Cards win! Cards win!. The Cardinals won game 7 of the NLCS over the Astros 5-2. This was one of the greatest LCS (both of them) to ever fall into place before our eyes. I will go in to more of that tomorrow, by doing a post on how great the LCSs were and what to expect in the World Series. Hopefully I can sneak some time to post both of those at work.

(Think of Hell Yeah Bitch! .com in the next few days as the Rosetta Stone for the computer / blog geeks to the baseball geeks.)

As you might be able to pick up from just a couple of times visiting this site, I’m a baseball fan. I’m not one of those guys that can tell you who played 2nd base and what batting average he had against left-handed relivers on tuesdays playing on astroturf, but I would like to think I know a lot about the different players around the league.

My favorite team is obviously The St. Louis Cardinals, and if I had to pick a “favorite player” would have to be Scott Rolen. After reading an article on ESPN about him today, I found out one more thing about Rolen: He’s funny. In fact he has a dry sense of humor.
When asked about is troubles with getting some hits together in the first playoff series vs the Dodgers, he replied:

It gets better. When asked about how important it was for the Cardinals to win the first game in the League Championship Series he stated:

Scott Rolen, more humorous that one would be lead to believe. That just tears it. He is definatly my favorite player in the league.

Yes, I’m going into “baseball mode”…prepare yourselves!

First off, if you missed any of the big trades, Jason Stark has a good article where he sums up the winners and losers of the trade deadline and kind of goes through what happened. Check it.

So what are the biggest impact trades that happened?

1. Nomar going to the Cubs – This is big for the Cubs, who have been really searching for a shortstop that didn’t suck ass for a long time. However, Nomar is been highly over rated in the last few years. He has shown himself to be a whinny bitch and his production has been down more and more the last few years. Not only that, but the defense has never been this bad. The Red Sox however, get Orlando Cabera, who is still a mystery. He could be great under the Boston pressure or he could be crushed. (If that happens: long live the “Pokey” era!) The Red Sox also got a good first baseman, with something to prove in Doug Mientkiewicz…oh yeah, they got Dave Roberts too, who can be usefull at times and is surprisingly fast.

2. All the new Marlins – The Marlins really pulled this one off. They filled every hole they had. Jason Stark goes over this very well in his article, and I agree with him fully, so I won’t repeat him. This is just a great job over a few trades…I mean, they stole Lo Duca, the central player of the Dodgers, for nothing.

3. The Dodgers and the Yankees – These deals that these teams did was an impact in the other direction. The Dodgers made prelim deals without checking on whether or not the players they really wanted, wanted them (i.e. Randy Johnson and Charles Johnson). They traded some good players to get some spare parts, none of them are impact players, and never got the players they really wanted. Ouch.. Paul Depodesta looks kinda foolish right now. He is smarter than this, and we may see something happen at the real dealine for the waiver trades before we can really write him off.
The Yankees seemingly made a deal just to make one. They are no better than they were before. Actually, they might be worse. I have never had that much faith in Estaban Lozia. But apparently Brian Cashman does.

There are more trades that I would love to discuss, and I might later on this weekend. But I need to get going. However, some final comments:

- I can’t believe that after all that “No, he is our future!” talk, the Mets trade Kazmir at seemingly, the drop of a hat to the Devil Rays.

- For all my friends: I told you that Randy Johnson would still be a Diamondback by now!

- Theo Epstein did a bang up job helping his defesivly retarded team and clearing up some future off season messes.

- Go see the Manchurian Canidate. It was great!

Randy Johnson just threw his 4,000th strikeout! That makes him just the fourth pitcher in Major League Baseball history to get to 4,000. Not only that, but Johnson is also the fastest pitcher ever to get to 4,000, and in my opinion, he could easily move up to second place on the all-time list within the next few years (if his knees hold out).

Editor’s Note:I know this isn’t about tech, but its about my other love: Baseball. I’m actually thinking about getting into more baseball talk on this site or do another completly seperate site all about baseball news and views. Any views on that? Anyone into baseball too? Just checking.

The Pistons Win The Finals 4 games to 1
I don’t even like basketball, but this was pretty fun to watch.

Thats all. I told you I don’t like basketball, so I really don’t have much to say about it.

I kinda saw this coming, but I never wanted my beloved baseball to acutally fall into the dark pit created by the money-grubbing advertisers of the world.

I guess it could be worse than it is, but it still sucks. Also, this move just has Bud “In My Opinion, The Worst Modern Commissioner” Selig’s stink all over it. This is why he should get the boot, and let former commissioner, and one of my favorties, Fay Vincent, take over until George W. Bush is done being President and he can take over. (If you think I’m crazy about “W” being commissioner…well, he is a former part-owner and I saw interview with “W” by Bob Costas, and “W” knows what he is talking about, trust me!)
Oh yeah, speaking of Fay Vincent, here is how he sounded off on the issue:

I miss you Mr. Vincent, you were are great commissioner!
Everyone should go read his book, The Last Commissioner : A Baseball Valentine

Source: ESPN.com | The tangled web of sports and advertising

Now that baseball has started for the 2004 season (even if it was in Japan!), there are many questions that will be answered this season.

1. Will the Cubs / Rex Sox finally break the curse?
Simple version: The Cubs probably won’t, and the Red Sox will. From the very begining of the season I have been a firm believer in the Red Sox this season and the Yankees’ preformance in the first game of the season have shown that I was right about even the Yankees’ having some holes to fill (ie LEFT HANDED PITCHING and defense!!!) So this is the time for the Red Sox to shine. The Cubs on the other hand seem on the surface to have be the favorite to win the Central and the Nation League but they aren’t perfect either. On top of that, Prior won’t be starting until at least May 1st and I believe that if this is as serious an injury as it seems then there will be a good chance that he will be off-kilter all year. Prior holds that team together, he is their ace, and no matter how good Kerry Wood pitches they won’t be able to replace Prior’s presence on the mound. That and the difficultly of the Central division will wear on the Cubs. They won’t break the curse.

2. Will steroids taint this whole season?
Oh yeah. Every time anyone does anything, good or bad, people will think steriods. It won’t ruin the season, baseball is just that good of a game, but it will be a dark cloud until this is settled. A few stars should go down and the testing will settle in and then everything will be fine again.

3. How will Alex Rodrigez do at third base?
Great. I have no doubts that after this initial year of change over he will just might take a few gold gloves home and then go to the Hall of Fame. Now being in the same league as Eric Chavez will keep him from getting a few or any Gold Gloves and since 3B isn’t as flashy as SS that will hamper his limelight a bit, but he won’t hurt the Yankees one bit.

4. Will Barry Bonds keep it up with the HRs this year?
Who knows. If he is on steriods then he might not hit as many if he stops this year or he could just be working out like crazy and still hit pretty well. But either way this will be true eventually: When you start off small and get big, your joints start to fall apart after a while and Barry isn’t getting any younger. It happened to McGuire and it will happen to Bonds.

5. Where the hell will the Expos go to?
Good question. I don’t think anyone knows, and I don’t think it will be settled during this season. They will put it off till the All-Star Break then Selig will not want to make a decision because it might take away from the action on the field. ..so expect it to be resolved by next seaon. I personally think Portland is the place to go for the team, but at the same time most of the people over at ESPN believe Las Vegas will be their landing spot and sadly I agree with them. So basically I think Portland is where they should be, Las Vegas is where they will be, and Washing D.C. and Mexico/Puerto Rico are both long shots to land the team.

Thats all the baseball for now, be sure to check out my Pre-Season Baseball Picks over in my forums.

Well if anyone has nothing to do this morning at 4 AM (CST) then switch on ESPN to see Major League Baseball’s 2004 Opening Day! Are some of you thinking: “Why the hell would the first offical pitch of the MLB season be on at 4 AM?” Good question! Here is the answer: The brain trust at MLB decided to start the season off in Japan! America’s past time in Japan! Screw that!

I wouldn’t be as upset if this was a game between the Devil Rays(who acutally are playing in the game) and the Tigers…but the Yankees vs Devil Rays! All winter everyone has been talking about the A-Rod trade and do we get to see him take his first offical pitch as a Yankee or take his first ground ball at thrid base (or more likely…first error as a Yankee) You know what! I wouldn’t be less pissed off if there were different circumstances…this sucks!

OK thats why I’m pissed but the players should be pissed off too. Now, I’m not one to feel sorry for the highest paid, snotts of the baseball world…but the Yanks and Rays got a raw deal on this one. By this I mean they have to fly to Japan, (start the season) play 2 games, fly back to Flordia, play a few more spring trainging games, then start the season again against the Tigers. Jayson Stark of ESPN.com agrees with me and wrote this that states this point better than me, so you can read it from them.

Ok, Spring Training is upon us. So after calling the Marlin’s for the World Series at the start of last year’s playoffs, I have decided to post my picks for the final standings in each division. I will ammend my picks at the All-Star Beak and then make predictions on the play-offs later on. Sound like fun? If you don’t like my pics, then you can go to hell…or you can view my picks and reply in the forums and tell me why I’m wrong about your team or why I’m a freaking genius.

Check the picks (and debate them if you want to)

American League:
EAST-
1. Boston:
“Their line up, lacks slightly compared to New York, but they have a dynamite rotation.”

2. New York:
“A-Rod + same dominate line-up + better bullpen – Left-handed Starting pitching = Wild Card, but NOT the division over Boston.”

3. Toronto:
“A lot of people discount Toronto…you won’t find one in me.”

4. Baltimore:
“A lot of transactions, but if Javy Lopez is a fluke and the fact that Palmerio isn’t getting any younger, make this team all about Tejeda (the worst out of the big 4 AL shortstops.).”

5. Tampa Bay:
“This team is making leaps and bounds in the right direction…too bad they play in a very hard division.”

CENTRAL-
1. Kansas City:
“This team is going for it…they improved greatly and they still have Tony Pena. I hope their rotation holds out.”

2. Minnesota:
“They are trying to be the central division Oakland A’s once again with a cheap team…but they don’t have the rotation (after trading Milton) and Joe Nathan as a closer is a big question mark.”

3. Chicago:
“Ordonez is their man this year. Frank Thomas is a null-factor this year. To get anywhere they need Cy Young preformances out of Loazia again this year, and Billy Koch needs to snap out of it.”

4. Cleveland:
“This team WILL be a number one team within the next year or two. I have them at #4 but with a few additions this team could be next year’s Marlins.”

5. Detroit:
“Just like Balitmore, sounds like a big improvement with Free Agents, but really they just got I-Rod and no matter how good he still is with these young pitchers, he can’t throw the ball for them.”

WEST (the log-jam division)-
1. Oakland:
“They have some questions with their young players brought up to fill holes (SS) but you can’t deny the pitching staff they have there. Also: I hope the contract stuff doesn’t get in way of Chavez’s play.”

2. Anaheim:
“They made some good additions and recharged this team. I feel like they might have put too much stock in getting Latin players as opposed to getting the best players though (Colon). However, if Guerrero’s back stays healthy, they have a chance.”

3. Seattle:
“They made some good additions, but without some good years out of Garcia and others, they could fall into the same pit they did last year.”

4. Texas:
“Congrats on finally getting someone to take A-Rod (and his paycheck) off your hands (now you just need to get the arbitration bound Soriano out of there too.). You can begin that rebuilding process, but we won’t see this team out of the basement for a while.”

Nation League:
EAST (I’m doubting the Braves…I understand I might get burned for this.)-
1. Flordia:
“They lost Lee and I-Rod, but they still have that great, young pitching staff (AJ Burnett might be back) and they haven’t lost any of that speed. Pitching and speed got them to champs last year, and it might do it again this year.”

2. Philadelphia:
“They fine-tuned a good club of last year, for the run at the big prize this year. Burrell has to step up this year and everyone (especially Wagner) needs to stay healthy. They have a good chance at this division or the wild-card.”

3. Atlanta:
“JD Drew /= Sheffield, Noone = Maddux’s leadership….they just won’t be able to make up the run support they got last year. They will have to go back to the great pitching of Braves teams of before, but can they even do that? Its going to take a lot of Bobby Cox magic to get this team through and keep the streak alive.”

4. Montreal:
“First things first…find a place to play. Then worry about winning games wherever that may be. Its not fair what MLB is doing to this club.”

CENTRAL-
1. Cubs:
“What can I say…they have a killer rotation and they line-up (and bench) has been improved from last year. With Corey Patterson back, and looking good, and Sosa doesn’t expect anymore cork to fly about this season…this is the team to beat (on paper).

2. Cardinals:
“I know that everyone has projected them as a 3 place team but they line-up that is still one of the best in the league and the bullpen has be GREATLY imporved. The only real question is the rotation. But everyone needs to remember that with this line-up (or hell, just Pujols) these pitchers don’t need to have no-no’s every night, they just need to eat innings and stay in the game.”

3. Houston:
“Clemons and Pettit! Yeah, they are nice additions, but what else did they add? Nothing. I have to assume that this is still basically the same team that gets close and falls apart year after year in September.”

4. Cincinnati:
“They could have maybe played spoiler this year for a division race or the wild card if it wasn’t for the fire sale that took place last October.”

5. Pittsburgh:
“You know your team is already looking bad when you haggle and finally get your hands on Raul Mondesi as your prize free agent grab this year.”

6. Milwaukee:
“They are trying…moving Sexton was a good move to get some young blood. They have a long way to go though.”

WEST-
1. San Francisco:
“Alou and Saben have found ways to win last year, I’m not going to doubt them now. And until something with the steriods issues happens either way, this rule will stand: ‘When Barry Bonds is in your line-up, you have a chance.’”

2. San Diego:
“Brian Cashman knew when to spend the money. They put together some good peices, but can they handle the pressure of needing to win in their new ballpark in order to pay for their own salaries?”

3. Colorado:
“Moving Shawn Chacon to the closer role in order to clone Gagne is a nice idea (and might work) but this team needs more than that to compete.”

4. Arizona:
“Roberto Alomar? No. Richie Sexton? Yes. This team is going to have a ‘wait-and-see’ look all year long.”

5. Los Angeles:
“They just haven’t proven to me they have a line-up that can produce runs. Plus, they lost Kevin Brown.”