Manny being Manny, or Scott Boras being Scott Boras

Picking up on a theme I threw down a couple posts ago, I just love Manny. Scott Boras just turned down the Dodgers' last offer of $45 mill over two years with a player only option for the second year. Turned down $45 mill? What world are you living in Boras. Of course Boras has kids to feed, and his 5% or 10% of whatever he gets out of each contract needs to be large enough to feed all those munchkins.

Here's to you Manny and Boras, straight from my Microsoft paint files.....I call it the Manny Salute

Bottom of the bottle

I'm drunk or near enough, and even though I'm sadly a south sound homer, I'll have to say A-Rod has gotten a bad rap. Did he use steroids? Yes. Is this a suprise? No. Did he need to use steriods? No. How many homeruns does this add to his career total? I'm no sabermatician but I'd say 5 to 10. The best part is what I just said has the same scientific basis as what all the holier than now baseball purest have been preaching for the last few weeks. A-rod is an extremely insecure and stupid human being. This is not news. He said he left Seattle and went to Texas to win. Go to Texas to win, unless your last name is Bush that just ain't happening. He gets exposed cheating, (well I guess steroids would of have to have been banned when he took them to say he cheated) and he lies about it. Who doesn't lie when they get caught doing anything? Not politicians, not celebrities, not most non-famous people. So to me A-Rods biggest crime is being famous, and being famous isn't quite against the law yet. Or is it? This is a search for ratings and money not a real news story. A real news story would be exposing the government officials that leaked sensitive material on the condition of secercity so they can retain their access to secret info.
Wait that doesn't make sense.
Sorry I forgot that reason doesn't matter.
Peace and Love,
E

A Roid.......

....is fucked. Looks like his "apology" is full of holes, and his explanation that he took boli because he was under pressure is just stupid. And then crying that the last 15 months has been really hard on him. Fuck you A Roid. You've made half a billion, and you're complaining about how your life is hard? Lots of people go through a divorce, but some people lose a lot of money in the process, don't have any money to begin with, or lose their kids, etc etc. How about all the people who were living month to month for the last 15 months and have now lost their jobs? You're crying because the media has been hard on you? That's what you get for a) going to New York knowing full well what the media and tabloids are like there, and b) accepting half a billion to play a fucking game.

I don't want to hear another apology, another change in your story, more spin, more whining as to why you've had a hard life the last couple years. Maybe I'll respect you more if you use your ridiculously immoral salary to buy people houses, or feed them, or do something worthwhile with your time.

And while I'm at it, Manny: take the 25 million from the Dodgers. Are you fucking kidding me? You turned down 25 million? I know a bunch of guys who would give their left nut, and probably their right nut too, to make the league minimum. Shit, far less than the league minimum.

Manny: you disgust me.

I'm heading down to Circuit City right away!

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

This isn't sports related, but it serves two purposes:
1) This pretty much sums up all electronics that have been released in the last 10 years
2) This is what I imagine the news would look like if Fish and E were in charge.

by David (yep, I'm still signed in as Fish. Don't worry, I'm working on it)

(credit: The Onion)

yes, griffey

This really is Fish. Just like David, I really couldn't say I'm a "real" Mariners fan, only a "kind of" fan because living in North Idaho I didn't really have any options. Yeah, the Twins may be my team, but almost no chance to see them, even on TV, during my time in Idaho and Oregon.

Hearing that Griffey has signed with Seattle has not really made my day at all, because it's really not that earth shattering, but it is good news nonetheless. Because now I will get to see him with the Mariners when they roll into KC. God damn is that going to be a terrible series or what? Two shitty teams going head to head in like 100 degrees with high humidity. But I'll be there, chearing for an old and just about used up Ken Griffey Jr., the greatest player of his generation.

Griffey

Admittedly I am not a Mariners fan. I don't really follow them with the same passion or connection (however real or fake) that a real fan does (or would). But ever since word leaked last week that the Mariners were in the hunt to sign Ken Griffey Jr as a free agent, I found myself unexplainably excited. I basically missed Griffey's first stint with Seattle as he left after the 1999 season and I had just moved to the Northwest in 1998; I hadn't yet put down roots or become involved in any of the local teams. So this presented itself as an opportunity to relive that time, what I would guess is the glory days of Mariner baseball.

I'm not naive enough to believe this was anything but a marketing ploy by the team. Griffey isn't the commanding presence in the lineup anymore. He's not going to lead the team to the playoffs by his offensive production. He's being paid basically to draw folks back to the ballpark and wash themselves in the pool of nostalgia. And I don't blame the Mariners for this. I hate, hate, HATE bringing up THE ECONOMY (dun, dun, dunnnnn), but you gotta do what you gotta do to try and remain viable with the current state of things today. If that means bringing back a past-his-prime ballplayer to wring a few more dollars out of ticket sales, then by all means. I know it's worked for me. I haven't bought tickets yet, but before the Griffey signing I wasn't planning on making a trip to Safeco this year. Now, I am instinctually drawn, like wanting to catch a Merle Haggard concert before he fades away into old age or a museum exhibit before it is shuttered to the public.

So as a non-Mariners fan who happens to live in Mariner country, this is happy news. There are grumblings out there, probably among the real fans, that this does nothing for the team and may even set them back. But I don't care. I'm just here to catch a farewell performance.

by David (I know it says it's by Fish, but I accidentally signed in under his name, sorry)

Brett Favvvree

If Bret Favre decides to go back on his decision to retire again, he will no longer be one of my favorite NFL players of all time. I loved watching him (except for the last 3 years or so) because he had so much fun playing. But now he's just annoying. Stay away Favre. I don't want to see you throw 35 picks next year.

Did I miss when Ryan Howard became a free agent.

Ryan Howard just signed a 3 year $54 million contract. That is an average salary of $18 million per year. Ryan Howard had two arbitration years left. Am I missing something here; perhaps Howard having photos of Ruben Amaro Jr. with a male prostitute?


The arbitration process is meant to limit player compensation before free agency, with the player getting approximately 40% of his value in year one 60% in year two and 80% in year three. Using that guide the Phillies are paying Howard the equivalent of $45 million dollars in 2009. The deal looks slightly better if we take it as a whole with players in arbitration usually taking a 10% discount on long term deals. That makes this deal equivalent to $20 million per year, now that doesn't' quite sound as bad.


The problem is that according to FanGraphs Ryan Howard has been worth over $20 million just once in his career and that was back in 2006. In 2007 Howard was worth $17 million, and last year he was worth $14 million. You don't have to be a Harvard grad to see this trend is heading in the wrong direction. All of Howard's relevant production stats are going down. His OPS + has gone fro 167 to 144 to 124 during that span, while his OBP has dropped from 425 to 392 to 339. At his peak as a 26 year old superstar with power and patience, but no defensive value Howard was possibly worth $18 million a year. Now two years into his decline phase Howard is a one dimensional slugger whose failure to make consistent contact raises concern.


Pat Burrell is getting less for two years than Ryan Howard is getting per year, and Burrell was worth the same as Howard last year. Over the next 3 years the Phillies will be paying Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez a combined $28 million a year. This is a bad deal for the Phillies, their payroll has now soared above $100 million when many other teams have started to cut back. The Phillies still don't have a third basemen and strong back of the rotation, or an A-list outfielder, and over the next few years with most other teams having more financial flexibility there is no reason to think they will be acquiring one.

Really?

NASCAR? Already? Surely you can't be serious. Why is it that the sports I care about least (ok, that's too nice, let's try "disdain") happen to have a) the shortest off season, and b) never ending annoying discourse?

damn you Gonzaga

I was totally hyped to watch the Gonzaga/Memphis game tonight. But it turned into a laugher soon after tip off (which is good because it gave me time to work on my lecture about John Locke's Second Treatise of Government for the class I have to teach on Monday) and was just really shitty until about 6 minutes left. The Zags were down by like 26 points, but they made a run with 5 guys mostly from their second unit and went on a good run. Just like from the song "Cocaine Blues" they made a good run, but they run too slow, and the clock ran out on them. So instead of watching a good performance from the Zags tonight, the only thing worth while, besides Josh Heytfelt's huge oop dunk near the end, were the Gonzaga cheerleaders. So, without further adieu.....

Doug's Hot Dog Cart Is Here - Watch Yourselves

Welcome to the new sports blog that probably will have lots of stuff that doesn't have to do with sports. I'm Fish, aka Faz-noosh, and I'm joined by my peeps from Linfield: DJ the Hammer, aka the Fantasy Czar, aka Stacy (I haven't actually asked if he wanted to be a part of this blog, just assuming here); Hubs, aka Race Car Dave; and E, aka the Baseball Czar, aka young Peter Gammons.

First KU (my future alma mater) shout out: Congratulations to the women's KU 200M freestyle relay A team for breaking the KU and Robinson Natatorium Records this morning against Iowa State in a time of 1:32.27. Way to go Maria Mayrovich, Iuliia Kuzhil, Danielle Herrman, and my former student Amanda Maez. KU beat Iowa state 182 to 113 on Senior Day. Check out today's results here. Last night's results can be found here. Rock Chalk Jayhawk.