EVIL~! alkeiper

Almost missed this one. The Phillies declined to offer arbitration to Eric Milton, so he is gone.

The Carlos Delgado era is officially over in Toronto. No surprise, as Delgado would've earned at least $15.2 Mil in arbitration. Also, the Enrique Wilson era is officially over in New York.

It's weird that Benson and his ilk get so much attention, and Radke is essentially ignored. Radke was probably the second best pitcher on the market, next to Pedro. And Matt Morris re-signs with the Cardinals for a year.

And now its back to the generic search page. Weird.

That site doesn't come up for me. ESPN.com is reporting that the Yankees signed Tony Womack.

The usual spot. www.shootproject.net/snkt. Ill couldn't access it, but Bruiser and I could see it.

Wasn't there an Ultimate Jeopardy '96 that had that match? I remember they had a similar match in that 1995 house show, with Cactus/Sandman/Raven/Richards/Scorpio vs. Dreamer/Pit Bulls/Public Enemy. No stipulations, just your standard war games, except no cage, and every entrant determined by a coin flip (so it could conceivably be 5 on 1).

Well, it appears SNKT is back in action.

Im pretty shocked...but its only December. I'm not shocked. SOMEONE has to lead the conference, no matter how bad it may be.

The peripherals are almost exactly the same, and the difference in ERA is about what you would expect given that Pro Player is a good park for pitchers. The only difference is that Pavano's W/L record was better at home. His HR rate was lower on the road, so I would not expect a drastic dropoff in Camden Yards.

A couple interesting signings are hitting the wires. The Phillies have re-signed Rheal Cormier for two years. Dan Wilson resigns with the Seattle Mariners. Chad Moeller rejoins the Milwaukee Brewers. The Dodgers retain Elmer Dessens for a season, with a club option for 2006. And for those who missed it earlier, the Cubs retain Nomar Garciaparra and Todd Walker for a season apiece.

Delgado's gotta be #1. Second all time in games played, first in slugging, first in OPS, and second in OBP.

Again, $19 Million.

The Rockies terminated Denny Neagle's contract. Assuming it holds up, at $19 Million Neagle may well have received the most expensive blowjob in recorded history.

Eh, its alright. I take comfort in the fact that there are two sports where I could run a better team than the people who actually run them.

That's a more interesting ballot. Minnie Minoso, Dick Allen, Wes Ferrell, and Joe Gordon deserve consideration as well.

Of those guys, Ron Santo and Joe Torre should be in the Hall. I'm on the fence about Jim Kaat. Luis Tiant is close, but I'd lean no. I'd say no on the rest.

When you absolutely need to watch your team win, you can't beat a matchup with the Hawks.

Lofton is ok, because he takes care of several problems for the Phillies. He gives them their fifth outfielder, provides solid defense, and fills the only shaky issue in the Phillies' lineup. He's not a star anymore, but he can be a useful player. There weren't many better players on the market in any case. Steve Finley is due for a meltdown. As for Alomar, the Phillies re-signed Todd Pratt for a year, so I imagine that is a dead issue. I'm happy to see that.

But the current system is a glorified popularity contest. The current system has its problems, no doubt. But that logic just brings us back to my first point.

Given the circumstances, I would rather see less teams in baseball make the playoffs. Extra teams make the playoffs more exciting, but they diminish the excitement of the regular season. Eight teams, IMO, is too many. It is overkill for what we are trying to accomplish. I think the real problem is that college football needs different systems each year. If there is one clear leading team, then the old system worked fine. If thee are two clear top teams (i.e. Penn State and Nebraska), then the BCS system is best. If there are more than two, like this year, maybe the playoff is best suited. But what's the point of a playoff if we had two undefeated teams? Heck, the playoff might ruin a potential marquis matchup. The point is that Playoffs do have their merits. But they also have their problems, and you have to question whether the system is really better in the long run.

That's certainly possible. But if they lost twice in the regular season, why should they have the opportunity?

I think there are two problems with a playoff system. 1. You have the same problem with the 7-8 seeds that you have with the 1-2 Title Game now. Invariably, you have to make some kind of distinction between equally deserving teams, as to who gets a shot and who doesn't. 2. You give weaker teams a shot at the championship. Giving a National Championship to say, Virginia Tech, seems like an extremely unsatisfactory conclusion to the USC/Oklahoma/Auburn controversy.

If this has any basis in reality, you'll be much better off working on a change-up.

Well, I think in a three-way tie, you need to take the two established teams.