Cheech Tremendous

Law noted that 17 of 26 writers he polled believed Raines deserved the Hall. He noted that the writers' perception may be difficult than the public's, boding well for Raines. Only three paragraphs in total, it was a blog entry. If you think that the Bert Blyleven support from statheads is bad, just wait until they get their hands on Tim Raines. Interesting news today regarding the next two sites for the All-Star game. Yankee Stadium will hold the 2008 game, in its last year, while the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis will host the '09 game.

I find the opposite to be true for me. I loved the songs, but it wasn't until I discovered the albums in their entirety that I truly "got" Led Zeppelin. I vacillate from time to time on my favorite album, but III is probably the most consistently great album they did, although I hate the inclusion of "Immigrant Song" as the opener. It just feels out of place on what I would call the "soft" Led Zeppelin album.

The thing is Rex Grossman isn't a bad quarterback, he's just ridicuously inconsistent (which may correlate with bad in some people's books, but that's besides the point). I believe he had more games with a QB rating above 100 than any other quarterback this season. It's not like he's out there playing like the drizzling shits week after week after week. He had several bad games interspersed with a lot of good ones. That's what you get with a young quarterback.

I suspect we will be hearing about the lack of votes for Ray Lewis and Trevor Pryce very soon. Champ Bailey is the one who got screwed.

If you're expanding to that large of a timeframe, aren't your forgetting about Flair, Austin, Dibiase, Windham, Vader, Steamboat and about two dozen other guys? Maybe if you said 95-05 I'd maybe buy it, but those four certainly aren't the best of the Wrestlemania era.

So if an organization is unhappy with a coach's performance after a couple of years (Shell, Mora), they have every right to throw them out on their ass, but when a coach is unhappy and would like to move into a different position he's a backstabbing traitor? Isn't their some hypocrisy in the way we view these events?

I think they've overreacted to the Saban thing as well. Coaches change jobs. No one is blaming Cowher for quitting. It's not like he's just chasing the money either. He's getting less at Alabama than he was at Miami anyways, at least on a per year basis.

I usually don't advocate the firing of a coach after one season, but Art Shell was so obviously out of his league as a coach last year that I can't but help supporting this move. He wasn't the only problem with that team, but he was a major one and I'm glad Davis at least realized that. Hopefully they'll promote Rob Ryan instead of looking for the next hot offensive coordinator like they always do.

It also depends on whether or not you feel that Johnson's bad back has been alleviated, or that it was a cascading injury caused by his faulty knees. I don't think any of us know either way. Regardless, I think Randy Johnson, injury or not, will outperform Pettitte, Igawa and Pavano next year, and has at least a decent chance of being better than Wang and Mussina as well. Also wanted to point out that the Dbacks are trying to restructure the $40 million in deffered money they still owed RJ into stock options now that he is back with the team. Trading for him might actually save them money in the long run, as crazy as that might sound.

It is true that Randy's numbers were poor with runners on relative to his performance with the bases empty. This has caused a bone of contention amongst many statheads. Randy Johnson had a similar strikeout and walk rate with runners on. However, his BABIP skyrocketed, as did his GB/FB ratio. Normally, we write that sort of thing off as bad luck. In fact, it's counterintuitive to our normal thought process to think that this would make him a worse pitcher. Less FBs = less HRs = better pitching, right? Well, not necessarily. Pichers who give up the most hits tend to do it on the ground. While less balls leave the park that way, a groundball is a lot more likely to break through for a hit. Second, BABIP isn't always luck-based. Pitchers with high GB rates tend to have a subsequently higher BABIP. The notion that pitchers have little control over what balls become outs is generally overstated, at least in my opinion. The numbers certainly support the theory that Johnson has trouble pitching out of the stretch. Why would that be? Well, if he loses a couple of miles an hour off his fastball, or overly relies on a certain pitch (slider), it's more likely that batters hit him hard. That's why his numbers inflated with runners on, and that is why he is probably closer to the 5.00 ERA pitcher we got last year than the 3.50 ERA that PECOTA projects for 2007.

Until he does, it's hard to predict. However, I don't think a season in the AL East is what the doctor prescribed.

Pitching to the score is one of those mythological baseball things like lineup protection or clutch hitting. It's not that it doesn't exist, it's just that no one can seem to prove it, and if it does exist, it's probably insignificant in the grand scheme of things. RJ had a high ERA last year because he gave up more hits than normal when he had men on base. Baseball Prospectus thinks this is bad luck and that his true ERA is closer to 3.50 or 4.00. My contention is that he was hit harder with men on because he can't pitch out of the stretch. His age/back problems cause a higher burden in situations where he needs outs the most. But that's just my two cents.

On the RJ trade, I consider it a mild thumbs up for both teams. The Yankees weren't really interested in having Johnson as part of their rotation next year and unloading his entire salary frees their hands for more interesting items (Clemens, Willis?). I still think it could backfire because of the question marks surrounding the starting pitching this year. But with the stockpile of arms they've acquired, they have flexibility. In fact, I'd almost guarantee that this is the precursor to another separate deal seeing as how none of the guys they acquired are particularly interesting (although the bullpen will be improved). For Arizona, they acquire another frontline pitcher. I'd consider them in the mix for the NL West pennant next year. Some of the stat community thinks Johnson's performance last year was mostly based on bad luck. I don't hold that same view. I think his high BABIP and AVG with runners on are reflective of his diminishing skills. But a 200 inning guy has value, even in the 4.00-5.00 ERA range.

Doug's defense has been starting to slip the past few seasons. I think the statistics might underrate him slightly, but I'd want more of a sure thing if I'm putting up with a .700 OPS. New York seems to have a history of doing this sort of thing. Building an all-star hitting machine all around the diamond and then totally punting offense at one position. But they win pennants, so I can't really question the results, even if I do question the logic.

LT wins the MVP. For some bizarre reason, it wasn't unanimous.

The Houston Astros signed Mark Loretta to a one year deal worth about $2.5 million. Incentives could bring it up to $3.5 million. The plan is to use him as sort of a supersub, playing all the infield positions.

The Red Sox are close to signing Joel Piniero to a one-year, $4 million deal. It would appear at first glance that a move to the bullpen (and perhaps the closer role) could be in his future. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, he was really, really bad last year and has been trending that way for several years. On the other, he still has decent to good stuff (although velocity is down) and has extraordinary numbers in his first inning and first 30 pitches splits. That bullpen is stacked with reclamation projects though. Piniero, Timlin, Donnelly, Romero, Okajima, Hernandez... perhaps something will stick. Theo and co. don't exactly have a good track record with this stuff.

Except for the whole main eventing Wrestlemania thing.

Being reported that a Joe Blanton for Lastings Milledge swap is "likely." Wow, talk about selling low on a guy. I know that pitching is at a premium, but you should be able to do better than a #3/4 starter for a guy who is a little more than a year removed from being one of the elite prospects in the game.

James Brown's Dead at the Apollo?

10,000 Days was solid, but not quite great. I'd put it below Aenima, and maybe slightly behind Lateralus as well depending on the mood. "Vicarious" and "The Pot" were both great, but some of the middle tracks were a little too meandering. I still think it was one of the better albums of 2006, but then again I didn't venture much into popular music this year.

Yes, but I'm saying they should only have coverage for Seattle and Tampa Bay. It's virtually a nothing game -- Seattle is locked into hosting a game on wild-card weekend. Panthers/Saints looks a lot more interesting. Show that game to most of the rest of the country. I live in Oregon and I'd rather watch the Seahawks game. Doesn't matter if it doesn't mean much, people here would go crazy if the game wasn't shown.

Where did I anywhere in my original post mention anything about the Red Sox rotation? I didn't mention them at all. You have no idea what my opinion of their staff is. Just because I happen to be a fan doesn't mean I won't criticize the team. I was just asking questions about the Yankees staff, and hoping to open some discussion regarding a potential trade of Randy Johnson. Get off your high horse. That being said, everyone understands the question marks of the Red Sox this year. The reason certain fans are excited is because IF they all meet expectations, they have one of the best rotations around. Looking at the Yankees, if they meet expectations they are still only about average. The excitement is over the potential, not the actual.

Mike Fratello has been fired by the Memphis Grizzlies. There wasn't anything he could have done with this year's team once Gasol went down, but Jerry West never really saw eye to eye with him and that sealed his fate. I'm sure he'll catch on somewhere else eventually. The real question is where do the Grizzlies go now? Might as well trade Gasol and blow the whole thing up.

Yeah, but who would be the five starters? Mussina/Wang/Pettite/Igawa/Pavano is not exactly a bunch I would like to break camp with if I'm trying to compete in the AL East. Nate Silver indicated yesterday that PECOTA still projects RJ to be their #1 starter. His peripherals suggested he was more of a 4.00 ERA guy and not the 5.00 that we got. Of course, we know nothing of the severity of his back surgery, or how his age will continue to affect his decline (without any historical comps, we know nothing of his trajectory), but replacing 200 innings of above average pitching is difficult in this league. It could spiral into a Bronso Arroyo 2006 situation where the entire pitching staff cascades because they can't find anyone to fill the innings in a quality fashion. And before you say Philip Hughes, yes I know he's a special talent, but he's never thrown a pitch above AA. He's still a wild card.