molitor fan

Stern just did a news conference and answered a bundle of questions. The most interesting part for me was that Donaghy made $260,000 last year as a ref. That is a bunch more than I had assumed. The other shocker was that Donaghy lost his huge sums of money betting on the dog fights at Michael Vick's house. (kidding)

i really think this is an old, banned poster...it looks like baiting to me.

I just watched a ESPN interview with Chris Sheridan - and apparently there is no question that games were fixed.... A study completed after the fact has shown that betting lines of games Donaghy worked moved suspiciously on a consistant basis, and Sheridan is very surprised that Donaghy was not found out earlier, as NBA security is supposed to be monitoring what apparently should have been obvious

Point Beer alluded to an excellent point - as Benoit is very good vs. lefties - as he allowed a .191 batting average vs. them last year, and a .193 this year.

I mentioned this in the chat area, but I was at the game on Tursday in which he pitched, and he is DONE. He topped out at 84 and was generally at 80 with his fastball. I felt the Brewers could have hung a real bundle of runs on him on Thursday.

Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins - he of the .336 Batting average and .944 OPS, seperated his shoulder today, which would likely end his season.

Gross is not expendable, as was evidenced just a few minutes ago. The Brewers need that lefty bat off the bench...having to hit Graff in the 8th vs. Lincecum showed very clearly that not having Gross' lefty bat is going to hamper the Brewer bench.

The referee in question is apparently 12 year veteran ref Tim Donaghy....he was often teamed with Joe Derosa, and reffed the Bucks 2nd to last game of the season.

Good thought, but the "nail in the skull" Lawler is three years older than our Patrick Lawler. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6833176/

Arroyo pitched a great game last night according to the Braves announcers today, who are fawning over him - saying he was nearly unhittable. Arroyo is certainly a very good pitcher, has post-season experience, and has a bit of an edge to him - all positives in my view. I think X's offer is a bit low for him...i think more along the lines of Parra/Capuano, Gillespie, and Fermaint is more likely what it would take.

Snippets from the article that was linked above.....ESPN really needs to get some competition - it has really fallen into the sewer as a sports information source. Draft Buzz - Yi Jianlian Still Likely to End Up in Milwaukee By Aran Smith, NBADraft.net (nbadraft.net/draftbuzz072.asp) 7/18/07 A bogus news story was released in China on Tuesday that Yi Jianlian's Chinese agent and Guangdong Tigers chief Chen Haitao said that Yi would "definitely not" play for the Milwaukee Bucks. The report has been denied by Chen himself plus a Guangdong Tiger's VP who responded with two words - "BS". Most amazing is that the report was picked up by numerous AP news sources all over the web and and was given credibility when in fact the story is unsubstantiated. The public opinion is that he is being greedy and should just go to the club that selected him and be gracious about his opportunity to make millions playing in the NBA. But his decision to hold out and not to go to Milwaukee should not be blamed on Yi, but on his handlers. Milwaukee Bucks fans are already have built up a negative impression of Yi, after he did not report to the city after the draft, so the longer he holds out, the more negative the reaction will be if and when he finally reports to the city. Despite all of the media reports to the contrary, Milwaukee remains the likely destination for Yi. And with such a whirlwind of negativity building around him, an announcement from Yi deciding to end the controversy and join the Bucks could come sooner than expected. --

So far, quite the day organizationally, with some very nice pitching performance. Brantley with an excellent game today - now hitting respectably with a great eye and speed - all the while as a 20 year old at AA.

In regard to Dillon, I do not agree with Al on this one. I think that Dillon comes up September 1 as another bat on the bench...I do not think Doug gives him away when he will be on the roster in 6 weeks when the roster expands.

I'm not a Vargas fan to begin with, and this one's against his old team. I don't like it Vargas may pitch poorly tonight, but I just wanted to mention that Vargas has been an excellent #5 starter this year - if it is appropriate to view him in that narrow capacity, which I do. In his 15 starts, Vargas has very much kept his team in the game, to the point that the Brewers are 12-3 in his 15 starts. His run support has been good, but it has been the same as Ben Sheets run support this year (5.5 vs. 5.4). Vargas has not seen the 7th this year, so a horse, he isn't. But what he has been to this point, is a more than servicable back of the rotation starter. I appreciate him for that.

I know we have 3 Bucks threads floating around, but I thought I would add this info here, since this thread includes the seemingly wise Woelfel information. Last year, when the Bucks big four of Villanueva, Williams, Redd, and Bogut were in the lineup together, the Bucks were 15-14, with victories over San Antonio, Detroit, and Miami. When the foursome was not intact, the Bucks record was 13-40. With Yi, or a product of Yi via trade, and a decent contribution from a small forward that knows the plays and does not molest babysitters or collies, I think the Bucks could be a pretty solid playoff team.

I am hoping trwi or qrk can help me with this retention of Ilyasova's rights. As a free agent, how are we able to retain his rights? Since we signed him as a 2nd round draft pick, and thus the shorter contract, he can sign with whomever he wishes, or so I thought. How are we able to retain his rights?

Without being able to see the games or have access to the players you're basically limited to digging up stats and links for your guy. The link reports and "Your 2007 blah blah" already contain all this information, so it seems like it would be duplication I guess I do not what the problem is with a congealing of information or data. Say I put all the articles I can find about Aguillar into my prospect thread, and add in some link report data that usually gets lost in the process, such as the fact that he has been clocked at 100 mph this year? That alone makes this feature a good idea to me; then add in the possible interview opportunity, and it is a tremendous idea to me.

Heether now has close to an .800 OPS in the Southern League while having a rep for gold glove caliber d. That works for me.

To Buck Rogers, I want to say that it is not too late to throw your hat into the 2008 Presidential Election - as of right now, I think you would have my vote. edit: except for the Vikings part - that part wasn't so great.

Tons of new information today from Gery Woelfel, who was on AM-1570 out of Apple-ton about 15 minutes ago: First, and unfortunately, the most important - Woelfel says that he does not believe that Yi will be a Buck. He stated that the Larry Harris comments recently have been spin control, and that NBA execs have told him that YI himself stated to Harris that he wished to be traded and that he would not play for the Bucks. Woelfel said that his opinion of the situation has changed drastically, and that he would be very suprised if Yi ever suited up for the Bucks. As a sidenote, Woelfel believes that the National team that Yi is threatening to play for, which Yi believes to be a non-professional entity, which would thus free up Yi to go into the draft next year, may be regarded by Stern and the NBA as a professional entity, which would royally screw with Yi's backup plan. Secondly, Woelfel believes that Mo Wiliams will sign with the Bucks - solely due to the monetary issue. Woelfel stated that the Pacers, Knicks, and Cavs are also still in the hunt for Williams, but that he believes the Bucks will prevail. The host did not follow up with it, because he is a doofus, but Woelfel also mentioned that Villanueva may not be back with th Bucks next season...not sure how to take that... I would like to hear responses to this bunch of news. How about Yi and Villanueva and filler such as Gadz for Elton Brand?

That is very odd, as well as the fact that Justin Lehr is replacing him as the all-star starter. I, too, hope the money picked up made this a no-doubt type of decision, rather than just something borne out of a numbers crunch.

I just find out that a guy I know will be on this show later on in the season(as a cop harassing turtle). His name is Mike McGill - he is from ******on, and if you are a fan of The Office - he played Roy's brother Kenny on a couple of episodes earlier this year.

Since I pimped for him on the power 50 thread, I will gladly continue the pimpage for Omar Aguilar. It would be cool if we could do this.

Interested to see what would be the preferred option of the two. Given that the Reds are expected to trade Weathers in the next few weeks, would you prefer Otsuka or Weathers. I do not think Weathers would command as much talent in return.

Thanks for the hard work. My musing is on Omar Aguilar, who has somewhat mediocre numbers, but has been clocked according to a few reports at throwing 100 miles an hour. Is it realistic to leave a guy with that kind of heat off of a top 50 prospect list. His numbers are not awful, and think his heat alone would garner prospect status.