Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Improving the Bullpen?

Well if you asked who were the first two guys the Cubs should sign in the off-season, my answer would not have been Scott Eyre and Bob Howry. These are the two guys Hendry got however to improve one of the weakest bullpens in the National League last year. If anything, the Cubs will not be one of the teams in the middle of July trading prospects for middle relief, like they did in 1998 (Garland for Karchner). If Dusty uses these guys properly, like having Howry face left handed hitters, this will be a terrfic bullpen, especially for the price. BJ Ryan got $47 million while Billy Wagner got $43 millon. Ryan Dempster for $15 million is a steal. I love it when the Mets spend ridiculous amounts of money, just to overpay somebody.

Big MU game tommorrow. We'll see what happens in Lincoln on their first true road test.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Long Time No Post, MU GAS Champions!!!!!!!!

Tonight was a terrific game as MU pulled out a 92-89 victory over South Carolina. This team already plays with some type of "flair" that makes them more fun to watch than both of the last two seasons. Amoroso was spectacular and did what he was supposed to do, although I was surprised by all of the 3's. If the big guys want to foul out going hard on both defensive boards, that's fine with me. Amoroso was aggressive all over the floor tonight and it paid off. Novak as well, did a nice job of picking his spots and ended up with a boatload of points as well. An awesome Marquette win for sure.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

MVP= Shamockery

Here was my post on Bleed Cubbie Blue tonight:

A couple of months ago there was a guy on 60 minutes who had the misfortune of giving the money away to WTC victims from the government I think. He talked a lot about how hard it was to hear stories from families. Unfortunately, he said there was nothing he could do about, he had to look at everything objectively. How you can put one who had called before the tower came down over a firefighter? He said you can't. It was tough for people to realize that, but he had to be objective.

A long story, but that's how I feel about the MVP. You can't judge how good a player is "in the locker room" or how hard he "hustles", although they are making better base running stats now. I think you have to look at things objectively. And objectively, Andruw Jones should have finished about 10th.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Marquette Exhibition #2

I posted this reflection on Ring Out Ahoya.

1. Lott reminds me of David Robinson in a way. Of course, I'm not saying he's nearly as good, but he runs the floor well and he just looks like Robinson. Robinson was my favorite player growing up, maybe that's why I'm comparing the two.

2. Novak was a beast tonight offensively. After his blocked shot, I turned to my friend and asked, "As Novak turned a corner?" It looks a little like a Wardle senior year.

3. Something has to be done about James's muscle cramps. If it takes the guy an hour to stretch before a game, he needs to do it. From impressions tonight, we need the maximum amount of minutes from at the PG position. Obviously I'm not working with him, but there are studies that say many cramps are neuromuscular related and a good stretching program can help to prevent them.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Coaching Football 101

I was studying most of the morning-early afternoon so I missed most of the 11 start games. However, I did get to see some of the Auburn- Georgia game tonight. I was flipping between that and the Bulls. Anyway, in the 4th quarter tonight, Georgia scores a touchdown to go up 26-21 before the PAT. They lined up going for 2 and got called for back to back delay of games moving them back to the 13 yard line. So one would think, they would just try again with a longer play? Nope, they kicked a PAT to make it 27-21. Huh? Did that make sense to anybody? I guess if Auburn is able to kick 2 field goals they would 27-26, but go for it. You have nothing to lose. If Auburn scores a touchdown (which they did), the score is 28-26. You can still kick a field goal to go ahead, which Georgia did. Unfortunately, Auburn drove the ball down and kicked basically an extra point to go up 31-30. If Georgia had gone for 2 and gotten it the game would have been tied. The chances of that happening were probably pretty slim from the 13, but there is really no point not to.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Neifi?

If you haven't heard the news, Neifi Perez is back with the Cubs with a 2 year deal for around $5 million dollars. This one doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, except for one reason and I'll get to it in a second. Here's what we have learned about Neifi, he's a no-hit, terrfic glove player. He deserves to be in as a defensive replacment late in games and that's it. Your Cub short stop options right now for next year seem to be Furcal and Ronny Cedeno. You have signed Todd Walker for next year to play second or to trade him. If you keep Cedeno, Furcal, and Walker you have 3 terrific middle infielders right there. Walker isn't great defensively, but Cedeno and Furcal are pretty good. So where does Neifi fit into this? If Walker needs to come at the end of games, Cedeno can play second. Neifi has no place on this team if you keep the guys you have now and sign Furcal. The signing of Furcal is the only reason to keep Neifi. Supposedly, he was quoted as saying that Neifi was one of his friends. So signing Neifi, helps the Cubs get Furcal. Makes sense, otherwise we're stuck with the same bench players playing in roles that aren't good for them.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Sports Reporters/ BCS

One of my favorite shows on TV on Sunday morning is Sports Reporters on ESPN. It's about the only thing I watch before church. They basically sit around and yell about crap that they have no idea about. Today's topic: the BCS. Jeez, the BCS is not perfect by any means, but it is better than about any other system that's out there without a playoff. For one thing, the season has about 4 weeks left to sort more things out. As everyone saw this weekend with Virginia Tech and UCLA, any team is vulnerable. John Saunders, the only sane one, brought up an excellent point that regular season games would not mean as much with a playoff and of course everyone else disagreed with him. Tommorrow night the Colts play the Patriots in about as big as a regular season game as possible in the NFL. And it's getting maybe a quarter of the coverage that the ND-USC game. Saunders is right. Without a playoff, the NCAA gets a free pass on cashing in on their regular season games. College Gameday is a huge hit because everyone is drawn to the game that the crew is working towards. The other Sports Reporters would disagree of course. Their arguments consist of yelling about a playoff system that inevitably turns into universities using players for money which has little to do with determining a national champion in college football. For fun, I put the 3 big remaining undefeateds and where they would play in the old system:

Texas, winners of the Big 12, would play in the Orange Bowl.
USC, winners of the Pac 10, would play in the Rose Bowl.
Alabama, winners of the SEC, would play in the Sugar Bowl.

The BCS is good for something.