See Red

Tavarez has been bad lately but he's a career .280 hitter (not good for a leadoff guy, I know, but an improvement over where he's at now), so he at least should improve. He does bring speed to the table, at least. I would absolutely love it if they started Jeff Baker in CF, though. They're trying to come up with a way to get 300+ AB's for Baker, so he's probably going to be spelling for guys at a lot of different positions throughout the season. The Starting Pitching has been fantastic. They're 4-4 and the lineup hasn't even shown up, yet. Once they get clicking offensively they could be good. Tough loss last night at LA. Dodgers brought a reliever in and a 5 pitch walk loaded the bases with one out for Holliday, he went up and swung at a bad first pitch and grounded a double play back to the pitcher. I think this teams one year away from the playoffs.

I hope these guys take this opportunity, not to salvage their careers, but to salvage their lives -- and then maybe their careers. With what happened to Darrent Williams, who as I understand wasn't even doing anything all that bad, on New Years, it's scary to think that these guys continue to go down these paths. He's a terrific talent and it's a shame the NFL has to take these measures to try and get the message through -- unfortunately, I don't think it will work. I'm glad the NFL has taken these measures, though. Good job, NFL!

I'd say they've had the best offseasons by a longshot. For a team that came into Free Agency without very much cap room, I'm amazed by how much the Broncos were able to do.

Nuggets have won five straight, I believe. And I think they're finally learning how to win close games. If they had been able to do this all along, their record would be a lot better than it is. Linas Kleiza -- you'll know his name if you watch the Nuggets on National TV because he torches teams on National TV for some reason -- has been huge, hitting huge three pointers against Dallas and the Clippers down the stretch. He's quickly become my third favorite Nugget (Behind AI and Melo, that is)

Not terribly big news but the Patriots matched the Denver Broncos offer to Todd Sauerbrun and will retain him. I miss Sauerbrun, his leg sure does impact football games.

Yeah, that's what I meant... There's plenty of things you can do with that extra $70 million to spite Yankees fans...

A-Rod will be MVP. If I'm him, I'm opting out just to spite the front running Yankee fans. edit: And he may just carry me to Fantasy Baseball supremacy in one of my leagues.

I better not be hearing anybody with tickets to any of those games complaining (accept SOTK if he has to miss his for reasons beyond his control). I'd go shirtless if it meant I got to go to Fenway...

Interestingly enough, The Guardians made Milwaukee County Stadium their home for game shots in the movie "Major League". And yeah, the Marlins "hosting" the Expos at Comiskey a few years back was the last time something like this happened.

I only saw him play early in the season. I'm a UConn fan, but they weren't Nationally televised too often this year. I saw a lot of potential in him early and thought maybe he'd improve at least a little, from the sounds of it, he hasn't.

Amazing performance from Papelbon right there.

Michael Young never had a prayer in that at bat. Wow.

Jesus f'ing Christ... bases loaded, no outs.

He's 7'3" with upside through the roof.

To pitch this well in your first regular season start with all the pressure that's on him... absolutely amazing. I'm relegated to watching on gamecast (which brings up another point, would the MLB.tv be worth it if I was expecting see about half of the games?) and if he looks anywhere near as good as he does via gamecast, then it's remarkable.

You sure are hard on yourself.

He could give two guards a fit with his athleticism and length. Plus, he seems to have a knack for being able to sneak away from his man and knock a ball away from another.

Absolutely no stamina. Uncoordinated because his feet are disgusting -- they had to grind down the bones because they didn't have shoes to fit him in his native China (which is ironic considering everything comes from China) and at this point, he's a mediocre player by ABA standards. Terrible vert, slow -- all that any team would have to do is push the ball and up the tempo when he's in the game. Other than size, the guy has absolutely NOTHING going for him.

Best game I've seen Oden play. On the offensive end, at least. And despite the fact that they seemed to be calling the game a little tight down low, he managed to stay out of foul trouble. He was able to get great position down low and the passes were put in the perfect spots to get him easy buckets. I think he was helped out a little bit by what appeared to be Florida's defensive game plan being to focus more on perimeter defense and make Oden beat them. I think Florida deserves it's due as one of the better teams in College Basketball history. They've been able to turn it on when it mattered most, destroying all of their Final Four opponents. Once Florida started to get up, their was never a point where I thought Ohio State had a good chance of winning. Bill Donovan coached a great game, the Florida players executed, and Florida has another dominant Tournament Championship victory. I cheered against Florida all year, but I found them to be a difficult team to cheer against as the tournament went on. Billy Donovan is an easy guy to cheer for, and the starters turning down NBA Lottery type money to come back is a rarity and I wish that wasn't the case. Kudos to Florida -- they earned it.

Far more important. When Oden's on the bench with foul trouble, the Ohio State team plays just as good for a reason. I would also suggest that Ron Lewis has been more important than Oden. What's the over/under on when Oden sits down with two fouls? Noah and Horford are just going to go right at him. I'll give him five minutes in.

He will be a lottery pick. Mark my words. I don't care how good he'll be, this guy could've left and gone very high in last years draft. Besides, I think you're selling him short. He's a very good player, he's just not the type that'll awe you in any one aspect of the game.

I like Oden as both a player and a person, since he's never broken the law or given anybody any reason not to like him, but the hype he gets is ridiculous. He's so quick to be praised, but does anybody ever criticize him? For as great as you guys talk about him being, how many posts from you have there been when he's struggled, which has been the case in two or three games in this tournament? This is a guy that's been in foul trouble in every single game of the tournament but the first. Missed all but about two minutes of the first half in tonight's game and it's not an anomaly -- him being in foul trouble is common place. And this was with Jeff Green playing a ridiculously passive basketball game. Joakim Noah and Al Horford will have him on the bench in no time. Extremely good player -- will be an NBA All-Star eventually, but come on people, they're not in the Championship game because of Greg Oden (In fact, a should-be intentional foul is the reason they should be watching the Finals from home). Give Mike Conley some love -- this is a basketball team that's looked great in the absence of Oden when he's on the bench. In regards to Billy Donovan -- I think the fact that Horford, Brewer, and Noah came back speaks volumes as to how great of a program he runs.