2) The BCS games have been a disappointment for the most part.  The smaller, traditional bowls (Alamo, Sun, Outback) have all been far more interesting.  Hopefully, tonight’s national championship game will be more interesting.

3) Pac-10: 2-5 in bowl games, yikes. Still, the league is looking scary next year.  SC will be strong with Matt Barkley getting another year of experience.  Oregon will be the favorite since they are returning Masoli, James and most of their defense.  Stanford should be strong with Andrew Luck, but will need to replace Toby Gerhart.  Washington is dangerous with Jake Locker back.  Oregon State is always solid.  As is CAL.  Arizona and Arizona State are question marks, but have high upside.  Not so sure about UCLA.  WSU is a doormat.

4) As for the Giants, they look like they’ll be taking a step back this year in order to take a step forward in 2011.  They’re replacing Bengie Molina and Brad Penny with Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey.  Posey and Bumgarner are two huge parts of their future.  Posey projects as a #3 type hitter who can hit for average and power.  His major project, though, will be learning to catch the Giants very talented power arms.  Bumgarner had an underwhelming debut, but was still solid and could be an ideal #5 starter.  There’s some upside with him in the rotation as opposed to say, Jon Garland.

5) Watched a lot of Sharks over the break.  Still not enough there to determine how they’ll do in the playoffs.  Would like to see them add a second/third line power forward who will stand in front of the net on the power play (Ethan Moreau?) and a defenseman.  I think they may be capped out.

6) 49ers: I want them to draft a QB (Sam Bradford!), but they won’t.  They need to improve the offense significantly.  If the offense can just stay on the field, the defense will be better rested.  I would use their first round picks on a cornerback (Joe Haden) and then trade down to grab an offensive lineman or two or three.  I would also love to see them add some speed to offense and the return game.  Jahvid Best or Joe McKnight anyone?  A short yardage back would also be nice (see Toby Gerhart).

I’m tempted to buy the MLB package just to see Posey.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/notebook?page=notebook/shootaround/pac10

1) Big win tonight after a disappointing loss to the Rockies last night. They remain four games back in the wildcard. If they do win the wild card, Travis Ishikawa’s home run tonight could be considered a turning point for the season.

2) The Giants have are in a difficult position right now. Pablo Sandoval and Freddy Sanchez are injured and the bullpen is weary. The hope is that they some of their veterans, such as Aaron Rowand and Randy Winn can step it up.

3) Even if the Giants do not get the wild card, their competitiveness is encouraging. The team is on the rise. They have Lincecum and Cain, of course. Zito might be turning the corner and adjusting to his declining velocity. His second half pitching has been nothing short of superb. Sanchez is coming around as well. Throw in Madison Baumgartner, the Giants top pitching prospect, and you have an excellent young rotation. If MadBaum is not ready, there is a chance Noah Lowry could come back. The bullpen should also remain relatively intact, with Bob Howry being the only loss. The offense should improve as Sandoval, Ishikawa and co. develop. The team also has some money to throw around with Randy Winn and Randy Johnson set to become free agents. I would use that money to add a solid power hitting outfielder and a set up guy for the bullpen. The rest of the money should be saved to resign the young pitchers.

The lineup next year should look like

1) Lewis, LF (assuming they do not sign another OF)
2) Sanchez, 2B
3) Sandoval, 3B
4) Posey/Molina, C
5) Garko/Ishikawa, 1B
6) Schierholz, RF

7) Rowand, CF

Renteria, SS

The problem with the lineup is there are few scary hitters. The team has a number of solid guys (Garko, Sanchez, Rowand) but no dangerous power hitters. The offense will only improve if Posey is better than Molina, which is unclear for at least next year. In the long run, he should hit for a higher average, get on base more and possibly provide more power than Bengi. Schierholz is another key. He has the potential to hit around .280-.290 and possibly knock in 20 HRs. The question is whether he will be given the opportunity to reach that potential.

Renteria is clearly the weakest link here. My hope is that the team starts Uribe, who has been a much better hitter, and use Edgar as a utility guy. We will see.

The funny thing is that for years Economists have been saying America needs to improve its savings rate.  It’s been the primary benefit of plans for privatizing social security, creating opt-out retirement savings plans and instituting a consumption tax.  Yet ironically, we now need people to spend more than ever.

And seriously, it will take one hell of a stimulus to get people to start spending again.  This recession certainly is not helping.

First, they changed directors to the guy who did Finding Neverland.  I have no idea why they made this move and it made no sense here.  This movie did not seem a continuation of Casino Royale, which is what I think the expectation was.

Second, there was definitely not enough dialogue or character development within the movie.  The Bolivian Bond Girl (who was Ukranian in real life) was fantastic and there was some character development there.  But it seemed as if she had her own, somewhat independent story.  She was awesome and probably could have had her own movie (which would have probably been better than the actual plot of this one), but she was no Vesper.

Third, the whole Quantam back story was severely underdeveloped.  It had the potential to be awesome–”We have people everywhere”–but it turned into a very formulaic Bond film.  Bond chases bad guy.  And again.  And finally he captured him.

That said, it was worth the price of admission and the action scenes were well-shot.  Not Casino Royale.  Probably not even Golden Eye.  But better than anything else in the modern (since Golden Eye on) Bond era.

Krugman, on the other hand, favors a “New Deal” like approach and urges Obama to swing for the fences.

Arguably, Obama is facing one of the most precarious foreign policy situations in recent times.  He has two wars, a tough situation in Pakistan, a potentially nuclear Iran, an enigmatic Russia and a rising China.  Even with all this on the table, he cannot be blind to the Middle East process and the always dangerous conflict over Kashmir.