TooLiveBrew

Yes, this is a pessimistic view... but I could easily see the Hart scenario playing out with him being injured & missing the end of the '13 season, therefore crippling his FA value, and leaving the Brewers in a bad position where if they made a QO, he might accept (instead of the org. being able to recoup a comp. pick for him leaving in FA). Melvin handled this situation so poorly; it's just painful.

Another case of Melvin not being proactive in capitalizing on a player's value... just unfortunately one of his calling cards as a GM. Whatever the over/under is on Hart's games played will be for '13, at this point I'd probably take the under. Nothing in that excerpt sounded good.

Good idea to post a reminder about tomorrow. Can't wait for Utd-Real. Also of note: Ibrahimović was sent off w/a straight red in stoppage time in the Valencia-PSG match. PSG mid Marco Verratti saw a yellow in the first half, and per the announcers he'll miss the second leg as well. That matchup in Paris should be very interesting.

You're not -- you're being realistic. The Brewers have whiffed too much in recent years at the tops of their drafts to be in a comfortable position. I also completely agree that Melvin's window 'strategy' is a massive problem & has done so much more damage to the organization than most Brewers fans are willing to admit.

Your sig illustrates my main problem with Law -- he makes far too many absolute statements about players when criticizing.

I think it's been fleshed out pretty well already why he wouldn't/couldn't do more, so I won't try to repeat that.

He (& every player) was tested multiple times last season, & clearly Braun didn't fail a test. He doesn't need to send results to the press -- they'd have the news (as they obviously did last time) if he didn't pass.

Huh. For some reason I thought he was NBA-only. And I agree that Walton sucks, but honestly Dakich has grown to be my most-hated.

"worst college hoops analyst"

Per Tyler Kepner of the NY Times, the third-to-first pickoff move is illegal starting this season.

Although I agree with him about fouling in that situation, Dakich has to be the worst college hoops analyst. I probably had the game muted almost as much as I had the sound on. He nearly ruined that game for me.

3-1... 7 points? I'm confused. Southampton is 7 points ahead of the 18th place team which would put them in relagation territory. In other words, a bad loss to a team Man City should beat. D'oh. Thank you. I read it as "just lost to 7 points", not "just lost to 7-points-from-relegation..." I actually went a-googlin' expecting to see a 7-0 or 8-1 scoreline... was dissapoint.

3-1... 7 points? I'm confused.

Fwiw, I don't think Law is being biased against the Brewers. I just don't think very much of his prospect rankings in general.

That was amazing. Thank you, Baldkin, for linking Lepay's call... awesome.

.gif to show just how blatant the situation trwi7 describes was -- http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2136615/illinoisOMG.gif

Every time Ryan Evans takes a jump shot, I yearn for Dekker to start taking more of his minutes. I don't hate Evans; he does a lot of things well... but a shooter of any kind, he is not.

Your latest post reminded me that I wanted to reply to this. Amazing story! Sounds like it was a blast.

Short answer -- yes. Long answer -- Champions League is an annual tournament through UEFA (Union Européenne de Football Association/"European Union of Association Football"). Different countries/leagues have different numbers of qualifying teams, and Wikipedia has a breakdown of how many by country/league. I'll use this Premier League season as an example - the top four teams in the standings at the end of the '12-'13 season will qualify for the '13-'14 CL. If the season ended today, those four teams would be Man. Utd., Man. City, Chelsea, & Spurs. Here is the "Competition Format" page from the UEFA website, which explains how the CL group play & knockout stage work. Quick version: Qualifying round → Group/Round-robin stage → Knockout stage. Reading the Wikipedia page on CL qualification might also help. There's also one loophole for qualification -- winning the previous season's CL. Chelsea actually went this route for this season's CL -- they won the CL last season, so even though they finished 6th in the '11-'12 Premier League, they automatically qualified for the '12-'13 CL. However, that came at the expense of Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs), who finished 4th & would normally have qualified for the CL*. Incidentally, this season Chelsea also became the first-ever defending CL champ to not get out of the group stage in the following CL competition. * Spurs instead qualified for the '12-'13 UEFA Europa League. To explain this would be another long-ish post, but it's fairly similar to the CL. However, for a familiar comparison, think NCAA Men's Hoops tourney (CL) v. the NIT tourney (Europa Lg.) EDIT: Here is the Wikipedia page on the Europa League in general, if you're interested in reading up on it as well.

Welcome to the addiction. Be sure not to miss the next round of Champions League matches, with the first legs next week (12th-13th) & the week after (18th-19th). Man. Utd. @ Real Madrid in particular (on the 13th) should be a great match.

http://thedailygrind.robdamanii.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/StarTrekFacePalm.gif

Keith Law has to be one of the worst prospect watchers out there. The system isn't good, but I'd hardly trust his evaluation of it.

To have had the #12 picks in '11 and to have gone so safe with Jungmann & Bradley is pretty indefensible. That's where the potential #1 type(s) that could be in the system should've come from. Man, that stings badly.

Well that's definitely good news. I guess he's not "sand bagging it." Trick's on you -- this is the long play. He's healing quickly so he'll have time to re-aggravate the injury & require a second surgery... enabling him to miss ST entirely!

Definitely thought this thread was about Manny Ramirez. Parra certainly isn't first-name-only recognizable.