Transmogrified Tiger

They've won all the games, and they can't control the quality of their conference. Their non-con SOS is better than UConn, Villanova, O$U, Illinois, Texas, and UNC. I think they deserve a 2 if they win their tourney, although that could change depending on how the power conference tourneys go.

He should be starting in AAA. Good news is he only turns 23 in May this year. What does his option clock look like?

Their SOS is embarrassing, but we have recent evidence going either way, with St. Joes getting a one seed, and Gonzaga getting a 6 several years back.

:-s

.272/.318/.415, 92 OPS+ .275/.332/.440, 98 OPS+ Guess which one is Grissom.

The first person to start the Injury thread this year needs to be banninated.

Oh my. I just remembered his brother is the pitching coach for the mid-market Brewers. I wonder if that won't be where he's going after this. Considering Milwaukee is to Maddux what the Generals were to the Globetrotters, I highly doubt this would happen. I'd also expect Maddux to want to play for a legitimate contender if he could. By next year there's a very good likelihood Milwaukee will be a legitimate contender. Plus, his brother is the pitching coach there.

They're the best team on paper. The A's? Maybe, but if so it's not by much.

Almost. The Bulls won LeBron's first contest there between the two, and the Cavs have won the last 5.

North Carolina, Tennessee and GW could get in there with very strong showings in their tourneys as well.

Snyder was jobbed. Gardner gets 3rd team All B12.

He knows that. I read a quote from him a few weeks back where he talked about how changing from a starter to a reliever changed his outlook on pitching. As a starter he always felt he could recover from a wild start and took more chances on the edge of the strike zone. As a reliever, he commented the games over if he gives up runs, so he started pounding the strike zone more. If you examine his 2005 splits, his K/BB ratio, BB/Inn, and BAA were all far better as a reliever. He was better, but he still walked 4.16 guys per 9 innings as a reliever.

If we manage to trade for Dontrelle Willis I'll change my name to DouchebagMcGee. Until then let's put away the drugs and stop proposing Willis trades. It's just as likely as any Dunn trade brought up. So, Dunn trades anger you so much you dedicate your sig to their lunacy. But something just as likely you honestly propose? I mean at least in Dunn trade proposals their getting decent value in return. There's not a single reason(salary, talent, attitude problem) for Florida to do that deal.

Bracket(PDF) Michigan St. gets Purdue(winner gets Illinois), Michigan gets Minnesota(winner gets Iowa)

Japan and Korea over the US?? Al Leiter isn't going to be pitching that many innings. I don't think he was ranking them.

It was the same way with the Olympics.

Cavs lead by 3 heading to the 4th. LeBron had 10 at the half, 21 now.

Woah, Luke Schenscher playing for the Bulls, he doesn't even have his name on his jersey.

Cavs lead the Bulls 21-18 after 1. Game is on ESPN for those interested.

I'm going to preface this by saying that I didn't see the second half yesterday, nor have I looked at the box score, just the final on a ticker. Dee Brown is overrated. He's not a very good scorer at all, 55th of 58 B10 players in PPWS. He's a very good defender, and he does a good job of not turning the ball over and distributing, but in all honesty he doesn't belong on the B10 first team. Now, feel free to say that I hate Illinois and all that it stands for, and that I'm bitter about yesterday or the season or whatever. Ok, you ask Tom Izzo what he thinks of Dee Brown being overrated. Anyone who has played the game at a high level would be the first to tell you that if anything in someways Dee Brown is underrated. All he has done his entire career is win. Maybe Mizzou should pick up some overrated players like Dee Brown. I just get tired of reading this garbage all the time. There is more to playing basketball than scoring. I would say that John Stockton is one of the best players ever to play basketball, did he score over 20 points a game? What number was he in the league with the cute stat you are using. Dee has switched to the most demanding position on the court for his senior year after losing two other NBA guards from his team and all he has done is lead that team to a 25-5 record. If you want overrated look no farther than Paul Leg Cramp Davis. Did Paul ever once beat Illinois in his career? Man you are bitter. It's not about scoring more points, it's about making the shots you do take. Dee has been terrible at that this year. Not just "not amongst the best" at scoring efficiently, but he's one of the worst in the league. The Stockton comparisons are ridiculous. He shot over 50 percent from the field, and he gave out double digit assists per game. Dee is shooting 37 percent from the field, and hands out half as many assists. On another note, mocking Mizzou does you no good, everyone knows they are terrible. Being overrated doesn't mean you aren't a good player, because Dee is good(I pointed out his strengths in the previous post), it just means people make you out to be better than you are. Also, trashing Davis has nothing to do with Dee, but Davis makes his shots and is one of (the?) best rebounders in the conference. But he doesn't win. Dee Brown is not overrated. He is a streaky shooter, yes. He is the reigning defensive player of they year. Defense is half of the game. He can create a fast break on his own, which when your team struggles with its offense is a positive. What would Dee be shooting if early in the year he didn't have to force up a shot because his teammates weren't ready to contribute because of lack of playing time and game experience? I brought up Davis because every year every publication predicts him to be the best big man in the big ten, yet every year with great talent around him he finds ways to not win the conference. Ager would also be another player I would consider to be overrated, Especially since he had what 9 ppg (Brian Randle) against Illinois this year? For someone who has these two guys on his team to call Dee Brown overrated is humorous. This doesn't answer any of the points brought up against Brown. He's been a bad shooter this year, that's all there is to it. He's very good at other things, but there are other guards in the conference who can score and defend(Foster and S. Brown to name two). And again, whether or not I root for a team that has 12 overrated players or 0 has no bearing on any evaluation of Brown. But if you want to bring them up, Davis has been very good this year, probably the best overall big man in the conference in terms of scoring, rebounding, and defending. Blaming Davis somehow for MSU not winning the conference is ridiculous. Also ridiculous is claiming that MSU/Davis/Ager "doesn't win"(compare NCAA tourney records between Ager/Davis and Dee, they're basically identical). As far as Ager goes, he's had an up and down year. It's particularly interesting that you use Ager's two poor games against Illinois as somehow evidence of him being overrated, since I'd be justly ripped to shreds for pointing out Dee averaged 6 PPG against Iowa this year. It's not evidence at all. I could probably say some nonsense about every team focusing on him, and drawing the best defender for Shannon to score more or other such nonsense, but that's what it is, nonsense. What happened happened. That said, Ager will probably be overranked by many. He definitely isn't a 1st team all B10 player, and I haven't looked that in-depth at the other players to see how he compares to the rest. However, it's Ager's body of work makes him under/overrated, not two games or his record against one team.

Mizzou with an impressive comeback to beat Nebraska on Senior Day at Mizzou Arena. They now get the same Nebraska team thursday night in the B12 tourney.

I'm going to preface this by saying that I didn't see the second half yesterday, nor have I looked at the box score, just the final on a ticker. Dee Brown is overrated. He's not a very good scorer at all, 55th of 58 B10 players in PPWS. He's a very good defender, and he does a good job of not turning the ball over and distributing, but in all honesty he doesn't belong on the B10 first team. Now, feel free to say that I hate Illinois and all that it stands for, and that I'm bitter about yesterday or the season or whatever. Ok, you ask Tom Izzo what he thinks of Dee Brown being overrated. Anyone who has played the game at a high level would be the first to tell you that if anything in someways Dee Brown is underrated. All he has done his entire career is win. Maybe Mizzou should pick up some overrated players like Dee Brown. I just get tired of reading this garbage all the time. There is more to playing basketball than scoring. I would say that John Stockton is one of the best players ever to play basketball, did he score over 20 points a game? What number was he in the league with the cute stat you are using. Dee has switched to the most demanding position on the court for his senior year after losing two other NBA guards from his team and all he has done is lead that team to a 25-5 record. If you want overrated look no farther than Paul Leg Cramp Davis. Did Paul ever once beat Illinois in his career? Man you are bitter. It's not about scoring more points, it's about making the shots you do take. Dee has been terrible at that this year. Not just "not amongst the best" at scoring efficiently, but he's one of the worst in the league. The Stockton comparisons are ridiculous. He shot over 50 percent from the field, and he gave out double digit assists per game. Dee is shooting 37 percent from the field, and hands out half as many assists. On another note, mocking Mizzou does you no good, everyone knows they are terrible. Being overrated doesn't mean you aren't a good player, because Dee is good(I pointed out his strengths in the previous post), it just means people make you out to be better than you are. Also, trashing Davis has nothing to do with Dee, but Davis makes his shots and is one of (the?) best rebounders in the conference.

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What's the purpose of a sacrifice bunt while up 4 in a spring training game?