Opperman

Well, Rolen didn't do anything in the LDS or the World Series last year... Losing him will hurt, but he's not completely irreplaceable like Chris Carpenter is.

Get 9 rings, then we'll talk.

I'm afraid the Blues are in long-term trouble...the Lauries are trying to cut every corner they can since they're selling the team. Hopefully they sell to a local owner.

The guy has a career ERA of almost 5. 5.05 as a rookie, 6.43 in 2000. 2.74 in 2001, he's turned the corner, right? Nope, 7.33 in 2002. 3.30 in 03, now he's got it, right? Nope, 4.73 in 04. 2.whatever this year, he's finally got it, right? Personally, I doubt it. He's established a pattern. And to answer your point about Ortiz earlier...he's a 1B/DH, and Minnesota already had a bunch of those -- Mientkiewicz, Mike Cuddyer, Mike Restovich, Matt LeCroy, Bobby Kielty, Casey Blake...they couldn't keep all of them. Ortiz was about to get a lot more expensive due to arbitration, and he'd been injured more often than he'd been healthy. All that to say, they felt Minky, Cuddyer, Restovich, and the like would handle 1B/DH cheaper and more consistently. There's no way you can claim the Cubs didn't have room for him in the bullpen. With one of the worst pens in the NL, they traded him for a group of players that doesn't look like it will be worth much for a MLB team.

Grudzielanek, Eckstein, and Sanders were the only free agents. The Cardinals didn't buy Edmonds, Rolen, or Walker, they traded for them.

No. The rulebook doesn't say anything about the bat crossing the plate. It's the umpire's judgment whether the batter "struck at the ball". Spinning out of the way clearly isn't that. The bat crossing the plate is one of the tests umpires use to determine that, but it's not part of the rule.

There are some mistakes that are a lot stupider than others. Farnsworth is a reliever who goes back and forth between being good and being awful, and he hasn't learned anything yet about how to be consistent. Sure, he could...but some things are less likely than others. I particularly liked his 8th inning appearance today, though not quite as much as I liked Reitsma in the 9th... thumb He's an ok pickup, but he isn't wonderful.

How many runs is Sosa going to give up tomorrow? If it's 2 or more, the Cardinals will win. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/gamelog?playerId=3610 He's been 1968 Bob Gibson for over 2 months.

No, I don't think Farnsworth is a wonderful addition to anyone's bullpen. There are some pitchers with million-dollar arms and brainpower. The Cardinals rocked one of them tonight. Pedro, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Chris Carpenter, etc. There's a whole class of other guys who throw a million miles an hour and don't know how to use it to be a good pitcher. If Farnsworth is as great as you think he is, why did the Cubs -- who may have had the worst bullpen in baseball over the last two years -- let him go? And I'd say spraining your knee by kicking an electric fan in the clubhouse is a sign you're not overly intelligent. And doing that also tends to not be a team-player type move.

Yeah, tonight really proved that... 11-3? So much for that sweep. And good luck Sunday, you're gonna need it.

As usual, you miss my point. Farnsworth's million-dollar arm lets him get away with being dumb...to a point. Greg Maddux didn't have a million-dollar arm.

And if #31 was as dumb as Farnsworth, he woulda stalled out in AAA and never had a real MLB career.

First, Memphis traded Bonzi Wells to Sacramento for Bobby Jackson and Greg Ostertag...then this bombshell hits today. EDIT: whoops, 13 players... Miami sells their future for a really, really, really good chance to win right now. Boston gets a little back for a player they weren't going to re-sign -- though they're probably going to cut Woods. New Orleans took on a pair of contracts to make it work. Memphis improves its cap stuation, since Jones comes off sooner than Williams or Posey. They also made their roster a better fit for Mike Fratello's system as Jones is an outstanding defender and there's only four SG/SF's to get minutes to instead of five or six. Utah gets a large body back in the fold.

If he had a fastball IQ instead of an eephus IQ, he'd get more outs. Ya know, like that one dude you guys had a few years ago...wore #31...

*YAWN* keep on believing that...

Well, we did know he was taking performance-enhancing drugs...

He'd be a lot better pitcher if his IQ was closer to his fastball than his changeup... Farnsworth is very inconsistent, aside from throwing really, really hard. Million-dollar arm, ten-cent head.

I coulda told you that before the season started.

Four sure-fire HOFers and a guy with a fringe chance...yeah, it must be hard winning when 20% of your roster is going to Cooperstown.

So if I'm understanding you and gotmilk right, the clear-cut best team in the NL didn't deserve to have any starting all-stars?

WC can't play their division winner in the first round.

Beach Volleyball is big in South America (like Brazil, etc.) and anywhere that men live. Europe has a disproportionate voting power in the IOC since they have more countries than we have states, per square mile.

I never said Jones shouldn't start. I said Edmonds should. The ASG process chooses three outfielders, not LF/CF/RF. Edmonds is clearly one of the three best outfielders in the NL, therefore he deserved to start.

So? Let me ask you a question. Two fielders are in CF and see the exact same 100 balls. One of them gets 75 outs, 5 errors, and the other 20 are hits. The other gets 50 outs, 1 error, and the other 49 are hits. #2 has a better fielding percentage. Which one is the better fielder?

The numbers don't lie. But when you're looking at the wrong numbers, you get wrong conclusions.