TruffleShuffle

well i guess texas tech should just keep playing lousy teams at home, they'll have a great season then

oregon st played a very good tcu team tough and only lost by 9 on the road. there is no reason to rank notre dame (who beat a lousy purdue team) ahead of them. Yes there is, although I like the resume ballot personally. Like Doc Saturday's for example. Well that's just a big waste of time. not to mention that teams like boise st (#1) and utah (#4) are ranked way ahead of teams that very easily could have beaten them (va tech #22, pitt #23). i mean, how on earth is texas tech beating smu by 8 at home, or troy beating bowling green on a last second field goal, more impressive than pitt taking "number 4" utah to overtime in salt lake city?

not too surprising. boise st may not have that many fans but they do pique people's interest. everyone wants to see what they can do against the traditional powers (so hey maybe the bcs will give them another chance against a bcs team instead of making them go play in the corner with tcu or utah)

oregon st played a very good tcu team tough and only lost by 9 on the road. there is no reason to rank notre dame (who beat a lousy purdue team) ahead of them.

seriously, it's like he didn't even consider what senator nancy pelosi might think.

i think it's gotta be Moustakas hellickson won. in the prospect chat they noted that NW arkansas played as a bandbox this year, with a number of their hitters putting up much better home stats than road stats. moustakas was an extreme example, hitting .437/.485/.894 at home and .222/.318/.398 on the road. mike trout was also crazy good for an 18/19 year old. more fun numbers: matt moore's first half: 1-7, 6.08 ERA, 60.2 IP, 62 H, 37 BB, 78 K, .274 BAA second half: 5-4, 1.39 ERA, 84.0 IP, 47 H, 24 BB, 130 K, .161 BAA

wait hill is bad defensively? granted he's nowhere near good enough to justify his presence on a major league roster, but i think he's all right behind the plate.

that would be one of the worst offenses in baseball history (even if you assigned them an average catcher). until soto, the cubs hadn't had a home-grown all star position player since mark grace. that is horrendous. i also remember reading something about how brett jackson might become the first home-grown outfielder to hit 15 home runs and have a .270 EqA in consecutive years since billy [expletive] williams.

there are going to be power conferences and non-power conferences. that's just the way it is. you cannot just wave a magic wand, putting (just to use one of your choices) alabama in a conference with louisiana-monroe and arkansas st, and say that things will become equal. alabama is a huge state school with a ton of history, generous boosters, top-of-the-line facilities, a gigantic stadium and top-tier coaches. arkansas st is in the middle of nowhere and has second-rate everything. putting them in a conference with teams like alabama and lsu will just result in them getting routinely embarrassed every year. instead of huge attendance when alabama plays at tennessee or florida, you'll maybe get a sellout of 30,000 to see them beat ULM or arkansas st by 50 points. louisiana tech, ULM, ASU, southern miss and UAB are never going to win that conference, and mississippi state sucks to, so instead of alabama having to beat a heap of good teams to finish on top of the SEC, they really just have to be better than LSU, arkansas and ole miss. yes, it's annoying that schools like utah and boise st are going undefeated and not getting a crack at the national championship. but there are other ways to remedy this problem. schools like alabama, texas, ohio st, they're always going to have national championship aspirations, and will frequently be in the conversation. arkansas st, utah st, akron, these schools are never going to contend for a national championship, and really they don't even aspire to win a title, so what's the point in thrusting them into a situation where they have to compete with teams to which they are and forever will be vastly inferior?

well considering that carlos gonzalez is 29/56 in the last two weeks, i'd say castro's chase for the batting title is over.

wait you've never been so mad at this organization? seems odd that this is the one that sets you off. i'm a little more mad about, say, mark prior and kerry wood or the complete lack of position player development from the late '80s to now.

clevenger versus rhp: .317/.378/.416/.794 soto versus major league rhp: .253/.344/.458/.802 so yeah, clevenger has been a little better but he's also been facing minor league pitchers. it'd be nice to have a backup catcher who hits righties well since our starter kills lefties. you play clevenger spot starts against RHP and give soto all of the starts against LHP. hopefully that's what he was getting at (not a strict platoon, which would be lunacy)

that's more like it guys

guys this is the Other Sports forum - there should be no nascar talk in here.

what a dull game... no castro, no soto and silva pitching. plus the astros suck... can't say i'm upset about not attending this one.

the SL playoff preview talked about guyer... didn't realize his numbers were so crazy after the ASB (.424/.459/.724/1.183). also, 17 K's in 46 games is a great contact rate for a guy with pretty good power.

fun at the u.s. open

This might be the first seven-win division champion. And Seattle is awful the same way the Rams were awful last season. Hollowed out roster with zero playmakers on either side of the ball. Wow, that is a huge overstatement on Seattle. They are nowhere near as bad as the Rams last year. You have Trufant, Thomas, Tatpu, Curry all playmakers on the defense. Hasselback is still better than any QB in the division and likely better than most in the NFC it's 2010 now

why? Because Joe sent Johnson out after a 50 minute rain delay to pitch causing him to have Tommy John surgery. ah ok. i'm sure nobody can directly tie the injury to that game, but it's pretty stupid (by the way it was 82 minutes, which is really bad - 50 minutes i could understand as some half innings can last close to a half hour, but you're looking at half a normal game time without pitching)

yeah but he dropped that one ball on a play at the plate that one time!

I only saw two questionable calls down the stretch. The block in the back looked clean on replay. The late hit was a terrible call but it helped VT. Their defense was awful on that drive and they probably weren't getting a stop anyways. It at least gave them more time. It was close but you could've given VT PI on that final drive. The DB clearly hit the WR's hands into his face. that would've been an extremely ticky-tack call in a huge spot; refs usually don't (and shouldn't) call that.

yeah, boise just looked better up front... certainly ran the ball between the tackles more effectively.

throw a pick plz

hopefully boise can hold them to a field goal

hendry's hardly the only gm who signs free agent relievers. his problem is that he goes after the guys who had a good ERA but a whip of 1.45 (grabow, eyre) and then is shocked when it blows up in his face. the cubs don't look hard enough for the guys who are undervalued due to bad luck (high babip), lack of reputation or just veteran guys who are bargains.