xxi-xxv

I would rather Pedro rest and make sure he is 100% ready to go in April so that come September he is 100% for the stretch drive. I think the fears of him coming back too soon are something we do not have to worry about, thats why its taken the time it has for the shoe to arrive and Pedro to get accustomed to it. He did not throw all winter long off a mound because he did not have the shoe and he was cautious, no need to worry about him doing anything stupid.

key to carolina Wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, released by the Dallas Cowboys on March 14 for salary cap reasons, reached agreement Thursday night with the Carolina Panthers on a four-year contract, several NFL sources confirmed for ESPN.com. Keyshawn Johnson Wide Receiver Dallas Cowboys Profile 2005 SEASON STATISTICS Rec Yds TD Avg Long YAC 71 839 6 11.8 34 186 Complete financial details were not immediately available, and the two sides were still fine-tuning some elements of the deal late into the night, one team source acknowledged. But sources said the contract is worth approximately $3.5 million per year and that Johnson will receive a $5 million signing bonus on a contract that could be officially signed as early as Friday. Johnson, 33, visited with New York Giants officials earlier this week and it is believed that he turned down a contract proposal that reportedly would have paid him $3 million per year. He then met on Thursday with management officials from the Panthers, one of the teams that he publicly cited as a possible landing spot when Dallas released him. Head coach John Fox, who is vacationing, was not among the Panthers officials involved in the Thursday meeting. But Fox is familiar with Johnson and staunchly advocated his addition to a Carolina passing game that sorely needed a strong No. 2 wide receiver. Over the past two seasons, the Panthers' passing game has focused on one main receiver and struggled to develop a viable complementary wideout. In 2005, Steve Smith had 103 catches for 1,563 yards and 12 touchdowns. That accounted for 61.7 percent of the catches and 63.2 percent of the yards produced by the Carolina wideout corps. No other Carolina wide receiver had more than 25 catches last year. In 2004, when Smith missed all but one game because of a broken leg, Muhsin Muhammad accounted for 51.1 percent of the receptions by wide receivers and for 51.3 percent of the yards. The addition of Johnson, a big, rangy possession receiver, should address the imbalance. His presence will also aid the Panthers' running game, since he is a rugged downfield blocker. It will also result in a battle for the No. 3 and No. 4 wide receiver spots, with youngsters Keary Colbert and Drew Carter vying for playing time. It remains to be seen if Ricky Proehl, one of the league's best possession receivers and currently an unrestricted free agent, will return for a 17th season. For his career, Johnson has 744 receptions for 9,756 yards and 60 touchdowns in 151 games, including 146 starts. He registered 71 catches for 839 yards and six touchdowns for the Cowboys in 2005, and he started in 14 of his 16 appearances. Johnson was due a March roster bonus of $1 million and had a scheduled base salary of $1.5 million for 2006, and the Cowboys chose to release him, sensing that the loquacious wide receiver would seek to have his contract upgraded. There were rumblings from Dallas, in fact, that Johnson planned to skip the start of the team's offseason conditioning program because he wanted his contract addressed. Just four days after releasing Johnson, the Cowboys signed wide receiver Terrell Owens to a three-year contract. The top overall choice in the 1996 draft, Johnson has been outspoken at times during his career, but he remains a productive player, although most scouts agree he is no longer a lead-type receiver. The former Southern California star played four seasons with the Jets and then was traded to Tampa Bay in 2000. In 2003, the Bucs inactivated him for the final part of the season because of his public criticism of head coach Jon Gruden. Tampa Bay dealt him to the Cowboys in 2004 for wide receiver Joey Galloway. In Johnson's two years with the Cowboys, he averaged 70.5 receptions, 910 yards and six touchdowns. Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.

hence why I said he will hit (as he always does). Its great when other posters reinforce your points based on the fact that they initially think that you are not making that point

yeah I guess that they could start Torbor at the SLB and Emmons at the WLB, in that case I say

no one said he was not a met, is that this low life of a man is the uncle of Gary Sheffield, the Ny media will ask him about this a lot, Gary Sheffield is ornery, he will be posed many a question that even a calm cool collected man would crack under. Who cares about Gooden, he can rot for all I care, this is about Sheff and the annoyances that will be posed to him all year long, roids, contract and now Uncle Doc.

yes but the difference between 1 and 2,3 is about the total salry of 1 Nice try, its still 2 to 1 no matter how you cut it.

sure they are at about 110 mil or 1/2 of what the Yanks spend.

Sheffield will be a HUGE problem this year. Sure he will get his numbers and will hit(because thats what he does), but if you think his yipping about a contract last year was annoying with a year left, wait till he has to hear the questions and talk about this being his last year. He will bitch CONSTANTLY. Combine that with the fact he has 100% been exposed as a lying cheating steroid abuser who 100% lied and lied again to cover his ass and well this makes for some ugly shit. Combine that with the fact that Uncle Doc is in prison for the 1,000th time in the last 20 years and Gary may be a bit ornery this year.

did you see my list? no o linemen, nothing but garbage skill guys and questionable defnsive players.

guess we add williams to the steady george young 1st round decline that was jarrod bunc 91, derek brown 92, dave brown 92 supp(93 1st rounder), thomas lewis, tyrone wheatley, cedric jones and ike hilliard.

Mike McMahon makes Joey Harrington look like Dan Marino. He sucks donkey balls and has about as much ball protection skills as a blind man. Is this what we are going to get now? When every shitty Mike, Joey and Aaron gets released we get a 2 page thread about how they would "make a great backup". There is nothing great about Mike McMahon except when he pisses games away, just ask us and the Skins last year!

If the Mets traded David Wright for Alfonso Soriano Shea Stadium would be burned to the ground. Makes NO SENSE, not from a baseball standpoint and certainly not from an economic standpoint. Soriano makes 10 mil, with 06 left on his deal, David Wright makes 375,000 and the Mets control his rights for 5 more years. That alone is why this WOULD NEVER HAPPEN!

USA Today looking further than just overall payroll has an article today about how much each team has on the books for guaranteed money for 2007 and beyond. Of course we all know who's 05 guaranteed payouts for contracts was 2 times as much as anyone elses , but this is a great read. How does baseball expect to continue to be able to have teams compete as these numbers keep getting higher and higher and the gap wider and wider between teams? The numbers surprisingly went down, but this was in an admitted poor free agent year. USA TODAY Commissioner cautions about contract debt By Hal Bodley, USA TODAY Baseball has reduced its long-term financial obligation to players by 4.43% from last year, but Commissioner Bud Selig cautions "we have to be careful not to return to levels that present danger to the industry." AP Selig USA TODAY's survey of guaranteed contracts for the five-year period beginning in 2007 reveals that $2.83 billion obligated to 179 players is $131.6 million less than the $2.97 billion for 190 players in 2005. "One of the things that's an ongoing concern to me is the amount of debt that baseball has," Selig said Wednesday of the survey. "I think we've made slight progress in the right direction, but we have to be very careful." The New York Yankees top the list of 30 teams, owing 10 players $373.1 million through 2011. The Yankees, whose record payroll reached $213.1 million in 2005, had guaranteed contracts of $425.6 million a year ago. The Yankees are followed by the Toronto Blue Jays, who made the biggest leap after signing free agents B.J. Ryan and A.J. Burnett. Their guaranteed contracts for the next five years total $198.1 million compared to $71.3 million a year ago. Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, in the sixth year of his record 10-year, $252 million contract, tops the "mortgage" list between 2007-11 being owed $98.79 million. "The numbers have gone down some," says Frank Coonelly, Major League Baseball senior vice president. "The free agent market was very vibrant this year, but I don't think the players were quite as good as they were last year. That helps explain why the amount of money committed in the future has gone down."

typical Yankee fan, live in the past. Thank god for that WC or no playoffs in 96(Cleveland better record old AL east team) 97(WC winner) 2000(Cleveland better) I live in the present and presently the Yankees have gone 5 years with no titles despite an incerdibly bloated payroll in comparison to the rest of the majors and along the way let Bill Buckner off the hook as the biggest chokers in baseball history. But hey at least they got there.

How about your dry spell from 1981 to 1996? WHere the payroll was always amongst the tops in the league, yet the Yanks could not draw flies to the stadium. Be thankful for the extra division and WC round, it has made it easier for teams like the Yanks(and Sox for that matter and the mets)to make the playoffs. When you outspend your closest competitor by 100 mil just getting there means jack clark shit.

yeah and NONE SINCE 2000, when they started to sign garbage like Giambi, Sheffield, Mussina instead of the way they won by grooming homegrown talent. I would not want to be anything like the Yanks have been the past few years, their farm system if dry, they have overspent for many a mediocre player(see Jaret Wright and Carl pavano) and they are older than dirt. Thats not how the Yankees won in the past and its obviously been unsucessful for quite a few years now. 26 championships is an ignorant arguement when discussing current status and structure. Now go back to the Yankee forum and discuss why you need Zito and Prior and how teams will be willing to take Wright and Pavano and Small for them!

kind of like Terry Bradshaw, only better stats Namath is a HOF IMO for the reasons you mentioned, but he was a 49% passer and had a losing record as a starter in the NFL, if he is in Simms is in. Simms played what would be the equivalent of a perfect game in baseball in SB XXI, he was 22-25 and had 2 passes dropped. Man was lights out and record setting on the biggest stage there was.

WHats so funny? Hard to imagine that some baseball fans are not glutons and do not want every aging overpriced piece of egotytical shit on the market that becomes available?

Soriano pissed of Torre and Showalter and now Frank Robinson. I have no use for him!

Lockhart I have been watching the Mets make boneheaded deals for years and years, even you youngsters all saw the debacle of the Kazmir deal and must STILL be reminded of it every 5th day when that piece of dung Zambrano is force fed down our throats because Rick Peterson says he can fix him in 5 minutes(that was 5 minutes in dog years BTW). Its not being Lockhart, ite being a fan and having seen time and time again where this team goes when it trades young talent for aging stars. This franchise has always been successful when they nurture home grown pitching and players and sprinkle in good solid vets. I feel that they have done a nice job of this now with Delgado and Beltran to go with Wright and Reyes. I fear they will piss this away(as any life long Met fan would). I think a nice core of Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Milledge, Hernandez is a great start to a young core and would be pissed if we STeve Philipsed it away!

Milledge will be traded for Soriano and Sorianos bandbox stadium power and propensity to whiff on breaking stuff(an NL trademark)will result in him hitting 250 with 17 homers and 61 rbis and leaving next year and taking a lesser deal to play with the Yankees, while Lastings Milledge becomes more popular in the DC area than Marion Barry and wins NL rookie of the year. And if you are a real Met fan you would expect nothing less

I for one am not a huge stats guy(why I respect Roetlisberger) and I am a big W and L guy and our Qb had 11 W's and 5 L's in 05. Thats what is important to me and in a season I expected the young QB to go through his ups and downs and hoped for 8-8 I am quite pleased with the progress. How many Qb's won 11 games? To say he was not an "effective" player is assinine. Was he great? No hardly. Was his year spectacular? No. Did he shows signs of good play?Yes What I am looking for like the entire Giants offense outside Tiki is more balance, I want a steady type offense and not this feast or famine crap we saw last year. I think as teams adjusted their gameplans ELI and the Giants did not adjust as well and that needs to improve.

why bother dude?

I knew he would do this, figured he would gauge the Giants interest and see what else is out there. Oh well, I do like his willingness to go over the middle and his ability to block as a WR, but not for huge money at 33. If KEY really wants a chance to win, teach young players how to play hard(something despite his ego he always did)and make a mark back in NY and get back at Dallas well then he will come here, I suspect he is all about trumping up his price now.

Placing Bannister in the rotation now would be foolish based on 10 strong spring innings, Heilman at this point is better suited to have that 5th starters spot and he has certainly earned it over the last year or so. As for Bannister, how about shipping Zambrano to Japan along with Kaz MAtsui and 3 pieces of Sushi and place Bannister in the rotation with Heilman. FOr better or worse Omar aquired this piece of horse shit Julio for the pen so IMO he gets the 7th, Sanchez the 8th and Wagner the 9th. Heilam deserves a shot to start.