Transmogrified Tiger

Basketball Prospectus has their preview of the Central Division up. Link Projected Standings Detroit 55-27 Cleveland 48-34 Indiana 37-45 Chicago 32-50 Milwaukee 23-59

Al Yellon also seems to think us trading for Matt Cain, then packaging him and other players for RICKY NOLASCO is a great idea. That said, I have no idea how likely the probability is, it's a unique situation without much precedent.

In basketball, it's much easier to determine who the best team is through a short series of games. A far larger number of NBA first round series would go 3-0 than if MLB went to Best of 7 for the DS.

I like a good deal of what those Dolan rumors were. I wonder what they'd do if they were to trade Lee. Al Yellon had his (really, really terrible) projection/hope for what the '09 roster looked like, and he had a platoon at 1B. Any plus defense platoon bats come to mind for 1B? Maybe the Marlins would give up Jacobs in addition to Hermida? Would Toronto be open to trading Overbay? Nick Johnson? Conor Jackson from the right side(maybe with just Hoffpauir spelling him against tough RHP)? Is Garko available?

does that mean what i think it means Probably not

The Astros made it in '05.

You keep your greedy little paws off of Snaer.

I'm going to lose because the Vikings can't figure out the "don't touch the punt" concept. Awesome.

Full BCS Standings Interesting how the computer averages come out. 1. Texas 2. Alabama 3. Oklahoma State 4. Oklahoma 5. Ohio State 6. Georgia 7. Penn State 8. Utah 9. Boise State 10. USC Also of note, Kansas got votes in only one of the computer polls, and LSU and Northwestern are tied for 19th in the computer averages.

Derek Anderson is rapidly moving up my list.

16 is a decent enough spot for Mizzou. They have 4 straight "don't screw it up" games before the Kansas game, and if they win that then they'll take the North and have a quasi-home game for the B12 Title and a BCS game, at which point they should be approaching the Top 10 again by attrition.

Please take it to the Hamilton thread if you want to revisit that again.

I'm too irritated to use paragraph form. -Our offensive line is garbage, LT and LG both ignore a blitzing corner, then both go after him, letting the DE go untouched. Idiots. -Don't call a fade on 4th down, and don't kick a field goal. Momentum means crap when you're still down 32, you need a touchdown if you want a shot at a miracle win. -The offensive PI on Coffman was the worst offensive PI call I have ever seen, and then whistles get swallowed when Coffman gets tripped on a surefire TD right before that [expletive] fade call. -Stop running around like your head's cut off every time you need to hang in the pocket, Chase. Half the time you're in no imminent danger and you get frantic and ruin your chance at making a play.

I'll pull for Kansas if you pull for Missouri. Really, we have no choice. how does mizzou winning benefit KU? KU winning doesn't help Mizzou either. Let's just agree to hate each other.

He was joking, playing off my last post in this thread.

I'll never forget the one he did last year for LSU. He had a newspaper with a headline on it and he tore it to pieces, and then by the end he had done a magic trick making it whole again. He said something to the effect of "Now I bet you're wondering how I did that. I have no idea how I did that, I wake up screaming in the middle of the night wondering how I did that." Maybe the most entertaining thing I saw last college football season.

People in this thread who said Peavy was as good or better than Santana: Meph, Rob People in this thread who expressed reservations about trading for Peavy, and/or disagreed with Meph/Rob's characterization of him: I don't want to go back and count, it's over half a dozen. You're embarrassing yourself with this over-the-top "what is wrong with everyone why does everyone think this thing that is clearly wrong and I must bombastically correct you for the error of your ways" schtick. You're exaggerating. Over half a dozen? I think not. That is over the top. You may call it bombastic posting, but if you feel strongly about a subject I don't see a reason to put a little verve into it, instead of everyone trying to out Spock/robot each other. Plus, in order to get embarrassed I would have to care about the reputation of this little internet persona, which I don't. I basically get ganged up on about petty nonsense in nearly every thread I post in, oh no, I'm not proclaiming Jay Jackson is Tim Lincecum just yet, I'm such a negative guy, everybody pile on. That's part of what I don't like about these boards, what starts as a one-on-one disagreement turns into 7 people taking cheap shots at you personally instead of your argument. I just wish there was less damn posturing. Uh-oh, somebody thinks the fact that Josh Hamilton recovered from drug addiction does not make him a better baseball player than if he never took drugs in the first place! Better send out 10 guys with "internet tough guy" attitudes to deal with the problem. Off the top of my head, two people objected to Rob's characterization of Peavy/Santana as 1/2, one citing Webb, the other citing Halladay/Lincecum. Mhuber posted that he wasn't all that enamored with Peavy, citing his maximum effort delivery. Two people, including myself, talked about Peavy's less than sparkling away splits, and UMFan agreed with me when I brought it up. So there's your half dozen, I'm sure there's more. The reason lots of people respond to you is because you make up arguments and apply them to the whole board, and you do it with a very aggressive tone. I'm sure you'd find much better conversation if you left it at "Josh Hamilton doesn't deserve to be in the top 10 in MVP voting" as opposed to "why do all you mouthbreathers think Josh Hamilton is in the Top 10 in the AL?"

People in this thread who said Peavy was as good or better than Santana: Meph, Rob People in this thread who expressed reservations about trading for Peavy, and/or disagreed with Meph/Rob's characterization of him: I don't want to go back and count, it's over half a dozen. You're embarrassing yourself with this over-the-top "what is wrong with everyone why does everyone think this thing that is clearly wrong and I must bombastically correct you for the error of your ways" schtick.

My NLCS refund is in.

Ya betta ask somebodddaaaaaaaaayyyyyy!

Peavy's mediocrity away from Petco two of the last three years worry me a little bit. I think exploring Cain might be a better fit, he's younger, may be just as good going forward, might have less of a player cost, isn't a big guaranteed contract to worry about fitting into the current financials, and the Giants' asking players might be a better fit than San Diego's.

Do you have him in your top 10? yeah, i have higher hopes for him than guys like Flaherty, Rhee and Colvin I can see having hopes for him, but he'll be 23 and in his 3rd pro season to start next year without any time above Peoria. I mean, he's a solid three years older than Rhee, and Rhee was better at Peoria(although obviously the injury is a big concern).

I'm not saying we should just dump him, but I'd be open to trading him. Where is this .900 OPS hitter you see? I tghink you're giving Lee way too much credit. I don't think that was a "down year". He was not even remotely close to being the same hitter. He was a complete mess. His GB% was way up and none of his peripherals look good. It's not like he had some bad slumps or hit into bad luck, he was just flat out awful for 5 months of the season. At this point I'd say that an .850 OPS would be a pleasent surprise. How can you say you expect a minimum of an .850 OPS when he had an .823 OPS this season and a .759 OPS after May 1? His GB% hardly skyrocketed, it went up less than 4%. In fact, as a whole Lee's batted balls were probably about just as good as last year, without the lucky BABIP. That said, I don't think it's wise to bank on an .850 OPS, but it shouldn't surprise anyone at all if he's in the .850-.900 range.

IT'S THE DEFINING PURPOSE OF THE GAME

Throw-in, and not a very good one. He's had four seasons where he's spent significant time in AAA. Other teams have had opportunities to get him via the Rule 5 Draft and the Cubs haven't bothered to give him much time in the majors, even as a pinch hitter. His age hurts, too. I think that Hoff could be a solid major league starter, like a .285/.375/.450 type of guy if he were to get the chance. As for trade value, I agree that hed have to be a throw in. An .825 OPS is below average for a 1B. And it's questionable that Hoffpauir could be an .825 hitter.