Something tells me Manny is not a deep thinker.

What took them so long?

2001 - Dewon Brazelton - 3rd overall
2002 - B.J. Upton - 2nd overall
2003 - Delmon Young - 1st overall
2004 - Jeff Neimann - 4th overall
2005 - Wade Townsend - 8th overall
2006 - Evan Longoria - 3rd overall
2007 - David Price - 1st overall
2008 - Tim Beckham - 1st overall

The Dodgers are scheduled to be in Houston that day so Vin would be available.

He follows other sports broadcasters, Ted Husing, Graham McNamee, Mel Allen, Red Barber, Harry Carey, and Jack Buck.

http://tinyurl.com/6ap46s

Also, I've been wrestling with ToyCannon's statement last thread that Cuttino Mobley was the first "name" free agent signed by the Clippers. I can't think of any better, earlier off the top of my head.

Let me say that I have always been a supporter of signing him, if we could at a "reasonable" figure...say 78M for three years with an option on a fourth containing an opt-out by either side. If it is true that the Angels have no real interest in Manny, then we may able to low ball and get him for less.
Which is going to make Manny one p.o'd ballplayer.

My question--even as a Manny fan--is:
do we really WANT a disgruntled Manny Ramirez?

To my surprise I find myself thinking that I probably don't.
I believe we wouldn't be competitive over the long haul of the 2009 season without his power bat.
But would we be competitive with him acting out his displeasure?

http://www.nba.com/history/players/walton_bio.html

Many Clippers were outraged at the price the team had to pay to acquire the injury-plagued, 26-year-old Walton: forward Kermit Washington, center Kevin Kunnert, a first-round draft pick and $350,000.

I want to say the Lakers got the draft pick to get Magic as part of the compensation for Gail Goodrich signing with New Orleans, but I'll have to double check that.

>>Ken Davidoff writes that Manny is feeling ignored on the free agent market, and will consider retiring if he doesn't receive a good offer soon.

I give this about a 0.3% chance of being a legitimate threat, and about a 99.7% chance that this is the old cliche of Manny being Manny at this point.<<

With Furcal, it seems 50 / 50. If we sign him, I think it will blow our budget for a free agent starting pitcher. Since the big guns all seem close to signing with other teams any way, I think we should make a push for Furcal.

That leaves our rotation as fairly average for next year, but Hu / DeJesus could get us some type of arm.

--

I'm totally stealing that title.

I was right about the Goodrich-Magic connection:

In a complex and controversial deal, Cooke allowed him to sign with the Jazz in return for two future first-round draft choices and a second-round pick. The trade, although criticized at the time, paid off for the Lakers a few years later, when they used one of the picks from the Jazz to select Magic Johnson No. 1 overall in the 1979 NBA Draft

http://www.nba.com/history/players/goodrich_bio.html

I say that Randy Johnson for one year is a classic Ned move, especially if Ned can overpay for him. (wink)
I actually think Big Unit is good for slightly more than 10 wins for us. So I am not really opposed...

No, but they do have the 1982 & 1985 banners. :)

I'm still amazed that Mobley may in fact be the first halfway-decent LAC free agent.

http://tinyurl.com/6g3sxq

Well, since the Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984, they have signed three players who are even slightly notable - Jamal Wilkes in 1985, Sherman Douglas in 1999, and Glen Rice in 2003. At the time though, all of those players were well past their primes, and none of them had any impact whatsoever, playing a combined 61 games

WR- TJ, Jennings, d. Bowe, Desean jackson, A. Bryant.

Out of those 5, which 3 should I use?
TE- Cooley or Boss?

http://www.prosportstransactions.com/basketball/

The Clips FA signings are truly awful.

How the hell does a concert sell out in less than 10 seconds?

If you want me to say that Pike was better then Cutino it is not going to happen. He had one skill and one skill only.

Piatkowski career PER: 14.0
Mobley career PER: 14.4

Piatkowski season high PER: 18.2
Mobley season high PER: 17.7

Piatkowski's career PER also includes the last few years where he's declined a ton. But he's still shooting 3's at a 42% clip this year.

My FTP Account is tainted from Rakeback (they apparently can't tell me why, just that I can't get it). So It's stars or nothing else for me, as I don't trust any of the other rakeback sites. I could attempt to make a second account, but I'd be paranoid to have more than $50 on there.

Played 4/8 stud at commerce last weekend and had a blast.

70 , so you also want Teixieiria to sign with the Orioles then?

He signs with LA, then spends the next three years punishing all the teams that "weren't interested." I'll take that.

Not signing Furcal would mean that the Bums will need a lead-off hitter. Bison seemed to fill that role fairly well when Rafi was hurt, though I always pictured him as a power hitting corner. I would suspect that Torre in particular would try to get him to cut down on k's in that slot, which might result in a plate approach that would leave his power potential untapped, as it were.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bernard Madoff, a quiet force on Wall Street for decades, was arrested and charged on Thursday with allegedly running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme in what may rank among the biggest frauds ever.

That's a whoa right there.

http://tinyurl.com/645auo

Peavy and Lincecum at the top of a rotation? I don't care how bad their offense is, if they ended up with Peavy they'd probably win the west.

It's probably immaterial, though, because it doesn't look this this even qualifies as "rumor" at this point.

Comparing the two combos is just splitting hairs at this point. Any advantage Lincecum/Peavy might -- might -- have is mitigated somewhat by the durability advantage of Webb/Haren (last 4 years avg 232 IP & 220 IP) over Peavy (201 IP avg).

Note the one comment here re the only Tigers' pitcher having a higher VORP last year being Armando Galarraga:

http://www.spotstarters.com/?p=1264

Now note that our problem solved RF, or so Dave claims, well, his SLG against lefties last year was .318. As my man Brickhaus notes in the comments to the piece below, take out the one freak year, and our man Matt's OPS against lefties in the minors was .650 or so. The first comment here sums up Joyce for me:

http://www.draysbay.com/2008/12/11/690132/matt-joyce-and-platoons

The problem for the Rays in RF last year, and at DH, was that none could hit the lefty. Unless the freak becomes the norm, Matt isn't likely to change that and so the problem isn't solved.

And contrary to Dave's report, Edwin's departure does not, repeat, does not "open" a rotation spot. Price won his job at the end of last year, as did Sonny, as evidenced by Sonny and not Edwin being in the rotation for the playoffs and WS.
And what with the logjam already in place and Niemann, Talbot, Hellickson, and Davis waiting in the wings, Edwin was truly expendable.

On the plus side for the Rays, Matt costs less and has options.

So call it Mr. Expendable, he of the 4.42 ERA that was below the Tigers' team ERA of 4.90, for Mr. Platoon RF, he of the .318 SLG against the lefty, which the Rays had in Hinske, Gross, et al. The move can only be considered huge win for the Rays, well, if and only if the money being saved on Matt in lieu of one or more of Hinske, Gross, and Floyd is used to acquire, say, Milton Bradley, and a right bat OF platoon partner [as Milton's being made of glass mandates a role for him as full-time DH].

Oh, and if you correspond with Dave, ask him to consider why he's spending time arguing "best player". Dire need trumps best player here(imagine the Tigers' improved record with a team ERA shrunk from 4.90 to 4.42)(and maybe consider that the Rays were 18-14 in Edwin's 32 starts and they scored 47 less runs on the year than the Tigers)(and 18-14 over 160 games gives one 90 wins). The Tigers will score their 821 runs without Mr. Joyce and they might improve on the 5.29 allowed per game with Edwin (857 runs allowed). The Rays save some money, get some options, but still have the problem of the RF who seems to SLG .318 against the lefty. So the right-handed bat that was at issue all last year, still remains. So it isn't huge win versus big thumbs down as Dave would have us believe.