UMFan83

I think that wins should be a novelty stat that is simply a representation of a team's record when that starter starts. So whether you pitch 0.1 innings and get ejected for throwing at someone with a 5-0 lead, or pitch 12 innings and give up 1 run and lose, you deal with the consequences. What is the point of relievers getting wins and losses? Does any care that Carlos Marmol went 2-4 last year, or do they care about his ERA, WHIP, K/9, BB, etc.? I would only approve of this change if everyone whose anyone in baseball agreed to not place one iota of importance on wins and losses as it pertains to a pitcher's worth. I am pretty sure that people in hockey could care less about W-L for a goalie, and a goalie's W-L might be more indicative of a goalie's value than a pitcher's value (although still with significant flaws). If this was the case, here is how our starter's W-L would be last year Zambrano 18-10 (really 9-7) Harden 13-13 (9-9) Dempster 13-18 (11-9) Wells 14-13 (12-10) Lilly 16-11 (12-9) Marshall 2-7 (2-5) Gorzelanny 4-3 (4-2) Hart 3-1 (3-1) Samardzija 0-2 (0-2)

What do you mean give him a chance? None of us are going to prevent him from playing. But the guy sucks. There's no good reason to give guys a clean slate when they have a track record that tells you how much of a disaster they are. I might, but keep it on the dl in case I pull it off.

From what I heard the Mariners had no interest in taking Bradley until the Lee trade came about. Now they are more willing to take him aboard since they expect him to be another piece to help them contend. If that makes sense.

I can just see a phone call being made from Hendry to Byrd: "Hey Marlon, hows it going? Oh man I got some good news for you. Do me a favor and don't sign that contract I faxed you yet, I got $6 million more to throw on there!"

Seriously look at the comments in this blog entry. I would kill to be this ecstatic at the prospects of my team and GM: http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2009/12/18/1207452/quick-thoughts-on-the-bradley#comments

Meanwhile, Lookout Landing is ecstatic about this trade. It is funny to see them say things like "We can fix him" and "We have a tight knit clubhouse that can handle a malcontent". Soon it will be "He's saying all the right things, I think he really wants to fit in here"

This trade is fun bad. Like I am actually enjoying being this riled up about something.

Seriously...Taj really is a poor man's Tyrus Thomas with probably less athleticism. I was really looking forward to seeing what Tyrus had in store this year. If you remember, he had a period the second half of last year where he really came on strong. A lot of people forget that. I was hoping he'd improve on that this year and finally prove he's a decent player and one worth resigning, although that ship may have sailed who knows.

Thank you for not saying Super Bowl XLI and making me relive the pain. Actually maybe I'd have rather you said that game cause at least then the game would have been closer.

And that same site lists the Bears o-line as 26th/32. There are problems all over the field. I have the opinion that a good offensive line can make receivers better than good receivers can make an offensive line.

Sweet, DePaul lost at home to American tonight, who is rated 335th out of 347 in D1 RPI. This might be the worst loss in DePaul history.

He's not going to take Mike Fontenot and turn him into Chase Utley or anything, but I think he will help with the hitter's consistency, quickly finding flaws in their swings and adjusting it before it turns into a prolonged slump. Will be interesting to see what he can do with Soriano and Fukudome, 2 hitters that have been known to fall badly away from their swing mechanics from time to time.

That was the first thing that popped into my head after hearing about this. Between their coordinator's wife and this, there is a lot of outside forces working with the Bengals this year.

I did notice that... I bet you the PP scoreboard was malfunctioning or something. They do that in the NBA when the shot clock is down.

Nice productive 1st period. I thought the Blues started out strong, and then about 8 minutes in the Hawks just took over and were able to get on the board a couple times. And hey look our offensive minded defenseman finally scored a goal

They are saying he fell out of the back of the truck during a domestic dispute?? Edit:

OMG. I'll pray for Chris Henry. Hope he makes it.

"My school is a better party school than yours" is one of the dumbest arguments around. Every Big Ten school save Northwestern has a great party scene. Whether it be bars, house parties, frats or a combo, you go to any of those 10 schools and you're gonna find yourself a great time.

That's what they said? They did mention it was won in penalties.

Yeah I honestly don't know if the Big Ten would even consider Chicago for a title game location. Not only because of the weather factor, but also because the capacity of Soldier Field is so small (smallest venue in the NFL IIRC). As much as I'd absolutely love it here, I don't know if they'd do it.

I can't think of one. And I agree. A lot of people said that about Penn State but that turned out well. Trouble is they shouldn't add a school like Missouri. Penn State football was a huge addition. Syracuse basketball and Notre Dame football are the only additions that will mean anything to the conference. Exactly. If Notre Dame were willing to come I would be all for it. Adding Rutgers or Mizzou doesn't really do much besides get you a football championship game. Yeah there's the NY/NJ market (and to a lesser extent KC/STL) but do they really care that much? Let's just drop Northwestern and have a round robin schedule in football and basketball. Adding Rutgers for the NYC market is like the Big East adding DePaul for the Chicago market. If hardly anyone cares, do you really gain anything?

I disagree for one reason: He won't end up a value because Hendry always overpays for his man.

Looking at Byrd's stats he doesn't look that bad. .800+ OPS for the last three years at CF? I would take that. Sure he wouldn't be a huge upgrade over Bradley, but considering defense and the fact that Fukudome would move back to RF, I wouldn't be against signing him for a reasonable contract. What makes you think he's gonna have an .800+ OPS outside of Arlington? And crossing into his mid-30's?

You enjoyed "the ride"? If the Bulls' decade was a cross-country car ride, it would have started with you driving your 1993 Ford Taurus 70 mph into a concrete barrier just outside Philadelphia. After getting a rental car, you would have sputtered along at 24 mph across I-70 until you again crashed, this time slowly into an oak tree off the side of a residential street in Columbus, Ohio. After getting another rental car, you then would drive without incident (except for that pretty decent cheeseburger you ate in Tulsa) until you reached Albuquerque, when you would hit a family of deer, killing a baby doe and leaving yourself stranded on the side of the road for 19 hours until you were forced to hitch-hike to Los Angeles with a sketchy, probably felonious trucker. After he drops you off near Skid Row, you go to bed, finally at your destination, only to wake up in the middle of the night feeling sick. You are rushed to the hospital, diagnosed with H1N1 and spend two days on a ventilator before breathing again on your own. Your ride is now complete. What a trip! That was a pretty entertaining read, but I still don't agree with you. It's perfectly logical to base your memories of something on the end result, I just don't look at it that way. A few of my favorite sports memories of the decade include the Cubs trading for Nomar (ended up not making playoffs, Nomar was mediocre at best), Barrett hitting a grand slam to beat the Cardinals on SNB (Cubs lost 97 games that year, Cardinals won WS), and the Bulls winning a 3OT Game 6 against the Celtics (Bulls lost Game 7). Just because what happened after the event sucked doesn't mean the feeling at the moment wasn't memorable. Of course the whole argument is based on a disagreement of the term "decade to forget". If your saying the decade sucked because we got nowhere as a franchise, I'd agree wholeheartedly. And would I give up those memories to redo the decade over and be a title contender all the time? Of course. But it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the decade as it was happening at the times that were good and had promise.

Yeah, this was ridiculous. My dad wasn't able to watch and I must have texted him 5 or 6 different times that the game was over one way or the other. That game was probably more exciting than any Jordan era Bulls game I can remember, and I lived and died with those teams. If Syracuse/UConn, as a Big East tourney game can be on there, why not that game?