EVIL~! alkeiper

Honestly, I'm not sure. The key sign to look for is if he has particular problems throwing breaking pitches, since those are more likely to lead to arm strain. Mulder's big problem these days is that he can't seem to strike out batters. But I don't know anything extra about Mulder, to be honest.

That should've been the Angels. The Braves aren't exactly 100%, the figure is 99.96%. I rounded up.

Ichiro went 5 for 5 yesterday, giving him 243 hits for the season. He needs 14, with 11 games left.

It's cool. If a joke is incredibly mean or tasteless, I might do something, but generally a humor post here or there is ok by my standards.

Latest Prospectus Odds..... AL East Yankees 88% Red Sox 12% AL West Athletics 81% Mariners 17% Rangers 2% NL East Braves 100% NL West Dodgers 83% Giants 16% Padres 1% AL Wild Card Red Sox 88% Yankees 12% NL Wild Card Cubs 55% Astros 20% Giants 16% Dodgers 6% Padres 2% Marlins 1%

While Carter is physically fragile, I've never heard of him being emotionally fragile. But what the heck. I'm letting this slide.

I don't think there will be much backlash. All but the most hardened writers have conceded the award to Bonds. Its awfully hard to make a rational argument against a .372 batting average and .610 On Base Percentage. Also, his .827 slugging percentage is second best all time.

I'd place him in the top 5 of middleweights, all time. He's certainly better than Carlos Monzon, and he just might be better than Marvin Hagler. Not at all. I didn't shell out for the fight, but if I had, it wouldn't be in the hopes of seeing a competitive fight. It would be to watch a Philly boy beat the crap out of that pretty boy. And while I didn't get the broken nose I was hoping for, this works.

It's not like the Twins are sneaking in thanks to a weak division. Their winning percentage is better than both the West division leaders, the Dodgers and the Athletics, and its the same as the NL East leading Braves.

He still rates above any other closer in baseball. It is just difficult to earn many Win Shares when you pitch 75 innings.

44th for MVP, and 9th for Cy Young.

My instinct would say Hang Time. This allows the defense time to get down the field and prevent a large gain of yardage. I'm not watching though, so I could be wrong.

Here are the rankings updated as of September 16th.... AL MVP 1. Gary Sheffield, NYY 2. Alex Rodriguez, NYY 3. Hideki Matsui, NYY 4. Johan Santana, Min 5. Manny Ramirez, Bos 6. Carlos Guillen, Det 7. Vladimir Guerrero, Ana 8. Miguel Tejada, Bal 9. Ichiro Suzuki, Sea 10. Hank Blalock, Tex The surplus of Yankees is due to their outperforming their pythagorean record. They have won more games than you'd expect based on their runs scored and allowed. Since Win Shares works backwards from wins, it gives credit for more wins. Nice to see Johan Santana make the cut, and hopefully voters will list him on their ballots. 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 Glove C Damian Miller 1B Mark Teixeira 2B Orlando Hudson SS Christian Guzman 3B Alex Rodriguez OF Johnny Damon OF Mark Kotsay OF Torii Hunter How many people think Vizquel will win based on his offense? NL MVP 1. Barry Bonds, SF 2. Scott Rolen, StL 3. Jim Edmonds, StL 4. Albert Pujols, StL 5. Bobby Abreu, Phi 6. Mark Loretta, SD 7. J.D. Drew, Atl 8. Adrian Beltre, LA 9. Adam Dunn, Cin 10. Sean Casey, Cin NL Cy Young 1. Randy Johnson, Ari 2. Ben Sheets, Mil 3. Carl Pavano, Flo 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 Mark Loretta, SD SS Jack Wilson, Pit 3B Scott Rolen, StL/Adrian Beltre, LA OF Andruw Jones, Atl OF Jim Edmonds, StL OF Corey Patterson, ChC Carlos Beltran has earned just as many fielding shares as Patterson, but he split them between two leagues. In addition, if he played in one league all season, he'd rank 2nd in the AL overall, and 10th overall in the NL.

Dear god. Has anyone seen ESPN's programming schedule this week? Monday Hustle: The Warm-Up Week Begins 8:00 PM (espn classic) Head First: The Story of Charlie Hustle 9:00 PM (espn2) Thursday The Making of Hustle (espn2) I really hope this movie tanks. For the time being though, I am revoking my policy of using capital letters to spell espn.

I think this is mostly the reality for Benitez. He had a bad year last year, which was out of line from his established level of play. The Marlins didn't buy it, and earned themselves a bargain.

Basically make more players eligible for free agency. Have players reach free agency at a younger age, end restricted free agency, etc. The idea is that as you flood the market with available players, salaries fall as teams have alternatives available.

New column is up for you guys to check out.

Best of all, he's helped me beat the Chicago White Sux in the H2H Fantasy league.

Is there any doubt at this point that Johan Santana is the AL Cy Young? 14 strikeouts today.

I actually have a radical idea. EXPAND free agency. The increase in available players would drag down player salaries. And the players' union would have a much harder time fighting it.

Banned.

Without Brown, it'd be Hernandez, Mussina, Lieber, Vazquez. Otherwise they face a three-man rotation. As shaky as Vazquez has been, Sturtze or Loaiza would be absolute death.

Hard to say. The most recent start isn't always the best indicator. Vazquez did look good in his last start as well. It boils down to the next few weeks, as each pitcher will have a chance to display what they've got going for them.

Because it is. Artificial restraints on salaries do nothing but line the owners' pockets with money.