UK1679666180

Anyone out of South Texas this year? Figured there might be someone out of Moody, Calallen, or Ray. The best player out of the Corpus Christi area will prob. be Mark Blackmar out of Carroll HS. Moody has a 3B by the name of Michael Franco committed to Mizzou. Calallen has a LHP/OF by the name of Rob Zastryzny also committed to Mizzou. None of these will be high picks and will likely go to college, although Blackmar hasn't signed anywhere yet. This post makes me happy. Especially since Mizzou is going to suck this year. Don't put too much stock into it, as I said, them going to college off the bat will likely be caused by a lower ceiling rather than unsignable. From what I seen, it looks like the two best recruits are a JUCO RH'er by the name of James Hudelson (Jefferson CC) and a HS RH'er out of Overland Park, KS by the name of Jason Adam. These will likely be mid round draftees but nothing of the ceiling of previous Mizzou drafts. It appears to be a down year as far as recruiting for the type of program Mizzou typically runs.

This I agree with, although I'm not one to share this view as I prefer collegiate football, basketball, and baseball to the pros of each sport. There isn't that attachment as far as being able to see them the following year in the pros for 99.9% of those drafted and 1500 being drafted w/many simply drafted to fill minor league rosters is quite different than football/basketball drafts.

If it's mainly about the chances of winning, realistically every year one or two schools from every major conference has a legit chance of winning conference let alone a national title, regardless of sport. Should I have a rooting interest in UK Football knowing they're going to be 6-6/7-5 every year or you as far as Illini football? Look at Oregon St. as Corvallis isn't one of the better climates and yet they win titles and recruit well every year. Even in college football, the majority of the national title games consist of Southern teams so I'm not as big of a believer as far as weather. I admit it matters as far as attendence as not many are going to sit in Evanston on a Fri. afternoon in April in 30 degree weather, but gate revenue in college baseball matters very little even with the elite programs compared to potential TV revenue, if the market demanded it.

Isn't that mostly a product of timing/location? Not really although timing plays a role, baseball just isn't a money sport for the NCAA & isn't a game setup well for national audiences. Even if ESPN dedicated themselves to promoting a primetime Texas/LSU baseball game, that would likely be a non-conference mid-week matchup (unless played before conference begins) not featuring Friday starters (of course, Friday night games arent going to have huge ratings either way). You need the elite guys like Prior/Strasburg on top programs facing each other and buzz generated. Of course, ESPN could do more to promote college baseball but if there isn't a buzz pushing them towards it, why should they?

I loved Dewey, he's a great guy and they had a very good staff with Wagner and former Pirate Mike Dunne. Now, they basically got EKU's coaching staff with Elvis running the show, who's a great guy and should do well. As far as their team, Cooper will be one to watch coming from DMACC as he's prob. the best player in the state, Martin can swing it, and while Altbach can touch 91, hasn't developed the control or second pitch to translate it into production as their Sat. starter.

Anyone out of South Texas this year? Figured there might be someone out of Moody, Calallen, or Ray. The best player out of the Corpus Christi area will prob. be Mark Blackmar out of Carroll HS. Moody has a 3B by the name of Michael Franco committed to Mizzou. Calallen has a LHP/OF by the name of Rob Zastryzny also committed to Mizzou. None of these will be high picks and will likely go to college, although Blackmar hasn't signed anywhere yet.

If you want to know if there are any kids in your area whether it be HS, JUCO, or 4 yr. college worth a look, let me know what area you're interested in.

I do wish college baseball would be followed more, much of that is due to lack of exposure and money poured into programs, but obviously I'm biased towards baseball as it is my fav. collegiate sport. With that said, I follow baseball more regionally than nationally. Northwestern will have 2 pitchers to watch (Jokisch being a solid lefty who'll throw on Fridays), Illinois won't be as good good as they were without Wikoff, Bonnadonna, etc. UIC will be solid as usual, EIU should be the best of the bunch with Mueller and Recchia. NIU and SIU won't be as good as previous years. The JUCOs from Central IL on South should be good with Heartland, Parkland, Wabash Valley and John Logan being the ones to watch. Ole Miss, I'm rooting for Barrett to pitch up to his potential for the Rebels.

Top 30: 1 Bryce Harper C Fr. L-R 6-3 205 Southern Nevada Las Vegas, Nev. Never drafted 10/16/1992 2 Anthony Ranaudo RHP Jr. R-R 6-7 230 Louisiana State Jackson, N.J. Rangers ’07 (11) 9/9/1989 3 Jameson Taillon RHP Sr. R-R 6-6 225 The Woodlands The Woodlands, Texas Rice 11/18/1991 4 Drew Pomeranz LHP Jr. R-L 6-5 235 Mississippi Collierville, Tenn. Rangers ’07 (12) 11/22/1988 5 A.J. Cole RHP Sr. R-R 6-5 190 Oviedo Winter Springs, Fla. Miami 1/5/1992 6 Jesse Hahn RHP Jr. R-R 6-5 190 Virginia Tech Groton, Conn. Never drafted 7/30/1989 7 Karsten Whitson RHP Sr. R-R 6-4 190 Chipley Chipley, Fla. Florida 8/25/1991 8 Dylan Covey RHP Sr. R-R 6-2 195 Maranatha Pasadena, Calif. San Diego 8/14/1991 9 Chris Sale LHP Jr. L-L 6-5 175 Florida Gulf Coast Lakeland, Fla. Rockies ’07 (21) 3/30/1989 10 Brandon Workman RHP Jr. R-R 6-5 220 Texas Bowie, Texas Phillies ’07 (3) 8/13/1988 11 Stetson Allie RHP/3B Sr. B-R 6-4 225 St. Edward Olmsted Falls, Ohio North Carolina 3/13/1991 12 Christian Colon SS Jr. R-R 6-1 190 Cal State Fullerton Anaheim, Calif. Padres ’07 (10) 5/14/1989 13 Deck McGuire RHP Jr. R-R 6-6 220 Georgia Tech Richmond, Va. Never drafted 6/23/1989 14 Justin Grimm RHP Jr. R-R 6-4 195 Georgia Bristol, Va. Red Sox ’07 (13) 8/16/1988 15 Zack Cox 3B So. L-R 6-1 215 Arkansas Louisville, Ky. Dodgers ’08 (20) 5/9/1989 16 Yordy Cabrera SS/RHP Sr. R-R 6-4 190 Lakeland Lakeland, Fla. Miami 9/3/1990 17 Deandre Smelter RHP/SS Sr. R-R 6-3 210 Tatnall Square Macon, Ga. Georgia Tech 12/3/1991 18 Manny Machado SS Sr. R-R 6-3 190 Brito Private Hialeah, Fla. Florida International 7/6/1992 19 Kevin Jacob RHP Jr. R-R 6-6 235 Georgia Tech Parkville, Md. Never drafted 3/26/1989 20 Kaleb Cowart 3B/RHP Sr. B-R 6-3 190 Cook County Adel, Ga. Florida State 6/2/1992 21 Chad Bettis RHP Jr. R-R 6-1 210 Texas Tech Lubbock, Texas Astros ’07 (8) 4/26/1989 22 Kyle Blair RHP Jr. R-R 6-4 220 San Diego Monte Sereno, Calif. Dodgers ’07 (5) 9/27/1988 23 Micah Gibbs C Jr. B-R 5-11 215 Louisiana State Pflugerville, Texas Never drafted 7/27/1988 24 Hunter Morris 1B/OF Jr. L-R 6-2 220 Auburn Huntsville, Ala. Red Sox ’07 (2) 10/7/1988 25 Yasmani Grandal C Jr. L-R 6-2 210 Miami Miami Springs, Fla. Red Sox ’07 (27) 11/8/1988 26 James Paxton LHP Sr. L-L 6-4 220 Kentucky Ladner, B.C. Blue Jays '09 (1) 11/6/1988 27 Josh Sale OF Sr. L-R 6-1 205 Bishop Blanchet Seattle Gonzaga 7/5/1991 28 Michael Choice OF Jr. R-R 6-1 215 Texas-Arlington Mansfield, Texas Never drafted 11/10/1989 29 Justin O’Conner SS/C Sr. R-R 6-1 190 Cowan Muncie, Ind. Arkansas 3/31/1992 30 LeVon Washington OF/2B Fr. L-R 5-11 170 Chipola Gainesville, Fla. Rays '09 (1) 7/26/1991

It's good to know that UK will be #1 next week.

Uk going to 17-0 with a solid win vs. UF. It was close before UK went on the 10+ point spurt to win the game. Good to see that with Wall having an off night that Bledsoe can step up with a great night. It's nice to see UK with several weapons again as well as being extremely excited about their program again.

It basically gives GB the right to fire him, if he does interview for the position without their permission.

It'll be a good test for UK against UF tonight in Gainesville. UK played decent vs. UGA but not as well as they should've but UK has been able to pull out some games they could've lost. 16-0 is still 16-0.

I wasn't really around for the '09 draft, but for the '08 draft... I had two teams: Buffalo and KC: With KC I selected Sedrick Ellis and Carl Nicks (I should've drafted for NO) Ellis has the potential to still be very good, but has been hit with injuries and hasn't lived up to the billing. Nicks is an outstanding G and one of the best in the league. With Buffalo: Leodis McKelvin- been a 1st bust, was hurt this year but hasn't beena very good coverage DB and while a good returner is more known for his goof against NE which cost them the game. Limas Sweed- 7 catches in two years with Pitt basically says it all. 1 very good pick, 1 decent pick, 1 bad pick and 1 very bad pick.

Isn't Randy Bush in the same position? Or is he just the assistant GM? Because if he has the same role, Bush has been mentioned for possible GM jobs. Same title, different role. Randy Bush is more involved with the minor league aspect of talent evaluation while I assume Maddux will be more responsible for the major league evaluation. I can't see Maddux taking on the same travel schedule of Randy Bush who typically follows the Cubs minor league teams.

He'd outplay Russell. Give me Cleveland.

I also agree with the Daily Herald today as far as looking at current Packers QB coach Tom Clements for the OC position. Also, I wonder if Jim Harbaugh would be qualified for this position?

He won "Coach of the Year" in the UFL last year with a 4-2 record, what more do you need?

As far as offensive coordinators, the main asset is obviously Cutler and whomever the next OC will be should have their primary skill be their ability to work with QBs. Jim Fassel is supposed one of the best in the business as far as his ability to develop the QB and has a solid track record as far as OC. I iwsh he would more of look than what he's received.

There's nothing wrong with shopping him at this point although I question whether or not they'd get as much in return as much as they value him. The teams that are tools oriented are going to see no real plus tool. He has good bat control, good hands, and decent baseball speed but none of them really stand out to go along with his below avg. power and arm strength. The teams that are more stats inclined will look at it the same with regards to his lack of power, decent OBP, fair defensively, & how much the Cubs likely value him and likely decide that he is not worth negotiating with the Cubs on.

While Hendry isn't the best or worst GM out there, he has had plenty of time to determine whether or not he is the most qualified and most likely to put the Cubs in a position to field a playoff team. There should be frustration at this point with Hendry, he tried to win it all by spending like drunken sailor and has more than likely failed while putting two teams with the talent to expect 90 wins '04 (despite coming up short) and '08. Both the '03 and '07 teams were products of the division rather than products of outstanding talent. He's a medicore GM when it comes to roster moves and when you don't have the payroll of the evil empires or a good farm system that unless there's some players playing above their heads like in '08 (that was a 90 win team playing above their heads), the Cubs will likely cont. to fail to live up to expectations more times than not with Hendry running the show. Now with all these backloaded and expensive contracts, it will make his job even more difficult without the ability to try and outbid anyone for a possible important piece as the Cubs likely need another good starter, middle of the order bat, and another real good bullpen arm to get them near that legit playoff contender and no way to get them without giving up Vitters and/or Castro

Given the resources and time he has been allocated, the Cubs should've done more in his tenure. Regardless if it's fair or not, had the Cubs won in '08 that none of this would likely be a discussion. The ultimate question is whether or not you think he is the best avail. candidate for that spot and if it is worth to find out if there is someone more likely to do more with this team than hendry would likely do. Of course if someone did come into this, they would have to deal with these awful contracts. Personally, I would be willing for the Cubs to fire Hendry/FO and go after someone new. Unfort. given the fact they have very limited baseball knowledge above Hendry, it would possibly lead to a worse hire. But anytime there is a candidate like Logan White out there, I would be supportive of bringing someone like that to Chicago.

UK2K It was great to see them get to 2000 wins tonight, even if it was vs. Drexel. I didn't think they had enough time to put it together even in this current college environment, but they've made great strides compared to the 1st few games this year. They have a legit shot to win it all.

How many of those teams have either replaced their front office or been more productive than the Cubs in that timeframe? Yankees-More productive than the Cubs over the last 7 years. Red Sox-New FO & much more productive over the last 7 years. Mets-New FO Angels-New FO Dodgers-New FO Phillies-New FO and more productive Cardinals-New FO and more productive Mariners-New FO Braves-New FO

Firing Turner does nothing but bring in another stop-gap OC as any quality OC would be hesitant to take this position next year knowing that Smith won't be here. If there's a quality OC avail. and there's teams competing for him, there's nothing the Bears could likely do to overcome the fact that another will be trying to build for the future while the Bears tread water. As far as this core of WRs, they're not good but they're better than next year. If you look at this team. QB-still better than avg. despite this year from Cutler HB-regressed to below avg. WR-still sub-par despite improvements TE-1st rd. disappointment and an aging Clark OL-Awful DL-below avg. LB-Despite the injuries, best unit on this team. DB-below avg. They need to clean house but given their unlikely stance of paying coaches with time left especially at Lovie's current contract, I don't see them cleaning house.