CuseCubFan69

You're right about that. Texeira would have likely been considered as well. I wonder if Prior pitched for another organization if he would have remained healthy? I realize we'll never know.

I expected him to hit 260-280 and have a IsOP of over 70. He's done that. I'm sure many fans didn't think he was going to be a 320/400 guy. He's done a fine job and if the Cubs can find somebody better for SS in 2008 I'm all for it. I'm just happy they have a decent guy there and not a 220/260 dragging the team down in that position.

3/21 was an overpay, just becasue I can't see him getting offers that were close to that this offseason. However, his results have definitely been worth more than 7M a season. And I think Larry deserves a ton of credit for this. This is the point that get's lost in the shuffle too often. Larry has done a very nice job this year. How many guys have rotated in and out of that bullpen? What I think has helped Larry is that Curly and Moe were fired last year.

Am I the only fan that didn't know that Charleston Southern even had a football team? Why to go Hawaii. Texas A&M vs Miami will rid some doubts about both teams. I still think Michigan St is a team to watch along with Arizona St. I'd say Cincy but I'd be accused of being a BE homer! Texas has to step up and beat Rice, is Applegate their OC? Will this be a year that OSU doesn't really dominate but yet, wins all their games? They did a nice job at Washington and won 40-14, did they really crush them like that or did it get out of hand? I didn't watch any games this weekend and I was really interested in that game. Kentucky at Arkansas should be very interesting and Kentucky gets LSU and Florida at home later so this is a very big game for them. BC looks like they should steamroll through the ACC unless Clemson gives a match up problem in November. ND is killing a lot of teams SOS, especially the ones that really counted on them as their only good out of conference game. Louisville's D gets a big test this weekend against Syracuse. If they give up 20, they have an even worse defense than I thought. If they had a D they'd be incredible. The Cards may score 80 in this one. Oklahoma at Tulsa looks like fun. I give the Sooners some credit for going to Tulsa. Unless I'm mistaken, Tennessee is the only SEC team to play an out of conference away game out of 12 teams. That's amazing.

Syracuse is terrible and the worst team in our long long history. I'm glad that you Illinois guys are happy to be 2-1 but you just beat a team that is worse than Buffalo.

0-8 going into Navy. I've been following football for 15 years and have seen some real stinkbomb offensive lines, but ND 2007 takes the cake. Every single play (that I watched - I gave up 20 minutes in), there were three guys in the backfield. And Michigan's defense isn't even good. I really believe Charlie is doing everything he can, but when your entire starting lineup is freshmen and sophomores, everyone in the media is piling on you week in and week out, all the fans are sick of you, and on top of that you're getting your butts whipped, there's not much anyone can do. Even my borderline-ruthless taunting roommate recognized how scarring this season is going to be and didn't snipe at ND once yesterday. Which is good because if he had he'd probably be in a coma at the moment. Maybe Charlie needs some extra camera's to give the team a little boost at halftime? :D You're team is struggling while having a lot of 4 or 5 star freshman/sophs while Syracuse is doing so with 2 to 3 star recruits. Your offensive line is not doing well to say the least and that surprises me giving Charlie's expertise in that area.

Me too and it also seems to effect them the next time out too. I find it hard to believe that Z and Lilly on three days rest can be any worse than what we have seen from Marshall and Trachsel recently. I agree with that but worries me is will effect them and make them not as effective later? Thus, instead of having 2 pitchers you can count on, now you wonder if they will have anything left in the tank for their other starts. You also, if they (Z-Lilly) start to struggle, will put more of a strain on the bullpen. I'm a believer in keeping the rotation the way it is.

Me too and it also seems to effect them the next time out too.

Good wins by Kentucky (congrats Ping!), Ohio St, USC, LSU (dominating D), Michigan St, OK (Still playing well on both sides of the ball) and Florida. I still would like to see a SEC team play a good team away from home, and win. Surprised that UConn struggled against Temple not surprised that Texas struggled against a good UCF team. You can't spell sucks without SU, congrats on beating a 1AA team Illinois. Never have I had an SU team so untalented and poorly coached.

No but he certainly could help.

Getting there is the goal though and whatever happens after that could surprise you. Goofier things have happened in the Big 12 Championship game. Just keep getting better each week and have that one strange game when everything goes wrong and you still win.

Where did anyone say anything other than that? Hmm, I don't know. I just assumed that the previous posts wanted him to fail or get him out of baseball and I read what I wanted to read I suppose. I was wrong thinking that.

I hope you all are joking because the Cubs need Floyd to win this thing. I'm not saying as a full time starter but if he gets hot at this particular time I will be very pleased.

I thought Cuse was playing Illinois this week? Bingo! :wink: If they can contain Williams and he has a bad accuracy day they may have a chance. Slight, but still a chance. The Dome turf may help his speed and God knows we couldn't contain molasses.

Honestly, we're debating between what's above average and very good? :D Gotta have something to do, don't we? :D God love college football! Now if only Syracuse could be back in the mix again for me! Of course, they do play another cruddy Big 10 team! I'm not sure if I love or hate college football right now. The Tennessee/Florida game is in less than 24 hours and the outcome of that will likely dictate my view of college football for a while. I'm rooting for the Vols and then for Florida to beat LSU. It's too bad you guys don't get to play LSU. That's what I like about the Big East, everyone gets to play each other once. Ironically, not in hoops, go figure? Until this year that is. I'm curious on what teams will sneak up on us this year like Rutgers did last year. I knew they were young and good but I didn't think they were that good. Will it be Tigers Tigers or Bob's Hawkeyes as we all know that Yeti's App St team is pretty good! I do love the ND/Michigan game getting more publicity than about any other game. If they were both 2-0 they would have talked about it and if they were 1-1 the same and now that they both are 0-2...it just never ends. The GTech vs BC game is a heck of a lot bigger impact wise than that game in the scope of things.

Honestly, we're debating between what's above average and very good? :D Gotta have something to do, don't we? :D God love college football! Now if only Syracuse could be back in the mix again for me! Of course, they do play another cruddy Big 10 team!

Interesting statement. Are you saying this from the point of view of the scouts/coaches involved in the process or the initial quality/improvement of the players themselves? Given the context, I'm assuming you are saying that the coaches are an order of magnitude more important than the scouts. Which would seem to say one of two things: 1) coaches can turn water into wine (coaches are great and therefore 10x more valuable) or 2) with the occasional exception, it's so easy to tell a quality player from a bad one that scouts are pretty superfluous to the process (scouting is fairly irrelevant and therefore 10x less valuable). Is that a fair read? Yes, it's 2. I don't know if I would call them superfluous though. I think they serve an extremely important function. In a real sense, they are the initial "player developer". I think scounting is a real skill, but not necessarily a hard one to pick up. However, I tend to agree with Meph, How hard is it to pick in the top half of the first round? I guess I don't want that answer since I'm a Cubs fan, but again I think that has a lot to do with development and the nature of drafingt pitchers early too. I don't know CiNY. You give me dog crap to coach and I could maybe make it smell better or look prettier but it still would be dog crap.

Honestly, we're debating between what's above average and very good? :D

It sure was Soul. Now here's a Cub lollypop to make you feel better.

America needs more high paying jobs and adding 2 more teams would help the economy. Put me down as a yes in having 32 teams.

No Devine wasn't but that's all I've heard every time a BE team beats someone. They're having a down year or so and so was hurt or their the 7th best team in the league. And again, dismissing Maryland who was 9-3 and 2-0 this year goes with the turf. Are they Florida, no, but they sure are not Mississippi St either. And my point was that as freshman, White and Slaton ran by the best of the SEC and have continued to do so against whoever they have played. First off, Maryland was not 9-3 last year. They were 9-4 with losses to WVU, Ga Tech, BC and Wake Forest. Second, going 2-0 this year is not impressive in the least. They beat Villanova by 17 - a 1-AA team that finished 6-5 last year. They also beat Florida International who is possibly the worst 1-A team. That's not the least bit impressive. West Virginia is a legitimate National Championship contender. They are a great football team. I don't argue that point at all. But, you're not going to make the point by holding up a win over a very mediocre Maryland team. Better wins will come this season for WVU, don't try to make this look like anything more than it is - an easy win they should have had. I suppose what you think is easy and what I do are two different things. I agree that WV has to play better defense to have a chance to win this thing and it was a win they were favored to have but to dismiss it as easy, well I suppose semantics are involved. I'm curious on what you think a tough win would be? I'm not talking elite tough but a tough win against what you would consider a good team. Easy was probably the wrong word, but it was a game West Virginia should have won and should have won big. They did, and it's to their credit. It's not a huge win for the program, nor were they playing a "very good" football team. As for what a tough win would be, I would probably classify South Florida as a tough win. West Virginia should win the game, but I'll be surprised if they do it by more than a couple of scores. The Bulls aren't an elite team yet, but are very solid and will give anybody a good fight. Now a question for you. Why do you use Maryland's wins over Villanova and Florida International as reasons to refer to them as a "very good" team, and then chasitse other teams for playing mediocre 1-A teams - even though those mediocre teams are leaps and bounds better than Nova and FIU? I agree those wins by Maryland were of poor quality but I also looked at what they had coming back from their very good 9-4 and it pushed them into that territory. How many teams won 9 or more games last year? I think that pushes them over average.

No Devine wasn't but that's all I've heard every time a BE team beats someone. They're having a down year or so and so was hurt or their the 7th best team in the league. And again, dismissing Maryland who was 9-3 and 2-0 this year goes with the turf. Are they Florida, no, but they sure are not Mississippi St either. And my point was that as freshman, White and Slaton ran by the best of the SEC and have continued to do so against whoever they have played. First off, Maryland was not 9-3 last year. They were 9-4 with losses to WVU, Ga Tech, BC and Wake Forest. Second, going 2-0 this year is not impressive in the least. They beat Villanova by 17 - a 1-AA team that finished 6-5 last year. They also beat Florida International who is possibly the worst 1-A team. That's not the least bit impressive. West Virginia is a legitimate National Championship contender. They are a great football team. I don't argue that point at all. But, you're not going to make the point by holding up a win over a very mediocre Maryland team. Better wins will come this season for WVU, don't try to make this look like anything more than it is - an easy win they should have had. I suppose what you think is easy and what I do are two different things. I agree that WV has to play better defense to have a chance to win this thing and it was a win they were favored to have but to dismiss it as easy, well I suppose semantics are involved. I'm curious on what you think a tough win would be? I'm not talking elite tough but a tough win against what you would consider a good team.

I'm sure jerseycubfan would want one there instead but they'd still called New York of course.

I think the Cubs are going to make a big trade this off season thus shedding some salary and acquiring a hefty salary.

No Devine wasn't but that's all I've heard every time a BE team beats someone. They're having a down year or so and so was hurt or their the 7th best team in the league. And again, dismissing Maryland who was 9-3 and 2-0 this year goes with the turf. Are they Florida, no, but they sure are not Mississippi St either. And my point was that as freshman, White and Slaton ran by the best of the SEC and have continued to do so against whoever they have played.