trwi7

Why are people getting all up in arms against Michael Young? The guy averages at least a hit per game played, WOULD likely take a huge pay cut at 37, and could probably fill in some injury-plagued year at another position; kind of an insurance policy. I for one, would be WAY more willing to have a clubhouse guy like Young over trading even a mediocre prospect for Ike Davis. He's old, worse than in-house options and more expensive. Michael Young also can't play any position effectively anymore. PADMY is baseball inside joke for a reason.

I just don't get it. You're going out and looking at Michael Young when you have a cheaper and likely better guy who is going to play the Michael Young role in Sean Halton. It's just absolutely mind boggling.

We're eyeing Michael Young http://www.hollyscoop.com/sites/hollyscoop.com/files/Cryinggifs_01_1.gif

You're moving away from the biggest base of ticket buyers. Atlanta is moving towards theirs. It makes no sense.

Let me be clear. I have no problem trying to trade for him. I have a major problem overpaying to get him.

The suburbs that are already voting against any public financing?

Overpaying for a first baseman would be about the dumbest thing we could do at this point.

Wish we would've gotten in on that with one of our relievers.

In addition to being an awful defender, he's lost the power that made him semi-valuable. Pass.

Not if he doesn't earn his extra $8 million in incentives. It was still a brilliant move because the Mariners offered him almost as much guaranteed money as he could've made in incentives with the Brewers.

The Mariners offered $2 million more guaranteed.

Really? Because every time I see a tweet from him, it always ends up being wrong (when it can be confirmed by legit sources).

For serious?! Because I could easily imagine seeing blue text with that. Yeah, saw it on the tweeter but it was so many tweets ago I don't feel like going back to look.

Mariners plan on playing Hart in right, Morrison at 1st and Smoak DH. That is not going to end well.

I really hope they just go with Francisco and Halton instead of doing some stupid trade or signing for Morrison, Davis or Loney.

I wouldn't even entertain Pena for Davis. I'd rather just go with Francisco, get similar production and keep Pena.

Okay, this is hilarious. Mystery team offers 9/225, Mariners up their offer to 10/240, then realize they were the mystery team

He was the scouting director here. How can we give him too much credit when he was responsible for Braun, Hardy, Gallardo, Fielder, Weeks, Hart etc.? Sure he sucks as a GM but he wasn't doing that here.

I think you would be the only one.

I don't see why Seattle would need to add another prospect. I'd take Paxton and Franklin and run away.

No, the "seeded" teams in Pot 1 are the top ranked teams in the world (except Brazil who is 10th but they're in there because they're the hosts). And you don't want teams who have been playing each other in qualifying to play each other in the group stage. What fun is watching USA/Costa Rica again when they just played each other in qualifying so I understand why they put teams in Pots based on geography. And if we're doing this why not just send the top 32 in FIFA's rankings to the World Cup? Kick out Iran, Australia, Japan, Cameroon etc. but I'm fine with this. At least with this you have a luck of the draw scenario and not a you're biased towards this country, why do you hate us? Why are we put in this group? That would also lead to possible bribery as well, not really something people need. You think people aren't ecstatic about the 2010 Final rematch between Spain and The Netherlands as the first game of Group B? That's an awesome matchup. I'm just going to go through the rankings to show how close these teams really are and how there are no "easy" groups except those with teams ranked in the 40s and 50s. Group A Brazil 10th Croatia 16th Mexico 20th Cameroon 51st Group B Spain 1st The Netherlands 9th Chile 15th Australia 59th Group C Colombia 4th Greece 12th Ivory Coast 17th Japan 48th Group D Uruguay 6th Costa Rica 31st England 13th Italy 7th Group E Switzerland 8th Ecuador 23rd France 19th Honduras 41st Group F Argentina 3rd Bosnia-Herzegovina 21st Iran 45th Nigeria 36th Group G Germany 2nd Portugal 5th Ghana 24th USA 13th Group H Belgium 11th Algeria 26th Russia 22nd South Korea 54th Now I'm not an expert so I don't exactly know how Switzerland and Belgium get to be seeded teams while Portugal and Italy aren't and I'd obviously like the USA to be in Group A, C, E, F or H over the group they're in, it's hard to complain about because you're going to need to knockout some great teams to advance anyways. And since you brought up the NCAA Tournament, let's not act like they're some awesome group who know how to rank teams. First example that came to mind was the 2004 tournament where the Badgers, at 24-6, winners of the Big Ten tournament and top 10 ranked were a 6th seed and placed against 3rd seed and 6th ranked Pittsburgh in the 2nd round of the tournament. Granted that game was in Milwaukee but you don't expect to see two top 10 teams in the tournament facing each other in the 2nd round, that's more like an Elite 8 matchup.

Not a chance the D'Backs give up Bradley for Gomez and Lohse even disregarding the other pieces.

And fwiw and I have no idea how they do these projections, the US has a 39.4% chance to advance while Portugal is at 40.3%. Germany is far and away ahead of every team in the group with a 91.6% chance to advance. So while it will be very difficult to advance and we're obviously not in one of the easier groups, it's not impossible and it's basically a toss-up between us and Portugal. http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1639248/spi-world-cup-group-stage-projections?cc=5901 Should add these projections are done by Nate Silver, a guy who kind of knows what he's talking about.

Yes, they literally draw ping pong type balls out of a bowl after the pots are determined. Obviously not 2014 but pretty much exactly the same thing.

Of course we have a chance but it's a really tough group. Germany is ranked #2 in the world, Portugal has a ton of skill and Ghana has knocked us out of the last two World Cups once in the group stage and once in the knockout stage. To say we have no chance is ridiculous. It's not a good chance but it's at least a chance. If you want a team with no chance, look at Australia.