SouthSideRyan

Illinois's football rivals are Northwestern and I guess IU?(I dunno maybe Wisconsin? Iowa? Mizzou?) Regardless, we never go 10-2, and nobody cares about our rivalries so yeah. Notre Dame on the other hand loses to USC every year for the last billion years, and while losing to Michigan sucks, it doesn't suck as bad as that 3-9 season did.

I agree with the idea of going with an 11 man staff and rotating that last spot with guys who have options, there's just nobody that goes with 11 man staffs anymore.

Nilo, Gooz still has an option left thanks to roster shenaningans this year. I agree with CCP though, there's no way we go with a 11 man pen out of spring training.

Whither Jody Davis?

Is it an SEC crew? I'm not sure, it was basically a home game. After that minute stretch, things seemed back to normal, but the run of the foul on the 3 pointer, followed by the Tennesee player falling down on the rebound, to be followed by the technical was brutal. Tennessee should run away and hide with the SEC.

Banks? Obama? Jesse Jackson Jr? Banks's adopted son.

If you watched it last night, you wouldn't have even had to ask that question. Can't ask questions after you hang yourself. What does that mean? It's what I'd do after being forced to watch Big Bang Theory.

This has been a pretty horrible stretch of homer officiating.

If you watched it last night, you wouldn't have even had to ask that question. Can't ask questions after you hang yourself.

Is this today's fantasy sports thread?

Yes, but how does this relate to the Big Bang Theory on CBS?

Seriously, Gathright is a horrendous hitter. Even so, 800K is a drop in the bucket for an above average baserunner/great defender. It's ~400K more than the minimum. I think he's safely 400K better than Sam Fuld. If he's on the team at the expense of Pie going to AAA or traded for scraps, I'm gonna be pretty pissed.

I also agree that we should sign Morneau to be our starting RF. Also: Roast for mod.

You showed Abreu and Gathright to be similar players in terms of value, yet would rather pay Gathright at 10M per year more. Does that make any less sense than preferring to pay Abreu 10M more? Especially when you consider their ages? You said you'd rather sign Gathright at Abreu's price than Abreu at Gathright's price. i.e. Gathright @ 10M > Abreu @ 800K Do we really think that Abreu signs a one-year deal? Fine you'd prefer Gathright at 3Y/30M to Abreu at 1Y/800K??

You showed Abreu and Gathright to be similar players in terms of value, yet would rather pay Gathright at 10M per year more. Does that make any less sense than preferring to pay Abreu 10M more? Especially when you consider their ages? You said you'd rather sign Gathright at Abreu's price than Abreu at Gathright's price. i.e. Gathright @ 10M > Abreu @ 800K

You showed Abreu and Gathright to be similar players in terms of value, yet would rather pay Gathright at 10M per year more.

That Savannah St. game is killing me.

I couldn't possibly disagree with this more. Devaluing BA to the point of nothingness is just plain stupid. But hey, maybe we can just walk our way around the bases all day, that'd be fun. Batting average has its merits, but not on its own. Take this for example: Both Dunn and Justin Morneau have 10 at bats with a runner on third (completely hypothetical). In 5 of those 10, Dunn hits a home run. The other five he strikes out. Morneau, on the other hand, hits a single in 8 of those 10 ABs. The other two he strikes out. In this example, Dunn has a batting average of .500 and Morneau has a BA of .800. Who is more productive solely on that stat? Morneau. Problem is, Dunn actually created 10 runs, whereas Morneau created just 8 - therefore Dunn truly was more productive even with the lower batting average. That's why it's extremely important to not just look at how often a player gets a hit (what batting average shows), but what kind of hits those are (what slugging percentage and OPS show). When somebody can start including all variables in stats, I'll listen. Until then, what? You'll account for no variables and trust your eyes?

I guess I just take issue with the fact that you guys here seem to think that GMs, people who get paid millions of dollars for their expertise and have moved up through a system of professionals, are wrong and you're right. That they undervalue a guy like Adam Dunn and you have the correct value figured out. Did you ever stop to think that maybe it's not the GMs undervaluing Dunn, but you guys over valuing Dunn? Just stop and think about it as a possibility for a second. using the "gms know better because they are gms" argument is a copout. what about when sabean gave zito 126 million? what about 2/40 for andruw jones? 5/50 for gary matthews jr? 5/50 for juan pierre? 8/126 for soriano? do you agree with all those contracts? you have to, because you just said we can't question gms' intelligence Yes or no, you know better then an average baseball GM? Who said that we did? B/c they know more than me. Yes or no, have you agreed with every move the cubs have ever made? No. But I'm man enough to admit that I'm not in the position to say they were wrong... at least until hindsight. It doesn't take hindsight to call baseball lifer Ned Coletti a buffoon for signing Pierre to a 5 year contract. It doesn't take hindsight to call worked his way up through the system Dave Littlefield a drooling moron for trading for Matt Morris. Did Nate Baliva get b& or something and have to re-register?

i don't really understand why the predictor is all about northwestern, since they've beaten a bunch of cream puffs and florida state, plus they played butler close (but b/c they play such a slow style, they're gonna play a lot of teams close, good and bad). amusingly, it has northwestern winning the next 20 games in a row (or at least more likely than not to win each game). But they didn't play those bad teams close. A double digit win at NU's pace is essentially a blow out. Losing that close one to Butler on the road is huge. I(and probably everybody else anywhere, including Pomeroy himself) am not as high on Northwestern as the predictor, but I like them for an NIT berth this year. Have some optimism, they look impressive. I know you don't want to get your hopes up, but I think the Tourney is at least a decent shot (35%?) Err, I'm not a Northwestern fan. I don't dislike them, and it'd be cool to see them make the tourney, but it's no skin off my back if they don't. Top of my head, I'd put them at ~16-13/17-12 heading into the Big Ten tourney.

Yeah he definitely doesn't usually post a good OBP. He's a speed goof.

Wasn't Hoke a darkhorse for Michigan? And Michigan's a much better job than Auburn.

Buffalo was one of the worst programs in D1 when Gill took over. Now they're bowling. What do you expect from the guy?

i don't really understand why the predictor is all about northwestern, since they've beaten a bunch of cream puffs and florida state, plus they played butler close (but b/c they play such a slow style, they're gonna play a lot of teams close, good and bad). amusingly, it has northwestern winning the next 20 games in a row (or at least more likely than not to win each game). But they didn't play those bad teams close. A double digit win at NU's pace is essentially a blow out. Losing that close one to Butler on the road is huge. I(and probably everybody else anywhere, including Pomeroy himself) am not as high on Northwestern as the predictor, but I like them for an NIT berth this year.

They wouldn't be undefeated, but he's giving Georgetown a 17% chance to finish off the season without a loss. To those not familiar with these, (as is the case with most projections) it's important to note the role sample size plays here, and not to put a ton of stock into these at this point. It's still fun though. ETA: Holy crap Zags: 76%! Edit again, nevermind those are in conference play. Still a 17% chance at undefeated in the Big East is damn impressive. Pomeroy thinks the WCC sucks.