MEANGREENMAN!

Josh has been one of the best hitters on this team besides Vlad, Cruz, and maybe Elvis (I guess you could throw in Arias too). The power will come, but right now you have to look at his approach. He is drawing a ton of walks and driving the ball to the opposite field. Yesterday's loss was absolutely heart wrenching. But sometimes you need to look beyond the W-L. All of our starters have had quality starts except for the first Harden start. Borbon wont hit sub .100 for the whole season and I doubt we will see another inning this season where Elvis and Davis make errors. The main concern right now is the bullpen. But really if you look it hasn't been terrible. Fransisco got hammered a few times and even in his one game as a non closer needed Elvis to make a great diving play and a catch on the warning track to get out of the inning. Chris Ray has looked really good and Darren Oliver is solid. O'Day is not 100%, but he is still pitching decently well. Feliz hasn't pitched back to backs in the majors, but the way his motion is I don't think there will be a whole lot of strain on his arm. These upcoming series against the Yanks and Sawx will tell a lot about this team. If they can pull together some big wins it could really get this team on a roll. I have watched all of the AL West teams play 2 games so far and I think the Rangers have the most talent and should come out on top.

Who's more radical than a president who appointed a guy named Scooter?

A Thursday game would be great. Last year after the Thursday night win over Ball State UNT was taken off of the back burner. Even the UNT avoiding ESPN Radio had Todd Dodge on with Galloway to talk about the win.

Anyone know what this is about? Looks like we may have dodged a bullet.

The spread doesn't work without running QBs. Which is why big, fat Chase Daniel was a Heisman candidate.

Thompson looked very good early, especially whenever he got a chance to roll out and made some great throws on the run. He did miss a couple of wide open receivers, but only because he didn't look their way not because of errant throws. I wouldn't worry too much about the running game. They ran the zone read A LOT and in this type of game where the play is dead when the QB is touched the only way the play would gain decent yardage was for the QB to give up the ball. There were a lot of different RBs that showed flashes. Brandin Byrd caught my eye among the masses. Something I found interesting was that, almost without exception, whenever Rodge stepped onto the field the ball came his way. I know it was just a spring game, but there were signs that I really liked. Not all of it may come together in 2010, but 2011 should be an exciting year.

I could have sworn he had, but now I see I was wrong. Anyway Evan Grant just tweeted that Feliz is the new "temporary" closer and that Fransisco will return eventually.

I still don't think it's time to pull the trigger on a closer switch, but if Wash does there is no way he can pick anybody but Neftali. Feliz pitched back to backs last season and was not as effective, but we shouldn't Joba him. The kid can pitch and the only way he is going to become a better pitcher is to pitch more. I don't really see any other closers out in that bullpen. O'Day closed some games last year, but his elbow is suspect and is better as a situational and 7th or 8th inning guy. Oliver is our best lefty in the pen so to pigeonhole him to the ninth inning takes away a lot of favorable match ups. Chris Ray is not the same pitcher after he got surgery. Doug Mathis is not a guy who has closer stuff and Nippert needs to be ready for spot starts and for when Rich Harden only goes 2 innings. Give me the guy who has struck out 4 of the last 6 batters he has faced and let him take his lumps.

Feliz. Hands down. Next question.

It's amazing how one win can make you rethink everything. Besides Harden's start all of our starters have looked great. And soon enough the bats have to wake up, these hitters are too good to stay silenced. Right now I am most concerned about the bullpen. O'Day pitched two days in a row after getting a cortizone shot in his elbow, I'm concerned about his ability to remain healthy. Ray was less than stellar and Frankie's appearance was a bit concerning and he is always one pitch away from a DL stint. Right now my spirits are high, I just have to calm down and lay off the overreactions.

This also could work on the Fred Couples thread.

Phil Mickleson is in a similar program where he gives away his tournament used sports bras to Somalians as escape boats in case of pirate attack.

I know there have been rumblings for years about bringing a baseball program up to North Texas due to the incredible amount of talent that can be found in the Metroplex. It really is a shame we haven't been able to put one together.

Mangino would drop at least 20 F bombs just trying to get his pants on every morning.

*sigh* http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/04/09/david-cross-arrested-development-movie-no/

Ah, I'll just take a page out of my Deadspin commenting handbook. In other football thread related news check out this dog video!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl_2YtnH6nA&feature=player_embedded

"I love disabled golfer jokes!" -Casey Martin

MAN PUTTIN' BOOGERS ON MY JERSEY AIN'T COOL!!!

I know the team wont be run first, but a guy can wish.

Reports say Kinsler took a look at his league low .58 ground ball to fly ball ratio and realized he needs to make a fix. Moving down in the order will help him a lot. I am very pleasantly surprised with Vlad so far I really hope he can stay healthy throughout the entire summer.

May I ask what positions on this team are deeper? RB, WR, and then....? I'm not saying we have Peyton Manning as a fall back if Joe Montana fails, just that both Tune and Thompson seem to both be serviceable options. Much is being made of Tune only starting two games and, while that is true, it's not like he didn't play. Last year in 5 games Tune had a QB rating of 126.88 and was only sacked twice in 107 passing attempts (which included a game against Troy who averaged 2.5 sacks per game) in comparison Rodge was sacked 10 times in 303 attempts. Every source I have looked at has seen says that Thompson can play. The fact that he is challenging a senior who performed adequately when he got the opportunity to play only drives home that point. Yes, the zone read was a huge part of our offense last year, but only when Rodge was healthy. Lance was still able to contribute in a big way without Rodge in the line-up and from spring games (against our defense I know, I know) it looks like he is in even better shape this year. As far as injuries go the fact that both Tune and Thompson are competing for the job shows that the two players are comparable. If both go out yes we are in trouble, but show me a D1 school who can afford to lose their top two options at QB. The biggest point I am trying to make is that we don't need to chuck the ball all around the yard anymore. From the reports we are getting it seems that the two of the best players on our team play running back and we are hurting this team if we throw the ball 35-40 times a (competitive) game.

I really think everyone is blowing this whole QB situation out of whack. Compared to other positions on this team QB is one of our deepest. I don't think anyone is disillusioned about the ability of the defense (or lack of it) and going in with the mentality that you need to pass to win may not be the best for the team. I know I have said it again and again, but we have the Sun Belt's version of Chris Johnson on our roster and he needs to be the number 1 focus of the offense. Running the ball with Copspeed is essentially just like the passing game Dodge has implemented over the past 3 years, consistent short gains that have the potential to break a long play, except less of a chance at a backbreaking turnover. Whether it is Tune or Thompson who ends up taking snaps this season the team will be most effective establishing Lance as a running threat and then use play action when LD isn't breaking 60 yard runs. No need to split into Team Tune and Team Thompson, let's worry a little bit more about Ira Smith getting burned deep.

All of his studs are coming back so I bet he'll stick around for at least one more year.

I didn't realize Bain was out. The intent of the post was to bring to light that Thompson is a Sophomore and not a Redshirt Freshman as stated earlier in the thread.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe I read on ESPN Dallas that Thompson lost his redshirt when Todd Dodge, in his infinite wisdom, put him in the last game of the season after Rodge and Tune went down.