apete6

Iowa had a closed scrimmage with DePaul right before the season. Iowa is improved from last year but will probably win about 17 games and finish in the bottom half of the Big Ten. The only word that leaked out from that scrimmage was that DePaul was really, really bad. The coaches were a little upset and thought it was a waste because they were a mess and couldn't run anything. At the time I figured it was just hyperbole. I don't think that's the case anymore. Ya, DePaul is a TERRIBLE team to scrimmage with if the purpose is getting better playing against actual sets. They don't run offense. Seriously. They pass to a few guys around the perimeter and then someone jacks up a shot off the dribble with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock. The can win a few games with athleticism, but they literally have no concept of running an offense. No screens, no set plays, no interior passing, its like watching YMCA ball, except the 40 year old fat guys at the Y can actually make a shot once in a while.

DePaul loses to Morgan State. Yeah, a state that's not even a state. Awesome. Wainwright now with losses to perennial powers North Carolina A&T and Morgan State in consecutive years...and a 27 point loss to Northwestern. If they don't fire this piece of [expletive], they should be banned from the Big East and Division 1 basketball in general. I hope he can't sleep tonight, faxes in his resignation, gets on a plane to the Bahamas, and is never seen again. What a piece of garbage.

That seems more believable. Ya, I would be more OK letting him go for that price. If it was 2/14 or something, that would have made me angry.

According to Steve Phillips, it would be 2 years, 12-14 million. Really? We can't pay that? Skip the Peavy garbage, re-sign Woody, sign Bradley and call it a day.

Someone in the Mark Loretta, Ray Durham, Alex Cintron category, I would assume.

Good move for Kenny Williams if Bailey can even give them 5 years of middle relief for no money. Sox probably aren't going to be very good next year anyway, so why not sell high on a 35 year old outfielder that won't be around after next year anyway? Ballsy, but I like the move for the White Sox. Maybe the Reds can flip Dye at the trade deadline for something better than Homer Bailey? Especially if he puts up some inflated numbers at GABP in the first half.

Either NU is legit or DePaul is just horrible. I think its a little of both. Look up my old rants on Wainwright. I hate the guy and he has singlehandedly ruined a once proud program. We will never again be a factor nationally. Between our bad stadium situation and limited athletics budget, we don't deserve to be in the Big East. Once that conference falls apart, we will go to the Horizon League where we now belong thanks to the combined efforts of Bill Bradshaw, Jean Lenti Ponsetto, and Jerry Wainwright. A real sad situation.

Yes, his last name is Pringle. I believe there was a plethora of "Once you Pop, you Can't Stop" jokes. Good stuff.

Here's my take: In: Henderson--The greatest of all time (his words, not mine, but I almost agree). The guy had speed and power, played a decent outfield. Revolutionized the idea of a "leadoff" guy, immediate impact on every game he played. Not to mention, the speech would be must see TV. Blyleven--absolutely ridiculous this guy isn't in. If he played in NY or Boston he'd have been in on the first or second ballot Tommy John--I know wins are overrated, but my God, the guy got that many after the surgery that bears his name. If he never gets in, they at least need to put him in for "contributors to the game" or something. Frankly, he probably deserves both. McGwire--I know he roided up, but so did nearly everyone else in the 1990s. Also, had some damn good years in the late 80s/early 90s when he wasn't very big. One dimensional, but a legendary 1 dimension. Raines--If not for Rickey, he'd be the pre-eminent leadoff man of the modern era. SB% is nuts. Again, playing in small market most of the time will hurt him. 2nd Tier Guys (Don't really deserve it, but wouldn't be a travesty): Dawson--Turf in Montreal cost him the Hall of Fame. Sad stuff. One of the heroes of my youth. Would have 600 HRs if he was on roids. Trammell--Solid, but unspectacular. Playing SS helps, but offense wasn't quite good enough. Smith--Good closer, but neither revolutionary (Gossage/Sutter) or dominant enough (Rivera) and didn't compile enough saves (Hoffman) 3rd Tier Guys (At least have a case with a few people): Jack Morris--Greatest postseason pitcher I've ever seen. Unbelievable mustache. Murphy--Multiple MVPs on bad teams, but not a long enough peak. Killed his body in CF. Grace--Hits are nice, but in era of power, he was easily replaceable. Baines--Longevity nice, but didn't hang on long enough for 3,000 hits Rice--Good player with nice, but short, peak. If he was on KC or Seattle, would have been an afterthought.

I love me some Bob Costas. Great baseball and football guy. Signing long term with NBC was a bad move for him. Until NBC got football back, he was useless except for the Olympics and his HBO show. Meanwhile, we got to listen to the awful baseball announcers on FOX and especially TBS. The fact that Costas hasn't called a baseball game lately and freaking Dick Stockton gets the playoffs is a travesty.

Ya, and USC just lost to pretty much the 14th or 15th best one.

LOL, 2nd or 3rd best team in Pac 10 loses to one of the 2 or 3 worst teams in the Big East. Eat in Pac 10.

Yeah, it's not like Coach Knight is knowledgeable, eloquent and entertaining. Ya, but he's usually such a sourpuss and arrogant d**k. Doesn't come across that way on the broadcast. Good stuff.

Most surprising thing of the college basketball season so far? Bob Knight is actually a very good announcer. I'm speechless. :shock:

Wow, after 2 days of voting, almost a perfect bell curve. Everyone is pretty much in agreement that this was just OK. If we thought this way about all of Hendry's moves, this board would be a lot more boring.

Should the Moose make the HOF?

Now they're going after CC. 6 years "more than $100 million, but less than $140 million" They would be paying Sabathia and Zito more than the entire Marlins team. Haha. http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2008/11/giants_to_enter_sabathia_sweep.html

Seconded. Even if he goes down, he goes down in flames. It's great. I'd love him on the Cubs.

Seriously? Jason Caffey? Dickey Simpkins? Corey Benjamin? Dalibor Bagaric? Considering who were still on the board during each yr those players were drafted, I wouldn't lose sleep over those crappy players. The only one that hurt was Jason Caffey, and that is only because of who was drafted right behind him, Michael Finley. But considering where those guys who were pick it's no surprise that they stunk. Right now Noah could be worse then those guys (how was this guy ever considered a #1 pick overal, I'll never understand) simply based on where he was drafted; lottery .v. early to late 20's pick. Didn't the Bulls draft such luminaries as Marcus Fizer, Chris Mihm (traded for Jamal Crawford), and Eddy Curry with top 10 picks (Fizer #4, Mihm #9, Curry #2 or 4, can't remember). If Noah has a worse career than Marcus Fizer, I'll be impressed. Also, wasn't Sam Vincent a high pick of the Bulls and Will Perdue and Stacey King were in the top 1/2 of the 1st round.

By the way, I don't know how familiar you are with St. Louis, but if you need any dinner/bar suggestions, things like that, just let me know. I can also help. I was stuck down there for about 18 months and still have to visit fairly often. Thanks for the offers guys. Our plan is fairly well set because we have a few friends from STL that we'll be meeting up with. Not planning on a fancy dinner or anything. We are going to do the standard tourist things on Saturday afternoon (Arch, Budweiser brewery). Probably go out to the landing on Friday because we won't get in until after midnight. Saturday night we'll probably go out to the neighborhood bars. Our friends live near the brewery, so probably somewhere near there. Any suggestions?

Right. It won't be insane like it was for the MNF game two years ago, but people will probably get face value or slightly more. I think it was last year or the year before tickets were being left in car windshields downtown. No joke. I got 8 tickets together in the upper tank for $65 each. Not great, but we have 8 together, so that made it a bit tougher. Staying in the Hilton next to Busch Stadium this weekend. Let's hope the Bears can win. If you see a guy in a white Rex Grossman jersey, it's probably me. (I got it for $20 after he broke his ankle in the preseason game against the Rams in 2005 if that makes it more acceptable :D ) Edit: The game being inside is the only way the wife and a few of the other women going with us would go. So, I'm glad for the dome!

Just wanted to see what everyone thinks.

ESPN generally sucks as we all know, but this College Hoops Marathon thing is great. I worked from home today and got to watch basketball all day--well, except when they put a Kansas vs. Iowa Women's game on. That sucked. But, other than that, it was cool. Eating breakfast while watching Drexel vs. Penn >>>>>> being at the office.

If the deal is 4/52, I would list it as the 3rd worst of the 9 big contracts on the Cubs, with DeRosa being the best deal: 1. Soriano 8/136 2. Fukudome 4/48 3. Dempster 4/52 4. Zambrano 5/91.5 5. Marquis 3/21 6. Lee 5/65 7. Lilly 4/40 8. Aram 5/73 9. DeRosa 3/13

I think we'll be better than last year. Koshwal and Dar Tucker are Sophomores and I think were honorable mention for preseason All Big East. Of course, the last time I got excited about a DePaul tandem it was Sammy Mejia and Wilson Chandler, and that didn't turn out well. I think a decent season and a NIT bid are possible. I'll be there tonight too and probably drinking beforehand as well. Not sure if I'll be at McGee's though. I feel like I outgrew that place. I hate Wainwright too btw. He's an ok recruiter and a mediocre coach, but he' just not the guy that's going to bring DePaul back to prominence (if that's possible). Personally, I'm still really upset that Leito left for UVA a few years back. He was really building something solid...its not like he was coaching some no name school or something. Him leaving belittled the program into small time status. But then again, if Tom Crean can leave a very successfully built Marquette team, I guess its not as big of a shame as I'm making it. Though UVA is NOT in the same class as IU. Well, DePaul won by 11, but it was brutal. Dar Tucker had a monster 360 dunk and played well. The defense was OK, but the rebounding and "offense" were brutal. There is absolutely no offensive system, just a bunch of dribbling and ball screening. Garbage. It's going to be a long year in the Big East.