Gene Honda Civic

They built a new one, as I indicated with my first post, it seats a cozy 6,000 fans. In order to keep the fans as physically close to the court as possible it boasts "the steepest seating allowed by law", and seats 2 ft from the out of bounds lines.

I know he went on a tear. He only had 9 K's at the ASB.

Carrier Dome

Kolb would be awsome at USCF -- he doesn't overpower anyone, but he gets them to put the ball in play on the ground. Plus heather would like him ISU grad and all.

The Pit The Kennel (RIP) -- New in '05 = Kennel 2 or K2

Matsui is the one hitter who really scares me in the yanks line-up -- He's all-around solid. Some of those other guys are good too.

Ball goes on auction block Monday

Polanco is my #2 FA target then. (#1 being a SP) -- We'd still be short a lead off guy. But he would really solidify the order.

While I can't confirm Shuf's assertion, there may be something to it. I went to Iowa St. -- 2 guys for every girl. That's not an exaggeration. They had a huge engineering department, a good business school, and very small teaching college. 2 hours away, Iowa has more girl than guys, a HUGE nursing program, and much smaller technical colleges. Iowa girls >>>>>>> Iowa St. girls -- There's no arguing with it. Sorry Heads.

I think there are a few similarities between Santana and Cotts, but the main difference isn't arm-speed/arm slot, it's the speed of the fastball. Santana routinely pops his above 95. Cotts sits at 91. Cotts allowed only 9HR in 311IP in the minors. 14 in 78 in the Majors Santana allowed 33HR in 380IP in the minors. 65 in 624IP in the Majors I would compare him more to former White Sox Kieth Foulke(who came to the sox as a starter) I don't see neal making a jump to Closer anytime soon, but he's certainly a talent. Foulke allowed 44HR in 458IP in the minors. 70 in 660IP in the Majors Cotts main problem has been his propensity to give up the longball. He's been very frugal giving them up in the past. I'm not a pitching coach, but clearly there is something that he's doing wrong.

Here's a couple names that haven't really be mentioned. Placido Palanco -- He'd be a perfect #2 hitter. Somehow I doubt that philly lets him walk. Eric Young -- I know, I know, you guys are wondering what I'm smoking. Well EY was a FA last off-season, and snagged only a $1M contract. We should be able to get him for the same. I don't advocate playing him everyday, but he would be a great platoon-mate with Willie Harris at second. He's a versitile defender, played (2B, LF, RF, CF, SS, 3B) last season, a veteran leader. and his career splits vs. LHP(.299/.380/.434) are good enough to warrant a contract, I think.

I just noticed that It appears the Yanks have a team option on lieber. They gave him genious incentive-laden deal. His price tag will be $8M next season for the yanks should they choose to pick it up, which with the dearth of thier pitching, seems almost assured.

Agreed. Maybe Lieber can get shelled in a couple more starts for the Yanks and we can buy him when the cost is cheap.

I read about it in the trib and herald. They know that they're holding fans hostage. Comcast and Direct TV are competing enterprises, that's why it's taking so long to get a deal worked out... I have yet to see anything official. I only heard that I would be getting it via WOW through a post over at WSI.

They are in negotiations. It's unlikely that they get anything settled before the start of the bulls season, or even the 1st of the year. I have WOW cable, they aren't picking up CSNC until November.

Radke starting price = $9MIL /just a guess

If two members of the NL central make the NLCS, all we'll hear from cubs fans is that they didn't make the playoffs because of what a tough division they were in... I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with choking :rolly That'd be like the D-rays complaining becuase NY-Bos make it every year.

GIS rules.

that's such a copout. NY's attendance is 3.775M people. White Sox attendance is 1.93M people. NY attendance is roughly twice what the sox are. Average tix prices in NY out weigh thouse in Chicago by about 40%... Georgy boy has the largest TV contract of any team in baseball. All of this adds up to a whole lot more money to spend. The fact is that JR is not cheap, he spends a greater percentage of his revenue than the Yankees do. BoSox attendance is 2.83M people. Boston's average ticket price is over twice what it is for the White sox. They draw more fans than the Sox, and they have a payroll about double the White sox. JR spends a greater percentage of his revenue than the BoSox do. Boston is cheating their fans. NY is cheating their fans. Don't play the JR is cheap card.

Notice they all switched to black hi-t0ps. It looks sw33t.

Big 12 North:Al Central as Big 12 South:Al East /SAT portion of this thread.

HA HA that is great -- at the bottom of that link is this quote Timo Perez has a VORP of -7.1 -- I wonder which reason he would fall under. The only other White Sox players with negative VORP are Borchard -10.2 (d) Roberto Alomar -5.3 (a)© Sandy Alomard -2.3 (e) Valdez -1.9 (a)(d) Diaz -3.8 (d) Baj -4.2 (a)(d) Wright -4.8 © Munoz -6.0 (d) Grilli -6.8 (d) Stewart -7.7 (d)

Well it's difficult for me to make a middle reliever sound valuable without stats that go over most's head.

yes but I Scott Shields.... I fricken draft him in fantasy leagues, where he has little to no value.

Uber-long reliever... One of the best relievers in the AL the last 2 seasons. 2.85 ERA in 03 in 148IP slit time between the rotation and pen. VORP = 44.6 3.33 ERA in 04 in 105IP all from the pen in 60 appearences. VORP = 31.5 Relievers who had a higher VORPthan shields in 04 Otsuka 33 Benitez 33.1 Foulke 35.1 Nathan 36.5 BJ Ryan 36.7 K-Rod 37.6 Rivera 37.9 Lidge 39 Gordon 39.6 In short Shields is a workhorse, who succeeds in whatever role given to him. He'd turn a decent pen into a great one, and a great one into a dominant one. IMO he's been the most underrated pitcher in baseball the last two seasons.