bukie

Quick, figure out the 6 teams. I'd venture a guess of Detroit, Arizona, Houston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City? I think Arizona beat the Cowboys in the '97 playoffs. I don't really remember though. The TO press conference at the end of the game was very suprising. I am actually starting to really like the guy, and can't believe the complete 360 he has conducted. So they did. Turns out Buffalo is the other team, thanks to the Music City Miracle.

Quick, figure out the 6 teams. I'd venture a guess of Detroit, Arizona, Houston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City?

0-4 last week going with opposites. I'll do the same this week with Jacksonville, San Diego, New York and Seattle. Wouldn't that be the most boring final 4 in years.

He's like the Jim Rice of the 80's. With a worse OBP.

I'm not sure how that is projecting the pitching to regress, as it is predicting 8 bullpen arms better than the league average. Marmol will almost certainly regress, because it's hard to expect him to repeat his year last year. Back end of the rotation is a concern, though.

Must have been something like that. Well here's one stat for Bly that we CAN verify: He has as many career shutouts as Glavine and Maddog COMBINED. It's a different era of pitching to be sure, but Blyleven had more career shutouts than the entire league did last year.

Last piece of Blyleven support, as it's already too late again for this year: http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/2002/0728/1411078.html Yes, he was a better pitcher than Nolan Ryan. Second-best pitcher of his era, of which 8 pitchers are in the HOF.

Yes, I understand. I'm not standing by the authenticity of the guy's statement, it's just what I heard. Absolutely, not tearing into you, just trying to find some semblance of a backing for the position.

Blyleven had 60 career shutouts. Got to figure he won some of those.

At least I got one prediction right.

Worst Hall of Fame arguments of 2008: http://vegaswatch.net/2007/12/worst-hall-of-fame-arguments-of-2008.html Yes, folks, those are actual BBWAA voters making those arguments.

Blyleven deserves more love than he gets. Raines too. Gossage was borderline, but him getting in is nice.

Haha, ridiculous. What is so ridiculous? They cannot compete year in and year out. Neither can Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Purdue, Miami, Notre Dame, Maryland, Wake Forest, NC, NC State, Duke, Syracuse, Iowa State, Baylor, Nebraska, Vanderbilt, Mississippi, Stanford, Washington, Washington State, South Carolina, UCLA, Cal. Yes, at that rate, we should just limit Division 1 to Ohio State, Michigan, USC, LSU, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Florida State and Virginia Tech, let those 10 teams play in a season, and crown that division winner the national champions.

So, clearly the least popular outcome is: Pittsburgh Tennessee Tampa Bay Washington So, I'll go with that.

Haha, ridiculous. What is so ridiculous? They cannot compete year in and year out. How long has South Florida been Division 1? 7 years? And they are already competing this year. Louisville competed the prior 2 years, Cincinnati and UConn were top 25 teams this year, and Rutgers was top 10 last year. So yes, ridiculous. EDIT: Also not sure in which world the ACC has 9 schools.

If I'm in charge and L/R is a priority (for who knows what reason): Pie Lee Kosuke Ramirez Soriano Soto DeRosa Cedeno or Soriano Lee Kosuke Ramirez Soto Pie DeRosa Cedeno

Not sure anything really needs to be said about the game. It was still a winnable game until late in the third quarter, and the combination of the fumble on the goal line and the botched lateral that went for 55 yards really killed the momentum the Illini had. I expect Mendenhall will go pro and Leman is graduating, but beyond that most of the team is returning (at least the contributing members), so I would expect them to remain in the hunt for the Big Ten title next year. I really wished Illinois would've scored on that pass play with the fumble to make it 21-17, if only to wipe the smug looks off the USC sidelines. What a load of classless fools, and that kind of thing, team-wide, reflects on the coach.

Honest question: Are DBs in college not allowed to make a play on the ball? Sure there was contact, but he was just looking at the ball. USC taunting again because of a fluke botched lateral that went for 55 yards.

Oh, come on.

Hey, maybe they are an opportunistic defense today. Although they really could've used that "fumble" on the first drive.

Looks like the Juice we know and love out there today, as opposed to the actual QB that was around for the OSU game.

1) A once-good offensive line got old really fast, starting midseason last year (the major difference between 1st half 2006 Rex and 2nd half 2006 Rex was a distinct difference in the time he had to throw). They were simply awful this year. Several times, teams would send 4 and all of them would get through. Not a strong point in the line. 2) DL injury issues with Harris, Walker, and Dusty Dvoracek, leaving them no choice but to put the 4th string DE (Idonije) in at starting DL for a while. No pressure from the front 4, and the defensive scheme simply doesn't work. 3) Starting DB combo: Tillman, Vasher, Brown, Archuleta. Brown had a career-ending injury week 1, Vasher went down for basically the year week 2 (he played for a bit in the Minny game a couple weeks ago but he's now just shut down for the year), Tillman was gone for half the year with injury, and Archuleta was simply awful from the outset. So, for half the year, they were playing 4th string Ricky Manning Jr. at starting CB, and he's only decent in nickel sets on the slot WR, played Danaiel Manning at the other CB since he was so awful at SS last year (formally known as the guy who left Reggie Wayne alone in the SB last year), and 2 rookies filled the other slots. One of the worst pass defenses in the NFL mixed with a defensive line that couldn't get any pressure made for a bad situation all-around. Even Urlacher was limited with an "arthritic back". I'd like to say the Bears aren't as far away as they seemed this year, but they really need improvements in both lines and healthy DBs to make the jump.

In my head-to-head league, I won my last 7 matchups to win my division by a game. Then, everyone on my team forgot how to score TDs for the first playoff round and I got blown out. McNabb, Tomlinson, Owens, Edwards, Welker, Shockey, Vinatieri, and rotating 2nd RB/Def ended up being a solid team.

Banned, yes. There was no penalty policy on steroid use until after 2002, though.

So people are now taking rumors of appearances in the Mitchell report as fact that said player used steroids? I'm going to bump this post in 30 minutes. Bump :lol: I did say I really don't care if he used or not. Be careful not to backpedal too fast, or you might trip.