EVIL~! alkeiper

It's showing up on WWE 24/7 sometime this month.

I imagine the contract is something like $5 Million for 2007 and then $10.5 Million a year the next three years. How many people realize this guy led the NL in wins AND strikeouts last year? That even surprised me.

If DeRosa posts his career line, that's a decent season for a second baseman. It's quite possible that Eric Patterson comes up mid-season anyway.

I usually run a grand, 20 team league. Check back later in the month for details, and I'll keep a spot open for you. I've also done AL and NL only leagues, but I'm not sure if I'll do those.

I can't buy Theriot. He had a .337 career slugging percentage in the minor leagues, and he's already 27. Derosa's a better player I think. Murton's good enough to start. He had an awful first half, but posted a .912 OPS after the break.

Why not? Rhodes worked his share of barbed wire matches in his day. Plus he actually wrestled an ECW match before they closed shop. I too like the Great Khali. Not all of the great wrestlers have been great workers. Some have been absolutely putrid in the ring. It's just a matter of booking a wrestler to accentuate his positives and disguise his negatives. Khali's been used exactly right at this point, and his weaknesses have not exposed him. Speaking of which, I honestly think WWE should run Hogan vs. Sabu, with Khali in Sabu's corner. Sabu and Khali would make a sensible pair, as both are presented as hailing from India. In Hogan/Sabu you have a "name" opponent, a match that everyone wanted in '95, and two guys who have never met in the ring in their careers.

I think the Devil Rays are still a year away. There's a ton of hitting talent in that system, yes. But none of their top pitching prospects are banging on the door, and until they do the Rays' #2 starter is Casey Fossum.

Izturis barely works as a hitter. Here's a list of active hitters in OBP, minimum 2,000 plate appearances... 220 Tony Batista .298 221 Juan Uribe .297 222 Corey Patterson .297 223 Cesar Izturis .295 224 Mike Matheny .293 225 Alex Gonzalez .292 226 Tomas Perez .291 227 Henry Blanco .290 228 Pedro Feliz .288 229 Juan Castro .272 Call me crazy, but I'd put Soriano in front. He flourished there last year, why mess with success?

If there's one thing stupider than batting Soriano leadoff, it's putting Izturis there. As for Felix Pie, I think the thought is that Cliff Floyd is a one year option. I don't think there's anything wrong with having an extra player for one year. Let Pie prove that he deserves a shot.

Jacque Jones is still the right fielder, and Cesar Izturis has the starting job at short.

As an aside, that Brewers infield is going to be a hell of a lot of fun once they get together. JJ Hardy and Rickie Weeks are 24, Braun is 23 and Prince Fielder is 22.

If Colorado is desperate, they shouldn't be. They can't commit tons of money to free agent pitchers. Their farm system is absolutely stocked at this point. Ryan Braun. Third base prospect who slugged .589 in the Southern League last season.

Since I recently subscribed to WWE 24/7, I thought this would be good to write up. For those of you who have accessibility, I highly recommend it. A full compliment of wrestling programming, some changing over from week to week. Old house shows, Pay-per-views, television programs, etc. I honestly do not have enough time to watch it all. A short forward. I do not pay much attention to psychology, workrate, etc. I tend to take a historian's viewpoint of wrestling. I will note bad wrestling, but I do not intend this to be match reviews. Just some thoughts that cross my mind at specific instances. Sherri Martel vs. Fabulous Moolah This match is where Sherri won the WWF women's title. This was pretty bad. Ric Flair is 57 and still wrestling part-time, but few view him as a legitimate contender to anything. Moolah here is 63 and the reigning champion! I guess the company lacked a name after they dumped Wendi Richter, but damn. Looking back on this, I think some people miss the boat on womens' wrestling. At some point, you would like to see a long term, valid womens' division. But what is the point? You are not going to draw MORE money when you have the women wrestling. When you have a hot act, like Sable or Trish Stratus, you cobble together a division and come up with some worthy challengers. If not, you set it on the back burner. Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah the Butcher Brody and Abdullah were two wrestlers who would never job. After watching this match, the genius of it all is that neither one has to. You can avoid having a big blow off match because you know they would murder each other, and the promoter could not afford the damage costs. So you let them go out, wreck the place for 10-12 minutes and send them off to the next town. The other brilliant side of this is when you have two psycho monster heels. When you pair them off of each other, you turn one of them de facto face, and get a great reaction for it. Just look at Blassie/Tolos. Hercules vs. Junkyard Dog This is from the Spectrum in November of '87. A poster whose name I can not recall posted some Wrestling Observer notes from '87. In those, Meltzer referred to JYD as the worst worker in wrestling. Now, obviously there are green guys wrestling in front of 20 people who are always worse. But JYD was certainly the worst worker in a major promotion. His offense just looks absolutely putrid. It is almost embarrassing for a wrestler to sell his headbutts. ECW Wrestling It is hard to believe these are over a decade old already. The original music is long gone, so the original feel is somewhat gone. You know what made ECW great? It wasn't the quality wrestling or anything that stood far beyond the big two. It was that the big matches aired on free tv, on their television program. I think ECW lost much of its fun once Pay Per View started. And for all the complaining about the current product, it wasn't that good on TNN either. The big problem now, as with the TNN product, is that the show seems stuck in a holding pattern. They desperately need storyline progression.

Helton for Lowell and company makes absolutely no sense. Why would the Rockies take Lowell when they have TWO good young third basemen in their system? I honestly think it is in both teams' interest not to make that trade.

Hogan made his WWE return the day after Backlund lost the title. Obviously they knew Hogan was coming. The key is that the company would never pull a face/face title change. However, I think there is a story that they wanted Backlund to turn heel and challenge Hogan, which he declined.

Great day for the Phils' farm system today. Fabio Castro and Tim McClaskey led their respective teams to blowout victories. Through three games... Dominican Republic (3-0) Puerto Rico (2-1) Venezuela (1-2) Mexico (0-3) Three games to go. A tie will result in a one game playoff.

Bruno continued to wrestle, but at a reduced pace. He did headline a stadium show against Morales in '72, about the only time WWE ran a face/face title match before Wrestlemania VI.

The Dominicans win 4-3 in 18 innings. What an unbelievable game. And Puerto Rico/Mexico is still to come.

Venezuelans take a 3-2 lead in the 18th on back-to-back doubles by Luis Maza and Ron Cedeno. Two errors by the Venezuelans and an RBI single from Alberto Castillo tie the game in the bottom of the inning. Unbelieveable.

Bruiser Brody sit-down interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5aNEZaBdeQ

18th inning. This is now the longest I've ever spent watching a single game in my life.

Bottom of the 15th. MLB.com has Gameday coverage.

Thirteenth inning now. This is an interesting situation because the teams still play the next five consecutive days.

Still tied in the 11th inning. This is easily the best game I've seen so far this season.

well I don't know what HE wold consider 5 stars but: Savage/Steamboat-WM 3 Austin/Hart-WM 13 Warrior/Savage-WM 7 92 Rumble 10 man tag-Canadian Stampede those are matches i can watch over and over again and never get tired of...I can't really think of any others right now that i could put in that same boat. Obviously, the actual wrestling isn't what makes them 5 star matches, just the overall package, storyline, crowd heat, psychology, etc. Check out that Slaughter/Sheik match if you haven't before. It's the only WWE match that Loss gave five stars.