Precious Roy

This is almost as bad as the time Notre Dame hired that guy with a fake resume

Solid crop of starters, no doubt. My wishlist for the Bombers: Matt Clement (this guy should be the #1 target, not Beltran...) Odalis Perez (I love his stuff, had some bad luck this season, rarely pitched with the lead. I hope he's on Steinbrenner's radar and not Carl Milano) Pedro (Boston would be crazy to let him walk, and he'd be crazy to leave, but you never know.....) El Duque Lieber David Wells (we never should have let him walk, pitches great in big spots) I'm not a Russ Ortiz fan, though with the Yankees offense he's a reasonable option as he usually keeps things close. I've always liked Matt Morris' style, great curve, but he seems to have slowed down a lot over the last couple seasons. Maybe he's ready to rebound, I say do it if you can get him on the cheap. Derek Lowe is probably more likely to leave Boston than Pedro, and he played his way into a nice deal in the playoffs, but he's too inconsistent for my tastes, and easily ratttled. I don't like the idea of him playing in front of the NY boo birds.

There, that's better.... The Knicks are as solid as the second tier gets in the East. After Detroit, Indiana, Miami and Cleveland there's no team with a definitive edge on them. I mean, it's TWO games in and they're trying to fit in a new #1-A option on offense, growing pains were expected. Totally agree about Arizia starting over Tim Thomas, and I think it will happen, hopefully sooner rather than. Thomas is a fucking worthless pig. That was BY FAR Tuss' worst move to date. In what universe is Tim Thomas deemed more valuable than Keith Van Horn? He's NEVER put up better numbers and never shown even flashes of the desire needed to be a great player. Thomas is a closet racist, he flat out dislikes white players, so it's no surprise he jetisoned the galloping ghost. Anyway, Knicks win 44 and take the Atlantic

Ah, and after reading the entire thread I have to say that Homer at the Bat and Flaming Moes are up there as well. Another personal favorite is the one where Homer becomes a boxer and is fed to Dedrick Tatum. The shit at the end with Moe saving people with the flying contraption to the tune of "people who need people" has me rolling on the floor every single time I'd say generally I'm partial to Moe episodes

I'm a big fan of "You only move twice" Not sure why exactly, but that's always the first episode I think of when thinking of great ones, it just cracks me up

How is it relevant? It's not. At all. But I didn't bring it up Just wanted to correct that false belief. When boxers are in the ropes, in a clinch, there is a three second count and then the ref breaks them up. Same premise as a submission hold in wrestling, a clinch is the closest thing that exists in boxing. Frankly I'm shocked that somebody didn't something as basic as that and tried to pass it off like they knew what they were talking about.

Yeah, down that shit down!

Yes it does.

Vince will never do legitimate business with Jeff and Jerry Jarrett, he hates them. Now, it's obvious that he isn't out to crush TNA, as he easily could have by now, and I think deep down he'd like to see them carve out a niche as a minor league, but that's very different from investing time, money and resources into the promotion. A "feeder" system is a necessity though, which is why I think they should do more with OVW, and wasn't there a rumour a little while ago of west coast and Florida OVW-style developmental leagues starting up? We might be seeing the first steps towards that, with the capital saved from all of these cuts going towards the developmental programs.

And here's a question for the "career year" crowd. Who's more deserving of a big contract, Beltran or Beltre?

Why is Beltran worth 12-15 mil per season? Speed/power/defense Yeah, his average leaves something to be desired as he's maxed out around .300 so far, but his 4 year HR totals of 24, 29, 26 (with no protection in KC) and this past season 38 (23 after coming to the NL and playing with a real lineup), combined with stolen base totals of 31, 35, 41 and 42...........the guy is the most legitimate 40/40 threat in the league. PLUS he's just a notch below Hunter/Edmonds when it comes to making the spectacular, improbabale play in the outfield. Injury risk? Where the hell did you pull that one from? 155, 162, 141, 159 games played over the last four years. The reality is that Beltran is one of the most dynamic players in the game. A career contract year that will be unreachable in the future? The evidence suggests otherwise. Beltran put up basically the same numbers in 2004 that he did the previous three seasons, and as previously stated the jump in homers after moving to the senior circuit can be chalked up to actually playing with a real team and not a bunch of scrubs like in KC. He's in his prime and will put up those numbers consistently for at least the next 5 years, if not improve on them. Personally, I think he'll improve his average and gain more power, finishing around .300-315 w/ 40 homers the next 5 years. The playoff numbers were incredible, and I think it's hilarious that people want to KNOCK him for that, saying he only played well because he wants money. Just accept the fact that after FINALLY getting a chance to play on a national stage he proved himself to be a primetime player. You've gotta be great to do what he did, he was absolutely locked in and thriving on the pressure. I wouldn't want him signed for more than 6 or 7 years on my team and I'd try to get him at no more than $13 mil per, but the market demand is there, so don't be surprised if he gets closer to what Boras is demanding. I'm just hoping the Yankees don't get suckered into giving him an outrageous deal, yes he'd be unreal at the top of that lineup with Jeter and A-Rod, but we need to be spending our money on pitching. There's no shame in picking up a bargain basement CF.

I'm aware of Rico's age, but seriously, he's the most talented of the bunch and has had the least exposure as well. Remember that DDP didn't become a star until WELL into his 40's....

BEATUIFUL BOBBY EATON IS NOT A LOSER! I was reffering to people who were seriously out of shape (Jim Duggan, Ricky Morton, the Moondog,...MABEL AGAIN, etc. etc.) I didn't get to see Eaton vs. Kash, but I heard it wasn't too good of a match. He was out of shape (he was in "Arn Anderson shape" to begin with, if ya know what I mean), and it wasn't very "good," but it was still cool to see Bobby out there again

Nuggets-Wolves is the new Knicks-Heat, only with more offense. I love it. Francisco Elson getting in KG's face, fuck endorsments and awards, he's just a tall skinny dude who can get rattled like anyone else! K-Mart playing the enforcer role and pissing off Cassell enough to throw the ball at him and get ejected.....this is going to be a great season

Beltran isn't good, he's great, but no one player is worth that much money. Beltran deserves a Vlad/A-Rod type contract, no question, because he is a yearly MVP candidate and can bring a team a championship and a ton of revenue, but 20mil for 10 years is outrageous, BUT, it's quite obvious that Boras wants a blood and guts bidding war and is setting the bar as high as possible. No doubt SOMEONE will pay close to that demand to get Beltran, could be the Mets, could be the Yanks, could be a wildcard.... Personally, I'd like to see him stay in Houston, I think he's a good fit there And I think 8 years at 14 mil per is, dare I say it, reasonable

Rasheed Wallace is definitely a big rasslin fan. I remember last year when the WWE ran their first RAW in Portland he was front row, and that just happened to be the same night he was traded to Detroit. All the wire reports talked about how he was called up to the Portland GM's office in the middle of the show when the trade went down. Ben Wallace is also a big wrestling fan, that's been mentioned by Sports Illustrated, ESPN and other sources.... And tonight on TNT they showed higlights from the first Charlotte Bobcats game, Ric Flair was front row, and everytime they showed a Bobcats highlight they cut to him at courtside giving a "WOOOOOOOOOOOO!" What put it over the top was that Charles Barkley was marking out for Flair, he gave some WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'s of his own, and he even dropped a "TO BE THE MAN YOU'VE GOT TO BEAT THE MAN!"

Gunn, Stamboli and Rico are the only guys I think TNA can use in an effective manner. MAYBE Rodney Mack could flourish in a smaller pond, but that's a crapshoot. Gunn is a natural fit, and due to his size, look, reputation and decent ability when protected in tag matches could be a good addition. "The Outlaws" (NAO is copyrighted I assume) v. AMW seems promising. Stamboli fits perfectly with the whole NYCs/Empire Saint picture, even though I find all of that quite boring. Rico has the most upside and he's the best bet for a breakout star. Drop the flamboyant gay routine and just let him use his charisma and work to get over and he'll be more successful than Jeff Hardy. Agreed that A-Train will be a hot comodity in Japan once he recovers from his injury, he's tailor made for the MONSTER ARMY~!

Hahahahaha. Get ready for Kevin Garnett and the tWo to spraypaint the shit out of those belts

Well, it would probably shake down like that due to WWE politics, but it doesn't have to be that way. If you have all of the top guys pre-existing and established during the brand extension experiment (HHH, Angle, Undertaker, HBK, Benoit, Eddie, Jericho, Orton, JBL, Batista, Edge, Booker T, Cena at the moment) you can't possibly have them all at the top at the same time, so you do what both WCW and WWF failed to do coming out of the boom, USE THEM TO MAKE NEW STARS! You only need two guys at the top at any given time, say HHH and Cena is the top feud du jour for arguments sake, it allows you to run programs such as Angle v. Benjamin, HBK v. Haas, Undertaker v. Batista, Jericho v. Carlito Colon etc. etc. Programs like that are the only way to elevate guys to the next level, and right now the ratio of established talent to on the cusp talent doesn't allow for that to happen, the brand split just doesn't offer enough depth to recover from the mistakes that have been made.

Ditto. The prices are too outrageous and the product is too poor to shell out that kind of money 12-14 times a year. I'm not even sure if I'll get the Rumble or Mania next year the way things are shaping up, which would be only the second time in the last 15 years that I didn't order the big two (the other year was 2002 when I took a sabatical from the product during the Invasion).

FIRE: Mark Jindrak, Maven, Tyson Tomko HIRE: Randy Savage (RAW), Brock Lesnar (SD) (get him back at all costs), Kawada (SD)

BEATUIFUL BOBBY EATON IS NOT A LOSER!

Whoever said Rico is the worst cut since Goldust, I agree with that.... Of the other males only Stamboli had upside and had been delivering good performances. The cuts of Gunn, Test, A-Train are only surprising inasmuch as Vince seemed to have a hard on for all three of them, giving them multiple chances to fail. They were damaged goods in my book. Rodney Mack never deserved his spot in the first place. The female cuts are a little puzzling as it leaves the women's division incredibly thin, but the comitment hadn't been there recently anyway. My list for the "mystery two" looks something like: Steven Richards Val Venis Nunzio Akio Bob Holly Funaki Shannon Moore Garrison Cade Wouldn't surprise me to see any of those guys let go. And whether you like Heidenreich or Snitsky or Tomko or Luthor Reigns or not, it's pretty apparent that the E does, so learn to get used to them. Reigns and Tomko I'm apathetic towards, Reigns rubs me the wrong way just because he's so high profile right now, same with Jindrak who I've never been a fan of. I can take or leave Snitsky, but I think Heidenreich has been entertaining as hell over on SD! Sure, he can't work a match to save his life, but he's excelled in his character role of resident psycho.

First guys making Big Show look like shit by not selling his slams and not being smart enough to even pretend to look intimidated, now they laugh at Angle's mic work and Pruder holds his own against the guy who's kayfabed as the best mat wrestler in the business... Yeah, this live TE crap was a great idea

How about Zimmer?