SouthSideRyan

UCLA will lose like 2 games all (regular) season.

Nobody's getting Bedard. People don't realize just how good a season he had. He's near untouchable. I'm becoming convinced we wind up with Tejada though.

I too will have the pleasure of missing most of U of I's games due to BTN/Comcast. The recruiting gets from the past 2 weeks have me excited again after I was way down on things. I really think Frazier and Randle will be much improved this year. I'm counting on DMac to add some scoring, cause we're gonna struggle to break 60 without him and Alexander adding some offensive punch.

Alex Rodriguez assuming he can still play a competent SS.

Whoops missed MSU and UCLA/MD on there somehow. Pretty sure you'll lose one of those.

Hart was a PTBNL for the sake of not having to protect him in Rule 5. I think Harben was viewed as a pleasant surprise in return for Nevin last year. I think a couple people were happy to get Eric Eckenstahler as a PTBNL for Felix Sanchez. This are really exceptions though, as you can't expect much of an impact guy as a PTBNL. Especially in return for Cesar Izturis, after Pittsburgh fired their braindead GM.

You'd lose a lot of games with those guys in the field. You'd win more than enough to cover the gap with their performance at the plate. Depends on what he means by "lots"

You'd lose a lot of games with those guys in the field. There's a lot more to effective defense than speed. Positioning, good routes, good glove work, throwing arm strength, and reaction time are pretty integral to good defense, too. Speed helps, sure, but it's not the most important facet of the game. Perhaps I'm stereotyping but can you recall any slow guy who primarily walked and hit HRs who was good defensively anywhere up the middle? Maybe it'd work for catcher, but usually the tradeoff to big slow lumbering Three True Outcome guys is that they're barely passable in 1B/RF.

how about PENN STATE??? are YOU in? Nittany Lion Basketball: We have JuCo Transfers! Nittany Lion Basketball: Hey we play good teams like Illinois and Ohio State! Come see their talented players! And this is the nicest thing that will be said about U of I basketball in this thread over the next couple of months. At which point some IU fan will get under illiniguy's collar and he'll go off and we'll all have as much fun with IU/UI as we did last year. And you forgot Wilson Chandler Derwood. DePaul's gonna be in a world of hurt :( I think Illinois squeaks into the tourney again. (God help me I've got us 22-9 heading into the BTT) It'd be nice to not choke away a 10 point lead with 4 minutes left this time. There will be a bunch of hype surrounding the UI/Mizzou game on here. Missouri will be undefeated at the time and talking about how they'll finally snap the streak against a 3 loss Illini team. Illinois will up it's winning streak against Mizzou to 48 consecutive games. UI/IU #1 will be overexposed before their first matchup in Bloomington. Gordon will score 28 and IU wins by 11. IU fans around here get real obnoxious. IU/UI #2 will be overexposed before their 2nd matchup in Champaign. Chester Frazier holds Gordon to 13. Orange Krush plays their cell phone ringtones at every IU free throw, Gordon is booed every time he touches the ball. Illinois wins by 6. UI fans around here get real obnoxious. Shaun Pruitt is 1st team all Big 10. Randle 2nd team. Frazier 3rd. The Big 10 is wayyy down this year. You've got 4 at the top(OSU, MSU, IU, Wisky) 2 question marks in the middle (UI, PU), some teams that need a year(Minnesota, UM, PSU??), and dreck(Iowa, NU) I think the Big 10 gets 5 teams, and I think we're better than Purdue, to the point that we could slide in to the 4 spot. Oh and every talking head will talk about what a down year it is for the big 10 for the 19th consecutive season. At least one team will again make the Final 4, and it won't be IU.

No.

You'd lose a lot of games with those guys in the field.

A Braun/CF/LaPorta OF though. now that would be scary bad.

I was thinking the same thing, that Hendry already said thanks for your services, we wish you luck in your future endeavors.

I think Murton's lost enough value over the last few years that you can't expect too much in a trade. If he's not starting this year though, I say you gotta deal him.

http://www.nba.com/media/bulls/gray5_071011.jpg Jean Shorts. Must I smear further?

I usually like Hollinger, but those rankings look wacky.

If the Lakers could be talked down to that, the Bulls would be getting away with murder. and would have no center Well its a possibility that Wallace isnt starting at center on opening night. There have been reports Aaron Gray will start at center with Wallace at the 4. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Aaron Gray is only similar to Hawes in that he's tall, white, and has a bad haircut.(Actually just assuming Hawes has a bad haircut cause he's 7 feet tall) Aaron Gray shouldn't see a minute all year. He's brutal. I wasn't that enamored with Hawes, but I was determined to get a big, and Hawes was the best on the board IMO. It would've been hard for the Bulls to find 2 guys I hated more in the draft beyond Noah and Gray.

I don't know. But he can act like a tool and is ugly. Does that count? Acts like a tool, ugly, tall....if there's another requirement for being an NBA center, I don't know it. He's really quite ugly. He's lucky Hawes is injured right now or I'd probably be harping about how nice it would be to have a legit center right now. Then again I'm not the type to harp on who I think the Bulls should've drafted in place of who they actually took.

SS/RF/CF is the order of my priorities. I wouldn't be heart-broken to only upgrade one, but we need to upgrade one.

There's no way Rivera would sign a 1 year deal, and if he did for some reaosn, he'd be looking at about 18M

This is a huge pet peeve of mine when people reference OPS+ and then go on to talk about his ballpark. OPS+ includes a ballpark adjustment, saying he had an 87 OPS+ in Coors is redundant. An 87 OPS+ with good defense and good baserunning has gotta be at least average for a 2nd baseman.

I loved it. Couldn't think of 2 football teams whose irrelevance I'd enjoy more.

I love Illinois at -13.5

I hope Bruce writes another column where he subtly calls Rozner a douche.