MSG T

Yep. Dusty certainly didn't help, but didn't Wood already have one elbow surgery under his belt by the time DB showed up? Lots of people have surgeries under their belt and go on to have long careers. What doesn't typically happen is that a new manager comes in and rides that surgically repaired arm into the ground with 120 pitch count game after 120 pitch count game, staying in after long rain delays. I mean, Wood threw 140+ pitches early in the season that year. He threw 130 in terribly uncomfortable conditions in Miami. He didn't do anything like that the year before. Wood never would have been the picture of durability or have a sustained career of 200 IP seasons. But there's no way you can pretend he was doomed to have his career wind down as quickly as it did if he didn't have Dusty Freaking Baker stearing the ship. I wasn't trying to suggest that Baker was good for Wood or had no effect. Just that Wood was already started down that path. A big arm and bad mechanics are a bad combination, especially when that big arm has already been surgically repaired. Dusty most definitely sped things up by his use of Wood, however.

Yep. Dusty certainly didn't help, but didn't Wood already have one elbow surgery under his belt by the time DB showed up?

The game's at 4:00 Central. I stand corrected. That's even better.

It's hard to complain about seeding when you're in the NIT, but yeah it's [expletive]. I was going to say that seeding is almost irrelevant in the NIT as better teams are constantly seeded lower to reduce travel and create better matchups, but it looks as those NU is going to have to play at Washington this weekend. I would like to take a jab at the super weak Pac-12, but Iowa has to play one of them too. I would have loved an LSU win so we got another home game. Yeah bummer. I think Oregon is going to take it to us. The Pac-12 sucks but Oregon has been decent and traveling out there is a big blow. I don't like Iowa's chances, but... two lucky breaks. 1) It's not a quick turn around, they have a couple of practice days, a travel day and a rest day (walk-through, shoot around) before the game. It would suck if the game were Friday. 2) It's an afternoon game. 4:00 pm on the west coast is MUCH better than 8:00 pm on the west coast. That said, I think Oregon wins, probably something like 78-72.

Wha?? Where did you get these? As far as I can tell, in the Brewers' case, 96-87= 9 (and, actually, as Derwood mentioned, they were probably more like a 90 win team last year based on their pythag).. In the Cardinals' case, 90-87=3 (and they were actually an 88 win team based on pythag). I guess my question is: where did you get 15 and 10 games from? Am I missing something? Yes, you are...I thought the Cards won 96 games (I read it on a forum) And I knew that the Brews beat them by 5 or 6 games. My error. 87 or 88 is not that out of line. #-o [-X You're not doing it right. Around here you don't admit you're error, you keep arguing about it using correct, but out of context, supporting stats and evidence to support your flawed reasoning. ;)

Yeah, am I the only one here who JUST learned that it's pronounced "Ceasar"? No. I always thought it was probably sue-zer.

How does your incoming 7 footer play? I hope they get to battle. Hard to get a good grasp on a highly rated 7 footer playing in Iowa but they'll have their battles. He has to add some weight though. Leonard looks like he'd push him around right now and has about 15-20 pounds on him. Last report I saw has Woodbury at 7'1 and 240lbs. That's not to say that Leonard won't have a significant advantage though. Those two years of playing B1G b-ball is huge. I think Woody can end up as good, though they are somewhat different types of players. He won't be nearly as good next year, though. The problem with gauging Woodbury, and I'd imagine it was somewhat similar with Leonard in HS, is that he's constantly triple, and sometimes quadruple, teamed by 6-5 to 6-7 guys. WDM Valley yesterday was playing a triangle and two on him and pretty much giving the rest of the team open shots. They also didn't go into the lane much or try to get the ball inside against him, 30 of their 50 shots were 3s. The refs at the HS level in Iowa also give the benefit of the doubt to a smaller guy guarding a big guy. They'll let a 6'1 guy get away with much more if he's guarding a 6'5 guy, especially down low. Same for the bigger players. At least Woodbury will be used to the muggings they allow in the B1G, I've seen him wrapped up while trying to shoot and no foul called. I think he actually plays better against bigger players since they tend to go 1 on 1 with him and the refs call it more even.

Good idea, I'd buy him a beer and a brat if he did and I was there.

My problem is going to be all the track meets, 50+ Little League and HS baseball games, summer league and AAU basketball games and football camps my two sons have going on this spring and summer. Going to have to spend as many of those off-days as I can watching the I-Cubs.

If, by good, you mean better than last year despite the lower payroll then yes, I think they can be good. If you mean still in the division/wild card race until the last few days of the season, then no. I am looking forward to hanging out at Sec Taylor more and seeing Rizzo/Jackson and company, at least the first few months of the season.

I'm thinking the fact he thinks Campana should play CF everyday and lead off says much more than his vague comments about Vitters.

I love Soriano's quote. ‘‘I’m not worried that it’s the same guy,’’ outfielder Alfonso Soriano said, backing Johnson’s thoughts on the seals and safeguards involved in the process. ‘‘I’m not worried because I know what I take. It doesn’t matter who takes the sample. If you don’t take nothing, he can take [the specimen] home for a week, and nothing will come out.’’

Looks like Joe Bohringer will also be appearing. Heh, didn't even realize Brett mentioned it in his post. Shiraz Rehman was listed in there too.

I don't think catchers "vary so significantly defensively". Absent any reason to believe otherwise, I suspect they probably vary about as much as any other position. The reason is because of the weight placed on the defensive ability of catchers. You see teams getting away with crappy fielders in other positions because that's where you end up with more offensive assets. Where are the Alfonso Sorianos and Ryan Brauns and Adam Dunns and Prince Fielders of the catching world? There's much less variation than the other positions. That doesn't mean all catchers are practically the same defensively, but it's unusual to find the scope of variation between catchers as you do between different infielders or outfielders. As an example, and this may not be a perfect comparison, but I'll throw it out anyway. Mike Piazza was the biggest disaster I can remember, defensively, from a catcher and he was light years ahead of, relatively speaking, a bad LF/1B/3B etc. People were willing to deal with his bad defense because he was probably the best hitting catcher ever. He was much better at his position than the LF version of Adam Dunn or 2B version of Alfonso Soriano were in relation to average or above average defenders were at their positions. When Mike Piazza's defense is an extreme outlier, that shows the difference between catchers defense and every other position.

I don't know about 2nd best, but I do think he'll be a very pleasant surprise.

Stepping away from Iowa/ISU for a moment. I really hate this elbow to the head is always a flagrant foul call the last couple of years. I understand their reasoning behind it, but it's use is stupid far too many times. A few minutes ago they call a guy from A&M for elbowing Guerrero from Okie State, a couple days ago they called Sullinger for it. In both cases they were guys making a legitimate move and any contact was incidental, absolutely no intent in either case. How can either be considered a flagrant foul?

Every game in the Big Ten is poorly reffed, of course this isn't a new thing. Been that way for 30 years.

Matt's at 31, 61 over last two games.

I'm really getting excited about Iowa's future. I'm really thinking they can make the tournament next year. Before the season, and even earlier this year, I thought it would be Dev/Mel/Zachs SR year before they went back. I'm starting to think they have a chance next year. I don't even recognize this team anymore. I was at the Campbell game... I think Fran replaces the whole team since then.

While I respect them, there isn't a team I dislike more than Wisky.

Gatens with 18, Iowa with 43... at halftime... against Wisconsin. I can't wait until they're scoring like this all the time.

I'd just like to say, there is no one playing better ball, right now, than Matt Gatens. He just unreal right now.

I might be wrong here and I haven't really looked it up.. but I think it is spelled Solar If it is Solar, then all of the baseball people, and news people for that matter, are spelling it wrong. I just did a search for Jorge Solar and got nothing baseball related. Got a ton when I spelled it Soler. WHOOSH! I think I just said my sarcasm meter isn't what it once was. We need to bring that green font thing back.

I might be wrong here and I haven't really looked it up.. but I think it is spelled Solar If it is Solar, then all of the baseball people, and news people for that matter, are spelling it wrong. I just did a search for Jorge Solar and got nothing baseball related. Got a ton when I spelled it Soler.

No one wants to answer these comp questions it seems. I think Justin Upton is a bad word or something. Am I missing something (I'll admit my sarcasm meter isn't as good as it once was) or did you miss something? This was already covered. Don't give MonsterFight the benefit of the doubt again, please I'm sorry. :blush: