Cheech Tremendous

Liked: - The Red Sox continue the purge of the "idiots", build around pitching/defense and win the AL East crown and WS title - Buchholz hurls a no-hitter in his second career start - Rockies, D'backs, Brewers and Indians rise to prominence with modest payrolls and exciting young stars - Roger Goodell lays down the fucking hammer on Pacman Jones and the other idiots running around the NFL - The Spurs continue their quiet dominance of the NBA with good coaching, selfless play and tremenous upper management - Lebron James makes the leap from superstart to transcendent once in a generation superstar - Durant and Oden land in basketball starved Pacific Northwest - College basketball takes advantage of the new NBA age limit rule and has one of the most interesting seasons in years with identifiable star players Hated: - College football and everything tangentially related to it, including the BCS, the antiquated, meaningless bowl games, the polls, the Heisman, the coaching carousel, the lack of playoffs and holier than thou programs and conferences - Steroids clouding the landscape, including Merriman's suspension, the Bonds HR chase, the Mitchell Report, Marion Jones and the Benoit murder/suicide - Oden going down with a knee injury - Isiah continuing to destroy the Knicks - Michael Vick - The Donaghy Scandal and the continued marginalization of the NBA as a national sport - The NFL loses its parity and gets dominated by four teams - Dan Patrick and Erik Kuselias leave ESPN Radio

Didn't read the Rotoworld blurb, but had heard him compared to Drew for a quite some time. There was even a thread at SOSH questioning a possible Drew for Fukodome swap in the Boston lineup.

For futher study on Fukodome, Baseball Prospectus chimes in with his PECOTA projection for this coming season. His batting line is .289/.401/.504 with 15 HR and 9 SB. Projects to have a 29.9 VORP and 4.4 WARP1. Oh, and here are his top historical comps: 1. J.D. Drew 2. Gene Hermanski 3. Jim Edmonds 4. Fred Lynn 5. Johnny Grubb 6. Andy Van Slyke 7. Bobby Abreu Sometimes, I even impress myself.

He's a left-handed outfielder with great on-base skills and average to slightly above average power. Good defensively in right field and could play center in a pinch. Think of JD Drew or Bobby Abreu as a good comp. He'll be a good fit in the Cubs line-up, especially if they use at the top of the order.

What a disaster they have going on in Atlanta. Besides having your dog-murdering franchise quarterback run off to prison for two years, you find out your $5 million a year rookie coach just ditched you to go coach at a mediocre college football program.

Good god... how fucking embarrassing.

Second place is the first loser. ... I didn't even make it into the tournament.

I think the shark was dead.

Czech is TSM's best poster, Al will have to wait til the next tournament. You're just bitter because you lost last year.

Hence why they weren't a great live act. You didn't just say that, did you? Zeppelin was amazing live.

baseball-reference.com is your friend. In 2004, it was 101. That was the lowest of his career prior to this season.

He wasn't better in 2007 than 2006. He dove of a fucking cliff in 2007. It was a failure on the Giants part to account for things like defense and park effects. Real baseball fans knew that he was a mid-rotation starter and not an ace. The Giants paid him like a multiple Cy winner. By what measurement? I used WHIP because it's simple. Even without factoring out the parks or anything else, he had a 1.40 WHIP in 2006. It went down to 1.35 in 2007. I don't see how that's falling off a cliff. Even if you use more advanced stats, there's only a few things that were worse for him in 2007 than 2006. In many ways his 2007 season was quite comparable to his 2004 season. I'm not saying he was very good last year, but I am not sure where he fell off a cliff. Using ERA+, which is park and league adjusted, saw Barry Zito slip from a 116 in 2006 to a 98 in 2007. He went from having a middle of the rotation pedigree to below average as a starting pitcher. Some of his underlying peripherals (K, BB) went in the wrong direction as well.

I said passed through the roster because I didn't want to imply that all those deals were handed out by New York. Isiah just saw it fit to acquire all of those hefty contracts for his bloated, underachieving roster.

Money grab? I thought they were donating all the money to charity? In regards to the Stones, they may be old out of touch rockers, but they put on one of the best live shows I've ever seen. It was every penny of $100+ I spent on the ticket.

He wasn't better in 2007 than 2006. He dove of a fucking cliff in 2007. It was a failure on the Giants part to account for things like defense and park effects. Real baseball fans knew that he was a mid-rotation starter and not an ace. The Giants paid him like a multiple Cy winner.

Why? Is it just because it ruins the whole mystique of the band disappearing after Bonham's death (because LiveAid already did that) or something else? A Zep reunion tour would be the greatest thing ever. I don't care how much tickets would be. I'd get a second mortgage if I had to.

If we want to include coaches, how about Larry Brown (Knicks), Steve Spurrier (Reskins) and Rick Pitino (Celtics)?

Barry Zito is a number 3 starter who got the richest pitcher contract in MLB history. His 98 ERA+ this year was atrocious and makes him decidedly below average. The Giants failed to recognize that he pitched in a pitching haven with one of the best defenses in baseball behind him. Zito turning into a pumpkin was predicted by every baseball fan with a brain (a group that does not include Brian Sabean). I also disagree with the point about that being the market at the time. While contracts certainly got out of control last offseason, his was the farthest out of line and supposedly tens of millions more than any other team offered him. They went higher on AAV and years than any other pitcher has gotten (compare recent deals to Oswalt and Zambrano).

They don't really qualify as the worst ever, but some of the worst contracts in the NBA have passed through the Knicks roster recently: Allan Houston, Jalen Rose, Stephon Marbury, Jerome James, Q Richardson, Zach Randolph, Steve Francis, Eddy Curry and Jamal Crawford.

My best friend's sister went to Purdue and was hit on multiple times by Kyle Orton. That's all I can really add to this discussion.

JD Drew underperformed in 2007 but still had an okay year. He could easily bounce back to career form over the next four. It's really hard to call a contract bad after one year (unless we are talking about Barry Zito), especially when the contract given was essentially market value.

Mike Hampton, Barry Zito, Albert Belle, Denny Neagle, Bobby Bonilla, Mo Vaughn, Darren Dreifort, Juwan Howard, Grant Hill, Allan Houston, Brian Grant and Stephon Marbury all immediately come to mind. We could also have a Yankees category: Pavano, Kevin Brown, Randy Jonhson, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Jaret Wright

EDIT: Nevermind

With the buyout it'll be closer to $40 million total.

Sounds like the Yankees will buy out the final year of Pavano's contract. Pavano, in turn, has agreed to take a minor league deal with the team during his rehab.