Andy

GROUP A: Albert Pujols (STL) GROUP B: Mark Teixeira (NYY), Adam Dunn (WSH) GROUP C: Hanley Ramirez (FLA), Joey Votto (CIN), Matt Holliday (STL) GROUP D: Aramis Ramirez (CHC), Nolan Reimold (BAL), David Wright (NYM), Nick Markakis (BAL), Grady Sizemore (CLE) Wild Card: PM'ed

Team Stats & Scoring 1. Number of Cubs wins, 2010 80 2. Number of Cubs wins, Cardinals season series (15 games) 7 3. Number of runs scored, 2010 728 4. Number of runs allowed, 2010 735 5. Final Placement in the NL Central Division 3rd Player Stats & Scoring 1. Number of Aramis Ramirez Home Runs 26 2. Number of Soriano Games Played 124 3. Ryan Theriot's Games Batting Leadoff 104 4. Geovany Soto's Batting Average .263 5. Carlos Silva's Starts 12 6. Randy Wells' ERA 3.78 7. Carlos Zambrano's Ks 170 8. Carlos Marmol's Saves 31 Total Number of Possible Player Stat Points: 400 Bonus Questions I (20 points each) 1. Which will be higher: Soriano's RBIs or Soto's RBIs? Soriano's 2. Which will be higher: Ted Lilly's starts 2009 (27) or Ted Lilly starts 2010? Ted Lilly's starts in 2009 3. Which will be higher: Jeff Baker's at-bats or Mike Fontenot's at-bats? Mike Fontenot's at-bats 4. Who will have more HRs: Zambrano or Theriot? Zambrano 5. Who will have more wins: Wells or Dempster? Wells 6. Who will have a higher OBP: Byrd or Soriano? Byrd Total Possible MC Bonus Question Points: 180 Bonus Questions II (30 points each) 1. Most HRs: Lee 2. Highest OBP (min. 400 ABs): Lee 3. Lowest ERA (min. 150 IPs): Zambrano 4. Most Quality Starts: Wells Total Possible Bonus II Question Points: 120 Total Possible Points: 2000 The Annual Tiebreaker: Date of Lou Piniella's First Ejection (you may answer "never") June 5th

Ball State loses only two seniors (neither starters) from the group that went from presumptive No. 2 seed in the MAC tournament to done after losing the 8/9 game. The starting lineup for next year will probably look something like this Randy Davis - Jr Jauwan Scaife - So Pierre Sneed - Jr Malik Perry - Sr Jarrod Jones - Jr If the three sophomores can make leaps into their junior year, 10-11 could be BSU's best shot to get back to the tournament since their last dance, in 2000. At the least, I would expect some sort of postseason bid.

College overtime is dumb and I think each team should start at their own 30 or something. Anything to make a team actually have to play their way into FG range.

I'm not a big fan of this, but it was pretty much inevitable. Interestingly, the Vikings (who most recently lost a playoff game in OT on a field goal) voted against the proposal.

I can think of a lot of things that didn't go right for the Cubs. You could argue that more things went right for the Cards. Nermind all the fluke productive years and pixie dust, how about Pujols emerging from relative obscurity to become arguably the best player in baseball? It's not arguable whether he's the best (he is), and the Pujols phenomenon by itself is probably more good fortune than almost any other baseball team has had this decade.

What a tool. tim, i'm not going to call for him to be fired, but i sure as hell am going to be critical of everything he does until he makes a deep tourney run. Deeper than 2005? So you're saying we have to win the championship to be happy. Gotcha. 1 tournament win in 5 years ain't cutting it. title game appearance aside, any other coach at a major program would be getting the same heat with those numbers. Ironically, this exact sentence proves that I do not root for a major program.

His attitude has not cost him tens of millions of dollars. His injury problems have, though.

27-7-8. Another day at the office.

Pretty sure both teams were out of timeouts by that point, which made the ending that much better. No NBA ending with 7 timeouts called in the last minute. Jon Gasaway mentioned that Izzo still had a timeout left. And was about to call it (watch the video) but pulled back at the last second. Why, I'll never know, but it paid off.

That rat bastard. Clearly Matt Painter should surrender the victory as a sign of protest. Oh by the way Andy in case you didn't know 3/11 > 2/16 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That rat bastard. Clearly Matt Painter should surrender the victory as a sign of protest.

Next weekend's NCAA announcers: Nantz/Kellogg in Houston, Enberg/Bilas in Syracuse, Lunquist/Raftery in St. Louis, Johnson/Elmore in Salt Lake

What the hell did you have happening to Kansas? I think he said he had MSU beating them. I had A&M in my elite 8 too. I'm down to 5 of those teams, but still both of my title-game participants kicking, which is really what it comes down to.

I think I need to root for them. That'll do the trick.

I can't even count how many elementary mistakes A&M has made. Purdue deserves to win.

A&M is really not a very smart team. Purdue is, and that's why they're up when they have no business in the game.

A&M holding on in spite of themselves. They're making some poor decisions, especially in the low post.

And of course right after I say that they make the wrong call on a charge/block play.

I'm a big fan of refs that don't necessarily call charge or block every single time bodies collide in the paint. That said, if you're going to do that then you shouldn't call some of the touch fouls I've seen called.

Completely brain-dead play by Texas A&M to foul there.

I'm not sure how Pitt racked up so many wins - they haven't looked all that impressive to me when I watch them. Taking Xavier in that game was a pretty easy pick for me. These white guys (besides Kramer) are brand-new to me for Purdue.

Izzo is the reason I never let myself take MSU to go out before round 3 unless there's a really, really good reason.

Wrong thread. Oh wait you mean in this one, I imagine either OSU or MSU goes from the midwest. Should be a Big Ten regional final unless someone pulls an upset. I don't think UT matches up very well with Ohio State.

THAT was awesome. Kudos, Sparty. And thanks for the bracket W.