MLB Trade Deadline

First off, screw you Ryan Braun.  I hope your balls fall off.  Braun tried so hard to tell us all he was innocent, but of course he wasn't.  Meanwhile, children in Milwaukee are sad and Braun goes right back to his $100MM contract next season.  At least it happened to Wisconsin.  If someone deserves this, it's them.  I enjoy that MLBers like Skip Schumaker and Jesse Crain are getting sick of the cheaters and are coming out and speaking against it.

It seems like there are a lot of veterans that are on the block this year as we approach the trade deadline.  The increase in potential activity is probably due to some close races in divisions as well as the addition of the second wild-card.  Here are some dudes that might be on the move.

@mike_olt

Matt Garza - Well, I was so lazy writing this that Garza already got traded to the Rangers.  The Cubs receive Mike Olt, Justin Grimm and CJ Edwards as well as 1 or 2 players to be named later.  It's only 1 if they choose Neil Ramirez.  Mike Olt was the #22 prospect at the beginning of the year according to Baseball America.  He's 24 and has struggled at AAA after mashing AA the year prior.  He was dealing with some weird eye thing which could have contributed to the suck.  He's a solid defender at 3B.  Grimm is a starter that's been poor in 17 starts for the Rangers, but was a top 10 prospect for them and has mid rotation potential.  Edwards is 21 and is ripping up class A ball with a 1.83 ERA over 93 IP. 

Alfonso Soriano - It sounds like if I don't type fast enough today Soriano will be a Yankee by the time I post.  A deal requires Soriano to waive a no-trade clause.  Also, the Cubs will be paying quite a bit of the remaining $24.9MM owed to him.  The Yankees would be sending a minor league relief prospect like Chase Whitley and/or Tommy Kahnle.  Soriano is hitting .256 with a .286 OBP, but does have 17 homers.  He has a 1.2 WAR so far this year.  Vernon Wells, the player he would likely replace, has a 0.0 WAR. 

Jake Peavy - With Garza gone, Peavy is the next mostly heavily talked about pitcher available.  The 32 year old just returned from a stint on the DL due to a rib injury.  He has a 4.19 ERA, but advanced stats show he's had a bit of bad luck out there.  (xFIP 3.65)  He's still striking out 8.5/9 and walking just 1.85/9.  The Red Sox seems to be the hottest after Peavy and they could definitely use him.    Peavy is due $29MM over the next two years.  The Giants, Rockies and D-Backs have also shown some interest.  Peavy should garner a Garza-esque package.  Especially since he's under control for two years, where Garza is a free agent after this season.

Justin Morneau - Jon Heyman wrote that teams are "soft" on the idea of trading for Morneau.  The Pirates and Yankees were the most rumored over the last week.  You would think Morneau could see a spike of production in a new environment that isn't Target Field, but his home/road splits show that he's actually worlds better at home.  He hits 320/368/521 with 6 of his 7 homers at home; he's a miserable 222/294/284 hitter on the road.  Maybe teams have cooled because they googled some Morneau splits and don't want to pay the last $6MM of Morneau's 6yr/80MM deal for that type of production.

While there has been a lot of speculation about Justin Morneau and other Twins, rivals haven’t sensed a big push from MIN to make deals.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 21, 2013

Aramis Ramirez - Aramis is on the DL, but teams are still showing interest.  In fact, he probably won't even be off the DL before the deadline.  However, his $16MM price tag this year means that he would likely clear waivers and could be moved in August when he returns.  Both the Red Sox and Yankees have a need at 3B that might make Ramirez a good fit.

Michael Young - The Phillies aren't sure whether they should be buyers or sellers.  They're just 7.0 games behind the Braves despite being a game under .500 and they've won 6 of 10 recently.  They actually have a better record than the pre-season darling Washington Nationals.  For now, they're saying Young isn't available -- again, the Yankees and Red Sox have interest.  This is a case where the two wildcard system is likely keeping someone from selling.

Yovani Gallardo - Let's face it, the Brewers might as well punt now that Braun is out for the year and Gallardo is another name that is drawing some interest.  Gallardo isn't doing the Brewers any favors though by pitching like crap.

Not sensing a lot of enthusiasm over Yovani Gallardo despite 6.1 shutout IP last night. Two execs who were there called him a "4-5 starter"
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 21, 2013

Francisco Rodriguez - Lots of teams are after K-Rod, notably the Tigers, Red Sox and Dodgers.  The Tigers would possibly plug him in at closer.  He stills throws it at 93-94mph and has that sick slider.  His contract is a palatable $2.25 with some games played incentives.  Huston Street is a name that has come up for reliever-seekers as well. Althought a lot of Tigers fans seem to not want him:

Tigers interested in Huston Street. Because they lay up at night wondering how to screw up their bullpen."How can we waste Benoit again?"
— Patrick DiCaprio (@pdicaprioFP911) July 22, 2013

Jason Kubel - There are mild rumors out there about Kubel being moved; he's another guy that has played poorly this year and is hurting his trade value.  Unlike Morneau, he sucks equally both at home and away.  He might be a cheaper trade alternative to Alex Rios or god forgive me, Nate Schierholtz.  A mid-level reliever might get it done as AZ has stated they're looking for pitching.  The guy did hit 30 homers just a year ago.  Plus this:

Jason Kubel looks like Cheddar Bob from 8 mile
— Tyler Brown (@TBro323) July 20, 2013

Weekend Review - 10/5/2009

Wow, who would have thought we'd be sitting here still stressing about the Twins even  four days ago?  Quite the run to tie it (I think they are on a 16-4 run right now) and a little help from the Tigers and we are back to last year all over again.  That was a fun game to watch yesterday, and the cheers from the crowd when the White Sox scored and the chants of "Let's Go White Sox" were great moments.  Glad I had the chance to go.  No, I won't be in attendance on Tuesday, but I will most definitely be watching.  Let's hope we get the good Baker, not the gopher ball one.



WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  Delmon Freaking Young.  What.  The.  Hell?  I have no idea what got into him, unless it was that little bean ball/I hate Mijares incident, but whatever it is keep it going.  Delmoney absolutely destroyed Kansas City in this three game set, going 6-13 with three home runs and 10 rbi and coming up with the biggest hit of the game in both games 1 (the grand slam) and game 2 (bases clearing double off Grienke) and then knocking out two homers yesterday.  To put his production this weekend in perspective, these three games representent about 3% of the games he's played in all year and he put up 25% of his season home run total and 17% of his RBI total this weekend.  Is he finally turning it around and showing the player everyone thought he would be coming into the league, or is this nothing more than a small sample size flash?  I don't care, just do it for one more game.


2.  Jason Kubel.  If Delmoney hadn't had such a monster series, we'd be talking about Kubel who is almost as hot right now.  In the three games against KC, he went 6-13 with 3 homers and 8 rbi - the big difference is we expect this from Kubel.  His three-run bomb in the first yesterday set the tone and took a whole ton of pressure off the rest of the team, and continued a season of utter dominance as he's now up over 100 rbi and a .300 batting average.  Seriously, this batting line:  .300/.369/.535 with 27 dingers, 35 doubles, and 102 ribi is just sick.  He has a better slugging percentage than Alex Rodriguez, a better on base percentage than Johnny Damon, a better average than Mark Texeira, more homers than Evan Longoria, Justin Morneau, and Derek Jeter.  Seriously, at this point anybody bashing Kubel is either completely retarded or just running a bit, because he really and truly has had an elite hitting season this year.

3.  Jacob Edward Peavy.  This is a repeat from last week, but how can I not include him again?  A week after completely shutting down the Tigers, he did it again, going eight innings this time, and giving up just 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out five and giving up no runs.  You can read my post last week and pretty much apply the whole thing this week.  Two interesting additional thoughts about Peavy, both supplied by Snacks this week.  First, how impressed should we really be by him shutting down the Tigers twice?  As snacky-boy said, Carl Pavano did it four freaking times.  Pavano is the definition of mediocre, so perhaps it isn't time to make sweet love to Peavy just yet - although I lean towards the fact that this guy is pretty good.  Second, Peavy doesn't miss a whole lot of bats, and that isn't a desirable trait in the AL.  He only threw four pitches that batters swung and missed at tonight.  For comparison sake, Manship had nine and even Jesse Crain had two.  That's not a good thing.  If the Sidler still read this blog and wrote for it, he could probably do this better than I.


4.  B.J. Upton.  Bossman Junior has driven me crazy this year, first being my preseason pick for MVP and then proceeding to alternate between being hurt and sucking all season long, but he finally played the way I expected him to all year this weekend.  He started off by hitting for the cycle and driving in six on friday, scored two runs without getting a hit on saturday, and .  The thing that drives me and probably actual Rays' fans crazy is that he has all the tools to be an MVP candidate, but his numbers have taken an inexplicable dip this year.  Batting average from .273 to .243, OBP from .383 to .312, SLG from .401 to .376.  It's even more dramatic looking at deeper metrics, his walk rate went from 15.4% to 8.9%, his line drive % went from 19% to 15.5%, and his fly balls up are 31% to 40% and he's suddenly swing at 20% of the balls he sees outside the strike zone, where he was at just 15% last year.  Perhaps most damning is that that last year his BABIP was a ridiculous .350, and now that he's at a more normal .315 his numbers are awful.  Is the Bossman just an average player?  My eyes say no, but my brain is starting to say a solid maybe.

5.  Hakeem Nicks.  It's unfortunate that he got hurt and had to miss three games, because it's allowed Eli to get cozy and snuggly with guys like Manningham and Steve Smith which might slightly slow down his quick ascent to the #1 WR on the Giants, but it's clear he's going to be a star.  They managed to get him in the game a bit this week and he responded with a 54-yard TD catch.  Is it safe to say he's the next Randy Moss?  Yes, I think it probably is.  


WHO SUCKED

1.  Miguel Cabrera.  Obviously losing two of three to Chicago and coughing up a 2 game lead with three to play means a whole lot went wrong for the Tigers, such as scoring one total run in the first two games, but supposed MVP candidate Cabrera really forgot to show up, going 0-11 for the series.  And it's not even so much 0-11, but how many opportunities he squandered.  Game 1, first inning two runners on and 1 out - Whiff.  Fourth inning, runner on nobody out - popup.  Ninth inning, runner on nobody out - popout.  Game 2, first inning, runner on two out - popup.  Third inning, runners on 2nd & 3rd, two outs - ground out.  Sixth inning, runner on one out - strikeout.  Eighth inning, two on, 1 out - double play.  Even in game 3 he came up twice with a runner on base and failed to get a hit.  Sure, game 1 was a blowout so it didn't matter and they won game 3 anyway, but he had every opportunity to win or at least change that second game and failed to come through time and time again.  Of course, this probably just means he's due and he'll do a Jason Kubel impression to Baker on Tuesday.


2.  Clemson.  They weren't exactly a national title contender or anything, but with a kick-ass RB like C.J.  Spiller and a ranking just outside the top 25 in the preseason in like every poll it looked like they were poised for a good year.  Oops.  The losses keep piling up, and at this point the Tigers are 2-3 and suddenly look like instead of fighting for a top tier bowl they'd be lucky to make the Poulan Weedeater Bowl.  Losses to TCU, Georgia Tech, and this weekend to Maryland aren't horrible by themselves, but add them up and they haven't won a meaningful game this year.  It's always a struggle with a freshman QB, and Kyle Parker hasn't thrown a TD since September 10th, but they just keep finding ways to lose, and this week it was missed field goals - they missed two in the fourth quarter, either of which would have tied the game.  They weren't exactly chipshots at 47 and 48 yards, but kicker Rich Jackson hit a 51 yarder earlier, so you know he had the leg.  Sorry Clemson, not your year.   


3.  Dallas Cowboy Playcalling.  If you had the misfortunate of watching this crapfest I feel for you, though I had to watch it to.  At the end of the game, the Broncos had managed to suck slightly less than the Cowboys and had a 17-10 lead, but Dallas had the ball, 3rd and goal, with nine seconds left - two chances to tie the game.  So they go to Sam Hurd.  Huh?  I guess he'd be after Witten, Williams, Crayton, and Austin, but ok, maybe he had a good matchup.  Nope, he was going against Champ Bailey.  Now, Bailey may have been passed by guys like Revis and Asomugha, but he's still top shelf.  So of course, he knocked the pass away.  Then they ran THE EXACT SAME PLAY, which he again knocked away - Game Over, Broncos win.  And this wasn't Romo checking down, Hurd was the #1 option and Romo was Weber-locked on him.  The announcer also commented that Romo threw at Bailey 16 times in his 42 attempts, which, clearly, didn't work (Bailey had four pass deflections and an INT, and I'd love to see the overall results of those attempts).  Just an absolutely bizarre strategy.  

4.  Oakland Raiders Rushing.  So much for the three-headed monster (McFadden, Bush, Fargas).  Well, it could be a three-headed monster if the monster was a pile of crap with pipe cleaners sticking out and cotton balls and googly eyes for the three heads, but it certainly ain't some kind of real monster after Sunday's output.  Fargas was the star, gaining a whole 24 yards and 10 carries, while Michael Bush got 10 and McFadden carried six times for -3 yards.  Darrius Heyward-Bay was the team's second leading rusher thanks to a 20 yard reverse.  The Raiders gained 45 total yards on the ground agains the Texans, who ranked as the NFL's worst defense and were allowing 205 rushing yards per game to their opponents before Sunday.  Of course, this could be more of a Jamarcus Russell thing than a RB thing, since the Texans stacked the line and dared Russell to beat them - which he didn't, completing just 12 of 33 attempts for 128 yards.  Holy god is that guy terrible.

5.  Gopher football.  I didn't watch the game because I was busy doing I'm not really sure what, but seeing as how they lost at home to Wisconsin in a game in which they were favored, I'm going to assume they sucked.  No doubt either the Daily Gopher or the Gopher Football Blog has slightly more detailed information if that's your sort of thing.

Weekend Review - 9/28/2009

Obviously I survived our little cookout yesterday with Dawger, Super Sioux Fan, and Baby Dawger, and I had a shockingly good time.  Super Sioux Fan didn't try to kill me (to my knowledge), we ate some good food, watched a hell of a win by the Vikes and a predictable loss by the Twins, I beat Dawger in HORSE, and learned that Vodka & Tab is actually pretty damn good.  The day ended with hugs for all and by all, and I don't know which was scarier, when SSF hugged me, or when she hugged Wonderbaby^TM.  Luckily, she decided not to kill either of us this time.  Narrowly averted death, or grossly overestimated SSF craziness?  I'll let you decide.  Anyway, on to the stupid crap.


WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  Jacob Edward Peavy.  Great googily-moogily, how much does it suck that this guy is going to be in the AL Central until like, 2012 or something?  In just his second start back from injury (since June 8th) he came out and completely shut down the Tigers Friday night, going seven scoreless innings allowing just six hits and striking out eight.  The Sox (well, more accurately the Twins) needed him to throw that well too, since the White Sox bats weren't working against Tigers' starter Eddie Bonine who nobody has ever heard of.  Bonine no-hit the Sox until their were 2 outs in the sixth, which is when Brandon "0 homers in the derby" Inge kicked away a routine groundball, letting Alex Rios reach.  The next batter was David Beckham, who went yahtzee for the Sox first hit and gave them the 2-0 lead - which would also be the final margin.  Anyway, this really sucks that Peavy is on the White Sox.  AL pitchers are supposed to go over to the NL and dominate, not the other way around.  It's going to be frustrating watching the Twins flail away against him.

2.  Phil Mickelson.  Well this was pretty unexpected.  I thought Mickelson was essentially done for the year after the whole double cancer issue, and his play was showing it, but he came up huge and won the Tour Championship this weekend.  He didn't have a finish in the top-25 in the five tournaments since the US Open, and started slowly this weekend with a 73 (+3) on Thursday, but he got better each day, closing it out 67-66-65, good enough for nine under par and a three shot win over a Tiger, not to mention an extra $1.35 million in the bank.  Tiger ended up the winner of the $10 mil and the Fed Ex Cup, but this is a good win for Phil not only to build on, but to remind everybody that he's still the second best golfer in the world.  I'm thinking 2010 might end up being a big year for him.  


3.  South Florida.  Huge win over #18 Florida State on Saturday in Tallahassee, fueled by two major parts - QB B.J. Daniels and their defense, particularly the defensive line.  The Bulls defense held the Seminoles to just 7 points and 16 rushing yards in their 17-7 upset, while sacking FSU QB Christian Ponder five times, forcing (and recovering) four fumbles, and putting so much pressure on the QB that FSU had to abandon anything down field.  Daniels is an even better story - making his first career start, replacing four-year starter Matt Grothe who is now out for the season with an injury.  Not only that, the Seminoles recruited Daniels but told him they wanted him as a WR, not as a QB, but he certainly showed them, tossing for 215 yards and 2 scores while rushing for 124 yards.  It was the first time since 1986 FSU as allowed an opposing QB to run for over 100 yards, and is the first win over Florida's big three schools for the Bulls.  I have a feeling they had a good time that night.

4.  Zack Greinke.  Seeing as the Twins' were fortunate enough to miss Mr. Greinke all season long, I never really got to see him pitch.  Now that I have, holy dear god.  This guy is ridiculous.  His fastball is in the upper mid-nineties and tails about a foot, his curve falls off a cliff, and his change had guys lunging like Cuddyer after a slider in the dirt, but I'm talkiing good hitters like Kubel and Span.  He shut down the Twins Sunday, and his season numbers are now a 16-8 record, a 2.06 ERA, and a 1.07 WHIP, and he's either first or second in every meaningful pitching category.  Honestly, him losing the Cy Young might be a bigger travesty than Mauer losing the MVP.  This one is a true test of how stupid award voters are, which makes me very nervous for Greinke.  Here's hoping they make the right choice.  Oh, and just for kicks, his ERA in September is 0.35.  No lie.

5.  Greg Lewis.  That catch was sick.  Absolutely gorgeous.  I'll admit, when the Vikes picked up Lewis my reaction was to make a dismissive wanking motion, but it turns out I was dead wrong.  Favre is the hero here, no doubt, for a great play on that finale as well as for leading the team on the game winning drive - one which T-Jax couldn't have pulled off - but if Lewis doesn't make that ridiculous catch that's the ball game, the Vikes are 2-1, and everybody is freaking out and wondering if the team sucks now.  And speaking of sucks, it really sucks that Frank Gore is hurt.  Not just because he is on my fantasy team either.  Ok just kidding.  That's pretty much the whole reason.

Here is Lewis's catch.  If you haven't seen it, you need to watch it.  If you have, are you telling me you don't want to see it again?


WHO SUCKED

1.  Ole Miss.  I had no idea Ole Miss was ranked #4 in football.  I thought the only time they were good was when Eli Manning was slinging the pill all those years back and that they had faded back into mediocrity.  Apparently not so, but they may be heading that way after laying an absolute egg and losing 16-10 to the unranked Gamecocks of South Carolina on Thursday.  After looking into it, it turns out that this is the highest ranking the Rebels have had since 1970, and also that their QB, Jevan Snead is thought of as one of the best QBs in college football.  He certainly didn't play like it, putting up a Jake Delhomme of a day, completing just 7 of 21 passes for the game and leading the Rebs on a drive of more than 49 yards just once.  Oh well, another top 5 teams bites it.  Maybe this will help get a non-BCS team like Boise into the championship game.  Plus, I finally get to post this picture of Ole Miss chicks I've been holding onto.

2.  Cal.  Yikers, there isn't a font big enough to post this OOF, an embarrassing, emasculating, and disembowling loss 42-3 against the terrible Oregon Ducks.  The Bears scored first, going up 3-0, but the the Ducks reeled of 42 unanswered on their way to gaining more than double the yards of Cal.  Jahvid Best, who you probably remember shredding the Gophers, gained just 65 yards.  What's weird is that Cal didn't really even turn the ball over - just one fumble - they just couldn't do anything.  They had the ball 14 times and couldn't muster a single drive over 50 yards; the only reason they even scored was because Oregon fumbled the opening kickoff.  Just wow.  Just a horrid performance on both sides of the ball.      

3.  Tampa Bay.  Guess how many yards Tampa Bay gained Sunday against the Giants.  Nevermind, it's impossible to even guess - it's 86.  86 yards.  Eighty-six.  And that's the entire game, mind you, not just a half or a quarter or a drive.  Byron Leftwich, Tampa's QB and the guy I just picked up to be my backup QB, completed just seven of 16 attemps, for a huge total of 22 yards and a pick before being pulled for Josh Johnson who I have never heard of.  Johnson was much more effective, completing four of ten for 36 yards, and also rushing once for a gain of 15.  Funny thing about that 15 yard gain is that it made Johnson the leading rusher for the Bucs on the day.  That vaunted three-headed monster at RB of Earnest Graham, Cadillac Williams, and Derrick Ward racked up a grand total of 13 yards, with Caddy leading the way with eight.  Needless to say, they scored 0 points and are starting to look like they're going to give the Rams, Browns, and Raiders a run for that first overall pick in 2010, or as I like to call it, "The Sam Bradford Sweepstakes."  

4.  Jamarcus Russell.  Remember when the Raiders took Russell first overall in the 2007 draft and everybody was like "Dude, what?  This guy isn't a first overall type.  There's way better guys like, oh, say Adrian Peterson available.  If you really need a QB, trade down and take Brady Quinn at least.  Good god, you're not really going to take J-Russ first are you?"  Well, it keeps looking more and more like everybody was right.  Russell laid his latest bomb on Sunday, completing 12-21 passes for a grand total of 61 yards (and 2 picks).  That's five yards per completion.  Five.  I don't even know how that is possible.  I wish I would have watched this game.  Was it a series of shovel passes?  Failed screen after failed screen?  I'm stumped.  That gave him a QB rating of 22.6, which will really drag down his season rating of 46.6 coming into the game.  The best part?  He's making north of $16 million this year.  Awesome.   

5.  Francisco Liriano.  Let's just go ahead and shut it down guys, it's over for Franky.  In case you missed it, he decided he didn't even want to get out of the second inning against KC on Sunday, mainly because he once again refused to throw strikes and when he did people like frickin' Yuniesky Betancourt hit it eight billion miles.  He needs to work his ass off this winter and figure something out, because his career is about thisclose to being over right now.  Assuming he doesn't pitch again this season (please god), his final numbers are 5-13 with an ERA of 5.88 and a WHIP of 1.56.  I don't have the time or inclination right now to get further into his numbers (Sidler, you still alive?), but things really aren't good.  He's like the Jamarcus Russell of pitchers. 


So that'll do it.  Honorable mention for sucking to Terrell Owens, who didn't have a catch yesterday because he's gay.

I am off to the Detroit City tomorrow, and will be spending two nights in the toilet bowl of america - including one night when I'll be at Comerica Park to no doubt watch the Twins lose.  For now I leave you with this awesome picture of Baby Dawger and Wonderbaby^TM.

 

DFW, Take 2

After driving around the Dallas/Fort Worth area for a second day, I realized I wasn't nearly harsh enough before about what a squalid shitbox this area really is. I want to paint a really vivid picture, but I can't come up with the words and you probably wouldn't believe me if I did (we saw a store that advertised two things - Donuts and Jewelry, we saw two guys riding horses on the side of the freeway, and at one place on a road they didn't have stop signs, they instead had painted stop lines on the ground (red lines that said STOP), and another place the stop sign was an octagonal white sign with the word STOP spray painted in green - I swear I'm not making this up).

The best I can do is read this post about Dumpster Arena in Chicago. Now imagine that arena was expanded to the size of two cities, filled with poor people, people who wear cowboy hats, poor people who wear cowboy hats, and people with obscenely large trucks that are older than dirt, and then give everybody a gun and a horse and dump a whole bunch of oppressive heat on them. That's Dallas/FW. Except it's also under construction so badly there is a giant hole in the middle of the main freeway. Anonymous's joke in the comments below is dead on accurate, and I laughed out loud. I can't wait to get out of here. Did you know at the Walgreen's here the Axe Body Spray is under lock and key? Like you have to ask someone to get it out if you want to buy it? Freaking unreal.

Luckily the night ended up pretty well. We had a nice dinner (prime rib, steak fries, and a ceasar salad with a couple vodka & tonics) and then found a Texas dive bar 0.5 miles from our hotel that had cheap booze, golden tee, pool, and alternated between twangy country and eminem. The moral of the story is I'm a little bit drunk right now and have 6.5 beers in the sink with ice that I plan to finish. Rock and roll.

- As good as the news is from Chicago with the Twins breaking their losing streak by stomping the Sox 20-1, there's bad news for Twins fans as well. It seems the Sox and the Padres have agreed to a trade which would bring super stud Jake Peavy over to Chicago, and are just waiting for Peavy to waive his no-trade clause. Reports say it's 50/50 for him, since he loves the west coast and the national league, but with the Padres sucking year-after-year and his former teammate and good friend Scott Linebrink on the Sox, I'm guessing he goes.

And the Padres are getting a pretty good haul. Reportedly it's four players, and the two confirmed already are pitcher Aaron Poreda, Chicago's #2 prospect by Baseball America and a first round pick in 2007, and another pitcher Clayton Richard, their number 3 prospect. It's unknown who the other two might be, but San Diego is looking for a shortstop and with Alexei Ramirez and #1 prospect Gordon Beckham in his way, former top prospect Brett Lillibridge would be a great get for the Padres. He was Atlanta's #6 prospect in 2008, and came over in the Javier Vazquez trade, but has been less than stellar on a pro level. A change to San Diego might do him well, and would sweeten the deal for the Padres.

Also never mind all of this, because I just saw it come across on ESPN that Peavy vetoed the deal so this is all pointless now.

- I love Mila Kunis so much. There are no words.

- Speaking of awesome, did you see that Ricky Weeks is out for the year for the Brewers with a wrist injury? Guy has been pretty hardily maligned in his big league career because he hasn't really lived up to his lofty projections, but I've always been a fan, mostly because I really dig guys with plate discipline. And Weeks has it big time - he was in the top 10 in walk percentage two years ago and in the top 30 last year. He had been more of a Rickey Henderson without the hitting in those years, but this season was finally hitting the ball, putting up 9 homers and a line of .272/.340/.517. Unfortunately, you can forget it, as he's on the shelf for the season. Bummer.

- So let's look at this NBA draft we have upcoming here. It's a pretty big one for the hapless Wolfies, with three first round picks. According to ESPN.com, they will end up with Demar Derozan, BJ Mullens, and Patty Mills. According to NBADraft.net, they will end up with Derozan, Mills, and Terrence Williams. Hopefully, they will end up with Earl Clark, Mills, and Sam Young. Unfortunately, the wolves have a fairly detailed history of screwing this all up, and so I expect them to come out of this with Brandon Jennings, a foreigner, and a trade that gets them Zach Randolph. God I couldn't be less interested in a Minnesota team. Talk about mismanagement. I think I read that they actually hired a new GM so hopefully this guy has his shit together. Somebody has to at some point, right? RIGHT?

- The TV wants me to know that for a good time I should text 55425 for a good time and to talk to hot girls. $20 says The Todd actually tries this.

- Have you heard about this Greg Paulus shit? He's seriously going to go play the football at the Syracuse. I guess when you're a top prospect in both football and basketball, and then it turns out you suck at basketball, you must be a super star in football. Jesus talk about getting the superstar treatment. I have never rooted for Greg Paulus in anything, ever, but I am really hoping he gets the starting job since the Cuse opens against the Gophers next year. I'm sure some guy in the secondary and that one guy who is a corner on the team will be licking their chops going against Paulus. Seriously I can't name one defensive player on the Gopher football team. I'm a very robust Gopher blog.

- HBO Family is showing Fletch. Looks like I will be up for a while.

- You know who was awesome in the 80s? Roy Marble and Jeff Moe from Iowa. What a perfect pairing. Marble was the slasher type, and Moe was what Hoffarber wants to be, the perfect dead-eye shooter. I'm trying to research more info on Moe, and all I can find is that he was coked our of his gourd most of his career. Works for me man, shine on you crazy diamond.

- Oh, one thing I forgot to tell you about Dallas is how freaking ugly Texas Stadium (home of the Cowboys) is. Serously it's very dumpster area-like, and essentially looks like an old rundown warehouse but in a football stadium form. It looks about 100 years old, and I think bricks are actually falling out every single day. Seriously, don't ever visit Dallas. I'm doing you a favor.

- Dr. Rosenpenis. Classic.