bukie

The last time Atlanta led the East, Toronto didn't have a team yet.

Yes, because the second knee injury being the meniscus completely changes the point. Oh wait, it doesn't at all, just change ACL to meniscus.

Someone please make an argument for Brian Giles...

Knowing that I know nothing about hockey strategy..., is Teuvo too similar to Kane to pare them together? The big knock on Teuvo since he came across the pond was that he was too timid to shoot the puck. His numbers the past couple seasons everywhere point to him being an assist machine, so he'd probably be better served on a line where there's a straight shooter, but I'd also be curious what kind of wonderful passing tandem Kane and Teuvo would be. Teuvo also plays as a center most nights, and Shaw isn't a center despite playing one so far this season, so he might be well served to center a line.

So how do you shift the lines? Slot Teuvo with Kane-Richards right away? Bump Sharp up to 3rd line and have Teuvo center the 3rd line with Shaw moving to wing? Mess everything up and start fresh?

As for my personal preferences on the candidates: Players who are sure fire Hall of Famers: 1. Barry Bonds 2. Roger Clemens 3. Randy Johnson 4. Mike Piazza 5. Pedro Martinez 6. Curt Schilling 7. Jeff Bagwell 8. Mike Mussina 9. Larry Walker 10. Alan Trammell (and we already have a problem) Players who probably should be Hall of Famers also: 11. Edgar Martinez 12. Tim Raines 13. Craig Biggio 14. Sammy Sosa 15. Mark McGwire 16. John Smoltz 17. Jeff Kent 18. Nomar Garciaparra Players who are borderline but I can see arguments for them in the HOF: 19. Gary Sheffield 20. Fred McGriff 21. Don Mattingly 22. Lee Smith 23. Brian Giles 24. Carlos Delgado Players who I'd revoke BBWAA voting privileges for anyone that votes for them over any of the above 24 players: Troy Percival, Jermaine Dye, Jason Schmidt, Darin Erstad, Cliff Floyd, Tony Clark, Tom Gordon, Rich Aurilia, Aaron Boone, Eddie Guardado

Official names on ballot: http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_2015.shtml There are probably 25 debatable hall of famers on that ballot, and 15 that should be in the HOF no matter what, but thanks to the indignant ignorance of the BBWAA, and the idiocy of the voting process (10 max) maybe 2-3 make it in this season. Speculation is that Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson make it for sure this year, with a potential for Craig Biggio since he was 1 vote shy last year, and possibly John Smoltz because of the Tinker-Evers-Chance scenario (Glavine and Maddux are in already). The flip side to there being 15 shoo-in HOF candidates with only being allowed to vote in 10 players, and many writers being stupid and abstaining from voting anyone, is the likelihood that some borderline HOF candidates aren't going to get 5% of the vote and will be dropped off the ballot. Joe Posnanski blogs here about the players he speculates will not get 5% of the vote and will fall off the ballot. Among those he lists: - Brian Giles, who finished his career with a lifetime OBP over .400 and had more BaseRuns than Pete Rose - Carlos Delgado, who had more HRs than Carl Yastrzemski and more RBIs than Mickey Mantle - Nomar Garciaparra, whose career OPS is the highest of any SS in MLB history - Don Mattingly, who is about as borderline as Kirby Puckett, who made it in his first year - Sammy Sosa, who had 3 seasons unmatched by anyone in baseball history and over 600 career HRs - Mark McGwire, who set the MLB single season record in 1998 and finished with 586 career HRs - Gary Sheffield, who had more Runs Created than Mike Schmidt, Honus Wagner, and George Brett, and finished with over 500 career HRs

Meanwhile, in actual bowl action, Pitt is putting on a clinic in how to blow a 31-6 lead in 10 minutes.

We are fine as long as we're playing against the Big 12. uh... OSU-Alabama Wisconsin-Auburn Did...you forget that OSU and Wisconsin are no longer in the Big 12?

This isn't going to be a thing for you, is it? If Rose plays 50 games this year and is healthy for the playoffs, I'd feel better about the playoffs than if Rose goes 35 minutes a game for 80 games this year. This still applies, two months later. And it's still a thing for you, two months later. And enough with the "I can't change how I feel" garbage, when you act like a meatball goon, you get called out for being a meatball goon. Blah blah blah. Nothing in that original comment you are randomly still referencing has any attack at all on Rose. It was a post mentioning that he was out for whatever game that was. Maybe it's meatbally, I honestly don't even care. He's said and done enough dumb things for me to be more critical of his actions. If you honestly still can't see what's wrong with that original comment, you are too far gone to even try to salvage.

The guy definitely didn't say all the right things, but after the first ACL, it seemed like the guy really wanted to get back ahead of schedule and his body just didn't let him, and then after the second ACL, he was as overly cautious as he should have been the first time, and everybody killed him for it. Since then, the mob mentality toward Rose has been overly critical and focusing on the strange things he says, instead of just realizing the guy's coming back from two potential career ending injuries and may take some time to get into the rhythm where he can be effective night-in, night-out for 30 minutes a game, especially on back-to-backs. I'd even understand the criticism more if his comeback caused the Bulls to struggle, but since Rose has come back from that latest sickness, the Bulls have won 8 of 9 and look largely like world beaters against teams of any value.

I see we've already reached the "Meph writing a joke article about himself on the hate blog" phase of this poster.

This isn't going to be a thing for you, is it? If Rose plays 50 games this year and is healthy for the playoffs, I'd feel better about the playoffs than if Rose goes 35 minutes a game for 80 games this year. This still applies, two months later. And it's still a thing for you, two months later. And enough with the "I can't change how I feel" garbage, when you act like a meatball goon, you get called out for being a meatball goon.

Hah. Glad he got somewhat hot. 7-18 in the second half. PS I really hope that someday everyone can constantly call me out for being critical of Rose because he's back to being a star. I really really hope so. I feel so conflicted because I havent loved a player as much as Rose since I was like 12 when all my favorite teams players were demigods. But the things he said and done and the way he's played have frustrated me to the point of being critical. Maybe unfair but whatever. I can't change how I feel although I'd like to and hopefully I can someday soon. Yeah, how dare the guy go out and tear both ACLs and then take time to heal. I can't believe he didn't score 45 points in his first game back. And then he had the gall to miss games during the season, as if he were some guy that had reason to gradually work into game shape. The nerve!

Apparently the Denver bench was shouting "Let him shoot it!" in the 4th quarter. After hitting one of those late shots, Rose stared down the Denver bench. So you're saying UMFan got some great seats to the game.

First year of the playoff, and it already pays off, as it likely would have been Alabama-FSU in the BCS championship, thanks to the reliance on the polls.

I'm not sure it can be overstated how much better the Bulls are offensively and defensively with Rose on the court right now, even when Rose can't hit shots.

Even if Duke had capped off an undefeated season with a title last year, and hadn't lost since? The point is, last year shouldn't matter at all for this year. If Duke runs the table this year their only good wins are FSU in the ACC title game and Georgia Tech. Not sure that gets them into the top 4 from unranked. FSU was only in the top 4 because they started at the top.

Now's probably a good time to point out that computer efficiency ratings had Bama-Oregon-TCU-Ohio State 1-4 pretty consistently. FSU wasn't in the top 10. Although it would've been difficult to leave FSU out of the playoffs undefeated, if FSU was named Marshall or Duke it wouldn't have been as difficult.

When I saw the trade, the first thought that popped into my head was "Wow, I didn't know there was a franchise more in denial than Philly."

They're probably counting Adrian Gonzalez.

You say you still want to like him, and yet you go out of your way to find every possible thing to nit pick him about and blow it way out of proportion as soon as something goes south.

Sounds like his legal team really stepped up.

Hill touched the ball 3 times in the last 10 minutes of the second half, and scored 6 points. Rest of team: 3 points.

Everyone on the team is missing shots except for Hill, who was wide open on that last set, but Rice has no intention of passing that ball.