Bored

teke, the Syracuse/BC match-up will be decided by La Tech/Rice most likely. I could just PM everyone involved in the championship games next week to get their picks. I had already planned on having everyone involved PM their picks for the championshp games and bowl games.

Oh crap Louisiana Tech/Rice is MONDAY!? When did that happen? Shit, shit, shit, shit that means I have to delay next week's thread. Oh well there will only nine or ten games to make picks for.

Updated thru UVA/VaTech: #2 Minnesota (Vern Gagne) def. #6 Ohio State (Gert T) by forfeit Kent State (JHawk) def. Penn State (therealworldschampion) by forfeit West Virginia (Bored/*dead team*) def. Florida State (2GOLD) by forfeit Boise State (Vern Gagne/*dead team*) def. #5 Washington State (bravesfan) #8 Hawaii (Will Scarlet) def. Michigan State (teke184/*dead team*) Florida (Agent Bond34) def. Alabama (AlwaysPissedOff) Because of Alabama's loss, LSU clinches a spot in the Mid South title game to play Georgia. All that is left now is to settle the Big Atlantic mess.

And you win your game because of it as you will at least win by tiebreak and become bowl eligible. You and teke's replacement picks split evenly on tiebreak #1 but you had Tyler Palko's passing yards exactly right at 165.

Boise will finish in 2nd place in the Pac-8 so they would have been in the conference title game. They are either 7-2 or 7-3 since you took over as I forget if it was Week 3 or Week 4. I think you've won five in a row with them. As for the at-large bids I think this might kill Ohio State's chances. bravesfan still submitted picks so he should still end up in a bowl game although his ranking will probably take a decent hit.

Match-ups already decided: #2 Minnesota (Vern Gagne) def. #6 Ohio State (Gert T) by forfeit Kent State (JHawk) def. Penn State (therealworldschampion) by forfeit West Virginia (Bored/*dead team*) def. Florida State (2GOLD) by forfeit Boise State (Vern Gagne/*dead team*) def. #5 Washington State (bravesfan) With Wazzu's loss, Hawaii clinches a spot in the Pac-8 title game to play UCLA.

UTEP has accepted an invite to the Houston Bowl which had an open bid now because Nebraska failed to become bowl eligible. What's interesting about that is the WAC has three bowl bids but only three eligible teams so I imagine the WAC can't be too happy about this. Hawaii can still become bowl eligible but they have to be Northwestern and Michigan State the next two weeks to do so. If the Liberty Bowl invites Boise State as expected that would leave the WAC with just one of their team's, Fresno State, going to one of their bowls.

Looks like I'm going to need Texas to hold on to avoid going 0 for 6 on the Thursday and Friday games. God damn I suck this week. Looking like we might have four forfeits this week which I'm very dissapointed about. Two of them are Top 10 teams and that could really mess with the bowl picture and the Top 10.

Looks like ASU is going to be upset by U of A. Now down 34-20 with less than 10 minutes to go.

Well $8 million over two years more than they would have been paying Redman and Rhodes. They still are going to be paying $20 million+ to Kendall the next two years. It's still better though to take the hit now then be on the hook for the $13 million in 2007 which would have made him almost impossible to deal.

Although this isn't official my understanding is when you take off Rhodes and Redman's contracts the A's will essentially be paying Kendall $3.5 million in 2005 and $4.4 million in 2006. The Pirates will then be taking on half of Kendall's $13 million in 2007. As I mentioned in my other post this will make it easier for the A's to deal Kendall after 2006 when their catcher's in the minors are ready.

Syracuse's chances are incredibly slim as they'd have to end up with a higher BCS ranking than Pittsburgh and that isn't going to happen I don't think. Of course having a team who almost lost to Furhman go to a BCS bowl wouldn't be that good of a thing either.

Hardball Times is going to be running a series of articles trying to prjoect the rosters for the likely countries to be involved in the World Cup. They start off with Venezuela and Canada. You can click the link to read the full article but I'll just C&P the selections. Venezuela is absolutely loaded. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/...ela-and-canada/ TEAM CANADA

Byrnes is the left fielder as he's proven himself to be a solid everyday player. Kielty was god awful last year. There's no guarentee Durazo will be back but it seems likely. He's arb eligible and I believe I heard a rumor that they will be offering him a multi-year deal. Whether he signs it or not is another story but he should at the very least be back on a one-year tender. If they do reach a long term deal on him I think they will try to trade Hatteberg. Because of their budget Beane always has to go with the younger, cheaper palyer and Johnson seems ready. His big problem is defense though but the third base coach Ron Washington, the A's defensive guru, turned Hatteberg into a solid defensive first baseman after being a catcher so I think he can do the same with Johnson. There's also no guarentee the pitching staff is set. One of the TAFKA Big Three could still be traded although that might be less likely now with Redman dealt. The A's were going to trade a starting pitcher this offseason to open up a spot for Blanton and they've done that now. There was the rumor about Marcus Giles and big time pitching prospect Dan Meyer coming to the A's for one of the TAFKA Big Three but those rumors never seemed very concrete. Even though Hudson is a free agent after this season, if they don't sign him to a new deal, I really hope he won't be traded as I think there is a lot of questions about Zito (inconsistent, maybe just a league average pitcher now) and Mulder (What the hell happened those last two months?) going into next year. Harden I think will definently supplant himself as the team's #2 starter in 2005 and if the right deal is there I wouldn't have any problem dealing Zito or Mulder. Oh and as for the actual Kendall deal, it's hard not to like it. Obviously if Kendall suddenly hits the wall on his career the deal could backfire but he's been one of the most consistent and durable cacher's in baseball. They are doing a smart thing by taking the salary hit on his contract in 2005 and 2006 but having the Pirates pick the half of his $13 million in 2007. By 2007 either Landon Powell or Kurt Suzuki will be ready and by the Pirates picking up half of the last year of his contract it will make trading Kendall after 2006 fairly easy as long as he's still productive. If they were paying him the full $13 million in 2007 it might be hard to flip him. Also by having Kendall the next couple of years it makes John Baker expendable to use in a midseason trade although it's possible he could end up being Kendall's back up this year as Adam Melhuse apparantly wants to be traded now because of the Kendall trade. Redman could have a bounce back year in 2005 but Blanton at worst should match Redman's numbers of last year. Rhodes signing was a calculated risk that blew up in their face and they had to dump him. He's just not a good pitcher anymore. Jose Mesa and Arthur Rhodes in the same bullpen? The horror...the horror.

AlwaysPissedOff (Alabama) Colorado LSU Texas Arizona State Maryland South Florida Virginia Iowa State Mississippi State TCU Southern Miss Louisiana Tech Oklahoma State USC TB# 1: 45

Gert T, bravesfan, nogoodnick, Cartman, AlwaysPissedOff, therealworldschampion, and 2GOLD are all late with their picks.

Still several people haven't submitted picks but just typing this out now so I don't have to bother with it tommorrow. Week 13 Match-up Breakdowns #2 Minnesota (Vern Gagne, 8-4) vs. #6 Ohio State (Gert T, 7-5) - GAME OF THE WEEK #7 LSU (teke184, 9-3) vs. #10 Stanford (Bored, 8-4) LSU: UConn, Colorado, LSU, Texas A&M, Wake Forest, UAB, Louisiana Tech Stan: Rutgers, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, Maryland, Southern Miss, Rice Tiebreak Answers: 57/54, 215/227 #1 Virginia (Edwin MacPhisto, 9-3) vs. Rutgers (the pinjockey, 4-8) UVA: West Virginia, Colorado, Arkansas, Texas, Memphis, Mississippi, TCU, USC Rut: Pittsburgh, Nebraska, LSU, Texas A&M, South Florida, Mississippi State, Tulane, Notre Dame Tiebreak Answers: 58/50, 252/300 #3 Syracuse (Canadian Chris, 10-2) vs. Boston College (HarleyQuinn, 5-7) SU: Mississippi, Rice BC: Mississippi State, Louisiana Tech Tiebreak Answers: 53/52, 235/218 #4 UCLA (phoenixrising, 7-5) vs. Oklahoma (Damaramu, 4-8) UCLA: Nebraska, Mississippi OK: Colorado, Mississippi State Tiebreak Answers: 52/54, 275/234 #5 Washington State (bravesfan, 7-5) vs. Boise State (Vern Gagne/*dead team*, 6-6) Wazzu: Loses out on Thursday/Friday games, Rice BSU: Louisiana Tech #8 Hawaii (Will Scarlet, 6-6) vs. Michigan State (teke184/*dead team*, 5-7) HI: Maryland, Virginia Tech MS: Wake Forest, Virginia Tiebreak Answers: 41/57, 165/215 #9 Oregon (nogoodnick, 6-6) vs. Georgia (A_MikeSC, 10-2) Ore: Loses out on both Thursday games, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Mississippi, TCU UGA: Wake Forest, Virginia, Mississippi State, Tulane Tiebreak Answers: 67/45, na/190 Notre Dame (Lando Griffin, 8-4) vs. USC (Cartman, 5-7) ND: Memphis, Virginia, Iowa State, Mississippi, Oklahoma State USC: Loses out on Thursday games, South Florida, Virginia Tech, Missouri, Mississippi State, Texas Tech Tiebreak Answers: 44/56, 267/na Texas (Flyboy, 6-6) vs. Tennessee (Kotzenjunge, 4-8) Tex: UConn, West Virginia, Arkansas, Texas, Wake Forest, Missouri, Mississippi State Ten: Rutgers, Pittsburgh, LSU, Texas A&M, Maryland, Iowa State, Mississippi Tiebreak Answers: 53/52, 175/249 Arizona State (Spicy McHaggis, 4-8) vs. Auburn (Agent of Oblivion, 6-6) ASU: UConn, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Memphis, Virginia Tech, Iowa State, UAB, Louisiana Tech, USC Aub: Rutgers, LSU, Texas, South Florida, Virginia, Missouri, Southern Miss, Rice, Notre Dame Tiebreak Answers: 50/47, 198/211 Maryland (MarvinisaLunatic, 7-5) vs. Miami (Spaceman Spiff, 3-9) MD: Rutgers, West Virginia, Arizona State, Memphis, Virginia Tech, Missouri, Mississippi State, TCU, UAB, Rice, Texas Tech Mia: UConn, Pittsburgh, Arizona, South Florida, Virginia, Iowa State, Mississippi, Tulane, Louisiana Tech, Oklahoma State Tiebreak Answers: 41/55, 190/225 Florida (Agent Bond34, 4-8) vs. Alabama (AlwaysPissedOff, 6-6) UF: Nebraska, Memphis, Virginia Tech, Mississippi Ala: Loses out on Thursday games, Colorado, South Florida, Virginia, Mississippi State Tiebreak Answers: 63/45, 289/na Penn State (therealworldschampion, 3-9) vs. Kent State (JHawk, 5-7) Florida State (2GOLD, 4-8) vs. West Virginia (Bored/*dead team*, 4-8) Bowling Green (iggymcfly, 8-4) vs. Michigan (Mad Dog, 4-8) BG: Maryland, South Florida, Virginia Tech, Mississippi Mich: Wake Forest, Memphis, Virginia, Mississippi State Tiebreak Answers: 57/45, 214/205

My Picks Rutgers West Virginia Nebraska Arkansas Texas Arizona State Maryland Memphis Virginia Iowa State Mississippi TCU Southern Miss Rice Oklahoma State USC Tiebreak Answers: 54/227

Texans - 21 points Indianapolis Chicago New England Cleveland Jacksonville N.Y. Giants Kansas City Tampa Bay Houston Pittsburgh Atlanta Buffalo Miami N.Y. Jets Oakland Green Bay

Sporting News is reporting that the rumored Jason Kendall to the A's for Mark Redman and Arthur Rhodes deal is about to go through. Kendall has waived his no trade clause and the players just need to pass a physical now.

If Oklahoma State loses to Texas Tech, thus Tech goes to the Alamo Bowl, they could possibly end up in the Tangerine Bowl as after the Alamo Bowl there really is no order to the Big XII bids. At least Virginia vs. Oklahoma State could be competitive.

A&M is pretty much a lock for the Holiday Bowl and then the winner of Oklahoma State/Texas Tech this weekend probably goes to the Alamo Bowl. If Tech loses then look for them to go to the Ft. Worth Bowl where they'll do an all-Texas bowl with TCU. After that it's really anyone's guess. Ya they make out bad in this Clemson deal as there was already going to be three or four open bids that they would have had their choice of bowl to go to but now they are forced back to freeze their ass off in Boise. I suppose they could turn it down so they can go to one of the open spots like the Las Vegas Bowl, although I'm sure the ACC would frown on that.

Report is Damian Miller has signed a three-year, $9 million deal with the Brewers.

I can't find an article on it but apparantly some of the Big Ten bowl invites have been handed out: Iowa to the Capital One Bowl, Ohio State to the Alamo Bowl, and Purdue to the Sun Bowl. No surprises there.

Ouch.