We knew he's a douche, but not a dumb douche

Michael Phelps is in the news again. Instead of dating strippers, he's just doing drugs now. I dont have much problem with it, but the olympic committee just might, like not letting him swim in the olympics. At least he can retire early and go back to doing what he does best, being a douche

Story

The Bulls actually have a chance to get swept by Boston

Believe it or not but the bulls are only 1.5 games behind the bucks and zero games in the loss column for the 8th and final playoff spot in the eastern conference. Considering the bucks just lost michael redd for the season with a torn ACL/MCL, the outlook actually looks decent for the bulls to get destroyed by the celts in the playoffs. Loul Deng is finally returning to his 06-07 form averaging 18/6/2 in the month january with a solid +/-. Noah and Thomas appear to be bringing their game on a consistent basis, however the center position is pitiful. According to my favorite basketball sabr website, the bulls rank dead last in offensive and defensive PER, sabr efficiency formula with 15 being league average, at the center position. That might be a problem.

http://www.82games.com/0809/BYPOSIT.HTM

Marriage Proposal Gone Awry

More Whacky Trades

Following the theme of my last post, I browsed the net for some other hilarious sports trades over the years and found this article from SeattlePI.com.

Interestingly enough, one of the most infamous and utterly hilarious trades in the history of major league baseball is absent from this list: the notorious trade of Hall of Famer Dave Winfield from the Twins to the Indians.

"During the 1994 baseball strike, which began on August 12, Winfield was traded to the Cleveland Indians at the trade deadline on July 31 for a "player to be named later." The 1994 season was cancelled two weeks later, so Winfield did not play for the Indians that year and no player was ever named in exchange. To settle the trade, Cleveland and Minnesota executives went to dinner, with the Indians picking up the tab. This makes Winfield the only player in major league history to be traded for a dinner."

******************************

Anywho, here are some of the highlights (verbatim) from the original link:

1913: When the St. Louis Browns concluded spring workouts, they didn't have enough money to pay the rent they owed on the Montgomery, Ala., ballpark where they'd trained. So they gave the local minor league team a rookie infielder named Clyde Ellsworth "Buzzy" Wares to satisfy the bill.

1920: Before he made it to the majors, Lefty Grove pitched for the Martinsburg (W. Va.) Mountaineers. In June, a storm leveled the outfield fence at the town's ballpark. The Baltimore Orioles, then of the International League, agreed to pay the price of a new fence, about $3,500, if Martinsburg would fork over Grove.

1962: In April, the Mets traded catcher Harry Chiti to the Indians for a player to be named later. On June 15, the Mets received the PTBNL, who turned out to be Chiti, making Chiti the first player to be traded for himself (in 1987, in the same sort of scenario, Cubs pitcher Dickie Noles was also traded for himself).

1971: The Kitchener Concordia Kickers of the Canadian National League deemed Istvan Gaal such a pathetic player that they swapped him to the Toronto Hungarians for a soccer ball worth $27.50. Kickers president John Fischer said, "I think it was a very fair trade. We didn't give him away for nothing."

1973: In March, Yankee pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich (a Mariners reliever in 1977) swapped families and houses. Marilyn Peterson, her youngest child and their dog went to live with Kekich. Susanne Kekich, her youngest child and their dog went to live with Peterson. The unusual trade prompted Yankees GM Lee McPhail to declare, "We may have to call off Family Day."

1983: The Seattle Breakers of the Western Hockey League traded the rights to left-winger Tom Martin to the Victoria Cougars for a team bus. At the time of the swap, Martin was playing at Denver University and had stated that he wished to play in his hometown of Victoria. The Spokane Flyers purchased the bus from Trailways in 1981 for $60,000. When the Spokane franchise folded, the Cougars purchased the bus, but it remained in the United States because Victoria could not afford to pay customs, excise and sales taxes. The Breakers finally obtained the bus for Martin as well as $35,000. "I didn't think much about it at the time," Martin recalled later. "But it was a real nice bus."

2006: Romanian soccer club UT Arad sold defender Marius Cioara to Regal Horia in exchange for 33 pounds of meat. The deal turned out badly for Regal Horia because Cioara decided to retire. A Regal Horia official told Romania's Pro Sports daily, "We are upset because we lost twice -- firstly because we lost a good player and secondly because we lost our team's food for a whole week."

1998: A Romanian first division soccer club named "Jiul Petrosani" found itself so strapped for cash that it traded one of its players, midfielder Ion Radu, to a Romanian second division team for $2,500 worth of pork. At the same time, Jiul Petrosani also transferred defenseman Liviu Baicea to another Romanian club for 10 soccer balls.

A Fisherman's Tale

We all heard about John Odom last year, but how many of you have you ever heard of Ken Krahenbuhl?

There's no particular reason that you should have, unless you followed independent minor league baseball ten years ago (or watched the MLB Network earlier today). Apparently, in 1998, Krahenbuhl -- six years removed from his brief stint as a minor league Cubs pitcher -- was traded from the now defunct Oxnard Pacific Suns to the also defunct Greenville Bluesmen for $1,000 and "a player to be named later." That "player to be named later" was 10 pounds of catfish.

And if that wasn't strange enough, in his first start as a Bluesmen, Krahenbuhl tossed a perfect game.

(and just in case you hadn't heard of John Odom, he is an independant league baseball player who was traded last season for ten baseball bats because he couldn't get a worker's visa to play for the Canadian baseball team who signed him)

Happy Birthday!!

Cubs News For 01/28/09

Scratch that; the Cubs trade Garrett Olsen and Ronny Cedeno for Aaron Heilman (so they could also make room for Paul Bako, I assume). I no longer like this move, as Garrett Olsen seemed to be a player the Padres highly coveted and was often mentioned in 3-way trade rumors for Peavy. This leaves me wondering if the Cubs even have any pieces left that may interest the Padres outside of Josh Vitters.

____________________

Today, the Cubs moved another out-of-options (OOO) player in Ronny Cedeno, whom we traded to the Mariners for Aaron Heilman. I really like this move, as Heilman is an underrated bullpen arm with great control (3+ K/BB from 2005-2007, had a bad year last year). This move should shore up the Cubs late game security.

Next on the Radar is Rich Hill, who three unknown teams are allegedly interested in. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to sell low on Hill; we should at least give him a shot in spring training to prove himself as still capable of pitching.

Another move made today (as predicted) is the Cubs signing Paul Bako to a one-year, $750,000 deal. I don't understand why we didn't just resign Henry Blanco, who usually posts CS% in the high 30's/low 40's.

Finally, a few rumors on the rumor mill. According to ESPN, the Cubs are in talk with Juan Uribe to replace Ronny Cedeno as the team's primary utility infielder. Additionally, ESPN is reporting that the Cubs are planning on pursuing Randy Wolf and Braden Looper, who is almost as bad and expensive as Jason Marquis, if they cannot get Jake Peavy.

Gabe Kapler’s lucky 18

Two years ago Gabe Kapler retired from baseball and was coaching in the minor’s. Last year he was given a second chance with the Milwaukee Brewers and made a comeback. They were without Mike Cameron for the first 50 games of the season while he was serving a suspension and needed an extra body. He made the roster out of spring training and everyone thought he would get cut when Cameron returned. He wasn’t though and had a very good season for a guy who took a year of to coach. He was a very good role player and did a good job hitting left-handed pitching while playing all three outfield spots.

This led him to sign a guaranteed contract with the Tampa Bay Rays last week. He will be a backup outfielder and could get a lot of playing time to start the season if B.J. Upton is not ready to go. What’s interesting about the contract is the salary. He will be making $1,000,000.18. He wanted the 18 cents because his lucky number is 18 for Chai. If he was really Jewish he would have made it 18 dollars!

CP3 3 steals short of a quadruple double

Chris Paul is a sick sick man. He doesnt play in a mike d'antoni system like steve nash did, and he doesnt run a pick and roll offensive like jerry sloan does for deron williams. He is just a sick baller who cannot be stopped. Tonight against the 76ers, paul went for a cool 27/10/15/7 line. That's 3 steals short of the oh so rare quadruple double. If you thought a perfect game or an unassisted triple play is a rarity, consider that there have only been 4 such occurrences in the history of basketball. David Robinson and Hakeen Olajuwon stand out and only one occasion where steals was the 4th category. 10 steals is much harder to get than 10 blocks, but i predict Paul will one day to it. He did just set the record for most consecutive games with a steal so anything is possible.

Joe Morgan confuses me

Morgan's response to what he thought of Obama's inauguration.

"It wasn't just the black people who made sacrifices. There were a lot of white people who died to help the cause. We seem to forget them. And I thought about where are we going now."

Can someone explain to me what he's talking about. Apparently he feels sorry for the white man. Back to lab

Mythbusters: Baseball Myths

Today, I ran across a pair of old Mythbusters episodes that took on several of baseball's most notorious myths. Can a corked bat hit a baseball farther than a regular baseball bat? Does eye black really work? Does adding humidity to a baseball reduce it's tendency to be hit for a home run? Is there such a thing as a rising fastball? Is it faster to slide or slow down into bases that you can't overrun in a game? Can a fastball ball hit hard enough cause the baseball's hide and stitching to be torn apart?

The answers are:
1. There is no available video for the first myth, but Mythbusters proved that putting cork in a bat actually reduced the momentum of the batted ball by up to 50%. In other words, if Sosa truly was playing with a corked bat, not only was he cheating himself out of homeruns, but he was also significantly more powerful than fans ever gave him credit for!

2.
Yes, but it only works on reflected glare (not direct sunlight)

3. I couldn't find a video for the humidity myth, but Mythbusters proved that there is a noticeable impact on the home run propensity of baseballs stored in humid areas.

4.
No.

5. I couldn't find a video for the sliding myth, but Mythbusters proved that sliding is unequivocally more effective by fractions of a second.

6.
Not by a human, no.

Michael Schur (aka K.T. of F.J.M.)

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Ken Tremendous, aka Mose Schrute from the Office.

Doesn't exactly look like a WARP-2 junkie, does he?

My Briefs Thoughts on Vontae Davis

I figure we ought to talk about college sports every once in a while and what better sport than Illinois Football.

Now I have actually had the privilege of meeting the star Illini cornerback Vontae Davis, younger brother of high draft pick, big bust TE Vernon Davis, and he's a really funny guy and I wish the best for him.

But I think he's going to be like his brother. A high draft pick and a big bust. Mel Kiper predicts him to go as the 17th overall pick. Luckily this puts him at the New York Jets and not the Chicago Bears (at 18). Because frankly, I don't want him.

Last year was Vontae's best year. He had like 14 INTs. This was also Illinois' best front 7 in recent memory. Last year, Illinois wasn't bad at all getting to the QB which made the secondary, and Vontae Davis much better. But this past year, when the front 7 was not very good at sacking, Davis' weakness in coverage were shown.

As I mentioned in a much earlier post about CBs, INTS are a misleading stat, I want to watch how good a defensive back is in coverage. And frankly, after watching Vontae for two years, I just don't see it yet.

Now V.D. is fast as all hell and possess the raw skills and talent to potentially be a good corner, but it seems to me if you're not good in coverage at the college level, you won't be in the pro level.

Now again, I wish all the best for Vontae and I want him to be successful. I also think it looks good for the Illini program that we have two first rounders two years in a row. But as much success as I want V.D. to have, I just don't see it for him. I'm sorry Vontae. But mothafucka, get PAID, homey!

Made Up Name

Nnamdi Asomugha is a made up name. I don't care how good of a Corner Back he is. It is a fucking made up name.

Why I Don't Like Ben Roethlisberger

Besides the fact that his name is near impossible to spell by memory, I think Ben's case is an example where his numbers lie a little.

Let me start off by saying I think he's an above average quarterback that's very mobile, smart, and crazy accurate.

But there's one giant flaw that if he was a free agent, I don't think my beloved Bears should spend a lot of money signing him (although looking into him wouldn't be a bad idea). He's a system quarterback. Ben Roethlisberger is as good as is he because he was lucky enough to get drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He possesses skills to be a great quarterback but he's on a team that highlights his strengths and diminshes his weaknesses.

The big problem with Big Ben is that he isn't asked to throw a whole lot per game. The Steelers during Ben's reign (for the most part) have had a great running game so Ben is only asked to throw about 20-30 times per games. Plus the Steelers defense has been one of the best in the NFL during this time with the Steelers. So the great running game, the stingy D, and Ben's accuracy have made the Steelers a great and winning franchise, but they win with Roethlisberger not because of him. Let's look at his stats during his five year stint.

2004: Steelers running game: 4.0 YPC- 2nd in NFL
Roethlisberger's stats:
295 attempts- 28th in NFL
98.1 passer rating- 5th in NFL
66.4% completion %- t-4th in NFL

2005: Steelers running game: 4.0 YPC- 5th in NFL
Roethlisberger's stats:
268 attempts- 30th in NFL
98.6 passer rating- 3rd in NFL
62.7% completion %- 9th in NFL

2006: Steelers running game: 4.2 YPC- 10th in NFL
Roethlisberger's stats:
469 attempts- 11th in NFL
75.4 passer rating- 21st in NFL
59.7% completion %- 19th in NFL

2007: Steelers running game: 4.2 YPC- 3rd in NFL
Roesthlisberger's stats:
404 attempts- 16th in NFL
104.1 passer rating- 2nd in NFL
65.3% completion %- 7th in NFL

2008: Steelers running game: 3.7 YPC- 23rd in NFL
Roesthlisberger's stats:
469 attempts- 14th in NFL
80.1 passer rating- 24th in NFL
59.9% completion %- 21st in NFL

Last year, the 2008/2009 season, Roethlisberger had his 2nd worst statistical year ever. He had the 2nd lowest completion percentage and 2nd lowest passer rating of his career. It's no surprise that the Steelers running game was by far the worst Big Ben has had in his 5 years and he tied his career high in passing attempts. 2006 was the other year in which he threw so much and this was the year in which he had his career low in passer rating and completion percentage. This WAS Big Ben's worst statistical year. I don't think it's a coincidence that Ben Roethlisberger's two worst years was the years in which he had to throw the most.

Ben's two best years was the 2005/2006 season and the 2007/2008 season. In 2005, Ben was 30th in passer attempts. There are 32 teams in the NFL. This year the Steelers running game was the 5th best in the NFL. In this year, Ben had the 2nd best completion percentage and passer rating in his career. In 2007, Ben experienced the best running game of his career. He only threw 404 times; that's an average of a little less than 27 times a game. ONLY 27! This was the only year in which Ben had a passer rating over 100 and had the 2nd best completion percentage on his career (his best was his rookie year when he only threw it 295 times).

If Big Ben was on the vast majority of other teams and other systems, I believe his numbers would see a significant decline. Ben Roethlisberger has yet to show me he's an elite QB on his own. I will change my mind if he shows me he can have a high number of attempts AND a high completion percentage. The 2008/2009 season was his chance to show he can take an offense on his back and he failed miserably.

This is why I don't like Ben Roethlisberger.

Most important NBA stat, FTA?

Throughout my years of consuming NBA basketball, I have come across a very interesting observation. One of the best predictors of how valuable an NBA player is can be derived from his free throw attempts per game(FTA). This may seem obvious to some, but the exact correlation is actually very striking in how exact it is. On a yearly basis, the top 30 players in terms of FT per game will show you most of the top 30 players in the league. It's uncanny!

As the name indicates, these points are "free" and should never be underestimated in how valuable they are. The history of the NBA has shown that a top player for any given year most likely scores between 25-30 points per game. Now we have to consider how many field goal attempts he averaged that year. If a guy scores 20 points by taking 20 shots per game, he is a BAD player. That is a bad ration of points to shots and very inefficient if you want to win games. Think about it, most teams average between 75-80 shots per game. If your best player gets only 1 point for every shot he takes, your team isnt going to score much and lose. That is a problem with Derrick Rose at this point in his career. He does not get to the free throw line enough to be considered a top player. He averages about 16.5 points on 15 shots per game. That is highly inefficient. He only averages 3 FT's per game. A great player who scores 26 points per game will most likely average about 20 shots per game. When Kobe averaged 35 and T-Mac averaged 33, the didnt simply have out of this world seasons, they simply took more shots because the team around them sucked. Those years kobe took 27 shots, per game, much more than his career average of 19, and T-Mac took 24 shots that year well above his 18 career average.

What stays consistent year to year is free throw attempts is directly proportional to a players efficiency and most times effectiveness. One example from last night. Al Thornton shot 13-28 for 34 points. The extremely high shot total accounted for the 34 point game. He got to the line 6 times and made all 6 shots. So a solid but not great night for the 2nd year player. His teammate Eric Gordon shot 12-19 for 41 points. So he took 9 less shots and scored 7 more points. Far more efficient. How? He took 8 more free throws and made 6 more than Thornton. A spectacular night!! And it just so happens that the best and most talented guys are the ones who get to the line the most. Here is the top 20 this year in FTA per game. Tell me who of these is not great?

1 Dwight Howard (10.7)
2 Dwayne Wade
3 Kevin Martin(most underrated player in NBA)
4 Devin Harris
5 LeBron James
6 Corey Maggette
7 Chris Bosh
8 Shaq O'Neal
9 Danny Granger
10 Amare Staudemire
11 Brandon Roy
12 Kobe Bryant
13 Chris Paul
14 Paul Pierce
15 Kevin Durant
16 Carmelo Anthony
17 Dirk Nowitzki
18 Tim Duncan
19 Chauncey Billups
20 Gerald Wallace(6.4)

Coincidence, I think not.

2 examples on the other spectrum. Peja Stojakovic this year has taken just 44 free throws in 34 games and Bobby Simmons has only taken 31 free throws in 40 games. Both of these players are paid in excess of 10 million and both of them suck!

Uhhh?

Facial

BIG IMPORTANT BASEBALL NEWS

According to the Chicago Tribune, Lance Neikro, the retired and very below average son of a slightly below average knuckleball pitcher (Joe) who just happened to be the brother of a much better knuckleball pitcher (Phil) is back in baseball. No longer as the 20% below MLB average first basemen we've all come to not know him as, however, but as a knuckleball pitcher!

In other news, no one cares.

My NBA Power Rankings

Unlike most power ranking sites, I will do it separately for each conference. My rational is based on imagining that every team in each conference plays every other team in the conference an infinite number of times and rank the teams based on outcome. Obviously I can't watch every game every night, but i have seen every box score this year so I think I have a good idea of what's going on.

Eastern Conference:
1) Boston Celtics - Have no bench as their two "reliable" guys are eddie house and glenn david. Marbury would be a great addition, yet the starters are the best in the NBA. This year it has been allen and rondo carrying the club as opposed to garnett and pierce showing how powerful the starters really are.

2) Orlando Magic - 2 words, Dwight Howard. Although he's not a first option offensively, his presence is that of a HOF center. Orlando just set the record for 3' in a game with 23 thanks to open looks for Lewis, Turkolu, and the much improved Jammer Nelson 51%. Pietrus should return soon and give them more depth and a great perimeter defender.

3) Cleveland Cavaliers - 2 words, LeBron James. Best point differential in NBA due to emphasis on defense. However, unless LeBron channels his inner Jordan in the playoffs, they will be exposed for lack of talent around LeBron come the playoffs.

4) Atlanta Hawks - Lost some of the defensive edge they had finishing last year and beginning of this. Joe Johnson has regressed mainly due to increased shot totals. Mike Bibby is having his best year since the Kings glory days, however the team is still too young and short on the bench to compete for the pennant(wait wrong sport)

5) Philadelphia 76ers - This team in on fire right now. Iguandala is red hot after a slow start and the rest of the starters are solid, consistent performers. Respect Andre Miller. The bench is mainly composed of grinders(good in basketball) and the flair or Louis Willaims. Once Brand is back in shape, this team can contend with the Hawks.

6) Miami Heat - The team in greatly improved from last year, but is still short on number of top players. Wade must carry the team every night, hence him leading the league in scoring. This is reminiscent of great scoring seasons of Kobe on bad Laker teams and T-Mac on bad Magic teams. Chalmers was a great 2nd rounder and Dequan Cook is becoming one of the best 6th men in the league, but the inconsistency and decreasing playing time for marion and beasely is holding this team back.

7) Detroit Pistons - 2 words, Rasheed Wallace. He embraces everything that is wrong with this team. They just don't have the will and fire power to maintain their "Detroit Basketball" style. Wallace is too high to care. He's a freakishly talented 7 footer who take 10 3-pointers a game calls it a day. Replacing Billups with Iverson basically ended their chance of competing this year. With Hamilton now on the bench for the all world Amir Johnson, their only upside is Rodney Stuckey who is showing to be the best player on the team.

8) Milwaukee Bucks - Scott Skiles does what he does. He has put together a solid roster with upside. Redd has improved in January much like Iguandala. The combo of jefferson and vilanueva give them big, skilled scorers. And they have their share of grinders up front with bogut and Luc Richard. Should slide into the playoffs especially with more production comes from 1st rounder Joe Alexander

9) Chicago Bulls - My judgment is skewed on this team so the ranking may be way off. They are pitiful to watch. Their center is Aaron Gray. However, when the team in healthy with gooden, Hinrich, and deng on the court, the Bulls are still competitive against the average teams in the league. God bless Derrick Rose. There is hope

10) Charlotte Bobcats - This team depends on their defense to win games and they have been doing that much more often after the Boris Diaw/Raja Bell trade. Gerald Wallace is an efficient SG. Anyone who didnt this Augustine was big enough to play in the NBA was wrong. This guy can shoot and gets to the line at a Dwight Howard rate.

11) New Jersey Nets - This team has overachieved thus far and I expect them to fall off quickly. Vince Carter is still half man, half amazing, half the time. Devin Harris and Brooke Lopez are the only keepers. They need to clean house including Lawrence Frank.

12) Toronto Raptors - By far the most disappointing team. The problem is squarly on the coaching. Firing Mitchell as the right move, hiring Triano was not. This team is the 5th most talented in the East according to my observation. They have size, depth, shooting, but no direction. Hopefully they can turn it around and challenge for the 8th seed.

13) New York Knicks - I have never been a fan of the D'Antoni system. I dont understand how letting 30% 3-point shooters fire at will and playing 7 guys 40 minutes each every game is suppost to equal wins. It kinda worked in phoenix, but Amare and Nash work in Phoenix. The knicks are in better shape than last year, but thats not saying much. David Lee and Chandler are keepers but the rest need to go before LeBron comes to town

14) Indiana Pacers - Another team with no direction. They play absolutely no defense and hope to outscore some lowly team every now and then. The assembly of this team makes no sense. Danny Granger has to carry the team every game like Wade, except he has even less talent around him. Lets face it, the team is just too white to be any good.

15) Washington Wizards - Worst team in the NBA. Their only chance of winning comes when jamison and butler each go for 30+, which happens about 20% of the time, hence their 20% winning percentage. The rest of the team is garbage. I used to this Blatche had upside, but he makes tyrus thomas look like a polished player. Nick Young looks like the goods, but another guard isnt what the team needs.

Do The Red Sox Need Varitek?

Curt Schilling thinks the Red Sox need Jason Varitek. At a cost of more than $5 million dollars a year, Fangraphs strongly disagrees. Neither Bill James, CHONE or Marcel thinks Varitek is going to bounce back in any way from his 2008 performance. Tek is a player on the decline; at age 36, there is little reason to resign him other than to help "coach" the team's young pitchers (which, by the way, is the job of the pitching coach and/or Kevin Costner).

Fangraphs put Varitek's production value at an astonishingly high $5.6 million (he contributed 1.2 Value Wins to the team, each win being worth [according to calculated league average salary/win contribution] $4.47 million). Baseball Prospectus indicated that the career of a Catcher begins to (sharply) decline somewhere around the age of 32:

"Catchers hold their value pretty well during their late 20s, comparable to other positions. The 30 to 33 range is very volatile... after age 34, things go downhill very quickly for catchers, a trend noticeable even in the very small sample sizes beyond age 35."

Based on empirical evidence, BP suggests that "the physical demands of the position...tend to reduce both the length of their [catchers] peaks and the length of their careers." Knowing this only affirms the conventional wisdom that it would be generally unwise for any team to sign Jason Varitek to an extended contracted.

At this point, however, the Red Sox are in dire need of a capable major league-ready catcher for the 2009 season if they plan on competing. To this point, I assert that the Red Sox sign Varitek to a contract worth no more than $3-4 million a year for no more than two years. Seeing as how Varitek turned down arbitration and would cost any team who signs him a draft pick, Varitek is being flagged. There is little room for him to negotiate a 2009 salary if he plans on playing anywhere other than Boston sometime before June (at which point, he is going to have to take a partial season pay cut anyway). A low value (perhaps incentive laiden) two year contract would be ideal because it would give the Red Sox three viable options for the future at the backstop, in my opinion.

1. Wait two years and sign Joe Mauer, who will be a free agent in 2011 at age 28 (just to clarify, Mauer will turn 28 right before the 2011 season), to an extended contract (4-6 years). Upside: with enough money to spend, the Sox could probably pull this off no problem. Downside: signing Mauer would almost assuredly cost the Sox their first round pick.
   
2. Trade Michael Bowden for Taylor Teagarden. The Red Sox have a very deep farm system when it comes to pitching; the converse is true about their minor league catchers. Obtaining a young player with as much upside as Teagarden could provide much future security for the Red Sox behind the plate.
3. Trade Clay Buchholz for Max Ramirez or Jarrod Saltalamaccia. Same logic as assertion #2, only I've downgraded the pieces of the trade on both sides of the table. It's already publically know that the Rangers covet Bowden and Buchholz and won't trade any of their young catcher for anything less than top talent. Given the Rangers' surplus of talent behind the plater, a swap of player depths between Boston and Texas seems most logical (especially since the Dbacks aren't willing to give up Miguel Montero at a reasonable price).

By 2011, any one of these four players should be ready and able to go as the Red Sox future catcher.

Donvan McNabb Is Black Therefore It's OK To Call Him Shit

Everyone from the residents of Philadelphia, from Rush Limbaugh, to every football analyst under the sun hates Donovan McNabb, and I don't understand this!? Their argument basically is that McNabb and the Eagles have been to five NFC Championship games and lost four of them. The one Superbowl appearance Donovan and The Eagles have been to was a losing effort to the dynasty that was the New England Patriots. This argument is just ridiculous.

First of all, do you know how hard it is to appear in five Championship games!? My roommate pointed out to me that if you have a first round bye all you have to do is win one game and you're in the Championship game. Three responses to that: First, if this year and Denny Green's Vikings are any indicator, it's not necessarily the easiest thing to win just one playoff game. Second, to be in the position to have a first round bye is impressive. In fact, to lead your team after 16 games to earn a first round bye is really good and almost better than just one sole game. Lastly, not all of McNabb's NFC Championship appearances came when his team earned a first round bye. Like this year- his team was the 6th seed and went to the big game.

It's an extremely impressive feat to be so good to make it to five NFC Championship games. Many QBs don't even have the chance to make it to one nevertheless five. Yes, he didn't make it to the ultimate goal (winning a Superbowl) but when you come that close for this long, you don't deserve to get shit on like he does.

Here's some examples of other great sports people in recent history who came close to winning it all but didn't, yet still doesn't get close to the amount to crap that McNabb does (that I can think of right now):
-Jim Kelly (QB- Bills). He went to four straight Superbowls and never won once (although he should at least one but stupid fucking Scott Norwood...)
-Bobby Cox (Manager- Braves). His team went to 14 straight playoffs and only won one World Series even though he had arguably the greatest rotation in history (plus a darn good offense throughout the years to go along with it)
-Alex Rodriguez (3B- Yankees). Yes people blame him all the time for choking in the playoffs but if he retired today I think he'd be in the Hall of Fame. Plus, SMALL SAMPLE SIZE SMALL SAMPLE SIZE!
-Peyton Manning (QB- Colts). Before this douchebag won in 2006 he had been to plenty of postseason games in the pros AND in college and seemingly never was able to win a big game. But how much criticism did we hear about this!? Very little.
-Dan Marino (QB- Dolphins). As great and awesome and excellent as a QB Marino was, he only made it to one SB and lost it.

Now I know McNabb respectively is nowhere near the talent that each of these four men are at their position, but seriously, don't dismiss all of what McNabb has done based on four or five games.

And in further respect, McNabb (except for one year with T.O. AND in the playoffs T.O. was injured and didn't play) has never had a legit #1 receiver and Andy Reid is just retarded in how he uses Brian Westbrook so McNabb loses a little something from throwing so much and the Eagles not running nearly enough. Also, the entire Eagles team and how many games they win or lose is not ALL on Donovan's shoulders; teams do have defenses you know.

Now in all fairness, the fact that McNabb has not been able to win a Superbowl with five prime opportunities is most certainly a fault of his. I mean seriously, with his first 3 appearances he most certainly should have won those games. But the fact that he didn't isn't as big of a deal as the media and Philly fans make it out to be. And McNabb (while his career is not over) has not shown to me that he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Not like Peyton or Kelly and of course he's not even in the same league, not even in the same breath as Dan Marino. But (as Skip Bayless likes to say) if there is a Hall of Very Good, McNabb would fit right in.

McNabb is still an above average QB and better than the vast majority of QBs both this year and throughout his career. The fact that he's lost four out of his five NFC Championship games is a fault, but he's still a fucking good QB and as a Bears fan, I'd still love to have him.

And in case you were offended by my title yet still read all of my article, it's a fucking joke- get over it.

The Cubs Have A New Owner?

EDIT: This story is starting to seem pretty official at this point. Look for an announcement by the Tribune Company tomorrow or Monday.

___________________

The Sun-Times is reporting that the Tribune Company has (unofficially) selected Thomas Ricketts as the new Owner of the Chicago Cubs. Rickett's bid is speculated to be around $900 million.

According to the unnamed source who "confirmed" the Ricketts selection by the Tribune Company, Tom Ricketts -- who met his wife in the Bleachers at Wrigley field -- is said to have offered the most stable and conservative financing package to purchase the Chicago Cubs. Given that the Tribune Company recently filed for Bankruptcy, the selection of Tom Rickets seems to make the most sense because Sam Zell probably wants to unload as much of the Tribune's debt as quickly and as fiscally sound as possible.

SPIN: Thomas Ricketts is a wealthy, long-time Cubs fan who once lived above a bar across from Wrigley Field. Hopefully, if selected as the new owner, he will do all in his power to ensure future and present Cubs victories as more than just a financial stakeholder.

It's Official

How big is the media's love for Obama? Even irrelevant forums are praising him. One need look no further than the first sentence of the Rolling Stones Magazine review (dated 01/21/09) of Bruce Springsteen's new album, "Working On A Dream."

"To understand the romantic sweep and swaggering musical ambition that define Bruce Springsteen's first album of the Obama era, you have to go all the way back to an artifact of the Ford administration."

Welcome to the Obama years, America.

MLB Rule Changes

On Thursday January 15th the owner’s meetings were going on and they approved two things. For some reason I barley have heard much about it. I wanted to make sure everyone else did. They changed the rules so:
1) All postseason games will be played to their conclusion.
2) Head to head records will replace the coin flip in determining home field advantage for the tie-breaker game in division and wild card races.

Did everyone else know about these changes? Am I the only one who cares?

Sunday Night Baseball is Gonna Suck, More

There had been speculation that the broadcast duo of Joe Morgan and Jon Miller for Sunday Night ESPN baseball was going to split up ending their reign of terror on baseball fans everywhere. But ESPN decided to go a different direction by adding STEVE PHILLIPS to the sunday night broadcast. Dear GOD no!! Thats like throwing gasoline on a fire, like letting Michael Jackson babysit your kids, like cheating on OJ Simpson. Just don't do it!

New Sabermetric Discovered!

It's called Grindiness Per Nine Innings (G/9). To calculate a player's G/9, you simply multiply the amount of heart a player has by his ability to "grind" in "clutch" situations and then divide that by the difference between his BA and OBP. Then, add X, where X is equal to how many World Series ring this player has. Finally, multiply your figure by 9 and you will have any given player's "Raw Grindiness Factor" (RGF), which must be adjusted for park factors like "it's really hard to be on the Yankees because people expect big things from you" or "used a Shortstop's mitt at Second Base."

Players who annually rank top 10 in G/9:
01. David Eckstein (Small Guy, Big Heart, TWO World Series Rings!!)
02. Derek Jeter (Captain Clutch, Mr. November, makes appearances on SNL)
03. Darren Erstad ("The Punter", dirties up his uniform every single game)
04. Scott Posednick (From Rule 5 To Fifth String OF!: The Scotty Pods Success Story)
05. Jacque Jones (strong ability to try hard trumps weak arm and inability to walk)
06. Justin Mornaeu (Captain Clutch Jr.)
07. C.C. Sabathia (completes every game he starts and has the ability to pitch on three days rest five consective times late in a season after throwing over 5oo innings over the past two seasons because he's "competitive")
08. K-Rod (you might as well nickname him Jesus for all the shit he saves)
09. Juan Pierre (Mr. "What Is This New-Fangled OPS Shit? Did You See How Many SBs Pierre Had In 2008?")
10. Carlos Zambrano (His sheer manliness prevents him from hydrating during games)

Players who annually rank bottom 10 in G/9.
01. Alex Rodriguez (anti-clutch, "overpaid")
02. Adam Dunn (doesn't try, not entertaining enough to watch, can't run the 50 yard dash in 3 seconds)
03. Barry Bonds (cheater, drug-user, sells poison milk to school children)
04. Jason Giambi (the biggest bust in baseball; only hits 33 HR a year)
05. Aaron Harang (strikeouts are fascist, couldn't get Cy Young votes if his life depended on it, brags too much about his 4:1 strikeout rate, what are statistics?)
06. Pat Burrell (his career .852 OPS is too inconsistant)
07. Frank Thomas (clogs the bases, strikes out too much)
08. Johan Santana (ONLY won 16 games in 2008; his inability to complete every outing last year showed his lack of competitiveness [that and the fact that he did not pitch on 3 days rest five consecutive times])
09. Bert Blyleven (ONLY has 3701 career strikeouts, ONLY has 287 wins, no perfect games)
10. Mark Teixeira (his refusal of an 8-year, $140 million contract from the perennial losers that are the Texas Rangers in favor of an 8-year, $180 million contract from the perennial winners that are the Yankees makes him greedy)

Former Billy Beane Protege Loves Grinders

Paul DePodesta was depicted as the stat nerd in the book "Moneyball". He was the guy who would sit behind Billy Beane looking up stats on his stat finder and reciting those stats over to Beane for final approval. He was to be the next great GM and so was hired by the Los Angelas Dodgers to drive them into the groud...errrr...bring them back to prominence in a cost efficient way. He did get his economics degree from Harvard, what could possibly go wrong?

He turned out to be no Billy Beane, not even close for that matter. One of his major problems can be summarized in his last blog post, yes he has a blog for some reason. Being apart of the San Diego Padres front office, he commented on the teams recent signing of none other than David 'MVP' Eckstein. Paul speaks very highly of Eckstein's grindyness. I mean he has the dirtiest uniform in sports, you cant even clean it cause it's so dirty. Cause he grinds. And he wins championships all by himself, well him and his grindyness that is.

2009 WBC Provisional Rosters

The (relevant) World Baseball Classic Rosters

United States
C - Brian McCann, Chris Ianetta, A.J. Pierzynski, Brian Schneider
1B - Derrek Lee, Kevin Youkilis
2B - Mark DeRosa. Dustin Pedroia, Brian Roberts
SS - Derek Jeter, Jimmy Rollins
3B - Chipper Jones, Evan Longoria, David Wright
OF - Ryan Braun, Curtis Granderson, Brad Hawpe, Ryan Ludwick, Carlos Quentin, Grady Sizemore, Shane Victorino, Vernon Wells
SP - John Danks, Jeremy Guthrie, Scott Kazmir, John Lackey, Ted Lilly, Roy Oswalt, Jake Peavy
RP -Jonathan Broxton, Joey Devine, Brian Fuentes, J.P. Howell, Matt Lindstrom, Joe Nathan, J.J. Putz, Chad Qualls, B.J. Ryan, George Sherrill, Scot Shields, Matt Thorton, Justin Verlander, Brad Ziegler

Dominican Republic:
C - Wilkin Castillo, Miguel Olivo, Ronny Paulino
1B - Carlos Pena, Albert Pujols
2B - Adrian Beltre, Robinson Cano, Placido Polanco
SS - Jhonny Peralta, Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, Miguel Tejada
3B - Aramis Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez
OF - Moises Alou, Melky Cabrera, Vladamir Guerrero, Jose Guillen, Alfonso Soriano, Willy Taveras
SP - Daniel Cabrera, Fausto Carmona, Johnny Cueto, Ualdo Jimenez, Fransisco Liriano, Pedro Martinez, Odalis Perez, Wandy Rodriguez, Ervin Santana, Edison Volquez
RP - Jose Arredondo, Santiago Casilla, Fransisco Cordero, Juan Cruz, Octavio Dotel, Carlos Marmol, Damaso Marte, Tony Pena, Rafael Perez, Edwar Ramirez, Ramon Ramirez, Frenando Rodney, Jose Valverde, Jose Veras

Venezuela:
C - Henry Blanco, Ramon Hernandez, Dioner Navarro, Humberto Quintero, Max Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval
1B - Carlos Guillen, Oscar Salazar
2B - Alex Cabrera, Jose Lopez
SS - Cesar Izturis, Macier Izturis, Marco Scutaro, Omar Visquel
3B - Miguel Cabrera, Melvin Mora
INF - Edgar Alonzo, Jose Castillo, Jesus Guzman
OF - Bobby Abreu, George Blanco, Endy Chavez, Carlos Gonzalez, Magglio Ordonez, Gerardo Parra, Juan Rivera
SP - Armando Galarraga, Angel Guzman, Felix Hernandez, Anibal Sanchez, Johan Santana, Carlos Silva, Carlos Zambrano
RP - Jose Ascanio, Rafael Bentacourt, Carlos Carrasco, Cesar Jimenez, Jorge Julio, Jose Mijares, Victor Moreno, Fernando Nieve, Renyel Pinto, Juan Rincon, Fransisco Rodriguez, Victor Zambrano

Puerto Rico:
C - Raul Casanova, Bengie Molina, Yadier Molina, Pudge, Geovany Soto, Javier Valentin
1B - Carlos Delgado
2B - Felipe Lopez
SS - Mike Aviles, Alex Cora,
3B - Mike Lowell, Ramon Vasquez
INF - Ivan DeJesus, Luis Figueroa, Andy Gonzalez, Jose Valentin,
OF - Carlos Beltran, Hiram Bocachica, Jesus Feliciano, Luis Matos, Alex Rios, Andres Torres, Bernie Williams
SP - Jonathan Sanchez, Ian Snell, Javier Vasquez, Joel Pineiro
RP - Giancarlo Alvarado, Federico Baez, Fernando Cabrera, Kiko Calero, Pedro Feliciano, Nelson Figueroa, Javier Lopez, Ivan Maldonado, Josue Matos, Juan Padilla, Saul Rivera, Orlando Roman, J.C. Romero, Jose Santiago, Tomas Santiago

Canada:
C - Cole Armstrong, Luke Carlin, George Kottaras, Pete Laforest, Brett Lawrie, Russell Martin, Chris Robinson, Max St. Pierre
1B - Justin Morneau, Joey Votto
2B - Pete Orr
SS - Chris Barnwell, Cale Iorg
3B - Shawn Bowman
OF - Jason Bay, Matt Stairs, Mark Teahen, Aaron Guile, Jamie Romak, Adam Stern, Nicholas Weglarz
SP - Chris Begg, Jesse Crain, Jeff Francis, Rich Harden
RP - Eric Gange, David Davidson
P - Phillipe Aumont, James Avery, T.J. Burton, Rheal Cormier, Eric Cyr, Scott Diamond, Bryan Dumesnil, Steve Green, Blake Hawksworth, Mike Johnson, Christopher Leroux, Kyle Lotzkar, Brooks McNiven, Alex Periard, Vince Perkings, Scott Richmond, R.J. Swindle, Phillipe-Alexandre Valiquette

Mexico:
C - Rod Barajas, Humberto Cota, Genonimo Gil, Miguel Ojeda
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
2B - Luis Cruz, Edgar Gonzalez, Augie Ojeda
SS - Jerry Hariston Jr., Omar Quintanilla
3B - Jorge Cantu, Freddy Sandoval
INF - Juan Castro, Erubiel Durazo, Augstin Murillo, Oscar Robles, Jorge Vasquez
OF - Alfredo Amezaga, Karim Garcia, Scott Hariston, Cristhian Presichi, Mario Vanezuela
SP - Matt Garza, Yovanni Gallardo, Jorge De La Rosa, Jorge Campillo, Oliver Perez
RP - Joakim Soria, Eddie Guardado, Luis Mendoza, Ricardo Rincon, Denny Reyes, Oscar Villarreal
P - Luis Ayala, Fransisco Campos, David Cortes, Elmer Dessens, Rafael Diaz, Edgar Gonzalez, Arturo Lopez, Rodrigo Lopez, Pablo Ortega, Heriberto Ruelas

Japan:
C - Kenji Johjima, Sinnosuke Abe, Toru Hosokawa, Yoshiyuki Ishihara, Shinji Takahashi
2B - Akinori Iwamura
INF - Yasuyuki Kataoka, Menenori Kawasaki, Kenta Kurihara, Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Suichi Murata, Hiroyuki Nakajima, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Michihiro Ogasawara, Kensuke Tanaka
OF - Norichika Aoki, Kazuki Fukuchi, Kosuke Fukudome, Arsunoria Inaba, Yoshiyuki Kamei, Ichiro Suzuki, Seiichi Uchikawa
SP - Dice-K, Yu Darvish
RP - Masahide Kobayashi, Hideki Okajima
P - Kyuji Fujikawa, Hisashi Iwakuma, Minoru Iwata, Takayuki Kishi, Satoshi Komatsu, Takahiro Mahara, Katsuhiro Nagakawa, Toshiya Sugiuchi, Masaru Takeda, Masahiro Tanaka, Hayato Tehara, Tetsuya Utsumi, Tsuyoshi Wada, Hideaki Wakui, Shunsuke Wantanabe, Tetsuya Yamaguchi

Panama: the big names
C - Carlos Ruiz
OF - Carlos Lee
RP - Manny Acosta, Manny Corpas

Italy: the big names (no Mike Piazza)
C - Mike Napoli, Vinny Rottino
1B - Frank Catalanotto
SS - Nick Punto
RP - Jason Grilli, Mike DiFelice

The Netherlands: the big names (no Andruw Jones)
SP - Jair Jurrjens
RP - Rich VandenHurk

Australia: the big names
SP - Drew Naylor
RP - Grant Balfour, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Phil Stockman

Korea: the big names
OF - Shin-Soo Choo

Chinese Taipei: the big names (no Chien-Ming Wang)
No MLB players

China: the big names
No MLB players

Cuba: the big names
No MLB players

South Africa: the big names
No MLB players

The Cubs Should Be Angry With The Provisional WBC Rosters

When you are paying millions of dollars for top caliber athletes, the last thing you want to do is expose players to extended workloads -- especially if they are already injury prone.

Rich Harden, who has a history of injury and is currently rehabbing a "minor labrum tear" that often warrants surgery to repair, was listed as a provisional player on the Canadian roster. Harden also threw 110 innings over what he did in 2007. All flags point to GM Jim Hendry pulling Harden from the WBC as an injury risk.

Alfonso Soriano, who has had leg injuries each of the last two years that have kept him out of a cumulative 65+ games, is slated to play for the Dominican Republic.

Carlos Marmol, who played in over one-half of the Cubs games last year (82 games, 87 innings), is also slated to pitch for the Dominican Republic.

Then there is Carlos Zambrano, whose career of heavy workload put him on the DL in late August/September, is set to throw for Venezuela.

Ted Lilly is set to pitch for the USA, despite throwing career highs in innings each of the last two years.

Finally, there is Geovany Soto (Puerto Rico), who needs to work with the pitching staff during spring training (not the WBC team)

All in all, you have guys with heavy workloads and looming injuries slated to add to their 162-game long season. That's just a recipe for disaster. Recall Peavy's 2006 season; the added workload from the WBC ultimately tired him out enough to add a full run and a half to his end of season ERA.

Yankee's 2008 Payroll Efficiency

The numbers in these charts, by the way, are in terms of millions of dollars.



The 2008 Yankee's cumulative net payroll win-value was +12.23 million. The win-profit margin is nothing impressive, given the size of the Yankees payroll (est. at $210 million).

As one might notice, there are very many negative value contracts on the Yankees payroll for the primary roster spots. Carl Pavano, Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi were the most inefficiently paid players on the 2008 squad; each had a win-value profit margin below -$10 million.

Johnny Damon, Xavier Nady and (suprisingly enough) Derek Jeter were the only primary offensive players whose contract values provided a postive win-value profit margin.

It was the Yankee's pitching, anchored by rookie arms, that kept the team's cumulative win-value profit margin positive. Players like Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes, who were paid in peanuts, kept payroll way down while providing the team some value along the way. That and Mike Mussina's stellar final year in the majors.

A-Rod, suprisingly enough, wasn't really overpaid in 2008. He provided the Yankees with just enough offese to create $160,000 in win value profit.

What one could conclude from this graph is that the 2008 Yankee's offense was, indeed, highly overpaid.

The Orioles Love Washed Up Cubs

Rocky Cherry, Corey Patterson, Steve Trachsel, Paul Bako, Sammy Sosa, LaTroy Hawkins and now Felix Pie.

These are just the few players I can think of off the top of my head from the past two seasons.

Cubs Payroll Efficiency, Take 2

Here is a breakdown of the payroll efficiency of the 2008 Cubs pitching staff



The overall contract profit of the team's rotation and bullpen comes out to about $43.5 million, meaning that the Cubs organization did a decent job at value pricing contracts in 2008. Of course, this neglects the impact of backloaded contracts, which easily skew payroll efficiency.

The team's biggest losses were in Jon Lieber, who cost the team roughly $4.4 million, and (no suprise here) Bob Howry, who was overpaid by about $3.6 million. Though Jon Lieber really wasn't that bad outside of 3 outings, his injury and minimal playing time lead to a negative WARP in 2009.

Zambrano was also a hefty loss at -$3.48 million, although much of that negative value comes from his late season injury/ineffectiveness. Prior to mid/late August, I'm sure that the contract value was about even. Regardless, it is easily discernable that Zambrano is overpaid at his current rate as Dempster and Harden, who had better years than Big Z, had production values that only slightly edged out Z's 2008 cost; as Z's costs increases over the next few seasons, the probability that he provides a contract profit will decrease -- even (and especially) if he produces at his career averages for the remainder of his tenure with the Cubs.

What you may find shocking in this data is that Jason Marquis had a slightly profitable contract in 2008, producing $1.8 million above his salary value. In 2007, his contract profit was even higher. However, this is and was largely due to contract backloading (Marquis is set to make $9+ million -- or little under one-half of his three year, $21 million contract value -- in 2009). If his contract were to have been evenly set at $7 million a year, his two-year contract profit value with the Cubs would have been a cumulative $1.2 million (Marquis was worth $7 million in 2007). So while Marquis may have sucked, he surely wasn't overpaid -- at least not relative to the rest of the league.

On a final note, given Kerry Wood's overwhelming productive contrubution to the team (his contract profit was fourth to only Harden, Dempster and Marmol) in 2008, I'm shocked the Cubs decided not to bring him back for 2009. Even at a cost of $10 million last year, he would have been "underpaid."

This information is courtesy of Fangraphs.com, who calculated the 2008 pitcher WARPs and WARP values.

Rich Harden Hurt Again

News came today that Rich Harden has a partial tear in his pitching shoulder. He chose to forgo surgery and and rehab using Larry Rothschild's patented towel throwing methodology. Rothschild may have to work on his brutal honesty saying Harder is no where close to pitching off a mound. Injuries are mostly unpredictable. Alfonso Soriano was never on the DL prior to joining the cubs, yet has spend much of his 136 million dollar contract on the DL. JD Drew was notorious for sitting out half the season prior to finally leaving St Louis for the Braves. It wouldnt surprise me if Milton Bradley played out 140 games for the Cubs this year. However, some guys just can't help but break down physically, mentally, every freakin year. Harden and Prior seem to fit description to a tee. Prior may never see a baseball field again, and harden is destined to spend much of every year on the DL. Lets just hope it's the 15 day DL and not the 60

Pie runs out of options with Cubs

Felix Pie is no longer a Chicago Cub. Pie was out of options and if he didn’t make the roster out of spring training, he would become a free agent. It looked doubtful that Pie, the once highly praised prospect, would make the club. This came evident when they signed Joey Gathright who is the same type of player as Pie, but Pie had more potential.

The Cubs traded him today for two pitchers, left-hander Garrett Olson and right-hander Henry Williamson. Olson is 25 years old year and was a rookie last year. As a rookie he went 9-10 with a 6.65 ERA. In his minor league career he was 12-10 with a 2.96 ERA in 71 career Minor League appearances.

Olson will either be used as trade bait or will battle for Marshall for the 5th spot in the rotation. The other candidates for the 5th spot are Angel Guzman and Jeff Samardzija. If we keep Olsen this mean we will have at least one lefty in the bullpen besides for Neal Cotts who is very inconsistent.

I think Olson will be traded though. The road blocks in the Jake Peavy trade was Jason Marquis contract, and not enough pitching prospects. We received pitching prospects from trading Pie and DeRosa. Thus, those obstacles are no longer in the way. As long as Kevin Towers the GM of the Padres doesn’t demand to many prospects including Sean Marshall, Josh Vitters, and all the other prospects we just got in the trades this off season. We will see what happens.

Although I Was Gone For Like 12 Days...

1) Illinois deserves to be fucking ranked
2) My prediction of a Steelers/Eagles Superbowl seems to be coming to fruition
3) The White Sox still haven't made a move to address their key concerns
4) The Chicago Cubs still haven't made a move to address their key concerns- although they've added players (haha fuck you Cubs fans!)
5) Boerhs and Bernstein still blow
6) Mac, Yurko, and Harry still blow
7) The Milwaukee Bucs have a better record than the Bulls! WTF!?
8) I have really absolutely no idea what's going on in sports
9) You three post WAY too much- and that's coming from ME

The good and the bad of the digital world

We are all aware that the world is moving exclusively to the digital age. This has greatly enhanced the sports watching experience making it much more pleasurable in the process. Personally speaking, i couldn't live without my tivo/DVR. Those are essential components to any true sports fanatic. Firstly, sports was never meant to be watched with commercials. How moronic is it that there is a commercial every half inning during a baseball game. With the gift of the DVR, you can simply skip over the commercial in 3 seconds flat, unless the sale at Macy's turns you on or something. Secondly, you dont even have to be home to see any sporting event. Just set the DVR to record one or two events from that night and then watch it in half the time when you get home. This isnt anything overly new. The VHS has been around for decades, but the digital recorder and high definition 16:9 televisions have taken it to an extreme.

However there are flaws with with the digital signal and the reason i'm writing this useless blog entry tonight. Knowing that I was going out for Chinese with the folks, I set the DVR to record both the Bulls and Blackhawks game that I was gonna stay up till 4am watching in crystal clear HD (btw, this is my example of the perfect night). I get home, turn on the Blackshawks game, and what do I see? A frozen, distorted, ruined hockey game. I couldnt play it, fast forward it, or watch a single second of it. Motherfucker!! This almost never happened with VHS. The picture may suck, the sound may go in and out, but it got the job done. With the DVR, it's more like flipping a coin to see if it records the game.

So if you ever lost an important recording, or your computer went dead, or an extermal hard drive erased all of your photos from Cancun, you can blame it on the digital world. You take the good with the bad, but god knows i couldnt live without it.

Gotsta go with the red contacts bro

The big news today from the Cubs convention was the news that Carlos Zambrano is going to have laser eye surgery before the start of the baseball season. Somehow this is supports to add the 5 mph and nasty sink on his fastball that he has apparently lost the past 2 years. This procedure has actually improved many hitters ability to identify pitches. Denard Span of the Twinkies had the procedure last year allowing him to tear up AAA and secure a job in the majors. Consequently, both Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer are having the same prodecure done this winter.

I recommend something different, something better! In 2005, Brian Roberts started wearing special red contact lenses that helped him identify pitches better. Despite his season high of 5 home runs prior to the 2005 season, his 10 homers in April of 2005 seemed kinda strange. I thought this was the new steroid, but it never seemed to catch on. How awesome would it be if Big Z was starring down hitters with Bull red eyes and possibly a little more control

BP Takes On The Salary Cap

Shawn Hoffman did a great article last week on the Salary Cap; I'm reposting it here to share with the world.

January 9, 2009

Let Freedom Ring

Busting the Myth of the Salary Cap

by Shawn Hoffman

Small-market teams love salary caps. Or rather, they think they do. At least on paper, caps stop teams in New York, Boston, and Chicago from oligopolizing the free-agent market, and should therefore help level the economic playing field. And, to a certain extent, they do; a small-market team in a capped league is more likely to acquire or retain top-tier talent. But there's a catch. That same small-market team will need to win, and keep winning, just to stay financially viable. And sometimes, winning might not even be enough.

Let's say, in some far-off universe, MLB owners and players actually did agree on a salary cap. With it would come the normal provisions: a salary floor at around 75-85 percent of the cap, and a guaranteed percentage of total industry revenues for the players. Since the players have been taking in about 45 percent of revenues the past few years, we'll keep it at that figure (the other three major sports leagues, which are all capped, each pay out over 50 percent).

Using 2008 as an example, the thirty teams took in about $6 billion (not including MLB Advanced Media revenue), for an average of $200 million per team. Forty-five percent of that (the players' share) is $90 million, which we'll use as the midpoint between our floor and cap. If we want to make the floor 75 percent of the cap (a low-end figure, relative to the other leagues), we can use $77 million and $103 million, respectively.

With a $103 million cap, nine teams would have been affected last year, and a total of about $286 million would have had to be skimmed off the top. Since total salaries have to remain at existing levels, the bottom twenty-one teams would have had to take on this burden, which had previously been placed on the Yankees, Red Sox, et al. On the other end, fourteen teams would have been under the payroll floor, by a total of $251 million. Even discounting the Marlins' $22 million payroll, the other thirteen teams would have had to spend an average of $15 million more just to meet the minimum. Some of those teams might be able to afford it; most wouldn't.

Imagine being Frank Coonelly in this situation. Coonelly, the Pirates' team president, has publicly supported a cap. Had our fictional cap/floor arrangement been instituted last year, the Pirates would have needed to increase their Opening Day payroll by $28 million. Not only would the team have taken a big loss, but Neal Huntington's long-term strategy would have been sabotaged, since the team would have had to sign a number of veterans just to meet the minimum payroll.

Now fast forward to 2009. Let's say the Pirates' sales staff runs into major headwinds, with the team struggling and the economy sinking. The team's top line takes a hit, falling $10 million from 2008. The Mets and Yankees, meanwhile, open their new ballparks, and each team increases its local revenue by $50 million. If the twenty-seven other teams are flat, total industry revenues rise by $90 million (not including any appreciation in national media revenue). Forty-five percent of that, of course, goes to the players. So even as the Pirates' purchasing power decreases, the payroll floor actually rises.

In other words, without a more egalitarian distribution of income, the system crumbles.

Until recently, the NFL has been uniquely fit for this type of model, since most of its revenues have come from national television contracts. But now, with local revenues rising, small-market teams are feeling the pinch. This past May, the owners unanimously voted to opt out of their CBA, which was supposed to run through 2012. Some blamed the players' share of revenues. Others, including Dan Rooney of the Steelers, cited the need for more local revenue sharing.

But sharing local revenue has a major drawback: it is a tax, which inevitably lowers incentives and decreases output. If the NFL shared all (or even most) local intake, why would an individual team ever look to maximize revenues at its own cost (i.e. by hiring a sales staff, or cleaning its own stadium)?

The NHL, which also has a hard cap, does very little revenue sharing, partly thanks to an overly convoluted system. On a league-wide level, the results have been very positive; the NHL has had record revenues every year since its lockout, and Gary Bettman has been very positive about this season as well. But the NHL is a great example of why caps and capitalism don't mix: as the league grows, it ends up leaving teams behind. Small-market clubs like the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Nashville Predators are forced to spend almost two-thirds of their revenue on player payroll. And the Phoenix Coyotes, after years of hemorrhaging money, are on the verge of going bankrupt.

So what's the best solution? Certainly not the NBA's soft-cap system, which has too many problems to even count—imagine having to take on Luis Castillo or Carl Pavano every time you wanted to unload a high-priced veteran.

So instead of these models, what if there was an uncapped league, with limited local revenue sharing to support small-market teams, and a post-season system that naturally created tremendous parity? Does this sound familiar? It should. It's what MLB has had in place for over a decade, leading to record growth in both attendance and revenue.

The expanded postseason is key. More than any other sport, MLB's playoff system acts as an equalizer. Fair or not, in broad strokes, a team that wins 83 games in a bad division has as much chance of winning the World Series as the Yankees or the Red Sox. Seemingly, no matter how much those teams spend over the winter, that competitive advantage is neutralized come October.

So while the capped leagues all struggle to find the right balance between capitalism and socialism, baseball continues to prosper operating within a much more free-market system. Teams in big markets and small markets alike are making money, and everyone has a chance to win it all.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And right now, baseball is anything but broke.

(Note: All salary data taken from the Lahman Database.)

Cubs Sign So Taguchi

For just under a million bucks, the Cubs have signed ex-Philly (08)/ex-Cardinal (06) So Taguchi. Taguchi, who is 39, hit a laughable .220/.283/.297 in 103 ABs last year. While Taguchi is little more than a late game defensive replacement, it seems like a waste of payroll for a team to cheap to sign Jake Peavy. Why do we need Taguchi, who can't hit, when we have Pie, who is out of options, can't hit and has potential? I smell a Pie trade in the wind. Also, is Taguchi -- a fifth string back up utility outfielder -- worth $900M??

So chalk up the Cubs offseason moves:
-Cubs re-sign SP Ryan Dempster, who is 32 and had an uncharacteristic career year, to a $4 million, four-year deal.
-Cubs trade super utility man Mark DeRosa (and his $9 million '09 salary) for 3 grade B- prospects.
-Cubs sign SS/2B Aaron Miles to a two-year, $4.9 million deal
-Cubs sign OF Joey Gathright to a one-year, $800K deal
-Cubs get trade SP Jason Marquis (to free up payroll and migrains) for RP Luis Vizcaino.
-Cubs sign injury/temper-tantrum prone Milton Bradley (who plays great when he actually plays) to a three-year, $30 million deal that has an injury protection clause (3rd year is a vesting option based on his health in 2009)
-Cubs sign So Taguchi to a one-year deal worth $900K

So far, I can't say anything other than the Bradley move has been an improvement for the Cubbies. I think we overpaid Dempster (whose 2008 seemed more like a statistical aberration rather than a sustainable level of production based on his career numbers) and I would much rather have Peavy on the team leading the roation. Hell, I might even prefer Kerry Wood.

This offseasons looks worse and worse every day. At least the Padres got to David Eckstein before us...I wish we had a new GM :(

Cubs convention starts Friday

The Chicago Cubs annual convention starts this Friday and will last three days. There are many current and former players attending in addition to the coaching staff. Some of the headliners are: Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Ryne Sandberg, Alfonso Soriano, Geovany Soto, Ryan Dempster, Milton Bradley, Kevin Gregg, Aaron Miles, Joey Gathright, Neal Cotts, Mike Fontenot, Rich Harden, Reed Johnson, Carlos Marmol, Sean Marshall, Jeff Samardzija, Ryan Theriot, Carlos Zambrano, and the coaching staff. Also some past Cubs who will be there are: Glenn Beckert, Bill Buckner, Jose Cardenal, Jody Davis, Bob Dernier, Leon Durham, Doug Glanville, Randy Hundley, Keith Moreland, Rick Reuschel, Scott Sanderson, Lee Smith and Tim Stoddard.During those three days I usually stay glued to Sports Central on WGN radio which usually broadcast live from the convention and have many guests on during those days. There will also be many articles when things get revealed, which they usually do. We usually learn the batting order Lou is thinking of, the rotation or some of it, depth chart at certain positions and other things. It will be interesting to see what we learn.One day I hope to go to the Cubs convention. I think it would be a great experience. If anyone does go, please post about it.

Mark Prior gets another chance

Mark Prior was signed by the Sand Diego padres to a minor league deal. This is the second chance their giving him in 2 years. Last year he had a guarantee deal and made a million dollars for doing nothing. He didn’t throw a pitch! This year the Padres have a tight budget so he gets the minor league deal and can make a million dollars if he makes it to the major league level. Supposedly the Yankee’s were also interested in him, but he decided to go back to his hometown team. That tells me the Yankees wouldn’t pay more than the million. Mark hasn’t pitched in the Major Leagues since the 2006 season. We will see if he makes his comeback this year.

Henderson vs. Raines

Here are Rickey Henderson's numbers and here are Tim Raines' career stats. They played during the exact same era, in opposite leagues, for about the same time. Look at the 162 game averages for the two players and you will find the smallest of small differences. Although Henderson may be 7% better than Raines, he is 70% better than Raines in terms of hall of fame voting among baseball writers(95%-23%). This is ridicules. Let me tell you the main difference. Rickey played in New York and California and spoke in the third person. That is what Rickey did and that is what Rickey does. Raines played in lonely Montreal where they dont even speak english and measure homers using the metric system. Raines was the penultimate leadoff man in all of baseball for 20 years, just behind Rickey the Great. They should be entering the hall of fame side-by-side as the leadoff men for the AL and NL, but it was never to be for "the rock"

Baby Mangino

You guys have probably no seen this, but a funny idea of dressing up a portly baby as Kansas football head coach Mark Mangino has become an internet sensation. Baby Mangino recently won deadspin.com sports human of the year award beating out people like Erin Andrews, Isiah Thomas, Chris Berman, and even Matt Lienart. Here he is!

It's a long season

Rednecks and folding chairs dont mix

Wrestling isn't really a sport but this is too funny


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The World Of Baseball Also Hates Bert Blyleven

Bert Blyleven had a spectacular career, in my opinion. He pitched 22 years (largely for the Twins) and posted solid numbers (10% or more above league average) in all but four years (three of which understandably came about during the last four years of his career) of his career. His career ERA+ is 118; his season high in ERA+ was 158. He racked up 3701 strikeouts, good for fifth all time. His K/BB is a well above-average 2.8. His career WHIP is under 1.2, while his career ERA (in the AL, mind you) was 3.31. Just in case you are into wins, he's also got 287 of those.

So how is he not in the hall of fame?

Note: If Blyleven doesn't get in, Mussina probably won't either.

Cubs announced spring training broadcast schedule

On Friday the Cubs announced their Spring Training broadcast schedule. They have nine games on t.v. which seems to be more than last year. Last year I was mad that they only televised a few games. There will be 11 games on WGN radio. With nine games on t.v. we will have a better opportunity to see how the club looks before the season starts. We will also have a chance to see some of our prospects play which we don’t have much opportunity for. That is what I like most about spring training games; to see how the minor leaguers look and judge them for myself.

Random

While writing my Dunn article, I came across this website which analyzes a team's statistics and spits out historical-data-based projections based on lineup ordering and each player's OBP (OBA) and SLG. Just for shits and giggles, I typed in the Chicago Cubs 2008 AL roster (using the teams nine most used players in the calculations) -- I was unable use the NL roster because the same pitcher doesn't bat every game and I wanted to maximize realism based on sample sizes -- and this is what I found.

The ideal batting lineup (in the AL) would have been:
1. Theriot
2. Edmonds
3. DeRo
4. Ramirez
5. Soto
6. Lee
7. Johnson
8. Soriano
9. Fukudome

This team, on average, would produce 5.922 runs-per-game (RPG). Three other teams would have been equally productive, with similar lineups. However, something that remains noticibly consistant between permutations is that 1) Soriano should be batting (according to this data) in the #8 spot, while Ramirez should be (and rightfully is) batting in the #4 slot. Most combinations also have Edmonds batting #2 and Soto #3.

Given all possible permutations, however, the team's overall RPG average was calculated to be 5.761. This would have yielded a grand total of approx. 919 runs.

In reality, the Cubs "only" scored 855 runs (while giving up 671).

Once you factor in the fact that a pitcher hit in the #9 hole (as opposed to Reed Johnson or Fukudome) and that the team used much more than nine offensive players, the predictive figure doesn't seem to be too far "off the mark" of what the Cubs actually produced. I think it's clear that, like any other team in the NL, the Cubs would have been a better offensive team in the AL, but that there is some untapped potential for 2009.

The lineup in 2008, as I often complained, wasn't being maximized.

The World Hates Adam Dunn (Updated Version)

Adam Dunn can't catch a break. Despite the fact that he annually hits 40 HRs, walks over 100 times and consistently posts an OPS near 130, he sucks. Despite everything he has accomplished, he is a terrible baseball player who doesn't try and clogs basepaths. He's slow. He doesn't steal bases. He's not clutch. He clogs the bases. For confirmation of Dunn's suckiness, look no further than Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star (as if anyone in KC knew anything about baseball).

I think it’s probably fair to say that Adam Dunn, for all his obvious talents, can be a remarkably frustrating player to watch.

The sheer enjoyment one derives by observing players is much more important than winning games. Aaron Rowand is an MVP.

He is a dreadful left fielder, a designated hitter in outfielder’s clothes.

Adam Dunn's range factor is generally below league average.

He’s slow, though it should be noted that he’s not a bad baserunner…according to the Bill James baserunner analysis he’s actually a very GOOD base runner.

Adam Dunn is so slow is that, despite being a very good baserunner who scores on hits, he isn't fast enough to be fun to watch.

He’s brutal going first to third, as you might expect, but he tends to score from second on singles and from first on doubles, he doesn’t run into many stupid outs, he doesn’t get caught stealing,

So what if he doesn't make outs and scores runs? His jogging isn't fun to watch. Believe me you, Adam Dunn is no Willy Taveras!

and he doesn’t ground into many double plays

He's also no Derrek Lee!

(though in his case that probably has little to do with his running and a lot to do with his fly ball tendencies and his many, many strikeouts.

If only Adam Dunn stopped hitting balls out of the infield (and out of the park) and slapped the shit out of grounders like Michael Bourne; imagine the possibilities.

He strikes out a ton. He hits .225 with runners in scoring position for his career (and over his career he has never hit better than .248 in those situations).

Who needs to hit the ball with runners in scoring position when you hit yourself in 40 times a year and walk 20% of the time?

He walks (797 times) about as often as he gets a hit (955 hits) — those walks might be good for value but that doesn’t make them fun to watch.

Fuck winning and valuable contributions. I want to see great plays, not great players.

There is a sense around the game that he does not especially like playing baseball; and nobody who has watched him play with any regularity would argue that he demonstrates Willie Mays’ joy.

Again, who gives a shit how little you try or how little enthusiasm you show when you rack up 40 home runs and 122 walks in the process? That's like saying "the U.S. Constitution is a piece of shit because James Madison didn't like writing as much as John Locke and other Enlightenists."

At the same time, I think it’s probably also fair to say that Willie Bloomquist, for all his obvious shortcomings,

Shortcomings like hitting one extra-base-hit (a double) all season long (192 PAs)

can be a fun player to watch, if you are a certain kind of baseball fan.

The kind of fan who enjoys singles and watching a player contribute to 101 losses with an 83 OPS+ in 2008.

He plays all the positions — he has at least 10 games at every position but pitcher and catcher — and he seems to play them all credibly.

Tony Pena Jr. struck out Pudge last year. So what?

He can run (he has stolen 71 bases in 87 attempts), and he hustles, and he has that underdog thing going for him.

He doesn't hit 40 home runs like clockwork or walk 122 times a season, but MAN is Bloomquist a hotdogger! He's got so much heart! He might even be the next David Eckstein (who, likely out of work for 2009, just penned the century's most anticipated baseball novel "Have Heart").

He has only six career homers, but, hey, one was a grand slam.

Hey, even though he really sucks, he did have one good at bat once.

No one who has ever watched Willie Bloomquist play would doubt that the guy loves ball.

No one who has ever looked at Willie "underdog" Bloomquist's career numbers would ever doubt how bad he is at baseball.

Yes, in my mind, Adam Dunn and Willie Bloomquist are almost perfect opposites.

Adam Dunn is good at baseball and Willie Bloomquist is not. End of article.

And while they are not anything close to equal baseball players, I would also say that you would not want to build a whole team of Bloomquists or Dunns.

Actually, if you were to tell me I could build a major league roster of players who would all hit 40 home runs and walk 120 times a season, I'd cum in my pants.

According to the Baseball Musings Lineup Analysis — one of my favorite toys— a whole team of 2008 Adam Dunns would average 6.67 runs per game — so that’s 1,080 runs per season. A whole team of 2008 Willie Bloomquists, meanwhile, would average 4.177 runs per game — 677 runs per season. So using the Musinator, Dunn is 400 or so runs better offensively than Bloomquist. That sounds about right to me.

According to data from 2005-2008, teams that scored 5 runs in a game had winning percentage (in those games) upward of .613, while every run scored beyond the fifth seemed to increase the team's winning percentage by about .100. By contrast teams who scored 4 runs per game won approximately .465 of the time. Considering that Adam Dunn's career OPS+ is 30% above league average and Willie Bloomquists is 26% below league average, I'd say Baseball Musings Lineup Analysis did a good job here.

Of course, it’s downright frightening to imagine how two Adam Dunns would turn the double play.

They'd make up for the error by walking and then hitting a two run blast in the bottom of the inning.

By the way, this Lineup Analysis is sort of a fun way to compare players. Take the great NL MVP race of 2008. According to the Musinator, a team of 2008 Albert Pujols would score 1,488 runs for a season. A team of 2008 Ryan Howards would score 977 runs for a season.

In other words, Adam Dunn isn't as good of a player as Albert Pujols, but he's better than Ryan Howard. You see no objections by me here.

So, by this way of thinking, Pujols is 500-plus runs better. And he’s a much better defensive player, and a much better base runner, and … I’m really not sure why this was ever really an argument.

In actuality, the 2008 NL MVP wasn't much of an argument. Idiot sportswriters like you, however, tried to fuck it up with ancient, obsolete baseball intuition.

It’s also a fun way to look at the Hall of Fame Ballot. Here, using the players career numbers, is what a complete team made up of each player would score for a season:

Mark McGwire: 1,199 runs per season.
Rickey Henderson: 953 runs per season.
Jim Rice: 948 runs per season.
Tim Raines: 918 runs per season.
Don Mattingly: 916 runs per season.
Dale Murphy: 880 runs per season.
Dave Parker: 864 runs per season.
Andre Dawson: 837 runs per season.
Alan Trammell: 812 runs per season.

For a guy who is knocking on Adam Dunn, you just showed that his career numbers, thus far, would surpass those of Shoe-in hall of famer Rickey Henderson. Granted, Dunn is in his prime and has yet to regress on the back end of his career, but he's still a really fucking good player.

Of course, that’s just offense, and it doesn’t take into account much base running,

Considering that Bill James has already proven that Adam Dunn's baserunning is well above average, who cares?

the home park or anything else. A defensive spread with McGwire or Rice is positively frightening, and I’m not sure how a lefty-throwing Rickey plays shortstop or catches. I would say that eight Trammells would have the best defensive team, though it’s worth remembering that Murphy began his career as a catcher.

Perhaps you could just visit www.baseballprospectus.com and look up these player's WARPs and we wouldn't be having this pointless arguement. It's not like researching sports to make an educated opinion is your job or anything...

I find all this to be a little bit more than an interesting side note — I think that, in many ways, Dunn and Bloomquist represent opposing philosophies about baseball.

The old good versus bad philosophy?

I think the Adam Dunn philosophy is built around what you can see, what is measurable, what is cold and hard and real.

Not to mention what is consistent and independent of luck.

With Dunn, you get a titanic power hitter who plays every day, hits long home runs (exactly 40 ever year — no more, no less), walks a lot, strikes out every three or four at bats, plays zero positions, doesn’t have much speed and doesn’t do those little things that show off his great love of the game. The Dunn Way is the Michael Corleone Way, strictly business.

Adam Dunn is a souless robot who hates baseball and would murder his own brother if given the opportunity.

The Willie Bloomquist philosophy, meanwhile, is built around passion, what is intangible, this sense that if you can get a bunch of guys who KNOW HOW to play the game, who LOVE the game, who HAVE BASEBALLS BEATING IN THEIR CHESTS,

First and foremost, this is not "the Willie Bloomquist way"; it is the David Eckstein way. David Eckstein patented "heart" in 2002 and renewed the copyright in 2006.

Secondly, as clearly evident by his career 74 OPS+, Willie Bloomquist doesn't not "know how to play the game" of baseball, no matter how much he "loves" it.

then you can do wonderful things (even if the players can’t hit worth a damn).

Actually, without getting on base or clubbing home runs, you can't do shit. No matter how fast you run.

With Bloomquist you have an astonishingly weak hitter who plays occasionally, cracked ONE EXTRA BASE HIT last year, doesn’t get on base, plays seven defensive positions,

A glaring endorsement for Willie Bloomquist's 2-year, $3 million deal.

can really run and gets his uniform so dirty that, according to his jarringly lengthy Wikipedia entry, he has over the years been called (mostly in jest/derision) Wee Willie, Ballgame, The Ignitor, Effin, WFB, The Spork, Princess Willie, Willie Boom-Boom and, by Angels announcer Rex Hudler, The Mighty Bloomquist.

I can't put my finger on why, but somehow, nicknames like Princess Willie the imposing punch of "Big Donkey."

And my point is that I believe every baseball fan, at his/her core, leans Dunn or Bloomquist.

Every baseball fan is either understands the game as enumerated by historical data and scientific reasoning or doesn't. The ones who don't are generally afraid of the the magic and sorcery that is sabremetrics and have continuously called for Bill James and Michael Lewis to be burnt at the stake.

People who believe that on-base percentage and slugging are the most significant things, that defense and speed are overrated, that what matters is what you do and not how you look doing it lean heavily Dunn.

These people are nerds who live in their mom's basements and do nothing with their lives other than crunch numbers and not play baseball.

The New York Yankees have leaned heavily Dunn: Get on base, slug the ball, don’t worry too much about catching it. And so on.

The New York Yankees, despite their inefficient payroll, also made the playoffs for 13 consecutive years.

At the same time, there are plenty of people in the game and in the stands who believe that you win by doing the little things,

Little things that don't actually contribute to winning games consistently.

by playing defense and running out ground balls and playing the game with passion every day. They lean heavily Bloomquist. The Minnesota Twins, for instance, lean Bloomquist. The Twins run and catch the ball and they have not worried too much about power or on-base percentage. This, no doubt, frustrates the heck out of a lot of Dunn-leaning Twins fans.

Actually, the Twins were carried by a phenomenal starting/relief pitching core (Slowey, Baker, Blackburn, Liriano, Nathan, Reyes, Crain) that was carried by what little offense that Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Denard Span could mustard on their own (since the rest of the team was largely too concerned with doing all the "little things" that don't win games). Willie Bloomquist-like offense didn't win the Twins 88 games last year; great pitching did.

You know who also won more games than the Twins in 2008? Those awful Yankees and their Adam Dunn-philosophy to winning.

It’s an irritating feeling when you lean heavily one way and have a team that leans heavily the other way. But I think the more irritating feeling is when you do not know which way your team leans. And that, finally, leads us to the Kansas City Royals, recent purchasers of Willie Bloomquist himself.

The Royals under Dayton Moore have TALKED about leaning Dunn. That is, Dayton has made statements that would lead you to believe he cares a whole lot about on-base percentage and power numbers.

Mark Jacobs? Mark Teahen? Ross Gload? The Royals are not leaning towards The Dunn Method, no matter what claims management has that they are looking for "on-base players" for 2009.

That’s what he says. But everything he DOES leads you to believe he leans very, very Bloomquist.

I'd add another very for good measure, actually.

Here are Dayton’s big-money signings and trades the last couple of years:

1. Jose Guillen ($12 million per): .323 on-base percentage.

2. Mike Jacobs ($3 million or so): .318 on-base percentage.

3. Coco Crisp ($5.75 million or so): .331 on-base percentage.

4. Willie Bloomquist ($1.55 million plus incentives): .324 on-base percentage.

5. Miguel Olivo ($2.7 million): .275 on-base percentage.

That’s actually quite remarkable. Look at that list again. You have five pickups totaling about $25 million per year — and you have to suspect that all five will be in next year’s lineup quite regularly. And not one guy — not ONE GUY — has even a league average on-base percentage for his career.

This is why, more or less, the Royals have sucked every year for the past 15 years. They are the Pittsburg Pirates of the AL.

Look at that list again. That’s the core of the Kansas City lineup — the leadoff hitter, the four-five hitters, the eight-nine hitters probably. And that’s a combined .314 on-base percentage.

And yet fuck Adam Dunn and his career .381 on-base percentage.

So why did Dayton sign these guys?

Good question.

1. Jose Guillen: Because he was the best right-handed “power” bat available, and he’s “a real competitor.”

2. Mike Jacobs: Because he’s got power, and “his work ethic is off the 3. Coco Crisp: Because he’s an excellent defensive center fielder, has speed and could blossom playing every day. Plus, he has “been a part of championship teams.”

4. Willie Bloomquist: Because he’s got some speed, he’s versatile and “He’s an on base guy(??), a speed-type player and a hustler.”

5. Miguel Olivo: Because he’s got a little pop in his bat and he can throw out baserunners.

The Royals believe in the Bloomquist Way.

The philosophy of losing.

And look, I am not saying that these moves will not work.

Good, because -- just like with the 2005 Nationals -- they probably won't.

They could work, I guess. There are many ways to win baseball games. Guillen could have one more good season left in him. Jacbos could pop 30 homers. Crisp could revert back to his Cleveland days and could win a Gold Glove in Kansas City’s big center field. Bloomquist could, um, … well, he could be used as a super utility player. Olivo could … well, anyway.

Yes, if every player on the team were to have to career highs in every statistical category, you could probably win some games.

The Royals also spent $4.25 million per year on Kyle Farnsworth and $1.9 million on Horacio Ramirez.

Spent or overspent?

Man, the Royals threw around a lot of money to a lot of players who did not have good years in 2008. Maybe it will work.

But probably not.

They do have a lot of guys in the clubhouse who love the game.

But suck at playing it.

I personally would have taken that money and signed Adam Dunn and a couple of other guys who may not like baseball a whole lot but at least get on base and get batters out.

Hey, me too!

It's a different philosophy.

The philosophy of winning.

MLB 2009 hall of Fame class announce on Monday

Tomorrow we find out who has been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in the class of 2009. There are many candidates on the ballot including: Harold Baines, Jay Bell, Bert Blyleven, David Cone, Andre Dawson, Ron Gant, Mark Grace, Rickey Henderson, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Mark McGwire, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Jesse Orosco, Dave Parker, Dan Plesac, Tim Raines, Jim Rice, Lee Smith, Alan Trammell, Greg Vaughn, Mo Vaughn, and Matt Williams.

I would like to see Andre Dawson finally make it. He deserves it! I would also like to See Mark Grace make it, but he won’t and doesn’t really deserve it like Dawson does. Ricky Henerson should be a first ballot hall of famer and should get every vote, but I don’t think that has ever happened before. It has been 20 years since a left fielder has been inducted into the hall of fame. You can get analysis on all of these players other places so I am not going to. We will just find out tomorrow what happens!

Milton Bradley interview on Monday

On tomorrow’s sports central with David Kaplan on WGN radio he will be interviewing the Cubs new outfielder Milton Bradley at 7:15pm. It should be interesting to hear Milton Bradley. I saw a video of the press conference where they introduced him and he seemed to handle him self well. We will find out tomorrow how he does when it is not scripted. He is supposedly a nice guy and a good teammate, but just has some trouble with the media. We will hopefully find out if he has any preference on where he plays and bats in the lineup.

Kerry Collins proves not to be MVP worthy

Not only did Kerry Collins not win the MVP of the National Football League, well he didn't actually get a single vote for MVP, but he also sucks in the playoffs too. After a first round by, Collins led the titans to a listless loss to the ravens. Let's just say he didnt do much to help his team win. I will be shocked, shocked i tell you, if he is the titans starting QB next year. They will simply go back to Vince Young, regardless of how suicidal he may be, and forget this little Collins experiment ever happened.

Tim Tebow Only 99% perfect

Tim Tebow has been compared to superman for his ability to pick his team up and carry them to the promise land. He will most likely return next year, win his second heisman, and go down as the greatest college football player ever. If that wasnt enough, he's a motivational speaker to death row inmates, and travels to third world countries preaching on the wonders of christianity when the people would much rather prefer some clean water.

But getting hit in the head by 300 pound men can take it's tole, even on superman himself. Apparently Tebow got an 890 on his SAT I. Not on a single section, on the whole darn thing. That puts him in the lower 25% of the population. But considering he is absolutely perfect in every other aspect of human life, it averages out to 99% perfection. He is able to maintain a 3.7 GPA at UF, in Family and Community Services. Hotel hospitality was taken i guess

Kids dont do drugs

Meet Darius. Meet Darius on drugs

The 2008 Mariners were worse than you thought

It's hard to pick a single player that epitomizes the the burning pile of crap that was the 2008 Seattle Mariners. There are so many options from Carlos Silva to Jose Vidro From Kenji johjima to Richie Sexson it was just pitiful. But i have found the worst of the worst. Everyone meet utility man Willie Bloomquist. He managed to get a single extra base hit(xbh) all year long. Thats 165 at-bats with a single xbh. How is that even possible. There isnt a single player in the bigs, hitter or pitcher, who could pull off that feet. You give 165 at-bats to a special olympics kid and he will accidently get 3 doubles. You have to be horrible, and horribly unlucky to do what bloomquist did. His slugging was only 6 points higher than his batting average .279ba .285slg. Fucking unbelievable. I wont even do him the justice of putting up his pic

Carl Pavano has apparently suffered brain damage

Carl Pavano is one of the most infamous players in major league baseball. This guy will go down in history as one of the greatest thiefs in sports. Al Copone didn't steal money hand over fist the way Carl Pavano has. In the past 4 years, Pavano has cashed in on 40 million big ones for a total of 26 games for the yankees. Instead of being grateful to the yankes paying him the money and not locking him in old yankee stadium while it gets demolished, he's opened his mouth for the first time ever today to bash the yankees for not patting his buttom during his 4 year DL stint.

Pavano cried that he didnt get the support from the team during his rehab, that he was often down emotionally and had to pick himself up off the ground and set new goals for himself. From what we know, he spent the past 4 years crashing ferraries, screwing around with alyssa milano(very sorry alyssa, i still love you), and drinking away his tears made entirely of money. This guy needs to shut up and possibly do his job. Just a 40 million dollar idea.

Overrate stars: volume 2

Our second victim in the overrated athlete department is Chicago's own and finest Antoine Walker. This segment won't necessarily

Free agency must really suck

I have never seen an offseason in major league baseball where so many fine free agents basically have to beg for teams to sign them. I am used to 5 to 10 teams all fighting for a single free agent, driving up the price, leading to very modest 252 million dollar contracts. After the top free agents were signed early in the winter, by the yankees of course, the rest of the free agent market has been stagnant to the point that i believe many of our favorite baseball players may be out of jobs next year. To give you an idea of the last few years of signing, we have people like carlos silva, kyle lohse, gil meche, and the like signing 7 figure per year deals. And these guys range from average to extremely pathetic. Last year, we only saw one real free agent casualty as kenny lofton decided to not play as opposed to accept a minor league deal. This year, i believe we will have 10 to 20 kenny loftons.

Despite what Scott Boris may say about the recession not affecting the MLB, he's the greediest agent of all time, it certainly is. Established major league talent such Abreu, Dunn, Lowe, Garland, Glaving, Thomas, Hudson, Pudge, Kent, Griffey, and even the superhuman manny ramirez are finding it difficult to get a contract a 10 year veteran deserves. These guys will end up playing somewhere, but at a greatly reduced price. Prior years saw players such as carlos lee, soriano, vernon wells, alexis rios, chase utley, JD Drew absolutely break the bank on free agent deals. Similar talent in the form of Dunn and Bradley and Burrell are lucky to receive the type of money the immortal Gary Matthews JR is making. Going young means going cheap and that is what 29 teams in baseball are doing. When the cubs need to let go true cubs in Wood and Derosa to save a couple million dollars, you know things are not the same and wont be for a while.

It's going to be sad seeing guys like garciappara, vidro, edmonds, anderson, and even richie sexson flipping burgers next year at your local wendy's. ummm, wendy's!

Bob Stoops just crapped his pants

Last night's BCS championship game was underwhelming to say the least. It had nothing to do with the gators or tim tebow or fox. The gators played exactly the same type of game that they played all year long. Tibow has an average game passing the ball, he runs for several crucial first downs, he pumps his first, and harvin and demps break several long running plays. They have a simply offensive strategy and the best athletes allowing them to contend every year.

The disappointing part of last nights game was the fact that "big game" Bob Stoops laid an egg for the fifth straight year in a BCS bowl. Now i'm not simply drinking the haterade here, i'm a huge OU and Texas fan for that matter. But the sooners that i saw in the championship game had zero correlation to the sooners that dominated the big 12 all year long. Surprisingly it had absolutely nothing to do with the players. Sure, Bradford could have been more accurate on the long bombs, and the defense could have prevented florida's long running plays, but I put all the blame on head coach Bob Stoops.

Someone explain to me why the sooners ran the ball so freakin much last night. Firstly, they were missing their most dynamic palyer in Demarco Murray due to a dislocated knee cap. This guy is one of the most talented running backs in college. He has the size of adrian peterson and appears to just glide past defenders. His back up, Chris Brown, was the starter for the sooners prior to Murray's arrival, however, he lacks the size and strenght to be you're primary offensive weapon. 4 straight rushes from inside the 10 doesnt work with a 5'10" guy. And were was Mossis Madu? This guy broke out for 114 yards in the big 12 championship game and barely saw the field with Murray out.

The hurry up offense didnt give the sooners any advantage on any single play all game long. Most the time, they would line up within seconds of the last play, only to retreat so bradford could spend 30 seconds trying to figure out the third base coach's signal play. The only times when the sooners seemed to rush the snap was in the red zone and on late down situations. Wrong freakin time Stoops.

I personally love this coach. He is the best recruiter in the nation outside the state of florida, constantly stealing top recruits from the state of texas. He helped steve spurrier win a national championship in florida as a defensive coordinator, only to go on and lead the sooners to a championship his second year in Normal, Oklahoma. However, the past 6 years have all been disappointments, including 2 loses in championship games. Many people, including myself, thought this was the year Stoops would take back his reign as the top collegiate coach, but it was not to be. Stoops is possibly the most famous and beloved citizen of the state of oklahoma. If you think your town is borring, you obviously have never been to normal, oklahoma. However, even he will be on thin ice if this continues for the next few years.

Blackhawks 1 Avalanche 2 : 22-9-7 51 points

I actually missed out on this dual between western conference foes because of the national championship game, but i'll eventually watch it on the DVR. From the highlights, it looked like an intense match up with numerous scoring opportunities above the 2-1 score. The hawks put 44 shots on goal, while both avalanche goals were controversial, as the first appeared to be kicked into the net by ryan smyth, and the second coming on the power play which was caused by a premature puck drop on the face off. It was a highly competitive game that could have gone either way. Problem is that the red wings are up to 61 points and distancing themselves in the central division

DeRosa interview on Sports Central

Yesterday I heard a interview from Friday’s edition of Sports Central with David Kaplan on WGN 720am with Mark DeRosa. It was interesting to hear Mark’s perspective on being traded and how he found out about it. Mark was saying he was following the trade rumors of when his name was being mentioned in the Peavy trades. He never heard anything from Hendry and when the Peavy rumors ended he assumed it was over.

He was on the golf course with former Brave’s teammates Chipper Jones and Brian McCan starting hole number three when he received a call from Jim Hendry. He wasn’t sure if he should answerer the phone because he figured he was traded when he saw Hendry was calling. He said he has a good relationship with Henrdy, but they usually didn't communicate over the phone. Chipper Jones told him he has to answer it so he did. After talking to Hendry he called his wife and told her he was traded. She told him to turn off his phone and enjoy the rest of his game that there was nothing to do. When he turned his phone back on after the game he said he had over 20 messages from people. He said it was one of his worse golf games and that he was like “numb” for the rest of the day.

He sounded that he would really miss Chicago and is still devastated. Kaplan asked him if he would be open to signing as a free agent again after this season and he said that he doesn’t like to burn any bridges so he would be open. However, he sounded doubtful and that he was still hurt that the Cubs traded him. He was a nice guy and will be missed on the field and in the clubhouse.

Is it me...

Is it me or are the Nationals somehow involved in every Free Agent signing this winter? They haven't made a move since the Willingham deal, BUT every FA from Mark Teixeira to Milton Bradley to now Derek Lowe and Tim Redding.

It's kind of annoying.

Cuban’s view on buying the Cubs

Mark Cuban was once interested in buying the Chicago Cubs. He made an initial bid, but never made it to the final rounds. Many people, especially Cub’s fans were excited that he could be the next owner of the Cubs. They liked his enthusiasm and devotion to winning by spending money and doing whatever it takes. It was believed that the current owners in major league baseball would not welcome him into their club and approve him. It never made it this far because he didn’t submit a bid in the last round. At his blog he talked about his whole process of trying to buy the Cubs. Check it out at: http://blogmaverick.com/2009/01/06/the-cubs/

Blackhawks 6 Cayotes 0 : 22-8-7 51 points

As the score indicates, this was a whooping of immense proportions. With Kane out with the high ankle sprain, Toews absolutely dominated this game with his open ice skating. He finished the game with 2 goals and an assist but that doesnt tell the whole story. Adding injury to defeat, Walker destroyed Ed Jovanowski's face with a single punch to the eye causing him to drop to the ice in a bloody mess. Unfortunately this is not in the video recap but i gotchya.

Lil' Bayless

Words cannot describe my laughter.

Will Cubs have an owner by opening day?

The Tribune Company is close to picking the winning bid for the Chicago Cubs. They have been reviewing three separate bids since early December. All ownership changes of any major league team is not supposed to be done during the season. There are ways around that like when the Tribune Company was sold during the season, and because it was a parent company Major league Baseball did not approve it. Major League baseball did approve the CEO in Crane Kenney, so the new ownership of the tribune company could not change that without the approval of MLB. They have three months to pick an owner and then finalize the details by opening day of the 2009 season.

It will be interesting to see who the new owner is and what changes they may make. Will they keep the payroll the same or increase it? Will they leave the same management from Crane Kenney to Jim Hendry to run things or will they bring in their own people. That will be the interesting part in the whole transaction.

Salary Cap?

In short, no.

A salary cap in baseball would not work for several reasons.

The first and foremost reason is that, despite the volume of "overpaid bums" in the league, players in the MLB are underpaid given the league's annual revenue. In 2007, the cumulative league revenue totaled somewhere around $6.075 billion. At the same time, cumulative payroll was just under $2.625 billion. 43.2% of team revenue, in other words, went towards MLB salaries. That pales in comparison to the salary cap of other sports. The NHL's salary cap is set at 54% of league revenue, while the NFL is set at 55%.

Clearly, given the revenue of the MLB, the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is not out of control.

Secondly, teams ownership already pockets as much change as it can. The Marlins, whose payroll was gutted to be under $25 M last year, are receiving federal funds to build their new stadium. Same goes for The Yankees, who are getting money from the NY taxpayer to build a new stadium that charge ticket prices that restrict 80% of the population from being able to afford the "luxury" of a live baseball game. If anything is out of control, it is ticket prices. I'm all about free market and understand that if people are willing to pay, they should be able to pay, BUT I'm not a fan of the fact that live Baseball, in recent years, has become oriented to the wealthier and business class. That's just a case of shutting out the grassroots fan base from being able to enjoy a day out and cold glass of overpriced beer. More power to league revenue, but if any cap is being placed in MLB, I say it be placed on ticket prices. Don't, however, keep teams from spending any more money then they currently are. At least the Yankees, who are charging $250 a seat at new Yankee Stadium, are trying to give the fans their money's worth.

Welcome Milton Bradley

Put the injury risk aside: when Milton Bradley is healthy, he is insanely productive. At $10 million a year, Bradley's contract is pure risk/reward. He'll surely provide more at $10 million than Marquis would in 2009 (even if he only plays 5 days a week). He's also coming off a season with an OPS of almost 1.000. Can you name anyone else who could sign a contract so "inexpensive" off such a stellar season (even if he did only play 126 games)? Like Ben Sheets, Bradley is going to sign for less than he's worth because of looming questions. Yes, those questions are legitimate (the list of Bradley's injuries is ridiculously frivolous, including "his hand hurt"), but much like Rich Harden who posted an ERA under 2 in the dozen starts he made for the Cubs, the reward ceiling potential is quite high. It's not like the Cubs resigned Mark Prior, who hasn't pitched in 3 seasons, or Chris Carpenter, whose elbow is made of bone spurrs. They got a guy who can produce in perhaps 60-70% of the teams games with above average defense skills and is a much better asset than the alternative at the same price (Jason Marquis).

Who else could one want besides Adam Dunn (who, by the way, doesn't even TRY at baseball!*)? Pat Burrell is a streaky righty and Bobby Abreu is on the decline of his career (power down, BBs down, etc.). Raul Ibanez maybe?

Let's take a look at the 37 year old Raul Ibanez's defensive range:



To him I say we already signed Jacque Jones once.


My prediction for Bradley, if he doesn't stay 100% in 2009, is 110 games, 400 AB, 20 HR, 60 walks. That's a very reasonable prediction and very much in line with his career numbers. That's also pretty fucking good production for a guy who would only play in 65% of the team's games. DeRosa did that in 149.


*Side note: I don't care how little you try when you mechanically hit 40 HRs and take 100+ BB a season.

Overrate stars: volume 2

With today's news that unemployed

Two Coaches Bears should target

Before the Bears season started there were low expectations for the Bears. This is because last season they didn’t look good and they didn’t upgrade the team. With that said this season turned out to be a disappointment because they showed flashes of being competitive, but always seemed to choke. For instance, they lost to Atlanta by a touchdown, not showing up for the last game of the Season against Houston. There supposed strength of being a strong defensive team turned out to be their Achilles heal and their offense showed flashes of being average if they had some receivers. There are two head coached recently fired that the Bears should consider adding to their staff.

The Bears will probably hire Rod Marinelli as their defensive coordinator. Lovie Smith and Rod Marinelli go back when they were mentored by Tony Dungy in Tampa Bay in the mid 1990’s. The current defensive coordinator of the Bears, Bob Babich is friends with Lovie, but after this season I think a change will occur. Lovie knows a change is needed for the defense and his former colleague is now available who has a long deserved resume for a defensive coordinator. Even though being the head coach of a 0-16 team isn’t something you want on your resume. Jerry Angelo was also in the front office as scouting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during this time. Thus, they all have a history together.

The Bears should also should take a look at Mike Shanahan. Shanahan was recently fired as the head coach and director of player personal for the Denver Broncos after being with them for over 14 years. Shanahan is known for his offense experience. I don’t think Jerry Angelo or Lovie Smith will even think of Mike Shanahan because he will probably be looking for a head coaching job or for a role Angelo fills already. The Bears lack experience and the personnel in their organization to draft, sign, and run the offense because most of the organization is made up of defensive guys. So it would make sense to bring someone in who could complement the organization and provide another perspective. I don’t think Mike Shanahan is the best offensive guru out their, but the best available, and would help our offense. Sadly, egos will get in the ways so he won’t even be considered for a job like offensive coordinator.

Chicago Cubs Imminent moves

Jim Hendry had a busy week. The Chicago Cubs traded Mark DeRosa and signed Aaron Miles this week. They are also going to sign Paul Bako, trade Jason Marquis, and sign Milton Bradley.

The Cubs need a back up catcher for Soto. Before the 2008 season the Cubs never had a catcher who was good at calling games, throwing out base runners, and could provide some offense. With Soto, our backup catcher won’t play as much as he did in the past. Thus, we don’t need to pay for a good back up like Blanco who was a good receiver and is the second best active catcher at throwing out base runners.

The Cubs are looking to bring Paul Bako back for his second stint as a Cub. Paul Bako played for the Cubs from 2003 to 2004 and is a decent back up. Last season he played for Dusty Baker in Cincinnati and played in 99 games. He batted .217 in 299 at bats and made 5 errors and had 9 pass balls. Bako knows his days playing are limited. He has a career batting average of .231 and is 36 years old. He is supposedly going to sign a one year five hundred thousand dollar contract. This would be his lowest salary since 2001 where he made $450,000. The Cubs could go with Koyie Hill, but think Bako is a better option so they will look for him to start around 30 games next season. Hopefully he will continue to mentor Soto. This is where Blanco will be missed the most.

The Cubs have agreed in principal to trade Jason Marquis to the Colorado Rockies for Luis Vizcaino. The cubs will pay one million of Marquis’s salary and take on all of Luis Vizcaino salary for 2009 of 3.5 million and get 500 thousand dollars for his buyout. The Cubs will save around 5 million dollars from this deal. Vizcaino is paid like a top setup man, but is actuality a mediocre reliever who will give the bullpen some veteran presence with Kevin Gregg. Vizcaino is 34 and appeared in 43 games for the Rockies last season pitching 46 innings with a 5.28 era and has a career era of 4.34. Marquis who has one year of his three year contract left went 11 and 9 in 28 starts last year with a 4.53 era. His departure opens up a roster spot for Jeff Samardzia, Sean Marshall, or possibly Jake Peavy via trade. Jason Marquis is on a family vacation right now and will take his physical when he returns. This is why the trade has not occurred yet. I think they could have received more for Marquis than pretty much a salary dump. He is a good fifth starter who will eat innings for your club and stays healthy.

The Cubs will save 5 million on trading Marquis and have already saved 4 million on trading DeRosa which is 9 million they can use on other needs. They look to add a left handed hitting outfielder with this money. The Cubs have supposedly also agreed in principal with Milton Bradley. Their waiting until the Marquis trade is official and signing Bradley will probably not happen until the middle of January.

Milton Bradley will play center or right field for the Cubs depending on what Fukudome does. If Fukudome can hit Major League pitching than Bradley will start in center with Fukudome in right. If Fukudome struggles like he did last year, than Fukudome will be on the bench with Joey Gathright or Reed Johnson starting in center and Bradley playing right field. Bradley is a switch hitting outfielder with power and speed who batted 321, with 21 homers, and an on base percentage of .436 last year. Bradley could fit anywhere in the line up from the 3, 4, 5, or 5 hole very nicely. The two problems with Bradley are that he is injury prone and has some personality/temper problems. The Cubs have outfield depth so if he misses some games it shouldn’t be a huge problem. The big concern is his temper and that he played with 6 teams in nine year. He has a lengthy past of not getting along with teammates, managers, and members of the media. It could be interesting to see how Bradley handles Chicago. Bradley is the best Free agent outfielder for the Cubs, but none are ideal fits.

The Marquis Trade and Bradley signing are not official yet so let’s see if they happen! Maybe something better will come along before they do!

2008: A Year In Review

Some interesting memories from the 2008 MLB season can be found here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3801716

Long-term outlook for the Blackhawks Salary Cap

The NHL salary cap is actually a very good system. every year there is a max and min every team has to be within, and cannot exceed from it in any direction. the cap is based on the NHL's revenue and has been climbing every year. it's now at like 55mil, and should keep increasing. no player can make more than 20% of the team cap, and contracts cant be renegotiated until it expires.

The Blackhawks are actually at the salary cap, such that they actually had to send someone down recently to prevent exceeding it. There was also rumor they may go after mats sundin, who half-retired, but he went to vancouver, not that we had salary cap room for him anyway. We'll get some relief because Khabibulin's contract will expire after this year, and matrin havlat will also be done. hopefully they can keep their guys, but it's gonna be hard cause there are so many of them. we may have to let havlat go, which is a shame, and i'm not sure if they'll want to sign sharp to a long term contract. Tallon has basically done what kenny williams does. Develop home grown talent, plus trade for other team's 1st round busts, sharp, ladd, eager, and get rid of his own 1st round disappointments in ruutu, borque, and mccarthey.

If you look at the penguins, they have two of the best players in the league in crosby and malkin, who are equally good, but they will take up 40% of the team cap. so their team actually sucks. they got to the finals last year cause their goalie, fluery, who's not good got really hot(sub 2 GAA) and trading for marian hossa did the trick. i doubt they'll be back in the finals any time soon. kane and toews arn't nearly as good so they wont make 9-10 mil per year so that should free up space to lock up Keith, Seabrook, Versteeg, Bolland...Long story short. The future is good!

Blackhawks 5 Flames 2 : 21-8-7 49 points

Well the Blackhawks rebounded from back to back defeats at the hands of the Red Wings to destroy the Flames for the third time this year. Everyone got in on the action as they scored an even strength goal, power play, short handed, delayed power play, and empty netter. Quite a game. I recommend watching the game recaps just to hear the Canadian announcer and his silly Canadian accent.

Hinrich speedy return creates logjam

Kirk Hinrich has been out injured with a torn ligament in his right thumb since November 11th when he had surgery. When he got injured fellow guard Larry Hughs was out injured and they flipped spots on the active roster. Hinrich was supposed to be out until the middle of February, but he is way ahead of schedule. He is predicted to be back by the middle of January around January 13th. When he returns the Bulls will have another guard to try to find playing time for. He will join Derek Rose, Larry Hughs, Ben Gordon, and Thabo Stefolsha fighting for playing time. This will be another challenge for Vinney Del Negro to keep everyone happy.

The Bulls need to make a trade to find a big man to complement the Bulls. They need to trade one of their guards along with one of: Nocioni, Thomas, Noah, and possibly a draft pick to get a difference maker. Hinrich would seem to be the odd man out because Hughs has the big contract, Gordon is a free agent after this season, Stefolsha doesn’t have much trade value, but looks like he could be a decent role player, and Rose is obviously untouchable. Thus, Hinrich will have to get some playing time to show he is healthy in order to be traded and bring the Bulls the pieces they need.

What About The Cardinals?

With Aaron Miles out of the picture and the Cardinal's MI's on the farm too inexperienced for the everyday job, might the Cardinals sign Juan Uribe to play Second Base? If so, his contract might look like something in the 10 cheeseburgers and a side of fries per game range.

But seriously. I hate the Cards, but WTF are they doing this offseason? Their shitty bullpen isn't getting any new arms, their horrible starting rotation isn't getting any new faces and there seems to be no one in terms of new offensive production on the radar. I'm simply baffled. Maybe they're just giving up.

Same goes for the Brewers. They lost two top of the rotation starters, their closer and two other bullpensmen. What is their 2009 game plan? Hit the fuck out of the ball (Fielder, Braun, Weeks, Hardy) and then hope the other team forgets to bat? I don't think Dave Bush or Parra is an elite SP and Yovanni Gallardo, aka Ben Sheets Jr., can't stay healthy.

The Cubs are going to have an easy season.

Overrate stars: volume 1

Our first casualty is Baron David. David came to fame as a standout freshman point guard at UCLA, unfortunately that is where his career peaked. He is the classic example of someone who puts up superstar numbers through quantity and not quality. If I told you that he is a career 17 point, 7 assist, 4 rebound NBA point guard, you would run through the streets naked to get this guy on your team...or is that just me?

However, numbers in the NBA can often be deceiving. And Davis has conned the fans and management for an entire decade. He is a career 41% shooter. That makes allen iverson look like mark price in comparison. Let me put it this way, if davis took every shot for your favorite team every game and made 41% of his shots, your favorite team would be making a top ten lottery pick every fucking year. Not to mention that he is a career 32% 3-point shooter. This is actually a respectable number, if you look past the fact that he takes over 5 3-point attempts per game. That is simply unacceptable in the NBA unless your name happens to be Lebron. Davis has made a career out of shooting too much, especially under Don Nelson's "i dont give a fuck" philosophy. Trust me, he's bad. Really really bad.

Apparently the Los Angelas Clippers don't seem to care, and their GM Elgin Baylor doesn't have the greatest track record or caring. Well, Davis has rewarded his new team and 5yr/$65 Million dollar contract with a sweet 36% field goal percentage. Who could have see this coming?

Do you want this man cheering for the Cubs?

Looking at the DeRosa trade

Mark DeRosa was traded to Cleveland to join his former teammate Kerry Wood. There has been much controversy about this trade and whether it was considered positive or negative. It seems like more people were upset about this move than letting Kerry Wood leave via free agency. Kerry Wood never lived up to his potential in Chicago after his big splash with his 20 strike outs game in his rookie season. With Carlos Marmol and other bullpen options everyone knows we didn’t need to overpay for him.

In DeRosa’s short two years as Chicago Cub he became a fan favorite because of his work ethic, attitude, performance, and versatility. Mark Derosa always gave his best effort. He never dogged it like other players we have. In addition, he never complained about playing multiple positions and batting anywhere in the order. He played every position with his best effort and provided top defense everywhere around the diamond. I actually felt his best defensive position was third base followed by second and then right field. I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes regular third basemen in the future.

Mark DeRosa was a big part of the Cubs success last year and helping them winning the National League central division title. Last season DeRosa led the Cubs in runs scored with 103, was fourth on the club in doubles with 30, tied for second in triples with three (others with three were Fukudome and Lee), fourth in home runs with 21, was third in RBI’s with 87, fourth in total bases with 243, fifth in walks with 69, and has a solid average of 285 with a on base percentage of 376, and a slugging percentage of 481. He also stole 6 bases and was not caught stealing. That shows he is a smart base runner because that isn’t really a part of his game. He did all of this in 505 at bats (fourth on team) while playing 149 games (Tied with Ramirez and Theriot). No matter where DeRosa played being his 95 games at second base, 59 in the outfield, 22 at third base while filling in for Ramriez when injured or to give him a day off, or his one game at first and shortstop respectively, DeRosa never missed a beat with the glove or let it affect his bat.

Mark DeRosa was coming off a career year at 33 years old. The chances of him repeating are slim. Even if he does in 2009, he will leave as a free agent after the 2009 season when his 3 year deal will end. Hendry signed him for a reasonably priced deal, and he will demand a big pay raise because of his production and versatility if his 2009 is similar to 2008. The Cubs have the habit of keeping players or getting players way past their prime. With trading DeRosa now, they are selling high and getting the most they can for him. The Cubs didn’t get any top prospects, but DeRosa isn’t a marquee player and they seemed to get the most they would for him.

They have other options for second base and other needs to fill on the team. The Cubs signed Aaron Miles who is another career utility man, like DeRosa was before he came to the Cubs. Miles is a switch hitter who will probably share playing time with Fontenot
at second base. The Cubs still have moves to make so we will see how the team shapes up.

Now that the Cubs have some young pitching prospects and they appear ready to make another move or wait until the right opportunity occurs. They could have the barging chips needed to land Jake Peavy, Brian Roberts Jr., Chone Figgins, and other players they are targeting.

Mark DeRosa will be missed in Chicago, but if Hendry can follow up with the right move, this will make the Cubs much stronger in the long run.

Tim Tebow's long lost brother from a different mother

The Cubs Done Fucked Up

Buster Olney speaks the greatest truth in his new blogpost. He affirms what we all already know: the Cubs done fucked up good.

That's all for now.

Rose best rookie in the eastern conference

Derek Rose was named Eastern Conference T-Mobile Rookie of the Month for December. An honor he also won for November. Derek Rose averaged 16.3 ppg (second among rookies) and 6.2 apg (first among rookies) for the month of December. He has led the Chicago Bulls in assist for 12 of their 15 games in December and scored in double digits for 14 of the 15 games. Rose ranks 15 among all players in assists in the NBA and 8th in the eastern conference. Rose is one of five rookies on the Bulls to have a 20 point and 13 assist game. He is averaging 17.3 ppg and 6.1 apg for the season.

At the beginning of the season a lot was made of Greg Oden or Eric Beasley being the best rookie. Two months into the season those players have disappeared and Rose has shinned. Look for Rose to continue his dominance among all the rookies while he continues to be the Bulls best player and one of the few bright spots on the season.

My Relationship With Peyton Manning Is A Love/Hate One. Mainly, I Fucking Hate Him!

Today Peyton Manning won his third NFL MVP award. But does he deserve it?

Unfortunately he kinda does.

Well let's be fair and perfectly clear, I'm not really that upset by any stretch of the imagination that Manning won it. A few weeks ago I wrote that DeAngelo Williams deserved the MVP. I still believe that but I'm actually not going to take anything away from Manning this year. While I would prefer that have the Carolina back win the award, Peyton did do a good job and did have an MVP type season.

Reason Peyton Manning Should Have Won MVP:
-He was 5th in QB rating which as an indicator he's one of the best
-He was 3rd in TD/INT ratio
-He was 5th in TDs
-He was 3rd in completion percentage
-He was 1st in DVOA
-He was 2nd in DYAR
-He was the runner up to Drew Brees in DYAR so it's essentially being 1st in it
-He essentially won, at least, 10 games for the Colts by himself
-Indianapolis was 31st out of 32 in rushing yards per game so it's clear Peyton had no rushing help whatsoever
-His ability to fuck over defenses is incredible

Reasons Peyton Manning Should Not Have Won MVP:
-He has the best pass protection from an offensive line (it's really easy to put up great numbers when you have the most time to throw and make good decisions)
-He was only 13th in YPA
-He has two of the best receivers in the game in Reggie Wayne and (yes, look it up on footballoutsiders.com) Anthony Gonzales
-The only offensive category he was first in was DVOA

While Peyton was well rounded in essentially every single category, it troubles me that my MVP was not first in any of them and that he was fairly low in one of the most important ones, YPA. But he still was fucking awesome and being 1st in DVOA is essentially my argument for who deserves to win an MVP (and I still believe that). But when you compare him to the RB who was first in DVOA (and DYAR, YPC, and TDs in his category), then I give it to the guy who was #1 over the guy who was just above average.

Is Peyton Manning a good choice for MVP? Yes. Am I outraged by it? No. Would I have given the MVP to Peyton? No. But at the end of the day all I can do and will do is tip my hat to Peyton Manning for being a fucking awesome QB, a great football player, and a good role model. So Peyton Manning, as much as I fucking hate you, god damn do I respect you.

Coaches Discussion Part III- If You Lovie Something, You Must Set Him Free

This is my final coaches discussion.

Lovie Smith is the head coach of the Chicago Bears. Why!? How does he still have a job, he sucks! Let me explain.

In Part I, I listed the four qualifications of what it takes to be a good coach. Let's go through these and see how Lovie Smith fits into these four qualifications.

1) Overall game plan. Lovie is defensive minded. So course his signature is punch-you-in-the-mouth stingy smash mouth defense, running the ball, and really good special teams. His defense is the Tampa 2. The cover 2 with an awesome middle linebacker to cover the middle of the field on passing plays yet still able to stop the run on running plays. The key to this is having an awesome front four.

Lovie has this plan and then asked his GM, Jerry Angelo, to get the pieces to have this work. For the beginning of Lovie's tenure he did have the pieces. He inherited Brian Urlacher and Angelo went out and got players like Thomas Jones, Wale, and helped get a good rushing O-line. And with this the Bears were able to go to the playoffs and the Superbowl.

But the big problem with this is two things. 1) YOU NEED A QUARTERBACK! Lovie was so caught up in running the ball that he neglected the QB position. This has turned costly to the Bears in the long run. 2) When the front four doesn't work, you need to shift your game plan. For the past two years our front four has not been able to get to the QB. This disrupts the whole Tampa 2 scheme. When this happens, YOU NEED TO ADJUST. Lovie failed to do this.

Also, his type of offense causes a lot of three and outs which puts more pressure on the defense. For a long while the Bears defense were able to handle the workload but now it's causing long term negative effects.

Let me tell you an example of Lovie's game planning. In 2005, when Lovie actually managed to make it to the playoffs. They faced the Carolina Panthers. The reason the Panthers made it to the playoffs that year was Steve Smith. Everyone knew this. Everyone. So what does Lovie do? He uses a single coverage on Steve Smith. While granted Peanut then was a great defensive back in coverage and did goof up and trip on the first play of the game (which IS NOT Lovie's fault), YOU CAN"T PUT ONE GUY ON STEVE FUCKING SMITH. YOU JUST CAN'T! What did Steve Smith do that day? 12 catches, 218 yards, 2 TDs. Of course Carolina won.

Overall grade: C+

2) Second half adjustments. Lovie is god awful with this. He can not make adjustments if his life depended on it. I don't have exact stats but I can tell you by watching a lot of games during Lovie's tenure I can tell you our fourth quarter play is fucking awful. I don't know what Lovie does during the halftime but it doesn't work

Overall grade: F

3) Ability to keep a cohesive locker room. Lovie is a cool, calm, collected guy. He's not an authoritarian by any stretch of the imagination. This causes his players to love him. And Lovie loves his players. But at some point, you need to be the bad guy and need to be a dictator and Lovie is not able to do that. He loves his players to a fault. The biggest example of this is Rex Grossman. While granted Grossman really was a rookie on a phenomenal Superbowl caliber defense, it is clear now Orton should have started. But how many times did we hear "Rex is our quarterback"? No, no he shouldn't have been. But to his credit, Lovie's job as a babysitter and making sure everyone plays nice and buys into his system has been excellent.

Overall grade: B+

4) Random game time decisions. Lovie is also terrible at this. I mean god awful. He doesn't know how to properly challenge plays, he is terrible at determining what to do on 4th-and-1, and he makes terrible decisions in the fourth quarter. Let's just take this year for example. Using the prevent defense in the Bucs game and the squib kick in the Atlanta game cost the Bears easy wins. Again, I don't have any stats to prove my case but I can tell you from watching lots of games that Lovie is bad at this.

Overall grade: D+

Now in all fairness the Bears record is not entirely on Lovie. The McCaskey's are terrible fucking owners and Jerry Angelo is a bad GM. Angelo is really bad at drafting (see Dan Bauzin, Garrett Wolfe, Chris Williams), really bad at trading and picking up free agents (see Chris Harris, Adam Archuleta), and really bad at distributing money (see Brian Urlacher, Tommie Harris). This doesn't help Lovie one bit. Ron Turner is also the worst offensive coordinator, probably ever (However, Lovie is not totally off the hook on this because he does have a lot of say in what plays Turner runs and whether Turner deserves to keep his job). But Lovie Smith does a bad job at the things he can control.

But in all fairness, I only pointed out the bad things Lovie has done. He really has done some great things. The Tampa 2 worked out so well in 2005 and 2006 which helped the Bears win the NFC North and make it to the Superbowl. The ability to run the ball has worked out well for the most part in Lovie's tenure and our special teams has really been an underrated part of the reason the Bears have won so many games. Lovie's game planning is also not terrible in every game. Like in the Tennessee Titans game this year, he knew Fisher would run the ball and that Kerry Collins sucks. So what did Lovie do? He put Mike Brown on the line to absolutely destroy the Titans running game and they forced Collins to put the game on his back. Unfortunately Collins did put the game in his hands and he did win the game but it was absolutely the right game plan to do.

But for the most part, every coach does do some good but you have to weigh it against the bad. In Lovie's case, the bad outweighs the good and Lovie deserves to get fired. He hit his peak in 2006 and it doesn't look like he can get the Bears back any time soon. Therefore, he needs to go.

Winter Classic: Red Wings 6 Blackhawks 4

Despite the final result, the winter classic in wrigley field proved to be a major success. On a national stage, the NHL had a tremendous performance on and off the rink. The game was aesthetically gorgeous in person and on television. The hawks dominated the first period due to the physical nature they displayed in the first 20 minutes. It appeared that the red wings experience allowed them to make crucial adjustements. They dominated the final two periods with their own physicallity along the boards and in front of the goal.

The game play was very similar to the indoor game. The puck didnt slide as much as it does indoors, and the staking was slightly affected as well. I noticed the power play defense was disrupted due to the difficult skating conditions, causing breakdowns defensively, leading to numerous odd man goals. Cristobal Huet has a nightmare of a game. He allowed 3 extremely weak goals through the five hole, that i have not seen from the hawk's goalies since the second week of the season. Clearly, as good as the blackhawks team is, it is not at the red wings level quite yet. We have surrendered 21 goals to the wings in 4 games, while only allowing more than 4 goals to one other team all year(league best San Jose). If the hawks plan to contend for the cup, they must bring their skill and more importantly strength for a full 60 minutes.

Still it was a great event!