S'more November baseball

What a wild week for the baseball world. I don't even know where to begin...

Let's start off with some contracts.

Juan Pierre, Los Angeles Dodgers: 5 years, $44 million
Bad arm, no power, okay batting average. He's essentially a singles-hitting leadoff man, so he can get on base but had only 3 homers and 40 RBI last season. Worth $9 million per? I'm on the fence with this one.

Moises Alou, New York Mets: 1 year, $8.5 million
At least New York had the sense to sign him for just one year. I love Moises but he's 40 years-old and has missed a significant number of games the last few seasons. (Trust me, I know. I've had the guy on my fantasy team the past two years, and if it wasn't for his guaranteed offensive production when healthy, I would have dropped him.) 114 hits, 22 homers, and 74 RBI in 98 games isn't too shabby. This is not an everyday player, though, and he would have done much better in the AL when he could have played more games as a DH.

Nomar Garciaparra, Los Angeles Dodgers: 2 years, $18.5 million
This should surprise no one. Nomar, of course, had his obligatory stint on the DL this season but the switch to first base has been good to him, making for a great year offensively. Compared to Alou and Frank Thomas, he's a youngin at 33 years-old and he's managed to keep his career batting average up at .318. Definitely has a few more years in him.

Alfonso Soriano, Chicago Cubs: 8 years, $136 million
I have much to say on this after doing a bit of research for a Point/Counterpoint segment in my Broadcast Sports class...

Point: For a Chicago Cubs team that finished in the basement in the NL Central, 19th in the league in homeruns and 28th in runs scored, it was obvious they needed to get a hitter. What did they get? Only the fourth player in MLB history to join the 40 homerun/40 stolen base club, a guy who has hit 30 homeruns in each of his first four seasons. There's no power outage with this guy. Simply, a job well done. They got exactly what they needed and didn't care about the cost because right now, the Cubs don't have to.

Counterpoint: Sure, Soriano has the homers and he has the stolen bases, but what he doesn't have is plate discipline. This guy had 160 strikeouts last season and his career-high .351 OBP this past year was 91st in the league, good but not $17 million per year good. He's a .280 lifetime hitter and he's turning 31 in January. Not exactly a young guy. That means he'll be 38 years-old in the final year of his contract and still making almost 20 million per.

Point: Obviously, the Cubs team means business. They went out and got themselves a proven manager who does not accept mediocrity in Lou Piniella and then re-signed slugger Aramis Ramirez and ace Kerry Wood. They also added Mark DeRosa who had a 13/74 season with Texas. This Cubs team is finally putting money back into its team. That's what good teams do. You look at the Red Sox and Yankees, two teams that are always at the top of the league each year. The Cubs are ready to compete and Soriano only strengthens that.

Counterpoint: It was important for the Cubs to show their fan base they're serious about winning, unleashing that financial power, but Soriano is by no means a flawless player. A few years down the road, if they want to, the Cubs will have some serious trouble shedding his contract. Now, they have Soriano and Aramis Ramirez making a combined $32 million per year, bringing up their 2007 payroll to more than $112 million. If the Cubs were going to overspend this off-season, they should have focused on rebuilding the starting rotation, not signing two right-handed bats.

(Can you guess which side I was arguing? Heh.)

I'll let someone else handle the Justin Morneau MVP thing, since I'm somewhat indifferent to it. Can't believe Joe Mauer didn't even crack the top five. In fact, one of the voters put him 10th and another five (yes, FIVE) totally left him off the ballot. That's just wrong. Keith Law's column about Morneau not even being the MVP of his own team was interesting. As he wrote, "It's time for some of these voters to put aside their fantasy-baseball mentality -- one that assumes that RBI measure something important and that OBP is a hip-hop song from the early 1990s -- and to reevaluate how they go about voting for the MVP."

And I'm in agreement with the NL MVP voting. Just think about how utterly abysmal Philadelphia would have been without Ryan Howard this season, not nearly as bad as a St. Louis without Pujols situation.

Only five months to go...

I love how we're all writing about baseball and it's November. Why, hello, Incredibly Long Off-season. Add my name to the ranks of people already missing 6-4-3 double plays, the sight of funky facial hair, dugout antics, and the smell of El Tiante Cuban sandwiches outside Fenway Park.

But lucky for us, the off-season has proven more than intriguing. And by "intriguing" I mean "utterly bizarre."

Let's start with Frank Thomas. The guy had a fantastic season with Oakland, who couldn't have expected much from the injury-ridden slugger. They certainly got their money's worth there, paying a mere $500,000 for 39 homers, 114 RBI, and a strong post-season performance. Now? The Blue Jays are closing in on a two- or three-year deal for Thomas that could be worth up to $30 million. Um... what? This guy is 38 years-old. This is where a VP of Common Sense (as proposed by Bill Simmons) would come in handy for the Jays. Sometimes I really wonder what goes on in front offices.

Like, for example, why the Red Sox whined about the Yankees overpaying for Bobby Abreu but decided it was a good idea to fork over what will now be known as Matsuzaka Money. I honestly don't know what to think about it. I am not so blind as to overlook the obvious here: Coming off a less-than-great year, the Sox knew they'd have to be competitive this off-season, Matsuzaka is the WBC MVP, and negotiations would help with future deals for Japanese players. But. The implications of this deal will affect much more than the Red Sox pitching rotation. Essentially, these goings-on screw every small market team, every organization hoping to re-sign their pretty good pitchers for a reasonable price. This deal will affect baseball in the same way the A-Rod contract did. The bar has been raised, pitchers and their agents WILL be more greedy than ever, and you can bet those GM's who don't have $100+ million to invest in their players are not pleased.

In other news, A-Rod is now reiterating that he wants to stay in New York. Why? The fans hate him, he doesn't seem to click in New York, and he can't possibly be happy. I don't get this guy and I probably never will.

Finally, I'm not sure if I agree with Joe Girardi getting NL Manager of the Year. I understand what he had to work with: a $15 million payroll, a young team, an unsupportive owner. But his team had a losing record. Girardi is the first manager to receive the award with a losing record, and there's a reason for that: It should NEVER happen. The argument for Girardi is that he kept Florida in contention all season. Okay. So apparently, "in contention" means finishing 78-84 in a AAAA league, 19 games out of first place and 10 games out of the Wild Card race. I dunno. It just doesn't seem right for Willie Randolph to walk away from this season with little more than a divisional title.

So yeah, um... is it April yet?

venting at the sport i love

I am angry at baseball.

I hate being angry at baseball.

HOWEVER.

As Suzie has already so eloquently commented, the Sox are willing to drop $51.1 mil just to get the rights to negotiate with Matsuzaka, a terrifying precedent that will only result in an additionally ridiculous sum if the man is actually signed by the team. As I have also already screamed after whipping out my calculator because I cannot do smart math on my own (or any math for that matter), the 51 mil alone is roughly 25 times more than I will make in my entire chosen career if, and only if, I worked until I was 80. That is absolutely unacceptable, considering that he will continue to get more than that once he signs, and then will work for no more than 15 years (and more than likely less), at a rate considerably higher than I will ever, ever hope to make in probably even 10 years combined. Beyond the fact that I am bitter about sports salaries and also my own salary, this really is a dangerous and definitive precedent that could have an impressive impact on the way deals are made, and additionally, on the continually widening gap between the "haves" and "have nots" of baseball. Although there is the argument to be made that money doesn't always win titles, and I do abide by this argument a lot of the time, how long will there really be Royals fans and Pirates fans and Marlins fans if there's no hope of ever signing any big name or even being up to the competition? This is an open ended question that has yet to be answered.

Second. Girardi, formerly of the Marlins, was voted NL Manager of the Year. Yes, he kept them sort of in contention all season with a team full of rookies and no-namers, but he also is the first MoY ever with a losing record. And frankly, I just feel like that's wrong. Even though his win would positively perpetuate my argument about how no-namers and teams with little money can and should still be able to win. So maybe I should be less angry about this. (A big congrats to Jim Leyland, though, who was obviously the heir to the AL MoY throne this year. The Tigers still should have won the WS.)

Third. GMs want to re-consider the instant replay. This is not football and for good reason (sorry Emily). Do not make me sit through extra umpire-questioning. The umpires, sure, they get it wrong sometimes, but their stats are actually very good: 94.91% of ball-strike calls are correct, according to some computer system they use in the ballparks, which means there are approximately 7.64 missed calls per game. No, that is not a perfect figure. But you know, it's close. The imperfection of the game is part of the charm of it - the spirit of coach/ump arguments or examples of them "protecting their players", the spirit of the fans boo-ing or cheering a close call, the fact that, like nothing else in life, the sport is not perfect. It just makes it that much closer and relatable to all the rest of us who are not making 51.1 million dollars just to be in negotiations for a real salary. Bud Selig, for once I agree with you on something.

Finally. So there's still some good in baseball, since my boy Biggio won the second annual "Heart and Hustle" Award, which is voted on by 3200 of the living 5000 (approximate) former MLB players for the one player out of the combined candidates of each team who best demonstrates playing the game the right way, with heart, hustle, and success (hence the name of the award, obviously. Baseball isn't exactly the most creative of sports). Oh Biggio, I love you so. And so do former players, apparently. Way to be an awesome guy.

do you know how many cheeseburgers i could buy with that?

*pokes head out from underneath pile of books, research papers, and afghans being crocheted as hysterical displacement activity*

$51.1 million? YES, THEO & CO., THAT'S FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY RIGHT THERE.

Jesus Christ. Yes, you have to spend a little green to bring home a championship. Yes, it's a weak pitching market. And yes, I will even grant you that after the grand toilet-flush that was this season, making news at the first opportunity could be a good PR move.

But $51.1 million? NO. Just... no. NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. I don't care if Daisuke Matsuzaka is the cyborg hyperclone of Cy Young, Nolan Ryan, and Sandy Koufax. I don't care if he cries imported beer. I don't care if he saves babies from tigers. Hell, I don't even care if he wants to marry me and keep me in Kate Spade bags for the rest of my days. I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS.

Gary Sheffield's Agent Warns Interested Teams Not To Tap Glass

Hey loyal reader(s)... yes, we're all alive over at Chickball, just swamped with work and doing things like congratulating Emily on her amazing new job and Amy on her now legal drinking status! We'll be back, though, don't you worry, and in the meantime, enjoy.

Sunday Night Football

We were waiting all day for Sunday night. And not because that meant seeing Pink on TV in her mohawk and black boots. Colts-Pats. Peyton was undefeated. Brady was Brady. The Colts had Adam Vinatieri on their side. It was going to be a close game.

Right?

Final score: 27-20

Somehow the Pats lost by only a TD and I'm not quite sure how that happened. Five turnovers is not okay. Eight penalties for 81 yards is also not okay. A missed field goal attempt isn't good. When you combine all that with your QB not being on his game and his receivers doing nil, you can't possibly win. As for the Colts, Manning was good but the team play wasn't anything stellar. Vinatieri missed two field goals, the Colts didn't fare very well in the penalty department, and they rushed for just 53 yards.

Which brings me to my next point: Why in the world weren't the Patriots running the ball in the fourth quarter? You're down by one possession, 13 minutes to go, you know your passing unit has been ineffective all day, and you throw the ball. You throw the ball? No! You do NOT! Run it. Run it and eat up the clock. Even up the score, hold the Colts offense, then get another possession to take the lead late in the game. News flash: Maroney is 10 times better than any of those eight receivers the Pats have been rotating. This week was not last week in terms of the passing game. The Pats seemed to be completely oblivious to that, and it cost them the game. I am not pleased.

And if Rodney Harrison's injury is serious, I will be even more displeased.

The Patriots need to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses at this point. Any fan knew coming into the season that the passing game would be a big question mark. And it has been. They need to start grooming a few of the guys, like Caldwell and Watson, while having more confidence in their running game. They have every reason in the world to be confident in Dillon and Maroney. Why they refused to use them more last night is a mystery to me.