rawaction

Took me a minute to realize who was posting this. Sadly, McCallum would probably keep the players and recruits together. He would bring in his son and IU would probably be a pretty good team until they realize he is Mike Davis re-incarnated.

Why would Ward walk when he's hitting .700?

Maybe the Bears really like what they see in Beekman, but didn't want to let him play over the "veterans" last year. Of course, not having heard anything of the like, I guess that's not true. Even if it was, getting a veteran OG to push Garza out of the lineup would be just as beneficial as having the vet start at LG.

The Bears need a guard in the worst way. This is not a good interior line draft. It's Chris Naeoli or bust now, with Scott and Hadnot signing today.

The only thing saving the IU program from a 2-3 year disappearing act is a dynamic hire (Illini fans, Bruce Pearl would fit that criteria).

He'd be a reach, but not a huge one. He projects in the 18-22 range. And from the Bears point of view, the only players who project around their pick (if Clady and Phillips are gone) are CBs, RBs, maybe a couple WRs and Brohm. If they are definitely going to go OL in the 1st, then Williams isn't a huge reach. If they go BPA, then they won't be looking at Williams anyway at 14.

Uh, wow. The Cubs should disband if they make that trade.

More of a question than suggestion. Can you PM more than 1 person at a time?

I told my wife at one point, not that she cared, that DJ has missed 1 shot all game, wouldn't the logical thing to do be to get him shots? The team is completely not listening to Dakich. I also sense some resentment in the Dakich/McCallum relationship. It's just a horrible situation right now.

ESPN has all the tournament schedules: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/champweek2008/news/story?page=ncb_champweek2008#mvc The early two Friday games are on ESPN, the latter two are on the Big Ten Network. Indiana will play in the evening session either at 6:30 as the No. 2 seed or 9 pm as the No. 3 seed. I'm concerned about today's game and wouldn't be surprised to see a loss and a slide to No. 3. Oh, Wisconsin will play the first game against the 8/9 winner, with Michigan State facing Ohio State in the second game. Thanks. I knew the #1 always played 1st. Wasn't sure about the 2-3-4-5 seeds.

I think chances are good Marmol is again the best reliever. He's the youngest and most talented of the group. At worst, I think he'll be a close 2nd to Howry, unless Wood completely dominates while staying healthy all year.

Also, I think the CF situation is dependent on the Roberts trade. If the Cubs do get Roberts, I think they will live with Pie and a RH hitter to platoon in CF. If the Cubs firmly believe they are out of the Roberts talks, I think they will look to add what they feel is an everyday player in CF. I'd imagine Crisp would be a possibility as would Figgins, Lofton, or someone the Cubs could hit at the top of the lineup.

Crisp plays terrific defense, Pie plays terrific defense. Crisp can bat around .290, Pie hasn't really shown he can bat above .250. Crisp doesn't strike out as much as Pie, and can steal 25-30 bases. I think Crisp brings a lot more to this team than Pie. But I agree that Pie has a high ceiling, but he isn't certain to get to that ceiling. If Pie hits the same as he did last year, then he would be a big detriment to this team. Crisp can actually help this team a lot. Plus we would be giving up absolutely nothing for him. And who knows if he would even start for us. Maybe he would just play versus lefties. We wanted a centerfielder whom can bat righty, we were willing to give up Murton for someone like Marlon Byrd. Now we can get that CF and give up garbage. This would be an amazing move by Hendry. I like Pie and think he can be good, but I wouldnt mind this deal at all. I think that maybe Pie would be traded though if we got Crisp. Is it a given that Crisp returns to his pre-broken wirst form of .290? Or are his .264/.317 and .268/.330 since his injury more likely? Far from a given. And if he's gonna hit .260-.270 and only get on base 31-33% of the time, there's a good chance that if Pie can't do that, he'll at least be in the ballpark. You get cheap production that likely reaps you more reward in 2009 and beyond.

Anybody know how the Big Ten tourney schedule works, TV wise? Basically, who plays at what time on Friday.

Marmol is the last guy I want closing. Part of me wants Wood to win the job, because he's not likely to be as good as Howry and Marmol, yet be good enough to save a high % of games. Part of me has the same worries about Wood as I had about Dempster, prone to give up walks and HRs. Lou did comment a lot of decided who would win the job would depend on another RH stepping up to show he can be a late inning reliever also. Seriously, Michael Wuertz needs to wear a neon jumpsuit around the clubhouse, because apparantely the Cubs don't know he's on the team. Maybe they think he and Jason Marquis are the same person as they did on picture day.

This is annoying. I didn't pay attention to the link, and until Nomar's name was mentioned, I was thinking to myself, "when was Murton in the White Sox farm system?"

Heck, yeah I'd be interested in Rivera. The 2 seasons where he has the most ABs, he put up an .829 and .887 OPS. He's not an ideal CF defensively, but if Murton is gone, he becomes the ideal 4th OF because he can play all 3 OF positions and be the best bat off the bench.

I guess a lot depends on how Pie and Colvin do this year. Soriano and Fukudome are locked in. I don't know that he's really a good fit. I think his upside is similar to what Soriano gives the Cubs now.

I liked Garay. :cry:

Picking Harvey would be ignorant, any other pick I would have a problem with other than Brohm, though not a huge one. Clady will be gone. I'm starting to be a fan of Williams to the Bears.

Man, the Bulls missed a couple "sell high" chances on some players. Gordon, Hinrich, and all the Knicks draft picks come to mind. That combined with the "buy high" move of Wallace, has set this team back. It was clear the best they could be with the group that played the last few seasons, was "good enough" in the East. Maybe a couple Eastern Finals, maybe a NBA finals appearance somewhere in there.

WOW. Felix Pie is doomed. At best, he'll be traded for another Derrek Lee. That's not too shabby. I guess the equivalent of trading Choi for Derrek Lee would be to trade Pie for another CF who has has some solid seasons, but hasn't taken his game to the next level and a finacially strapped franchise can no longer wait for him.....Carl Crawford might fit the bill.

Does the guy with the 1.000 OBP have speed, or does he just clog the bases for people that can run? How much grit is involved?

If it wasn't for Lebron James, Kobe would be as far better than the rest of the league than Jordan was in his prime. One could make an argument that Kobe now is better than MJ in his prime. The big argument about Kobe was that he couldn't make his team better the way Jordan did. The last 2 years, have shown otherwise. Kobe can score w/ Jordan. He's a better rebounder (2" taller), better passer, and a better shooter than Jordan was. I think Jordan was a step quicker, and a tad more explosive. So, yeah, Kobe should have been the MVP over Dirk last year. But I probably would have voted for Lebron.

4 ranked teams on the road tonight. The 2 finals in show the ranked team losing. One more has Xavier down double digits. All 3 winning teams are non-tourney teams. Illinois hanging close to Michigan St. Could be a big night for upsets.