Magnetic Curses

Because he knows how to walk fine mechanically. No matter how many times you get surgery or other medical help if you keep doing something wrong after it's going to be hurt again. I'd be thrilled to see Kerry ready and pitching by mid-April or May and for him to stay healthy. i don't see why he won't be able to be ready by the 3rd week of april. he sounds fine to me. I hope so Sully. I just don't want him to rush and come back too early thus getting hurt and being out for the rest of the year. I'm also curious on how much of a workout he does in the off season because if he is out of shape it'll take longer IMO. hendry seemed pretty excited about how he was throwing the ball earlier. i can't believe a knee scope will set him back to may. i think he'll make 30 starts this year.

Because he knows how to walk fine mechanically. No matter how many times you get surgery or other medical help if you keep doing something wrong after it's going to be hurt again. I'd be thrilled to see Kerry ready and pitching by mid-April or May and for him to stay healthy. i don't see why he won't be able to be ready by the 3rd week of april. he sounds fine to me.

i don't have a problem going into the season with rex, orton, and blake again. i like mccown a lot, though.

i think juan's pitch-recognition leaves a lot to be desired. if he was better at it, or could slightly alter his game to become better at recognizing pitches, he'd hit for more power and he'd take more walks. when sammy went to the toe-tap method under pentland and quit trying to live on bat-speed alone, he became a much more productive hitter. he began picking the zones in which he would swing at pitches. his strikeouts still came, but his walks went way up, and his power exploded (call it steroids if you want). i don't think it's too much of a stretch to ask such a "hardworking, self-made player" like pierre to work on his game in that manner. it seems he would be willing to make himself better- and taking errant pitches that he would normally foul off isn't tweaking his game too much. i wouldn't ask him to stop stealing bases-just to start working harder at learning how to steal them. he's faster than say.....carlos beltran, probably, yet beltran seems to be a much smarter baserunner given his efficiency rates. beltran makes the steal and incredibly effective weapon, pierre could do that, considering he's one of the "hardest working players in the game". in summation- pierre needs to: 1. shrink his strike zone or work on pitch recognition so he's not slapping at juicy fastballs and flicking the bat at bad pitches. driving a nice pitch into the gap and taking third based on his superior speed would be a valuable improvement--as would walking down to first base after not swinging at a terrible pitch instead of fouling it off. 2. improve his effectiveness on the basepaths by becoming a smarter baserunner. i don't think that's too much to ask of him, given his tendency to hard work.

it obviously has something to do with MSU laying a big fat egg in conference play, despite the contributions of "The Big Three". what a joke. Am I taking crazy pills here? Can you say with a straight face that those two outperformed Davis? Wisconsin disappointed in the Big 10 too, let's get Horner in there instead of Tucker. brunner looks like some dude i knew back in high school who was always trying to smuggle beakers out of the chemistry lab. that is all.

this topic makes me want to slap my mama.

it obviously has something to do with MSU laying a big fat egg in conference play, despite the contributions of "The Big Three". what a joke.

agreed. The white guy at the end of the bench the last 2 or 3 years has the same winning % as Brown. So what? are you kidding me? the fact that brown has been the team leader for 4 years (and no, to folks who don't know much about the illini but seem to think they do, deron wasn't ever the leader), playing a majority of the minutes and often dictating the pace of the games means nothing? i guess to you he's about as responsible for the team wins as some walk-on, though. hating. Sorry, but I can't believe any fellow Illinois fan would say that Dee was the leader last year. I believe Dee was not the leader last year, and I'd argue that there were three "leaders" ahead of Dee last year. Yeah, Dee is the media darling but he wasn't the leader of that team last year, in my opinion. I would put Derron, Roger and Jack Ingram (leader of the role players) ahead of Dee last year. In fact, as I've stated before, I believe if you switch Derron for Dee this year we would only have one or two losses. I also think if Dee was a true leader, he'd find some way to have made Augustine and Randle better this year. It's inexcusable that Augustine doesn't average 16 or 17 pts a game and Randle 10-12 pts per game. Dee is the leader this year, but only by default (Williams not being there). dee has overwhelmingly been the leader of the team since he stepped on campus. emotionally, motivationally, and play-style. deron may be the better player, and that's not what i'm arguing, but dee has been the leader of this team for four years. one of dee's primary attributes is the respect that he commands from his teammates--put on top of that the fact that he voted the BTPOY and DPOY last year and it's not even close.

agreed. The white guy at the end of the bench the last 2 or 3 years has the same winning % as Brown. So what? are you kidding me? the fact that brown has been the team leader for 4 years (and no, to folks who don't know much about the illini but seem to think they do, deron wasn't ever the leader), playing a majority of the minutes and often dictating the pace of the games means nothing? i guess to you he's about as responsible for the team wins as some walk-on, though. hating. If Dee had been surrounded by different players throughout his career, his Win column total would probably be different. I don't care if he controls tempo, refills the water bottles, and presses Weber's orange blazer before every game--wins can't be attributed to Dee (or any single player.) And for the record, while I hate the Illini, I like Dee Brown. I think he's a very good college player. it's that way with every college player and team, but to assert that some walk-on at the end of the bench is as responsible for the team's victories as dee is absolutely ridiculous. why is it so hard to agree with me on this one? what on earth would cause you to hate the illini?

I'm going to preface this by saying that I didn't see the second half yesterday, nor have I looked at the box score, just the final on a ticker. Dee Brown is overrated. He's not a very good scorer at all, 55th of 58 B10 players in PPWS. He's a very good defender, and he does a good job of not turning the ball over and distributing, but in all honesty he doesn't belong on the B10 first team. Now, feel free to say that I hate Illinois and all that it stands for, and that I'm bitter about yesterday or the season or whatever. you are bitter. the fact that MSU just can't seem to get over the hump against Illinois really inflames you, doesn't it? Dee has been atrociously inefficient this year offensively. The rest of his game has been outstanding, though, and has carried the team through several games this year, including last Saturday. If he was an efficient scorer, he'd have to be a unanimous all-Big Ten choice. As it is, he's probably Illinois' best choice, even over Augustine who, while great, is maddeningly inconsistent. Dee's best asset is the ability to affect the game in a positive way even when he's not scoring at an effective pace. and i never said he wasn't inefficient shooting the ball. something he will have to work on before the draft. but anyone who saw the second half of the MSU game could tell you what he's capable of when shooting the ball effectively.

I'm going to preface this by saying that I didn't see the second half yesterday, nor have I looked at the box score, just the final on a ticker. Dee Brown is overrated. He's not a very good scorer at all, 55th of 58 B10 players in PPWS. He's a very good defender, and he does a good job of not turning the ball over and distributing, but in all honesty he doesn't belong on the B10 first team. Now, feel free to say that I hate Illinois and all that it stands for, and that I'm bitter about yesterday or the season or whatever. you are bitter. the fact that MSU just can't seem to get over the hump against Illinois really inflames you, doesn't it?

agreed. The white guy at the end of the bench the last 2 or 3 years has the same winning % as Brown. So what? are you kidding me? the fact that brown has been the team leader for 4 years (and no, to folks who don't know much about the illini but seem to think they do, deron wasn't ever the leader), playing a majority of the minutes and often dictating the pace of the games means nothing? i guess to you he's about as responsible for the team wins as some walk-on, though. hating.

The Bears have gotten good CB much later than where they are now. A "plug and play" CB isn't going to be any better than what they have now. if the best we can do is johnathan joseph, i'd rather take pope or lewis.

Why a veteran? I just want a good corner. The best aren't going to be available in free agency. Most of these guys are either past their prime, and/or have similar problems as the Bears guys. I'd love to get a good young corner out of the draft. It's a young man's position anyway, like RB. a corner that we get at our pick will probably have to be developed, i'm still a little gun-shy from the walt harris draft. i want a plug-and-play CB.

why is steve stone laughing? because he blames everything on mechanics? i respect stone as an announcer, but he's no more an expert than any pitching coach in MLB.

isn't there some way we can trade up to take davis? please tell me there is.

boy, dee came to play yesterday, didn't he? huge game, huge win, maybe we can stop all the talk about dee being overrated. i understand there are a lot of people out there who absolutely hate the illini and malign any success they may have, but let's give credit where it's due. MSU didn't play poorly and the illini still beat them fairly handily on their home court. illinois is a #2, if they're not, it's a crime.

I'd want more strikeouts and fewer walks. He gets a good amount of K's, but it's well below the number that dominant closers have. I'd say Joe Bo was better in 2003. Joe didn't walk guys and struck out a few more. yeah, i'd like to see at least a k per inning from him, but his GB/FB ratio is completely ridiculous. just considering that, i doubt he's a fluke.

dempster gets a lot of strikeouts and a ton of groundballs, i'm not sure what you want out of him. he was about as rock-steady as any cubs closer has ever been last season.

i say go CB and move peanut to safety, let him fight it out with chris harris. i'd almost give ty law a look, he's a physical playmaker--that's what we've built our defense on.

i get the idea that the book on prior is to actually attempt to foul pitches off. it just seems like hitters, when they get behind in the count against him, just try to foul pitches off until he walks them or serves up something somewhat hittable. How is that different from any other pitcher? i don't know.

i get the idea that the book on prior is to actually attempt to foul pitches off. it just seems like hitters, when they get behind in the count against him, just try to foul pitches off until he walks them or serves up something somewhat hittable.

i like the idea of hitting your best hitter first and your "leadoff" hitter last.

It depends on the two players. If the Bulls traded Gordon and Deng plus their two first rounders for Garnett, would the resulting team be any better? Or would it be a borderline playoff team with a superstar? Seems more like the latter to me. Ford's suggested trade of Deng and the two first rounders for Garnett appeals, though. Garnett-Chandler-Noch-Gordon-Hinrich -- yep, that would work. skiles would probably play songaila over garnett in 4th quarters, though. Sulley's quest against Skiles is laughable. This team has the pieces and assets to make a run for a title in a few years. i'll believe it when i actually see a skiles-led team make a title run.

i renew my objection to z pitching in this terrible thing.