RockRaines

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 20, 2011 -> 12:35 PM) For Illinois it all comes down to Leonard. If he can play 30-35 minutes of productive basketball, they'll be a pretty good team. They have enough athletes to run and toughness to play good D. Half-court offense could be a challenge without a facilitator though, and that's my concern. I think depth is a bit of a concern for them as well, though they have some talent behind the starters. I still think without the egos of the guys that left, Weber's offense will be alot more fluid and effective this season.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 09:07 PM) schefter later tweeted harrison failed his physical. so apparently he cannot play And it was a brain tumor that otherwise wouldnt have been found if he wasnt traded. May have saved his life.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Oct 20, 2011 -> 10:56 AM) I'm a pretty big Illini homer, but although I think they will make it, they are far from a lock. I've seen a couple projected NCAA brackets already (worthless, I know) that have them out. I think they are a lock because I think the bottom half of the Big Ten is weak this year and the top tier will have impressive conference records when its all said and done. I also think the conference will do fairly well in OOC play to add a boost.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 20, 2011 -> 10:50 AM) Yeah, I truly don't get the hype. Also, Boston fans should be livid, as it seems this was in motion before the season ended if it's true that Ricketts met with Hoyer during the last series of the season. Lost in all this hype is that the reason the Cubs mgmt is bringing in "Moneyball" type mgmt is because they intend on spending alot less money on their roster. I am not sure that would excite any rational baseball fan.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 20, 2011 -> 09:48 AM) Glad I could help. But don't mistake it for me saying the system is great - it isn't, it seriously lacks depth. It just isn't as horrifically bad as some are portraying it, is what I was pointing out. And that if they invest a little more in upcoming drafts and in other areas of the world on signings, I'd feel pretty good about this system being able to develop the talent. It does lack depth in impact players, but I expect us to fill that up with the mass trading of our players this offseason.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 10:49 PM) If the Illini don't make the NCAA tourney with a lineup of 5th year SR, 4* Jr (Paul), 4* Jr (DJ), high 3* Jr (Griffey), and 5* So (Leonard) I will be very disappointed in Weber. Even if there are lots of question marks (Maniscalo's ankle along with the others having a lack of experience) the illini should make the tournament based on pure talent alone. The B10 will get at least 4 teams in and it is iffy years for many teams. Purdue lost Johnson and Moore and Wisconsin lost Leuer among others. I think it's 1.tOSU and then it's wide open. The illini SHOULD make the tournament. You cant sleep on Wisconsin even though they lost Leuer. Jordan Taylor is enough for them to make a run and they actually have some talented underclassmen. I see OSU, MSU, Wis, ILL and Pur all locks to make the tourney.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 20, 2011 -> 10:12 AM) David Haugh Finally, @PWSullivan reports Cubs will make it official Fri at Wrigley with introduction of Theo Epstein. First domino and it's a giant one. Oh s*** the first domino has fallen en route to a Cubs 70 win season!!!

QUOTE (sox4lifeinPA @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 07:17 PM) 1. Where are you staying where do you recommend? 2. What do you like to do on vacation? Walk around? See sights? sight see, shop, landmarks, food, quintessential Chicago things 3. What kind of restaurants do you like? Quiet, popular, energetic etc? Lunches would be nice to do near the lake front beach or at a quieter shop. Dinners can be trendy, energetic, popular. 4. What areas of the city have you already been to? (New York, Philly, Houston, San Antonio, Orlando, etc) 5. Will you have a car? (rental) You read areas of the country, I mean areas of chicago. I'll give you a full write up later on today when I have time. I'll give you what I would do with a 4 day trip and you can pick and choose what you like.

1. Where are you staying 2. What do you like to do on vacation? Walk around? See sights? 3. What kind of restaurants do you like? Quiet, popular, energetic etc? 4. What areas of the city have you already been to? 5. Will you have a car?

So next year we will have our 3B, SS (kinda), 2B, RF, C, and about 3-4 pitchers brought in organically through our system. Not really bad.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 05:28 PM) Isn't it ironic how two of the highest rated pitching prospects we have now are the soft-tossing righties that KW was so opposed to a few years ago (Doyle and Axelrod)? I like Axelrod, his mechanics are alot like Soxtalk wonderboy Dan Hudson.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 05:24 PM) I'll be interested to know who they view as our 2nd best prospect after Reed. I think of Reed, Stewart, Axelrod, Viciedo, Santiago as prospects but they are all going to be MLB'ers next season.

Almost all of our impact prospects were up with the big club.

I use the Nike fit chip. My sister uses a GPS watch and loves it. I know Motorola just came out with an android one today.

Twitter is gold. Kane and Hossa have nicknamed Carcillo Luigi and its trending on twitter. Hilarious.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 03:04 PM) Players on LSU apparently don't want to win the National Title... Got high as a MF'er

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 03:32 PM) Chicken breast on wheat bread for me. I'm a spicy italian guy myself, not toasted.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 03:13 PM) Heh, go Subway: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballn...iet-was-no-joke He had a well documented addiction to Wendys. Apparently he hit the weight room hard and also dragged Even Ravenal with him as well and he put on 25 pounds of muscle. 11-11-11 cant wait

The new Motorola Android phone is called the Razr. Awesome, Im glad we are going to bring back that name.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 02:03 PM) And I gave Russell an extra 25 pounds with modern training. His individual offensive game sucked even back then. So it's not getting any better today. And I fail to see how even a souped up Russell would stand-out in the 21st century. Would he be a scrub? No. He'd be Mutombo. Who knows, he'd have the same talent level that dominated his generation with the added benefit of knowing and growing up with today's games where he could have expanded his talent. You have no idea, so you have to look at his accomplishments during his own era when he was an absolute stud. When you look at best players ever you will always have to look at who they were during their particular time in the league. Eventually someone is going to surpass Jordan's numbers but we (old timers) will always point to his particular dominance in his era.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 01:53 PM) You could say the same thing for any sport. Guys in the 20's couldn't throw a slider, curve, splitter, or cutter. Football didn't use the forward pass way back when and yet QB's from the old days are still considered amongst the greats. Most of the good early NFL players wouldnt translate to todays game based on size, speed and even rules. You simply cant discount a player because he was dominant in an era that wasnt as good as today. Every year the talent in sports gets better and more specialized, it always will.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 01:44 PM) Old school is like the 80's. The 50's and 60's were when dinosaurs were still roaming the earth. Babe Ruth? Another bi-product of his time. I'd think he'd be great in any era. But that era? Entire teams hit like 60 HRs. If that. The only way to judge historical players is in the context of their generation, and in his, Bill Russell was a stud.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 01:39 PM) Russell was built like Chris Sale. That was ok in the 60's. Now even if you added 20-25 pounds of muscle to his physique with modern training, he still wouldn't stand out in the modern game like he did back then. Those 11 rings have blinded just about everybody. And Babe Ruth was a fat drunk f***. You cant compare old school players to today's players. There is a reason that old houses have tiny doorways, people have changed quite a bit.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 01:07 PM) This is a guy who didn't want to be traded out of the Midwest to be too far from his family, are we sure he'd want to? I believe that had to do with his ailing father right?

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Oct 19, 2011 -> 01:05 PM) It's probably already been written in this thread, but I believe a move to hire Thome would be, more than anything else, an attempt to fix our (very) "poor man's Thome", Adam Dunn. That said, I love the Gentleman, and wouldn't mind seeing him back in the org. No doubt in my mind that Thome will be coaching somewhere within 5 years.