Transmogrified Tiger

Can you remember the last time when one of those players deserved a top flight contract on the open market? There's a big difference between Hendry wanting to keep Neifi and Glendon, and Hendry paying what Aramis deserves to be paid. He's going to let him walk. Granted he has re-signed most of his own FA's early, but he has a pretty good track record with Wood, Lee, Barrett, and others. Barrett's not as good, Lee had a career year and got resigned a year before FA, and Wood was also resigned a year before FA. If Hendry were truly serious about Aramis being his "#1 priority", this would have been done by now. Or maybe he's just using the time alotted to get the best contract he can. Now that Ramirez has opted out, Hendry will in all likelihood be forced to up the offer to sign him, which if history is any indication, is what's probably going to happen.

Can anyone remember the last time Hendry failed to retain a player he wanted to keep?

.348 BABIP and a .273/.331/.404 career line fluke season

IMO, Soriano is a pretty big gamble to be really good next year. What's the difference between him and Carlos Lee?

cripes was that a savage hit reminiscent of the hit Overstreet put on a Nebraska WR last year, almost the same spot on the field too.

crap crap crap I didn't even notice Baltimore got two defensive TD's. Thanks for sucking, McNabb. I mean, 4 points? For real?

Nail, meet head.

I forgot about Drew in my original list of OF's, he'd be great. Another reason why he might get moved is that Colletti is heinously old school and might be souring on Drew's lack of intangibles, laissez-faire attitude, etc.

Winner likely gets the opportunity to get killed by Texas in the Big XII title game? Nebraska had Texas all but beat last week. Mizzou went to Tech and handled them on their homecoming while Texas needed a big comeback to beat them in a rivalry game. On the other hand, Texas did handle OU while Mizzou lost to them at home. Add in the fact that the game is being played in KC, I don't think that either team will get humiliated if they play Texas(who could lose the South if aTm wins their rivalry game). I know Callahan is throwing the ball more, and that's how they beat us, but prior to that game they were really running the ball well. Is Nebraska still doing well on the ground? If so, how does that bode for Mizzou. I know aTm ran it on you guys pretty well. Cubbies75 had it right, our linebackers got skewered by OU. I honestly don't remember even seeing Bacon, and Harrington and Christopher couldn't shed a block to save their lives. On the plus side, Taylor is a statue who attempts to escape pressure by going backward, and Callahan will probably throw more than necessary. Last year we beat them by smacking Taylor around all day. I think we can get to Taylor when he throws, which will force more throwing downs. Offensively, it's a matter of making sure Daniel has the time(and him not needlessly escaping the pocket when he does) to dissect Nebraska's pass defense. I actually like our chances better than the home game against OU, but we can't have the turnover problems we've had(-5 differential in the two losses).

where would you prefer the much needed offense to come from? i don't love soriano or anything, but he's the best hope for making this offense respectable. Get a 2B in Free Agency(Durham and Iwamura are my favorites, Loretta would be okay too), and revamp the OF in trade. Kearns, Burrell, A-Rod(which isn't the OF, but still), Sheffield, maybe Cabrera, Hawpe, or Cuddyer if they come available. What and alomst completely strip our farm system of any of the A prospects left of it? I'd rather keep the prospects and sign big free agents when they become available, somewhat simular to the mets. If we would have done it that way a few years ago, just for example. We could have a guy like Beltran and still have guys like Willis, Garland. . ect. . Instead we trade the Willis' and Garland's for mediocre crap and think we're gonna contend. (we=JH). . This is why many different options were listed. Like was said before, Burrell is pretty much there to be taken, no "A prospects" necessary. Making a trade for one outfielder is not going to strip our system. I'm not suggesting to get 4 of the guys I listed as trade targets.

5-6 starts in a post-season should tell how good a pitcher is. It's not really a "sample size" in my opinion. So if the Tigers were smart they'd get rid of Verlander and Robertson, the A's should get rid of Huston Street, the Mets should dump Billy Wagner, Steve Trachsel should retire, and Tom Glavine will win the Cy Young next year(narrowly edging out Jeff Weaver).

Winner likely gets the opportunity to get killed by Texas in the Big XII title game? Nebraska had Texas all but beat last week. Mizzou went to Tech and handled them on their homecoming while Texas needed a big comeback to beat them in a rivalry game. On the other hand, Texas did handle OU while Mizzou lost to them at home. Add in the fact that the game is being played in KC, I don't think that either team will get humiliated if they play Texas(who could lose the South if aTm wins their rivalry game).

4th time this year we're starting before noon, with at least one more before the end of the year. Why can't the teams that are in the eastern timezone start at noon?

USC is 22 points in front of Notre Dame in one poll, 19 in the other. Hardly definitive.

where would you prefer the much needed offense to come from? i don't love soriano or anything, but he's the best hope for making this offense respectable. Get a 2B in Free Agency(Durham and Iwamura are my favorites, Loretta would be okay too), and revamp the OF in trade. Kearns, Burrell, A-Rod(which isn't the OF, but still), Sheffield, maybe Cabrera, Hawpe, or Cuddyer if they come available.

Play Pie

Not a promising start for me. Several touchdowns for ChiCubs and uninspiring first half performances from my guys. IMB, Raw, and Uber have big matchups this week against the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place teams respectively. Playoff posturing abound.

Schmidt + Kuroda = Good Soriano = Bad

Time to protect Grossman from injury and sit him the rest of the game. My opinion may or may not be based on the fact that I'm facing Grossman in fantasy this week.

I think that would be a stellar game. I'm still holding out hope for the Fiesta though. :D And woot to Mizzou staying in the top 25. Too bad they fell out of the AP poll.

That's an important point. On the other hand, does Gaetti have any coaching experience at all? EDIT: Looks like he was Houston's AAA hitting coach and was their Major League hitting coach from July 2004 - July 2006, when he got canned.

Why does it matter? It's not like they're taking the bowl spots from better teams, and most of them are Christmas week games that not many people watch outside their fandoms. I'd rather watch an 8-4 team from the MAC or CUSA than some team that played four bad non-conference teams and then beat the worst two teams in their own conference. With 33% of the season still to the play, there are 6 teams with fewer than 4 losses in the MAC and C-USA combined. Let's ignore the fact that those two conferences have a combined 8-10 bowl tie-ins for a second. Those 6 teams against major conference teams: Lost v. Minnesota, 44-0 Lost @ Rutgers, 24-7 Lost @ Mizzou, 31-6 Lost v. BC, 31-24 (31-10 with 10 mins left) Lost @ Michigan, 41-17 Lost @ Kentucky, 45-36 Lost @ Indiana, 39-20 Won @ Virginia, 17-10 Won v. Oklahoma St., 34-25 Lost @ Miami, 14-13 Lots of road games to be sure, but it's still a 2-8 record with some less than stellar opponents(OSU, Minnesota, Kentucky, IU, and Virginia). Add in the fact that these people are going to be in a bowl anyway, and I don't see the need to worry about mediocre major conference teams making a bowl.

Why does it matter? It's not like they're taking the bowl spots from better teams, and most of them are Christmas week games that not many people watch outside their fandoms.

Tyrone Willingham may go on a homicidal rampage if he keeps losing close games every single week.

er, Gameday lied to me and it was 4th and 1 for Tech, Harrell is stuffed on the sneak and Texas has the ball again. Tech has at most 2 timeouts, since ESPN apparently doesn't want to divulge that sort of info.