soccer10k

What if instead of part of the body or the full body, they gave them a yard? That still prevents cherry picking, and won't force defenders to pack it in tight. Or maybe it would, like I said, I don't really know much about the game. I think that would make it exponentially harder to officiate, since most of the time it's one guy taking off in one direction and the other guy sliding forward in the opposite direction. Yeah, the one yard would make it much tougher because it's hard to tell what one yard is from 50 feet away. Right now either you are past the defender or not, which IMO makes it easier to call. You're right TT in that making it one yard would make offsides way harder to call. Maybe that's a good thing, with the blatant ones getting called and the close ones, that are more about one athlete beating another as opposed to cheating, only getting called sometime. But then again, why can't you just keep a ref back with the deepest players at all time. Sure that's tough in kid's leagues, but at higher levels it shouldn't be a problem, and that's where you'd want more crisp officiating anyway. The linesmen are supposed to be even with the last defender for each teams so they can make the offsides call.

What if instead of part of the body or the full body, they gave them a yard? That still prevents cherry picking, and won't force defenders to pack it in tight. Or maybe it would, like I said, I don't really know much about the game. I think that would make it exponentially harder to officiate, since most of the time it's one guy taking off in one direction and the other guy sliding forward in the opposite direction. Yeah, the one yard would make it much tougher because it's hard to tell what one yard is from 50 feet away. Right now either you are past the defender or not, which IMO makes it easier to call. You're right TT in that making it one yard would make offsides way harder to call.

First of all, anything as drastic as removing offsides isn't going to happen. The sport is wildly popular all over the world and the rules firmly entrenched, and I don't know of any widespread desire to eradicate offsides. Secondly, and most importantly, eliminating offsides would do the opposite of what you intend. Instead of the cat and mouse game of trying to time runs into open space, you'd have defenses that packed way in, and not doing nearly as much on the offensive side of the ball. So what you'd see would be even more conservative than the play you see with offsides. What about relaxing offsides as opposed to minimizing it? I don't understand the rule all that well, but from what I can tell, I agree with your theory of what would happen if it was eliminated. But what if you just gave a little more leeway to the offensive player? I've seen too many would-be exciting plays stopped by the rule, when all it really was was one player beating another. You shouldn't get punished for that. I don't really think there is a way to relax the rule so to speak. Either you are offsides or your aren't. There really isn't a middle ground that you could get rid off. I understand why a lot of people don't fully understand the rule because it is fairly complicated. I was a soccer referee for a few years and did youth leagues for ages from U-10 to U-14 and I routinely had parents that didn't understand the rule shouting at me because they didn't understand it. Offsides is a judgement call right now which is makes it hard to call and therefore creates controversy.

Hopefully not long enough to pass Aaron.

I'll have a drink for them.

But ultimately, he still doesn't have the production of a number of other pitchers. I'm not saying or arguing that Cain should win the Cy Young award. But I just don't agree at all that he shouldn't be in the discussion. If I had a vote, Carpenter would get it. Look at some of the other guys that have been mentioned: Truffle brought up Cain's 3.75 ERA as reason Cain shouldn't be in the discussion. Ok, so then why did you, vance mention Smoltz (3.71) in PRC and Capuano (3.66) in WS. DKWG mentioned Derek Lowe (3.77). KingCubsFan said Cain didn't deserve it but mentioned Brad Penny (4.04). And as I stated earlier, Cain has the second best OPSA in the National League, with Carpenter being the only pitcher better than Cain. Again, I'm not saying Cain should win it but saying he shouldn't even be in the discussion is ludicrous.

Well played.

Cain NL ranks in BAA/OBPA/SLGA/OPSA are 1st/tie 6th/1st/2nd. That's why he merits discussion.

I don't think he will return to the Cubs. He'll probably stay in LA.

Hopefully UC Davis will be able to continue it's I-AA dominance this year against Youngstown State leading up to their game of the year at Cal Poly on October 7.

At Ohio State? I would say that's a safe bet.

My best wishes go out to Lee and his family.

On the whole, I like what Jacque has done as a Cub.

Something I don't understand. Some people on this board don't like to use Batting Average as a statistic to evaluate a hitter (which I agree with) so why should Batting Average Against be used to evaluate a pitcher? Why aren't OBPA, SLGA, and OPSA used as well? Since they are used to evaluate hitters they should be used to evaluate pitchers as well. Carpenter has the best OBPA in the NL, the second best SLGA, and the best OPSA. He wins the Cy. I do think Cain deserves some mention in the Cy Young balloting and one could make a serious argument that Cain has been the best pitcher on the Giants this year.

We know what Joe Morgan would say.

The Cubs should keep Murton.

All I'm going to say for now is that Ohio State is #1. After that I would have, in no particular order, Auburn, WVU, USC, Michigan, Florida, Louisville, and Georgia.

I won't be watching this one because I unfortunately have to work tomorrow morning. The unfortunate part is that I don't get to sleep in and not that I don't get to watch the Cubs game.

I'm not trying to avoid eating crow, but I'm going to hold off on the all out praise of Hill for right now and am willing to say that I'm still not completely sold on him. I have watched some of his recent performances, he has pitched extremely well and has proven me very wrong. But what I want to see is him go through major league teams multiple times because that is when young pitchers tend to get hit harder. He should be guaranteed a spot in the rotation to start next year and shouldn't have to compete for a job (barring a horrible spring training of course). I don't want this to seem like I am coming down on Hill because he has definitely turned a corner and, as I said before, I am more than willing to admit that as of now I am wrong. But there are always rookie pitchers that are able to get hitters out for a while until teams build up a scouting report and the pitchers have to learn to adapt. One example I remember is Francisco Rodriguez. He was lights out in the playoffs in 2002 when Anaheim won the World Series but in 2003 he had a down year (for him of course) partly because teams realized that his curveball rarely ended up in the strike zone so teams would sit on the fastball and let the curve go by. He had to adjust to this - and has done so quite well - to become an effective pitcher. This is what I want to see from Hill. He is going to get hit and teams will start to figure him out. I want to see how he adjusts to this to keep the opposing hitters off balance. I certainly like the path he is currently on though. I wrongly jumped to a negative conclusion about Hill a few months ago so I'm hesitant to jump to a positive conclusion based on one good month and one stellar month.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this already because I didn't feel like reading most of the thread so I apologize if I'm repeating information. Rich Hill's game score today was 92 which ties Dontrelle Willis on 9/10 for the best game score in the National League this year. It is also behind only John Lackey with a 95 on 7/7 for best game score in all of baseball this year. =D> Rich Hill.

I don't think he'll get either Beltran money or years. I think Vance's prediction of 5/60-65 sounds about right. Since it's unlikely we unload Jones, I'm pencilling him in for RF for next year. I don't want to move Murton and think he will develop some more power so he's in LF. Put Soriano at 2B and you have a solid lineup. I also think Hendry will resign Pierre as well to play center and bat leadoff. Not that it's right, but I think that's what he will do.

As for domination on Saturday, you can witness it here. UC Davis dominated every single aspect of that game. In our two games against DI-AA opponents we have outscored them 83-7. I love it. Can't wait for the home games.

I think the referee most definately made the correct call. I don't see a difference between that play and the quarterback overthrowing a receiver by 10 yards. Either way the ball is uncatchable. You can't interfere with the pass if the pass wouldn't have been caught anyway.

If - and its a big if - things go right, ND could possibly have a chance to get in as a one loss team. I think this year may only see one undefeated team in OSU, WVU, or LU and all of those teams have a game or two they could easily lose. Of course its a long shot but I have to remain somewhat optimistic :D By LU I'm assuming you mean Louisville. WVU and LU still have to play each other this year so that eliminates one of them. And since you are assuming Notre Dame finishes with one loss, that means USC will lose a game. Aside from Ohio State (who I think will beat Michigan and run the table) the team(s) you are forgetting is the winner of the Auburn/Florida game. I think a one-loss Notre Dame could jump ahead of an undefeated WVU or Louisville because of the strength of schedule but they will not jump ahead of an undefeated SEC team.