MrRain422

I've been gone for a while -- did someone really try to suggest that Michael Young was more valuable than Miguel Cabrera? Doesn't matter how you define "valuable," there isn't even a single definition where that makes any sense whatsoever. Miguel Cabrera is a reasonable MVP choice pretty much every year (though he has often times played 2nd or 3rd fiddle to guys have crazy seasons). Also, though Avila had less plate appearances, he also played 141 games (which is a whole lot for a catcher) and beat Young in WAR (by more than double), OBP and SLG (thus obviously OPS as well), HR, etc etc., meanwhile playing well a much harder position than any of the ones that Young plays slightly-less-than-adequately. Young is a good player and no doubt valuable, but MVP talk for him is silly. He's maybe the third or fourth best choice on his own team.

Was Bob Brenley a serious candidate? Why would anyone want to hire him?

Quite a coup for the White Sox -- they got 2 high upside prospects for a manager they would have let go for nothing.

Anyway, the Tigers will be playing Friday, and the Twins have a chance to lose their 100th game tonight. What a great baseball season. Can't wait for the playoffs.

Tigers @ Yankees in 13 and a half hours!

Prediction time:

Red Sox

Yankees

Rays

Blue Jays

Orioles

Tigers

White Sox

Twins

Royals

Indians

Rangers

A's

Angels

Mariners

Phillies

Braves

Nationals

Marlins

Mets

Brewers

Reds

Cardinals

Cubs

Pirates

Astros

Giants

Padres

Rockies

Diamondbacks

Dodgers

Red Sox over Tigers

Rangers over Yankees

Red Sox over Rangers

Phillies over Reds

Brewers over Giants

Phillies over Brewers

Red Sox over Phillies

AL MVP: Miguel Cabera

AL Cy Young: Jon Lester

NL MVP: Prince Fielder

NL Cy Young: Josh Johnson

If he stays in Texas, he'll probably get to play a good 30-50 games at second base, plus a handful of games on the left side of the infield to give Andrus or Beltre a day off.

I saw them 8 times from 2001-2005. Definitely seems like this is just making official what really happened a few years ago, but still sort of sad about this.

I see. The part that I was missing was that the Rays still think Damon can play outfield regularly. I got it in terms of money, just not in terms of baseball. I thought they'd signed two full-time DH's.

Someone please explain why the Rays signed both Damon AND Ramirez. I'm not getting it.

Jose Bautista's swing is noticeably different this year than in the past, and he is not noticeably larger. He may be on 'roids but I actually doubt it. I think there's enough reason to believe he's legit to give him the benefit of the doubt. Also, I don't really care if he did steroids anyway.

The idea that a mediocre back end of the rotation type of pitcher is giving anyone an ultimatum is laughable. What would he accomplish with that? That would be pretty immature if it were at all true. He's not dumb enough to think that anyone is going to offer him more than he's worth just because if they don't he may retire instead of going to play for someone else for less money. That isn't what he said and it doesn't even make logical sense as what he might have meant.

All he was saying was that staying in shape to be a professional athlete is hard work, especially when you've already gone through a few serious injuries, and that he's considering whether or not its worth it, in light of the fact that he does not need the money. Makes total sense to me.

Before anyone brings it up, I don't want to talk about it.

I don't know if the Tigers have some big moves on tap for this week, but otherwise here's the line up we're looking at for the next month or so:

1. Austin Jackson, CF

2. Scott Sizemore, 3B

3. Johnny Damon, LF

4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B

5. Brennan Boesch, RF

6. Jeff Larish, DH,

7. Alex Avila, C

8. Danny Worth, SS

9. Will Rhymes, 2B

That's SEVEN rookies.

Oh yeah, it's a deeply flawed division -- I know the Twins and the White Sox have some huge holes of their own. But as it was, the Tigers were pretty much running neck and neck with them with Ordonez in the line up. Now their second biggest bat in an already fairly weak line up is gone, and that cripples their best bat as well because there won't be much of a reason to pitch to Cabrera as much. I suppose they still have a chance but it's a pretty slim one.

Now that Maggs is out, I'm officially giving up on this season. But still gonna watch every night.

The brokers got to all of the Chicago tickets. I was at work but my fiancee was at home basically hitting refresh over and over again starting 5 minutes before the tix went on sale, and they went from "not yet on sale" to "sold out" pretty much instantaneously at 10:00. Really bitter about this.

DeJesus is out for the year.

I saw late era GBV multiple times (Isolation Drills tour being the first). Great shows but will be cool to see them with the vintage lineup, as the only time I've seen Bob play with any of these guys was Tobin Sprout sitting in for maybe 3 or 4 songs on their final tour.

Dumars was just inducted a year or two back. That's it though.

Personally I think Rodman should go in, but I don't think it will happen.

If both Wade and LeBron had gone to Chicago to play together, would they both be "chickenshits" or would it still just be LeBron? Is LeBron the only one who suffers historically from this whole episode? I mean, we're talking about two players who might go down as top 25 players EVER, will both be stained?

I still can't believe so much of the LeBron backlash is focused on the decision itself. The spectacle was worthy of the highest level of scorn, but the move itself is remarkably defendable, and yet people are still angry about it.

Basketball is the only major sport where guys are criticized for taking less money to play with better teammates. It's crazy.

Isiah never played with a single player that was as good as Pippen, McHale, or the rest of them . . .

While this is absolutely true, Joe Dumars is still incredibly underrated.

Honestly, I really think the only thing LeBron did wrong was the incredibly douchy way he made his announcement on a national TV special. If not for that, he did things exactly the way that everyone pretends they want athletes to handle these things. He took less money to make a run at winning championships with his friends. Usually guys are criticized for taking the money over a chance to win. Sure, it's arguable whether Miami really gives LeBron the best chance to win, but that's what the decision was based on. Yeah, it was incredibly lame to hype up THE DECISION so much and to not even really throw in much of a thanks to the Cleveland fans for the last 7 years, but the decision itself to sign with Miami is pretty hard to criticize for any reason other than sentimentality for Cleveland.

No way, Dan Gilbert's letter was the best part of this whole silliness. The Comic Sans font was the icing. If he didn't mean it as comedy, it sure came across that way.

The Rangers likely won't be able to re-sign Cliff Lee, but for teams who are not the Yankees, you gotta make a move when you have the chance -- the Rangers are typically not that great, so what the heck are they saving Justin Smoak for? A year where he is awesome and the rest of the team is crap? They made the right move in trading him for Lee.

Plus, though they will not re-sign Lee, they will get a 1st round draft pick out of it once he's gone.

I realize this probably has nothing to do with fewer ballplayers on performance enhancing drugs now, but it does make me think....

Maybe it means that more pitchers are juicing?

But really there's no connection whatsoever.