EVIL~! alkeiper

Don't forget defense. Soriano is absolutely terrible.

Diet Coke with Lemon was awful. It had a pine-sol aftertaste.

except, out of second baseman , the best one in the league (that isn't currently dl'ed) is ,.... Soriano. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Nope. Ron Belliard, Chone Figgins, and Tadahito Iguchi are better.

I've drank diet cola as long as I have been diabetic, for eight years now. When I drink regular cola, I notice the pure sugar right away. I can't stand drinking anything that is not diet.

Wang is an average pitching prospect. He's 25 right now, so his ceiling is not much higher. While his 4.03 ERA is decent, he has only 15 strikeouts in 44 2/3 innings pitched. If there is any truth to the theory that pitchers struggle their second time through the league, then Wang will be that pitcher. Long term, he is a good 4th or 5th starter. Robinson Cano needs to improve his plate discipline. With only three walks in 111 ABs, Cano sports a gaudy .267 OBP. I honestly think Cano needs more development time at AAA. Long term, Cano is still young, and he should develop into an MLB caliber hitter. Most encouraging for Yankee fans is that Cano's defense, his main concern coming into this season, has looked extremely good so far. I think Cano could make a good second baseman in the Majors, and maybe sneak into an All-Star game or two.

It is a very good move for the Orioles. Marrero can hit a bit, play all three outfield positions, and catch in an emergency. And they gave up practially nothing to obtain him. In a divisional race as tight as the Orioles are going to be in this summer, every little bit helps.

The Pirates are still a sub-.500 team and they have been playing over their heads to get this far. They have some good pitching prospects, but the Pirates have one of the worst front offices in baseball.

Got it! Thank you.

Is there anyone that can help me change my signature to BBCode? I can not for the life of me figure out how to do linkable images.

I put Ramirez on my ballot without any reservations. He has too much of a track record to vote against him, in my view.

ESPN barely covers boxing these days, let alone Mixed Martial Arts. I think the problem is that the audience is somewhat limited, and many people inside the sports media carry negative opinions of MMA. There probably are not enough dedicated fans to convince ESPN to fight the biases associated against Mixed Martial Arts events.

Ron Kittle

While I'm not thrilled that NYC appears to have lost the games, I think the cost of the stadium outweighs the benefits.

Just wanted to throw out a program alert... http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article...field&fext=.jsp I've watched the show a few times, and it was better than I thought it would be. This is worth checking out.

When did it become OK to play in the Olympics despite playing professionally? I can't think of a specific start to the trend aside from the birth the U.S. Dream Team in basketball. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think it is up to the governing bodies in each particular sport.

1. By the time this kid reaches the majors, Jeter will be at least 35 years old. 2. Most good draft picks are shortstops. They play there on their amateur teams simply because they are usually the best athletes on their teams. A great deal of MLB talent were drafted as shortstops, including Gary Sheffield, Troy Glaus, Miguel Cabrera, and many others.

I have no problem with a player like Vlad selected, because he is still an elite player, and still an exciting player. I will argue statistics when it comes to the end of the year awards, but when it comes to choosing players in an exhibition, why argue over two months worth of statistics? The teams have at least 11 reserves, so it is not like the players having truly deserving seasons will get shut out. Besides, some of the picks that looked obvious in mid-May can look dreadful by the time the All-Star ballot rolls around. Bobby Abreu is #1 among NL outfielders in runs created. Number two and number three are Luis Gonzalez and Carlos Lee. How many of you selected either of those two men on your ballots? I didn't realize they were doing that well, and I'm generally the expert. Bored did not even select them among the complete ballots. And that is not wrong, really. Too much is made out of early season statistics. We argue that player A is better than player B because he has ten more hits this season, while ignoring the rest of his resume. In essence, the conversation becomes everything wrong about statistics. If you were trying to win a pennant, would you rather have Carlos Beltran or Brady Clark? Clark is having a better season, but Beltran has five years of excellence, and we expect him to compete at a higher level. That is what I think the All-Star selections are about. You are compiling the best players to win a game. You recognize the variance a small sample of statistics can produce, and you adjust. In my mind, there are three relatively poor selections the All-Star voting can produce. 1. The faded superstar. Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripkin in 2001, you get the idea. Yes, these players are not the stars we remembered, but as long as they are not terrible, I see no harm in these players making the All-Star team. It is a screw-up to some extent, but letting future Hall of Famers on the squad does not sully the image of the game. 2. The injured star. Nomar Garciaparra, etc. No biggee. If the player is injured, we simply replace him. Most statistics regarding All-Star games to not mention if the player was voted in or not. 3. The bad choice. Usually the result of voting irregularities or a flaw in the system. David Bell was nearly the starting third baseman in 2001, when Ichiro-mania gave the Mariners a huge advantage in the voting. Thanks to pre-written ballots, an All-Star squad in the late '50s produced nearly an entire team of Cincinnati Reds. Ultimately though, I think too much is made of the voting. It produces its share of hiccups, but since those hiccups are players the fans want to see anyway, let them slide.

Thank you for telling us. Now I need to figure out how to make this work.

Bobby Abreu for outfield? Yes, I endorse this ballot. And Jorge Posada is not a bad All-Star choice. He's the most reliable catcher in the league in terms of games played, and among players with more than 100 at bats, he's third in OPS.

There is lots of good talent in the Devil Rays system. Fifteen years from now, we'll be looking back on the team and saying "how the hell did they blow that?!"

Softball is pretty much just an exhibition for the U.S. women to show off. I don't know if I would axe it, but it deserves consideration. Baseball? Hard to say. The Olympic version is as watered down as you can get. AA baseball is a better game than what I saw at the '04 Olympics.

I was referring to Johnson as the first baseman. Martinez really was not that bad in St. Louis. Look at his OPS+ trend. 110, 86, 115 in New York his last three seasons there. He moves to St. Louis where he posts figures 108 and 106. He declined, but that had every indication of a normal aging curve. Now he moves into a park where left handed hitters thrive, and his stock is up again. To be fair, Martinez deserves all the credit for his recent success. I never saw it coming.

True, but in retrospect, it was pretty stupid to spend over $100 Million to sign a player at a position that did not need to be filled.

And since no one's noticed, Nick Johnson is quietly producing an MVP caliber season. .333 batting average, .446 On Base Percentage, and 31 RBIs.

Such as? The only good decision the Yankees made last offseason was signing Tino Martinez.