CubColtPacer

You're the GM, I'm only the assistant. I'll mention a few players and show my work: The typical mock draft at this point would have the Colts pick a DT since that's their weakest spot (or perhaps a LB with the recent purge). As for DT's, I don't really think Brace or Hood or whomever is worthy of this spot. The Colts/Polian can get equal value in one of the next two rounds. I also don't think there is a linebacker the Colts would pick here even if they wanted to. So, I'm going go all Polian and surprise and all Colts and pick offense. Either Hakeem Nicks or Kenny Britt at WR wouldn't surprise me. However, with the way this draft has transpired, I think RB is the best value. The Colts could also use a back to pair with Addai (and perhaps replace him after next year). So that leaves LeSean McCoy, Chris Wells and Knoshown Moreno. I'm dubious the Colts would pick Wells. The combination of running, blocking and especially receiving add up to the Colts, in my opinion, taking Knoshown Moreno. Those are my thoughts, I won't blame you if you go another direction. I would agree with the DT comments. I briefly considered Laurinitis at LB because the Colts love production and love the Big 10, but they would have to transition slightly to a different defense to pick him and they also hate picking LB that high. That leaves me with RB and WR. RB has the better talent while WR has better fits. Wells is not the Colts type of RB at all. I initially dismissed Moreno as I had heard poor things about his blocking, but after researching him further more sites than not have him as a willing blocker. And that was really the only thing keeping me from picking him as that's a necessary piece of being in that offense. The Colts with the 27th pick in the draft select Knowshon Moreno out of Georgia. I will go ahead and PM Truffle for the next pick.

I'm going to give Exile until around noon to give his thoughts on the pick. If you feel strongly about a player Exile, you can make the pick. If you have a couple players in mind, you can pass it back to me with those names and I'll pick between them.

I interpreted Lou's comments this way: Marshall is the leader for the 5th starter, Heilman is close on his heels. Nobody else has a chance. Fontenot is the starter against right-handers at 2nd. Lou didn't say that, but he tended to add qualifiers about Miles especially when talking about the lineup. I got the sense that Samardzija's most likely destination was AAA, but I'm not very sure on that one. I couldn't tell if the Hill/Bako battle was something that Lou just didn't care about or had already mostly decided on. He kind of dismissed that one though. Very interesting to hear him rave about Patton. I wonder if he has a chance to stick?

He hasn't got into a game yet because of an elbow that has been giving him problems.

Harden threw on the back field on Saturday I believe. He was supposed to throw at least twice more on the back field before getting into a game.

Alderson wouldn't be replacing Hendry. He would be filling the job that MacPhail and John McDonough had. The question of course becomes if Alderson would come in wanting to make changes. He didn't replace Towers when he went to San Diego. I don't think it would be a foregone conclusion that he'd fire Hendry.

Do you think we might show some interest? If the A's would take on some of his contract he wouldn't be a bad option if he could also play 3B and 2B along with SS. I don't see how Crosby is a good option. He's a pretty good defender but he's nothing special. And his highest OBP over the last 3 years was 2006 (.298) and his highest OPS in the last 3 years was last year (.645). His away OPS's over the last 3 years were .644, .588, and .603. Plus, we still wouldn't be sure that he could play 2nd and 3rd well as he hasn't had any experience there. He just isn't the same player that he was early in his career.

Do the chefs have a coaching staff yet? No idea who the Chefs are, but the Chiefs have yet to officially terminate Herm Edwards. :wink: That said, the rumors are flying that he'll go either this year or next. The Chiefs fired Herm Edwards in January: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/2009/01/23/2009-01-23_chiefs_fire_herm_edwards.html They hired Todd Haley to take the job in early February: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/nfl/02/06/haley.ap/ You are responding to posts written in January. That I am..thanks for the correction :D

notice the common theme in the two fights.... Between Illinois-Indiana and Duke-UNC? I understood what you meant, but I could see how people could be confused. The Illinois-Missouri fighting has created a lot more posts than the Duke-UNC sniping and is the only true rival to the Illinois/Indiana battle on here.

Do the chefs have a coaching staff yet? No idea who the Chefs are, but the Chiefs have yet to officially terminate Herm Edwards. :wink: That said, the rumors are flying that he'll go either this year or next. The Chiefs fired Herm Edwards in January: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/2009/01/23/2009-01-23_chiefs_fire_herm_edwards.html They hired Todd Haley to take the job in early February: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/nfl/02/06/haley.ap/

I don't think there's any television or radio coverage of this game so there won't be any real PBP either. From the box score, looks like Theriot singled, Miles grounded into a DP, and Reed got out in the top of the 1st.

Yeah, unfortunately it's a broken record with IU. They had chances with Iowa twice, Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan, and Northwestern. They've only won 1 of the 3 close home games and have lost all 3 close road games. They just don't have many options down the stretch when creating your own shot becomes more important. I am impressed with Jones as well. It's going to be a good competition between him, Rivers, and Hulls for the two point guard spots next year.

Cruz finally found a team to bite...the Royals signed him to a 2 year, 5.5 million dollar deal with a 4 million option in 2011. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090228&content_id=3897376&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Add Cassell and then send off Thigpen to (somewhat) replace the pick you surrender? Really good move for the Chiefs. I am surprised so many people think this is a good move for the Chiefs. Cassell is moderate upgrade over Thigpen, who was pretty good last season on a really bad team. So the Chiefs gave up the 35th pick for an unproven QB who played with a good O-Line and excellent WR's last season. To boot, Cassell's cap figure will probably more than Thigpen and the 35th pick combined. Meanwhile the Pats now have two picks in the 2nd Rnd, clear money and get younger. I think it's a good move for both. The Pats had to trade Cassel and got a pretty decent return for a guy without a lot of experience that they had to move. And Thigpen wasn't pretty good. A QB rating of 76 with a completion percentage around 54% with 18 TDs and 12 INTs isn't much to be impressed with. Obviously, the team wasn't very good, but he did have Dwayne Bowe to throw to. Cassel, who admittedly had better weapons, had a QB rating 13 points higher, threw three more TDs with one less pick and completed almost 10% more of his passes. I think both will improve, but I think Cassel's better now. Cassel has also had better coaching than Thigpen, meaning he should be farther along in his development. I should add I don't dislike Thigpen, I just think Cassel's a better bet to develop into a good NFL QB. And I think overlooking adding a veteran like Vrabel to a young team can't be overlooked. Cassel's also 2 years older, had the easiest receiver in the entire NFL to throw to, and didn't have to play from behind all season like Thigpen did. Those are huge advantages that help drive up a QB's efficiency numbers. Plus, Thigpen was able to use his mobility to escape and throw away a lot of passes that Cassel took sacks with that hurt Thigpen's passing numbers. Thigpen also ran for 80 more yards than Cassel and had a 6.2 Y/A compared to Cassel's 3.5. There really isn't a ton to suggest that Cassel is a lot better than Thigpen. They both still have huge question marks surrounding them. When you add in that 1 of them is receiving 14 million dollars more than the other one (and Thigpen was cheap for the next 2 years) it makes you question why Cassel is such a better buy to give up a big draft pick for. Now Vrabel is a nice get. And a 2nd rounder is a pretty good price for the two of them together. But I don't see how the Chiefs need Cassel enough that it is a good price for them. They could have used that draft choice on an impact player and then gotten another impact player in free agency and likely still have a little money left over for another decent player.

Here's the link on ESPN.com. It doesn't yet say what the Chiefs gave up, though. I'm sure Tyler Thigpen is just thrilled about that. This is definitely a Pioli move. But if he had to give up as much as I think he probably would have to, I'm not a fan of it. The Chiefs had enough other holes that replacing their decently capable young QB shouldn't have been on the top of the priority list. Obviously that could change if he gave up less than expected, though.

It is going a little slow, but we probably need to go slow so we can figure out the compensatory selections before that part of the draft comes around. I mean, we've done 10 picks in 2 1/2 days. 10 days per round (which would be slightly slower than we've gone so far) is still going to have us in the 6th round or so by the time the draft comes along.

This is obviously the issue. That and the ego[expletive] of having the city revolve around you. Seriously who cares about this? It makes the conference and the tournament look small-time. The Big Ten plays this nonstop media war with everyone calling them boring and bad and behind the times, and they go and stage their annual event in Indianapolis?? There's something to be said about the image you project, and your image is constantly disparaged, why not do something grand and extravagant and showcase yourselves like you're a big deal. Not go to the biggest city that will give in to your every want. And nobody's addressed the fact that Chicago is the Big 10 alum capital of the world. There are probably without exaggeration 10 times as many alums in Chicago than there are in Indy. It adds a lot of community atmosphere. You walk out of the stadium and instead of jumping into a cab you're walking around with thousands of Big 10 fans. You go to restaurants that are expecting the rush at odd hours of the day and are also filled with other fans. You feel like you're at a great event rather than just going to a series of basketball games. Does the ACC tournament look small time? How about the Big 12 tournament? Image should at best be a secondary concern. The best atmosphere for those who buy tickets should be first. But I would definitely argue that the Pac 10 tournament is not any more "prestigious" than the ACC or Big 10 tournaments just because it's held in LA. Do you think it is? People don't usually think about that. If they think about the venue at all, the big question is if it is a great place for basketball. Very few would scoff at Indianapolis hosting a college tournament because they already host the biggest college basketball event of them all. If it's good enough to be the spotlight for the whole nation, it's certainly good enough to be the spotlight for one region. Besides, going to Chicago certainly doesn't qualify as doing something "grand or extravagant". It's not like the Super Bowl where the things that go on around the games are as important as the game itself. For the average viewer, all they are doing is watching a basketball game and seeing the arena. The alums thing hasn't been brought up because it's mostly irrelevant. Most years the tournament will sell out, and when it sells out it doesn't matter how many alums are in the city...it's not like many are going to go downtown just to try to find other fans of their team.

I have no firsthand knowledge of it, but from what I've heard most bars in Indy are open until 3. That was the time that was said in all the stories about the problems with switching to DST. I think Chicago would have an easier time selling out. But sales problems are only going to happen once in a great while. Final fours were in Indy for 15-20 years before the NCAA arrived. The continued existence of them has nothing to with the NCAA being in Indianapolis. I believe Exile might be referencing some newspaper articles from the Indy Star a year or two back where there was more public support for Indy than Chicago from coaches and fans. Unfortunately, I can't provide a link as those articles cost money to access. Indy is just as much the center of the conference as Chicago. Northwestern, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are closer to Chicago. Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana, and Purdue are closer to Indy. Michigan, Michigan State, and Illinois are almost exactly the same difference from both. I don't see how much other entertainment options you need anyway. The basketball games take up most of your time. If you have access to good restaurants (or bars if you're inclined), what else do you really need? (not saying that's all there is in Indy, but there isn't going to be time to go see much else if you're there for the tournament) Chicago's size may have actually worked against them in the selection process. A lot of fans coming to Indy enjoyed that Indy bases everything around the tournament while in Chicago it's just another event.

Lilly gave up 1 hit and had 2 K's in the first. The Cubs exploded in the 2nd. Deeds tripled, Rivas singled him in, Taguchi got on due to an error, Theriot singled, Reed got out but drove in Rivas. Then Hoffpauir hit a 3 run homer, followed by a Dubois out, then a Soto single, then a Fontenot homer. Deeds then singled and Rivas got out to end the inning. So 7 runs in all and the Cubs lead 7-0.

It's not like Atlanta is very "central" to teams like Boston College, or that NYC is "central" for DePaul or Marquette. If you wanted to do a true rotation of Big 10 cities you could do Chicago, Indy, Milwaukee, Detroit and Columbus or something (though the latter would probably be overly unfair) Yeah. I threw out Columbus because OSU is actually located in the city and it's also not centrally located. Detroit is really thrown out because of its reputation. It would be harder to convince a lot of fans to travel there. Milwaukee would be fine as a 3rd site.

3 hits and a walk for the Cubs in the first but no runs thanks to a caught stealing and a strikeout with the bases loaded. Lee, Ramirez, Soriano, Bradley, and Fukudome are all sitting today.

That was SEC. I thought the ACC was moving it to Atlanta, but I'm probably wrong. It's going to be in Atlanta 2 out of the next 7 years (including this year). Greensboro gets it the other 5 years. People like the ease of travel in Indianapolis. The stadium is within walking distance of the hotels teams and fans are staying at, restaurants, etc. If I remember right people weren't too fond of the area around the United Center. Plus, the Fieldhouse is generally considered a better facility than the United Center. I don't see why the tournament has to be held in the biggest city. But I don't like the 5 year agreement. I think the tournament should have kept moving between the two sites so that each year there would be different teams with the homecourt advantage. I would even propose doing it at even more sites but I don't know of any more that are centrally located in the Big 10 that would be a good place to go. When they decided they were going to pick 1 place for 5 years though, it seemed obvious that it would be Indy. People seem to enjoy the tournament there more than Chicago and that's what the committee ended up deciding as well. And I think other conferences show that the Big 10 is not alone, either. If the Big 12 wanted to be in the biggest city, it would be Dallas or San Antonio. But their next two tournaments are in the much smaller cities of Oklahoma City and Kansas City. As I already mentioned, the ACC is going to have 5 of their next 7 tournaments be in only the 3rd largest city in NC. The SEC is going to Tampa, Nashville, Atlanta, and New Orleans in the next 4 years. None of those 4 cities are as big as Indy (Atlanta is if you are very liberal about the metro area-the other 3 are definitely not as big). Really, only the Pac 10 and Big East are tied to their biggest cities, and neither of those conferences have a really good alternative to pick either (and in the case of the Big East plays in a site that has huge amounts of college basketball tradition behind it).

Hagler isn't a surprise but the fact they didn't want to keep Keiaho for 1 million? I'm rather shocked by that. He had injury issues but was pretty decent when he was in there. I guess they decided they had 2 small outside linebackers and that Session was the better one. Well, I've definitely moved LB way up the draft need boards. Right now, I have no idea how they are going to fill that spot. The only one I'd even consider on the roster is Wheeler, and I still haven't really seen him play.

Yeah. Poor guy. How can one reasonably expect to live any sort of comfortably on a lousy $10 million a year? I wonder if he can qualify for welfare on that sort of pay. So you'll be giving back a large portion of your lifestyle to bring you down to the world average? people are taking pay cuts all across the country. some are taking reductions on their salary to remain employed (as opposed to being laid off) and others that aren't employed are taking lower salaries to get a job. it's happening in baseball, it's happening to white collar workers and it's happening to blue collar workers. this isn't exactly rocket science here. People are taking pay cuts because they need the money. Manny isn't desperate for the money. The way I look at is if Manny wants to risk not having a job in order to try to get the most money he can, then why shouldn't he? He hasn't come out and said the Spreewell line of "need more money to feed my family" or anything like that. He's just looking at investing and making a huge risk. He could get a high rate of return on it (if they give him more years) or he could lose it all. That doesn't mean I'm on Manny's side here. But he's doing the same thing as the club is. They both are offering contracts that will get them the maximum return on their investment. Neither side needs sympathy..it's simply business.

Harrison won't be a free agent until next offseason. He is just trying to get more money out of the Steelers right now with an extension.