sfaJack

I wouldn't get my hopes up if yesterday is any indication of things to come! As for me, my greatest hope (as it is every year) is for the Cubs to finally win the goddamn World Series. If that is not going to happen, then I'll settle for Mark Prior and Kerry Wood actually making 30 starts each and leading them back to the playoffs.

Damn. I wonder what Anna did to him to cause that.

I'm skipping my workout this afternoon so that I can make it home for first pitch of the Cubs game. I definitely miss my college days when I could take in a whole triple-header on Opening Day. GO CUBS! Though I'm excited about the new season I'm not as optimistic as I was going into last year.

Minor correction: Luke Scott is much more likely to start in the outfield than Lamb due to his having a monster spring. And it's still insane that Biggio is going to start at second. The Astros reluctance to bring along prospects is often astounding. Burke is 25...if not now, when? In the end, I think the Astros are a second place team, at best, depending on what happens with the Cubs' pitching situation. Clemens is likely to regress, Biggio doesn't need to be playing everyday (especially given how he tailed off after the ASB last year), and I'm not sold on Brandon Backe at all. Backe had the one great start against the Cards in the playoffs last year, but other than that he was inconsistent and didn't have a great spring this year. Why everyone around here (meaning here in Houston) is penciling him in for 15 wins already is beyond me. Throw in the severely weakened lineup, thin bullpen, and uncertainty of what Pettitte will give them and I'm not sure how good they are. Betting lines have their over/under victory total at 84; sounds about right to me.

Not for the Mets!

Credit to the Angels for not getting sucked into Boras' game with Beltran, but didn't they sign Finley on like the first day of free agency? That's not exactly making a solid play for a superior outfielder. It's a quick fix, but how do you really know Beltran was out of reach at that point?

Looks like nobody wins this. Bah.

Not it Houston it's not. Don't know about elsewhere, but it's running about $0.10/gal more than gasoline.

Thursday, 6-8 p.m ET.

There'll be no stopping the Padres now!!!

I agree with Al about the bullpen taking too much heat for last year's collapse; while some of it was deserved, the real problem was the Cubs failing to score on a consistent basis. However, I'm not as optimistic going into this season as I was a year ago. The fact that both Woody and Prior are already sore is a big concern for me, despite whatever the Cubs say. Remember last year--Prior was supposed to be ready in late April/early May and didn't pitch until June (and was inconsistent when he finally did pitch); Wood was supposed to only miss one or two starts and ended up being out two months. Without those two, their chances aren't good at all and I have my doubts about how healthy they will be. Add in the questions of who will fill out the bullpen and how well will they fill the lineup holes created by Alou's and Sosa's departures and I just don't know how good this team will be. Their baserunning should be improved, at least.

Yeah, it was a bullshit call, but finally, for once, Duke has a big call go against them. So I'm happy!

Anyone else thinks it's ridiculous that the Astros are likely to start Craig Biggio at second base this year and thus either send Chris Burke back down to the minors AGAIN or play him in the outfield, a position he's never played as a pro?

You called? Do you seriously think Pat Summit and Dean Smith's win totals are really on the same level? It's like saying Van Chancellor has won more championships than Rudy Tomjanovich--while it might technically be correct strictly in a numbers sense, it's absurd to say because it's two completely different games. Since when have men's and women's college bball stats been lumped together? Say the top women's scorer in a given season averaged 21.0 ppg and the leading men's scorer averaged 20.0 ppg. Would you say the top scoring average in college basketball is 21.0 ppg? No. You'd say the top scoring average in women's bball is 21, and 20 in men's bball. It's the same thing with this "record." Pat Summit may be the Dean Smith of women's basketball, but to say that she's equal to Dean himself is insane, imo. And do you think ESPN would say anything about Summit's "record" if they weren't broadcasting the Women's tournament? I doubt it. I haven't noticed her "record" getting much attention outside ESPN.

More like graduating 100% (or damn near close to it) of his players.

I like it. I think I've dropped about $50 total there over the last several months and have had no problems with it. Dirt cheap, and downloads are almost always fast. Only big gripe I have with it is their server is "busy" too often. That should probably be expected, but it's pretty annoying to constantly get those error messages. I've had problems with truncated files (i.e. cut off abruptly mid-song), but it's only happened twice and the files were fixed by the next day.

I truly believe everyone on the 1969 Mets were taking steroids and to right this injustice, I would proudly like to announce the Baltimore Orioles have officially won the 1969 World Series. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Obviously it didn't help Bud Harrelson much! Wait a minute, I'm calling Frank Robinson out! Dude was traded because he was an old 30! So how did he get better? STEROIDS! I'm declaring the Mets are STILL the 1969 World Champions of baseball! Steve And I'm going to declare that, without the roids, the Mets don't catch the Cubs that summer. Therefore, the REAL winners of the 1969 World Series, after 61 heart-breaking seasons, THE CHICAGO CUBS. What's that about a curse?

How about 3 of the 3 seeds and 2 of the 2 seeds being out BEFORE the sweet 16? Who had that in their bracket?

Ahem. They aren't America's Team for nothing.

Don't worry, it won't--the Big XII isn't going to have a team in there.

Forget moving the three-point line in. the rule change college basketball needs is fewer timeouts for each team. This is ridiculous.

I say Cleveland. That Viking logo at midcourt is cool.

I still fail to see how PJ Tucker couldn't manage to pass a whopping TWO classes to stay academically eligible. Texas would probably have been in the Sweet 16 if his dumbass had put forth any effort at all.

So wait...if you're Kotz's supervisor at Wal-Mart, wouldn't that make you an even bigger loser because you've been rotting there long enough to be a supervisor? Or are you saying it's cool to be a supervisor at Wal-Mart? Cuz it's not.