83Gator

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cant go wrong with an extra arm. Felipe Alou did. It shouldn't matter too much because it doesn't look like McKeon will overmanage and overuse his bench; he didn't in the first round. But I hope Bump doesn't get anywhere near a game unless we have a double digit lead.

I didn't think it was that bad an article. Most of it talked about how Downey just can't hate the Marlins. Lots of fluff quotes from McKeon and the players. Here's a link to the article in the Sun-Sentinel for people not registered with the Tribune ... http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-dow...ports-headlines

Also, does anybody know if the turnpike exit to the stadium backs up real bad close to gametime? Well if you mean 2 hours or so before gametime....then yes it does get backed up real bad! Huh? I got there 2 hours before game time for the NLDS and it wasn't backed up more than 5-10 cars at each toll booth. I'm asking more about within an hour of the first pitch.

Did all the JRS parking lots fill up for the NLDS games? I got there real early for both games but we saw cars parked in crazy spots in the main lot when we were leaving. Also, does anybody know if the turnpike exit to the stadium backs up real bad close to gametime? I have a meeting in Jacksonville Friday AM and will be cutting it close on getting to the game. If I'm out of Jacksonville by 1:00 PM I'll be lucky. I don't mind parking in the boonies but I want to avoid sitting in traffic for 2 hours trying to get in.

Usually first or second week of November.

I'd guess Baker would swap Wood and Clement. Friday's game would be on normal rest for Wood and then he could use him in Game 7 next Wednesday.

Both these teams underwent significant make-overs as the year went on and were probably the two best teams in the NL at the end of the season. We added Willis, Cabrera, Conine, Urbina and Chad Fox and all are key players. The Cubs added Pittsburgh's Aramis Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, and Randall Simon during the season and probably would've taken The Pirate Parrot if he'd have waived his no-trade clause. They have the starting pitching to dominate but we have the better offense, defense, and closer. But our advantage in those areas is small and their advantage with their top-3 pitchers is large. In a short series, starting pitching is the key. If I was totally neutral, I'd have to pick the Cubs. But we have a pretty good chance.

The Braves. Wood, Prior, and Zambrano have shown they can shut us down. We've always done well against Atlanta. With Smoltz hurting big-time and Sheffield's hand real sore, they're more vulnerable than ever and they've always been pretty vulnerable.

I'm probably in the minority on this, but by 1999/2000 I couldn't stand Joe Angel anymore. His style was cute at first but it got old and predictable. He thought he was hilarious but I didn't think he was funny at all. But it's probably just me.

I hate the idea of another wild card team. If they're going to have more games by doing a best-of-3 between the Wild Card teams, then just expand the first round to a best of 7. I had heard that the Wild Card round would be just a 1-game play-in. If they're going to dilute the post-season by adding another 2nd place team (or maybe even a 3rd place team), then I wouldn't mind seeing them go back to 2 divisions in each league. The two division winners advance and then the two teams with the next best record go. It would prevent things like the Twins going and the Mariners sitting home.

Teams get to the play-offs because of Mangers, too. Yeah they do, but then the managers get to the playoffs and start managing completely differently. I know the games are bigger and you're going to make more moves than you normally would, particularly with pitching, but it looked like Alou panicked and felt like he personally needed to do something every at bat. Kinda like a player trying to hit a 5-run home run every time up. We outplayed the Giants and McKeon outmanaged Alou.

If the Braves win this game, it gives us a little bit of an advantage. The Braves/Cubs will have to play one more game while we watch. So if the Cubs win in 5 instead of 4, at least we won't have to go against Kerry Wood in game 1 of the NLCS. I want the Braves to win their NLDS though. We match up much better against them than the Cubs.

Dallas Cowboys Buffalo Bills Kansas City Chiefs N.Y. Giants Minnesota Vikings Carolina Panthers Oakland Raiders Green Bay Packers Tennessee Titans Jacksonville Jaguars San Francisco 49ers Philadelphia Eagles Pittsburgh Steelers Tampa Bay Bucs 9-5

Wagner's not a free agent. He has one more year left on his contract for $9 million. He thinks he's going to be traded though. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-a...ov=ap&type=lgns

Cocoa Puffs

I'm hoping for Marlins/Yankees. If we play the Yankees, the whole world will be watching because it's the Yankees and all the Yankee-haters will be rooting for us. If we played them tough, even if we didn't win, we'd gain a lot of respect and people wouldn't look at us as just the "team that bought the Series in '97." I'd hate to play the Red Sox. First, there's a chance that we'd lose and I don't want to see John Henry with his hands on that trophy. Second, if we won, we'd be the bad guys among most baseball fans for denying the Red Sox their chance at beating their jinx.

Allright boys and girls.... Here is my roster. pitchers(11)...josh beckett, brad penny, dontrelle willis, mark redman, carl pavano, rick helling, nate bump, michael tejera, chad fox, braden looper, uggy catchers (2)...ivan rodriguez, mike redmond infielders (8)...derrek lee, luis castillo, alex gonzalez, miguel cabrera, mike lowell, lenny harris, mike mordacei, andy fox outfielders (4)...juan encarnacion, juan pierre, jeff conine, brian banks argue away I agree with you except for one change - I think they go with 10 pitchers. I think they'll bump Bump and add Castro. I originally thought they'd put Hollandsworth on the roster but I've changed my mind. Is he healthy? I thought he'd be in LF today with Williams in CF. If Hollandsworth can't run, and it seems like they've been pinch running for him lately, and can't play the field, we probably can't afford to put him on the roster.

Bullpen is scaring me too but at least we get to add an arm to the bullpen in Pavano.

We're a team built around pitching, i.e. not giving up many runs. We need Gonzalez's defense. Our pitchers still walk a fair number of guys and we need Gonzalez to turn those Double Plays. Even if Cabrera could still play SS, you don't break up the best DP combination in the game at the start of the playoffs. Besides, there's absolutely no guarantee that Cabrera can still play SS. SS was Chipper Jones and Gary Sheffield's "natural" position and they couldn't play it at the major league level (at least not for very long).

Arnie, you're giving us old folks a bad name.

I don't know if this has been posted, and I may be wrong with my math, but under the original Wild Card rules, we would've already clinched. Since the worst we can do is a 3-way tie with Chicago and Houston, they would've first been required to play a game for the Central Division crown which would've technically been part of the regular season. The loser of that game then would've had a worse record than us so we wouldn't have to go through 1-game playoff to be the Wild Card. Wisely, they changed that rule after the first couple of years.

Keep squirming RAMP... you deserve it. (Not for your opinion but for your attitude!) To paraphrase somebody's post from yesterday regarding football (I can't remember who made the post), "Please keep personal discussions off our baseball forum. See today's thread regarding Uggy and Looper. There's another place for that." Arnie, for somebody who complains publically anytime somebody steps one inch out of line (in your opinion), you sure do like to dish it out. We're going to the playoffs - be happy. Play nice.

Somebody posted a cute stat on the mlb board. Bonds has homered off pitchers whose last name starts with every letter of the alphabet except U and X. IF the Marlins make the playoffs (don't jinx this one too Niels), the Giants fans are hoping Bonds will get to add to the list by getting one off Urbina.

all Mets broadcasts are horrible in my book. Does Kiner still do the games? Does he still do Kiner's Korner after the games? I remember two things about Kiner as an announcer - he understood hitting and he screwed up so often on names that he was funny as hell.