I know I am not an active member with y'all, but I check the site everyday. I moved away from Arizona last August for law school in the Northwest. My question is if anyone has had MLB Extra Innings from Comcast or any other cable provider (not DirecTV)? I want to buy it, but have heard horror stories from other people who have purchased it through Insight, Comcast, etc. and don't ever get to see their home teams. I was a four year D'bax season ticket holder and want to be sure my purchase is worthwhile so I can hear Gracie and Sutton, etc.

Thanks in advance!

ASU Finishes 12th

The Directors' Cup is an accumulation of points from teams throughout a schools' athletic department. Schools can gain points from 20 total varsity teams, with 10 being men's sports and 10 women's.

For the record, Arizona finished in 24th. ASU finishes in 5th place overall in the Pac-10 while Stanford won yet again.

The final Pac-10 standings:

1. Stanford
2. USC
3. Cal
4. UW
5. ASU
6. UCLA
7. Oregon
8. Arizona
9. Oregon State
10. Washington State

Washington State really brought up the rear by finishing in 120th. That was behind such vaunted programs as Brown, William & Mary, Jacksonville State and Northern Arizona. The 120th position was also shared with Liberty.

Fork 'em, Devils!

And your first round pick in the 2009 draft is none other than Chris "Beanie" Wells.

Height & Weight: 6'1, 237 lbs.

Combine Results:

• 40-Yard Dash: 4.59
• Bench Press: 25
• Vertical Jump: 33.5
• Broad Jump: 10'8

Positives: Wells is your ideal, large downhill runner. He has the perfect size( Upper body, arms, legs, shoulders), and speed to be dominant runner in the NFL. He has great vision and is able to burst through holes at ease. He runs through tackles with a force, and carries defenders with him. Once in the second level, he becomes even harder to bring down. He usually wins a challenge, and adds extra yardage after the first hit. Arm and leg tackles rarely bring him down. Most defenders have trouble with him because of his speed and elusiveness as well. Although he is a bull runner, he can hit the burners in the secondary, and makes more then one cut at a time. Wells is also a smart, patient player, who will adjust to new plays and formations. Wells has good leg drive, and has the best stiff arm in the draft. 

Negatives: Wells doesn't have home-run type speed, and may struggle against quicker defenses. He is fit to run between the tackles, and has problems when bouncing it to the outside. Has had fumbling problems and needs to work on his ball security to keep a job in the NFL. Doesn't have any character issues on or off field, but may need to be spoiled to stay happy. His work ethic has improved, but he may still miss some workouts. He has never had to be a leader at Ohio State, and some feel this may be a larger weakness then it appears. He rarely caught the ball in college( 15 catches in 3 years) and needs to polish his route running. Has a good initial pop in pass protection, but isn't NFL ready to block big defenders.

Overview: The knock on Wells is that he isn't your typical multipurpose back. He is a straight forward runner, and dominates defenses.  Most think if he were to become a genuine leader, he would be a franchise-type running back. If he can improve his overall game and fill multiple needs, he can eventually be one of the best running backs in the league.

From Arizona Central...

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/cardinals/articles/2009/02/06/20090206spt-pendergastout.html

Five days after their defeat in Super Bowl XLIII, the Cardinals find themselves in need of not only a new offensive coordinator but a defensive coordinator as well.

Clancy Pendergast, the team's defensive coordinator since he was hired on Jan. 15, 2004, was one of two assistants retained by head coach Ken Whisenhunt when Whisenhunt got the job two years ago.

Cardinals sources confirm today that he and the team are parting ways.

On Friday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs formally introduced Todd Haley as their new head coach. He had been the Cardinals' offensive coordinator for the last two seasons.

I know I posted something similar before, but I didn't get much of a response since it was June and we are getting to the point where I would need to do something.

I live in AZ and I can't wait for the Cards to visit the Valley of the Sun. I know its cold with a slight chance of colder in Kentucky in December and I hope a lot of people are planning on coming out to Phoenix for the big game - Pitino vs Tubby.

I would love to set-up a "Cards bar" here in AZ for the game if any of you are interested. I do need a bit of a headstart on things to do so and because of that I apologize for leap-frogging football season a bit.

For those reasons, I would like to know who is planning/thinking of coming out for the game and where in Phoenix the group plans on staying?

If you are one of the other numerous Cards bloggers out there, then please direct your readers over to this post and give a response.

I want to turn Phoenix into a Cards hotbed for that weekend, so please let me know.

Regards,

Evan - M.S. 2004

I don't know if any of you are reading the NFC West blog on ESPN, but Mike Sando has created massive sortable rosters in an Excel spreadsheet. Sando describes it best:

The rosters I maintain for each team feature 25 columns of information for each player. They show current players at the top, ranked in descending order of jersey numbers, followed below by every player who has been on the roster or visited as a free agent over the last year or so.

Here is the link: http://www.mediafire.com/?dy3yoja1jij

The D'backs just traded Bonifacio to the Nats for P Jon Rauch. I just got the text from KTAR.

Link

Rauch, who took over as the Nats closer when Chad Cordero injured his shoulder in April, was 4-2 with a 2.98 ERA. The 29-year-old covered 17 of his 22 save opportunities. Rauch, who made $1.2 million this year, is set to make $2 million next season and there is a club option for 2010 at $2.9 million.

[Tidied up and promoted to the front page. Here are my thoughts on the deal. Jim]

This looks to me like we just got Qualls v2.0. Before you cringe, let me point out that by this, I mean Rauch is a decent quality [ERA+ of 127, 117 and 144 over the past three years]  reliever, who throws a lot of innings and will be under our control for a relatively-long term.

In fact, he has the most innings in the majors of any "pure" reliever [90% or more of appearances in relief] since the start of 2006, and gives Arizona two of the top five:

1. Jon Rauch: 227
2. Aaron Heilman: 225.1
3. Scott Proctor: 220.1
4. Chad Qualls: 216.1
5. Saul Rivera: 210

The trade also means Randy Johnson is no longer the tallest player on the roster: if you remember the recent Washington series, you'll likely recall Rauch, who is listed at 6'11" and 291 lbs...

Losing Bonifacio does remove one of the major possibilities as far as replacing Hudson goes. If we don't re-sign the O-Dawg, we are going to have either to trade for someone or make a major shift in position for someone currently occupying another spot. But, for the moment, it certainly strengthens our pen, at the cost of someone who was only a fringe player on the current roster.

We need to get some support on this page. Cgolden is putting work into this and I know there are Cards fans out there. Let's get this page going and make it one of the best on the SBN. Univ of Phoenix Stadium is sold out every Sunday and I know there are people here in the Valley and elsewhere that can get this thing going. It is NOT embarassing to embrace the Cards!

So I am a Louisville alum living out here in the Valley of the Sun and I was wondering how many of you might be making a trek out here for the game on Dec 20th? If enough decide to come, then I can help with organizing a "home bar" for all Cards fans. The Glendale area of Phoenix is not in the prime-est of locales, so I was thinking of somewhere in Tempe by ASU (my other alma mater.)