Cheech Tremendous

Clay Buchholz was optioned to AA Portland. 'Bout time. Love the kid's talent, but he repeatedly showed that he had no business pitching in the major leagues this year. Hopefully his old pitching coach can get his stuff cleaned up so that he can return in some capacity in September, or better yet, in 2009.

I have to rub my eyes everytime I look and see that Daisuke Matsuzaka is 15-2 with a 2.77 ERA. This is one time where the numbers and performance don't mesh AT ALL. He is to be the most frustrating "good" pitcher to watch.

Off the top of my head, WM II - LA and Chicago didn't sell out WM VII WMVIII WM XI I'd wager that IV and XIII may have been a little short as well.

This is a very astute observation and I am surprised that this hasn't gotten a little more attention from the media. One of the things that was truly remarkable about the Yankees over the past decade was their ability to get elite offensive production from the traditional, up-the-middle defensive positions (C, SS, 2B and CF). That was really the backbone of the offensive machine that won the titles and it's what kept them as the best offense in baseball throughout the '00s. New York is going to have a ton of money to spend in the next few years and it will be interesting to see how they address the offensive side of the equation. Jeter could be in a season-long slump, but it's not crazy to suggest that he may be in his decline phase of his career. Posada is most likely going to have to DH or play first from here on out. How they address those two player's roles in the next couple of years could be interesting. They've lived with their respective defensive deficiences because the bats were so good, but that might not be the case going forward.

Legitimate question that may seem crazy: Has CC played himself in the Cy Young conversation? On the surface I would be inclined to say no, but it's not completely unprecedented for a half-year player to win it (Sutcliffe in '84). If he were able to keep this pace for the rest of the season, and the other candidates fade a bit, I could see someone making the case for him.

I'm not well informed of the situation, but isn't it possible the Reds are just trying to do spin control? They did, after all, trade two of their biggest names all in one half of a season. Surely for Reds fans, that isn't sitting well with them, without the "justification" that the Reds are giving them... I'm a little curious as well. Granted, I'm not overly in tune with what's going on in Cincinnati, but I had heard that ownership was afraid that his value had dropped far enough that it was possible Dunn might accept arbitration this offseason. Rumor had it that after seeing a complete lack of offers before the trade deadline the team decided it was best to move him for the first package they got. I guess the truth is probably somewhere in between. I am a big Adam Dunn supporter, but even I think $20 million a year is a little crazy. Something like JD Drew's 5/$70 seems far more likely.

Sabathia and Harden were traded before the non-waiver deadline. That makes them deadline trades. Do the deals have to come down on July 31st to count now? Also, so what if Bay and Manny went in the same trade. It was still multi-time All-Stars getting dealt. They weren't just blocked one way or another. Those trades didn't happen because of the deadline. That's why the whole July 31st thing exists. The only way stars get dealt during the waiver period is if they have extremely limited value. You know that Paul Byrd sucks, right?

Freddy Garcia has signed with the Detroit Tigers. Link I'm surprised that Garcia didn't take a chance with one of the teams in a pennant race, but for a guy looking to rebuild his value Detroit might not be the worst place in the world.

The funny thing about Dunkin Donuts is that it's an entirely east coast/midwest thing. I don't think there are any left on the west coast. We had one here in Salem, Oregon, but it shut down earlier this year. The place was a dive. Oh yeah, their coffee sucks too.

Gotta do something with all those unsold copies of Mr. 3000 lying around.

Peter Gammons mentioned in his blog today that Detroit offered Sheffield to the Rays, but they weren't interested. I'm not sure that he's enough of a bat anymore to justify putting up with his bad attitude. They'd be better off just signing Bonds if they were looking for a malcontent that can hit.

Actually I thought the Burnett signing could have been good if not for that retarded opt-out clause in the middle. It wasn't really an overpay, but the opt-out clause screwed them in multiple ways: 1) Given his stuff and escalating contracts for mediocre to good pitching, they'd probably only have him for two years but 2) If he sucked or got hurt, they'd be saddled with a bad contract leading to 3) Burnett being a lame duck with no trade value JP has been an awful GM since the beginning, with no real plan to speak of. Competing in the AL East is difficult enough in the first place, but the team has been directionless for a long time. Are they building around pitching and defense or hitting? What's going on with the farm system? I just don't know what exactly they are going for because their approach changes from season to season.

Okay, I swear this will be my last post about Brian Giles because I really don't care that much. Giles wasn't going to a bit player. Ken Rosenthal confirmed in an article over the weekend that the idea was for Giles to step in as the starting rightfielder, shifting Drew to center and Ellsbury/Crisp to the bench (as I speculated last week). He also would have hit leadoff and a been a key component in their offense for the stretch run.

But Giles isn't going to be there next season. He has a team option for next season that the club will likely pass on, seeing as how ownership has to shed payroll from $73 million to $40 million. In fact, the only way he really had a shot to play for them again was to accept the trade to Boston and then returned as a free agent in the offseason on a new contract with a hometown discount. In reality, he sort of fucked himself and his team. Now instead of shedding payroll and picking up some prospects that could help in the long run, they have to choose to either build around a 38-year-old leftfielder or dump the hometown kid unceremoniously.

Because the fans has a lot to do with that, right? Giles is playing more for the fans, the same fans he grew up with as a kid, than he is for John Moores or Sandy Alderson or Kevin Towers or etc. Really, just drop it. He doesn't wanna play for your team. Get over it. I am over it. This is hardly a discussion about just Brian Giles. Maybe I'm too cold-hearted, but I don't see baseball as anything other than a business for the owners AND the players. I have a hard time accepting that a player wants to languish for a last place team instead of getting money and a chance to win. It's just an opinion and I have no problem with others feeling differently.

I sort of agree with this position, but not with regards to Brian Giles. Sure, San Diego may be his hometown team, but the dude has spent time with Cleveland, Pittsburgh and San Diego. It's not like he's a lifer who's going to be with the team until the bitter end. He's probably going to end up being a free agent at the end of the year anyways (depending on how ownership decides to handle the team option for '09). Besides, the team was trying to dump him. I don't see how you could fault the guy for going after a title when his team is willing to put him on the first plane out of town.

Once again, that wasn't the issue. It was down to this, a chance for the championship (however a continually diminishing one) or continuing his dream to be a major league star for his hometown team, the San Diego Padres. Yes we have guys like Ken Griffey Jr. who chose the former, but clearly Brian Giles chose the latter. Nothing wrong with that. Brian Giles chose 19 remaining home games for a last place team that is openly trying to dump him and his contract over playing for a title contender (and getting $6 million for his troubles). I understand the draw of family and familiarity, but I also have to openly question the drive and commitment of a player who prefers anonymity over a last chance at glory. The fact that it was Boston has little to do with this position (although calling him a "fucker" last week was all Sox homerism on my part).

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He didn't clear waivers outright. He was claimed by the D'backs. Since waiver claims go by reverse record, the only teams that passed on him were Washington, SF, SD, Colorado, Pitt, Atlanta, Houston and LA. The only team with a legit reason to block would be LA, but given their outfield situation and reported cash flow issues, they probably didn't want to run the risk of Dunn getting dumped on them (however small that chance may have been). They will save $4 million on salary and get 3 players in return (one of whom, Dallas Buck, is pretty good). I would assume that has far more value than two draft picks. I think we've gotten to the point that fans are seriously overvaluing the return on draft picks. The probability of one of those two picks being worth much is very slim.

No, you're wrong. Boston had already agreed to trade for Giles. That's not a block. Also, any speculation that it was a block was shot down by the local Boston reporters right away. It's still unclear what his role would be, but for $8 million (remaining '08 salary + trade kicker + '09 buyout) it wasn't to screw Tampa and it was definitely not for 2-3 starts per week. There would have been some sort of OF/DH rotation had the trade gone through, and despite what you want to think, Ellsbury would have been the odd man out. Man, you've really been on my case since I started posting again. I don't know anything about Giles as a person, but I find it hard to grasp why a player would choose to ride out a season for the worst team in baseball over having a legitimate shot at a ring, be it in Boston, Tampa or Anaheim. San Diego has 19 home games left this year. It's not like he has to uproot his family. It's just an extended two month road-trip. The guy would be a free agent at the end of the year anyways. He would have gotten a nice $6 million out of the deal as well.

The book was fantastic, but I don't feel that the source material would lend itself very well to the big screen. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Josh Smith has signed a five year, $58 million offer sheet to play for the Memphis Grizzlies (!). The Hawks have one week to match the offer. They've previously indicated that they'd match any deal, but I wouldn't put it past that ownership group to screw this up.

Brian Giles used his no-trade clause to block the deal to Boston. I was positively giddy about the idea of adding him to the lineup. Have fun wallowing away for a team that might lose 100 games instead of competing for a championship fucker.

Just got done checking the odds for the basketball tournament. US is the favorite to win the gold at 1/5, followed by Spain at 5/1 and Argentina at 12/1. This is absolutely preposterous. Anyone who has paid attention to international basketball over the past ten years would find it hard to accept the Americans as the favorite, let alone a runaway favorite. The US team can win the gold, and they probably should. However, this team is really no different than the ones that failed in 2002, 2004 and 2006. They are still porous on defense, shaky in the post and inconsistent with their perimeter shooting. Rebounding is an issue as well. The problem is not the talent level, but the way the team approaches the game. While they generally had no problem in the warm-up games, it was still obvious that they want to play NBA basketball instead of FIBA basketball. That's going to cause a mess of problems when they get to the medal round.

I love Jericholic.