fromthestretch

Zambrano has pitched well in the past when the Cubs weren't out of it, when there was pressure, and when people really cared what was going on.

Quade was actually starting to pencil Soto into the 6th spot fairly consistently until Soto went down with an injury. My guess is that the 6th and 7th spots will be Soriano and Soto, not necessarily in that order.

Purdue looks like garbage from the free throw line.

Barlow has had two fouls called on him on reputation alone.

they asked him about playing football and he conceeded with all the ups and downs he thought about it. but seriously even three plus years away from the game he would probably be a starter with the bears. More realistically, he could go the Chris Weinke route, who after toiling in the Blue Jays farm system for several years went back to Florida State and eventually made it to the NFL for a few years. I think he was like 28 years old in his senior season. Well, I believe he has used up all his college football eligibility, so I doubt that's an option.

Nice to see us not lose out on the son of a former Boiler.

Really? The only thing that I come close to getting is that Kramer is licking his lips and looking off into the distance as Painter has his mouth wide open in a felatio-like fashion and is holding his hand in an open fist as if holding a penis. Only problem is it's very obvious that Kramer isn't looking at the invisible penis and that the invisible penis is not on trajectory for Painters mouth, so it's all quite a bit of a stretch. Is that what you were going for? I think you're reading WAY too much into it. I actually wasn't reading into it at all. I had no idea (still don't obviously) why he posted the picture. I tried to think in a juvenile manner and took my best stab. Can you explain it to me? I would guess the following contributed to him posting the picture: 1. You posting that he'll always be in our memories and following it up with a picture of him dunking. 2. The earlier mention of Harris popping him in the face with an elbow, which explains why Kramer is wearing the faceguard. 3. It's not exactly a flattering picture of Kramer, and most non-Purdue folks don't have a flattering opinion of him.

Really? The only thing that I come close to getting is that Kramer is licking his lips and looking off into the distance as Painter has his mouth wide open in a felatio-like fashion and is holding his hand in an open fist as if holding a penis. Only problem is it's very obvious that Kramer isn't looking at the invisible penis and that the invisible penis is not on trajectory for Painters mouth, so it's all quite a bit of a stretch. Is that what you were going for? I think you're reading WAY too much into it.

Not only did the vast majority of them sign in the past couple of years, they were nearly all around 16 or 17 years old when they signed. It's way too early to judge the impact of those signings. Most of those kids are still 21 or younger. Not vast majority. 14 of those players were signed 2007 or before and that has given them 3 or more seasons to demonstrate something at some level. I'm not going to argue the rest of your post, but of the 31 players he listed (i'm referring to the first list in his post), 20 were signed in 2007 or later. All 20 of them were 17 or under when signed. Most were 16.

I wish Harris would have actually landed that elbow on him. He did, but it wasn't nearly enough to knock him back 17 feet. Kramer sure as hell sold that one.

They don't, and you have no good reason to think they do. Typically, you will see an overreaction from the student section on the following: 1. A Purdue player tries to take a charge, and - rightly or wrongly - is called for a blocking foul. 2. An opposing player tries to take a charge, and - rightly or wrongly - gets the charge called. 3. Crappy little touch fouls out on the perimeter that would not have impacted anything had it not been called. I'm not talking about when Kelsey Barlow legitimately grabs/smacks some guy's wrist while he's dribbling. I'm talking about situations where there was very little, if any contact. On the first two, most student sections get pissed when those types of calls don't go their way. As for item #3, these are being called more and more in Big Ten games, not just Purdue games, and pretty much all fans are complaining about it.

Yeah, teams simply aren't letting him get many open looks. And on the rare occasion he does get one, he's not hitting the shots with the same frequency (not that anyone expected him to keep shooting 60% from behind the arc). I'm a bit concerned that Hart isn't getting more minutes since coming back. If teams are going to key on Smith, change it up a little bit. I'm not saying to take Ryne completely out of the mix, but let Hart see if he can make something happen. Between Smith, Byrd, and Hart, one of them should be able to knock down a few shots in any given game. Agreed on Bade. He's looked good in the past few games, especially with his rebounding. Of course, the broadcasters last night had to mention how good this team would be if Scott Martin had not left. That hurt a little bit. I heard the issue with Hart was that Painter wasn't happy with his D. Tough to say, but Painter certainly goes through favorite streaks when it comes to the bench guys. When is the last time you saw Marcius? Carroll got a start or two and then I don't think he even played yesterday? It's not like Smith is Chris Kramer defensively though. I don't think you lose a ton defensively if you replace Smith with Hart. Marcius is a lot more raw than I had anticipated. He's not a bad rebounder, but he still really has no clue where to be on the floor most of the time. And you're right about Carroll. His playing time has gone down significantly. Maybe Painter is seeing if Bade can fill those minutes more effectively.

Yeah, teams simply aren't letting him get many open looks. And on the rare occasion he does get one, he's not hitting the shots with the same frequency (not that anyone expected him to keep shooting 60% from behind the arc). I'm a bit concerned that Hart isn't getting more minutes since coming back. If teams are going to key on Smith, change it up a little bit. I'm not saying to take Ryne completely out of the mix, but let Hart see if he can make something happen. Between Smith, Byrd, and Hart, one of them should be able to knock down a few shots in any given game. Agreed on Bade. He's looked good in the past few games, especially with his rebounding. Of course, the broadcasters last night had to mention how good this team would be if Scott Martin had not left. That hurt a little bit.

IU will win the rematch in Bloomington. :P That honestly wouldn't shock me. Me either. As a side note, can someone please teach D.J. Byrd how to effectively pass the ball? I've never seen a crisp pass from him, and I don't believe I've ever seen him use a bounce pass. I think he's definitely improved as a player, but that's one part of his game that is horribly bad. I've actually been impressed with his passing this year. He has as many assists per game as Barlow, and he doesn't run point (obviously). I was actually surprised to see this assessment on him. I think there's plenty of ways he could improve his game, but passing wouldn't rank high on my list. He's been saved by Johnson several times on passes that are very tough to corral. However, it oftentimes doesn't leave him in a good position to shoot. And I'm not necessarily talking about having to air it over a defender to get it to him but rather when JaJuan has good position. I've seen several passes to him from Byrd that are way too high or cause Johnson to reach quite a bit to catch it.

IU will win the rematch in Bloomington. :P That honestly wouldn't shock me. Me either. As a side note, can someone please teach D.J. Byrd how to effectively pass the ball? I've never seen a crisp pass from him, and I don't believe I've ever seen him use a bounce pass. I think he's definitely improved as a player, but that's one part of his game that is horribly bad.

Not only did the vast majority of them sign in the past couple of years, they were nearly all around 16 or 17 years old when they signed. It's way too early to judge the impact of those signings. Most of those kids are still 21 or younger.

Yikes. That was bad.

I'm well aware of that. I probably just phrased my earlier post poorly. With first base being the lowest end of the defensive spectrum though, I would think that if there was any thought he could even be passable defensively in the OF, they would have given him a shot there first. So either 1) he played OF in high school and the immediate thought was there was no way he was going to stick there or 2) he primarily played first base. Either way, he should probably qualify for this list (had it been extended beyond 1999), as he was drafted out of high school to play first base.

He's left-handed. He'd be able to play 1B or LF. http://mt.nesn.com/.a/6a0115709f071f970b0147e1952059970b-500wi Top row, third from the right. Certainly not fat. Considering that he has only played ONE professional game anywhere other than 1B, including the minors, I'm going to wager that he primarily played first as a high schooler. If he had played mostly outfield in high school, I'd think they would have tried to keep him out there, eventually moving him to first if he couldn't cut it defensively in the outfield.

I'm not necessarily arguing the point he's trying to make here, but I find it odd that he used 1999 as his cutoff, considering that Adrian Gonzalez was drafted first overall in 2000.

I would have loved Lickliter ball if we won at the level Wisconsin has. But yeah now I'm back to absolutely hating slow-paced basketball. If I were a Badger fan I would be more upset with knowing that the Sweet 16 was about the top end I could expect. It would be a lot of fun leading up to March, especially if you're a season ticket holder but are they ever going to get over that hump? I think their "homecourt advantage" hurts them in that respect. You can't get breathed on for a foul in the tournament. Yeah, they were in the bonus with around 11 minutes left in the second half. I try not to bitch because everyone in the Big Ten gets a home court edge but when the Sconnies went into the bonus they had only two fouls against them. *sigh* The foul calls against Jackson and Barlow on the perimeter early in the second half were garbage. Barlow does a good enough job getting into foul trouble on his own, he doesn't need to have phantom fouls called on him.

If Pujols went to the Cubs he would get a Lebron type backlash potentially worse. The rivalry is too big, and the St. Louis fan's would react worse than Cleveland's fans. He might get that type of backlash from St. Louis fans, but the backlash wouldn't rival what Lebron got on a national level.

That was painful to watch. The Boilers have their work cut out for them the next few weeks. I didn't think we were going to win at Columbus, but after Saturday night I expected it to be a 5-10 point game all night. Yikes! Some revenge against Minny would be nice this weekend, but we haven't played well against any 'big' team yet. At least that will be a home game.

That was painful to watch. The Boilers have their work cut out for them the next few weeks.

Yeah, no other student section does anything like that. At all. Ever. Does Iowa even have a student section at basketball games? Don't they give the tickets away free to students and they still don't show up? Maybe he just can't hear Iowa fans getting upset over calls because they aren't at the game? Yes they have a student section. They give away tickets to like 2-3 games per year starting last year. Yes the student section at Iowa for basketball sucks really bad. And none of that has anything to do with your student section being the biggest bunch of idiots in the league. Everyone understands how student sections work. Yours is just the worst because they expect a 10 to 1 ratio of fouls and seem to know absolutely nothing about basketball. It's an epidemic. What a stupid statement. No one expects that big of a foul differential, and pretty much every student section in the history of college athletics has made noise when a call doesn't go their team's way, justified or not. Purdue's student section is no worse than any other school in that regard. The "seem to know absolutely nothing about basketball" statement is ridiculous. Every team/school has stupid fans, smart fans, average fans, etc.