Dutchrudder

It's not really fair to compare team spending right now, need to wait until all the dominos fall and then compare spending. Other leagues are the same way where the big players sign first, then the rest fall in.

Yeah I think waivers should be 24 hours or less when a player is dropped. The nature of NBA scheduling means streaming players could be advantageous some weeks depending on matchups and number of games. I would also recommend waivers for all Free Agents right after the draft, and letting the order be reverse of the draft. Last pick gets first waiver, which might help a team or two early on. Not a big fan of keepers, it's too much advantage to overcome. As Derka mentioned, people will start punting on this season once they lose hope only to shoot for better keepers next year. It will throw things out of whack and could result in some really lopsided BS. I prefer people to be engaged and competitive for the current season.

Uhhh what's with the warmup thing? Was this a problem before? Sometimes you get a guy warmed up in case the opponents might get a base runner, but if that batter gets out, you don't need to swap pitchers. Seems like an overreach by the committee.

The fucking Tuskan Raiders are a nice touch! and I'd like to know more about that Leia...

So much of that is just batshit insane, I can't even think of what the reasoning behind some of it is. They must be really scared of losing the popular vote in Texas this decade if they want to rig the Governor elections with a new EC.

From that link:

Too bad Dallas let him go and then traded for Kyrie instead. What a fuck up that was.

No World Baseball Classic to ruin our Spring Training should be worth a few more wins too. I say 102-60 should be the goal. Did they fix the Minute Maid batters eye though? That alone should be worth 8-10 wins.

I hadn't seen the First Take clip so thanks for digging it up, but I agree with Stephen A here. His comments were very tame, not very animated for him, and in no way attacked her unnecessarily. He correctly blamed her for making it an issue. Surprisingly, that was one of the most grown-up and civil clips I have ever seen from that dumb show. She made the story about her, she created the distraction, and attacked her teams coach in the process. She is lucky she didn't lose her job or press access from LSU over it. I do find it funny that here clapback of him not winning the game had nothing to do with her being late. She claimed a doctor's appointment is why she was a late, which means she would have been late if LSU won. That's a sign of a pathological liar, trying to avoid accountability and focus blame on others. She did apologize, which he noted was the right thing to do, but it was a non-story that never should have happened. There must have been some severe backlash from LSU fans or something else on the side, because nothing in that clip would seem to rock someone's mental well-being. She sounds exactly like a few Surly posters type though, so we may see her show up in some other threads in the future...

Chris Paul being Chris Paul:

Tari Eason should starts

I don't know why it always messes up photos that I copy from Google Photos. I know the image isn't public, but I'm copy/pasting the image, not the link. Anyways, here are those shots:

The Giants GM was quoted as saying they offered nearly the exact same deal as the Dodgers, so I don't think it's the least bit unlikely that other teams offered him 600-700m over 10. "The San Francisco Giants made three offers to Shohei Ohtani, including a final proposal that president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi called "very comparable if not identical" to the record $700 million, 10-year contract the Japanese two-way star agreed to with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers." Are you really arguing that no other team was willing to give him more than 10 for 460m? Because that's not reality, teams like Steve Cohen and the Mets would have gladly signed him for 10/500 at the very least, probably 600+ too. His off-field revenue pays for most of his cost, the issue is with the tax hits he brings, but the deferral limits that to a relatively reasonable amount. Again, coming back to how this is relevant to the Astros, Jose Altuve is in the last year of his deal. He's 34, is still doing really well with his bat, slightly down on fielding this year, but should keep playing 4-5 more years. Why not take a guy like that and apply the same logic to him if he's willing? 5 for 125 with much of it deferred? Why not use this advantage while it's available? Those dollars aren't going to be worth 25m a year in the future, so they might as well use it to maximum effect. As for Bregman, they need to find a third baseman of the future if he's not getting extended. There is no one in the farm system ready to step up into that role. If they can use this tool to extend him and help alleviate some of his cap hit, why not?

Ohtani was going to get north of 600+ million over 10 years. 700m was not out of the question either. They get to pay him 700m in total, while only taking 480m of that in CBT, and I think that's pretty significant. That's a huge break with a 32% discount on his value, which is unheard of in deferral deals. In the past 15% was about the max teams were saving in what counted against the tax, without going insanely overboard like the Dodgers did here. I'm suggesting the Astros take advantage of it before that loophole goes away, or is amended with something sensible like "only 25% of the total contract can be deferred." If you know you want to pay a guy like Altuve, who absolutely deserves it, why not give him a little more, and spread it out over the 2030s when revenues will be significantly higher? It's not like he needs the money, he's earned 160 million+ in the past few years, so sustained income and keeping the team competitive may be worth it to him. He's a team guy, I'm sure he would be interested. Saving 20% on his annual tax hit would allow for more flexibility while the team is still a contender.

He will count 46,081,476 per year for the next 10 years. The 680m deferred to 2034 will be paid annually as 68m payments. He will be paid in full at the end of 2043.

Sooooooooo, what's the realistic Altuve extension going to look like, and how much of it should be deferred? Cause that has to happen this offseason, and spreading out the cash owed during the "down" years in the future seems pretty smart to me. Altuve at 5 for 120 with 60m deferred? Spread out those payments from 2029-2034 and drop his AAV down to about 15m. Then for Bregman, how about 8 for 220 with 120m deferred? Why not? I mean, he's a good player and worth it. You know he probably wants to stay here if he can get paid. Drop his AAV down to 20m and roll with it. The team has plenty of talent to keep making the playoffs at the very least. Grab a few free agents in 25 and keep the ball rolling! If it ends up bankrupting Crane and he's forced to sell the team, well then sucks to be him but it's a risk I'm willing to take. Might as well use this tool while it's available.

I was at the game last night, and wow, that was the ugliest win I have seen in a long time. If they were playing a halfway competent team, it would have been a blowout the other way. Luckily for the Rockets the Spurs are still young and shitty. Glad they got the win, but that felt way too close until about 5 minutes left in the 4th. I think the team was like 5-30 from 3 through the first 3 quarters, they just couldn't hit a bucket. So many shots on both sides rimmed out, it was just an awful shooting night all around. Eason and Jeff Green did great off the bench, and Sengun was pretty good overall. Eason had a lot of nice finishes at the rim, and tons of rebounds. He really fought for those all game, which you love to see in a young player. The defense really stepped it up and held them in check, despite a few BS foul calls against them. That one where Jeff Green didn't touch the 3pt shooter, was challenged, and upheld as a foul was lol-worthy. The Rockets now have the second best defensive rating in the league with a 108, and the best 3pt defense FG%. They are mid at defense in the paint and around the mid-range, but that's probably due to their size. Still very good metrics so far, keeping up with the Twolves in that regard. Team is now 10-1 at home, and 1-8 on the road, and they appear to be the anti-Astros. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they kill Memphis tomorrow night, and lose on the road to them on Friday. Old man rant: The arena music and announcer are way too loud. It's irritating that you can barely hear people sitting next to you during the breaks because they are always blasting some music. They even have some fake DJ booth with a guy pretending to be DJ'ing and trying to hype up the crowd. It's all really dumb, I just want to watch the game, all the other stuff is just distraction. I just happened to snap a picture of this silly no-call play on Sengun: Final score:

I just looked through some of Whitmires voting record in the Texas Leg, and I didn't really see much cause for concern by the folks who think he's a moderate Republican. He's a bit moderate as a Dem, but votes with that group the majority of the time. His big exceptions are mostly related to business and energy bills, primarily ones that provide tax incentives or some sort of economic benefits to big business. That's not really surprising for someone who comes from Texas. Unless I'm missing something here, he seems fairly liberal, and him leaning into the right wing would be a considerable change of character. I really can't understand why moderate Dems wouldn't want this guy to win over SJL, who is basically a worthless grifter. https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/5464/john-whitmire Just a few issues I see him either supporting or pushing back on R legislation: Voted against R Voter Fraud bills, such as more oversight by Sec of State, increasing voter fraud to felony, changes to voting registration rules, etc Seems to support police bills about 50/50 depending on the purpose. I could see some Dems taking issue with some votes there. against school vouchers against anti-trans bills against removing gun permit reqs, against storage of guns on school campuses and places of worship against banning CRT voted for NIL in college sports supported abortion rights for women voted for lowering insulin costs to $50 vote for reforming school standards for reporting sexual violence (note that the Republicans have a majority in the Texas Senate, and every bill they wanted to pass was passed. His votes were mostly unimportant)

I hear he's very frugal too

Start the transformation into FrankenPena now, and in a couple of years he might turn into Barry Bonds!

Hey, Houston also has a nice area called Bellaire!

Well that sucked, glad i missed watching this one. Again, this year is already an overachievement for the team compared to where anyone thought they would be. They have plenty of opportunities to improve in the off-season and be a division favorite next year, and hopefully for the next decade. Let's hope the competitive play this year attracts some free agents that can make the difference, because Houston should have a lot of cap space to burn.

Lebron just won the most difficult NBA In-Season Tournament of all-time! GOAT