SB Nation User Blog: torch

A little exposure for the MMA fight that broke out at the MWC semi-final women's soccer game...

torch — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:21:15 -0000

A little exposure for the MMA fight that broke out at the MWC semi-final women's soccer game between UNM and BYU

Clayton on Cutler

torch — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:48:40 -0000

Clayton on Cutler

Looks like ESPN's John Clayton is sending some love in our new QB's direction. Nice to hear someone from TWWL talk about Jay besides that chump Schlereth

And the First Round Pick.. Is Nowhere to Be Found

torch — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:47:51 -0000

In a previous fan post, T.O.E. implied that the Bulls management is incompetent based on the number of our draft picks since '99 that are currently on our roster. In a vacuum, only having 4 players out of 15 picks ('99-'08) sounds like a low number. However if you look at the league as a whole, we compare favorably on the number of our own first rounf draft picks retained.

The Bulls still have 4 of the 15 players they drafted over the last 10 years. Note: I'm accounting for draft day trades in my totals, so in '06 we drafted Tyrus and Thabo in the first round, not Aldridge. Here are all of the numbers from '99 - '08:

Some other interesting facts:

Only 7 of 115 first round draft picks from '99 - '02 are currently on the roster of the team that drafted them.
One sixth of the first round draft picks from '07 and '08 are not playing for the teams that drafted them.
Just above a third (36.6%) of all players drafted in these ten years still play for the teams that drafted them.
Only 17.4% of players on at least their second contract (drafted '99-'04) still play for the team that drafted them.

While we may have squandered some of our draft choices, our inability to keep our own draft picks is not the reason why we haven't gone far into the postseason these last 10 years. We're pretty average in the number of our own draft picks still on our roster. You can also see that there is little correlation between how many of your own draft picks you keep on the roster and how many wins you have.

Bulls Waive Roberson

torch — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:49:40 -0000

Bulls Waive Roberson

[From the FanShots. Interesting note below about the timing of this move. It'd be strange if the Bulls felt they couldn't make a decision on Roberson until they saw him in Summer League -ed.]

I don't think anyone expected him to contribute much if he made the team (especially with the Hunter resigning), but I'm curious about the timing of this. I thought I saw somewhere that his deal became guaranteed back on July 10th, which would have salary cap/luxury tax implications. Any capologists care to comment?

Tinker Streaming Ads

torch — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:07:38 -0000

These new ads that are appearing on every page - the streaming ones from Tinker (at least, that's who they seems to be) - are absolutely killing page load performance on the SB Nation web sites.

A page will load, but I will not be able to scroll up or down, or click through any links, etc unti after the Tinker streaming ad has received its streaming data from the its data source.

Can we get this fixed some how? I am willing to deal with ads on the sites, but not when they lock up my browser window.

Tweeting for Tickets

torch — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:22:25 -0000

Two Free Tickets!!!

Thought I would throw this out there for everyone - if anyone here is on Twitter, the team's has an account there - it is @NHLBlackhawks. They are giving away two tickets for Game 5 to a Twitter follower who comes up with the funniest prediction for Game 5 that will not come true on Saturday. Check out their Twitter feed for more info.

And if anyone cares (not expected) - @Torch02 is my username at Twitter

Sam Smith started it all?

torch — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:17:45 -0000

Sam Smith started it all?

Mark Cuban recently comments on his blog reaching its 5th anniversary. In this first post, Cuban outed our man Sam as the one sportwriter he doesn't like:

"The majority of reporters and columnists are good people. There are a couple, no make that 1 Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune who I can’t stand."

Game Preview #72 - Detroit Pistons @ Chicago Bulls

torch — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:10:47 -0000

[Note by your friendly BullsBlogger, 03/24/09 2:00 PM CDT : Thanks to torch for today's game preview -ed.]

After last night's near loss to the Least of the East, it is hard to rustle up any optomism for our game tonight against the Pistons. However we can take solace in tow things: 1) A win is a win, and 2) the Pistons might be more beat up than Boston was a week ago.

Tonight begins Operation Toyota, our quest to pass Detroit and acquire the 7th seed in the playoffs. Hollinger currently has us in the 8th seed in the East, with the same record as Detroit (40-42). We currently sit two games behind them in the standings, having played two more games than they have. More importantly, we play them tonight and again in three weeks. The only tough game we have remaining on our schedule is against Miami this Thursday at home and we only have two road games left. Detroit has a home game against the Lakers on Thursday, while also traveling to both Cleveland and Miami later this season and they have seven games away from Auburn Hills remaining. If we take care of business tonight and on April 13th, we will be percentage points ahead of Detroit in the standings while holding the head-to-head tie breaker. From there, we only need to win one more game than they do over our remaining schedule. As far fetched as it may seem, this is reasonably within our reach

On to tonight's game: According to the Detroit Free Press, Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson are out for tonight, with Rip Hamilton being very doubtful. Besides the depth issues this poses Detroit, it also benefits us on the defensive end, as our guards won't have to chase Rip around and our bigs can stay closer to the paint, not having to guard Sheed at the time line. This makes tonight's extremely winnable, especially at home. Accuscore has us as a 3:1 favorite tonight. Let's prove the computers right!

Blogging with the Enemy:

Piston Powered
Pistons Nation Blog

Game time: 7:00 PM CDT
Coverage: TNT, ESPN Radio 1000

Game Preview #59 - Chicago Bulls at Washington Wizards

torch — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:03:38 -0000

[Thanks to torch for today's game preview. I was briefly invigorated after the trade deadline, but now I look to games with a bit of dread thinking of what VDN is going to do. He's benching Derrick Rose! -ed.]

With the tragedies of yesterday, it will be hard as a fan to focus on a simple game that's getting played tonight in our nation's capitol. But I think we can say with some certainty that both Johnny and Norm would want nothing more than the boys to play basketball tonight.

To the game - it's hard to predict how this game will turn out. We should beat a team like Washington, but expectations have been turned on their heads with wins against Denver and Orlando followed by losses to Indiana and New Jersey over the past week. The Wizards are currently fighting Oklahoma City for the second most ping pong balls in the lottery this summer.

Position by position we match up well - Rose/Deng/Noah easily out-class James/McGuire/Songaila. I'll give them PF with Jamison (their only consistent weapon) over Thomas. I'll leave it up to the reader to debate Bulter versus Gordon. When it comes to bench depth, we easily win the battle. The Washington bench has combined for only 60 points over their last three games. A lot of that has to do with injury (Arenas and Haywood out, Butler and Songaila missing time), but it is that injured team we are playing tonight.

We always seem to have rough battles with Washington, so this one will likely come down to who wants it more. Let's hope that the post-game discussion is talking about how we bounced back from those disappointing losses this week, rather than debating whether Vinny has gone crazy with his new toys. Accuscore has us as a 2:1 favorite. We may even get some support from the President on this one.

Blogging with the Enemy:
Bullets Forever
Washington Wizards Blog
Wizards Talk

Game time: 6:05 PM Central
Coverage: Comcast SportsNet, ESPN Radio 1000

Hopefully tonight will be the third time in a row that I've watched the Bulls win in the Verizon Center.
I'll be the guy in the 1984 red Jordan jersey just a few rows behind the Bulls bench. Enjoy the game!

Should the "Tim Thomas treatment" be retired?

torch — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:04:57 -0000

Should the "Tim Thomas treatment" be retired?

In a column talking about the likelihood that Starbury ends up in Boston, John Hollinger said "...He missed most of last season with ankle problems, and was Tinsleyed by the Knicks before he ever played a game this season."

Up until this season, that expression used to be "he was Tim Thomas'd," in reference to how Tim was treated by the Bulls in his last stint here. However, with his return and Vinny's willingness to actually play him, is the "Tim Thomas treatment" no longer an applicable description?