rawaction

Damn Belmont. Really blew their chance. I thought they shoulda called a TO and ran a set. I don't like giving the D a chance to set up, but when you are such a big underdog you have to give your team every chance to win. BYU is going to make me 2-2 tonight.

I like. Is it that much less nasty with Piggy or Lahey instead of Marte? Or with Leiber in long relief and Hart in short relief? Especially when whoever gets the final pen spot will be basically the 25th man on the roster? Is it that much less nasty to pay more in money and prospects to upgrade it? That's the same point people make for not making the Roberts' trade. Getting Marte makes a good bullpen better. Of course, everything depends on cost. It's completely different. You are talking about getting better for 1 inning at a time, 70 games a year. With Roberts you are getting a 9-inning/ 150 game per year player. It's completely the same. You take a good situation and upgrade it to make it better. That 1 inning at a time, 70 games a year possibly could make a swing of 8-10 wins depending on the situation. I could argue the VORP of Roberts over DeRosa is less than the VORP of Marte over Pignatello or Cotts. I repeat, you make a good situation better in either case. Agreed. You do make a good situation better, the rest of your post is untrue though. Trading something of value for Marte is the equivalent of the Bears spending a 3rd round pick on a lead blocker for Hester on kickoffs. Roberts would be the Bears using a top 15 pick on a strongside LB moving Hillenmeyer to the bench. Both help the team get better in an area, but one is much more of a waste of time.

Pitt v. Michigan St. may be the best game of the weekend. Xavier v. Purdue may be a close 2nd. Butler v. Tennessee should fit in that top 3 also.

As long as they're buying low, I'm down. Some of the rumors I'm hearing (reading) have it being a late round pick (5th or 6th rounder) and Jones agreeing to turn a large portion of his contract into incentives. My guess is this happens some time in the next week or so. Fantastic. If he's stayed in shape, it will be worth it to the return game if nothing else. I think if he's stayed in shape, he and Newman would make a nice pair of CB for coverage. Henry could either shift to safety or work in the nickel packages. I could still see the Cowboys taking a first round corner (Talib, McKelvim, DRC). Pacman can't cover that well. He's similar to what the Cowboys had in Jacque Reeves actually. I'd imagine the Cowboys would still take a 1st round CB.

6 for 7. Picked Kent St. (at least in the one I'm looking at). Sweet 16 still in tact.

I like. Is it that much less nasty with Piggy or Lahey instead of Marte? Or with Leiber in long relief and Hart in short relief? Especially when whoever gets the final pen spot will be basically the 25th man on the roster? Is it that much less nasty to pay more in money and prospects to upgrade it? That's the same point people make for not making the Roberts' trade. Getting Marte makes a good bullpen better. Of course, everything depends on cost. It's completely different. You are talking about getting better for 1 inning at a time, 70 games a year. With Roberts you are getting a 9-inning/ 150 game per year player.

Gee, and Baltimore fans wonder why they suck every year in and out. Until Angelos stop meddling around, Baltimore won't be a very good baseball team for awhile. Angelos is a George Steinbrenner wanna-be. Even if all the rumored players are involved in the trade, Baltimore will still suck even if they make this trade. When the smoke clears and Roberts is traded to the Cubs, all Baltimore will have gotten for Miguel Tejada, Erik Bedard and Brian Roberts is Adam Jones and a bunch of guys who may or may not piece together a decent major league career. There is plenty of reason for Angelos to balk on this deal. I say screw it if they don't like the offers currently out there. Promote Eric Patterson and let him platoon at 2b with DeRosa. This frees up DeRosa to sub at other positions and slowly grooms Patterson at 2b, mostly facing RHP. The combination of Patterson and DeRosa is probably not all that far off from what Roberts can provide, but for less money over less years. When Baltimore is in last place on July 31 and they still have Brian Roberts, and Roberts is miserable and is speaking loudly that he wants to be traded, maybe the demands will soften and maybe Patterson will have increased his trade value. I'm not ready to start thinking about backup plans just yet. I'm still sticking to an opening day deadline, but I don't have a problem with putting a little pressure on the O's to make a choice. Roberts Fukudome Any back up plan you can come up with won't match the production you would get with Roberts and Fukudome batting 1,2. That's a whole lot of OBP and speed on the bases with DLee, Aram, and Soriano to follow. We've been begging for OBP at the top of the order for a long time now. We are one transaction away from having it. I know people are getting impatient, but I also feel some folks are undervalueing what Roberts would bring to our offense. I doubt that Lou will bat Roberts and Fukudome 1, 2 because he wants to seperate the lefties in the lineup. I would think it would be Roberts and then Soriano, with Fukudome batting 5th. Also, you'd have to worry about whoever hitting 5th getting any pitches to hit with Soto, a rookie, behind him. Sure, Fukudome is a rookie, but he is an "experienced" hitter and he hits lefty at the very least stopping a RHP from walking the 5th hitter.

What little shot Kroeger had at ever getting to the majors as a Chicago Cub, ended when Micah Hoffpauir started getting reps in RF.

Yep, me too. And it sucks, because I didn't want to take them, they just have an easy draw, so I thought.

Would that be a regression? That's basically what he is.

I like. Is it that much less nasty with Piggy or Lahey instead of Marte? Or with Leiber in long relief and Hart in short relief? Especially when whoever gets the final pen spot will be basically the 25th man on the roster? Is it that much less nasty to pay more in money and prospects to upgrade it?

Marquis has pitched better than both and is getting paid the most money. Normally, that would give him and "in". I'd say since you don't want to have stretched out Dempster for nothing and Leiber has pitched middle relief most recently, I'd put Leibs in the pen. All have pitched well (1 bad game for Dempster skews his numbers), so it's a good problem to have. I wouldn't expect Dempster or Leiber to be 100% healthy all year, and I don't expect any of them to be nearly this good all year, so there will be plenty of starts for each.

Wanted to quote this for truth. Soriano will always have above average speed, rather he steals bases or not. As long as he has one of the quickest bats in the majors, he's a 40-HR threat. 40-40 is nice, but just the 1st 40 works just fine alone.

Felipe Lopez would be the biggest low risk/high reward player the Cubs could possibly get. It wouldn't cost to much to get him. The Cubs wouldn't be forced to make him an everyday player. His upside is as high as any other middle IF on the roster. I believe he's about average defensively at SS, maybe a little below. He's probably above average at 2B.

Group A- Ryan Howard Group B- Pujols, Berkman Group C- A. Jones, Hafner, Swisher Group D- Utley, Hermida, Tejada, Glaus, Fields Wildcard- Josh Hamilton

Heh. Brittle wood?

I feel the same. My Elite 8 is the same with 4 1s, 2 2s, and 2 3s. Tennessee, Georgetown, UCLA, and Stanford are my final 4. Put Xavier in the Elite 8, not because I think they are special, just that they have a great draw as they matchup well vs. everyone in their 1/2 of the bracket.

Eh, UNC's overrated. I'd take UCLA, Tennessee, Memphis, and Kanasa as better teams. I don't doubt that Wisconsin or Georgetown could beat them in a head-to-head game. Heck, UNC better watch out for the IU/Arkansas winner.

I want to pick Butler to the Elite 8, but I picked Tennessee to the Final Four in the beginning of the season (actually picked them last year knowing the transfers would be ready). Still, it wouldn't surprise me to see them beat UT, Louisville, and give UNC a run for their money. Other than that, I'd say Davidson, Arizona, and St. Joe's are legit cinderella threats as double digit seeds.

HRs should never be discouraged. They are better than any other possible outcome in any given at bat. Young or old, any player would be stupid to give up a drivable pitch just because it's the first one. Playing small ball yields small results. Pie and Soto have 15-20 HR potential this year. Should they just slap at the ball because they are young? When do they graduate to being old enough to swing hard?

Makes a lot of sense.

The division doesn't run a lot, but I'm sure they would playing against Kendall and Barrett for 35-38 games.

Seems weak for an 8-team league. My 10-team league team looks similar if not slightly better.

Let's what the language, earth2sean. That type of language has never been allowed here.

Wuertz would be a decent trading chip, as long as he's not just given away. The Cubs have used up most of his cheapest years. And quite possibly they've used up his best years. He's coming off 3.5 fairly consistent solid years, a pretty nice achievement for most any reliever, aside from the elite. That's not to suggest I want him dealt, or that I think Hendry would be able to get a lot for him. But the Cubs have somewhat of a surplus of solid bullpen arms, and teams do often overvalue relievers. It could be a smart move to try and improve one of the team's weak points by including Wuertz in some trade this year. But do you trade Wuertz with Howry and Eyre free agents? Isn't Wood on a 1-year deal too? I do like Ascaino, Hart, and Petrick to go along with Marmol, but Wuertz has clearly had more success than any, including Marmol. I think I might rather trade a prospect, who might have more value than Wuertz anyway, at least to other teams looking to get cheap production.