EVIL~! alkeiper

There will likely be a 20 team rotisserie league at some point.

Have you tried ebay?

If Bobby Abreu couldn't grab a front line starter, I doubt Dunn would.

And get fans who won't bitch when the team wins "only" 88 games, and assembles a young nucleus of talent that includes Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Ryan Madson and Brett Myers.

PM HarleyQuinn over at nmblues.com.

The LA Angels signed Jeff Weaver to a one year deal worth $8.4 Million.

Another relavent point to consider is knockouts. Chavez knocked out 81% of his opponents, Whitaker just 40%. Whether you put stock in that or not, you have to remember that high knockout boxers are always going to be rated more favorably.

Yeah Chavez got lucky, but what matters is that Chavez knocked out Taylor. No one holds Louis-Conn I against Joe Louis, and most people don't knock Rocky Marciano because Walcott was ahead on points in the first fight. I'm no expert on the 80s mexican boxing scene, so I can't comment on how good Chavez really was, and if his prime was better than Whitaker's. But there certainly was an aura of invincibility around Chavez before he lost his first fight. Not that he couldn't be beat, but somehow he wouldn't. I'd rank Whitaker above Chavez myself. But if an informed person wants to make the opposite choice, I won't begrudge him that. No Top 100 list is going to please everyone.

The Boxing Register, the IBHOF's official reference book, says Villa visited the dentist again after the fight where the infection was discovered and three more teeth extracted. Villa ignored the dentist's instructions afterwards and died a week later. As for his career, obviously it is hard for us to judge since I doubt any of us has seen a Pancho Villa fight. Villa died perhaps before his prime and he was never knocked out. He owns a victory over Jimmy Wilde, and that is HUGE.

It depends on if they can outproduce the team's fifth outfielder. The fifth outfielder spot isn't as important as last year because the Phillies no longer have a center field platoon. Looking at the numbers, Matt Kata and Abraham Nunez could out-produce any of the fifth outfielder candidates. Kata is the best utility infielder candidate and also played some outfield last season, so of course he will be sent to AAA.

I think there's a legitimate argument. Chavez's record before the Whitaker fight was highly impressive. His greatest successes were at lower weight classes. People forget he rose a weight class to battle Whitaker. It's the same deal with Roberto Duran. Duran lost to many lower ranked fighters, but he's top 20 material based on his lightweight career. And Whitaker's higher than De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad, whom he both lost to. Not that they should be ranked higher. Just noting the problem with judging a ranking based on one fight.

Venezuela scored two runs in the ninth to win the game and the series, 5-4. Henry Blanco's pop-up hit Erick Aybar in the head and bounced away, allowing Alex Gonzalez to score the winning run.

The Philadelphia Phillies signed IF Alex S. Gonzalez. This is a brilliant move, as Gonzalez immediately becomes our tenth best infielder, behind only Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Chris Coste, Matt Kata, Abraham Nunez, David Bell, Danny Sandoval and Bobby Scales, in that order. Seriously, what the hell is the point? Do they give booby prizes for accumulating massive amounts of crappy infielders? Gonzalez is better than our AAA second baseman and our current pet utility infielder (Tomas Perez). That's not exactly glowing praise.

Like I said, I won't begrudge a guy for changing his mind. Julio Cesar Chavez made the biggest jump, going from non-entity to #17. Other newcomers are George Foreman, Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker, Ricardo Lopez, Roy Jones Jr., Bernard Hopkins and Mike Tyson. Roy Jones at #88 seems much too low. Kid McCoy is listed twice at #40 and #74. Can you double-check that?

Bert Sugar's previous top ten, from 1984... 1. Robinson 2. Armstrong 3. Harry Greb 4. Jack Dempsey 5. Benny Leonard 6. Joe Louis 7. Mickey Walker 8. Sam Langford 9. Tony Canzoneri 10. Muhammad Ali Roberto Duran cracks the top ten on the new list. Kind of odd to see rankings move around like this, but everyone changes their opinion at some point. It's hard to argue with Robinson and Armstrong at one and two. Ali's moving up three spots is a minor victory. Sugar always hated his style, but he's fighting an uphill battle. Maybe it's me, but I don't see too many real additions to the list in the last twenty years.

To update the Caribbean World Series, Venezuela plays Puerto Rico tonight. The game is ongoing currently but doesn't air until 10:30pm here. The Dominicans hold a 4-1 record, while the Venezuelans sit at 4-0. If the Venezuelans lose, tomorrow's game between them and DR is a straight up game for the championship. If they win, the Dominicans will need to win to tie and set up a final on Wednesday.

By him you mean Ken Huckaby?

There are boom boxes available for both systems.

Halfway through the Caribbean World Series. New Red Sox' SS Alex Gonzalez hit a three run home run home run in the top of the ninth to put Venezuela over the D.R., 11-9. Venezuela 3-0 D.R. 2-1 P.R. 1-2 Mexico 0-3 Venezuela can knock Mexico out of contention with a win today.

I'm no legal expert, but didn't the Supreme Court already rule about the legalities of recording such programs, vis a vis the VHS controversies? I don't think the RIAA can prevent either XM or Sirius from producing a recordable system, and as long as there is competition the satellite radio companies will have incentives to produce better hardware. Besides, as long as I have a tape adaptor or an FM transmitter, I could realistically tape programming. It doesn't require anything special, just the use of the "Line Out" jack on the back of the base. The only real problem is with "exclusive" programming such as Bob Edwards or Howard Stern, but that's not the RIAA's problem. XM Radio has MLB, and I honestly can't see what terrestrial radio can do to counter that.

I do intend on starting up an open TSM league. Look for details in the near future.

On another note, it amazes me how worried people get that players might get injured in the World Baseball Classic. How many Red Sox fans are even aware that Julian Tavarez pitched competitively today?

Because it was never a possibility. Stoneman shot it down immediately.

Just that I heard the rumor. This is easily the worst trade idea I've heard this offseason. I would not trade Abreu for those two straight up, let alone add Gavin Floyd to the trade.

For those of you in the NYC market, the YES Network is airing the Caribbean World Series, starting at 6:30 this evening.