in a great spot for #1 or is there a for sure scenario where the Cards don’t have the tie breaker?

I need Pats and Cardinals to win one more game to make me feel better. Thank goodness Packers just got a td.

Panthers and Bears will win out and the whole qb question will be a moot point lol. So Bears.

How is Fedde more than Cease. A guy one year removed from a cy young type season vs a guy who is a reclamation project albeit with some promise.

I assume he tactically brings something - the problem is as a HC whatever it was didn't work at all. But I don't know. NBA has a lot of assistants in general given the overall small size of roster.

He will still be restricted though, right? I guess it depends on how much he explodes for the rest of the year. Otherwise what makes him that much different than White? Is it just the size - both were picked high - both had long stints where they looked like mediocre players? I know Williams was supposedly asking for max money - but in a world where Coby got 3/36 coming off of 3 mediocre seasons and a 4th year where he started to show he could be on a winning team...where Williams has basically had that exact same trajectory....yet he'll get double what Williams got? And you may be right by the way - just trying to understand what drives such a stark difference in valuation (is it just positional versality)?

Gotcha - fair enough and I do agree - the previous regime having Jim Boylen for as long as they did (i.e more than the short lived interim state) was just a sheer disaster.

Yeah - that was under AK. It was done after we got Lonzo and S&T for Derozan. We than moved on from Lauri via trade (when we could have just signed him to a restricted deal - his market wasn't huge). Bulls had bird rights to him still and moving him had no bearing on Ball/Derozan. Bulls traded Lauri in end of August 28th, 2021 - Bulls S&T for Demar on August 11th, 2021. All moves made by the CURRENT front office. The Portland pick we keep waiting for (that might just turn into a 2nd) came out of that deal (plus Jones JR or someone). Clearly Bulls would have

Wendell still stinks in my book LOL. But you are right - it can take longer and development isn't always linear - that seems to be clear. I don't think I saw Coby taking it to this level and sure didn't see this sort of growth out of Patrick Williams. We talked about how for this team to really improve the needle - it would be on those 2 individuals really ascending and wow. I am not saying Williams is a building block yet - I still say I have seen way too much stink out of him to change my mind just yet - but he's actually now had his first month of his professional career where I can at least see the potential talked about when he was drafted. White clearly has benefited from the new shooting coach and the dude just keeps working - so kudos to him. I didn't see him becoming the playmaker he has. Either way - the future of the team looks better if those two are solid (especially since White is signed to a very affordable deal) because they at least could be compotent building blocks who if you than find other players to put around you makes you better (cause I have no idea what the plan is around Derozan / Vuc / Lavine). What will they get for Lavine and how will that pair up with those younger players and than what do you do with Vuc / Derozan longer term....cause they can't be the LT future (although I do understand keeping Derozan around as your veteran glue guy).

Wasn't Lauri let go under the current front office (when they could have retained him after getting Demar and Lonzo???).

And if I were him - I would take those blocked prospects and potentially trade my guys in those spots and let the blocked prospects get a chance so that I can continue and extend my run so you can hopefully have more chances to fluke into a series. Or - I would take those blocked prospects and package them up for a blue chip prospect in a prospect for prospect deal (maybe with a 3rd team involved as these deals can be hard). I don't know that I would be leveraging surplus assets for 2 years of Cease - if I were in the Oriole's position. If I'm the Yankees, Dodgers, Braves - sure.

I think the salary parity gets into sustainable winning organizations. If you look at sustainable winning organizations - I presume you will see a common thread with few outliers. The organizations who have had sustainable runs, have financial resources that the rest don't have. So yeah - you will have a Royals team pop up because they were so bad for so long, that they get lucky and put together a run - but that team will also quickly crash back to normal and go back to a decade long run of mediocrity. I will caveat - there are exceptions to this - as Guardians, Rays, Twins, Brewers have largely been competitive with more middling payrolls. Rays payroll not even middling, dirt cheap and they have recognized it and basically operate in that lens constantly churning players before they get paid to keep their roster clean (a well executed strategy with really good scouting and development that pairs the strategy up with reality).

I do think one distinct difference is - in NFL - you do see a lot more parity in teams, agnostic of market. In NFL - Tom Brady is the outlier - but besides that - good franchises, regardless of market can succeed. In baseball - it takes threading the needle because the competitive balance is totally different. NFL is clearly a more fair and levelized playing field in terms of the cap structure. MLB is not. No way around that. Rays don't have the same opportunities the Yankees do...period. In NFL - you really don't see that game. Cincy & Pittsburgh have same opportunities as say Giants/Jets. I do recognize in football - owners who have more cash - may still have an advantage in sense that how you structure deals and bonuses can still drive a slight advantage, but it is nowhere the same as in the NFL.

I think the Reds are an intriguing match-up and still believe the Braves will play ball. I don't know Yankees / Rays system - but I would presume both of those teams would be aggressive as well. Reds intrigue because I do believe they are trying to push their chips in a bit more. The proposed deal earlier which included Eloy would have been intriguing - Reds would take on too much money I think with Eloy - but if JR actually ponied up cash to send (which he won't) - than you could start to make things a bit more interesting. I think Eloy's bat would play pretty well in that stadium. I doubt Reds would do the trade - but I like the idea and I think it fits in terms of the sort of thing Getz would try to do (in one fell swoop that would really change the next 12-18 month trajectory of the roster / depth).

I don't understand why everyone thinks Elias is under any pressure whatsoever to make this move. I don't see their ownership sitting their demanding excellence in terms of world series. Elias obviously cares about it - but I don't see any gun to his head to go out and act. This is a guy leading a franchise that has poor ownership and which really hasn't made any major buy trade going back the last decade (unless I'm forgetting something). Quite frankly - Elias giving up the farm for Cease would be so foolish. Unless they plan on using him for a year and than spinning him off a year later. He needs to build within his farm and operate as if he were the Rays. This is ultiamtely how the Sox should have managed their post-rebuild era as well. If Elias gives up a bunch of chips for Cease - his ability to refill his cupboard is going to be limited, given fact ownership is NOT going to give him upper tier payrolls and enable him to sign a bunch of free agents and others. Hahn should have operated this way too - he should have been constantly churning his roster to maximize talent, buy low, sell high, and leverage FA to fill holes (in modest way) vs. having any delusion(s) his owner was going to buck his long-term history and let him sign the Bryce Harpers, Machado(s) of the world. Instead Hahn signed a bunch of over the hill free agents and / or relievers to big money deals, handed out contracts to guys who lost hunger after getting paid at young ages, and did nothing to churn the actual roster and proactively manage and churn things. So yeah - if Elias wants to do it - great - but if I were him, I wouldn't be doing so. If anything - I would use my chips to go get top pitching prospects if that is where I thought I had a void to ensure I maintain control.

This - I think for anyone who wants him and doesn't want to see their budget or luxury tax explode - the price for Cease went up given how much money has been handed out. It just take(s) one team and you never know - once one team decides it will pay up - if the fit of prospects doesn't work for us - a 3rd team could always interject and better align. I'm in the camp of get talent - I don't care of it is pitching or positional. Just maximize talent.

This is how I operate. If Peacock wanted to get the rights for like the NBA - fine - I'll go subscribe because I'm an NBA fan and I won't do league pass or whatever. But when it is this isolated like one-off, that isn't going to drive my behavior, its only going to anger me. Now if Peacock timed this game with a free preview - or whatever - fine. But a sport saying - if you want to watch it - you need 5 different subscriptions - forget it, I don't like it. National Games should be on platform(s) with a national appeal or something close to it. In my mind - Netflix / Prime are really the only 2 national "streaming" services most stream(ers) have, but I may be off my rocker and bias(ed) to what I personally have.

I refuse to apologize yet. If after the season he actually has done this for the rest of the year - than I'll start to think about it. I am not going to lie -I'm shocked at what I've seen the past month. I refuse to post anything about it though - I just don't know how a team goes from that bad to being kind of fun in this short of a window with the same roster, sans Zach. Like immediately Williams and White take off and everything changes. Maybe it is all Zach - maybe it was the fact that Zach and DeRozan just don't work - so back to - one had to go, didn't matter which - because the two together didn't work. But even Lauri - look at how much he has grown since he left. With Lauri I'm less surprised cause those first 2 years he flashed quite a bit - especially his initial couple season, but than kind of flat-lined a bit (although if you now look at some of those underlying metrics maybe the issue was his usage in Chicago and fit with Zach/Vuch). Bulls literally gave him away - when all along I said - why not just match and keep him, given his RFA market was just not nuts and the Bulls could have by just spending a bit of luxury tax at the time.

Awful. I don't like this at all. I don't mind the prime cause a huge universe has it (but don't love it). But Peacock - I mean come on - this is not something most people have (unless it comes with other streaming subscriptions). It is awful.

It’s not happening. Orioles had one good year - why would they give up the farm for Cease when they are just as likely to flail back to crap status in that division.

It is crazy. I go back to - the reality is - the best QB's are regularly picked at the top. They also bust - it happens - but in general, trying to get a starting QB without drafting at the top is a fool(s) errand. Sure you have Wilson, Brady, and Purdy....but that is really going back over the past 20 years. So 3 good QB's who were taken after 3rd round. If I expand to 2nd round there was Drew Brees (he was also the 2nd QB picked) and Jalen Hurts (4th QB selected - 1st 4 were Burrow / Tua / Herbert / Love - talk about a stacked draft). The whole rest of the list was 1st rounders (unless I'm missing someone). So the whole - wait on a QB doesn't make a ton of sense - unless you are still taking one of the higher rated QB's in the draft (it just happened to be a draft where the board didn't have a QB run).

Why would the pirates trade for Cease.