MPrior

drown those blues USS. drown those blues. i can still make a choherent agrgument. Padiliia is a power pitcher, with less of an injruy history,. Lilly has been on and off the DL durnig his career. i'd erather thrown money at padilla than lillly. if coruse, if prior is acvtually alive, he's better tnan all of them. awesome.

Jeez, when did you attend/graduate? NU's no powerhouse, but we have won 3 conference titles and attended 5 bowls in the past 11 years... Definitely rampant hyperbole on my part, and I meant it to be that way - I graduated in 2005. Basically, my freshman year was the year things fell apart (SI had us ranked preseason #12, I think, and we wound up being pretty pitiful), and they stayed poor to mediocre until last year, the year after I graduated (when they still weren't anything special). I figured you were kidding a little bit, but I was just thinking about our school spirit today so I thought I'd say something. I overheard a freshman saying "God, our football team ALWAYS loses." I think the losses stick too much to our student body than the wins, unfortunately. We should make some noise next season though if everyone can stay healthy. I hope so. I just remember the disappointment pretty vividly my freshman year. We won the first three games (barely - they were all very close), and it was great to see that purple clock. But then we lost to Penn State, who hadn't won a game yet - our defense was HORRIBLE (iirc, Napolean Harris had left for the NFL the year before). The rest of the season was pretty much a nosedive. The only highlight in all four years I was there was when we beat Ohio State - but that was ultimately pretty sad, as a student in the stands died (I think from asthma) rushing the field.

What makes me laugh is the idea that Pujols, in any way, "led his team to the playoffs" in the first place. Pujols, much like Derrek Lee in 2005, led his team to mediocrity, and the Cubs, Pirates, Brewers, Reds, and Astros allowed them into the playoffs by sucking so bad. Pujols had a fantastic year on an 83 win team. Derrek Lee had a fantastic year on a 78 win team, and didn't win the award. There's very little difference.

When I first saw this thread title, my first thought was "What on earth for?" I guess that's cool. Now let's see if he can take a few pitches.

Oh yeah - and GO HEELS. Good game - Ohio State is going to be SICK with Oden in there. I was worried (I think TT pointed this out earlier) that OSU was just going to keep draining 3's all night, which would basically have killed us. This was the first Carolina game I've actually been able to watch most of all season - and man, do our freshmen look good. I'm pretty excited for the season. Given that they're so young, and obviously make a fair amount of mistakes (what was it, 26 turnovers against Tenn?), they'll probably lose a few more games than they should, but if they can figure out how to put things together consistently, they should be a powerhouse. I'd like to see them play better defense, too.

Jeez, when did you attend/graduate? NU's no powerhouse, but we have won 3 conference titles and attended 5 bowls in the past 11 years... Definitely rampant hyperbole on my part, and I meant it to be that way - I graduated in 2005. Basically, my freshman year was the year things fell apart (SI had us ranked preseason #12, I think, and we wound up being pretty pitiful), and they stayed poor to mediocre until last year, the year after I graduated (when they still weren't anything special).

Oh - and I'm pumped for the OSU - UNC game tonight. Should be a good one, and it turns out that I will be able to watch most of it! Here's hoping Carolina pulls it off - I might not be in a real good mood otherwise.

They should have a Big Ten-ACC challenge in football... then the Big Ten would show them who's boss. As a fan of the ACC (I grew up in North Carolina), and an alumnus of the Big Ten (Northwestern), I'm a little torn on this idea. Obviously, the ACC would be destroyed. Northwestern might even win, which is about as common as Halley's Comet. Even if they did do it, though, college basketball's clear superiority over college football would win the day for the ACC (man the BCS is stupid).

I've been trying to remember when Theriot quit switch hitting. Do you know? Theriot has exhibited very good plate discipline throughout his career. If he could hit .280, I'd expect him to have a .350 OBP. If I'm remembering correctly, it was about 2 years ago, but I could be off on that one. And I agree that his plate discipline is what makes him attractive, and a surer bet to at least contribute something offensively (in comparison to Cedeno and Izturis, who would probably have NO value). However, while you're probably right about the .280/.350 thing, I have my doubts as to whether he could hit .280 in a full ML season.

While I tend to agree with Rob - that Cedeno's possible upside is what makes him the better choice - your argument is valid. Izturis is probably just as likely to outproduce Cedeno as Cedeno is to outproduce Izturis. The big difference to me is in their contracts - Cedeno for close to the minimum, Izturis for 4+ Million, and their production will likely be similarly awful. However, if I were running the show, this would be a complete moot point, as Izturis would hopefully not be in the organization (traded for anything), and Cedeno would be back in AAA, or on the bench at best. I'd hopefully have upgraded SS through a trade or FA signing - and if not, Theriot would be my starter.

Here's my take (not much different from many that have already been posted): Theriot is, without a doubt, the best in-house option at SS. Cedeno would be my second choice. Every effort should be made to get rid of Izturis. However, Theriot is still not a great choice - his minor league numbers, even after he stopped switch-hitting, are far from stellar, and he's likely to struggle in a full year against major league pitching. SO - if a reasonable upgrade can be found (Lugo, perhaps), then the Cubs should jump at the opportunity. However, if that upgrade prohibits significantly bolstering the starting rotation, we might be better off just sticking with Theriot. Unfortunately, the likely scenario is that we start Izturis, which is easily the WORST possible option we have. And as a side note, "irregardless" is not a word. It's been most famously used by that exquisite wordsmith and wit, George W. Bush. And, regardless of your political affiliation, I think it's pretty clear that sounding like George W. Bush is not a desirable thing.

It's been a while since I've checked in - and I basically have two things to say: 1) I'm pissed about the UNC loss to Gonzaga (but they're a young team; they should get better) 2) That KU-Florida game was AWESOME. My girlfriend's family are big KU fans, and I watched the game with her stepdad. It was great. Oh yeah - and UNC-Ohio St on Wednesday should be another good one. Too bad I have to miss it.

What about Carlos Lee? If he gets a contract that is proportionally better than Pierre's and GMJ's, he could potentially be an enormous bust.

I'm not sure there's enough money left to sign Wolf, Lilly, Lugo, Floyd and Nevin. Almost definitely not if they want to extend Zambrano. Which they should.

It blows me away that people think to do this - in addition to not really being that helpful, it could very possibly stunt Murton's development, which seems to be coming along just fine. I'd like to see what he can do in another full season. It would be one thing if there weren't any other areas of the team to improve - but platooning Murton is just stupid.

Woohoo! And I couldn't care less about Marquette.

I really hope this mitigates the criticism Ramirez gets for "not caring."

Dammit! It's this kind of thing which is going to get my hopes up! Stop it! I've been trying this whole time to pretend like I don't expect Hill to do well, so that I can be pleasantly surprised when he does. But secretly, I do think he can absolutely dominant as early as next year.

It's not that I agree. But attention has to be drawn to this. Well played. Guzman has the potential (still) to be lights-out awesome. Even when he was struggling this year in the majors, his stuff was filthy, and he occasionally looked absolutely dominant. Unfortunately, it was usually only for a couple pitches at a time. Given that he's basically coming off 2 years worth of injury, I'm willing to forgive that inconsistency for the moment. Let's hope he stays healthy and straightens things out this season in the minors - and maybe get a spot in the rotation part way through the year.

I'd like to watch a Duke practice when they fake those flops. Seriously. As an avid UNC fan, I've seen many of them, and it's absolutely ridiculous. The most absurd call I've seen, though, was in a Duke-Georgia Tech game when Redick literally grabbed Jarrett Jack and yanked on his jersey in what arguably should have been a flagrant foul, and they called the foul on Jack, sending Redick to the line in the final minutes of a close game. Man I was mad. I'm glad that Shelden Williams' elbows will no longer be an issue, though.

If Jones can get us a good starting pitcher (#2 to an above-average #3 type), then do it. We need the starting pitching badly. Otherwise, we're probably better off keeping him.

A Murton for Westbrook deal, no matter what is done to cover it up, is bad. Also, it's refreshing to see that other teams make completely moronic moves as well. It's no surprise that Coletti spent significant time in the Cubs organization.

Holy crap - a baseball player named Chip Cannon led his league in HR? You can't make this stuff up, people. My thoughts exactly. He almost deserves a spot in the All-time cool names thread.

Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown Goose Gossage Honus Wagner (I mean...Honus?)

Why break it up when you can join in? Actually, feel free to supplant me, as I am going to bed. Also, I'm only some 6300 posts behind you, so watch out.