Chisoxfn

Shoot be a fun watch.

Sweeden just missed out on a golden opportunity. Ends up hitting the post.

Long been a Coop backer. The pitchers really respect him and he does a great job motivating them and getting them ready and prepared. He gets these guys mentally sharp and gives them confidence and thats a huge part of pitching.

Watched a bit of the Womens Curling this morning and there are a decent good looking gals on those teams. I had no idea.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 03:41 PM) I'm pretty sure he's never been offered the job. Technically speaking, probably not. But IIRC he was who they wanted and he told them he wasn't interested and that he was happy at Iowa. Right after that Iowa extended his contract till 2009. When the Hawks hired Alford it was a really big deal in Iowa. He was supposed to be one of the bright young minds of college basketball and Carver Hawkeye pretty much immediately sold out all there games. It turned out that they had some slow times, but Alford has this time primed right now.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 03:37 PM) When was he actually offered the job? Maybe I'm completely off base, but I swore way back when Alford pretty much declined the job? I was thinking it was when he had just joined Iowa. Ya, Knight left about a year after Alford was coaching at Iowa and IIRC IU made the full court press for Alford and he eventually got a contract extension from Iowa (it wasn't more than a year or so after Alford was originally hired by Iowa) or something along those lines.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 02:14 PM) From the Indiana Daily Student: I still find it ridiculous that coaches are allowed to just jump, yet players aren't allowed to do so when there coach leaves. I think when a coach gets canned or leaves, players should have a few week period to move on as well without having to sit out a year.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 01:59 PM) Alford released a statement saying his focus is on helping his team win the Big Ten title. He obviously didn't remove himself from consideration for this job, which to me says he would be very interested. I know Alford talks to Bobby Knight quite a bit. I would assume Knight wouldn't want him taking the Indiana job. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. I do know one thing, if he does go to Indiana, Steve Alford will be public enemy #1 in Iowa City. I'd be pissed, considering we took care of him. Gave him a nice extension early in his career at the school to make sure he didn't go to IU the first time. And we stuck by him when the team struggled a bit. He's been taken care of big time by the school and it would be a slap to the students and fans if he were to walk for IU, imo. That said I'd understand it, since it is potentially his dream job. But if it were his dream job he should have taken it the first time he was offered it.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 01:34 PM) Eh. Keep him in the booth; he's great at that. Sure, he'd be familiar with the situation with his experience, but in the end, he didn't come through at UCLA either. He made something like 5 sweet sixteens in 6 years. The one year he didn't make it they canned him. Lavin had some issues and wasn't the greatest in game coach, but as long as you got him more experienced assistants he would be a great candidate. He's a very good recruiter and a motivator and he ran a clean program at UCLA. Lavin also improved greatly with his coaching as he progressed. He was in an impossible situation at UCLA. IU isn't even close to a pressure job when you compare it to the pressure people have at UCLA, especially when the guy Lavin replaced Harick won a national championship and than of course you have the great John Wooden who won a half dozen or so. UCLA is as storied college basketball school as there is along with Duke and UNC.

QUOTE(q\/\/3r+y @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 02:42 PM) Last year was closer to the real cotts than the 2004 season. No triple a probally hurt him. For some players the jump from double a to the majors is nothing... but then for others you see the results cotts had for us in 2004. I am convinced cotts is our best reliever in the pen. I agree. I think we will consistently see the Cotts of last year. In fact I think on many teams he would already be a closer. I also see him as the backup plan to Jenks. Hopefully the club can ink him for a few years to avoid some arbitration, but even if they can't he won't be going anywhere. He's a huge asset to this club.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 10:23 AM) You do realize he's currently a college coach as well right? He's been doing good things at USC in his first year. I really think he's gonna get USC fixed up. Plus USC will be playing on campus in a new arena in a few years. Floyd is a fantastic college basketball coach.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 10:12 AM) I wonder if Majerus's health issues are rectified? If so I would have to say he would be my #1 choice for the job. The guy has won everywhere he has been, and even turned somewhere like Utah into a place to go for NCAA hoops. Can you imagine what he could do in a place that almost recruits for itself? There is no way Majerus is gonna be back in coaching unless he seriously drops some pounds. He realizes the mistake he made when he accepted the USC job. That said he's a tremendous coach and person.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 09:48 AM) Here's a name: Greg McDermott from Northern Iowa. He's an asshole (at least I think of him as one) But I can see him ending up in Missouri or possibly even Indiana. If Iowa lost Alford...I could see McDermott jumping to U of I.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 09:35 AM) If Alford did somehow get the job, recruiting might take a hit. Not necessarily his strong point.... Alford is a good coach and he gets his guys to improve (look at the developments of Brunner/Horner/Hansen/Haluska). Every single one of those guys are a lot better now than they were when they started (especially Hansen and Brunner). Alford has not done a good job recruiting and thats definately his knock. ISU has consistently out-recruited us in state, although Alford's IU ties were able to get us Freeman and that was an exceptional pickup. We've also done a fairly good job getting the player of the year (or at least it seems we have).

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 09:29 AM) That's one thing I hate about the Alford situation. He's finally having a good year, and that lays a lot into the talks. However, he doesn't have a good past, and there's no real proof that the light's turned on this year, and this is what he can do from here on out. One name that really hasn't been mentioned that could be an interesting one is Rick Barnes at UT. There's a lot of egos in college sports, and Barnes is basically 3rd fiddle to football and baseball at Texas. He could be the guy here, if he wanted that. Does anyone know what time the press conference is supposed to take place? There's like a billion media trucks outside of AH. Is there baseball team really >>> basketball. I realize they are always loaded, but college basketball in general >>> college baseball (in terms of support). But that could be different at Texas. I mean at Fullerton obviously College Baseball outweighs any other sport (although our fencing team has won a few national championships). But we blow ass at basketball. I'd think if we had a power house basketball team and baseball team, the basketball team would be more popular just because of the greater media exposure college basketball gets.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 09:25 AM) The word on ESPN about Alford last night was that Alford would probably take the job, but only if it was basically offered up to him on a silver platter. Their report was that Alford didn't want to go through an interview process where he was one of 4 or 5 candidates. I hope to hell Alford doesn't start interviewing while the season is going on. If he does I'll be totally pissed off. His job is to be loyal to the Hawkeyes and get this team to finish strong. I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. Afterall, Iowa has given him the benefit of the doubt during his tenure here and gave him a nice extension a few years back (didn't he pretty much turn down the IU job a while back???). I'm one of the few that thinks Alford has figured things out and I want him sticking around Iowa City.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 01:50 AM) There is a great chance that at least one of these guys will pan out and be a decent lefty out of the pen. Most of these guys have a lot of upside and a fresh start for some of them might unlock that potential. I'd go with more of a slim chance. If it were as easy as getting about 10 guys and letting them compete, every team would have a couple quality left handed arms. These guys were all available for a reason and they will seriously have to make some adjustments to turn into anything decent. Oh and we would have won 1 or 2 more divisions cause one of the many 5th starters we ran out for a few years would have panned out.

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 08:46 AM) He's been worth the money so far but we'd be foolish to extend him after his deal completes. He doesn't seem like the type who will age particularly well . He's an average right-fielder with power numbers boosted by this park. That said, he's getting average money and has been a fine fit for us so far but he's not someone who should block Ryan Sweeney whenever he's ready. When Sweeney actually starts producing at a high clip...than I'll consider getting rid of Dye. But I don't like how people are so quickly willing to throw out the name of a prospect and hand them a spot. Let Sweeney take the spot away from Dye. Right now he's not ready to do that. I hope Sweeney can get his wrist healthy and start becoming a more complete hitter (it would help him a lot if he could start driving the ball and a healthy wrist is key for that). He is a good athlete though and still very young.

QUOTE(chitownsportsfan @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 08:42 AM) Yea. Dye had a very solid campaign in 2005, overcoming a slow start to post a respectable 274 .333 .512. While not amazing numbers for a corner outfielder, throw in his salary and good defense and Dye is a keeper. Couple interesting things to note about Dye last year: 1) His ISO power numbers where the highest of his career. Also, the percent of fly balls he hit that turned into HR's was 16%, a very healthy percent. It seems Dye benefits greatly from playing at homer happy US Cellular. 2) His BABIP was around 285, among the lowest number of his career. He consistently posted a BABIB of over .300 in his "prime" years. This suggests to me that he's lost some ability to make consistent good contact at the expense of greater power--not a bad tradeoff given he plays half his games at the cell. 3) His walk rate continued to decline, to only 8% of his PA's. As recently as 03, his walk rate was 11%. Like most of Dye's stats, this one was hurt by a very poor spring. So what does this all mean? I think we can expect about the same from Dye this year. He benefits greatly from hitting at US Cell as a right-handed pull hitter, and he seems to have put his injuries behind him. Hopefully Ozzie's newfound depth in the outfield gives plenty of time to rest Dye and keep him fresh throughout the season. A line of 500 PA .279 .332 .520 is what I see for Dye. I wouldn't exactly classify Dye as a RH pull hitter. When he was right he hits the ball as well as anyone on our team to RF and really has good opposite field power.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 10:33 PM) Is Jermaine Dye one of the most underrated players in baseball? Do you like him or think he's just average? I read this alarming stat on ESPN: "The 128 strikeouts he posted last year were a career high, while the 49 walks were the lowest total among the five seasons that he has logged more than 130 games. Perhaps the most telling stat, however, is that Dye hit just .240 with runners in scoring position." I like the guy especially after the Series, I am no ingrate and tip my cap to him, but wondered if you all thought we could do better? For the money, if JD is healthy he is one of the better bargains in baseball. He's one of the better defensive right fielders and he's a pretty smart player. He had a lot of early season struggles, but aside from that he played tremendous for the Sox. Considering he'll be in the 5 or 6 spot of the lineup (although I've seen a few people suggest him in the 3 hole) I think he's gonna be just fine for us. Plus he's a really awesome character guy and I'm glad our team finally has more of that. That said, health issues are the main reason I wouldn't consider him totally under-rated. If he truly is behind all his injuries (last year was a good sign) than I'd definately say he's about as underrated of a RF as there is. Lets not forget he led all RFers in HR's.

It could be different with the Sox, but we usually get our Angels ones in early March. I know I purchased some spring training tix and I got them pretty much immediately in the mail.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 09:29 AM) I know that sounds funny...but I believe that the Motion Picture studios tried that a few years ago as a method of having people rent DVD's but not have to return them. DIVX

QUOTE(mreye @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 09:06 AM) I used to support these guys on this, but they're just getting stupid now. Seriously...if I purchase a CD I have the right to play it on whatever system I want. If that means putting it on my computer and creating a collection to listen to via my harddrive or by putting it on an MP3 player. RIAA can go f*** themselves. I actually supported the whole download thing when they brought it up, but this is beyond ridiculous.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 09:08 AM) Well Russia didn't fold it up, that's for sure. They came out today and played a great game in all areas and torched Sweden 5-0. Their defense was very physical, Nabokov was brilliant, and they buried their chances. I guess yesterday's loss to Slovakia was enough of a wake up call for them. They were really good today. They were rocking and Nabokov played tremendous. I was only able to watch a little over a period before going to school, but It was the first of Olympic hockey I've watched this year and I was quickly reminded of how much better the play is ni the olympics. I absolutely love the bigger rinks cause it allows for more spacing and just a more fluid game.

QUOTE(J-MAN @ Feb 16, 2006 -> 07:54 AM) Last night's game was at home and they still sucked!!!!! No it was in Iowa