Banedon

You are going to break even. No way in the world is Lilly going to have a ERA under 4.00. Both bets were just $5 each, so it's not like I'm betting the farm. Imagine we'll have a couple more going before the season is over.

Kyle Lohse needs to realize that he's not a 1.39 ERA pitcher.

Is this for pre-season games? Preseason games, Bears GDL, and Bears GNL. Everything that used to be on NBC. I hope that they'll still share the preseason game broadcasts with other stations around the state so non-Chicagoans can still see those games? Those of us not in Chicago didn't get GDL and GNL anyway, so no loss there.

I've got a bet with a buddy that the Cubs will win the head-to-head matchups with the Cardinals this year. I feel pretty confident on that one, so I made another bet with the same guy that Lilly will finish with an ERA under 4.00. I'm much less confident on that one, but the bets cancel each other out, so what the heck. Anyway, my point being...Lilly needs to start bringing it.

I don't know if they would want to do that. Would you want to risk messing with Ankiel's head?

Funny thing is though, that this is an improvement for Corey. He was referred to by various K nicknames so often that I can't even type them because the filter won't allow me.

That really isn't fair. We don't know how many of those guys he wanted and how many George told him he wanted. But how can you know? And if you have to assume that his bad choices were potentially George-induced, don't you have to assume the same about his good ones? If you factor in George, then you really have no idea if Cashman is a good GM or a horrible one.

In the competition for superfluous outfield choices, Bonds > Lofton.

Sig'd

ALRIGHT FELIX!!!

nobody cares about your fantasy team. rawr. And why would you draft Ben Sheets anyway? Sorry Roast, but that wasn't the smartest pick. Predicting Sheets goes down with an injury is like predicting...

Frank Thomas.

I debated on that. I probably should have left it off.

Hulk was my answer. Wolverine was my buddy's.

I know, weird poll. My buddy and I were discussing this. Assuming that Spidey is the most popular Marvel character (not a big stretch), who do you think is next? I'm not looking for your favorite, but who you think is most bankable or popular. If I'm missing a choice, let me know and I'll add it.

Ok, my geek is going to show here for a minute...my apologies in advance. The problem with that card is the italics. Any actual gameplay effects that a card has is in normal font. Anything in italics is just flavor text. If someone took the time to make that, they should have known better.

If Soriano ends up being day to day, I think we'll see just what we saw tonight. DeRosa in LF and Fontenot at 2b. If Soriano goes on the DL, I think Murton will be called up and thrown into the mix. I don't think a trade or anything will happen unless it's a whole lot more serious than it looked to be. I think Murton will be in the mix too.

It's more than a pet peeve. It's stupid. And the only things that can possibly come out of it are a dropped catch or an injury. It's akin to an NFL player diving/flipping into the endzone when they could just walk in. It's akin to a player doing a 360 on a breakaway dunk when they could just 2 hand it in. It's still 2 points, 6 points, or 1 out.....no style points are given. I know people say that it's a habit that he can't break and what not, but that's BS...if that was the case, he would do the same thing when there's runners on, and he doesn't. He sets himself like a professional outfielder to make a throw home. Hell...if that's what it takes, then just pretend there's runners on every play.

I think I posted about this a while back, but it's looking more and more like Bloomington-Normal will get a minor league team. Sounds like we should know more by May 6.

Murton won't be going anywhere now.

I've complained to my wife every time I see Soriano do that skip. It's so dumb. I'm not even sure why he does it. It's no great showoff feat to be able to catch a routine fly, which is the only time he does it. And now this. Hopefully this brings the skipping to an end. It was a personal pet peeve to me before, and now it's just dumb.

11th most difficult. The Patriots have the easiest schedule. Chargers have the second easiest.

Nope. The Cubs are actually charging under market value. They want the "common fan" to be able to come to the game. But hey, like everyone in america, they want to make a buck too. And so do a lot of other folks. So scalpers come and buy these tickets and then go out and charge what the market will bear. Or season ticket holders, who have the money to make an "investment" in season tickets, will buy them and take their chances on the value of them down the road. What happens if some budget crazy mizer buys the Cubs and trades away all the high priced talent for low priced junk, and you end up with a bargain basement team? Now the demand is down and all those season ticket holders are sitting on a pile of worthless tickets. It's an investment (one that's likely to pay off, admittedly), but it's still an investment. What you're implying is only true if the Cubs were charging rich people and corporate people less, and the "common fan" more...or if they were charging both the same, but giving the rich/corporate better seating. That's not the case. This is a case of if you have more money, you get a better product. How is that different from anything else in life?

Couldn't somebody who is willing to spend a lot of money for good seats be considered die-hard? I don't see why camping out overnight gives somebody more right to seats. Everybody likes to pick on the "the suits" and "corporate seats", but my experience has been that most of the people getting these seats are very big fans. Whether they are the CEO, or a receptionist who got the unused tickets at 6:15, the people who end up going are typically very much interested in the game. Go on stubhub.com and see how many of those guys with ties are selling their tickets well above face value. It would be fairer if they were available for anyone to buy at face value. How many of those guys in t shirts are selling their tickets above face value? You've got people on this site every year in the ticket thread talking about buying tickets so they can sell them. Mizzou was doing it with playoff tickets last year for God's sake. And that justifies it because.... The system is wrong. I don't blame any one individual who is simply doing what the system allows, like everyone else. It's frustrating when you have to pay hundreds for the better tickets through a scapler just because you a) can't afford season tickets, or b) haven't been on the waiting list long enough to get them, or c) don't have the corporate contacts. That's just life. People have opportunites to get jobs I can't get because they know someone. People have better investment opportunities because they know someone. People get better cars or get to go to events or get to visit places I don't get to visit because they have money, or they know people. This is just supply vs demand. There's a finite number of Cubs tickets, and a large demand. Therefore scalpers are just getting what the market will bear. That's just economics. There's nothing unfair about that. If the Cubs were less popular, it wouldn't be an issue, but then you wouldn't want to go. Look at the Pirates the last couple of nights. Not too many people making a lot of money scalping those tickets.

That was the one that jumped to mind for me too.