Go Away Brett Favre

God this Favre thing is getting ridiculous, or even more ridiculous I should say. Did you hear the report where Brett was "anguished" over his decision and "he might have already decided against playing again" if it wasn't for Vikings' players calling and texting him? Does anybody actually believe this garbage? This is just another way of keeping the spotlight on himself. Favre is a bigger attention whore than Heidi & Spencer, and a bigger drama queen than that girl who lied about Teddy Dupay assaulting her just to get more attention and money (and somehow framed him enough so that he pled guilty even though he's totally innocent.)

Seriously, at this point I don't want him here any more, even for the train wreck factor. A couple of days ago after they resigned Winfield I started thinking about the team, and I realized if Favre can give them average QBing, this team is going to be really good and I was kind of actually getting excited about watching games on Sundays this year. Now though? He's just being a dick. I hope he drowns in freak four-wheeler accident in the crick behind his stupid house where he just couldn't wait to retire and play with his probably stupid kids and mow the lawn.

Even worse are the people who are STILL defending this big stupid baby. "You've never had to make a decisioin like this, you don't know what it's like." Shut up. Just shut up. This isn't someone making a hard decision, this is drama queen holding yet another team hostage FOR THE THIRD YEAR IN A ROW. This guy is worthless, no matter what you think he can give a team. Honestly I kind of just dismissed all that hoo-ha about him being a shitty teammate, mostly because Thomas Jones strikes me as kind of an idiot, but put those stories together with the shit he pulls every offseason, not to mention the fact that he was in that hot tub with Chmura but the cops covered it up, and he might be the worst human being since Pete Rose, yet another thing they have in common.

If he doesn't die of a Vicodin-related overdose before he makes a decision even though he's already made one, I hope they just tell him to go screw. Won't happen since Childress and the rest are already so far up Favre's ass they're basically West Virginia coal minters at this point, but it would be awesome.

- I'd also like to discuss the Matt Holliday trade today, since I've been interested in what Billy Beane's plan was since he acquired Holliday this off-season despite him only having a year left on his contract. I postulated that Beane would hope to have enough pieces to make a run, and then if they couldn't he'd flip him at the trade deadline and hope to get more value than what he paid. The couldn't make a run, and he did flip him. How about the overall profit or loss?

This year, the A's picked up 3b/1b Brett Wallace, SP Clayton Mortenson, and OF Shane Peterson from the Cards. Last year, they had to send OF Carlos Gonzalez, SP Greg Smith, and RP Huston Street to the Rockies to grab Holliday in the first place. Which package is better?

The two big prospects, and thus the most important part of this comparison, are Wallace and Gonzalez. Wallace is a big swinger with some power potential, and according to ESPN is currently a top 10 prospect in all the land. He's hit .289/.368/.429 so far this year between AA and AAA, with 11 homers in 397 PAs. His low slugging percentage this year is troublesome, as is his plate discipline, but everything I've read on this kid makes it sounds like he is the real deal. We should find out opening day next season, if not this September. Bonus points because his nickname is "The Walrus."

Gonzalez was a big time, five tooly type prospect in the A's system before he was sent over the Rockies which made me question why they would trade him, but maybe they know what they're doing over there. Gonzalez is starting to look like Carlos Gomez - horrible batting average, little to no slugging, 4-1 K/BB ratio, but a ton of speed and excellent defense. Wallace is still just potential, but that ship might have sailed on Gonzalez. Advantage: new trade

I'll make the rest of this quick since I'm getting bored. Street is still a high quality closer, and pretty much has been his whole career. He's also just 25 years old. I have no idea why the A's ever traded him. Smith, the final piece of the Holliday to the A's trade, was not very good last season and has yet to claw his way to the bigs yet this year. Mostly because he put up a 5.50 ERA at AAA, a 7.50 at AA, and has been busted all the way down to single A ball. We can probably forget about him.

The other two prospects the A's picked up from the Cards both have a good shot to be contributors, but not stars. Peterson has just two seasons under his belt, but has hit over .290/.360/.409 in both. He's looking like he could be a good 3rd/4th outfielder for somebody someday. Mortensen has a nice sinker and a good slider, but doesn't have the stuff to be a top line starter. He could end up a quality middle reliever.

I'd call it a win for the A's. I still can't wrap my head around why they ever got rid of Street since he was still affordable, but overall these two trades were well orchestrated by Beane.

- The Weeds show is pretty damn good.

- Finally, congratulations to the Egyptian on getting married tomorrow. I have to miss the Squid/Shark/Gator marathon on Sci Fi SyFy, but that's what Tivo is for. Way to go buddy.

Quick News

Just a quick break from fixing this blog's appearance and links and my, you know, real job, to hit a couple of things in case you haven't heard already.

- In really bad news, Pat Neshek of the Twins will need surgery and is likely out for all of next season. After sitting out nearly all of last year with this same injury, he re-injured his elbow last week throwing and will now need Tommy John surgery and will be down for the count. This makes an already high priority, getting bullpen help, the absolute number 1 priority no doubt. Forget Atkins or Blake or whoever else to play third base, get a top notch reliever. I have no idea who is out there, but if I feel like it later I'll get more into this. This sucks.

- One possibility would be Trevor Hoffman, who was unable to reach a deal with San Diego and will never play for the Padres again. He's a big name, and his entry music of Hells Bells is the best ever, but he's also 41 and has lost a lot of velocity. The good news for him is that his changeup has also been his out pitch. Can he become the Jamie Moyer of relievers? A quick look at his numbers says it's possible. He's just two seasons removed from finishing as runner-up for the NL Cy Young award, and last season posted a 1.04 WHIP and a 3.77 ERA, with opponents hitting just .229 against him. He would be a good fit with the Twins, as he doesn't walk anybody and his home run rate jumped through the roof last season. I think he would be a great get for the Twins, except for the pesky little salary problem. He made $7 million last year, and the Padres offered him $4 million plus incentives which he turned down in a huff. Even if the Twins were able to offer him a $4 million or so salary, doubtful at best, he would have to accept, also doubtful at best. I would love too see the Twins make an effort to get the future Hall of Famer, but fully expect someone like the Yankees to swoop in and offer him a contract more to his liking.

- Billy Beane is at it again, defying "conventional" logic and seemingly trading prospects for an expensive star player in the Rockies' Matt Holliday. Holliday is an awesome player, but you kind of have to wonder how inflated his numbers are playing in Coors (Sidler?) The A's are (allegedly) sending over Huston Street (established high-end closer), pitcher Greg Smith (highly regarded prospect) and OF Carlos Gonzalez (super highly regarded prospect) for a guy with only one year left on his contract at $13.5 million. I'll assume they won't make the trade unless they get a long term deal in place, but I still don't understand why the A's are making this move. I'm not going to question Billy Beane, but I'm very curious to see what the plan is here. If they don't get a long term deal done, my best guess is Beane thinks the pieces are there to make a run at the playoffs this season, and wanted a bat to put them over the top. If things don't work out he will just trade him again at the deadline.

- Lastly, as I'm sure everyone has already heard, Eric Decker won't be playing at Wisconsin this weekend because of that ankle injury. This is, once again, a huge blow to the offense and Adam Weber's radar lock. I'll also go ahead and take this time to officially admit I was very, very wrong about Decker. I thought his early season success was more a product of the talent on the other side of the ball that his own talent, but he's won me over. Hell, he could be the next Wes Welker.