EVIL~! alkeiper

Some Observations..... -I think the Devil Rays burned all three of their decent pitchers in the first game. -Using Mariano Rivera to close out this game is like lighting birthday candles with a flamethrower.

How the hell did Damian Moss earn a roster spot? Just goes to show that DIPS doesn't lie.

Trust us Bruiser, you don't want this argument.

Umm, the Sixers don't have a 7-1 stretch this season, with or without Iverson. They've won three out of four, but four games is hardly conclusive evidence. I see six out of eight since Iverson's latest injury. Looks good, but that's not the only time they missed AI. The Sixers went 4-8 in his absense in December into January.

Mussina looked good through five, but from what I saw he pitched one inning too many. Its easy to overestimate one game. One of the great things about baseball is even the winningest teams in history lose 25% of the time, and the losingest pitchers in history win 25% of the time.

This sucks. Iverson is what is GOOD about the NBA. Bar none, the most exciting player in basketball. As for the Sixers, they made the playoffs every year with Iverson healthy, but since he's missed half the season, the Sixers have tanked.

Meh. Some of them hated life when the Yankees were merely league champions.

Big 8-3 Opening Day win for the Devil Rays. Victor Zambrano picks up the win, and is now the winningest pitcher in Devil Rays history.

Who would think that through all his control issues, Victor Zambrano would walk 1, and strikeout 4?

Don't see check-swing doubles too often. I don't think Sheffield's worrying much about that thumb.

Cartman gets Urbina. Make me a trade offer with the player you want to drop.

Halfway through, and we've got a 2-2 tie.

I'm watching. Thanks to an unfortunate bout with sore throat, I've been awake since 3:30 anyway.

Because we have a new problem that has occured. Owners dumping players en mass in order to field a full lineup the last day or two of the matchup. And like I said, I probably pioneered it. But what happens if I'm down 5-3, Allen Iverson, Karl Malone, and Michael Redd are on the bench, and I have one player in a game. Of course I'm going to pick up five players to fill the lineup, because I'm finished otherwise. We are discussing solutions to fix a specific problem. As commissioner, instead of pissing and moaning, you should review these suggestions.

I've got a preview getting posted soon, featuring a paragraph on all 30 teams. For now, I'll give detail on my boys..... Philadelphia Phillies LINEUP CF- Marlon Byrd 2B- Placido Polanco RF- Bobby Abreu 1B- Jim Thome LF- Pat Burrell C- Mike Lieberthal 3B- David Bell SS- Jimmy Rollins Good lineup, with the possible exception of David Bell. I think Burrell will rebound, as his walk rate last season was good. Thome is a monster. Bobby Abreu is criminally underrated. BENCH Shawn Wooten Todd Pratt/Michal Hernandez Chase Utley Tomas Perez Ricky Ledee Doug Glanville A fairly nice bench. I'm not too thrilled about Glanville, considering Jason Michaels is better. Michal Hernandez was a nice waiver pickup to fill in for the injured Todd Pratt. Chase Utley should be in the starting lineup, by all rights. ROTATION Randy Wolf Kevin Millwood Vicente Padilla Eric Milton Brett Myers Solid, with help behind them in AAA. BULLPEN Billy Wagner Rheal Cormier Tim Worrell Roberto Hernandez Dave Coggin TBA I like the bullpen except for Hernandez. He'll quickly remind fans of Jose Mesa. The TBA would likely be Geoff Geary or Amaury Telemaco. The team should win the East. The Braves lost their three top players, and the Marlins will get hit hard by the Plexiglass Principle. There's alot of depth here as well.

Forgot to mention the starters....... Game 1: Mike Mussina vs. Victor Zambrano. If Zambrano wins, he sets the all-time Devil Rays record for wins, with 27. Game 2: Kevin Brown vs. Jeremi Gonzalez

No Love for Bad News Bears In Japan?

Reminds me of a tale about Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who later became Commissioner of Baseball. Landis once sentenced an aging bank robber to 25 (I think) years in prison. When the robber stated "your honor, I'm 75, I can't serve that long," Landis replied "Well, do the best you can."

Midnight tonight.

I don't have a problem with Japan itself, but starting your regular season in the wee hours of the morning is quite a silly idea. And for those of you with YES, they will replay the game twice tomorrow.

I don't like turnovers, because they generally have little connection with actual TO ability. Players rack up big TO numbers simply because they carry the ball more.

Yes, with OBP instead of BA. I'm going to do all the stats myself, so I need to keep it straightforward.

I think Oakland is fine between Esteban German, Frank Menechino, and Marco Scutaro. Its not like Mark Ellis was an elite slugger on the team. Cardinals (finally) got rid of Kerry Robinson, shipping him to San Diego in exchange for Brian Hunter. And the Dodgers acquired Jason Grabowski from the Athletics for cash.

Just so I have a record of this, before the season. The "Champion of Champions" league will include up to six competitors. The TSM Winner, the AL-Only Winner, the NL-Only Winner, and the H2H winner. Also, the H2H Consolation winner will be included, and a wild card will be available IF a player places second in two or more leagues without winning any.

We should change a handful of categories to percentages next year, in order to prevent player saturation from becoming a viable strategy. Lord knows I've pioneered it. In any case, FT% instead of FTs, and FG% instead of FGs sounds reasonable. Also, we should set our lineups weekly next time.