Sports/Music Crossover Column: Alice In Chains

Just recently, one of my favorite bands from the 90s, Alice In Chains released their first album since the mid-90s. You all know what this means.....time for another Sports/Music Crossover column where I use songs from Alice In Chains to discuss recent developments in the sports world that I want to discuss but not necessarily devote an entire post to with that it's time to rock out

"Down In A Hole"--Winless NFL Teams Browns, Titans, Chiefs, Panthers, Buccaneers and Rams

Well these teams are down in a hole for sure. 4 weeks into the NFL season and they are yet to win a game. Some of these teams are a victim of bad luck (Titans) others are in legitimate danger of being the second 0-16 team in NFL history (Rams, Chiefs, Browns) but all have the common theme of this being a lost season. For these teams they are unlikely to be talking about playoffs and probably talking about who they can draft to turn around their fortunes in 2010.

"A Little Bitter"-- Myself after Monday's Packers-Vikings game

I can take the multiple retirements. I would have eventually forgiven the Jets stint. This is the culmination of one of the most unforgivable acts in sports. When Favre signed with the Vikings I thought to myself it's okay he's got nothing left, the Vikings will be terrible anyways....well the Vikings are 4-0 Favre schooled the Packers D...and it looks like for the second straight season one aspect of the Packers (the O-Line) is going to doom a talented team to a terrible season. On the bright side 3/4ths of the season is still left the Packers have a bye week to recover and if recent history holds up.....the interception parade will eventually begin in Minnesota.

"Lying Season"--Dez Bryant-- failure to disclose interaction with Deion Sanders

Well this officially ends Oklahoma States one chance at greatness. Dez Bryant was THE star player of an Oklahoma State team that was supposed to have its coming out party. Instead, Dez Bryant doesn't disclose/lies about meeting with Deion Sanders and he is now ineligible to play. For Oklahoma State it's back to another few decades of going 7-5 and playing meaningless bowl games two days after Christmas. On a personal note, it puts my fantasy team in flux as he was one of my best players and I have to scramble to find someone to replace his production.

"Got Me Wrong"--Philip Hughes/Yankees Bullpen

So this morning I finished my post previewing the Yankees-Twins series. In this post I gave the edge to the Twins bullpen and didn't speak too positively of the Yankees bullpen beyond Mariano Rivera. A funny thing happened, I go to the gym and the Yankees-Twins game is on, Hughes comes in the 7th inning in a 6-2 game with 2 men on Mauer on Deck facing Orlando Cabrera, they get into an epic match-up where Cabrera is fouling off pitch after pitch....and Hughes strikes out Cabrera on a 3-2 count....effectively stopping the Twins best opportunity to get back into the game.....for at least a day Hughes has proven me wrong.

"Over Now"-- MLB Regular Season

As always it was a fun ride but all things come to an end eventually. For me 2009 will be remembered for a few things. 1) MLB Networks rookie and breakout season. 2) My first extended encounter with MLB.tv.........probably one of the greatest innovations in recent memory and 3) Stunned that Braden Looper somehow led the Brewers in wins 4) Zach Greinke's amazing season.....I don't care how bad the Royals are, Greinke deserves the Cy Young Award 5) Pablo Sandoval's breakout season........it's not every year a player comes through that can go yard off of pitches that aren't even close to being strikes.....

"So Close"--Tigers/Braves

To the teams who got their playoff hopes crushed last. To the Tigers....you were up 7 games in September....even worse, your going to be mentioned in the same sentence as the '07 Mets.....OUCH.

To the Braves...you kicked it into high gear too late...you were hanging around the fringes of the race...got hot for a few weeks....the only mistake you made was not being in the NL Central where you could play .500 ball for 140 games only to get hot for the last 20 or so games.

"Again"-Trevor Hoffman

Well we were barely one day into the off-season and the Brewers wasted no time in re-signing Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman had an excellent season as a closer in '09. I can't wait to see Hoffman closing for the Brewers again in '10 as they try to bounce back from a lackluster season.

"Put You Down"--Twins over Tigers

The Tigers had things like a commanding lead in the AL Central and in the AL Central Tie-Breaker game...but with the Twins finding new ways to win on a daily basis...they were able to put down the Tigers and get into the playoffs

"No Excuses"-- University of Houston Defense

Alright so the University of Houston isn't a defensive juggernaut. They are known more for their high profile offense. Still, it is inexcusable to give up 58 points to a weak UTEP team. It would be one thing if they gave up this amount to an elite team such as Texas, Oklahoma, etc....but UTEP is not what would be considered an elite team.......i've watched them in "action" a couple times and they are not what I would call an offensive juggernaut. Thanks for trying to break the BCS-Barrier this year Houston and next year, come back with a competent Defense........In terms of Non-BCS schools.....TCU and Boise are the last hopes.

Vh1s top 100 songs of the 80s--and what it says about the 2009 baseball season

So i'm flipping through the channels after watching the Brewers lose again tonight.........grrrhhhh....but that's besides the point.....i stumbled across vh1 replaying their top 100 songs of the 80s and was randomly became curious whether any of the songs connect to the baseball season or anything else sports related in general........well here it goes

3- Duran Duran "Hungry like the wolf"---the Red Sox at the trade deadline

Having tasted the success of two World Series titles since '04 and after falling short in the ALCS to the Rays in '08....the Red Sox seem hungry to get to the top again.......they've done this by building up on an already strong team...by adding Chris Duncan, Adam LaRoche (until they could get Casey Kotchman for him), and Victor Martinez...with the possible exception of the Phillies the Red Sox had the best body of trade deadline work

19- Cyndi Lauper- "Time After Time" --Brewers starting rotation

Time after Time...the starting rotation seeming finds new ways to hit rock bottom. I thought it was hit when Mike Burns got pushed around by the Pirates..........then Jeff Suppan gave up 10 runs to the Nationals (and the first of TWO Josh Willingham grand slams)........not to be outdone Braden Looper did his part to turn a 7-1 lead into an 11-7 loss..........to the worst-hitting team in the NL (Padres)..........on the bright side only about 8 more months until 2010 opening day

29- Talking Heads - "Burning Down the House" -- to the Pirates and Indians management for completely throwing in the towel

as critical as I have been about the Brewers play as of late.....at least management is trying to win.....the same can't be said about the pirates and indians.......it's actually atrocious how much talent they've given away since June.....if you assembled a team based on the players they have given away ERR....traded in the last couple months......all they would need is a shortstop, third baseman and maybe a mid-rotation starter or to to contend for themselves.

31-Queen/David Bowie "Under Pressure" -- Yankees

So the Yankees are in first place......with their fans and management.....talking about the playoffs?! is not adequate.......I mean there are 9 year old Yankees fans wondering if they'll ever see the Yankees win ERR....sucessfully buy a World Series title in their life times....they're under pressure to win it for the children (and most likely Joe Girardi's job)

47- Twisted Sister "Were not gonna take it"--Tony Bernazard--ex Mets Executive

Mets management apparent response to Tony Bernazard's behavior.....lashing out at their double A team......and at allegedly at K-Rod (their ONE large contract that's actually been worth the money).........so they got rid of him....the Mets are still a joke

51 Ratt -"Round and Round" --the Media

For discussing two of the biggest non-stories of the summer ....round and round the clock....24 hours a day........these being a) Roy Halladay's trade to, oh wait the biggest deadline trade involved Cliff Lee.....but it was a good way to fill a couple of weeks and b) Brett Favre's non-return (for now) to the Vikings......i did hear he made a pretty sweet Sears commercial where he plays a customer that couldn't make up his mind

66 Depeche Mode " Just Can't Get Enough" --me and MLB Network

So I have about 120+ channels and about 119 of them go unwatched on a daily basis.......seriously, when I come home from work the first two things I do is a) turn on my laptop to watch the brewers on mlb.tv and b) turn on MLB Network to see what they're talking about and stay up to date with everything else going on in baseball

71- Rick James "Super Freak" -- Tim Lincecum

So appearently if your 5'11'' and 160...the odds are stacked against a pitcher from being a serviceable pitcher let alone a very dominant one.....obviously Lincecum missed this memo...and baseball is the better for it........seriously it is worth paying attention when he pitches because you never know what might happen........and the scary thing is he's only 25 so he's only getting better...when it's all said and done he's going to be the most dominating pitcher of this generation

90- Tone Loc "Wild Thing" -- Daniel Cabrera

Despite not pitching in the bigs since May and pitching only 40 innings this year....he STILL ranks 2nd in the National League in Wild Pitches

95- Debbie Gibson -- "only in my dreams" to the Orioles, Indians, Royals, A's, Nationals, Reds, D-Backs, Padres and their fans

According to coolstandings.com these teams have a .5 percent chance or less to talk about the
playoffs.........unless one of their managers gives a legendary Jim Mora-esque rant about how bad their teams are.......probably shouldn't talk too much here since the Crew has a 5.5 percent playoff chance and will likely join the .5 percent or less club sooner than later


well this has been an interesting experience.........I may have been too young to remember these songs when they came out (i was born in 1983).....but not too old to use the song titles to write about some baseball

Weekend Preview: The Post-Trade Deadline Addition

Another weekend is upon us which means another preview of this weekend's televised Baseball action.....games are ranked 1-5 based on the compelling-ness of the match-up


Saturday FOX Afternoon (Regional)

Yankees (Burnett) vs. White Sox (Danks) =2

Yankees......zzzzzz......wake me in the playoffs. White Sox.....lucky for them they are playing in a weak AL Central and sit only 3 games out despite struggling most of the season.

Expect Good Games Out of: Paul Konerko, Jorge Posada
Don't Expect Good Games Out of: A.J. Pierzynski, Derek Jeter

Dodgers (Wolf) vs. Braves (Lowe) = 3

Dodgers are crusing through the NL West. Braves have been up and down this year and have ex-Dodger Derek Lowe pitching for them.

Expect Good Game Out of: Chipper Jones, Rafael Furcal
Don't Expect Good Game Out of: Juan Pierre

Royals (TBD) vs. Rays (Niemann) =1

Decent Rays team fighting for wild-card against a Royals team that has taken up permanent residency as irrelevents.....to think it was only may when the Royals were in first and the Onion wrote an article about the Royals not being able to find themselves in the standings


Expect Good Game out of: Jeff Niemann
Don't Expect Good Game out of: The Royals

Saturday night MLB Game

Cardinals (Carpenter) vs. Astros (Rodriguez) =4

Sure these teams aren't great but this game does carry pennant race implications. The Cards are tied for the Cubs for first while the Astros are tied with the Brewers at 4 games out of first.....the Astros might be the weaker team on paper but they do tend to play really well the last couple months of the year.....definitely the best game out of the televised action on Saturday.

Expect Good Games out of: Ivan Rodriguez, Matt Holliday
Don't Expect Good Games out of: Miguel Tejada, Brendan Ryan

Sunday TBS Game:

Phillies (Hamels) vs. Giants (Zito) =3.5

Potential playoff preview. The Phillies just acquired Cliff Lee for a lot less than what the Blue Jays were asking....the Phillies (along with the Dodgers) look to be the teams to beat in the National League...the Giants suprising season plugs along as they are clinging on to the Wild Card lead.....Ryan Garko may not be Cliff Lee but he should make a positive impact in the starting line up

Expect Good Games Out of: Jimmy Rollins
Don't Expect Good Games Out of: Bengie Molina, Raul Ibanez

Dodgers (Billingsley) vs. Braves (Jurrgens) = 3.5

Good weekend ending match-up. Sold starter in Billingsley versus Jair Jurrjens who is quietly having a much better season (155 ERA+) than his 9-7 record would indicate

Expect Good Game Out of: Jair Jurrjens
Don't Expect Good Game Out of: Ryan Church

Hall of Fame--what this year tells us (if any) about future classes: Jim Rice

In light of Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice being inducted into the hall of fame...I decided to look and see what (if anything) their induction indicates about other players who may or may not have a chance to get in. With both of these players, I based this information off of their baseball-reference pages....specifically the part towards the bottom where it shows the 10 players most similar to them statistically......for no particular reason Jim Rice will get examined first....also, I examined the black ink, gray ink, hall of fame monitor and hall of fame standards categories where I feel that it enhances the discussion.

Out of the 10 players most similar to rice the following are hall-of-famers:

Orlando Cepeda
Duke Snider
Billy Williams
Willie Stargell

Next, on to the remaining similar players and whether they have a chance of being inducted to the hall of fame one day...

Andres Galaraga .288/.347/.499 118 OPS+ Career

Out of the Hall of Fame statistic metrics on baseball-reference, Galaraga is only above the HOF--average in one of them...Also, he had his best years a) in the 90s when power numbers were inflated b) out of 5 best years...4 of them were with the Rockies where the high elevation leads to inflated power numbers.....good player but these two factors make him look like a better player than he was....we'll begin to know if the HOF writers agree on this one when he becomes eligible in 2010

Un-Likely HOF

Ellis Burks .291/.363/.510 126 OPS+

If he hadn't of been as injury prone (he only played more than 150 games twice in his career)...maybe some of his numbers would merit further consideration. Like Galaraga, he did benefit from playing in Colorado....however, he does have an edge over his former teammate as he was able to maintain his power numbers for longer after leaving the Rockies.....this helps, just not enough to get in

Un-Likely HOF

Joe Carter .259/.306/.464 105 OPS+

The further down this most similar players list...the easier it is to see why there was so much dispute over whether or not to make Rice a hall of famer.....Carter's is of course remembered mostly for his World Series winning home run off of Mitch Williams.....otherwise he was a consistent power hitter whose overall value to his team is undermined by ghastly on-base percentage

Definitely not HOF material

Dave Parker .290/.339/.471 121 OPS+

Un-like Carter, Parker has at least somewhat of an argument.....he put up his numbers in an era that wasn't as power friendly as the 90s.....one look at the HOF statistic monitors at baseball-reference show that Parker's offensive numbers are average in the context of current hall of famers...still when he went up for voting in the late 90s he was getting about 20 percent of the vote...he may or may not get in but it won't be for at least several years

HOF--Veterans Committee Several Years Down the Road

Moises Alou .303/.369/.516 128 OPS+

Doesn't come up for voting until at least '14....had the same career OPS+ as Rice at 128....personally I have some bias in favor of Alou due to his higher batting and on-base average even if no one's really mentioned him as one of the greater players of this generation....unfortunately a look at the HOF monitor statistics show's that Alou fell way too short to get his shrine at Cooperstown.....if I had a vote i'd at least consider voting for him but I don't see him getting in

HOF Unlikely

Chili Davis .274/.360/.451 120 OPS+

Continuing on the theme of similar but non-hall of fame players numerically related to Jim Rice, Chili Davis is another player that had a strong, solid above average career but falls way short of hall of fame consideration

HOF Unlikely

What Jim Rice being in the Hall of Fame says about the future: not too much looking at this breakdown it is easy to see why it took Rice longer to get into the hall of fame......while all of the players on the similar list had long, steady careers Rice fell squarely in the middle.....the ones who did get enough to go to Cooperstown are already there.....the one's who haven't are unlikely to join him

The Weekend Ahead: Unlikely to top Buerhle

Before I get started on the weekend preview I would like to take some space to congratulate Mark Buerhle on his perfect game and DeWayne Wise for making this catch

With that said lets the games begin.........

As always games are rated from 1 to 5 with 1 being borderline-unwatchable and 5 being must-see tv.....i've also added a new feature to this the expect/don't expect a good game out of feature......these predictions are based off of players career numbers against the starting pitchers....this info is found on baseball-reference.com


Saturday---FOX

Cardinals (Lohse) vs. Phillies (Lopez) =3.5

Possible playoff preview as both teams are in first place. This game is definitely more important for the Cards than the Phils since they have the Brew Crew, Astros and Cubs are chomping at the bit for their spot at the top while the Phils have gotten a comfortable distance from the rest of the NL East.......Rodrigo Lopez has been pitching suprisingly well this year and provided he's able to pitch around Pujols the Phils should win this one

Expect a good game out of: Ryan Howard
Don't expect a good game out of: Jimmy Rollins

Twins (Blackburn) vs. Angels (TBD)= 3.5

Another possible (but not) likely playoff preview. Blackburn is having a nice year but he has two things going against him. 1) The Angels are the better team 2) The Angels hit very well against Blackburn

Expect a good game out of: Chone Figgins
Don't expect a good game out of Nick Blackburn

White Sox (Floyd) vs. Tigers (Jackson) =4

This is bound to be a good game. Both teams come into this weekend tied for 1st place with each other....I could easily see either team winning....the Tigers because they always have a chance to win with Edwin Jackson winning but i'm picking the White Sox here since I see them carrying the momentum from Buerhle's perfect game through at least the weekend.

Expect a good game out of: Jim Thome
Don't expect a good game out of: Miguel Cabrera

Saturday night MLB Network--

Giants (Sanchez) vs. Rockies (De La Rosa)= 4

Another close intense match-up. The Rockies currently lead the Giants in the wild card by a game so this series could be the difference between the playoffs and no playoffs this year. This one could go either way because I don't like Jorge de la Rosa (having a 6.23 ERA in 61 career games for the Brewers will do that)

Expect a good game out of: Chris Ianneta
Don't Expect a good game out of: Aaron Rowand

Sunday TBS

Phillies (Blanton) vs. Cardinals (Wellemeyer) =3

Decent match-up......possible play-off preview....Phils win this one

Expect a good game out of: Mark DeRosa
Don't Expect a good game out of: Jimmy Rollins

Sunday Night Baseball

White Sox (Danks) vs. Tigers (Porcello) =4

Good Pitching Match-Up....Two teams fighting for first.....couldn't ask for too much more...if it was later in the season this would have been bumped to a 4.5 or 5....Sox win this one

Expect a good game out of: Magglio Ordonez
Don't expect a good game out of: Curtis Granderson

The Chances of seeing another 500+ Save closer

Tonight while I was watching the Brewers lose due to an ungodly combination of bad defense, leaving the bases loaded (twice.....this especially annoys me to no end) and bad umpiring......they were doing one of those text polls about whether or not there will be another pitcher to get 500+ career saves (a feat that only Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera have achieved......since this hasn't been something I've examined closely...I decided now was a good time as any to do so.....

The Argument Against this happening:

First of all to get this many saves lots of things have to go right. First you have to be good for more than a few years .....Also you need to be really good for about 10-15 years and stay healthy during said 10-15 year stretch.

I remember when I was younger when only a few relievers even had 300 saves let alone 500. However, with the specialization of bullpens and pitchers such as Hoffman and Rivera being really good for a really long time, they successfully broke the 500 threshold.

Looking at this numerically, the first main argument is that many of the top active save leaders are on the back-end of their careers such as:

Billy Wagner- 385 Saves

First of all, it's unlikely Wagner will have a shot to even hit 400 saves. He's already out for the season with an injury. Also, if he comes back to the Mets next year, he is unlikely to get many save opportunities as K-Rod has dominated in the role of closer (more on him later). The only way he has a shot at 500 is to get a chance closing for another team. This seems unclear at beast since there's no way to tell if he still will be effective or get himself in a situation where he can rack up saves.

Troy Percival- 358 Saves

For Percival it's a matter of age and effectiveness. He's already retired once, costing him valuable time. While he has a better chance of getting some save opportunities he has two things going against him. First, he's days away from turning 40 so its unlikely he will still be pitching long enough. Second, he's just not been very good this year having a line of 0-1 6.35 ERA 6 Sv 71 ERA+ is one good way to guarantee that you won't get the chance to get very many saves....

Jason Isringhausen 293 Saves/Armando Benitez 289 Saves

Both pitchers are 36 and have an even lesser shot of 500 saves. Isringhausen pitched his way out of the closers role last year in St. Louis...he pitched 9 games in Tampa this year before undergoing Tommy John surgery.....it's tough to determine whether he'll have a chance to close again let alone pitch again.

Benitez his days of closing are far behind him...hasn't saved more than 20 since '04....never really struck me as being that dominating anyways.

Francisco Cordero 232 Saves/Joe Nathan 223

Both are solid closers that will likely break 300, possibly 400. However, both are 34 and still need 265+ saves. It's not impossible but nothing less than a perfect storm of effectiveness, correct situation and holding on to the closers role well into their 40s is needed for these two to have the chance. Too much has to go right and something (if not everything) inevitably will go wrong between 232/223 and 500.

As you can see, it's not too out of the norm to rack up 200 or 300 career saves, but even many closers that enjoyed a nice productive streak have fallen short for one reason or another.

The Argument for someone getting 500 saves.

First of all, save opportunities are not going away anytime soon. Barring an unforeseen return to starters throwing 20+ complete games a year...there will be saves to be had.

Also, you never know what will happen. You could have someone who gets a closing job when they are in their early to mid 20s and blows past the 500 save barrier.

In terms of active players, K-Rod has conformed to this profile to date. He started closing at a young age (he racked his first 40+ save season at 23). Second, he's stayed healthy ( so far), dominant (so far) and in the midst of his 5th straight year of 40+ saves. Also, it never hurts to break the single-season record in process. Out of all active players, he has the best chance by far to get 500+ Save

Also, he's almost half-way there, he's young (27) and shows no signs of regression. Assuming he stays healthy, effective and keeps up his current pace he could break this barrier by the time he hits his mid-30s........

The Verdict

While too much can happen to K-Rod between now and 500 saves, it is more likely than not than another player will get 500+ career saves. There are plentiful save opportunities out there....it really is only a matter of time before a closer is able to combine this with talent, opportunity and a bit of luck to join Hoffman and Rivera in this exclusive club

Weekend Preview: Start of the second half

Well, the all-star break is over (thankfully) and the second part of this exciting baseball season is upon us. Also, the weekend is upon us which means another preview of all of the exciting (and not so exciting) action....as always the games are rated from 1 to 5 as follows

1=take a nap
2=if you got nothing better to do
3=worth at least a look
4=pretty compelling match up
5=must-see

Saturday:

Mets (Santana) vs. Braves (Kawakami) =3

First match up between these two teams since they consummated the epic Church for Francoeur trade. The Mets have their ace Johan Santana pitching for them against Kawakami who sometimes pitches like an ace....Both teams have underachieved this year (especially the Mets) and both teams need to get hot.....like now if they're going to have any legitimate post-season hopes....the Mets might be the more dysfunctional team but Santana will get them a win in this one

Orioles (Guthrie) vs. White Sox (Danks) =2

Decent pitching match-up, two pretty uninspiring teams. The O's have the pieces together to contend.....in a couple of years.....the White Sox still have a chance despite a mediocre first half as they are 3 1/2 back in a weak AL central. The Sox have the better team and better starter going Saturday...which means they'll win this one easily

Angels (Weaver) vs. Athletics (Mazzaro) =1

Hmm...first place team with their best pitcher going or some no-name pitcher on a last place team that will get even less attention and be worse once they inevitably trade Matt Holliday.....Angels in a blow out

Twins (Baker) vs. Rangers (Feldman)=2

A game with two teams who are quietly in contention. Both teams are solid, not too inspiring and are likely to fade from the pennant race at some point during the summer. Rangers win this one and hold off their fade for another day.

Sunday

Tigers (Verlander) vs. Yankees (TBD) =3.5

Possible play-off preview. Would have been rated higher but the Yankees are on more often than Every Loves Raymond reruns...which makes this a not as compelling match-up. This Tigers are surprisingly in first-place this year and having Justin Verlander as a staff ace helps this along. I usually rank Yankees games lower by default but Verlander alone is worth watching at least part of this game. The Tigers get one step closer to winning the title in this one and the Yankees loosen their grip on the wild card lead.

Mets (Nieve) vs. Braves (Vasquez) =2.5

Uninspiring match-up between two uninspiring teams. Javier Vasquez has been quietly dominant this year (he's been way better than his 6-7 record indicates) .....I see him having no trouble with the Mets depleted lineup....wouldn't be surprised if he completely dominates this game.

So are baseball post-game celebrations good or bad? Some just can't make up their mind

Saw this article online from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Gene Collier who was complaining about excessive celebrating in baseball.


To put it nicely, Collier is way too incoherent in his argument.

Amongst the highlights:

Seems like somebody wins the World Series every night nowadays, at least on the TV highlights shows, where no manner of walk-off hit fails to spark the kind of 25-man running, jumping, tumbling, laughing celebration once traditionally reserved for once-in-a-lifetime moments in October.

It is July, right?



A bit of an exaggeration on the extent of celebrations. It's like oh no, a team is happy that they won a game. Isn't that a good thing? I'd rather have that than 25 guys who could care less whether or not they win the game.

Also, while it may only be July, there are more teams than not that still have legitimate post-season hopes. As a result, the difference between being on the winning and losing end of these close games is a big deal to the teams and their fans. Another thing, these aforementioned celebrations are in smaller scope and less narcissistic than other sports ....cough...NFL....cough.........

First of all, these celebrations are happening as a TEAM. Second, you don't have an Ocho Cinco/TO types planning over the top elaborate celebrations. In other words, the celebrations are pretty low on the excessive scale.

But oh no, someone could get hurt.

The Chicago Cubs placed starting pitcher Ryan Dempster on the disabled list Tuesday with a pulled celebration.

Scrambling to join teammates celebrating a titanic victory Sunday against Milwaukee (it pulled the Cubs within two games of first place with only 82 games left to play), Dempster tripped over the dugout rail and broke his big toe.

Nice piece of cherry-picking there. Out of this whole "pandemic" of players being happy about scoring more runs than the other time....he picks out one time where it adversely affected a player and uses that as one of the man backbones of his "argument"......

And then he changes his stance mid-article:

To be perfectly unclear, I'm not sure how I feel about demonstrations of joyfulness in baseball because they are probably too few. It's better to have people pounding each about the head, neck, ears and back than slinking into the dugout to calculate the game's impact on their various incentive clauses.

But I thought this guy was disgusted by the rash of post-game celebrations. He makes it pretty clear he doesn't like these celebrations and that there's too many.....and then he goes around to argue the exact opposite. So is baseball joy getting out of hand? Or is it ok? Or is it simultaneously acceptable and unacceptable?

Well to sum up the rest of the article Collier goes back and forth incoherently about whether these post-game celebrations are good or bad.....I would give more highlights about this but honestly...... watching the Brewers give up 6 runs in the top of the 10th has made me too disgusted to think clearly. (On an "unrelated" note I REALLY, REALLY hope Carlos Villaneuva is either pitching in Nashville or looking for work by the time I wake up tomorrow......I really don't want to see him (or anyone) single-handedly pitch the Brewers out of contention)

Weekend Preview: The Pre All-Star Edition

It's Thursday.....which means it's time for my post previewing the games on tap for this weekend...the last weekend before the all-star exhibition game.... As always the games are rated from 1(yawn inducing) to 5 (must-see) and with that said.....let the games begin

Saturday FOX Regional Action

Yankees (Pettite) vs. Angels (J.Weaver) = 3

Potential playoff preview that got knocked down a point solely because I dislike the Yankees and they're on TV too much. With that said, this should be a good match up. The Yankees are making my prediction of their 3rd place finish looking worse by the day and are creeping up on the Red Sox (which will inevitably lead to ESPN slobbering over the next Yankees-Red Sox match-up more than usual...if that's even possible)......the Angels are in a tight race with the Rangers in the AL West....Angels will probably be playing with a chip on their shoulder since they're coming off being schooled by Andruw Jones and the Rangers.....Angels win this in a close one

Cardinals (Carpenter) vs. Cubs (Lilly) =3

Another compelling game that I don't have interest in since I do not like either team (not to the game....I just don't like them)....the Cards are coming off winning 2 out of 3 in Milwaukee(grrrrr.......) and they have Chris Carpenter who has returned to form since returning from injury.....the Cubs are lurking at 3 1/2 games out of first and 101 years since their last title....they have All-Star Ted Lilly going to the hill....should be a low scoring affair and a good pitching match-up........if there was a way for these teams to lose to each other....that would be awesome but since someone has to win it will probably be the Cards (writing those words makes me nauseous)

Saturday night MLB (The most awesome channel ever) Network Game


Braves (Jurrgens) vs. Rockies (Marquis) = 3.5

Not the most compelling match up at first sight but it gets more interesting when looking at it at a closer level. The Braves have been hovering at or a couple games below .500 all season but are only sitting four games back. Playing in an underachieving NLeast if they get hot for a few weeks they could get themselves into first place. With a rotation headed by Jurrgens and Vasquez, that's not out of the question.

Speaking of teams who struggled for a couple months than got it together, they are facing the Rockies. Six good weeks and a managerial change has transformed the Rockies from NL West bottom feeders to fighting the Giants for second place and the wild card. The Rockies have an over-supported and decent (but not 1o-wins great)(wins and win-loss records are such over-ratted stats btw) Jason Marquis going for them Saturday.

Sunday TBS Game

Dodgers (Kershaw) vs. Brewers (Gallardo) =4

Another possible play-off match up (well if the Brewers ever start winning more than one game per series). The Dodgers have young pitcher Clayton Kershaw pitching for LA on Sunday. He pitched against the Brew Crew in a sunday afternoon game last year....don't remember the exact statistics but I do remember he pitched impressively..he was in line to get the win but the Brewers tied in it the ninth on a Braun homer only for Carlos Villaneuva to give up a game-losing home run in the bottom of the 9th....

Speaking of pitchers pitching well but not getting the wins to show for it, the Brewers have Yovanni Gallardo (who ironically is the one Brewers starter who's pitched well all-season) going for them......this dude has cy-young award potential, should been an all-star and has gotten zero run support in his last two starts (including an electrifying 12-K performance against the Mets)...my call is that the Dodgers will be lookin ahead...the Brewers offense will show up for Gallardo's start (for once) and the Brewers grad some momentum going in to the break.


Sunday Night Game

Cardinals (TBD) vs. Cubs (Zambrano) =2

While ESPN does get well-deserved flak for showing too many Sox-Yankees game.....they do find time to over-do the Cards-Cubs as well (this I can at least tolerate since as an off-shoot they've shown more Brewers games when they play either team)....hard to get excited for this end-of weekend match-up. Zambrano pitched seven strong innings the last time I watched him pitch (last Friday vs. the Brew Crew)....despite his struggles he'll probably show up and pitch another strong game against another division rival...... I really wish these teams could lose to each but since someone has to win...... it will probably be the Cubs win this one (it makes me naseous to type that statement)

Handicapping the 33rd Man Competition: AL Version

Today was the day where all-star rosters were announced for both the american and national leagues. Also, the voting on MLB.com was opened up for who gets the last spot on each all star team. It is a nice gesture to add another deserving player to the all-star exhibition game.

Tonight I am handicapping the AL Vote going from who is least deserving to who is most deserving....

Chone Figgins .316/.392/.410 110 OPS+

Alright so he can steal some bases and he is a gritty player. He strikes me more as an intangibles guy but not a player that screams superstar. He's always struck me as a slightly more talented version of David Eckstein. Point being gritty (i.e. non-superstar) players may be good as a teammate but not what I would immediately associate an all-star label with.

Carlos Pena .233/.365/.540 131 OPS+

Another good player but just not good enough to be an all-star. This guy is the american league version of Adam Dunn in that he is one of the better 3TO (three true outcomes types player) while a Pena selection would mean possibly seeing him in the home run derby.....I would prefer an all-star selection to not have a part of their game stick out like a sore-eye. The batting average is the offending area. While I generally place more emphasis on money-ball type stats (i.e. OPS,OBS, OPS+, etc.) than batting average, when your 86th out of 95 qualified players in a certain statistic and are doing worse than players such as gerald laird, chris getz and david dejesus..........you are definitely not an all-star

Ian Kinsler .256/.333/.50o OPS+ 116

I will concede that he is one of the better power hitting second baseman in the bigs. But then again, isn't that almost a prerequisite for playing for the Texas Rangers? He's on pace to obliberate his career-high in homers. However, in his peripherals (especially batting average and ops) he seems to have regressed from last season. Being an all-star....I would rather see players recognized who have maintained or improved from prior years.

Brandon Inge .269/.363/.505 OPS +124

On the subject of improved players, Brandon Inge has seemed to put things together this year. He's had a fairly pedestrian career, endured a few position changes and for all intensive purposes is in the middle of a breakout year. Has career prior to this year has been so non-star that amongst his 10 similar players hitting wise are players such as joe oliver, greg myers and gregg zaun.

All i've got to say is ouuuch. However, this involves what these players have done this year and just like the Tigers, he has played much better than expected.....I actually did struggle between making him the most worthy 33-rd man but he got overshadowed (albeit barely) by the most-worthy 33rd man..........

Adam Lind .309/.384/.553 OPS +144

Lind is one of those players having a break-out season even if nobody is really even noticing. It's tough to notice any of the flaws that undermine the chances of others.......he's not a "scrappy" player that just isn't overly exciting, he doesn't rank near the bottom of any commonly-used statistical category. He's definitely improved more than any of the other aforementioned players (even Inge who deserves recognition for his break-out). Breaking it down, he's simply having the best season out of the five candidates and will most likely be the best of the bunch several years down the road. When it comes down to it he's hitting for good average, good power and considering his 26th birthday isn't for another couple of weeks this guy has the potential to get even better and become a perennial all-star.....in other words, the type of player that the All-Star Game recognizes......all he has to worry about is getting recognition playing in Toronto

Weekend games on tap

So, the 4th of July weekend is upon us and with it the second weekly weekend TV sports preview.

The games will be rated from 1-5 based on watchability:

1= nap time

2= back ground noise

3= ok if you have nothing better to do

4= pretty compelling game

5= must see

And now.....let's play some ball.....

Saturday FOX Regional Coverage

Mets (Nieve) vs. Phillies (Moyer)= 3.5

While neither of these teams are great, this NL East match-up should still be good. The defending World Series Champion Phils are hanging on to the divison lead by the skin of their teeth and the two-time defending champion choke artist Mets are sitting at third place, a game and a half out of first. The Mets have Nieve, who has pitched suprisingly well since being picked up from Houston. The Phillies are countering with the oldest active MLB player Jamie Moyer. 

A good matchup of contrasts in a fairly meaningful (for an early July game) 

Pick: Phils over Mets

Tigers (Jackson) vs. Twins (Liriano)= 3

Another compelling divisional matchup. Currently, the Tigers lead both the Sox and Twins by 3 games. Both the Tigers and Jackson have been playing surprisingly well this season while being largely ignored. The Twins have Liriano going. This would have been a must-see match up if it was 2006. However, Liriano has struggled with injuries and on field performance in the last couple years. He has pitched better lately winning his last couple starts. I see Liriano's winning streak continuing and the Twins pulling out the victory

Dodgers (Wolf) vs. Padres (Geer)= 4

If this was any other weekend, this game would be fairly meaningless and gotten either a 1 or 2. However, this is not any other weekend. This will be the second game after Manny Ramirez returns from his 50-game suspension. The only reason to really watch this game is to see if Manny plays well even after his long layoff. Also, anytime there is a possibility of a Manny being Manny moment makes for interesting television. The Dodgers have proven the ability to play well either way.....the Dodgers win this one in a laugher.

Saturday Night MLB game:

Rays (Price) vs. Rangers (Holland)= 2.5

Both of these teams have legitimate post-season hopes as at least wild-cards. If this was a September game, this game would get a higher rating.

The only really compelling aspect of this game is David Price pitching. He's still young and finding his way but he has proven (so-far) to be worth the hype and high draft pick. Otherwise, not too much of a reason to watch this game. Rays over Rangers

Sunday TBS Game:

Brewers (Burns) vs. Cubs (Lilly)= 5(fans of either team) 3.5 for everyone else

This rivalry has escalated in intensity in the last few years. As it stands right now, the Cubs are 2.5 back of the Brewers. The Brewers have Burns starting. He's in the rotation due to the rash of injuries and ineffectiveness that has plagued the Brewers rotation. He's probably only in the rotation for the short term but if he pitches as well as he did on Tuesday on a consistent basis he could around longer than expected.

On Tuesday, he outpitched Johan Santana and only gave up 2 runs in 6 1/3. The Cubs have Ted Lilly going for them. He's quietly put up a solid season with a 131 ERA+. This should be a pretty close match-up coming down to the bullpen......Brewers win 

Sunday night ESPN

Rays (Niemann) vs. Rangers (Feldman)=2

Tough to get too excited over this match-up. The teams aren't that bad but aren't that exciting either.....Rangers win this one.

 Thursday pick of the day: Angels over Orioles

The Wednesday Five: The Last Place All-Stars

So last Wednesday I did a list of top 5 baseball records that I feel will never be broken. I was thinking about the direction I wanted to take the blog and I have decided to do a top 5 list on Wednesdays....(p.s. i've decided to also make the weekend sports tv preview a regular post and moved it to thursdays)....anyways with the all-star break and pennant races heating up, i've come up with the idea of giving recognition to the players stuck on last place teams that are going nowhere fast....for this list's considerations the teams included are Baltimore, Cleveland, Oakland, Washington, Pittsburgh and Arizona

1) Danny Haren- Diamonbacks 7-5 2.19 era 208 era+

If Haren was playing for a team that was even somewhat good and/or played defense above a little league level, he would be getting a lot more Cy Young award talk. He's having his best year by far which is impressive considering he's already a two-time All Star. When you have an ERA that is less than half the league average--something special is going on....too bad it's just happening for a team that's happens to not be very good this year.

2) Adam Dunn-Nationals .260/.396./.528 142 OPS+

Adam Dunn is doing what he's always done. Hit for a pedestrian average, draw lots of walks, strike out a lot and hit lots of homers. Dunn is iconic in his own way for being one of the greatest 3TO (Three True Outcomes) players of all time.....a little over half of his plate appearances have ended with either a walk, strikeout or home run this year. 

The only difference this year is instead of doing this for a 75-win Reds team, he's doing it for a historically bad Nationals team. 

3) Cliff Lee- Indians  4-7 3.39 132 OPS+

Last year's reigning Cy Young Award winner is definitely not winning 20+ games again. Unlike most pitchers who go 4-7, it's not because Cliff Lee is not a good pitcher. He's still putting up staff ace numbers, he's just not getting offensive help behind him.  

It looks as though Cleveland's run of bad luck in sports has spread to their ace pitcher....(well at least until they trade him).

4) George Sherill Orioles 0-1 1.99 era 229 ERA+

Amongst the multitude of players Baltimore got for Eric Bedard. He was an all-star last year but struggled towards the end. 

This year, he is putting up a largely unnoticed monster season as Baltimore's closer. While there ain't many leads to finish off these days...years....decades in Baltimore, when the opportunity has come up this year he has definitely stepped up.

5) Ryan Zimmerman- Nationals- .301/.371.500 128 OPS +

In a weird twist of irony, the team that's far and away the worst (even by last-place team standards) is the one that got two representatives on this list.

While Dunn is putting up a better season, Zimmerman is more or less the face of an otherwise atrocious Nationals team. His highlight of 08/09 was a 30-game hitting streak is the longest seen in baseball since '06. While there were those left off that had an edge statistically, this is more of a lifetime achievement award for Zimmerman's ability to still play well even when surrounded by the Double A caliber "talent" that is pervasive throughout the Nationals roster.

Also receiving consideration: Adam Jones, Luke Scott, Brad Bergesen, Victor Martinez, Shin Choo-Choo, Matt Holiday, Dallas Braden, Andrew Bailey, John Lannan, Adam LaRoche, Zach Duke, Justin Upton, Doug Davis

Let the trade season begin

So today, the first strike of the trade season began with the Indians trading Mark DeRosa to the Cardinals for Chris Perez and a PTBNL

Unless Perez and/or the PTBNL turns out to be a future hall of famer, the Cardinals are likely to get the upper hand in this trade. DeRosa can hit for power, reduce the pressure on Albert Pujols in the starting lineup and play any position in the infield. Offensively he is an upgrade at 2nd, 3rd and short (Skip Schumaker, Brendan Ryan and Joe Thurston respectively)

As a fan of the team currently tied for first with the Cardinals this trade makes me a bit nervous. Obviously, upgrading their offense gives the Cardinals a better chance at making the playoffs and puts more pressure on the Brewers to acquire a player of their own.

Although getting someone who can play second was a higher priority when Rickie Weeks went down for the season. The necessity for outside help at second diminished with Craig Counsell hitting better than expected and Casey McGehee stepping up big-time to the tune of .340/.398/.520. In other words, my concern is not that the Brewers failed to land a second baseman.

My concern as a Brewers fan is their starting rotation. Outside of Yovani Gallardo, the rotation is a mess.......every other starter has either a) a below league-average era, b) is battling injury troubles or c) has pitched so horribly even within the context of a and b that they had to go back to Nashville (Manny Parra...cough....cough)

While the trading-deadline scene is different than '08 (nobody of Sabathia's caliber on the trade market) I am hoping that DeRosa's trade to the Cardinals will accelerate the trade of a starting pitcher to the Brewers.....even a 2/3 guy like Jarrod Washburn or Doug Davis would help improve the starting rotation and give the Brewers someone other than Gallardo that can be depended on to step up. Well, I guess that's enough trade-speculation talk for now....either way this will be a fun season and a thrilling pennant race...also, having today's victory over the Giants to bask in doesn't hurt either

Sunday Pick Of The Day: Mets over Yankees

Weekend Sports TV Preview:

For this post, I am going to preview the baseball games being featured on national televison. Depending on how I feel about this, this may either be a one-shot deal or become a recurring feature [if this feature lives long enough, the preview will eventually cover football and basketball). Also, this is not meant to be comprehensive as I will only be highlighting the sports that I follow: (For this weekend, that would be just baseball. This means no coverage of Golf, Boxing, Soccer, etc.) Also, I will be ranking the games on a 1-5 basis as follows:

1=nap-time
2=background noise
3=i'll watch a little if I have nothing better to do
4=likely a good but not great game
5=definitely watching

Saturday:

MLB FOX Regional Coverage:

Red Sox (Wakefield) vs. Braves (Vasquez) =3

I like the pitching match-up for this game. You get two veteran pitchers both playing better than expected. Also, you get two contradictory pitching styles. On one side, you have the knuckleballer Wakefield who already has 9 wins going for the Sox. On the other hand, Vasquez who is second in the NL in K's who has pitched better than his 5-6 record indicates. While the Red Sox are the stronger team, the Braves still have a lot to play for as they are only 4 games back in a weak NL East. I think Vasquez will keep this game close but I see the Sox prevailing in this one.

Cubs (Dempster) vs. White Sox (Buerhle) =2

Not looking good for those Cubs. They are self destructing about 4 months earlier than usual. Lots of distractions in the last couple days between Soto testing positive for weed and Milton being Milton.....being on the short-end of the pitching match up does not help either....White Sox in a blowout

Angels (Lackey) vs. D-Backs ( Davis)= 2

If nothing else, at least the D-Backs can't play any worse tomorrow than they are playing tonight. The Angels have a disappointing John Lackey going for them. The D-Backs have Doug Davis, who has pitched better than his 3-8 record indicates. With Davis pitching well and Arizona likely to fall out of contention......this could be one of his last starts as a D-Back. Even though the Angels have a much better team, I see Arizona winning this one.

MLB Network:

Yankees (Burnett) v. Mets (Redding) =1

Yes, I went there, I gave the Yankees-Mets the lowest ranking possible. As a baseball fan who is not from New York, has never even been to New York and never been a fan of either team, I do feel that the New York teams get shoved down baseball fan's throats on a yearly basis......So pretty much you have a ridicuously over-paid mediocre pitcher (Burnett) vs. a journeyman pitcer (Tim Redding)....i'm not high on either team but since Redding pitched well against St. Louis on monday i'll pick the mets to win

Sunday TBS

Red Sox (Penny) v. Braves (Hanson) =4

Why does Sunday's Sox-Braves game get a higher ranking than Saturday's: Two Words: Tommy Hanson. This kid received lots of hype before even being called up and so for he's lived up to it. I haven't seen him pitch personally myself, but in his last 3 starts this kid has been lights out. (3-0 2 ER in 17 innings). Hanson definitely has the potential to be an ace pitcher in the big leagues. The Braves haven't lost any Hanson started games yet and I see that trend continuing on Sunday.

Yankees (Wang) v. Mets (Hernandez)= 1

As much as this game is a snoozer, I would like to use this space to thank Chien-Ming Wang for doing everything in his power to make sure my pre-season prediction of the Yankees finishing 3rd and missing the playoffs comes true......granted he hasn't pitched as bad since coming off the disabled list but he has an era that's higher than geovany soto (yes I went there)- Mets win this one by default.

In other words, not the best sports TV weekend. Other than sunday's Braves-Sox games, this slate is pretty uninspiring...........well at least I got mlb.tv to keep me occupied

Saturday Pick of the Day: Brew Crew over Giants

P.S. I grabbed/double-checked statistics, starting pitchers, miscallenous info from the following sites while writing this post:

mlb.com, baseball-reference.com, usatoday.com

Records were made to be broken---Just not these ones

Thanks to my awesomely epic subscription to mlb.tv, i've been able to watch significantly more Brewers baseball than in the past. While their comback victory against the Twins was awesome (going from 2 out no on down 3-2 to up 4-3 by the end of the inning was especially epic).....while I could write a whole post about the game, i'm not.

Point being, during the game they did one of those text polls where they asked viewers to text in whether or not they think Joe Mauer can hit .400 this year (currently he's sitting at .394) which got me thinking to which acheivments and/or records in baseball are least likely to be acheived.....so here goes my list of top five records/acheivments and the likeliness i'll live long enough to see them broken

1) Cy Young's record of 511 wins:

Well when they name the award for best pitcher after you, it follows logically that you must of done something epic. Nothing says epic like winning 511 games......granted he played in a different time when pitching rotations were shorter, starting pitchers were actually expected to go nine innings.....but even in his era, nobody came even close...the way things are today it's about 50-50 whether anyone will break 300 let alone 511

Odds: 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 etc.......................

2) Cal Ripken Jr. playing in 2,632 games

This record was an anomoly even within the context of the 80s/90s.....his focus on playing day in/day out is something you just don't see..even the "everyday" players in this miss games either through injury and/or being rested at some point....this is record also won't be threatened since there would be too much criticism if a player struggled after playing in x consecutive games..

To put it in current context, the longest active current streak is held by Adrian Gonzales at 275...at this rate he would have to play 15 years (taking him to age 42) for this record to be broken....too much can happen between now and then......

Odds: 1 in 1,000,000

3) Sam Crawford: 309 triples

Like Young's record the unbreakability of this record lies a lot in the times he played in.....in Crawford's time (1899-1917) came straight through the heart of the dead-ball era.....home runs had yet to come in style so naturally more players were gonna hit triples.....

In today's context, the active leader in triples is Johnny Damon who has 94.....considering he's 35 and plays half his games in a stadium so small that routine fly balls in other parks are home runs in yankee stadium......there's no way he catches up

Odds: 1 in 940,940

4) Ricky Henderson: 1406 stolen bases

Ricky Henderson dares you to try to break Ricky Henderson's record. Ricky Henderson dares you to try to steal 130 bases in a season. In all seriousness, the changes in baseball thinking are going to eventaully lead the stolen base to a point where this part of the record book is going to gather dust........even in the past 10-20 years teams are more averse to stealing bases and only a select few players even break 50 steals in a year.

Active Leader: Juan Pierre 446......he'd have to steal 96 a year for the next ten years to tie the record (he's already 31)......considering his career high is 65.........I don't see that happening

Odds: 1 in 96,000

5) Joe DiMaggio 56- game hitting streak:

The fact that this happened even once was abnormal in itself. This is a record that hasn't even come close to being threatend since it was established. There's just too much that can go wrong between point A and point B. All it takes is one bad day for a bid to break this record to hit the dust. There is a reason why people make a big deal when players even get halfway to this streak

Odds: 1 in 5,600

For the Record:

Since the .400 season was how I got the idea for this post I will end with my take on it. Granted, this has not been acheived since 1941.......every 10-20 years it seems like someone makes a run for at for at least a few months.......George Brett came really close in 1980, Tony Gwynn was at .394 when the 1994 strike hit.

In the context of Joe Mauer, I would give him a better chance if he wasn't a catcher. While he has done things as a hitter that others have failed to do (such as win 2 batting titles), the reality is playing catcher is the most physically demanding positon in the field and the inherent difficulty of hitting .400 I honestly don't see it happening.... However, unlike the other acheivments on the list, this acheivment is one that has at least shown to be approachable....not sure who will hit .400 but I feel fairly confident it will happen within my lifetime.

Odds:65%

Pick of the day: For today, I replicated my pick from Tuesday (correctly) picking the Brewers over the Twins.

Thursday Pick of the Day: Red Sox over Nationals

Some Baseball, Some Basketball with a side of onion

Some observations of note:

Well, Scott Boras is up to his greedy ways.............again. MLB Notebook is reporting that Scott

Boras' client Magglio Ordonez got benched and he is not too happy about it. Mostly this article talks about  Boras being upset that this move may cost Boras/Ordonez some precious  millions and in general crying foul......my take on this situation is very similar to the views expressed in this article

Well here we go again.....Scott Boras is definitely one of the most greedy-sleazy-self absorbed agents in baseball...it does not shock me at all that he is pulling a stunt like this.....i'm curious to see how much money he extracts out of future draft-bust Stephen Strasburg....if/when I do a post about people/things that are bad for baseball he's definitely going to be number 1.

USA Today is reporting that Yao Ming views rumors of him being traded to Cleveland as an unknown.

The article discusses how the rumor has grown since some Chinese investors became minority owners of the Cavs.......This is a move Cleveland needs to make on many fronts. The article discusses the marketing benefits which I won't discuss to avoid redundancy. On a basketball front it would also be epic. Getting Yao makes more sense than getting Shaq while there are injury concerns with Yao,  Yao is actually known more from his on-court production than his twitter account these days. Also having Yao at center would immensly improve Cleveland's chances of winning series against teams with dominant big men (i.e Yao vs. Howard would have been epic) and Yao would have been enough to at least make the finals and possibly give the city of Cleveland a championship.

Also getting someone of Yao's caliber would be a major sign to LeBron that the Cavs are serious about putting together a championship-caliber team and thus give them a better chance to keep LeBron past the summer of 10'

On a Lighter Note: Reason 36 why the Cubs will not win the world series this year

Streak for the cash pick of the day:

Blue Jays 7

Expos 2

Why I Don't Mind the Summer Sports Lull

Alright so one of my major sources for sports news online is the website realclearsports.com. Today, they had an article by Jeff Briggs where he discusses how the summer is one of the slower times of the year in regards to following sports..While I have no problem with the article in itselt, there is less going on. However, it gives me an opportunity to discuss further in depth my love for the game of baseball. The link to the article is below


http://www.realclearsports.com/blog/2009/06/summer-sports-lull.html


The clearest point he makes regarding the sports lull comes when he says:         

"truly, we are in sports no-man’s land, at least until preseason football"

While I agree with the assertions in the article that it has been an exciting sports year and as much as I like football and basketball.....in regards to my sports tastes, baseball trumps allWhich leads to my next point...for me the "summer sports lull" (with the exception of the all star break) is something I have never dreaded (in fact I usually look forward to it)....this week marked the beginning of the 6 to 8 week window where sports coverge comes closest to being baseball-dominated than at any other time of the year (well under the faulty assumption that someone like T.O. or Brett Favre don't do anything news-worthy like doing pushups in their driveway or texting their media buddies from Missisipi)


To some baseball season is way too long at 162 games......to me it is a poetic epic that portrays life......it is like life as each team goes through peaks and valleys which create a ying/yang effect between everyone's fortunes and misfortunes......For every team that wins, one loses........inches can determine the difference between a game ending double play and a game ending hit.....it teaches you to not give up if things go wrong as even the greatest players are still unsucessful very often....any given day a cy-young award winning pitcher might get rocked and/or a borderline player might flirt with a no-hitter

Because of my fascination with the game of baseball, what others call the summer sports lull is one of my favorite times to follow sports......less of everything else going on equals more time and exposure for america's original past-time....




Streak for the cash pick of the day (Thursday):

D-Backs 3
Royals 0