TruffleShuffle

16.4 wins below their pyth... yikes

guyer is one of the few cub prospects that i find interesting.

SSR wasn't a math major, not his fault.

1. Number of Cubs wins, 2009 - 93 2. Number of Cubs wins, Cardinals season series (16 games) - 9 3. Number of runs scored, 2009 - 839 4. Number of runs allowed, 2009 - 715 5. Final Placement in the NL Central Division - 1st Player Stats & Scoring 1. Number of Aramis Ramirez Home Runs - 28 2. Number of Soriano Stolen Bases - 18 3. Ryan Theriot's Batting Average - .288 4. Milton Bradley's RBIs - 88 5. Ryan Dempster's Wins - 16 6. Sean Marshall's ERA - 4.37 7. Carlos Zambrano's Ks - 132 8. Rich Harden's Innings Pitched - 96 Bonus Questions I (20 points each) 1. Which will be higher: Lee's RBIs or Soto's RBIs? lee 2. Which will be higher: Aaron Heilman's starts or Aaron Heilman's relief appearances? - relief 3. Which will be higher: Aaron Miles' at-bats or Mike Fontenot's at-bats? - fontenot 4. Who will have more HRs: Fontenot or Fukudome? - fontenot 5. Who will have more wins: Harden or Marshall? - marshall 6. Who will have a higher SLG: Bradley or Ramirez? bradley Bonus Questions II (30 points each) 1. Most HRs: soriano 2. Highest OBP (min. 400 ABs): if this is going to be highest OBP it should really be a minimum of PAs, not ABs - but bradley 3. Lowest ERA (min. 150 IPs):dempster 4. Most saves: gregg The Annual Tiebreaker: Date of Lou Piniella's First Ejection (you may answer "never") - never

ideally you could just pick up laroche in mid-may and enjoy his offense the rest of the season. more likely, you have him on your bench the first month or two. you absolutely cannot play him in the first month, his career ops in april is .600. then the second half of the season he turns into mark teixeira. it's the weirdest thing but he's pretty predictable.

i wonder why

for what purpose?

penn state had 2 extra home games that were attended by 12,000 people, then a game at florida attended by 6,500 people, then 2 games at MSG attended by more than 20,000 people, including 52 buses of penn state students. you're probably right about one thing, that illinois fans don't care that penn state won the NIT, but winning 5 games in the NIT was a lot more meaningful to penn state fans that going to the ncaa tourney and losing immediately. hahaha :rotfl:

yup is this necessary? or do you just have an inability to disagree with someone without insulting their intelligence? that's because michigan made the NIT for 50 years in a row. most years penn st didn't make anything, so making the NIT is an accompishment over losing in the first round of the big ten tourney and then going home with a losing record. i understand that most people don't care about the NIT, but penn state grads and students got into it and got to watch some good games.

In whatever order, I see little chance they finish higher than Michigan State, Purdue, Minnesota, Illinois, or Wisconsin. It's hard to say what Ohio State or Michigan will look like until early entries are finalized. Northwestern loses less than Penn State and finished only two games behind them. next year's incoming class isn't going to accomplish much; the best player coming in is a point guard and we already have battle for that. if andrew jones (not the baseball player) develops as a low-post threat and chris babb can replace pringle, then they should be about as good as this past year, but on paper they're probably a little worse.

penn state had 2 extra home games that were attended by 12,000 people, then a game at florida attended by 6,500 people, then 2 games at MSG attended by more than 20,000 people, including 52 buses of penn state students. you're probably right about one thing, that illinois fans don't care that penn state won the NIT, but winning 5 games in the NIT was a lot more meaningful to penn state fans that going to the ncaa tourney and losing immediately.

taran buie (talor battle's younger brother) committed to penn st after last night's game. he's more highly rated at this point than his brother was - he's 4 stars on both scout and rivals.

i guess this is a valid comparison if 65 teams are playing in the rose bowl and then another 32 played in the humanitarian bowl. seems to me the field would be awfully crowded. and illinois lost as a #5 seed in the 5-12 game, which is probably the equivalent of the outback bowl. penn st won 5 games in the NIT and beat baylor in a matchup of teams probably ranked around #50 out of 340, so that's like winning the peach bowl or something. i'd rather win the peach bowl than lose in the outback bowl.

who cares what the coaches would say? even jamelle cornley was on the local radio and said their big goal was to make the ncaa tourney, and he was disappointed that they were left out. but overall, who had a more noticeable march/early april, illinois or penn st? illinois wrong

who cares what the coaches would say? even jamelle cornley was on the local radio and said their big goal was to make the ncaa tourney, and he was disappointed that they were left out. but overall, who had a more noticeable march/early april, illinois or penn st? I'm happier with what we did. The NIT would have been a waste of a year. yes losing to western kentucky in the first round sure made this season a shining success for the illini. let me know how the "ncaa tournament participant" banner looks in the rafters at assembly hall.

who cares what the coaches would say? even jamelle cornley was on the local radio and said their big goal was to make the ncaa tourney, and he was disappointed that they were left out. but overall, who had a more noticeable march/early april, illinois or penn st?

i'd say it's a more rewarding end to the season than... say, losing to western kentucky. Yawn. The Illini overachieved all season, and I was not surprised they lost. But I don't believe for a second most PSU fans wouldn't trade an NCAA berth and immediate dismissal for an NIT championship, nor do I believe the players would. Not for a second. i wouldn't, at all. at all. winning 5 games in a row, two of them at home, at least one of them in really exciting fashion, is a lot more fun than losing a neutral court first round game in the ncaa tournament. i'd say the 36 buses of students that went to MSG today would agree with that. I don't buy it. Sure it's a positive note to end on, but let's face it: The NIT is perceived by nearly everyone as a tournament for teams that are not quite good enough for the NCAAs. It's like winning the consolation game. Or being your buddy's wingman and taking one for the team. Sure, you got laid, but you're not going to be bragging about it to your friends. You can rationalize it any way you want to, but the reality is that no one cares who wins the NIT except for who wins the NIT. I suppose if your team isn't accustomed to any sort of postseason success, it might mean more, but after the pseudo-euphoria of winning the NIT wears off, I'll bet you'll agree with me, whether you admit it or not. If I were a PSU fan, I would be far more satisfied with the improvement within the league and toward the NCAAs than I would be about the NIT. Though having said all that, I really want to see MSU win the National Championship and make it 2-2 for the Big 10 in postseason tourneys just because it would stick in the crevasses of tools like Hubert Davis. that's nice, nobody cares what you "buy." you actually ARE right about one thing - the NIT is a tournament for teams who are not quite good enough to make the NCAAs as an at large team. what's the difference between a team like penn st and baylor and a team like michigan or wisconsin? it doesn't matter that those teams got into the tourney; they didn't have a realistic chance of winning it, just like any other bubble team. the winner of the NIT gets to be on national TV 4 or 5 times; the last bubble team generally gets 1 NCAA tourney appearance, maybe 2 or 3 if they get a really nice draw. like i said, they filled up buses with 2,000 students, and i'm pretty sure that they wouldn't have gotten that many students interested in taking a bus to boise, ID or wherever to see them lose in the first round to a #4/5 team. at the end of the day, there's more exposure, more games, more student following and more pride in a team that wins the NIT than a team that busts out really early in the NCAA tourney.

i voted fontenot because... well, why not

i'd say it's a more rewarding end to the season than... say, losing to western kentucky. Yawn. The Illini overachieved all season, and I was not surprised they lost. But I don't believe for a second most PSU fans wouldn't trade an NCAA berth and immediate dismissal for an NIT championship, nor do I believe the players would. Not for a second. past your bedtime? anyway, i wouldn't, at all. at. all. winning 5 games in a row, two of them at home, at least one of them in really exciting fashion, is a lot more fun than losing a neutral court first round game in the ncaa tournament. i'd say the 36 buses of students that went to MSG today would agree with that.

it's a basketball tournament that features teams that are better than 80% of the teams in d-i competition, and if you can win 5 games in a row, you can hold up a trophy for a tournament that has been held for more than 50 years. i'd say it's a more rewarding end to the season than... say, losing to western kentucky.

why? Because he's not really that good? He's also only been fully healthy during both his contract years. His average ERA jumped up quite a bit when he moved from FLA to TOR. His WHIP isn't anything to gawk at either. A.J. Burnett is pretty much useful for K's only. Granted on the Yankees he might get more wins now, but his inability to stay healthy for any year other than his contract year is unsettling, IMO inability to stay healthy is totally different than getting shelled. burnett isn't worth $82M over 5 years, but he's generally a good pitcher when healthy.

well it's the national invitational championship, so i'd say they did.

is this similar to 2 girls 1 cup?

oh i know it. i used to hate it too, but when i went back and thought about how many teams are participating in ncaa d-i basketball, i realized that the NIT is not a joke like people think it is. i'm not saying that penn st could've won the national championship, but the NIT title game pitted a team that beat michigan st, purdue, michigan, minnesota and illinois twice against a team that beat providence, arizona st, oklahoma st, washington st, aTm, kansas and texas. they aren't great teams but they're pretty good.

detroit's goaltending is horrendous.