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I know it's just the NIT, but this Penn St/Baylor championship game is pretty fun to watch so far. 40-37 PSU middle of the second half.

I thought Cal pretty much came right and said this in his first interview. He said something to the extent if the guys can't play he will not give them a free ride. Makes sense. UK hired him to win and in order to do that he has to have the guys that can play. Yeah, coaches often will encourage a player to transfer or decommit if that player doesn't fit the new coach's system. I know Bruce Pearl and Lane Kiffin did that when they got to Tennessee. Well if those 2 aren't the moral standards to hold a coach up to, I don't know who is. It is NOT COMMON to run players off when you come to a new school. It's not running them off. It's being honest with them. If a player is not going to fit a system and, hence, will not play, it's nice for the coach to tell them that. Neither Pearl nor Kiffin forced anybody to leave or decommit. But they were honest with the players that said players likely would not fit their system. All players who wanted to stay/still enroll at UT had their scholarships honored, though.

I thought Cal pretty much came right and said this in his first interview. He said something to the extent if the guys can't play he will not give them a free ride. Makes sense. UK hired him to win and in order to do that he has to have the guys that can play. Yeah, coaches often will encourage a player to transfer or decommit if that player doesn't fit the new coach's system. I know Bruce Pearl and Lane Kiffin did that when they got to Tennessee.

I watched Bennett and Cutler at Vanderbilt and they definitely had some very good chemistry. Cutler relied extremely heavily on Bennett and even when Vandy wasn't very good, that was a dangerous combo. The happiest person about this trade is probably Earl Bennett.

So do you revoke your decision now? haha He'll be a better backup than Basanez. :D

What decent second round receivers will there be? Longshots: Hakeem Nicks and Kenny Britt. Late first round talents who might fall. After that, Louis Murphy of Florida is nearly as athletic (and perhaps close to as good) as Percy Harvin. Ramses Barden is a big, raw receiver with a lot of potential. Brandon Tate is close to as good as Nicks, but his final season was shortened with an injury. That's just off the top of my head. Outside of Britt and Nicks, likely no starters for the upcoming year. But plenty of potential in that group.

NFL Network really likes it for the Bears. And in my opinion, NFL Network is a much better source. I trust their analysts any day over ESPNs.

Congratulations Bear fans. This is a fantastic move for you to get Cutler and a very good signing of Pace. I was hoping he'd head to Chicago and I'm definitely glad he's out of the AFC.

You're probably right. Which makes me sad.

Not a good couple of days for WMC-TV. A lot of stuff they put out there turned out to be completely false. Hopefully the Commercial Appeal will be inaccurate here as well. :D

There's no way we get that for Gaudin at this point. We would be lucky to get Gaudin for Baker straight up. The Rockies will probably also ask a arm and a leg for Patton rights. When teams see rule 5 picks, doing really well they usually don't like to give up there rights. Unless they get a prospect they really like back. I have a feeling if Gaudin is traded, it will probably be for nothing. I really hope I'm wrong though. If we can't get something of value, we shouldn't trade him.

Normally I would agree, but when the guy has shown no signs of pitching at that level anymore it kills his value. Because of is track record, teams will be interested and wanna take a flyer on him. But these days, a 2m salary for a reliever/spot starter is kinda a bit of a risk to take a flyer on. Due to his salary I don't really see the Cubs getting anything of value for him. Thats why I hope they don't trade him. But it's probably gonna come down to if they like Gaudin or Patton better and who they think will be better in 09. If the Cubs really truely think Patton is gonna be better then Gaudin this season. Then they probably will trade Gaudin for a player to be name later or some crap. Because they can't keep Patton, Guzman and Gaudin, so someone has to go. But who knows maybe if the Cubs eat Gaudin salary, they could get a decent prospect. I really do hope he's not traded, but right now he looks like the odd man out. Trading Gaudin will only cause us to be looking for a long man/swing guy at some point during the season. Gaudin didn't pitch much after he came off the DL last year and then pitched poorly in spring training. I'd hate to throw away a 26 year old with a good history for that short a time of struggles. Patton is actually much more of a risk than Gaudin because Patton has never pitched above A ball. Patton may have put it together now, or he could be feasting off minor leaguers and will collapse against major leaguers. I like his potential and would like to see them work out a deal where he stays, but he's far from a sure thing to be good this year. I'm fine with trading Gaudin if we get some value for him. The idea of moving him for Jeff Baker and Patton's rights seems pretty good to me. Dumping Gaudin to take the chance that we can keep an A ball pitcher on our roster worries me quite a bit.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4034863 Could we keep Cutler AND Orton? Can you put Orton as a backup at this point? That'd be kind of a dick move. You'd kind of have to keep Orton. I don't know that he'd draw much interest in a trade. I wonder if the Broncos not requiring a QB in return hints that they're strongly considering one of the first round guys? Or are they strangely confident in Chris Simms?

Yeah, those top 3 for sure. I think Tebow goes day 1 too, and at QB. Devlin should have a huge year at Delaware, they are already comparing him to Flacco who was a D1 transfer and obviously went to Delaware too and came on strong as scouts got to see him more. Hiller is also getting Flacco comparisons because of putting up huge numbers at a small school and similar size. Claussen if he cuts down on the TOs this year is a possibility. He still has the #1 recruit pedigree on his side. Robinson, I guess a lot depends on where guys like Nate Davis and Pat White go this year. Robinson seems to be in between those 2 right now, but another big year could put him in the running for a late 2nd, but he's probably the longest shot right now. Outside shot at Dan Lefevour from Central Mich. going top 60 also. Of course a lot of these guys are only Jrs. so they may not come out making the class not as deep. I'd say it's pretty safe to say there are about 5 1st day QBs slated for next year. That would assume a couple of guys don't leave early and one or two fall outside the first day. And that's still deeper than most classes. I'd like to see more 1st round QBs before I called it loaded though. I really don't know what to think about Tebow. I think he's a sure thing first day guy, but it may be as a better version of Pat White - with the idea of not knowing what to do with him, but grabbing him on his athletic ability alone.

I wouldn't necessarily be against Baker. Maybe Gaudin for Baker + Patton's rights? We might have to throw in another minor leaguer or something, but that'd be better than just dumping Gaudin for nothing.

And now the Commercial-Appeal is chiming in that Memphis officials are expected to ask UT AD Mike Hamilton for permission to speak with Pearl sometime today.

That doesn't make much sense. If they do trade Gaudin to Colorado, I'd like to get an outfielder, Patton's rights, or both out of the deal. It's just Paul Sullivan speculation, but this is what worried me about that report: If you're going to trade a guy who has put up decent numbers in the majors, can both relieve and start and is just 26, you need to get something for him. I agree, but just adding him into the Vizcaino deal is relatively nonsensical. Eh, I wouldn't say nonsensical. It was too basic, though. If Sullivan is right and we don't get much of anything for Gaudin, then they definitely got the better end of the series of trades between the two clubs this offseason.

WREG-TV (who originally reported Memphis' offer to Bruce Pearl) is now reporting that University of Memphis officials are denying the offer was made.

That doesn't make much sense. If they do trade Gaudin to Colorado, I'd like to get an outfielder, Patton's rights, or both out of the deal. It's just Paul Sullivan speculation, but this is what worried me about that report: If you're going to trade a guy who has put up decent numbers in the majors, can both relieve and start and is just 26, you need to get something for him.

Just out of curiosity, who do you like that much in the 2010 QB class? Bradford and McCoy will be the top two, obviously. And after that you have Tebow, Claussen, Jevan Sneed (if he leaves), Pat Devlin and a bunch of questions. The top two in that class is very comparable to this year's top two (and perhaps better) and Devlin is very interesting, but after that I'm not seeing anything to get excited about. Next year's is probably deeper than this year's, but not deeper with 1st round talent. Bradford may be the only 1st rounder, but you could see 7 more by the end of the 2nd round. I like Snead and McCoy and Tim Hiller from Western Michigan. I'd like to see more from Devlin and Zac Robinson. I can definitely buy the idea that next year's is deeper - it is. But I'm not sure I'd call it loaded. How many other drafts have 8 legit 1st day QB talents? I don't think any of them will the next Elway, Montana, or Manning, but I'd say Bradford, Devlin, Snead, and McCoy could all be top 1/3 QBs in the league in time. I don't see 8 legit 1st day guys right now. Bradford and McCoy are sure things. Snead will be there if he leaves early, but Claussen is going to have to really improve over last year if he wants to be a 1st or 2nd round sure thing. Devlin has yet to start and will have to be really good next year to be a sure thing 1st day pick. He's got the physical tools, though. I haven't seen enough of Robinson and Hiller to say they're sure thing 1st day picks, and both will have "system" questions and worries about working out of the shotgun most of the time (similar to the criticisms guys like Rhett Bomar and Graham Harrell have faced). Tebow is a complete wildcard. I think he'll be a first day pick, but will it be as a QB? He's a terrific athlete and could probably be quite good at a number of positions, but is he an NFL QB? I'm seeing right now 3 sure thing first day guys - Bradford, McCoy and Snead. Devlin could be if he is highly impressive. Hiller and Robinson have the potential to be if their systems don't knock them down.

or he could hit 15 with a .300 obp and unacceptably bad defense. in fairness, though, this is probably the sort of thing cincinnati should be doing. sheffield might not be the right guy, but they're in the sort of spot where having a few guys to roll the dice on in the hopes that they hit on something and pick up 5 wins could be pretty huge. And if by some chance Sheffield does hit closer to his 07 numbers this year and Cincy is still out of the race by the trade deadline, he'd bring in some decent chips from a contender, I would think. I'm not sure what the upside of Chris Dickerson is, though, so it may not be a good idea to block his development.

Basically Marquis and Gaudin for Vizcaino, according to that report. Ouch.

Just out of curiosity, who do you like that much in the 2010 QB class? Bradford and McCoy will be the top two, obviously. And after that you have Tebow, Claussen, Jevan Sneed (if he leaves), Pat Devlin and a bunch of questions. The top two in that class is very comparable to this year's top two (and perhaps better) and Devlin is very interesting, but after that I'm not seeing anything to get excited about. Next year's is probably deeper than this year's, but not deeper with 1st round talent. Bradford may be the only 1st rounder, but you could see 7 more by the end of the 2nd round. I like Snead and McCoy and Tim Hiller from Western Michigan. I'd like to see more from Devlin and Zac Robinson. I can definitely buy the idea that next year's is deeper - it is. But I'm not sure I'd call it loaded.

UT is denying the report, for what it's worth. I don't think it's a certainty that he's gone either. It's hard to pass up that kind of money, but Tennessee can probably get into the $3 million a year ballpark if necessary.

Just out of curiosity, who do you like that much in the 2010 QB class? Bradford and McCoy will be the top two, obviously. And after that you have Tebow, Claussen, Jevan Sneed (if he leaves), Pat Devlin and a bunch of questions. The top two in that class is very comparable to this year's top two (and perhaps better) and Devlin is very interesting, but after that I'm not seeing anything to get excited about. Next year's is probably deeper than this year's, but not deeper with 1st round talent.