Outshined_One

I think they're just screwing around out there. If this were the playoffs, they would have run the ball up the middle with Thomas Jones on third down with a FG attempt on 4th down.

Anyone else find it funny that the defensive starters look like they're going to make the backups' lives a living hell?

For an undrafted rookie, he's been pretty darn good. Looks like he got the wind knocked out of him or poked in the eye.

Refer to my stealth edits. :lol: ;)

NFL rules are that a coach cannot accept a lateral or demotional move from one team to another if he is already employed (i.e. a defensive coordinator from, say, the Chargers going to be defensive coordinator for the Vikings) without permission. This is why Ron Rivera is the defensive coordinator and not Tampa Bay defensive line coach Rob Marinelli, who was named Assistant Head Coach. So, Samurai is Assistant HC in San Francisco. He can't be hired to be a defensive coordinator since that would be a demotion from that post even though he is their LBs coach. If his contract were up in the offseason, this move would be possible. However, to my knowledge, it's not. I'm sure he'd love to come back to Chicago and coach, but that's not happening in the near future. He could get SF's permission, but they seem to like him enough to make him an Assistant HC and basically keep him under their control. Marinelli, on the other hand, does have his contract up at the end of this season. Good timing if Rivera gets hired to go be a HC somewhere.

Bring back Singletary? He's assistant HC, so at this point the only job he'll be getting is a head coach job. I think Lovie and company are just going to screw around out there today. See what works for future reference.

In other news, Marty Schottenheimer might be out in San Diego. That strikes me as a perfect fit for Ron Rivera. :(

The same goes for Joe Morgan.

It was in a chat with Jim Callis on ESPN. Not many people seem to know much of note about Ciaramella. Those who do know about him aren't very high on him. Here's hoping Jimbo knows something we don't.

Thanks for the corretion. I had postd in my earlier thread that each was one higher than that. Maybe we could still try and get him on the fast track and knock out two levels next year, Daytona and WestTenn. Always a possibility. Murton started out in Daytona when he came to the Cubs and didn't post much in terms of numbers worth mentioning. Then he went to West Tenn the next season and the rest is pretty much history. The similarities between the two are enough for me to keep an eye on Ciaramella, though. I'll see what the Red Sox people have to say about him...

Quick point of reference for people: GCL (Gulf Coast League) = Rookie Ball NYPL (New York-Penn League) = Short Season A SAL (South Atlantic League) = Low A Lowell is NYPL, Greenville is SAL. Ciaramella would be slated to start next season in Daytona, imo.

The Liberty Bowl has been a fairly entertaining game so far. Tulsa's QB, Paul Smith, is a scrappy son of a gun who's been getting pounded on a regular basis throughout this game. Also, Tulsa WR/KR Ashlan Davis has looked really good. I'd like to see the Bears draft him at some point to replace Azumah.

Hm...looks like my theory of this whole thing just being like one bad game of telephone gone out of control might not be that far off the mark. :D

Hendry sure likes those fundamentally sound OFs out of Boston, doesn't he? JVB struck me as a smoke and mirrors guy anyways. I've been under the impression that once the book gets out on him, teams will tee off on him. I figure that'll take about a season and a half.

I have memories of Felin pitching and Inoa seeing some playing time. Also, Alberto Albuquerque was converted from being a position player to a pitcher, as memory serves me.

I've always been more of a fan of the Illuminati. ;)

I'm not entirely sure. These are the only pages where I have seen it... Link 1 Link 2 Interesting prospect, albeit a bit on the older side. Lemme see what I can dig up on him...

Hence the reason why I think the Orioles were the one to leak this rumor.

The thing is, Quentin can't play CF all that well, according to most reports. Chris Young, on the other hand, can play CF quite well, from my understanding.

1) To my knowledge, Hendry has not officially said anything about trading Prior for Tejada. There was an article not too long ago that said that the Cubs asked about Tejada at the winter meetings, but made no firm offers. However, I don't remember if that source was unnamed or if it actually was Hendry. 2) Thanks to the miracle of plausible deniability, clubs could get away with this kind of action if they so chose. I'm sure that if the above scenario were true, it would entail all sorts of ethical violations and break plenty of rules, but teams could easily deny doing this sort of thing and not get into any trouble for it.

As many as it takes. :P

Things haven't been adding up for me in this whole episode. Tejada is a fine player and arguably the best SS playing SS in the game...but the Cubs already have a halfway decent guy ready to go at SS (Cedeno) who at the least would be defensively sound and, if he performs to his potential, could be a fine offensive player for this team. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense that Hendry would so doggedly be going after Tejada to the point of being willing to give up Prior and prospects. Moreover, apparently he's unwilling to budge on a deal for Tejada involving Zambrano, who is more proven than Prior is, but has less time left on his contract and also has had enough of a workload in recent years that there is plenty of concern for him injury-wise. Also, neither Prior nor Zambrano would turn the Orioles into a legitimate contender in the AL East. What's also struck me is the fact that the Cubs have indicated that they have asked about Tejada's availability, but that they never put a firm offer on the table for Tejada. Yet, sources have adamantly indicated that the Cubs HAVE made these offer and that all of them have included Prior in one way or another, essentially. We've gone over a lot of possibilities for this scenario. Maybe Jim Hendry is going to make a last ditch attempt at improving this offense significantly and keeping him own job in the process by sacrificing some pitching. Maybe Ken Rosenthal threw a random rumor to the wall and the national sports media has run with it. Maybe this was just all a case of miscommunication between the various people involved in this deal. Yet, this whole time, neither fan base wanted this deal. Orioles fans didn't like it because they'd be sacrificing a former MVP whose production at SS would be impossible to replace. Cubs fans didn't like it because Prior was under the Cubs' control, was young, and that acquiring Tejada at the cost of pitching depth and talent was not worth it. Very few people seemed in favor of this deal on either side. But, I had an idea about this trade. It works well for both ends, although I think it would make more sense for the Orioles than the Cubs. What if these were rumors that were intentionally planted in order to up a player's trade value? Boston needs a SS. They just offloaded Edgar Renteria as well as their best SS prospect in Hanley Ramirez. They also have a somewhat disgruntled but incredibly talented LF in Manny Ramirez as well as some prospect. Boston fans have been drooling over the idea of acquiring Miguel Tejada wearing a Red Sox uniform. However, he was not going to come cheap; it would cost more than just Manny to get him. What if Peter Angelos or people within the Baltimore organization decided to plant these rumors about Jim Hendry being willing to trade Mark Prior for Miguel Tejada in order to hold the Red Sox hostage for more prospects or players in a trade for Tejada? That they have intentionally leaked these rumors in order to try and have the Red Sox panic and overpay for Tejada? It could work equally well with the Cubs and Mark Prior, although who the Cubs were holding hostage with this deal is some one I'm unaware of. Still, it's food for thought. I could be off about it, but this is an idea that seems to make the most sense right now.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Naaaaaaaaaaaaavin... :D

There were some interesting guys down in the Arizona Fall League this past season, but no one of particular note in terms of Non-Americans. Can't say I know anything about the recent signings, though. GO BADGERS!!!!

I'm curious as to what the cost will be to acquire Zito. I can't say I'm overly familiar with the Athletics' farm system and their needs as a team...so yeah. I like the idea of acquiring him at a fair price, though. He'd make an excellent addition to this rotation.