UMFan83

Neil Rackers is just awesome

Nobody did, I don't recall anyone having a ton of interest in Brees when he was a FA. I think a lot of people attributed his numbers to LT, Gates, Schottenhimer, etc. If Brees was an unrestricted FA after this season and the Saints made it known he wasn't coming back, I would think it would be the biggest story in sports before he signed somewhere. How many times in the history of this league has a QB of Brees caliber been an unrestricted FA with his previous team making no effort to resign him?

Look at the top teams in hockey. NJ has a 16-6 (72%) road record, Pittsburgh has a 16-10 (62%) road record, Buffalo 13-6 (68%), San Jose 16-8 (67%). The Hawks were 11-9 (55%) when I made the comment, thats a worse road record than 4 of the other 5 division leaders (and the one division leader that's worse has a 54% winning%) and 6th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference, including below 2 teams in their own division (Nashville and St. Louis). So yeah, for a team that is tied for the most points in hockey, having a road winning percentage that is 6th in their conference and 10th in the league is struggling in my mind. They are a great team but the reason right now that they are tied for the most points in hockey is largely because of how well they've played at home and the fact that they've played 6 more home games than road games so far this year. That said, I have all the confidence in the world that the Hawks can and will play better on the road. Edit: Oh and the reason I simplify records by putting OTLs in with the losses is because I think the most important way to evaluate and compare the records is with winning %. I'm not concerned with whether the Hawks got an extra point because they lost a crapshoot shootout, I am concerned with how the Hawks do in the 60 minutes beforehand to pull away from their opponent on the road. Either they win the game or lose it is all I care about in my opinion, the extra points for a OTL are just a bonus in my book.

So all the idiot "experts" who gave up on the Saints despite scoring the 9th most points in NFL history this year because they lost 1 game and then pretty much didn't have anything to play for in the last 2. Meanwhile the Cardinals give up 45 points on defense last week and everyone picks them to win. Experts are dumb.

11-10 on the road if they lose this one isn't struggling considering their overall record? well for starters, their record woudn't have been 11-10. and no, 11-6-3 is far from struggling. they're good on the road and amazing at home 11 wins in 20 games is mediocre and and most would agree. it's one of the better road records in the conference, but whatever you say. above average record = struggling? Yeah when you are a team contending for a Presidents Trophy they need to do better on the road as I've seen several "experts" point out about the Hawks.

no they dont 11-10 on the road if they lose this one isn't struggling considering their overall record? well for starters, their record woudn't have been 11-10. and no, 11-6-3 is far from struggling. they're good on the road and amazing at home 11 wins in 20 games is mediocre and and most would agree.

:yahoo: Man, it's depressing I'm celebrating their, probably, lone win in the B10. phew. I couldn't remember if Michigan played today or not so when I saw your post I assumed the worst. Thank God we didn't lose to Iowa (no offense)

:yahoo: Man, it's depressing I'm celebrating their, probably, lone win in the B10. phew. I couldn't remember if Michigan played today or not so when I saw your post I assumed the worst. Thank God we didn't lose to Iowa (no offense)

no they dont 11-10 on the road if they lose this one isn't struggling considering their overall record?

Huets a stud! More importantly this team struggles on the road.

Watch him lose so much weight that he has no power this year.

His last healthy season he hit .286/.353/.460/.813 with 21 HRs. Some team will sign him. He typically hit's lefties much better in his career (even his last 2 horrible years he put up .768 and .817 OPS against lefties) and would be a defensive upgrade. If we could get him playing RF for minimum salary and platooning with Fukudome, it wouldn't be the worst option. It certainly wouldn't be the best option either. If there are 10 options Byrnes would be like 6th assuming the other options are the names we've heard floating around. High risk/slightly above medium reward. Sounds sexy doesn't it?

They seem to have been pretty content to wait the past few years when they started playing better. They should have added Gasol a few years ago, but fell in love with their own roster. They were linked with Amar'e and Garnett at one point too. If a trade is going to obviously improve the team they're going to do it. Sometimes deals just fall through. Yeah, teams often overrate their own guys, but the only big deal we've heard rumored this year is for Bush and it's pretty hard to imagine they'd turn it down along the lines that have been discussed unless Toronto is asking for the moon. If LA is going to give them Bynum, I can't imagine Toronto getting a better return than that. Coupled with the fact that the Raptors pretty much know he's gone, I have a strong feeling that deal will go down if it is, in fact, being discussed. Man, that would make for a ridiculously scary LA team. I'd instantly put a lot of money on the Lakers winning the championship if it does. that's a virtual all star team if that happened. I don't know the other pieces but if they could get Bosh and keep Gasol, Kobe, Artest and Odom wow. Fisher Bryant Arest Bosh Gasol 6th man: Odom They might want to make a run at Chris Paul just to shore up that shaky PG position.

Good news...with the Hawks win tonight coupled with losses by New Jersey and San Jose (SO), for the first time that I can remember the Hawks have a slight edge over NJ for most Points Per Game in the league. They are also slightly ahead of NJ for least goals allowed per game, and tied for 2nd in the league in goals scored (although 16 goals behind Washington for 1st). As expected they are +14 ahead of Washington in goal differential so they pretty much own that category.

You are right..the closest is Denver who has beaten Atlanta, Cleveland and Orlando (actually are 3-1 against those teams) but has not yet played Boston. Orlando is the closest top 4 team to beat the other 3 teams, they have beaten Boston and Atlanta, but are 0-1 vs. Cleveland.

Good to see that we can still beat Boston without Garnett (and Wallace). They are such a mediocre team without Garnett in there...he's the difference maker for them.

Man we keep taking good shots and getting nothing from it.

The team looks sloppy tonight. Passes aren't on target, players aren't showing as much speed as they do in the past, etc.

And you can't completely use the success argument with Brady too. True Brady has been to 4 Super Bowls and won 3, but Warner's 3 Super Bowls and 1 win isn't horrible either, especially when you consider that 2 of those Super Bowl appearances were on worst-to-first teams.

An abridged list of Free Agents still out there: Erik Bedard Jon Garland Vicente Padilla Ben Sheets John Smoltz Jarrod Washburn Chien-Ming Wang Joe Beimel Kiko Calero Octavio Dotel Jose Valverde David Weathers Bengie Molina Yorvit Torrealba Hank Blalock Russell Branyan Carlos Delgado Nomar Garciaparra Adam LaRoche Jim Thome Chad Tracy Dmitri Young Ronnie Belliard Orlando Hudson Felipe Lopez Joe Crede Melvin Mora Orlando Cabrera Miguel Tejada Garret Anderson Johnny Damon Jonny Gomes Rick Ankiel Rocco Baldelli Frank Catalanotto Brian Giles Jermaine Dye Xavier Nady Randy Winn Matt Stairs

Semi-good news for those that want Calero:

This is the answer. There wouldn't have been enough room for the FIFA reg'd field dimensions, signage and photogs. In 1994 FIFA let us cut corners on the stadia for the sake of market penetration. No reason to do it this time. Also, the fact that the Park District was considering putting field turf onto the surface, and I can see why we were left out. KC was added due to Lamar Hunt's lingering influence on the USSF. I can't see why. This wasn't the final cuts or anything. Give Chicago time to get their crap together after the Olympics and see if our leaders can figure something out that would work for FIFA. If it can't, then drop them later in the process. Chicago has been pretty good to the USOC over the years in terms of hosting well attended soccer matches, and it's also the nation's 3rd largest city and former host of the World Cup opening ceremonies, so I feel like it deserves a little leeway considering the city just got screwed over for the Olympics. I can't believe they would hold a World Cup on US soil and not include one of the largest and most important cities in the country.

As the Hawks remain idle, other teams are making up ground. The Devils won in OT and are now 1 point behind the Hawks for most points in the league, with 2 games in hand on Chicago. Nashville is about to win again, and should they will be 7 points behind the Hawks in the Central. The Sharks are about to win again, and assuming they do will be 1 point ahead of the Hawks for #1 seed in the West, with the Hawks having a game in hand on SJ. Nothing to be concerned over. The Hawks are probably not going to pull away from SJ so it's gonna be a dog fight all the way. Nashville still isn't much to be scared over, up 7 points in a game in hand. NJ just keeps winning, and while it'd be nice to get a trophy, the President's Cup is not one of our season goals. Still worth following though while the Hawks have 3 days off.

This is a great start: It's funny how against this contract I was when it was handed out in 2006. I hated Soriano as a player and I knew what a big mistake we made when we signed him. That said, I actually feel like I completely underestimated how bad this contract would be at the time, if that makes any sense. I went from thinking it was a horrible contract that will slightly hurt the team long term and be a thorn in our side, to knowing that it's a deal that gigantically hinders the Cubs long term. Seriously, imagine if we don't sign that contract in 06. It's hard to say what would happen. Does Ted Lilly sign with the Cubs? Do we win the Central in 07-08? I don't know but we'd be in a much better situation right now. Ahh who am I kidding, we would have wasted the money on someone else.

The stupid stadium capacity always works against us. I'm satisfied with the renovated Soldier Field from a Bears standpoint, but in terms of having a stadium equipped to host a multitude of international events, it sucks. The Olympic plan would have been much easier if Soldier Field was built to accommodate an Olympic Opening ceremony, and now this goes against us partially because of the stadium size. Again, I love Soldier Field for football. It's small, and somewhat intimate for football at least. The seats are over the field for the most part, the luxury box crowd is accommodated and best of all the sound travels pretty well there compared to some other cavernous stadiums in the NFL. But seeing as how the city built this park, it surprises me that they didn't concern themselves with Soldier Field being a multi-use facility, or at least more of one than it is.