EVIL~! alkeiper

Continuing a family tradition, Stephen Drew will not sign with the Arizona Diamondbacks, returning to Florida State University. Drew and the D'backs could not come to an agreement on a contract.

We face the winner of Greece-Argentina.

Our mens' basketball team just defeated Spain, 102-94. Stephon Marbury scored 31 points, a record for USA Men's Olympic Basketball. After a 5-0 pool record, the Spanish team fails to medal. At this point, I think the mens' team has an excellent shot at reaching the finals.

MLB has no salary cap wahtsoever. Most games assign you a budget, which you must stay under.

Meaning that individual batting statistics are subject to variation. Over the last three years, A-Rod has hit 317/422/643 with runners in scoring position. Did he forget how to hit, or is it simply bad luck? I'm inclined to believe the latter.

A-Rod's numbers are little more than a statistical quirk.

The unofficial TSM AL and NL only leagues are fast approaching the trading deadline. August 29 is the last day to make trades.

Olympic baseball on now. What the heck is a communist nation like Cuba doing with Adidas logos on their uniforms?

I probably wouldn't have voted him #1. But if I had a ballot, he'd be on the top ten. And the year before, and maybe the year before that.

The qualifying tournament was single elimination, and our guys lost 3-2.

The OF gold gloves aren't position specific, so three center fielders can win the award.

It's got to be Bonds. Take a look at some of his accomplishments this season. His 12.20 Home Run Percentage is 5th best All-Time behind himself in 2001, and three seasons of Mark McGwire. He's set to shatter his own OBP record by 28 points. His slugging percentage is 4th best all time. His OPS is the best all time. But with all the intentional walks, does he really help his team? Absolutely. The Giants play in a pitchers' park, have no offense outside of Bonds, and they're second in the league in runs scored. SECOND. Bonds creates opportunites by reaching base, and not making outs. Bonds' season is absolutely historic. Beltre, Pujols and Rolen are all having fine years, but its no contest.

I think I could have understood Boggs, because he had a hell of a year. Very similar to Mattingly, better in some aspects, not quite as good in others. But I have always hated (and not just this once instance) the idea that a pitcher is somehow more valuable than any position player. Someone who plays in maybe 40 games (best case of a starter) shouldn't be considered more valuable than a guy who goes out there almost every single day and puts up awesome numbers over 130+ games. I think Mattingly played almost every game that year and Boggs couldn't have missed too many. Someone who shows up once every fifth day and plays 7 or 8 innings is not more valuable than someone who shows up every day and plays 9. I'm of the opinion that position players are usually better than pitchers. However, there are exceptions, when a pitcher is SO dominant, that he stands above the field. For example, Bob Gibson in 1968, or Pedro Martinez in 1999. Pitchers aren't usually MVPs, but they do deserve consideration. I think voters prefer not to include them because they do not really know how to measure them against position players. Clemens in 1986 went 24-4. Figure if we gave the average pitcher 28 decisions, he'd win 14. Clemens won 10 games more than an average pitcher. That's a little simplistic, but that's the kind of accomplishment we're dealing with. Personally, I probably would've voted for Boggs. Speaking of which, how did Boggs get hosed so thoroughly in that voting? At least Mattingly finished 2nd. Boggs finished 7th, behind teammate Jim Rice and his amazing RBIs, among others. You know why Rice had 110 RBIs? Because Wade Boggs was on base all the damned time. Writers like to dismiss sabermetrics, but they are having an influence in some areas, and this is one of them. Thankfully, its not as easy for low OBP, high RBI slugs to make the voting in front of the leadoff hitters who make it possible.

Johan Santana

Just take each stat, divide by games played, and multiply by 162. Of course when you consider the player would likely regress toward the norm as the season progressed, it gets more complicated than that.

It was a fiasco on all levels. It wasn't about an anti-Yankee bias. It was about a complete brainfart on the part of all the voters. Rafael Palmeiro won the award despite playing at DH for 135 games. The problem was that there wasn't a clear candidate, and too many just penciled in Palmeiro. It exposed the problem with the Gold Glove voting, that each person votes for one player, and a player can win with 15% of the vote. I'll probably get roasted for this, but Wade Boggs (.455 OBP) was a more deserving candidate than Mattingly. I can't really complain about Clemens. Total Baseball sees him as the best player in the league that season. Win Shares picks Boggs.

In rate stats maybe, but Tejada has played in 22 more games than Mora. That's a significant difference. It does amuse me though that in the time Mora missed, the Orioles got BETTER production from David Newhan at third base. That's not a knock on Mora, just one of those odd quirks.

Miguel Tejada is a deserving candidate, but he has no shot. After all, how can a player have value on a losing team? Seriously, did he learn how not to win? How can he have the same stats and yet his team has less wins? Oh yeah, his teammates. But I digress. Melvin Mora is a good player, but he missed some time, so that hurts his cause.

Benn/McClellan is significant because its the fight where McClellan suffered brain damage, ending his career, and damaging his life irreparably. Pryor/Arguello is simply the most action packed 14 round fight I have ever seen.

Using MVPs and Gold Gloves in the same statement is a bad example, because they are voted on by different groups. The MVP and Cy Young is voted by the Baseball Writers Association of America, while managers and coaches vote on the Gold Glove. Getting back on track. It'll be a cold day in hell before I give David Ortiz the MVP nod. He's a platoon player. Right now I'd have Sheffield first, and Guerrero second. Sheffield's got the edge in OBP, which is key.

The amusing thing is I can make a similar team with ex-Yankees. Jeff Weaver and Kevin Brown are currently tied in Win Shares, by the way.

We're not breaking down threads for other sports though. We're keeping whatever the NHL posters prefer, and we'll likely split up the NBA threads by weeks. And the NBA threads will be one at a time.

We'd have four NFL threads a week, all with considerable interest. That's hardly overkill.

There's no conclusive evidence he got the parasite in Japan though.

Say for example your team is playing at 1pm. You watch the game on television. You wish to discuss the game afterwards, but the thread is flooded by fifteen posters saying things like "TOUCHDOWN WOOOO!@!!!!!" because they're responding to an ongoing game. Thus you cannot discuss the game. A single thread hinders discussion in this manner.