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Not only should they be projected, it'd be disappointing if they didn't. Tampa and Carolina could potentially be good enough to topple them if things fall right, but NO is the class of the division at the moment by a decent margin. Don't forget about the Falcons, they're going to be tough this year with that stud Matt Ryan at QB. :ninja: But seriously, there's absolutely no reason why the Saints shouldn't win the South. That division is terrible. I'm not sure that secondary is improved enough to get them anywhere in the playoffs, though. don't hate on the falcons Despite being a Titan fan, I've always been somewhat partial to the Falcons as well (though, obviously, less so than to the Titans). So don't think I'm hating on them too much. :D I still think it was a terrible decision to draft Matt Ryan with Dorsey, et al still on the board, though.

Well it's not like they were making a move for the sake of making a move. They lost their starting DE and a backup DE on the same day, so a move had to be made. They will be a better team with Taylor than Daniels because he gives them a good pass rusher that they have been in need of. Plus, a second and sixth next year will hardly cripple them, especially if Taylor sticks around for a couple more and Daniels comes back healthy. Snyder hasn't run the team the team the way I would have, but I can't really find any fault in this move at all. (I'm a skins fan) Assuming both Daniels and Taylor are back next year (and it appears they will be), what will the Skins do with them? I'm not sure who the DE on the other side is.

Shockey's a good tight end, but this is a pretty decent trade for the Giants. A team in need of more young players will have a 2nd and 5th rounder to play with next year and have a decent young TE Kevin Boss to replace Shockey. Good deal for both teams in my opinion.

Not only should they be projected, it'd be disappointing if they didn't. Tampa and Carolina could potentially be good enough to topple them if things fall right, but NO is the class of the division at the moment by a decent margin. Don't forget about the Falcons, they're going to be tough this year with that stud Matt Ryan at QB. :ninja: But seriously, there's absolutely no reason why the Saints shouldn't win the South. That division is terrible. I'm not sure that secondary is improved enough to get them anywhere in the playoffs, though.

Extra Innings for me too - unless they're playing the Reds, who are supposedly my "local team." Then I'm just out of luck most of the time.

and Ferentz hasn't been shy about punishing them, even for minor drinking violations Then it's hard to blame him for their problems. If a coach disciplines the players when they screw up and they continue to cause problems, there's really nothing a coach can do. I'm in no way defending any of the athletes who have been arrested, but the Iowa City police are notorious for going out of their way to make arrests. drinking is a big money maker for the city in terms of fines handed out for underage, possession, public intox, DUI, etc. I don't have any statistics, but I would be surprised if drinking-related offenses for the football team occurs at a higher rate than the rest of the student population. engineering majors don't make the headlines until a bridge collapses Interesting. That's actually a problem other places, I've heard, where athletes are targeted because they're famous (at least in that city) and it's a publicity boon to the sheriff's office to nail a football player. There have actually been kids at Tennessee who faced trumped up charges because the cops saw they were football players and just charged them with some crap offense. Luckily, Fulmer backed them and the charges went away, but I'd be surprised if that doesn't happen elsewhere too.

and Ferentz hasn't been shy about punishing them, even for minor drinking violations Then it's hard to blame him for their problems. If a coach disciplines the players when they screw up and they continue to cause problems, there's really nothing a coach can do. There's alot that goes not having players do stupid stuff. Discipline is one but so is gaining respect, teaching, and recruiting good kids. I don't put too much of the blame on a coach (at most it is 50% his fault and in most cases I would put it somewhere between 10-20%) but if a coach has repeated problems with players getting in trouble then there is quite a bit of blame on the coach. Note I said players not player. One player getting in trouble 5 times is not the same as 5 players getting in trouble once each. A coach definitely has the responsibility to try to keep kids out of trouble, but what is he supposed to do if this scenario happens: Two kids (both good kids entering college) drink and drive and are arrested and subsequently suspended for the first four games of the year. Two more then skip a few classes and have their scholarships revoked. Then, one kid (again, generally doesn't get into any trouble) is caught at a frat party he shouldn't be at and is kicked off the team. Three harsh punishments, but the kids keep screwing up. Is it fair to blame the coach, who's doing all he can to keep them in line, if the kids make their own decisions to screw up? I don't see how it is. That's where I put most of the blame on the coach. If Tiller is having discipline issues, he definitely needs to punish kids harshly and if he doesn't and they still screw up - I put about 90% of the blame on him. A coach can and should discourage kids from screwing up and if they don't punish the ones who do screw up, they're basically encouraging some more to.

and Ferentz hasn't been shy about punishing them, even for minor drinking violations Then it's hard to blame him for their problems. If a coach disciplines the players when they screw up and they continue to cause problems, there's really nothing a coach can do.

They'll still beat Penn State. at least we have a QB Rich Rod is running the show now. We don't need a quarterback. :) Threet is actually supposed to be pretty good though. He was ranked the 2nd best quarterback right after Mallett coming out of high school a few years ago. We'll probably see a bit of a 2-quarterback system next year with Threet and Feagin. Considering Rich Rod's offensive scheme, it may not be the worst idea to just put a running back at the QB position and run the option 85-90% of the time. And I'm only partially joking.

I haven't kept track, but the number is way too high. Ferentz is in absolutely no danger of being let go and is still well liked. coaching has rarely ever been the issue, lately it's been injuries (see the RB situation in 2004) and suspensions that have left him with little to no depth. Don't you think suspensions are the coaches fault. If players aren't showing discipline off the field thats never a good sign for any program. The same issue to a lesser extent bothers me with Illinois. But as you stated when you win you tend to forget about things. See Bowden, Bobby. It's tough to fault a coach completely for discipline issues. A coach can recruit good character players to a point, but a great deal of the best athletes out there are likely to have attitude problems (be it minor stuff like skipping practices ranging to the worst stuff). There are a whole lot of good kids who are also terrific athletes, but a lot also have attitude issues. When you do bring in kids with attitude issues, it's very difficult to control them. These are teenagers, after all, who aren't exactly crazy about listening to those in positions of authority all the time and don't always have the best judgement. A coach can promote discipline and punish kids when they screw up, but it's ultimately up to the kid whether or not he'll drink underage or get into a fight, etc. Now if a coach doesn't punish kids properly for screwing up, that's a different issue and is completely on the coach.

It's actually a done deal now. The thread for the deal should be right below this one.

I agree. Even if they end up platooning Weeks and Durham, it should be a marked improvement for them.

Here's the ESPN link: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3497321 They're saying it's "unknown" what the Brewers gave up, but the link provided by Ball and Glove is probably more reliable on that respect.

With him struggling mightily at the plate, is it a good idea to also ask him to move to a position he's not real comfortable at? I'm all for him moving to center (if Pie isn't going to play there), but I'd prefer to give him the offseason to adjust to it instead of forcing it on him during a terrible slump. Fukudome looks at video of the apposing pitcher everyday. There are some difference he is having to adjust to though. First off, they throw a lot more off speed stuff here in the US, then in Japan. Also, the strike zone here in Japan is set, not up to the opinion of each umpire. Here some umpire will call high strikes, others don't. Some call the corners, and others don't. You get my drift. For a new player that is hard to take in, it takes time. But taking all that into consideration, if you look at his stats in Japan over the years. Fukudome has always had a lot of walks and SO's. More walks, of course....but still the strike out is always going to be there with players who work the count as he does. He has a lot of work to do for sure, so we'll have to see if he's up to the task in the second half. I'm confident he'll adjust. He normally has a very good approach at the plate which will lead to success once he quits pressing and gets back to it. I think dropping him in the lineup could work wonders as it'll likely help him take some pressure off himself and work on getting his approach back.

If we put together close to the kind of season this year that we could (WS ) I'd be utterly shocked if anybody fired Hendry. Even if Cuban bought the club and disagreed with Hendry philosophically, he'd still likely keep him on for a year or two to keep some stability in the organization and "reward," if you will, the job he's done putting this team together. Plus Hendry is widely respected throughout the majors, meaning Cuban keeping him on may promote his acceptance with other teams around the league who may otherwise be slow to do so.

With him struggling mightily at the plate, is it a good idea to also ask him to move to a position he's not real comfortable at? I'm all for him moving to center (if Pie isn't going to play there), but I'd prefer to give him the offseason to adjust to it instead of forcing it on him during a terrible slump.

That'd be awesome, but I'm not sure we have what it takes to get Holliday. If Hill had it together, he and Pie would probably make a good basis for a deal for him - without good Hill, though, I'm not sure we have enough.

Fukudome has been struggling for far longer than 3 weeks. More like 10 weeks. Fukudome numbers by month: April: .327 .436 .480 .915 May: .293 .388 .404 .792 June: .264 .387 .402 .789 July: .152 .204 .239 .443 He's definitely gotten worse each month, signaling to me one of two things - either that pitchers are beginning to figure him out or that he's getting tired. After his torrid April, they made adjustments against him and he hasn't figured it out yet. While I'm not positive he'll adjust to them, I'm more comfortable with his ability to do it than a rookie in his first year out of AAA. I also think there's merit to what Amie said a page ago about more travel in the majors. There's a good chance that he's trying to adjust not only to what pitchers are doing to him, but also to a very spread out schedule that's completely different than anything he's experienced in his life. That makes things more difficult for him in his first year in the big leagues vs a rookie coming out of AAA. Also, I think it's important to note that his BABIP has gotten worse each month. .392 in April, .325 in May, .317 in June and .200 so far in July. Judging from that, May and June are closer to what he's likely to do from here on out than April or July. As his BABIP evens out, the rest of his numbers will climb closer to his May/June numbers.

I want to see Cuse take this and see if he, at least, can get the entire Big East.

I missed 10, but I also didn't realize until there were about 2 minutes left that it wasn't just football. Therefore, I missed half the Big East. I hate them even more now. My misses were: Big East - DePaul, Rutgers, Marquette, Providence, Cincinatti Big XII - Oklahoma State, Kansas State Big Ten - Penn State (I know, I'm an idiot) ACC - Maryland, NC State

Winner I always liked the Leprechaun but I can also easily see why others don't like him. I like the Leprechaun too. And the Hilltopper mascot is ridiculous looking, but also cool.

The question is, if that happened what would become of the Playstation-only games out there? Would they simply sign new contracts with Nintendo and Microsoft or would Sony continue making PS3 games even after the (potential) XBox 3 and Wii 2 came out?

Best mascot in college football. And this is coming from a hardcore Tennessee fan. Colorado's buffalo, Texas' bull, Otto the orange and, obviously, Smokey are also favorites of mine - but Uga is simply awesome. Zippy of Akron won the mascot battle last year and is the first undefeated champ but I regress because he isn't the best I'm biased and like Purdue Pete because no one is even remotely like him. IU is the worst they don't ever use theirs to my knowledge. All it is is a guy in a suit as a regular white dude with red hair and a IU cowboy hat on. As my dad says their is no such thing as an Indiana cowboy. Eh, Purdue Pete is okay. . . he's just not that cool.

Best mascot in college football. And this is coming from a hardcore Tennessee fan. Colorado's buffalo, Texas' bull, Otto the orange and, obviously, Smokey are also favorites of mine - but Uga is simply awesome. i would like to see ralphie and bevo fight to the death sometime... that would be awesome. Truly. I would pay good money to see that. I'm curious to see when they announce the next Uga. Should be soon.

Best mascot in college football. And this is coming from a hardcore Tennessee fan. Colorado's buffalo, Texas' bull, Otto the orange and, obviously, Smokey are also favorites of mine - but Uga is simply awesome.