Lou_Siffer

Forsberg's going to wait till probably a little past the midway mark in the season to come back. Whats going to happen is at that point a team that feels they can make a run will offer him an additional year or two on the contract...which is what he wants and isnt getting right now. Somebody will probably offer him 2 mill for the remainder of the season, and then 4 mill for the following year as well. Makes sense for Peter as he'll have security if he ends up hurt again. The additional year(s) is something he'll be able to force on anyone who wants him. Somebody WILL bite, its a given. I dont believe it'll be the Wings though, it'll be one of the upstarts like St Louis or Minnesota for example if either is still looking good at the break.

Nay,...but Adam Mair is.

at the casino, where else would he be..

Friday: Toronto @ New Jersey Philadelphia @ Washington Florida @ Buffalo Phoenix @ Dallas Nashville @ Edmonton Los Angeles @ San Jose Saturday: Toronto @ Montreal Boston @ Ottawa Pittsburgh @ NY Islanders New Jersey @ NY Rangers Florida @ Carolina Atlanta @ Tampa Bay Calgary @ Minnesota Chicago @ St Louis Anaheim @ Phoenix Vancouver @ Colorado San Jose @ Los Angeles Sunday: St Louis @ Columbus Nashville @ Chicago Ottawa @ Boston

I like Boll, he plays a good hard game as if he were a New Brunswick lad. But he struck first when he crushed Moen, so now its time for the Ducks to send a messenger and take this game to the alley. Spare no one! Should be a hyped up crowd, I doubt you'll be hearing any pins drop tonight. Moen vs Boll would be a nice tilt, and one that i'm sure to analyze frame by frame. This has all the makings of a perfect game to watch. Alright, Wings game will be on soon....i gotta split! How long will it take for someone to go after Boll? I predict the 3 Manute mark.

Should be seeing King vs Boogaard once again tonight! Wouldnt be suprised to see them go twice, unless the first fight is a real war. Go get him King!

Lord knows the Ducks need SOMETHING to come alive. This could be it...nothing like a headhunting mission! Columbus has the right mix of guys (1 heavy and a few nice middleweights) to make this a fun game.

I really like the Renteria trade, but in hindsight it sure would be nice to have Jurrjens and Hernandez still here for trade bait for a really good reliever. Maybe Houston would have coughed up Lidge if we threw enough at them. Losing Zumaya is about the biggest blow this team could have. As of right now, we're in some s***. I would count Zumaya out for the entire season, as even if he comes back theres no way in hell he'll pitch hard and effectively. As we saw at the end of last season, a Zumaya even at 96-97 mph was a shadow of what we saw in '06. Nowhere near the effectiveness and struggled to get guys out at times. This is horrible news, who knows how long or if he'll ever get that 100 mph velocity back. With Zumaya's future as closer in question now, we may just go ahead and take a shot at Francisco Cordero...which would would spell the end of Jones. Of course we'd still have to add 2 guys in addition to Cordero...its really a mess.

Agreed, he's now #1! OMG! LMAO! The Big Buck was great but he's got nothin' on that. And here i thought Jon Kitna would probably make a good Kane from WWE for Halloween...what do i know!

Thank you

Agreed, cant have both. If Schilling wants to come here for a year, as much as ive enjoyed having Kenny...i'd say cut him loose. Schilling could also serve a mentor role for Bonderman, who really needs it i think....being that Schilling was a power righty like Bondo is. Dont get me wrong Kenny has been a great leader for the guys, but Bondo and Verlander are much more in the Schilling mold. Actually now that its hitting me as a type, Im starting to really want Schilling now! Verlander Schilling Robertson Bonderman Miller (if he's good in the spring) I like it.

Yeah now that you mention it, his decline does seem to have started around the time of that fight. I used to think Belak was an entertaining player, but now he just seems like one of those fighters you dont really care about anymore..kinda like Jody Shelley. His fight with Koci was great, but other than that he hasnt been anything special.

Looks like a pretty good list to me, but for 2 names. Belak at one point i thought was borderline top 5 but that was a few years ago. I dont feel like he's a top 10'er any more. The other one i'd question is Ivanans, i think he's on the lower tier of the heavyweight spectrum.

Must be because of all those pucks Hank has been burying... I heard he was going for five holes tonight,...he must really like diggin'.

Laraque's out, no point in even watching this game now.

The thing is though theres not many other options. Jones certainly has his bad moments, but overall he really doesnt do that bad of a job i think. He doesnt strike anyone out, but you know, when you sit there watching other guys in our pen walk batter after batter its kind of refreshing to someone who doesnt give free passes left and right. Right now Zumaya is not an option this year because of the massive void it would leave. However with him being the supposed closer of the future we're pretty much limited to the guys who would sign 1 yr deals...or 2 at the very most. Here's the list of available closers: Armando Benitez Joe Borowski Francisco Cordero Octavio Dotel (has club and player option with Atl) Eric Gagne Todd Jones Al Reyes Mariano Rivera Bob Wickman I would take Todd straight up over Benitez, Borowski, Reyes, and Wickman. Gagne is probably still going to demand alot of money and obviously he's a risk with the way he sucked in Boston. Dotel if he leaves Atlanta will probably want a long term deal, and i dont think he's very good anyway. Francisco Cordero will absolutely be looking for a big multi yr deal, and again if you sign him that says Zumaya will not be your closer for a long while. That really just leaves Mariano Rivera (aside from Jones) as the one true stopgap to Zumaya. But would he really leave NY to come here? I doubt it. This is why i think Jones appears to be the best option.

Piazza is a free agent.

Im kinda for bringing Jonesy back too...its also part sentimental as id like nothing more than to see him get the final out of a World Series. I couldnt imagine a better ending after all his ups and downs here. But aside from that, theres not really many other options. I mean Bob Wickman is crap,...Francisco Cordero is the best one out there but if Zumaya is the future closing option then we wouldnt sign him since he'd want a long term deal. Eric Gagne will still probably want alot of money and a multi year deal ven though he stunk in Boston. Jones looks like the best bet...hey at least he throws strikes. More often than not, it may be shaky but he gets it done.

If this were to actually happen, might as well just move Inge to LF. With his athletic skills im positive he'd be great out there...not to mention his cannon arm. Sheff in the OF isnt a sight i wanna see.

The timing was definitely spotlight oriented imo. I mean, there was a 10 day post World Series window to come out with the announcement, and it was done during the game. However, i believe that was purely Scott Boras behind that...who just happened to be in the stands of course. I dont feel it was any reflection at all on A-Rod. We all know how Boras works, he's similar to Drew Rosenhaus in the NFL.

Maroth doesnt really help matters though. I guess it'd be nice to bring him back just cause he's a good guy...but thats about it. We've already got guys capable of going long relief, Zach Miner, Durbin if he's still here...or even Bazardo if he doesnt make the rotation. Long relief is the easiest spot to fill as you can just grab any of your possible AAA starters and toss him in there. We desperately need another mid to late inning guy...two preferably. Possibly even a closer depending on what happens with Jones. I wouldnt be against bringing Jones back, as right now we cant even afford to put Zumaya in that role as we'd have not one late inning stopper.

Wait, maybe its a combination of Dan Cleary and Kirk Herbstreit... uh, yeah thats it !

After Laraque got knocked down by Brashear, i think he'll be on a mission to take it to Boogaard. I say Laraque will put the hurtin' on him.

I also do not really want A-Rod. I dont want a Yankees type feel to this team, I dont mean that just because him and Sheffield are former Yanks, but in that the team would have that "bought" feel to it if we won. With our team right now, we have a great group of guys. Polanco was a guy who split time before and became a star player with us. Carlos Guillen's greatness nobody seen coming as Seattle gave up on him. Magglio Ordonez nobody had faith him anymore to sign him to a big contract but us...and look what happened. Kenny Rogers was the old guy who threw the camera. Inge, Granderson, Verlander, Zumaya are from our farm. Its a team that you can be really proud of that Dombrowski shrewdly built. When you go and add Alex Rodriguez after getting Sheffield last year,...i dont know, its just not something i want here. If anything, throw money at pitching...our batting is already great now.

Gorkys is supposed to be pretty good, but when you have Maybin and Granderson...theres not a need for him. Thats the great thing about having some young depth! You can pawn off the excess as trade bait. I looked at the names of relievers available, unfortunately theres not a whole lot there. As for non-closers, David Riske is the one i'd want if his option with KC isnt picked up. He's always been a consistent sub 4 guy, and this year posted a 2.45. I liked him when he was with Cleveland. Not a blockbuster addition, but at least its someone you can use so we dont have to rely on Rodney's ass as much.