CWSGuy406

Finland dominates from start to finish, as they take the World Cup opener, 4-0. Tuomo didn't score, but I hear that he played a solid overall game, and was even on ice for the first goal of the game. I love watching those Finns play hockey, they seem to be so sound at just about every aspect of the game. Here's a recap - USA vs. Canada tomorrow at 7:00 EST. Finland vs. Czechs Recap

Speaking of rotations, will Gio Gonzalez start the year at Kanny or Winston Salem, or is that undetermined? I assume that if he has a good enough year next year (bleh), he'll take the route of B-Mac - Kanny to W-S to Birmy.

Let's let him play RF for the rest of the year. He's been hitting/seeing the ball better the last couple weeks, a lot of line drive outs. Let's keep him out in right for the rest of the year.

Aaron Rowand, without a doubt. The PERFECT approach to hitting (probably not breaking balls, though.). A guy like Aaron Rowand is why a guy like Carlos Lee pisses the f*** out of me. Fine, Carlos will hit his 30+ HRs, probably drive in 100+ RBIs. But when he had that 27 game hit streak, he was using all of the fields - and did any single person on here give one flying f*** that he only had like three homers (sorry for the language)? No. Yet - Carlos went to Greg Walker, and told him he didn't like not hitting homers. Carlos could hit .340, IMHO - yet he doesn't want to just hit 15-25 homers. Grr... Back to Aaron - Aaron uses all of the field, he had a short, quick swing, and he lets his homers come to him. He'll bunt for hits (that's the one thing I'd like him to work on), he's a five-tool player (Gun, Hose, Power, Average, Speed. The car reference in Moneyball .). I know some people might not like this comparison, but can I call him Carlos Beltran Jr? Would that be going out of line? Obviously not the speed of Carlos, but Aaron hits for higher average, same amount of homers, same defense, IMHO.

Good post, ASHF. I agree 100%. You gotta be smart to play this game offensively, at least. Defensively, I can see where some things piss you off, but like ASHF said, you gotta get pressure on the QB... It's a must.

Back to the Patriots, for a moment: Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling the Pats WRs bums off the street. I'm just saying that they don't have WRs that would really make anyone very scared, like the Terrell Owens/Randy Moss' of the world. I should say that the Pats/Bears WR comparison was poor, as you're comparing proven WRs (or at least Troy Brown is proven) against unproven WRs (all Bears WRs are unproven.). The point I was trying to show was that you don't need world-beaters at the WR position to win a ring.

Wouldn't it be awesome to have one of those miracle, storybook like endings where the Sox rattle off fifteen or so in the last twenty games, and Minny just fizzles out. Damn, damn, damn... :headshake

I just got home from school - I'm hearing Joe Borchard's homer was 500+ feet? Either way, nice job, SOX!

You have to turn up the Awareness and Knockdowns a LOT. Believe me, it might seem like it would be unfair - but if you turn up the awareness to about 18, and the knockdowns to about 15, and it really becomes a lot of fun to play defense, because you can then just worry about the player your controlling. I'm not lying to you. Brian Urlacher is ranked first for MVP, has 10 sacks, and five INTs. Ogunlye has 16 sacks, and is going up for defensive lineman of the year. You may not score a lot, but you'll sure as hell hold down a team on defense. The only time I got dominated was when the Redskins put up 60 points on my defense, they were f***ing unstoppable. Try it, Tony. Try it.

Hmm. How about a trade of Helton for Konerko straight up? Add a middle of the order lefty bat, and give up a power hitting righty - who will most likely thrive at Coors, with Helton keeping the same production at Coors Field Jr. We take on that big contract (how many more years, though?), and give them PK, who will be gone after a year. Thoughts?

Yes - Urlacher is BACK baby! Ogunlye possibly playing next week. f*** yeah - our defense is going to surprise, surprise, surprise this year... Ogunlye-Harris-B-Rob-Brown, Odom-Urlacher-Briggs, Peanut-Brown-Johnson-R-Dub. Two weeks till week one. We're adding two pro-bowlers next week, I'm so f***ing pumped...

OK - a friendly bet. I'll take that...

Here's my team (aquisions in bold): C-Davis/Burke 1B-Konerko 2B-Hairston/Harris Platoon (Hairston aquired in a trade.) 3B-Bill Mueller SS-Juan Uribe LF-Lee CF-Rowand RF-Drew/Catalanatto (Not both - just one.) DH-Thomas (Everett, Gload, Perez, among others, lining the bench.) Rotation: Garcia Buehrle Clement Contreras Garland (Rotation is - meh, I dunno. I'd rather have a lefty in it, but the only even slightly good lefty on the market is Odalis Perez. If this team has real balls, go after Pedro. Obvious.) Bullpen: Adkins/Diaz Cotts Politte Marte Shingo Kline Mota (If available for a trade. Mota to Shingo would be almost as good as Mota to Gagne. Hell - a healthy Marte to Mota to Shingo is - nasty, to say the least.) Thoughts? I know it's a long thread, but I'm interested in anyone's input on this.

Let me put this on the table right now. If healthy for the majority of the season, Thomas Jones will rackup 2000+ yards (rushing + receiving combined). And I honestly believe that, too. He's got an awesome O-Line, and it's all about the chain effect. Jones running the ball will make our receivers more effective, our TE's more effective, thus, Rex Grossman more effective. I don't know how anyone can say the Lions are going to be better than the Bears, especially when you say that the Bears are unproven, yet somehow the Lions aren't, yet with basically three rooks at three huge positions. Plus a QB with an aweful QB rating in his career.

I was having the same frustrations, Tony. And it really pissed me off, I know exactly what you're talking about. Linebackers would make absolutely unbelievable plays against my wide receivers, on perfectly placed passes. Yet, when all my DB had to do was stick his hand up, he didn't even do that. Turn up your defensive awareness AI, as well as your knockdowns AI. The computer will still make good plays on your receivers, but at least it will be fair because your DB's will do the same thing. I also recommend you run the ball A LOT, and throw to your TEs a lot more than you throw to your WRs. JMHO, try it out. And if your using the Bears playbook - I recommend not using it, it's terrible. I love the Denver playbook, really good for two TEs (I have Desmond Clark and Daniel Graham, who I traded for from NE. Got him for a third rounder because they have so much depth at that position.) It's also good for RBs... It makes the game a LOT more enjoyable. Try it out.

Everyone says the Bears have no good wide receivers. But who were the wide receivers on the Patriots? Dave Patten (sp?), Troy Brown, and Deion Branch, IIRC. How did they win? An efficient offense that didn't turn the ball over much, yet was able to spread the ball out to several different receivers. As I see this Bears team right now, I see about ten different options for Grossman to be able to spread the ball out to (Thomas, Jones, Anderson, Clark, Lyman, Wade, Terrell, Gage, Berrian, Merrit). I also see Grossman as being a very efficient QB, as the only INT he has thrown thusfar in his career was a dropped pass by Marty Booker. They also had an excellent defense. Our defense has performed very well thusfar, and that's without two Pro-Bowlers that we will add by the beginning of the season, both at positions that will make a HUGE difference. Call Urlacher overrated or whatever, he's still one of the best linebackers in the NFL. And Wale is a top 10 DE. Our secondary is mediocre, but we have at least one solid cornerback, as well as an excellent FS in Mike Brown. You cannot predict what a young and exciting defense like this will do... I'll have more later...

2-0 Cleveland on a Blake homerun. I'm not going to do PBP, just letting those who care know...

Sounds like the Cubs' version of Jon Garland. Million dollar arm, ten cent brain as someone else put it... Except - Farnsy's arm is about a twenty million dollar arm...

Well - everything worked out OK. They didn't spend the night, they stayed in the car - one of the girls was absolutely gone, like I said, I couldn't have her getting into my house, and spending the night, without one of my parents knowing. They stayed in the car, but I eventually called them and asked if they needed anything - so I think I got major points last night for offering and for driving them back to the street I live on...

Same here. He has become my favorite pitcher to watch, actually, to tell you the truth...

Does Schilling still post there? And, if anyone has the time, can you post the exact link to one of Schilling's post? It would be appreciated, as I'm very lazy...

But it's not that easy. It's not like it's just one person. But my mom is going to be suspicious - like, 'Why do FOUR people need to crash here?'. What excuse can I use for that?

But - I don't think my mom would care about the part about being drunk, just about the part that I'd be having girls spend the night at my house... I mean - I'm old enough, she probably knows what I do and what not, but she probably doesn't want 'em sleeping over. Ugh - it's been a tough night for me.

So - tonight I went out and got a lil tipsy. Not a lot, but a little bit. Well, anyways - my friends, two guys, two gals, were sort of planning on sleeping in their car. But - I sort of feel bad for them, all of the four are nice people (well, I don't know, one of the girls, but the other girl is nice and hot, a good combo). If I went up to my mom and flat out told her the situation, she's nice enough a lady to where she'd probably let them in - hell, she'd kick my dad off the bed and let them all have their own beds, lol. But I don't want it to get to that, because I don't want my mom to know that they're drunk. What should I do? Seriously?

Yes, but I'm in the middle of a franchise, and I plan on making Deion Sanders in next years' offseason (IIRC, I think I can do that.).