Cheech Tremendous

They haven't even had one Raw yet to follow up this angle. Give it some time before they start hot-shotting the whodunit storyline.

Eddie-Taker may have been the original plan for Summerslam. It was a last minute decision to put the belt on JBL. There were plans for a long-term reign for Eddie but after he bombed so badly in the role, they panicked and made a quick change.

The west superiority thing is a little overblown. The best teams in the league the past three of four years have been Detroit, Dallas, San Antonio and Phoenix. It just happens to be that three of those teams are out west. There may be a bit more depth in the west, but it's not as outrageous as people make it out to be. Denver, LAL, Houston, GS, NO... these teams are not contenders. The east's funk is just a by-product of the NBA mediocrity that has been caused by the salary cap. It makes it really easy to keep a good team together and extremely hard to build one up from scratch unless you somehow get a prized draft pick or tank two or three years to get loads of cap room. There is a ton of incentive to be just good enough to make the playoffs, but not a lot to try and get better than that. There are 20+ mediocre teams right now, no matter how you slice it between leagues.

To be fair Czech, my 1920s comment was a call-back to the earlier 1920s comment. I was just being a dick. As far as the DH goes, I just want symmetry. Get rid of it in both or add it to the NL. I tend to think it's sort of cheap in the NL that there is an automatic out every 9 players.

The weird thing about JD Drew is that the criticism was that he didn't play hard or hustle and he was always injured. Everyone knew he had tons of talent; he wasn't realizing it. With the Red Sox he's hustling and staying healthy, but he can't seem to hit or field. We are talking about a career .900 OPS guy who's slugging .342 right now. I don't know what's up with him. I would like to say small sample size, but everyday that is becoming less and less viable. I'm almost inclined to say he's hiding a serious injury.

I don't think that there's much Drew hate, but the fact is he's not hitting right now. Doesn't matter if you're making 500K or $14 million, you have to put up something better than an OPS+ of 85 if you're going to play corner outfield and bat fifth. He's still walking, which is nice, but the power and the defense didn't come with him from LA. The real problem right now is Crisp and Lugo. Both are playing significantly below replacement level. They are total rally killers.

I know that Crisp's been playing fabulous OF defense, but I'm back on the Wily Mo for CF bandwagon. The Sox have to start getting offense from somewhere and Crisp struggles to even get the ball out of infield. If they don't like that idea, trade Pena, Crisp or both for someone else who can hit. The black hole of offensive suck that is Lugo, Drew and Crisp has to be shaken up somehow.

As punishment, they should do an angle were Paul London "loses his smile."

You know what's kind of weird about the way the angle has been developing? When it happened, it seemed fairly obvious that he was committing suicide, right?

NFL 1. Cut the layoff between Conference championships and Super Bowl to one week instead of two. 2. Shorten the preseason to two games instead of four. 3. Move Pro Bowl to mid-season or axe it all together. It currently serves no purpose.

Now this is certainly different, but I must say that I really like it. I've been in favor of putting Drew and Pedroia at the top of the order, although not necessarily in this order. Tonight's lineup: 1. J.D. Drew, RF 2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B 3. David Ortiz, DH 4. Manny Ramirez, LF 5. Kevin Youkilis, 1B 6. Mike Lowell, 3B 7. Jason Varitek, C 8. Coco Crisp, CF 9. Julio Lugo, SS I can't help but think this is a one night thing, but I love the out-of-box thinking being employed.

I already snapped him up in one league, but let him go in a couple others. I like to diversify my squads. Good luck with him. Funnily enough, Gallardo and myself are the same height and weight in addition to sharing a birthday (although I am four years older). My fastball isn't nearly as good though.

From a baseball standpoint, I don't think 5 days in a row is a problem. However, with television contracts, travelling media, late start times for west coasters and all the other inherent problems with postseason scheduling, the extra travel days are necessary.

Word is the Brewers are calling up Yovani Gallardo to replace the injured Chris Capuano in the rotation. While nobody was looking, this guy jumped ahead of Hughes, Bailey and Lincecum on most prospect lists. He's that freaking good.

I think every GM in the game not named Terry Ryan should be on the phone with Atlanta if they are serious about trading this guy. And I think it would take a LOT more than Lidge to get the Braves to start listening. They'd probably start by asking for Pence.

My dream is that Theo convinces Schuerholz to swap Saltalamacchia for Ellsbury. I don't want any other team coming in and screwing that up.

I'm convinced that Brad Ausmus will actually have to die on the field for the Astros to get rid of him. To put up those numbers and still be an every day player is mind boggling. Oh sorry I forgot he was the "clubhouse leader". Don't forget his "veteran presence" Unfortunately, it's the pitchers that usually make the call in this situation regardless of how good the catcher is(see Cubs re: Michael Barrett). They tend advocate the player that they are most comfortable working with. He may be a swirling vortex of suck but I'd imagine that nice guy persona keeps management from axing him.

So, viva, who plays short now? I can't imagine Loretta playing there with his Jeterian range.

NBA 1. Cut the number of playoff teams to 4 per conference (three division winners and one wild card). Use traditional 1/4 and 2/3 seeding, unless a team is matched against someone from their own division. 2. Adopt a similar contract structure to the NFL (non-guaranteed contracts with guaranteed bonus money). No penalty for cutting players. 3. No soft cap. You forfeit your draft picks if you go over the salary max. MLB 1. Cancel interleague play 2. Extend the divisional series to best of 7 (to accomplish this, restrict the regular season to 154 games) 3. Add the DH to the National League. It's not the 1920s anymore. Pitchers are far too specialized to expect hitting as a skillset.

I really missed Bruier's posts when he was gone. If I didn't look at any other websites, I would have sworn the Cubs were 0-162 last year.

I find it funny that a guy gets praised for openly screwing up a major angle just because he's a smark darling. I'm sure if HHH laughed off some Paul London angle you guys would be ready hang him.

Kudos for being an ass and not acting like a professional during one of their biggest angles in years?

Note to self: cancel future trip to Iran to shoot porno.

You know what stat I heard the other day? Tony Parker led the league this year in points in the paint. That's a ridiculous accomplishment for a PG who's just a shade over 6'.

In a column on espn.com today, Chris Broussard calls Tony Parker a Hall of Fame point guard. Now obviously this is a ridiculous statement to make. However, once I looked at his numbers and his recent success, I realized that he may be on the way to having that type of career. Through his age 24 season he has three rings, two All-star appearances and a possible Finals MVP award. How would you rate his chances of getting in some day, provided he can keep up this level of play into his early thirties?