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I'm going. My dad bought 4 season tickets in the horseshoe in anticipation of the Michigan game being a sell out. He actually has come out pretty even in the deal just by selling the Wisconsin tickets. He is probably going to sell the Northwestern tickets also. Ended up being a pretty good investment. I wish Michigan St played there this year.

Theriot had a .999 OPS in September of 2006. Small sample size. Cedeno had a decent September in 2005 also, and then followed it up with a dud of a season. If the Cubs had a decent option at SS in 2006 and Cedeno spent the season in AAA. Everyone would be talking about Cedeno as a top prospect. Wondering why he isnt getting PT over Theriot. It would be very similar to Soto and Kendall. Instead he was overmatched in the Majors at a young age and this the preception that a lot of fans have of him. I dont think Cedeno is the savior, but he certainly has earned a chance to become the everyday SS.

Funny how many Cub fans were saying the same things about Ryne Sandberg in 82 and 83. Not that I am saying that Cedeno will be as good as Sandberg. Its just amazing how some fans think that if you are 24 and not an All-Star, the Cubs would be better off with the 28 year old who is only marginally better at best.

Amen. I doubt it. Too bad we'll never know. Are you kidding me? You post random "facts" and then contradict the most basic proposal (in this case - if Theriot was in A/AA when he was 23 and not exactly tearing it up, the proposal says he wouldn't have posted better than a .600 OPS in the majors and you disagree w/ no argument of support whatsoever). Minors are about numbers, Majors are about Grit. Theriot would of grittied his way to better numbers if he was allowed to play at 23 in the show!!

He wasn't ever an easy out? The only position players who averaged less pitches per plate appearance than Theriot were either demoted or traded (Izturis, Moore, Fox). Everybody else saw more pitches than Theriot. Theriot made an out 67 times on the first pitch. 67 times! The only other Cub above 50 is Aramis Ramirez with 57 times. On the second pitch, Theriot made an out 69 times. That's good for 2nd on the team behind Soriano (77 times). On the third pitch, Theriot made an out 90 times. That's good for 2nd on the team again behind Soriano (94 times) Theriot has made the most outs on the first 3 pitches on the team (19 more outs overall than 2nd place Soriano). Soriano also had 42 more overall at-bats then Theriot, so Theriot had a much higher out percentage on the first 3 pitches. The leader in making outs early in the count should never be a non-power hitter, and Theriot is way in front in that category. A non-power hitter should also never see the least number of pitches on the team. He certainly isn't what you described when you said that he was never an easy out. Good job with the work on this CCP. I have a question that maybe you could answer. Did this get worse as the season progressed? It seemed early in the year he was doing a good job of working counts. Was I just thinking this compared to Cedeno and Izturius or was it true. After his little hot spell in Aug he really looked like a first pitch hacker the rest of the year. Sorry I didn't see this until now. I can sort through the pitches per plate appearance numbers, but not the outs without exhaustive research. Here are these: P/PA by month: April: 3.39 May: 3.99 June: 3.48 July: 3.59 August: 3.44 September: 3.30 Thanks. Yes just about what I was thinking.

I'll join that bandwagon. It really wouldnt surprise me. Every time I watch the Reds I wonder why they arent better. Dusty wins manager of the year and by 2010 they are fighting for last place again.

Thats what gritty players do. They bring out venom. Its like the other extreme from ARam. He produces but isnt a ballplayer. Theriot is a ballplayer but doesnt produce. Its like Democrats and Republicans.

If the Cubs had a big 3 of ARod, Matt Holiday and CFielder, I wouldnt mind Theriot at SS.

that, or have no one without a loss and add even more teams to the mix If that happened it would be LSU if they win out and Oklahoma if they win out. I really think my scenerio would cause the most issues. imo

I was thinking about this. For those who want the BCS to fail, wouldnt it be best of USF, OSU, BC and KU all finish undefeated. There would be a large arguement over which 2 teams should be in the NT game. While noone would believe any of the 4 were the best team. That to me would be a major blow to the BCS.

I understand in the grand scheme of things being ranked 25th or 27th doesnt mean much, but I also believe being ranked helps recruiting. Kids see the top 25 and often times dont see 26 on down, and I think it does weigh in on recruiting. Maybe not much(hell look at U of I's recruiting lately) but often times the little things can come in to play. What would really help their recruiting is if they beat Michigan. Also like Andy has said the polls are very much a what have you done for me lately thing. Illinois lost their last game to a team that isnt very good. Look, we all understand why the pollsters do the things they do, doesn't make it right. Arguing that since Illinois lost to a team that isn't very good(on the road) justifies them being below a Michigan team that lost to Appalachian St. and got murdered by Oregon(both at home) is madness. But it was last week. Games played last week have more impact on the polls than games played 7 weeks ago. I dont argue that Illinois has a better body of work. Its not how the polls work. Also teams like Michigan are always going to get a few added points. What you may want to ask is why is Michigan ranked higher in the computer polls? These polls dont put higher merit into recent games. Thats been my point this entire thread. Sorry but thats just the facts of life. If Illinois can keep up this higher level of play for 5 more years they will start getting these kind of votes also.

I understand in the grand scheme of things being ranked 25th or 27th doesnt mean much, but I also believe being ranked helps recruiting. Kids see the top 25 and often times dont see 26 on down, and I think it does weigh in on recruiting. Maybe not much(hell look at U of I's recruiting lately) but often times the little things can come in to play. What would really help their recruiting is if they beat Michigan. Also like Andy has said the polls are very much a what have you done for me lately thing. Illinois lost their last game to a team that isnt very good. Look, we all understand why the pollsters do the things they do, doesn't make it right. Arguing that since Illinois lost to a team that isn't very good(on the road) justifies them being below a Michigan team that lost to Appalachian St. and got murdered by Oregon(both at home) is madness. But it was last week. Games played last week have more impact on the polls than games played 7 weeks ago. I dont argue that Illinois has a better body of work. Its not how the polls work. Also teams like Michigan are always going to get a few added points. What you may want to ask is why is Michigan ranked higher in the computer polls? These polls dont put higher merit into recent games.

I understand in the grand scheme of things being ranked 25th or 27th doesnt mean much, but I also believe being ranked helps recruiting. Kids see the top 25 and often times dont see 26 on down, and I think it does weigh in on recruiting. Maybe not much(hell look at U of I's recruiting lately) but often times the little things can come in to play. What would really help their recruiting is if they beat Michigan. Also like Andy has said the polls are very much a what have you done for me lately thing. Illinois lost their last game to a team that isnt very good.

Note to Illinois fans. It doesnt matter whose ranked 25th or 27th. At this point neither one is going to be able to get back into the NT picture. The Big Ten season will play itself out. It you were talking 3rd or 4th than it may be worth the arguement.

No kidding. If Cal runs the table the rest of the way that play could cost them an NC shot. Unreal. What exactly happened, for those of us not watching? cal had the ball at the osu 15 with about 15 seconds left, and no timeouts left. The QB dropped back, looked around for a few seconds and the scrambled and was tackled in the middle of the field. Game over. This one's on Tedford too. You have your backup QB in there with no timeouts and 15 seconds left. By running another play when you don't have to, you're just asking for something to go wrong and there are many more things that could go wrong than could go right - and that doesn't necessarily even have to do with a QB's decision making process. The QB could trip and fall and you're screwed. It's just not worth it to run another play there. I agree to some extent, but I do think you can have the QB drop back, look for one receiver, throw it to him if he has a good look, and throw it out the back of the end zone if it's not there. That's a simple play with the potential for a big reward, and little risk. However, it doesn't seem like the QB was instructed to do this. btw did anyone notice that the cal QB ran off with the ball after getting tackled? He was trying to get off the field to let the FG team get on, and he forgot to leave the ball on the field. It was a total brain meltdown by him. Can anybody answer this question? What would have happened if some guy on California just committed a personal foul with 6 seconds left and the refs are forced to call it? The clock would stop right, and California would have time to spike the ball after losing those 15 yards. Interesting question. I know the pros have 10 sec removed from the clock in this situation. I am not sure about college.

the maurice clarett team was completely uninspiring too, they won every game by about 3 points and were given major scares by mediocre teams like Purdue, Illinois and Cincinnati. Then they made the national championship game, did next to nothing on offense all game, and were saved by a bogus pass interference call. but yeah this team is even less inspiring than that one. There was a bogus call that went Miami's way late in the 4th quarter of that game. If not for that OSU would have won in regulation. Funny how you Penn St guys only remember the calls that you dont like. Man I hate that Michigan St lost to Northwestern last week. If we would beat OSU this week, we would be sitting real pretty. I am not saying we are going to beat OSU, but I think we can.

The only reason that I wouldn't do that is that if you put OSU behind Oklahoma and LSU now, they wouldn't move ahead of them if everyone won out. Considering they have Michigan State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan left, if OSU wins out they deserve to be in the national title game over a 1 loss LSU or a 1 loss Oklahoma. then jump them ahead if/when they beat a good team Put USF at number 1. They've beaten Auburn on the road and West Virginia. They probably deserve it more so than any of those three unbeatens. yeah, maybe, but again, do you think they could beat Oklahoma or LSU? It's a tough year to be a pollster. I'm still hoping KU, USF, OSU, etc. lose a game so it's a gigantic cluster-hump by year's end. too bad it won't result in a playoffs That is not how the polls have ever worked. It has never been who do you think would beat who. Also if all 3 of those teams lose it wont be a cluster. It will be exactly who everyone thought at the beginning to the year. LSU, USC and Oklahoma if those teams win out.

Typical Cub fan. Greg Maddux's first year W L G GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER HR BB SO HBP WP BFP IBB BK ERA *lgERA *ERA+ WHIP 2 4 6 5 1 0 1 0 31.0 44 20 19 3 11 20 1 2 144 2 0 5.52 4.06 74 1.774 I remember a lot of fans wanting to get rid of Maddux when he was a rookie.

Its probably because the mainstream media already is doing a good enough job of trying to run Murton out of town, while trumpeting Theriot as the team "MVP". Also I have seen the statement that RF needs upgrades about 50 times since the offseason on this board. So I dont think you are completely correct with your statement.

Who is Robert Lang? A lazy, doesnt work in his own end forward who put up a lot of points playing with Jagr. He has played for the Wings the last few years. He was so bad last year during the playoffs he was limited to less than 5 minutes in a couple of games against Anaheim.

Not a good free agent market. I would just as soon stay out.

OK I know the Hawks beat the Wings tonight but, They had Robert fricking Lang on the ice in a pulled goalie situation. Holy crap is the Hawks defensive forwards that bad that Lang would see any kind of ice time in these situations.

What did Micheal Robinson do? I dont remember but I think it was a little more than alcohol related. He was the first one that I remember. I thought at the time he would be done at PSU. Only to come back a year later. I am not saying this is right or wrong.

Am I wrong but has Penn St gone down hill in terms of quality of individual that plays football for them? You used to never here about Penn St kids getting in trouble. Now it seems they are just as bad as everyone else. I certainly dont mean this as an attack against Penn St. I may be wrong. I just remember Penn St having a reputation of being really classy. I can think of several different incidents in the last 5 or 6 years now involving Penn St players.

Are you saying this because you want it to happen or are you serious? As a Red Wing fan, absolutely not. I just threw it out there for fun. I did hear his name rumored with another job this off season. Maybe he is interested in coming back in some capacity. That would suck. In what way. If he went to the Hawks. I think he was rumored to be going to the Leafs in some way. I wish he never quit coaching the Wings. Of course I am sure the Blues, Canadians, Sabres and Penguins fans all feel the same way. I'm a Blues fan who wants him nowhere near a Central team, let alone a rival. But would you want him back coaching the Blues?