ZoomSlowik

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Oct 15, 2006 -> 07:23 PM) Brewer: 5 star prospect Horford: 4 star Richard: 4 star Noah: 4 star Hodge: 4 star Blue Chipper and 4 other really great players around him. Care to retract? To continue on that thought, LSU had a few big recruits of their own. Glen Davis and Tasmin Mitchell were McDonald's All-Americans, and Magnum Rolle was a 5-star as well (didn't play much).

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Oct 14, 2006 -> 07:07 PM) Not really. If it was mostly about coaching over talent, then how come the vast majority of talent wins out in the NCAA? Only team that did anything was George Mason. That's the only team ever. No one can possibly tell me, that the Illini, with the way its recruiting is going, is national championship contender material, nor are they final four material. It's still possible to make some serious noise without elite recruits, and elite recruits/players don't necessarily equal tournament success. From this last year Kansas, Duke, Texas and UConn (wouldn't be on the list except they did fall short of expectations are some prime examples on the one end while George Mason, Georgetown (only Bowman was a good recruit) and UCLA (solid talent but went through a MUCH more talented Memphis team and another team that IMO was better in LSU) are examples on the other end, and it took a monumental collapse for a Gonzaga team from the lowly WCC to keep them out of the Elite 8 . However, you need more things to go right without them (hidden gem prospects, solid execution, veteran leadership, good tourney draw, ect.), and it's harder to stay consistent without that constant infusion of solid talent. With Wisconsin being the only exception I can think of, your teams that consistently make it to the second weekend of the tournament consistently get top-50 recruits. (Yes, Illinois fits that category recently. In the last 5 years they've had Frank and Deron Williams, Brown, Cook, and now Carlwell on the roster.) Illinois will have to deal with this reality in the coming future. This year's team will likely be decent and next year's team should be solid, but after that some of these non-elite recruits are going to have to seriously step up to maintain even a reasonable facsimile of thier recent success.

Fine, I'll play your precious Fantasy Hockey.

I still say Culpepper has some good weapons, he just doesn't seem have the ability to take advantage of them anymore. Obviously he's a little rusty. The offensive line doesn't appear to be helping his cause either. I thought his early 2005 performance was a fluke partially brought on by a weak receiving core, but it's not looking like it. My bigger miss was McNabb, I underestimated him big time. Obviously he still has enough weapons to do some serious damage. I guess I didn't give him enough credit for 04 and put to much stock in his other years.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Oct 9, 2006 -> 01:27 PM) I don't know...if The Boss is miffed enough, I could see him trying to see what he can get for Jeter. Check Jim Caple's article on Page 2 on ESPN. 5 of the 6 reasons actually make sense. He's a fan favorite, he's the unquestioned leader of that team, he could conceivably end up with the MVP this year, and his salary is as hard or harder to justify than A-Rod's (and you'd be taking all of it). He's in the top-5 for least likely players to get traded in all of baseball. They would have to be seriously under the influence of something to do that, him and Rivera are about the only two things that haven't gone wrong with the Yankees at some point in their recent history.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Oct 8, 2006 -> 12:11 AM) The Twins season next year is pretty dependant on Liriano imo. If he's healthy they're going to be pretty darn good again, if he's not, they wont even be a thought. Radke is going to retire and Matt Garza is going to be a disappointment. Oh ya, Jason Tyner isn't going to hit .312 again, Jason Bartlett isn't going to hit .309 again, hell Nick Punto will not hit .290 again. If the Twins win it's going to be on the arms of the two studs at the top, only problem for them is I doubt Liriano can make it through a whole season healthy. I agree, they had an awful lot of guys in the lineup producing well over their career numbers. Even Morneau and Cuddyer are no locks to repeat their performances (though I wouldn't bet against the former). That'd make my off-season if they don't do anything major, I don't see a run like they had from June on happening again.

They honestly don't scare me for next year unless Liriano is 100% healthy. Otherwise you've got a decent lineup at best and a mediocre rotation. A good pen and solid defense can only do so much in that situation...

Whoops, I screwed up and set the draft on a day I can't make it. New draft time: Wed Oct 18 9:00pm CDT

I'm going to go ahead and create the league. Info will be posted shortly. If there are space issues I'll consult this thread... League ID#- 71385 password- soxtalk Draft is currently set for Wed Oct 11 at 8:30 CDT.

I was not about to mess with the consolation standings. You get a higher pick this way anyways.

Final standings: 1) Chimpy 2) Alawicious 3) Zoom 4) Heads 5) Asshat 6) Bullard 7) DBaho 8) Steff 9) Jas 10) Qwerty 11) Danman 12) kap Draft order for next year will be in reverse order of finish. Start thinking about your keepers. Remember, you can keep 2 position players, 2 pitchers, and another player from either of them. They won't be due until some time during Spring Training, but at least keep a list of your guys (I have a backup, but I'd like to rely on that as little as possible). Also, I will allow off-season trades. All of your players are elgibile to be dealt, but you will still only be allowed 5 keepers. Both managers simply need to PM me and I'll keep track of it. I recently realized that we never did a prospect draft like I said we would. This year we will be having one. It will happen some time during May, once we get a feel for which guys will be on major league rosters. All players still in the minors will be eligible. On a somewhat related topic, I am open to dealing the following players in the off-season: Justin Morneau Jermaine Dye Scott Rolen Hanley Ramirez Delmon Young Ben Sheets Josh Beckett Joe Nathan and/or B.J. Ryan (will depend on what I get) My biggest need is another legit starter, but I will consider any offers.

Post the winners of your leagues here. Congratulations to Vandy125, who vanquished yours truly in the finals of League 5 despite a late comeback attempt. 3rd place was Ed Walsh, who beat Kalapse in the 3rd place game. Props also to Chimpy, who took down Alawicious in the Keeper league. 3rd place was me, with Heads coming in 4th. League 4 was also won by Chimpy, with VenomSox taking 2nd. Ozzie Montana took 3rd with Buehrle>Wood taking 4th.

I think it's quite possible that he would have out-pitched a few of our starters (their overall numbers, not in Garland or Vazquez's good stretches), but I'm not entirely sure that he would have been better than Contreras' 4.27 ERA.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Sep 27, 2006 -> 10:49 PM) dont ever refer me as jim hendry again. yes it might be wise to change the rotation a bit. but i am not considering anything like Hendy. He relied on broken arms, i will be relying on the fact that the starters will turn it around. Buerhle has proven he can do it, and Vazquez and coop figured things out. THe lose of BMac would hurt possibly in the long run, but right now, this team NEEDS a leadoff hitter. Our top 3 weakenesses are: 1. Bullpen 2. Leadoff hitter and scrappy guys 3. scrappy guys to fit Ozzie's small ball style at the top and bottom of the orders Our rotation is not a weakness at all. They had a down year, but with more rest and NO World Baseball Classic, they'll be back with full force in 2007. This team NEEDs a guy like Crawford. Dont settle for a guy like Pierre. Because thats what 'Jim Hendry' did and my friend I DONT think like him. Seriously? Starting pitching was clearly our biggest issue all year. Something needs to be done about that. The lowest ERA of any of our starters right now is 4.27, and Contreras is the only one under 4.60 right now. While they all underacheived, it's pretty asanine to think all of them are suddenly going to go back to kicking ass next year, especially when Garcia has clearly lost some stuff, Garland clearly had a career year last season, Buehrle is gased and has lost confidence, Jose is ancient, and Javy is inconsistent. Rest can only do so much, Buehrle and Contreras look to be the only guys that are really affected (and some of that seems to be related to nagging injuries). I'm not saying we need to blow up the rotation, but going in with the same 5 next year isn't going to magically make our rotation great. At least one of them needs to go. 2 or 3 of them very well can turn it around, but all 5 is unlikely. Kenny needs to evaluate which of his guys is the least likely to pitch well next year and trade him (my vote is Garcia, though you could easily make a case for Jose or Buehrle). Crawford is solid, but we don't absolutely need him. We put up some solid offensive totals with virtually nothing in the leadoff spot. We don't need to sell the farm to get someone like Crawford, especially when all is said and done he didn't out-perform Pierre all that much outside of driving in runs. The bullpen just isn't anywhere near as big an issue, not with Jenks-MacDougal-Thornton at the backend. Yeah, we can use a middle reliever or two, but so can everyone. Leadoff is definitely an issue, but not a crippling one given the rest of our lineup. As for the "scrappy guys" part, Pods and Uribe are about the only guys we can replace (I like Anderson), and that's if we find acceptable pieces.

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Sep 27, 2006 -> 01:10 AM) Plus doing the sims which look almost an hour anyways and I attended a good portion of them anyways. I just wasn't that good at it and I tried at it. Making it to the sims isn't mandatory, a lot of people don't make all the sims. There are really only 2 that you really should be at every year, the draft and FA. Other than that it's totally optional. Yes, you can easily spend many hours a week on this league if you so desire, but you don't absolutely have to.

I would LOVE to have Crawford in left and leading off, but we still need B-Mac too. He fills a bigger need on this team than Crawford does. If we could somehow turn Pods and Freddy into a similar type of player, then send him off, but we need McCarthy to add some youth to our rotation and save us some money. We can't continue to have $70 mil tied up in our rotation, Konerko, and Thome. Plus he has the potential to seriously out-perform those guys (without being any worse than several of them were last year). We'd need to find another affordable arm to do this IMO, and you're not likely to find a guy as young or with as much upside as B-Mac on the open market.

I registered on the 19th of September. I got this E-Mail on the 21st: "Party Poker has advised us there was a problem with your player account ( Zoom410 ). They have provided us with the following reason(s): Party Poker has advised us your account name ("Zoom410") is not associated with PartyForFree.net This could be for one of several reasons: 1) You did not enter the bonus code when you signed up for your account. 2) You have provided us with your Party Poker screen name, instead of account name. 3) You entered your Party Poker account name ("Zoom410") incorrectly. Please confirm if this is the correct spelling of your account name. Please email us with the required corrections and we will continue with the verification process." I sent an E-Mail back as soon as I saw it (think it was like the 22nd or so) in hopes of resolving the issue. I know that the account name is correct, and I'm 99% sure that I entered the bonus code correctly. It also appears that that is my account name and not my screen name. I'm not entirely sure what my problem is. Do my account names have to match or something? I'm not sure what else I could have screwed up... Think you can help me?

I think I still have the playoff tickets we bought from 2002. Kind of a weird collectible to look at after the fact.

QUOTE(cgaudin @ Sep 26, 2006 -> 03:10 PM) Because the Sox have NO bullpen, smart guy. Thome will be the ball 'n chain of this baseball team if he remains here. Get rid of him, now. We need to design our baseball team to compete against Minnesota, Cleveland, and Detroit. Thome is an automatic out batting against lefties. Yeah, because one or two middle relievers are worth so much more than a dominant hitter. Why would anyone want a guy that hit 40 homers and drove in and scored 108 runs. Please. Trading Thome makes this offense an awful lot weaker. You simply aren't going to be able to compensate for that unless our pitching gets SIGNIFICANTLY better, which it probably won't unless our guys return to their pre-2006 form. You better get an awful lot more than a middle reliever or two for Thome IF you are going to trade him. Our bullpen isn't even our biggest issue, not with Jenks, MacDougal, and Thornton at the back end. Yeah, another dependable arm or two would help, but you don't need to trade one of our best hitters to get them. Last time I checked, most of the pitchers in the league are still right-handed, and we play a lot more than 3 teams. Besides, his OBP against lefties was still higher than every hitter on the team except Paulie, Dye and Ozuna. Just because he doesn't get as many hits doesn't mean he's an automatic out. It's simple: Jim Thome is not the problem. Our starting pitching is.

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Sep 26, 2006 -> 11:24 AM) I'm part of this "dead weight" talked about because I have school and work and not as much time to dedicate to this as others would've liked. Obviously I'm not interested and because I wouldn't be offered any team anyways and I just don't want to do it. All we ask is that you check up on your team a couple of times a week, just to make sure you respond to PM's, keep your lineups in decent order, and re-sign your free agents, and make it to the draft/free agency when necessary (that's not even really required, though it helps). That's only like an hour a week as long as you keep up with it.

As our league continues to cut the dead-weight, we again have openings. We're looking for a few active new guys to supplement our core of active and dedicated players. As many of us have said before, this league is an absolute blast. If you are interested, follow these links. Message Board Standings Page The Rangers and Royals are definitely available, with possibly another team or two becoming available. Both teams have some talent and could become a force with some much needed attention (the Royals are actually consistently over .500 already).

QUOTE(chaerulez @ Sep 21, 2006 -> 01:20 PM) Why would you buy a PS2? Support for that system will last no more than 1 1/2 to 2 more years. XBOX 360 is a lot more cheaper than PS3. I would just go to a gaming website, say ign.com or gamespot.com pull up the detailed specs of each system and then buy the one that is more tailored to what you want out of a console. Don't forget about Nintendo's Wii either, although I don't think it's going to cater to sports gaming that much. And if you get the 360, there is no reason to NOT buy the better package. I'd personally look at the software roster as opposed to the system specs. Who cares how good the games look or if they support HD or what the online setup is if they don't have what you want? Yeah, for sports games it doesn't matter that much, but if you play anything else it definitely does.

For mostly sports games, go with the XBox360. Other than that, it'll vary depending on what kind of games you play. PS2 IMO has the best library right now, but that will change. I personally lean toward Sony because I like Devil May Cry, God of War, Tekken, and Gran Turismo. I'll also probably eventually be getting a PS3 because of how Resistance, Warhawk, Killzone, Assassin's Creed, Full Auto 2, and a few others look. As for XBox, I personally wasn't all that thrilled outside of Halo, Project Gotham and Ninja Gaiden.

Really? I was at the Yahoo basketball site recently and it wasn't up yet. If that's the case, post in here and I'll get your name down. Also, I'd appreciate it if one of the mods would pin this and make it a fantasy baseketball sign-up thread. Edit- On further analysis, it is open. Guess I got things to do...

QUOTE(TLAK @ Sep 19, 2006 -> 06:53 PM) I'll bet the Yankees are praying Minnesota takes the wild card and the get them in the first round. I don't know if I'd go that far. Minnesota has been pretty hot record-wise, and their bullpen is a major asset in the playoffs. However, you would think that the rest of that rotation would be a major detriment, especially considering the Yankees have a much better lineup than pretty much any team in the league. All you need to do is win one of the games that Johan starts and they're just about done (though that can be difficult). I'd much rather face them than Detroit, they have several dangerous pitchers.