EVIL~! alkeiper

Drafting a specific position is always a recipe for disaster. The New York Mets once needed a catcher, so they took Steve Chilcott over Reggie Jackson.

Not even six months after she broke up with me, she married the idiot. I shouldn't be upset over it after all this time, but I am. I don't know why.

One of my favorite draft stories. The Atlanta Braves had the first overall pick in the 1990 pick. Todd Van Poppel was the hot prospect, but his agent asked for more money than the Braves wanted to offer. Worried that they'd be unable to reach a deal the Braves went ahead with their fallback pick, Chipper Jones.

In today's "Where Are They Now?" segment, former Warren Cromartie is set to become a professional wrestler, competing against either Tiger Jeet Singh or Abdullah the Butcher in Japan.

I just did an entry on the 2005 compensation picks in my blog. Good stuff. My favorite tidbit is that CJ Henry was the Yankees' compensation for losing Jon Lieber to the Phillies.

Hill slugged .385 and .386 the last two years. Upton was in AAA before this year. I honestly don't think a player should be an All-Star after 50-60 games, unless they've made a ridiculous case for it.

The draft is entirely done over the phone. Last year a webcast was added with Jimmie Lee Soloman of MLB announcing first round picks from the podium. There's a market for expanded coverage though. And quite honestly, what other television does ESPN typically offer on Thursday afternoons. It's not really in the way of anything, just something new and different.

Like I wrote last year, the voters are aiming for a moving target. Think the All-Star game is all about this season only? A month ago Ian Kinsler would have been the right pick. Now he's hitting .239. Voters looking for the best current talent are split between Pedroia and Brian Roberts (Roberts is better, Sox fans). People get too worked up over All-Star picks. It's better off being a popularity contest, because at least fans get players they want to see.

Who else then? There's no clearly established star at second base and Cano nearly won a batting title last year.

I think that's a fair assessment actually.

The number one prospect in baseball now might be the Brewers' Yovani Gallardo. He's 21 years old, and in AAA Nashville he's now 8-1 with a 2.14 ERA. 95 Ks and 21 walks in 67.1 IP, with just one home run allowed.

The Ali in wrestling stuff has gotten glossed over in wrestling, possibly because Ali/Inoki was such a fiasco. It certainly made the WWWF look better in that their guy could handle Ali and the best Japanese wrestler could not.

600 according to prowrestlinghistory.com. I remember seeing the card on Sportschannel 48 in Philly but didn't get to see the whole thing. To give you an idea of the kind of promotion Herb Abrams ran, the selling point was EIGHT title matches. Tina Moretti later became known as Ivory. I remember Mando came out to Weird Al's "Taco Grande."

Obviously there had to be a '90s Braves team in there. There were three teams that easily ranked on their own merits, as well as the '95 and '97 clubs when you consider the dynasty as a whole. Actually the '95 team is an underrated one, since they would probably have won 100+ games if not for the strike. I chose the '98 club simply due to their winning percentage, the highest in club history. 1993 was close but that team had their record inflated by a 13-0 mark against the Rockies. You'll note the '57 team came from Milwaukee as well. The bottom line is that I wanted to keep all those Sox teams, and I felt it would make things simpler to do an All-Braves regional from all three cities. Some of the regionals aren't an exact representation of the area. It's just better to get the teams in that you need here and there, as you see in the Miami grouping.

Tanner Scheppers of Fresno St. was hit by a line drive and is still down. I hope he's ok, but it looks pretty bad.

As some of you may know, Major League Baseball has a system where teams can earn draft picks from other teams as compensation for lost free agents. Typically, teams trade impending free agents mid-season in order to get something in exchange for them rather to let them walk. Often however this results in a worse return than simply losing the player at the end of the season. In 2002 for example, the Chicago White Sox dealt Ray Durham to the Oakland A's in exchange for Jon Adkins. The same month, The Montreal Expos dealt Cliff Floyd to the Red Sox for Sun-Woo Kim and Seung Song. All concerned made the Majors but never distinguished themselves. Now let's take a look at the draft compensation for 2005, and see what kind of return that process brings. I am expressing the results as if they were straight trades. I selected 2005 because I have the BA Almanac for that draft and it makes things much easier. Arizona: Matt Torra and Micah Owings for Richie Sexson Atlanta: Beau Jones and Jeff Lyman for Jaret Wright Boston: Jacoby Ellsbury and Jed Lowrie for Orlando Cabrera, Craig Hansen and Michael Bowden for Derek Lowe, Clay Buchholz and Jon Egan for Pedro Martinez Chi Cubs: Mike Billek for Matt Clement Cleveland: John Drennan and Jensen Lewis for Omar Vizquel Colorado: Chaz Roe and Daniel Carte for Vinny Castilla Florida: Aaron Thompson and Ryan Tucker for Armando Benitez, Jacob Marceaux and Sean West for Carl Pavano, Brett Hayes for Mike Redmond Houston: Eli Iorg and Tommy Manzella for Carlos Beltran LA Angels: Trevor Bell and Ryan Mount for Troy Percival LA Dodgers: Luke Hochevar and Ivan DeJesus for Adrian Beltre (Hochevar did not sign) Minnesota: Henry Sanchez and Paul Kelly for Corey Koskie, Brian Duensing for Christian Guzman, Drew Thompson for Henry Blanco NY Yankees: J. Brent Cox for Orlando Hernandez, CJ Henry for Jon Lieber Oakland: Travis Buck and Craig Italiano for Damian Miller St. Louis: Colby Rasmus and Mark McCormick for Edgar Renteria, Tyler Herron and Josh Wilson for Mike Matheny San Diego: Cesar Ramos and Nick Hundley for David Wells Arizona, Atlanta, Boston came out ahead. Billek looks like a washout but Clement bombed too. Jury's out on Cleveland. Colorado came out well ahead, and Florida got three of their top ten prospects from that group. Houston got little. LA Angels came up ahead, at least until Percival unretires. Dodgers came out behind except on salaries. Jury is out on the Twins. I think Cox is a better bet than El Duque, but CJ Henry is awful. Travis Buck is a stud for Oakland. Colby Rasmus is a good prospect. Overall, teams generally get fair value in return for their free agents. Keeping players around until they reach free agency is a reasonable move, provided you follow the terms required to get compensation back.

If you get a talent like DeShields out of the draft it's a major success. I like the MLB Draft because they don't waste time. They run through the first round in half an hour, and from there it's 30 seconds per pick.

Scroby, how much do you know going into your matches? Did you know going in that you were taking that thumbtack bump?

I loved Benjie Molina's reaction on Howard's HR. I've gotta think that pitcher didn't appreciate it, though. I've never seen that before. Pure reaction, and it turn turn a two-run lead into a one-run deficit for the Giants.

I don't buy that Stephanie will be the death of WWE. A lot of the negative stuff on the dirt sheets comes from people opposed to her point of view. She certainly doesn't call Meltz to offer her side of things, so everything you read comes from one side of the argument.

This month's PYBO poll is three Great American Bash shows. 1990 (Sting/Flair, Luger/Callous and Midnight Ex/Southern Boys), 1996 (Giant/Luger, Bischoff/Outsiders angle and Benoit/Sullivan) and 2005 (JBL/Batista, Mysterio/Guerrero and Taker/Hassan). 1996 looks like the strongest show.

They've been hyping up Kobayashi vs. Chestnut for the big 4th of July contest in Coney Island, so this will certainly help.

Isn't Ilgauskus one of the best centers in the league?

VICTORINO~! On Shane Victorino hula-figurine day, Shane hits the game-winning home run.

The problem to me is that SNME used to be a special event. You'd get one main event on a card each week on syndication, and Tuesday Night Titans rarely had big matches. It was the ONE outlet WWE had at the time to run a full card of star vs. star matches. Now with five hours of live television and 14-16 PPVs a year, SNME is nothing special.