ZoomSlowik

I definitely agree with your last point. None of they guys available in free agency have the ability to totally change a team's chances in a pennant race. Johnson does, even at his advanced age. There will be age and durability issues, but from what he did this year you can see that he is still one of the best. I also agree that there is not that much risk if you can get a decent package since it is only a one year commitment. The cost in trade is a major issue in my book though. I have said before that I do not want to see Lee get traded, I think that he and Frank have to be our 3 and 4 hitters next year(or 3 and 5 if Konerko is still around). I'm torn on Rowand, part of me says we can't trade him at his current price after what he did last year, and part of me says that he might have been a fluke. I definitely don't have a problem seeing Konerko, Crede, or Garland go. I personally would not be crushed if they gave up one of Anderson or Sweeney(preferrably Sweeney in my book), but clearly we can't give up all of these guys in one deal. If we can keep Lee and Rowand and Arizona pays enough cash to still let us add an arm or two in the pen, I'd be thrilled.

Money certainly helps matters, but you still have to make the right moves. Plus the Yankees and Red Sox had the good fortune of having money to spend after contract values went down, making it a little easier to get guys like Schilling, Foulke, Sheffield, and Vazquez. The Dodgers(better this year) and Mets have both struggled the past couple of years despite high payrolls, and Baltimore has taken on some nasty deals in the recent past, and they were stuck with those deals after the market readjusted. Imagine if the Dodgers could have taken the almost $45 mil they spent on Green, Dreifort, Nomo and Hundley and spent it on the free agent market last season. The Dodgers could have had Vlad and Tejada with enough money to spare to get a starting pitcher, maybe two. The Mets could do even more damage if they could drop the contracts of Mo Vaughn, Mike Piazza(good, but not worth more than $16 mil), Glavine(worth $10 mil? not in my book), Leiter(same), and Hidalgo(aren't paying all of his salary, but still a good chunk). Those 5 guys are making over $66 mil. As I said earlier, I truely believe that only the Yankees could have that much money invested in underacheivers and still succeed. They have about $65 mil invested in Mussina, Brown, Giambi, Vazquez and Williams, which would make up more than half of any other team's payroll. I agree that the Red Sox shouldn't whine as much as they do, but when you have a payroll around $125 mil and are still outgunned in your own division, that's kind of rough.

A friend of mine had a major problem with this, and we found someone that knew what they were doing(or at least we are pretty sure he did, so don't blame me if I'm full of s***). Part of the problem came up on the old PS2's(within the first year or two of release). Apparently after some time the disc readers/magnets to grip the CD wear out and start having disc read errors. From experience, any CD-ROM format discs(any discs that have a blue back) are the first to have problems. This hasn't been a major problem for me since there are only a couple of games in this format that I still have. Next supposedly the DVD's stop working, but I haven't had that problem. Eventually, as the story goes, it will stop reading games altogether. Apparently this takes a while though, my original PS2 still works on any non-CD-ROM games(except Madden 2005 ). I was told that any PS2's released in the last year or so do not have this problem(altough I somehow smoked a virtually brand new PS2. They claimed it had nothing to do with the reader and that I dropped it, which is bulls***. It's possible because I did transport it to school, but unlikely since it was already messing up before that). However, there is also a good chance that all you need to do is buy and use either a CD lens cleaner, a CD cleaner, a CD repairer(probably only necessary if there are scratch issues), or some combination of all of them. I've found this effective for CDs. DVDs, and games. However, if this does not fix the problem, you might need to open it up and check things out(I highly recommend finding someone that knows what they're doing to perform this). Another option is sending it to Sony, which may or may not be free depending on your warranty situation. However, I personally hate this route because it will take usually take a couple of weeks to get it back, assuming they can even fix it(although you sometimes get free s*** with this route if it is their fault. I did on my PSOne ). If it turns out to be a problem with the drivers, you may be forced to buy another PS2. I hope this was helpful.

No can do man. They're always pesky and hanging around, often times even when they suck. I expect a shootout next week, especially considering their struggles in the passing game this week. Basanez is due for about 280 and 2 after a bad week, plus Randy will probably chew them out after that performance. I'm pretty sure they'll lose, but I expect something in the area of 31-24. Wait a minute, I forgot that Huffman can't kick. 34-28 then after going for it on a 4th and 6, and an extra FG for Purdue instead of a stall after good field position on a miss.

I think you are being a little harsh on the Red Sox. Yes, their spending ability is higher than virtually every team, but in my book they are not on the same level as the Yankees. True, they have very few home grown players, but that is at least as much affected by a weak farm system as their spending habits. I believe that the real thing to look at is how many of their players were acquired after they became a quality established player. Yes, they have several that were(Manny, Damon, Pedro, Schilling, Foulke), but most of their pen and lineup were not highly sought after when they acquired them(I'm not counting Cabrera or Mientkeiwitz since they traded Nomar, a homegrown guy, to get them). If you look at the Yankees, they are far worse. Giambi, A-Rod, Sheffield, Vasquez, Brown, Mussina, basically every bullpen guy(not all stars, but they were expensive) and to a degree Matsui were all acquired not only as established players but in most cases stars. The Yankees get several of the top free agents on a yearly basis, while the Red Sox typically add one and a couple of role players. I personally have nothing against the Red Sox, but the Yankees are pissing me off, even if they lost. They are the only team in the league that could still make the playoffs and win a series with the poor performances of so many expensive players. They had a $16 mil a year pitcher post a 4.59 ERA(Mussina), another pitcher in the same price range only pitching 22 games and posting an ERA over 4 when healthy(Brown), a $12 mil player hitting .262(Williams), a $12 and a half mil player playing only 80 games and barely hitting .200(Giambi), and another $9 mil starter putting up an ERA of almost 5(Vasquez). I shudder to think of what they would have done with everyone performing to their pay level. If they sign Beltran, I might have to give up on baseball.

Actually the line dropped to 12 so it was a push. It wasn't as close as the score. Wisconsin dominated on both sides of the ball. I was pretty impressed.

That isn't looking so hot(17-0). NU can't get any passing yards, Wisconsin is getting some big holes in the running game and made a couple of big passing plays. Randy's gotta come up with something at halftime.

My mistake, forgot to mention football only on my comment. Basketball is way too iffy.

I've found that betting on them to cover works well, they usually seem to do fine(obviously some seasons you have to stay away). I usually find them failing when they are the favorite. Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing if they can hang with the Badgers.

Danman, I don't know if you're a gambler, but if you are I'd take NU plus the points this weekend. They're getting 12 and a half. I think there is a good chance that Wisconsin has a letdown after that Purdue game, but more importantly, Erasmus James is out and NU is going to get a huge lift with Loren Howard playing again(probably won't be 100%, but it is big having their leader back). A victory still may be a longshot, but I think they'll keep it close.

They won't be out THAT fast. They gotta finish their beers first! In all honesty, I think they'll lose some fans if they let Wood, Prior, or Zambrano pull a Maddux(not sure they can afford all of them), but unless they condemn Wrigley Field(man that'd be sweet) the lemmings will keep going. The whole tradition of drunken-day game baseball has become almost a part of Chicago life. They get way too many people going to the games that don't even care about baseball for a losing season or two to make that big of an impact.

I thought for sure I'd be Peter, but I don't drink enough so I ended up as Chris. I thought the lazy and addicted to TV ones would make me a shoe-in, but I guess not.

If a player really has star appeal, the team doesn't matter. Vladimir Guerrero had as much appeal(probably more) when he was playing in Montreal, the worst baseball team and city. The key factor in buzz is whether or not the average non-baseball fan(or Cub fan, similar knowledge) would recognize the player. The die hard Sox fans are going to come no matter what, the best you could hope for is a fan who normally goes to 5-10 games getting season tickets. It'd take something pretty serious for someone to make that kind of investment, so I doubt too many people would do that simply for getting Beltran(especially since you are basically replacing Maggs, who was a home grown guy that we liked before the injury). The casual fans(not necessarily Sox fans but follow baseball) would likely go to a few games anyways, and you hope that they'd move toward the 10 game mark. The most to gain is clearly to attract some of the lemming-like fans that typically go to Cub games. You need real stars to attract these people. Nomar had some major buzz since he was formerly a very good player in a major baseball market, even though his skills aren't as impressive as some more talented players. The only guys available in free agency that have major name recognition outside of the baseball arena are Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra. Beltran may be getting closer to that level considering how he is hitting in the playoffs, but I doubt it. I'd really rather not see us spend $15 mil on a .267 hitter who plays the same position as one of our better players when we could use that money and potentially get someone like Renteria or Pavano and still have enough money left to make major additions to the pen. All of those things happening is a pipe dream.

That surprised me. I thought UVA was better than that. Their much touted offensive line didn't give any of their backs much space. I figured that Hagan was good for a couple of big plays in the running game too, whenever I watch FSU seems to have trouble with mobile QB's(for the record I don't watch them much). Virginia got no pressure on the QB, I expected blitzing all over the place especially since their secondary is mediocre just about any way you look at it. I wasn't really impressed with their run D either, you'd think that with those linebackers there wouldn't be much room. Virgina was my big sleeper at the beginning of the year. Man, did they let me down. I give tons of credit to FSU's offensive line(which I underestimated a bit) and their run D(also underestimated despite the stats). As a side note, Ernie Sims is a freak and I'm already dreaming about him joining Urlacher to absolutely own the middle of the field(I know, it is a few years away barring a rule change).

No one is mentioning OU? They are a football powerhouse(even if they always seem to lose one late), and their basketball teams have their moments.

I thought I'd throw my teams in this thread instead of making another one. I'd appreciate any advice, I'm a little rusty on fantasy basketball and have some trouble figuring out where guys should go(need to get back in shape before Soxtalk League 2 draft ). These are both standard Yahoo teams. I might be a man or two short, I'm doing this from memory(yeah, I know, I have no life ). Team 1(note: traded Mehemet Okur and Nick Collison for Jason Williams and Udonis Haslem. Would also appreciate thoughts on that deal). PG Jason Williams SG Michael Redd G Loul Deng(know I have him, not sure if he is my starter or not) SF Carmelo Anthony PF Andrei Kirilenko F Shareef-Abdur Rahim C Yao Ming C Jamal McGloire U Eddy Curry U Luke Ridnour B Nick Collison B Antonio Davis Team 2 PG Steve Francis SG Jason Richardson G Jason Williams SF Shawn Marion PF Amare Stoudemire F Drew Gooden C Jamal McGloire C Eddy Curry U Tony Parker U Eric Snow B Dwight Howard B Desmond Mason

I actually think the Posten brothers are the Boras of football. That whole Winslow contract thing didn't go over well, and there are teams that won't deal with them. But that's besides the point. I don't have a problem with telling people that another team has made an offer(real or not), but if he really told JR to his face that 4 years would be good enough and that the deal was pretty much done, that's bulls***. Lying to an owner/GM is a quick way to lose credibility.

Gold Glove caliber defense in RF?! God, someone needs to get this guy a clue. Didn't he learn anything from the Maddux/I-Rod fiascos last year and the Weaver/Drew issues in the draft? He could ignore half the league if not more when trying to find a suitor for Maggs based entirely on his demands. I bet he gets laughed out the door by at least 10 teams.

You can't really say that we are going to get 30,000 every night if we go to the playoffs. Besides, you could argue that we were "a contending team" for the last several years. We've been doing fairly well the last few years(at least competing until September), but we have not had a major increase in attendance, even after our playoff appearance and with the hype we got for acquiring Wells and Colon. Considering that the Braves didn't average 30,000 after 13 straight division titles, I doubt one good season is going to reverse the trend. Florida has won two rings and still can't draw. Regardless of projected success(at the beginning of the year), they have EXTREME trouble drawing 30,000 before June, the only exceptions I have seen are on half price night and when they play the Yankees. That is a good chunk of the season, and it has a huge impact on your attendance. If we can't draw after a winning season and acquiring a name starter twice, how are we going to draw? There isn't going to be that much of a boost from acquiring a single player unless it is someone along the lines of Bonds, A-Rod, Pujols, or RJ, which is a longshot. Beltran and Pavano just don't have that kind of prestige. Sure, they are well known among baseball fans, but the real key is trying to influence those people that don't follow baseball. Most of these people don't know them(that might change a bit with the way Beltran is hitting in the playoffs, but I doubt it will make that much of an impact). How the hell can you say that quality is always better than quantity? The Mariners coped pretty well getting packages of other players after dealing Griffey(arguably the best player in the league at the time), A-Rod(ditto), and Randy Johnson, while those players had little to no impact on the standings for the teams that received them(I'm referring to Houston, since they are the team that acquired RJ from Seattle). Miluakee absolutely raped the Diamondbacks in the Sexon deal. Even if he was healthy, Sexon alone wouldn't have changed them from a last place team to a contender. The A's let Tejada and Giambi(IIRC both won MVP's before they left) go and still were damn close to making the playoffs. How quickly do you think the Padres would give up Jason Bay and Oliver Perez for Giles now? I won't even bother to list the FA signings that were busts, there are too many and we know many of them well. Admittedly in many of these cases they received younger players with potential, but there have been way too many excellent players on bad teams(Beltran, Guerrero, Todd Helton, plus all of the aforementioned players) to say that. Conversely, the Angels and Marlins have both won rings without the superstars that everyone wants(they got solid performances from virtually unknown young guys like K-rod, Cabrera, and Beckett, and just about anyone could have had I-Rod before the season). If they get the right guys I see no reason that the Sox can't do the same thing(ie getting a power arm or two in the pen, getting a solid defensive SS that can get on base(the pipe dream is Renteria, reality is Visquel. I wouldn't mind Guzman, although I'm not sure how he'd hit without the carpet), adding a solid SP. You might be able to pull of ALL of that for what we would have to pay Beltran, or at least two of them, and we wouldn't have to deal Konerko or Lee like many have suggested we would need to.)

I'm just doing the math when it comes to getting shots. Shaq is going to get more than that 14.1 shots without Kobe around(probably between 16 and 18), and Wade is going to get probably 15 minimum, and those are pretty conservative estimates. Jones was option number one or two most of last year, that seems pretty obvious considering he lead the team in shots. Wade didn't start taking over until late in the year, and Odom is an enigma when it comes to how much he is going to produce. There are two obvious options before Jones this time. They're also going to lose some shot attempts because Shaq will eat up many possessions taking free throws. Unless Shaq is out for a considerable amount of time he's probably going to struggle mightily to get 15 PPG. Payton is a better scorer than Jones and managed 14.6 last year. He was a big factor when Shaq and/or Kobe was hurt, but struggled late in the year and in the playoffs. Jones seems to fit in that role to a T. If Jones can get over 15 they'll be in decent shape, but I'd be shocked if he manages that.

Jones is going to be mediocre. Read the info from the ESPN NBA experts(might be on Insider), they back up Hammer. I thought he'd be a bigger factor in the playoffs too, but he just disappeared. He's not the player he used to be. My guess is he'll shoot for a good percentage, but he will not be anywhere near the 17 points per game he had last year. This is entirely because of Shaq. His open looks will probably go up, but he's not going to get very many plays run to get him open. Jones averaged 14.3 shots a game last year, which was the most on the Heat and was actually more than Shaq(14.1). There is no way that will be repeated. My guess is he will average about 12 points a game with Wade around 18 and Shaq somewhere between 23 and 25. Not bad, but they'll need more from them considering their supporting cast, and if Shaq gets hurt they are really in trouble.

Might as well throw in my 2 cents. I'm guessing on everyone's approximate record, I am way to lazy to do the math to make sure it adds up in anyway. Atlantic Philadelphia 45-38 (I hate most of the guys on their team but no one else here inspires me) New York 42-40 Boston 40-42 (I still don't have faith in them) New Jersey 36-46 (how the mighty have fallen) Toronto 30-52 Central Detroit 58-25 Indiana 53-29 Miluakee 42-40 (might be higher if Ford's health was more certain) Cleveland 40-42 Chicago 26-57 Southeast(god awful division) Miami 45-38 (I agree with Hammer, not an impressive roster, but when they're both healty Shaq and Wade is better than most of the East) Washington 44-38 (again, agree with Hammer, they have some interesting players, really need Brown to step up) Orlando 40-42 Atlanta 25-58 Charlotte 15-67 Northwest Minnesota 57-26 (I like them a lot if they stay healthy this time) Denver 50-32 (gotta love the front court depth) Utah 43-39 (still not sold) Portland 38-44 Seattle 30-52 (a couple of good players, doesn't add to much) Pacific Sacramento 48-34 (more of a mess then it appears. Webber not himself, Peja pissed, bench not as good as it has been. Still have enough talent to win the division though.) Phoenix 46-36 ( I really like the lineup of Nash, Q, Marion, and Stoudemire) Lakers 42-42 (still not enough options, now they don't have Shaq to make up for it) Clippers 34-48 Golden State 24-58 Southwest San Antonio 58-24 Houston 47-35 Dallas 44-38 (not sure dropping Nash, Walker, and Jamison while adding Terry and Dampier is an improvement. Dampier has only had one good year, Nash was big for them. They don't have an entire team of SF's anymore though) Memphis 38-44 (not as solid as they played last year. several solid players, but no real stars) New Orleans 25-58 (really got screwed on the division switch) NBA Finals- Detroit and Minnesota, to close for me to call. MVP- Garnett ROY- Okafor

You don't win with good clubhouse guys. Their abilities on the field mean a ton more. That's terrible logic to use for why to keep one player over another. I can buy it if there are other contributing reasons and that puts the guy over the edge or if the other guy is a cancer in the clubhouse, but I see no reason why you'd keep Paulie over Lee, especially considering Konerko only has one year left on his deal while Carlos has two. I highly doubt that Konerko is going to repeat this year's performance, while I can easily see Lee hitting about .300 and 30 for at least the final two years on his deal. Trading those kind of guys without getting a monster deal is a major mistake.

I'm going to say Bulls merely based on the fact that I don't think they'll win a single game with Quinn at QB. The guy looks awful, I don't know how we went into the season with him as our backup. At the beginning of the year I looked at the schedule and said four wins- both Detroit games, Houston, and New York. Now that Grossman is out and New York has looked pretty good, I'd say four is a stretch. I think the Bulls can win somewhere between 20 and 30 just because the Eastern conference is god awful outside of Detroit, Indiana, and Miami.

I agree with you 100% Hammerhead, but you forgot a pretty big name from at least one of those Yankees pens. John Wettland was a major factor, IIRC he won a WS MVP award. Think about the teams that have won the World Series in recent history. Probably one of them had the best starting staff entering the playoffs, and you can debate that the Arizona staff wasn't even that good considering they relied so heavily on 2 guys. The A's haven't done squat, and the Cubs fell short the last two years. Take our beloved Sox in 93 as another example. I really think the dominant starter idea is overrated. Look at the best teams of all-time, and top starters are virtually absent. Whitey Ford is the only Yankee starter of note, and I wouldn't call him stellar. I can't name a single starter on the Big Red Machine, but I know half the lineup. Many of the best starters of all time are either ringless or have won 1 in their distinguished career. Guys like Steve Carlton, Fergie Jenkins, Walter Johnson, Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez all have either one or none to the best of my knowledge. In the end there are many routes to building a winning team, but since we don't have Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson and aren't going to find people like that on the market our best option is probably to stock our pen.