CubColtPacer

It is-at this rate the game will take 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Theriot didn't ground into a DP..... he hit a scorching liner to the first baseman, who doubled off DeRosa. Thanks for the correction-I guess I should have figured that out when it was 3 unassisted. That makes me feel better.

Ouch-Theriot with a tough day so far-0-2 including grounding into a DP and an error-anybody worrying that the hit he took in the first where the trainer came out was more than he said it was?

DeRosa is drawing a LOT of walks this spring it seems like. That's exactly what I was thinking-that's his 4th walk in ST I believe.

already done-Jones took care of the single.

Team hitting for the cycle in the 1st inning! Very nice.

I doubt it. Jones is just as mediocre as Lieber, only he's not a pitcher so he's not going to be valued as much. Nobody is going to be giving up top prospects for Jones. Plus Jones' contract is not the most appealing. I still think Hendry overpaid for him and we are likely to see his numbers revert back to career norms unless Lou platoons him in which case we have an expensive platoon player. If he returns closer to his career norms, his contract will be in line with most right fielders-not to mention that his career norms were largely due to him playing in the Metrodome, where he had much better away than home numbers for most of his career. If he stays at where he was last year or even close to that, his contract will be a bargain.

What defines a good conference tourney? Interesting matchups? Great Games? Bubble madness? Elimination games (loser misses the NCAA?)? There's so much that goes into a conference tournament that it's hard to say what is the best without the criteria to judge it by. low/middle seeds that have a chance to win. No clear cut favorite. Teams jockeying for NCAA tourney seeding (if not getting in period). Etc. Ah, well I'm biased, but I like the Big 10 tourney this year if that's the case. Any of the top 7 teams could win and I wouldn't be surprised (and possibly 8 if Michigan gets hot). The quarterfinals could have Mich vs Ohio State, who just played a thriller last Saturday and could do so again, Iowa-Purdue, which is a great even matchup that Iowa needs to win the tournament and Purdue needs to secure their spot, Wisconsin-Mich State, who have played two thrillers in the past 3 weeks, and IU-Illinois, which has this sudden even better rivalry going and Illinois probably needs it to get into the tournament. Because of how the bracket is going to have matchups, the Big 10 tournament is going to be unbelievable, and I don't think the top seeds have that much of an advantage over everyone else. Lowest seed in Big 10 = Penn State Lowest seed in Big East = UConn It's not the fault of the Big 10's tourney that the Big East tourney doesn't let everyone participate-that takes away part of the allure when everyone is not there. If you want to do a fair comparison, you should lop off 25% of the Big 10 tourney field as well (3 participants), and say that the comparison is Lowest seed in Big 10-Michigan Lowest seed in Big East-UConn my point is that the Big East has 12 teams with winning records participating in their tourney. Even if you prorated the Big 10 that wouldn't be true In conference or total records? total. nice to see DePaul rachet it up here. Down 1 with 3:30 to go in the half Well, if you pro-rated the Big 10 down to 8 teams (which would be the same conversion rate as the Big East) then you have: Worst Record: Big 10-Iowa-17-13 2nd worst-Michigan-20-11 Big East-St. John's-16-14 2nd worst-Connecticut-17-13. It really doesn't matter anyway-they are both awesome tournaments.

I don't think Guzman would get a spot over Marquis regardless of how the two were pitching in ST-certainly not when Marquis is also looking very good so far in ST.

What defines a good conference tourney? Interesting matchups? Great Games? Bubble madness? Elimination games (loser misses the NCAA?)? There's so much that goes into a conference tournament that it's hard to say what is the best without the criteria to judge it by. low/middle seeds that have a chance to win. No clear cut favorite. Teams jockeying for NCAA tourney seeding (if not getting in period). Etc. Ah, well I'm biased, but I like the Big 10 tourney this year if that's the case. Any of the top 7 teams could win and I wouldn't be surprised (and possibly 8 if Michigan gets hot). The quarterfinals could have Mich vs Ohio State, who just played a thriller last Saturday and could do so again, Iowa-Purdue, which is a great even matchup that Iowa needs to win the tournament and Purdue needs to secure their spot, Wisconsin-Mich State, who have played two thrillers in the past 3 weeks, and IU-Illinois, which has this sudden even better rivalry going and Illinois probably needs it to get into the tournament. Because of how the bracket is going to have matchups, the Big 10 tournament is going to be unbelievable, and I don't think the top seeds have that much of an advantage over everyone else. Lowest seed in Big 10 = Penn State Lowest seed in Big East = UConn It's not the fault of the Big 10's tourney that the Big East tourney doesn't let everyone participate-that takes away part of the allure when everyone is not there. If you want to do a fair comparison, you should lop off 25% of the Big 10 tourney field as well (3 participants), and say that the comparison is Lowest seed in Big 10-Michigan Lowest seed in Big East-UConn my point is that the Big East has 12 teams with winning records participating in their tourney. Even if you prorated the Big 10 that wouldn't be true In conference or total records?

What defines a good conference tourney? Interesting matchups? Great Games? Bubble madness? Elimination games (loser misses the NCAA?)? There's so much that goes into a conference tournament that it's hard to say what is the best without the criteria to judge it by. low/middle seeds that have a chance to win. No clear cut favorite. Teams jockeying for NCAA tourney seeding (if not getting in period). Etc. Ah, well I'm biased, but I like the Big 10 tourney this year if that's the case. Any of the top 7 teams could win and I wouldn't be surprised (and possibly 8 if Michigan gets hot). The quarterfinals could have Mich vs Ohio State, who just played a thriller last Saturday and could do so again, Iowa-Purdue, which is a great even matchup that Iowa needs to win the tournament and Purdue needs to secure their spot, Wisconsin-Mich State, who have played two thrillers in the past 3 weeks, and IU-Illinois, which has this sudden even better rivalry going and Illinois probably needs it to get into the tournament. Because of how the bracket is going to have matchups, the Big 10 tournament is going to be unbelievable, and I don't think the top seeds have that much of an advantage over everyone else. Lowest seed in Big 10 = Penn State Lowest seed in Big East = UConn It's not the fault of the Big 10's tourney that the Big East tourney doesn't let everyone participate-that takes away part of the allure when everyone is not there. If you want to do a fair comparison, you should lop off 25% of the Big 10 tourney field as well (3 participants), and say that the comparison is Lowest seed in Big 10-Michigan Lowest seed in Big East-UConn

I wouldn't worry about complicating the situation. Personally I think you have to include Marquis into that group and admit you're really looking to fill both the 4th and 5th spots. Marquis is pretty much guaranteed a spot right now, but insurance against another disaster by him could be handy. Lieber could be the most stable pitcher in that group. My biggest concern would be about the offense, however. Jones is hardly irreplacable, but you'd better be really certain that Pie is ready to produce similar numbers as him. And I'm not sure you can be. I'd consider such a move under a few conditions: Pie looks great. Soriano can't handle center. The back end of the rotation remains in doubt. If Pie doesn't look ready, you can't move Jones. Even if he is ready, there's no reason to as long as Soriano can handle center. You bring in Lieber, and Wuertz is almost guaranteed a spot in Iowa to start the season. If Prior and Miller are both healthy, Wuertz is in Iowa and Miller has to be released or traded somehow. I don't see the upside to justify those potential problems. You're banking a guy as insurance in case 5 people cannot fill 2 spots (and the Cubs have more people like Sean Marshall who could fill the spot in a pinch if none of those people could do the job at the given time). That doesn't seem particularly helpful to me when the more likely situation is that you've given up a trade asset and had to release or demote equally talented pitchers.

Assuming for a moment that Jones would need to be traded, I would only do it for Lieber if he was already being shipped off somewhere else. The last thing the Cubs need is another starting pitcher right now-Prior then Miller then Cotts then Guzman for the 5th starter-it's not really great insurance to think about a scenario where they all are ineffective. The talk is already about what to do with Miller if Prior is healthy because there is seemingly no spot in the bullpen-another pitcher would just complicate matters even further.

What defines a good conference tourney? Interesting matchups? Great Games? Bubble madness? Elimination games (loser misses the NCAA?)? There's so much that goes into a conference tournament that it's hard to say what is the best without the criteria to judge it by. low/middle seeds that have a chance to win. No clear cut favorite. Teams jockeying for NCAA tourney seeding (if not getting in period). Etc. Ah, well I'm biased, but I like the Big 10 tourney this year if that's the case. Any of the top 7 teams could win and I wouldn't be surprised (and possibly 8 if Michigan gets hot). The quarterfinals could have Mich vs Ohio State, who just played a thriller last Saturday and could do so again, Iowa-Purdue, which is a great even matchup that Iowa needs to win the tournament and Purdue needs to secure their spot, Wisconsin-Mich State, who have played two thrillers in the past 3 weeks, and IU-Illinois, which has this sudden even better rivalry going and Illinois probably needs it to get into the tournament. Because of how the bracket is going to have matchups, the Big 10 tournament is going to be unbelievable, and I don't think the top seeds have that much of an advantage over everyone else.

Thanks Bruce! It's nice to see that they are giving some time to Theriot at short. I'm not someone who wants Izturis replaced in-house immediately (I'd support a trade for a big upgrade, but I don't think that Izturis is going to be near the offensive black hole that people think he will be) , but the last staff avoided putting Theriot at SS at any time at all costs-it's nice to see that Piniella believes that he can at least play the SS position at a backup role.

I'm not worried about what these guys think I'm worried about what Mark Prior thinks and feels. I think that Prior is following the regiment that House has him on and it's going to be a gradual processs. My question is if as many have said that Prior has never had a pitching injury why is he taking so long to come back and what exactly is wrong with him? Well at this point he has to have a mental block as well. I really wonder if this isn't similar to the Knoblach, Ankiel, Sax thing. Could be, I was thinking that he has the superstar effect. I've seen kids dominate for awhile and when they finally hit the top level they meet failure for the first time and how they react to that shows a lot to me. I never liked what I saw from Prior when he was struggling and I'm not sure he has the mental makeup to be able to fight when he isn't on top of his game. He's still young and I hope he can prove me wrong but he has a ways to go before he can be the pitcher he was in 2003 or 2004. The 2003 Prior is gone. That's why it hurts so much we didn't win it all that year. I still think he can get back to being a good pitcher, his window is shrinking though. What is that stat or thing that posters bring out when a pitcher is overused? What was Prior at in 2003...I just thought of it, abuse rating. That or Dusty's stupidity. Game 2 we are up what 9-0 and we let him throw 130 pitches. Thanks Dusty, thanks a bunch. thanks for reminding me of this. the rest of my day is ruined. with a little luck and a lot of beer, i may be able to recoup later in the week. oh and great use of veres in a key spot. wasnt that his last major league appearance? theres a reason for that. I think it was his last appearance in the majors to this point-he still has a shot of being in a major league game this year with his comeback attempt.

What defines a good conference tourney? Interesting matchups? Great Games? Bubble madness? Elimination games (loser misses the NCAA?)? There's so much that goes into a conference tournament that it's hard to say what is the best without the criteria to judge it by.

Yeah, the Horizon league hosts their tournament at the site of their conference champ-Wright State got that honor due to a tiebreaker. It encourages more attendance at these games where if mid-majors tried to find a neutral site to play they might not sell out.

A division winner has to be 4th or better, yes. They are not guaranteed home court advantage though-home court in the NBA goes to the team with the better record, not the team with the better seed. so what's the point of being the 4th seed if the 5th seed gets home court over you? Well, it's not really about being the 4th seed for home court-if they didn't put that rule saying they couldn't slip any farther, than a team could win its division and be the 7th or 8th seed and have to play one of the top 2 teams in the first round. Being the 4th seed means they at least only have to play the 4th best team in conference at best (because the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seeds would have better records than the 5th seed). That's the advantage a division winner gets in not having to face a top team right away-they don't necessarily get homecourt though. right, i guess that's true. So the good news is that if the Bulls stay stuck at #5, they could have home court over Toronto, for example, should the records stay similar to now Yup-and that wouldn't really be a bad scenario for the Bulls. It would mean that they would have to play the Pistons in the 2nd round, but as for first round matchups I think I'd rather have the 5 seed with homecourt than have the 3 seed and play Miami.

A division winner has to be 4th or better, yes. They are not guaranteed home court advantage though-home court in the NBA goes to the team with the better record, not the team with the better seed. so what's the point of being the 4th seed if the 5th seed gets home court over you? Well, it's not really about being the 4th seed for home court-if they didn't put that rule saying they couldn't slip any farther, than a team could win its division and be the 7th or 8th seed and have to play one of the top 2 teams in the first round. Being the 4th seed means they at least only have to play the 4th best team in conference at best (because the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seeds would have better records than the 5th seed). That's the advantage a division winner gets in not having to face a top team right away-they don't necessarily get homecourt though.

Too old-Micah Hoffpauir will be 27 this year.

In a poll about who is the college basketball player of the year on ESPN.com, Kevin Durant is winning all but 4 states. One of the states he is not winning? Texas.

A division winner has to be 4th or better, yes. They are not guaranteed home court advantage though-home court in the NBA goes to the team with the better record, not the team with the better seed.

The NFL salaries are almost in the MLB Starting Pitching salary category. Exactly, but MLB salaries can just keep going up and up-the cap is not going to go up by enough each year in the NFL to be able to justify this escalation in salaries-teams will be in salary cap problems by signing mediocre players to these huge deals.

Daniel Graham-5 years 30 million, 15 million guaranteed-signed by the Broncos. This makes me laugh-the Colts signed Reggie Wayne to a 6 year, 40 million dollar deal with 13 million guaranteed and were criticized just last year. Now Graham gets almost the same amount being a middle of the pack tight end? The market is insane right now-with the NFL salary cap, any team that stays out of free agency right now will be in much better shape down the road.