Soxbadger

They view everyone on the team as superior options to Thome, why would you just burn money? As I said before, what my eyes told me last year was that Kotsay was the more dangerous hitter. You have to trust yourself. My guess is that Ozzie saw something similar.

Over spent last season, have to get creative this season. Not to mention if a potential player became available during the season, Sox have shown the ability to get a deal done. Its just the nature of being aggressive, they spent a lot of cash for very little this year. Almost every business is going to take a more conservative approach after that happens. Id love it if they can print money, but I never expected the Sox to be a top 10 payroll team, so even when they are close I cant really get that upset.

White Sox 2010 is based on pitching. Kotsay gives Ozzie far more flexibility than Thome, considering Thome cant even play 1b. I know that a lot of you guys like him, but there is a reason why no one else is calling either.

I dont either. I just think from an eye test Kostay looked like he had more left last year. Maybe the numbers dont say it, but I felt more confident that hed do something productive at the pate. Could be dead wrong, but thats what I saw.

Its the DH spot. Given the injuries to White Sox players over the last few years, im not exactly sweating the idea of giving guys like Beckham, CQ, etc a day as DH and not take so much punishment. I more meant that Ozzie is betting big on not taking Thome just because it would cost the Sox so little to do it, and seemingly every one would be fine with it. He must really not want to have the pressure of playing Thome.

You cant be seriously saying that Andruw Jones and Kotsay hitting over 15 hrs together is a statistical improbability? Jones hit 17 last year in 82 games. Kotsay had 4 hrs. Seems like hyperbole to suggest that together they wont hit 15. I have to assume you meant they both wont hit 15, meaning its improbable (not sure why you need to throw "statistical" in there) that the tandem hits 30 hr. But then again Id say its improbable that Thome after hitting 24 hrs last year, hits 30 this year. Ill go on record as saying im fine with this decision, but if it completely backfires Ozzie has to take the heat. Hes got a hunch and hes betting big.

On the replay it almost looks like Brees fumbles it again. That is a strange challenge at this point in the game.

If I remember Ill definitely try. Id rather make it on Are You Smarter Than A 5th grader. That show is an easy $500k, just dont get greedy and go for the $1mil, those questions are impossible. Even Ken Jennings missed.

The premise of my argument was Big 12 was not the "hardest conference". I was not trying differentiating between 2, 3 or 4. Sorry if that was unclear. Although I still think that Big 12 may get the least bids of the conferences listed above, but tournament bids is a whole different argument.

Who said the Big 12 was the 4th best conference?

No it really isnt. Big 12 has 2 excellent teams KU and Texas, who could potentially meet in the National Championship game. The rest of the conference is a whole bunch of teams who have beat no one and played no one. There is a reason why the SOS rank for the conference is 6. But go ahead and believe what you want, the only people who will say that the Big 12 is the best conference are people who go to or went to a Big 12 school. I have no horse in this race, Im not saying that the Big 10 is the hardest, but I can come up with no objective rationale where the Big 12 is the hardest. ACC and Big East are harder than the Big 12, harder is top to bottom. Big 12 will not get the most tournament bids of any conference, they probably will get less than the Big East (doesnt really count due to size) but also less than ACC, Big 10. Big 12 will probably get the same amount of bids as SEC. But I guess that makes them the hardest conference??

There is no real good way to ever judge conferences. I just was wondering what would make anyone think Big 12 was #1? I can see arguments for a variety of different conferences, just Big 12 seems a stretch.

Nation's hardest conference? Big 12 has 2 National title contenders, 1 presumably good team (K-State) and then others. Id say the "hardest conference" right now is ACC or Big East. ACC has 4 ranked teams, Big East has 6. Even the Big 10 has 4 ranked teams. Just not sure by what objective standard Big 12 could be considered the "hardest conference". Its not #1 in RPI or Kenpom either. (In both of those ratings Big 12 is number 2, although in rpi has significantly lower SOS.)

Yeah it was pretty obvious. Some what surprised they didnt go after Jared Allen on those last run plays.

I hope he joins BTN after hes done with OSU.

Yeah Ill be getting FFXIII when its released. I bought FFVIII the other day through PS online and am trying to beat it before this one comes out. If successful it will mean that Ive beaten (American Versions only) II, III, VII, VIII, X, XII.

What?? Just because Brady Anderson had one fluke power season presumably on steroids, is not "clear proof". If anything it is "circumstantial evidence". Not to mention that Brady Anderson was an All-Star with an ops+ of 128, 4 years before hitting 50 hrs. In fact in only 1 year did Anderson have extreme power improvement and in only 2 years did he see batting average increases. So the better statement is: Based on Brady Anderson's career, there is no "clear proof" that steroids make you a better player. There is circumstantial evidence that it may improve your power, but then we would have to believe Anderson only took steroids for 1 year, and abruptly quit and that there is evidence that steroids have no impact on batting average, obp etc, only power as Anderson's stats from 96 and 97 are almost identical outside of 50 hrs compared to 18. These 2 paragraphs dont make any sense. Throwing a spit ball is not like holding. If you get caught throwing a spit ball you can be suspended. If you are caught holding, you are going to receive a penalty. The second paragraph is peculiar as well. Are you saying that they are different because they "illegal" to use in the United States? Or are you saying they are "illegal" to use in baseball? Its unclear. And what does it matter if its a clear "physical" (which its not clear, there is very little actual proof, mostly circumstantial and anecdotal evidence) advantage. Is there not a clear "advantage" in corking a bat, or throwing an illegal pitch, or using contacts that bring out the red laces on a ball? Um can a batter still not strike out? They still have to hit the ball, and hitting a hr isnt just as easy as "being strong" because if it was, baseball would be filled with the "worlds strongest men". If I went out today and started doing steroids, I would never become a mlb player. It would give me no advantage at all. There is a HUGE difference to you, because you are taking arbitrary and circumstantial evidence, and presenting it as FACT. You say "one offseason, become a guy who can knock out 20 easy." Who are these players? Its fine that you want to create a world where steroids are "bad" and all other forms of cheating are "okay if you dont get caught." Breaking the rules to gain an advantage is cheating. It doesnt matter if your caught or not, its cheating.

Its not about which is the better football school. Its about which school provides the better opportunity going forward. If I was a coach, I would have had serious reservations about leaving a solid job, for the uncertainty of USC. If USC had no baggage, then obviously USC >>>> UNC. Kiffin is the exact type of coach I figured they could nab. A super young coach who could have a career after the sanctions with USC. At Tenn Kiffin was a medium fish in a huge pond. At USC hes the big fish in a small pond, and if his plan is to make this a permanent stop, the only way he would ever have a shot was if USC was under a cloud. If USC had no questions, Kiffin isnt the next coach.

Isnt Butch Davis at UNC? Why would he leave for a job that has pending sanctions? Until the NCAA investigation is over, the USC job is only so-so.

Easy allow for much more flexibility in play calling and play design. For example, instead of having to swap a de or lb during play calling, I could create my own formations, whether it be a 5 lb set with no DE's, etc. Its always been frustrating that your locked into maddens play calling and formations. Or that some formations arent available in all playbooks etc.

If USC is facing a 5 year ban from postseason, your going to be looking at coaches who are on the decline, or a really young coach who is willing to take a 10 year contract.

When you see a coach like Carroll bolt pretty unexpectedly, its almost assured that something terrible is going to follow.

Depends on how you define cheating. To me, they are all bending the rules. Just like a spitball, just like steroids, just like HGH, just like stealing signs, just like using to much pine tar, just like wearing red contacts, etc etc. Im consistent, I think that all of them should be in the HOF. I dont care if they cheated (unless it was cheating to lose, then that can not be tolerated.) Cheating to win, while not encouraged, is allowable in my universe.

You mean MLB created rules to stop cheating? MLB at any point during Big Macs career could have had Olympic style drug testing. They purposefully did not, because they at best were ambivalent to steroid use, at worst they were supportive. Baseball didnt want to hurt Big Mac when he was making them millions, they just need to destroy him now so that A-Rod and other current players who cheated arent destroyed and unmarketable. This is about money, not about cheating or the game.

And what part of Big Mac's character is bad? Was it that he helped baseball come back from the dead? Was it that he took steroids with baseballs implicit okay? Was it all the money he gave to charity? Was it that he was the face of baseball in one of its darkest times? Outside of the smear campaign after he left baseball, what character issues did Big Mac have? Conversely, if "character" matters, then why is Ty Cobb in baseball? He attacked a fan in the stands. I guess "character" only matters when we are blackballing people.