TruffleShuffle

Were you guys this upset in 1998 when Sammy Sosa and his 160 OPS+ won the MVP over Mark McGwire and his 217 OPS+? I really don't have that big a problem with Carpenter winning the award. He pitched most of the year, and even though he had a couple of bad starts toward the end that brought his numbers down, he pitched his best earlier in the year when they actually had stuff to play for (division, home field, etc.) Clemens deserved to win the award, but he was the beneficiary last year of an award he didn't really deserve, so it evened out for him.

I stand by my contention that Mossi is the ugliest player in the history of baseball, or at least the ugliest player in the somewhat mass-produced baseball card era (~last 50 years)

Well, I think it was a blowout because Texas is really good. I was probably being generous with the "good" label, but it was a road game... that's the only reason I put it in the good category. In any case, Texas doesn't really need to worry about the classification of its wins as good or not since they're undefeated. Plus, I think the win at OSU is, along with the Miami win at Va Tech, the most impressive victory by any of the contenders I listed.

OK well here's how I look at it... there are a few teams that I think are gimmes: 1. USC -Good wins: @Oregon (blowout), @Arizona State, @ND -Losses: None 2. Texas -Good wins: @Ohio St., @Mizzou, Colorado, Texas Tech, (Oklahoma because they've had problems with them in the past) -Losses: None 3. Miami -Good wins: @Va Tech, @Clemson, Colorado -Losses: @Florida State (First game, close, special teams cost them) 4. Alabama -Good wins: @South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee (kind of), -Losses: None 5. LSU -Good wins: @Arizona State, Florida, Auburn -Losses: Tennessee (fell apart at the end of the game) 6. PSU -Good wins: @Northwestern, Minnesota, Ohio St., Wisconsin -Losses: Michigan (last second TD allowed) That's all the gimmes IMO... here are the cases for the other two spots: Georgia -Good wins: Boise St., South Carolina, @Tennessee -Losses: N- Florida (missing starting QB, close game) Virginia Tech -Good wins: @NC St (being generous with this one), Ga Tech, BC, @WVU, @Maryland -Losses: Miami (not very comptitive) Oregon -Good wins: Fresno State, @Arizona St., Cal -Losses: USC (blown out) Texas Tech -Good wins: @Nebraska or Kansas, I guess -Losses: @Texas (blown out) West Virginia -Good wins: @Maryland, Louisville -Losses: Virginia Tech (34-17) UCLA -Good wins: Oklahoma (sort of), Cal, @Stanford -Losses: Arizona (blown out) Notre Dame -Good wins: @Michigan, Tennessee (Purdue and Pitt suck) -Losses: Michigan State (loss looking worse in retrospect), USC (no shame in this one at all) Ohio State -Good wins: Iowa, Michigan State (sort of), @Minnesota, -Losses: Texas, @PSU (both close) My instinct is that out of the other six, I think the best three are Va Tech, Georgia and Ohio State. I don't think Oregon is really that good, Texas Tech and West Virginia have played joke schedules, and UCLA has been hanging on by its fingernails to win too many games. I actually do think Notre Dame is very good, but its schedule was not really that strong, and the BCS computers have picked up on that. Ohio State only lost two games, and those losses were to the BCS #2 and #5... I also think that the OSU-PSU game was probably decided by PSU having home field advantage. If the game were in Columbus, the score might very well have been reversed. Can you really say that if Oregon, West Virginia or UCLA had hosted Texas and gone on the road to Penn State, those teams wouldn't have all lost those games? I'm going to guess they would have all lost, and most likely by larger margins. Virginia Tech is troubling because they've played a pretty strong schedule and looked very good in a number of games against pretty good competition (Ga Tech, @Maryland, BC and @WV they were never threatened)... but there is, of course, the matter of getting blown out by Miami at home. Is Va Tech really that sloppy and turnover-prone, or did they just have a bad day against the wrong team? I'd probably go with the BCS top 8 at this point - USC, Texas, Bama, Miami, PSU, LSU, Va Tech, Ohio State - and leave Georgia out right now. But, two of Georgia's last three games are against Auburn and then against Georgia Tech, which could move them up. I expect that either Alabama or LSU will drop out of my top 8 after this weekend, and Georgia will move in - assuming they beat Auburn.

Come on, he's ugly and Vargas is ugly, but look above at Don Mossi... are they really that ugly?

I had two guys from my old baseball card collecting days that I thought were really ugly. One was Otis Nixon, but someone already mentioned him. The other was Pascual Perez, but unfortunately I can't find a photo of him. However, there is one guy who should take the cake as the ugliest baseball player of all time: http://www.qualitycards.com/pictures/11679406.jpg http://www.vintagecardtraders.com/virtual/55topps/55topps-085.jpg

This is a post from a particularly knowledgeable poster on a PSU message board... I believe all the information here is on the mark:

Thanks Bears, I am having a sick week in my pro picks contest and the Bears keep the winning going! Only one game wrong - Miami vs Atlanta, and I put minimum confidence on that one.

Speaking of that, my friends and I began preliminary discussions about going to South Bend for the game next year... it would be a really fun trip.

To be quite honest you could make cases for all those teams being more deserving than Notre Dame, right now. However, VT, Georgia and LSU all have shots at missing their conference title game, Wisconsin will probably end up finishing 3rd in the Big Ten behind PSU and OSU, and UCLA will have another loss after the USC game. (Oregon is liable to get screwed if they win out, unfortunately.) IMO you really can't say that a team is more deserving of ND if they can't finish among the top 2 of their conference. And Notre Dame conveniently avoids any possibility of finishing outside the top two in a conference by not joining one

Did anyone catch the end of the OSU-Illinois game? The Buckeyes threw a 40 yard pass attempt at a TD with less than 3 minutes to go and the score of the game 40-2. Guys on the OSU sideline seemed to be looking for a flag on the play. Also, Santonio Holmes was running around before the clock had hit 0:00 holding up his helmet... a few Illinois players justifiably took offense and there was shoving at the end of the game. That reminds me of why I hate OSU more than Michigan or any other college team. You don't kick a team like that when they're down. Tressel is a classless a-hole and most of his players follow his lead.

Penn State looked really good... outcome of the game never seemed to be in doubt. The work they've done against two really prolific RBs (Moroney and Calhoun) was pretty amazing, with Calhoun only getting 38 yds on 20 carries today. They are going to really miss some guys next year - Robinson, Tamba Hali, Zemaitis, Lowry, much of the OL... but this year has been such a great surprise, 1 second from being perfect, and now are just one game from a likely trip to Tempe. I'm pulling for Moo U (Michigan State) next week against Minnesota, although I'm not optimistic about their chances. They're still not bowl eligible, and if they don't win next week, they'll have a lot to play for against PSU - even if it's just a trip to the Motor City Bowl. PSU is the better team, but Moo can always be dangerous and I think that Sparty will make us earn our way to the BCS.

Hey Joe Paterno, shut up. Not because you're racist or anything close to it, but because people will paint your logical comments as being racist.

For some asinine reason, yahoo locks the picks like half a day before the games start. Once I found out Chris Simms was starting I went to change my pick, but unfortunately yahoo survivor football works differently than every football picks or fantasy football thing I've ever done.

Those are fun stats, but I think your methodology is very unfair to running QBs (i.e., Young). For one thing, his passer rating is only marginally below the other guys, but his rushing ability is far better. Yet there's something in for passing rating, but nothing for "running rating" or something along those lines, in which Young would clearly rank first. Also, from what I can tell you've combined total attempts (rushing and passing) and yards (rushing and passing). Since all the guys on your list average at least 8.4 yards per attempt, Young is actually hurt by the fact that he runs the ball so much, even though his rushing average is 7 ypc. Your methodology causes him to rank in this "composite yardage" category, even though he's tied for first in yards per passing attempt, and first by a wide, wide margin in yards per rushing attempt.

120-190 (63.2%) 1835 passing yards 9.7 yds per attempt 16 TD 8 INT 163.65 rating 103 rushes 725 yards 7.0 rushing average 8 rushing TD Basically as many yards and more TDs than any of the other QBs in this discussion... so yes, he belongs.

QB rating: Quinn - 161.87 Leinart - 166.94

Tying machine, da... spelling machine, nyet

Hey I play in a poker tourney with my friends occasionally and it has a $5 buy-in... I guess I'm a criminal as well.

Hahaha I can't wait to hear Yankee fans talk about how great Jeter is, in part because of his two Gold Gloves. These awards are worthless, can we get a defensive award that actually awards good defensive players?

I can't wait for this game. I expect a classic. Of course lately those have become commonplace for Miami-VT. Right. That and PSU vs. WISC are pretty much conference title games. ACC has a title game though this year, right? Let's not get ahead of ourselves... PSU, even if they win, has to travel to East Lansing to face the Spartans. Their laid egg against Northwestern notwithstanding, they've proven in the games against ND, Michigan and Ohio State that they are at least competitive with good teams.

My team is running up the score... I may have victory locked up in the next two weeks, I think :P

Only thing I saw was the recovering player's entire body within the field of play... there was nothing reviewable there.

Unless you're talking about a play other than the one where Basanez was picked, it was returned to around NWern's 20, fumbled, then recovered by NWern, I'm pretty sure you're wrong. My Michigan friend Tivo'ed the game and I'm going over there to watch the Eagles game right now, so I'll check the replay to make sure.

Right, because Michigan didn't get about 2 extra yards on every 3rd down spot in the 2nd half of the PSU game. Not to mention the mystery 2 seconds they gave back to Carr, or deciding not to review the pass when the UM receiver clearly landed out of bounds, or, or, or.... Don't forget Michael Hart's long fumble-less streak... it's not that he hasn't fumbled the ball in 350 carries or whatever, it's that no fumbles have been called on him. He's fumbled the ball at least 3 times and had it called down by contact. Enough of that though... on to the huge game against Wisconsin next week! Can't wait, baby.