EVIL~! alkeiper

Reggie Jackson's banter gets quite tiresome after awhile. Especially his blabbering about heart, determination, and "looking into a man's soul." And for the record, Mr. October hit .227 in 163 career LCS at bats.

As David Ortiz walked off, Manny placed a Yankees cap on his head.

LOL at Ramirez. That was great.

Better than Graig Nettles trying to talk to his japanese bat.

We need Jim Gray in these kind of situations..... "Forget the All-Star game. What about the Carlisle Group?!"

So does anyone else not miss Griffey after Berkman's performance?

The flagpole is inspired by the flagpole at Sportman's Park in St. Louis. It actually sloped downward, I believe. I'd have to double-check on that.

Damn. I called that.

The pitcher should issue an intentional walk just for fun.

I think the effect of the left field bleachers is overstated. It won't really have a big effect.

If he doesn't want to be there, I'm sure some accomidation could be made. I'd love to see classic announcers like Vin Scully, Harry Kalas, etc. call the Derby. Hell, they'd make great All-Star announcers. Spare us McCarver and Buck. And keep Bob Costas the hell away from it as well.

A couple thoughts..... 1. Chris Berman sucks. 2. The O's players should have brought Sidney Ponson instead of batting practice hitters. 3. They should have a minor league home run derby. The minors have more one-dimensional power hitters, and it might be alot of fun.

Because the voting was skewed towards the Sox and Yankees. Pokey Reese got votes. Explain that.

Bonds is hitting 400/730/843 with runners on. How exactly does this new approach improve his team?

So a batter becomes better when he hits less home runs, walks less, and collects more singles?

From Jayson Stark's column..... Scoring Position..... Rolen 416/486/843 Bonds 371/775/800 Take away the intentional walks, and Bonds' OBP is .542. Seriously, .775?! While we're working with situational stats, here's a good one. Close and Late situations...... Close And Late - results in the 7th inning or later with the batting team either ahead by one run, tied or with the potential tying run at least on deck. Rolen 182/288/364 Bonds 379/700/966 Sorry Jayson, you're going to have to find some other way to screw Barry this season.

For RP, honorable mention to my Johan Santana. 20th in the league overall, and #1! over the last month. Who would guess that he leads the AL in strikeouts?

Absolutely. Only Ken Boyer and Musial have hit more home runs for the Cardinals. He's got a case for being the franchise center fielder (its him or Flood, I don't think Edmonds has played long enough). He's not among the truly elite, but he would be on their all time roster.

Then we're back to awarding MVPs based on who has better teammates. That's no reason to award an award.

What the hell are you smoking? That might have carried weight twenty or thirty years ago. We've advanced past that stage. You know as well as I know that RBIs and runs scored to not account for everything a player does. WHAT?! That is, by far, the stupidest, utterly incomprehensible, justification for denying a player an MVP award. Bonds has reached base 62.8% of the time. Rolen has reached 41.5% of the time. Bonds has, by my previous statistics, made 124 outs. Rolen has made 214 outs. Rolen has made 90 more outs than Bonds. Now let us look at runs created. Bonds has created 97.2 runs, and Rolen has created 72.1 runs. So Bonds has created 25 more runs, and made 90 less outs. That is before we start on defense. Rolen is a very good defensive player. It's entirely possible to estimate he's made 30-40 more plays than the average fielder. That cuts the outs total down to 50-60. That is a LOT of outs. I just don't see how you can say Rolen > Bonds without suffering from some kind of nerve disease. The point of baseball isn't to be a five tool player. Its to create runs. If you want to give an award to Rolen, make an award for those who have five tools, and call it the Willie Mays award. If that sounds stupid, then maybe you'll remember what I had to deal with during the "A-Rod for MVP" debate.

Well, I'd propose we change the unbalanced schedule as well. And I'm not proposing the elimination of playoffs entirely. But some restraint is needed. You might find this article interesting. The best second place teams in history.... http://www.robneyer.com/book_02_05.html

So why do we have two pinned football threads a full month before any games begin?

If you're looking for the best team, then yes. Its happened quite a few times in the past, with the '42 Dodgers, '62 Dodgers, '93 Giants, etc. When I propose the regular season gaining some meaning, its really no different than a good team losing out because they played in a tight division series. All but one team has to lose sometime. Agreed. But the underdogs should be there legitimately. The 1960 Pirates, great underdogs in the Series against the Yanks, led the league in runs scored and allowed. We had the '75 Red Sox and the '75 Reds in a great series. Underdogs are great stories. But if we love underdogs so much, why don't we create a series between the best team, and the worst team? Even underdogs need to be winners first.

So we should award the team that loafs all season and decides to gun it up at the end than the team that has proven it can win all season? Which team is a more deserving champion? More and more, the champions, in any major sport, are not necessarily the best teams.

Since when has Cabrera had a good track record? Here are Cabrera's OPS+ numbers since 1998: 97, 71, 68, 87, 84, 95. He has NEVER hit above the league average. His most similar batters through 28 are Jeff Blauser, Shawon Dunston, Neifi Perez, Jay Bell, and Alex Gonzalez (Cubs version). He's not anyone I would trade appreciable talent for, or to whom I'd pay over $2 Million, if that. I wouldn't sign him at all if it meant giving up draft picks.