Expos Ranchod

This is the year Vlad Guerrero goes crazy and jacks 50 out of the park to lead MLB.

11 million per year is a steal compared to what the Eric Milton's and Russ Ortiz's got.

Shootout thing is pretty awesome for the regular season, but will there be one for the playoffs...one of the reason I love playoff hockey so much is how intense games get in multiple overtimes. 689834[/snapback] Nah, shootout only in regular season play. The beauty of long playoff OT's will remain. As for the team's over the cap, expect Bettman to give them a certain period of time to get under it. I can't see any other way.

As long as the Panthers get him, I don't care. 689880[/snapback] Better sit Luongo for half the schedule then. :mischief

Crosby's unbelievable...definitely hockey's version of LeBron. IF there's a mini 25-28 game season, expect some of the bottom feeders to truly try and tank their season to get him. He's that good and will be a huge marketing tool for the team that gets him. If they don't get a CBA signed, it's gonna be VERY interesting to see what they do. There's been talk of putting everyone in the lottery and everyone having a chance at getting him...

I'm starting to think the announcement of Wednesday was nothing more than a brilliantly thought out move by Bettman to send the players union in dissaray. Especially their leader Goodenow. The owners don't need to play. For 90 % of them, this is nothing more than a 2nd or 3rd or 4th business or a hobby. The players need to play...it's what they do. Some have made some decent $ in Europe, but it is still nowhere near what they make in the NHL. When the 2 sides got close on Sunday and Monday, the players really thought a deal would get done. Once it was cancelled, many wondered what they could do to help solve the problem? Goodenow hasn't really led this union well through all of this and the players now seem to be tossing him aside to get this done. The fact that Mario and Gretz are coming into this is huge. Hopefully they get this deal signed (I miss my Habs, damnit), get some new rules in there and the game can somehow enjoy a mini re-birth in the USA.

Plekanec wins the CCM fastest skater competition. 684769[/snapback] :thumbup Already saw it all on sportsnet earlier...Watch for a certain goal by a Monarch in the final portion of the competition... :o :o

Go Plekanec ! :cool

This contract shows what a freakin' steal Vlad was for the Angels last year...

Elisha.

The whole division over .500? has that EVER happened before? You guys are giving way too much credit to the Nats I think. Castilla is equal to Batista when at sea level. Guzman is at best only a slight upgrade on what they had at SS last year (Cabrera, Gonzalez, Izturis, etc). Guillen will be good, but the man he is replacing (Rivera) was already a very good hitter in the 2nd half last season. Vidro and Johnson are incredibly injury prone. Chavez simply blows offensively and with Frank the idiot in charge, he'll be sucking up 600 at-bats from the leadoff spot in all likelyhood. Armas and Day are injury prone in the rotation and Loaiza has been terrible his whole career aside from 03. Obviously I want to see them fail so I am biased, but I guarantee the Washington Nationals will not even come close to sniffing .500 when it's all said and done. The other teams in the division are too good and too deep. The Braves are still the team to fear, you just know they'll resurrect Mondesi and Jordan and find a couple of overachieving 'pen guys and will be in the race. Marlins have the talent to win the division, no question about it. Beckett and Burnett's health is the key IMO.

Damn, having to make a choice is not f***ing fair in this case. With that said, Elisha gets my vote yet again. :mischief

They'll find some journeymen and kids and put together a solid 'pen. They always do. I still can't believe what they did in 2002 with Darren freakin' Holmes and Chris Hammond who were on the scrap heap for years previously. :banghead

I'm sticking with Elisha. BTW, the elisha pick ain't working.

You are both right. The local owners were terrible for years and are a huge reason for the demise but Loria really didn't do much good either with the way he handled the TV/radio situation and a bunch of other stuff. Lots of people were ready to give Loria a chance in Montreal but he immediately pissed people off with his handling of the TV/radio situation.

Gotta go with Canada's own Elisha. :thumbup

Alomar's very close to signing with the Rays I read, so they can block another good youngster in Cantu. What a franchise. :plain :banghead edit: confirmed... http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1968838 what a joke. The D Rays should sign Esteban Loaiza and Shayne Reynolds now and send down Brazelton and Kazmir to the minors. :plain

Should be FA after '06 (01,02,03,04,05,06 would make it 6 big league seasons)

Terrible move for the D-Rays, just awful. Sign mediocrety to block your good young players (Upton). What a joke. For a bit more they could have had much better players in Grudz and Cora, who could have played 2B with Cantu moving to 3rd. What's worse is Gonzalez is mediocre offensively for a SS, flat out terrible for a 3B. Oh, the good news doesn't stop here D-Ray fans, according to rotoworld the Rays may sign Cora or even Miguel Cairo to play 2B and make Cantu the UTIF :plain

Does the extension come with a ''Nathan can only be good for 2 innings'' clause? :banghead

Wicked gift, Accord ! :notworthy :thumbup As for playing, I don't play in an organized league, I just head out to the outdoor rink once or twice a week to test out my skills and play some shinny with whoever is out there. :cool I'm a forward with mediocre skating skills and a hard wrist shot.

My guess as to what happened... 1: LA had a deal worked out with Borass yesterday (maybe it was this exact offer, or less) and Borass wanted to shop Drew around to Baltimore or Detroit to see if they could top off that offer, which pissed off Depodesta 2: Depodesta, sensing he will lose Drew because Detroit would outbid their offer, calls off the mega 3 way deal because without signing Drew that deal doesn't make sense for LA. 3: After he calls off the deal, Borass comes back to him and says either a: we accept the earlier deal we had or b: Detroit offered X amount of dollars and years, to get Drew to LA a 5/55 package is needed. Depodesta then realises he needs to do something PR wise to make it look like he's trying to win and signs the 5/55 deal.

Here's a question, How did Expos players get health care? Canada only has nationalized health care with very little private care left. Did they cross into Vermont or New York for treatment? 639369[/snapback] They went to the free hospitals in Montreal...like normal people would.

I can't help but wonder if the A's have privy info about Mulder's health? Maybe they think he can miss a significant part of 05 and felt it was best to deal him NOW? Their rotation still won't be that bad. Zito and Harden are very good pitchers. Haren and Cruz have good stuff and Blanton is a stud prospect. Meyer is waiting in the wings. It's still a talented rotation...just not what they had previously. Looks like Beane is loading up for 06 and beyond. Cards get the ace they need...if Mulder is healthy. Mulder-Carpenter-Morris-Marquis-Suppan is a damn good rotation.

Clement at that price > Ortiz, Wright, etc at their price.