EVIL~! alkeiper

Holy !#%^, Cheech is back! And I'd wait until the Sox actually make a bad Manny trade before eviscerating them.

Farnsworth had a fine half-season in Detroit in '05. He's well suited for that park, remember they have deep power alleys.

He played in 1 game for the Yankees in April this year. Stewart's the regular catcher in Scranton. Only thing notable is that he has quite a small head for a 6'5" body.

They get brownie points for having a bikini-clad Mickie James introduce the clips. A bit of eye candy is nice from time to time, but it's tiresome when the shorties consist of five clips lasting less than ten minutes apiece.

What's with Yankee fans and fretting their eighth inning guys? Joking. The Yankees' bullpen is really in good shape yet with Veras, Ramirez and Robertson. This is an odd trade. The Yankees' had a glaring weakness at catcher, acquiring Pudge makes sense. But both teams dealt players in their last seasons. The Tigers get two months of a reliever in exchange for two months of a catcher. You'd think they would at least get a prospect in the swap.

DAMN HIM STRAIGHT TO HELL For Cabrera to hit a batter intentionally would suggest that he has some semblance of control. That is obviously false. Now if he gets one over the plate, THEN he should get tossed for headhunting.

A note from Jim Callis of Baseball America in the "Ask BA" column. I personally still am interested in Olympic baseball (it IS baseball after all), but I agree with his opinions. The new rules are ridiculous.

I like the deal from both sides. The Angels have the best record in baseball. With Vlad Guerrero possibly beginning to slide, they need to go balls out to win a title. The Braves get three years of a strong young first baseman, and a reliever with some upside (Marek has dealt with extremely difficult pitchers' environments the last two seasons).

If Cot's information is correct, he will not reach free agency until after 2011.

Jayson Stark reports a Jason Donald for Ron Mahay deal possibly in the works. Donald would will the Royals' gaping organizational void at shortstop. Mahay would gives the Phillies an actual relief pitcher. For kicks here is my favorite Jason Donald picture.

Teams draft players at their amateur defensive positions. In this case, McLouth played second base in high school. You find a few guys who played second base in college, fewer in high school. I looked over the period from 1993-99. In those years, eight high school second basemen were drafted and reached the majors. Brandon Watson, Willie Harris, Marcus Giles, Aaron Miles, Jerry Hairston, Edwin Diaz, Jose Vidro and Frank Catalanotto. These players have a couple things in common. * They are all short. Watson is the tallest at 6'1". Giles, Miles and Harris are all 5'9" or shorter. * Except for Watson, all of them primarily played second base in their pro careers. When they did not, they usually moved left on the defensive spectrum to either left field or first base. * Only Vidro and Giles made All-Star teams. Most had cups of coffee or spent careers as reserves. I get the feeling high school second basemen who make it are Rudy types. Guys without the raw ability to play short, and not big enough to justify using at the prime offensive positions. Yet they stick it out, work hard and force their way into action.

Assuming there's no Utley, Howard, etc. I'd take him and move him to first base.

Dmitri Young has missed games due to diabetes, he now needs to get the disease under control. I'll leave the fat jokes behind, I really hope he can get a handle on things, and as long as he doesn't act foolish it's not a hard thing to do.

Time to fill out the rosters. I looked over the teams, found that two teams can use utility infielders while the others have good fielders on their bench already. Each team gets another outfielder. One team needs an extra reliever. Other than those parameters, everything here is done randomly. The results: Canadian Chris RHP Wilcy Moore Relief ace's great season led '27 club to 110 victories (rather than 100). RHP Don Larsen OF Willie Keeler 1B Chris Chambliss Alkeiper RHP Pedro Ramos RHP John Habyan OF Hector Lopez 1B Joe Pepitone Bored LHP Mike Myers LHP Luis Arroyo OF Johnny Damon 1B Johnny Mize Brooklyn Zoo RHP George Frazier Fine Yankees' reliever unfortunately best known for 0-3 record in '81 Series. RHP Jim Bouton OF Sammy Byrd 1B Joe Collins Smues RHP Dooley Womack LHP Greg Cadaret OF Oscar Gamble SS/IF Bucky Dent 161st and River RHP Scott Proctor RHP Kyle Farnsworth LHP Rudy May SS/IF Roger Peckinpaugh If you're dissatisfied with any member of your team, you have 24 hours to trade him in for any undrafted player. Trades are also acceptable.

You often see that, guys drafted at shortstop and moved later on. I mentioned second basemen earlier. The reason is that if a guy is good enough to get drafted, he is likely a substantially better athlete than his teammates, and thus playing a more important defensive position. Chipper wouldn't have Jeff Blauser playing shortstop on his high school team, I bet.

The Phillies have sold out essentially all but two games since May 30. They are on pace to set a new attendance record this season, which they set in 2004. I find it amazing they draw more people now then they ever did when their stadium held 20,000 more people. This is important because it gives them the money to sign more quality pitchers like Adam Eaton.

Couple notes: -You see some players show up on several teams. When push comes to shove, first choice is the team that signs them. JD Drew is a stretch for the Phillies, I admit. Guys who were drafted and went to college instead muddles things. -If you look for second basemen based on drafted position, you may struggle. Second basemen are almost NEVER drafted out of high school. -This doesn't account for international signees, so if you were doing an original teams league, those guys would make a few bad teams look a hair better.

Fairly straightforward concept. Build the best team of current major leaguers that you can, while using only the players drafted from one particular club. For example. http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?f...aft_type=junreg To see your team, look at the third option, "Picks by Franchise/Year (& Actives) A list of the Phillies' draft picks. From that we come up with. C: Johnny Estrada 1B: Ryan Howard 2B: Chase Utley SS: Jimmy Rollins 3B: Scott Rolen LF: Pat Burrell CF: Marlon Byrd RF: J.D. Drew SP: Cole Hamels SP: Gavin Floyd SP: Kyle Kendrick SP: Brett Myers SP: Randy Wolf RP: Ryan Madson Pretty similar to what they actually have. Some teams differ though. The D'backs could contain Lyle Overbay, Jack Cust, Dan Uggla, Ian Kinsler, Alex Cintron, Carlos Quentin, and Brad Penny. Let's see what you come up with. Also, try and use their current position, not the one they were drafted at.

Giants select RP Steve Farr.

Given that there is no rumor afoot, I think a promotion is just as likely.

Was there a rain delay?

Let me clarify, the draft was originally 21 rounds. I added the last relief pitchers round as kind of a supplemental round. 161st and River can have Shane Spencer though.

Has anyone noticed how good the Yankees' bullpen has become? Of their current seven, five have season ERAs below 3. Mariano Rivera is having his best season. David Robertson and Edwar Ramirez have established themselves. Dan Giese's ERA out of the 'pen is 0.66 (Jeez, I sung his praises for years in the Phillies' farm system). And all with Joba Chamberlain in the rotation. A great deal of this is the first dividends of trusting the farm system, and it has put the Yankees in a good spot heading into August.

Ah right, I got that screwed up. The RnR/Midnights match is decent actually.

The scaffold match is historic, it has the spot where Jim Cornette screwed up his knee. I have eight of those matches on dvd, with two more on the Road Warriors dvd. Flair/Luger is the only real good match that has yet to make DVD from that section.