EVIL~! alkeiper

Humourous little article from www.sportsgoons.com

If I'm Texas, no way in hell do I trade A-Rod for Eckstein and prospects. You want an albatross? The Rangers paid Chan Ho Park $13 Million, and Rusty Greer $7 Million. $20 Million, and between the two of them they played seven games total. A-Rod's contract is not the problem. They're getting the bona-fide best shortstop in baseball. The problem is every other contract on the books. The good news however is that Gonzalez ($13 M), Palmeiro ($9 M), Carl Everett ($9 M), and Urbina ($4.5 M) are off the books. That's a good start. I think the Rangers can surprise people next year, especially with their young hitting.

As far as Halladay/Pedro goes, its hard to justify giving the award to a pitcher who started 7 less games.

Even you you don't agree with the rules, you have to abide by them in voting for the award. If the writers can't abide by the guidelines in voting, then their ballots should be given to writers who will follow the guidelines.

The '86 series went 6 games, with game 6 widely praised as one of the greatest playoff games ever.

Bernie makes $12 Million a year because the market was higher at the time of his contract, and the Red Sox were very interested in signing him, so the Yankees felt pressured to keep him. As for the playoffs, Williams hit about the same as he does in the regular season.

Some fans in Philly have soured on Bobby Abreu, calling him an underachiever, and accusing him of not living up to his potential. I think they're wrong. One of the great things about baseball-reference.com is that it uses a statistical tool to determine statistically similar players. I looked up Bobby Abreu, and found an interesting comparison. I won't tell you who it is yet, but I'll run numbers here for player A(breu), and player B. I apologize in advance for formatting problems. AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB K BA/OBP/SLG A 3566 631 1091 250 40 136 569 170 64 635 793 306/409/513 B 3678 638 1096 213 38 126 566 97 56 495 584 298/380/479 I'd call them fairly similar players, with Abreu having a slight edge in rates. So who is the mystery player? It's Bernie Williams, at age 29. Basically, the Phillies have Bernie Williams in right field, and some fans want to replace him. Why?

I believe he is, actually.

I'm not holding my breath on Guerrero. I think the Phillies are solid. What they really need are solid players to plug a rotation slot, the pen, and maybe a hitter/corner outfielder in case Burrell doesn't rebound.

The Blazers would fall into the second category if not for NBA's open invitation playoffs.

I still don't see the "happy" in making it to the play offs and failing. Failing is failing. Maing it far just gets your hopes up. I think it depends. As a Blue Jays fan and not seeing them in the post-season in over a decade now, I'd be thrilled just to see them in the playoffs, even if they ended up getting swept in the division series as . I just don't get it. Well, making the playoffs and failing is better than drinking mass amounts of alcohol in October, staring at your tv and muttering "fucking Marlins" over and over again.

At least they gave Bobby Heenan fodder. "Beau is the one with blond hair"

I usually don't involve myself in football discussions, but I don't think anything said on ATH amounts to much of anything.

I wish. Unfortunately the league counts categories outside of scoring. But I'm on the right track, as long as Carter stays healthy.

...would you just SHUT UP? But then I wouldn't get a chance to tell you all about Michael Redd.

For Willis and Webb, I'd point out that Webb's superior ERA also occured with Webb pitching in a hitters' park, and Willis in a pitchers' park.

I'm sorry, but I don't think Soriano and Ichiro are even close. Ichiro had a .381 OBP compared to Soriano's .304. Ichiro also had the edge in BA, and slugging percentage. Ichiro also had 14 more steals than Soriano. Ichiro beat Soriano in walks, by ONE (30 to 29).

Don't forget Matt Harpring.

As far as rookies go, the precident goes back to the award's creation in the late 40s, when Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby won the award, despite experience in the negro leagues. After 50+ years, I see no need to change the parameters. That said, Berroa deserves the award. All the discussion about performance forgets one crucial point. Berroa is a shortstop, and thus plays a position where offense is scarcer.

He means shuffling players off your bench and into your lineup.

If Jenkins can hit the way he did this year, he'd be in good shape. .296/.375/.538 is quite good for a left handed bat. A Ryan Klesko type. I don't know if I'd shell out money for him though. Sexson is a hitting machine, and quite possibly one of the NL's best first basemen. I'd take a flyer on him if my team didn't have a power threat.

The awards are mailed in before the postseason, so Willis' performance and the Marlins championship don't figure into the results. With the media coverage Willis got, he was bound to win despite Webb's superior performance. Overall though, there's not much to complain about here.

Leadership ain't worth $7.5 million. If they need leadership, sign a cheap veteran bench player.

The Cincinnati Reds went ahead and released Ryan Dempster a couple days ago, after he post a 6.54 ERA. Dempster's had three straight bad seasons, and it doesn't look like he'll live up to his promise. It's possible that he could turn it around, but right now he looks like the second coming of Jamey Wright. Or he could have an injury that's hurting his performance. I think some team will give him a minor league contract and take a chance on him. If he doesn't succeed, its a few thousand bucks in the hole, and little harm done.

Don't forget the Reds lost Barry Larkin's $9 Million contract, so they have money to spend.