It's the minor leagues......get over it

This article was so bad I couldn't help but give my two cents on it (even though its a few days old).

Pretty much, LA Times Writer/Around the Horn commentator Bill Plaschke incoherently rambles about how much of an atrocity it is that Manny Ramirez is allowed to rehab in the minor leagues before the end of his 50-game steroid/fertility pill suspension and how its such an outrage that Dodgers fans still have Manny Ramirez's back even though he got suspended for violating MLB's steroid policy

The biggest "highlight" of this masterpiece was:

I was here to find a Dodgers fan brave enough to boo him.
Surely it would happen, right? 

Alright  so he got busted doing fertility pills, not the smartest career move but if I was Dodgers fan I would not be booing Manny Ramirez. I would be counting the days until the end of his suspension [If God forbid, Braun and/or Fielder were to go through this, I would still cheer their return]. If you don't like that he does steroids, thats one thing but to treat him like a pariah because he messed up is another. Following this "logic" do you want to eradicate all the good he's done for the Dodgers. First of all, the dude has put up ridiculous numbers since being traded to LA and behaved himself  (for now). In other words, while Manny  has  done his share of selfish acts over the years, this behavior has regressed in LA. Furthermore, if not for Manny the Dodgers would still be the mediocre . 500ish team they were before coming to LA.

In plain mathematical terms it translates to the following, 

No Manny=No Playoffs

No Playoffs=Dodger's not winning first post-season series in 20 years

No Manny=Youngsters not gaining confidence by being around Manny and not holding on to that substantial division lead even during Manny's suspension.

No Manny=The Dodgers are likely hanging out with San Diego and Arizona at the bottom of the NL West.

Basically, in Plaschke's mind doing PEDs undos all these positives. Simply, with Manny Ramirez the Dodgers have become one of the elite teams in the national league. So even if you dislike steroid use, the critics have to at least see why Dodger fans are excited about his return.

Also, who cares....steroid use has been one of the most over-blown stories in the last 5-10 years. Seriously, NFL players are WAY more juiced than MLB players but when someone gets busted in the NFL the only people who care are the ones who have said player on their fantasy football team. Point being, he's not playing in the major leagues...he's not getting paid....and really who normally pays attention to those games in exotic locales such as Albuquerque and Lake Elsinore.........which begs the question, will Plaschke still have this self-righteous rhetoric if Manny being Manny brings the Dodgers a World Series crown.......

Also, will anyone even remember this fake outrage about Manny getting back into playing shape in a month? 10 days? a week? Even as it's going on now I could really care less.........but it's steroids.....its 2009.....the anger.....the outrage...............

Apparently Brandon Jennings thinks really highly of himself

I was already not digging the Bucks first round pick of Brandon Jennings when it was initally made on thursday, and this does not make me feel any better about the draft pick

So pretty much, Jennings is on record saying he's gonna be the starting point guard and an instant star. If he had proven said talent, I would not have too many issues.

However, the evidence of NBA-caliber talent is not (currently) stacked in his favor. First, he got picked 10th in what looks to be one of the weakest drafts in recent memory. Second, he didn't exactly impress in his two European stints maxing out at 7 points/game and 38 pct. shooting. It would be too early to write him off completely at this point, but he is nowhere near being good enough to start at this point.

In the transcript of the YouTube clip posted, Jennings acts like the Bucks are going to clear his path to the starting job by not re-signing Ramon Sessions (which would be a HUGE mistake)....and  one which they are working to avoid

While he's still young and there is time for him to mature as a player and person, I am not sold on Jennings as an NBA player.Best case, I see Jennings as either a) trade bait or b) a long-term option where he's a backup for a couple of years before being placed in the starting line-up

Based on how highly Jennings regards himself, scenario b is highly unlikely........which leads to the worst-case (more likely than not scenario).

That being, if Jennings continues to flaunt his ego like this, Scott Skiles is probably not going to like it too much. Skiles has built a reputation around not putting up with this type of behavior. Skiles was less than thrilled with much lesser offenses such as Charlie Villaneuva sending a tweet during halftime saying that he need to stay focused (in a game that they won). I can only imagine how Skiles is going to react to his rookie player being on record saying that Ramon Sessions won't be a buck next year and handing him the starting job sight unseen............not likely.....not likely at all.

Pick of the day: Today (Monday) I correctly picked the First Place-Brewers to beat the Mets

Tomorrow (Tuesday): Angels over Rangers

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

NBA Draft--The Good--The Bad--The Future Busts

With the First Round of the NBA Draft in the books, this is my inital reaction:

The Would Have Been Good If it was any other team: Blake Griffin- Clippers

Obviouslly, Blake Griffin was a beast when he played for Oklahoma. It was obvious he would be the #1 pick months ago. Even though he didn't look to be a game-changing talent...he's still good enough to at least be an all-star. Then, the Clippers got the #1 pick. Playing for the Clippers never ends good for either involved party. Unless he gets traded he'll either be battling injurys or end up being less talented than everyone thinks, the point is playing for the Clippers makes it more likely that he'll have a forgetfull career.

The Good Picks: Stephen Curry- Warriors

I'm not sure how high I would be on him with another team but Curry's game is a good fit for the Warriors Nelly-Ball offense. He can shoot 3s with the best of them and single-handedly will his team to victory over superior competiton.......not saying the Warriors are going to be any good, but having Curry on their side might give them a fighting chance

Jeff Teague- Hawks

This one I am trusting gut instinct and going out on a limb. The reasoning for this goes back a couple years....I was watching some random college b-ball game on tv (wake forest-virginia) the memories are a bit fuzzy but I remember wake came back from 7 down in less than two minutes...I remember Teague hitting a couple of clutch shots and coming up big on defense...point being I was impressed with Teague and thought to myself that Wake Forest would be an elite team within a year or so.....this came (somewhat true) as they were temporarily #1 last year.

Disclaimer: I used this same line of reasoning to pick Wake Forest to reach the finals in my facebook bracket......then they lost to Cleveland State......still with Teague being picked by an improving Hawks team, I still stand by this sleeper pick.

Eric Maynor- Jazz

Not sure how much playing time he'll get in Utah.....but anyone who played for a small school and made a game winning shot against Duke in the first-round of the ncaa tournament definitely has some good nba karma coming his way.

Yes that was only 3 picks that I feel confident will end up being good picks.... Granted this is a weak draft class....but the following stick out and not in a good way
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Hasheem Thabeet- Grizzlies
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This is more based on how high he got drafted than anything else. The dude can play D but he is basically a defensive liability. Best case scenario would be him being a defensive stopper--6th man type on a contender---however, counting on him to help turn the moribound grizzlies around seems like something that Thabeet is likely not up to.
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Tyler Hansbrough- Pacers
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Yes, Hansbrough was a beast at UNC. However, i'm amongst the many that doesn't see his game translating to the NBA. Likely scenario for him is playing a 12th man Mark Madsen type on a championship team once the Pacers realize he's not gonna produce.....I definitely see a career line within the neighborhood of 4pts 2rbs 3fouls 15 minutes a game when all is said and done

B.J. Mullens- Mavericks

Alright so the 24th pick is a bit low to call a bust. Still, this guy is not gonna be that good. Playing in the Big 11 = not the best way to prepare for the nba (at least in 09)......at least hansbrough was more impressive against much more superior competiton....things that can not be said about Mullens....probably be out of the league within 3 years....


Friday Pick of the Day: Brew Crew over Giants


R.I.P Micheal Jackson and Farrah Fawcett

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

The Jefferson Trade and the '10 Bucks

So the major NBA story today is the trade of Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas

The article does a good job of reporting the broad elements of the trade (i.e. Jefferson's impact on Spurs, the salary incentive for the Bucks, and how it makes the re-signing of Villaneuva and/or  Sessions more likely)

Although it hurts to lose one of the Bucks better players, I still like this trade. While Jefferson's season wasn't overly memorable, an average season from Jefferson is still substantially better than a good season for the two overpaid scrubs he got traded for (Yi Julian and Bobby Simmons)....so the Bucks still got more production out of the deal...

In other words, while Jefferson was a nice player he does seem like a better fit for the Spurs than Milwaukee (and not quite high-caliber enough to justify the $15 million salary.)

Slowly but surely the Bucks are creeping towards being a playoff team and trading Jefferson(i.e. freeing up $15 mil) increases the chance (as the article mentions of re-signing Villaneuva and Sessions). While i'm not completely sold on Villaneuva, in non-contract years.......if I were the Bucks GM I would place a higher priority on signing Sessions.

Sure he might not be a future hall of-famer.......but he is a solid player who does lots of things well.......he's a decent scorer with the potential to occasionally drop 30+, he rebounds well for a guard and he can dish it out with the best in the league....if the Bucks don't re-sign Sessions they stand the risk of being  worse than even teams like the Kings and Clippers

I'm not sure if Sessions teaming with Micheal Redd and Andrew Bogut would make the Bucks a championship contender but if all three stay healthy a playoff spot and perhaps a trip to the second round (only b/c they play in the east) is at least conceivable (they had a legitimate playoff chance last year until Redd and Bogut's seasons were ended by injury) and in light of how bad the Bucks have been in past years, I would be happy with at least sneaking in to the 8 spot next year........