Prince Fielder won the Home Run Derby. It was actually a decent show...once it started. I turned on ESPN at 7:45 to check out the end of Baseball Tonight, sat down with a beer, and was ready to see long balls when 8 came around. Instead of getting Home Runs, I got American Idol contestant David Cook singing something that sounded like a mix between Nickelback and a gentleman getting drilled in the nutsack, complete with a standard pyrotechnic display. By the time I saw a home run for the first time I had already finished my beer, was half way through another, and was wondering if the 6-pack I bought would last the first round. I don't really know where I was going with that, but I think I started off thinking that 3 hours for a Home Run Derby is way too long to handle, even for someone who loves the event.
Here are some Mid-Summer Classic links for the morning of...
Scary. Ok, not a baseball link, but holy hell. I love flying and that is a good thing since I am the son of a flight attendant, but I cannot imagine what was going through the minds of the passengers when all of a sudden...you have a skylight above you while cruising at 30,000 feet. Hopefully this is an isolated incident.
Interesting. Ok, maybe not so much interesting as it is more a statement about the current climate in Major League Baseball. It is a business and not a game anymore.
Obvious Headline Alert. The only reason I post this article is what is mentioned a few paragraphs down.
"It's the right move for Toronto and it's the right move for the Yankees. No young talent should be off limits. The word is that Toronto wants four prospects; that's too much. The Blue Jays are not going to get that. The price will drop over time."
Well that is just flat out wrong. The Jays hold all the cards. At worst they get to keep the best pitcher in the AL for the rest of the season and maybe another year after that. Whoever gets Halladay, if he is traded, is going to have to empty the farm system, and this holds especially true for a team like the Yankees who have limited depth in their system at the moment. The price is not going to drop because there are several contending teams who need pitching (Dodgers and Phillies come to mind). Once again, simple economics. High demand will drive up the price.
Accuracy of the Masses. You mean that we who watch the game can tell when someone sucks? Well, when enough people get together we sure can. After all, this is how the stock market works. Side note, the UZR trends which Tango dismisses are in line with the more accurate plus/minus scores found here. So people and two measures of defense have told us something that the Royals could not figure out...Yuniesky Betancourt is a way below average shortstop with the glove.
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