DonkeyKongerko

I see some Cubs going down this year. If you look at pitcher abuse points, I think Kerry Wood will see a definite dropoff from his rather mediocre stats in departments other than strikeouts. I also think Joe Borowski/Latroy Hawkins or whoever will struggle closing games for the Cubs. Offensively, I think Moises Alou is on the tail end of his years and that Todd Walker/Grudzielanek platoon will not put up near 2003 numbers. Finally has Corey Patterson fully recovered?? Plenty of question marks on the North Side (I forgot Maddux) but Cub fans are quick to gloss over them and assume they will be answered like the year before. In baseball you just can't expect anything from anyone these days. Not Mark Buehrles and not Paul Konerkos. The same goes for other teams.

ninetyfour is your sig from "They Live"? If so, it's from one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies.

The quality of Chicago sports radio is definitely on the decline this winter.

The player is named John Dowd I believe. He is the highest rated player on the Giants and perhaps in the game. He is white and he is 25 years old though.

Here's some fairly new videos off IGN.com. Warning they are pretty big. http://mediaviewer.ign.com/ignMediaPage.js...d=493842&adtag= network=ign&site=sports&articleid=493842 &pagetype=medialist&page_title=Play+of+the+Day% 3A+Blame+Canada The announcing sounds alot better though as this is not from a beta version. Oh and Heads Up, the PS2 version may have moved up it's release date to March 2nd in stores (not preorder I don't think). A number of EB Games are reporting to say this game will be available by March 3. Edit: BTW Operationsports has posted MORE video clips. Including some White Sox!!

I think the #2 hitter is overlooked as a very difficult spot in the batting order. #2 hitters often have the bat taken out of their hands to either give the leadoff man on first a chance to steal, or to bunt or otherwise advance the runner. I think moving Aaron Rowand down in the order helped him in his monstrous .377 second half because it also took alot of pressure off of him. With that said, I nevertheless agree that Carlos is the wrong man to stick in the 2-hole for the long haul. He plays a power-position in the corner outfield and is capable of knocking in a ton of runs. I think we should start the year with Carlos at #2 because he is comfortable there but transition him to #5 or #6 as soon as Aaron is ready.

It seems all the hoopla the past month or so has been about our glaringly obvious lack of a 5th starter. This may be a big hole, but I think we should all take a look at who we have penciled in at the #4 right now (in a very dark pencil as JM would say). He only pitched 64 innings last year as a reliever after losing his starter's role in Anaheim. Being left-handed makes him valuable to any baseball team but he has been a career 2-pitch pitcher and struggles to get right-handers out. I'm curious what you all honestly expect out of Scott this year given that we don't really know much about him. The three year splits 2001-2003 from ESPN.com: vs. Righty: .296 AVG, .366 OBP, .457 SLG vs. Lefty: .212 AVG, .276 OBP, .282 SLG

People that have made me laugh uncontrollably in recent years: Larry David Dane Cook Bob Odenkirk, David Cross and company on Mr. Show Seth McFarlane (Not exactly standup comedy but funnier than alot of it) Gilbert Gottfried (His standup was pretty bad but damn is his voice funny)

From what I heard they made a special update for A-Rod, not sure about Maddux. Either way, as soon as you get online, there will probably be a roster update available for download. Still I'm not sure if Shingo was part of the MLBPA when they signed off on MVP baseball. There are gonna be plenty of filler players already like John Dowd for Barry Bonds. BTW did anyone see the manage only mode?? It looks really cool because you don't have to watch the whole game. It plays out on a 2D scorecard thing that looks like gamecast. You get to choose how to pitch to batters and when to put on shifts or other hitting plays.

IIRC, Ozzie Guillen made Juan Pierre his "project" last season. I'd say he did a pretty good job. It seems Willie is very eager to learn this season and I will be happy to see him under the guidance of our new manager.

Yeah, on further research, it looks like most the rosters were locked in on 1/15/04 so Colon and Everett among others would be missing from the White Sox roster. The average rankings for fielding and pitching seem to make sense, i guess i'm just surprised that the combination puts us at #6.

Yeah I noticed this too very interesting, here's some details: Cubs 7th: Pitching 4th Hitting 16th Fielding 30th Speed? 23rd White Sox 8th: Pitching 15th Hitting 9th Fielding 13th Speed 27th BTW Kansas City is at 15 and Minnesota at 22nd?? Ohh I just noticed that All Star Teams are #1 and #2 so the White Sox are actually 6th in MLB according to the makers of this game.

I just found a bunch of videos of gameplay of MVP 2004. http://www.operationsports.com/reviews.asp?game=mvp2004xbox I hope a bunch of people on Soxtalk are planning on buying this so we can start a league online.

NINE for the Koch fans

Is he the good one or is that Kris Wilson? I always get the two confused. I think Wilson is the one that sucks.

Wait, are we allowed to do this? Did the rules change from 03 to 04?

This team better play with some f***ing heart on the road. That's been probably the thing I hated the most about the Manuel-era Sox teams. Pitchers give up HRs and act like they don't care. Homeruns get called foul in Baltimore and no one seems to care. People get BS check-swing strike 3 calls in Detroit and don't care. It sounds like these young guys are gonna be pushing real hard this year and with a young manager like Ozzie, hopefully these problems are things of the past.

Put me down in favor of no trade cap.

Alizee Cheat what is the L!?!?!?!??!

What was the L for the movies, I surrender.

Ok I've got everything but C, D and L

Man I just suck at these things. Edit: well after trying real hard i got 16 of them.

Eight, there's a bunch more of Shingo but this is the best.

Seven

The missing FIVE