Couple Signings Today

Blue Jays signed David Eckstien to be their staring shortstop, One year 4.5 Million, he will be a big upgrade at short offensively but a major downgrade defensively. I see Eckstien and McDonald platooning at times.

Twins Sign Adam Everett, He will compete with other newly acquired shortstop Brendan Harris. Adam has the edge defensively but it will be interesting to see how that battle pans out.  

Scott

Kosuke Fukudome Signs with the Chicago Cubs

The next installment of Japanese Baseball is making their way to this side of the waters, and his name is Kosuke Fukudome. Fukudome is going to step in and play right field and most likely bat second for the Cubs. For 4 years and 48 million, he is said to be a cross between an Ichiro Suzuki and and a healthy Mark Kotsay. which if is true makes him a great sign by Henry and the crew.
The problem lies in if this guy, like many other Japanese Superstars, becomes a bust. And Jim Henry, Cubs GM, is banking a lot on his scouts and other baseball resources around him for Fukudome to step in and be his OBP. machine, like he was in Japan. My prediction, is that he plays a great right field and maybe even center if the right trade comes along (Brian Roberts). And what i most like it gives the Cubs a guy that will look at pitches. Besides Derek Lee and maybe Mark Derosa, everyone else on that team is a free swinger, and pair that with one of the worst OBP. leadoff hitters in the league, Alfonso Soriano. Those make for a lineup that could have trouble getting on base and scoring if they weren't hitting the long ball. This signing solidifies the batting order and is a major upgrade defensively over Cliff Floyd. Good sign for the Cubs, but I have my fingers crossed.


Scott

Better late than never!

Here is our opinions of the trades that happen in the last week winter meetings. Sorry for the delay!

1. Twins and Ray

TWINS GET : Delmon Young, Brendan Harris, Jason Pridie

RAY GET : Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, Eduardo Morlan

Winner
This trade is so close to a wash as it gets, both teams lose players from their systems that they have had prior bad blood with, Delmon Young threw a bat at an umpire and was suspended two seasons ago, along with a fall out with manager Joe Madden at the end of last season. Matt Garza at the end of spring training called out the Twin's organization and told the media how disappointed and robbed that he felt for not making the opening day roster. But both are the headliners of the trade. I think that if I had to pick a winner it is the Twin's, they are getting the more proven player in Young, and if he finds a way to walk a little more he could be a top 25 hitter in baseball in the near future. And they get a guy in Pridie (AAA prospect) that will compete for the starting gig in center next year. Where Garza on the other hand is unproven in the bigs, but will fit nicely as the number three after Kazmir and Shields next season.

2. White Sox and D-Backs

WHITE SOX GET:
OF Carlos Quentin
D-BACKS GET:
1B Chris Carter

Winner
Still up in the air because who knows how good this Carter guy is going to be. Has been reported by Baseball America as has good pop to all fields, but would see the field in Arizona anytime soon. Just a AA prospect last season. And the White Sox acquirer a guy that will compete for a starting role in left next season. I can’t pick a winner, but I can certainly pick a loser if that makes any sense at all. The D-Backs main goal of the off-season is to make a deal for a pitcher, and they still haven’t done that. Now Carlos Quentin has a lot of upside and has proven that he can hit in AAA, which would draw some interest from teams that would be willing to give them that lower tier hurler the D-Backs most desperately need. We just don’t understand the point of trading him for someone that wouldn’t help you right now, or at least holding the deal off a couple of weeks until you make the move. They are reportedly in on Dan Haren from the Athletics, and Quentin isn’t talented enough to make the deal by himself, but could have been a nice late throw in if talks with Billy Bean started to go south, and now he is unavailable. To reiterate, the D-Backs drop the ball on this one.

3. Nats And D-Ray

NATIONALS GET:
OF Elijah Dukes
RAYS GET:
LHP Glenn Gibson

Winner
When this deal first broke the Rays gave the Nats, Dukes for a player to be named later, which makes you assume that they are just giving him up for any Tom, Dick, or Harry in the the Nationals system. Which is why I was surprised to see that the Nats had to give up Gibson. Gibson was the same player that Bowden balked at a few months prior when the Rays first discussed the trade and that is why it didn’t go down during the season. He is a young left handed pitcher that averaged a K per inning last season. It is rare to see both teams get exactly what they want from a trade, but it looks like everyone is happy here. Both Win in this case.

4. Cubs and Braves

BRAVES GET:
LHP Will Ohman
IF Omar Infante
CUBS GET:
RHP Jose Ascanio

Winners
I really like this trade for the Cubs, They get rid of two player that will earn about 4 million dollars together next year, and neither are important to the team. The Cubs have enough lefties in the pen and more utility infielders riding the bench. And in return they get a hard throwing right hander that has a good slider, and could make a run at the pen rotation next season if the Cubs use any of those other arms to make a big move. I think he will end up throwing for the AAA club to start the season, but could become a major factor in a year or two.

5. The big one

TIGERS GET:
3B Miguel Cabrera
LHP Dontrelle Willis
MARLINS GET:
OF Cameron Maybin
LHP Andrew Miller
C Mike Rabelo
RHP Eulogio De La Cruz
RHP Burke Badenhop
RHP Dallas Trahern

Winners
Short run: Obviously the Tigers, they get one of the best hitters in baseball along filling out a top three of a rotation that could be considered the best in baseball along with right handers Verlander and Bonderman. Long Run: I think the only way that the Tigers aren’t kicking themselves if they win the World Series. Cameron Maybin is going to be a star in this league, I just hope that the Marlins do the right thing and put him in the minors for a little but longer, he is just 20 years old, and still has a lot to learn about the game. Andrew Miller and Dontrelle could be a wash this season, I really think that Miller with they right pitching coach, to help with some mechanical issues could see better success in every category then Dontrelle next year except wins, for obvious reasons.

6. Nats and Yankees

NATIONALS GET:
RP Jonathan Albaladejo
YANKEES GET:
SP Tyler Clippard

I like this move for the Nats, they get a guy that can compete with their other young kids for a spot in the rotation. In the one start I saw of Clippard’s, I saw some really good things. And lets face it, the Nat’s need pitching. On the other hand the Yankee’s get hard throwing right-hander that will step right in as a middle reliever. I still like the move for the Nats, just because of there major need.

7. The trade of never will be's

TIGERS GET:
OF Freddy Guzman
RANGERS GET:
1B Chris Shelton

Freddy Guzman was out of options, and Shelton has been the most expendable player in the majors after April 30th 2006. Where the first basemen put up career numbers in the month, and really hasn’t hit well sense. I think it is a good move for Texas to get Shelton just because they have nobody else to play first, but he will not make an impact on this team unless luck strikes twice.

Signing
1. Andruw Jones to the Dodgers

This was a great move by Colletti, he gets the middle of the order pop that he needed and didn’t have to give up the farm, or break the bank over a long period of time. Andruw gets a very large signing bonus, 12 million, but it is a low risk considering if they were to sign him after last season they would be paying more than the Blue Jays are paying Wells and for 5 years also. And as a side note this gives the Dodgers a chance to move Pierre to left so the defense gets better. Or move him to any sucker that will take that contract, can you say Rangers.


That was really the only big signing that happened last week. It was a good week of rumors galore, and if you are interested in good rumors year round check out the MLB trade rumors link on the right side of the page.

Scott

Obeying the System

Update: Tim Tebow did end up winning the Heisman and he has now become the only player to win the trophy in his sophomore season. And McFadden is the only player to finish runner up two straight seasons. 

The Heisman Trophy is going to be awarded on Saturday evening, and while all the attention seems to be centered around Tim Tebow(Florida) and Darren McFadden(Arkansas) I am here to tell you why neither of them deserve it.



I will start with McFadden because it is almost too easy. The Heisman is supposed to be given to the player who has the best SEASON. It is not to be given to the player who had the best three game stretch, and it should not be given to the player who best deserved it in previous years. The trophy is not a Most Valuable Player award, it is an award that celebrates all that is good in college football. McFadden may have given all of us as fans some of the most electric plays for any one player, and he may be the Rookie of the Year next year in the NFL, but that is not what the Heisman is about. Although McFadden was the top rusher in the arguably the toughest conference in America, that does not warrant winning the Heisman Trophy. Now although McFadden put up astounding numbers, his team did lose four games. In three of those loses McFadden had some of his best games, going for over 150 yards in the three loses. It is the loss against Auburn and victory over FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL that I believe should be the reason why McFadden loses the Heisman. In both of those games McFadden had under 100 yards. If the Heisman is to be awarded for the player with the best SEASON then those two games would be the downfall for McFadden.



Tim Tebow is a little bit more difficult because he has put up the numbers week in and week out to be regarded as the favorite. If people are going to discredit what Colt Brennan is doing out in Hawaii then Tebow should be in the same position. Granted that Tebow has put up ridiculous numbers from the quarterback position, and it is probably something we may never see again. To put it best Tebow is the best dual-threat quarterback that is alive right now simply because he is a legit passing threat as well as a running threat. Are the stats that Tebow is putting up a product of the system? I am under the opinion that he is a product of the system he plays for. If Brennen won't win the Heisman because of the system he plays in, then neither should Tebow.



The only logical choice for Heisman is Colt Brennan. Not only is he the quarterback of the only undefeated team in the country, but he has put up the best numbers for any quarterback EVER. He won't win though because everyone will knock the system he plays in, or the conference he plays in, and the fact that he plays in Hawaii and no one gets to see him play. He is by far the best player in college football, and it's does not end with the numbers. When he has a bad game his team struggles. No matter how poor he plays in the first three quarters he someone is able to gut it out and have a tremendous turnaround in the fourth quarter.



While the trophy presentation will probably be as anti-climactic as A-Rod winning the AL MVP I really hope it is not a similar situation. The voters are going to vote for who they saw the most, which is going to take deserving votes away from Colt Brennan, which is a shame.

Winter Meetings

With winter meeting heating up we are going to try to give you guys our opinion on every trade big and small throughout the week.  Some big things went down today, but we are going to wait until the end of the week and the rule 5 draft before we go into winners and losers. 

In the Dog House?

I would first like to say that my stance on the Michael Vick situation goes as this: I do not condone dogfighting in any way, and the fact that Michael Vick would have anything to do with it is terrible and demonstrates all that is wrong with proffesional athletes. With that said I do not believe that Vick should be the posterchild for what is wrong. Instead I think what should be looked at is how "situations" like this are handled.

In a recent ESPN First Take Roger Goddell was referred to as Goddell Castro. Is that what the NFL is coming to. One man has the right to determine whether or not a man is entitled to work. He states that he is trying to clean up the NFL. Rather than simply punish these actions I think he should attempt to rehabilitate these troubled athletes. I do not think that signing a wrestling contract suits those needs. Nor do I think keeping them from the one place where they can get away from all their problems is the way to do that either. I believe that the players should be allowed to practice, sit in on meetings, and be with their teammates. NFL teams refer to themselves as families, and what do people need more in troubling times than a family.

Are we so quick to forget that not even 10 years ago that Ray Lewis was charged with MURDER, and served no suspension and went on to be praised as a top preformer in the NFL. He was praised for his heroics in that season, ending with a Super Bowl MVP. A few years later his former teammate Jamal Lewis was charged with drug trafficing. He went to jail, served no suspension, and just signed a huge contract with the Cleveland Browns. I understand that it was during Taglibue's time as commisioner, and while he should have been less concerned with all the money he made for the league and should have been paying close attention to the conduct of his players. He will be remembered for all the money he made, Goddell...not so positive.

There are several other examples of player misconduct that goes far and beyond what Vick was convicted of. Jake Plummer was arrested for drunking driving. Leonard Little has TWO DUI and killed a person during the second one. Lawernce Phillips had several drug charges against him, and kept getting chances in the league. The lists goes on, but in no way does that excuse killing dogs for pleasure or money.

Where is Gene Upshaw in all of this? He is the Players Union president. What has he done for his players...nothing. He has become a puppet for Goddell and sits by while arguably one of the highest profile players in the league is put on the shelf for many seasons to come. If it is the players he represents, and he is not representing them in a responsible manner, than perhaps it is time to find someone that will. The only news from Upshaw this offseason is threats he made at FORMER players, which has gone unnoticed. His concern needs to be HIS players, not gripes with former ones.

Do I believe that Vick will play again? Right now it looks unlikely because of the stigma carried with his conviction. I do not think that it is fair to strip him of the only life he knows. As Vick said in his own appology "I'm a football player, not a public speaker." It appears that for Vick to make a livelyhood anymore is going to be through public speaking, because he will probably be appologizing and talking to people about all the bad things he did for the rest of the life. All this negativity towards Vick would make anyone in his position want to just simply walk away from the game, because who would want to represent a business that no longer wants anything to do with him.

This is what it simply comes down to. The NFL is a business, and misconduct is bad for business. Are we so quick to forget about players like Quinten Griffin, who had a 1000 yard season with 10+ touchdowns, only to be out of a job the next season. The NFL has become a what have you done for me lately league, where one is easier replaced than it is for them to continue playing.

DUCKS WIN and NHL SUCKS

For those sports fans that didn't notice the Anaheim Ducks have won the Stanley Cup in a beat down of the Ottawa Senators and I thought that I would let you know that. How sad is it that the Stanley Cup is won by a team where they are located has no snow within 3 hours of them and at its absolute coldest point of the winter is maybe 60 degrees??? The sad part is hockey has been going out of style fast and the brass in the NHL are "trying to make changes" and by that they mean change a few rules about the game to increase the amount of goals scored. If I were the commissioner of the NHL I think I would start marketing my young talented players a little bit more. Sidney Crosby or "Sid The Kid" of the Pittsburgh Penguins is the youngest player to win a scoring title in the history of the NHL and I promise that besides Kyle no one else that reads my blogs has any idea who this kid is.




Crosby the NHL's version of LeBron James, but he is a lot better at his sport than LeBron is at basketball. The NHL needs to capitalize on this young kid and market him more, get his name out and interest the fans more. The old saying, "You have to spend money to make money," really applies here for the NHL. Sidney Crosby isn't even 20 years old yet and led the league in scoring and probably is going to win the MVP award (its not called the MVP award in hockey it's like the Conn Smythe award or something). Spend the money to market this kid and when he does become better known companies like NIKE and REEBOK will fight to market him even more. The NHL needs something to turn around their misfortunes of late and Sid The Kid is sitting there just waiting to become an icon for his sport. When the NBA was getting its "Thug Reputation" as my dad likes to call it they turned to LeBron James a kid in his early 20's, who is mature beyond his years, and he has worked to get rid of that image and bring fans back to basketball. The NHL is losing viewers and fans quickly and with the right marketing schemes could change that. I was listening to a sports talk show the other day and they were listing TV series that were cancelled after six episodes that received higher ratings than the Stanley Cup Finals. It was horrible to hear how many shows they had on this list, I mean they just kept on listing them off. So this is my final plea as a hockey fan since the age of 5 Mr. Commissioner please... nay pretty pretty please with a cherry on top higher a good marketing agency and lets save hockey...

Celeb Look-a-like

this goes along with my fasination with finding athletes that look like cartoon characters...pay close attention to the Fraggle on the left with the hat on...Derrek Turnbow Milwaukee Brewers reliever on the right

Matt Murton kicks the face mask of Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz as he is out at home while trying to score in the sixth inning.(AP photo by George Widman)

Matty what are you trying to do here???

Thank You

I quickly would like to thank Commissioner David Stern for getting in the way of one of the best playoff series in a longtime. By kicking Amire and Diaw out for a game it changes the whole dynamic of the Suns team and missing Horry means nothing to the Spurs, A. he doesn't get that many minutes B. the Spurs will be up by so much there will be no need for his clutch three at the end of the game, the only thing he has ever been good for in his career... Now we will never know what really would have happen in this series because of Robert Horry Bush-league Hip-Check, If i wanted to see that i would have watch the boring hockey playoffs on espn the ocho... thanks for nothing Horry...

Scott

Rant 1

Here we go sports fans. I have bit my tongue for too long, I cannot take this current state of sports anymore and I think the world needs to know what is wrong. Let's start with last weekend and Tracy McGrady. We all believed your rant with Stephen A. Smith when you proclaimed that this was your year to take your team past the first round. What you should have said was I'm going to put on the greatest playoff performance I have ever done, and it's the fault of my teammates for not caring as much as I do. It will come down on T-Mac because of the claims he made, and we all will blame T-Mac for not making every shot he took and making every defensive stop. Let's be honest though, Yao Ming is the most unathletic 7 footer since Shawn Bradley. Yao plays like he is 6'0 and has absolutely no desire to change that. When a 7'6 guy is getting beat by a 6'8 guy on rebounds, can you say HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM. Then on Sunday when Roger Clemens made his triumphant return from the boss' suite on his white horse by signing with the Yankees. Great for Roger, you get to pitch when you want, show up when you want, and get paid a lot of money. Bad for the Yankees, Roger is not going to tutor the young guys, he is not going to start and close, and he is not going care about anything but Roger Clemens. This might be the only time in my life when I applaud David Wells for calling out Roger Clemens. I thought what he said might go over at least a little bit better for what Wells said, but I suppose that's what happens when you are the first to point out the obvious. Side note to the rest of the PGA...if you ever thought you had a chance of winning a tournament, that is now gone. When Rori Sabbatini called Tiger "beatable" it was like telling Wayne Gretzky that he can't score, or tell Michael Jordan that he crumbles under pressure. If anyone thinks that Tiger is going to just let those words be said and not do something about it you are wrong. Are we so short to forget about his run at the end of last year when everyone around golf said that Tiger had come back to the same level as everyone else. Shame on you Rori...you have only awoken a sleeping giant. Well that's going to end this rant, but as long as athletes and people in sports are making themselves to look like idiots...I will be there.

G e Koch