Mephistopheles

The Athletics are at a crossroad as an organization. It might be time for a minifire sell. Not for prospects really but ML ready guys (Marshall, Gallagher, Pie, Patterson, etc). If they sell their guys that are good for rebuilding theyll probably be back to the top of the AL West by 2010 and Swisher, Haren and those guys would be either FAs before then are 12-14 mil players in their last year of arby so he couldnt afford them. its not a poor move if he thinks the team cant compete well in 08-09. its amazing that hes been able to field a contendor for nearly a decade with that payroll.

sure you can ....

id play him in rightfield. i really would.

oh man swisher would be excellent.

Nah, it's just the Yankees and Red Sox are the only ones who will spend 7/150 to keep him.

Murton is a below avg hitter for his position and has a below avg glove. That isn't true. I assume you are referring to his glove. IIRC most metrics I've seen has him below avg. That isn't true.

It was 34-14 at halftime. They would never have caught the Gators running the football. They stopped running out of necessity.

Murton is a below avg hitter for his position and has a below avg glove. That isn't true.

VOTE MEPH FOR GM

with a large tournament the required games against bcs out of conference schools is not needed. the teams MUST schedule their own.

I'm going to predict an OSU win over LSU. I'm also going to predict that shortly afterwards we'll see a long overly complicated rationalization using mathematical models of why LSU was the better team and "should have" won by Meph. Were you one of the many on here last year predicting an Ohio State win over Florida? Oh, I get it. Ohio State lost to Florida last year, so they can't beat LSU this year. Gotcha. Ohio State isn't as good as they were last year and LSU is better this year than Florida was last year so yeah is make sense to predict another SEC blowout of a Big Ten team. 1st off like Meph will probably tell you one game has many different variables. Florida routing OSU last year was probably a fluke. 2nd Its still has no value in predicting this years game 3rd What LSU team have you been watching? It certainly isnt one that is better than Florida last year. I keep hearing that LSU could easily be undefeated. They just as easily could have 4 losses and being playing in the Cotton Bowl. 1. Yes and no. Florida and OSU were close last season. The blowout part of it was probably also due to the long layoff for OSU 2. No. It certainly does mean something. 3. Yes this years LSU team is better than last years Florida. 06 UF wasn't great. They had a middle of the road offense and a great defense.

Honestly they should shorten the season to ten games. 8 in conference games for all teams, 2 out of conference games for potential rivalries they can get 1 game in august for every team. 4 games in september, 4 games in october and 2 games the first week of november most seasons. One week off for everyone before the playoffs and one week of in the middle of the season. That would leave them 1 week in November, a couple weeks off for finals, 2 weeks at the end of december and 2 weeks in early January. no conference championship games. if you notice that's 5 weeks of playoffs, 32 teams. Each league gets one auto-bid. Then have a selection committee pick the remaining what? 20 teams? you can also have a NIT like tournament, so effectively you have 64 teams making the post season compared to the present 64.

Hart should be fine by the bowl game. It's Henne I'm worried about. A Mallett-lead team is going to get destroyed by Florida if Henne can't go. He's a tough guy though, so you know he's going to do whatever it takes to play in the game. Florida's secondary's the weak link. Mallett would be able to move the ball on them decently. Hart will be a non-factor. Even if healthy. Hart will be a factor, only because Carr is still running the show. It won't matter that Florida's secondary is the weak link. Expect to see a lot of run left in the game. I didn't say Carr wouldn't run the ball. He just won't have success. The Gators are excellent against the run (Moreno excluded) and they know it's coming, ie they'll stack the line.

Hart should be fine by the bowl game. It's Henne I'm worried about. A Mallett-lead team is going to get destroyed by Florida if Henne can't go. He's a tough guy though, so you know he's going to do whatever it takes to play in the game. Florida's secondary's the weak link. Mallett would be able to move the ball on them decently. Hart will be a non-factor. Even if healthy.

And I for one think Illinois will follow what Notre Dame did the last two years when their slot was in question and get handled by their opponent. The only difference is that unlike 05 and 06, that team won't have the double whammy of also facing the best team not in the title game (since Georgia probably has that distinction this season). You could make a pretty good case for USC, though, as the best team not in the title game. But yeah, unlike the previous two years there isn't a clear-cut team that stands out since Georgia, OU and USC could all have good arguments. cliche by now but....and Florida!!!

Tim has a terrific deep ball. I'm not sure he can throw the 20, 25 yard outs on a line required in the NFL to survive.

I am putting all of the Meph Bowl Picks in here: Note all probabilities are the chances of the SECOND team listed to win the game. Biggest Mismatches 1. 90.8% Papa Johns Bowl: Southern Miss vs. Cincinnati 2. 87.9% Capital One Bowl: Michigan vs. #9 Florida 3. 85.6% Fiesta Bowl: #11 West Virginia vs. #3 Oklahoma 4. 84.0% Poinsettia Bowl: Navy vs. Utah 5. 83.7% Hawaii Bowl: East Carolina vs. #24 Boise State Best Matchups 1. 51.7% Champ Sports Bowl: Michigan State vs. #14 Boston College 2. 52.6% Peach Bowl: #22 Auburn vs. #15 Clemson 3. 56.3% Las Vegas Bowl: UCLA vs. BYU 4. 57.2% Meineke Car Care Bowl: Wake Forest vs. Connecticut 5. 58.0% Outback Bowl: #18 Wisconsin vs. #14 Tennessee Picks: 12/20 Poinsettia Bowl Utah 34 Navy 17 16.0% 12/21 New Orleans Bowl FAU 27 Memphis 21 35.6% 12/22 Papa Johns Bowl Southern Miss 14 Cincinnati 38 90.8% 12/22 New Mexico Bowl Nevada 24 New Mexico 30 72.3% 12/22 Las Vegas Bowl UCLA 14 BYU 21 56.3% 12/23 Hawaii Bowl #24 Boise State 41 East Carolina 24 16.3% 12/26 Motor City Bowl Purdue 31 Central Michigan 17 21.5% 12/27 Holiday Bowl #12 Arizona State 28 #17 Texas 24 38.1% 12/28 Champ Sports Bowl #14 Boston College 27 Michigan State 28 51.7% 12/28 Emerald Bowl Oregon 24 Maryland 21 29.4% 12/28 Texas Bowl TCU 35 Houston 24 23.0% 12/29 Liberty Bowl Mississippi State 17 Central Florida 24 63.0% 12/29 Meineke Car Care Bowl Connecticut 27 Wake Forest 24 42.8% 12/29 Alamo Bowl Penn State 21 Texas A&M 14 36.4% 12/30 Independence Bowl Alabama 24 Colorado 17 39.1% 12/31 Music City Bowl Florida State 24 Kentucky 31 69.7% 12/31 Sun Bowl Oregon State 14 #23 South Florida 24 64.6% 12/31 Armed Forces Bowl Air Force 28 California 31 59.8% 12/31 Humanitarian Bowl Fresno State 31 Georgia Tech 34 59.3% 12/31 Peach Bowl #15 Clemson 20 #22 Auburn 21 47.4% 12/31 Insight Bowl Oklahoma State 28 Indiana 20 34.9% 1/1 Capital One Bowl Michigan 24 #9 Florida 56 87.9% 1/1 Rose Bowl #13 Illinois 17 #6 USC 35 77.1% 1/1 Gator Bowl #21 Virginia 21 Texas Tech 35 73.2% 1/1 Outback Bowl #18 Wisconsin 24 #16 Tennessee 27 58.0% 1/1 Cotton Bowl #7 Missouri 34 #25 Arkansas 31 38.5% 1/1 Sugar Bowl #4 Georgia 34 #10 Hawaii 31 35.2% 1/2 Fiesta Bowl #11 West Virginia 24 #3 Oklahoma 41 85.6% 1/3 Orange Bowl #8 Kansas 10 #5 Virginia Tech 31 36.6% 1/5 International Bowl Ball State 21 Rutgers 27 68.6% 1/6 GMAC Bowl Tulsa 35 Bowling Green 38 59.6% 1/8 National Championship Game #1 Ohio State 21 #2 LSU 34 40.7% Breakdown by Conference: 7-2 Southeastern Conference 4-1 Big East Conference 4-1 Mountain West Conference 4-2 Pac-10 Conference 4-4 Big 12 Conference 3-5 Big Ten Conference 2-6 Atlantic Coast Conference 1-0 Sun Belt Conference 1-2 Mid-American Conference 1-3 Western Athletic Conference 1-5 Conference USA 0-1 Independents Discuss.

what'd he say? Called Tebow a system QB, and that he couldnt run Hawaii's offense because it takes an accurate passer. The thing is Tebow's a very accurate guy. I don't think Jones really was trying to knock Tebow as fight for his guy. All coaches do the same to defend their own guy. Don't read into Jones' comments.

Oh don't worry, it's plenty false. It takes quite an imagination to think that statement could be remotely true. If I didn't have to tutor at 7pm I would certainly take you up on the invitation to debate it. I mean Mizzou has 2 losses and USF has 3 losses... it isn't as if I'm saying that 5 loss Kentucky is better than Missouri (although that would be a good game...)

Are you kidding me? Florida would massacre Kansas. Illinois should be like #20. OSU should be like where Illinois is. That's hilarious. It's amazing how most of my "hilarious" statements turn out to be true. Unfortunately I'm afraid only CaliforniaRaisin notices this.

Honestly who has Mizzou beaten? Illinois and Kansas. Illinois' ranking is inflated above their true ranking (20-25) because of a crap conference. Kansas' ranking is inflated above their true ranking (15-25) because of a crap schedule. USF at least beat a legitimate team (WVU) and played in the second toughest conference in the country (one that only got one bid, might I add).

At this point, I'm not surprised that the Missouri fans would laugh at that statement, but it's more than true than false.

Clement would likely move to DH he was acquired. He's a passable at best defensive catcher. Joe Mauer has legitimate Gold Glove skills behind the plate. Of course Clement would catch 2 games a week (probably becoming someone's personal catcher and DHing the other games)

Are you kidding me? Florida would massacre Kansas. Illinois should be like #20. OSU should be like where Illinois is.

Well the rules made Illinois irrelevant. The choice pretty much had to come down to Arizona State or Illinois and Missouri or Kansas. I understand the system. I'm just saying that it's such crap that those two teams (Illinois especially) are in BCS games, and the Tigers aren't. And the South Florida Bulls deserve a birth over all three of the mentioned teams, what's your point. Statistically speaking, 3 of the top 9 teams in country are not in BCS games (and not one of them is Missouri). Yes, there are three teams who got "snubbed" that are probably as deserving if not more deserving than your Tigers.