SouthSideRyan

My only hope is Dusty does not try and sandwich Jones between them whatever order they bat. That would be bad. It was painful to watch him do it with Burnitz for 1/2 the year last year, but I'm strangely optimistic that he learned his lesson.

I disagree on the Lee/Ramirez point. Lee even if he doesn't come close to last year's numbers is going to have the better OBP so he should go in the 3 spot. Beyond that, I don't see Lee dropping off that much to make Ramirez the better hitter.

I wanna say everyone who's ever gotten that much % of the vote has made it in eventually. Dawson's got a lot of years left on the ballot, I think he makes it.

Didn't S. Florida just join I-A football a few years back? I don't see FAU or FIU as having more promise than an Arkansas St. just because they're in Florida. I don't see Baylor as having a more promising future just because they're in Texas. It seems like a stretch to give the spot to a team that may have some more potential in football, and is a far worse basketball program.

Bears, Steelers, Pats, Seahawks. I could easily see any team besides the Skins winning.

Ugh. Typical draft in that some of the players that turn out the best are drafted low. Ohman has made himself into a major league LOOGY, and Hinske won ROY. Poor Nate Frese, he was climbing the ladder nicely until he ripped up his legs. Patterson and Kelton though, colossal busts, and any draft where your 1st and 2nd rounders fail has to be considered a huge failure. Which is also why recent drafts look so painful as well. Bobby Brownlie? Ryan Harvey? Grant Johnson? Not exactly inspiring. I am however pumped about Pawelek from last year, hope for once the Cubs can keep a young pitcher healthy. Writing off Harvey and Johnson seems a bit premature.

New Rankings Conference Breakdown ACC: #1(Duke), #15(BC), #18(NC St.), #20(NC), #23(MD) SEC: #2(FL) Big East: #3(Nova), #4(UConn), #10(Louisville), #12(Pitt), #16(West VA), #25(Cincy) C-USA: #5 (Memphis) West Coast: #6 (Gonzaga) Big 10: #7 (Illinois), #9 (Indiana), #14(MSU), #19 (Ohio St.), #21 (Wisc.) Big 12: #8 (Texas), #22 (OK) PAC 10: #11 (UCLA), #13 (Wash), #24(AZ) A-10: #17 (GW) I hadn't realized just how down the SEC and Big 12 were until looking that over. Newest Bracketology has 8 Big East: (Nova, UConn, Louisville, Pitt, West VA, Cincy, Syracuse, Marquette) 7 Big 10: (Illinois, MSU, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio St., Michigan, Iowa) 6 ACC: (Duke, NC St., UNC, Maryland, Wake, BC) 4 Big 12: (Texas, OK, Colorado, Iowa St.) 4 Pac 10: (Washington, Washington St., AZ, UCLA) 4 SEC: (FL, Kentucky, Vandy, Tennesee) 3 C-USA: (Memphis, Houston, UAB) 3 MVC: (Creighton, N. Iowa, SIU) 2 A-10: (GW, Xavier) 2 Mountain West: (Air Force, Colorado St.) 2 WAC: (Nevada, Hawaii) EDIT: Question regarding the Big East, why in the hell was S. Florida chosen instead of Memphis? I can't imagine it was academics, nor does geography really make much sense considering Louisville was already joining, and S. Florida is way further south than any other school in the Big East. Memphis's football program is also far superior to S. Florida's.

BUT HE WAS A FAST BLACK CENTER FIELDER!!

I've heard this several times about Walker, and the relationship is flimsy at best IMO. Grudz is on his 4th team in 5 years, and he had some collusion complaints when he left Chicago(worse than Walker's comments IMO), and no one refers to him as a malcontent who nobody wants despite him ending up in KC. Why is that? Reggie Sanders is a troublemaker!!

You may see it that way, I see it as "Because he's survived Dusty Baker for two full years. Bash the guy if you want, but I hate the way this Cpatt situation has played out. That was sarcasm.

WHY WHY WHY is Hendry obsessed with getting marginal improvements. Keep working on that #5 starter! Work on the 70 innings per bullpen arm!! Work on the 150 ABs per bench guy!!! RF??? Pshaw!!

Wouldn't forfeits be more entertaining? i would actually go to that. ESPECIALLY if they announced it on campus but somehow kept it a secret to the other team. id love to see the other team's reaction when we sent the waterboy over to the other sideline to tell them. Wonder if they'd still be out at COs after that the way they are after losing by 50.

Iowa.

Not very hard.

And down goes #11 BC.

Soriano in Texas 280/324/484 268/309/512 Patterson has put up 298/329/511 266/320/452 in years past. He already has put up numbers close to what Soriano has done. all in a more pitcher friendly park.

Have you looked at Soriano's #s in Texas? They're nothing special.

Because he's a full 2 years removed from putting up those numbers in Wrigley...

And #11 BC down at the half. And Indiana should definitely jump all those teams you mentioned Raw. Especially consideirng how bad Washington's loss was.

It's gonna be interesting when the rankings come out. #s 2,3,4,6,7(twice), 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 18, 21, 23 all went down this week. I can't ever remember a week where 7 of the top 10 teams went down. The tourney's gonna be real crapshoot.

Wouldn't forfeits be more entertaining?

Rich McBride cannot touch Warren Carter when it comes to awfulness. Somebody remind me to plant some drugs or underage girls on him when I go back to Champaign. He's approaching Nick Smith level for me.

10 seasons as an Expo, 6 as a Cub. It's possible he could make it as a Cub because of the MVP, but yeah I think he'd go in (and should be) as an Expo.

It's still winter break, that's why Assembly wasn't as loud IMO. Musberger is a human wasteland. Musburger sucks. AH just isn't that loud. Compared to the old chicago stadium at least. I was listening to the Illinois vs Arizona game from last year. The ILL-INI during one of the timeouts was amazing. It was crystal clear and so loud. Man, I wish I was at that game. I was there :) It was incredible. I remember thinkign just about that same thing during the timeout, about how incredibly loud the ILL-INI chant was.

I'll go off the board and say Brian Randle. That guy is probably the most gifted player we have and he's showing he's just not ready for big time basketball yet, even though he should be. I know he missed last year, but it's amazing how his easily his confidence can get shaken. I love Augustine, but once again he's decided not to show up for a big game. Yeah but Randle can actually play defense. OT somewhat, but it sure is great that my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th favorite sports teams are the most popular topic in their respective sports' threads.