The Critic

Another FINE judgment call by that idiot judge who slapped his wrist. Great judge of character....great judge, period. What a STUNNER that Liggy would end up in trouble again - guess that Clark Kent costume he wore to court didn't turn his life around after all, huh?

The worst part of this trade for me is the fact that I LIKE the Flyers and now they have THAT s***head. Oh well. They actually have both sides of the horrid Roenick-for-Scamnov trade - the good side (JR) and the bad (Captain Cocktail).

Jessica Alba and Shakira. I prefer the Latin flayyyyvaaaaaaa.....

THANKS, rotoworld!!! Jim Edmonds has neither swung a bat nor thrown a ball since having surgery on his throwing shoulder Dec. 4. Edmonds was supposed to be ready for the start of spring training, but it now looks like he won't resume playing in games until mid-March. Although he says he feels "great", it will be a good idea to downgrade him on your draft lists if he has even a minor setback. No reliable starters after Matt Morris, injured outfielders.... Things are not looking great for Cardinal Nation this year. ( ever since hearing that stupid "Red Sox Nation", I figure EVERY team should have a Nation - Brewer Nation, Devil Ray Nation....YEAH...... :puke ) At least he SHOULD be back at full speed for Opening Day.

http://msn.espn.go.com/page2/s/simmons/040217.html Bill Simmons is the BEST sports op-ed writer going, period.

Oh, no, you don't remember??? The fans showed up in droves, THEN the Sox were able to pick up Julio Cruz and the rest is history!!!!

OH, yeahhhh, forgot to mention....you'll be living in South Central LA. ...nice apartment, though....lots of windows....well, the ones....ONE....that isn't broken and boarded up is nice..... ( Images and descriptions provided courtesy of every NWA cd ever released )

I see where you're going, but there's a fairly significant difference here. The Cubs have made some very solid acquisitions and upgraded, whereas the previous playoff teams ( if memory serves ) brought back virtually everyone and tried to ride the same team for another season. We can look for the black clouds all we want, and they may come yet, but like it or not, I think they're gonna be pretty damn good this year.

I thought the Cardinals won the second game of that doubleheader when Pujols was SAID to have dropped that flyball ( he did not drop it - I was there - with my Cardinals hockey jersey on ). Coulda sworn that the Cards won the next game from some call the Cub fans said was bulls***. Could be wrong, I left halfway through game 2....I'm not a fan of doubleheaders, at least not in person - too much for one day.

St. Louis locks Pujols in for 7 years, costs them 100 million bucks. Kinda surprised to see it happen now, since the Redbirds had been crying poor in the failure to acquire starting pitching help. Kind of a no-brainer, though - Pujols is gonna be The Man in St. Lou for a long time.

Payton got in a scrap with Speedy Claxton ( hope I spelled his name right ) and tried to BITE HIS EAR before getting ejected. What happens to some people when they get angry???

PACK YO BAGS, SHOW, YOU'RE GOIN' TO L.A.!!! You've been traded for a "heh" and a "blah~!" to be named later!

If you ain't in Virginia, then WHEREZ MAH DRANK, BEEEEYOTCH???? As far as the "red-headed stepchild" thing goes, let's be fair.....we don't know WHAT color your hair is...

33 points in 44 games in the AHL. Seems to be on the rise, but he obviously wasn't going to get a real shot with the Sens. Sixth round pick, but that means very little in hockey. A lot of top guys were low draft picks.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=1737956 Sens give up a minor-league center prospect and a 2nd round pick. Bondra is a natural goal-scorer and a nice replacement for Radek Bonk.

There's a good chance the Dodgers can pull off a trade for a player such as the Chicago White Sox's Paul Konerko or Frank Thomas, but those names pale in comparison to what could have been. Man, that's a tough sentence to swallow. From having one of the best 7-year stretches in baseball history to "paling in comparison" to DERREK LEE???? Damn....

I agree ONLY in this sense: Sully is a very good complementary player on a good team. He is NOT a superstar, and he is NOT a front-liner. Yet he was leading the team in scoring, was he not? What does that say about the team? The SlackHawks will NOT be a good team for the foreseeable future. Their "cash-over-titles" philosophy will never allow it. A championship team needs players like Sully to provide an offensive threat on the 2nd or maybe even 3rd line. You have to KEEP players like Sully and ADD top-line players if you want to be taken seriously. The SlackHawks do NOT want to be taken seriously. They want to put as cheap a team as possible on the ice and hope lightning strikes. Not the most ambitious plan ever devised. Draft picks are great to supplement existing players - the Slacks have NO existing players. They have about 72 dollars in salary designated for next season, because their owner is going to make sure there IS no next season.

They could play DOOLING banjos when he goes to the free throw line or something....ok, I'm sorry....

Might just add a LOT of asterisks to the record books, too....

Ahhhhhh, spring must be near.....the sun comes up a little earlier.....I can see just a PINCH of lawn peeking out from under the snow.....the weather is warming up just a touch.....and Frank Thomas is becoming a distraction again. Not even saying that he doesn't have a point, because a good argument can be made that he does, but IF this is true ( and anything said on sports talk radio HAS to be questioned until verified by team officials ), why is this happening now? Why not get to camp, guage the situation and THEN go to management if you're unhappy? IF this is true, he's the King Of Rotten Timing.

In a semi-related note, the poll on the page you linked asked readers who they think is the best rotation in baseball with the Maddux signing. 77 percent say the Cubs.....I'd still go with Oakland.

Sounds like Buerhle and I still want him on my team. To answer the other question, yes I would want Maddux on my team, even at 7 or 8 mil per year for 2 or 3 years. He may ( and I do mean "may" ) be slipping statistically, but he wins ballgames. He makes the rotation deeper, he buys the Cubs time to develop some of their minor-league starters, and he affords them the chance to dump Juan Cruz ( rhymes with "lose" ) for a catcher if Mike Barrett is the flop I expect him to be. This is a very good move for the Cubs, and whether or not the Sox rock Maddux in interleague play, the acquisition of Maddux makes the Cubs the CLEAR favorite in the NL Central, in my mind at least.

Sorry, Murc, but I can't side with you on this one. The Wolves put on a better show for a better price. Their management actually CARES about their fanbase. The Hawks have put a minor-league product on the ice more often than not lately anyway, so if I'm going to watch minor-leaguers, I'll watch them on BOTH teams. I used to love the Hawks, but they chased me away.

"mmmmmmm.......scooooooooootch........"

Just read in the Sun-Times that the reason he was dealt was that he wouldn't re-up for 3 years at a PAY CUT. And he was a restricted FA, so they could have seen what he was offered and decided if they wanted to try to keep him. I'm sure there's some kind of compensation process for teams losing their FA's. Just kind of sickening that the Nashville Predators (1) are closer to playoff contention than the Slacks and (2) care more about remaining competitive than the Slacks. Typical SlackHawk cheapness. And if it's a "dead season", does that mean they'll be forfeiting the rest of their games? or letting people in for free? If nobody's playing next year, why NOT keep one of the few guys who played like he cares? At least then the 6,000 or so suckers who keeping dropping money into Bill Worst's Deep Pockets would have one player to watch. Whenever something exciting happened for the IndianHeads this year, Sully was usually involved in it somehow.