Postseason Awards

I'd like to take this time to discuss the potential recipients of the American and National League postseason awards; that is, the winners of the MVP and Cy Young awards.

First, the AL MVP and NL Cy Young have already been wrapped up by Alex Rodriguez and Jake Peavy, respectively. You're welcome to look at the numbers yourself, but if you're any kind of baseball fan, you already know that those awards are locked.

So, let's move on to the other two awards, which are in fact wide open. I'm going to comment on players based on their Yahoo Fantasy Baseball rankings, which seems as valid an order as any to sort by. (Stats with *'s after them indicate league leaders).

NL MVP

1. Matt Holliday, Colorado Rockies - (.340*, 36 HR, 137 RBI*, 120 runs, 11 SB) The Rockies slid into the playoffs, winning 14 of 15 games to close the season, and Holliday was a huge part of that epic run. He hit 12 home runs and racked up 30 RBI in September to lead the Rockies to their first playoff appearance in years. Many people believed that the Rockies had to make the playoffs for Holliday to win the MVP award, which I think was unfair, but Colorado made the point moot. Holliday ought to be your NL MVP.

2. Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins - (.332, 29 HR, 81 RBI, 125 runs, 51 SB) More reasonable as a fantasy MVP than a league MVP, Hanley continued to grow and impress in his second full season in the big leagues. But the Marlins will have to at least break .500 for one of their players to win the MVP award.

3. Jimmy Rollins, Philadelphia Phillies - (.296, 30 HR, 94 RBI, 139 runs*, 41 SB) Comparable to Hanley Ramirez, but on the Phillies, Rollins will get some consideration for the MVP award, but some of his potential votes may go to his teammate Ryan Howard. Rollins is another player who'll get more credit in fantasy circles than he will in MVP voting.

4. David Wright, New York Mets - (.325, 30 HR, 107 RBI, 113 runs, 34 SB) Wright had an extremely balanced season statistically, and had one of the better seasons for a 3B in recent memory. However, the only thing voters will remember is how the Mets crumbled in September, and Wright will end up as someone who just had another great season. He's a decent bet for a future MVP award, though.

5. Prince Fielder, Milwaukee Brewers - (.288, 50 HR*, 119 RBI, 109 runs, 2 SB) Fielder seemed primed to have a breakout season in 2007, and he certainly didn't disappoint, becoming the youngest player ever to hit 50 home runs in a season. Heading into September, Fielder was the favorite for the MVP award, but as Milwaukee fell in the standings and Colorado surged, Holliday took the lead. The voters will show Fielder some love, but playoff berths seem to be a prerequisite for most MVP winners.

Other impressive performers this season include Ryan Howard (47 HR, 136 RBI), Miguel Cabrera (.320, 34 HR, 119 RBI), and Jose Reyes (119 runs, 78 SB*).

But hold on a second. There's actually a player ranked in between Rollins and Wright: the aforementioned Jake Peavy. Peavy's numbers this year were absurd (19-6, 2.54 ERA, 240 Ks in 223.1 IP), and as I said, he's a lock for the Cy Young award. While many voters tend to shy away from selecting pitchers as their MVP winners, I would not be surprised nor would I be upset if Peavy received a substantial number of votes for his tremendous season. I do think that it's probably time to establish the MVP awards as solely for hitters, but until that happens, the elite pitchers deserve consideration for the MVP awards.

My prediction: Matt Holliday, probably in a landslide, with Prince Fielder garnering most of the #2 votes.

AL Cy Young

1. J.J. Putz, Seattle Mariners - (6-1, 40 saves, 1.38 ERA, 82 Ks in 71.2 IP) It's rare that a closer gets much consideration for Cy Young awards; it really only happens when a closer has a year that defies logic. While Putz had a very nice season, it's not a season so rare to see out of a closer. You'll find similar statistics out of Jonathan Papelbon and Joe Nathan, so don't look for Putz to grab any first place votes for Cy Young.

2. Johan Santana, Minnesota Twins - (15-13, 3.33 ERA, 235 Ks in 219 IP) In most fantasy baseball leagues, losses carry no punishment, which is how a guy with 13 losses ends up #2 on the list. Santana was certainly a very nice pitcher this year, but the high number of losses, combined with the expectations of so much more out of Santana because of his previous performances, will keep him on the outside looking in when it comes to the Cy Young award.

3. C.C. Sabathia, Cleveland Indians - (19-7, 3.21 ERA, 209 Ks in 241 IP*) Finally a real legitimate Cy Young candidate. His 19 wins were tied for second most in the American League, and he pitched more innings than anyone else in the majors. He was the ace for a Cleveland team that finally started to perform after a few disappointing years.

4. Josh Beckett, Boston Red Sox - (20*-7, 3.27 ERA, 194 Ks in 200.2 IP) What's funny here is that the one win difference between Beckett and Sabathia (likely explainable due to the difference between Papelbon and Joe Borowski as closers) will end up being the difference between a Cy Young award and second place. The fact is, the 20-win mark is still a very big deal in all baseball circles. While Sabathia's complementary numbers are at least as good as Beckett's, the Red Sox' ace will likely bring home the gold.

5. Erik Bedard, Baltimore Orioles - (13-5, 3.16 ERA, 221 Ks in 182 IP) I considered skipping Bedard because of his low win total and the Orioles' failures this season, but absolutely worth mentioning is his ridiculous K/IP ratio. Not even the incomparable Jake Peavy can touch Bedard when it comes to his strikeout frequency. If the Orioles can repair their bullpen and develop a couple other starters to go with Bedard, Baltimore could be a solid team, and even if they're only a few games above .500, Bedard could demand reckoning as a Cy Young candidate like Santana has for the Twins over the years.

6. John Lackey, Anaheim Angels (I will never call them by that ridiculous conglomerate of a name they've given themselves) - (19-9, 3.01 ERA*, 179 Ks in 224 IP) Very solid numbers, but again, missing out on that 20th win will cost him 1st place votes to Beckett, and in the end, it'll be between 19-game winners Sabathia, Lackey, and Wang to fight for 2nd place. The strikeouts from Lackey and Sabathia should force Wang into 4th, but never underestimate the power of the New York media.

7. Dan Haren, Oakland Athletics - (15-9, 3.07 ERA, 192 Ks in 222.2 IP) Haren is unlikely to get much consideration outside of the later votes (4th, 5th, 6th place votes), but he had a very nice season. More importantly, he sports a beard as thick as my own, and that counts for something in my heart.

My prediction: Josh Beckett by a solid margin, with Sabathia, Wang, and Lackey
very close to each other for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively.

Now go watch some playoff baseball. It'll do wonders for your back pain and migraine headaches. Wait, don't quote me on that, I'm not a doctor.

But it might help. :)

The Mets

Wow. You know, if...

No, you know what? There's really not much else you can say. Just, wow. Big time choke.

Race to the Finish!

(It only reads well if you say it in the Super Smash Brothers voice)

The American League is all but locked in. The only thing left to determine is who plays where, and let's be honest, that's the boring part. Playing for home field advantage, regardless of the sport, has a lot less flavor than playing to squeeze into the playoffs.

Which leads us to the National League. If you haven't taken a look at the standings recently (Michael), I suggest you take a moment and look at what's going on in the senior circuit. Precisely zero teams have locked up playoffs berths. The NL East is tied between the Mets and Phillies, and the loser will likely not make the playoffs. The Cubs have the largest division lead at 2 games, and with a series at Cincinnati should be able to wrap up the division before the Sunday, but nothing is certain in the wild NL Central. And the loser of that race will not make the playoffs.

Which brings us to the most exciting and seemingly strongest division in the NL, the West. The Diamondbacks have a slender 1-game lead over the Padres for the division, and the Padres are in the lead for the wild card. But don't look now; the Colorado Rockies, long dismissed as a "can't pitch" team, are 1 games out of the wild card, and are playing some of the best baseball in the country right now. The reality is that there's a strong chance that games played on Sunday, the final day of the season, will be for playoff berths. And there's just as strong a chance that we'll need "extras," that is, 1-game playoffs, to determine who gets into the playoffs.

As an aside, Matt Holliday is just tremendous. He's hitting .338, and is the NL RBI leader with 132. He won't get the accolades he deserves because he plays out west and isn't on one of the historic teams, but fantasy owners know that he's among the best in the game. If you get a chance to watch him bat, enjoy it.

Especially if it's this weekend. All these games are going to have playoff implications.

Suggestions for the Space Race

Below is a list of a few games that have been suggested for the Space Race. They're listed in alphabetical order, so as to not add in my own potential biases. Add your own comments if you would like to suggest any other games. (NES and SNES games work best).

• Chrono Trigger
• Dragon Warrior 2
• Final Fantasy
• Final Fantasy 3 (Final Fantasy VI)
• Secret of Mana

Additionally, it has been suggested that, instead of "real-time," we use game time played as the measuring stick by which to determine the winner of the space race. Obviously this would disqualify any games that don't have that feature integrated, but would balance the competition between people who have different schedules. However, it would also change the way I play the game, and I imagine that's true for others as well. Additionally, we would want a cap on how long it can take, so we're not waiting for months and months to find out who finished fast enough.

In the end, it will be up to the eventual participants as to how we'll measure victory/defeat. Again, post a reply or contact me in some other way to express your interest.

Does Louisville suck?

The short answer is yes, but there's more to it than that.

The big news Saturday night was that Syracuse managed to play Louisville's kind of game and edge them out for a victory, putting a serious damper on the Cardinals' chances to go to a BCS game. But this loss shouldn't have been as surprising as people thought.

First, Syracuse may have been 0-3 coming in, but they played...just kidding, Syracuse got crushed by three currently unranked teams: Washington, Iowa, and Illinois. And Kentucky appears to really have something going this year, a pleasant surprise for the people of the bluegrass state who've been disappointed with Louisville so far.

But let's look farther back, at a game that screamed to us that this Louisville team wasn't the superior team of last year. I give you exhibit A, Louisville vs. Middle Tennessee State, a team that lost to Florida Atlantic by 13 the week before they played Louisville. The Blue Raiders put up 42 on Louisville, scoring on plays of the following distances: 78, 23, 24, 39, 1, 79. It was clear after looking at this game's stats that, barring some complete transformation, Louisville was going to have trouble beating any teams with reasonable talent. And go figure, Kentucky and Syracuse edged the Cardinals.

What I found amazing was that at the half against Syracuse, Louisville was down 21-7, and on ESPN News, Robert Smith declared that Syracuse would get blown out of the game. It wasn't even like he was meaning to be bold or anything, he just completely discounted the Orange's ability to play football. Somehow, Smith seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Louisville couldn't stop anyone, despite back-to-back games giving up at least 40 points.

Is the entire country retarded like this? Are wins and losses and rankings the only things that people look at when trying to evaluate teams? Louisville should've gone down in the rankings after their suspect game against Middle Tennessee, and they should've dropped out of the top 25 after they lost to Kentucky. They're obviously unranked now, but the rankings have made a lot of people more surprised than they needed to be. Louisville is the new Kansas State. They have a potent offense, but can't really stop anyone, so get used to some .500 seasons down south.

Time to retire, Steve McNair

I love Steve McNair. I was a big Titans fan when he was there, and I don't personally know anyone who was as happy as I was when they made it to the Super Bowl.

But that was a long time ago. Steve McNair is not a top 5 quarterback in his conference anymore. Interestingly enough, he's not even the best quarterback on his team. Kyle Boller finally seems like he's getting the hang of professional football. Granted, his start last week was against the Jets, but in the interest of full disclosure, McNair's start in week 1 was against a defense that gave up 51 points to the Browns. And McNair managed to engineer an offense that turned the ball over 5 times, including 3 of his own fumbles and an interception.

Boller came in late in that game and gave the Ravens a chance to win, first with a TD pass to Todd Heap that was called back on a phantom offensive pass interference call, then with a pass that bounced off of Heap's chest and was intercepted by Mike Myers in one of the most impressive football-grabbing acts I've seen in years.

Last week, against the Jets, the Ravens offense chugged along. Boller passed for 2 TDs, no INTs, and finished with a QB rating of 97.9. Perhaps most importantly, Baltimore won that game.

Kyle Boller is still only 26 years old, and he's under contract this year and next. Steve McNair has shown that his "game management" skills may be dwindling, since the crux of a "game management quarterback" is his ability to avoid mistakes (like multiple fumbles, just as a random example). I think, with him showing a little bit of sass, you've got to give Boller a chance to take this job from McNair. McNair isn't necessarily the best option right now, and he's certainly not a long-term solution, but Boller could be.

Plus it's just fun to say Boller, if you say it like I do. Bah-ler.

Is the NFL truly the "No Fun League?"

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-tofined&prov=ap&type=lgns

Terrell Owens had a post-TD celebration that was funny, well-timed, and unobtrusive. He was fined $7,500. I'm so sick of the bullshit that the NFL throws down about this, and what's even more appalling to me is all the commentators (especially the ESPN NFL Countdown crew) who say, "Stop show-boating, just give the ball to the ref and get back to your sideline."

What is so wrong about allowing these players to be individuals? Can you imagine if, the first time Sammy Sosa did his signature hop after slamming a ball, he had gotten fined and told not to do it again? Whether you find it contrived or endearing or somewhere in between, it's certainly part of who Sosa is, and has surely helped Sosa to make money in endorsements. Why is the NFL so opposed to their players trying to express themselves in some way?

Chad Johnson apparently had multiple conversations with league officials about his planned celebrations to ensure that he wouldn't be risking a penalty or fine. That's kind of a bummer to me. I'd like to see some celebrations that weren't necessarily "approved," especially if it means more celebrations like Owens' from this past Sunday.

The level to which the NFL apparently dislikes its players disgusts me. I'd gladly stomach things like Joe Horn's cell phone gimmick and T.O.'s Sharpie incident to ensure that the people who I tune in to watch are allowed to be themselves when they celebrate. That's the basic idea behind free speech, which seems like a pretty good idea. Give it a whirl, NFL owners.

Donovan McNabb Is A Complete Idiot

How's that for being more critical, D-Mac? Hopefully when you do your research for your next HBO interview, this post comes up in your Google search, and you can lament the woes of being a professional athlete.

The fact is, it's not black quarterbacks that get criticized more than anyone else. It's quarterbacks. Peyton Manning broke records and was still cited as someone who "couldn't win the big game." John Elway had a similar reputation right up until the end of his career. Jim Kelly is starting to receive some of the credit he deserved, but he's still not thought of in the same class as Elway, Young, Montana, Marino, etc.

And bad white quarterbacks get yanked with seemingly the same frequency as bad black quarterbacks. Cade McNown actually improved slightly in his second season, but was shelved for Shane Matthews, who didn't have the mobility or game management skills of McNown, and proved it. And what about Kelly Holcomb, a career 64.6% passer who's been a perennial backup annually, even after helping to lead Cleveland to their only winning season since being re-born as an expansion franchise?

I do not argue that McNabb personally takes more heat than most white quarterbacks, but look at his specific situation. He's been the face of a Philadelphia team known best for losing 3 consecutive NFC championship games, then losing in the Super Bowl the next year. In that Super Bowl loss, the offense appeared to have no sense of urgency at the end of the game when down two scores, and game management decisions/mistakes will always fall on the coach and the QB, even if the superstar WR doesn't say that the QB got tired.

Speaking of Terrell Owens, that's another situation that McNabb botched. His whining and unprofessional stance of "I don't like this guy, so he's got to go" probably cost them another shot at a Super Bowl. Think about your work, for those of you who have jobs. Do you have to work with people you don't like? I bet you do. Do you demand that they be removed from the company? No, because you're not a Nancy who can't deal with having his feelings hurt.

On top of all that, McNabb is the starting quarterback, the most prominent figure on a sports team in Philadelphia. Philadelphia fans apparently didn't like Mike Schmidt, lifelong Philly, 3-time MVP, 10-time Gold Glover, Hall of Famer, and arguably the best overall 3B to ever play the game. Philly fans are best known for booing Santa Claus and cheering when Michael Irvin suffered what ended up essentially being a career-ending injury. They're gonna ride you a little bit, pal.

Are there fewer black quarterbacks than white quarterbacks? I haven't crunched the numbers, but that sounds correct. There are more white people than black people in the United States, so that shouldn't come as too big a surprise. But the thought that owners or coaches adjust their depth charts based on race is hard for me to fathom. With as massive a business as the NFL is, and with as precarious as head coaching jobs are in the NFL, I can't imagine that anything other than a player's ability to lead the team to victory would determine whether or not they started.

McNabb is a tremendous athlete, and has had some fantastic seasons. If he were my team's starting quarterback, I'd be delighted. (Especially if we're talking about the Vikings here, because good gracious, Tarvaris Jackson is awful). He's not transcendent, but there are maybe 2 quarterbacks who fall into that category in today's NFL: Manning and Brady. If he wants to be considered transcendent, then do some transcending, buddy. Stop popping off at the mouth whenever you feel slighted and concentrate on winning football games, which so far you're not doing so well.

Is it possible that McNabb is right, that fans and media and ownerships are more critical of black quarterbacks? Yes, it's possible. But I'll need some kind of proof before I buy into something that outlandish. Show me numbers.

Space Race

Not really a "space race," but a race. I challenge Chip (and whomever else might be interested) to a race to beat any long-term RPG game that we have or is easily obtained. I have most NES and many SNES role-playing games. It'd be awesome if we all had Final Fantasy X, because that's a great game to play through, but neither of us even has a PS2, let alone the game.

So what say you, cowards and weaklings? Do you dare rise to the challenge made by someone who's got a glorious amount of free time?

Final Fantasy - Voices of the Lifestream

For those of you unfamiliar with it, OC Remix is a site dedicated to remixes of video game music, new and old. Among the most entertaining remixes are songs from Megaman 2, Super Mario Brothers, and the topic of this post, Final Fantasy. These songs are always available free of charge, and without any registration requirements.

From time to time, OC Remix conducts larger-scale projects involving the collaboration of a number of artists. These collaborations produce "albums" of music from the same game. The newest such album was released today, and is based on Final Fantasy VII. You can see the information about the project here, including download links. Or, if you use a BitTorrent application, you can download a torrent of the project by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Mike Lowell

I'm not a Red Sox fan, nor am I a spiritual person. And I'm certainly not attributing any supernatural context to this. But it's definitely a nice story. Well, the aftermath is nice, not so much the 4 kids dying in a car crash. Whatever, just read it.

Boston Herald

MNF booth

I got a few quick glimpses of the Monday Night game last night between San Fransisco and Denver. Ron Jaworski debuted with Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico. I've briefly caught Ron's booth work last year when ESPN/ABC hosted two Monday night games on the kick-off weekend, and I've liked his work.

I didn't watch a lot of it because I was flipping through the Ravens/Eagles game and the Orioles/Yankees game, but from what I saw, I was very impressed. I think Jaws clicks extremely well with Tony K. Mike Tirico is more of a moderator that maintains focus. If he wasn't there, the booth might side-track off the on-field action.

Either way, I'm a lot more excited now for Monday Night Football than I was when Joe Theismann was doing his thing.

Anyone else check it out? Any comments?

Arsenal 2007-2008 EPL Kick-off

For those of you that haven't noticed, the English Premiere League started up last weekend. Between work and vacation, it even surprised me a little.

After driving home from the beach on Saturday, I was up early on Sunday to tend to my dog's needs. I sit down in front of the TV and realize that Arsenal is playing Fulham.

Arsenal isn't picked to do well relative to their past success. They've been predicted to finish 5th in the EPL behind Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspurs.

Anyway, when I tuned into the Arsenal game, they were down 1-0 in the 76th minute. Fulham's only goal was scored in the 1st minute when idiot-old bag Goalkeeper Jens Lehmann got lazy with a pass back to him, made a mistake, that put the ball right into a Fulham attacker's foot 15 yards from goal. Arsenal had a a bunch of great efforts that just never seemed to go into the goal. Eventually, during a drive into the penalty area in the 83rd minute, U.S. Men's National Team starter Carlos Bocanegra body-checked Kolo Toure, causing a penalty kick and a new found confidence. The game was mostly dominated by Arsenal, they just couldn't finish. Now that they tied the game up, their control and crisp passing eventually led to another goal scored by Hleb in the 89th minute.

A late second half sub to follow this year: Nicklas Bendtner. He's a 19 year-old forward from Denmark that helped Birmingham get promoted last year while on loan from Arsenal. I doubt he'll start the next game, but he'll get there by season's end. I never heard of him before this past Sunday, but he looked good.

U.S. Men's National Team man-crush WATCH: Benny Feilhaber signed with Derby County Football Club at the end of last week. This newly-promoted EPL squad has an uphill battle, but I'm going to try and follow them just to watch Feilhaber do his thing.

Review of the 2007 Home Run Derby

I'm gonna take this opportunity to spout off about how bad the Home Run Derby was this year. I'm a big fan of the Derby and always have enjoyed it more than the actual all-star game (Joe and I went to the Derby in Pittsburgh last year if you recall). This year's was unbearable, for quite a few reasons.

1. The first round - The first round was pathetic, nobody hit more than 5 home runs. This huge lineup with bonafide sluggers (much bigger hitters than the past two years where Jason Bay and Troy Glaus were hitting) like Vlad, Howard, Pujols and Fielder can only muster a combined 15 home runs between them with 40 outs to do it? It was terrible.

2. Barry Bonds - What ridiculous tripe everything that comes out of this man's mouth is. He talked for what seemed like 15 minutes about shit that nobody cares about when Pujols, the biggest name in the field was batting and you couldn't even pay attention to him. I don't know how many people outside of San Francisco care about Barry and his record-chasing. But I might sooner hear more about Paris Hilton's jail time at this point. I can't wait for it to go away.

3. Splash Zone - this was the most dissapointing thing in my mind. HR's fly into McCovey cove with ease, seemingly at least 1 per MLB game played in SF. A big fat fucking zero Homers landed in the cove during the event. After all the ridiculous hype and the logo for the game featuring the wet ball, and the big emblam in center field featuring the wet ball. They, ESPN and The Giants, have to be crushed. There were more Homers into the river in Pittsburgh last year (which is MUCH furter away from home plate) than there were into the cove this year. Someone should have had their pitcher prepared to throw them inside (or outside) pitches so they could turn on them and take advantage of the right-field wall.

4. Duration - It's an exhibition, it went 3+ hours, that's longer than a freaking MLB regular season game. It went entirely too long.

5. Drama - more like "lack of drama". Nobody wants to see a bigtime slugger going against Alex Rios in the finals. Especially nobody wants to see Vlad have to hit a measely 3 Home Runs in the finals because Rios laid an anemic egg by hitting 2.

6. The fat latino contigent that waved flags and toweled off the hispanic players. Where the hell are the border patrol at, take these pudwacks out of the stadium in handcuffs. They were on tv more than the players. Who decided that it's ok for them to interrupt players turns by toweling them off in between outs? Then they mobbed Vlad after he hit two home runs in the finals thinking that he'd won because nobody in Venezuela can do simple math apparently. Berman was obviously annoyed and for once he and I were exactly on the same page. Shitty.

So, Overall, not too good, not too good at all. As much as i'm no longer a Kenny Maines fan, having him out in the bay was a good idea (that they then ripped off during the allstar game - which also was boring). Berman finally learned that you can't say "Back back back" for every home run, and well, i can't think of another positive thing to say. Jeers to the Home Run Derby and ESPN's telecast of it.

Oh, it did look lovely in HD. There's one good thing.

The Flaw In The Draft

What's the most exciting part of the NBA or NFL drafts? Heck, what's arguably the most exciting part of most professional sports?

Trades. Trades can change the whole landscape of the league, and the direction of a team. I won't say "most," because I don't have the numbers, but a lot of trades take place on either draft day or in the few days leading up to the trading deadlines. Since the NBA draft took place last night, however, you can guess that I'm going to talk about draft day.

ESPN's draft coverage really kills the drama and excitement of those trades. We get the trade information very early, from ESPN "insiders." Then, 1-2 hours later, the trade is announced from the podium. It's like, why even bother announcing the trade from the podium at that point? Everyone knows that Jeff Green is going to Seattle, leave it alone.

But that's not really what I want. I want the trade announced from the podium, instead of by Rick Beucher, or whoever. When Green was available at the fifth pick and the deal was a go, that's when the trade should've been announced. Part of the fun of the NFL draft is watching it quietly, eating and relaxing, and then without warning, you hear those nifty little words from Paul Tagliabue: "We have a trade."

My understanding is that part of the problem sprouts from NBA trade rules, which are murky at best already. The extent to which the NBA has butchered the way free agency, trades, and the draft ought to be run is astounding. It's no wonder that they have trouble attracting new fans. For all the shortcomings baseball might have (such as arguable parity), there are very few times when the business end of baseball gets in the way of a deal. The business end may prompt a deal, for instance when a player's contract is expiring and the team can't afford to re-sign him. But the Tigers never have to worry about matching salaries with trade partners to make a deal happen. The NFL seems to do a good job of keeping business considerations out of draft day, and the NBA should take a note. Bring the drama back to draft night.

Another piece of this puzzle is the information before draft night about the Trail Blazers deciding on Greg Oden over Kevin Durant. Sure, that's great that ESPN found that out a day or two in advance. What a great piece of breaking news. But it would've been a lot more tense on draft night if you didn't know which of them was going #1 overall. The NBA doesn't know how to turn the NBA draft into good television, making more money for everyone involved.

I'll share my opinions on the actual draft itself sometime soon, possibly via Internet radio with Joe Mandi, but more likely on here or on the forum.

Battlefield 1942 Mods

What is a "mod?" A mod is an add-on to a game, usually created by a third party, adjusting the game in some fashion. Sometimes it involves only a small change, such as adding blood to a fighting game, or changing weapons or vehicles in a first-person shooter game.

But sometimes the mods are more encompassing. For example, Counter-Strike was originally a Half-Life mod. It offered completely new weapons, levels, characters, and a completely new goal. It used the Half-Life engine to run a completely separate game, one that millions of gamers enjoyed.

A couple years later, Battlefield 1942 came out, and not too long afterwards, its own mods began to surface. While there were many, many mods, there's no question the strongest performance was by the Desert Combat mod. It integrated flawlessly into the Battlefield 1942 environment, changing weapons and vehicles, and adding its own maps and missions for a completely new gaming experience. I have played Desert Combat for years, and I've always enjoyed it.

But there are so many different mods out there, why would I limit myself to just this one? Sure, it may be the most notorious and best-received mod for Battlefield 1942, but surely these other mods offer another new experience. It's a great way to avoid paying for a new game.

Well, yesterday I downloaded 4 different mods, with the hope that at least one of them would turn out to be a real enjoyable one. To say I was mildly disappointed would be something of an understatement.

HomeFront
Noted as the "Halo mod," I was excited to see what this one had to offer. Sadly, anytime I tried to get into a game using this mod, the game crashed. So while the interface had me feeling optimistic, I never actually saw the game. This would be a problem for most of these mods.

Pirates
With this one, I was able to get into a game, and the GUI clearly was adjusted to represent the pirates game. However, the actual gameplay, including weapons and vehicles, was exactly the same as the BF 1942 game. I tried to find an online game to see if that might offer the true gameplay, but best I could tell, there were simply no servers running the Pirates mod. So screw it, I said. Uninstalled.

Galactic Conquest
This is it, the Star Wars mod I had heard about for years. I figured, finally, I'll get to see if it's any good. Wrong-o. This was another one that didn't work at all. It's possible that I have a new version of BF 1942 that is incompatible with the older mods, but shit, I don't want to have to roll back my BF 1942 just to check to see if that's the case. So no go.

G.I.Joe
This was the only one that seemed to at least offer a glimpse of what it's supposed to be. All of the player skins were changed to standard "Joe soldiers" or "Cobra troopers," which is okay, though I had been hoping to take on the cold visage of the opportunistic Destro. But maybe that's too much to ask for in this kind of game. The vehicles and weapons were adjusted to be more like the original G.I.Joe gear, though the vehicles were a little limited. Two jeeps and two helicopters, no heavy vehicles of any kind. Also, on the custom G.I.Joe maps, the AI seemed to be simply missing. The enemy soldiers would just sit there, in their bunkers, waiting for who knows what to happen. In the end, a deleter.

So I'm back where I started. I've got Battlefield 1942 and the elite mod, Desert Combat. I'll have to ride these waves for now. I hear Battlefield 2 has some worthwhile mods, maybe I'll check them out if I ever get that game.

Still?

Somehow, some way, I'm still in first place. It's a slender 1-point lead over the prohibitive favorite and 2-time defending champion SexyParties, but for now, it remains a lead.

I owe a lot of my place in the standings to the outstanding play of Prince Fielder and Grady Sizemore over the past 6 weeks. Sizemore has really energized his batting average (and through that his runs and RBIs), and in case you've neglected your SportsCenters, Fielder is leading the NL in home runs with 23. Second place? Fellow Brewer J.J. Hardy, a full 7 home runs back.

I traded my poster boy Jonathan Papelbon for pitching depth in Oliver Perez, James Shields, and Brian Fuentes, in the hopes that Fuentes can be solid enough to at least cover Papelbon's saves, and Perez and Shields can pick up the wins that I can't get from my other starting pitchers. Starting Ervin Santana only at home has given me very solid ERA and WHIP numbers from him, but I need the wins. I'm in the bottom half in wins, and it's very tight. If I could stretch out a couple wins beyond the competition, I could pick up a lot of points.

Batting average is still precarious, but I've benched Adam Dunn in the hopes that Chris B. Young, Carlos Pena, and Kevin Kouzmanoff will be able to post decent power and speed numbers while countering the damage that Kinsler and Dunn have done so far. Kinsler is still in the lineup for now, but if he doesn't kick out of his slump, Kendrick can slide right in, so long as he's got the batting average to help me out.

If you're not sure you'll be competing this year and have an outfielder or 2B who's got a great bat and a history of high batting averages, let me know. I'll be more than happy to talk about sending you Kinsler and/or Dunn and/or a pick, depending on who I'm getting. It's a shame that Utley fellow is on the damned SexyParties.

If He Retired Today....

Sam and I had an interesting conversation about a number of players and whether or not they would make it into the Hall of Fame if they were to retire right now. A few were no-brainers, like Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, and it looks like LaDainian Tomlinson would probably be a shoo-in as well.

But no-brainers are no fun. So we encountered a few that we weren't too sure about, and I figured I'd open it up for debate.

First, Donovan McNabb.

His career QB rating is 85.2, and he sports a 152-72 TD to INT ratio. He is, in fact, the 2nd least intercepted quarterback in NFL history (Neil O'Donnell is #1, though, so don't know how much to take that into account). He has accumulated 22,000 passing yards, an average about about 3,400 per full season.

But that's part of McNabb's problem. Only three times in his eight-year career has he played all 16 games, which means that his individual seasons haven't been that impressive. He's got three seasons with 20 or more passing TDs, and four with 3,000+ passing yards.

Not helping McNabb's cause is his playoff history. He's had more 3 INT games (2) than 3 TD games (1). That's not to say he hasn't had his moments in the playoffs. 4th and 26 comes to mind, a game in which he threw for 248 yards and ran for 107 more. But he'll be best remembered for his failure in the Super Bowl against the Patriots when the Eagles offense inexplicably chose to not convert to a 2-minute offense, essentially throwing away the game. While most people attribute Terrell Owens' comments about McNabb being "tired" during that last drive to Owens' distaste for his (now former) teammate, you have to wonder if there's some truth to it. Every fan across the country knew it was crunch time, but the Eagles putzed along like they had all day.

In the end, we both agreed: as of right now, McNabb is out of the Hall.

Next, we viewed Torry Holt.

Holt was drafted the same year as McNabb, so the equal time under their belts makes this a slightly easier comparison. He's got 64 TDs, an average of 8 per season since his debut in 1999. He's picked up yardage by the ton, with two seasons of over 100 yards/game. Additionally, over the past four years, he's picked up at least 9 TDs and at least 1150 yards.

One advantage Holt has over McNabb is that he does, in fact, have a Super Bowl ring. Additionally, he was a crucial part of his team's success, one of the main pieces of the "Greatest Show on Turf." However, while Holt was an important part, he wasn't even the #1 receiver on that team. So while his statistics are impressive recently, his team's success, a strong determining factor in the eyes of many NFL Hall of Fame voters, has been minimal while he's been "the man."

Holt was also the fastest in NFL history to reach 10,000 receiving yards, so he's certainly at the very least on pace for a Hall of Fame career. But again, Sam and I agreed that, were he to retire today, Torry Holt would not make the Hall of Fame.

Finally, we reviewed Shaun Alexander.

Alexander was drafted in 2000, but as a running back, has likely completed more of his career than either McNabb or Holt. Alexander has been a touchdown machine, scoring 16, 18, 16, 20, and 28 from 2001-2005. He missed 6 games last year due to injury and scored only 7 touchdowns, and his yards per carry was down to a career-low 3.6, from 5.1 the previous season. He has 96 rushing TDs, and 107 total for his career.

He held the single-season rushing touchdown record....for a year.

While Alexander has been an outstanding producer for 5+ years, again, Sam and I both believe that he would need to add to his career statistics to justify a spot in the Hall of Fame.

In the comments for this post, give your input on these three players, whether you agree or disagree, and suggest other borderline players who you'd like to debate. I'm happy to look at stats and pass judgment on people far more athletic than me.

Where are you, Rick Ankiel?

The year was 1997, Floridian Rick Ankiel, a fireball hurling lefty went 11-1 with a 0.47 ERA during his senior season, striking out 162 batters in 74.0 innings pitched, and was named the High School Player of the Year by USA Today. He signed a contract out of highschool with the St. Louis Cardinals and received a 2.5 million dollar signing bonus, one of the highest ever to that point. He stormed through the minors, dominating every level, and being named minor league player of the year in 1999. His first full season in the Majors was 2000, where, at just 20 years old, he posted 11 wins, a 3.50 ERA, and had an unbelievable K rate (9.98 batters/9 innings pitched). He was armed with a fastball in the 93-94 MPH range, and also possessed a heavy sinker with great movement, as well as his main strikeout pitch, a devastating curveball which some scouts have called the best they've ever seen. He was the heir-apparent to the great pitchers of the time and seemingly had a long, dominant career ahead of him in the Major Leagues.

The Cardinals won the National League Central Division championship that season. Injuries to other pitchers left Ankiel and Darryl Kile as the only fully healthy starters left on the Cardinal roster. Wanting to maximize their appearances, and due to the fact that Ankiel, only 20 years old and without much major league experience, needed four days of rest between starts, manager Tony La Russa chose Ankiel to start Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves. Then things all went wrong.

The Cardinals jumped to a lead early in Game 1, scoring six runs in bottom of the first. Ankiel had walked two batters in the top of the first, as well as allowed a single, but escaped unscathed. He also allowed a double in the second inning, after striking out the leadoff batter, but ended the inning with a double play. It is in the third inning that Ankiel lost control. Here is the line score from that inning:

Maddux walked; Furcal popped out in foul territory; Ankiel threw a wild pitch (Maddux to second); Ankiel threw another a wild pitch (Maddux to third); A. Jones walked; Ankiel threw a third wild pitch (A. Jones to 2nd); C. Jones was called out on strikes; Galarraga walked (Maddux scored on a 4th wild pitch by Ankiel; A. Jones to 3rd); Jordan singled to Lankford (A. Jones scored, Galarraga to 2nd); Ankiel threw a 5th wild pitch (Galarraga to 3rd, Jordan to 2nd); Sanders walked; Weiss singled to Lankford (Galarraga scored, Jordan scored, Sanders to 2nd); Mike James replaced Ankiel; López popped to Viña; 4 R, 2 H, 0 E, 2 LOB. Braves 4, Cardinals 6.

Ankiel shrugged off the event at first, joking about the fact that he was the first pitcher to throw five wild pitches in an inning since Bert Cunningham of the Players League in 1890. But in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, Ankiel was removed in the first inning. Of only 20 pitches thrown by Ankiel, five went past catcher Eli Marrero, including two official wild pitches. Ankiel appeared again in the seventh inning of game five, facing four hitters, walking two, and throwing two more wild pitches. The Cardinals lost the series four games to one to the Mets. He returned to the majors in 2001 but again had issues controlling his pitches, walking 25 batters and throwing 5 wild pitches in 24 innings, and was sent down to AAA.

The source of Ankiel's problems was apparently not mechanical. He toiled in the minors and experienced more control problems and never regained his pitching form. In 2006, Ankiel was invited to spring training with the major league squad again, but this time as an outfielder. He had a slim chance to make the team as a reserve player. His fielding impressed scouts and managers, and he has shown flashes of power hitting in the minor leagues. He never resurfaced with the big-league club that year. So far this season, in 46 games for the AAA Memphis RedBirds, Ankiel is batting .266 and leads the team with 12 home runs and 40 RBI, he has 2 stolen bases (in 5 attempts) and has committed 4 errors as their everyday right fielder. Manager Tony LaRussa has stated in spring training that Ankiel doesn't figure into the mix at the big-league level in 2007, but rather needed to play regularly at Class AAA Memphis as he continues his conversion from pitching. "It isn't because he isn't capable," La Russa said. "(But) unless you can guarantee that he would get 400 or 500 at-bats, it would be a bad move for him and for us." Seemingly however his numbers are viable for a AAA outfielder close to a promotion. Watch for Ankiel to possibly be a late-season call-up once the roster expands, especially if the Cardinals don't work their way into the NL central race.

Note: much of the background info was ripped off lovingly from wikipedia... I wrote this because I honestly wanted to know what was going on with Ankiel and thought that others might find it interesting.

Thursday Morning With The Altoona Curve

I joined Plundo and his father-in-law for a ballgame between the Akron Aeros and the Altoona Curve, here in beautiful downtown Altoona. The Blair County Ballpark is a very nice place to see a game, with clean facilities and a friendly atmosphere. At one point during the game, a gentleman who works for the team came by with a trash bag and asked if he could take any trash for us. That's a team that cares about their ballpark.

But more compelling than this was the fact that the game was at 10:30 in the morning. It turns out that many local elementary, middle, and high schools sent groups to the game, and in fact the entire upper section was almost completely filled with these guests. Of course, being corporate fat cats, the three of us sat in the first row right next to the home dugout.

But yeah, 10:30 AM. This means that we were under the sun for the brightest part of the day, prompting a double-dose of sunblock on my part that feels like it missed a few spots. My face has that dry, warm feeling you get when you apply sunscreen while you're sweating. It's not bad, but I'll definitely be feeling it for a couple days.

The Curve won the game (take that Mandi), and we got to see a home run. Well, we had the opportunity to see two, but Plundo and I were walking back from the lemonade stand when the second one was hit, and honestly, the crowd didn't react enough for us to even realize what was happening. I think that's one of the weaknesses of a day game: it's very easy to lose the ball in the sun and then not realize when the ball leaves the park.

It was a good time, I forget sometimes that minor league baseball is pretty fun. It's great fun being so close to the action (and having to only spend 10 bucks to get there).