Derwood

It's just not 70's night without Steve Stone in a Welcome Back Kotter wig

They certainly look flat. I said it the other day: I think the Cubs could benifit from a bench clearing brawl.... somehow i dont think it will help So long as Perez, Macias and Hollandsworth are on the bench, it can always use clearing. Buh-dum-dum...yeah! /tears of a clown

I love Todd Walker. He swings at the first pitch, then slams his bat when he pops it up. Um, yeah, that's what happens when you swing at the first thing that's within 2 feet of the strike zone! .....stupid jerk.....

Under. But it will be a Grand Slam.

interesting, but a tough sell to baseball purists. That much league switching just wouldn't fly. But it's a fresh new look for sure.

I'm guessing we see: 1. Lawton - RF 2. Perez - 2B 3. Lee - 1B 4. Barrett - C 5. Nomar - SS 6. Burnitz - CF 7. Murton - LF 8. Macias - 3B Ramirez is hurting. They won't admit it, but something is bugging him bad. He looks terrible at the plate, and he grimaces every time he runs. Maybe a night off will do him some good.

Hearing from where? Sorry, it was on the Score. With a lefty on the mound, Dusty has absolutely no excuse to sit Murton tonight. None. I wouldn't mind seeing him start against righties either, but hey, Murton only batted against lefties in the minors, right? Right?

Steve Stone was on Boers and Bernstein today and he didn't think Murton had much of a future. He said he doesn't have enough speed to play CF and not enough power to play the corners. He thought Boston gave up on him for this reason.

To speak to this point, you can't have 15 teams in each league. If you have an odd number of teams, one team is always not playing, or there would always have to be an interleague series playing all year.

Not that they'd do well in the post season, but seeing the Nationals make the wildcard would be a better sports story than Houston.

As I posted in the "Rants" section, I don't hate the Sox, and wouldn't mind them winning. If the Sox fans want to be poor sports about it, so be it. Doesn't affect me one way or the other.

Hearing from where?

I have no particular love for any other teams. If the White Sox win, that's cool. I won't root against them, but I'm not abandoning the Cubs for them either.

I know that he was probably the top divisional prospect for the White Sox prior to the Freddy Garcia trade. He was talked about in the same way we talk about Pie.

My divisional alignment has the Phils and Pirates in the NL East, so they would in fact be rivals.

That would never happen, mostly because it would eliminate geographical rivalries. I'm not sure I would want to watch a "free for all" league race.

You don't lose any playoff berths with this format, so what's the big deal with losing the wildcard? I know it would mean an either/or situation with the Cubs and Cardinals, but that is bound to happen in the current system as well. I don't favor expanding the playoffs at all.

This team has inspired me for a new pic in my signature. Ah, how misery can elevate one's Photoshop skills to new heights...

How is that any different than all 5 NL East teams currently having better records than the NL West leading Padres?

Tim made mention (in another thread) of his desire to see the wildcard go away and move to an NFL-style 4 division format. The league would have to be expanded by 2 teams, then each of the 4 division winners in each league would enter the playoffs. The only way to get into the post season is to win your division. So, in our hypothetical world, how could this play out? Some facts: - The NL has 16 teams and the AL has 14. Either 2 teams need to be added to the AL, or a team has to move from the NL to the AL, then one expansion franchise added to each league. - The largest media markets without teams (from largest to smallest) are Sacramento, Orlando, Portland, Indianapolis, Hartford/New Haven and Charlotte. Some even smaller markets include New Orleans, Las Vegas and Nashville. - Arizona was "promised" that they could move to the AL at the first opportunity when they entered the league. They have always wanted to be in the AL (or did for a long time. Maybe they've grown accustomed to the NL West now). - The NFL's North/South/East/West divisional system is consistent and cool. The NHL's Northeast/Pacific/Slighty Southwest of North Central system is lame. Baseball is too steeped in tradition to move to an East/West league format like the NBA. So let's assume Arizona would move to the AL, and we go with an NFL style divisional format. I would place the teams like this: National League --------------- EAST ---- NY Mets Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates Washington Nationals NORTH ----- Chicago Cubs Milwaukee Brewers St. Louis Cardinals Cincinatti Reds WEST ---- Colorado Rockies LA Dodgers San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants SOUTH ----- Atlanta Braves Florida Marlins Houston Astros ?????? Yes, geographically you could put St. Louis in the south, but you would have to weigh whether the Houston/STL rivalry or the Chicago/STL rivalry was stronger. I vote for the latter. Some would argue about splitting ATL away from the Mets and Phillies, but they made the same argument when they took them out of the NL West. American League --------------- EAST ---- NY Yankees Boston Red Sox Baltimore Orioles Toronto Blue Jays NORTH ----- Chicago White Sox Detroit Tigers Cleveland Indians Minnesota Twins WEST ---- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Orange County, California Oakland A's Seattle Mariners Arizona Diamondbacks SOUTH ----- Texas Rangers Tampa Bay Devil Rays Kansas City Royals ?????? Here, the South is comprised of three teams from three different divisions plus an expansion team. Weird, but I don't think any of those teams have a strong enough rivalry with anyone to warrant anything but geographical placement. Now, since my divisional alignments both have holes in the South Divisions, we can eliminate Hartford/New Haven, Portland, Indianapolis and Sacramento from the running. New Orleans, Charlotte and Nashville are all small markets, but have proven that they can support multiple major sports franchises. Charlotte might suffer from being too close to the Baltimore/Washington teams, so we'll eliminate them. So then it's New Orleans or Nashville. I know Vegas would be a popular city for fans, but they just aren't big enough, and sports would always be secondary to the gambling/tourism in that town. Plus putting a sports franchise in the mecca of gambling probably isn't a great idea. So let's put New Orleans in the NL South and Nashville in the AL South and call it a league!

Hendry should have moved the vets when he had a chance. I'm curious, if Perez and Macias are so valuable why not see what worth they have in the open market? Maybe they can save another team from despair like they did the Cubs. I agree that Wood should get the surgery done ASAP so he will be ready for 2006. Interesting that you say that. I have read rumblings from different GMs around the league regarding moving the deadline back to Sept. 1st. The thought being there are still a lot of teams in the race at the current deadline, so there aren't many sellers. Meh. Don't push the deadline. Eliminate the wild card. Go to four divisions of four teams. Easier scheduling. You actually have to "win" something to reach the playoffs. The AL should add two teams to get to 16 and doing the same thing. I know, baseball revenues, blah, blah, blah. Put the extra teams in NY and LA and they'd do fine. And hopefully, they'd take enough revenues from the other teams there that it would level the playing field a bit. I'm going to start a new thread on this just because it has piqued my interest.

IMHO, all members of the NSBB community are important. I personally feel that message board communities tend to put too much stock in things such as post counts. A quality poster is a quality poster based on the quality posts, not the number of posts. Some of my favorite posters on this site have fewer than 2,000 posts, and many of that group have fewer than 1,000. I know, but sometimes it's fun to know where you stand. Maybe a "poster of the week" each week? *flashback of cubs.com* Oh god, you're right. Sorry I mentioned it. *shiver*

IMHO, all members of the NSBB community are important. I personally feel that message board communities tend to put too much stock in things such as post counts. A quality poster is a quality poster based on the quality posts, not the number of posts. Some of my favorite posters on this site have fewer than 2,000 posts, and many of that group have fewer than 1,000. I know, but sometimes it's fun to know where you stand. Maybe a "poster of the week" each week?

Well, that would put them at 8 straight losses, which would only help the cause for firing Dusty. You could make a case that their past 2 wins were not very legitimate too. If the Cubs dont come back from 1 down in the ninth vs. Arizona, and Ryan Dempster doesnt snap out of it against Philly, the Cubs have lost 10 in a row My investment in MLB Extra Innings looks more and more foolish each day.

Margin of error +/- 10%