Soul

Well, in fairness to Meph, Michigan should have been better than a non-ranked 4 loss team this year. Carr was fired pretty much because there was no excuse for them being this bad. It just so happens it took until the bowl game for them to put forth a great game, and Florida got caught a little unsuspecting in the crossfire.

I would assume so.

1) Harry 2) Brickhouse (he's the guy who announced my earliest memories of Cub baseball) 3) Stone 4) Hughes I think that's about right. Len is climbing the list for me, we'll see where he is in a few years. I'm also pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy Brenly. I'm a happy camper right now when it comes to Cub broadcasting -- I think they've done a good job putting together a couple solid booths.

That game made me appreciate Boise State last year even more. What they accomplished was really amazing. Georgia/USC would have been a great matchup in the BCS this year. Too bad it didn't work out that way. I love the Illini, but it was too much, too soon for them.

Well......I don't know if it was unfortunate. Hockey really needed something like that. It's unfortunate that it got put up against the bowls -- I'm not sure how many people were watching.

I agree with the author that people have generally been assuming that the Mitchell report, or some other source, was going to break into the clear with solid evidence of Sammy using hardcore steroids, or HGH. Yet here we are, 2008 upon us, and there's nothing. Amphetamine conversations mean nothing. Bringing a lawyer to congress may seem suspicious, but means little. A corked bat has nothing to do with roids or other PED's.

Me too. I'd love to see a Bucs/Pats Superbowl. I don't know who I'd root for. I wouldn't even watch. That's a horrible SB matchup.

We'll see. Obviously the guy wants to pitch in SD, so the Padres would have been crazy not to throw a million at him to see if he can possibly come back. All the other "I'll be back in May" and "We're real excited Mark is a Padre!!" talk is just meaningless window dressing. It's about a pitcher who just had major shoulder surgery needing to prove he can get his velocity back, or else his career is over. The Padres think that's worth a million to find out -- so do I. It's chump change.

They signed Mark for 1 yr, 1 million dollars. Put it this way, Mark Prior is basically Wade Miller at this point. I love what Mark meant to us in the past, don't get me wrong. But right now he's reduced to a project that's worth a lone million bucks just in case it pans out. That's a far cry from what the man was just 4 years ago. He's got 1 foot out of the league.

I want to give Z 2008 to prove he can come out and pitch well before mid-May before conceeding he's dropping off. I think he knows now, after last year, that he can no longer use April as part of his Spring Training activities. It got ugly for him last year -- let's see how he responds.

This is wrong. While I don't think the Lakers have a serious chance to win a title this year or make the NBA finals, they're absolutely competitive this year in the West and I will be ticked, barring injury like last year, if they don't win a playoff series. This team was 23-11 last year at one point and was doing fine for a little while even after Lamar Odom got hurt. Even when he came back he was never completely healthy. They are a much better team this year with Bynum playing more minutes (and subsequently, Kwame Brown playing less before he got hurt) and Jordan Farmar playing instead of Smush Parker. This team has a win at Phoenix (by 21 points), vs. Utah, at Houston, vs. Detroit, at Indiana (by 20 points), home and road wins vs Denver, a win vs. Golden State, and a win vs. San Antonio (albeit without Duncan but it's still a win). They're 17-10 while playing one of the tougher schedules in the league. They also have the third best point differential in the West at +5.0 (behind Phoenix at +5.2 and San Antonio at +6.7). Only Detroit at +9.1 and Boston at +13.9 have better differentials in the East. Hollinger has them at No. 3 overall behind Boston and Detroit (which I'll admit is a higher than they should be) and Sagarin has them at No. 7 overall and No. 4 in the West (behind Phoenix, SA, and Dallas). Right now the Lakers are tied for the No. 5 seed in the West and would face either Dallas or Denver in the first round. I know they would be Denver in a 7 game series and think they could beat Dallas as well. I also think they could give Phoenix a tough series and definitely could win it if they play their best. San Antonio, not so much as long as they have Duncan healthy. If they don't have Duncan, that becomes a series the Lakers can win. I really believe that the Lakers, if healthy, are the third best team in the West. Yeah, I read that and was blown away by how wrong it was. To say they have no chance is to have ignored everything they've done this year through 1/3 of the season. And the only trade talk I'm hearing around the Lakers now is possibly packaging Farmar, a second player, and pick(s) for Jason Kidd. In any case, the Lakers a) were already a much better team than their record from last year showed, and b) are aleady significantly improved just from the development of Bynum and Farmar and the absence of Smush Parker. As for Kobe's attitude toward the team, I think he really likes hs team as it stands, but he's still perturbed toward management for essentially deceiving him. Continued winning will make a huge difference to that end, and with the schedule for this week (Phoenix, Utah, Boston) they'll certainly be tested. The only teams in the West I would say are probably better than the Lakers are San Antonio, Phoenix, and possibly Dallas. LA has pretty much played right with Houston and Utah the last two seasons, and they're better now than they've been since then. They're better than Denver and close to New Orleans. Portland may be the X-factor. In any case, I could easily see the Lakers finishing with a 3/4 seed, but also with a 6/7 seed. 3 teams better than the Lakers = no chance for them in the West. Sure they're playing better now, but that doesn't really say much about what will happen in the Spring. We'll see. I wasn't saying they aren't playing well now. We can touch base in May and see if they were real challengers or not. I don't think they will be, regardless of their obviously better early season performance. As far as beating teams like Phoenix and SA in the early part of the season, this also means little as veteran contending teams often conserve energy for the 2nd half/playoffs.

Let 'em have their holiday. I'm still not even sure I should be all that excited about this one anyway. Waiting until early Jan for an update is just peachy with me (though I admit my hypocrisy -- I'm checking this thread for updates daily :P )

Glad I had too much work these past two days to pay attention to this. Those are hours you can never get back.

I appreciate all the info, it's really great. But this is precisely why I try to keep my grain of salt handy when the rumors start flying.

Yeah, I'm always leery of the "done deal" talk. Deal's not done until the guy is being introduced at the podium with a Cubs jersey and hat on.

If MacPhail is still trying to get more or better players, then the deal can't be done yet -- can't even be done in principal. The principal is the players being exchanged.

Clemens' ego would never allow him to admit the truth. Either to the public, or to himself. It really shouldn't come as a surprise after watching Bonds deny,deny,deny even after pretty solid proof he took the stuff.

Yeah, I agree. I suppose if there's a lot of competition for him it might up the ante and I'd like to see him remain healthy for a whole year myself! You being a Bear fan, would you give up a 2nd and 5th round pick for him? Ack. After watching Orton last night? Hehe. I probably would. And then keep Grossman as backup for the inevitable games where McNabb is hurt. With our OLine, I'd pray McNabb doesn't lose his mobility -- because he would definitely need it.

I'm not totally sure. Personally I think he's fallen from the level of bringing a 1st rounder. I'd give a 2nd rounder and maybe a 5th in a later year. But some team out there might toss a 1st rounder at him. I just think the injury history knocks his value down a notch.

Cubs have moved on. It's time we did, too. No hatred for Mark, but I will always be disappointed because of what could have been. And like I said earlier -- if he takes the mound for the opposing team all bets are off, he's the enemy.

I don't buy any of these stories. These players all sound like the guy who cheated with another woman. "It was only that one time, and it didn't mean anything......honest!" Suuuure. As far as I'm concerned, they all did it multiple times, and all of them did it to gain a competitive advantage. This parsing of details based on what Mitchell was able to find out/didn't find out just won't fly. At least not with me.

I wouldn't say that. It's not just jabber. Those insiders are legit. Nobody ever said the Roberts deal was going to happen quick. The groundwork was laid at the winter meetings. MacPhail still has other fish to fry first. Yeah, but even if they are legit, a message board is where you come to post stuff that really isn't all that solid. Otherwise it starts showing up in print. I know you're correct, it wasn't ever going to necessarily be quick.

They did have a timeout. Glad I wasn't the only one that realized that. Terrible decision by Lovie. And somehow, he's going to avoid criticism just like he has the whole season. He gave up? I wonder what the odds are of him getting fired this off-season? Not saying I'm for it - but it wouldn't surprise me. Turner has to go. Zero chance. Lovie still gets to try blaming his coordinators once before he gets the axe. Turner and/or Babich will get the guillotine first, either this offseason or perhaps next if there are no improvements.

You ask too many questions.

I think he is just proud of himself. He thinks he's the first one to think that Ron might be feeling some heat.