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The Juice-ambino strikes again! Pedro's down 3-0 after 2. Not a good start to my birthday evening, fortunately I'm going out soon and don't have to watch this much longer.

Harold Reynolds just called him the best pitcher in the NL on Baseball Tonight yesterday. There has been debate that behind Astros Clemens and the Diamondbacks two headed monster of Schilling/RJ he's been the best pitcher in the NL for the last few seasons. People who actually follow baseball and aren't bandwagon fans know that some of the best pitchers in all of baseball easily include lesser known/small market names like Oswalt, Santana and Halladay. While the top of the line starters for the Yankees, Mets, Cubs or BoSox get more attention, it doesn't mean they're actually better.

That was hot air and emotion coming out of Artest. He wasn't going to play for free. The player's association wouldn't allow it. It's not realistic. Adelman was on the way out and everyone knew it. The only thing that would've kept Adelman around was a deep run in the playoffs. Oh I know, but do you really want to get rid of a coach that was able to get through to Ron Ron? I expect an Artest level blow up by late December/early January at the latest next season.

How is Oswalt underrated when he's widely regarded as one of the top 5 pitchers in baseball?

I guess the Maloofs didn't care about Artest's offer to play next season for free if Sac had kept Adelman and Bonzi.

I'm visualizing Bonds as a Yankee, which might make him the single most hated athlete in the history of professional sports for eternity.

Why do the LA teams not continue feeding the fucking post, especially when it works?

All the Clippers need to do is continue posting up Thomas, Diaw and Marion. If those guys are in foul trouble, the Suns are dead since that represents all of their size, and at least half of their perimeter offense. The Lakers abandoned that approach and constantly let those three get out of foul trouble by going away from the post. I don't think the Clips will make that mistake.

I am taking an almost perverse joy in knowing that the Devils lost a game when all they needed to do was keep a lead for 21 seconds. Brodeur and Co., and their 4 fans can all suck it.

I think it's pretty interesting that players can opt out of a contract early but teams can't.

They also had the cancerous Marbury running the show. He's worth about negative 15 wins per year. It was the combination of the Marbury Effect being removed and Nash arriving that made Phoenix a 60 win team As far as the whole Kobe/Nash debate, the obvious answer is that Nowitzki should have won the MVP either way.

Uh, how should he have been ahead of Nash? It's not a best player award. It's a most valuable to a team award. Nash made his team look amazing during the season, Kobe made himself look amazing. I don't see how this is even up for debate. The Lakers minus Kobe = Knicks, Bobcats or Blazers

It's funny because Jeter IS overrated and the reason is that he excels at the things that don't show up in the stat sheet, while A-Rod is also overrated because he lacks the things that make Jeter stand out above the guys who have better numbers, but aren't regarded as being on his level. At the end of the day, Jeter got $189 million over 10 years as a guy who puts up .314/.386/.461 with 120 runs per year. He's not worth that kind of money, and that's why you can make the argument that he is the single most overrated player in the league. If he was getting paid half that amount, which is still a gaudy $9.5 million per he'd be one of the most underrated players, but those are the breaks when you have a monstrous contract and don't put up legendary numbers.

The guys who vote on these awards are morons. Duncan got 2nd place votes in a year with at LEAST 5 legit MVP candidates, and a year that he was probably not good enough to make the All-NBA 3rd team statistically. The Defensive POY voting is pretty retarded too in that FOURTEEN of the 124 guys didn't think Ben Wallace was at least one of the 3 best defenders in the league, while AK47 finished 3rd while appearing on only 51 of 124 ballots. Seriously, what the fuck qualifies these people as voters if they know nothing about the game? I wonder if Chris Paul will end up not on the ROY ballot of some of these douchebags too.

N/M

That explains a lot. I'm really, really hoping that the Mets make the sensible choice here and promote either Heilman or Oliver to the starting rotation. Bannister will be back soon, and I feel that he and Heilman anchoring the rotation would be just fine. There's a decent selection of pitchers in Norfolk to take the empty spot in the bullpen. If the Mets make the trade that they're rumored to, I'll be pretty upset to say the least. Which trade are you talking about because there's rumblings of trying to get Zito or the D-Train who is awesome at Shea. I don't want to give up on Lastings, but if we can get a young lefty to be our # 3 this year, and eventually move up to the 1 or 2 spot when Glavine and Pedro retire, I think you have to consider it just because it's always easier to acquire a big bat in free agency.

Save criteria/the 11 ways to get to first shamelessly stolen from the internet The pitcher fulfills at least one of the following three conditions: 1. He comes into the game with a lead of no more than three runs, and pitches at least one full inning. 2. He comes into the game with the potential tying run being either on base, at bat, or on deck. In other words, the potential tying run is either already on base or is one of the first two batters he faces. 3. He pitches at least three "effective" innings (this is the only subjective criterion and is judged by the official scorer). ---------- 1. Hit 2. Base on balls 3. Hit by pitch 4. Catcher interference 5. Dropped third strike 6. Error 7. Fielder's choice 8. Hitting a baserunner with the batted ball 9. A ball, pitched to the batter or thrown by the pitcher from his position on the pitcher's plate to a base to catch a runner, goes into a stand, or player's bench, or over or through a field fence or backstop, or is touched by a spectator. (Obscure rule 7.05(h)) 10. The third strike becomes lodged in the umpires equipment (not touched by the catcher). (Obscure rule 7.05(i)) 11. Pinch Runner

I think the 2 guys who voted Duncan # 2 ahead of some combination of Nash, LeBron, Dirk and Kobe shouldn't be allowed to vote on MVPs ever again. Arenas truly is the least respected elite player in the NBA.

I'm sure this isn't really a surprise to anyone, but. . .

They didn't have any timeouts left The question is what the hell was Stackhouse thinking ? They said Dallas had 3 timeouts left when they secured the rebound. They used a full to stop the clock, a 20 to advance the ball, and unless Tirico misspoke, they still had a full left.

Why didn't Dallas call time on that last possession? Douches.

Detroit sweeps Miami in 6 Dallas in 7 LA Clips in 6. Does anyone in the entire NBA flop more than Manu?

Perhaps, but that 14 inning game on Friday night killed our pen, and then Zambrano left them with having to get 23 outs less than 14 hours later. All things considered with # 4, 5 and the first replacement in the rotation all hurt right now, I'll gladly take 2 out of 3 this weekend, and an off day tomorrow to try and get things straightened out.

One or two of those runs probably shouldn't have scored thanks to the missed call at home, but Oliver ended up having to pitch for Zambrano yesterday and Heilman is one of their better relievers. At this point, I think they may HAVE to put Heilman in the rotation until Bannister and/or Maine return since we're now two starters short.

Zambrano's hurt now too, and is out of the game after 1.1 scoreless IP. This is not good.