Cheech Tremendous

I heard that Milton requested a meeting with Beane because he was upset that they waited an extra day to activate from the DL. Not sure what was said in the meeting, but he apparently went back to the clubhouse and starting throwing chairs and taking out his aggression on the A's personal property.

I think there is more to the story than we are hearing right now. Bradley's still a very good player and he just came off the DL. Seems like the A's would have tried to work out a trade somewhere before the DFA. Also hearing that Elijah Dukes could be getting DFA'd any moment now.

Why not Bonds? He's having a fantastic year, not to mention the game is in San Francisco (which counts for a little in my book). Magglio wouldn't be a bad choice. He's been a hair better than Guerrero this season, but Guerrero's been far better in recent years. I used that to give him the edge. Also the Angels might be the best team in baseball. They should have a starter on the All-Star team.

My All-Star selections: AL C- Jorge Posada 1B- Kevin Youkilis (would choose Teixeira if he wasn't hurt) 2B- Brian Roberts SS- Derek Jeter 3B- Alex Rodriguez OF- Manny Ramirez OF- Grady Sizemore OF- Vlad Guerrero NL C- Russ Martin 1B- Albert Pujols 2B- Chase Utley SS- Jose Reyes 3B- Miguel Cabrera OF- Barry Bonds OF- Carlos Beltran OF- Ken Griffey Jr.

You know, I need to revisit White Blood Cells. I never had my own copy of it and I don't think I gave it enough time relative to the other two albums that followed it. Elephant was great at the time, but it hasn't aged that well. Get Behind Me Satan was a let-down, at least IMHO. I like the new album, especially the title track. It just seemed like a fun single when I first heard it on the radio, but damn does it sound heavy on a good sound system.

What the hell is up with Coco Crisp? He's got 3 HR this week.

That all depends. Can Barrett catch a knuckler?

Barrett's OPS+ from each of the past three seasons: 105, 113, 121. It is rare to get that kind of production from a catcher. Free agent or not, the Cubs should have been able to at least get a decent prospect for him. A half season of underachieving does not suggest that he's cooked as a player.

Boston drivers are by far the worst I've ever seen. Just an all out madhouse of insanity on the roads. Portland and Seattle have the worst traffic problems this side of LA, but the drivers are, on the whole, courteous and responsible.

Team ranks: Runs - 25th HR - 29th BA - 18th OBP -16th SLG - 28th Saying they have "some" offense might be a little generous. They need to make a move for a big bat at the deadline.

They might be, but they're not even a lock for the postseason. I think the Dodgers will still take it. It's going to depend what sort of moves they make at the deadline. The Dodgers have no offense to speak of and the easiest position to upgrade (1B) is not a possibility because it's blocked by Nomar's corpse.

Not that Michael Barrett is a monster upgrade at catcher, but I am starting to think that the Padres are the best team in the National League. They have the best rotation and bullpen and a solid offense that is masked by playing in Petco Park.

I like the new White Stripes album. It has much more of an edge than Get Behind Me Satan.

I dislike the band AND the fans. No need to make a distinction here.

By the same logic, a pitcher only plays every five days, effectively making their one start worth 5 games. Suspending them five starts is like a 25 game suspension for an everyday player.

Fielder was 7 for 9 on steal attempts last year. That's good for a player of his size.

Doctor: Here JD, take a couple of Zito meatballs and call me in the morning. It's good for what ails you.

The 91-93 Bulls used to average about 400-500 3 point attempts per season. Same with the showtime Lakers. The Warriors jacked up close to 2,000 this year. If you don't think that's a degradation in the quality of the game, I don't know what to tell you. The Spurs aren't sexy for a multitude of reasons. Hell, the NBA isn't sexy. The three-pointer, however, is not the saviour. By the way, I have nothing against the three-pointer. I just don't want to see teams living and dying by the shot.

I enoyed the Warriors series for the underdog aspect, but I sure as hell don't enjoy their style of play. I think it's boring to watch a team run down and jack up 40 3s a game. I like watching half court sets and teams making multiple passes until they can find the best shot. Call me crazy, but I'd rather watch the Spurs 7 days a week than the Warriors.

Randolph could reasonably be traded for Antawn Jamison, Lamar Odom, Richard Jefferson or Rashard Lewis. But since this is the NBA and every GM likes to try and overthink everything, he'll end back on the team and Aldridge will find a nice spot on the bench.

I hate Clemens, but it's not his fault. When there are three teams falling over each other to meet your demands, you can ask whatever you want.

That introduction cracked me up. Who was he talking to at MIT that gave him the go-ahead? I did my undergrad work in Economics and it took me about 30 seconds of perusing his methodology to realize the whole thing was a sham. The first test in developing any metric should be concluding if it measures anything of significance. The Player Ranker just assigns an aribitrary number to some notion of success in a bunch of randomly selected facets of the game. It's really laughable if you have any background in this kind of stuff.

The NBA salary system is so screwed up. Baseball essentially has no cap and it does just fine. The NFL has the strictest cap imaginable and it works great. The NBA tries to combine the two and creates a bastardized mess. I think it's the biggest issue affecting the quality and competitiveness of the game today (well that, and the ridiculously long playoffs, but that's another rant).

I made the same remark somewhere on this board a couple of days ago. It's beyond me why the chose to mostly ignore sabermetrics for the past 5-10 years because of the "complexity" of the numbers and how it distances the game from the fans before they adopt one of the most convoluted, worthless metrics I've ever seen. Just cut a deal with BP or Bill James and use Win Shares or VORP or some other metric that is easy and makes sense.

I think part of the reason why people are against adding more playoff teams to baseball is the nature of the sport. In football, the better team can win out a one game playoff. In basketball, the better team will win a best of 7 99% of the time. However, in baseball, the game revolves around random acts and small sample sizes. The worst team in the league can beat the best team in a short series. It's how we end up with a crappy 83 win Cardinal team winning the World Series. The 162-game season acts as a playoff for all 30 teams. No sense in rewarding a team who can't get it done over a six-month period.