CWSGuy406

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 24, 2006 -> 09:33 PM) I'm confident that some pitcher we have confidence in will be a huge disappointment, and some pitcher that we never thought would contribute will be a huge part of our bullpen. My guess as to the surprise bullpen guy? We have him on the 40-man right now (I think). Sean Tracey.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 24, 2006 -> 03:57 AM) No he's not. He's a freshman that still has some things to work on but he's far from awful. 7 ppg and 5 assists is not bad at all when you're job is to run the team. I would like to see him cut down on his turnovers and yes his decision making isn't the greatest but he's far from awful. I can't speak to Duke's bench, I don't know enough about them (I'll assume it's a fairly weak bench), but Paulus isn't/wasn't ready for as many minutes as he got (32.2 minutes per game). You're right, awful wasn't the correct word. I just don't see him becoming a 'cornerstone' of a future Duke championship team. From the (admittedly) little I've seen of him, it looks like he can play defense decently enough, and he looks like a decent point guard. This could be just a sample size issue, but I've been disgusted with some of the decisions he's made in the games I've watched. I dunno -- I'm just not a fan, even if he is just a freshman.

I think Rex has the right to serve a big serving of crow to a big group of people (myself included) who said the Zags wouldn't make it past the first weekend.

I know the game was pretty much in the bag by then, but anybody see the replay of the rebound that Davis got on the free-throw? As a former ( ) player who was taught the fundamentals at a very young age, and had it drilled into my head since second grade (what can I say, my dad was a coach), that makes me shudder. Redick was running towards half court, Nelson stood there and watched, and Williams + McRoberts did a whole lot. That was absolutely pathetic. And Paulus is awful. I haven't been around here enough, but talk about overrated. Can't shoot, makes some really stupid decisions. But, he'll dive into the stands and he'll dive on the floor, so that makes him good. Gosh, players like that piss me off(I've played on the same team as one).

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 09:26 PM) However, with both pitching and defense, I dont' think the numbers are anywhere close to being able to easily catalog what a person will be able to do. Especially on defense, there just arent' good proxies that cover every single detail of what a guy can do, and what sticking him into your defense will do to affect a pitcher. Do you guys really think JG wins 18 games last year without Uribe and Crede on the left side of the field? I don't think the Statistics yet have any way to work out things like that, and iwthout that part, i just can't believe any of their complete statistical predictions. This is something I've come to agree with. Take, Jon Garland, for example. His PECOTA card has 50th percentile at a 4.66 ERA. Now, I understand regression to the mean, but this ERA would be .24 points above his career ERA. I've read over and over that PECOTA is a pretty pessimistic system, which makes it a little more understandable, but it still leaves me shaking my head.

QUOTE(BabyJesus69 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 04:29 AM) barnaby's played well this year, but i find it hard to fault lapointe for not living up to unrealistic expectations put on him by the hawks. he's played as well as i would have expected him to play, given the way the game has changed. he's provided leadership on a team full of young players. That's a good point, and something I failed to mention. They did the same thing with Jon Klemm a few years back -- trying to turn a pretty good #4-5 defenseman into your top d-man. Doesn't work, fans get angry. Hell, same thing with Arny. He's a pretty good #2 center. When he's the BEST center on your team, your team probably isn't very good. I still don't think I like that trade. Your deprived of centers as it is, so you're going to trade your top center (and, one of the few guys who can put the puck in the net as well as create opportunities for others) for another winger and a draft pick?

Barnaby, for the most part, has done his job this year. He was brought in to be a royal pain in the ass, and, that's what he's been. Unfortunately, the Hawks brought LaPointe in to score a little bit, and provide that "veteran presence" -- I'm not seeing a whole lot of results on either end.

Meh -- Bowden dug his own grave... Would've been a bad trade even if Soriano agreed to the move. This just makes the trade all the more laughable.

[snip]Scary moment: The White Sox received a scare in the fourth inning of Sunday's game when left fielder Ross Gload made an outstanding catch of Zach Sorensen's foul drive down the left-field line, but then smacked into the fence and stayed down for a few minutes. Gload got up shaking his left knee with Guillen looking on. Gload came into the third-base dugout, but then left the game. He walked gingerly to the White Sox clubhouse. "It was more a cut than anything," Gload said. "I rammed it, but I'm fine." Whether it's Spring Training or the playoffs, Gload will take on a fence going full speed. "You just leave it all out there," Gload said. "The most surprising thing is that I caught the ball." [/snip] What a cancer and bad influence this guy is... :headshake

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 11:57 PM) Ugh even if that happened i'd get no credit. Look -- I didn't mean for my post to piss off Illini fans. It's just -- I see guys like SnB and Krush (who are the two biggest ILL fans that I know personally). And I know that they're probably just as pissed off as you are. Unless I'm really missing a big thread, however, I've seen very little b****ing/complaining from either of the two. You've gotten your point across, everybody here knows how you feel. Be done with it. JMHO.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 19, 2006 -> 10:39 PM) When will I give it up? Tomorrow morning, when the sweet 16 is set and it's time to root for the underdog and prepare for the next set of games. Would Illinois have defeated UConn? Hell no, but the fact the refs are the reason we aren't getting a chance isn't very fair. Yup. The game was fixed, the refs were paid to make every call for Washington and against UofI. This will be uncovered tomorrow morning, and you will become a national hero.

Great post, Rex. I know it's tough that IU lost, but congrats on the stance you took on Gonzaga pre-tourney -- I thought IU would have their way with the Zags, and quite the opposite was true. I didn't see the game, but it's more impressive that Morrison, at one point, was like 3-of-15 from the field. This thread, IMO, comes off as very whiney. But, if I was in the same position (ie Marquette getting the short stick with calls), I could see myself doing the same. Just, not as far as to say these games are being 'fixed'. Sheesh -- take a step back there...

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 17, 2006 -> 11:29 PM) Also, I'd like to send out a warning: West Virginia vs. Northwestern State WILL be a game. WVU isn't all that athletic, and NWSU's athletes are going to give them hell on defense, plus WVU isn't nearly as good defensively as Iowa is. Oops. Well, maybe I spoke too soon. NW-State has cut it down from 25 to 17.

After everything I've read on Broadway, and the little I've seen of him on TV, my expectations aren't very high for Broadway. I think he'll make his way to the majors, but I think his ceiling is as a #3 pitcher. If I was forced to guess what Broadway will be in a few years, I'd say a #4, league average innings eater. And, if he turns out to be that, I wouldn't really complain -- he'd be a pretty valuable asset to have. As for the Carrillo vs Broadway debate, at the time, it was a really tough call. I think Carrillo, in his senior year, put up worse numbers than Broadway, although there was a pretty big difference in the conferences the two were pitching in. I thought I remember reading that, just a week or two before the draft, Dave Wilder attended a game Broadway started, and Broadway was absolutely dominant. Who knows, maybe the Sox scouting staff put a little too much value into the one great season over Carrillo's two solid seasons.

12-4. Not terrible, especially considering I didn't lose any Sweet 16 teams. I'm just pissed that I didn't pick Wichita. How funny -- I switched the Wichita game in my other bracket (to Wichita winning), and I forgot to do it in the online one. Oh well... Tomorrow, for me, is a pretty straight-forward day. No real big upsets -- I have a couple nines beating eights (Wiscy over Zona, UAB over KU, Bucknell over Arkansas), and I pretty much flipped a coin on NCState-Cal, but other than that, I have the higher seeds winning. My make or break game will be Saturday, UWM vs Florida. I have UWM making it to the Sweet 16, and I'm not sure a whole lot of other people can say that (relatively speaking). If UWM pulls that one out, I'll be in good shape.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Mar 17, 2006 -> 03:16 AM) I got Marquette, Nevada and Seton Hall wrong. I went against my better judgement and took Marquette over Alabama. Something inside me told me to go with Bama. Friggin' Alabama got so damn lucky. Jean Felix averages 8.1 PPG over the year, and is a 34% shooter on the year, yet manages to shoot 8-11 from the field (all his makes were threes, I believe), and 7-8 from the line. Ah, well -- tis the nature of the beast. Guys get hot, make some shots, and before you know it, 40 minutes is over.

Someone want to give me a Cliff Notes version of what to expect out of Alabama? Specifically, their low post game and how well (or how poorly) they rebound? Looking at their schedule, it looks okay. Without knowing the ins and outs of college basketball, their out-of-conference schedule looks a bit weak. They beat LSU, Tennessee, and Florida, but lost to Ole Miss, played Auburn close in both games, and there's a bunch of other questionable losses on there. Oh, and I'll echo Rowand's comments that this bracket is wide open. I could honestly see any one of seven (estimating) different teams winning this. It'd be nice to see Marquette make it to the Sweet 16, but they have a tough road with 'Bama and UCLA. Novak is obviously going to need to get hot. If James gets into one of his little streaks where he tries to become a three-point shooter, the Eagles are in trouble. ---------------------------------------- Oh, and I just wanted to give props to Maurice Acker for winning the Freshman of the Year in the MAC. He played for Hillcrest last year, is actually smaller than me (he's probably around 5"8, 120 LBs), but he was fun to watch. I've never seen anyone (high school) who can dribble like he could. He's also quick as hell. Jerel McNeal and Acker were quite the tandem at 'The Hill'.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Mar 14, 2006 -> 03:11 AM) Boone Logan? Ugh. The guy pitches like three good innings and he's friggin' Billy Wagner. Sorry for speaking in hyperbole, but c'mon. This guy has pitched 131 minor league innings of a 6.10 ERA, and hasn't even pitched TEN innings at A-ball, yet is supposed to come in and be on a World Series title defending ballclub? GMAB. Too much is made of these Spring Training statistics. Then again, it happens every year. Remember the great Kevin Walker of 2005 Tuscon?

How did Puerto Rico score three more? I've been flipping back and forth since Vazquez was taken out.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2362369 Gahhhh (there's a picture of it if you hit the link)... :puke

LOL. I needed that, Cheat.

The thing is, for all the people saying, "well, if he could hit .250 with like 10-15 homers he'd be useful". Well -- duh. The problem is, he can't do that. I know he had 29 homers last year, but the guy didn't even slug .500. That's not very impressive. He's had one major league stint where he's played a little bit. That was 2004. His final line, in 200 ABs (which isn't a great deal, but it's better than nothing) was this -- .174/.249/.338. I hate to say it, that's worse than Timo's overall line. Gload, OTOH, was the MUCH better hitter last season at Charlotte, with a 1.073 OPS. That right there is extremely impressive. Plus, you put him on the bench, he's probably the best hitter. I think his .284/.339/.426 would rank better than both Cintron's and Mackowiak's. I can see Jason's argument about having three OF spots. That's definitely a valid reason. But don't try to compare these two as hitters, because really, Joe Borchard has NOTHING on Ross Gload as a hitter.

Boch played tonight. I think he arrived during the first intermission, as from the second period on, he was playing with Bell and Calder. He had a couple of scoring opportunities, looked like he had a pretty decent wrister. Other than that, I couldn't tell you a whole lot. BTW -- I Byfuglian. He absolutely manhandles guys behind the net and on the boards. Plus, he showed some surprising quickness for a big-man, along with a rocket slapshot. He's down from something like 280 when he was first drafted to around 240. Real, real impressive.

QUOTE(AddisonStSox @ Mar 9, 2006 -> 10:15 PM) It seems some folks are so quick to cast Pablo aside with the acquisition of Cintron that they've forgotten how valuable a guy like Pablo is. He went above and beyond the call of duty last year as a non-roster invitee and looks to provide some speed and versatility off the bench this year. I'm guessing that I'm in the "they" category. Like I've said, Ozuna's only real asset now is his speed. I'm fine with taking him along for the playoff ride, as he'd be the fastest guy off the bench. But that's all he brings to the table, at this point. Can't hit well, and he's behind a backup at every position. 3B = Mack. SS = Cintron. 2B = Cintron. OF = Mack + Borch/Gload. Over the course of the season, I'd think that having Borchard's ability to play all three OF spots or Gload's stick would have a bigger impact on the team than a SB from Ozuna here and there. JMO. Off to work then the Hawks game -- cya folks, go Sox.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Mar 9, 2006 -> 09:57 PM) With a conference record like that in the Big East, they're pretty much a lock. I thought so -- just making sure. Well, the Eagles are making it interesting...