ZoomSlowik

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 09:14 AM) It looks like there is a spot in league one. I still haven't heard from Mathew. Could you do me a favor and send him another PM/E-Mail/whatever? Then if you don't hear from him by Friday, I'll plug in another player.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 12:04 AM) Brunner played superior to Augestine. I realize Augestine is more talented but I'm not dropping Brunner before Augestine. Brunner led the conference in rebounding and did a good job on the scoring end as well. I know he'll never play professionally, but the guy deserved his nomination. I'm personally dropping him because he shoots for a much lower percentage than the other forwards and from what I've seen he isn't a big factor on the defensive end. Plus his rebounding edge isn't that big (unless you count Vedran). I'd put him as a second-teamer with Davis, Vedran, Shannon Brown, and Foster (yeah, I know, no PG). I got nothing against him and I think he's a decent player, I just don't think he's as good as those other guys.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 12:00 AM) How are you replacing a PF in Brunner with a guard in Horton? Because there are 4 forwards on the first team and only one guard. Brunner happens to be the one I'd drop out of him, Tucker, Dials, and Augustine.

Your teams are always ridiculously loaded when you have 8 teams in the league. Frankly, this one looks a little weak compared to other ones that I've had in the past.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 10:13 PM) HUH. Hansen was best defensive player in the conference. There was a poll of the players in SI where the players voted on various categories, and Dee Brown was elected the best defensive player by a fairly large margin. I personally didn't have a problem with Vedran not making the first team, but he's not totally one-dimensional either. He's a great scorer, but it's hard to really judge his defense and rebounding fairly based on the defense NU plays. Their 1-3-1 zone makes it hard for them to rebound, and there's no one really attacking the basket on offense. He's also a solid passer. You can't really credit his scoring to the offense either, since it's main purpose is to spread the floor and use multiple options. They don't constantly run plays for him and he still puts up the great numbers. Personally I would have put Horton on the 1st team over Brunner. Horton had a great year, and frankly I wasn't all that impressed with Brunner.

Guess that's my job. As of right now, everything is full. I've got some parts for another league, but it's not ready to go yet. I'll post more information in the signup thread when things develop more. There's also a chance that there is room in league #8, but I haven't heard from the commisioner in about a month, so I wouldn't hold out hope.

QUOTE(rangercal @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 04:19 PM) Nah, I really noticed a big difference on his stance. I think he can easily be a top 12 3rd bagger this year. Well, maybe. Once you get past the #6 3B it's a bit debatable. He was a monster 2 years ago, but I can't base too much on that. I'd say he's #11 at best, which makes him one of the bottom couple of starters. I wouldn't feel too comfortable if he were my starter based on what he did last year.

I always thought that Griffey was the best player of the 90's, with Thomas being the best overall hitter for most of it. Bonds was definitely one of the best, but he wasn't quite as dominant as those two for most of the decade. He didn't become an unstoppable force until 2000 and didn't really start dominating until about 96 (outside of 1993). Griffey hit with better power and drove in more runs, and was a better fielder. Frank was Ted Williams great for 5 years straight and pretty good for the 2 years before that before injuries took their toll. Plus Bonds was an established player in 1990 while Frank was a rookie and Griffey was in his second year, so I'd be more likely to give those two the benefit of the doubt. He may have had 3 MVP's, but I don't think he would have had all of those if he had to compete with Frank and Griffey, plus Gonzalez put up a couple of monster years. Anyways, he's still a HOF'er, and quite possibly a first ballot guy even with the steroids. He was very good even before he supposedly started juicing.

QUOTE(rangercal @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 04:13 PM) Beltre may have a better year this year. He looked very good today. Get him in your fantasy leagues in the later rounds if he is still around. I wouldn't base too much on this small sample size of games, especially since it's pretty early and not everyone is ready yet. He's definitely a nice pick for a low risk backup 3B.

Looks like at least some of them were unearned because of the error?

He follows it up with a bunt single in front of Albert and Big Papi. Nice play, that could set things up.

Wow, Colon really kicked some ass. I thought he'd be a little rusty, but it was the Venezuelan pitchers that were. Lot of walks by Santana and Zambrano. Not good when you have to face some of those Dominican hitters.

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 02:58 PM) I heard a suggestion regarding the NCAA Tournament yesterday that I really liked and had never heard before. It was suggested that instead of having the play-in game in its current format with two also-rans that no one pays attention to, to have the play-in game involve the last two at-large teams selected for the tournament. Think about it for a second before judging it.... -- having a Missouri State vs. Maryland (or whoever the last two teams in are) play would give us a game people would actually watch. -- although they would still get hammered, it would give all of the teams that qualified automatically the experience of playing in the tournament for real, rather than the trumped up play-in game. -- While it would bump up some other teams one seed line, it would make the real "last two teams in" play for that right. It is not perfect, but I think it would make things a heck of a lot more interesting than the current format and give us a game we would actually watch on Tuesday night. The one problem with that is figuring out where to seed the winner of that game. That really wouldn't be fair to whatever #1 seed has to play the winner of that game. You'd have to switch it to the winner getting something like a 10 or a 12 seed, which is usually where the last couple of at large teams land.

That blurb doesn't even include his slider, which is probably his best pitch. One thing that's weird is that I haven't really seen much of the changeup on the occasions where I have seen him pitch. It looks like he almost exclusively uses the fastball and the curve. Guess I don't have a future career as a scout. Seriously though, how many really good pitchers are there that you'd take over this guy without any doubt? Right now I've got about 10, and he can easily pass some of those guys with a good season if those guys don't match it. Granted I'm leaving out a couple because they're either ancient or haven't produced in the long haul, but it isn't that long until you get to guys like Beckett and Burnett that have some serious question marks.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 02:36 PM) Remember, Wood was a very talented pitcher, talented enough to K 20 batters in a single game. Felix has alot of talent, but he hasnt proven it over a full season yet, is still WAY too young to call him a future hall of famer, and could flame out like Gooden no problem. Felix is definitely more gifted than Wood though. He has better control, more zip on his fastball, a similar hard curve, and his slider is devastating whenever they let him throw it. Supposedly he's got a decent change too, although I haven't seen it when I've watched him pitch. Wood's major asset in his first year was the slurve that he couldn't throw without destroying his arm. When he had to throw a straight curve and slider, he wasn't as dominant, although he was still pretty good when healthy. I'll agree that it's a little pre-mature to start carving his bust in Cooperstown, but he should be a very good pitcher. As I just posted, I don't think it will be his pitching ability that holds him back. It's going to have to be injury issues. Gooden was a bit of a rarity. He's the only pitcher with that kind of talent that I can think of that just fell off without serious injury issues. The only other relatively healthy guys that fell off that I can think of are Fernando Valenzueza and Hideo Nomo, and they didn't have anywhere near the kind of stuff that Gooden had and Felix currently possesses.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 02:14 PM) Yup. And the people on here slurping him will look just as foolish as every cubs fan who predicted sure greatness for Kerry Wood. The only way I see him not fufilling his promise is injuries. He's a much more talented pitcher than Wood. His mechanics also seem to be a lot better, he's got better control, and he doesn't have as many mental issues as Wood does. Obviously he could still have a major arm injury, or get a few nagging ones like Prior or Beckett. I doubt that pitching ability is the thing that holds him back though. The walks are of some concern, but Zambrano does pretty well despite a lot of walks, so I don't see why Felix can't do the same thing. It might hurt his ceiling a little though if he doesn't keep it under control. That would just mean that he's more of a Roy Oswalt or Carlos Zambrano than Johan Santana or Pedro Martinez. There aren't all that many pitchers I'd take over Felix right now. He'll probably be a consensus top 10 pitcher in the league by the end of the year.

Felix definitely has a ton of talent, and I'd love to have him on the Sox. However, he definitely still has some issues. One major one is durability. The Mariners have been treating him with kid's gloves for his entire career. They have been extremely concerned with overworking him and causing arm trouble. The most innings he's pitched in a season thus far is a little over 170 (and has only one other season over 150), and they plan to hold him to 200 innings this year, including spring training and any potential post-season play. Eventually he's going to have to have a bigger workload, and he's going to be doing it for the first time in the majors. Also, they've told him not to throw his slider. Once he does start throwing it again, he might be at a higher risk for injury after not throwing it for a while, especially when combined with an increasing workload. Another one is control. At times his walk rate has gotten a little high. It's been over 3 per 9 innings for large chunks of his minor league career, including almost 5 last year in AAA. His WHIP has also been over 1.20 for most of his minor league career. Granted there are some pitchers that are highly successful at that rate, but it will be harder in the majors, and it could go higher with better competition. He's got a good chance to be a great pitcher for a while, but it's far from a sure thing. There's quite a laundry list of players that kicked ass for a year or two at the beginning of their career and couldn't keep it up. It looks like he might be the next Pedro Martinez, but he could also flame out like Dwight Gooden did, or develop arm problems like Kerry Wood. I will say this, he looks like more of a sure thing than anyone to come out in a while. The only one that was even close was Prior, and the only thing that's held him back is injuries.

If I'm picking one player to start a team with, I'm going with Big Al. If I'm picking someone to add to the current White Sox roster, I'd lean toward David Wright or Miguel Cabrera (that one's a tough call). If we didn't already have so many pitchers, I'd give very strong consideration to Johan, Peavy (Don't think he's been mentioned much. I'd love to have a 24 year old ace), and King Felix.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 6, 2006 -> 08:48 PM) Pretty damn good game going on, on espn between Hofstra and UNC Wilmington. Two pretty good teams, the loser will have a shot at an at large but they'd be right on the bubble. Hofstra was down 23 in the 2nd half, now they're going to the line to try and cut it to 2 points at the line with 4 minutes to go. That's another pretty tough mid-major conference. Besides those two, George Mason is a virtual lock for an at-large seed, and Old Dominion is pretty solid too.

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Mar 6, 2006 -> 08:30 PM) How do you figure it is a "proven fact"?? I think it is quite safe to say that OSU will be strongly considered for a #1 seed should they win out and a couple of teams from (Duke, Villanova, Texas and Memphis) lose in their conference tournament. Still curious where the "proven fact" comes into play. The Big Ten Final starts too late on Sunday for the result to be factored into the seeding. The game isn't going to end until about 4:30, and the brackets are released at 5. OSU would basically have to be considered a #1 seed before the final, which doesn't seem too likely.

Your lineup looks very good for a 14 team league. I'm not quite sure how you came up with all of those guys. That would be pretty good for a 12 team league, or even a 10 team with some slight modifications. The pitching isn't as solid, but that is to be expected with the strength of your lineup. If you could add another solid starter somehow, that would be really good.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Mar 6, 2006 -> 07:21 PM) What I don't get is how Memphis is even near a No.1. They played a good non-conference schedule, but their conference is horrible. Hell the C-USA of last year was actually pretty good, Louisville was 29-3 and got a four seed. Either Louisville got totally hosed last year or Memphis is being overrated. If they are a No.1, they'll be the first No.1 seed to lose. How about a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B? IIRC Louisville didn't really play anyone in the pre-season. They probably should have been at least a 3 seed, but they didn't get a lot of love. Memphis is overrated, but they played a very strong out of conference schedule and have dominated in most of their games this year. I'd be surprised if they didn't make it to the Sweet 16. After that, who knows. One other thing to consider is that this is an unusually weak field, so teams are going to get higher seeds than they generally would. There were a lot of solid teams last year that pushed the seeding down for some other pretty good teams.

QUOTE(ChWRoCk2 @ Mar 6, 2006 -> 01:53 PM) your team could use some power, many people tend to think lee wont post last years numbers and theres no telling what thome will do this year, a power hitter might help more , i kind of like your staff personally I'm in the process of trying to commit highway robbery. One of my targets has Utley, Carlos Lee, and Bonds. The other has Tejada, Beltran, and Dunn. I'd love to find a way to get 2 out of 3 from one of these guys.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Mar 6, 2006 -> 01:32 PM) Damn it, it didn't let my user id work fully. I'm in though. I wanted my name to be Hawkeyes>>>Illinois How long do you have to have that Illini crap in your sig/avatar anyways?

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Feb 28, 2006 -> 04:16 PM) I need a second opinion on this team. I think it's fairly good, but it doesn't wow me. It seemed like every time it was my pick there wasn't really anyone I liked available. Anyways: C- Pierzynski 1B- D. Lee, Thome 2B- Weeks, Castillo, Hall SS- Rollins, Hall 3B- Jones, Hall OF- Ichiro, Hunter, Dye, Jenkins, Hermida SP- Harden, Schilling, Haren, Blanton, Bonderman, Lowe RP- Rodriguez, Street This team just got more interesting. I was able to pick up Pods off waivers, giving me a ton of speed. I'm in the process of trying to deal Ichiro, Pods, or maybe Rollins for some more power. Do you guys think I should try to get a pitcher? I'm not entirely sure about my rotation, but I think my lineup probably needs more help.