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The difference being that Cedeno has had some MLB experience and success. Izturis' hitting was terrible nearly his entire major league career, except for one half-season, where pitchers never saw enough of him to expose his crippling weaknesses at the plate. Once they did, he tanked as always has. He has little if any chance to improve, IMO You dislike the fact that Izturis has only had a good half season and then say Cedeno has a chance to improve because he was good for 41 games? If either has the better chance to improve it's Izturis who is closer to his peak than Cedeno. Also, Izturis' good half year lasted 159 games where he posted a .330 OBP. Granted not great, but he was 24 at the time. I just don't understand the opinion that there is no chance whatsoever that Izturis will even become a decent player. He's talked about like he's in his mid 30's and not mid 20's. And I'm not saying I think he will, just that because of his age there is the possibility.

To make such a proclamation is a bit premature, I would think. I would agree with you that DeRosa is better with the glove than Walker, and better with the bat than Neifi. But to state that this makes him "better by far" than those two is a logical fallacy. If I were to state to you that DeRosa were considerably worse with the bat than Walker, and considerably worse with the glove than Neifi, would that be enough to say he'd be "worse by far?" For my money, I would have rather retained Walker over DeRosa any day of the week... though I will do my best to give DeRosa a chance to prove last year wasn't so far above his head as I believe it to be. I would agree with that-DeRosa is a little bit of Neifi mixed with a little bit of Walker. If he hits even somewhat close to last year (anything over a 750 OPS) he'll be an upgrade at the position. He goes between a 700-750, and with his defense he'll probably be about the same as Walker/Neifi. Under a 700, and he becomes a definite downgrade at the position. Something we all have to remember is that Walker barely played any 2B last year. He was there while DLee was healthy and then the rest of his time as a Cub he was primarily a first baseman. He played 46 games at second and 37 at first last season as a Cub. So really, when looking at upgrading over last season, the more fair comparison would be DeRosa v Neifi/Hairston/whoever else we had play there. In that context most anything DeRosa gives us will be significantly better.

Dammit. I just put together an in depth response to this part, but got sidetracked and was bounced out of NSBB when I hit submit. Anyway, I basically said you aren't necessarily being unreasonable, just overly optimistic. Teams really need huge improvements at positions to make that kind of bounce from year to year, like LA did from 2005-2006, when they replaced a .279 mess in LF with a .387, because of a great new young player and fantastic OBP from his backup. They also replaced an Izturis led SS position with a Furcal led one, that provided a 52 point bounce. Well, this version isn't going to be nearly as interesting, but I predict something closer to a .325-.330 range in team OBP (barring a shocking move in CF or SS), and middle of the NL pack. This is a Hendry team, and Hendry is not an OBP friendly GM. He's begun to acknowledge it's existence, but he's yet to acquire any true OBP stars. Middle of the pack in OBP would be an accomplishment for Hendry. I don't know where I'm being overly optimitistic. optimisim has Lee up back around .400 or Aram at .370 or Soriano to repeat his obp of last year. I do none of these things. I don't portend that DeRosa will repeat his OBP from last year or even give an expected improvement even though he was 30 points above Cubs second basemen last year, I don't predict Murton to do anything he hasn't done before (although I do expect improvement whether it is Murton full time or with a better platoon). I say that Izturis will be around .295 even though his last uninjured season he was up at .330. I think Hendry loves OBP....as long as it is ave. driven. edit - in fact, I don't think there is anybody on this board that is overly optimistic. there are those that try to be reasonable and give an estimation of what is likely to happen, and those that are just completely, unreasonably pessimistic. I wish I could have seen the way you broke it down, but have to give you credit for at least trying, as opposed to those who say "they will be terrible, they haven't improved at all" then remain silent when faced with a solid case to the contrary. I don't necessarily agree with this statement. There are some posters who tend to expect everything good that could happen will just like there are some who expect everything bad that could happen will. I can understand both sides, but tend to try to find middle ground myself.

I have a feeling he'll start off slow but will pick things up the more starts he gets. I think Lou will stick with him all year unless he begins as bad or worse as he was in early 2006 and 2005. I don't think he'll ever consistently touch that production again, but I don't expect late last season's production early this year either.

Much as I'd like to agree, I have a feeling if the Saints are the 2 seed they'll get much more media attention. I do have to say though, the Titans making the playoffs are easily the least likely NFL story this year.

What are the chances Ryno takes over after Sweet Lou retires? hopefully 0%, after reading some of his columns on yahoo i don't want him anywhere near the cubs. Interesting. I hadn't read any of those. Judging purely from his playing days I figured he'd be a pretty good option.

He'll likely be second to McFadden for the Heisman if he stays. I also agree he should stay, especially considering Smith, Quinn and Chris Leak could easily all go ahead of him. And there could be more, they're just off the top of my head.

Excellent. The camera panned over to Colt Brennan signing some autographs for fans and the announcers said, "Please don't throw a flag for establishing contact with the fans." Priceless. :lol: Very good numbers for Brennan tonight, 33-42 559 yards and five TDs. Just nine incompletions in 42 attempts is especially impressive.

Overall they've been decent but some of the things they've said have been a little silly.

Yeah I was gonna post about the same thing. The NFL punishments for celebrations are too strict, but the college punishments are arbitrary and ridiculous. As they said, the idea behind the rule is to punish players who go out of their way to degrade or humiliate their opponent. How exactly does running through the end zone and then going to high-five some of your own fans degrade the opposition? Second half of this game sure has been fun to watch. Brennan is really accurate with is passes. I actually had my computer shut off and was about to fall asleep when I saw that and got so annoyed that I got up just to post about it. It's been annoying me for some time and that call may have been the worst yet. And about Brennan, he looks very good. The Sun Devil defense is atrocious but I think Brennan could dice up some good defenses. June Jones may be right that he'll be the first QB taken if he stays one more year.

That second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Hawaii's Bess was pitiful. That rule has been grossly overexaggerated for the past couple years and it's only getting worse. All Bess did was run back and high five a group of fans. If that's unsportsmanlike conduct then the Packer players should be thrown out every time they do the Lambeau Leap. ESPN's play by play guy Mark Jones put it well saying basically "if you don't want them to make you feel bad, don't let them score." Hawaii's got a legit complaint if they end up losing because they can't move the ball.

It's beginning to heat up as Hawaii scored three times in the third, hopefully it keeps building from there. By the way, I really enjoy watching Hawaii's offense, it seems to run so smoothly. And I think Arizona State may be worse than even I thought, they've looked really bad tonight. I don't know about that-Arizona State has played about as well as Purdue did, and that's somewhat close to their level this year (and Purdue was probably better during the season). I'm not sure what you actually thought they were, but they were a so-so team all season, and they have been a so-so team so far tonight. I thought they were a so-so team and they've played worse. The offense up until the fourth has looked uncoordinated at best and that is really all they have to hang their hat on. The defense was good for a half but is getting eaten alive in the second half.

Colt's a legit NFL QB if he stays for his senior year. He looks very good out there (granted against a weak defense at best).

It's beginning to heat up as Hawaii scored three times in the third, hopefully it keeps building from there. By the way, I really enjoy watching Hawaii's offense, it seems to run so smoothly. And I think Arizona State may be worse than even I thought, they've looked really bad tonight.

That's true-if the Titans beat New England next week, the Jaguars are automatically eliminated. The Jags are 5-6 in the AFC, they are just about out of it. If it makes you feel any better, I think the Titans have lost 7. No-they are also 5-6. The AFC playoff possibilites really get larger if Denver wins today. If Denver loses and KC wins next week, KC eliminates Denver first becasue of a division tiebreaker, but then KC is eliminated because of their terrible conference record. That would open it up to Cincy first because of their good conference record, and then the Titans. The Jets are the x-factor in all of this. They most likely need to lose at least one game for a team like the Titans to get in, although it's theoretically possible for the Titans to get in without that help (although without Jets help, it would require Denver win over Cincy, Denver loss to SF, KC win next week, Cincy loss next week, and a Titans win next week-which is very, very unlikely.) So if Denver and the Jets lose and the Chiefs win, Titans are in?

That's true-if the Titans beat New England next week, the Jaguars are automatically eliminated. Not if my friend, when. With this team, anything is possible. Sure-anything is possible, that's why I used if. Nothing is guaranteed, that's why I didn't use when :D. You just don't want to admit your fear of Vince and the Titans. :P Well, I told my wife in disgust during the Titans game that I couldn't believe the Colts would have to play him twice a year for the next 15 years-if you want more fear then that, I can't give it to you. :D I'm definitely rooting for Denver in this game now-if Denver wins, both spots are still up for grabs next week. If Cincy wins, they get one of the wildcard spots automatically. As far as your fear, it's adequate. 8-) About the Den/Cin game, I think I want the Broncos to win too. Not sure though.

That's true-if the Titans beat New England next week, the Jaguars are automatically eliminated. The Jags are 5-6 in the AFC, they are just about out of it. If it makes you feel any better, I think the Titans have lost 7.

That's true-if the Titans beat New England next week, the Jaguars are automatically eliminated. Not if my friend, when. With this team, anything is possible. Sure-anything is possible, that's why I used if. Nothing is guaranteed, that's why I didn't use when :D. You just don't want to admit your fear of Vince and the Titans. :P

That's true-if the Titans beat New England next week, the Jaguars are automatically eliminated. Not if my friend, when. With this team, anything is possible.

That was a very dumb decision, but I'll take it. But we're still as much in it as anybody. With Buffalo, Jacksonville, and the Steelers losing our playoff hopes are almost becoming believable. I'm still in shock after my preseason expectations.

Georgia's playing in the Chick Fil A bowl in the Georgia Dome correct? None others come to mind immediately.

Tennessee with the huge 6-point OT win to improve to 10-2 on the season with East Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech coming up before the SEC schedule kicks in. Things are looking very good for another high seed in the NCAA tourney with wins over Memphis, Texas and Oklahoma State. Plus, we still have Ohio State left non-conference. This team has been far better than I thought we'd be early on, and Chris Lofton is proving he's going to be one of the best players in the nation either this year or next year.

Severe overanking of Tennesee? How do you figure? We finished the year ranked higher than we started and our 3 losses came to Florida(one point) and LSU (four points) who are playing in the National Championship and Sugar Bowl respectively. The third came to Arkansas without our starting QB and the Razorbacks finished pretty respectably. I don't have a problem with the others, but saying UT was overranked is confusing at best.

What are the chances Ryno takes over after Sweet Lou retires?

Peter Gammons said on Mike and Mike this morning that the Nationals were quite interested for cheap money. I'd love to see Sammy come back. He's one of my favorite players and in my opinion would make a great platoon player w/ Jones or Floyd. Like others on here, though, I seriously doubt it happens.