Trade Stuff

Big Deadline Deals:

Ken Griffey Jr. to the White Sox for some dudes who are not Ken Griffey Jr.
This seems like an upgrade for the Sox offensively since they were running Konerko out there quite a bit and Konerko apparently decided before the season began that hitting was tiresome and boring. However, Junior will be manning centerfield (reportedly) which could spell trouble defensively. Swisher wasn't exactly Mays out there, but at least he didn't pull a hammy every time a ball went into the gap.

Manny Ramirez to Dodgers, Jason Bay to the Red Sox, Minor Leaguers to the Pirates
I hate the Sox, but this is a good move for them. They get back a guy who's younger (Bay is 7 years younger), slightly worse with the bat (135 OPS+ versus 140 OPS+) but better in the field, and not likely to publicy whine or knock down random Red Sox employees. Plus he's signed through next season at $12.5 million less than Manny's option would have been. There's a theory about managers that says: Good managers won't win many more games for your team than an average manager, but a bad manager can lose a lot more. I think it's the same way for clubhouse presence: Really good clubhouse guys are nice, but don't have much actual affect on in-game play, while bad clubhouse guys can be a detriment. Manny had turned from a quirky, on-again-off-again weirdo to a full-fledged distraction machine. And I really think it was hurting the Sox more than ever.

So why did the Dodgers pick him up? Well, he's an immediate help to their lineup and an immediate sieve to their defense. Andruw Jones is historically awful this season (36 OPS+!!! 2 HR's!!!!), and Juan Pierre doesn't do much. For the record, the Dodgers now have 3 outfielders who make a combined $47.1 million this year, and only one of those is even halfway decent. Manny will help the Dodgers make a playoff push in the weak NL West, but I can't see him being a huge difference maker in a lineup that still has a ton of holes. But he gets to play for Joe Torre! That should be exciting!

The Pirates got a bunch of minor leaguers, some of whom should be decent, one of whom (Andy LaRoche) could actually be pretty good. That's what they should have done, although you can't say their haul was anywhere close to what the Rangers got for Teixeira last year when Tex was in the exact same contract situation Bay was this year. To be fair, Tex is better and younger, but you'd think at least one of those prospects would have been a sure thing.

Anyway, not much else happened. Kinda disappointing. I was especially hoping the Rays would add a bat to give them the best chance to hang onto first place in the East. They have so many prospects that they should have been able to swing a deal for Bay, but that's the way it goes, I guess.

It looks like Teixeira might be the best deadline pickup of the year, unless Manny really carries that Dodgers offense for the rest of the season.

Mark Teshairuh (phonetically speaking)

The Angels finally did what they've been criticized for not doing each of the last 4 seasons - get a bat at the trading deadline. I'm not sure if this is fair to Stoneman, but it seems like a very odd coincidence that once Reagins stepped in as GM, something finally happened.

As for the trade...I'm on record as being skeptical about this very trade, knowing it would take Kotchman to get Tex back. I may have talked myself into not being skeptical in the few hours I've known about the trade. But let's break it down, Halos being good, Bavasis being bad:

1. Teixeira brings a .283/.390/.512 line to an Angel's lineup without anyone who gets on base that much or hits for that much power. I give that 5 Halos.

2. The Angels give up possibly the best fielding first baseman in the game (although Tex is no slouch) who is under control through 2011 and is still developing, hitting-wise. I give this 2.5 Bavasis.

3. The Angels also give up some minor league pitcher who strikes guys out but apparently has no control and will only be a reliever. Sounds harmless, but a fly just buzzed by my ear and I could have sworn it whispered "Bobby Jenks" to me. So I give this .5 Bavasis.

So on a direct level, the Angels wind up with a net of 2 Halo's (this translates into roughly 30 lbs. of See's candies or 3 additional postseason victories, your choice). But wait, there's more:

4. The Angels are on record as saying they'll try to sign Teixeira to an extension, but Scott Boras, Tex's agent, is on record as having a deal with Satan, which allows him to make teams pay through the nose for these types of things. I don't see an extension in the future. This means the Angels get Tex for 2+ months (hopefully that + is substantial) and that's all. 2 Bavasis.

5. When Tex walks at the end of the season, the Angels will get 2 high draft picks, either a first rounder and a sandwich rounder or a sandwich and a second rounder. Considering the Angels farm system is relatively weak right now, this will help. But since draftees are always crapshoots, I can only give this one Halo.

So we're down to a net of one Halo, which is still positively in favor of the transaction, but not wildly so. You could argue on my weighting for any of those and come up with a wash. Here's the final factor that pushed me from "skeptical" to "I would have Teixeira's children."

6. This may be the Angel's best chance at a championship for the next 5 years. That sounds bleak, but let's look at the facts.

• Vlad is no spring chicken, although he resembles one when he runs. I think he's having an off-year, but I don't know how much better it's going to get in the future.


• The Angels' power threats are all on the downside of 30 (Vlad, Hunter, Anderson). The only guys on the team who should continue to get better are Howie Kendrick and maybe the catching tandem of Mathis/Napoli. And as I mentioned, they don't have any stud prospects ready to come up and fill those voids now that Brandon Wood turned back into a pumpkin.


• They are getting career years from Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana, plus some excellent years from guys on their relief corps (Justin Speier aside). This may be hard to duplicate.


• This is almost certainly the final year of seeing K-Rod close out games in an Angels jersey.

I don't think the Angels are going to drop to the cellar. I think they will still at least be competitive in the AL West for awhile. But I could foresee them falling off a little bit.

All that to say, if you're going to sell out the future (Kotchman) for production NOW (Teixeira), this is the time to do it. Teixeira immediately makes that lineup a lot better, and even more so if Vlad can get on track for more than a few games at a time. By making this trade, the Angels are giving themselves the best possible chance to win a World Series this year. 3 extra Halos.

I feel much better now.

The Angels scored 14 runs!!!

In other news, four mysterious horsemen were seen wandering the earth…

The Angels scored 14 runs, and Frankie still got the save. Unbelievable. They’re going to start awarding him saves just for showing up to the ballpark. I gotta admire what Scioscia’s doing. Ride the kid’s arm this year since he’s probably not going to be back next year. I don’t actually think that’s what he’s doing, but it seems like he comes in two out of every three games.

The Angels aren’t going to score 14 every night, but is this a blind squirrel finding a nut or a sign that the bats are waking up? In other words, if you’re Tony Reagins, does this make you even more confident that you don’t need to add another bat, or do you treat this as an extreme outlier?

Well, let’s say the Angels should make a trade. Where can they upgrade? I’ll go through each position and identify guys from teams who are out of the postseason race and would trade whoever the upgrade is.

Catcher: Mathis and Napoli haven’t been great. They’ve certainly disappointed on the defensive end. Until Tuesday, teams had stolen like 492 straight bases on them. Of course a lot of that is on the pitchers, but still. When you’re not good on offense, shouldn’t you be good on D? Anyway, I don’t see many upgrades available. Most of the catchers above them are young guys who wouldn’t be on the market. The only two possibilities I see are Gerald Laird or Bengie Molina, and neither one of those is a huge upgrade.

First Base: I’m torn here. I really thought Kotchman was going to succeed this year, but he’s been pretty mediocre since April. He’s about middle of the pack as far as first basemen go. I still think he’ll be good, and he’s still young, so any team trading a stud first baseman is going to want Kotchman in return. And that’s just not worth half a season of Teixeira or Giambi. The rest of the guys above Kotch are pretty untouchable, plus Kotchman plays fantastic defense. So I guess we keep him and hope he turns it on, or at least starts walking a little bit more.

Second Base: Howie Kendrick. He’s good.

Shortstop: You know, the combination of Izturis and Aybar hasn’t been as bad as I’ve thought. Still, they’re not exactly lighting it up (even if Scioscia is hitting them third in the order). But who would the Angels get that’s an upgrade? Tejada? Old and declining - no. Jhonny Peralta? He’s a butcher in the field and not seemingly on the block anyway. Christian Guzman? Fluke season – no thanks. So we’re stuck here unless Brandon Wood remembers how to hit.

Third Base: Figgins has made himself into one of the best leadoff men in the game since he’s started to walk a lot more. We’re set here too.

Outfield: Vlad? Hopefully he’ll start hitting the way he has in the past. Hunter? He’s solid. Garret? Man, I love Garret, but he’s just not cutting it at the dish. He doesn’t walk, rarely hits for power, outfield range is pretty awful, and he may or may not be back next year. So who could we get? Holliday, even though he’s largely a creation of Coors, would still be a significant upgrade. But he’s going to hit free agency after this year. I would love to see the Angels trade Willits or Rivera and a couple prospects to get Jason Bay. He’s still 29, and he’s under control at a very reasonable price for next year. He’s a pretty big upgrade, and it seems like the Pirates are shopping him.

DH: Rivera/Matthews – I gotta think Rivera’s going to get most of these at bats going forward. Matthews is terrible, and of course, untradeable because of the contract. Yeah, we can definitely upgrade over these two, but we’re going to have a huge logjam in the outfield as it is. Any trade for a DH/OF is going to have to include Willits or Rivera. And I love having Willits on the bench as a defensive replacement, pinch runner extraordinaire. But I’d be willing to trade him if it makes our offense better. I just don't think anyone's available for this spot who I haven't already mentioned.

I’d love to get Teixeira, but the asking price needs to be reasonable, and if the Braves got Kotchman, we’d be without a first baseman when Tex walks in the offseason. To me, Jason Bay is the most logical upgrade we could make. He walks, he hits for decent power (he’d lead the Angels in homeruns if he joined them), and he’s an upgrade in left over Anderson. Plus we could probably get rid of some of our excess outfielders in the trade. It’s too bad Littlefield isn’t there any more. We might have been able to get Bay for Juan Rivera and Chris Bootcheck.

After all this analysis, my guess is that the Angels stand pat on the offensive side, as usual. They’ve got a lot of cheap, young guys who will hopefully get better. Probably not in time to help them win a Series this season, but we’ll see. If everyone hits the way they were supposed to hit this season, we may not need any help. But that's a big assumption to make.

Howie Kendrick is a stud

I love Howie Kendrick. Like, man-crush level adoration. He's really really good. I would put him up there with Kinsler and Cano as far as mid-20's second basemen in the pros, and Howie may be better than both. Yeah, I guess Pedroia's up there too, forgot about him, but still, give me Howie.

I don't have much to say about the Angels game last night. They got a ton of guys on base with two outs and never got the timely hit. Santana gave up a couple of bombs, which he's generally avoided this year, and that was that. So I figured I'd talk about Howie.

In the eighth, Kendrick hit his third homer of the year, just to the right of dead center. I love watching this guy hit. He's similar to Boggs, Gwynn, or even Jeter in that he uses the opposite field A LOT. But Howie is different in that he's not really a "slash" hitter in the same mold as Boggs and Gwynn. I guess he's more like Jeter in that respect. He hits the ball really hard to right and right center. Most guys look to pull the ball and try to adjust to the pitches away. Howie is the opposite.

He can take an inside fastball and hit a line drive double into the right center gap. But his hands are so quick that if his timing is perfect, he can hit that same pitch into left center. And it seems like he hits line drives all the time. Don't get me wrong, I like home runs and stuff, but from a pure baseball fan standpoint, I like watching Howie hit more than most other guys because it just looks so pure. Maybe it's because that's the type of hitter I always tried to be when I played.

But every once in awhile, he'll get a hold of one like he did last night. Anaheim Stadium is not an easy place to hit for power, especially not to dead center field. And even though that ball barely cleared the fence, that's pretty good pop to get it out there.

He does have his flaws: breaking balls down and away can fool him if he's sitting fastball. He is incredibly impatient (5 walks in just over 200 plate appearances? yikes). He strikes out a lot for the type of hitter he is, projecting to about 100 k's over a full season.

But I can live with those things if he keeps his average at .325 and hits doubles the way he does. He's played 54 games, which is exactly one third of a season. If you project it out to a full season, he would wind up with 60 doubles! That would tie him for sixth for the most doubles in one season.

Of course that brings up another issue - will he ever play a full season? He's spent significant time on the DL each of the last two seasons. Once was due to a freak HBP that broke his hand, but he's also pulled a groin, which is a bad sign. Hopefully those things are behind him.

If he can stay healthy, I think the Angels offense will start to improve. He's a vital piece to their lineup, which brings up another point. I know lineup construction doesn't mean a whole lot in terms of run-scoring. In other words, hitting Kendrick third instead of seventh wouldn't result in that many more runs over the long haul. But man, I gotta think the Angels want to get this guy as many at-bats as possible, and Scioscia is running Izturis out there in the number three hole every game. I think part of the reason is that Scioscia likes to split up his same-handed batters. But man, I would love to see this lineup:

Figgins

Kotchman

Kendrick

Vlad

Hunter

Anderson

Rivera

Mathis/Napoli

Izturis/Aybar

Another possible reason for not doing this is that Kendrick has not hit well at the top of the lineup. For his career, he's hitting about .225/.235/.300 from the number two and three spots, which is awful. In the seven or eight spots? .350/.375/.520 which is fantastic for any player and is phenomenal for a second baseman. So is there something to the batting order thing? Does he hit better down there because there's less pressure? Does he see better pitches? I don't know, but I hope he figures it out, because I'd much rather see Kendrick get an extra at bat every game than Izturis.

Not all it's cracked up to be

I read an article by Jeff Pearlman about Mike Lamb, a journeyman corner infielder who is now 32. The basic point of the article is that the MLB lifestyle isn't what it's cracked up to be. It seems like it's all fun and games, but it's experienced in different ways by different people.

Here are three examples:

You've got a guy like Derek Jeter, who is a single star, enjoys the spotlight, uses his MLB stature to live the high life, so to speak. This whole lifestyle suits him well, it seems.

You've got a guy like A-Rod, who is a star, and who tried to do the family thing at the same time he did the celebrity thing, only now it's all getting thrown in his face. He's now getting divorced from his wife, and will get to spend even less time with his two young daughters (sidenote: their middle names are both Alexander, not Alexa, or Alexandra, but Alexander; way to go there A-Rod).

Then you've got a guy like Lamb - not a star, hasn't made a ton of money (at least not for a pro baseball player - $6.7 million in 5 years is nothing to sneeze at for the rest of us), obviously cares about his family, but the fact of the MLB lifestyle is such that he can't spend time with his wife and young children.

As a kid, I grew up wanting to play pro baseball. Once I got to high school, I realized that I wasn't going to make it, but I still love playing, and remain somewhat envious of those who get to do it for a living. So as that person, I find it hard to be sympathetic toward any complaints involving a life where you get paid millions of dollars to play a fun game. But, being a father, this one strikes a chord with me.

I worked some long hours as an auditor, but I was never gone for more than a couple days at a time, and even that was few and far between. I can't imagine what it would be like for me or my wife and children if I was away from them for weeks at a time. I would have missed the little things - like when my two-year-old son started singing "Sweet Child of Mine" while he was playing in his room, because that's the song I sing to him sometimes before bed. You could not pay me any amount of money to take that moment away from me. And Lamb is missing all of those things. He may be missing his anniversary every year because it just happens to fall on an away date or during spring training. He can't ever go on vacation with his family during the summer because he can't take a day off from March to September.

It just makes me think. Any time I hear pro baseball players (or pro anything players) complain, it disgusts me. "How dare they gripe about anything! They get paid a ton of money to live out of hotels and play a game! Anything less than praising God on the streets is inadequate for the type of life they've been blessed with!" Those sentiments contain truth - some of those complaints really are petulant and immature.

But this one is legitimate and it makes me sad. I don't know what Lamb's priorities are (although family certainly seems like it's up there), and I don't know what his options are for a career after baseball, but I hope he gets to experience the joys of husband/fatherhood like I have. It's way better than baseball.

I hate the Red Sox

And everything they stand for. I am incredibly happy the Angels swept them this weekend, but we still got treated to this article by Dan Shaughnessy, a Sox beat writer. Here's a snippet:

But I can't rid myself of the images in my head. I see Manny's' majestic walkoff home run over the Coke bottles against K-Rod. I see Schilling baffling the Halos on sheer smarts and location. I see David Ortiz hitting a walkoff ALDS winner in '04. I see Chone Figgins - the Swiss Army knife of baseball players - struggling mightily in playoff games at Fenway.

Bleh. I can't rid myself of the image of smug Boston fans in pink hats and Schilling throwback jerseys all jumping on the back of a wagon...and that wagon rolling off a cliff.

If you're looking for a reason why the Angels haven't beaten the Sox in the playoffs, it's because they haven't hit. Vlad and Garret were both injured last season (Garret had that weird eye injury). Matthews was playing every day. And it seemed like every single one of their players went into a slump at the same time.

Maybe the pressure really does get to them. I'm especially hoping that Vlad can finally have a good playoff series to show that he doesn't disappear in the playoffs. On the other hand, it's a 5-game series, which is a really small sample size. Anything can happen. So let's not chalk this all up to "the Red Sox just know how to win in the postseason and the Angels don't." I do think the Angels could stand to get some more hitting for a playoff run, but let's review:

Vlad is starting to hit better, and has started to crush some balls, which is a good sign. He's also not going to be tired or hurt from doing a home run derby. Hunter is a good upgrade in the lineup over Matthews Jr. Howie Kendrick is a stud and now has playoff experience.

This team should start to hit a little better. And their pitching is just as good, if not better, than last year. Yeah, the Red Sox are scary. With Ortiz in the lineup, I think they're probably the best team in baseball. But if the Angels hit like they normally hit, they could take a series from Boston, even if every win was by one or two runs.

I hope the Angels beat the Red Sox in the playoffs to end this stuff.

Money for nothing

Saw something on one of the blogs I frequent (I think it was Neyer, maybe Posnanski, but I'm not sure), bringing up the subject of Barry Zito. Zito makes a ton of scratch - he's in the second year of a 7 year, $126 million deal. He's terrible now, with a slim chance of becoming un-terrible in the next 5 years. So should he give any of the money back to the Giants, assuming he continues to play like crap?

Ok, there's probably a wide range of reactions here. Everything from: "No chance in hell!" to "Heck yeah he should - he's a bum!" I'll run down some of the rationales:

1. He and the Giants both signed a contract. The Giants obviously didn't expect this, but they are fully aware that these types of things happen in baseball. So Zito should feel no obligation to return any money just because he's not meeting expectations. A contract's a contract. He took what the market was willing to give him.

2. Zito was grossly underpaid (by baseball standards) for the first 4 seasons of his career. From 2000 - 2003, Zito was 61 - 29 with an ERA right around 3.00, but got paid less than $2 million total. So really, he's just recouping what he should have earned when he was arguably a top 5 pitcher in the AL for four years. In other words, no he doesn't deserve it now, but he had it coming to him for his prior body of work, so he should keep it.

3. Zito should give some of the money back to help the Giants field a better team. He could agree to keep a certain amount per year, and give the excess to the Giants, strictly for the purposes of signing free agents or spending it on the farm system to develop players. Although judging from the way the Giants have approached free agency, this seems like a poor investment.

4. Zito should give the money back simply out of moral obligation. Whether it's written in his contract or not, the Giants obviously signed him to be a top of the rotation starting pitcher, and he's falling well short of that. He should feel guilty for cashing that paycheck every month.

5. Zito should take the money from the Giants but give it all to charitititity because he doesn't deserve to keep it. Well, not ALL of it, but if I hadn't said "all," none of you would have got the Sublime reference.

So what would you do? Let's assume for a minute that the Player's Association would even allow something like this. In all likelihood, if you even so much as THOUGHT of this, some large Italian man would show up at your door with a large metal pipe to "reason" with you.

If it were me, I'd do #5, but I would do that whether I was playing well or not (at least I hope I would). So that's not really relevant to the discussion since it's not mutually exclusive of the other choices.

I certainly wouldn't choose #3, because the Giants aren't really close to winning anything. If they were one player away, I would consider that, but they're a lot farther away than one guy. Plus there's absolutely no evidence that Brian Sabean would do anything with the money but wipe his butt with it and toss it at a rapidly aging 37-year-old middle infielder.

I don't think I'd pick #2 either. It sounds good, but it's not really accurate. Baseball players are given contracts for future performance. Now, it's true that future performance can be somewhat predicted by past events, so he got his contract BECAUSE he was really good for awhile. Still, the contract is paying him to pitch NOW. So I don't buy that whole argument.

That leaves #1 and #4. The problem I see with #4 is that he would basically be giving the Giants a free pass. He didn't force the Giants to make that deal - they offered it to him. Sabean should have seen some of this coming. Zito hasn't been a great pitcher since 2003, and he's been declining every year since then. Judging by the type of guy Zito seems to be in interviews and such, it looks like he's out there trying his hardest to be a great pitcher. It's probably just not there any more. As long as he's putting in the effort, I don't see why he should feel guilty. It's the GM who should feel guilty for being a bonehead and not doing a little research. I guess I would probably feel guilty if I were in his place, even if I was trying my best. But I still don't think I'd give it back.

So I guess I pick #1. Like I said, I would hope he's giving some cash to charity, but it's his money. The Giants put the contract in front of him, and like any of us would do in a heartbeat if $126 million was sitting on the table, he signed it. He never has to work again after this. If in 3 or 4 years, Zito's still hanging around, pitching 180 innings of somewhat under league average ball, the Giants' young players have developed and are ready to go, and there's a hot free agent looking for a $20 million per year deal out there, then I would think about donating some cash to help pay for that free agent and try to get a World Series championship.

...unless Sabean inexplicably still has a job there. I wouldn't give that guy any more money than he already has.

Closers. What are they good for?

Absolutely nuthin'! Well, that's not technically true - they often pitch high leveraged innings and strike out a lot of guys. So there's that.

I bring this up because of the situation with K-Rod on the Angels. He's already stated that he's going to test free agency. There has apparently been some sort of attempt on the Angels part to sign him to an extension, but it sounds like they were nowhere close to a deal. So how much will K-Rod command on the open market, and is it a good idea for the Angels to let him walk without trying to make a large offer?

A lot and yes.

Whew, glad we got that out of the way. Onto other things...Just kidding. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

I think this all stems from whether or not you think there is something to the whole "closer mentality" thing. I try to bridge the gap between the stat guys and the old school guys, meaning: I think that there is a TON of merit in using stats to evaluate players rather than judging guys based on intangibles. But I do think that intangibles mean something: I like watching scrappy guys like Erstad and Eckstein, I think a guy's clubhouse presence is somewhat important, stuff like that. So I like stats, but it's comments like the last one that keep me from being accepted into the kingdom of stat guys.

All that to say, I do think there's something to the closer mentality. I don't think Scot Shields would do all that well as a full time closer. When he's on, he's just as good as K-Rod, but K-Rod has that attitude, that flair that lets him get through the 9th. I think that's why the "closer by committee" plan has failed in the past for some teams. A certain amount of cockiness is an asset when you're going out there to close a ballgame. But if you don't know whether or not it's going to be you, it's hard to develop that attitude. But is the "closer mentality" really worth $5 - 10 million per year? I find that really hard to believe.

The bottom line is that I just think K-Rod is going to be too expensive. $14 million for a guy who'll pitch maybe 65 - 70 innings is too much for a team that desperately needs to spend some more money on hitting. (I mean good hitting, not Gary Matthews Jr. hitting, if you can even call it that) Another point is that he is definitely slipping. This may be a one season thing, but his control is worse than it's ever been and he's lost 3 MPH on his fastball over the last two years or so. You always worry about some kind of tear in his shoulder with that violent pitching motion.

Lastly, I think Arredondo could step into the role. I could foresee the Angels signing a proven free agent closer for one season to really mentor this kid, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Arredondo in that role next year already. He's got great stuff, he closed in the minors, he seems to have some of that attitude (not nearly as much as Frankie, but that's tough to match); I would say his only issue is controlling his pitches. If he can improve that even a little bit, sign him up!

Actually, I don't care about any of that stuff. My buddy did some interviews of the Angels and said Frankie's a giant d-bag, so that sold me. Let him walk, I say! Wow, not so much summing up on that, but oh well. It's my blog and I can cry if I want to.

My life would be complete

Well, not quite, but that would be awesome, wouldn't it? It would be awesome for me, which shows you how much of a sci-fi/fantasy nerd I am. Or how much of a sports nut I am. Maybe both.

I finally decided to start a blog. I've been littering comment boards over at Shysterball , ESPN.com (mainly Rob Neyer's blog - Insider only), Joe Posnanski's blog, and a smattering of others. I like commenting on blogs because it gives me a sense of interaction and discussion. Then I realized that my comments were always WAY longer than anyone else's. Why? Let me tell you why (apparently I can do that on my own blog).

I'm an opinionated guy. Anyone who knows me personally can tell you that, but at this point, Craig Calcaterra (who writes Shysterball and who I have never met) could tell you that just as easily. The problem isn't that I have opinions, or even that I want to share them, but it is that I have been usurping others' forums for my own purposes (by which I mean my long-winded, multi-faceted dissertations on anything related to baseball or hockey). So here I am.

With a blog.

I am not at all sure what format this is going to take. It could run the gamut (there's a good word that's not used nearly often enough. Gamut. Reminds me of Gambit from X-Men) from a few brief comments on a linked story or blog post that I find interesting, to a rambling, semi-structured point of view that explains in detail and with some kind of research exactly what my opinion is on a certain subject. I'm leaning towards the latter, but we'll see. As for the aesthetics, right now it's probably ugly as sin, but my wonderful wife is going to help me with that.

A few relevant points about me that you will want to take notes on, in case there's an exam later, or in case you want some sort of frame of reference for my ramblings:

• I'm a follower of Christ and a family man - I have a wife, Julia, and two young sons, Ben (2) and Micah (6 months)
• I love playing baseball, watching the Angels, playing fantasy baseball, watching other teams play baseball, reading about baseball, and talking/writing about baseball in roughly that order
• I enjoy almost all sports, especially hockey, but also including college football (University of Oregon alum) and water polo (which I played for 6 years)
• I'm an accountant, which means I have to a spreadsheet ready to alt+tab onto in case my boss walks by while I'm reading about baseball on the interwebs
• I love to read, especially sci-fi fantasy books (Tolkein is my favorite, I mean "favourite," obviously) and baseball books, but I'll read anything that's interesting and well-written, so I'm always happy for suggestions
• My sentences do end at some point, although it often takes them awhile. Just be patient - I have an infatuation with dependent clauses and conjunctions (Schoolhouse Rock!)

The other stuff you'll learn as we go along, and I may learn as we go along as well. I really do hope you'll stick around. If you like baseball and good baseball discussions, I think you'll have a lot of fun here. If you just need somewhere to hang out because your girlfriend kicked you out of her blog, you are most welcome. And I almost assuredly will be making a few random posts every week about movies, books, life in general, so even if baseball's not your thing, hopefullly there will be something here for you.

Please post comments frequently and openly - mild cussing is allowed (damn and ass are okay), but other than that the only rule is to keep it civil. I invite disagreements with my point of view whenever you care to share them. As I mentioned, I love discussion, especially the intelligent kind.

"If you're dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you." First person to ID the origin of the quote gets 5 points.

Peace,

Daniel

PS For those of you who are especially baseball inclined, I recommend all of those blogs I posted above. All are excellently written and usually have some great informational nuggets of some sort.