fromthestretch

I know (at least I hope) you were exaggerating a little with the "150-12" comment, but still...I think your optimism is a bit high to say the least. Dempster will most likely regress from his 2008 performance, considering he never once came close to that level prior to this season. Harden will miss some starts due to injury or simply due to rest in an effort to prevent injury. While Lilly is solid, he is not "a for sure win." Neither is Zambrano. And we haven't even touched on the bullpen yet. I don't anticipate the offense to be a huge issue or anything, but it's not a stretch to think it could be worse than last year. While I don't predict huge drop-offs from these guys, Lee, Ramirez, and Soriano aren't exactly getting younger. DeRosa certainly isn't a sure bet to slug over .460 again. And Fontenot isn't going to top a .900 OPS again. Theriot's OBP could slide back to the .350 range or worse.

Holy crap would that be a steal for Florida. What can we give to SF instead? I really don't think Cantu is much better than Hoffpauir, to be honest. Cantu's advantage is that he can play second and third. He's not exactly a wizard with the glove at either position, but that certainly hasn't stopped teams from playing him at those positions regularly. Regardless, that's a hell of a deal for Florida if they can swing it.

Short of throwing his jacket, he pretty much did. I was at the game, and he was yelling non-stop at the official that called the intentional foul for a good two or three minutes straight. As he approached the scorer's table after the game to shake hands with the Oklahoma coach, Painter had to be pulled back by two of his assistants because he was right in the ear of the ref. The official didn't even look in Painter's direction the entire time. Of course, I was shouting at the same ref the last 10 minutes of the second half and all of the overtime period, so perhaps he couldn't hear Painter over me. :wink:

I think I've seen him once in college after watching him for four years in High School. Is he athletic enough to possibly catch on with a team in the pros or the D League? He was a freak in high school and could fill it up like nobody's business. He's fun to watch, but I'm not sure he's got what it takes to get to the next level. One thing he's got against him is that he's just not a very good shooter. The guy has great instincts when it comes to rebounding though. He might make it overseas somewhere. You don't get highly athletic 6'4" guys who can rebound overseas too often. Skip Mills who played at Ball State plays down in South America and the same team offered Peyton Stovall a contract. I'm sure Green is as good of a talent as those guys and with the exposure of being on a top team he will get an offer he just might not accept like Stovall didn't. Somewhere overseas is a possibility.

I think I've seen him once in college after watching him for four years in High School. Is he athletic enough to possibly catch on with a team in the pros or the D League? He was a freak in high school and could fill it up like nobody's business. He's fun to watch, but I'm not sure he's got what it takes to get to the next level. One thing he's got against him is that he's just not a very good shooter. The guy has great instincts when it comes to rebounding though.

Calasan is 6'9, 250. Johnson is 6'10, 215. Calasan is a much more physical player. While neither is a great matchup for Griffin, Calasan's a better rebounder than Johnson. While I'll agree that Johnson is a better defensive player, his approach to shot blocking will just get him in foul trouble against a much stronger player like Griffin. It doesn't really matter anyway. They're both going to get a lot of minutes, unless one of them gets in foul trouble early. Isn't Griffin basically there whole team though? They appear to have a couple other guys who can score. It doesn't appear they are a very good three-point shooting team though. Problem is, when they miss, they have Griffin to get the rebound. Hopefully Hummel will get some gritty rebounds and we can limit Griffin to like 15 boards If there is any such thing as a "gritty" rebound, Marcus Green would be the one to get it. The guy is 6'4, but he plays like he's 6'8.

Calasan is 6'9, 250. Johnson is 6'10, 215. Calasan is a much more physical player. While neither is a great matchup for Griffin, Calasan's a better rebounder than Johnson. While I'll agree that Johnson is a better defensive player, his approach to shot blocking will just get him in foul trouble against a much stronger player like Griffin. It doesn't really matter anyway. They're both going to get a lot of minutes, unless one of them gets in foul trouble early. Isn't Griffin basically there whole team though? They appear to have a couple other guys who can score. It doesn't appear they are a very good three-point shooting team though. Problem is, when they miss, they have Griffin to get the rebound.

Calasan is 6'9, 250. Johnson is 6'10, 215. Calasan is a much more physical player. While neither is a great matchup for Griffin, Calasan's a better rebounder than Johnson. While I'll agree that Johnson is a better defensive player, his approach to shot blocking will just get him in foul trouble against a much stronger player like Griffin. It doesn't really matter anyway. They're both going to get a lot of minutes, unless one of them gets in foul trouble early.

Oklahoma vs. Arizona....err, UAB. OU-UAB. Ha oh I fogot about that. Think we should have no problem with BC, but Blake Griffin is disgusting. I think we'll struggle to guard him. Who'll guard him? Just pray that he gets in foul trouble early. Calasan is physically stronger than Johnson, so Calasan would probably be the best option to put on him.

The other game is Oklahoma vs. UAB, I believe.

Just ordered my tickets to see Purdue play on Friday at Madison Square Garden. Not excited about being in NYC on the biggest shopping day of the year, but at least I'll get to watch the Boilers.

This is my problem with most Big 10 fans- especially the ones here. Everything is "conference this" and "conference that," as though "conferences" win anything. I realize that there are tons of SEC fans who flap their gums about being the best conference in the world in football, but the raging inferiority complex that Big 10 fans display is stinking hilarious. Seriously, you've made the point- you have tiny e-dongs. That said, I don't get it. Who cares which conference is better or worse? Last time I checked the Pac 10 doesn't play the SEC. Nor does the Big 10 play the Big 12. And, despite the name of the "challenge", the Big East does not play the ACC. Individual teams play one another, and how Tennessee fares (or UCLA, or Illinois, or Kansas, or... well, you get it) is not a product of the conference. The Big 10 hasn't been humiliated in the National Championship the past two years- Ohio St. has. The SEC didn't win any championships. Florida and LSU did. As a Tennessee fan, what should it matter to me that Ohio State got spanked by those teams? So did UT. The Big 12 is not the reigning National Champion. Kansas is. Why should Texas or Oklahoma or Missouri or any other Big 12 schools fans brag about that? Their team didn't win anything. They just lost to the team that did. I just don't get it. And I know that SEC fans are guilty of it, especially in football. That doesn't make sense to me either. If Florida destroys Oklahoma or Texas in the National Championship game, am I going to walk around pounding my chest about it? Heck no, I hate Florida. It just doesn't make sense to me. NCAA Basketball is completely different. I don't "pound my chest" because Michigan and Illinois won last night. But I am pleased to see it. Why? Because the more good non-conference wins Big Ten teams get, the higher the league RPI will be, plus it means they probably won't get bashed as much on national tv. Conference RPI and conference strength plays a major part in whether or not your team gets a bid to the NCAA's. Likewise beating SEC and Pac-10 teams will hurt their cause a little bit which indirectly can help your team even more. When it comes to football, the more bowl teams the Big Ten has, the better it is for each school in the conference. Bowl money gets paid to the conference, and is divided up 11 ways, with each school getting a share. So there is some benefit to having other teams in the conference succeed.

I don't think he will ever become dominant but I think he can be a 15 point scorer and top assist player. His shooting seems to need work but Keaton Grant went from a crappy 3-pt shooter to one of the Big Ten's top ones. and then he'd be deron williams, who was dominant. Deron Williams never even averaged 15 points per game. i know. lewjack is a nice little player and is a good fit at purdue, but i don't think anyone should expect him to be able to get his shot off consistently. he could be top 3 in assists year in and out, though. I don't mean to disparage Lewjack, I think he could be a 6th man on a championship caliber team, but expecting much in the way of scoring from him is a big mistake. If Purdue is ever in the situation where Jackson is scoring 12 points per game, then Painter has failed as a recruiter. He'll be good at D, passing, and a great ball handler which we haven't had in 4 years. Scoring however I'd say he scores 12 on a hot shooting night. I see him in the 6-8pts a game range. Yeah, there's no way in hell he ever averages 15 points per game. Like you said, 6-8 is probably a fair range for him. I think he can be a solid point guard at this level though. He's damn fast and does a tremendous job distributing the ball. I could see him being high on the Big Ten's assists leaderboard once he becomes a regular starter (which may not be until the 2010-2011 season).

I want to know why E'Twaun Moore didn't start tonight for Purdue. He's getting minutes, but for some reason, he wasn't in the starting five.

Or try to sign him to a reasonable deal through his arb years before those save numbers inflate his value. That way, if he continues to pitch well, you have him at a decent price. If you want to unload him at some point in the middle of that contract, his pricetag might not be so scary for a team looking for a closer.

One other thing to consider...if Marmol becomes a closer and puts up his typical numbers plus 30-40 saves, how does this affect his pricetag when he reaches arbitration?

Because he was a very productive part of the bullpen, is a good bet to be very good again in 2009, and a reasonable one-year deal isn't going to prevent this team from addressing other areas of weakness.

If he was honest about how he "would have done anything" to remain a Cub, then it's not a stretch to think that they could have signed him for less than $10 million. They damn well better offer him arbitration. Part of me hopes he'll accept it.

Either Burnett or Lowe. I'd go real hard after Lowe regardless of what happens. I'm a big Lowe fan. So would I, but I think Lowe is likely to head to either New York or prolly Boston if the Red Sox wants him. Lowe will not be going back to Boston. It didn't work out too well for him the first time around. ? The entire time he was in Boston the writers and fans questioned his "mental toughness". He was sent to the bullpen for a time and was pretty pissed about. The fact that he won a WS ring doesn't change any of that. Yeah, well wouldn't you be pissed if you were sent to the bullpen? The bullpen used to be a place where you sent starters who couldn't hack it, and Lowe felt he could still start. So his time in pen was spent well, seeing as he had a 40 save season, and 81 saves iin 3 seasons. He's just saying that Lowe was treated like crap by the Boston media, not that Lowe deserved it. There were rumors in October that Boston was Lowe's preferred destination.

From a Ken Rosenthal article earlier this month: That seems like an odd thought process when your stadium was "Barry-proofed." Yeah, I'm not sure how they thought a lefty slugger would thrive there.

From a Ken Rosenthal article earlier this month:

Wow. John Kruk actually got something right.

Ask the 2004 Red Sox if they've heard of Mark Bellhorn. BoSox could name you everybody from that team from Martinez to Papelbon to Mueller to Youk. So that proves nothing. The point is that Bellhorn had more than one good year. Yeah.. he had 2. Dude's a stud Way to parse that out from absolutely nothing resembling that sentiment. Obviously I was being sarcastic but my point was pretty clear. The guy said he thought Ludwick would be a one-year wonder like Bellhorn. You implied that Bellhorn was far from being a one-year wonder, when really he wasn't. The comparison he made was fine. He really only had one great season. I implied nothing of the sort. I even specifically mentioned the one other good year he had. It was a simple correction to something RedFlash said. I'm not saying he had a great, or even good, career. You're reading way too much into it.

Ask the 2004 Red Sox if they've heard of Mark Bellhorn. BoSox could name you everybody from that team from Martinez to Papelbon to Mueller to Youk. So that proves nothing. The point is that Bellhorn had more than one good year. Yeah.. he had 2. Dude's a stud Way to parse that out from absolutely nothing resembling that sentiment.

I don't feel it's much of a comparison. Ludwick had success in limited action (339 PA) in 2007, and he showed more power in the minors than Bellhorn. Do I think he'll repeat his 2008? Not really. However, it's not a stretch to think he could be a 25-homer guy the next few years. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him put up an .850 OPS next season. I could definitely see his OBP falling back to the .330-.340 range though. If you're reading my responses as hostile, then you're completely misinterpreting them.