The Man in Blak

It's hard for me to say this, given how dreadful he was in a St. Louis uniform, but setting aside $4.5 million for Tomko a year isn't the worst thing in the world. Tomko's actually an above average pitcher at home (check out his career splits) and he turned in a halfway decent run for the Giants after the all-star break last year. He'll probably outperform Kris Benson this year and at just a little over half the price. Furthermore, the Dodgers need the live bodies - Scott Erickson should not be counted on for every fifth day ever again. Pretty good deal for Kansas City, as they finally get somebody to help DeJesus defensively in the outfield. Not only does Sanders bring some pop and speed to the lineup, it also gives them the flexibility to deal either Matt Stairs or Mike Sweeney, as Stairs will essentially become a platoon 1B/fourth outfielder with this signing. Normally, I wouldn't toss my hat in the "virtues" of having a good clubhouse presence but, in a locker room full of young guys and a dreary organizational outlook, Sanders provides real value off of the field as well, as a veteran role model and as somebody who likes to participate in charities and such around the city. Nice insurance for Josh Barfield, though it will be interesting to see how Petco affects Bellhorn's power.

I don't quite understand why the Yankees should be emphasizing starting pitching: the rotation is already set, with Mussina/Johnson/Pavano/Chacon/Wang out there. In fact, with Aaron Small and Jaret Wright in the wings, one could argue that they had a surplus of starters.

The reactions of Red Sox fandom over this deal are really intriguing. You've got one sect of fans that is waxing nostalgic about Damon and the '04 Sox, which were already gutted the second that Pedro put on that Mets uniform. Then you've got the Boston fans with the sabermetric bent over on BTF, guffawing about the financials on the contract, completely oblivious to the fact that the Red Sox now have gaping holes at SS, 1B, and CF. What a dichotomy. For the Yankees, this really is just an average signing to me. They overpaid for a guy who's in decline, but his immediate value (2006/2007) is more valuable to the Yankees, who have a short window of contention, due to payroll issues and the minor league cupboard being virtually cleaned out. New York is going to have some major crazy PR to deal with, as Damon is symbolic of that hated '04 Red Sox team but, on the other hand, signing Damon helps the Yankees just by virtue of the damage they do to Boston; Boston's already turned over some of their bigger trade pieces this offseason, leaving them with the likely alternative of dealing somebody like Clement for pennies on the dollar.

Speaks volumes about the Falcons, sure. It's probably telling about the effect that Kyle Orton has had on the Bears this year as well, since the Bears looked like they actually were putting an offense together once Grossman came into the game. I don't know if I'd project that onto the entire conference, though.

Well, given the gap in time between St. Louis declining Grudz arbitration and Rosenthal's rumor, I highly doubt that Rueter would be the cause of it. In fact, Rueter would (should) probably come on as an MLC. I've been as loud a critic of Jocketty's work this offseason as you'll ever find, but there's no way in hell that Walt would be insane enough to offer him guaranteed money. It's just the fact that they even feel the need to dabble. Nevermind the connection to the 2002 Giants - the burnt toast picture that was used to describe Roberto Alomar at BTF's Transaction Oracle earlier this year doesn't even do "Woody" justice. Rueter's peripherals reached comical levels of inadequacy last year, so much so that the pitching-starved Giants were even willing to part ways with him. He doesn't even belong in the same building as Anthony Reyes, let alone "duking it out" over a rotation spot. If this is some kind of ploy to make Reyes "earn" his role in the rotation, it's as transparent as it is moronic. Let's not even consider the all-too-plausible outcome where Duncan and LaRussa think Rueter can scrap together a season above replacement level in the bullpen.

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People will forget all about that when Nomar makes his bid for Comeback Player of the Year this season. I can already imagine the mad ramblings of the Plaschke.

It's good enough to be nominated for a Grammy! When your choices for favorite song lie between "Gold Digger" and that "Don't You Wish Your Girlfriend was HOT - like - me" song, I think it's safe to say that it was a slow year. And am I the only one who felt like the indie music scene was absolute shit this year? It might have been your year if you were Swedish or if you had a real hankering for folk-ish stuff (I will admit - I dug Illinois this year), but the rest of the crop came off like flat soda to me; hints of better flavors ahead but - ultimately - a lack of fizz and refreshment.

Here's my question. If you're already putting together a relaunch of Wrestling/Sports/Pop Culture for the site, where exactly would this stuff fit in? If you put it in an "Editorials" section, all on its own, then TSM has to make it worthwhile to keep that section up with articles that, somehow, don't fall into those first three categories. Politics could work (Thumbtack's "Red vs. Blue" essay would be a nice standard) and maybe some discussions on psychology can fall into place, but what else would be put in that hodgepodge folder to make it worthwhile? And by worthwhile, I mean "enticing enough for a user to visit the section repeatedly."

In retrospect, it shouldn't have been too surprising; Call of Duty 2 was usually the game that stores displayed as a playable demo for the X360, so most people that played it in the stores knew that it was the game that they wanted to bring home. Couple of reasons. 1. Nobody likes to trip or leap over wires when they're crossing in front of somebody playing a video game. 2. Much easier cleanup - no wires everywhere. 3. Much more conducive to a "pimped out" gaming setup; if you've got your Xbox hooked up to a projector for Halo 2, you want to be able to have some space to enjoy it. It does seem like a silly waste...until you pick up the Wavebird or the Logitech wireless PS2 controller and realize how convenient it is.

He's on the Call For Help show that runs in the morning. Not exactly The Screen Savers, Part Deux.

Most of the people mention Lunar here, but I'll always be thankful that Working Designs brought Growlanser Generations over to the US, above all else.

Nomar's going to be an interesting fantasy player next year, qualifying at 3B, SS, and eventually 1B. Truth be told, I'm a little surprised that the Dodgers haven't entertained putting him in LF, which would give them Nomar/Lofton/Drew (if Lofton signs as speculated) in the outfield, and Mueller/Furcal/Kent/Choi-Saenz in the infield.

I'd be willing to edit articles and test/program for the site. I'd like to commit to writing as well, but I'm not ready to jump into the water just yet, mainly because I don't know if I can dedicate enough time to it.

Grudzielanek has traditionally had strong UZRs, so I'd consider him an upgrade. So, this would make the outfield Stairs, David DeJesus, and Emil Brown? Yeeesh. DeJesus can certainly cover some ground, but heaven help the Royals if he gets injured again. No faith left in Greinke, eh? Not that it's really an envious title, considering that the rotation is in tatters.

Grudz is a nice pickup. As for the rest...well, at least Douggy Baseball fields better than Joe McEwing.

Ultimate Blue and Canada are probably the best of a really sorry lot, but I still stick with the original skin. You could get rid of them all, for all I care.

Looper's Career Splits (from ESPN.com): vs. LHB: .307/.356/.466, 58 K, 34 BB vs. RHB: .231/.289/.287, 85 K, 33 BB Looper shouldn't even be allowed in the park whenever a left-handed batter is at the plate. For this, the Cards gave Looper $13.5 million a year over three years, following a year in which he spent the tail-end of the season pitching through an arm ailment. Two months ago, while the Cardinals were struggling to score against the Astros in the playoffs, Looper was having corrective surgery to clean out the AC joint in his right arm. Dave Duncan will probably find a way to wring a 3.00-ish ERA out of Looper, but that doesn't really justify the Cardinals falling in line with the rest of the clubs in doling out insane money for middle relief, especially considering that the money for this contract could have been offered to Mark Grudzielanek or any other free agent on the market that could fill the glaring holes in the Cardinals defense. The Post-Dispatch should make for a great read tomorrow.

Tina Wood's easy on the eyes, but both of these shows were really, really bad, especially Filter with its constant product placement and its cringe-worthy script. G4TV.com actually had moments where it was somewhat watchable, but the format was terrible and Tina Foy dragged the show into the depths. The real bad news is that, instead of trying to kickstart new video game shows, I'm sure we'll just get more air time for Man Show reruns. Wheeeeee.

What's the point of the deal for the Rangers? Benson isn't better than Dominguez at this point, and Nix is probably better than Kaz Matsui. I agree with Al on Benson, but I'm not as sold on Laynce Nix. He doesn't seem to have any semblance of plate discipline and his development seems to have stunted elsewhere, possibly due to the Rangers ying-yanging him between the majors and minors the last three years. He might be a good defender, but I'm a little concerned that he's not going to progress in any other facets of his game.

So the site was deadlocked; writers were wanting feedback, readers were waiting for more articles from the writers. I think it's worth noting that feedback doesn't have to come from the readers alone, though. I think Al's comment earlier in the thread speaks volumes:

And that's something to consider as well. Are we going to eliminate wrestling from the front page entirely and do nothing but pop culture, or do we do a mix of all of them? The former could potentially alienate a large portion of the board patrons - the audience - that visit TSM regularly.

Chris Young could have an immediate impact if they choose to promote him, as he could let them move Shawn Green out of centerfield. Some project him to be the best talent out of Chicago's stable of outfielders, so this could be a decent haul for the Diamondbacks, and that's not even counting contributions from El Duque or Luis Vizcaino. I don't like this trade from the White Sox perspective. Vazquez has always had good stuff, but he got killed in his last stint in the AL and he's historically been prone to giving up the home run, which doesn't bode well for home starts in the Cell. The White Sox worked a miracle with Contreras and his proclivity towards coughing up the long ball, but lightning may not strike twice here. I'm not even counting the financial half of this deal, which could be real sour for Chicago if Arizona isn't picking up a good portion of Jome Run Javy's $12 million tab.

Here's a crazy idea. If we're concerned about feedback on articles, how about using other metrics (other than comments) for tracking interest in an article? Maybe give the reader a chance to rate the article on 1-5 stars (i.e. Game Rankings)? What about putting a script in the page for readers to click to refer a friend to this article, and then tracking the referral rate? In fact, depending on the CMS / hosting provider, you may be able to track referral rate on a page anyway. Edited by Admin - in response to your question, the server gives me whatever i ask of it besides the viewer’s money. It can tell me what browsers are used, the time they remain on the site, what they click, who their ISP is, and if we didn't have so much traffic to do reverse DNS on all the connections, what city and zip you are from. Just an FYI right now... The following is ranked the most viewed article in Dec so far with 1271 views. http://thesmartmarks.com/artman/publish/article_464.shtml Ranked 6th is the latest DVD review. Surprisingly, those older articles are just raking in hits... Somewhere we will need an archive and place these articles in it, for future reference and also search engine purposes for growing in new traffic because the expansive content.

Even though Dodger Stadium plays as a low run environment, Szymborski's weighted park factors for 2003-2005 show Dodger Stadium actually inducing more home runs than average (HR WPF of 1.12). In addition to that, the odd split may be part of a change of pitching strategy - look at these rates: Year K/9 G/F ============ 2004 4.95 1.72 2005 7.79 1.22 Granted, this is a one year shift and Sanchez could regress back to the mean on both rates, but it's such a stark change that it's worth considering. Perhaps he shifted gears in 2005, attacking the strike zone more aggressively and straying away from inducing ground balls; such a change might benefit him in more HR-neutral parks (where his mistakes in the strike zone might sail for warning track flies) but kill him in Dodger Stadium (where said mistakes are more likely to be home runs, according to weighted park factors).