Bored

Nope Owens is as good as gone no matter what happens at quarterback. You know I've always thought part of the reason why Owens never liked Garcia was because that he thought Garcia was gay. Owens put up huge numbers with Garcia at quarterback so I always thought there had to be something else to his problem with Jeff.

I'll say by May he's feuding with Jericho once again for the IC title.

A caged Royal Rumble? Hmmm I think your on to something there.

Need 80% of the votes to get in. Bob Brown - Tackle - 1964-1968 Philadelphia Eagles, 1969-1970 Los Angeles Rams, 1971-1973 Oakland Raiders Harry Carson - Linebacker - 1976-1988 New York Giants Richard Dent - Defensive End - 1983-1993, 1995 Chicago Bears, 1994 San Francisco 49ers, 1996 Indianapolis Colts, 1997 Philadelphia Eagles Carl Eller - Defensive End - 1964-1978 Minnesota Vikings, 1979 Seattle Seahawks John Elway - Quarterback - 1983-1998 Denver Broncos Cliff Harris - Safety - 1970-1979 Dallas Cowboys Bob Hayes - Wide Receiver - 1965-1974 Dallas Cowboys, 1975 San Francisco 49ers Lester Hayes - Cornerback - 1977-1986 Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders Bob Kuechenberg - Guard - 1970-1984 Miami Dolphins Jim Marshall - Defensive End - 1960 Cleveland Browns, 1961-1979 Minnesota Vikings Art Monk - Wide Receiver - 1980-1993 Washington Redskins, 1994 New York Jets, 1995 Philadelphia Eagles Barry Sanders - Running Back - 1989-1998 Detroit Lions Rayfield Wright - Tackle - 1967-1979 Dallas Cowboys George Young - General Manager/Administrator - 1968-1974 Baltimore Colts, 1974-1978 Miami Dolphins, 1979-1997 New York Giants, 1998-2001 National Football League Gary Zimmerman - Tackle - 1986-1992 Minnesota Vikings, 1993-1997 Denver Broncos

Uh no I wasn't, I was addressing your comment about strikeouts. I thought about adding the note that "no I'm not saying Mike Cameron is a Hall of Famer" but thought you'd figure that out on your own. How wrong I was.

When you are slightly above the average mark for OPS, you shouldn't be making that kind of money. Anyways, strikeouts aren't overrated. If you put the ball in play, many things can happen. Coming from a Reds fan, I know EVERYTHING about strikeouts and how it can effect a team and the game, so don't go there. I'll go there....here's the Top 20 all-time strikeout leaders: 1. Reggie Jackson 2597 2. Andres Galarraga 2000 3. Sammy Sosa 1977 4. Jose Canseco 1942 5. Willie Stargell 1936 6. Mike Schmidt 1883 7. Tony Perez 1867 8. Fred McGriff 1863 9. Dave Kingman 1816 10. Bobby Bonds 1757 11. Dale Murphy 1748 12. Lou Brock 1730 13. Mickey Mantle 1710 14. Harmon Killebrew 1699 15. Chili Davis 1698 16. Dwight Evans 1697 17. Rickey Henderson 1694 18. Dave Winfield 1686 19. Gary Gaetti 1602 20. Mark McGwire 1596 Now Dave Kingman aside...that's a pretty damn good list of players. Eight of them are in the HOF and three others are likely first ballot locks. I know your point but just because a guy strikeouts a lot doesn't mean they aren't any good.

Yes drunk driving hardly ever cost a player a job. Now if he ends up coming out of the closet....

Velocity Billy Kidman vs. Arch Kincaid Ultimo Dragon vs. Shannon Moore Orlando Jordan vs. Matt Morgan Bradshaw vs. A-Train Smackdown Jamie Noble vs. Tajiri, #1 contender match for Cruiserweight Title Basham Brothers vs. Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty Spoiler (Highlight to Read): match is changed to Rikishi vs. Scotty 2 Hotty; Bashams later face WGTT for spots in the Royal Rumble F.B.I. Battle Royal, winner gets spot in Rumble Funaki vs. Big Show John Cena vs. Rhyno

How is Mike Cameron an awful hitter? He had one awful year in 1998 but he's been above average every other year. Here are his OPS+ numbers since he became a regular player in 1997. Oh and if you don't know what OPS+ is then click on this link. An OPS+ of 100 means your at the league average. 1997: 109 1998: 63 1999: 108 2000: 111 2001: 124 2002: 114 2003: 106 So again outside of '98 he's hardly been awful. Like I said he's an above average hitter.

Well forget the batting average as he was playing in SafeCo a park very favorable to pitcher's. Problem is Shea isn't much better so don't expect a significant improvement but he is better than his batting average tells you, nevermind that batting average is highly overrated. His OBP isn't horrible, it's not great but the league average last year was .330 and he had a .344. He's an above average hitter and a great defensive player.

No not necessarily as we're pointing out the ways they will make up the loss of Tejada and how they have improved by a lot in the outfield. Tejada has 25 win shares last year so that's 8+ wins. Now just because you subtract Tejada doesn't mean they are automatically going to lose 8-9 more games. Whatever Crosby does he'll make up some of that but since they've improved in other areas he isn't going to have to match Tejada's production which he shouldn't be expected to do since he's a rookie. Oh side note to what I posted earlier I pointed out Rob Neyer's article on Vladimir Guerrero and it's effect on the A.L. West to a couple of the more ignorant fans on that A's message board. They immediately dismissed it because Neyer says that the A's have broke even this offseason which makes Neyer an idiot in their view.

Also to add to that is Kotsay had 22 win shares when he was healthy the year before and I think its safe to assume Jermaine Dye will improve on his performance of two win shares. Hell if he just gets 11 win shares that's three more wins.

I think the typical fan who focuses only on their own team and who SportsCenter tells them to pay attention to can never truly ever be happy in the offseason. They only see the talent of the player's their team lost and don't see the talent of the player's their team brings in unless its a superstar like Vladimir Guererro. They have absolutely no clue how big of an upgrade Mark Kotsay and Bobby Kielty is over Chris Singleton and Terrence Long. Yes and it was absolutely ridiculous to think the A's are going to win only 75 games and that's why I decided to bring this one up and its shit like this that really sets me off when it comes to ignorant fans. I don't expect everyone to be an expert but damn get a clue.

Which is why there is no reason to take that list seriously along with what Al pointed out.

Going back to the original point of the topic about idiot fans I thought posting this would be appropriate. This is a post by an A's "fan" on an A's message board after the Angels have signed Vladimir Guerrero: Jeez and I thought I had an irrational reaction to the Angels signing Vlad.

You know what pisses me off? The bullshit surrounding the All-Star Game last year where everyone (as in ESPN, Fox, and Bud Selig) said Roger Clemens HAD to be All-Star team because he's retiring. Selig then forces Barry Zito off the team, without telling him, so fat fuck Clemens can get his spot. And guess what? The fans in Chicago didn't really give a shit as he got a normal ovation. Everyone knew that the 2004 game would be in Houston and it would then make sense for him to get a special excemption. But nooooo Clemens had everyone fooled that he was actually going to retire, although I always thought he'd probably comeback. Now that idiot Selig will probably force Jack McKeon to make Clemens the starter in this year's game. Oh well I guess he had to go to the N.L. so he wouldn't have to lose to the A's anymore. Fuck Clemens.

Nitro January 15, 1996 Lex Luger def. Randy Savage The Public Enemy def. The American Males Ric Flair def. Sting; WCW Title Match Hulk Hogan def. Meng January 13, 1997 Chavo Guerrero Jr. def. J.L. Chris Jericho def. Sgt. Craig Pittman Harlem Heat def. High Voltage Diamond Dallas Page def. Mark Starr Dean Malenko def. Eddy Guerrero Konnan def. Super Calo Jeff Jarrett def. Chris Benoit Scotty Riggs def. Billy Kidman Lex Luger def. Rick Fuller Rick Steiner def. Arn Anderson by count out The Giant def. Hollywood Hogan by DQ January 12, 1998 Bill Goldberg def. Jerry Flynn Marty Jannetty def. Black Cat Chris Benoit def. Dean Malenko Booker T def. Saturn; TV Title Match Lex Luger def. Hugh Morrus Steve McMichael def. Chris Jericho Juventud Guerrera def. Rey Mysterio Jr.; CW Title Match The Outsiders def. The Steiner Brothers to win the Tag Team Titles January 11, 1999 The Cat def. Saturn by DQ Kaz Hayashi def. Rey Mysterio Jr. by DQ Booker T def. Lenny Lane Diamond Dallas Page def. 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Complete Thunder reviews are a pain in the ass to find even on Google so if I can't find one immediately I just go by the results on one of those random wrestling information sites. But after some digging I did find a Scott Keith review and apparantly there were technical difficulties but he also says there was no match.

They got rid of him. Ya Beane was high on him when he traded for him but then he went 3 for 27 for the A's last year and was replaced by Adam Melhuse as the back-up catcher.

Koonce did get a late season call up last year and your thinking of Dan Johnson and he spent all but one game last year in Double-A so he doesn't figure in the mix for the A's probably until 2005. 24 of the 25 man roster is already pretty much set for the A's and I think Koonce has the best shot at the final spot. They need someone to be the back-up first baseman besides Durazo since he is pretty much a disaster with the glove. Also they probably want to free up first base at Triple-A for Johnson.

Actually its tough to get people to believe this but when you look at the average OPS of the A's regulars last year and the average OPS of their projected regulars for 2004 (not counting Bobby Crosby for obvious reasons) there is only a negligible difference.

Well again its a kneejerk reaction so let me be miserable for now. Thing is I've thought for a while its going to be the A's and Angels for the West next year as the offseason of the Mariners has just been horrendous and they were looking like an aging team on the decline the 2nd half of the season last year. Angels had a ton of problems last year from injuries, to their starting pitching that overachieved in 2002 came down to earth, and their offense was a huge dissapointment (11th in the league in runs). Now they had addressed their starting pitching but ya know of course it still doesn't come close to the A's. Their offense they hadn't really done anything to improve it beyond adding Jose Guillen but I think most would concede last year was his career year (OPS+ of 141 after his previous career high was 88!). That being said their offense was going to improve almost by default this year, assuming Darrin Erstad and Troy Glaus stay upright. Now that they add Vlad they have found someone who could make a significant improvement to their offense. Of course he has problems staying healthy but if the Angels can stay healthy I think they are a pretty scary team.

Please don't be true, please don't be true, please don't be true. Fuck...kneejerk reaction, the Angels just bought themselves the A.L. West title. With the wildcard almost a lock to come out of the East...damnit A's are fucked.

AP article confirms the rumor: http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/6996054 Ironically enough go read the article and look to the right under "Headlines" and there is an article that is titled "Dodgers might move RF Green to 1B". Now that article says its because of Juan Encarnacion that they'd move Green and Juan did play their exclusively last year but he's played all three outfield positions as a regular at different points in his career. Just seems like interesting timing for that story to come out with the Vlad rumor out there.

Ya but they alread have Durazo and Greg Koonce a late blooming, walk machine who is probably the favorite to get the 25th man spot on the team in Spring. "The Duke" (that's what we call Duchscherer since its easier then always having to look up to see how to spell his name) might be 7th on the depth chart by midseason if Joe Blanton progresses as expected. The Duke I think is really just there for now just in case Harden struggles. If Harden pitches fine and there is no problems with Blanton's development then I think you'll definently see him be in a deadline deal to get the bat the A's usually need and that Beane always gets. Just don't think it will be Cust.