Bobthe4th

I don't think this is correct. According to MLB he only has to be offered back, not that the original team has to accept him: What is a rule 5 draft? "Rule 5 Draft picks are assigned directly to the drafting club's 25-man roster and must be placed on outright waivers in order to be removed from the 25-man roster in the subsequent season. Should the player clear waivers, he must be offered back to his previous team for $50,000 and can be outrighted to the Minors only if his original club does not wish to reacquire him. "

We'll have the option of accepting him back by paying back the $50k we originally received for him. I don't see why we'd not accept him back though.

Even though he’s been on the Giant’s 40 man? Either way we shouldn’t lose sleep over potentially losing him again.

Players tend to be specialists and formations are important. You wouldn’t normally want a natural right back playing left wing for example. If that did happen, the other team would consistently attack that weakness for the rest of the game.

Looks like we’ll be getting Travis Bergen back after he was dfa by the Giants. Not entirely sure if he’ll be eligible for rule 5 again next year but even if he was can’t see him being picked again. As long as we don’t have to add him to the 40 man we might as well keep him.

Smoak is in the announced lineup so it’s probably a reliever sent down.

Depends what you mean as long term, Smoak turns 33 this year and has already peaked.

20/20 should be more popular in North America, it’s a more exciting sport than baseball if you strip away all the history and just watch the game. It’s all about the Ashes right now though, and even I admit you’ll never get North Americans following Tests as anymore more than a curiosity!

Unfortunately the closer we get to league football, the more money is an issue. We had to sell our best striker last season to balance the books.

Our first season in the Northern League we got 100 points, 100 goals, and were breaking attendance records at every ground we went to. It was great!

Honestly though, it’s been fun being a Darlington fan the last few years. As a league two team for most of my life - the first game I ever went to was in the old division 3, we went down that year and stayed in the same division for 20 years until relegation - exciting football was rare. At that level the defenders are infinitely better than amateurs, but any attackers who are any good are snapped up by better teams in higher leagues. When we were in a bad run I once went nearly 4 years (about 10-15 games) without seeing us score! But in lower non-league where the teams are part time and leagues are regional, us as a “real team” can attract crowds of 1,500 compared to the 100-200 average for most teams. So for a builder (for example) who is good at football but doesn’t want to give up his real job for a risky short career as a lower division professional footballer, if he lives in the North East he’s obviously going to want to play in front of a proper crowd. Means we normally have some of the best part time North East players. And at this level the defenders and goalkeepers aren’t very good (if they were they’d easily have full time jobs in the lower divisions) but the attackers are good - so you see lots of goals!

Haha, it’s a long story that involves two administrations, the chairman George Reynolds being pulled over and arrested by police with £50k in the boot of his car, being kicked out of the league, starting again from the bottom of the league pyramid, moving from the arena to Bishop Auckland, 4 promotions in 6 years, and now back in Darlington sharing a small stadium with Darlington Rugby Club!

I agree with all this except for Tellez. I don’t see what we have to lose by dfa Smoak now and give Tellez 1B for the rest of this season and next. An ok veteran 1B will be relatively easy to pick when we are more serious about competing if Tellez never adds anything to his raw power. I’d also keep Vlad at 1B next year though, your plan might involve him moving to 1B for 2020?

Both pointless when the player is s*** /s

Haha, I wish mate!

We didn’t cut Galvis, he was claimed. That said, if no one wants Smoak on waivers then yes might as well DFA then release him.

Lol, he really is, McKinney is awful.

If it was only a money thing that would be pointless. We have one of the lowest payroll commitments in the league next season already.

McKinney is just as bad as Urena. If they are looking for someone to actually play, it should have been Alford or Tellez.

If there were no takers at the deadline, and they think they can’t trade Galvis in the offseason then fine. But this is what pisses me off: Why the f*** is McKinney back up? If they want a s*** player so that Montoyo isn’t going to play him, then why not Urena who is at least an infielder?

Even weirder - although Pujols has never been sent to the minors so technically has all his options left, he has over 5 years service time so would have to consent to be sent down. So effectively he doesn’t have any options left.

Bo’s also played nearly 30 games less than Vlad this season.

Solskjaer is going to get sacked this season, he’s completely out of his depth.