-Be sure to check out Dave Carty piece on the Oakland A's, Billy Beane, and pieces they have acquired in recent trades. Scroll down below this post, or click here. Easily the finest piece of writing featured in this blog.
-In the aforementioned Joe "Poz" article about Stan Musial, Joe mentions that Musial played in 3, 026 games, never once being issued an ejection. In the comments section of the same article, someone mentioned that Walt Frazier was never ejected in his 13-year NBA career. Frazier once held Knicks' franchise records for most games (759), minutes played (28,995), field goals attempted (11,669), field goals made (5,736), free throws attempted (4,017), free throws made (3,145), assists (4,791) and points (14,617). Patrick Ewing has since taken over most of those records, save for the assists record. Frazier is probably still the most beloved player in Knicks franchise history having been the best player on both of their championship teams. A class act, and a constant presence still to this day at Knicks games, doing color commentary on MSG with Mike Breen. And I am sure Knicks fans, and general NBA fans alike are aware of Bill Simmons' "Ewing Theory."
-Kudos to Mike Reiss, in his Football Notes in the Boston Globe today, reduced Brett Favre to a small blurb on the right side of the page. It was refreshing to get a nice, healthy dose of NFL chatter without Brett Favre dominating the conversation.
-Reiss discussed the Jets and the Chad Pennington/Kellen Clemens situation at great length. What really struck me was his mentioning of the Jets' big free agent signings, and their ages: Alan Faneca (31), Damien Woody (30) and Kris Jenkins (29). The Jets finished last season at 4-12 after going 10-6 the year before. I know things can turn around in a hurry in the NFL, but I wonder if signing older players to lengthy deals is a reasonable fix. Especially when you consider the recent injury history of Woody (13 games started in the last two seasons) and Jenkins (two season-ending injuries before his 27th birthday). In a frenzied media market like New York, GM Mike Tannenbaum and Head Coach Eric Mangini know that it would be hard to survive two poor seasons in a row. Meanwhile, neither Kellen Clemens or Chad Pennington have done much so far this offseason to distinguish either of themselves as sure-fire NFL starters.
-I took issue with The Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo defending Twins' GM Bill Smith's decision to keep Francisco Liriano in the minors and fight Liriano's agent Greg Genske's call to the Players' Association to investigate why Liriano has not been called up. Here's the blurb, as usual, I do not want to use my poor grammar to articulate something someone else explained perfectly:
Twins GM Bill Smith has shown great restraint in not reacting to agent Greg Genske, who's asking the Players Association to "investigate" why Francisco Liriano hasn't been brought up after winning seven straight games for Triple A Rochester. The team's strength has been its five starters, four young pitchers and one veteran, Livan Hernandez, who is the staff's glue. "I don't want to say too much about it," said Smith. "I think the agent is probably just doing his job. We love the success Liriano is having in Rochester, but our kids up here are pitching great and we've been on a roll and our team has played very well." Asked whether the Twins will try to upgrade with a deal, Smith said, "We have to be very careful because we love the chemistry on this team and the job our manager and coaches have done with a lot of new players. The last thing we want to do is disrupt that. We're always looking to upgrade, but it has to make sense."
So, because the Twins are surprising people, and Hernandez is veteran and the "glue," Smith wants to ignore the fact that Hernandez just isn't a very good pitcher. Of the five starters currently in Minnesota's rotation (Hernandez, Blackburn, Slowey, Baker and Perkins), Hernandez has the worst ERA (5.29), WHIP (1.58), K/9 (3.31), and hits allowed (178 hits in 127.2 IP). But, it's all fine, he's the glue of the rotation because he won 10 games. Francisco Liriano, meanwhile, this season in Rochester (AAA) is 8-2 with a 3.34 ERA in 17 starts. I know its a far cry from his 2006 campaign when he was 12-3 with 2.16 ERA 16 starts and 12 relief appearances, but still he should be able to give Minny a better shot at winning every fifth day than Hernandez does. The biggest disparity between 2006 Liriano and 2008 Liriano? And probably the strongest arguement Smith has against promoting him? In 2006 Liriano walked 32, and struck out 144 (A 4.5 K/BB ratio). In AAA this season Liriano has 94 punchouts to 28 walks (A 3.36 K/BB ratio). He is obviously not the same pitcher he was in 2006, and may never be again, but still... If Smith and the Twins do not reinstate him, they should at least somehow credit him with some MLB service time, so that his arbitration situation is improved.
-The Oklahoma City Thunder. That might be the new name of the NBA team formerly known as the Seattle Supersonics. It sounds like an Arena Football Team. I am not sure, though, that a team from Oklahoma City cannot sound like a minor league baseball team, or an "AFL" team.
-Just in: The Redskins acquired DE Jason Taylor from the Dolphins for a 2009 2nd round pick, and 2010 sixth-round pick. Pretty typical Redskins move: Trade out of the draft, upgrade a position with a 34-year old. Taylor should be pretty good for them, he is only a year and a half removed from being the NFL's defensive player of the year. But, if you a Redskins fan, aren't you a little frustrated that your team is constantly upgrading via free agency/trades when most recent Super Bowl champions can point to the draft as the dominant reason they won.
Old School Rap Video of the Day:
Outkast ft. Slick Rick- Da Art of Storytelling
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