Cheech Tremendous

The Orioles are better off than most teams when it comes to pitching. Bedard is turning into a legitimate ace, they have several other capable starters, and the back end of the bullpen is set with Ray. I wouldn't say their pitching is any worse than the Cardinals, and they just won the World Series. However, they are a mess with their hitting. They need substantial upgrades at several positions, and it's not going to happen in the current free agent climate. Trading Tejada might be an option, if it affords them the opportunity to look at mutiple talents that can help this team now and in the future. They aren't close to Boston, NY or Toronto right now, and Tampa Bay is probably ready to pass them up as well.

Those career homer projections look awfully high to me. Bonds will never even get close to 800. Ryan Howard I'd consider a long shot to even get 500, let alone 700. Pujols and A-Rod will probably get 500-600, but probably not much more than that.

Baseball America released their list of the top ten Yankees prospects today. Interesting to note that after having a lower-tier system the past few years, the Yankees have risen to become arguably one of the top farm systems in the majors. Hughes is probably the best pitching prospect in all of baseball. Eric Duncan, their no. 1 overall prospect last year, has fallen from the list completely. The 16-year-old Venezuelan catcher they signed to the $2 million signing bonus also misses the cut after his brutal mini-camp. 1. Philip Hughes, rhp 2. Jose Tabata, of 3. Dellin Betances, rhp 4. Joba Chamberlain, rhp 5. Ian Kennedy, rhp 6. Chris Garcia, rhp 7. Tyler Clippard, rhp 8. J. Brent Cox, rhp 9. Mark Melancon, rhp 10. Brett Gardner, of In other news, today is the deadline to submit bids for Daisuke Matsuzaka. Seibu will then have 4 days to accept or reject the bid, at which time we will know who won the negotiating rights. Not much buzz on who was expected to win the bidding, but rumor has it the Cubs and Mets upped their bids big time towards the end (no real source on those rumors though).

I remember marking out big time for the Giant title win. It seemed so out of nowhere and uncharacteristic given the main event storylines WCW was pushing at the time.

So I'm confused... is this a sequel to the movie that came out a couple years ago, or are they pressing the reset button? I can't see many people caring either way after that horrible, horrible movie they just made.

The WWE may have just fell ass backwards into some press. Hopefully they will use it to their advantage, but this WWE, so I seriously doubt it.

Is anyone on the board a Rangers fan? The word going around is that the Red Sox are making a hard push to acquire Michael Young. Is he even available? Word is that they would move him to fill other holes in their lineup (presumably pitching). They have a stud SS prospect (Arias?) who may be able to take over starting role next year.

What the hell is he talking about? Three of the top four championships are played at a neutral site? Last time I checked, NHL, NBA and MLB all played their championship series at their home sites. He's not counting college sports is he?

Every year I get sort of excited to hear the Gold Glove winners, then they are announced and I go into fits of rage. I know I shouldn't get worked up over this stuff, but do the voters even watch baseball? Jeter isn't even in the top half of AL shortstops. But whatever, I guess I should just accept it for the fluff award that it is.

That is wishful thinking. The whole reason they are looking into trading Bonderman is that he is going to get very expensive the next couple of years. What good would it do to trade him for a one year rental at $13 million? That's nearly as bad as the Boston fans that think we could get him for Wily Mo Pena.

Anyone else heard the rumor that the Detroit Tigers will be looking to trade Bonderman in the offseason? Supposedly they are looking to move him for an impact bat (probably at 1B/DH). Any idea what it would take to pry him away? I'd bet Texas would jump in with a Teixeira swap if he is truly available.

Webber's surgergy effectively destroyed his career. He has never been the same player since returning from the surgery. He still has value as a player, but his skillset is entirely different than Amare's. Amare was athletic and explosive in the low post. If he has lost that, he's lost the trait that made him special. By the way, I'm not burying the Suns because of one game, nor am I saying Amare is heading to retirement. I just don't think they have a realistic chance at winning the title, and I didn't think they did last two seasons either.

But Amare is like 10-12 months behind schedule in recovering from the surgery. I wish the guy nothing but the best, as he is a great, young talent, but expecting anything other than a minor contribution this year might be wishful thinking. If he successfully regains his form after microfracture surgery, he will be the first.

They've made it to the conference finals back to back years. Okay, so they are a contender in the sense that they've been to the conference finals two years in a row, and there's an above average chance that they will do that again this year. But I don't believe they are serious threat to the title because they don't play defense and they don't a have a real interior presence. Maybe if Amare returns to 04-05 form, but I think the chances of that happening are very slim. I can't seem them getting past San Antonio or Dallas with the style of basketball they play. I also think that they were on the cutting edge the past two seasons with the whole smallball thing. But now Nash is getting older, and other teams have caught up. Phoenix didn't really do anything in the offseason to improve their squad.

To me, the Suns have gone from a young and exciting team to overrated in a hurry. They have a good team, but they aren't title contenders and I'm not really sure why they are being presented as such. I'm not even sure that they are the favorites in their division, but whatever.

I think a lot of teams are going to be interested in him. Like I've said before, I think he could be a #3 starter in the league if just given the chance. I'd rather go after him than spend tens of millions on Jeff Suppan or Vincente Padilla.

Don't know if this was mentioned anywhere, but Keith Van Horn turned down contract offers from the Nuggets and Celtics to spend more time with his family. You ofter hear a player say that it's not about the money. Rarely do they ever show it. Good for KVH.

That's not going to help his bargaining position as a free agent this winter.

Aaron Heilman has asked the Mets to trade him if they don't plan on moving him to the rotation next year. If this is true, I hope (and fully expect) the Red Sox to make a major play for him. I think he has been undervalued and underutilized the past couple of seasons.

In a somewhat weird news item, Allard Baird, the former General Manager of the Kansas City Royals, was appointed to Assistant GM of the Boston Red Sox today. I guess they feel really strongly about him, but I'd still be weary based on that trainwreck he was a part of in KC (no way it was his fault entirely, but he was still a major player).

The Sons of Sam Horn posters are starting to get crazy with this Daisuke Matsuzaka stuff. Most are advocating a posting fee of $30-$40 million or basically whatever post it takes to get his negotiating rights. They act like the guy is this once in a lifetime player that you have to get no matter what the cost. The thing is, I bet 90% of these people have never even seen the guy pitch. We've seen how hard it is for pitchers to make the NL to AL jump, why would anyone suspect that coming from Japan is any easier? Seems like a lot of money to sink into an unsure thing even if his stuff is off the charts.

The last time Jeff Suppan pitched in the AL East, he put up an ERA+ of 85. Supposedly he wants $10 million/year. Yankee fans didn't like paying Mussina. How are they going to feel when Suppan shows up every fifth day and gets rocked for five runs? At least Pavano stays home where he does the least amount of damage. Why don't they just go after Jeff Weaver too?

I'm surprised that people are excited over this. Did we already forget that steamy pile of shit that was released just a few months ago?

Is Art Shell buying them tickets?

Baseball, for all its popularity, is still a regionally based sport. A city like Miami can't even get people to come out and see the Marlins play. Why is there any indication that they (or some other warm weather city) are going to support the Cardinals and Tigers for 7 games over 10 or so days at the end of October. It's asinine to think that the World Series could have the same sort of success at a neutral site.