the pinjockey

Assuming everything stays as is, I can't imagine Tenn. not grabbing him at 3 if he slipped that far. That said, I think someone trades up to the 1 to grab Reggie.

F1 could be included in the world sports section.

Local: Chris Wheeler - Phillies play-by-play, Kalas' heir apparent, ugh Steve Coates - Flyers color man, the most annoying voice in the history of broadcasting. Fortunately he screams everything so you never miss any of his pearls of wisdom. National: I'll go easy way out and say the ESPN Sunday Night Football crew, top to bottom. They contribute absolutely nothing to the game. For the two other NASCAR fans out there, I'll also throw in Wally Dallenbach.

The refs sucked, but I think there were a couple cases where the announcers were unfairly piling on. First, the second time Carr called a timeout to get a replay looked at. IIRC, the booth looks at every play and only buzzes down if they need more time. Maybe they looked at the first replay, realized there was nothing there to overturn the call and did not feel the need to call a replay time out. Then once Carr called TO they figured they can look again for his sake, but unnecessarily. Second, the last play. There should have been offsetting penalties. So it isn't like it hurt Michigan since they didn't score anyway, plus do they even get a 0:00 free play if there are offsetting penalties and not just a defensive penalty? Yes, the refs sucked and there should be enough major conference refs to handle all major conference games, but it's not like they ruined the whole game.

I think Boston gets knocked down a bit for what happened after they won the title. The attitude, nationwide, seemed to wane from "Boston is the lovable losers who finally won" to "Enough of the god damn Red Sox all over everything. Woe is the second highest payroll in baseball. I'm tired of hearing about them." So I wonder how well they will hold up in the long run. That said, I don't see the White Sox holding up in history and other than that there isn't much competition: Subway series Yankees - pass Arizona - beat the only Yankee team that many people likely rooted for (9/11 Yankees) Angels - do people even remember they won a title Marlins - no, their most lasting achievement was making Mik look like a psychic

It also didn't help that that Ryan Hart came back down to earth. There is a reason that he is in a QB competition with a guy who has a 2:10 TD/INT ratio. Leonard is a stud, I don't see any reason Rice could not be a top 10 back next year, the TE Harris is solid and Moses shows flashes of brilliance but you can't compete for 60 minutes in a shootout with subpar QB play. And similar to Bored's last post. As I type this Hart throws a strike deep for the TD.

-USC/Notre Dame - obvious -Michigan/PSU - obvious -Forrest Griffin/Stefan Bonnar -Phillies/Dodgers (Aug. 10th) - Just a personal favorite. My first game as a fan in an enemy stadium. Won on a monster Ryan Howard GS. -F1 San Marino Grand Prix - Terrific battle between the past and the present in Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso at the end of the race. Along the same line, my worst game/event of the year goes to the US Grand Prix. The event that likely killed US interest in F1.

Just trade Shoppach for Michaels. That fills both holes left by Damon, in CF and leadoff.

At this point most teams are likely holding off until after midnight to see who gets non-tendered. No need signing the lower tier players when the market might get restocked tonight. And if Branyan gets non-tendered, Gillick needs to be on the phone with his agent at 12:01.

Texas-SD deal: Texas gets: Adam Eaton, Akinori Otsuka, minor leaguer SD gets: Chris Young, Adrian Gonzalez, Termel Sledge http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2266394 I don't quite get this deal for Texas. Eaton is going to be much more expensive than Chris Young, but not an upgrade in production (possibly a sizable downgrade taking the parks into account). I like Otsuka, but I think Gonzalez, Sledge and the Eaton-Young money difference is too pricey there.

He was injured in 2004 and pretty much everyone seemed to agree that he was rushed back this year. After the AS break he pitched 86 innings with a 3.63 ERA, with better peripherals than the first half. That would seem to confirm the idea his injury was getting better. He is certainly not a world beater, but in a league where Jarrod Washburn and Matt Morris are bringing in $9 mil/yr. and Kris Benson is rumored to be a tradeable commodity, I don't see a pitcher of Padilla's level being a bad value at $4mil/yr. If they wanted to trade him that is one thing. But to drive down his value and sell low was just poor management (especially, like I said earlier, considering how well they did with the Thome situation they showed they have the ability to create positive value). Of course I should know better. Chris Wheeler took shots at Padilla all year long and he is the mouthpiece of the org. in the announcing booth. If Wheeler doesn't like something, the higher ups (who Gillick is gathering info from) most likely did not like it.

Phillies complete the Padilla deal getting Ricardo Rodriguez. Career line: 206 2/3 IP, 33 HRs, 75 BBs, 104 Ks. Maybe if it hadn't been a forgone conclusion that they were going to non-tender him, they could have upgraded and gotten a bag of balls instead. I still don't understand it. The Thome situation was handled beautifully. All of the comments about being happy to have the Thome/Howard problem, the "best shape of his life" leaks, and getting a great deal when there was only one legit trading partner. Then to do a complete 180 with how they handle Padilla was just nuts.

If the rumors that Taverez is looking for 4 years and that the Mets might give it to him are true; I don't see Gillick looking at him at all. At this point bring up Cole Hamels and let him fill the Ryan Madson role. Maybe a move to relief and the ability to train and rehab with the big league club/facilities every day can keep him healthy. The rumblings that his back will likely be a career long problem have to make the idea he can be a starter questionable.

Yeah, I noticed my error looking through this morning. I was looking through for the HR factors and looked at Los Angeles and took that. Fucking Moreno screwing everything up where LA isn't just LA anymore. I am interested to see where this deal leads for the White Sox, since they now have Buehrle, Garland, Garcia, Contreras, Vazquez, and McCarthy. I can't picture them going into the season with all six. But for now I can't say I am a fan of this deal for the Sox. Echoing MIB's sentiments, Vazquez should make a run at 40HRs allowed in that park. Do the Sox have any other CF options, besides Anderson at this point? It seems rash to hand over the job to a rookie without some type of backup plan (which I would think Young was).

Looking at Sanchez's splits, he is strange. He is more homer prone at home (over the last two years: 11 HR in 78 IP at home, 6 in 84 IP one the road), odd considering the park. And his K rate takes a nose dive on the road. King, I'm assuming you see a bunch of their games, does he seem to pitch differently whether home/road (control, challenging hitters) or is it more of a fluke? That said, getting anything back for Bell is gravy and they have picked up enough bullpen arms this offseason that they can bury Sanchez if he stuggles.

Texas gets Padilla for PTBNL Unless the PTBNL is something very good (but since there aren't any 40 man or rule V issues where you wait to "hide" someone, like with Gio Gonzalez, I would think this is the pick from a crappy list type PTBNL), then this deal is terrible. It isn't bad in the sense, that all reports indicated that they weren't going to offer arb anyway, so getting something back is better than nothing. But the overall attitude of Padilla's worthlessness is mindboggling. In a market where AJ Burnett gets $11 mil/yr., Padilla has real value. He is relatively cheap and effective when healthy (2002: 3.28 ERA, 3.42 CERA, 2003: 3.62 ERA, 3.68, second half 2005: 3.63 ERA). Why they seemingly went out of their way to drive down his value is insane. BTW, that does it for the Rolen and Schilling deals Bud Smith - nothing Mike Timlin - 35 2/3 relief IP; 3.79 ERA Placido Polanco - 3 solid seasons at 2B, great glove, .300 BA ----Ugueth Urbina - 52 1/3 IP, 4.13 ERA Nelson Figueroa - 89 IP, 3.94 ERA Omar Daal - 15-16, 256 2/3 IP, ~4.50 ERA Travis Lee - 2 1/2 years at 1B Vicente Padilla - 700 IP, ~4.00 ERA, solid SP when healthy

Thank god. Pavano would be no better than Lidle or Padilla (who, by the way, they better offer arb. to). No need to trade Michaels for him. Matt Morris looks to be going to SF for 3yrs/$27mil guarantee (one report said it is $25 mil, with a $2 mil buyout of the 4th year).

Looking at the schedule, it looks like the Eagles/Rams game next week was moved to 1pm. I guess that had to be what was in the article.

I know I saw in one of the local papers that it was move to 1pm, but I haven't seen any other confirmation on it so who knows.

Mets completed the LoDuca deal, sending Dante Brinkley as the PTBNL to Fla. Congrats to the Mets for managing to not give away another top 10 prospect.

I very much doubt that trade rumor has much validity. They were likely just parroting this NY Post article. Unless Gillick really likes Henn, I still don't see this as happening. It appears, through the acquisitions of Santana and Booker, he has the right idea about getting cheap, interchangeable talent to fill out the bullpen. I don't see him trading one of the few chips he has on someone like Sturtze (again, unless he really likes Henn and sees him in the pen this year). Another note from the article, the Blue Jays apparently offered Miguel Batista for Milton Bradley that slowed up Cubs/Dodgers talks.

I'll give them credit in the sense that "real" teams give the performance that they did on Monday. The Eagles were coming off their first win in a month, had a little momentum, should have been jazzed up due to the Reggie White stuff and on the first drive of the game Seattle takes a ton of time off the clock, scores, and never lets up. That is what good teams are supposed to do to shitty teams, yet so few actually do on a regular basis.

Is there a reason that if a team that needs pitching, makes a deal that doesn't bring back a pitcher it is automatically a bad deal? From Stark's Winners/Losers column (honorable mention losers section): So he got no starting pitcher back for Soriano. Who cares? They got a better, cheaper player back in return and still have Mench to deal. If you have a tradable player, are you supposed to trade him for a middling SP if you get the chance just to say you got a SP back? And god I hope the assist. GM in the quote isn't AmarBuckle. Is Soriano underrated to anyone in the game? I've never heard any "analyst" call out his weaknesses. And career numbers: Wilkerson: .256/.365/.452/.817 Soriano: .280/.320/.500/.820 Yes, obviously Wilkerson could never put up Soriano like numbers. ....... Well that was kind of angry sounding wasn't it. And Soriano is really 45 years old.

I would say maybe he wonders why they have money tied up in 2 catchers now when they have some other holes to fill, but players typically seem to be of the "oooh they signed a big name, me likey shiny" mindset. So I doubt he thought that far into it.

Unless either a boatload of cash and/or a choice player or two (Eric Duncan looks nice inthis spot) comes with him I am hoping they pass. Pavano isn't any better than what they already have and costs a lot more money.