DBAHO

Yes please; Replace Evans and Bogans with Maggette and Redick taking over the bench SG spot, and the Magic will be even better next season. A lineup of Nelson, Maggette, Hedo, Lewis and Dwight, wow.

From the Trib;

Milwaulkee is a franchise in shambles. I read the owner wouldn't allow the GM to make any moves at the deadline, and he won't allow for the coach to install the triangle offense 2/3'rds of the way through the season.

I can say with Orlando, the difference b/w Brian Hill and Stan Van Gundy has been immense. They both have the same philosophies defensively, but the Magic are just so much better offensively, and SVG gives them the freedom to shoot when they want, and when you have good outside shooters to spread the floor and open up the middle, you're going to do well offensively. If I was Chicago, I'd certainly look at dealing Hinrich this off-season (although you need a PG to replace him obviously). They should target Calderon, or even T.J Ford.

Ok I joined up last night. Lemme look thru my team when I got home, and I'll post my keepers.

I think's Slav's comment would have been possibly valid heading into last off-season, he had around a 4.00 ERA in 2006, so there were some questions about him. But he definitely put those to rest last season.

Gooden's actually basically on the perfect team for his skillset. The Bulls have long needed a low post guy, and Gooden will never be an all - star, but he's a double - double guy who has some decent offensive moves down low. Really fits what the Bulls need from the PF spot. And the Bulls don't have really have a real superstar, so Gooden will definitely get his shots. As for the coach, who are the Bulls going to target in the off-season (because Boylan is obviously out of his depth). I suggested Tom Thibodeau or even Jeff Van Gundy, but do the Bulls want a more uptempo type of coach?

Iggy would sure be nice to have right now if you're a Bulls fan. It should be a warning sign if the Bulls end up with a top 4 pick. With Chandler, Curry, Gordon and Thomas, they don't exactly have a great record there do they. And the Magic beat the Cavs tonight by double digits. Hedo and Lewis got hot from the outside and if they can do that come playoff time, we can win the East. The only negative, Jameer Nelson got dominated by Delonte West. Delonte Freakin West. I want Jose Calderon come the off-season.

No more crazy pro Bull trade scenarios then.

Booo for being left off Milkman's list. Guess I'll have to become a bigger Mr. Perfect fan. And Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! There were LOTS of people in green shirts getting wasted in the city yesterday.

Our bullpen wasn't very good last season, and I think it was the main reason why we were 72-90 last season. So my question is, which reliever do you think will perform best for us in 2008, and WHICH reliever from the above do you want to have the best numbers this season?

Well we're trying to improve on that, but it's going to be a collective effort. We'll probably be creating a negative thread, so if you have to vent, just do it in there I guess. Of course we're all not going to be 100% happy with how things are, but I do think it has gone overboard in recent seasons to the detriment of the site.

Saw this in the Toronto Sun;

Denver must have been just playing fast break all night long. It's a shame either them or the Warriors most likely are going to miss out. Wonder if AI wishes he was back in the East.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 17, 2008 -> 02:15 PM) or because he got rocked today. GIO is nothing more than a #4 starter at best. Well he'll be pitching in Oakland, and the last pitcher who had similar stuff to Gio in Oakland did pretty well, Barry Zito of course. I'm thinking Gio will give the A's some good season pitching in that ballpark for the next couple of years before they move. Of course I'm higher on him than most. If he was going to have success at the MLB level, he needed to pitch in a park where he's not going to give up a lot of home runs, so he's in the perfect spot basically.

Correct. Also in the previews they say that someone dies next week. My money's on either Claire / Jin, Rosseau the French Woman or Karl.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 17, 2008 -> 10:24 AM) He's hitting .333 this spring, and he has a slight different approach. As far as Colon, they made him an offer, I just wonder what it was because Boston's offer seemed more than reasonable. If he can't get the job done, he's not going to make much and if he makes 30 starts he gets $7 million, which is $5 million less than Garland. If he's healthy enough to make 30 starts, his numbers should be equal to or better than Garland's. Well they've tried to change Juan's swing before, and he's always gone back to the old approach without much success. Don't know why he gave the timing kick away (I'm sure southsideirish71 will tell us all about it). I don't know if Colon would have the same numbers as Garland, but I think if he was 90% healthy or so, something around 4.50-5 ERA is possible for him. Signing him could have allowed you to use Floyd in a Roberts deal possibly also. Now that's not going to happen obviously.

Joe would have to fire Bora$$ in order for something to get done I think. And that has happened before (didn't Uribe fire him?) Buehrle was basically a situation where all of the fan pressure forced KW and JR to get something done. He's the face of this franchise, and if we had lost him, well things would be looking a lot worse than what they are now. Dye I think was only kept because the Sox really couldn't get anything for him at the deadline. Wily Mo Pena and a reliever for example. Don't know if 3 years was the best idea considering his age and declining defensive skills, but he can still hit well, and provide a .900 OPS or so (at least for this season I think). If we traded spare parts for Roberts, I think we could at least contend for the wild card. Philly won the NL East last season and had an ERA of just below 5. Our offense would be able to score more with the upgrades of Roberts, Swisher and Cabrera over Iguchi / Richar, Erstad / Owens and Uribe from last season, and the pen should be better with Dotel and Linebrink. So if you could get say a Uribe + MacDougal + Shelby + Richar etc. for Roberts, you've got to make that deal I think. Roberts should be able to give you good numbers for at least another 4-5 seasons.

Hearing about Colon's velocity, I too am annoyed that the Sox didn't end up signing him on a minor league deal. Worst situation is that Danks starts the season off in AAA. If Floyd doesn't start well, he could be released, and then you call up Danks, if Colon has shown that he can pitch ok. Uribe wasn't very good defensively last season. RZR of below .900, and Orlando Cabrera had something around .975 IIRC. Quite a difference. Just showed how lazy Juan was last season I guess. Richar he is beating out because Richar hasn't been healthy with his back and the visa issues, while Ramirez was always going to start in AAA because of his rustiness defensively. Just seems like Uribe may win 2nd base by default.

Well there's really not much point of trading Fields unless you could re-sign Crede to a long - term deal (and that itself would be very risky). And Joe and Bora$$ have shown that they won't be doing that.

Yeah that's probably it now. Lalime picked a bad time for him to not to play well. He got us back into the race, but he's taking us back out of it unfortunately. Get a top 10 pick (in a good deep draft, loaded with defenseman), and keep rebuilding. Have to sign 1 of Hossa or Campbell this off-season I think.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 17, 2008 -> 10:00 AM) Juan Uribe was the starting SS for a world championship team. He has had some success in the majors and is among the leaders in homers and rbi at that position in all of baseball since 2005. All the other numbers suck, I'll give you that, and they might suck again this year. All of Gavin Floyd's numbers suck, but he is gushed at so much it makes me sick. Listening when KW and Hawk and DJ were talking yesterday, you would be amazed if anyone were to ever reach base against him . I've never posted Uribe would have a 30 homer season, I've just said he's capable. Giving Floyd a rotation spot based on his September is foolish. They have mentioned his 2 gems against Detroit last year, emphasizing Detroit's "tough" line-up. When Floyd faced Detroit's full line-up he got lit up. When he was basically facing a split squad line-up he shut them down. There is really no back-up plan. At least Uribe has to earn his role. Well there have been a lot of bad starters on world championship teams before. Just look at Julio Lugo from last season. Hitting for power is Uribe's only asset at the plate. He's certainly not good at making contact and not striking out. He'll be one of the worst 2nd baseman offensively if he starts this season IMHO. His numbers have been decreasing steadily since 2004. I'd say Floyd has earned a chance based on his last 6 starts, considering that the Sox didn't go out and sign a Kyle Lohse type of starter for $7-8M. You could argue he's got more of a right than Danks to pitch in the rotation based on how both guys ending up pitching at the end of the season. And you're right you shouldn't just look at numbers in September, way too small of a sample size to use, but at least you want a guy to finish off the season strong, and that's what Floyd did.

The pessimists are out in force today I see. FWIW, I don't really care what a pitcher does in Spring Training. They have a bad outing or 2, and suddenly the sky is falling. Take Contreras's outing the other day for example ("Oh he's going to suck again this season now!!!") Floyd's best pitch is his curveball, in Arizona it's not going to break like it is in Chicago. He deserves an opportunity to show what he can do in a rotation to start the season. He had around a 3.42 ERA IIRC in the last 6 starts of the season, which showed maybe he was finally getting it. It just seems people are already setting him up for failure when the season hasn't even begun.

Crawford to get the start tonight. Big call from Savvy.