Cheech Tremendous

This was a terrible free agent market for back end starters and bench bats. There are a slew of guys who either remain unsigned or took minor league deals with Spring Training invites. There was a major backlash to the spending spree on mediocre talents that occurred last winter. More teams are looking at internal minor league options over rehashes of guys who have shakey track records.

Yes. He has the trifecta: Food Man, Skye Sweetnam, and Burning CDs Without CD Burners. He was also a fan of Scott Keith.

Yes, but the shooting itself appeared off camera. Next week's episode appears to set up a whodunnit angle with everyone a suspect in Julia's murder. Perhaps even more bizarre than Julia being murdered was Matt sexing up his long lost sister from Georgia. Talk about an out of nowhere plot change.

The whole thing would make more sense if they added Keith Van Horn to the mix in a sign and trade. That way they could avoid the whole buyout/30 day wait nonsense with Stackhouse and get the Nets the immediate cap room that they desire.

Julia discovered that Eden had been poisoning her with mercury, so Eden said fuck it and shot her in the face.

I've been a Kidd fan for a long time, but is he even that much better than Devin Harris right now? I don't think that upgrading PG was a pressing need for the Mavs right now, especially not at the expense of their bench/depth.

The New York territory never liked doing a long-term "heel" champion. Even Superstar Graham, who was booked like a heel, was over like a babyface in all of their strongholds. Doesn't mean they couldn't have gotten a couple of months out of Dibiase as champ and drawn a little extra money for the eventual Savage title win. But, whatever, the way they did things worked out fantastic in the long run. It just seems like there a ton of directions they could have gone in 1988.

Ted Dibiase didn't have the credibility to be champion? He was the number one heel in the company, was over like mad and had Andre around as his physical muscle. And while he was a fresh face in WWF-land, he had a successful run in the south that had him in line to be NWA champ. You do have a point with a heel title win ending the show, but at this point in wrestling history it wasn't that unusual. Survivor Series, the previous ppv, ended with a heel Andre going over. I just think they missed a golden opportunity to put over Dibiase with Hogan leaving to film his movie. I don't want to go all fantasy booking here, but they could have had Dibiase beat Hogan with interference and shot an injury angle post match. Savage makes the save to transition to that new feud. Gets you to same place but removes the tedious tournament and cements Dibiase as a top guy.

I didn't know Chuck Klosterman posted here.

Doesn't really have anything to do with Spring Training, but does anyone else find it funny that Congress found Andy Pettitte so stupid that they asked him to go away rather than embarrass himself testifying in front of a national audience?

Question: Do you like that the championship tournament that was the main focus of the show or would you have preferred a card with Hogan/Dibiase and Savage/HTM?

My neighbor had some family friends that used to order all of the WWF ppvs and they would then send the tape over to us the following week. They started with WMIV and kept the practice going until well into 1991. So this show has some nostalgic value to me (I think my WWF mag subscription kicked in with the WM recap as well). That being said, I was never a huge fan of this show. Now remembering what I didn't like from a show I saw twenty years ago is somewhat difficult, but I remember being confused by the fact that all I wanted at the time was for Savage to kill HTM and Hogan to vanquish Dibiase and neither happened. The whole tournament sort of diverted attention from the feuds that needed to blown off. Granted I didn't know a damn thing about booking as a 6 year old, but I know the whole finish seemed out of nowhere. I liked Bret in the battle royal and Demolition getting the belts. The rest of the show is something of a blur to me, but remember it being mind-numbingly long. In hindsight, I know the Savage title win was a huge success, but I still feel the right move was Dibiase beating Hogan for the title in the main event and saving the Savage program for the summer.

The Buddy Rose "Blow Away" Diet?

Stat Mongers select: Rich Hill, SP

When does he become an ex-Yankee? I thought last season was it, I guess not? He is still under contract for 2008. This is the last season of his four-year deal.

Pavano showed up at Yankees minor league camp the other day and played catch for about 12 minutes. He was throwing the ball up to 90 feet. His agent has indicated that he is ahead of schedule and is eyeing a spring or early summer return. Chamberlain can only throw about 140 innings this year. The other options are starting him in the rotation and shutting him down in September or keeping him in the minors to start the season. He doesn't have the durability to be a starter all year. Besides, I think Mussina is locked into the third starter position and Hughes, Chamberlain, Kennedy and Igawa are all in the mix for the final two spots. I don't think it's a Mussina or Chamberlain decision, but a Kennedy/Chamberlain one. Mussina was up and down last year, but he should get the first shot.

Stat Mongers select: AJ Burnett, SP

Yeah and you're a bitch ass nigga. TSM: Proud home of black on black violence.

They're 2-4 in February, but two of those losses came without Brandon Roy. They'd be the #5 seed right now in the East. There wasn't any way that they could keep up their January run, but no team could. It's unrealistic. I'd imagine they'll keep fighting for that eighth playoff spot, but utlimately fall a little short.

It was at the Tuesday Beware of Dog show. He cut a promo right after losing his match to Savio Vega.

He may not be the most credible person out there, but this is certainly interesting.

Let me just say that while I know nothing compared to what the Yankees do, asking a 22-year-old to stretch out mid-season seems like a bad idea to me. That's the kind of stress that begs for an arm injury.

Couple of notes: - The Twins have signed Livan Hernandez to a one-year deal worth around $5 or $6 million, plus incentives. Livan is a decent innings eater, but since the team already has five starting pitchers better than him, I'm not sure how he fits in. - Haven't seen this mentioned yet, but the Yankees are planning to start Joba in the bullpen this year, with Kennedy and Hughes most likely filling out the back end of the rotation (I guess Carl Pavano is somehow in the mix as well until he gets hurt again). The plan would be to keep Joba's innings down before stretching him back out as a starter later in the year. - Trade talks for Joe Blanton are heating up, with the Dodgers and Reds the front-runners, but Billy Beane wants a fortune (he asked for Bailey and Votto from Cincinnatti). Buster Olney mentions that the Rays and Twins are both in conversations as well. That'd be a great pick-up for Tampa Bay.

Smues reached for the nearest book and ended up in the year 2003.

There have been others. Remember that frostdude guy who posted like 30 pics of A-Rod after he hit his 500th home run? He was more creepy weird than annoying, but still.