Author: Vin

Vin is a Philly boy who shouldn't be invited into your house because he'll judge you on your book and music collection. He owns Dawkins, Utley, Iverson, and Lindros jerseys, which is all you really need to know about him. He can be reached at [email protected].

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MLB General

MLB Cost Index for April 9 2007



Larry Beinfest’s idea of a bonus

It might be a little too early to start worrying about these things but here’s the first MLB Cost Index of the 2007 season. The MLB Cost Index is one measure of how well your GM did over the course of the offseason and during the season. The Index takes a look at the payrolls for each team and calculates a Cost per Win number. Pretty simple stuff right? But in the wide open world of baseball with no salary cap, it’s the best way we can think of to judge teams on a level (monetary) playing field.

Now, on to the analysis…

The Marlins pick up where they left off last season with a #1 ranking in the Cost Index. The other big suprise is the Pittsburgh Pirates with their four wins and $38M payroll. Meanwhile, the Yankees and Red Sox are always at the bottom of these rankings become of their astronomical payrolls. However, in the early going, they aren’t in the cellar yet, mainly because of the horrendous opening week posted by the Astros, Phillies, and Giants.

The full list of clubs and cost/win after the jump.

Continue reading “MLB Cost Index for April 9 2007”

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MLB General

2007 MLB Payrolls


[ 2008 Payrolls are here ]

Another year, another summer of Yankees vs Red Sox in the accounting ledger. Once again, these two teams top Major League Baseball payroll rankings. The Yankees actually dropped a few million in payroll while the Red Sox added a staggering $23M to catch up to the Bronx Bombers. ($195.2 vs $143.5) For perspective, the entire Devil Rays payroll is only $24M this year. Next time any Red Sox fans start talking about the Yankees being the Evil Empire, tell them Boston is just Evil Empire North.

Outside of the Red Sox, the Orioles added the most in payroll this year with an additional $22.5M. Their $95M 2007 payroll puts the Orioles at #10 on the list. Total payroll for baseball is $2.5B with the top 10 teams accounting for nearly half of that number. The Nationals are expected to be the worst team in the majors this year and they trimmed a cool $23M off their payroll from 2006. They still are above the Devil Rays and Marlins though, the perennial K-marts of MLB.

The entire 2007 MLB payrolls after the jump.

Continue reading “2007 MLB Payrolls”

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All Other Sports

Everyone agrees: Colin Cowherd is a douchebag


We know how boring it is when bloggers talk about other bloggers (the staggering amounts of circle jerking in the blogosphere is vomit inducing ) but this is a special case because it involves ESPN.

It’s not often that bloggers agree on things but everyone is in universal agreement that Colin Cowherd is a complete tool. (Remember, this is the professional who stole content from a blog and didn’t bother to credit them.) In case you missed it last week, Cowherd told his listeners to take down TheBigLead.com by having everyone log onto thebiglead all at the same time (audio here). Well, it worked and TBL was down for about two days.

The outrage about Cowherd’s junior high level antics forced the ESPN ombudsman to address the issue in her latest column:


The official response from ESPN’s communication department was: “Our airwaves should not be used for this purpose. We apologize.” It is the kind of bland public statement that does little to assuage the anger and distrust of ESPN’s audience over an episode like this. I could not tell from that statement how seriously ESPN regarded the offense, so I contacted Traug Keller, senior vice president, ESPN Radio, to get a clearer idea of ESPN’s reaction.

Keller responded immediately to my request for an on-the-record statement. “We talked to Colin Cowherd, and we talked to all our radio talent, making it clear that you cannot do this,” Keller said Friday. “Our airwaves are a trust, and not to be used to hurt anyone’s business. Such attacks are off limits. Zero tolerance. I can’t say it any stronger.”

Keller said that he had not formulated a policy about such attacks on Internet sites until now because he had never imagined the possibility of them.

How sad is it that a behemoth like ESPN has to tell their employees that knocking out tiny mom and pop level outlets isn’t cool. Now, if they had taken down one of the shittier sites, we probably wouldn’t care but they took down one of the better sports blogs. However, there is a silver lining for this. The Big Lead wouldn’t have been able to buy this kind of publicity; so in a way, Cowherd did them a favor. Still, Cowherd better get used to his name and douchebag being linked together on google.

Links:
[The Big Lead]: Do it Again and the Kitten Dies

Categories
Golf

You almost had us Zach Johnson


Even though we root for Tiger Woods for every tournament, as soon as Tiger hit the drink on 15, we accepted and were almost happy that Zach Johnson, underdog, was going to win the thing. But then a funny thing happened: Zach Johnson pulled out his Jesus card.


Being Easter, my faith is very important to me.
I felt Jesus, I felt my grandfather, my family, everybody. So it was awesome.
…
Regardless of what happened today, my responsibility was to glorify God. Hopefully I did.

Jesus is totally awesome. Now we know this plays well in a lot of states around the country but athletes need to give it a rest already. Jesus didn’t help you win the Masters or the Super Bowl or anything else. Jesus doesn’t hate Tiger Woods. Look, you can believe whatever you want to believe, but the Masters is no place for your proselytizing.

Plus, wasn’t Jesus already busy considering it was Easter?

Links:
[Metronews Canada]: Winning on Easter makes Masters more special for Zach Johnson

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Slump Busters


1. One Man Show: When a stud like David Ortiz struggles the first week, you know he’s going to break out eventually. He did so yesterday as the Red Sox topped the Rangers 3-2 on Sunday Night Baseball. Ortiz hit his first two homeruns of the season, which drove in all three runs by the Sox. He got no help from his teammates in the win, as more than half their lineup went o-fer. At least Curt Schilling was able to return to his usual self after a poor first start. Schilling had one earned run in seven innings.

2. Return of the King: David Ortiz wasn’t the only star to break out of a slump yesterday. Albert Pujols had no RBIs, homeruns, or runs through five games and just one hit. But yesterday, he went 2-5 against the Astros with a homer and two RBIs. The rest of the Cardinals’ team performed too in a 10-1 rout. Scott Rolen drove in four runs, Yadier Molina had three hits and three RBIs, and starter Kip Wells allowed one hit in seven innings. The Astros are now 1-5, while the Cards aren’t much better at 2-4.

3. Losing to the Worst: The Yankees weren’t dealt the toughest opening schedule with the Devil Rays and Orioles. However, they have struggled with both teams in a 2-3 start. Yesterday, New York lost 6-4 to Baltimore despite A-Rod’s continued dominance. Rodriguez hit his fourth homerun of the season, but the O’s got round-trippers from Paul Bako and Kevin Millar. For Bako, it was his first homer since 2004. Erik Bedard rebounded from a poor first start to get the win for Baltimore.

Player of the Day: Johan Santana, Twins: 7 innings, 1 hit, no runs, 9 strikeouts in a win over the White Sox.

Stat of the Day: No Yankees starter has made it past the fifth inning this season.

Walk Off: Though the Mets were virtually handed the division in pre-season predictions, the Braves will prove once again to be a strong contender in the NL East. They just beat the Mets 2-1 in a series despite being outscored 16-7. That means the Braves’ pitching is back where it needs to be for them to be successful. Their relievers have been even better than expected, and Bob Wickman has three saves and a 0.00 ERA in the closer role.

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Chicago Bears

Devin Hester will get a perfect 100 rating in Madden 08


From our friends over at WBRS sports comes this little tidbit for all you Madden heads. Devin Hester will get a perfect 100 rating in the speed category in Madden 08. No one has ever gotten this before. Not DeAngelo Hall, not Michael Bennett, not Champ Bailey, not even Deion.

That’s just about the best thing you could have told me,” Hester said with a huge smile, when informed of his new Speed rating. “It’s an honor — I don’t know what to say, really.

Considering all the time that NFL players spend playing Madden, we’re sure he’s completely sincere. (It certainly beats being Ethan Albright.) Hester is probably hoping though that he doesn’t make the cover of Madden 08 so he can avoid the curse. Our money says that Peyton Manning will be on the new cover of ’08.

By the way, we found this great website of custom Madden covers that you can download and print. What a great way to jinx your most hated team.

Links:
[WBRS Sports]: As Fast As Tecmo Bo?

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Why isn’t there more coverage of Dice-K?


1. Dice-K’s Debut: In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past day, you would have likely heard how Daisuke Matsuzaka dominated in his debut. On a slow day for baseball, his dominant performance of the hopeless Royals was easily the most important occurrence. Dice-K struck out seven different Royals for a total of 10 K’s, just giving up a solo homerun to David DeJesus in the Red Sox’s 4-1 win. Jonathan Papelbon appeared in his first game of the year and was perfect for the save. The Royals wasted a good pitching performance of their own by Zack Greinke, who had one earned run and will be a breakout performer this season.

2. Piazza comes through: Oakland lost Frank Thomas in the offseason but was able to fill their DH role with Mike Piazza. It seemed like a good idea for the team and the former catcher, and it paid off last night. With the Angels-A’s game tied 3-3 in the ninth, Piazza hit a solo, game-winning shot off All-Star closer Francisco Rodriguez. The homer was Piazza’s first of the season and gave the Angels their first loss of the year. His 3-5 performance lifted his broke him out of a 1-12 slump to start the season.

3. Six times the payroll, still a loss: The New York Yankees’ $185 million payroll dwarfs the $24 million of the Devil Rays. Still, the D-Rays managed to expose the Yanks’ biggest weakness–the bullpen. The registered six hits and three runs off Yankees relievers including the game-winner in the eighth off a wild pitch. Veteran reliever Al Reyes provided the save for Tampa, who is looking for any productivity out of their closer position.

Player of the Day: Mike Piazza, A’s: 3-5 with the game-winning HR to beat the Angels 4-3.

Walk Off: Though Dice-K’s debut was impressive, don’t get too excited about him yet. His first major league start came against the Royals, who have one of the worst lineups in baseball. Also, none of them had ever played against him before, which obviously made it harder to adjust to Matsuzaka’s unique array of pitches. I think he’ll be a solid pitcher, just not a Cy Young-worthy one.

Categories
General Sports

Vote for April’s Woman We Love

Well folks, Grace Park has been added to the list of women we love, it’s time to pick the next one. Here are 7 nominees for this month.

– Adrianne Palicki from Friday Night Lights

– Colbie Smulders from How I Met Your Mother
– Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy
– Marisol Nichols from 24
– Minka Kelly from Friday Night Lights

– Rose McGowan

– Winona Ryder

Vote Now

Categories
General Sports

Grace Park is March’s Woman We Love


In the end, the vote wasn’t even close. Grace Park won by a landslide over all the March nominees. Partly because she is smoking hot in her Maxim photo shoot, partly because of all the Battlestar Galactica geeks who voted for her. In any case, we say, fine, fine choice.

Categories
All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: Help a fat man run the Boston Marathon


We’ve got a weird ebay auction for you today. The first is a fat guy who is going to run the Boston Marathon for charity. He is not officially entered in the marathon but will run behind as a “bandit”. If he can’t finish the marathon, the winning bidder can put any tattoo on his back.

OK, this guy weighs 438 pounds and has 3 months to prepare. You know what the chances of him finishing the marathon are? None. Slim was never even in the building. This auction benefits the American Cancer Society but we’re not sure how good the press is going to be when this guy drops dead after 2 miles.

In other news…

[Chicago Tribune]: The Blackhawks can’t even give tickets away

[Can’t Stop the Bleeding]: Yankees minor league mascot busted for soliciting a 14-year-old boy for sex. How did Chris Hanson miss this opportunity?

[The Good Phight]: Protection: What the numbers say

[MLB Fanhouse]: Dontrelle Willis and Friends Made It Rain in Spring Training

[NBA.com]: Chinese nicknames for NBA players