Let's hope so. They are undefeated. And they played in probably the weakest pool, then faced probably the weakest of the 3 teams they'll face this round. This game is still early, we have the superior team, and it's not even an elimination game for us.
I believe he played in a few games last year with the big league club. Yep, his 19 AB's for the big league club last year is his only experience above AA.
Howry, Eyre, Dempster, Williamson, Ohman, Wuertz, Rusch/Williams/Hill/Guzman/etc. This really shouldn't be that hard. There's a distinct possibility Wuertz could be our best reliever this year, bar none.
From an old BA chat: Q: Lance from Dallas asks: Hey Jim! Does Clint Brannon have a shot to pitch in the big leagues? I read were he seldom reaches 86 mph on his fastball, did he just out smart the young hitters at class A and will the more experienced hitters figure him out? Thanks! A: Jim Callis: Brannon set a Northwest League ERA record, but his stuff is kind of fringy. He needs to show he can have that kind of success against more experienced hitters.
I think you see a little bit of both sides with kU right now. They didn't play very good competition after they turned it around(save the two UT games), but they overwhelmed the teams they did beat. Since the Mizzou loss, all their wins were by 10 or more points except 2(OU and OSU(B12 tourney)).
This was even more painful to me making my picks as a MSU fan. If you pick them to beat UNC, it's not hard to envision them knocking of UT or someone worse than them. Combining analysis, optimism, homerism, and my own opinions on teams is vera difficult when it comes to that bracket.
When the people competing for the job have as much major league playing time as Walker and Hairston do, you shouldn't be making the decision based on Spring Training, unless it's clearly obvious that there's something very wrong with one of them. EDIT: Fun Facts here. Spring Training OPS for Walker and Hairston. Hairston 2003: 917 2004: 1000 (1 PA) 2005: 1002 Walker 2003: 829 2004: 820 2005: 605 Funny how Walker's worst ST leads to one of his best years, and vice versa for Hairston.
What really burns me is that some of the teams I feel were overseeded not only got good seeds, but really good draws into the second weekend. Florida I don't think is very good, but there's no way they lose to South Alabama, and with the game in Jacksonville I don't see them losing to OU(3rd best 6 seed) or UW-M, who doesn't match up well against power conferences. At least the good news for MSU is that George Mason's PG is suspended for punching a Hofstra player in the groin. That and their tallest player is a 6-8 freshman.
a 7 foot center that can make the NBA in Patrick O'Bryant. If he gets in foul trouble though, Bradley has the tendency to just rely on the jump shot. They are extremely hot though. I think they've lost just 2 games in their last 12 or so. oh yeah, Marcus Sommerville and Tony Bennett know how to shoot as well. I think they are going to give Kansas all they can ask for. How do their guards handle ball pressure? That's KUs bread and butter. Should be interesting, both teams play very good defense. As much fun as it would be to see kU fall, I couldn't pick against them against the Braves.
Alright, I set it up and invited all the NSBB folk I had friended plus a couple more. Everyone else do the same, and if you fear not being part of the network, just post or PM me your info and I'll send you an invite.
Anyone interested in doing a NSBB Facebook pool? If someone who has a lot of NSBB people friended creates it, then invite all the NSBBers they have facebooked, and spread out that way to get everyone. Might be a fun outlet if you want to tweak your predictions some.