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Wow. I can't believe that even the hapless Texans are THAT stupid.

Jeff Francoeur just bluffed a single and men on 1st and 2nd into runners on 2nd and 3rd. What happened to this guy? But of course the Mets left both men on base thanks to a Chavez ground out, Pedro K and Reyes K. Fuck.

What I was trying to get at with Young is that the D-Rays as an organization keep players blocked in the minors for monetary reasons, as you explained with Upton. Eventually, Tampa will end up losing at least 2 of those outfielders because they won't pay market value, or those guys will get more money elsewhere when their jail term is finally up. Young probably won't be brought up to the bigs until they absolutely have to and when you've already proven you're the best in the minors what more are you supposed to do? Yes, he's only 20 and can get better, but how much better is he going to get against AAA pitching when anyone who is halfway decent finds his way to the bigs sooner rather than later? Don't get me wrong, this is only the Devil Rays and their penny pinching ways will guarantee that they always suck, always get high picks which lead to good prospects and then blow it because they won't pay for them when they mature into good ballplayers. In essence they are the new Montreal Expos.

Yeah but Tito's guys are killing Ken's in the octagon. Aside from walking through the pretty boy tomato can who had no business being there in the first place, none of Ken's guys were even threats to winning their fights. What good does it do if you're fresher heading into a fight if you're not at all prepared for it?

I think most people would be miserable if they were in the D-Rays system especially since they keep guys in the minors longer than need be just so they can avoid paying them. Even pro athletes don't like the equivalent of a jail sentence they can't escape for years. That doesn't excuse what he did, but when you're the minor league player of the year and they're keeping you in AAA for financial reasons, that's complete bullshit.

I think a separate one would be nice since this one is getting pretty long as it is.

I think Smoltzy gets in for sure, but on his second or third attempt depending on who is in his class. However, he could stamp his ticket on the first try with a couple more good years, just like Schilling. As far as the 300 win plateau, I can't see Mussina picking up 73 more wins considering that he's only gotten 25 in his last 2 seasons. Even with his 3 this year I think it's a lot to see him winning 15 per for 5 more years, but I could be wrong. I hedged my bets on Randy even though he's only 34 away because I think that takes him all of this year, the next and a little bit into 2008. The guy's gonna be 43 in September and with his back issues, I'll say he ends up with around 290-295 before calling it quits just because it's hard to go at least 5 innings with the lead and keep them. He also has a good shot, but I don't know if a 44-45 year old who relies mainly on his heater can hold up for another 34 wins, even on the Yankees. Mo's gotta wear out someday, and blown saves will end up eventually costing those two victories as Glavine can attest to since the Mets' bullpen cost him at least 5 to 10 wins in the last 3 years. More bad news for Moose's quest. . .

Even if he ends up with 3,000+ K's? Only 13 other guys have done that, 14 if Pedro gets 139 this year. I don't think 3,000 Ks is as impressive as it might have been 15 years ago. High strikeout totals are a product of our time, and I'm not sure if the voters will take that into account or not. In fairness though, Schilling performs well on the various HOF Standards tests, and he's 8-2 in the postseason. I thin he'd miss if he retired today, but he should be able to pad his resume for two seasons. I was just curious about what you thought about the K's when you consider that it still takes 15 seasons at 200 or 12 at 250 to reach 3,000. 200 wins is going to be a lot from now on, so there's got to be some other marks that make someone more of a lock to reach the Hall considering the magical 300 win total won't be hit again after Glavine, assuming he gets that far. I don't think Schilling's a first ballot HoF'er but given that only Clemens, Maddux, Glavine, Pedro and Randy are amongst active starters he's up there for consideration down the line along with guys like Mussina, Wells & Smoltz .

Even if he ends up with 3,000+ K's? Only 13 other guys have done that, 14 if Pedro gets 139 this year.

Vince is 2 or 3 YEARS away from being an impact starter. Bush is 2 or 3 TOUCHES away from being an impact starter. Fuck what they did in college. If college stats/single game performances meant anything Ken Dorsey would be a stud.

Do you guys have like 20 something picks in this draft or am I just remembering something from last year? I haven't listened to sports talk radio in a while, but there's an Eagles fan who is always talking about how easily Philly can reload.

Michael Vick being a bust is news to me... It depends on how one defines "bust". Vick will certainly be a disappointment, no matter HOW good he is, until he wins a Super Bowl. Them's the breaks when you're a highly-hyped #1 overall draft pick that a team traded up to get. There's that, and the fact that in 5 years he's never completed more than 56.4% of his passes, thrown for 3,000 yards, tossed more than 16 TD passes, is a whopping + 12 TD to INT with +8 coming in his best season (his 2nd). Over the last 3 seasons he's about a 55% passer with 33 TD's and 28 INT. Considering he was traded for LT, the best offensive player in the game and SD was able to get the much more productive Drew Brees later in that draft because they didn't end up with Vick, that's a bust to me. Vick is also overrated value wise as a winner; since he entered the league the Falcons are 40-39-1 in the regular season and 2-2 in the playoffs. How many more years does he need to "develop" especially now that they've taken away his one saving grace, his option to run at will?

"I must break you." "If he dies, he dies."

In spite of that, I believe it's the Most Vicious Posterizing of 2005-6 aka the M.V.P.

Considering Dana was arguing that there are 12 feet in a yard earlier this week, I'd take everything she says with a grain of salt. In other words, bitch is dumb.

Yeah, but he'd have to drop significantly from his projected spot to get to a team that has that kind of talent. The Aints, Titans and Raiders don't seem like the kind of teams where he can just be a smaller cog in the wheel. Ironically, I think his best bet would be to slide all the way to # 10 since the Cardinals potentially have a devastating offense.

Young will be a bigger bust than Mike Vick, and Leinart is a left handed Chad Pennington. I don't know why those two guys are getting so much pub considering that neither will be an All-Pro.

You're right, looking back at it I mixed up the Houston, St. Louis schedules side by side. I had the St. Louis sweep right, but put them down as doing that against the same team Houston played in the opening series instead of the Phillies. I should have done the whole thing individually instead of trying to multitask. Even with that correction, that makes the NL Central's top 5 16-6 at home against the East/West and 12-4 against Washington/Florida.

Further analysis shows that the Central has won the majority of those games at home. St. Louis 3-0 (swept Fla) Houston 7-3 (2-1 vs Fla, 3-1 vs Wash, 2-1 vs LAD), they also went 2-1 at Arizona, and 1-1 at SF Milwaukee 5-1 (swept Atlanta, 2-1 vs Arizona), they also went 1-2 at NY Mets Chicago 2-1 (Fla again), they also went 2-1 at the Dodgers Cincy 2-1 (Fla yet again), they also went 3-0 at Washington Home records 19-6 Away records 9-5 Against just Florida and Washington the NL Central contenders are 15-4. Granted that's why the Mets are in 1st in the NL East but the bulk of these wins are coming in NL Central ballparks which skews the numbers pretty heavily.

Thank you for succinctly making the argument I dragged on for far too long Just to piggyback on 909's prior snide remark (to ripper I think), Tim Thomas had the game of his life, Kobe was almost nonexistent and the Suns won by 5 AT HOME. I still say the Lakers in 6 just because I can't see them winning game 7 on the road. If it goes seven, Phoenix wins just in time to get bounced out by the other LA squad.

I just think it's funny how Phoenix was going to roll over the Lakers like this was a 1/16 NCAA matchup and the Suns are fortunate to be leaving the desert even.

You know Kobe took some extra satisfaction out of posterizing Nash there, even though it should have been a charge.

What's up with the schedule maker giving you 16 of 21 (23 really as you had 2 away rainouts) at home, then 12 of 14 on the road, 9 straight at home, 10 in a row away and then 16 of 19 at home AGAIN?

The Lakers are executing a brilliant gameplan thus far in the series. It remains to be seen if they can keep it up and win some games, but slowing it down is ruining Phoenix' rhythm.

I don't want to see that at all. Joe needs to lose at least a few matches, and cleanly before becoming NWA Champion. If they hotshot the World Title onto him before he loses it'll just be a Goldberg situation with JJJ playing the role of Kevin Nash. Let Joe take some lumps and earn the belt instead of having him steamroll the entire promotion because I'm already bored of "JOE ANGRY! JOE SMASH! JOE CHOKE! JOE WIN!!!"