soccer10k

That's a signal that some of the AP people didn't really watch some of the games either. To have 20 voters change their mind on LSU-USC based on yesterday's games? I don't see it. I watched USC look really bad, but LSU looked pretty bad themselves yesterday. I really like the jump to #6 for South Florida though. For what they've done so far, they deserve that ranking for now. Who knows how close those voters had them in the first place. I mean, if those voters had it basically as a coinflip, yesterday could have been enough to push them the other direction. Plus, it is tough to watch all the games and I'm sure the AP voters make a much better attempt than the coaches do. And with so many other good games and upsets yesterday, I can't really fault them for not watching LSU-Tulane and just looking at the box score. Obviously you are going to get some AP voters who don't really do their homework but I still put way more stock in that poll.

Well, except those will be save situations which he is good in. Which are those? It seems sort of silly to me that people think there's some sort of meaningful distinction between his relative success with 1, 2, and 3 run leads and his repeated failures in tie games. Do you think he pitches differently when the game is tied in the ninth inning than he does when it's a 1, 2, or 3 run lead in the ninth inning? The distinction is utterly absurd. The role of the closer, right or wrong, is to come into the game in the ninth with a 1-3 run lead. When Dempster does that, he is a very good pitcher and the numbers back this up. When he comes in when the game is tied or with a 4+ run lead, he isn't very good. I have total faith in Dempster to pick up the save if he's brought in with a 1 to 3 run lead. However, if he's brought in with a 4+ run lead or a tie game, I have faith in him to give up runs. Also, non-save situations aren't restricted to tie games as they include any lead over 3 runs. If you don't think a pitcher pitches differently with a big lead than he does with a 1 or 2 run lead you're crazy.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankingsindex New polls out and LSU has jumped USC for the top spot although it's only by 2 points in the AP Poll. Top 5 is the same for both with LSU, USC, Cal, OSU, Wisc as the top 5. Reason #293847 why nobody should ever look at the coaches poll: Florida is still ranked #7 ahead of Kentucky and South Florida. AP Poll, on the other hand, has South Florida, BC, Kentucky 6 through 8 with Florida 9th.

We're going to get killed in the Fargo Dome.

Well, except those will be save situations which he is good in.

NL ROY: Ryan Braun AL ROY: Dustin Pedroia NL MVP: Prince Fielder (changed my mind in the last couple days) AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez NL MOY: Lou Piniella AL MOY: Eric Wedge AL CY: Josh Beckett NL CY: Jake Peavy

Because Ned Yost should win it. :wink:

right... which sucks cause that's 10:30 here in NY Move to the West Coast.

It's like 2006 all over again.

unless the brewers and nationals can be spoilers... plus...it is still early in that game...i know it sounds unrealistic, but the mets could conceivably come back... Won't matter. If the Mets and Phillies both lose, the WC will either be the Padres or Rockies which means the Cubs would still play Arizona. The only way the Cubs won't play the D-Backs is if the both the Phillies and Mets make the playoffs (which would require both teams to win today).

Mets getting killed right now so it's looking like, at the most, there could only be two one game playoffs between the Mets and Phillies (for the NL East) and for the NL WC (Rockies and Padres) which would both take place on Monday. But with the Mets losing they won't be able to tie for the WC which is nice because the Cubs' first round series wouldn't get pushed back.

<3 Soriano. Please keep it up in the playoffs.

Since I'm hoping there isn't a complete logjam for the NL East and the WC so two or three extra days aren't needed to play the games out (please don't push back Game 4) I'm hoping either the Padres win or, like appears to be happening, either the Mets or Phillies (or both) lose.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070929&content_id=2239774&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc&partnered=rss_chc Thanks (to Raisin as well). This I'm okay with.

As of now South Florida has only beaten 1 ranked team since Auburn dropped out. They might jump back into the polls on the heels of this win against Florida but right now they're not so you can't count that. But it's still a very good win going to Auburn and winning. And the WVU win was impressive as well. The problem with LSU is that they haven't done anything on the road. They've beaten Mississippi State and Tulane. They also killed an obviously overrated Virginia Tech team (at the time the two teams played) and beat a decent South Carolina team. But both those games were in Death Valley. Cal at least has a very good road victory when they beat Oregon yesterday. Same goes for USC in going to Nebraska and posting a dominating victory. While I don't think Nebraska is as good as Oregon, USC's victory was much more convincing so that makes up for it. Though USC also struggled against Washington though it was on the road. Like I said about BC, I'm always going to be skeptical because they play in the ACC. Kentucky beat an apparently overrated Louisville team (namely the defense) and a decent Arkansas team. They play at South Carolina and host LSU and Florida in the upcoming weeks. Missouri hasn't played anybody but in the next two weeks they host Nebraska and play at Oklahoma so we'll quickly find out how good of a team they really are. Wisconsin has struggled at times and they also haven't played anybody - no, I don't think Michigan State is all that great yet. I've fallen into the MSU trap before only to see them fall flat on their faces. Wisconsin does get the benefit of the doubt because they were a very good team last year and returned almost all of their starters. I'd still stick with my top-5 but South Florida would probably be tied with Wisconsin for fifth (I, admittedly forgot about them when making my top-5 earlier). You could put either fifth and the other sixth and I wouldn't have a problem with it.

He'll just throw a couple of innings a la a side session. He'd be on 8 days rest before Game 2 otherwise. Ok. So nowhere near what Rich did today then I assume.

WGN and then Sammy.

Is it on the Cubs' broadcast or the Reds'? You can see it better on the Reds'. I just saw the Sportscenter highlight using CSN's broadcast and they didn't zoom in as far. I put my hands up because I was celebrating the homer, then the ball bounced into my row so I made a reach for it. You can see me if you're looking for the tall guy with blue sleeves. :D THE CUBS WON THE SOAP DROPPING NL CENTRAL DIVISION :) I tried looking again on MLB.TV but I couldn't see you.

So are the Cubs actually going to start Lilly tomorrow? I understand going with Hill today since he, at the earliest, wouldn't pitch until Game 2 which would be on normal rest and likely won't start until Game 3. But if Lilly pitches today he'll be on 3 days rest before game 2 on Thursday.

A couple thoughts on the weekend's games: -Holy crap with the upsets. I can't remember a weekend that had this many top teams going down. Five of the top 10 and 7 of the top 13 lost today. Amazing day. In addition to that, I was shocked by how many home teams struggled. We see top teams get upset and played tight all the time but generally it's on the road. And I understand that with conference and rivalry games, that can happen and does all the time. But Florida, Texas and Rutgers all lost at home and Wisconsin nearly joined them. -Disappointed that West Virginia lost and, while it would be easy to say they did because Pat White got hurt, I'm not going to do it. South Florida apparently has their number and kudos to them. Also disappointed Rutgers lost and it appears the Big East isn't as strong as I thought (damn you Louisville). I'd now rank them right on par with the Big 10 and Big 12. -I'm really, really hoping that Cal and USC win out until their matchup in Berkeley on November 10. That would be an absolutely amazing matchup. And, this isn't a thought, rather a note about ESPN. They showed a stat that said today's loss was "The most lopsided loss for Texas in 10 years under Mack Brown." Uh, ESPN, did you forget the 2000 and 2003 Red River Shootouts in which Texas lost 63-14 and 65-13?

Damn straight! Thirded dudes. Fourthed!

I could see some of the pollsters putting BC or UK ahead of Wisconsin but there's no way that Florida, Oklahoma and West Virginia are ahead of them. Personally, my top 5 would be: LSU USC Cal OSU Wisconsin If UK can go to South Carolina next week and beat them, then I'll believe they're for real and BC is still in the ACC. EDIT: Like Ping said earlier, we're going to find out a lot about UK over the next three weeks.

Baseball season now, baseball season now, etc.

This is just like the idiot Fresno State guy who fumbled into the endzone reaching for the pylon against Texas A&M. It's first down you idiots and you'll have the ball at the one. Just hold onto it and try to push your way into the endzone and if you don't get there, ball is at the one. I'm not sure if Oregon had any timeouts left but it appeared in the one replay I saw that the Oregon player was going to go out of bounds or not. But the Fresno State play was worse because that was in overtime so they didn't have to worry about the time at all.

Yes sir and I'm looking up plane tickets right now. I think I'm actually sitting with you for Game 4, vance.