brtjohns

lil 5 does a lot of good -- the race, raising money for charity, bloomington's economic impact, temporarily relieves students from the stresses of college courses, new friends and relationships are made, etc.  then you consider a hugely popular, easily accessible college event like this will undoubtedly attract sociopaths who plan ahead for it, of course the potential for tragedy(ies) is high.  i dont think lil 5 should be discontinued, however it's obvious safety & security needs to be bolstered and enhanced, and campus marketing departments need to do a better job of informing and reminding students on common sense practices, like never traveling alone and a proactive plan to get home.  the recent "it's on us" campaign isnt strong enough.  maybe produce and disseminate on campus a graphic and emotional psa like seen for seat belts and drug od.

we win just one of the remaining four events, we re-take the cup (that nobody truly cares about).

your projected class, ala your hunch, best guess from what you've gathered over the months.  thanks in advance.

i'd take blackwell over bridges.  most hoping to see carr, stevens, blackwell, davis.  pap, whats your projected class?

my passion for iubase runs deep, but i must say our uniforms are goddamn hideous.  all of them expect the field of dreamers.  definitely havent seen a team with an uglier collection of uniforms than us.

it's a safer bet in baseball than football and basketball.  not as much in-game influence.  all of the traits that make a good baseball coach, head or not, lemo grades high.  i didnt like the hire, i loved it.

dont think it was a fad.  this up-and-down season seems to be a product of a transition year.  i'm confident that this completely new, highly revered coaching staff will perpetuate this program as annually formidable with the occasional contender.  they adjusted the offensive game after losing xbh and clutch machines schwarber, travis and demuth.  some great position prospects in the next two classes will join sowers, dedelow, pasteur, cangelosi, eustace, etc.  lemonis enjoyed the last two seasons in the college world series with louisville, which largely consisted of players he recruited and helped develop.  for me, the pitching going forward is more a question mark than the hitting, especially next year's, though i'm relieved when i hear college baseball coaches, analysts and writers cant praise bunn highly enough.  his track record does speak for itself.  it looks as if we will give up a lot of runs next year though.  likely and most notably returning is morris, hobbie, bell, barager, hart, stadler, foote and belcher, all of whom except belcher and bell are either inconsistent or plagued by injury, though even belcher is starting to show signs of inconsistency and perhaps fatigue.  i dont think next year's class brings much pitching, at least to help next year.  2 of the top 5 '15 pitching prospects in indiana are actually going to louisville, recruited by lemonis.   essentially our only chance now for a regional bid is to win the b1g tournament.  i wouldnt put it past this team to get hot down the stretch and pull it off.  just ask louisville, kentucky, fullerton and stanford.  put your rally caps on.

a little bit of needed iubase positivity:   Royals Baseball ‏@HSE_Baseball Matt Gorski goes 2-4 tonight with a home run and a double...then he committed to @HoosierBaseball! Pretty good night!   second baseman.  not sure where he's rated.

seems clear he's going pro and honestly i'd make the same decision.  thanks for choosing to rep the hoosiers and all the hard work, yogi.  go-time rojo.  desparate now for another point...

  krupa update: 28 games, 109 ab  --  .495/.526/.761, 2 hr, 9 doubles, 7 triples, 37 runs, 13 sb

in d1b's projected field of 64 published yesterday, 5 big ten teams are included which I believe would be a record.  no indiana.  have maryland winning the btt.  terps and illinois given a 1-seed, nebraska and iowa a 2, osu 3.  notable as well, louisville is their #2 national seed, c of c and long beach st 2, call state fullerton 3, and ball state 4 on an auto bid.  tracy smith's sun devils get the #7 national seed.

7 losses in the past 10.  there's no doubt about it now, this year's team plays down or up to the level of the opposition.  dont like our ncaat chances at the moment, bizarre for a team that won 8 of 10 vs louisville, cal state fullerton, stanford, kentucky and college of charleston, the latter 3 neutral or away.  i see us at 30-32 wins heading into the btt for which the top 8 teams qualify.  if the regular season indeed plays out that way, decent+ chance we'd have to win it to play in a regional.  just getting to the conf tournament will be a major task with 6 games at illinois and maryland, then closing vs ohio state.  the pitching staff needs to recalibrate, defense be sharper and lineup put it all together with more consistency.  this team has the potential to be great, evidenced by those big wins.  dont think anybody expected that many big wins after losing 4 all-americans.  for that same reason, along with playing under a new coaching staff, the inconsistency isnt shocking.  doesnt make it hurt any less.

oh, good to see another braves fan here.  maybe I reignite the 'braves banter' thread.  I remember it being everybody's favorite.   sorry that's ot.  back to cards, who were just placed 3rd on baseball tonight's power rankings, and as i've seen in several places, the pick to win it all.

the trade for miller and jenkins was wise just to get something out of j-hey at that point in time they didn't have the resources or a realistic plan to resign him.  they do now.  36 mil, potentially more, will be coming off the books following this season.  the money and outfield opening will be available to sign him to a similar 8yr/135m contract we just gave to his former roommate.  we could offer more if he earns it but if he's looking for 8yr/172 or so mil as people have speculated, he hasn't quite earned that up to this point.  there's no way we could or should have offered him that in the offseason, which is why the trade was a no-brainer.  however, if he produces a great season in 2015 and cardinals dont retain him, braves will be in the picture, probably even at that kinda price.  of course, bankees will have their say.  it's an uphill climb for anybody to out-recruit them.  depends on j-hey's preferred destination.  it became apparent in the offseason that he and wren weren't pals.  seemed like none of the players liked wren with his reportedly creepy-ish pep talks and texts.  the young and cool, budding star, theo epstein II john coppolella will likely be the gm next year.   the upton contract was disastrous from the beginning.  I remember debating with obatskii on the old hsn how awful and unearned it was.  wren astoundingly gave an all-star contract to a statistically below average player in each of the prior 4 years to it.  such a high-risk move, all potential.  I knew it would cuff us and lead to undesirable positions down the road.  wren did a number on this franchise with poor money and roster management.  his extension to johnson was about as bad.  I didn't agree with the kimbrel extension either.  j-hey could easily still be here, and he's the type of player fans want to see as a lifer.  his departure really hurt.

well, in case you couldn't tell from last night, y'all are gonna love love love j-hey and probably cry, as I did last night, if he leaves st louis in the offseason.  he plays the game the right way.  there's only one facet of the game I can think of he's not either good or elite.  a pro's pro in the way he carries himself.  top 20 position player in baseball imo.  if he puts it all together at plate that'll rise to top 5.  he's only 25 years old, still growing as a player.   I hope cards dont resign him.  following yesterday's trade it seems we actually have a legit shot at bringing him home, if he'd be interested.  I think he would like to return to his home state and reunite with freddie and simba.

~80 mil.  it'll raise 20-25 next year.  here's some 2016 free agents braves might be interested in:  heyward, fowler, a jackson, pearce, gordon, cespedes, c davis, price, cueto, greinke, j zimmerman, samardzija, street. also have like a dozen promising pitching prospects, some of which will undoubtedly be trade bait.  

yep, uggly's on the gnats which warmed all of our hearts.  still owe him 13.2 mil.  wonder if the padres are eating upton's contract.  i sure as hell hope so if they're getting the best reliever in the game.  uggly's contract is off the books following this season, and if muj's is as well, that'll make for a fun offseason.   i like this trade if the padres ate both contracts.  got back a couple nice prospects and a the 41st pick.  that makes 5 picks in the top 90 of the upcoming draft.  braves front office has to admit they're in rebuild mode now as they've been hesitant to do.  i've been fully on the trade kimbrel train.  we gave him a 4y/42m extension last offseason.  thats way too much for a closer, no matter matter how filthy.  you dont pay someone that handsomely who performs one inning of about a third of games, especially when you have a mid payroll.  wren was awful.   j-hey for braves center field 2016!   edit: Mark Bowman ‏@mlbbowman The Padres will be responsible for all of the $46.3 million Upton is owed over the final three years of his contract.   :dancer: :good:

muts could be solid, actually. gnats are loaded. their pitching is just absurd. darlins might have the best offense in the division, probably best chance to dethrone them. fillies are gonna suck hard. braves...will be good a year or two from now, have the potential to make things interesting this year. i'm excited to watch an offense that wont strikeout every other at bat. i'll probably cry tonight as i watch j-hey make highlight reel catches in a cardinals uniform. then the thought of justin upton not in a braves uniform will make me smile. then i'll cry again knowing our two highest paid players this year are melvin upton jr and dan uggla.

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