ZoomSlowik

I got a similar thing going on, I just finished my finals in my last semester in college. I definitely am about to enter the real world. Yeah, papers being piled on you at midterms and finals is pretty rough, but working life is really gonna suck. I'm gonna miss the hours of time wasted on video games and cards and the frequent drunken haze on the weekends. Good luck in college. Don't study too hard, try to have some fun.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ May 10, 2005 -> 11:18 PM) Another post wanting Bobby Abreu. It's not going to happen. To trade Aubrey Huff, Tampa will want a package better than the Scott Kazmir deal. That's Brian Anderson and Brandon McCarthy. Carl Crawford? LMAO. I personally don't see why they would want Anderson, they have quite a few good young OF. McCarthy would definitely be involved, but I would think they would want more pitching prospects, or maybe Garland (not saying I'd do it, just saying they might).

Overbay is going to cost a ton of prospects the way he is hitting right now. If he keeps this up leading up to the deadline, I would think it will take at least two primo prospects or a decent player off the major league roster, possibly another prospect too.

When you consider that those terms don't really affect your performance at all, I think you have to pick overrated. I personally greatly prefer having my performance be thought of as better than it really is than have it be thought of as worse than it actually is. I don't see the benefit of "underrated" in the real world.

I think there have been two starting staffs in the past that had 4 20 game winners. I'm almost 100 percent sure Cleveland did it in like the 70's (no clue who), and I think the Orioles did it back when Jim Palmer was heading their staff. Even considering they only had 4 man rotations back then, that's 80 wins, which is a hell of a total to try to pass.

Their pitching was pretty bad for most of last year too, and they still went on a hell of a run. They've still got one of the most powerful offenses in the league, and Randy won't have an ERA over 3.5 all year. They won't win 100 games this year, but I'd be shocked if they finished with less than 90 wins. Their O is too good to not be able to overcome some less than stellar pitching. Yeah, Bernie and Giambi are pretty much useless and Mussina and Brown aren't the players they once were, but they should have more than enough talent to get in the playoffs.

Well, I don't have any Corona or Cuervo, but I blasted the salsa music pretty loud. Yeah, I know salsa is Puerto Rican, but I can't stand Ranchera music. Puerto Ricans are pretty much the same anyways. Please don't tell any of my Puerto Rican friends I said that last part.

No way he goes in the first. He hasn't proven that he can be an effective PG in the half court offense. He needs to come back to Illinois to run the show for a year.

Bears will finish at least 3 games better than both of those teams. I have absolutely no doubts about that. That would be absolutely sick if we got Brooks, even if he isn't quite as good as he used to be.

I'll offer my expert opinion on all of the proposed trades: The Sweeney/Glaus for Konerko/Rolen deal doesn't really offer a major improvement for either team and is basically a deal of preference. That being said, I'd rather have Konerko and Rolen. Sweeney will probably finish the year with 30 homers tops and a low RBI total, but he will have a high average. Konerko is a bit enigmatic, but he has much better power than Sweeney and plays in a stronger lineup. Glaus is performing pretty well, but he is not the same kind of player as Rolen. Rolen will hit for a much higher average with more RBI and finish at a 10 homer deficit tops. I would definitely keep Dunn and Sheets. There is no way I make that trade, even with the weakness at SS. The only SS I'd trade those 2 for is Tejada. Peavy for Aramis is a pretty even trade. The deciding factor will be what kind of players you have at those positions, at least if you are considering the trade (if it's just pending in the league, it is definitely not veto worthy). If you are weak at third and have a solid staff, then getting Ramirez is definitely a good option (although I might look for a player playing a little better), but if you are at least decent at 3rd I probably wouldn't do it. Peavy is a stud, I wouldn't trade him unless it fills a major hole on my team.

QUOTE(rangercal @ May 4, 2005 -> 11:52 PM) wow, would you look at that. Eddy curry ranked ahead of Z 1. Shaquille O'Neal (Player Option) 2. Eddy Curry (Restricted) 3. Zydrunas Ilgauskas Eddy would be a better guy to sign to a long term contract. He's seven years younger than Ilgauskas and hasn't reached his peak potential yet. Ilgauskas right now is a pretty good player but not a stud, Curry is a guy with some holes in his game that might turn into a superstar in the future.

Nice to see Wood and Dusty getting some votes. I love Mark, but I think Peavy should receive a lot of votes for underrated also. The guy's stuff is flat out filthy and is going to have a monster year. He's going to be a top 5 pitcher in the league for the next few years.

The Royals are just god awful. They have exactly one guy that can hit, and their pitching staff is composed of guys that are either very young or not that good to start with. In a couple of years Grienke, Affeldt, Burgos, and Sisco could all be impact guys, but they have to find some guys that can actually hit. They'll still win at least 50 though, it's really hard to not win that many.

I love the addition of Podsednik to the lineup. He just makes things happen near the top of the order. I think Iguchi and him could be a nice combo, similar to Pierre and Castillo (not saying Pods will hit .300, just has a similar style). If he can keep his average above .260 on the year he makes a major impact on the lineup (although I still miss Carlos a bit).

Nice little goof on the ESPN.com front page. One of the links on the bottom is to a Cardinals boxscore with the heading "St. Louis improves its MLB-best record (17-8) Jason Marquis' eight shutout innings Tuesday night." Last I checked 19-7 is better than 17-8. Way to forget about us again.

QUOTE(rangercal @ May 3, 2005 -> 11:08 PM) what a moron Worked for me. I had a massive hole at 3rd base (had Koskie, I actually think I might still have him in the lineup since Chavez is typically a slow starter). I was trying to trade for A-Rod when the claim was processed. Good thing too, the guy was trying to get Miguel Cabrera and Ben Sheets, which wasn't exactly high on my list.

Ecellent trade, especially considering your depth at the position. It's usually pretty hard to get ace type pitchers, I'd definitely jump on it.

Eric Chavez was a big one in one of my leagues. Not sure why but the guy decided to drop Chavez, Mulder, and Cabrera (Orlando). Mike Hampton is working out really well in one of my other leagues. I haven't had bad drops as much as bad timing. I decided to drop Jason Lane when he only had one homer, ended up hitting like 3 in the next 5 games. I also didn't move Floyd back into the lineup his first game back and he hit a 3 run homer, and I forgot to put Morneau back into the lineup on time, costing me another homer.

Seems like the people making the list prefer results over potential. Zito is the only guy a little out of place based on results, and he's kind of been in a slide the last few years. Peavy and Harden should both probably be higher. Willis at 8 is BS, Garland is probably too high also.

Is there somewhere to look for the potential free agents at the end of the year? I know it's weak group, but I have no idea who was in it. I think What we would do with the money would be a major factor as to whether or not we cough up a little extra for Paulie. A young, cheap replacement with a high ceiling would be nice, then maybe add an impact reliever to use as a closer. I would imagine that the asking price for Overbay would be nuts, probably one of Sweeney/Anderson/McCarthy and another solid prospect at the minimum.

I know Dockery and Thompson didn't do much in college, but they were still monster recruits that we couldn't keep in state. Plus they might have done more if they weren't buried behind 8 million other McDonald's All Americans. As for Milicic, I keep hearing that he is really a terror, but it certainly doesn't seem like it whenever he does get on the floor. I'd be more inclined to trust Brown, the guy's a pretty good coach and I doubt he'd have him playing so infrequently if he could help the team, especially when they were struggling earlier in the year. I'm not saying he's a definite bust at this point, but something is definitely going to have to change drastically.

I'd like to see them keep him, but he could probably demand similar money to Sexon or Glaus, which is way too much in my opinion. I'd say 3/$27 mil tops. He's just not an elite 1B, so I wouldn't pay him any more than that. The problem is that there aren't a whole lot of great options on the FA market. I don't remember exactly who's a FA, but there weren't a whole lot of stellar options, so the money we'd save wouldn't be that big a factor.

I definitely thought that American Dad was brutal. I thought the first one was half decent, but damn, what a waste. Family Guy was great as always. It's amazing how funny the show is the first time you see it. I was laughing my ass off for about half of the episode.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ May 2, 2005 -> 09:42 PM) Anyway, we don't know who's ready or not if it's already in GM's minds that when they draft a HSer that they'll sit on the bench for the year. Tons of teams are doing that. Blame coaches and GM's for not playing the guys right away and not letting them "earn their check." Most of the time there is a reason that these guys don't play much. I learned this after watching those guys play those few garbage minutes. The guys are just lost. Milicic looked god awful his rookie year when he went in, the guy couldn't dunk much less shoot or play defense. Bender has been around for quite some time and he still looks lost most of the time he's in. Outside of the few truly elite guys the high schoolers just aren't even close to ready. Some of these guys are starting to look more prepared like J.R. Smith, Josh Smith, and Al Jefferson, but I take that as more of an indication of the state of the NBA than how ready these guys really are. Back to the main topic. I really hope that Illinois can build on this commitment and get some of the bigger guys. It's kind of depressing seeing Duke come in and get guys like Dockery, Thompson, and Livingston, or Kansas with Wright, or UNC with Frasor. They gotta keep at least a few of the elite guys to stay in Illinois while stealing one or two from the other states. Semrau is a start, although I'm not sure he's quite the type of immediate impact guy they need. Rush would be huge even if he is a one and done, and Scheyer or some of the other 2006 prospects would really help a ton. I really don't think they can stay on top of the Big Ten every year unless they start getting guys like Cook or Brown again.

Damn Hammerhead, The Color of Money without The Hustler? The latter is at least as good, and in my opinion far superior. I find myself quoting that one much more. I don't think that the three major roles could be cast any better than Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, and George C. Scott.