TruffleShuffle

yeah but seriously, 90% of the people in that thread thought the signing was completely ridiculous.

Illinois is not going to push PSU all over the field. Our defense is too fast and too strong. For all the Mike Hart praise during the game last weekend (seriously if Nessler and Griese wanted to ask him out, couldn't they have just done it after the game?), he only averaged 3.5 yards per carry. I'm not sure who is going to win yet - it probably depends on whether Morelli plays like crap or not - but I'd be very surprised if Illinois wins by more than a touchdown. Austin Scott probably won't be on the field to give Illinois the ball once or twice, either.

Because your conference is a proxy for your penis. fixed Looks like you're in trouble. do they make pills to enhance your big ten?

Because your conference is a proxy for your penis. fixed

Agreed, one of the best moments of Cubs games is Soriano's smile. my "best moment of cubs games" is lou's handshakes

you're taking a vacation to chicago, and if the cubs happen to be playing you'll probably catch a game or two

Just for fun... Classic Geovany Soto minor league angst (regular) Premium Where the "Geovany Soto" craze began! (regular) Premium These are as funny as the Rich Hill minor league threads from 2006.

i'd like to take credit for the minor league "geovany soto" thread as well, and for ripping jim hendry bright and early for the blanco signing

Gotta give Lou some credit, there are a lot of managers who wouldn't shift so much playing time to a guy who spent most of the year in the minors, and would just stick with the "proven veteran" during the stretch run. By the way, here's an article: Get to know... Geovany Soto.

murton, marmol, rich hill, pie, marshall, theriot and soto aren't signed for next year, what are the cubs thinking???

okay honestly i kinda suck so if you can find 11 people who are competent players, i should be left off. i pretty much play the "he won't hurt you too much" defense.

rich hill learned to throw strikes and was lights out for a year and a half in the minors. jack cust has a .947 career ops. apples and oranges.

he sounds like Eddie Murphy's impression of a white guy YES EXACTLY

right, but he also didn't realize that talent for several years. Jorge Cantu and Jonny Gomes were mentioned earlier in this thread, but they were young guys directly up from the D-Rays minor league system. Even a guy like Jack Cust isn't this surprising - a lot of people thought Cust could hit at the big league level, he just never got a real chance. Pena is a guy who was under the control of three teams last year, was basically invited to D-rays camp for nothing, and then played like one of the best players in baseball this year. I just consider it any interesting case, because obviously if you can find a guy who is ready to break out like him, you have yourself in incredible bargain. I was just wondering if there was anything in his numbers, or anything that scouting could have told us, to suggest that he could be a very good player.

.305/.403/.537 That'd only make him the best hitter on our team this year. Yeah, it's a real good thing we didn't pick him up. He wouldn't have been better than the crap we've had from CF or RF a good chunk of this season. nah, he would've picked a fight with zambrano and pushed lou piniella down a flight of stairs

A lot of folks on this board follow baseball pretty closely, but some don't. And while Tampa Bay was, as always, God-awful this season, Carlos Pena has been one very bright spot for them. Coming into today's games, he ranked as follows in the American League: OBP - 9th (.398) SLG - 3rd (.597) OPS - 4th (.995) OPS+ - 5th (156) HR - 2nd (40) RBI - 4th (112) Runs Created - 5th (115) He had more RC/G than Pujols, should definitely win the AL Silver Slugger for 1B, and has arguably been the best first baseman in baseball in 2007. This is pretty stunning for a guy who was with four organizations (Detroit, NYY, Boston, Tampa) in the span of a year. So my question is, did the Tigers/Yankees/RedSox give up on him too early? I do think the Tigers gave up on him too quickly. He had a .241/.338/.472 line (112 OPS+) which is nothing amazing for a first baseman, but not awful either. He showed some increase in power and patience from the previous year as well. In 2005 he was horrible early in the year and was farmed out, where he raked to a .949 OPS. When he was recalled, he put up a 1.007 OPS in 38 games. One would have thought that this would earn him the first base job for 2006, but it went to Chris Shelton, while Pena was cut from the organization in spring training. He was okay with the Columbus Clippers in 2006, but they were sort of forced to release him on an agreement with the Yankees that if another team offered him a major league contract, they'd let him take it. He didn't spend much time with the Red Sox - not enough for any sort of evaluation. Was there any way to see this (2007) coming? I don't really mean being one of the three best 1B in baseball, because that was such a leap that nobody could have seen it coming. Obviously, he's probably the biggest bargain in all of baseball this year. I think it's an interesting study, to determine whether this was in any way foreseeable, or if it's just a complete fluke.

those are some BAD numbers against wainwright. Keep it up brew crew!

i'm not that fast, but i'm smart and can play good positional soccer. Put me on the back line. I can help out in front of the net on corners because i'm 6'4", and 6'7" when i jump.

i hope that the cubs have a good announcer if they make the playoffs

mark prior definitely makes my top 5, but i didn't count him because he's not on the active roster. I'd probably have put him at #3, making my list rich hill geovany soto. prior howry ARam

well, at least us losing actually matters to the brewers - in terms of playoff implications. When we lose to any team other than the White Sox, it does nothing for the white sox.

how'd you photoshop the head of charlie weis onto the body of mark mangino?

you should change the other one Florida is favored by 18.5... it's a mismatch.

I think it's safe to say that Lieutenant Frank Drebin is primarily responsible for the arrogant showboating of today's umpires.