WrigleyField 22

Awesome. I think the Raps are about to go on a 4 game skid (including tonight's game). That will leave them at 38-41 heading into the game against us, and we should be at least 38-41, but could be 39-40. If we then beat them, we'd have a two game lead with two games remaining. They have the tie breaker, but we'd just have to win one of our last two against two playoff bound teams.

Everyone be cheering for the Warriors today. A Warriors win could be huge and would probably send Toronto into a 4 game slide going into our game against them. We get Milwaukee without Bogut and Cleveland, followed by NJ. Even with the likely chance that Toronto gets the W, we could still be tied with them going into that game if we take care of business against Milwaukee. A loss for Toronto would just make things better.

I'm not sure if this is sarcastic or not, but with Marshall in the rotation over crappier options like Silva, those games should happen less often.

I say start a new one. If theres a large group that wants to keep going, they can do just a committee type mock for the rest, and just have two separate threads.

F U Bears. They need to use this money for a safety like Atogwe.

Raw and I can't win. Okay next on the list for my suggestion is Thaddeus Gibson, OLB, Ohio State. I checked this time and he's available. Give raw until the morning or to change the pick.

Well I would agree to go LB. As it happens a LB just visited the Steelers. My vote is Navarro Bowman, LB, Penn State. I'll let raw weigh in and make the final call though.

I'd be interested to hear you're reasoning for that. I was okay with not bringing him back, in large part because of 2010 Free Agency, but I'd hardly call it the best decision ever. About the strongest argument that I think could be made for it is that Gordon had to be gone to let Rose develop.

Great athletes and guys with great tools on the board: LB Jamar Chaney QB John Skelton QB Jarrett Brown QB Jevan Snead DE Greg Hardy RB Joicque Bell WR Mike Williams WR Dezmon Briscoe OG John Jerry OLB Jason Worilds DT Arthur Jones SS Larry Asante The best values here are probably Jerry, Jones, Worilds, Skelton and Brown. The best pure athletes are probably Williams (elite WR talent), Hardy (fantastic athlete) and Jerry (massive interior lineman). Purely need based, I'd look at linebackers, safeties and defensive tackles. Well it is the Raiders, so let's look at best athletes.

I love Gerhart. He's the great white hope.

I would have to agree, but I don't think either of these will apply. We'd probably get a 5th rounder, maybe 4th if we were lucky. 4th rounders have value, that's where they got Alex Brown, and Orton. I'm not interested in them signing Brown to an extension after this season, when the cap will likely be back. So if you can get something of value for him today, why not? Because we are still trying to compete this season, and I don't trust the talent behind him on the depth chart.

I would have to agree, but I don't think either of these will apply. We'd probably get a 5th rounder, maybe 4th if we were lucky. And I don't think anyone on the roster will outperform him, at least not next year. I have a feeling Marinelli just gets enamored with athleticism. He was all gushy over Gaines Adams too, who never showed much on the field. Now he is raving about Anderson who has only been a disappointment since his rookie season.

In seasons which Alex Brown was the full time starter, he has gotten between 5.5 - 7 sacks, and 44-58 tackles. Just incredibly consistent. The two years he wasn't a full time starter was his rookie year in 2002 n which he had 40 tackles and 2.5 sacks, and 2007 (41, 4.5). So we can say with confidence he is likely to have at least 40/5. Why would you just give that up? For Mark Anderson and Israel Idonije?

Here's what I'd do. Keep around Alex Brown this year and give Anderson some opportunity at more playing time. If Anderson proves worthy, you have situation going forward where you have options. You could split their playing time 50/50 or go completely with the younger Anderson. I mean, who is going to be our #3 DE if we let go of Brown? Melton? I guess Idonije and Gilbert can play some DE too, but they also play DT.

Brown is one of my favorite players. They should keep him around. If they really need to free up more money for a safety, I'm sure there's other dead weight laying around that we could get rid of.

Yea Spikes was a guy I would have considered for the Ravens, but his stock has dropped too far to justify it in the 2nd. Guy is slow.

Well at this point I wish I would have went CB in round one. Anyways: Ravens select Jerome Murphy, CB, South Florida http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8ssNdLxsaxU/SlNs3RO09ZI/AAAAAAAAEkM/ac53XaKBaWE/s400/HZSUJHOMWYEGGGH.20080612142747.jpg

Rose is in playoff mode, its that simple. Oh and f Pargo.

You know what they say, "don't drink and draft."

Nice pick up, I was hoping he'd fall to the Ravens, but that would have been a big steal. At this point, there aren't going to be any good options for the Ravens at a position of need. There are a couple of really nice players falling though. I had pegged 3 who were dropping too far, and Gronkowski was one. By the way, he's from Arizona though.

Ah that was gonna be the top choice for raw and i. I think we've agreed on a fallback however. Steelers select Brandon Ghee, CB, Wake Forest http://media.gatewaync.com/wsj/photos/2008/10/16/wffb.jpg I PM'd ELCABALLO45.

You say it like "strippers on the pitcher's mound for the 7th" is a bad thing? Well presumably it would require a pole to be installed, and then we'd be even worse than the Astros.

So I don't keep track of this thread too much, so not sure if there has been much talk about the pick swap with Milwaukee. Here's a breakdown I did of the draft slots from RealGM. Okay, so theres a lot of whining going on about this pick swap. Here is a simple statistical breakdown of the 11th pick vs the 17th pick, where we may end up. Actually its the 18th pick as of today I think, but I didn't realize that until I collected all my data. Oops. It works still. And I'll admit that the 17th pick will likely look better than the 18th pick. This wasn't a bias, I swear. Anyways I tracked GP, Career PER, and All Star Appearences. I went back to 1980. 11th Pick: Avg: 560 GP, 13.9 PER, 15 All Star Appearances (none since Allan Houston 1992) 17th Pick: Avg: 375 GP, 12.25 PER, 12 All Star Appearances (JON - 5, Kemp 6, Granger 1) 1980 is a long time to go back though. There were 23 teams then. The 11th pick then was more like a 14th pick now. The 17th was more like a 22nd now. Not a huge difference. But there are other large changes. Theres a huge influx of International player. There was the high school era, followed by the NBA Age Rule. Expansion teams, etc. I chose 2002 as a cutoff date to track recent picks. Somewhat arbitrary, but I did it because that is the most veteran #11 pick still active (Jarred Jeffries). GP is an odd thing to track because it was intended as a measure of longevity, and these players are active. We'll still include it though (it may give some analysis to how quickly a player will make an impact). 11th Pick since 2002: Avg: 257 GP, 11.99 PER, 0 All Stars 17th Pick since 2002: Avg: 229 GP, 13.79 PER, 1 All Star Also since the focus on recent trends is more important I will include the averages from all picks from 11-18 (GP, PER, All Star) 11: 257, 11.99, 0 12: 191, 11.23, 0 13: 192, 12.01, 0 14: 268, 13.13, 0 15: 187, 11.85, 0 16: 181, 10.34, 0 (*note* really hurt by Troy Bell's 6 GP and -4.5PER, without him: 206, 12.46) 17: 229, 13.79, 1 18: 192, 13.9, 2 Disclaimers: I'm not saying the 18th pick is better than the 11th pick. Past results don't dictate future results. This is a very limited analysis, and in no way meant to be all encompassing. I'm not trying to defend the pick swap. But it is still damn interesting.

Yes! The Patriots are another team I could see going for Tebow. Mainly because of Belichick and the fact that they have 3 or 4 picks in the first two rounds. Agreed. Also just realized I have three 2nd rounders not just two. Man Belichick loves the draft. And I'd put money on them trading down and acquiring even more picks. I'd also put money on them taking Tebow, if he's around in the second round, and someone really good hasn't fallen.

I'd go as far to say that the stats don't mean anything. Some of these guys have only around 20 at bats. A bloop single here, or a strong line drive that was stolen can make a big difference in statistics. So I don't think the spring training stats matter at all.