BBTV

IMO the best system is in order of when they're eliminated from playoff contention. Then eve if they're tanking, they can play hard for the rest of the season (and it's unlikely that a fringe team would tank from day one rather than once they've seen that they're season has gone sideways.) And because it's all apocryphal since they don't actually show that it's happening. I'm not one of the ones that thinks it's rigged, but it's reasonable to distrust anything that's done in secret behind closed doors.

I honestly don't understand how the difference isn't clear. Spring training is an organized and supervised team activity. It's no different than a fluke injury during BP before a game. That happens. They have to practice to further develop their skills, reduce rust, and get into "baseball shape" to reduce injuries. They don't need to compete and push themselves in this tournament. If you polled 30 GMs, I'd wager close to all 30 would say they don't want their guys there (but would look like a-holes if they blocked them.) I'd say its similar to NHL players in the Olympics, but that's at least the Olympics, and not some fabricated event. Now, after doing some Googling, it sounds like MLB and MLBPA actually proposed this? If that's the case, then that changes things a bit. I'd still prefer for my players to sit out, but if I'm interpreting this correctly and both the league and PA are supporters, then I guess it's harder to argue about it. Per Wikipedia: "The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament. It was proposed' to the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) by Major League Baseball (MLB), the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world. It is one of the two main senior baseball tournaments sanctioned by the WBSC. The tournament is one of the world's most viewed baseball events."

I'm not grumpy, I just think it's a risk that's not in the fans' or teams' best interests - at least not this close to the season. if they did it in warm climates in December or something then maybe I'd feel differently. But yeah that does answer the insurance question. I wish the fans had some insurance if their star player is hurt while not performing for them.

So the balls aren't for the teams? They're literally just numbered 1-14? So out of the 1001, the worst team would own a disproportionate amount of those numbers that say 'pick 1', and then a few more that say 'pic 2', etc. While some combination would say that the best of the lottery teams would pick top 3, but it would only be like one of the 1001 combinations? If that's the case, then they don't really need 14 balls if they aren't really tied to specific teams. Unless 14 is the number it takes to get enough combinations to allow them to do the exact weighting their trying to do.

To clear it up, my post was in resopnse to this, not the rigging part. IIRC, the Pens completely and unashamedly tanked for Lemieux , which was a decade before the lottery existed. I don't recall the exact circumstances behind Crosby, but that's more plausible given the turmoil facing the franchise. Still don't think it was rigged - too many people involved. Regarding the NBA lottery, I found this, which I don't undersatnd: Fourteen ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 will be placed in a lottery machine. There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to their order of selection. Before the lottery, 1,000 of those 1,001 combinations will be assigned to the 14 participating lottery teams. The lottery machine is manufactured by the Smart Play Company, a leading manufacturer of state lottery machines throughout the United States. Smart Play also weighs, measures and certifies the ping-pong balls before the drawing. How does this address the weighting that the bad teams get? I had assumed that teams got an unequal number of balls, and that' show their odds were determined. I'm not sure how this numbering system works if there's only one team per ball.

If guys get hurt playing in this silly exhibition, are they still paid by their MLB clubs? Or is it treated like if they get in some reckless accident in the offseason and have to miss time? Spring training may not mean a lot, but it's at least supervised by the clubs, who have control over pitch counts and playing time. As a season ticket holder, I'd be pissed if my team gets worse because a guy got hurt in what's essentially a vanity project that has nothing to do with the club. Also, the Phillies just gave Tre Turner a $300M contract - I think they have a right to say no to him playing. A player's first professional priority should be to his team. The team's priority should be to its fans. This GoBots version of the World Cup should be down on the list.

Nope. According to "insiders", he had his "agency" go back to the Eagles with one last try, but they had already spent his money since he said no to a better deal before FA started. He deleted some tweets which indicate he's not thrilled with how this worked out. A few ex-players were on the radio today saying that they'd fire their agency immediately if they put any information like that out there on social media, and how it's an agency's job to properly predict the market so a player can make an informed decision. In this case, that agent completely messed up, and the Eagles were right. He played himself. I don't have any ill will for him leaving - he didn't really want to, and honestly he only played her one season and was very good, but not a superstar. And the Eagles only got him a week before the season since New Orleans knew they weren't going to sign him to an extension. There will be another CJGJ - he's not a unicorn.

"New jerseys" could mean literally just that - a new jersey (like an alt.) Could also be a throwback. They're probably simply saying jerseys when they really mean uniforms, but in this era where each team is allowed 18 jerseys to wear over a 17 game schedule, one should not assume.

When has an agency ever done this? It seems like they're really on the defensive (and leaving out a ton of context.) Insiders are saying that the Eagles offered what ended up being a better multi-year deal with something like 16-20 guaranteed, and he said "nah I'm worth more", then by the time he realized there was no market for a safety (even one that lead the league in picks despite missing multiple games), he came back but the Eagles had already spent that money, so they made another multi-year offer and he walked away for less (no idea if it was this deal that the agency posted... this one doesn't really make any sense and as mentioned, leaves out some important details.) But really - do you want your agency tweeting out details like this? Even if the player is behind it, shouldn't the agency be like "bro, we have to negotiate for you again next season and nobody's going to talk to us knowing we leak details"? CJGJ played himself.

I didn't suggest it was rigged.

I think this may be one of those cases of the agent screwing his client. Agent misread the market, client felt disrespected by the offers, ended up signing a lower "prove it" deal than what he could have got to stay on a much better team (not that Detroit won't be good this year, but probably not elite.) His agent is putting out all kinds of info, which 1) agents really shouldn't do since they still have to work with all these teams, and 2) will only be the information that supports the advice he gave his client. Everyone here was getting on Howie for not using the franchise tag, but it turns out he read the market perfectly. The problem was that the agent told CJGJ that he was worth more, so the Eagles moved on and resigned Bradbury (which was a big surprise) and reworked Slay, knowing they'd lose everyone else due to the (yet to be done) Hurts deal.

He had been tweeting (and deleting) about being "disrespected" on the market. What shocks me is that the Eagles wouldn't bring him back at that price, unless he left out of spite. I expect the Eagles to either sign Jalen Mills or draft someone, which is risky since they'll already have an inexperienced guy taking over for Marcus Epps.

Like most, I had never heard of that guy so I had to look him up. Man, what a legacy! 8 seasons, 6 teams! He was so great that apparently every team wanted him. I'm sure it must have been real hard for all those teams to part with him. It's funny that he's so worried about protecting his legacy, without realizing that it was already lost the second he chose that twitter handle.

Maybe... but it'd have to be the version with the Champion font:

Let's assume that most Saints fans agree that the alt is good and the primary sucks. They're still going to sell a lot of primary jerseys simply by default - people are going to buy what the team wears. They're also going to buy the throwbacks because they're cool, and somewhat of a novelty since they're only worn a few times. If they get rid of the primary and elevate the alt, then they're only selling one jersey, and it's no longer a novelty. It's almost like keeping a lousy primary around helps sell more alts, while also selling itself. Of course, there's a simple solution - elevate the throwback, and then come up with a legitimately good alt to take its place.

Looks like its blue check is due to it paying for it, rather than being one of the legacy accounts that were actually verified. If it goes through (and it's reasonable to assume it'll be Harris, whether sooner or later), Harris will own the Sixers, Devils, and Commanders. If you're a fan of multiple teams in either of those cities, doesn't that tick you off some? That the money you're pumping into the Sixers could be indirectly helping the Devils? Or that while you're rooting for the Flyers and Sixers, the Sixers owner is actively trying to bury the Flyers? I know this isn't a unique situation, albeit I can't think of another owner with three teams each in rival cities.

Also, supporting your point, I'll listen to Phillies games on the radio even when they suck, simply because I like the banter between Franzke and Larry Andersen, and i'll listen to Merrill Reese games even in the rare cases I'm not that interested, mostly because of him. But with basketball, does anyone tune into a game just for the broadcaster? I think maybe for basketball, people watch the players and don't need the announcer for anything other than supplementary information? There's not nearly as much time for them to inject much of their personalities into the game as there is in the other sports, so maybe people don't get "addicted" to them like they might with other broadcasters.

I wonder what the average tenure-per-team is for NBA broadcasters vs other sports. For example, on average, is a baseball radio guy with the same team for 9 seasons, while the average NBA broadcaster is with his/her team for 5? I'm in mid 40s, and I've only known : Two Phillies lead TV guys (Harry Kalas / Tom McCarthy), and mostly 2 radio broadcasters (Kalas / Scott Franzke... with a couple of weird Scott Graham seasons in the middle), ONE Eagles announcer (Reese), mostly one Sixers TV announcer (the afore-mentioned Zumoff and now Kate Scott, who I haven't actually listened to yet), and they've had the same radio voice for 25 years. Two Flyers TV/Radio voices (Gene Hart and Jim Jackson, with a few weird Mike Emerick years in the middle.) I think that's why at least here, it's kind of a big deal when one retires or leaves, but I know that type of tenure is probably the exception rather than the rule, though there's certainly other very notable examples of announcers that have been with their teams for even longer.

You're not wrong, but here's two exceptions. Top pics that were by-in-large the catalysts for two separate elite eras.

Can confirm. Any Braves playing

I think Mark Zumoff retiring was (locally) a pretty big deal (albeit not nearly as big a deal as when Gene Hart was replaced or Harry Kalas died or when Merrill Reese and even Scott Franzke eventually go.) Is part of it that NBA games are broadcast not only locally, but also on ESPN, TNT, ABC, and have different broadcast teams on each? So unless your team blows and they're never on national TV, you're listening to different guys all the time anyway? I'm not going to look it up, but I'd bet that out of the 4 major sports, a fewer percentage of NBA games are broadcast only by the local names vs any of the other sports (obviously for NFL I'm referring to radio only.)

Make the USA navy and the uniform (other than the hat) would be acceptable. That hat is something else. Looks better than when they were the American Expos:

I'm so not a fan of head-to-toe mono hockey uniforms. I'm struggling to think of any that look better than the version with white. Red Wings and Leafs are probably the two examples that come to mind first. The pre and early-Edge Flyers were also on that list. All things being equal (which they obviously aren't), I'd like to see a team look its best at home.

Speaking of FAQBs, does Mariotta have anything to offer if he has to play? I remember the Eagles (more specifically, Chip Kelly) trying real-ass hard to draft him back in the day, so I think it was almost destiny that he'd end up here.