ORS

I get a p/w incorrect prompt. Nevermind, it's case sensitive, and lower case "t" worked, so it's "teixeira".

I went to northern VA to see my dad for Thanksgiving. We got around to talking about the Nationals, and I suggested they may start to be players in the FA market due their public statements about fielding a competitive team. He said he'd expect to see pigs fly first. The Lerner development group (Nats owners) are notorious in the DC market for not paying their contractors. He said it's gotten so bad that several prominent area contractors refuse to work with them. Here's how they do it....construction projects generally have retainage on progress payments. Suppose it's a $100M contract and you built 50% of it. That means you've applied for 50% progress payments, or $50M, however with 10% retainage, you've only been paid $45M. Over time the retainage reduces, and by the time you are doing the punch list (fixing s***), it's anywhere from 1-2.5%. You don't get final payment, say it's 1% so the final is $1M in our example, until the punch list is 100% complete to the satisfaction of the owner. The Lerner group is never satisfied. The punchlist is never complete, and they hold millions owed to their contractors through retainage. Yeah, they could be players in the FA market. But, given that behavior in business, they could also be giving their fans lip service and only interested in raking in the revenue sharing money. We'll see what happens.

I agree, Crunch. I've been unimpressed with Big 12 defenses all year long. Florida scored 30 or more in every conference game in the best defensive conference in football. They've got like 5 guys who can take it to the house if you get them the ball in the open field, and a Heisman winning QB playing in a system that does just that. I think Florida scores easily against OU. If OU can score 50, which I seriously doubt, I think they'll need every point.

Ahh, it's the prounounciation of the "i" that did me in. I didn't read it as R-eye-cian, but instead R-eee-cian, that and the "blast" made me think Rico.

Correct my if I'm wrong, RC, but your username is a reference to Rico Petrocelli, not being Puerto Rican, right? Nice try at an insult window licker. You don't even know the team beyond Epstein being named GM.

I dunno, sounds like a Tim Wakefield fanboy.

Boras is not his agent.

.1% ? That's one in one-thousand. I'd guess that's off by about two orders of magnitude.

http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/06/adem/pictures/absolut/images/absolut%20conspiracy.jpg

Done.

Yeah, but a playoff opens the door to USC having to face one of the two SEC teams, which I think is a bad matchup for them. They dominated the Pac 10 with their speed, but they'd lose that advantage against the SEC teams, and I think both SEC teams are more physical on top of being equal or better in speed.

If he pulls off that upset it would be a microcosm of my luck in fantasy sports. In one of my other leagues, I'm second in total points scored and my record is 4-8-1.

Everyone who makes a case for Texas fogets this. I think it has something to do with program resume. TTU isn't a big name like Oklahoma and Texas, so they get swept under the rug.

Not to take anything away from Tebow, because he's clearly very good and all, but Danielson needs to calm down. He's not dominating a game like Vince Young did in college. That said, that was a pretty impressive performance by the Gators when you consider Harvin was on the sideline.

One, I can't believe you are allowed to make trades this late in the season. Two, it seems relatively fair. As an owner of Roy E, I've been frustrated waiting for him to do anything all year, especially after the trade to Dallas. He's just not getting consistent looks. DJ is the most consistent player in that bunch. Westbrook is the most explosive fantasy scorer, but he's suffered more off weeks from his usualy injuries than normal. I don't expect this to get better over the last 4 weeks. Look at the Eagles upcoming schedule. Week 14 - @ NYG Week 15 - CLE Week 16 - @ WAS Week 17 - DAL The only cupcake defense there is Cleveland. The guys the 1st place guy is getting could blow up and make the trade very lopsided, but they could continue with the disappearing act and inconsistent play they've put up this year too.

They basically bought out his first 3 FA years at $31M (assuming the option is excercised). That's a good deal for an elite player up the middle. He gets a raise over league min this year. The three years of $3.5M, $5.5M, and $8M probably range from heavy to light respectively in comparison to what he'd get in his arb years. Looks like the new face of the franchise will be around for a while. I'm cool with that.

If Fat Pete is right, then not only does it not make sense, but their FO is flat out stupid if they prefer Xavier Nady over Abreu in RF for 2009 because of a few dollars. Actually, that's kind of nice to know.

I don't buy that they don't want him for a second. He's the best RF available. I think they are trying to leverage for a lower AAV, but an arb offer would have been at little risk. If he accepts, they keep the best guy available at a position of need for only one year. Yeah, it's a little pricey, but it bridges a gap to the 2010 FA class which is much deeper.

What about TTU? Why do they get left out? If you put Texas over Oklahoma based on head to head, then TTU should be over Texas because they beat them, and if you put TTU ahead of Texas, well Oklahoma beat them, and 'round and 'round it goes. I agree, USC played a lame schedule, but is that their fault? They put a decent ACC team, the preseason #2, and Notre Dame on their non-conference schedule. Is their loss to Oregon St on the road worse than Florida's to Mississippi at home? I'm not taking sides here, but there's a good case for USC. There's a good case for each Big 12 school. There's a good case for each SEC school, even if 'Bama loses like you suggested. I hear people say the BCS is good if only because it generates so much discussion. I don't agree. If something requires fixing, then it isn't good until it's fixed no matter how much discussion the problem generates. Until there is an 8 team playoff, like there is in every other classification of college football, the system is broken.

I think you risk it. If he accepts, you are "stuck" with the guy who will be the best outfielder on that roster. If he declines, you can still sign him for more time / less AAV. If somebody else signs him, you get the picks. I fully understand what they were thinking, but that doesn't mean I think it makes sense.

Sure, I think Pettitte wouldn't screw them, but I also think Jacko is right. He's in their plans, but they want to bring him back for one year at a lower salary. It's tough to accomplish that with an arb offer on the table. The decision to not offer Abreu arbitration makes little sense.

I think Dipre hit the nail on the head in assessing what's really going on in Gom's mind. He's justifying the fact that the Yankees sat on the sidelines in this deal - or even worse - he's buying the justification from the Yankee FO (he believes everything he reads!!! LOL!!). As has been pointed out, Tazawa asked not to be drafted in the Japanese amateur draft, and the teams complied with that wish. This isn't a US team swiping up amateur Japanese talent prior to their draft. The guy threatened to pull an Eli Manning, "draft me and I'm not playing for you". They conceded and now he's fair game. As far as future repercussions from Japanese teams, that sure happened after the Kevin Millar fiasco (and it really hurt trading relations between the Sox and Marlins too), which makes it look like that is nothing more than wishful thinking.