CWSGuy406

Bring on Spring Training and March Madness!!!!

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Feb 4, 2006 -> 10:13 PM) THis team sucks and will suck until the Watzes put the Hawks on TV to rebuild a fan base and get more butts in the seats so they can actually pay for real talent! Unfortunately, that doesn't quite hold true. This summer, the Hawks offered MORE money to both Peter Forsberg and Mike Madano, arguably the two best forwards on the market, and both turned down the Chicago offer for less cash. It seems like Chicago has just lost it's luster to the FA market. For the Hawks to be good, this supposed "deep" defensive corps is going to have to pay dividends. I'd say that as we speak, they're halfway there, with Keith, Seabrook, and a healthy Aucoin. I'd also put Vandermeer in that group, as his play has improved as the season has progressed, and is a nice #4-5 defenseman. So, they just need three of Barker / Barinka / Wisniewski / Byfuglian to pan out. Of course, Babchuk was playing decent hockey, and was traded -- he'd be nice to have back there, but I forgot that the Hawks needed more 'grit' ( :rolly ).

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 3, 2006 -> 02:33 AM) And the A's are going to win the division and Willie Harris is great. Blah, blah, blah... I don't think I every argued for Harris' greatness. 'Useful-ness' might be a better word, if it's a word at all. And, no, Oakland didn't win the division. Came pretty damn close, though, after that horrid start, and I expect to see them atop the West at the end of this year.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 2, 2006 -> 11:47 PM) I doubt Floyd would replace McCarthy in the bullpen to start the season. He needs to hone his control at AAA first. It would most likely be Bajenaru and a second lefty in the bullpen, possibly even Urbina if he gets out of jail. Is Urbina this year's version of Kevin Walker? If so, when can we expect to see him in your avatar/sig?

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Feb 1, 2006 -> 01:02 AM) If Baj makes it with us that is great.... if he makes it in the bigs with another team thats great for him.... but the Baj love here needs to be taken down a step. No, I think the "the only reason you guys like Baj is 'cause he posts here " crap needs to take a step down. I'm not saying Baj is a budding Eric Gagne. All I'm saying is that he has nothing left to prove at AAA, and that he deserves his shot (regardless of whether or not it's with the SOx) in the majors. He's pitched 90+ innings at AAA with a sub-2 ERA while averaging right around a K per inning. But yeah -- I forgot I'm supposed to take his 12 major league IP and make a conclusion that he sucks from that.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 04:11 AM) I wonder if he's sobered up by now Ha. Ha. BTW, the Dunkin Donuts sobered me up.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 03:18 AM) It's kind of in the middle of winter. Plus, you gotta have those hotel rooms. You know, for those, games...

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jan 30, 2006 -> 06:25 PM) whatevr happened to Grieve he put up some nice numbers at the begining of his career...... did he get a freak injury that messed him up or what? He's probably the Sox' best option if they're thinking offense only. Problem is, he's probably the worst defender out of the guys battling for the final bench spots (Owens in OF, Gload at 1B, Borchard in the OF). Like I said in the reliever thread, I'd like to see two out of the above four to make the team.

It's silly to think that again, because of the "need" to have a second lefty, that Jeff Baj might miss out on starting out the season in the White Sox's bullpen. Of course, after this weekend hearing Kenny pretty much guarantee that another lefty will make the bullpen, it's certainly believable. Right now, the bullpen shakes out with Cotts, Jenks, Politte, McCarthy, and Hermanson. I'd rather they go with only 11 pitchers, as most time, that 12th (and even 11th, sometimes) is a waste. Really -- how much more confidence would one of us have putting in a guy like Chad Bentz, Arnie Munoz, or Javy Lopez, rather than Baj or Sean Tracey? I'm hoping the 11th bullpen spot goes to one of the last two guys, Bajenaru or Tracey. It seems like the organization is moving towards putting Tracey in the bullpen, as Chisoxfn (among others) has been saying/predicting for a while. Taking only 11 pitchers also allows for another spot on the bench. Ideally, I'd say, Joe Borchard and Ross Gload.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jan 26, 2006 -> 10:18 PM) Happy, happy, joy, joy... Can't stay overnight, though, so no -- let's just say, no 'security' problems this year...

Somebody stumbled upon a ticket for Friday... Can't go Saturday or Sunday, but Friday -- the house is comin' down!

Sheesh, Duaner Sanchez sure gets a lot of love for a guy who was worse than Luis Vizcaino last season, despite pitching in a much better park. I'd do Heilman + Milledge, but Minaya would just hang up the phone if Kenny requested that.

Maybe this will hike up his trade value a bit? Angelo can always say, "Well, disregarding his play on the field this year, he was a Pro-Bowl alternate!". That's one good thing that may come of this.

Damn, all Philly is asking for fer Michaels is Arthur Rhodes? That's one helluva deal for Cleveland if they're able to pull in Michaels + Marte while only giving up Coco and Rhodes... As a baseball fan, I'd like to see what Michaels can do in a full season of ABs, not just as a role player.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jan 23, 2006 -> 08:31 PM) Nevermind.. just got the scoop and there's a few of them. Damn.. no "security" stunts this year... Jesus H, a year later and I still have to hear about it...

QUOTE(3E8 @ Jan 24, 2006 -> 03:43 AM) Post.of.the.year.

Guys, I'd really suggest giving the load-and-fire system a chance. It's frustrating at first. Extremely frustrating. But, play the hitting mini-game with it (for about an hour or so), and you'll have the basics down enough to give it a shot in the game. It's well worth it, believe me. You actually almost feel proud of yourself once you hit a homer. I was playing on All-American, this pitcher threw me a changeup on the inside part of the plate -- I sat on it all the way, and absolutely blasted it out to LF. It was awesome. Once you get your timing down, it's absolutely beautiful. The only thing I've yet to figure out is baserunning while using the L-and-F system. I don't know how to take leadoffs. That's a problem.

Anyone else buy it yet? Seems pretty good, but I've only played a couple of innings. Pitching seemed choppy at first, but I'll get used to it. The hitting system is very, very awkward right now, but on my first hit, I lined one back up the middle. Once I get the hang of it, I think it will be a really cool addition. I also like the new 'throw' meter, though, like everything else, it's really wierd right now. Basically, you have to push the joystick towards the base your throwing to, and if you move the joystick 'off-center', then the throw will go wayward. I think psxrosters.com will be doing a set of rosters for this game. I can't wait. I doubt I'm going to cheat and be Texas, but it'll be nice seeing Danks in the game. I'm still debating on who to be on franchise/dynasty. Oklahoma State and TCU seem like the two I'm debating between (Josh Fields and Lance Broadway's former school's), but who knows...

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jan 10, 2006 -> 12:45 AM) A .266 AVG and .320 OBP is "pretty good?" Especially for a leadoff hitter??? I don't know about that. Patterson was atrocious as a lead off man (he didn't get on base and struck out a ton, thus not being able to use his speed) and Rowand was very dissapointing in 2005, but I still don't see that big of a difference in numbers. That's the Cubs' problem though -- they can't get over the fact that he isn't (or wasn't) a leadoff hitter. They couldn't just take him for what he was, a very good defender, a very good baserunner, low OBP, high slugging guy. I do, however, agree with the other things you've said in the thread. Nice move by Baltimore, taking a flier on CP. Even if he puts up a line of .260/.300/.425, he's still a pretty valuable player because of defense alone. He's especially valuable if a team could hide his offensive deficincies (like the Sox do with Uribe -- sort of). Actually, a team like Boston could've used CP.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jan 9, 2006 -> 10:33 PM) Whats so troubling about the whole situation is that when Hawk fans talk about keeping the "core" together, they bring up names like Bell, Calder, and Ruutu. Are these guys really "Core" players to build around? Bell looks like to be an alright two liner, Calder can bang in the garbage goal, and to be dead honest, I really dont know what Ruutu is going to turn out to be. I really dont see Ruutu putting in 40 goals like people said. If Roots can put in 30 goals, and get 100 PIMs, I would say he is a solid center, and could play on the 1st line, maybe. I'm not sure what to think of Bell at this point. He seems like a very streaky player. Even with his streakiness, however, he's still one of the best Hawk forwards (I know -- not saying much). Calder is a reason I still come and watch these guys play. It's hard to find a whole lot of guys better than Calder at getting the puck in the corner. He'd have more results if he had some friggin' talent, but, like Tom has been saying for weeks, this team is mostly 'grit' (guys like Lapointe and Dowd and Brown -- suckass players) and no to little skill. Ruutu, if healthy, is going to be one helluva player. Of course, that 'if healthy' is becoming like saying, "If Mark Prior is healthy, blah blah blah" or "If Rex Grossman is healthy, blah blah blah". He's only 22 years old, so you can look at that two ways -- he's 22, and has already had knee & back problems, or, the optimistic view of, he's got time to get healthy. His better years are ahead of him. This latest injury, BTW, is nothing more than a fluke in my mind -- any player taking a blade to the leg is going to get a deep cut, and do major damage. Truthfully, the 'core' of the Hawks are the guys in juniors. Barker, Bolland, Skille (UofW), Bertram (sp?), Blunden. Hell, if the Hawks tank this year (which, at this point, I'm hoping for), maybe we'll get a little luck in landing Kessel. Of course, it always seems like the Hawks end up screwing up just enough to lose the 'best player available sweepstakes' -- 2004, they end up with the third pick, after the first two were consensus picks (Malkin and Ovechkin), and from there, it was question marks (I'm happy with Barker, however). 2005, Brule, IIRC, went fifth -- he's in the NHL now. It seems like, again, the top five or so were consensus picks, and the Hawks got sixth (or seventh). I'm not saying the Hawks deserve luck -- they don't, especially an organization run by Wirtz. But it'd be nice to be able to land one of those 'superstar' type picks, which, really, is what the Hawks are missing right now.

QUOTE(sayitaintso @ Jan 9, 2006 -> 10:21 PM) Seabrook is hurt. I know that. Should've clarified. The initial injury was 4-6 weeks, so I assume he should begin skating in the next two weeks. I like watching Seabrook. He makes his mistakes, and is still not strong enough to handle some of the top NHLers, but he looks like he could be a good one. I'm hoping to see more of the same from Barker next year.

Can I say "Wait til next year"? I'll still go to games. I actually enjoyed going to the Vancouver game, watched Ruutu have one helluva night, and enjoyed watching Yakubov finally get a shot. Plus, if you don't like watching Morrison/Bertuzzi/Naslund work, then I have to question you a bit... Time to play the young kids. Vorobiev and Yakubov need to be up here for the rest of the year, regardless of how bad they are on defense. Tallon needs to tell Yawney that Babchuk/Keith/Seabrook need to be in the lineup every night -- preferably Barinka as well. Trade whoever has value, outside of your 'core' players. At this point, on offense, your 'core' players are Calder and Ruutu. Maybe Bell. Oh, and Barnaby can stay too, because he does his job -- he's good at being a b**** on the ice. I can stand him.

Add me to the group of people dissappointed by Hostel. I'm not much of a movie person (going out to theatres), so I had really high expectations for this movie, especially with all the hype it's had. I was expecting a movie similar to Saw, and, in the end, it was worse. The girls were in Hostel were good looking -- so that's one of the few positives -- but I'd much rather trade that in for a better storyline/plot.

QUOTE(chitownsportsfan @ Jan 8, 2006 -> 12:38 AM) It's unfortunate that some of you seem to be lumping this "simulation" into all the other great work BP does. If you read the tone of the preview article BP wrote for the series, you get the feeling that the series is meant to be a mostly tongue-in-cheeck response to Valentine's crazy blather about how his team is better. LOL, I was thinking the same thing. I'm laughing at all the people having heart problems over this... :banghead

QUOTE(Random @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 09:51 PM) And, it is hard to be a fan of talent when i am a hawks fan. And when you have Timo Perez in your sig.