rawaction

We'll see, as an IU fan I hope they win. However, they are 0-3 on the road so far this season. Granted, those three road games were Duke, Kentucky, and Ohio State. Despite, PSU not being as good a team, I think the game will be a lot closer than the Purdue and MSU games. Gotta shoot well on the road for a change. BTW, if they played today, IU would beat Duke and UK on the road. And I also count Butler as a road game. It was like 5 minutes from their campus.

Not really. The Cubs would have cut him had he not retired. He just made things easier for them and went out with a "retirement" instead of being cut. I thought Dusty said the final spot would have been his. I could be wrong though. Jim Hendry had a small say in the matter. Couldn't tell most of the time.

For most teams, that would be true. But this franchise has been more than happy to give lots of times to guys who deserved nothing more than a NRI to ST. You had the recently released from SF Neifi Perez, and the released in ST Glendon Rusch. Then you had a handful of other NRI with no upside guys, like Rey Ordonez, Tony Womack, Enrique (he knows how to play in yankee stadium) Wilson, that all got playing time. In the big picture, it probably doesn't matter, but when this team signs worthless NRI guys, there's going to be a natural negative reaction out of fear that they'll actually play. I agree with your overall point, but the year we signed the released in ST Glendon Rusch, he was tremendous for us. I actually like the concept of giving minor league deals to guys who once had a modicum of success, and hope you can get a decent half season off the bench/bullpen from him. But doing it with Dusty Baker was like giving a pyromaniac gasoline, a lighter, lighter fluid, the keys to a vacant building, and rubbing two sticks together to get him started. You can take a gamble with pitching having a surprise year. Hitters who can't hit don't all of a sudden figure it out and start hitting. With pitchers there's at least a chance that a good pitching coach can find some flaws in delivery, mechanics, stuff and correct it. With hitters, if they are bad, they are bad. No hitting coach is gonna make Tomas Perez a good hitter. No hitting coach is going to make Tomas Perez a good hitter, but a hitting coach could turn a Tomas Perez type into an adequate backup. I definitely don't want to see Perez anywhere close to the major league roster next year, but there is value in handing out a bunch of NRIs to guys who were at some point acceptable bench players. I don't know what to argue against first. The chances that a hitting coach can change a 33-year old journey man into a valuable player. Or the fact that you believe a career .291 OBP and .634 OPS player was ever an acceptable player.

Not really. The Cubs would have cut him had he not retired. He just made things easier for them and went out with a "retirement" instead of being cut. I thought Dusty said the final spot would have been his. I could be wrong though.

Also an FYI, the only reason Marquis Grissom signing turned into nothing was because he retired. He had the final spot on the 25-man roster, but gave it up to Pagan.

For most teams, that would be true. But this franchise has been more than happy to give lots of times to guys who deserved nothing more than a NRI to ST. You had the recently released from SF Neifi Perez, and the released in ST Glendon Rusch. Then you had a handful of other NRI with no upside guys, like Rey Ordonez, Tony Womack, Enrique (he knows how to play in yankee stadium) Wilson, that all got playing time. In the big picture, it probably doesn't matter, but when this team signs worthless NRI guys, there's going to be a natural negative reaction out of fear that they'll actually play. I agree with your overall point, but the year we signed the released in ST Glendon Rusch, he was tremendous for us. I actually like the concept of giving minor league deals to guys who once had a modicum of success, and hope you can get a decent half season off the bench/bullpen from him. But doing it with Dusty Baker was like giving a pyromaniac gasoline, a lighter, lighter fluid, the keys to a vacant building, and rubbing two sticks together to get him started. You can take a gamble with pitching having a surprise year. Hitters who can't hit don't all of a sudden figure it out and start hitting. With pitchers there's at least a chance that a good pitching coach can find some flaws in delivery, mechanics, stuff and correct it. With hitters, if they are bad, they are bad. No hitting coach is gonna make Tomas Perez a good hitter.

Eyre had a down year last year. His numbers were Ryan Dempster ugly last year, except for ERA. Yeah except ERA, whip, H/9... Are you sure? WHIP- Dempster 1.51, Eyre 1.48 H/9- Dempster 9.24 (2 more hits than IP), Eyre 8.95 (same hits and IP) BB/9- Dempster 4.32, Eyre 4.40 HR- Dempster 5 in 74 IP, Eyre 11 in 61.1 IP OPSagainst- Dempster .707, Eyre .799 HAHA I dont mean to argue with you but his ERA, WHIP, H/9 are worse than Erye. So yeah im sure. At no point did I say that Eyre was worse. I said the numbers are as ugly. If you disagree about that. Then you probably shouldn't argue about that in a public forum. oh yeah, and HAHA

how the? I've been checking throughout the evening, especially at work when I had nothing to do. I came across two different pairs in the club boxes, but these were the first in the lower price ranges. Of course, tickets only came up like once every 30 attempts. How is this game not sold out? It is now.

Eyre had a down year last year. His numbers were Ryan Dempster ugly last year, except for ERA. Yeah except ERA, whip, H/9... Are you sure? WHIP- Dempster 1.51, Eyre 1.48 H/9- Dempster 9.24 (2 more hits than IP), Eyre 8.95 (same hits and IP) BB/9- Dempster 4.32, Eyre 4.40 HR- Dempster 5 in 74 IP, Eyre 11 in 61.1 IP OPSagainst- Dempster .707, Eyre .799

Amazing shooting night, combined with usual great defense = IU 85-58 win over PurDON'T. Wow! What a butt whoopin that was. AJ Ratliff coming off of torn ligaments in his wrist has the best shooting game of his life 6-6, 4-4 from 3. The freshmen Shaw and Bassett are not afraid of the Big Ten at all.

Eyre had a down year last year. His numbers were Ryan Dempster ugly last year, except for ERA.

Some very good choices out there on the list for NFL head coaching jobs. Very intrigued to see what Petrino can do in the NFL. Whisenhunt is the best coaching prospect to me. I think Atlanta should have thrown everything they have to offer at Coach Wiz (GT and Falcons former player) and used Petrino as a fallback option. Russ Grimm in Pitt is also a nice prospect. I think he can be a good one. Norm Chow is an interesting name, and could get big interest from Arizona. Rivera is interesting, but don't see him having a ton of success. Former IU coach, Cam Cameron, has been mentioned and I think he is horrible. Granted he didn't have the talent in Bloomington, but he can't coach. Mike Tomlin seems like a longshot to get a job this year, because he doesn't have much of a resume at this point, other than this season as the Vikes DC. Singletary has been mentioned. Colts, Jim Caldwell, who I don't know much about. At this point, I think Singletary, Tomlin, Cameron and Rivera are best suited as coordinators. But I'd rather see any of these guys get a shot to coach over guys like Pete Carroll, who have already tried and failed.

Would rather see Harris at free, with Johnson in there at SS. But either way is fine. My guess is Todd will see the field a lot.

I'd like to see 20 carries each from Jones and Benson. Seattle is mediocre against the run (I think they were something like 22nd this year). This game should be no problem, all things considered.

All the numbers you stated were very encouraging. Another thing I was really pleased with was their ability to score despite shooting poorly from beyond the arc. That's something they haven't shown to date. Stemler did a nice job of using his quickness advantage by driving to the lane, instead of settling strickly for jumpers. And of course DJ was solid. Probably his best game to date other then maybe the UK game. Sampson has done a good-to-excellent job this season. 4 losses on the road to ranked teams by an average of 5 points. If they could have back the UK and/or Duke games....they'd be in business.

Gordon would probably be my choice just ahead of others, because he is a 3B. The other top prospects are OF or SP. OFs are more easy to find. SP's are vulnerable to injury. I'm very cautious on Brandon Wood.

Is Curtis Marin also a legend? Who? Oops. Curtis Martin. Tiki and Martin are nearly similar players. Martin finished as the 4th all-time rusher, but only averaged 4.0 a carry in 11 years. Tiki finished 17th or so, in 10 years, but had 3 years wasted as a 3rd down back and has averaged 4.7 yards in his career. Tiki is/was a much better back. Tiki's last 5 years are on par with any 5 year span from any RB in history, outside of Barry Sanders and perhaps Edgerrin James first 4.

Is Curtis Marin also a legend? Who? Cheech's brother.

Big win, in more ways than one for IU today. 73-51 was the final score, but the key numbers were 20-8, 24-4, and 17-2. Those numbers were IU's advantages in turnovers, points off turnovers, and 2nd chance points. I've never seen an IU team beat an MSU teams on the board like that. The talent level is definitely down in E. Lansing, but they were still the #24 team. And that's a huge conference win for a team that hasn't been able to win the big one so far.

My thoughts on the Dallas/Seattle game: 1. Any team that allows Jerramy Stevens to score 2 TDs and 77 yards, deserves to lose. He's not a good football player. 2. Roy Williams keeps going to the Pro Bowl despite the fact that he can't cover and he's only an average run stopper for a SS. 3. Any coach that throws a quick out in the endzone, and any receiver who fumbles a ball in his own endzone, deserves to be on the losing team. 4. Tony Romo is lucky he is Tony Romo. Had his name been Rex Grossman, he may have been Bartmaned out of the country by now. 5. Tony Romo is gonna get the blame, but the team already suffered a Jason Witten after a 3rd and 13 pickup to move into Seattle territory, a Terry Glenn fumble causing a safety, and had blown 3 drives starting outside their own 40.

Indy won't allow themselves to get beat in the first game of the playoffs again at home. They will step it up and attack a weak KC defense to put them behind early. Seattle's injury report is ugly. Could be missing 3 CBs, 2 WRs, and 2 offensive lineman. Dallas wins on the road. NE and Philly will most likely win, but I always worry about a team playing an underdog division rival. These teams see each other twice every year. The whole idea of "not showing your opponent everything" does not apply in these cases. There aren't gonna be any schemes that the Jets and Giants are gonna be surprised by.

I don't see how he doesn't make that team, unless he is horrible in the spring. At the least, he provides versatilty to take over DeRosa's role of last year, before he became the starting RF.

BTW, if Rivera leaves, I'm really intrigued by the possibility of Mike Singletary taking over as the DC. He's been mentioned already as a possible candidate for the Steelers head coaching position, but there's no way that happens. I would love Singletary as part of this staff, but I don't know if he would leave SF just to be an assistant again. Lovie looks like a long-term solution, so it's not like he would be waiting it out to become the Bears head coach.

Actually, everything I've heard is that the team is practicing hard. Went back to a pre-season type practice. In pads, which is unusual this late in the season. #1 offense vs. #1 defense for the first time since the bye week. Every player quote I have seen has talked about being embarrassed last year vs. Carolina and about not letting it happen again.

Yep, everyone raved about the Padres future top 4, which consisted of Jake Peavy, Ben Howard, Ben Tankersley and Oliver Perez. To go along with Bay and Khalil they had a nice looking system back in 2001 ish.