thedoctor

going to be a tough, tough game. i'd give illinois a slight edge primarily due to home-court advantage. but msu was my pick to win the league this year and i think they are formidable. will be interested to see the "illinois is overrated" crowd re-emerge from it's slumber if they lose, though.

weren't we also told all deals were done at thome's pressie?

imo, prior will walk when his contract with the cubs is up. no information there. just my opinion.

QUOTE(Mplssoxfan @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 09:44 PM) I haven't eaten steak in Chicago for a looooong time, but is Gene and Georgetti's closed? I loved that place. So old school, and the guys on the grill really knew what they were doing. If you're ever in Mpls, eat at Manny's. It's fan-freaking-tastic. gene and georgetti's is still open and still getting it done.

what happened to the orioles looking at their proposals and making a decision last weekend? there's a lot of bad information out there surrounding tejada, so i'm inclined to call bulls***.

QUOTE(BDavisFutureHOF @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 06:11 PM) The Palm -- Hands down it must be difficult to eat a steak that way.

i've never visited this site prior to today, but it reminds me a lot of that profootballtalk.com site in the sense that it's a total joke.

QUOTE(Dam8610 @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 04:52 PM) That depends on how you define "impact". I can think of quite a few TEs that are a very important part of their respective offenses. Antonio Gates, Jason Witten, Tony Gonzalez, Chris Cooley, Dallas Clark, Heath Miller, Jeremy Shockey, and Alge Crumpler are names that come to mind immediately. those are the guys i would think of, although clark i think is just the beneficiary of indy having so many weapons. even so, among those guys how many are the primary option for their offense? i'd say gonzalez, gates and crumpler. why are those guys primary options? because their teams have no capable wide receivers. the bears do. a tight end would be nice, no doubt. but i'd rather take an o-lineman higher because you are still going to be able to get a guy like byrd or klopfenstein later. another factor to consider is fred miller's contract situation. it takes a big jump after next year and he is a likely candidate to be cut. at that point he will be too old to be making that much money. who are our viable right tackles to fill in? steve edwards? john st. clair?

at this point i don't think the bears are going to have a shot at davis. lewis and/or pope are more likely at that point. however, my personal choice would be to start building some offensive line depth. the bears offensive line is aging, and if this is going to be a team built on a power running game, i'd like to have a stable of young, talented and relatively cheap players available when guys like brown, tait and miller go by the wayside. besides, how many impact tight ends are in football? i mean, people have been salivating over lewis for months, and he managed to have a grand total of zero catches against the vaunted northwestern defense in the sun bowl.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 03:25 PM) That is funny about the witnesses. They probably said they saw a guy wearing Clarett's jersey, so it must me him. He still has some speed, so it is possible that he ran out of town really fast. the story is weird. both of the people who were robbed say they don't know clarett, but that when he was fleeing the scene someone yelled "maurice" and later claimed it was clarett. the victims' story has also fluctuated. they first said they were approached by a guy who aimed a gun at them and demanded money. now they are saying he pulled up the waistband of his pants to reveal a gun, then asked for their cell phone. i dunno. as i said, clarett's a clown and the story is believable, but it's odd to see this much change this early. time will tell.

while this story is certainly believable, i'll withhold my judgement until it plays out in court. already there are reports out this way that now the victims aren't "sure" it was clarett, and some even said he has a great alibi and wasn't even in columbus that night. that's just rumor though. we just have to wait and see. what can't be denied is that he blew it huge. anyone who's ever spent any time in columbus knows what kind of treatment former football players get. if he would have played the good soldier for another year or two, he would be a legend here.

very interesting. i'm not a big sabermetrics guy, but that is an interesting projection. it will be interesting to see if those numbers mirror reality.

QUOTE(WinninUgly @ Jan 1, 2006 -> 11:26 PM) Seems like the Red's might have some interest in Count after they missed out on Morris: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...0388/1071/SPT04 Any prospects in the Reds system that would be worth it? not really. reds are thin. their best prospects are a-ballers and there aren't that many of them.

according to internet reports, this kid just joined eric gordon and bill cole in illinois's 2007 class. mike tisdale tisdale is 6-11/7-0 and 195 pounds. very small. but he's also 16 years old and has a nice set of skills. the kid's a sure shot to redshirt, so we probably won't see him for another three years.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Dec 31, 2005 -> 06:20 PM) Haha perfect, an article finally comes out days before conference play. You know as well as I do that every publication at the beginning of the CBB season had Illinois>Indiana. EDIT: And he can't like IU tooo much, because he harped on our mistakes twice. lol. i hear ya. i just read that this morning and could not resist. it will be a fun year in the big ten. tons of talent and depth.

clark kellogg likes the hoosiers in the big ten

i just read that story. i didn't know whether to read it as just speculative or based on some sort of sourcing. i'm guessing the former, although the scenario is intriguing.

QUOTE(drowninginflame @ Dec 29, 2005 -> 07:58 PM) he'll be making trades & phone calls from the operating table i'll bet he'll let the surgeon make a trade just because he can. kw is that damn good.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2005 @ Dec 29, 2005 -> 02:46 AM) Anybody surprised at how good the Illini are? I didn't think they would completely fall off, and I know the real challenge will come when conference play starts, but they've gone above and beyond what I expected from them to this point. very surprised. admittedly the schedule has not been as challenging as in past seasons, but regardless of who they are playing the illini get out and defend the f*** out of you every night. i love the consistency of the defense, and it will be this team's identity. tough start to the big ten, though, considering you have msu at home, at iowa, michigan at home and at indiana. those games will give us a more accurate gauge i think as to where illinois stacks up nationally.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 28, 2005 -> 07:20 PM) I wonder if KW forsees an injury to one of the pitchers and just wants to make sure we are as covered as possible for at least the first half. i wonder this as well, particularly as it relates to vazquez, buehrle and garcia pitching in the wbc this year.

scoop's ok with me, but he's a pale imitation of ralph wiley.

jeff reardon pinched for armed robbery

going to be a sweet day and a sweet game.

i'll be at home in lancaster, ohio. woo-hoo.

i already had a fair amount, but my girlfriend came through with the sun-times book and my pops got me a white sox santa (?!) figurine and a sox golf towel. they don't know i know but i know my daughter got me an ozzie jersey. i'm a snoop, what can i say.