Mephistopheles

If you think Aaron Miles is an "average middle infielder" then I just don't know what to say. Aaron Miles and Neifi Perez are interchangeable. This is nowhere close to being anything but an irrational stupid move that should get Hendry fired. There's no excuse for this deal.

The Indians have a pretty good collection of young arms in the low minors. Obviously, Adam Miller won't be coming back in this trade, I don't think. But I think David Huff is the type of guy that San Diego would be enamored with.

You know who I wouldn't mind getting in this deal: Asdrubal Cabrera.

You can never have enough backup secondbasemen. With Fontenot, Cedeno, Soriano and Miles we have four in case Lou runs through his classic double switch fiascos late in a critical 24 inning game in the playoffs, provided we don't trade DeRosa. Kudos for Hendry to keep his forward-thinking up.

Updated Top 30 1. 83.92 1 Oklahoma 2. 82.53 2 Florida 3. 79.87 3 Texas 4. 78.89 4 Southern Cal 5. 74.79 5 Penn State 6. 74.65 6 Texas Tech 7. 71.67 7 Utah 8. 69.99 10 TCU 9. 69.70 9 Alabama 10. 68.98 8 Ohio State 11. 67.83 12 Missouri 12. 67.21 15 Florida St 13. 67.19 11 Boise St 14. 67.12 17 Oregon 15. 66.44 14 Georgia Tech 16. 65.68 13 Oklahoma St 17. 65.34 19 California 18. 65.08 16 Georgia 19. 63.94 20 Oregon St 20. 63.01 18 North Carolina 21. 62.81 22 Boston College 22. 62.58 23 Virginia Tech 23. 62.52 25 Pittsburgh 24. 62.45 24 Mississippi 25. 62.08 21 Iowa Two things to note are. Despite staying ahead of Florida by the same amount, give or take a few fractions of a point, Oklahoma has fallen behind Florida in the measure that uses margin of victory. In other words Oklahoma is only ahead of Florida because of their schedule not because of their dominance. This is actually true for USC and Texas as well. New Conference Ratings: New - Old 59.92 60.01 Big 12 59.79 59.69 ACC 56.64 56.47 SEC 55.01 55.81 Big Ten 54.29 52.97 PAC 10 54.24 53.30 Big East 51.39 51.13 MWC 41.76 42.56 WAC 41.67 41.60 IND 41.36 40.70 CUSA 40.42 41.92 MAC 34.39 34.13 Sun Belt The top 10 by points: 87.02 Florida 86.98 Oklahoma 83.66 Southern Cal 82.03 Texas 78.51 Penn State The difference of .04 between Florida and Oklahoma is by far the closest bowl matchup

Not that I am gonna be premature or anything...but early returns on the Big XII aren't so good. Two games and two lackluster performances. It appears as if no one playing defense in the Big XII wasn't just a cliche thing. It might actually be true. Oregon's defense was relatively poor compared to the Pac 10. After a fast start Oklahoma State couldn't do much. Sure they gained 469 yards, but that was on a whopping EIGHTY EIGHT plays, about 20 more than their season average. Oregon's offense put up 565 and averaged about 8 yards per play. After completing 67 percent of his passes in the season, he was barely over 50 percent against Oregon. Missouri was a disaster on offense for most of the night against a middle of the pack Northwestern defense (in the Big Ten). Mizzou only gained 311 yards on a 70-something plays and averaged less than five yards per play after averaging 7 or so in the season. They had the same drop off in production as Oklahoma State. It wasn't a slight drop either, they both fell off a cliff. Northwestern's passing offense on the other hand had their production skyrocket against a Big XII defense. Bacher went 27 of 43 for 304 yards and 3 TDs to just 1 pick after only throwing 11 TDs all season long. That's your typical Big XII production from the passing game. Chase Daniel, on the other hand, completed 73.2% of his passes versus Big XII defenses this season. He finished 27 of 44 with 200 yards. It's the second season in a row he basically didn't show up in the bowl game against a decent defense from another BCS conference. It's only two games, but early returns aren't very good.

marves transfer is happening.

nomar garciaparra and rich harden

lol i know, it's not like he doesn't strike out over a third of the batters he faces while the rest of them pop out or ground out.

but then again we have very little conference overlapping in the regular season, so the bowls change things drastically. In fact, a loss by Mizzou here should be enough to push Florida a clear #1, and possibly USC ahead of Texas.

Excel isn't robust enough....right now it's wondering what happened to defense in the Big XII.

Mizzou has become the Big XII's bastard child, that's why.

Well this is apparently what happens when he doesn't have ten yard throwing windows like he does against most Big XII defenses.

Chase Daniel where have you gone?

Wow...maybe the Big XII really doesn't play defense. Northwestern's defense is fairly pedestrian in the Big Ten. Not very good, not bad either.

Can we look at Kyuji Fujikawa? Best reliever in baseball - bar none.

He threw one forty yard TD pass that split two safeties perfectly. He also hit a 20 yard TD pass where he had basically a two foot window to sneak the ball into. He had 330 yards or so passing, his previous career high was 220 or so.

I'm sure he didn't agree with the pick. It's just what his computer told him to pick. Yeah, he was complaining about that before the ND game. He picked Notre Dame, even though he was worried about it. I probably would have picked ND, but would have had less than ten points of confidence in it. UNC had hat game won, but White made perfect passes downfield all night long on what was pretty good coverage. He beat them single handedly.

Two! How did it get ND correct?

If by "having it" the whole game you mean getting severely outplayed the entire game, then you would be correct.

Six for Six. ISU Cubs fan was able to jump ahead of me in the overall point total though, thanks to having 21 points on TCU while I only had 10. I'm not too confident about what my system spit out tomorrow. I have 32 points running on a team that hasn't won a bowl since I was about eight years old while they're visiting a team six billion miles away.

Updating following today's crucial game. TCU was the big mover, sliding ahead of Ohio State and Alabama. Rk Pts Prv School 1. 83.88 1 Oklahoma 2. 82.46 2 Florida 3. 79.54 3 Texas 4. 78.14 4 Southern Cal 5. 75.26 5 Penn State 6. 74.78 6 Texas Tech 7. 71.50 7 Utah 8. 69.75 10 TCU 9. 69.48 8 Ohio State 10. 69.43 9 Alabama 11. 67.70 12 Missouri 12. 67.14 11 Boise St 13. 67.09 13 Oklahoma St 14. 66.58 14 Georgia Tech 15. 65.99 15 Florida St 16. 65.17 17 Oregon 17. 65.15 16 Georgia 18. 64.47 18 North Carolina 19. 63.88 19 California 20. 63.39 20 Oregon St 21. 62.80 22 Boston College 22. 62.64 23 Virginia Tech 23. 62.59 21 Iowa 24. 62.18 24 Mississippi 25. 62.12 25 Pittsburgh 26. 61.96 26 Nebraska 27. 61.36 27 Michigan St 28. 61.25 31 Wake Forest 29. 61.11 30 Clemson Also, the ACC might be able to close the gap between them and the Big XII within a game or two. 60.03 Big 12 59.99 ACC 56.46 SEC 55.71 Big Ten 53.52 Big East 53.44 PAC 10 51.23 MWC 41.95 WAC 41.83 MAC 41.29 IND 40.77 CUSA 33.77 Sun Belt

Go Texans.

i got seven!

Another seven points in the bag for me. I'm five for five. I was just one of a handful to correctly pick Southern Miss tonight. Only soccer had more points on Southern Miss than me. And he had 33 on BYU....