Rowand44

Marshall takes down West Virginia.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 08:48 PM) 74-47, first basketball game I've been able to enjoy in a while. Yeesh. For atleast one night you own Dan.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 08:23 PM) And the Northern Iowa pullaway begins. Ya, it was only a matter of time unfortunately. There will be a 3 way tie a top the mvc when Wichita State and UNI finish up.

By the way, the ESPN college bball homepage is loaded with mvc and Saluki stories today. Two articles about SIU right under the main story which is about the valley.

Heads, UNI only up by 2 at half against the powerhouse that is Evansville. Hopefully Evansville can somehow pull this out, it'd be HUGE.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 07:07 PM) At least your use new, original material... :rolly Well I would have mentioned your phobia of spiders but not everyone knows about that. So anyways, I'm glad you think you can call someone a pussy when you're afraid of a little bug.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 06:31 PM) Don't even bother asking that. He's the biggest sissy...EVER Insults from 4 year olds hurt so much.

I think the A's and Twins are the two best teams in the AL outside of the sox but I don't think either of them are sleepers. So, I'll take the Mariners as my sleeper to finish 2nd in the West and in the same boat the Angels to be my bust as I think they're not even in the playoff race for the years.

Bye Frank. I'm happy you didn't sign with the Twins but the one team out of our division in the al I hate the most. Good luck big man.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 03:52 PM) Cab. Definitely a cab. Gotcha, thanks.

A quick question for you guys who might know: I'm coming right from union station to the hyatt, is it walking distance or is a cab the way to go?

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 05:35 AM)

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 10:08 AM) But you will admit, there is a big difference in patrolling LF and patrolling CF. A great defensive LF does not translate to a great CF. Agreed, he's a good outfielder and a very good lf but yes patrolling cf for a whole year is much different then left. QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 10:08 AM) So you think he is the best defensive CF'er in the AL as well? No,no,no, I'm just saying I do believe he's a very good defensive outfielder no matter what those stats say, but obviously that's jmo.

Coco is a pretty damn good defensive outfielder no matter what his zone rating says.

Man, the big 10 is lame when it comes to rushing the court.

SIU holds off Creighton in an almost must win situation. Back a top the MVC by ourselves.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 24, 2006 -> 05:16 PM) 2 bad, Artest is a better player at this point, and Peja is leaving after this season. They backed out because Artest said he doesn't want to play there.

Smart organization they got there in Cincy.

They just said on SC now that the trade is getting cancelled.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jan 24, 2006 -> 04:45 PM) I'm sorry, their pitching just doesn't impress me (I'd probably take the Angels by the way, assuming Colon's shoulder isn't really bad). They're relying on two youngsters, a somewhat fading veteran, and another guy that missed most of last year pretty heavily. I guess they have Lohse too, but he's decidedly mediocre. Nathan-Rincon-Crain is pretty good, but as I said, none of them are lefty and they don't really have another solid arm in the pen. Plus their pitching has to be significantly better than ours or Cleveland's to really make a difference in those 30 something games that they have to play those teams. It's definitely not stronger than ours and I don't think it's that much better than Cleveland's. Outside of Santana, you just can't count on anyone on their starting staff to consistently win games against stronger competition. I'll stand by my statement that they need either Liriano or Baker to pitch like a front of the rotation guy to really make a difference. I forgot one other wildcard that could help their lineup: Jason Kubel. Assuming he's healthy, that could give them a legit hitter with decent power and speed. He might get lost in the shuffle a bit though since they seem to have several OF's. Fair enough zoom, we both got our points across, we'll just agree to disagree and see once the season starts.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jan 24, 2006 -> 04:44 PM) Until either of them can prove me they are healthy, I have my doubts on those two. I like Beckett's chances more than Curt's. I'm leaning toward Curt's career being done at least from what I saw of him last year. Curt is done imo. Josh obviously needs to stay healthy and to be honest I don't think he's going to be very dominant healthy or not in that park with that team but we'll see obviously. That rotation is suspect at best, they'll compete for the al east but they are not series contenders imo.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jan 24, 2006 -> 04:39 PM) Or a complete White Sox homer, which in this case(at least I think your referring to Jphat) its true, he is just a huge Sox homer. The Central is going to have some GREAT games this year, and I expect this season to be more stressful than the last, if thats even possible. Best division in baseball, imo.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jan 24, 2006 -> 04:15 PM) I don't know about all of that. Even if Morneau turns into the monster people thought he would be, their lineup wouldn't have all that much punch. They'd be similar to our offense last year, which isn't exactly a compliment. They just don't have a real #3 or #4 hitter right now. Two of the following 3 have to happen for them to have even an above average lineup: Mauer developing at least 20 homer power, Morneau putting up at least a .270-30-90 type year, or Hunter getting on base a bit more. Plus their pitching isn't exactly dominating. They don't really have a solid compliment for Santana. Radke is their number 2 starter even though he's really only had one good year since 2000. He'd might not even be in our rotation if he were with the Sox. Silva was starting to look decent, but now he's coming off a major injury. Liriano or Baker would have to pitch like a #2 starter for them to keep up, and I really don't see that happening. Also, their pen only has three credible arms, and none of them are lefties. I really don't see them getting past the high 80's in wins unless an awful lot of things go their way. In my book they're a Santana injury away from 4th place. Besides us and the A's you'll have a hard time finding teams with a better rotation in the AL then the Twins. As far as their bullpen goes, they have 3 absolute studs at the back end, Matt Guerrier who is a solid long reliever, and then they have a bunch of kids who knowing Minny will do just fine as the 5th or 6th relievers out of that pen. Their offense is nothing special but it'll be better then last season and their pitching overall will be better as well imo, they're going to ride their arms all year and I think they win the WC but obviously that's jmo.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Jan 24, 2006 -> 03:48 PM) The main reason the Twins struggled last season was because of their lack of offense. And I don't think they improved it enough to not stuggle to score runs in 2006. The Twins were ahead of Cleveland and a half game behind the yankees for the wc when Torii went down for the year. That, Castillo being just an enormous upgrade over anything they had their last year, the combo of Liriano and Baker who I believe will both be in their rotation eventually this season and the fact that I expect Morneau to rebound and Mauer to be a bit better are the reasons I think Minny will be better then the Tribe in 06.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Jan 24, 2006 -> 03:36 PM) I see the Twins finishing in 3rd place. Luis Castillo was a great pickup but Rondell White and Tony Batista? C'mon... While Castillo helps, he's not even close to the only reason why I believe Minny will pass Cleveland this year.