Casual players for casual fans: Nick Green in LA

(Not pictured: Nick Green.)

Sons of Steve Garvey hasn't posted the 'story' yet (busy talking about things that will actually prove meaningful in 2010), so I'm left to make my snarky remarks here.

Nick Green is a Dodger. My wish list as a closet Dodger fan is almost complete.

Derek Lowe
Grady Little
Nomar Garciaparra
Bill Mueller
Sorta David Wells, I guess
Manny Ramirez
Mark Loretta
Nick Green

As for my Dodgers Who I Might Have Wished Were Red Sox...

James Loney
Clayton Kershaw
Jonathan Broxton
Matt Kemp
Andre Ethier
Eric Gagne
Takashi Saito
Brad Penny
Julio Lugo

Though I feel like I'm forgetting someone.

Recycled Post #269: Yo Jacoby

"There is no way on God's green earth that this front office [will] trade Ellsbury and prospects for Gonzalez. None. There is a huge deficit of center fielders in baseball at the moment, and the front office knows how lucky it is."

-LahoudOrBillyC, Sons of Sam Horn Message Board. [#]

Given the front office's value statement of Reymond Fuentes (drafting him first overall), you have to imagine this is exactly right. Mike Cameron is an upgrade in the form of a carwash. He's a defensively and offensively talented player, but an aging one, and in all honesty a contingency plan if Ellsbury's CF defense is more 2009 than 2008. Jacoby Ellsbury has been the keystone of Boston's outfield since he hit the Bigs running in 2007 and never stopped. Even if Mike Cameron takes over in center this season, the job is Ellsbury's eventually and going forward, because it'll be the former's legs and defense that break down rather than improve. Not the other way around.

Beckett.-Lester.-Lackey.-Matsuzaka-Buchholz. isn't Beckett-Lester-hopefully Matsuzaka-then maybe Wakefield-maybe Smoltz-maybe Penny-only then Buchholz. It's the realization of what everyone was drooling about going into last season, and it's a pretty serious foundation for winning the goddamn World Series (take note, Globe) this year. Having Youkilis/Kotchman or Beltre/Youkilis at the corners and Ellsbury/Cameron/Drew in the outfield is the capital-D Defense to go along with that worn but completely meaningful adage that Pitching and Defense wins Championships.

All that said, I love Adrian Gonzalez. A team with Beckett and Adrian on it (and who can actually pay them) is like a Florida Marlins wet dream, and if they can get him without flipping Ellsbury, Buchholz or Westmoreland then I'd be pretty psyched. I'd even be willing to forget how excited I'd been about giving the-guy-they-traded-Mike-Teixeira-for a full season at First Base. But as it's been suggested already by a handful of others just on this message board, if you could have gotten roughly the same bat in Matt Holliday, then Mike Cameron never would have been brought in 'not to platoon.' And given what Holliday would cost while including what value is saved by not exhausting one's farm system, it would have been a much safer move.

Beyond all that, this is still an Ellsbury-Pedroia-Drew-Youkilis-Ortiz-Martinez lineup. I'm pretty happy with that right now. I'll be almost as happy if it adds a corner infielder so long as the other parts remain intact. Happy enough that I'll enjoy watching this team this year with the optimism they could have a spectacular year, but also the peace of mind that if they don't, there's plenty of reasons to be optimistic going forward. Namely, the type of core that best prepares you to win a string of championships rather than an inflated expectation that you're going for it right now -- because you have to.

Red Sox Fans, Meet Your Newest Underachiever.

Boston and Florida have broken bread once again and Marlins fans no longer have Jeremy Hermida to kick around. This comes months after mid season rumblings that Epstein was interested in Jeff Francoeur who I've always considered to be completely interchangeable with Hermida. Though, in all fairness, Francouer had it early and lost it. Hermida had a grand slam in his first at-bat and little more after than a handful of underwhelming years on my fantasy baseball watch list.

Admittedly I know very little about the two players Florida received in return, but I remember seeing Hunter Jones in one of MLB the Show's roster updates. I figure he'll be amongst the crop of new characters in Florida's bullpen come April who inexplicably thrive well above their given abilities.

Which is cool because nobody wants another year of Brendan Donnelly. Ya feel me?

Vote for Pedro

(Photo by Drew Hallowell.)

I'd hoped I'd never say that. But Pedro v. New York, Round Two -- that's almost as good as watching your own team play November baseball.

In our dance hall days...

(Photo by Paul Keleher.)

"Gameday classifies 28 pitches from Papelbon as fastballs. Those four non-fastballs each came well after a run of 26 straight fastballs. Papelbon didn’t throw a pitch that went slower than 90 miles per hour until pitch 27." -Fangraphs. (Emphasis mine.)

...we danced all day.

And, just for the record, it was a line dance.

Back to you

(Photo by justapaperbag.)

I have a favorite class, the only one that makes going back to school at all worthwhile really, a graduate course on Philosophy of Technology taught by a man who's been well-acquainted with the field for some four or five decades. He's retiring after this year, and lost his wife Wednesday. I could very well lose the class barely a month into it, credit, full-time standing and potentially $1000 in educational funding over the next two months.

And a man will mark the end of a near-fifty-year career by going home to an empty house.

Regardless of where it derives from, whether it's being young or growing up in modern America, even a moment's reversion to my own self-entitlement makes me feel pretty despicable. Connecting this, of all things, to the disappointment I've felt the last two nights watching the Red Sox pack up their paychecks and make way to a team with much more reason to play in November suggests how sad of an existence mine's become. But perhaps that's too generous. A life spent trying to include one's self in the narrative of millionaires seems to indicate, rather, a lack of sadness. Much in the same way the enamor of having the professional sports team you follow win games (dare, even, championships) is fleeting and shallow, attempting to share in their defeats is something other than pathetic. Because at least by being pathetic you'd have something that's yours.

When there's a gathering to go along with the spectacle, you've got a gathering. On the other hand, turning on a baseball game in a state where there's little baseball, in a house where there aren't any other Red Sox fans, actually has the effect of clearing the room. So when everything's said (and, come potentially Sunday, the Red Sox are done) and I'm left with myself, the absurd amount of junk food I justified as the right thing to consume for this occasion, and a shadow of sadness in defeat, it might be about time to reassess my general approach to being-in-the-world.

I'm not saying it's hard to be a sports fan in isolation, because again that would entail the act as having some greater value than it does, which is four hours, or-so, of intermittent entertainment. As would it be yet another attempt to construct narrative where there really isn't any (and I'm not merely insulting my blog this time, either). Rather, that watching a game for its own sake instead of, say, playing it, even inelegantly, is as indicative of modern inhumanity as my lack of empathy in the face of a man's coldest winter. In their winning there's no triumph here, and in losing there's not even loss. My lack of involvement is a lack of consequence, a prerequisite to character, and a lack of context, a prerequisite to life.

And I'm starting to fear (genuinely, I think) that it might not be part of the lack of experience in youth, or the [postal] stamp of 21st Century American commodification at all, but actually what a coming of age into age is: the perpetual verge of horror/love or monotony.

Monkey fish sticks

Didn't think the Marlins would make the playoffs this year anyway, so it was a nice consolation that they were as good as they were. The Red Sox won't be long behind. The extra $100 mil in payroll just gives them a chance to wreck the plot of this year's Angels in the Outfield. Which even given their dominance of California/Anaheim/Los Angeles in the playoffs over the last twenty years doesn't seem too likely. Beckett needs one more shutout, and Buchholz needs to show he's filthier than Lester, regardless of which hand he uses to be dirty (oh, sports reference). For a chance to bow down to the Mighty Girardis.

See, the post title isn't an irrelevant Michael Ian Black joke after all:

Angels, Marlins, Red Sox = rally monkeys, fish, and cooked.

Spectaculum: Boston/New York, August '09

Rodriguez called it a heavyweight fight, but it felt more like a fox hunt -- five-and-a-half hours running from inevitability, where the longer it went, the more likely it was the fox would tire and the allure for rest would overcome the will to keep going. In this case that didn't mean either would relent (or could); simply that probability, that Number, would decide the night. If Boston couldn't steal a victory before depleting their own edge, in pitching, it was only a matter of time before New York would reveal its own aptitude for offense within the shrunken, suffocating walls of their new stadium.

Victor Martinez gave one final effort in the fourteenth, with a towering fly-ball that seemed almost defiant on a night when the Red Sox had been so devoid of any such strength, a resplendent parabola that for a frozen moment seemed to escape the attention of the baseball gods who had dictated the game thus far. But not long enough, and not quite.

When Boston then sent out their last fresh arm, but also the rawest, in Junichi Tazawa, it was only a matter of time before the home team delivered what would necessarily be, as A-Rod suggested, the final blow. David could only fell so many Goliaths.

I know it's absurd to make too much of a game in the first week of August, one whose significance has everything to do with coinciding cold and hot streaks that account for all of the 4.5 games separating the teams now, but last night's game was perhaps more of a spectacle than I've ever seen in a Major League Baseball game. There was an unparalleled tension that I hadn't felt since the 2004 playoff run (maybe because of the teams involved), and an extent to which one felt alienated from the game that is perhaps unmatched, from professional athletes abandoning their roles as entertainers for one night to compete on their own heavenly scale.

It seemed as if the past six years of independent narratives were dissolved, the frustrations of one franchise and the fortunes of another suddenly negated: the idiocy of Joe Girardi that had been only an obstacle, the stubbornness of Terry Francona that had somehow stayed so successful. The Boston Red Sox, immersed in their own conflict with the newly anointed competition in West Florida, versus an old and far greater foe from the Bronx, now once again the best team in baseball.

If I had to guess, I'd say the season -- nor the season series -- is over on August 8th. If anything, the proper roles have been arranged again with the Yankees seeking 100 wins and the guarantee of three or four games a week in October at the stadium, while the Red Sox pick up their once promising pieces in hopes they might meet them there.

(Note: If the rotation after Beckett and Lester does shit the bed and the Rangers and Rays become the characters in this plot, it might be good for baseball, but it's sure going to make the drama of last night and this morning seem pretty ridiculous.)

Reaction/Things I Would Easily Miss:

". . . the only Red Sox runner to get to third base all night was the very first batter of the game" (The Joy of Sox).

"The Elf, V-Mart, Drew, Tek, Reddick and Green/Kotchman/Woodward went a combined 0-for-31. You read that correctly. And those ain't the kind of numbers that win you ballgames" (Surviving Grady).

"It wasn't a very fun night the way it ended," Francona said. That the loss may be deflating "doesn't concern me. That part's OK. We're OK there. That's not the concern. We're OK there" (Extra Bases). (Also, the Extra Bases game recap is a novel.)

"Beckett wasn't quite as elusive as Burnett, but he was perhaps even more surgical. Burnett's one hit is what will stand out in box scores, but with Burnett walking six Sox, Beckett actually allowed one fewer baserunner between his four hits and two walks, and he got out of three potentially dangerous jams with expert calm" (Projo Sox Blog).

Correction:

Billy Traber sucks.

Boy, this week has been reminiscent of every playoff run Boston has ever gone on. Which includes the feeling that there's absolutely no way they win tonight let alone the rest of the series.

Momentum's only as good as the next day's Josh Beckett, but still.

SEO: Billy Traber Red Sox

'I'm sorry but I don't think I'll be able to make it.'

'Haven't you already skipped work to make the trip?'

'Well, yes, but you see there's no way in hell John Smoltz lasts for three hours. And I have not waited five years only to miss Billy Traber's first Major League inning.'

'Hasn't he had many Major League innings?'

'How would you know this?'

'Hehehe. It's Greg, man. You called the wrong number.'

'The odds of this happening are astounding. And nobody's going to get this joke."

"Hehehe. Cool, man."

I'm sorry I took the money

The hell there aren't.

Tim Wakefield is MLB's answer to extra innings in the All-Star Game

Otherwise 11 Wins are the only justifiable thing getting Tim Wakefield into his first All-Star game, which unfortunately says something about the media bias towards the Red Sox.

Wake's line, overall, is 11-3, 61:37 K:BB, 4.31 ERA, 108 ERA+ in 108.2 innings pitched.

For comparison, the ERA+ of the rest of the All-Star pitchers: 124 (Billingsley), 124 (Duke), 124 (Marquis) 126 (Buehrle), 133 (Verlander), 137 (Santana), 139 (Fuentes), 139 (Lilly), 140 (Beckett), 151 (Halladay), 153 (Johnson), 169 (Hernandez), 179 (Jackson), 181 (Rivera), 186 (Lincecum), 204 (Greinke), 207 (Hoffman), 214 (Bailey), 223 (Rodriguez), 224 (Bell), 226 (Haren), 253 (Papelbon), 254 (Cordero), 313 (Nathan), 528 (Holy shit, Ryan Franklin).

Is this to say that Wakefield isn't good enough to be an All-Star? He's made cases in the past---finishing third in the Cy Young race in 1995, and put up a sub-3 era in 163 2002 innings---posting an ERA+ in the 160s both times. But because he wasn't called up until late-May in '95 and pitched mostly out of the pen in '02, he didn't get the nod then, and never really made the cut any other years.

Is this to say he wasn't vital to the Red Sox' success this season when the rest of the staff was in crisis, or that his contributions over the last fifteen years shouldn't give him a plaque in some Boston hallowed hall?

Is it to say that, should the soon-to-be-44-year-old knuckler lurk the Big League another 7-10 seasons, keeping up his pace of 13 or so games won every year, that the same statitistic that got him into an All-Star game might get him into another, even more exclusive enclosure?

Maybe the reverence of Wakefield's respectable-albeit-peculiar career has little to do with it, and as he was one of fellow AL Easter Joe Maddon's managerial selections, Tito and company thought it best to offer up a sacrificial lamb to make sure Josh Beckett goes nowhere near the bullpen:

"Remember Scotty Kazmir, and we will remember you."

"What? Who is this?"

Sox Gallery, 7/13/09

(Picture via The Bottom Line.)

I couldn't find out who the artist is who made this, but did find a link to where one might buy the t-shirt. Not to mention what you might imagine Jacoby Ellsbury's reflection to sound like (or, to be fair, 99% of athletes').

Makes me wish we could see Papi in the Homerun Derby

“Ortiz’s swing this year has been interesting to watch evolve lately, and it’s finally clicking. Dave Magadan first tried the Drew back-shoulder tap as his first timing correction, but that didn’t really seem to get him out of his funk. Papi was rocking that timing mechanism for a couple weeks in May, until they started trying his current approach, which is much quieter and more vertical. He’s setting his hands smoothly now, Hideki Matsui style, instead of waggling the bat or cocking his wrists, and he’s instead leaving the hands up higher and the wrists more loaded. That’s letting him dip slightly to load his weight back while keeping the wrists much more steady, and it’s keeping his swing plane on the ball better. His hip rotation is still strong, which is the best sign for him going forward. He’s able to turn through balls as well as years past, and he seems to have rediscovered his bat path over the last couple weeks. He’s drilling the ball to left center at Fenway of late.”

-Tarasco’s Secret Stash, via Razzball.

You wonder how many times players have to reinvent themselves over the course of their career, or the extent to which those who don't have just faded away.

"Oh, I don't know much / But I know I love you-ou-ou-ou-ou"

"Jon Lester is to me starting to mold into stuff-wise the best lefty in the game," Beckett said. "I know that there are guys who say he doesn't have the numbers to stack up against these guys, but as far as going about his business and the stuff I get to see on a day to day basis, he's turning into that guy.

"I actually cherish the time I get to spend with Jon Lester because I know down the road that's what people will be saying about this guy."

-Rob Bradford: Lester Has Entered Elite Company

Other stuff happened. Then it was the next year.

I finished reading Seth Mnookin's exposé about the Red Sox, Feeding the Monster. The book was like candy, even more than most sports writing is, but it took me since Christmas to get through the last chunk.

Now that I think about it, I think I got it the Christmas before last, from my ex-girlfriend's mother. She wouldn't have had any reason to give it to me last Christmas. Meaning I just finished a book eighteen months after starting it.

(Ti-i-i-ime is on my side. Yes it is. On another note, Mnookin has a section on his website about requesting his signature on a bookplate to stick in one's copy of the book. Because he's been getting spammed requests from odd ((see: not American)) countries, he's since suggested people distinguish themselves from the snatchers by including a complete sentence. Here I'm wondering what he'll give me if I sent my request along with only a fragment.)

Goddamn this blog is bipolar. One month it's a makeshift fantasy baseball archive, the next it's quips from 'round the Major Leagues, because I and mine don't have the nerve to play Simon Says when it comes to the Red Sox (Simon does it better anyhow). Now it's three-and-a-half months in, the last weekend before the All-Star break, and I've settled into the usual midsummer disinterest. The other guy has wandered off completely.

So I read Mnookin's Feeding the Monster, about the Red Sox up until the 2006 season. It was about how a changing a fifty year-old model (plus black magic) culminated in a Red Sox World Championship. You [I] might notice I named my weblog after that very accomplishment. Mnookin's book was also about the shitstorm that ensued when the glitter settled. Because Boston likes itself a shitstorm.

Anyway, what Seth said in 400 pages I'm not going to attempt to say in 400 words, so reading it is just what you'll have to do.

(Except you already did, of course. Because you're me -- I'm the only one reading this.)

Waiting this long to finish the book, I let it grow stale. The immediacy of, say, the 'Manny being Manny' drama or the Larry vs. Theo epic aren't quite that anymore. Recollecting the 2004 run was enjoyable, but the details of the years that followed seem almost nonsensical given the 2007 championship -- even 2008. Hearing the names of Youkilis, Pedroia and Lester thrown around meaninglessly only exemplifes how short-sighted even the most indepth of investigative journalism is. Had there been an epi-epilogue (the additional postscript in Feeding was about Boston and Beckett's 2006 freefall), it might have read, "Other stuff happened. Then it was the next year."

That's about the extent of how I feel about baseball right now. The comradery and/or excitement I might have felt back in March and April has all but run out by now. At least Brandon has a highly ranked fantasy team on Yahoo!. I could argue I have better, but hypotheticals take less effort.

(Lordy, I'm a deadbeat.)

'There's other things to summer than baseball, boss,' you might say. But there's a reason, I say, that baseball used to be associated with reducing sexual excitement: it's distracting. For awhile, at least. I guess I just reached climax already, right around the time Ortiz started hitting home runs. Now everything's back to normal, and there's nothing to see. Except, you know, Nomar coming back to Fenway. Wish I would have been there.

I would have heckled him during BP, said, "I'm a grown man now who idolizes you as much as I did ten years ago. But it's okay because you're a grown man who plays baseball for a living."

"Pawtucket wasn't looking for much out of Billy Traber."

(What a Google search for "billy traber thumbs up" will get you.)
Anywho, to perpetuate my all-out assimilation into the Twitter-generation of writing by continuing to post bullshit, shortened entries, I'll just say this:

Traber goes 5 2/3 for Pawtucket.

Phillies are going to sign Pedro.

Someday, I'll be worth a dime.

Bonifac... yo...

Bot 7th: Florida
- E. Bonifacio stole second, E. Bonifacio scored on M. Wieters' throwing error

For the record, that should read, "E. Bonifacio stole second, advanced to third on M. Wieters' throwing error, E. Bonifacio stole home"

'Cause that's what happened, and may the proper record speak throughout the ages. Or at least until Google starts deleting content that adds nothing to the world.

(Also, the title of the above photo is perfect.)

This is pretty funny, too, a Yahoo!ism that's not actually a Yahoo!ism:

- A. LaRoche singled to right, A. LaRoche scored, A. LaRoche to second advancing on throw

I mean, do they even try?

From RotoWire via Yahoo!:

"Madson's teammate Brad Lidge was placed on the 15-day DL on Tuesday with a sprained knee.

Recommendation: No official announcement has been made by manager Charlie Manuel, but we expect that Madson will be in line pick up some -- if not all -- of the Phillies' save opportunities since he's their most effective set-up man. We'll keep an eye out for a potential committee, but even in that arrangement, Madison is going to be at least a part-time closer while Lidge is out."

Emphasis added.

Even more pathetic, however, is that by June this is the extent of content in this blog.

Pointless Predictions: Carlos Zambrano

(Photo by delusionalsubsfan.
Carlos Zambrano will have won 166 games ...by the end of 2013, when he says he will retire.

Though his teammates aren't taking him seriously.

Gonzalez’s 20 home runs by June 1 are the most in franchise history. The previous record was 17 by Greg Vaughn in 1988 and Nate Colbert in 1970.

Professional hitter. Or whatever the hell Padre fans say.

Absolute murder on the base paths, though. Ambitiously awful.

The Price is right

(Photo by Keith Allison.)
I'm really surprised there weren't more Delmon Rays fans in the blogosphere using that headline. Kind of solid day for a kid that I think I'll be hating a lot going forward. Kind of.

The first time Buchholz and Price square off this year is going to be my favorite, regardless of how many runs Clay gives up.

Terrible.

May 26 RHP Joe Blanton has discovered a disturbing trend. With the bases empty, opponents are batting .286 (32-for-112) with three home runs against him. But when runners reach base and Blanton pitches out of the stretch, opponents are batting .342 (25-for-73) with six homers. With runners in scoring position, the numbers rise to .381 (16-for-42) with four homers. And after watching video over the past four days, he detected a slight mechanical flaw that he believes he'll have corrected before he faces the Florida Marlins on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Either Joe Blanton knows what the hell he's doing or the Marlins are, well...

That shitty Mariners catcher broke his toe.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—Seattle catcher Kenji Johjima(notes) likely will be out for at least two weeks after breaking his left big toe on a play at the plate early in the Mariners’ 6-1 loss to Oakland on Monday.

Johjima was hurt when Adam Kennedy(notes) slid into his foot while scoring the Athletics’ first run in the first inning. Johjima stayed in the game and even homered in the second, but left the game in the third when his toe began to swell.

Postgame X-rays revealed the broken bone. Johjima probably will be out “at least a couple weeks,” according to Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu.

Rob Johnson(notes) replaced Johjima, who began the day batting .241. The Mariners haven’t decided how to replace Johjima on their roster.

In other news, Jeff Clement hates his life.

Let's get racist.

The man pictured above is Jesse Chavez. He is a reliever for the Pittsburgh Pirates. With Matt Capps deflecting line drives off his elbow, Chavez could be in line to get some save opportunities in the coming days. So why would I care? Because Chavez is from Victorville, California, which is a city I know rather well. And I can say from personal experience that Victorville is EXACTLY where he looks like he'd be from. Clutching a brown-bagged Tecate tall boy as he walks aggressively aside the freeway.

Wacky!

Via Sons of Steve Garvey:


Is it sad that I was anxiously anticipating Ortiz to swing? (Or that most of the comments on the original post share the notion?)

Also, (via Yahoo!) AccuScore playoff odds are updated for this week. Boston built on its chances but are still behind the twin-headed (albeit bodiless) beast of the West in the Rangers and Angels. The Tigers rushed ahead as well, and given their rotation of Verlander (filthy), Jackson (nasty), Porcello (rotten) and now Willis (divinely re-risen), Buchholz's [actual]-second coming can't come soon enough.

In my hands / in my hands

Why is it that when you wake up late and get to a computer only to see one of your fantasy pitchers has already had their game start, you hope they do really bad?

I'm sorry for ruining your ERA, Wandy. Though it might be Brandon's fault for comparing you to Greinke.

Tough shoes.

(Edit: Thanks/blame be to the Houston defense, as evidently all six of the runs were un-earned.)

Prediction.

When Adrian Gonzalez hits his 23rd homerun (June 14th), he will have 43 RBI.

One of the more random predictions in recent memory.

Happy birthday, eastern time Me.

A brief case for Adrian Gonzalez, part two.

This is Adrian Gonzalez. He plays first base for perrenial losers, San Diego. He plays rather well for them.

Currently, Adrian is leading the Majors in homeruns this season. He is batting .311 as of thirteen minutes ago. 36.6% of his hits this season have been homeruns. Moreover, sixty percent of these homeruns have been solo shots.

To summarize, Adrian Gonzalez is being fucking WASTED on the San Diego Padres. Judging by the scowl on his face in the photograph above, he knows.

Ryan Theriot is clearly on steroids.

Look at him.

Congratulations in order to James Loney who easily had the best game of his season this evening. Having a slightly better evening was Adrian Gonzalez. Ooh. You have to expect that kind of thing by now.

Bold prediction: Josh Hamilton will hit a homerun in six consecutive games. Dig it.

Jesus Christ.

John Koronka: Will Start Tuesday

RotoWire.com Staff - RotoWire.com May 11, 6:28 pm EDT

• Update: Koronka will be called up to take Anibal Sanchez’s spot in the rotation on Tuesday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Recommendation: The team elected to keep Burke Badenhop and Hayden Penn in the bullpen for now. Koronka has been on a roll at Triple-A New Orleans, with a 1.93 ERA and 17:9 K:BB ratio in 18.2 innings over four starts, but his major league upside is limited.

What the hell has happened to this rotation? It's the middle of May. I know nothing about Koronka but I know enough (which is nothing) not to want him anywhere near the Marlins roster.

I give him eight days before he's outrighted.

EDIT: I google imaged Koronka. He looks like that womanizing neighbor Charley from Empty Nest.

What is happening?

Carlos Pena has 13 home runs already? Longoria has 38 RBI??

That will be all

Boy, this really gives


a completely different meaning.

Busy sports night.

Josh Beckett got sodomized, Jorge Cantu is going to win MVP, and in the biggest news of all the Chicago Bulls defeated the Boston Cletics in triple overtime that ended with Rose blocking Rondo to tie their already legendary series at three. This is said to be possibly the greatest game in the history of the association. I would really, really like to watch it in its entirety.

In other news, the Chicago Bulls are now my favorite team in the NBA. And the Boston Celtics are my least favorite.

Crazy what happens when you start playing a video game.

Also.

Gaaaay.