Soxbadger

Yes. http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/SportSele...p;Q_SEASON=2008 But when you look at OSU's schedule even if they lose to USC, they most likely wont lose another game. (Oct 04 at Wisconsin and Nov 15 at Illinois are the 2 hardest away games). So even if they lose to USC at USC, they still can win every game and still probably get their rematch in the NC.

If I had to venture a guess, OSU and USC would be playing in the title game next year. Pac 10 just blows so unless USC chokes against a team like Stanford again you might as well just pencil them into the title game because the Pac-10 is becoming a joke in terms of conference depth. OSU will return basically everyone from a team that this was supposed to be their "off year". If you look back to the start of the year most experts said it would be next years OSU team that really was dominating, so the fact that they already are in the NC game is scarey. As for the Big 10, it will most likely be a down year. OSU should be better, Wisconsin will be better, Illinois will be worse, PSU will be worse, and my gut feeling is that Michigan will be worse as well. Im not that impressed with the Big 12 though. OK their "top team" got smoked by a Big East school. Kansas played against a team representing what appears to be the worst conference (BC barely beat an unranked MSU team). Id say that the SEC will be the best conference next year, followed by a bunch of conferences with 1-2 good teams and a bunch of mediocre.

Congrats KU. Pretty sure most people thought youd lose this one.

1. Cleveland and Detroit arent light years ahead of anyone. Both teams have question marks. Also baseball is very fickle, a team can win 90 2 years in a row and then win only 70 with almost the exact same team... 2. Yes I read the thread. But Bearsox is not a scout. He is posting hearsay which is completely unreliable. You cant just rely on the statements of other people as gospel. 3. Thanks for proving my point. The Red Sox traded Sanchez and Hanley for Beckett. They won a world Series based on that trade. Hanley and Sanchez would be two of the White Sox best prospects in the history of the team, and they were traded for a player who had never pitched over 200 innings in the NL. And Garland was a Cubs prospect. Who is the last White Sox pitcher the Sox drafted and was home grown like DLS or Gio.... Cant take credit for some one elses scouting department.

How do people think that we could have done this trade without DLS? Im sure he was the most important piece. It wasnt like: Sox: Were interested in Nick Swisher A's: We like Gio and Sweeney, any chance you could sweeten it a little more? Sox: Sure why dont you take our top prospect. My guess is that the A's were asking for more than the 3 spects we gave away, they probably wanted guys like Fields etc. Kenny could have probably traded DLS and Fields.... But that would be way worse.

Nice work, this place has come along way and I would say should be the example for any fan message board on how to make it work.

No Rock and Soxfan, You dont understand As soon as a player is no longer a spect they are old and declining. Because Quentin, Fields, Swisher, Danks arent spects anymore they are old and on the downside of their careers.

So what hes not a long term CF most likely. He can play 3 other positions which the White Sox will have a need for in the upcoming 2-3 seasons (LF, RF, 1B) so perhaps he plays out of position 1 season. Big deal, Swisher is now one of the most talented players on the White Sox. I assume you are a professional scout or Dr to make a conclusion like this. Top 10 spects by BA in 2006 http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/featu...s/whitesox.html 1. Bobby Jenks, rhp 2. Brian Anderson, of 3. Ryan Sweeney, of 4. Josh Fields, 3b 5. Jerry Owens, of 6. Robert Valido, ss 7. Ray Liotta, lhp 8. Lance Broadway, rhp 9. Francisco Hernandez, c 10. Sean Tracey, rhp As you can see its very hard to say that any 3 spects 2-3 years later would drastically devastate a team. Thats a horrible idea. The White Sox would lose all the gains they made by winning the World Series within 2-3 seasons. They would go back to being a second class team and the place would be empty. Not to mention the Marlins trade for MLB ready spects. Gio, DLS, and Sweeney were not those types. If anything Swisher is more of a player the Marlins would want, young, cheap, signed for years, and already proven. Maybe it doesnt, but it makes it much easier for the Sox to put themselves over the edge. Right now if the Sox can get 1-2 consistent durable pitchers they will win a lot more games. Its a work in progress, but to say right now that things dont look better for the Sox for now and the future is kind of silly. Who was the last top 10 Sox pitching prospect to be an All-Star?

I dont understand why people are so sure O-Cab will hit 2. Who cares if they brought him in to bat 2nd, thats not how this team is set up right now. If Swisher bats first you are taking one of your best hitters and reducing his ability. It would have been like saying Big Frank should bat first. He had a high obp, etc. But you want him to drive in runs. The reason O-Cab will lead off is that there is just no other options barring a trade. Why you would sacrifice Swisher's effectiveness when we just traded our top 3 prospects for him would be stupid. And Chisoxfn is right, just because they are our top 3 spects doesnt mean crap. If you have 7 people who all hit under .250, three of them are still going to be the "top hitters". So does that mean you couldnt trade them?

Thats why he wont be hitting first.

Well the only legitimate lead off options the Sox have in the starting line up as of right now are Richar and O-Cab. You are not going to put Swisher with a slugging of 60 points higher ahead of Cabrera. Not to mention O-Cab stole 20+ bases the last 2 seasons, and has put up over .280 ba and .330 obp in both seasons. As a comparison the year the Sox won the WS Pods was 290 .351 So O-Cab cant lead off over a measly .01 obp?

How did the White Sox trade their future? Even the most optimistic White Sox fan could really only believe that of the three spects traded, only 1 likely has a chance to be an All-Star or better caliber player. So we traded 3 younger unproven guys for 1 young proven player. How does that hurt the future?

I dont really love the idea of Swisher leading off, id rather go with a guy like O-Cab. Has a better avg, but lower obp, slightly faster. Also Swisher can wear down the pitcher for guys like Thome and Konerko.

No one is even mentioning Swisher kills LHP... The Sox kind of need that. Also yes the Sox paid a lot, but they paid for a player who is already putting up top 10 numbers in certain categories at the age of 27. In a risk reward for a team like the Sox who has money to spend unlike the A's, Swisher is a much more valuable rebuilding tool because there is almost 0 risk that he wont be a solid player for the next 4-5 years. There is a chance that Gio, DLS, and Sweeney never even make a significant contribution.

Steve, You could keep Dye, Thome, Konerko for this year pretty easily. The question is how would you set the line up with those 3 and Swisher. Because of Swishers patience and the fact hes a switch hitter, I some what feel the Sox may try him in the 2 hole with O-Cab leading off. 1. O-Cab 2. Swisher 3. Thome 4. Konerko 5. Dye 6. Fields 7. AJP 8. Quentin 9. Richar You sacrifice a little speed the first time through the order, but after that you have Richar at 9 so should he get on O-cab becomes the 2 and it sets up the offense nicely. The question now is what do with Crede, and my guess is trading him for pitching spects.

Swisher played 59 games in CF last year. Also even though his BA is was only .262 his obp was .381. He drew 100 bbs last year and should benefit moving out of the A's stadium. Its hard to trade our top 2 pitching spects, but I really do not have faith in the Sox pitching spects due to our past history so my guess is that in 3 or 4 years Sox fans will be very happy that Swisher is a Sox player.

This isnt going to be something that can be answered on a message board in my opinion. The problem is without the document its almost impossible to know how the split of the 6 heirs was set up. Are they tenants in common, are they joint tenants? Depending on the answer to that question you will get a strikingly different result. Also as you said this is Iowa, so I really dont know anything about Iowa law. Also just as a disclaimer, this does not constitute legal advice.

It sucked to see Wisconsin lose, but at the same time I was sitting in the front row of the Wisconsin end zone student section for half the game and got to see (and even meet) some of the parents of the players from Wisconsin. It was a hard game to lose because I think at the end of the day the coach did a disservice to the players. Vols won, I think it could have gone the other way, but thats life I congratulate them and apologize to the unfortunate ones who had to sit next Wisconsin fans. I dont think they realize that while the chants may appear to be mean spirited, they are just more for fun. Some of the most famous are chanted from 1 student section to another, so its actually Wisconsin fans swearing at other Wisconsin fans. At a bowl game where there is another conference that is not used to it, I think it comes off as way more abrasive. Also I hope that they realize that during the game its nothing personal, but we are bitter enemies with any team we face so we arent exactly offering quarter. Now if it was a Big 10 team things would be slightly different because those are much more intense battles. For a second I thought that PJ Hill wasnt going to be run down, and I really had to question the SEC speed.

Didnt get home in time to see Wisconsin game, just have seen highlights. I guess people will know the name Jon Leur now.

Well Im going to Tampa, and never even really considered going to Austin. But if Wisconsin was in the Sweet 16, and it was a time I could get days free or plane tickets, etc, then id probably go to that as well. For most Wisconsin fans, football comes first. When it was a possibility Wisconsin was going to the Alamo bowl people were talking about going to that and then seeing the basketball team. Not to mention Ive never been to a Wisconsin basketball game, but had season tickets to football... Even worse, Wisconsin has played in Chicago a few times and Ive never gone either.

Wisconsin beats Texas in Austin. Texas has now lost both of its games to Big 10 teams. And Hughes didnt even play today.

And damn Wisconsin could have used Darius.

In Soxtalk bowl match up I picked MSU for the upset but they just couldnt pull it off for me.

MSU giving BC all it can handle...

In Tampa. And I probably wont even remember the game the next day.