UMFan83

You were all waiting for this. ESPN's POWER RANKINGS ARE OUT!!! http://espn.go.com/nfl/powerrankings/_/year/2011/week/2 Rant contained in spoiler tags due to space considerations.

I remember my 13 year old self going through UMFanesque bouts of despair when MRob was snubbed for the 1999 pro bowl team. I thought he wasn't in the game because he had Phantom of the Opera tickets instead.

Why are violent crimes always being committed in famous people's houses but the famous person is convinently never involved?

Have you been watching the last 7-8 years?

And the main reason Sosa "learned to take walks" is because he started hitting 60 HRs a year. As soon as he started declining, he quickly reverted back into all or nothing Sammy.

Figure up mine. I can't multi-task today. 11-5 SSR went 8-8...fine bounceback after a horrific 2-7 start

Nope. If this was a different organization I'd probably be cheering for it just for the fun of it. But I don't like having a guy with patience issues trying to get to an arbitrary number of hits by year end. Production isn't about a specific number of hits and Castro still has a lot of learning to do. But oh well, he's good enough to not get screwed up by it. He's probably good enough not to get screwed up by it. Still, it makes me nervous that he's taken exactly 2 walks in September. 2 walks is pretty much on pace with the rest of his season. It's his 3rd highest walk rate of the 6 months. And September is his lowest strikeout rate of the season. You would hope that, as a 21-year-old develops, his September walk rate would be the best of the season. You would also hope that, whatever his K rate, his walk rate wouldn't be so abysmal. I'm not crapping on Castro - I can't wait to watch the next 10 years - but I am crapping on the idea that, if he gets to 200 hits, it's a particularly huge achievement. ... especially since he leads the league in at bats. I'd be far more impressed if/when he one day puts together a .400 OBP season. Yeah...a .400 season is not gonna happen unless he starts hitting 30+ homers annually (i guess not completely out of the realm of possibility)

12-4, not bad.

Pittsburgh Buffalo Washington Tampa Bay New York Jets New Orleans Green Bay Tennessee Detroit Indianapolis Dallas Cincinnati New England Miami Atlanta St. Louis

In Tennessee with everyone now overhyping the Ravens? I dunno about that. Seems like the Ravens coaches spent all summer creating the perfect gameplan to beat the Steelers..

Am I the only one that doesn't see 200 hits as a very special achievement? I mean by itself it seems cool because not many people get to 200 hits on a regular basis. But unless you are hitting .340, reaching 200 hits means that you are probably hitting 1st or 2nd most of the year and likely not walking adequately. Here is a list of 200 hit players since 2000. There are obviously some really good players, and some very mediocre players as well Jose Vidro Freddy Sanchez Placido Polanco Vladamir Guerrero (3) Robinson Cano (2) Adrian Beltre Michael Young (5) Jack Wilson Alex Rodriguez (3) Derek Jeter (5) Garret Anderson Shannon Stewart Juan Pierre (4) Chase Utley Miguel Tejada (3) Ryan Braun Bernie Williams Jose Reyes Mike Sweeney Ichiro Suzuki (10) Bret Boone Rich Aurillia Mark Loretta Alfonso Soriano Todd Helton (2) Jimmy Rollins Hanley Ramirez Albert Pujols Dustin Pedroia Johnny Damon Vernon Wells Magglio Ordonez Matt Holliday Darren Erstad

Yeah we discussed this a couple of pages ago. He apologized about 10 minutes later on the air. I think it's stupid if anyone is offended for saything sh!t during a football game.

Don't remind me. That sucked. CLEARLY YOU MADE UP FOR IT

Awesome, Janikowski ties the NFL record with a 63 yard FG right before the half. They showed pregame footage of him hitting from 70 yards out.

Didn't hurt things except for 80% of kickoffs were touchbacks, whereas about 25% were in an average week last year.

It was 8 and 5. That's what I get for trusting a random comment on facebook

Geez...somehow Chad Henne outscored Drew Brees in fantasy this week....and Brees scored 42 points on 419 yards passing and 3 TDs

lol Mark Anderson with the sack.

I could have sworn I heard Gruden say "Sh_t set your feet and throw right there" earlier, but maybe it was Jaws. http://www.businessinsider.com/ron-jaworski-swearing-monday-night-football-2011-9 I cant believe i already found a video of it

I really hope that Castro can hit at least 1 more HR this year. Really want him to reach double digits.

How's this for awesome? Apparently there were 6 fumbles in the Lions-Bucs game, with 5 of them recovered by the Lions.

I love that there is a moral to this trivia game. Fine work.

Grossman as a rookie played in like 3 games at the end of the year. I think he did have one decent game though. Not sure it makes the cut though.

I would love that. Even if we miss out on Epstein, this means Ricketts is ready to spend. I'm sure he knows that if Epstein were to jump ship, it wouldnt be to spend 4-5 years building a team, it would be to build a winner in the next year or 2. Probably similar to the '06/'07 offseason with better decisions. And I wonder how much resistance that the Red Sox would even put up. They already have a team built to win now and the next several years, and if Epstein left town, they already have his heir apparent in Cherington. Even if he wasn't their guy, they'd still have their pick of the litter to replace him. Damn you not so cautious optimism. Good points Well some say that Epstein is leaking interest in the Cubs as leverage to get a new contract, so it will be interesting to see what happens if the Red Sox call his bluff. He may not have legitimate interest in the Cubs but if the Red Sox basically tell him they are going with Cherington, he'll have no choice. Doubt it would actually go down that way, but if Epstein plays his cards the wrong way, it wouldn't shock me. I'd have to think that Epstein is at the point where the glory of ending 2 of baseballs 3 biggest title droughts(Kenny Williams already ended #2) would be more important than the money, especially if the amounts are similar. We absolutely don't know that for sure though. Don't forget that Theo is from NE and grew up dreaming of working for the Red Sox. He's also only 37 years old, so he isn't necessarily thinking of his legacy at this point. No one really knows his true intentions at this point. While it is likely that he would be intregued by the opportunity to get the Cubs a World Series ring, it almost might not be his priority at the moment.

THE BREAKS JUST KEEP COMING! Teams just randomly start dropping the football when they play the Bears. How can one team get so damn lucky? Are you purposely being obtuse here, or do you really not understand the difference between causing fumbles and recovering fumbles? Fumble recovery percentage last year: http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/fumble-recovery-pct remember last year when the redskins fumbled like 8 times against us and recovered every single one of them? Well to be fair. Cutler's favorite target that day was on the other team too. That game was about more than fumbles. This reminds me. How can Lovie challenge a play yesterday that AT WORST gives them a 1st and goal from the 1, and not challenge a goalline fumble against Washington last year that would have been overturned into a probable game winning TD? IIRC Lovie already lost a challenge in the game and his excuse was that he didnt want to be out of challenges for the rest of the game. Also that he thought his defense could get the ball back in Skins territory because the Skins were pinned on the goal line.