Precious Roy

I'll take Stanton, and I like Gordon, but they need improvement beyond that. I loved the way Sturtze pitched down the stretch last year, depending on his price I'd like to keep him as a long reliever. I was a fan of Quantrill until he lost it last year, so I'm up in the air on whether I trust him or not. If they keep him they'll need to reduce his workload. I'm hopeful that Steve Karsay gets his shit together. I'd like to see us add another lefty along with Stanton and upgrade from Gordon at the #2 spot. If I'm the GM I make an all out push for Trevor Hoffman contingent upon him accepting the setup co-ace role in the pen. It's crucial that they have someone they can rely on to shut it down for an inning or two due to Rivera's age. They can't keep putting him out there 2-3 innings every playoff game. From the NY Times Honestly, I would have agreed to Vazquez, Gordon and Halsey and tried to cut the $ down by 5 mil or so. Johnson is a once in a lifetime pitcher, I can't believe they're going to walk away from a chance to put him in pinstripes. In the end everything the Yankees give up will be inconsequential, especially now that they've soured on Vazquez and have been publically shopping him around. Halsey and Gordon are nice, but they're not going to make or break a championship.

Hahaha, this asshole on ESPNews says he needs to see more evidence. What evidence? He admited to using the shit.

The old Cavs. They don't have the talent of those Hawks teams. Memphis will probably just end up playing like they did last year, high tempo with lots of movement. Lots of guys contributing and no real star. With the depth of average players they have there's really no other way to play. Bonzi, Pau and if he's healthy Posey will be the go-to scorers. Williams is playing poorly right now but he'll improve. I don't think they win 50 and make the playoffs again though, everyone in the West improved their talent or modified their style and Memphis stayed exactly the same.

Patriots: Keep Crennel and Weis at all costs. Yes, they'll get a ton of offers. Yes, they both deserve a shot at being the head guy. But there's no telling what effect losing either or both of them might have on the team. Pay them low end head coach $ if need be, just keep em at the Edge. Of the two I think Crennel is more likely to test the head coach waters. Re-sign Vinatieri, Troy Brown, Joe Andruzzi and Tom Ashworth and David Givens. Keep David Patten and Jarvis Green if possible. Other than that just keep finding quality players to plug into the system. Defensive depth will be a priority with guys like McGinnist, Law and Harrison not getting any younger. WR depth is another key, especially if either Givens, Patton or god forbid both move on. The Patriots have a habit of finding diamonds in the rough or underrated players who have the skills to excell in their system, and with their recent track record I'll be confident with whatever players they bring in.

*crosses fingers*

I'd just like to take credit for calling Benitez-->Giants in that pick em thing. He seems like such a natural fit in that uniform and a bullpen upgrade was a must for them.

Wells was better in 04 than Milton. Wells is older and his back is a measurable risk, but I'd take my chances with Wells over Milton.

So it's kind of been bugging me that supposedly Panda Energy is willing to take a large financial hit to make TNA successful longterm, I'm trying to think why they care so much about the venture, what is it about the market of pro-wrestling that makes them so dedicated, then I realize that I don't know shit about Panda Energy International. So I googled them up, and this is what I found. Also this, which clearly indicates Bob Carter as CEO, proving that they are indeed the same company financing TNA. So this is the company that backs TNA? An environmental group? Because if so it seems clear that they are in some way aligned with the WWF, and TNA is being used simply to fuck with Vince McMahon. The evidence is right there, they have virtually the same logo, they both invest in the same goal of keeping the environment pristine and sustainable, and obviously the WWF has been in bitter legal battles with McMahon. I'd say Bob Carter has an intimate, likely monetary, connection with the WWF and is doing this on their behalf. I can't believe nobody made this connection before. Someone buy me a beer

I'm serious yo. This shit is serious

Did Eddie punch a fan in the stands? Did he charge after him and connect on his face? From a Google search. Eddie was not punished in any way, as in wrestling the promoters understand that performers have a right to defend themselves and don't have to take shit from anyone. The Pistons want to wear their big gold belts and their fans want to act like a WCW crowd, what the hell do they expect?!?

Not all of them charged the stands, some of them did, and yet the world kept turning and the sun continues to rise......

Why? I'm sick of this double standard for the fans and athletes. They're professionals, yes, professional BASKETBALL PLAYERS. It's not part of their job to take physical abuse from the people who come to watch them play the game of basketball. I'm sure the chump who threw the cup is a professional pizza delivery man or something, say he delivers a pizza and as he's leaving the kids at the house throw a slice of pizza in his face or some shit. He has to take that because he's a "professional"? Anyone remember when Guerrero went after that fan who threw beer on him? It's no different. When a fan crosses that line from spectator to active participant he has to be ready to accept the consequences.

Why is Todd Pettingill doing commentary on DVD's? Don't they have a single PBP guy who isn't completely retarded? And sorry, it was a younger, less extreme Shannon Moore....

Something about Lyger reminding him of a young Leif Cassidy....

Hopefully this leads up to a big show in parts unknown...

There are several fans who need to be prosecuted, fined, banned, whatever they need to do: The fan who threw the first drink at Artest, fans who threw another drink and began to punch Artest in the crowd rather than simply restrain him or avoid him and let security do their job, big dude trying to murder Freddie Jones, fan who went on court to sucker punch Artest, dude who threw chair. The harshest penalty player wise I think has to go to Steven Jackson. He was the most agressive Pacer following the Wallace/Artest incident, and he was also the first player to punch a fan, which crosses a certain line. The punch he threw after Artest got hit with the 2nd drink is going to be pinpointed as the moment where all order was lost and IMO what he did was much worse than Artest entering the crowd in the first place. The next harshest penalty should go to Ron Artest, and he should be judged from the foul on Wallace to the point where he willingly exited the crowd and returned to the court. Nothing done by him until the drink was worthy of anything more than a technical foul, if that. Running into the crowd gets him 5-8 games, more if his prior record is taken into account (which knowing Stern it will be). The key here is that he didn't attack the fan, the intent was obviously intimidation, and he simply grabbed the fan. If things were handled properly from that point on Artest would have been seperated after proving his point and putting the fear of god into that wimp. This is the point where the fan attacks and Jackson's punch turned it into a free for all and you can see Artest just trying to get everyone off of him and get out of the crowd. He does throw one punch on his way back towards the court, I couldn't tell if it connected or who it was directed towards, but I think the NBA will penalize him for that as well. The punches thrown towards the man on court can't be justified as punishable, the guy was approaching Artest in a threatening manner and Artest was simply quicker on the draw, the lawyers would not allow games tacked on for that. Jermaine O'Neal will likely get 3-6 games, mainly because of that massive right cross he landed. I don't think the NBA will view that as self-defense as he came from out of the picture and the guy he was after wasn't a threat to anyone at that point. If all things are equal I think that's possibly the worst act from a player in the whole thing and I think him and Artest, if the NBA is fair, should get simmilar penalties. The lightest penalty will go to Ben Wallace (I say he deserves three games as he lit the match that burned the place down by acting like a damn fool, out of simple frustration that his team was losing, and nothing he did out there was justified. His actions, while not intentional, incited a riot.) I suppose it's possible that Fred Jones, David Hawkins, Rasheed Wallace, Tinsley and whoever else could get suspensions for going into the crowd, but since they were all playing peacemaker it would be absurd. Of course, the NBA has a precedent for absurd punishments in bench clearers, so I'll take the over with every player involved. Rasheed Wallace should get a merit badge or deputized or some shit though, that dude handled the entire situation as well as he possibly could. If more of the Pistons had gone into the crowd to break up the fight I don't think it would have gotten so out of hand, you could see the respect the fans showed towards Rasheed, nobody wanted to fuck with him.

In HS, during a road basketball game a pull-apart brawl broke out near the end of the game. It wasn't anything too serious though, just lots of pushing and trash talk. The refs broke it up and tossed the two kids who started it (it started on off-ball fighting for position). We ended up losing a really close game. Our team was leaving the gym, going to board the bus, and a group of kids from the other school were talking just mad shit to us, one of them threw a decent sized rock, and when that happened like half our team just lost it and charged them, got into a huge brawl outside the school. The cops/coaches/parents whatever broke it up, we all got 3 day school/1 game suspensions

Best of Snitsky.... LMFAO.

I can't hate anyone who gives their heart and soul to the Yankees. He was a great Yankee. There'll always be a spot in my heart for the ol' rocket.

Jermaine O'Neal will be suspended too. He landed punches on fans. I just saw Artest hitting that short fat guy in the white jersey for the first time. CLASSIC! They had a nice, short staredown before Artest clocked him I've gotta say this is hands down my favorite NBA fight EVER, and I never thought anything would beat out the shit that went down between the NYK and Miami.

Meh, Artest will get the short end here either way, from the league and from writers/fans who didn't watch it live and rely on 2nd hand info and tape to determine guilt and intent. He'll be the bad guy when all is said and done. It would be a damn shame for him to lose that much time though. He was the 4th least agressive party involved after Wallace, Jackson and the fans, everything he did was reactionary. It was his rep that caused Wallace to go after him, his rep that got Jackson so jacked up, and his rep that had the crowd attacking him. Is it Ron Artest's fault that people can't handle a tru warrier?

I tend to think the same thing when ESPN showed it too. I don't get ESPNews so I've only seen it live and the brief bits the ESPN studio crew has shown, probably get a lot more at halftime of the Kings game, but man, it's fucking HILARIOUS if that isn't the guy who threw it! He sees Artest coming and just stands there laughing, says something, and Artest fucking tackles him!

20 games?!?!? That's insane. I'm thinking 8 for Jackson, 5 for Wallace and 3 for Artest would be fair. The fines will be insane though. On second viewing, I'm not so sure the little nerdy guy was actually the one who hit artest with the cup

Actually, J-O got DOUCHED with beer and peanuts and shit as they were escorting him into the tunnel. People were just lining up around the entrance to throw shit on the Pacers. Jackson straight up went off, he was the most active guy in going after Wallace too. He was keyed up. Artest on the other hand looked like he was losing his mind, but also totally in control. He had that, "I'm gonna kill a motherfucker but I'm gonna chill while doing it" psychotic look