jersey cubs fan

The Score (take it for what it's worth) reported Kontiola is a piece in the deal on their last update. Again, take it for what it's worth. Tim Sassone's article http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=276715&src=149 http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/1551 I'm not the least bit qualified to judge the deal, but in their payroll situation, with several top players due bigger deals within the next year, it makes perfect sense to deal Wiz. They needed a center, and there didn't seem to be a lot out there.

I would think so. He really didn't have much of a role did he.

Nothing in Florida is a 20 minute drive away. Desolate matters. Football teams can survive playing 8 games in a place nobody really wants to be. Baseball teams have a much harder time. Everyday sports need to make going to the field on a regular basis enjoyable. Dolphin Stadium, like all football fields, is a horrible place to watch baseball (the only upside is the easily available "good seats" since nobody goes).

Thats why they went to Madoff in the first place, they thought they were protecting themselves. Its like calling a cop to come protect you, only to have him rape you. They didn't go to Madoff for protection, they went to Madoff because they heard he could get them terrific return on their money. If protection was their concern they would have put their money in a much safer institution. They were looking for profit.

Pro-Player is a quality location as anyone who's lived in South Florida will tell you. Miami isn't a "Center city" with good public transportation. It is spread out pretty good north to south. If one factors in Broward county Pro-Player is centrally located. Do they need to develop the area around the park more? Yes. The place they play is not that bad to watch a game. It's no worse than Yankee Stadium. The reason why they want to move is because Loria gets only the gate receipts and has to pay rent. The rest of what you said was accurate. The funny thing is that where they are proposing to move is worse than the location that they currently occupy. It's hard to get to, congested, and crime infested. I suspect the reason they want to move there is due to organized crime's involvement in city govt. more so than it just happens to be where the old Orange Bowl was. Nobody I know who lives in south florida will say that. It's desolate. And watching a game there is terrible. It's a football stadium, and a bad one at that. I did not like Yankee Stadium, but it was considerably better. However, if you put that same stadium in say, the Meadowlands, and had an expansion team play there, nobody would go. It's a bad stadium in a horrible location, just like Dolphins Stadium.

I think I miscounted relievers anyway. If they break camp with 12 pitchers, that would be the 5 starters+ Gregg, Marmol, Heilman, Vizcaino, Gaudin, Cotts/Stanton/Lefty, and 1 more. I guess Guzman could easily be that last guy, unless Shark dazzles his way through ST. The problem is, Gooz better be impressive, because we all know how fast Lou looses patience, especially when it comes to young pitchers, and if it comes down to it, I doubt he'll care that Gooz is a one time top prospect, and ship him off to wherever. That's not true. As long as the pitcher throws strikes, Lou has infinite patience to let that pitcher struggle to come up with a way to get hitters out, even if those outs are line shots to the wall. and your example of that would be... Bob Howry. Guzman's problem may very well be throwing strikes. He's got about 4 innings pitched over the past 4 years and he wasn't the greatest control pitcher in the world before then. His minor league BB totals were relatively low, but he's walked nearly 5 per 9 in the brief amount of time he's been in the majors.

It would be interesting if it became popular. But I don't think it has at all. Perhaps in another 15 years, after a couple rivalries build and a few "classic" games are played, and remembered, it will become popular. But you'll need far more stars playing in the tourny and not skipping. So if a tourney becomes popular with more stars playing, but how do you get more stars to play if the tourney isn't popular? don't ask them to play in it when they're supposed to be preparing for the regular season I'm not sure what other time frame would be a viable option for the WBC though. You can't really hold it in the winter unless you want to play everything indoors. They already play in domes in Asia and Toronto. Then they have Mexico City, Puerto Rico, LA, SD and Miami, places that can easily handle winter baseball. But to your previous point, time is probably the only way you get more stars to play. You can't expect this to be huge in its second incarnation. If there are some big games and a US team that makes noice, 4 years from now you might have a couple more guys who are interested. But it'll probably take at least 4 or 5 run throughs of this tournament before it really turns into a must event for the players, if it ever does.

I was using the Cubs as an example because this is a Cubs message board. There are only a couple teams that have major attendance issues and Florida is the only one that actually has won World Series and still can't get the fans. If a team in the desert like Arizona or teams in Atlanta (similar weather to Florida) can get the fans then the big reason why Florida can't becomes the fans. They just don't have the fans that want to go to the game no matter the conditions. How can you say "no matter the conditions"? There isn't another team, let alone expansion team, that has an absolute dump of a stadium located off the side of a random highway where it's 90 and humid with rain darn near every day. Had the team sustained some level of success, rather than gutting the team after winning, they would probably be much better off. If the Blackhawks fall on their face in the playoffs and gut the team, attendance will go right back into the toilet. And that is a longstanding sports franchise with a rather large established fan base. You can't built a fan base by making the gameday experience complete crap and fielding the lowest payroll team in the league on a regular basis. They did draw 3 million in their first season, and 2.3 million in their 1997 season. They gained 500,000 the year after their last WS title, but they quickly went back to being a below .500 team with lessening attendance. Arizona has no less of a problem of no "real fans", yet they built a very nice ballpark and made the experience much more enjoyable, and built a team that could enjoy a sustainable level of success over time (4 postseason appearances in 11 seasons compared to 2 in 16). They had a pullback in attendance during the lean year, but it was not nearly as dramatic. Baseball is an everyday sport. You have to give fans a reason to show up everyday (comparing it to football is nonsensical), and that entails a quality location as well as decent stadium. They have a horrible location and horrible stadium in the most unpleasant climate in the country during the summer.

The spring numbers are meaningless. But Rosy did OPS over 1000 at Iowa at age 25. He was also over 1100 in his first real time at AAA at 23.

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.

I know, I know. I thought Britton, Beaty or Unger would be too big a reach there, though. If we could, I'd have traded down to the end of the 1st and drafted an OL. Sadly, I can't see Angelo taking an OL in the first round in consecutive years. Everything to me points to a DE. Pass rush was weak last year. Ogunleye, Brown, and Anderson are all FA in 2010. Marinelli brought in to coach the DL. With him being the biggest offseason addition so far, I think they will give him another player to work with. Pass rush was a need, but I view the Marinelli signing as the move they make to get that pass rush, out of the same players. Angelo has struggled with first round skill position guys, as well as ends. Their core skills guys who have had success are 2nd/3rd round types (Forte, Berrian, Hester). His first round selection of Columbo was somewhat vindicated with him starting at tackle for a contender years down the line. I could definitely see him taking another lineman this year, unless one of the top two QBs drop.

I hope he's the world's greatest bubble screen receiver because the Bears passing game won't have more than 1.5 seconds to get any plays off.

A big part of that problem is it's located in St. Pete and ugly as sin. But with a good team, they were drawing fans toward the end of the year. The stadium is a big part of the problem with the Marlins. It's located off the side of a highway near absolutely nothing. It's a football stadium. It works for once a week (or more accurately, 8 Sundays a year) tailgating. But it doesn't work for an everyday sport like baseball. The Giants and Jets have no problem drawing fans to their isolated stadium venue every Sunday, but the Devils and Nets struggle a lot more to get people there on a regular basis. Additionally, the stadium is oppresively hot. I've been to a couple Dolphins games in September, and the crowd is absolutely drained from the insane heat/humidity/sun. It is not at all the same as other locations in the country. Miami might work as a baseball market without a dome, but they'd need a stadium that provides a ton of shade in the stands, Pro Player seats are all exposed, and in another location. But it takes time to build a fan base for an expansion team, and if you make attending a game a real pain the ass, it'll take all that much longer.

Generally speaking, I would agree with this. They don't need to have a 5th starter until April 25. However, with Harden possibly not even starting the season in the rotation, or if he does, unlikely to go past 5 at the start. And also a 5th starter who in all likelihood did not start much, if any last year, they are going to be burning through that bullpen early and often. As it stands now, the bullpen is more about quantity of arms rather than quality. And with as much as Marmol was used the past couple years, I don't want to see them in a position where he's throwing every other day. You can start the season with your 5th starter in the bullpen, but once you've stretched that guy out, does it make a lot of sense to then use him in short stints over the first three weeks, and then go right back to starting? I'd like to see them go away from the 12th pitcher, but I doubt they do.

The offensive line starved Chicago Bears are now on the clock.

The J - E - T - Ss spent money on the defense this weekend and are in the process of reinventing their version of the 3-4. But the big story with this team remains QB, with Favruh retiring again. New Jersey's favorite team selects senior Mark Sanchez from USC. He's taking crap for "leaving early" but all he's doing is foregoing his 5th year at USC. Go earn your money big fella.

whoa, you guys are fast. I haven't looked at this since Friday afternoon, so give me a few minutes to figure out the Jets pick.

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? as long as he hasn't totally burned through the $20M per year that the red sox paid him, i'm pretty sure that his lifestyle won't take a hit by deferring money and only getting $10M a year the next 2 years. it's up to him, and i don't begrudge him the right to decline this deal, but i think it's a pretty bad move on his part. they'll probably get the dodgers to defer a little less though - they'll meet in the middle somewhere. If they'll meet in the middle why is it a bad move?

I was seeing numbers like $15m for JSC, who is much older, and not any good. I don't think you can find a potential starting tackle for much less than that.

I'm surprised they haven't rested Huet. They could let one of the minor leaguers play, the 4th seed is pretty much a guarantee(sort of) so it's not like these game are incredibly important. Well, 8 games in a row isn't exactly unprecedented. And he was getting plenty of rest early in the season. I think they are trying to get him in a groove, potentially to justify a Khabi trade, or just to make it easier to pick a playoff goalie.

Don't forget, his career was essentially ended by a series of suspensions for the use of PEDs... amphetamines rather than steroids, but still... Not to mention that without them, his career might have ended in AA. Exactly. I don't get why people use the "well it didn't help him break records" arguement against the notion that PEDs enhance performance. The Sports Guy's Yankee fan friend tried to brush off the Giambi/ARod/Pettite issues by saying that if these things really helped then "I could take them and hit 50 HR." That's not the freaking point. Guys take them just to get promoted up the minor league ranks. There's tremendous financial incentive (not to mention competitive) just to take them to reach the majors. It's not just about hitting 70 HR. If a guy has the talent to play with some of the best in the world, but not the skill to deserve a spot on a major league roster, a slight increase in performance could wind up netting him a million dollars over his career.

Interesting. Hopefully this means St. Clair is gone more than it means they won't draft a tackle early.

Hopefully he's being cautious.

Bet it won't.

not sad for him, sad for those of us who had high hopes for him. I had no hopes for him when he was drafted, then slowly turned to being a fan and wound up as one of the people who most defended him in 2006/07. But I guess it was the lack of initial expectations that made it easier for me to let it go.