Rex Hudler

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Jan 27, 2005 -> 10:47 PM) I think he is referring to the fact that IU is known as a bball power house while Minnesota is not. I know he was....... but I was merely showing how records can be deceiving. I'd say the two teams are about as even as you can get, despite the records.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 27, 2005 -> 04:44 AM) Wow how the hell can Minny be 14-5 and Indy 9-8? I'm no college B-Ball expert, but that ain't supposed to happen, right? Very simply....... the schedule. Minnesota has beaten at home - Lipscomb, Furman, Holy Cross, Central Michigan, Chicago St., St. Francis, (PA), UNC Greensboro, Coppin State, Loyolay Marymount, Penn State and Purdue. And now Indiana. They have beaten on the road - Nebraska and Ohip St. They have lost to - Alabama (home), Oklahoma (away), Florida State (home), Iowa (away) and Michigan St. (home). Indiana has beaten at home - Indiana St., Western Illinois, Ball St., Oral Roberts, Furman, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio St. They have beaten Purdue on the road. IU has lost to - North Carolina (home), UConn (away), Notre Dame (home), Kentucky (in Louisville), Missouri (away), Charlotte (home), Northwestern (away) and Minnesoty (away). I'm not making excuses for IU's season, but switch those schedules and you would see a big difference in won/loss record.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 26, 2005 -> 01:21 PM) Boy it is really hard to even tell who is going to be in BHam this year. There is going to be such a logjam in Charlotte, and that will set off a chain reaction all of the way through the system. You hit the nail on the head. Tthere were a few pitchers that ended up back in Birmingham last year, but it may be worse this year. Real hard to say who will end up where at this point.

Just a reminder that voting for Round 1 of the Hot Chick NIT will end Thursday night somewhere between 10pm and midnight.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 25, 2005 -> 04:54 PM) I've rethought this. If we keep Harris, then Larkin is viable option for the Sox. If he won't agree to backup ... that's his problem. But he'd work for the Sox. Sorry but I don't have time to read this whole thread, so if I am being redundant, my apologies in advance. Larkin is getting to the point where he will only have two choices. Take a back up role or retire. Getting the starts he wants at this point may not be an option anywhere.

QUOTE(danman31 @ Jan 23, 2005 -> 07:08 PM) Jennie Finch was in the real thing. You have her in this too. We'll call it a special exemption for being an athlete and not a model/actress. How's that for backstroking my way out?

QUOTE(MnSoxFan @ Jan 23, 2005 -> 01:35 AM) Becker resigned with org. Why? Why would he want to re-sign when he has spent the past two years at Class A after having reached AA in another organization. Does someone have to smack him in the face to make him realize there is no plan for him?

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jan 23, 2005 -> 05:21 AM) Cool idea Rex. If there is anything I can do pinning stuff or whtaever just tell me. I'm done with the first round...... if you want to pin it or organize it better, go right ahead. The voting for the first round will end late Thursday night.

Summer Altice - former volleyball player, model... Playboy August 2000 Playmate Catherine Zeta-Jones - Actress... Traffic, Ocean's Twelve, Chicago

Jennie Finch - Team USA Softball Player Michael Michele - Actress... New Jack City, ER, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Heather Mitts - Professional Soccer Player, Philadelphia Charge, UF grad, ex-gf of Brad Wilkerson Cara Zavaleta - Reality TV (Road Rules South Pacific), Playboy Centerfold November 2004

Shannon Elizabeth - Actress... American Pie Drea de Matteo - Actress... The Sopranos, Joey

Garcelle Beauvais - Actress... NYPD Blue, Barbershop 2 Nikki Cox - Actress... Las Vegas TV series

Elisabeth Shue - Actress... Cocktail, Karate Kid, Leaving Las Vegas Penelope Cruz - Actress... Vanilla Sky, Gothika

Elsa Benitez - Model from Mexico.... married to Rony Seikaly Angie Everhart - Actress, alleged Howard Stern fling

QUOTE(BHAMBARONS @ Jan 23, 2005 -> 12:39 AM) Just wondering about these two guys. Ulcia was a Baron last year and really picked it up the last two weeks of the season including a dominating effort against the the SL's Most powerful team and then seemed to go on a role after that winning a playoff game and his cutter looked a lot more crisp and was breaking bats. I am just wondering if this is the Dennis Ulcia of old or just a phase. And Corwin Malone, I know he had surgery last season and did not pitch a inning for the knights last year. I am just wondering if he will now be able to return to old self and if he will be ready to start the season in Charlotte. Finally Kris Honel, he only pitched 7 innings for the Barons last season, he looked good in his opening day start vs West Tenn, then the Injury I never heard much about the injury only that he was hurt but when he came back his velocity looked way off. Just wondering if it was the injury causing that drop. Finally do you guys think he will start in Bham or Charlotte. I am happy that I finally found a site that I can find good Sox's info and talk with fans. I never had a good sox's site before so that is why I have so many question's about the sox's minor leaguers. Thanks Tom Malone will likely be back in Bham again if he is healthy. Might start him in the bullpen to get him back on track. Ulacia is a borderline guy who could be back in AA again or move up. My guess is that he will struggle in AAA if he does indeed go there. Honel should definitely be back in Bham. His injury last year was a mystery. Some people thought it was mostly in his head. Others thought his mechanics got screwed up. From what I understand docs never could find anything wrong with him, hence the other theories. Time will tell if he can ever find "it" again.

Found a couple of duplicates from the first round of the Big Dance. Taking suggestions for replacements for the next few hours. Then I will start to post the rest. I am going to go watch some basketball for now. Those names already mentioned will be considered as well as any others thrown out before I get back. Thanks!

The Dubba Twins - Bimringham based TV spokesmodels... now doing syndicated news reporting and affiliated with the WB affiliate in both Birmingham and Nashville. Krista Allen - actress..... Stacy in Anger Management... episode roles on shows such as Friends, Two and a Half Men, Smallville, Just Shoot Me, Frasier and others...

QUOTE(bogie @ Jan 22, 2005 -> 07:37 PM) Hmmm... I didn't know about the groundball/second base work. Seems interesting. I have seen him make so many great plays in the outfield it is hard to imagine him in the infield. He "looks" like a outfielder. I have heard about his work ethic. I have a hunch he will take care of what ever has to be worked on. His problem is his arm will limit him to LF in the Majors and his lack of power will hurt him there. He was drafted as a SS and converted to an OF. He was recruited and committed to the University of Evansville (obviously he signed with the Sox instead) and the coach that recruited him told him they would immediately move him to CF.

QUOTE(shagar69 @ Jan 22, 2005 -> 11:04 PM) add in carmen elektra! she's in, my man

After voting and reviewing the Official Hot Chick contest, I felt like some girls were getting slighted because there are just too many hot ones out there. So consider this the NIT Hot Chick Contest. It will include only those that did not make the Official Contest, aka Big Dance. There will be 24 contestants total. Eight have been chosen to receive a first round bye. I know this is a very subjective contest, however I tried to balance the top 8 as best I could. The 16 competing in the first round were drawn completely at random. Once again, I am sure some won't like the matchups, but despite the random draw, they seemed pretty fair to me. I hope everyone will participate like they have in the Big Dance. This may have a slightly different flavor in that there are some older women (older than 22) mixed in. Some may not be as popular as they once were, but they can still hold their own. Lastly, I made an executive decision to include a little personal flavor in the contest with two entries. One is the Dubba Twins. They are local TV spokesmodel types who also work in Nashville. I have no doubt they can hold their own. The other is actress Michael Michele. While I definitely think she is beautiful, she is probably not as well known. She is from my hometown and went to a rival HS. I met her briefly once, so I felt compelled to include her. I hope everyone enjoys and feedback is appreciated! Note: If I can figure out what I am doing, the first round will be ready to go as soon as tonight, but no later than Monday morning.

Its funny that I happened to notice this thread. I got this on DVD for Christmas and totally forgot about it. I have never taken it out of the plastic wrapper. I'll have to check it out. I have never seen their TV show, but I met Larry the Cable Guy a few years ago. He came to a Barons game when he was in town performing and a mutual friend introduced us. I couldn't go to see him that night, so I have never seen his act. Guess I need to get to watching the DVD, huh?

QUOTE(bogie @ Jan 22, 2005 -> 04:00 PM) I'm a big fan of Mike. It is hard to figure where he will be with so many outfielders but AAA would be nice after the great season he had. He would be young for AAA but he has been young at every level so far. I have seen him play alot both in NC and Alabama. He plays guts out. Performance aside, he seems to be a good kid. I have the chance to see him with the fans and kids and he is always "fan friendly". I'm hoping good things for him. bogie, I agree completely with your character assessment of Michael. He works hard and plays all out. Very fun player to watch. He is also very soft-spoken and polite. Just a good kid in general. He will be one of those guys that could go either way in ST depending on everything that happens. My fear is that, like Bikowski last year, he will make the AAA club and end up as a 4th or 5th OF and grow stale on the bench only playing once or twice a week. If he thrives in that role it could help him down the road if that is a role he can fill in the bigs. But taking regular playing time from a young guy usually does not produce good results. The wildcard in all of this is that he could, and I emphasize could fit in at 2B somewhere. He was taking a ton of ground balls at 2B toward the end of last season and I was told that he was going go to Instructs to work on that. His arm is still his biggest weakness. His throwing motion is horrible. But no one knows that better than Mike. From what I was told he worked on throwing every day last year. He would throw long and worked hard to change his throwing motion. But that is difficult to do. I have taught private lessons to kids in the past and I have worked with 9-12 yr olds on changing their throwing motion and that was damned near impossible. Think of how much harder it would be on an adult baseball player who has thrown that way all his life? It's like teaching a guy to walk again. I'm rooting for Michael. He is a guy that if he can make it in the big leagues, fans will enjoy watching him play.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 21, 2005 -> 06:20 PM) Academic scholarships get all of that as well, and they don't have to give up any of thier freedoms to work or transfer. People on academic scholarships don't get the same treatment as athletes. Athletes get special meals that could include filet mignon. They generally live in better housing than regular dorms and have access to facilities that the general student body does not. Athletes work hard. Yet they are rewarded in every way possible other than money. And it is a misnomer that they cannot work. They cannot work during their season. They can hold jobs in the offseason. I used to make enough money working in the summer to have enough cash to last all year. It wasn't that hard. I find the notion that athletes are exploited and taken advantage of, quite comical.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jan 21, 2005 -> 06:22 AM) Hinton was acquired by the White Sox earlier this season as the PTBNL in the Carlos Lee for Luis Vizcaino and Scott Posednik deal. He has only played as high as A ball but looked to be a legit hitter (statistically) last season. He strikes out more then you would like and is brutal defensively. However, the only reason he was stuck in A ball is due to the depth the Brewers have at first base in the minors, more specifically Prince Fielder. I don't know if the guy will be a major leaguer, but if Hinton is going to be getting a lot of AB's in Bham. Yes, Hinton was behind first Nelson, then Fielder, but he didn't move up because he wasn't good enough. He spent two very average years in low A and then finally had a good season in high A. He is just now "earning" a shot at AA. Let's also keep in mind that he will be going from one of the best hitting parks in the Minor Leagues to one of the worst.