ZoomSlowik

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 01:55 PM) Man, I wish I was here before that season started so I had some record of my ramblings at the time, but I was really pumped coming into that year. Really really pumped. Pumped enough that I spent the $150 on the MLB extra innings package that year for the first time, after not getting it the couple years beforehand. And as a broke grad student, that's a ton of cash. I was optomistic, I thought they were capable of winning the division, but I'll admit that by no strech of my imagination did I think they were going to win 99 and steam-roll through the playoffs, and I certainly didn't think it was a lock, not after the previous few years where it looked like they had better teams and still fell short.

QUOTE(ILoveThisGame @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 12:46 PM) I LOVE THIS POST!!!! Finally someone has come out and made some sense about this season. Someone's got MARBLES! Look this team is going to be dreadful to watch. Seriously, dreadful! How can anyone compare this to the 2005 season when we added speed, pitching, and defense! The 2005 team had five starters going into the season. We had Beuhrle, Contreras, Garland, Garcia, and Hernandez. We also added Luis Vizcaino to our bullpen for depth. Then we got rid of Lee and Ordonez. We added Podsednik for speed, Iguchi for defense and hitting, and Dye for hitting and defense. We had a team then. Now we have maybe 3 starters, inexperienced bullpen, and a lineup that we are going to count on to win games. The spring has told the story to this year. If Ozzie send our team to the minors to take on a double a team, you know we are in trouble. This team has no heart or confidence I believe at this point. And finally Kenny and Jerry what did you do to this team???????? We buy more tickets last year than any other year. The division is weaker this year more than last. We were literally one player short last year from winning probably another title. And you pissed it all away!! Thanks again Kenny and Jerry! Talk about some revisionist history. 2005 our offense looked awful going into the season, the closest thing we had to a real #3 hitter was a banged up Frank Thomas. We traded/let go of our two best hitters and replaced them with injury-prone Jermaine Dye and Crazy Carl Everett. That offense was far from a juggernaut, which is why it finished in the middle of the pack in runs. Whoopie, Pods could run, that didn't mean it was suddenly great. No one predicted that from our rotation either. Garland was widely consided a flop that was going to continue sucking (posted a 4.89 ERA the previous year), and no one knew what to expect from Contreras after his awful performance in New York (5.50 ERA the previous year). Plus El Duque was always hurt and people thought he might be done. The pen wasn't exactly considered a strength at the time either, Shingo was our closer and our best setup guys were Damaso Marte and Vizcaino, Hermanson, Politte, Cotts, and Jenks basically came out of nowhere. It looked decidedly mediocre, I'll take inexperienced over bad any day, especially when the back 3 have been as effective as Jenks, McDougal, and Thornton have been for some good stretches. As for the Spring thing, the 2005 Sox didn't exactly tear it up either, finishing 14-18. There's a reason that we were widely picked to finish 3rd or 4th. If you knew that type of season was coming, you're either Nostradamus or an incredible homer (not that I'm complaining that it happened ).

QUOTE(ChWRoCk2 @ Mar 24, 2007 -> 12:09 PM) Yeah I can see Young going pro, I dont think he will be a first rounder because this draft class is looking real deep. He's an athletic 6'6" guard that can shoot, he'll go in the first. FWIW, Chad Ford has him at #19, nbadraft.net at #9 (probably a little high ), and draft express has him at #17.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 22, 2007 -> 10:55 PM) Congrats to Ohio St. Oden made the big block, but I'm still convinced they're a better offensive team when he's out of the game. It's too bad Lofton didn't get the last shot....could have been one of the all-time "Onions". Very good games tonight, even though I'm getting annoyed with all these fouls in the last 10 secs leading to the deciding points. I want some buzzer beaters.....and GUS JOHNSON TO RETURN. Definitely, they clearly still don't know how to play with him (and it looked like they were getting better at it towards the end of the year). He was wide-open down low numerous times and they never threw it to him, so instead they sit out on the perimeter and jack up 3's. They can't get the post-and-kick game working at all. When he goes out they take it to the rack a lot more and then kick the ball out, though their interior defense obviously suffers a lot...

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 22, 2007 -> 09:07 PM) If they go small, that's fine. However, if he has to give up some on defense, he should be dominating on the offensive end then. I like Thad a lot, but Pearl is superior to him in terms of game coaching. There's not a better in-game coach than Pearl. Kind of hard to be a factor on offense when you're on the bench because of the 2 fouls on defense (and that one stupid hook on offense). It's also hard to score without the ball, even when he was in he only got the ball 4 times. Won't argue on the second part though...

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 22, 2007 -> 08:46 PM) Could Greg Oden be less impressive this tournament so far? The first two games he wasn't that bad, outside of that stretch against Xavier when Matta decided he wanted to go man to man and play Oden on a perimeter player. Plus what do you expect when he's matched up on a much smaller, quicker player? I can't think of too many 7-footers that can keep up with a SF type...

Things going really well for Tennessee, a lot of made 3's and Oden and Conley on the bench with 2 fouls.

A&M got jobbed on that last call, should have had another second easy. Of course it would have been moot if they could get a rebound...

QUOTE(Felix @ Mar 22, 2007 -> 07:11 PM) I mean, it's not like we're Duke here... but at least its not a Northwestern-like past. I resent that, even if it is a legit dig.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 20, 2007 -> 03:37 PM) Ask Zoom, he took about all of them in our league. ALL of them? Come on, I just got Delmon, Chris Young, Jeremy Hermida, and Jeremy Sowers. The keeper I got Delmon, Markakis, Gordon, Chris Young, Drew, Hermida, Duncan and Sowers. Seriously though, Steve just came up with a good one. Mike Pelfrey apparently has a starting spot now...

So mad that my head talked me out of picking USC.

Everything is fine, outside of that Anibal Sanchez situation that I mentioned in the league home...

To the best of my knowledge, I fixed all the keeper issues. Let me know if I am mistaken. For those of you who took those players and/or drafted available players early, I tried to be as fair as possible.

Meh, I got a bunch of fixing to do.

I am adjusting the draft order right now. Please note: because of our keeper setup, the draft starts in the 6th round. Because of that, the draft order had to be REVERSED in order to be correct.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 12:56 PM) The final team is taken...my friend will sign back in and just use Steff's team instead of his old team. Sounds good I guess, if he can deal with that. If he wants, you/him can talk to Steve about getting his old roster back...

Wisconsin looks god-awful, you'd think they were the 15. On the other hand, Winthrop is killing my "favorite" team.

God damn it, still a player short. I'll let the admins add whomever they want, they'd get Steff's team...

QUOTE(AssHatSoxFan @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 10:48 AM) how are we going to do this with the keepers? do we take them with our first 5 picks then start from there? Yep.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 12:02 AM) Zoom, isn't Wickman closing for Atlanta? Yeah, but not sure why that was directed at me, I have no Braves on my roster (and DBAHO, the one I commented on, only has James, a starter).

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 05:52 PM) Team #1. I drafted 6th and in a 12 team league. C - Victor Martinez (4th round) 1B - Prince Fielder (10th round) 2B - Brian Roberts (5th round) 3B - Alex Rodriguez (1st round) SS - Jimmy Rollins (3rd round) OF - Carl Crawford (2nd round) OF - Delmon Young (9th round) OF - Barry Bonds (16th round) UTIL - Jim Thome (7th round) SP - Felix Hernandez (6th round) SP - C.C Sabathia (8th round) SP - Chris Capuano (11th round) SP - Daniel Cabrera (17th round) SP - Scott Olsen (18th round) RP - Eric Gagne (12th round) RP - Jason Isringhausen (13th round) RP - Octavio Dotel (14th round) BENCH - Mark Teahen (15th round) BENCH - Chuck James (19th round) BENCH - Joel Pineiro (20th round) BENCH - Corey Hart (21st round) That offense is sick, insane balance. I like the top 2 in your starting staff too, which is really all you need (you can find fill-in guys). I would guess you'll need a RP at some point though... Aw hell, I'll post one of mine too... C- Mike Piazza 1B- Justin Morneau 2B- Tadahito Iguchi SS- Jose Reyes 3B- Aramis Ramirez OF- Manny Ramirez OF- Torii Hunter OF- Barry Bonds U- Paul Konerko B- Chris Young B- Chad Tracy B- Chris Burke SP- Ben Sheets SP- John Lackey RP- Brad Lidge RP- Jason Isringhausen P- C.C. Sabathia P- Josh Beckett P- A.J. Burnett B- Jonathan Broxton B- Anibal Sanchez Outside of my pitching being high-risk/high-reward, I'm quite happy with this one...

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 12:17 PM) Damn. That's what I get for picking the upset. It was a good, ballsy pick, I thought about it too...

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 11:12 AM) Maryland has a 1 point lead at the half in my 13 over 4 upset pick game. Come on red shirts! 8 now. I had Davidson, but after I thought about it I went back to Maryland.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 10:51 AM) Damn CBS, why not just cut to the other game and f*** the commercials? The Mega March Madness package is worth every penny.

Guys, I hate to be a pain in the ass, but I gotta push back the draft. We're just not ready to go quite yet. I pushed it to Saturday night at 8:15 CDT, that time seems to work for the people that commented. Sorry for the inconvenience. I'd appreciate it if you guys use this extra time to create the pre-rankings I suggested.