Bored

Cuban Linx, Urban Warfare, and Kotz have all wrapped up bowl wins. Should create some drama in the Bored Bowl. iggymcfly came into today needing just one of three teams to win for him but Arkansas and Michigan have both fallen. If Boise State wins tonight he wins the Bored Bowl, if Oklahoma wins Spaceman Spiff will tie it up with the championship and $50 coming down to the biggest bowl game of the year not in the United States...the International Bowl.

Alan Trammell - Shortstop Detroit Tigers 1977-1996 6th year on the ballot Past HOF Voting Results 2002: 15.68% 2003: 14.11% 2004: 13.83% 2005: 16.86% 2006: 17.69% Awards 1980 AL Gold Glove - SS 1981 AL Gold Glove - SS 1983 AL Gold Glove - SS 1984 AL Gold Glove - SS 1984 World Series MVP All-Star Selections: 6 (1980, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990) League Leader None of note Career Ranks None of note Hall of Fame Stats Gray Ink: Batting - 48 (505) (Average HOFer ≈ 144) HOF Standards: Batting - 40.4 (146) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Batting - 118.5 (116) (Likely HOFer > 100) Similar Batters in HOF: 2 (Ryne Sandberg, Pee Wee Reese) Other Similar Batters: Barry Larkin, B.J. Surhoff, Jay Bell, Lou Whitaker, Tony Fernandez, Julio Franco, Buddy Bell, Dave Concepcion Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3) 1977: 0/-0.3 1978: 14/5.5 1979: 13/3.0 1980: 21/7.0 1981: 14/8.7 1982: 16/8.0 1983: 26/10.3 1984: 29/10.5 1985: 16/7.0 1986: 26/10.2 1987: 35/13.1 1988: 23/8.3 1989: 13/6.3 1990: 29/9.7 1991: 12/4.3 1992: 4/1.7 1993: 17/6.3 1994: 3/2.5 1995: 6/1.5 1996: 1/-0.2 Career Win Shares: 318 Career WARP3: 123.3 Would he get my vote? Yes. An excellent peak gives him the nod from me, the first player I've voted "yes" for. Five times he had an OPS+ of 130 or better in a full season, six if you include his 1993 season although that came in 112 games. As you see Trammell is getting little support, not even at the level of Dave Concepcion. What has hurt Trammell the most is probably the era he played in. You could make a legitimate argument that in the last 25 years we've seen seven of the top 10 to 12 greatest shortstops of all-time as we are truly in a golden age for the position. Trammell's peers included Cal Ripken, Robin Yount, Ozzie Smith, and Barry Larkin and since he retired Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter (maybe needs one more good year) have joined that list. When he retired Trammell was without question one of the Top 10 shortstops of all-time. He shouldn't be punished because his career numbers were dwarfed by all-time greats like Ripken and Yount nor should he be punished for the feats of players who came after him like A-Rod and Jeter.

Yikes another missed extra point leaves still a slim opening for Michigan. Ya that should have been taunting on Jarrett, at least under the strict rules of college football although in the bowls I've noticed the refs are letting more things go.

And its a ball game again. That missed extra point could end up being huge.

Well I was going to wait but yes if Michigan loses this game it effectively kills any rematch argument. They flat out didn't deserve one and they're proving it today. That being said this game isn't over yet. If Michigan can score a touchdown and get a two point conversion on this drive they are right back in it.

If a conference goes undefeated or winless in the bowl games that might say something about the overall strength of the confernece but otherwise the bowls don't give you a true idication of how good or bad a conference is.

Looks like Penn State is going to upset Tennessee unless the Vols make a miracle comeback in the last three minutes.

With the additon of the BCS Championship game this year thus adding two teams to the BCS it has caused a ripple effect on the rest of the bowls in terms of the quality of teams they get. This year the Holiday Bowl is the only pre-January 1st bowl game with two BCS Top 25 teams but it's the first time since 1997 that the Holiday Bowl has not had a Top 10 team in it. Fun fact about the Motor City Bowl is that Middle Tennessee actually gained a $425k higher payout by losing to Troy and thus costing themselves the Sun Belt title. The Motor City Bowl pays out $750k while the New Orleans Bowl paid out only $325k, by far the lowest bowl payday. TUESDAY Motor City Bowl: Middle Tennessee vs. Central Michigan, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN WEDNESDAY Emerald Bowl: Florida State vs. #25 UCLA, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN THURSDAY Independence Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Alabama, 4:30/1:30 PM, ESPN Holiday Bowl: #21 Texas A&M vs. #18 California, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN Texas Bowl: #16 Rutgers vs. Kansas State, 8:00/5:00 PM, NFL Network FRIDAY Music City Bowl: Clemson vs. Kentucky, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, ESPN Sun Bowl: #22 Oregon State vs. Missouri, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, CBS Liberty Bowl: Houston vs. South Carolina, 4:30/1:30 PM, ESPN Insight Bowl: Texas Tech vs. Minnesota, 7:30/4:30 PM, NFL Network Champs Sports Bowl: Purdue vs. Maryland, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN SATURDAY Meineke Car Care Bowl: #24 Boston College vs. Navy, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, ESPN Alamo Bowl: #19 Texas vs. Iowa, 4:30/1:30 PM, ESPN Chick-fil-A Bowl: Georgia vs. #15 Virginia Tech, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN SUNDAY MPC Computers Bowl: Miami vs. Nevada, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN

That was close. Nice little season for the 49ers all things considered.

This is going to be interesting to see what the Broncos do on offense because a tie still gets them in the playoffs although they'd be the 6th seed instead.

In what universe was that an incomplete pass? Two bizarre replays in a row.

Harold Baines - Designated Hitter/Rightfielder Chicago White Sox 1980-1989, 1996-1997, 2000-2001 Texas Rangers 1989-1990 Oakland Athletics 1990-1992 Baltimore Orioles 1993-1995, 1997-1999, 2000 Cleveland Indians 1999 Awards 1989 AL Silver Slugger - DH All-Star Selections: 6 (1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1999) League Leader 1984: Slugging % Career Ranks Games: 17th Hits: 39th TB: 30th 2B: 52nd HR: 50th RBI: 23rd BB: 82nd RC: 44th Hall of Fame Stats Black Ink: Batting - 3 (499) (Average HOFer ≈ 27) Gray Ink: Batting - 40 (595) (Average HOFer ≈ 144) HOF Standards: Batting - 43.5 (116) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Batting - 66.5 (267) (Likely HOFer > 100) Similar Batters in HOF: 3 (Tony Perez, Al Kaline, Billy Williams) Other Similar Batters: Dave Parker, Rusty Staub, Andre Dawson, Dwight Evans, Chili Davis, Fred McGriff, Andres Galarraga Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3) 1980: 8/1.2 1981: 10/5.3 1982: 19/6.9 1983: 20/6.2 1984: 24/9.1 1985: 25/7.8 1986: 20/7.0 1987: 13/3.7 1988: 18/4.4 1989: 18/6.3 1990: 11/4.6 1991: 22/6.5 1992: 15/3.3 1993: 15/4.9 1994: 6/3.0 1995: 11/5.3 1996: 13/5.5 1997: 12/4.1 1998: 8/2.5 1999: 15/4.6 2000: 4/1.2 2001: 0/-1.0 Career Win Shares: 307 Career WARP3: 102.4 Would he get my vote? No. When it comes to players who spent the majority of their career not playing the field I feel they have to hit at the level an excellent first baseman to get in the HOF and Baines is no where close. Sort of like a hitting version of Tommy John in that his career counting numbers are impressive but only because he played a very long time and his peak is just not that impressive. Baines actually was a fairly decent defensive outfielder but knee problems were what forced him to become an everyday DH when he was only 28.

You haven't quite wrapped up the win yet. This is probably as good as time as any to give score updates. Georgia Tech leads Miami 16-13 with four differing games left Virginia leads Syracuse 14-12 with five differing games left Hawaii leads Oregon 12-11 with four differing games left South Carolina leads Oklahoma 14-12 with three differing games left Kentucky leads Stanford 13-12 with three differing games left USC leads Minnesota 14-13 with three differing games left Florida leads UCLA 14-13 with two differing games left LSU leads Arizona State 15-14 with six differing games left Tennessee leads San Jose State 16-11 with seven differing games left

Damn the last couple of days have made up for the piss poor early bowl games. Although not of the epic proportions of last night's comeback, Virginia Tech blowing an 18 point lead with their defense is pretty shocking.

In alphabetical order there is Blyleven, Dawson, Gwynn, McGwire, Parker, Ripken, and Trammell left. And yes someone will pass the "Bored HOF Challenge" and by the names left you can guess majority of them will.

So we had the greatest comeback in D-IA history earlier this year and now Texas Tech ties the old record of 31 points, setting a new record for a bowl game. And ya Glenn Mason just lost his job.

52-yard field goal and we're going to overtime.

Texas Tech has just pulled within three points of Minnnesota after being down 38-7 at one point. 2:39 left.

Dale Murphy - Outfielder Atlanta Braves 1976-1990 Philadelphia Phillies 1990-1992 Colorado Rockies 1993 9th year on the ballot Past HOF Voting Results 1999: 19.32% 2000: 23.25% 2001: 18.46% 2002: 14.83% 2003: 11.69% 2004: 8.50% 2005: 10.46% 2006: 10.77% Awards 1982 NL MVP 1982 NL Gold Glove - OF 1982 NL Silver Slugger - OF 1983 NL MVP 1983 NL Gold Glove - OF 1983 NL Silver Slugger - OF 1984 NL Gold Glove - OF 1984 NL Silver Slugger - OF 1985 NL Gold Glove - OF 1985 NL Silver Sluger - OF 1986 NL Gold Glove - OF All-Star Selections: 7 (1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987) League Leader 1982: RBI 1983: RBI, Slugging %, Runs Created, OPS 1984: Homeruns, Slugging %, Total Bases, Runs Created 1985: Homeruns, Runs, Walks, Runs Created 1987: Runs Created Career Ranks Homeruns: 45th Hall of Fame Stats Black Ink: Batting - 31 (54) (Average HOFer ≈ 27) Gray Ink: Batting - 147 (90) (Average HOFer ≈ 144) HOF Standards: Batting - 34.3 (209) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Batting - 115.5 (121) (Likely HOFer > 100) Similar Batters in HOF: 1 (Duke Snider) Other Similar Batters: Joe Carter, Don Baylor, Ron Santo, Gil Hodges, George Foster, Ruben Sierra, Jack Clark, Ellis Burks, Lee May Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3) 1976: 2/0.3 1977: 2/-0.1 1978: 7/1.4 1979: 11/1.5 1980: 28/9.2 1981: 11/4.3 1982: 32/10.2 1983: 32/10.3 1984: 33/9.8 1985: 31/9.3 1986: 22/6.0 1987: 29/11.5 1988: 12/6.8 1989: 14/2.6 1990: 15/5.0 1991: 13/4.7 1992: 0/-0.8 1993: 0/-0.4 Career Win Shares: 294 Career WARP3: 91.6 Would he get my vote? No. If I had a real vote I'd be very tempted to give Murphy a sympathy vote as it would be nice to see him get more support and he's actually lost support over the years, nearly falling off the ballot in 2004. With Jim Rice I said he needed two more good seasons but with Murphy I think he needed just one more. He had a very good peak, better than Rice's, as he was just incredible from 1982-1985 but he was washed up by age 32. Although he did win six Gold Gloves at a premium defensive position in centerfield, he was not nearly as good as those six Gold Gloves indicate. He was decent but not great defensively.

Texans - 20 points N.Y. Giants Philadelphia Baltimore New Orleans Cleveland Dallas Chicago Jacksonville Indianapolis New England N.Y. Jets Cincinnati Seattle Minnesota San Diego Denver

Oh fuck this they are interrupting the Sun Bowl for Gerald Ford funeral coverage. Been a good game so far. With 32 bowl games now I wish they would group together multiple games more often as I miss channel flipping between college football games.

Tommy John - Starting Pitcher Cleveland Indians 1963-1964 Chicago White Sox 1965-1971 Los Angeles Dodgers 1972-1978 New York Yankees 1979-1982, 1986-1989 California Angels 1982-1985 Oakland Athletics 1985 13th year on the ballot Past HOF Voting Results 1995: 21.30% 1996: 21.70% 1997: 20.51% 1998: 27.27% 1999: 18.71% 2000: 27.05% 2001: 28.35% 2002: 26.91% 2003: 23.39% 2004: 21.94% 2005: 23.84% 2006: 29.61% Awards None All-Star Selections: 4 (1968, 1978, 1979, 1980) League Leader 1966: Shutouts 1967: Shutouts 1974: Win/Loss % 1980: Shutouts 1982: BB/9 Career Ranks Wins: 25th Games: 45th Innings: 19th Strikeouts: 47th Shutouts: 26th Hall of Fame Stats Black Ink: Pitching - 8 (281) (Average HOFer ≈ 40) Gray Ink: Pitching - 137 (116) (Average HOFer ≈ 185) HOF Standards: Pitching - 44.0 (53) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Pitching - 111.0 (76) (Likely HOFer > 100) Similar Pitchers in HOF: 6 (Robin Roberts, Fergie Jenkins, Early Wynn, Burleigh Grimes, Don Sutton, Eppa Rixey) Other Similar Pitchers: Jim Kaat, Bert Byleven, Tom Glavine, Tony Mullane Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3) 1963: 1/0.1 1964: 2/1.3 1965: 12/4.5 1966: 15/5.7 1967: 11/4.9 1968: 15/6.6 1969: 17/6.4 1970: 17/7.3 1971: 10/4.0 1972: 11/3.9 1973: 15/4.5 1974: 11/4.1 1976: 13/3.7 1977: 19/6.5 1978: 12/3.4 1979: 23/8.4 1980: 19/6.3 1981: 10/5.3 1982: 12/5.7 1983: 10/3.8 1984: 7/2.7 1985: 1/0.1 1986: 6/2.2 1987: 13/4.0 1988: 7/3.0 1989: 0/0.0 Career Win Shares: 289 Career WARP3: 108.7 Would he get my vote? No. John's entire case is based on his career counting numbers as he pitched for a very, very long time and usually at an above average to good performance level. But as I've mentioned before I favor peak over career and John's peak is seriously lacking. One knock against Win Shares is that it can underrate pitchers but it is hard to view someone who had only one season in 26 years where he had 20+ Win Shares as a HOF. Besides he already has his place in history by having a surgery named after him so he should be content with that.

Jim Rice - Leftfielder Boston Red Sox 1974-1989 13th year on the ballot Past HOF Voting Results 1995: 29.78% 1996: 35.32% 1997: 37.63% 1998: 42.92% 1999: 29.38% 2000: 51.50% 2001: 57.86% 2002: 55.08% 2003: 52.22% 2004: 54.55% 2005: 59.50% 2006: 64.80% Awards 1978 AL MVP 1983 AL Silver Slugger - OF 1984 AL Silver Slugger - OF All-Star Selections: 8 (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986) League Leader 1977: Homeruns, Total Bases, Slugging % 1978: Hits, Homeruns, RBI, Triples, Total Bases, Runs Created, Slugging %, OPS, OPS+ 1979: Total Bases 1983: Homeruns, RBI, Total Bases Career Ranks Hits: 93rd HR: 52nd RBI: 52nd TB: 63rd SLG: 89th RC: 79th Hall of Fame Stats Black Ink: Batting - 33 (49) (Average HOFer ≈ 27) Gray Ink: Batting - 176 (56) (Average HOFer ≈ 144) HOF Standards: Batting - 42.9 (122) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Batting - 146.5 (82) (Likely HOFer > 100) Similar Batters in HOF: 4 (Orlando Cepeda, Duke Snider, Billy Williams, Willie Stargell) Other Similar Batters: Andres Galarraga, Ellis Burks, Joe Carter, Dave Parker, Luis Gonzalez, Chili Davis Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3) 1974: 1/0.1 1975: 20/4.8 1976: 17/4.2 1977: 26/7.4 1978: 36/10.4 1979: 28/8.2 1980: 16/4.9 1981: 15/6.3 1982: 21/6.4 1983: 24/9.1 1984: 17/7.3 1985: 14/5.4 1986: 28/9.4 1987: 8/2.7 1988: 9/2.6 1989: 2/0.1 Career Win Shares: 282 Career WARP3: 89.2 Would he get my vote? No. A few years ago I was on the Rice bandwagon but I have since jumped off. He was fabulous from 1977-1979 but when you look at the rest of the career there's only two other great seasons and the offensive standards for a being HOF corner outfielder are almost as high as first basemen. He also benefitted from playing his entire career in Fenway Park and he had a large home/road split posting an OPS 131 points higher (.920 to .789) at Fenway than on the road. I think he needed two more good years to push him over the top but his skills eroded rapidly in his mid-30s so much so that he's become the poster boy for a player who has a sudden decline in production in their mid-30s. If he had been a great defensive outfielder or a great base stealer that could have also pushed him over the top but he was neither. I will say that he seems a tad underrated by WARP3. He is gaining support from the writers and I could see him getting a big bump in one his final two years on the ballot although he obviously no chance this year. There's a case to be made for him and I won't have a problem if he ever gets in but he doesn't get my imaginary vote.

Bill Plaschke is sending questions to Rob Neyer now? Looking at the Rice's MVP finishes I've posted two Award Redo entries on year's that he finished in the wrtier's Top 5 that the I had him 3rd on the '79 ballot and 5th on the '86 ballot. I haven't done redos the '75, '77, '78 awards but I don't even have to look at the numbers in depth to know his 3rd place finish in '75 was a joke as he had only 20 Win Shares. At first glance it looks he's overrated on the '77 ballot with his 4th place finish but probably would be in the Top 10. The '78 ballot he does seem like the right choice for winning the award although there's a strong case for Ron Guidry. Now I acutally have done the numbers on the '83 ballot but have never posted an entry but it's not interesting enough for one since I agree with the winner and there was no controversy about the award, although a rare year where teammates were 1-2 on the ballot, so here's my Reader's Digest Award Redo for the 1983 A.L. MVP: Actual Results (Top 10 only) 1. Cal Ripken 2. Eddie Murray 3. Carlton Fisk 4. Jim Rice 5. Cecil Cooper 6. Dan Quisenberry 7. Dave Winfield 8. Lou Whitaker 9. Lance Parrish 10. Harold Baines My Top 10 1. Cal Ripken 2. Wade Boggs 3. Robin Yount 4. Eddie Murray 5. Lou Whitaker 6. Rickey Henderson 7. Alan Trammell 8. Cecil Cooper 9. Dan Quisenberry 10. Jim Rice So another one where Rice was overrated on the ballot.

Not that I would have ever wanted the A's to re-sign Zito for that price or anything close to it but this has been awful offseason from a public relations standpoint for the A's. Don't re-sign Thomas, announce they are leavng Oakland, and now one of their most popular players goes across the Bay. Season ticket sales might be even more pathetic than usual.