CWSGuy406

Rex -- Duke a six? Can there really be any other argument for them being that high besides, "they're Duke"? I know their RPI and SoS rate pretty well, but they didn't finish over .500 in their conference and bowed out in the first round of their tourney. Also, any comments on Marquette? Top 25 RPI and SoS, great resume of wins including two vs. Pitt, at Louisville, neutral court vs Texas Tech and Duke... Even with McNeal out, they won a road game comfortably at St. John's and a home game vs Pitt. I'm not putting this on you, but you can't honestly tell me with a straight face that Indiana is a better team than Marquette, right? *Note -- in case it isn't obvious, my complaining is with Marquette being rated as an eight seed, and having -- God willing -- a second round matchup at UNC.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 11:16 PM) MSU isn't the best 9 in the bracket but you have a right to be angry at the moment. You think 'Nova is better than them? Purdue? Xavier? No matter. We should win our first round game, even without McNeal. I'm just steaming about a second round matchup AT UNC. I bet the committee is thinking about the McNeal injury, but even without McNeal, they beat a #3 seed at home and won a road game at St. John's. And we were in the game against Pitt, only losing by 10. Whatever... I hate to go all 'woe is me' on you all, but man...

Some of these teams ahead of Marquette is absolutely ridiculous. Indiana?!?!?! Duke?!? Purdue only one seed worse? Gosh damn. Round one game against the best #9 seed in the bracket, and then a round two game that's essentially at UNC? I could go on and on. f***in' bulls***.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 10:26 PM) Assuming Jerel is healthy. He's not. This is so f***ing stupid. Look at some of these seeds ahead of them. Duke?!?!?! Are you f***ing kidding me? Ugh...

I thought SIU deserved a three. Damnit, Duke a #6? That ought to make Marquette a #4... (I know -- it ain't happining)

QUOTE(BearSox @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 09:07 PM) I will likely be wrong though. Yup. Young is better and more valuable than any prospect in our organization. The redundant roster player remains the only guy who hasn't played a game yet, Scotty Pods. Mackowiak would make a nice stop-gap second baseman if Iguchi was hurt. Podsednik plays one position, doesn't play it well, and he can't hit. Useless I tell ya, useless.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 11:29 PM) They were impressed that Logan K'd Thome and Mackowiak during the scrimmage. Am I allowed to joke that 90 pct of the lefties in baseball can do that? They were impressed by his stuff. He's a lefty throwing in the low-90s (92-93) with an unorthodox throwing style. Also showed decent command of a breaking ball. There's no doubt in my mind that Boone has the stuff to be, at the very least, a great LOOGY. Hopefully he can be a little better in between the ears this year.

Does Indiana have an offense, or do a bunch of guys just run around while the PG sits at half court with the ball?

With Xavier and Nevada both losing in their tourneys -- and teams like Baylor, OKState, and NCState still with shots to win their tourneys -- does this game become a 'lose-and-no-NCAAs' for UofI?

QUOTE(BearSox @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 02:47 AM) I personally hate baseballprospectus, and I thought that was a horriblt article. How was that a horrible article? They do have their bit of arrogance that sometimes shows, but I didn't see it there. Really, that was as objective an 'article' -- although it's really not an article, more of a feature -- as you're going to find.

Jeff Green is awesome. Such a good player.

Damn, we wouldn't lose a game. Erstad AND Rowand on the same team? Can you say best record ever? Seriously, though, with their grinder-i-goodness and chemistry just beaming from their chests, the Sox would probably go 152-10. I'm getting the noose ready for all the intangible references we'd hear this season if we got Rowand.

Is there a new episode on tonight? If not, when do they 'restart'?

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 8, 2007 -> 05:21 PM) Nova is having issues. The guys at ESPN seem to be drooling over them. I was never that impressed, although I do love Curtis Sumpter. Reynolds is a talented ballplayer, and Nardi is solid, but I don't think they're particularly strong defensively (maybe the stats don't show this?). I can't see them making it past the first weekend in the tourney. Georgetown, OTOH... If a Big East team makes it to the Final Four, it'll be the Hoyas. Tough to find a better two-some in the country than Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert.

Wooh! Nice road win to add to the final tournament resume. This should ensure a #6 seed, and a win tomorrow could potentially push us to a five or a four. Nice win. Hopefully Dominic's shot will show up tomorrow. I'm doubting that McNeal will play. Gonna be a tough game, trying to beat Pitt for hte third time this year.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Mar 7, 2007 -> 10:51 PM) For KW to come out with 2 starting pitchers locked up for the next 3-4 seasons, while getting 4 pitching prospects for 2 our of old starters, I think he's done a very good job this off-season, and one that has been underrated. Other than the Podsednik resigning, I have no problems with the offseason. The McCarthy move is ballsy, but I think we're getting more talent. Hopefully Danks can become a solid #3 for the Sox and Masset can be a strong reliever for a while. But that Pods signing... yugh. So useless. When he takes a roster spot away from Anderson or Eduardo Perez not gonna be a fun day.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Mar 7, 2007 -> 06:05 AM) Go Nova, Uconn, Providence, but above all, Marquette!

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Mar 7, 2007 -> 01:15 AM) I just love how everyone making fun of how Wins aren't really a great benchmark of a pitcher's performance probably never mention that ERA is a bogus stat because it needs to be park adjusted, how WHIP is a bogus stat because the defensive range factor of your infielders severely affects how many ground balls are hits, and how wildly erratic strike zones from league to league and umpire to umpire affect your walks and strikeouts night in and night out. There's no comparison. W/L is an awful way to judge a pitcher. Yes, a lot of bad pitchers will have bad W/L records, but they're also bad for other reasons. And yes, ERA needs to be park adjusted, and it's done reasonable easily. Too bad you can't do the same for W/L, because it has as much or more to do with how your offense performs on those nights than the pitcher himself.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 7, 2007 -> 12:58 AM) How is Vazquez a bargain? The guy won 11 games in 2006. That's more than $1 million a win. After the last 2 1/2 seasons he's put up, he was probably doing cartwheels after the White Sox agreed to this extension. Yeah, let's go by wins to judge him. Brilliance. How is it overpaying? A little more than $11 million per year for a guy who, at worst, is a league average starter who will give you 200 innings? Vazquez had his most 'unlucky' year as a starter this past season. He only coughed up 23 homers, his lowest amount since 1999. His K/BB ratio was better than 3-to-1. Fine, throw the 'wins/losses' stat at me. It's useless -- it has no predictive value going forward, so it's COMPLETELY irrelevant to the discussion. If Vazquez goes through his 'sixth inning' act again this year, Ozzie may actually adjust now that he has a trustable 6th/7th inning guy in Aardsma. But I doubt that happens... Vazquez didn't lose 'stuff' in those innings, he just hung pitches at inopportune times. If Vazquez pitches like he has the past couple years over the life of the contract, it's a slight overpayment. But if one year, he lives up to his DiPS, he's an absolute bargain. I'd guess that he falls somewhere in the middle and gives the Sox about a 4.35-4.65 ERA over the contract, which would be pretty decent.

Or punch guys in the face for no reason. Oh, wait.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology You guys see the latest Bracketology? A #6 seed and a second round matchup against SIU for my Eagles. Yuck, but at this point, I'm expecting MU to be underdogs in any second round matchup. That is, unless they're able to pull out two Ws in the BE tourney. It's nice... their first round game against Saint John's (in the BE Tourney) counts as a road game for MU, so that could be a nice, final bump for the ol' resume.

Go Marquette! Hopefully Jerel McNeal is back in time for the Saint John's game, but I wouldn't push it. Gotta take care of business in round on and beat Saint Johns. If you lose to Pitt on a neutral site to Pitt, that's one thing, but ya can't bow out in round one.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Mar 4, 2007 -> 05:44 PM) College GameDay at Marquette was a blast. Glad to see you enjoyed the experience. It was shaky at the end, but I guess that should be expected when your two best players are out and injured. I think Dominic James had his best game of the year last night. He finally played like a true PG should play, dishing the ball and playing strong defense. Maybe I shouldn't overexaggerate and call it his best game, because he put the team on his shoulders in games at L'Ville and Valpo, but he put up a very strong effort. And ditto the Horford talk. I haven't seen Florida play much, but I'm always impressed (when I do see them) by him. Strong rebounder, and is a surprisingly good post player.

I was at the Bulls game today (I work for the Bucks as one of those annoying types on the concourses who asks you if you want to sign up for a chance to win free airline tickets ). First off, I saw John Paxson up close which was neat. They put me in a kiosk (sp?) in the Courtside Club, which is more or less a bar/club type that serves food and has a big drinking section along with loads of HD TVs. Paxson was waiting in the elevator right next to my kiosk. He was taking pictures with people, and as soon as they left, the elevator came, so unfortunately for me, I couldn't get a handshake and a 'hello' in. On to the game -- what more can you say about about Michael Redd and Ben Gordon -- both were amazing tonight. For the most part, these weren't open looks. Both were hitting shots with hands-in-the-face, tight defense. Deng was his usual solid self, although his 27 (? -- however many) was the quietest 27 points I think I've ever seen. I know Hinrich had 23 and a decent shooting night from the field (7-of-15 FG, 4-of-5 FT), but I was dissappointed with some of his turnovers. The two obvious travels should (IMO) be a rarity for a PG, and I questioned some of his other passes. Just a minor quibble, I suppose... And then there's Duhon. Yuck. How the hell did Sefolosha not play in today's game? Duhon was really bad. Sloppy with the ball, poor shooting from the field... I know Sef has his really stupid moments, too, but I don't think he could have been worse than Duhon was tonight. Overall a fun experience. Bulls fans packed the place, I'd say it was 60-40 Bucks fans to Bulls fans, although it's tough to tell now that the Bucks have gone red-and-green rather than the purple.

How many games does UofI conceivably need to win to make the tourney? Two? Or should one be okay, so long as there are no super-surprises winning other conference tourneys.