EVIL~! alkeiper

Odds, with eight days left in the season..... AL EAST Yankees 98% Red Sox 2% AL WEST Athletics 81% Rangers 10% Angels 9% NL WEST Dodgers 82% Giants 18% AL Wild Card Red Sox 98% Yankees 2% NL Wild Card Cubs 82% Giants 10% Dodgers 4% Astros 3% Padres 1% NL Playoffs (combined odds of reaching either division or wild card) Dodgers 86% Giants 27%

Lightning Flik has the H2H league running again this season. Perhaps a roto or other type league would be interesting as well.

What do you think about Jake Peavy? I know he is going to win the ERA title, but what do you think his chances are of getting serious consideration for the Cy Young? Slim to none. He missed a month earlier in the season, and that really hurt his chances.

I can't vouch for other sports. But it's simply not true for baseball. There has ALWAYS been player movement.

That's essentially what I'm talking about. That restriction upon player movement reduces the number of available players, and pushes prices upward for the limited players remaining. It's simple supply and demand.

Ok. Sunday we've got Chicago @ NY Mets, Kerry Wood vs. Al Leiter. The Cubs lead the wild card race by half a game. Houston battles Milwaukee, Carlos Hernandez vs. Victor Santos. The Astros trail the Cubs by 2.5 games. Seattle battles Texas, Cha Seung Baek versus Ryan Drese. The Rangers trail the A's by two games. The A's battle the Angels, with Mark Mulder battling John Lackey. The Angels also trail the A's in the West by two games. A's/Angels is the Sunday Night game on ESPN2. Dodgers versus Giants, Jeff Weaver versus Brett Tomko. Giants trail the West by 1.5 games, and the wild card by half a game. Finally, the final Yankees/Sox game of the regular season sees Kevin Brown attempt a comback, as he faces Curt Schilling. The game has no real significance in itself, but Brown's performance will be a major postseason factor.

There are subtle differences. The NBA has restricted free agency, where the team has the option to match the contract. The NBA also lets players enter free agency far earlier into their professional careers. Each sport has their own little nuances.

A good reason why there is a decreased connection between fans and players is because they come and go far more often in the post-free agency era. This does nothing but decrease the connection further. You might as well start selling the fans jerseys with velcro letters and numbers so they don't have to waste their money on a new player's jersey every 2 years. That's actually not true. If you look at pro sports pre-Free Agency, you'll see just as many players switching teams as you do now. The difference was that the team made the decision, instead of the player. Players like Musial, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, etc. have always been the exception, not the rule.

I do think Johnson will at least place in the award. There's no real standout this year, especially now that Jason Schmidt has cooled off.

I'm actually not familiar with him. I knew McClellan, and first base umpire Jim Wolf is the brother of Phillies pitcher Randy Wolf.

Which umpire was it? I noticed Tim McClellan is the second base umpire, and he is HIGHLY respected as an umpire.

It's a noble theory, but I don't believe it works. In 2000, running nack and neck, Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent finished 1-2. I was sure Piazza would win the award because they were both Giants. The voting is a 14-9-8....pattern, and that prevents players from the same team affecting the vote to a large extent. Besides, if the theory worked, the same thing would happen to Ramirez and Ortiz.

He's not Tanyon Sturtze.

Updated through September 23. New leaders in bold. AL MVP 1. Gary Sheffield, NYY 2. Alex Rodriguez, NYY 3. Johan Santana, Min 4. Manny Ramirez, Bos 5. Hideki Matsui, NYY 6. Miguel Tejada, Bal 7. Vladimir Guerrero, Ana 8. Ichiro Suzuki, Sea 9. Carlos Guillen, Det 10. Mark Teixeira, Tex At this point, Johan Santana deserves to be included alongside Vlad, Sheffield, Ramirez, and David Ortiz as legitimate MVP candidates. Ortiz ranks 17th, by the way. This list was compiled the day before Santana's last start, so he'd rank even higher if this was calculated today. AL Cy Young 1. Johan Santana, Min 2. Curt Schilling, Bos 3. Brad Radke, Min AL Rookie of the Year 1. Bobby Crosby, Oak 2. Shingo Takatsu, CWS 3. Zach Greinke, KC AL Gold Gloves C Damian Miller, Oak 1B Mark Teixeira, Tex 2B Luis Rivas, Min SS Christian Guzman, Min 3B Alex Rodriguez, NYY OF Johnny Damon, Bos OF Mark Kotsay, Oak OF Torii Hunter, Min NL MVP 1. Barry Bonds, SF 2. Scott Rolen, StL 3. Jim Edmonds, StL 4. Albert Pujols, StL 5. Adrian Beltre, LA 6. Bobby Abreu, Phi 7. J.D. Drew, Atl 8. Mark Loretta, SD 9. Lance Berkman, Hou 10. Sean Casey, Cin Barry Bonds has earned 51 win shares this season. The record is Honus Wagner, who earned 59 in 1908. Bonds likely will not catch that, but he has a real chance at catching the second best season, Babe Ruth's 1923 (55 win shares). NL Cy Young 1. Randy Johnson, Ari 2. Ben Sheets, Mil 3. Roger Clemens, Hou Randy Johnson has a commanding lead. Carlos Zambrano is actually fourth on the list. NL Rookie of the Year 1. Khalil Greene, SD 2. Jason Bay, Pit 3. Kazuo Matsui, NYM NL Gold Glove C Brian Schneider, Mon 1B Todd Helton, Col 2B Jeff Kent, Hou SS Jack Wilson, Pit 3B Adrian Beltre, LA OF Andruw Jones, Atl OF Jim Edmonds, StL OF Corey Patterson, ChC Wow. I was certainly not expecting Jeff Kent to overtake the NL Gold Glove.

The Dodgers' lead is now 1.5 games, and the Cubs lead the Giants by half a game. Tomorrow's games should be very interesting.

The Angels beat the A's, and the Athletics' lead is back down to 2 games over the Angels. The Rangers stand 2.5 games back.

The blown save is not a good stat to measure Hawkins. He earned four of those as a middle reliever. Middle relievers get credited with a blown save when they give up the tying run in the seventh inning, for example. The save stat in general needs to go, actually.

The unspoken aspect is that this game just saved the Astros' asses for the time being.

Except for Bonds, those guys are in their primes or close to it. Sosa is 35. Many players, even HOFers, decline around his age.

Heart is nice and all, but that heart didn't stop Bowe from getting his head (and groin) punched in.

Looking over stats, its worth noting that Sosa declined significantly in 2002-03 in the second half.

Sosa's .327 OBP is looking ugly. As I stated in my column, this team can crush the ball, but they have NO OBP. There's no denying that Sosa is hurting the team at this point. It's odd because he had a nice first half, and usually you wouldn't expect such a quick decline. I mean, he's dropped 178 points of OPS between the first and second half. I think Sosa will rebound slightly next season, but the old Sammy is probably gone.

Cano's got good prospects. He's just 22, and I think he could use a full season at AAA to get a better idea of his abilities.

I have my doubts. He wasn't looking too good even before his layoff.

Miguel Cairo is a free agent after this season, as is Enrique Wilson. Win Shares sees Cairo as the seventh best 2Bman in the A.L. His stats this season are well above his career totals, so I'd be wary about keeping him long term. The Yankees do have Andy Phillips in AAA. .388 OBP and .569 Slugging in Columbus this season. He's old for a prospect (27), but 26 home runs while playing second definately deserves a look.