italstallianion

Considering that only 3 to 4 people in the entire competition do, and they either are in this matchup or voted already, I wouldn't count on it.

Wow, that was a great finish to the Spurs/Nuggets game. The Spurs were up 3 with 16.6 seconds left, the Nuggets have the ball, and after Ginobili blocks a pass to Carmelo, Lawson retrieves it and throws it to Anthony for a wide open dunk. With the Spurs now up 1 with 8.1 seconds left and the ball, McDyess inbounds it to Ginobili and Smith hits him from behind (should have been a foul in my opinion) and the ball comes loose and Carmelo puts it in to give Denver a lead with 7.1 seconds remaining. The Spurs take a timeout and Duncan inbounds the ball to Ginobili and he drives and makes a circus bank shot by 2 defenders that rolls around the rim and goes in putting the Spurs up 1 with 4.2 seconds left. The Nuggets move the ball up and Carmelo gets the ball and drives to the hoop and plows over Ginobili on the lay in and makes the basket before time expires, however, he's called for an offensive foul, so the basket doesn't count and the Spurs win by 1. Both teams should have won the game. The Spurs did well playing back to back games with the previous game home at San Antonio.

Yeah, although if you're losing a pick I'd rather have Soriano than Balfour. Granted the money would probably be different and Soriano probably wants to close more than Balfour. It looks like the Tampa Bay bullpen is going to take hit losing Balfour, Soriano, and Wheeler.

I think that Balfour is a type A free agent as well, so I wouldn't spend a pick on him.

I'd imagine that he'd get a higher AAV for a 1 year deal than a multi year deal. I'd rather give him a 2 year deal and backload it (to count mostly against next year's luxury tax) and you'd save money per year by giving him a second year. He's been consistent and good enough to deserve it, and I think that would take our bullpen to the top. Then again I'd be happy enough having him for a year and shipping him for draft picks, but that's how I roll, especially with the way that the Red Sox draft.

The Red Sox are offering a 1 year deal to Wheeler. I doubt he takes it unless it's for a high amount of money, but he's a Rhode Island native so that might help him (in addition to leaving the now weakened Rays). I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but one of the best things about that signing is that he's a Type A free agent, but he wasn't offered arbitration, so we don't have to give up a pick. And, if we have him on a one year deal, and the FA rankings are based on the past few years, that means unless Wheeler tanks, he'd still be likely to be a type A free agent (type B at the worst) when he's done with his contract so we could turn him for draft picks. In any case, I'm not sure how much money we have left to spend before we get to the luxury tax, but if we got Wheeler and a cheap lefty (since we likely won't get Fuentes), we'd turn from a s***** bullpen to one of the best bullpens in the majors. I doubt there's enough money to go around, especially if we need another RH bat, but one can dream. Obviously there's a difference between dreaming for Fuentes and Soriano than hoping for something more realistic like Wheeler and a lefty, but who knows.

Not to mention the Jersey girls. Ewww.

There are a lot of things wrong with that picture.

She could be underneath the robe...

Yeah, the payroll discrepancy will go from 70+ million to 50 million.

Who knows what kind of "snaky accountant tricks" are done to compare the numbers, ie how to factor in bonuses, empty roster spots etc. I also wonder how many players were counted for each team. Either way, something in that doesn't make sense and I don't put much weight on it.

And speaking of deals that make you think twice, Kerry Wood signed for $1.5 million from the Cubs. Oddly enough he apparently had a 1 year $3.5 million offer from the White Sox.

Looks like we're signing a bunch of players to minor league deals. LHP Randy Williams RHP Clevelan Santeliz RHP Ryan Harvey (former Cubs OF prospect)

Especially since both semifinals are either close or tied.

I'm pretty sure that he was the PTBNL.

Greenway and Vilma as well. I gave Greenway a pass, but Vilma couldn't handle the 3-4, and significantly improved when he went to the 4-3 in New Orleans. He's more the exception to the rule, so I didn't deduct Kilo on Greenway.

OPSa vs. LHH/RHH Jenks - 648/689 (2010), 687/652 (2008-2010) Bard - 462/627 (2010), 613/590 (2009-2010) Paps - 717/619 (2010), 633/588 (2008-2010) 7+ inning starts in 2010: Lackey - 18 of his 33 starts Lester - 16 of his 32 starts Buchholz - 13 of his 28 starts Matsuzaka - 6 of his 25 starts Beckett - 8 of his 21 starts Wakefield - 7 of his 19 starts All others - 0 of their 4 starts (Doubront (3), Atchison (1)) In other words, in 68 of our 162 games, we would not have needed any middle relief. With our starting pitching, this will shorten up a lot of games.

I figure that he'd want more money considering that the team doesn't have to give up a draft pick to sign him.

I'm not bitching about this move for the record. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I'm ok with it. I just want that last lefty, which at this point I'm sure we'd get, although I highly doubt it would be Fuentes. Granted, I'm not very high on Atchison, but with Bard, Papelbon, Jenks, Doubront, and a serviceable lefty, that'd make our bullpen good despite having Atchison and Wakefield as the other 2 spots. I'm not saying that Atchison is as bad as Wakefield, but there are many options I'd rather go with depending on the money.

He's not quite Bartolo Colon fat though.

For the offseason though, I wanted 2 good relievers, I just think we only had the money to sign one. I think Jenks is ok, but he wasn't what I was looking for. Who knows if he really wants to put us under the pressure of making him close. I still think the jury is out as to what our bullpen would be like, but I'm happy that Theo actually signed someone when many other options were being signed. Does it look like I will be wrong? Certainly, but not yet. If we sign Fuentes or a good lefty of some sort, I'll change my signature to something admitting that I was wrong.

I'm not wrong yet. We got Jenks, who wasn't a great option in my opinion. If we sign Fuentes too, then I will fully admit that I am wrong.