NewUserName

When people tell me the Cubs shouldnt resign Aram because he doesnt hustle, I just ask how many runs has he cost the Cubs by not hustling? Invariably someone will say "a bunch" or "quite a bit." I will then ask them to prove it? There response is something like "its common sense"or the one I really like "I cant but I know its a lot" Than I ask them something like where did the Cubs rank in runners left on base, which they say something like "a bunch" or "Quite a bit". So I drop the info on them that they had the least runners left on base in the NL and point out that their answer to both questions was the same and they were wrong on the second one. I than offer to show how many runs not having ARam in the order will cost the Cubs and they will say something like "yeah but he didnt hit when we needed him" This one actually bothers me more than the hustle one. Trying to explain that even if he hit well in May and June the Cubs would only have won a couple of more games in that stretch and blah blah blah. Somehow even with mathematical proof they still fall back on their preceptions and misinformation that they blinding follow even when facts are put right in front of them. I came to the conclusion that you just cant get enough Juan Pierres for some people no matter how many ways you show he sucks and ARam doesnt.

all i need to know about clutch is how to install one on my truck Is it Rear, Front or Four wheel drive. If its 4 you may have to get David Ortiz to fix it.

For being a Clubhouse cancer he has been on several successful teams that really dont have a lot of talent besides him. Although he is slow, his knowledge of the postition and taking the correct angle towards the ball make him an adequite LFer. I would be for adding him if the price was right. I would much rather give him a 1 yr deal at 5-7 million than paying CLee 12 million for 4 years.

I think what Boras is really saying is "Atlanta you better pony up or trade my guy to a team that is willing to pony up"

Wow is Charlie Weis a large man. As you all know I am not to fond of ND football, but I have no problem with what Weis said. I would expect that any good coach would publicly lobby for his team. Yes sometimes it sounds whinny and dumb but coaches have to do it anyway.

My dad the Tiger fan says he isnt very good defensively but neither is Jones. I just think if Detroit doesnt want him he is the type of player that would make a good 4th outfielder platoon partner. I am not sure what we have that Detroit would want. I guess they will also be looking for a left handed hitting outfielder in the off-season. I would actually trade Jones straight up for Thames but for some reason think we could also get a minor prospect in the deal.

Thats kind of funny considering Comerica is a pitchers park. He also hits for more power against RH pitchers. For the life of me I dont understand why he isnt DHing. This is almost Dustyish in its stupidity, especially considering they are not hitting at all in the WS.

I have noticed that Marcus Thames has been pretty much relegated to the bench with Detroit during the post season. In St Louis I understand but havent quite figured out why he isnt playing DH in Detroit. I was wondering what it would take to get him and if he would be a good platoon partner with Jones. Just throwing it out there and wondered what everyone thinks.

It was under Rule 8.02(b) that Brendan Donnelly was ejected and suspended when pine tar was found on his glove earlier this season. He had not thrown a pitch before being ejected. Julian Tavarez was also ejected in '04 under this rule for his pinetar hat. I was wrong. I will still say though that LaRussa really didnt want his pitcher to be checked either and that is why he didnt make a bigger stink out of Rogers.

THE CUBS??!! Ban him! :P Who brought up the 2002 'Luckeyes', damn you. Throughout the whole year i thought they were so overrated. The purdue game was the game that put me over the edge. I forgot about the Illini and Cincy game and right now cant remember the UM/OSU game so dont remind me, im sure to shake my head and say 'yup wtf' if you do. I remember that year. I remember the Tony Johnson catch against UM with two feet in bounds, putting Penn State in field goal range with like 25 seconds left... but it was called out and Penn State had to punt. I'm not still bitter at all. especially when in college you only need one foot in bounds. Someday the NCAA will take the Big 10 officials off of the Michigan payroll Earlier in that drive some PSU reciever trapped a ball that was called a completion. If that play was called correctly it would have been something like 4th and 12 on the PSU 20. The call was just about as obvious as the catch made later. Some reason it is hard to point out refereeing calls that dont seem to go your way. I havent heard too many PSU fans complaining about the pass interference call against Minnesota in OT or the phantom holding call on Illinois last drive that negated a big run from Juice Williams. I guess it is hard to point out that your team has just been dominated by Michigan. Well welcome to the Big Ten most of the rest of us are used to it. Edit: By the way Cubweiser, If I remember correctly a offensive pass interference call on a touchdown pass. I dont remember the Michigan reciever(Edwards?) He did push off, it however was a standard play made by most recievers in the end zone that for some reason was called at that moment. Of course this does seem to contridict the "Large Refs are for Michigan Conspiracy"

That's not true. If I am wrong I will admit it but I am pretty sure the rule says something along the lines of a pitched ball being expactorated on and so on and so on. I dont think there is a rule in baseball that says a Pitcher cannot have stuff on his hand. I dont remember all the details of the Taveraz case but in the case of Joe Neikro and I think Rick Honeycutt the balls were checked first. They were found to have been altered and than they examined the pitchers.

What LaRussa is really saying is that I didnt have Rogers checked because I dont want my pitchers checked. Something else that is missing in all the discussion I have been hearing on sports radio about this. Its not against the rules until a ball is doctored. I am not niave and saying that Roger is innocent, I am just saying that people who say that he should have been ejected are not correct. If a pitched ball was found to have pine tar or whatever on it then he should have been ejected. Not just because FOX found it with their cameras.

What has Ohio St done that deserve to be ranked higher than Michigan except to start the season ranked higher? They've given up an average of 8.5 points per game while scoring an average of 34 points per game. No game has even been close this year. 1. Computers dont put margin of victory into their formulas. 2. PSU/OSU. Penn State was winning 3-0 at half. They were down 14-6 until Morelli threw 2 late 4th quarter pick sixes to lose 28-6 It really dont make a difference because they will end up playing and If USC goes undefeated they will be playing the winner of Mich/OSU

What has Ohio St done that deserve to be ranked higher than Michigan except to start the season ranked higher?

I am not completely BCS literate so I was looking at the BCS poll and is Mchigan and USC tied for number 1 in the computer rankings?

Is it anymore farfetched than ND last year. If ND would have gone undefeated the circumstances wouldnt be that much different than Rutgers this year. Except that as soon as ND won a game they were in the top 25 and once they won 2 they were in the top ten. I am sure that if ND would have gone undefeated the idea of putting Georgia or PSU in the championship game would have been an outrage. All this being said I dont think Rutgers is going to go undefeated. An undefeated ND would have beaten USC and plastered just about everyone else they played, while Rutgers had to rally to beat USF. Not quite the same thing. But I shan't go any further because we'll still be talking about this next week if I do. An undefeated Rutgers team would have to beat 2 Top 10 teams. The circumstances really are not that different. Especially when you consider NDs schedule last year ended up being pretty mediocre at best. I for one would be outraged if Rutgers didnt get to go to the National Championship game if they were one of 2 undefeated teams. These are also pretty similar circumstances to Auburn in 2004 except there were 2 other undefeated teams. The reason Auburn was the team left out was because they started the season unranked. I agree with Cuse in that I think Shiano has Rutgers going the right direction. It may be better to stay at Rutgers then to go to Miami. I still dont think they are going to go undefeated this year but I wouldnt be surprised if they upset one of WV or Louisville

The Big 10 may be down but its hard to say that they are completely down with 2 of the top 3 teams in the country. I mean depth wise. Michigan and Ohio State are very good teams, it just brings me back to the old days when they were always 1 and 2 and the rest were like this year. I also think that Wisconsin is probably a top 15 team. I dont think it really makes a difference at this point as the winner of Michigan and OSU is going to play in the title game. I just think all this points out the suckage of the Big Ten schedule. Wisconsin doesnt play OSU. Which really raises two problems. I think that it hurts Wisconsin as they may go 11-1 and have no shot at a BCS game unless Michigan just roles over OSU. Also it really isnt fair scheduling when OSU has Wiscosin and Purdue off their schedule while Michigan has Illinois and Purdue off their schedule. They play 12 games now I wish the Big Ten would go to a 10 game conference schedule.

Is it anymore farfetched than ND last year. If ND would have gone undefeated the circumstances wouldnt be that much different than Rutgers this year. Except that as soon as ND won a game they were in the top 25 and once they won 2 they were in the top ten. I am sure that if ND would have gone undefeated the idea of putting Georgia or PSU in the championship game would have been an outrage. All this being said I dont think Rutgers is going to go undefeated.

If West Virginia is the only undefeated team to go along with the winner of Michigan and OSU than they would play for the National Title, same as Louisville. So why should Rutgers be punished because they didnt start the season ranked in the Top 25. If Arkansas didnt lose to USC and ran the table would there be any question about them being in the National Title game. Yes because them getting unranked to start with would create some question, just like why are the ranked so low now. Of course this goes to show why preseason rankings shouldnt be allowed. All of this is why college football is so great and frustrating. We can argue these types of things because there is no real closure some seasons.

You could put West Virgina in there too. My guess is they will be playing for the national championship after Michigan loses to OSU and ND beats USC. I'm sure all the ND fans will be crying about it too even though Michigan destroyed them. Regardless, no one touches OSU this year. USC is going to lose to Cal and maybe ND. If OSU loses it will be to Michigan. I certainly wouldnt put that in the win column for OSU yet. I agree that West Virginia is going to end up in the title game. I also think it is going to be well deserved even with all the SEC crying foul.

Primetime players just dont show up to the Major Leagues and start putting up great numbers. I know you could give me examples where players have been I could probably give you at least 2 players to your 1 of players that have taken a year or two to fully develop. The Cubs are not going to win the WS next year. CLee and Soriano are both going to regress the next couple of years as the leave there prime years. In 2 years are you going to complain about how the Cubs should spend 250 million because they cant get anything done because they have these bad contracts to go along with Jason Schmidts. I agree to spend for a Stud however neither of these 2 has consistently put up .900 OPS in their careers. So defining them as Studs may be a large jump.

#88 is Dominique Douglas a true freshman from Detroit who wasn't recruited by Michigan (or MSU). His best offers besides Iowa were Cincy, Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan. It's strange because he came out of Detroit with tons of honors, but none of the big boys thought he was fast enough or big enough to get by without 4.5 speed. He's a tremendous route runner, great hands and just knows how to play. Unfortunately he's our only legit WR right now. Our defense looked tough today and return 9/11 starters next year. Unfortunately we don't get to play UM or OSU because of the stupid Big Ten schedule. How is it that Purdue got both Michigan and OSU off the last couple of years and Iowa gets them both off the next couple of years. Since they have expanded to 12 games I really think that the Big Ten ought to go to a 10 game conference schedule. I know they wont but it would eliminate things like OSU not playing Wisconin this year.

I dont think it really even makes a difference how good of a defensive CFer he is. It does not make up for the fact that he is a terrible offensive player. If he was Jim Edmonds in his prime as a defensive player he still would be in the bottom 3rd in the league as overal CFer because his offense is so bad. This does not even warrant a 5 mill a year contract let alone the 7 to 10 he may get.

Is he going to be better than Murton though? Since neither can play another position I would rather go with Murton. Again with the Matt Murton man love...you guys rather have a guy with only 13 HR's and 62 RBI's than C Lee or Soriano??..Your crazy.... Both Lee and Soriano hit over 30 HR's..the problem is, were being outhomered in our own park..WE NEED POWER...Lee had an average of .300 Soriano .277 Is Carlos Lee going to be better than Murton?? Are you insane?? HELL YES he will...Lee or Soriano at wrigley is a deadlock for 30+ HR and 100+ RBI's...I like Murton but you gotta get over this love affair of him..you guys are just like the Dusty-Neifi affair...OK So hes cheap...who cares about money..the trib has tons of it...Im not gonna wait another 100 years for a world series..Go out and buy it... Get a power hitter,Platoon Jones and Murton in right, get 2 starting pitchers,maybe a guy like Durham to play second because Ronny sucks..and there we go Murton is 25 and coming into his prime. CLee and Soriano are 30 and leaving their prime. Both players had career years at the age of 30 in free agent years. I dont know how often these things work out but there should certainly be warnings against them. I wouldnt mind Soriano if we got him to play center or 2b. It is not man love for Murton it is just common sense that I want him over CLee. I am guessing that there isnt another organization in Baseball that would sign CLee so they could platoon Murton with Jones, even the Yankees wouldnt do that.

I looked at some things this morning and find no mention of Arrington being out. I read a few places that he comes from 30 miles from Iowa City and went to Michigan because of the Fab Five. I wondered if it was the money or the clothing style Yeah he's from Cedar Rapids where I live. Grew up a Michigan fan and picked them over us in his final two. A lot of fans thought he was crazy and could get lost in the shuffle with all of the great WR's UM always has, whereas he could have been the #1 guy at Iowa. It worked out for him up there though and Mario's injury really showcased him. If he's out today it would help our chances. The injury bug for Iowa continues. Kenny Iwebema (DE, preseason All-Big Ten and AA in some mags) isn't making the trip due to injury, neither is Shonn Greene. Albert Young (#1 RB), Dominique Douglas (#1 WR), Mitch King (#1 DT), Dace Richardson (starting LT) and Rafael Eubanks (starting C) are all uncertain. Injuries definitely aren't an excuse for the horrible loss at Indiana, but they certainly aren't helping. I woke up feeling a little optimistic this morning. Ferentz teams always bounce back from bad losses with great showings. Then again Ferentz teams never lose to teams like Indiana in October. If you are an Iowa fan why not be optimistic. A loss is expected so you really have nothing to lose. Michigan may be coming in not ready and Iowa is still good enough to beat them if they arent prepared. Also last week Michigan really dominated Penn St and PSU still got the ball with almost 2 mins left with a chance to tie the game.