Cheech Tremendous

If that deal went down today, we could just book Chicago in the Finals and get a contract started for OJ Mayo in Sacramento. LA's offense would be absolutely abysmal.

If it makes you feel any better, Tek gave the ball to Papelbon as a gift and supposedly Paps already lost it. With that guy, I totally believe it.

Kind of sums up their last decade, really.

Like I said, not a big deal to me. The guy receives a pass forever because of 2004 in my eyes. But the departure from Boston was not an amicable one and the mouth-breathers haven't forgiven him for those comments, which were blown out of proportion to a ridiculous degree by the local Boston media.

Other loose ends: -White Sox declined option on grittly hustler Darin Erstad and LOOGY who can't get leftys out, P Mike Myers -Royals passed on Odalis Perez' $9 million option -David Riske opted out of Chicago -Glendon Rusch is interested in a comeback -Dodgers passed on Mike Lieberthal -Kerry Wood wants to be a starter -P Arthur Rhodes has signed a minor league deal with Seattle

I still think you're overselling it. He probably tops out at Pizza Hut. As far as the national chains go, Papa John's is the best, with Pizza Hut and Domino's fighting for a mediocre second and Little Caesar's being slightly better than shoe leather. In the end, all of them should be avoided when there are millions of other pizza options out there.

The St. Louis Cardinals have hired John Mozeliak to be their new General Manager. Apparently talks broke down with Chris Antonetti after the Indians got extremely stingy about letting him go. Anyone know much about the guy or what his philosophy will be for the team?

I tend to agree with Slim Citrus on this, even though I recognize and understand Ripper's larger point regarding the success of draft picks in general. When you have the pedigree to skip college altogether and become a lottery pick, I expect more out of your career than bouncing around the league and being just good enough to crack a rotation. Guys like Kwame, Telfair and D Miles are failures of the system.

I'm not sold on the Celtics being a contender this year. They have the big three and literally nothing else. They'll probably win their division, but it'll take another offseason to get enough parts around them to be a legit threat.

No contender can afford to lose their best player and still hope to have any chance at a championship. If Duncan, Dirk or Nash were lost, their teams might not even make the playoffs. If you are talking about ancillary parts going down, Dallas and San Antonio are best equipped to weather the storm. Phoenix is just paper thin, especially in the front court. Losing Marion or Amare would be disastrous for them but Nash is good enough to keep them afloat against the lesser teams.

While we're on the subject of predictions, which is a stupid thing to dwell on I admit, anyone else bothered by so many people dropping Dallas completely out of the title picture? It seems like the concensus pick is third in the Southwest and 5th overall. This team cruised through the regular season last year with the best record in the league and just happened to wind up with an awful first round matchup that turned into an upset. I hardly think it's the onset of the team's downfall. There is no reason to believe that they won't be the same contender they were in '06 and '07.

When and why did the Houston Rockets become a sexy pick to win the NBA Championship? I've seen several analysts choose them, including Ric Bucher and John Hollinger (two guys I actually respect). They were only the 5th or 6th best team in the West last year and they didn't do a whole lot in the offseason other than a coaching change and the acquisitions of a few mediocre talents.

That list will crush the hopes of Astro fans here that want to sign Schilling and convince Pettitte to come home again. Astros fans should be happy. They get Brad Ausmus for another year.

#304. Vince McMahon is screwing the fans over by postponing the debut of Jericho/save us, despite the fact that a return date has never even been hinted at.

The black is a better athlete to begin with because he's been bred to be that way -- because of his high thighs and big thighs that goes up into his back, and they can jump higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs. This goes back all the way to the Civil War when during the slave trading, the owner -- the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid.

Holy shit. This is sarcasm, right?

NYankees' bitter, holier than thou bit is tiring. As for the Boras quote, I am sure he is sorry. This is a guy who has an impeccable ability to sell his clients to the market place. The A-Rod announcement was a horrible miscalculation that might seriously degrade his value as a free agent. Whether it was his or A-Rod's call doesn't matter much now, it's time for the spin control. Deflecting blame to himself is a good move since he knows that he's disliked anyways.

I agree. Simmons really phoned it in this postseason. I've been off the Bill Simmons bandwagon lately, but I thought yesterday's column was the first time all season that he caught the mood and flavor of this year's Red Sox team. The stuff about his daughter felt tacked on, but he was finally able to explain that this year's team wasn't about goofy curses or beating the Yankees. It was the culmination of a talented front office piecing together a team they envisioned fiver years ago when they took over. This sort of thing might not mean anything to a non-Boston fan, but what they put together this year was quite amazing to watch and he was finally able to acknowledge that. For most of the year, he phoned in Red Sox articles regurgitating whatever the typical WEEI caller was saying at the time and playing the easy angles (OMG JD Drew sucks!).

We have parity and a dominant team now. Ain't this fun. It's hard to argue that there is much parity right now. You have two teams that are so much better than everyone else and three or four more who aren't contenders, but can bitch slap the rest of the league. You have a couple of teams that could legitimately not win a game. There is nothing equal about the teams that comprise the 2007 NFL.

Remember those rumors we heard a few weeks ago about the Rockies having owners that were rather aloof in dealing with the media? Check this quote out: Your team just came off it's best season in it's short history. Don't make wild statements to the media that just degrade the perception of this team. The Rockies were slaughtered in this series. It wasn't even remotely competitive. Go back to the drawing board and start working for next year instead of dwelling on this.

Look at it like this. The Yankees were prepared to offer Arod at 5 year extension for anywhere from 130-150 million dollars on top of the 3 years he had left on his contract. That means on the open market he is going to have to get an 8 year deal worth 230-250 million dollars to just equal what the Yankees were prepared to give him. Angels, Dodgers, Giants and the Cubs will all get in line. It doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to get the same offer on the open market. From what I've heard, he was going to opt out no matter what. There was no amount of money that could have kept him as a Yankee. The thing is, it sounds like he wants to continue playing for New York. However, he's so narcissistic that he wants to see what he is worth to everyone else. It's no secret that he feels that there is unfair blame placed on him for the recent Yankee failures. In his mind, receiving a huge deal vindicates that he wasn't the one to blame. Back to the contract itself, it's the teams on the margin that stand the most to gain by going after A-Rod. The really good and really bad teams don't really gain much marginal value by bringing a player of his caliber on board because it doesn't really get them any closer to a championship. The teams that should be pursuing him are the ones that are presently constructed to win 85 games. Teams like the Cubs, Dodgers, Braves and Mariners need A-Rod because he can take them over the hump to perennial playoff contender. The additional revenue generated by playoff appearances will pay that extra money he's about to receive.

Why are you so down on Milwaukee? They should at least be in the mix for a playoff birth in the East.

Except for the fact that Renteria was a better player than Cabrera in 2005, and well, every year since then. I don't understand the constant reference to the signing of Renteria as a mistake. The mistake was trading him to Atlanta to be an MVP candidate and paying most of the contract, not signing him.

Much like the puppy, this thread has lost its way. I have no one to blame but myself.

Whereas the power of inertia rules college football rankings, the NBA continues it's tradition of "what have you done for me lately?" There is absolutely no reason why Boston should be ranked third. They had some nice offseason acquisitions, but have done nothing on the floor. Cleveland at 10? They cruised through the Eastern Conference last year. How did Chicago and Detroit leap past them in the offseason? Golden State, Orlando and Miami are too high. Dallas, Utah, and Toronto are too low. The whole thing is a mess.