CubColtPacer

That play made absolutely no sense for Kansas State-run the ball into the line, take it down to 10 seconds, punt it away, you win the game-why would you ever throw the ball there? It worked though! Teams left with a chance at the NC-Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, USC, Notre Dame, Arkansas, Rutgers. Am I missing anybody? I don't think so-anybody else I believe would have Ohio State-Michigan playing each other again for sure (and some of those on the list might have that happen to them as well, but it's not for sure).

BTW, I know this seems weird, but I'm reporting on this game. San Jose State has taken over the lead over Boise State 13-12 late in the third. Why is this important? If Boise State loses, one extra BCS at-large spot opens up-so those teams just outside the NC picture still could use that extra spot.

They get leeway because they've beaten someone good. Technically, if Tennessee loses tonight, the two teams best wins will be about the same.

Drop how much though? AP Top 15: 1. O$U 2. scUM 3. Louisville 4. Texas 5. Auburn 6. Florida 7. USC 8. Cal 9. ND 10. WVU 11. Arkansas 12. LSU 13. Tennessee 14. Boise St 15. Rutgers so Louisville, Auburn, Cal all drop. Arkansas needs to jump up if they win this. I dunno... does USC deserve to jump Florida if they beat Oregon? I don't think so - they've had their share of close games against unranked opponents. ND? They should've lost to Moo. WVU? They haven't shown they can beat a good team, their defense is questionable, as is their ability to pass. Arkansas should've lost at home to Alabama, at least if Alabama had a kicker. I dunno if Florida should move down just because their close win came today and not last month. While I agree with you Truffle that Florida should not necessarily drop, they have played 3 of these type of games in a row. They are not necessarily worse than the teams behind him, but it should at least be re-evaluated at this point. If a re-evaluation of their entire season compares to others shows that Florida is still better in the voters mind, then fine. It's pretty close-splitting hairs among all the teams. However, the mindset in September and October is that if you look bad, you drop-while in November, you almost have to lose to drop. Florida has had just about as many close games as everybody else at this point.

Arkansas could have survived a loss before today-now can't they lose to both Tennessee and LSU, as long as they beat Miss State? That would leave them tied, and Arkansas would have the tiebreaker-but maybe its a 3 team tiebreaker thing that I've missed.

Georgia is now up 17-0 on Auburn in the 2nd quarter-wow.

If we keep Jones, then Mench would be the perfect fit for us as his platoon partner. He has the same type of splits in reverse of what Jacque does.

Exactly. I mentioned it above. He hasn't lived up to his salary. Possibly not Pudge, either. But, are Detroit Tigers fans running around griping that Maggs isn't worth the money, or are they excited about being in the World Series and getting even more excited watching Detroit make moves that might help them get there again next year? Detroit was able to make the gambles because they had some young talent they could build around. Do we? I don't know-maybe. I'd love to go out and sign some impact free agents though-it seems like the plan is to make sure the future is flexible all the time, and so the future never becomes the present. So I agree with you, but the gambles might just make us even worse for the next few years-but I'll take the chance of being in worse shape just for the chance to be better.

Well, I can't say I'm too enthused by the early games today. There are many mediocre teams playing right now. The one I am watching? Georgia-Auburn. Georgia marched right down the field on the first drive, and it's 7-0 Georgia early.

And the aforementioned gambles helped them do what? Meanwhile, Tiger fans can ask Cub fans how the view from the bottom is. I sure wish our GM had the audacity to go out and get the players necessary to at least threaten to win a division. A gamble like Maggs? I don't know-but I do know that Ordonez was not much different from Jacque Jones last year (Magglio was 16 points better in OBP, Jacque was 24 points better in SLG), and Ordonez was worse the year before with the Tigers. He's not exactly giving great production-that gamble hasn't panned out for them. He's just an average player the last two years who hasn't hurt them on their way to the WS.

Well, 50/50 for today is worse then we thought a week ago, but better then it seemed a day or two ago. So, I guess we just continue to wait.

I can't wait to see them in action on Monday. Do you think moving Stemler to the starting lineup is the right move? Sampson doesn't think that either D.J. or Allen can guard a player well on the wings, so he is planning on going with Stemler as a starter. I think it is a good idea also-if D.J. gets double-teamed down there, Stemler can be a three point spot up shooter and have his defensive impact.

It's funny you wrote that because it includes our worst teams too, unlike the Big 10 or the SEC and I still like our chances to win 4 or more of those games because if you look at what ACTUALLY has happened on the field Syracuse has beaten Illinois and UConn has beaten Indiana. I'd love to have a Big East/Big 10 or SEC thing like that like they did in hoops. I would have to agree with Cuse that you can't automatically take out the Big 10's worst and the SEC's worst in this argument. If you want to make it fair, you have to take out some of the middle teams. BTW, that UConn victory over IU should be taken with a serious grain of salt. IU has been beating people recently with 3 main people: their QB, freshman Kellen Lewis, their 6-7 unbelievable receiver, James Hardy, and their great coach Terry Hoeppner. Hoeppner and Hardy missed both the SIU and UConn games (Hoeppner had brain surgery during the season, and Hardy was inactive due to personal reasons). Also, Lewis was getting some of his first game action ever. Since the coach and Hardy have come back and the team has allowed to gel, it's been a different Indiana team-and I don't think UConn would beat Indiana with their pieces in place. With that in mind though, I'm not trying to prove this to say that the Big 10 is better than the Big East-my views on that are irrelevant to what I just wrote.

What were the points? I think the best one is that the Big East beat had one OOC win over a team in the top half of its conference - that being Maryland. Gosh, now I'm watching Lou Holtz on SportsCenter. I swear, his ability to speak is diminishing every passing day. How many does the Big 10/11 have? 2? Wow...that's so much more impressive. How many do the 12 teams in the SEC have? The Big 12? I did a very quick look through the Big 10, and I counted 3 (I counted Notre Dame, I think that's fair)-they beat Texas, Notre Dame, and Pitt. I didn't look through any of the rest.

Hmm-that's interesting. At the same time Sullivan had quotes about Hendry not going to meet with Ramirez's agent next week, Hendry was actually meeting with Ramirez's agent! Not good news to hear that it likely won't get done before Saturday night, though.

Yeah, if they bid that-then good luck to them-I won't be upset at all if the Cubs lose out to a bid like that, because I never would want the Cubs to go quite that high for him.

You can compared him to other free agents. It's just stupid to only compare him to free agents. You have to compare him to everybody. He's makes more than the average players but does not produce more than the average player. Well, then you can compare him to all the players (although the average salary for outfielders overall is still 4.4 million, so Jones is just slightly above average contract) but that means the Cubs cannot sign any second-tier pitchers this year, because they are average and they are going to sign for more than 3.2 million. They will make more than the average starter, but they won't produce more than the average starter also. That is a perfectly valid comparison, since pretty much all of the second-tier pitchers are about the same level to average as Jones. Edit: Excuse me, that's old figures (2002). The starting pitcher number has probably gone up, but the number for right fielders has probably gone up past 5 million now-so Jones is probably average salary at this point.

I like Wuertz, but don't mind giving him up in a deal for a good regular. If you can deal away relievers for everyday difference makers, you have to do it. I just don't like Sheffield in that role. That's the thing-I think Sheffield has the chance to be that, but it's a huge risk. It would all really depend on 1)How Sheffield performs next year and 2)who the Cubs trade/bench to play Sheffield and how much they get for that player.

That's crazy! I understand Cashman is trying to get the best possible deal for Sheffield, but to turn down both The Phillies deal that included Gavin Floyd and a Padres deal that included Scott Linebrink, is beyond insane. Everybody knows that Yankees are trying to trade Sheffield, and everybody knows Sheffield no longer wants to be a Yanks. So to turn down either deal, is beyond idiotic, and I hope they can't trade Sheffield, cause you know Sheffield will tear ANY chemistry that team might have to pieces. What is so crazy about turning down a Gavin Floyd deal? Have you seen his numbers the last two years? He is not the prospect he once was. I know the Yankees turned down this deal with Linebrink, but today Peter Gammons was on Mike and Mike and said that he believes Sheff will end up with the Cubs. The deal would be centered around Wuertz. I had a feeling that's what the deal would be centered around-I really don't know how I feel about that.

Average production at above average cost, not good. And he's just as likely to be below average as above. Jones is only acceptable in RF if they have massive improvements elsewhere. Jones is not above average cost. His contract, by current market, is a bargain. The Cubs are not going to field an all-star at every position, so we agree that assuming upgrades elsewhere, Jones is acceptable. I do find it highly ironic that Hendry got killed for not pursuing Giles on this board, and Jones dwarfed Giles production in 2006, in terms of slugging and OPS. Giles OPS+ 105 Jones OPS+ 107 I find it highly amusing how much you love Jim Hendry screwing up the Cubs. Jones is above average cost. You can't compare him only to free agents, that's absurd. He's not competing only against free agents. Smart teams find ways to get production above cost. Stupid teams spend big on mediocrity. Sure we can compare him to other free agents. When looking at the average pitchers on the market, do teams look at the average value of all the pitchers, or the average market value of that particular pitcher? For example, Miguel Batista. Under your system of comparing him to every pitcher, he should only be worth 1-2 million. On the market, the fair deal is probably around 5. Is it overpaying if somebody gives him 5? Jones was signed below market value for his production last year. If he returns to previous years, then his production will be about market value. He's not a great strength of this team, but he's not a huge weakness either.

Average production at above average cost, not good. And he's just as likely to be below average as above. Jones is only acceptable in RF if they have massive improvements elsewhere. Jones is average production at below average cost in RF (as far as ones who have hit free agency).

Couple of things-Arkansas has to lose twice to get Auburn into the SEC title game. Also, again that wouldn't get much controversy-people would just give Ohio State-Michigan their rematch and claim they were the best 2 teams all along, and everyone else just proved it by losing. I think it would be better for BCS chaos if as many 1 loss teams stayed as possible.

I still think the big difference between Aramis and Lee is that Lee would only have 1 year to prove himself. Lee knew if he got hurt in 2006, then his money might go way down-so he took a deal that would be below his market value (can you imagine if Lee had a good year this year how much his market value would be also?) Aramis knew if he had a bad year, he still had 2 more years at great money to prove himself before FA, and if he had a good year, then he could hit FA now and cash in. It's much, much less of a gamble for Aramis because he makes over 10 million either way-which makes the amount of money needed to get him to agree to an extension much, much more last year.

Agreed. I think so too mainly because the game is in Morgantown. I don't see Rutgers pulling it out on the road. We'll see though. Should be a good game. It's the toughest conference in college football! :wink: The Big East is the only major coference that has each team play each other. Auburn doesn't play Tennessee and Ohio State didn't play Wisconsin. That's very frustrating for me. If Rutgers beats WV, that means they and Ohio State (if they win) will be the only teams that beat 1 loss teams. Yeah, I see Rutgers moving all the way up to #8 thanks to the gurus and their preseason/old boys polls. The Pac 10 also now has every team playing each other.

Am I reading that right? Why would the Cardinals give him a 2/18 to 2/20 deal when they could just give him the 10 million now and see how he does next year? When they said that his average salary is going to be about the same as the option, that just doesn't make much sense to me.