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Unless I write sentences 1000 times, I may never spell his name correctly. Samardzija. Samardzija. Samardzija. You might be right, you just tried 3 times and didn't get it right once :D

That was the second thought that went through my head after I saw it-my first thought was, I can't believe they've already re-instituted the "Jordan rules" with Dwayne Wade! :D

They don't have him quite hitting his walk rate for next season though so they might be taking that into account a little bit. last year his average was .277 and OBP .351, and they have his average at .287 and OBP at .349. While not a significant difference, that drop in BB's is almost a third of the way from the increase last year back to his career numbers.

I want to preface this by saying that I do not believe this was the difference in the Pacers loss to the Heat tonight. With that said, I was really frustrated with two calls made in the 4th quarter tonight. One was with just over 5 minutes to play. Wade drove left, tripped, and fell out of bounds and the ball got stuck in between the basket and the backboard. The officials called a jump ball, and then Wade was attended to. He got back up, and everybody started positioning themselves for the jump ball. About 3 minutes after the actual play (and I'm serious, 3 minutes on my DVR), another ref comes in and suddenly it is being announced that Jermaine has picked up his 5th foul. Carlisle is furious, but a minute later, Wade is stepping up to hit free throws. It has to be the latest call I have ever seen, and I have no idea how it took 3 minutes for that ref to decide what he saw and come up and change the call. BTW, it certainly appeared that Jermaine stepped out of Wade's way and never even laid a finger on him on the replay. The second call was with 1:30 to go. Daniels was dribbling to the right (and towards the basket) and Mourning stepped out to challenge him. The dribble went right off Mourning's foot and into the backcourt. When Daniels went to retrieve it, the refs called over and back. Two things were really, really bad about this call in a 4 point game. One, it was obvious it went off Mourning's foot both in real time, and in the laws of physics (it would be very hard for someone dribbling in front of them and taking it to the basket to have it hit off their foot and go backwards in that manner). The announcers said that it was obvious it went off Mourning, but that the refs called it off Daniels "because he looked guilty". Uh-huh.

Diogu is the key in this trade long-term, not Murphy or Dunleavy. I can't see the Pacers being much worse, but they simply might not be much better either. BTW, Murphy or Dunleavy do offer a better complementary option to JO than Harrington in that they can fill the corners when JO wants to post up at the elbow.

Also, the rumors are flying right now. Some are saying that the Pacers are trying to spin Dunleavy off for Magette, and others are saying that the Pacers are trying to make a run after Jason Kidd. Believe them at your own risk, as they are just rumors, but this should be interesting. Something has to move, as the Pacers have about 4 or 5 PF's who need playing time now.

I'm not sure Patterson would be better than Pie. Also, everything I've heard has said that DeRosa would be terrible in center. He can play the corners, but not center field.

Have fun with Dunmurphy on your team. My editor is a Warriors fan and that's how he refers to those two because they are both basically the same player. I know he'll be happy to be rid of them. Yeah, I can't believe the Pacers had to take on both of them. The key is Diogu-if Diogu makes his potential, the Pacers win this deal. If he doesn't, the Pacers lose in the deal. Al wasn't working out very well anyway though, Jackson is playing better this year but will never win back the fans, Sarunas is up and down anyway, and Powell never played. So it's not like the Pacers gave up talent that they can't replace anyway, I'm just wondering who the Pacers are planning to start at SG since there is a big gaping hole there now.

Well, my Pacers just completed a mammoth trade with the Warriors-thoughts about if this is a good deal or not? I cannot decide for sure: Pacers give up: Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Sarunas Jasikavecius, Josh Powell Warriors give up: Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, Ike Diogu, Keith McLeod

I just wanted to let you know, we learned from the Colts board who the referees are going to be for each of the 2 championship games. The Bears/Saints game has drawn Terry McAulay. If you want to check his stats, look at the link I will provide. It definitely is true that different crews look at the rules a little differently, so this might give you some early insight on to how the game is going to be called on Sunday. http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/sortableStatsOfficials?statTable=breakdownOne&stat=games

If Prior went to free agency, he probably would certainly make more. Most analysts thought that the Wood contract was a hometown discount that the Cubs got, and Prior would certainly get more than Wood because he has spent less time injured over the last couple of years. Even though he didn't put up the same numbers for the same length of time, I could easily see Prior making a Mark Mulder contract in FA.

Now that was an amazing finish to the Texas-OK State game. I wish I hadn't tuned in so late (I only saw the last 4 minutes of triple OT) but a 3 point play answered by a game winning 3, simply awesome.

That's their normal routine for months now (I think from Halloween on every year, but maybe even further back then that), so it just makes sense now to try to keep as close to normal of a routine as possible rather than trying to decide what to do with an extra day of practice.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/statistics?stat=team&sort=pts&pos=off&league=nfl&season=2&year=2006 Chicago - 427 New Orleans - 413 Not a huge difference, but it's still a difference. Yes, but as I said, the Bears scored a lot of points on defense and special teams. Not really the offense's doing. According to ESPN, that is offensive scoring. I might be mistaken, but that's what I'm finding on ESPN and NFL.com. EDIT: Actually, you might be right. That might be overall scoring, but if that's the case, then I need to search a little harder next time. :lol: That is also their total number of points. I looked at the standings, and they officially have the Bears as scoring 427 points, so those offensive rankings must count both defense and special teams TD's as well, which are at least 10 TD's I think for the Bears, if not more.

I thought it was 2/12M with this year being the last. Was it 3/18M. If he really has 2 years at 6M per left we should be able to trade him easily and get plenty back given the market this year, though we still probably shouldn't. He signed either a 3/15 or 3/16 deal, and if I remember right the contract works out that he has something like 2/11 left.

I understand that sentiment. With the Cubs, it can be a different story for a lot of people. Many kids without local teams latch on to the Cubs because they are the ones that they can follow on TV. My parents were Cubs fans when they lived in southern Michigan, and growing up in Indy without a local team made it easy for me to become a Cubs fan as well from a very young age. Of course, I wasn't going to go away from the two teams that were 20 minutes away either, so I became a Colts and Pacers fan and have remained those even though I've lived somewhere else for the last few years. I think that could be a big reason why there are Cubs fans though that are all sorts of fans in other sports because of the teams visibility with the lack of a local team.

It is the easiest position to play, but a great defender can certainly make a difference there. I think there is less variance in first baseman defensively in that below average to average is not as large of a difference at first base than other positions. When you start to get towards good to great though where a person starts picking many more balls out of the dirt, stretching that extra bit to get the out, and having the range to turn some doubles down the line into outs, that's where the difference really starts to come in. In short, at a position like shortstop or center field the first key for defense has to be somebody who can make the routine plays. If they can't make the routine plays consistently, they can hurt you defensively. At first base, just about anyone can make the routine plays, so the focus shifts to who can make the non-routine plays. I think there is more opportunity to make non-routine plays at first than many other positions because of the frequency of chances. I agree with you that Pujols is the best player in baseball.

Mark my words, Peter will use Rex's past quarterback ratings as an reason to dump on him at some point. In fact if I go look through his archives, I'm pretty damn sure he's already done it! Plus his point is stupid. Peyton Manning played like crap. Brady played pretty poorly too. By the way, every time Robbie Gould makes a kick I get more and more pissed off. Not because I hate the Bears or anything, but because he sucked when he was at Penn State. And I blame the PSU coaching staff for that (since they inexplicably refuse to hire a special teams coach). I would agree partially with Peter King on his point. Both men should not be criticized as much as normally those ratings would make one criticize because of the quality of defenses they were facing. However, neither one of them were "gallant". Manning played ok the entire game, and Brady played terrible most of the game, and very good to great for part of the game, which averages out to "ok" as well. I would say that Grossman still played a little better than either of those two QB's-his stats were much better against not anywhere near the same caliber of defense, which puts him closer to Manning and Brady, but still ahead of them for this week.

Personally, if I was an opposing coach I would never kick it to Hester on kickoffs, and I would always kick it to him on punts. He is almost a liability on punts sometimes-3 times yesterday he almost turned the ball over. Twice he fumbled, but the one I thought was the worst was when he dove and extended to make that fair catch-all it took was one bobble on a very difficult catch, and all the Seahwaks could have jumped on him. I've seen him field numerous punts inside the 10, and that's not the first time he has fumbled a few punts either. So, I'd try to get him to use his aggressiveness and punt it to him, but I'd avoid him on the kickoff, where he can take it back on any return, and he has virtually no risk of doing something silly like a punt. Kickoffs is where the Bears should continue to get good field position no matter what the opponents do, and that's where his value is to you.

It looks like Vegas agree with me that all the teams are even-opening lines that I've seen has the Colts and Bears as 3 point favorites, which means both games would be a pick em game on a neutral field.

The RCA Dome is going to be the loudest it's ever been next week, and when the Dome gets loud it I think is the loudest place in the league. I'm not saying that the Colts are necessarily the best fanbase at generating noise, but that dome is so small and a confined space that the noise just amplifies in there. It is going to be crazy in there next week, and I wish I was there (my dad is going to the game next week). It's going to be a great ballgame, just as the Colts-Patriots game in the regular season was. Well, one of the 2 results I wanted today happened (and the more important one). Sorry Bears fans, I was only rooting against you because I didn't feel the Seahawks were any kind of threat to win the SB, and I think the Bears are a legitimate threat. I think the 4 teams left in the playoffs are very equal, and I can see home field advantage possibly swinging either one of the two games.

Bolonga. You have to make a "football move." He caught it and had it ripped away before he could do anything. Anyone else never hear anyone anywhere use the term "football move" until the refs tried to steal a playoff game from the Steelers last year? Not me-I heard it used a long time before that.

I just don't understand that coaching decision at all-if it was 4th and 3, maybe. 4th and 11 though? That's just not a very smart decision to make, and I was thinking that not in hindsight.

I thought I saw the block in the back, but it was a little further up, closer to midfield. It was definitely worse than the one they showed before the break though.

I've seen them do this before-they are advertising for their pregame show (as somebody mentioned), that's why they have it listed at the time they do. It's not an error, that's when they believe their "coverage" of the game starts.