dew1679666265

Thanks Raisin. I hadn't heard of him before it became apparent he'd be the DC, but I haven't heard a bad review of him yet. I'm kind of curious about the idea of going to a 3-4, but I don't believe Boise ran one under Wilcox.

Huh, for some reason I was thinking you followed them a bit. Sorry then.

I count 5 seniors on their roster from this past year. http://www.broncosports.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=48552&SPID=4061&DB_OEM_ID=9900&Q_SEASON=2009 Yeah, they didn't lose anybody. Only one of their starters was a senior. And I agree with dew. Anyone who starts Boise outside of the top five next year shouldn't be allowed to vote anymore. You're probably more familiar with Boise than anybody on the board. I was curious on your impressions of the Boise defense the last few years. I've seen them a few times, but haven't watched that closely most of the time. Since we now have their DC, I'm curious what I can expect.

I count 5 seniors on their roster from this past year. http://www.broncosports.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=48552&SPID=4061&DB_OEM_ID=9900&Q_SEASON=2009 They really, really ought to be ranked in the top 3-5 at the lowest. I doubt they will be, but they really should.

Yeah that seems to be more of an SEC trait. Really? There were a number of players not committing to SEC schools who declared today, I thought.

The excitement, I think, is getting official word from the already committed players. A kid could be committed for 6 months, but until he signs that LOI, any other school could potentially woo him. Also, there are still a number of kids who wait til signing day to announce. Take Tennessee, for instance - we got two of our best recruits (Da'Rick Rogers and James Stone) today. Neither had committed beforehand.

The Cubs aren't a contending team. They are a high salary team that is mediocre. There are more questions on this year's team than any team since 2006. Lilly won't be back until May and may never be the pitcher he was in the first two years. Big Z has a lot of wear. Dempster needs to bounce back. Will Wells be as good as he was in first 10 starts? How may starts will Carlos Silva have? Lee is getting old, Aramis's shoulder is still a concern. Soriano has shown he can stay in a slump with the best of them. On and on. For the Cubs to contend this year everything will have to go right for them and they will still need some help. So a team that won 84 games last year with Soriano contributing next to nothing and Ramirez hurt much of the year is very unlikely to contend this year? Lilly will miss a month yes, but otherwise this team isn't much worse than last year. If Soriano rebounds at all and Ramirez can stay (mostly) healthy, I don't see why we can't contend. Our bench should be much improved as well, which means if we do have an injury in the starting lineup, we won't have a black hole playing for 3 months like we did at third last year. [Though it's harder to admit if your team isn't projected to be average or worse] there is a great deal of luck going into every season. Luck definitely plays a huge role in winning or losing. My point is, with neutral luck, this team can contend. With good luck, they could win 90+. With luck like last year, they'll win 84 or less again. My issue is with the idea that without extraordinary luck, this team can't contend.

Lemonier to Auburn.

Assuming he qualifies academically, Tennessee got the LOI from DT John Brown. That's a huge addition.

James Stone officially to UT. Eddrick Loften also signed with the Vols this morning. A very good class for us and a great job of Dooley in two weeks pulling Rogers from UGA, Hunter from LSU and Stone from Alabama.

The Cubs aren't a contending team. They are a high salary team that is mediocre. There are more questions on this year's team than any team since 2006. Lilly won't be back until May and may never be the pitcher he was in the first two years. Big Z has a lot of wear. Dempster needs to bounce back. Will Wells be as good as he was in first 10 starts? How may starts will Carlos Silva have? Lee is getting old, Aramis's shoulder is still a concern. Soriano has shown he can stay in a slump with the best of them. On and on. For the Cubs to contend this year everything will have to go right for them and they will still need some help. So a team that won 84 games last year with Soriano contributing next to nothing and Ramirez hurt much of the year is very unlikely to contend this year? Lilly will miss a month yes, but otherwise this team isn't much worse than last year. If Soriano rebounds at all and Ramirez can stay (mostly) healthy, I don't see why we can't contend. Our bench should be much improved as well, which means if we do have an injury in the starting lineup, we won't have a black hole playing for 3 months like we did at third last year.

Nash Nance and Da'Rick Rogers officially to Tennessee. Awesome. However, Ambles went to USC and we lost JC Copeland to LSU.

It appears Justin Wilcox is the new defensive coordinator at Tennessee. He was the Boise State DC the past four years and is only 32. Interesting hire, not a lot of experience, but the Boise defense has appeared fairly solid the past few years. Top of the WAC, for what that's worth.

Per Rotoworld Theriot career ML OPS: .725 Drew career ML OPS: .771 Theriot career ML UZR/150: 4.8 Drew career ML UZR/150: -7.8

Much of what you say is well-founded. Individual rankings are far more accurate, in general, than the team rankings, but there is something to the team rankings. As with many things, however, it's important to look at more than just which teams are ranked 1-5 or whatever. It's important to look deeper at why the team is ranked where it is. Like you point out with the quantity vs quality discussion, purely where a team is ranked can be misleading. If you look at why a team is ranked there, you can make more sense of the team rankings and decide whether they're useful or not. In all honesty, looking at ranges is better. There's little difference in the top 10 teams in recruiting, but there is a pretty clear deliniation between the 10th team and the 50th team. That's where team rankings are more useful - grouping together the "top" recruiting classes vs the mediocre ones and on and on.

This is very true. Last year's Tennessee class was very good, but didn't address the lack of depth on either line or at QB. It was still a good class, but not as good as many thought because we primarily only got "skill" position guys.

Well, 24 commits to 20. To me, team rankings are incredibly useless. When you're trying to combine a bunch of kids who are ranked based on a faulty star system using an even worse team scoring system, you get a bunch of crappy numbers that don't mean anything. There's no decent way to compare recruiting classes so I don't even bother trying. It's hard enough trying to compare recruiting classes within the same program that you're quite familiar with. While I agree the star system and team scoring system are faulty, I still think it's worth considering. Taking either as gospel isn't the best idea, but using it as sort of a guide isn't bad. It comes down to a coaching staff's ability to evaluate talent and develop it, though.

Bobby Johnson is a good coach and recruiter. He was a really good hire by Vandy.

That was Willie Mays Hayes. He may run like Mays, but he hits like [expletive]. Runs like Mays, hits like Miles?

That was Willie Mays Hayes.

That's why they want him traded now, while he's on the right side of 30 and still relatively inexpensive. My thoughts, however, are that his value will be suppressed because other teams will see how close he is to being expensive and over 30 and will adjust what they're willing to deal accordingly. Ideally, I think, the Cubs hold Theriot until the trade deadline and see if a team is desperate for a SS. If so, they may overlook the negatives and overpay.

Fatty fat fat fat. yeah, but seriously, anyone know the story here? I was really excited about him at one point. Per Rotoworld. They say he's fully healthy now.

I'm guessing any reports of a rift with the Cubs is based on Theriot's people not being willing to split the difference in the way that pretty much every other arbitration case has done. Yeah, it's that he reportedly won't budge from his asking price that's got the Cubs brass pissed off. All players ask for more than the club wants them to in arbitration, but most also will negotiate to middle ground. Theriot is reportedly not doing that. So the truly hilarious outcome would be the arbitration panel settling on the Cubs figure. 8-) I never thought Theriot would be Hendry's first arbitration player.

Right, but that doesn't change the fact that both Lou and Jim could have moved him to 2nd at some point. Plenty of guys have played not their preferred spots for the benefit of the team. ARod being an extreme example. Still nothing worth loathing the guy over. Yeah, Lou and Jim should have moved him to second previously, but I was just pointing out that Theriot sees himself as a SS. And I don't loathe him at all. I don't even mind him that much.

Next offseason at the latest. By then his value will be much less. He'll have played his age 30 season, he'll be making millions and due for another raise regardless of performance. If you want to get any value out of Theriot, you trade him within the next 6 months. Castro may be ready before then, and there's enough depth to hold ground without him for a bit. I repeat the message in my earlier post, how much value does Theriot have? Teams haven't exactly been lining up to jump on the Hudson, Kennedy, Cabrera, and Lopez bandwagon. If we could get somebody in return that would be a reasonable upgrade to the Cubs current roster, then great, but to trade the starting SS on a team that hopes to contend because some posters don't like him and he's asking for $800,000 more than the team is offering is ridiculous. The idea is that because of youth and inexpensiveness he would command quite a bit in a trade. I don't necessarily think so, but wouldn't be opposed to shopping him around to get an idea of his value around the league. I wouldn't trade him for peanuts, however, and I don't think too many others on here have supported that.