DBAHO

I think Bosh possibly lands in Dallas or Houston come the off-season. Especially if Yao Ming retires, the Rockets will have his and T-Mac's contract off the books, so they should have the cap room there. Dallas could sign and trade with Dampier and a future pick, with the Raps not having to guarantee Damp's contract for 2010.

Ziggler has potential, but I hate that finisher of his. I just don't think you can take him seriously with a finisher like that backbreaker he has. Give him a submission move like the ankle lock or something, and he'll get over more as a heel IMO. I suppose Vince couldn't stand having 2 heels as champions, so he had to have Hardy win the strap, which is annoying with Punk finally turning heel and not having a single victory. I'd like to see Morrison involved in a good feud with Punk now though possibly.

All it shows is that Mexico has better depth of talent in their ranks than the US at this stage. And that's the challenge for US Soccer, to improve on not only their star players (to generate more) but to improve on their depth also.

So I had a job testing sort of thing today, sort of a pre interview if you will for a Financial Trading Firm. They give you 3 tests, and for the 1st test, they expect you to answer 80 math questions in 8 mins, and you have to get 55 right (and you lose 2 marks if you skip a question or get 1 wrong) to move on to the next 2 tests. Somehow I don't think I got 55.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 04:45 PM) Ok It makes sense for all teams but Cleveland. The Mariners are getting a very good lefty starter and a top SS prospect. The Rays are getting a front of the rotation ace to go with Garza (since Kazmir hasn't been as good) and the Tribe gets a power arm in Morrow and a guy in Jeff Clement that isn't that good of a prospect (high pick out of USC, yes, but his value was as a catcher and I don't know if he's a good enough hitter to stick at 1B or be at least an above average 1st baseman. This doesn't make sense. It only makes sense if Shapiro has another deal in place for trading Martinez for some top spects so they he can play both Clement and Shoppach behind the plate. Otherwise I agree that it doesn't really make sense for the Tribe, but I'm sure White Sox fans wouldn't mind seeing this deal go down.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 02:35 PM) Interesting. Either way, soccer isn't #1. It's hard to watch rugby after Aussie Rules. It's a pretty badass sport actually. I agree, but I think the impression has to be positive for Ljungberg. The fans in Seattle have been great for that team. MLS will get bigger and better. Right now, it's a matter of depth. They need to get better at keeping guys from going to League One in England or the Scandinavian leagues (which a lot have been doing) because while those players might get more exposure from better teams in Europe, it hurts MLS. Oh ya right now Seattle is the best market for Soccer in America, and I applaud what they've done so far. They sold out QWEST Field for the friendly against Chelsea the other week. I think long - term, teams need to strike up partnerships with the top teams in Europe, and try to get the best young players on loan or something for a season or 2, to improve the standard of play in the league.

Seems like Seattle may be getting sick of waiting for Morrow to fulfil his potential, and are deciding to sell high on him. And with Johjima catching, Clement's never going to get a chance of doing that full time for a while. Briganc's stock has gone down since the start of last season, but he's still a nice spect, and Kazmir should pitch well in that ballpark. What the Indians do with Clement I don't know, but maybe this makes Martinez available, or they move him to 1B permanently.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 04:05 AM) I dont think MLS or the fans would really fault Beckham if he hadnt said how much he wants to play in America and how he wants to make soccer more popular here. He said all the things fans wanted to hear and at the first chance, he tries to strong arm the MLS/LA into letting him go to Milan. It is so obvious Beckham would rather play a full season in Europe instead of being in the MLS. Maybe he shouldve thought things through a little more. Well I don't know if Beckham thought he would ever get another opportunity with a team like Milan when he said those things. And he moved to LA pretty much for 2 things. The money and to give his wife a better lifestyle. Just from an outsider's point of view, the LA fans come out looking like idiots in this, and it probably makes players from Europe like Freddie Ljungberg who come to the US think twice if they are potentially going to be treated like this, which is definitely not what the MLS needs.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 11:12 AM) Soccer isn't #1 in every other country. Not close. Rugby dominates Australia, New Zealand, that area and a few others. Canada loves their hockey. India loves cricket. The Caribbean prefers baseball. Just to name a few. Get over yourself. Eh I'd say Rugby's actually thr #3 sport in Australia now (behind Australian Rules Football and Soccer which has exploded down here since the last World Cup when we made the 2nd round).

Hmmm;

QUOTE (AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 02:11 AM) Yanks want Downs big time. Yeah but will Riccardi want to trade within the division? If he packaged Halladay and Downs to the Yanks in 1 deal though, he could certainly get a HUGE package back.

QUOTE (flippedoutpunk @ Jul 26, 2009 -> 12:55 AM) IMO i think the LA fans have a right to be a little upset about the situation, i mean Beckham just keeps going on the news saying that he believes hell be back at Milan in the future and that playing for Milan gives him a better chance at making the England squad, basically totally crapping on the L.A. Galaxy. Then you have a class guy like Landon Donovan complaining about Beckhams dedication to the team. But a situation similair to this has been seen before with Christiano Ronaldo last offseason when Real Madrid tried to scoop him up and he would go out and say that it would be a dream move and blahblahblah, the Man Utd. fans hated it but for the most part seemed to forget about it once he scored his first goal. If beckham does amazing things for LA and takes them all the way this year then thatll be the only way that things may possibly be forgiven.... IMO... I mean what LA and the MLS needs to realise though, is that playing for Milan is obviously so much of a higher standard than playing in America with a bunch of players either past their prime or not good enough to play in Europe. The World Cup is less than a year away and if Beckham's got a chance to make the squad (which certainly seems the case), then of course he is going to want to play with Milan. And Milan's still a pretty prestigous team, so it's not like many people round Beckham's age get to play still with a team like that. Bit rich of Donovan to say that, when he has deserted the MLS before also.

Thome's got a GPA of .293 so far this season, so he's been a pretty valuable hitter so far. I'd wait til the end of the season, see if he can continue the way he has hit so far, and if so, definitely re-sign him for another season. Someone's gotta provide some power from the left side of the plate, and there probably won't be that many better DH options out there come FA time.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Jul 25, 2009 -> 09:49 PM) The O's are said to be looking at a major league ready corner IFer. Flowers I wouldn't do for Sherrill, who is likely their best trade chip. The sox should look at a guy like Scott Downs. He gets groundballs, keeps walks down, and gets K's. With the Jays in cost cutting mode, they should want his salary [$3.75 mill., IIRC] off the books. Downs would be ideal as he's a good groundball reliever who also strikes out quite a few hitters. But he's also the Jays closer right now, so he won't come cheap. Some guys I'd like to see us target (if we moved Dotel); Peter Moylan - Throws at a very high velocity and is a 66% GB reliever. His ERA should be lower (FIP at 2.81) so I think he'd be a good target, plus he's an Aussie to boot. Brad Ziegler - Another excellent groundball reliever who can close. Pedro Feliciano - The Mets are going nowhere, and he's been a good reliever for a few seasons. Decent GB rate of 58%. David Weathers - Not a great GB reliever, but he's experienced, got good numbers, and the Reds are slipping.

So any thoughts on the whole Beckham situation? Is he in the right or the fans in LA on this one?

Just was wonderful to watch the highlights of MB's perfect game and how he was working. So many groundball outs, not allowing the Rays to get any momentum off him whatsoever. He's been a joy to watch for many, many years, and there was a time a few seasons ago when Buehrle was struggling and people were wondering whether we had seen the best of him. Luckily, that wasn't the case.

Zimmerman's basically the 1 guy that's untouchable on that team. They should be looking at dealing the likes of Willingham and Dunn for spects ASAP though.

Look if you're a major league ballplayer, it doesn't matter if you play in Chicago, New York, or Kansas City. If you're getting paid a lot of money to produce and for whatever reason you don't do it (whether like a previous poster said about A-Roid in NY or whether KC fans would have booed Tony Pena Jr. for being such an offensive juggernaut), fans are going to boo you. And they're thick skinned enough to deal with it. Or at least they should be.

Peter Moylan. Matt Thornton v2.0.

So Steve Kyler came out with this a few hours ago in response to the Sam Smith idea that I posted yesterday;

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 07:51 AM) Will the Magic play way over there heads? Sorry, Orlando isn't that good. They got hot and made it deep. I'm going to remember this Jason. As palehosefan said I think our big 3 at least cancels out Boston's. The guy to me to watch out for in Boston is Ray Allen. Yeah he had a great playoff series against the Bulls but then he was terrible against the Magic. He'll be 34 when the season starts, and I think we've probably seen the best of him. I'd take Carter over Allen with all things being equal right now.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 22, 2009 -> 01:49 AM) Man... I f***ing love Matt Barnes. The Magic are loaded. Sounds like we may have gotten him for 1.8M for 2 years which would be an absolute steal. Having Lewis, Bass, Anderson, Barnes and Pietrus who can all play at the 3 or the 4 is going to give us a lot of options. Barnes could start if we play Lewis at the 4 even, which I think will still happen. Also, saw this on Hoopsworld today;

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 21, 2009 -> 05:16 PM) A lefty that can throw it hard with some semblance of breaking pitches that can't get it done as a starting pitcher. Sounds like JC Romero. That's why Richard is so inticing right now even if he is struggling. Lefties with his velocity on the fastball that can start don't exactly grow on trees.

Matt Barnes signs a 2 year deal with the Magic and C.J Watson signs a 1 year deal offer sheet. Favorites for the East dare I say it?

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jul 20, 2009 -> 02:04 AM) Yesterday, Brandon Allen went 2-4, with a 2B, and a HR. He's now hitting .391/.481/.870 with Reno. Does Reno play in the PCL? If so, well his high offensive numbers shouldn't be much of a surprise there.