Bobthe4th

Seems wrong counting Danny Jansen as a prospect when he's our starting catcher! Still has rookie eligibility so I guess it's OK.

FWIW Harper only had a WAR of 3.5 this season. IMO he'll bounce back next year in the right situation but it's still a bit concerning.

Donaldson sneaks in at 23rd, this season has probably cost him millions.

Most fans would prefer to hear stories from the good old days.

Haven’t seen it mate.

Haha, that's the League Cup which is the 3rd competition in England so I rarely pay attention until the later rounds. Interesting fact - the Burton manager is the son of the greatest ever Nottingham Forest manager. If you're genuinely interested you could watch the film the Damned United (stars Michael Sheen as Brian Clough), which tells the story of when Clough took over at Leeds United (my local team). A rare excellent sports film.

This might just be speculation though.

Yeah agents do much more than simply negotiate your next contract. They are basically a buffer between the player and any non team organised merchandising, advertising, sponsorship, legal, press etc and in many cases will give financial investments / management advice. Contract negotiations are just the most high profile part of an agent's role.

Bayern are one of the teams that often play friendlies in North America so you might get the chance to see Davies play for them in Canada one day! I've been to about 50 English grounds, including the majority of the big teams, and most of the top European ones. Real Madrid's Bernabeu is the best stadium I've seen a game at, but Bayern's Allianz Arena is easily in my top ten. The biggest gaps I want to fill are Newcastle's stadium, Ajax (haven't seen them live either), Benfica's Estadio de Luz, and Celtic. I'd also love to go to the Maracana in Brazil and Boca Juniors' La Bombonera, but I'm not sure that I'll ever get the chance to go to Rio or Buenos Aires.

I support Darlington who are currently playing in the 6th division of the English league system. Historically we've usually been a 4th division team (the lowest level of English league football) - but after we went out of business a few years ago we had to start again all the way from the non-league (i.e. semi professional) 9th division. It's my Dad's fault I support them - he used to watch them in the late 60's with my grandfather as they were the nearest team to where they lived at the time. The one bonus of supporting such a terrible team is that I really appreciate watching top level football live - a lot of fans of big teams take it for granted. The first Premier League game i ever went to was a 0-0 draw between Leeds and Ipswich. I remember coming out of the ground enthusing about the skill of the players while the rest of the crowd were grumbling about what a boring game it had been! I've since been (often with my Dad) all over England and Europe to watch teams play at the highest level, while also getting to up to 5 Darlington games a season.

Suarez pen makes it 2-0 already in the Classico - I bet the Madrid manager wishes he'd never left the Spain job!

With Ronaldo now at Juventus, Messi breaking his arm means that this weekend's Barcelona vs Real Madrid game will be the first with both missing in over 10 years!

Tabla has a bright future and will likely be sent on loan to another European team to play in a more competitive league (the Dutch league is a common destination for La Liga prospects) as he plays for Barcelona's B (reserve) team. I didn't realise until now but he recently decided to play for Canada rather than Ivory Coast - a great sign as Ivory Coast have been one of the stronger African teams over the last 10-15 years. I know less about David, but Belgium is a very good league to gain experience in - high quality coaching, record of developing prospects, and it's in the 2nd tier of European leagues so full of good quality players. IMO Canada (and USA) will continue to develop young players because so many kids play "soccer" in North America. If Canada can field a half decent team and go on a run when co-hosting the 2026 World Cup the popularity will explode, and there's a chance we'll see the kind of growth that Japan and especially South Korea had after they hosted in 2002. FWIW in 2026 Tabla will be 27, David 26 and Davies 25 - all right at the peak of their careers if they continue to develop.

More like contract length - Leonard is likely gone in a year. Though even the biggest DeRozan fan must recognise Kawhi is the better player.

Against the Astros, the Red Sox started Sale, Price, Porcello and Eovaldi, and the bullpen included Kimbrel - that's better than the vast majority of teams and is pushing top 5. It's not like the Astros were playing the Orioles.

According to the Boston Herald and Deadspin, Sale was joking about the belly button ring.

Most sources (including our own front office) have us top 5 minimum.

The Mets are putting forward a guy as the best example of an off the field role model out of all the Mets players, who 2 years ago hospitalised his wife by throwing her through a glass door. And you’re saying you can’t see why that might be considered controversial? Really? Again, he may well have been an amazing role model since then and if evidence of that comes out great. On the face of it, when you first heard the news I find it unlikely you didn’t think it was at least notable and worth a discussion.

Well if you read the article the other 29 teams voted for a player heavily involved in charities, the Mets appear to have voted for Reyes due to him being old! That alone is a bit odd - when you add in that he beat up his wife just 2 years ago which resulted in a MLB ban and him being released from the Rockies, it seems inappropriate. Maybe he has made a big effort to be a good example with the Mets, but are you really surprised that him being nominated for an off the field role model award is controversial?

Yeah, how they can complain that "emotion and energy" is being taken out of the game by banning take out slides and deliberately taking out the catcher, but then the same people moan about bat flips or celebrating? That's just "it wasn't like this in my day". OK there's a grain of truth in too many relievers slowing the game down, but it's not like baseball has ever been a fast paced non stop game even when starters would regularly go 7 to 9 innings. One point I could understand if they did make changes - limiting shifts. In the short form of cricket (i.e. the 20 or 50 overs a side formats) there are fielding position restrictions to encourage attacking, exciting play. Sport is first and foremost an entertainment, so some sort of restriction on shifts wouldn't be unprecedented to allow players more chance to get the ball in play. The counterpoint is players should be able to react to shifts, and young kids learning the game now might be able to adjust better so long term the shift could create more dynamic hitters and be good for the game. Also the complaining about modern baseball just being too repetitive (a moot point, baseball by its very nature is repetitive) doesn't mesh very well with then moaning about the shift because players are not standing where they are supposed to!

I hope you're joking because that is stupidly dangerous (unless you were stuck in a traffic jam). Hands Free Texting Is No Safer to Use While Driving