btowntigers

im not gonna complain but im not buying Larussa's reason for not picking D-Train to start.... he said since the Marlins catcher, Paul Lo Duca, was gonna come in later in the game he wanted Willis to pitch then. right, i sense a little favortism. atleast Carpenter really did deserve to be there unlike some people.

well i hate to rain on your parade but its most likely gonna start in the AL(Boston!!) again cause the starting lineups really dont compare. Varitek is way better than Piazza, Roberts is better than Kent, Tejada crushes Eckstein, Arod kills Rolen, and Abreu is the only NL outfielder that can match Manny, Bad Vlad, or Damon...first base is the only position the NL has an edge it. the NL has better pitchers though since Halladay broke his league...if Clemens and D-Train can pitch like they have all season they might be able to keep the NL in the game.

its an allstar game man....Jones and them will see just as many at bats as Edmonds does.

because Jones, Floyd, and Burrell all have a higher batting avg, more hr's, more rbi's....Cabrera and Griffey Jr. have the same amount of hr's with more rbi's and a higher avg....Carlos Lee is barely behind in ba and is way ahead in hr's and rbi's. what other reasons does it take for you to wake up and see the obvious. fuggly, i said there werent any great SS in the NL this year so it could have went a bunch of different ways but Eckstein wasnt the best choice. he's got a decent average(not great) and nothing else...if he was batting 330 yea he would deserve it but not a guy battin 280 somethin with only 2 homers and 7 steals. Lopez has a much better average, 7 times as many homers, and twice as many rbi's....Furcal has more hr's and rbi's than Eckstein plus he leads the NL in stolen bases....it should have been one of those 2 guys. and no Furcal isnt my favorite player...im a diehard Red Sox fan. now, i gotta get back across the street and watch the 2nd game of the Cubs/Braves double header....maybe this will be the first time all week i dont get soaked.

yall are right this fan voting is a joke. it would be nice if the people that vote would actually watch a few games instead of just gettin on here and voting for the big names that they hear about all the time. the AL isnt bad at all, my AL would be the exact same but the NL is horrible. Scott Rolen has missed half the games and hasnt been very good in the games he has played, Beltran hasnt done a thing this year...i could come up with atleast 20 outfielders that should be there over him, Jim Edmonds isnt even a top 10 OF in the NL so far, Piazza is horrible but there really wasnt much to choose from, i voted for Barrett, Eckstein wouldnt even be a top 5 SS in the AL but just like the catchers there wasnt much to choose from, i voted for Furcal, atleast he's amongst the league leaders in steals. replace Piazza with Lo Duca or Barrett, Eckstein with Furcal, Rolen with Ramirez or Ensberg, Beltran and Edmonds with Andruw Jones and Carlos Lee and you got the REAL NL allstar team. its a shame Morgan Ensberg and Cliff Floyd got snubbed...both of them are having career years and would with out a doubt be top 5 in the NL MVP voting right now.

ummm i know this...but he is considered class of 06 now and he is only the 5th highest ranked player in the state. you can holla back this time next year if you want but he still wont be ranked ahead of Young, Wright, and Kemp...maybe Chism but not those 3.

let me start by saying man, two 5-star prospects(out of only 30 in the entire country) on one high school team! what a duo! should be 3 straight titles this year. if you watch Bolivar play its plain to see that Willie is the leader of that team but Wayne has the upside to be better down the road so i understand where they are coming from. i agree that he should be ranked higher than Niles as well. right now Niles uses his size to dominate at the high school level but Chism has the size and is as complete of a big man as you'll ever see. he has an array of low post moves, has good range, can shoot the 3, handle, moves better than most big men, monster on the glass, and is a great defenive player too. as for the other rankings...looks like there is a new king of TN high school basketball. Thad Young is in the top spot now but Wright still remains in the top 10, you got Chism and Kemp in the 20's, Niles is still in the top 50, and some new guys that stepped on the scene this summer are Jeremy Williams from Hamilton at #91 and Jarvis Vanardo from Haywood at #96. this has to be the best class ever for TN basketball. i cant leave this out either...king Tyler Smith is only ranked #42. i find it amusing how people argued he was the best in the state last year and now with an extra year of prep school he is still only ranked the 5th best player from the state.

well you might get your wish...right now Illinois is one of his top choices. the playing time is one of Willie's biggest concerns and like you said he would have a good shot at being a starter his freshman year. i think the Illini style of play would be a perfect fit for him. i head Weber came to visit him a couple of weeks ago and they hit it off pretty well.

more offers continue to roll in for Kemp. Illinois, NC St., Florida, and Florida St. have all offered in the past couple of weeks.

AMEN!

the bats are great but the pitching is average at best. not to many teams make the playoffs without having a true ace but the way they are swingin the bats they have a chance. its gonna be between them and the Angels but i figure the Angels will pull it together once bad Vlad gets healthy and Finley and Anderson figure out how to swing the bat again.

thanks you made my point for me....Nash has the best offensive game of his career and Stoudemire gets shut down and what happens? they lose! seems like Stoudemire is the most important player to me.

i see Brandon Powell is gettin some recognition on the national scene this summer too....scout.com has him at 72 in the new rankings. he jumped ahead of Wayne Chism and is just a few spots behind Pierre Niles now.

i would gladly welcome George back to the Titans. he's not an impact player anymore but he can still be a good goalline back and a great mentor for Brown. if(more like when) Brown gets hurt i much rather have Eddie to carry the load than see Jarrett Payton get the ball. its not like they're asking him to be the feature back anymore so i say go for it. and the Travis Henry idea...lets be honest with ourselves, he stunk last year. the man didnt even average 3 1/2 yards a carry this past season and the Titans would have to give up much more than he's worth to get him. theres not much of a difference between him and George anyway...3.47 yards per carry for Henry, 3.27 for George.

your wrong....i thought the Suns would be one of the best in the west and win 50+ games this year....its not a big surprise when you look at their players. Marion was already a 20, 10 guy and Stoudemire was the probably the best hs player in the country his senior year and was a future 20, 10 guy but he developed faster than most people expected. they got Q from the Clips, whom is one of the best 3 point shooters in the game and Johnson came from the Celtics, he's solid all around. Nash came in, a top 3 point gaurd....thats a lethal starting 5. if you wanna screw Shaq out of his award and give it to someone because their team exceeded expectations Ray Allen should be your MVP because that team is pathetic outside of him and Lewis, but they had home court advantage in the first round.

yea Willie is moving back up the rankings this summer. from what ive heard his top 2 schools right now are Illinois and Arkansas but his recruitment is still basically wide open. it would be awesome if those 5 went to the same school, they would definitely have some final 4 appearances in their future. Willie isnt the only person on pump n run makin a move this summer....the scouts for rivals are supposedly gonna move Thad ahead of Wright when the new rankings come out this month.

ok lets just forget the records for a second. Steve Nash is a great pg, one of the best in the game, and he is a big part of the reason the Suns were so much better this year since he creates easy shots for his teammates but he didnt do it by hisself. if you follow basketball any you knew that Stoudemire and Marion were stars in the making so another year of developement for those 2 is the biggest reason they were so good this year...not to mention adding Johnson and Q to knock down the open 3's. BUT, you could put Jason Kidd in Phoenix and they would be just as good if not better. Nash left Dallas and was replaced by Jason Terry and it had no impact on the Mavs, they actually won more games this year. Shaq on the other hand cannot be replaced. You could take any other center in the game and put him in Miami and they wouldnt have won 50 games this year. the impact Nash has is no where close to what Shaq did in Miami. i think the comparison opperman did speaks for itself...LA's win total decreased 23 games and Dallas won 6 more. in my opinion Nash is only the 3rd best player on his team, Stoudemire and Marion are better players they just lack the leadership Nash brings to the team.

maybe so but the Braves fans still get atleast an extra week of baseball every october. they have folded in the playoffs more times than not but their streak of 13(?) consecutive division titles is still one of the greatest runs in sports history. im a diehard redsox fan but i respect the fact that the Braves get things done without a 1 billion dollar payroll, without players gettin caught up in the steroid scandal, and without having a team full of huge egos that constantly cause off the field problems....they are just a good, pure baseball team. they win because of team chemistry and hanving one of the best coaching staff in the game....not because they have a roster full of allstars and future hall of famers.

yea Hampton can stroke...he can swing the bat good enough to make the roster as a position player if he wasnt a pitcher. not only did he shut the Astros down today, but he outscored them too...ouch, it must stink to be an Astro.

man....the Braves put an @$$ whoopin on the Astros today. the bats were smokin and Hampton keeps pitching brilliantly. the Braves should just go ahead and sign Leo Mazzone to a lifetime contract...Hampton wasnt even worthy of being in a rotation a few years ago and now Mazzone has turned him back into the 20 game winner he once was.

i strongly disagree with this choice. yes, he turned the Suns around this year but they already had the talent to be a contender they were just to young and inexperienced last year. Nash had great numbers and great success this year...but he inherited a team full of young freak athletes that just needed some veteran guidance. Shaq on the other hand went to a team with only 1 good player and turned them into the favorite to win the east, and maybe win the championship. both players are deserving but i personally feel Shaq was far more valuable to his team and should have taken home the award. you think Nash could go to a Shaq-less Miami Heat and have the same success they had this past year?

well atleast the Braves are one of the few teams that arent in the steroid mix.

i actually like it. it keeps alot of cars in contention all the way til the last lap and i like seein the 20+ car pile up as long as my people aint in it

injuries are gonna make or break their season. Jordan and Mondesi have held up so far but their track record shows they could hit the DL anytime now. Giles and Chipper battled injuries all of last year and both have already missed some games this year as well. im gonna go out on a limb and say atleast one of these guys has a lengthy DL stint this year sometime so that means their pitching will be the biggest factor. you know your gonna get good stuff from Hudson and Smoltz but i dont think Hampton and Thompson can keep doin what they are right now. if they can, the Braves are postseason bound, if not, they're in trouble. alot of Braves fans i know are givin up on Kolb already but really he's a good closer, he's just in an early season slump...he was an allstar last year with the Brewers.

jumpin off the Reds bandwagon already???? the Braves is a good team to root for, im goin to see them a few times this summer myself, but i think this is the year they finally miss the postseason...the Mets have a loaded young team, Pedro is pitching awesome and Beltran hasnt even got in a groove yet, plus the entire Marlins staff is pitching like mini Cy Young's.