Cheech Tremendous

Beastalantier is another. And Pizza Hut's Game Face. Richard McBeef. I would have been here all afternoon trying to remember all of Czech's names.

Cuttino Mobley to announce retirement Thursday

The Cleveland Cavs are just scary good right now.

You might get your wish. From Jerry Crasnick:

Great! Go give him $66 Million I'd easily go 3/$45 million with a fourth year vesting option (pushing the package to about $60 million+). That probably wouldn't get it done though. Yes $66 million is a lot of money for a 35-year-old pitcher. It's also $100 million less than CC Sabathia just got and about $25 million below what's being rumored for AJ Burnett. He's not an ace. I get that. But he's a better bet to perform than AJ Burnett, Ben Sheets, Jon Garland or Oliver Perez over a long-term, big money deal.

Couldn't have happened to a better guy.

Check out +/- numbers at http://www.fieldingbible.com/ Robinson Cano was the worst second basemen in the game last year (RZR & UZR confirm, if you want a secondary data source). Now, he was one of the best in 2007. Truth is probably somewhere in the middle, but the '07 year is currently the outlier in his major league career. It may a situation where that year was a fluke, or maybe he has the ability to be good defensively but just hasn't applied himself. Swisher doesn't have enough time at first to get a great read. His rate stats show him as below average. From what I've seen, my gut says that he's not that good. He may have the athleticism to get better with a whole year's work.

Jeter, Cano and Swisher are all way below average defensively. I'm not sure what numbers you're looking at to make that determination. Lowe's had one below average season in his major league career. That 2004 season is an outlier. Lowe has also improved tremendously as a pitcher the past couple of seasons; the improvement just happens to coincide with his NL West move. It's more correlation than causation. He's a smart, durable pitcher with insane GB/FB ratios. He's good. The Red Sox and Angels have laid out parameters with Boras that would put them in the same ballpark as the Nationals' offer. Don't count out the Yankees either.

Well played, sir. Thinking about Lowe and Wang in the Yankees rotation made me realize that the time is right for the Yankees to ask Jeter to move over to 1B. We all know that this is an issue that has to be handled delicately, but it makes sense from an on and off the field perspective. Swisher's bad at first, but he can easily handle right in Yankee Stadium. Let him slot into the outfield, slide Jeter over to first and go after Wilson or Furcal to play short. If they can trade Cano for Kemp and sign Hudson for 2B, that's even better. That solves the defensive problem and sort of solves the OF/1B/DH issue that's been developing over the past couple of seasons. EDIT: Eh, Joe Sheehan didn't like my idea:

Evidence that the apocalypse is now upon us: Baseball Writers Association of America added four Internet writers today: Will Carroll, Christina Kahrl, Rob Neyer, and Keith Law.

I'd like to extend a very special happy birthday wish to the following people: Israeli Mixed Wrestling Czecherbear C*Z*E*C*H Brady's Torn ACL Brady's Torn Knee דניאל WhackingCockDick Cal Moriarty The Elements of Style !!! Jesus Freaks on Coke Epic Narcissism Desensitized College Party I swallowed a Q-Tip. blame that goot. Teal-y Dan Soriano's Torn Quad II Teal-y Dan Juice Springsteen Cock Ring Warehouse (Loggins Name) Bullshiterica I think that's it. Oh and Al and 909.

Looks like a lot of deals could start happening today now that Sabathia and K-Rod have signed. I'll keep posting news bits unless you guys get sick of me. -Cesar Izturis has reached a two-year deal with the Orioles for about $6 million. I like this deal for the Orioles. He stabilizes a problem position for the O's and improves their shoddy infield defense. -ESPN's Jayson Stark says the Dodgers have reached an agreement with Blake for three years and slightly more than $17.1MM. The Twins apparently offered two years, $14MM. He adds that Mark Loretta's deal is for one year and $1.25MM.

They talked about parting with him in a trade for JJ Putz. That would be an excellent haul for Ankiel. The Cards should be trying to trade Ludwick. Sounded like the Rays may interested in swapping Jackson or Sonnanstine for him. They should totally jump on that. Ludwick has fluke written all over him.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?i...e=ESPNHeadlines

Tim Brown and Gordon Edes of Yahoo report that the deal is for $161MM over seven years (which would top Johan's average annual value). The deal has an opt-out clause after the first three years, which are worth $69MM. The 31 year-old Sabathia will make his opt-out decision after the 2011 season with four years, $92MM remaining on the deal. He would have to buck the opt-out trend (or renegotiate) to make this more than a three-year, $69MM deal for the Yankees. Hat tip: mlbtraderumors.com

You guys aren't giving enough respect to Derek Lowe. He throws a ton of innings with excellent peripherals at a below average ERA. His style induces a ton of ground balls so he's not as prone to bad innings or shitty seasons due to a fluke HR rate. Add in the ancillary stuff like having success in the AL East and pitching well in big games and I don't see how he's not the second best pitcher on the market. Just take a look at the guy's stats. He's way better than you might think. http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lowede01.shtml Clarification EDIT: Lowe, however, is a bad match for the Yankees. A groundball pitcher needs a good infield defense. Jeter and Swisher are terrible. Cano's questionable and A-Rod is decent. Granted, Wang has done fine, but it looks like a bad fit.

Brody's terrible. I just want to point that out.

They lost?! I literally turned off the game at the point you mentioned (108-100 with a minute to go). That's horrendous.

EDIT: Hey, why aren't we using the new Winter Meetings thread? Say no to mega-threads, people!

-4 years/$47M (2008-11), plus 2012 club option -signed extension with Minnesota 3/24/08, replacing option year of previous deal 08:$11.25M 09:$11.25M 10:$11.25M 11:$11.25M 12:$12.5M club option ($2M buyout) -price of 2012 option increases by $0.5M each for 55 GF in 2010, 55 GF in 2011, and 110 GF in 2010-11 combined -limited no-trade clause -award bonus: $25,000 for All Star selection

It's not. I'm sure that Cedeno and Pie are included at the least. It'll probably take Vitters and Marshall as well to get anything done.

Holy shit... did you suck or what?

They're selling everything that's not bolted to the ground in San Diego. Payroll has to be cut by like 50% and Peavy eats up $17 million a year. He has a limited no trade clause, and therefore very limited value*. *He may also be hurt. He has a really fishy injury history and Kevin Towers is no dolt.

I wouldn't be interested in Jon Garland either. He's a lock to give you 200 innings, but it's going to probably be a below-average 200 innings. I'd rather pay Burnett or Sheets for 100 great innings and the upside of a Cy Young performance than the sure thing that's going to suck for 200. You can always get guys off the scrap heap to eat up some starts with a slightly below average performance. No sense in paying Garland $10 or $12 million a year to do nothing but show up every five days. That's how you end up with an albatross contract like those given to Carlos Silva and Kevin Millwood.

He's a top-10 closer, no doubt, but he's not as good as Billy Wagner and Mets fans hated him. I don't see this ending all that well.