tmwiese55

Pudge would be the first pretty clear known PED guy to make it in. I noticed that years ago that somehow he was flying under the radar and was going to walk into the Hall no questions asked, looks like I was right. Ortiz will probably be the next unless they let Bonds/Clemens in. I don't care about PEDs, for me I'd keep Clemens out based on the story of him and the underrage country singer since the Hall has a noted character parameter.

to me he's a guy that deserves a shot with a real team before being cast off as a POS. He hasn't gotten into any real off court problems before the recent club fight thing, which I don't know a ton about. He's been a behind the scenes good charity guy his whole career and like you said, when in a good environment with Team USA he was never a problem and actually came off as smart and well spoken. Basically I just can't really blame him for being pissed and complaining about the situation in Sacramento. If he goes to a good team with a good coach like in Boston and he's still a malcontent, then yea he's an idiot. There's been plenty of jerks in the history of the league who do way better after a change of scenery and when they get into a winning situation. Two prime examples being JR Smith and Rasheed Wallace, but there's been lots of others.

Yup, with that issue and him possibly leaving after 1.5 years it's probably not worth it if you have to give up a solid piece like Middleton. Also, even if he resigns along with Jabari's extension they'll have like no cap space to find an adequate shooter to replace Middleton. Will have to get lucky with a draft pick to fill that void. Granted, Boogie can shoot and Jabari is getting better and better at it so the spacing could still be ok

Maybe if you toss in a second #1 it helps them consider, but SAC is going to assume those picks are in the 20s so won't put much value on it. And Middleton is coming off a terrible injury that is uncommon so not many know how he'll come back. I don't necessarily think that offer is terrible or unfair or anything. But just knowing Boston is sitting there with so much more to offer leads me to believe it's not getting done without Jabari. I mean, one BKN unprotected with one of Crowder/Bradley basically beats it, assuming they throw in an Olynic/Zeller type as well.

Sorry, i was referring to the Marlins owner. Getting back to the original point of the thread, should have made it clear.

And of course the stadium deal was a scam. But what did he do the first year, he went out and bought several big free agents to try and win. Yes it didn't work but he did try. Then when they weren't winning he ditched the bad contracts for prospects, probably the smart move and has been a competitive team most years since. Aside from all the shady business deals you hear about with him the actual baseball team operations has been far from the worst.

Yea no way to get Cousins without giving Jabari in my opinion. And really Boston is so loaded in assets I don't see anyway to outbid them, assuming they want him. They have their key pieces in place, just need to sort out the disater at the C position in the next couple years and get the right combo of bench pieces and they're ready to contend as soon as LBJ slows down a little bit.

I agree 1000% Guys if you haven't watched the NBA in a while but generally like basketball I'd give it another shot. It's nothing like it was 10 years. Game is more wide open and there is talent on almost all teams now, really any team other than Brooklyn at this point. The league is loaded right now and they've tweaked the rules enough to make it more appealing, no more slow down and beating each other up and playing one on one. And most importantly, MKE finally has a budding superstar that is incredible to watch, no better time than now to hop on the Bucks wagon. And the tankfest you probably heard about 3-4 years ago is over now, everyone is trying to win now. But of course tanking will happen later in the season to jostle for draft position. But frankly I don't see what those teams were doing as any different than what the Brewers have been doing the last 1.5 years, or what Houston and Cubs did.

I made the same point when LaRussa made the hall. All the players that have won titles for Larussa aren't allowed in, but he is. Makes no sense.

Good post Patrick. Really laid it out in a way I never really took the time to think about. It's tough to remember back to the 80s when they were a solid team for a good stretch. Maybe I'd adjust my adjective from horrible down to poor/bad, something like that.

I believe they got darn close to doing something like that last deadline involving Dwight Howard. The politics of the Bucks front office is tough to figure out, I don't recall for sure who was supposedly pushing for what. But to the best of my memory it was Kidd pushing for the trade and the owners had to veto it, which is what seemingly has led to Kid having less personnel power. My guess is Hammond was on the side of not doing it, I really think if he wasn't saddled with tinkering owners (old and new) that he'd have been a much better GM. Seemed like a lot of times he probably knew better but had to appease their desires or would get overruled by an idiot like Kidd. But who knows, there's so many conflicting reports that you don't know who is responsible for what. Just wish they had a real Basketball Ops/GM with complete control, too many chefs in the kitchen imo.

OK, so your take is that he should have preemptively picked a fight about PEDs before it was an issue to the public? Knowing that there was just a strike a couple years earlier. No way he or anyone should have been looking to pick a fight over it when everyone was having a blast enjoying the HR races. He should've came in after that positive vibes and rained on everyone's parade and potentially risked a strike/lock out right as everyone was getting back into the swing of baseball again? No, with that kind of negative publicity so soon after the strike there's a very good chance all the financials and stadiums would not be where they are right now. But you can believe whatever fairy tail you want that he would've been able to do anything about it while going up against the strongest union in sports if it helps you sleep on your moral high ground about PEDs. Or the fairy tail that the strike never happened and didn't put massive fear into people like Selig that the bottom could fall out on this thing. Or that the other major changes, salary tax to start the slope towards a salary cap or competitive balance of some kind, wild card and inter league were not net positives overall. Don't get me wrong, I see the point on PEDs that he could've pushed the envelope earlier and I hate how they have kind of overdone it afterwards with these kind of witch hunts that keep the negative story at the forfront of coverage. Just saying it's not nearly as cut and dry as you make it out to be, he's not an emperor like Goodell with complete power to do what he wants. He had the strike lingering just a couple years earlier and the most powerful union against him. He decided to play it safe and keep the money flowing, which in my opinion was the right call. And frankly I just prefer the route of personal responsibility, and that is on the players. I acknowledged the ASG, that's one dumb thing. and I know that he was a terrible owner.

Selig is to blame for the PEDs, that's just funny. The players union fought testing every step of the way until the public outcry was too much to overcome, the players and their union were responsible. But yea, Selig should've had another strike/lockout just a few years after the other one which did big time damage. As much as people don't want to admit it, steroids saved baseball. Selig was an amazing Commish overall. Wild card, inter-league play, never been in a better financial situation, new stadiums for almost every team, at least made the first steps in competitive balance with the tax. Frankly the only thing he did wrong was the stupid making the ASG decide home field. Other than his loyalty and determination to keep the team in MKE his overall operations as owner (and his daughter) were pretty bad though, no denying that

Not sure you can say that for yesterday. Even with that lead they were not running it up the gut on 1st and 2nd down, and only throwing on 3rd when they have to. They were consistently passing on 1sts and taking deep shots, kind of the opposite of conservative. Honestly with that lead playing it safer on O probably would've worked better as they probably would've ran 2-3 more minutes off the clock. For D, that's really not his call. I'm all about more blitzing at all times though. But with a lead like that, if you're not bringing 5 you might as well just bring 3 and drop another guy in the middle to try and help out the crappy DBs. It's a can't win with our fans though, if you blitz and a DB gets burned for a quick long TD then everyone will bash how dumb they are for leaving crappy DBs on island. If you play conservative and they pick you apart 10 yards at a time they complain to, tough for our fans to remember the other team is trying to win as well.

Yup, the chink in their armor down the line is starting pitching (obviously wasn't last year and unlikely this year too). But Arrieta/Hendricks were both kind of lucky revelations to be this good. And now they'll have to decide whether to give a 31 yr old pitcher like 7/180 or whatever he's going to command. while also knowing they have the back end of Lester's deal coming up and what looks like an albatross in Haywards deal. [sarcasm]Basically I see no way the Brewers aren't the team to beat in 2018, at least 2019.[/sarcasm]

Well you should have both for at least 5 more years just based on the way NBA contracts work out. Have to think Giannis will have loyalty to MKE for taking a shot on him and the way they've helped out his family. Jabari obviously has ties to Chicago but MKE is the next closest thing to his hometown, so that's a plus. I'd be more worried about management screwing up the build around them though, and wouldn't really blame them to leave if that's the case. The Plumlee contract is a perfect example of just horrific management that might snakebite them down the line. That deal has basically made the Bucks capped out for the next 4 years. Having that terrible contract could cost them a key role player they need at contention time.

Probably technically not quite right now vs Ray/Dog prime. But they certainly project to be, basically because Giannis is borderline top 10 already and he can't even shoot. He should be a top 5 player even if he never learns to shoot and the best player if he does, so pairing him with anyone near all-star level should trump Allen/Robinson who weren't anywhere close to that level themselves.

I'm still completely shocked the UW D imploded like it did. I think they got the final four correct. I struggle to put in a team that lost by 40 points to anyone, especially when they have one more loss than their competition.

Sure Shaw is controllable I just don't think he's anything more than just a blah starter. Would rather have upside. Who knows, maybe he'll blow up and be more than that, I just don't see it and figure we'll be hoping some of our other prospects supplant him in the next couple seasons. But it's fine, it's not the worst thing to put out a more competent team right now, I enjoy being competitive like they were last year. I just figure a guy like Perez could be just as competent.

Seems like an ok return. To nitpick though I think I'd have rather taken another prospect rather than Shaw. Sure he helps make the MLB team more respectable the next couple years but I don't see the difference between winning 71 and 74 games the next two years. Would rather have kept owning the future. Especially since we seemingly had a respectable 3B in Perez. Who knows, this could be the precursor to Braun trade though, so Shaw or Thames would get some PT in LF.

Middleton's injury was very severe. I probably wouldn't even bother with him coming back this year, give him the extra 5-6 months and make sure he gets as close to 100% as he can, which never might be the case. Positive is that he's not super reliant on athleticism so it's not huge if he loses a bit, it's all about shooting for him.

I think this nails their thinking. Carter is what he is, and that's not a bad guy to have during rebuild as he's entertaining and competent. But he's not all of a sudden going to improve in any real way. They figure worst case is similar value and best case that he is way better (lightning in a bottle) and while you get to win some extra games and enjoy that, you can also trade him next year for something of real value. Chances are you're never getting anything more than a fringe prospect back on Carter.

Keep Matthews over Cobb? No thanks. Good luck getting Jordy Nelson to take a salary cut and no way they are releasing him. He still looks primed for a 1,000 yard season coming off injury and amounts for 1/3 of the Packers TD passes(leads NFL). He is still putting up #1 receiver stats. I don't see the Packers cutting into Rodger's weapon arsenal. I agree, really the only problem on O is offensive line and the injuries to it and the RBs.. And even with that their passing game is so good they still score a ton of points. Really at times I'd wish they don't even waste time running the ball, like early in last nights game. Seemed several times it would be runs on 1st and 2nd and then Rodgers has to save the day on 3rd. When they get down in these games and they just go all pass they really can't be stopped, why not just do that right away? I would like to add a shifty, 3rd town receiving type back though (Unless they like montgomery in that role going forward I guess). Don't see the need for two similar guys in Lacy/Starks. But if you have both of them the 3rd guy should be a change-up type, James White, sproles, etc types.

Shields is going to be forced to retire the way it sounds, so that money will come off. I don't see how they can let Cobb go though. He's still a great slot guy and 10mil per year isn't crazy and is only 26. And really as much punishment he's taken for us over the years he deserves that money. As much as we want to complain about the O it's really the least of their problems. Still putting up 25 or more most games and Rodgers playing poorly in our eyes is still at 25/7. Yes not the ungodly numbers of the past but still really good. I just remember years ago when they ran so many more slants and deep crosses and the guys were often wide open. I now see the Cowboys/Pats play and their guys are just wide open, seems some improvement on play design has to be available and that's maybe where bringing back the old OC could help.

The old offensive coordinator who left to be the Dolphins head coach is now like TE or OL coach for the Colts (or someone, I could be wrong on Colts). No reason not to get him back and fire/demote Bennett. Maybe get another mind in there on offense so it's not just all on McCarthy and Rodgers. Get the gang back together so to speak