The Man in Blak

Here's an excerpt from Dan Shanoff's Daily Quickie column at Page 2 of ESPN.com, the car crash that I just can't turn away from: Only ESPN could whine about the portrayal of sports being over-dramatized, after spending years and years of pushing the drama ahead of the games.

Globe is reporting that the Crisp deal has changed up; the Red Sox will acquire Coco Crisp, David Riske and Josh Bard from the Indians for Andy Marte, Guillermo Mota and Kelly Shoppach. If that's the case, this trade becomes even sketchier for the Indians. Mota's enough of a downgrade as it is, so Riske's inclusion in the deal is a mind-boggler. Shoppach is probably twice the player that Josh Bard is, but he's a second-string catcher and Victor Martinez plays almost every day. Once again, if Marte puts it all together and hits 25-30 homers for the Indians in 2006 (or even 2007), then this is all water under the bridge. But they're injecting even more risk into the deal with this iteration and, if Marte should falter or get hurt, then they could get burned.

Eh, not exactly. I expect to see a TON of Bettis over the next two weeks, as he's not only symbolic of the Steelers franchise in the 90's, but he's a hometown guy from Detroit and the media just eats up stuff like that (as we've already seen from the Conference Championship coverage). Other than that, though, Pittsburgh/Seattle provides such a good matchup that ESPN might actually have to focus on the game, which could prove to be a terrifying experience.

Yeah, but Youks and Loretta get on base almost 40% of the time. Slow or not, that's a lot of RBI opportunities for Big Papi and Manny when they come up to the plate. As far as Crisp goes, I'm not sure where he could fit. He's a switch-hitter with speed, so everybody naturally wants to put him at the top of the lineup, but he may actually work better as a No. 6 hitter. In the six slot, he can not only still utilize his power to maximum effect (with more baserunners on ahead of him), but he can use his speed when he gets on base to provide better opportunities for some of the weaker hitters in the lineup.

I don't think they could fit that into a ten minute segment.

Remember when I said awhile back that when Bad Jake Delhomme shows up, you just see him chucking it downfield into stupid interceptions? Yeah, this was vintage Bad Jake. I know that Keary Colbert and Drew Carter aren't exactly Jerry Rice and Steve Largent, but when there are three or four defenders on Smith for most of the day, you really have to checkdown and consider other options. Delhomme has an arm, but he couldn't thread the needle against a Seattle defense that looked that they were playing in fast forward.

This should be a really great matchup. Despite their reputation, the Steelers have been making it through the playoffs by throwing the ball, but they'll have a tall order to throw against Marcus Trufant and the Seattle secondary, which completely shut down the Carolina passing offense. The Seahawks have the MVP in Alexander, but he'll be running against one of the best run defenses in the league, with defensive personnel that loves to lay a hit on somebody. I think that Matt Hasselbeck is going to be the real key to this game - if he can connect with his receivers consistently against a Steelers secondary that has been known to be weak in the past, they may be able to hold their own and pull out the win. If Porter, Farrior, and Superfly get after Hasselbeck and force him to make bad decisions, Seattle may have a long day ahead of them. I'd take the Steelers, but it could be damn close. Overtime close, even. I'll say 26-23 in a nailbiter.

I don't think this is the slam dunk set of trades for the Indians that everybody says it is. Here's a couple of lines for you. Mystery Player A: .300/.345/.465, 16 HR, 15 steals, 119 OPS+ Mystery Player B: .307/.379/.477, 14 HR, 36 steals, 116 OPS+ Outside of the steals and a slight bump in B's walk rate, these two sets of numbers are remarkably the same. Mystery Player A is Coco Crisp's line for last year, which isn't bad at all, considering that Jacobs Field is one of the stronger pitcher's parks in the AL. Mystery Player B is the age-25 season for Johnny Damon, as a member of the Kansas City Royals. Coco Crisp is 25 years old today and he has many of the tools that Damon had back then; speed, defense, and the ability to hit for average. Crisp doesn't have Damon's age-25 walk rate, but he also doesn't have the same experience at the Major League level that Damon did back in 1999. On top of that, Crisp has demonstrated decent command of the strike zone in his minor league stints, particularly in his 2003 stint with Buffalo. Crisp's command of the strike zone may be a skill that hasn't caught up to the rest of his tools yet, but it could manifest as soon as next year. Damon hiked up his walk rate significantly in that age-25 season, which was his fourth full season in the big leagues; Crisp will be playing his fourth full season in 2006, in a much more potent run environment. His replacement in this set of trades is Jason Michaels and, while Michaels is certainly an underrated commodity (and so frequently mentioned as underrated that he almost becomes overrated), he's also five years older and not significantly cheaper than Crisp. Michaels doesn't have the speed or the power that Crisp has, but he does have the ability to get on base and he is fairly handy with the glove, from what I've heard. The problem is that we may have already seen the best from Michaels and, arguably, it's not as good as what Crisp brings to the table. Another downgrade for the Indians comes in the bullpen, going from Arthur Rhodes to a swiftly declining Guillermo Mota. While Rhodes was blowing people away as a specialist in the Cleveland bullpen, Mota was coughing up a 4.00+ ERA in Florida with a declining K/BB rate. Rhodes' departure leaves Scott Sauerbeck as the primary lefty out of a bullpen that's already been weakened by Bob Howry's departure. Of course, all of these downgrades will be worth it if Andy Marte fulfills the promise and expectations that virtually everybody in the minor league prospect world has bestowed upon him. Marte may have looked overwhelmed in his cup of coffee last year, but he's also only 21 years old. He's already demonstrated exceptional power and pitch recognition for his age, so he may not need much more seasoning in the minors before he'll be called upon to be the salve for Cleveland's woeful 3B situation. That being said, there's just something about the way Marte has been handled that raises one's eyebrows. Despite being a spectacular prospect, the Braves wouldn't move Chipper Jones to first for him (nor would they move Marte to first to get his bat into the lineup). And even though the Red Sox are loaded with third basemen, don't you think they would have been more reluctant to part with a prospect of Marte's quality over Kevin Youkilis? Even though being traded by two organizations does not spell doom for a career, it definitely makes one wonder what the Braves and the Red Sox are seeing in Marte that others are not.

The Coors effect doesn't work for everyone. Juan Pierre hit 3 home runs in two and a half seasons in Colorado, for example (and all three were on the road). Willie Harris is one of the least powerful hitters in the major leagues. Coors Field won't give him enough of a boost to reach the wall. Small ball players like Harris are not as prone to park effects, and are more useful in scarcer run scoring environments. The problem is that Willie Harris makes Juan Pierre look like Andruw Jones when it comes to the power department. Even if he wouldn't project to hit three home runs all year, there's a good chance that he could actually hit the ball into the outfield a few more times. And really, given his walk rate (assuming he keeps that up), that's all he would need to be a valuable player in Colorado - actually hit the ball, get on base, and then steal a few bags. As it is in Boston, he may be part of an interesting center field solution. Ultimately, the differences between him and Dave Roberts may not be as wide as people would think - platooning him with Adam Stern may be all that the SAWX can do, until they work out that mega-trade that lands them Carlos Beltran and Jim Edmonds.

I like how everybody spells his name "DoCock." It's very subtle.

Actually, I sugarcoated it. The Rams, as a whole, are viewed as being soft in virtually every area of the game - the receivers "don't like to get hit", the linebackers and secondary fall asleep on third down, and the special teamers might as well be paid by the hour. They just need a jolt, somebody to really shake things up. If Linehan comes in and says that Larry Marmie is going to stick around and can be a resource to this team, we might as well already call this new regime a complete bust.

But the Red Sox aren't doing anything; most of the media rage is constant trade rumors, virtually none of which have came to pass. How many rumors have their been about the Red Sox and Manny, the Red Sox and Tejada, the Red Sox and Abreu, the Red Sox and x, where x = virtually every appealing free agent available? Epstein rejoining the team is the only real big news story to come out of there for a long while now, but you wouldn't know it from the deluge of content from sportswriters who are leaning on some imaginary Red Sox saga to fill out their columns during this slow period in baseball.

No.

It's a Keltner list but, given how many times that Al has done one around these parts, I can see how one would get confused. This one's probably a better move for the Red Sox than it is for Willie Harris, who could have parlayed his potential deal with the Rockies into inflated offensive numbers and extended his career by a year or two. If Harris could figure out a way to hit the ball out of the infield and boost his OBP just a little bit, he could be a very productive utility guy for the SAWX.

Arnold_OldSchool is more old school than his April '04 join date would lead you to believe.

Because they've stolen my heart.

Probably not - the ad's Javascript, so it probably has to execute each and every time you load the page.

Rams hire Scott Linehan as their new head coach. Linehan has built a good reputation as an offensive coordinator from his time with the Vikings, but it remains to be seen whether he has a real solution for St. Louis' primary issue, which is defense.

American Psycho strikes me as a movie that's much more interesting to discuss than watch, but that's just me. I voted that he did it because, as mentioned ad nauseum before, that seemed to be the whole crux of the story; the fact that he was doing all of these horrible acts, but people didn't take him seriously or didn't even care.

Gamefly is taking an excruciatingly long time shipping this game out, but hopefully I'll be able to play this soon. I haven't played any of the entries after MMX3, so I'm looking forward to catching up.

Whoever invented ________ should be stabbed in the face repeatedly with a dull, rusted knife. A. internet chain letters B. Damaramu C. MySpace

Absolutely. From what I understand, though, balance isn't really the problem. The problem seems to be that there are "idiots" trying to debate something or just express their opinion and, rather than actually discuss it or argue it, they're just crapped on by others in the folder, including moderators. It's already been lampooned in HD, but it bears repeating: having to use an ignore function to block out certain posters is really sad. If you don't want to read somebody's post, then just don't read it. It doesn't get much simpler than that - all you have to do is exercise some self-control.

I lean more towards Leena's opinion on this. I know there's only so much you can do to moderate quality discussion, but daring people to leave if think the forum sucks doesn't exactly work as administrative policy. Just let people debate it out, as it works well for both parties; whoever's wrong has been educated on why they're wrong and/or shown where holes exist in their argument, while whoever's right looks has strengthened their argument (and maybe convinced others who were on the fence). Make no mistake, though: Calling somebody an idiot and dismissing their opinion out of hand isn't debate. If explaining yourself is "beneath you", then why in the hell are you on a discussion forum in the first place? Big fish in a little pond? People come here to talk about stuff; if you come here to wash within the fictional adulation of some names on a webpage, or if you come here to achieve some sort of validation by dishing out "hard hitting flames", then I suspect that there are more important things that you need to worry about, things outside of TSM and the 'net in general.

Somebody needs to put together his QB rating for the first three quarters of the Pittsburgh game. Just from what I observed, he piled up a bunch of yards (and most of the Indy points on that comeback) when the Steeler D started dropping into their soft cover 2, rather than blitzing.