The Man in Blak

I'm a little perplexed as to why everybody thinks the Panthers are going to be passing all day long. Nick Goings isn't Foster or even Stephen Davis, but he's still a very capable back - guy rushed for five 100 yard games in 2004. I'm sure they'll have to alter their gameplay a little bit, but Goings is still capable of keeping the Seattle D honest.

Okay, you win.

The Man in Blak

Instead of using Win Shares, which have no predictive value in this context, could you use runs added/runs lost? If that's the case, I believe you could actually plug in projected data from the Hardball Times Annual (I think it has projected fielding data).

I already sent you a followup PM asking for permissions to edit the format, after you sent me the code, and I haven't received anything from you yet. Did one of our PMs get dropped somewhere? And the articles still have "YourSITE.com" on the title, rather than TheSmartMarks like on the front page.

You're missing the point behind the criticism. Nobody expects Manning to take off like Michael Vick and toast defenses for 100 yards of rushing a game, but it is a reasonable expecation for a pocket quarterback to be able to throw effectively under pressure. Manning has shown that he has some difficulty with that, particularly in the playoffs against teams with disciplined defensive personnel; Pittsburgh's blitz packages exposed that, just as the Patriots' aggressive schemes have done in the past. But you can even throw out Manning's ability in this situation and still criticize his comments after the game because they show poor judgment and a lack of sportsmanship. If he were a gracious loser, Peyton could have congratulated the better team on that day but he instead chose to place blame and undermine his own teammates. The fact that Peyton isn't really justified in having a legitimate gripe in the issue just compounds matters.

The Eagles seemed to think so, since they issued a statement declaring that they wish that it hadn't aired: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/telev...t_id=1000720629 Even though they didn't have control over it, the NFL and the Eagles both took a PR hit from the collaboration. At any rate, it was a year that certainly wasn't free of controversy, which was the point behind my initial statement. It wasn't a quiet year.

Not really, if you consider that he demanded a trade from Baltimore to Philadelphia, and participated in the infamous MNF skit with Nicolette Sheridan, which got a lot of bad press for virtually everybody involved. A quiet year by his standards, sure, but not exactly "model citizen material."

I get the impression that the network has already pretty much given up on it, but is somehow locked into some terrible contract that obligates them to keep it on the air. They don't really advertise it, they bumped it off of its morning timeslot to televise a radio show, and the one segment that they do advertise from it (1st and 10) is replayed in the afternoon with almost no mention that it's originally from Cold Pizza in the first place.

1. The quote doesn't really give justice to how he said it. I'm not saying that he was standing at an altar of bone between two pillars of fire, damning the linemen to hell, but he wasn't going "gee fellas, aw shucks" between questions either. He laughably said "I want to be a good teammate" more than a couple of times before saying the quote up above, which pretty much cinched that his intent was to place blame on the linemen, rather than congratulate the Steelers. 2. Manning really shouldn't be the one pointing fingers at his linemen, when he's the one at the line, changing protection schemes on every other play. 3. Even when he did have time to throw, he was very tentative. He needs to sit down and have a conversation with David Carr when it comes to what real problems with protection are. Indy certainly had problems with the blitz but, if you would have listened to the way Manning told it, he was picking linebackers out of his teeth all day.

There's always Skinny Puppy.

Jeff Nelson signs a MLC with St. Louis: It's an MLC, so no real harm done, though rolling the dice on two headcases in the pen (with Ponson) is a little unsettling. Nelson still strikes out almost a batter an inning, but he's going to have to cut down his walks before he becomes the next Al Reyes.

What exactly was wrong with the "Devil Rays"?

My guess on baseball's issue with national coverage is that it's still very much of a regional sport and the regional demand doesn't quite add up to enough dollars to justify constant national coverage over such a long season. The regional networks - WGN, Fox Sports - can turn over more money with limited coverage than a major network could by putting it on a national scope. Not only that, but baseball games during the week would be taking the spots of some of the primary ratings winners for the majors, even in the afternoon. I think the best thing for MLB to do would be to follow the NFL's route and make their own network, with round-the-clock coverage. Not only could they provide national coverage for games that you might not necessarily see, but they could cover baseball that's played in the offseason, like the Arizona Fall League or other winter leagues.

Didn't they already try this with the "Spider Armor" way back in Spectacular Spider-Man?

I can definitely be convinced of Carolina/Pittsburgh, which would be a great game, but I've got a feeling that Seattle is just going to be too tough for the Panthers, who won't have DeShaun Foster to keep the defense honest. The Panthers and Steve Smith can make it a shootout but, next week, they'll be looking across the field and Hasselbeck and Alexander, who are much more capable of striking back than the Bears. As for the AFC, I just can't bring myself to put a vote of confidence for Jake Plummer yet. The Steelers traditionally do a good job of stopping the run, so it's going to be on Plummer's shoulders to carry the team and, though he had flashes against New England, he still freelances and forces way too much for my comfort. I'm going with Pittsburgh, but it's going to be close, maybe even OT-close. Both games should be a lot of fun to watch.

Yeah, that's a good point. I still don't like that Manning waived them off, but that was just another example of Dungy coaching "scared" in the playoffs. It's sad to say, with everything that he's gone through this season, but Dungy's in the same boat as Peyton when it comes to playoff ineptitude. And I forgot to mention it, but good gawd, what happened to Charles Tillman? Do we have a pulse? Smith smoked him so bad that future generations of Tillmans will have tire tread marks up and down their back. The whole Tillman line is going to have to carry the burden of an ass-whooping of that magnitude. I didn't see all of the game, but it seemed like the rest of the defense played a fairly tight game, outside of that disastrous matchup.

Bingo. The Colts failed to adjust to the Steeler blitz through the entire game. A screen pass, a draw to James, a delay, anything to discourage crashing linebackers and safeties at the quarterback...and Indianapolis didn't do it. If it's been said already, then I'll just repeat it: these Colts are starting to look a lot like those early 90's Houston Oilers teams. Both the Oilers and these Colts have an uncanny knack for finding a way to lose games against teams on their level and this one was the worst of all. The Colts had everything lined up for them, with past playoff blunders presumably providing all the desire that they would have ever needed, but the Steelers made it seem as they were the only ones who came to the field hungry with a gameplan to win the game. Even with the Steelers running in high gear, the Colts were given countless opportunities to make something happen and they didn't. It was a chokejob of the highest order, one that will do more damage to Peyton's legacy as a leader than any of the losses to New England. And, to compound matters, Manning managed to make himself and the Colts look even worse with his behavior on and off the field. He completely disrespected Dungy by waving the punt team off of the field and he disrespected his teammates by throwing them under the bus for "protection problems." Just disgusting. Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Highest percentage ever was Tom Seaver, I believe, and he didn't get 100% of the votes either. As for A-Rod, it won't matter if he hits a thousand home runs - if A-Rod's perceived lack of playoff success continues, I could see a couple of writers holding that against him, saying that he "wasn't clutch." Do not underestimate the stupidity of some of the card-carrying members of the writer's association.

Picked up Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution for $6 at the one near me...but there was little else. Only other thing really tempting was ESPN NBA 2K5 for $10, but I'm not enough of a basketball fan to justify buying it.

Virtua Fighter 4 at two bucks? All-Star Baseball and Onimusha 3 at four? Good lord.

Bitching about Strokes-related hyperbole is sooooooo 2001.

At the time, I thought the Cards' two year deal for Tavarez was bordering on the insane...but here we are, two years later, and Tavarez ends up being one of the better performers in the pen over that span. Thank god it's over. I'd wager Tavarez throws down a 5.00-ish ERA in Boston this season.

Hey, it was a guess. It doesn't hurt that, shortly after fixing this issue with IPB, it was announced that the board got new skins. Coincidence?

Yeah, I agree with a lot of this. I'm a big fan of Waits' up-tempo songs, stuff like "Hang On St. Christopher" or "Swordfishtrombones" or "Hoist That Rag" that just thumps along. Not quite rock, but still having a driving beat behind it. I like his ballads as well ("Alice", "Picture in a Frame", "Soldier's Things"), but I'm not as sold on the carnival music.