jimmy no nose

How does Kevin Gregg beat out Carlos Marmol for the closer job? I guess they actually based it on spring training performance.

I don't think speed has ever been one of his strong points, so I'm not sure what happened in that particular game. Last year was his big breakout year, I think he hit almost .350 between high A, AA, and the majors. He also started showing some power for the first time in his career. He also tore up the Venezuelan League over the winter, and has been hitting like crazy this spring. Dude swings at almost every pitch he sees though. I think he walked 4 times in 140 at bats in the majors. I figure pitchers will eventually start working against that. He also doesn't really seem to have a position. He came in as a really good defensive catcher, but I think there are concerns about his ability to be a catcher long-term because of his size (5'11" and about 250). In the minors they took him away from catching one entire season before putting him back and bouncing him between there and first base. He's supposed to play third this year, but he has pretty limited experience there, so we'll have to see how that goes.

In a trade sure to generate no excitement from either side the Phillies sent Ronny Paulino to San Francisco for Jack Taschner.

I had basically forgotten about the NFL Network drama a while back, but then I heard now that Comcast are most likely completely dropping it on May 1. The NFL told them that it either has to be part of the standard cable package or just not on at all, so Comcast chose option B. I don't think they ever even had a deal with Time Warner Cable, so at this point about 2/3 of the country doesn't even have the opportunity to get the channel anymore. Awesome work by all involved.

I saw someone suggest they do 18 and make it no interconference play like baseball used to be. 6 games against your division opponents and 1 each on alternating home fields against every other team in the conference, then the Super Bowl is the only meeting of the conferences. I'm sure that's not what they'll do though, so I see no reason to change anything.

You can still take him down by the legs, but you're not allowed to make a "lunging motion". Shouldn't there be a corresponding rule that an offensive lineman can't try to keep a player from getting up? The more I think about that expanded "defenseless receiver" rule about defenseless receivers the more I think it's bad news for football. If a receiver goes over the middle and lowers his head it's a penalty every time. Obviously it's too dangerous for guys to just be leaving themselves open for helmet to helmet contact, but guys will figure out how to draw flags pretty easily.

I can't wait until kick returners just start getting injured like crazy. The whole play is two teams running full speed towards each other, I don't know how you make it safe.

This offseason hasn't really had enough crazy stories outside of the A-Rod stuff. Here's one that will do for now: The part that made the story seem crazy to me is that 20 year old Jose Tabata married a 43 year old woman with about 23 first names.

NFL Rule changes for the year: No blind hits or blocks to the head No contact to the head of a "defenseless receiver" No more than five players bunched together on an onside kick No more "wedges" on kickoffs. First one's reasonable enough. The second one I thought was already a rule, but I guess just leads to a ton more flags any time a guy's head even gets touched. I'm not quite sure what the third one means, and the fourth seems completely insane. Doesn't that completely change the way every single kick return ever has been blocked?

"Gabriel hit me up with a shrimp"

I kind of understand waiting around on Garcia because of age, but Byron Leftwich looked like he had something to offer last year in limited action and he still hasn't reached 30. He takes a while to get rid of the ball sometimes, but he was throwing bullets perfectly on target every time he came in.

I'm starting to regret crossing out the game on my bracket where I had Pitt eliminated in the Sweet 16. The way they looked against WVU and today they might not even make it there.

Kevin Youklis left the team because he suffered an injury a few days ago and apparently could barely walk after last night's game, but wanted to play anyway to avoid elimination. Not sure what's going on with him, but he's out for now. Team USA's only bench player today is Brian McCann. I hope he brought his infielders glove.

From what I heard Andruw Jones looked somewhat not awful in spring training thus far, what are the chances he catches on elsewhere? I wonder what happened to Tom Gorzelanny. He just stopped being able to pitch in the majors. He was good all through the minors, came up and had a good year and a half, then just fell apart. He was never really a strikeout pitcher, but he fell off significantly in that department last year. When he went back to AAA for 7 starts he had something like a 2 ERA, a WHIP under 1 and had 33 strikeouts and 4 walks then came back to the majors and was as bad as ever. I'm not really sure what you do with a guy like him.