TSN: Justice: There’s no way to replace George Steinbrenner

Curb your euthanasia.

There never will be another one like George. There never will be anyone as complex, as full of bluster and meanness one moment and yet capable of such acts of kindness the next.

George was the perfect owner in a city in which fans demand a winner, a city in which fans simply don’t want to hear about excuses and bad bounces. They just want to win.

George was like that. He just wanted to win. Whatever criticisms Yankee fans spouted in his direction, they always knew he wanted to win and that money was never an object.

He didn’t always spend his money wisely, but he always, always kept the Yankees interesting. One of the New York columnists wrote this week that in Steinbrenner’s 36 seasons as owner, the Yankees were never irrelevant. No other New York team can make such a claim.

Indeed, Yankees offseasons were more interesting than most teams’ seasons. Thank you, George Steinbrenner.

N.Y. Times: Shpigel: Mets Search for a Closer and a Cast to Help Him (RR)

Not unlike Del Shannon...as he kept searchin’ for Prozac.

Some team officials have linked the bullpen’s troubles to Wagner’s injury and suggested their other relievers will rebound once they return to more familiar, less prominent roles next season. But a statistical breakdown suggests otherwise, showing that losing Wagner merely magnified the bullpen’s weaknesses and that more of the same can be expected if last year’s corps remains intact.

“You might fix the ninth inning, but that’s just one inning,” said Keith Law, a baseball writer for ESPN.com who was formerly a special assistant to the Blue Jays’ general manager, J. P. Ricciardi. “Any plan that assumes if you put Aaron Heilman back into his eighth-inning role and everything else will be O.K. is unreasonable.

“If not having Wagner was the entire problem, then they could have gone to every reliever on Aug. 3 and said, ‘Here are your new roles,’ and they would have had eight weeks to get used to the new roles.”

Furcal speaks, bidding farewell to Dodgers?

Rafael Furcal told El Caribe that the A’s have offered him a four-year contract worth $48 million that could reach $50 million including incentives. It’s an interesting offer, as it gives Furcal the length he is desiring in a contract, but the guaranteed money is less in average annual value than the three-year, $39 million contract he played for with the Dodgers. Furcal also said that the New York Mets have offered him a contract. Reportedly, he is returning from the Dominican to weigh the offers with his agent.

Looks like the A’s got Furcal. As a Dodgers fans, it has been both frustrating to watch him, and awe aspiring at different times. I hope he stays healthy with the A’s. Good luck with him A’s fans.

Details on Boston’s Offer to Tazawa

Sponichi has published a detailed account of the contract Boston offered to Junichi Tazawa. The article also quotes ”They want me to come over, and I understand how I can develop. I feel like it’s a good team”. Nikkan Sports is reporting that Tazawa has already decided on the Red Sox, and says that he’ll be able to officially sign at the beginning of December.

Some highlights:

* 3 year, $3M contract (that’s $1M/year)
* Major League contract
* start off at class AA
* remain a starter
* personal translator

The dollar figure is a little surprising — there were numerous reports of a $6M offer earlier in the day. Maybe there is a bonus or incentive package that was left off of this report. We’ll learn more over the next couple days.

Guillen sheds no tears for Swisher

Don’t cry for me Venezuela
Have I said too much?

What about the disappointment of Swisher, who hit .191 after the All-Star Game?

It was hard because when we brought him here, a lot of people were excited [that] he would have a great career with the White Sox, but we got to the point that we went through the roster ... and we had a right fielder, left fielder, first baseman and DH. It was hard for us to find a place for him.

Was Swisher a bad influence in the clubhouse late in the year?

You’ve got to ask the players about that. To be honest with you, I was not happy with the way he was reacting at the end of the season. He wasn’t helping me either.

N.Y. Times: Rosenheck: Why Mussina Belongs in the Hall

And which Hall might that be, Dan?

This issue is particularly pressing in Mussina’s case, since by signing with the Yankees before the 2001 season, he chose to pitch in front of what was perhaps the worst fielding team of the last 20 years. With liabilities like the late-model Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi, Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter at shortstop — every respectable quantitative measure finds Jeter’s range atrocious — virtually any ball hit into play against the Yankees was a potential disaster. In the worst year, 2003, the defense cost the club’s staff nearly 50 points of E.R.A.

Because these factors roughly cancel out, Mussina’s record holds up. His career value easily meets the Hall’s standard, and his peak was formidable: he should have won the 2001 A.L. Cy Young award, and he has a strong case for deserving the 1992 award as well. He was not as good as the best of his generation, like Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson, but that is hardly disqualifying. Hank Greenberg was the third-best first baseman in an eight-team league in the 1930s, and no one questions his induction.

Come 2013, Hall voters should punch Mussina’s ticket.

Peter Gammons: Things about to get interesting for Dodgers

Ned Colletti says Chad Billingsley “is expected to be ready before spring training,” after the Dodger starter slipped on ice in Reading, Pa. and suffered a broken left fibula.

“It doesn’t change anything for the Dodgers,” Colletti said.

Likely having lost Derek Lowe and Brad Penny to free agency and Greg Maddux to retirement, the Dodgers seem thin in starting pitching, with Clayton Kershaw, Hiroki Kuroda, James McDonald and Jason Schmidt. And no one knows about the uncertain future of closer Takashi Saito.

Will the Dodgers jump hard on CC Sabathia? Will they try to re-open talks on Jake Peavy? Will they move on Ben Sheets or A.J. Burnett? To go into spring training without adding a veteran starter may be a big gamble, although they still reside in the NL West. Colletti clearly is going to see what unfurls over the next few days.

The next 10 days will be significant as the Sabathia Sweepstakes pick up pace. Colletti knows that if he is close to the Yankees, he has a legitimate shot at the prize of this offseason. That Billingsley got hurt before Thanksgiving may be a blessing in one sense. Then again, it may force the Dodgers to extend on Sabathia further than they ever imagined.

Sabathia right now holds the major free-agent market hostage—impacting Manny Ramirez, Burnett, Lowe and, to a lesser degree, Mark Teixeira.

Red Sox Offer Tazawa $6M

Sanspo is reporting that Red Sox VP for international scouting Craig Shipley spent 1 hour 50 minutes negotiating with Junichi Tawaza, resulting in a $6M contract offer. No word on whether it’s a major league deal or not.

He’s apparently a nibbler. Should make Red Sox games even more excruciating to watch.

ESPN: Olney: Knicks could help lead CC to New York

Wing-o! Wing-o!

I had a couple of conversations with Sabathia during the season about his free agency, and walked away with a couple of strong impressions:

1. He fully appreciates the fact that no matter what decision he makes, he is never going to be able to spend the money he is about to earn.

2. Factors other than money could serve as tiebreakers in his decision. Maybe, in the end, it will be about remaining in his home state of California, if the Dodgers or Giants or Angels check in with a competitive offer. Maybe it will be about playing in the National League. Maybe it will be about heading to New York with a good friend who happens to be a pretty good basketball player, and taking a parallel path and commiserating and sharing the experience of shouldering enormous pressure and conquering New York.

The Brewers are willing to offer at least $100 million to keep Sabathia, and the Yankees, as we know, have checked in with a $140 million proposal. The question remains whether any of the California teams are going to be willing to dangle something in the nine-figure neighborhood. If not, folks involved in this process are convinced, then Sabathia will wind up with the Yankees.

Newsday: Davidoff: Yankees in need of a killer-instinct rotation

Sorta like when Brady and Hindley or Gerald & Charlene Gallego had their rotations going…

What the Yankees missed most of all in 2008, you sense from talking to people around the team, is that intimidation factor one gets only from possessing a strong, deep starting rotation.

When the Yankees rode the bus from their Toronto hotel to the Rogers Centre, for instance, and knew they would have to deal with Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett and Dustin McGowan (before his injury) in the next three days, it took something out of them before they even saw a pitch.

So even though the Yankees allowed fewer runs (727) this past season than they did in 2007 (777), they lacked the pitchers - either big names or big stuff - who made clubs dread coming to the ballpark.

That’s what they’re trying to recapture, in addition to the obvious: tangible improved pitching.

MSTI.com’s 2008 in Review: Manager Joe Torre

But here’s what else we got with that. We had to have Mark Sweeney wasting a spot on the bench all year long. Once Furcal was out injured, we had to have Pierre leading off every single day despite overwhelming evidence that it was hurting the team. We had the bizarre usage of young ace Chad Billingsley in his first outing, which ruined his April - and fortunately nothing more serious than that. We had Jeff Kent continually slotted into the cleanup spot despite it being completely obvious he couldn’t handle it anymore. We had the abuse of Russell Martin and insane usage of him at third base on his “days off”, and we had Andy LaRoche never getting a chance to play despite the clear need for him. Possibly most infuriating of all, there was the insistence on using the lousiest pitchers in the bullpen in the toughest game situations.

Finally, we had the most face-blowing quote of the entire year:

“I tried to reason who was going to give me the better at-bat - Berroa or Loney,” Torre said.

It took me months of intensive therapy to get over that one, friends.

To say nothing of that bizarre kidnapping case.

ESPN: Gammons: It’s not all doom and gloom in South Florida

Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old, Never Go Insider Again.

The Marlins are a team in transition that hit 207 homers in a pitchers’ park last season, second only to the Phillies. They had a modest plus-3 run differential. Their two best pitchers, Ricky Nolasco and Josh Johnson, were a combined 22-9, and Chris Volstad was 6-4 with a 2.88 ERA in 14 starts. They see high ceilings for pitchers Andrew Miller and Anibal Sanchez (10-3 in 2006), with Sean West hot on the trail. Down the stretch last season, Nolasco, Johnson and Volstad combined to go 7-3 in September, and The Phish split their last dozen games with the Phillies and Mets, who were fighting to make the playoffs.

Granted, there are nights when you watch the Marlins’ home games and it looks as if it is a family-only crowd. But their rebirth has been overlooked (much like Hanley Ramirez’s season was ignored in the MVP voting), as everything these days in the NL East is ignored other than the drama of the Mets. For two years in a row, the storyline of the division has been the “collapse” of the Mets, with little credit given to the intrepid Phillies, who never stopped fighting and who this year earned their first championship in 28 years. Things have gone wrong for the Mets, but they did not play in a vacuum, and for two straight years the Phillies stomped their way to the division title, this year the World Series.

Faour: Tejada trade will haunt Astros for years

The Haunting of Tal’s Hill House?

Forgetting the fact that the Lidge to Philadelphia deal was a disaster, the Tejada trade might have set the franchise back years.

Tejada will make $13 million this year—well above his actual value—and is untradeable because of his contract. The Astros have no young players worth trading because they gave them away in the Tejada deal.

If they chop payroll by trading Valverde, they will be significantly weaker, all because of one bad trade.

For better or worse, Miguel Tejada will define Ed Wade’s role as GM.

Right now, it’s for worse.

OC Register: Youngman: Angels likely not on Teixeira’s wish list

During Thursday’s ESPN telecast of the Georgia Tech-Miami game in Atlanta, Teixeira told sideline reporter Erin Andrews he wants a baseball team for Christmas. “I don’t want to put a timetable on it, but Christmas morning, I want to know where I’m going to be for the next couple of years,” he said. “So hopefully, by Christmas, it will be done.”

Knowing agent Scott Boras’ affinity for the big stage, I’m guessing Teixeira’s headline-grabbing signing will be announced during baseball’s winter meetings Dec. 8-11 in Las Vegas. What better place for the rich to get richer?

But I don’t think it will be with the Angels. If he were going to re-sign in Anaheim, I think it already would have happened. Just a gut feeling. Even the people I talk to in the organization don’t seem optimistic.

Teixeira would be ridiculed if he signed with perpetual losers such as the Baltimore Orioles or Washington Nationals, so my guess is he’ll sign with the Boston Red Sox.

Can you imagine the damage he would do at Fenway Park in the next decade?

Yea, yea...I heard the same thing about Don Demeter back in ‘66.

Mariners want Silva to trim the fat

Which reminds me...I saw “The Incredible Melting Man” the other night and that STILL has the best Mickey Lolich falling off an electrical tower scene, ever!

Reports of the pounds Carlos Silva put on this year might not have been as exaggerated as his weight itself.

The right-handed starting pitcher’s numbers grew with his waistline—a 4-15 record with a 6.46 earned run average in a season marred by back problems and a stint on the disabled list with a tender elbow.

The 2008 media guide, produced before the season, listed the 6-foor-4 Silva at 246 pounds. The postseason guide, released early this month, has him at 250.

The Mariners won’t say what the man nicknamed “Buffalo” weighed at the end of the season, although it clearly wasn’t a four-pound difference. It was more like 30.

The Mariners are taking special steps this winter to make sure he isn’t super-sized again.

McNulty: Gary Carter deserves a chance to coach in the big leagues

Carter’s copy of “Confessions of Shameless Self-Promoters” must be flipping through highlight hell by now.

Maybe, just maybe, there’s some truth to Gary Carter’s suspicions that he has been blackballed in baseball.

How else do you explain his conspicuous absence from a game in which he has enjoyed so much success? How is it possible all 30 major league teams have decided separately that the Hall of Fame catcher, who has won championships as both a big-league player and a minor league manager, can’t help them? How can someone with Carter’s knowledge, experience, track record and drive not be able to find a job anywhere in baseball, except as a manager in the independent leagues?

“It’s kind of hard for me to believe, too,” Carter said last week from New York, where he was hired to be the manager of the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks. “I’ve been in baseball a long time, and I don’t think I’ve burned any bridges along the way.”

..."I think I bring the package they’d be looking for—good with players, good with the press and fans, a good organization guy,” said Carter, who will visit the Treasure Coast Dec. 1 to co-host the annual Celebrities Fore Kids charity event at Hobe Sound Golf Club. “Frankly, I don’t know what they’re thinking at the major league level.

Mets reportedly considering adding closer Hoffman

And according to one baseball executive, the Mets’ discussions seem to be leading them away from the top candidates and instead toward the possibility of signing San Diego’s Trevor Hoffman and acquiring a set-up man such as Colorado’s just-acquired Huston Street in a trade.

According to one baseball official, the Mets have been actively discussing possible trades and are leaning toward the likes of Hoffman, who is leaving the Padres at 41 years of age and clearly on the decline.

But he still managed 30 saves last season after four consecutive seasons of 40-plus saves. As the all-time saves leader, there is little doubt that he can handle the pressure of playing in New York.

Thanks to Barnald and his competitive juices.

Dugout Central: Ehrke: How Good Was Bobby Grich?

Paging Matt Welch...(stumbles through lobby waving knock-off jug of HST’s finest ether)

The other option is to say that sabermetrics is overrated, perhaps even dangerously so. Just compare Grich and Carew; scan their numbers. It seems illogical to assume they’re in the same class. It’s not that we thought Grich was a poor player – he played on six All-Star teams. Carew was just better and the numbers seem to say so. Besides, if the writers – who are closer to the action – said Carew was much better, well, isn’t their opinion more valid than a mathematician’s? If the owners who are paying salaries offered Carew more money, doesn’t that suggest he’s better? Sabermetrics tries to grasp things that simpler statistics don’t measure; isn’t it likely that there are other aspects to player ability not measured by numbers and therefore beyond the grasp of higher math? Human opinion matters more than an adding machine.

There is considerable acrimony between those who approve of sabermetrics and those who don’t. I believe that the Grich/Carew comparison demonstrates either the extraordinary value of sabermetrics or their awful misguidance. Sabermetrics is meant to clarify our comprehension, yet if its methodology and appropriateness isn’t accepted it will only muddy the waters further.

Personally, I like sabermetrics for the same reason I like any tool that makes me smarter or more productive. However, I do get uneasy when these tools produce curious results. I saw both men in their prime – Carew was an absolute machine. Bobby Grich was one heckuva player, too. Does anyone really know how good he was?

...a Mr. Matt Welch.

Madden: Hal Steinbrenner takes reins, but News had story last year

Forget Madden tooting his own rusty euphonium or his butchering of smorgasbord...it’s his Mussina - Morris take that’s a dilly.

Right now, that 2014 ballot is shaping up as a shmorgasboard of pitchers, with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz all potentially joining Mussina in ‘08 retirement.

Those three are “don’t even have to think about ‘em” slam dunks for first ballot election. Mussina, on the other hand, figures to require a lot of thinking since there are a lot of intangibles about him above and beyond his 270-153 record. For now, and for argument’s sake, I prefer to compare him to Jack Morris, who gets my vote every year but hasn’t been able to muster more than 42% in nine years on the ballot. Coincidentally, they also pitched the two greatest games I ever covered - Mussina’s one-out-from-perfect 13-strikeout gem against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sept. 2, 2001, and Morris outdueling Smoltz, 1-0, in 10 innings in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

...If the criteria comes down to which pitcher you would want in the seventh game of the World Series, the vote would almost have to be for Morris. Other than the lack of any hardware (which Mussina also shares), Morris’ only detriment is his high ERA. Conceivably, Morris still will be on the ballot, on the outside looking in, when Mussina comes up five years from now. It is interesting food for thought as to how the voters will view them side-by-side.

Dodgers’ Chad Billingsley Suffers Accident, Undergoes Surgery

I got a tip this afternoon from Highlands Today sports editor Brian Gjurgevich that was one of those things I couldn’t believe. But it turns out it was true.

I checked with Josh Rawitch of the Dodgers, and he confirms:

We have received word that Chad Billingsley slipped (on ice) down stairs outside his house and fell in Reading, PA and suffered a spiral fracture of the fibula in his left leg. He had surgery today to put a plate in and he will be in a cast for two weeks which will allow the fracture to heal.

The surgery was performed by Dr. Paul Neuman, an orthopedic surgeon in Reading, and went as expected. By all indications, it is believed that he will be ready to throw bullpens by the beginning of Spring Training. While this obviously isn’t good news, the timing of the injury is not bad given that it we do not expect it will affect his readiness for 2009.

Gjurgevich had a contact whose son was in the hospital at the same time as Billingsley.

Two Cubans banned for planning defections

Former Cuban national team stars Yadel Marti and Yasser Gomez have been dropped from their Cuban league teams and been banned from playing baseball on the island for “committing a grave act of indiscipline,” according to a terse one-sentence note in Friday’s edition of Granma, the Communist Party paper.

Close observers of Cuban baseball believe the two, who were kicked off the Havana-based Industriales team just a week before the league’s season opener, were caught planning to defect. The length of the ban was not announced but in the past, Cuban players caught planning a defection were banned from ever playing in Cuba. As a result many of those players—including major league pitcher Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez—wound up defecting anyway. So there’s a good chance Marti and Gomez will be here for the start of spring training.

Marti, a 29-year-old right-hander, was named to the all-tournament team in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006 after pitching 12 2/3 scoreless innings in four appearances, helping Cuba to a second-place finish. Gomez. a 28-year-old outfielder, hit .394 in Cuban league play in 2007. He was a member of Cuba’s silver-medal team in the 2000 Olympics but did make the WBC team. Neither player made the Cuban team for last summer’s Beijing Olympics.

-

F.P. Santangelo fired by KHTK

I hear WHGH is hiring…

A week shy of his third anniversary with KHTK (1140 AM), F.P. Santangelo finished his shift on “The Rise Guys” morning show. And was promptly fired.

Santangelo, a former major league baseball player whose years of contacts helped enhance the program, confirmed as much Friday with The Bee, saying he was “surprised” and “disappointed,” and 1140 “quite honestly made the biggest mistake in the history of the station.”

Program director Jeff McMurray could not be immediately reached by The Bee, but Santangelo said McMurray told him cost-cutting measures were the root of the dismissal.

“The ratings have been low, and there was an uneasy vibe going on, but I didn’t realize it was that bad that I’d lose my job,” said Santangelo, an Oak Ridge High School product who later attended Sacramento City College before a long professional baseball career that included stints with the A’s, Giants and River Cats.

Kawakami heads questionable Japanese free-agent class

With no stars expected to be posted this winter, just five players have stated their intent to play in the majors. Four are pitchers, including a marginal 39-year-old left-hander and small amateur right-hander Junichi Tazawa.

The safest bet in the group is Chunichi Dragons ace Kenshin Kawakami, 33. He is followed by Yomiuri Giants ace Koji Uehara, also 33, an intriguing right-hander.

“The question is how they’re going to react to pitching every fifth day,” said Marty Brown, who has been managing the Hiroshima Carp since 2006.

Waiting for Darvish: 2008/09 Offseason Edition.

Sickels: Washington Nationals Top 20 Prospects for 2009

Plenty of long faces within the Tootie Myers Fan Club (Augsburg, Germany branch).

1) Jordan Zimmerman, RHP, Grade B+: I liked this guy in college, and I think he is significantly underrated on a national basis.
2) Michael Burgess, OF, Grade B+: Power, youth, power, youth. Strikeouts are a concern. Maybe a Grade B?
3) Chris Marrero, 1B, Grade B: I will cut him some slack due to age/league and injury.
4) Ross Detwiler, LHP, Grade B-: Numbers at Potomac not great, but scouts still like power arm from left side.
5) Garrett Mock, RHP, Grade B-: Another guy underrated, love the K/IP rate in the majors, needs better control.
6) Jack McGeary, LHP, Grade B-: High ceiling, a long way from the majors, maybe a C+?
7) Justin Maxwell, OF, Grade C+: Love the tools, skills are developing, but can’t stay healthy and already 25.
8) Esmailyn Gonzalez, SS, Grade C+: Need to see at higher levels, but made progress this year.
9) Destin Hood, OF, Grade C+: Great tools, not much performance data at this point.
10) Shairon Martis, RHP, Grade C+: Quite young, held his own at advanced levels, but not beloved by scouts.

SYSTEM IN BRIEF:

The Nationals system is not as bad as you think it is, but it isn’t very good, either. They have a lot of depth in C+ style prospects, but lack impact talents beyond the top few, and even guys like Marrero and Detwiler have big question marks. Health has been a big issue for a lot of their players. They need to continue being aggressive in the draft, and further investments in Latin America would likely help. 

Rogers: What if Sabathia, Burnett, Lowe jilt Yankees?

Verbanic in Needle Park sets in?

With no playoffs in 2008 and a new stadium opening in 2009, the New York Yankees are trying their hardest to make the three top free-agent starting pitchers extremely rich. But it takes two parties to finish a deal.

Imagine the horror in the Big Apple if the Yankees somehow struck out on CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe.

That would be the ultimate low blow to the Yankees’ self-esteem and would leave manager Joe Girardi wondering how he’s going to fill the 200 innings he got from Mike Mussina, who is retiring. It might force general manager Brian Cashman to stop trying to get Andy Pettitte to take a pay cut. And it could happen.

Amazin’ Avenue: Simon: Raul Ibanez: What Am I Missing?

Ibanez? Missing? Well...it doesn’t show up on The Stooges stolen gear list. Must look elsewhere.

Per Jayson Stark, the Mets are among a handful of teams who are interested in ::holds back vomit:: free agent left fielder Raul Ibanez. Why are so many teams so interested in Ibanez when he clearly isn’t a very interesting player? One team official clues us in:

“Character. Proven run producer. In better shape than a lot of 25-year-olds. And he’ll play hard every day, every game, every second he has the uniform on.”

That quote didn’t come affixed with any emoticons, editorial assides or anything else that might otherwise indicate its tongue-in-cheek intent, so I’m going to assume that the “team official” was being serious. It is now apparently clear why I’m writing a blog instead of being involved in front office decision-making for a big league club. When evaluating available talent, real live actual major league executives (at least one, anyway) look for the following, which I will cleverly refer to as “The Fantastic Four”:

1. Character
2. Proven run producer
3. In better shape than a lot of 25-year-olds
4. Plays hard every day, every game, every second he has the uniform on

Billy Corgan blames Eddie Vedder for the collapse of the 2008 Cubs

Could someone point out the difference between Billy Corgan and Eddie Vedder (and Michael Bublé while we’re at it)? Thank you.

Well, last night (11/19/08) during a break at the Smashing Pumpkins show at the Chicago Theater, lead singer and fellow Cub fan Billy Corgan waxed poetic about the Bears winning the Super Bowl in 2012, Mike Ditka coming out of retirement, and his beloved Cubs, while getting in some digs at White Sox fans - telling them to stay the F*ck out of his Cubs Fan conversations.

Then Corgan said that he might write a song about the Cubs …

God Bless Steve Goodman, but I think I can do better than ‘Go Cubs Go’

Really - I’ve been called a lot of things, arrogant is one of them.  I don’t think this is arrogance.  I think I can top ‘Go Cubs Go’

Still on the subject of Cub-themed songs … Corgan did what someone should have done a long time ago … he blamed Eddie Vedder for the Cubs’ 2008 playoff collapse.

If … If … IF … the Cubs did have a chance this last year that just passed … ######’ Eddie Vedder killed that #### dead.  Last I checked Eddie ain’t living here, Okay? 

Eddie ain’t living here to write a song about my ######’ team.

Sabernomics: Bradbury: When Things Get Personal

A little off baseball for a minute here as J.C. Bradbury gets into it with hoopster Stuart Grey. (BTW...I take back that old comment about Uwe Blab and Hank Finkel having a lovechild)

First of all, get the facts straight before you publish “crap” as fact. One of the things I do not miss about sports is self serving individuals talking out of their rear end and thinking it is factual!

You have no idea what transpired at the Hornets in 1989. You have no idea of the petty team politics and you have no idea why I was brought to the team. Loyalty was not the reason, it was to fill a specific deficiency in the roster. I am pretty certain that Dick Harter knew that he could not “sell” me starting in front of the ACC prodigy, J.R. Reid. The team was soft and they could not win unless they established that they would stick up for themselves.

My career stats never suggested Dick Harter was looking for a franchise player as you would suggest. You are looking to paint me as a “stiff” to try and make a point but that would only be accurate if Dick brought me in to be more than a role player. Nice writer’s trick but less than honest representation of the reason Dick traded for me.

He was looking for a center that would stand up to the other teams’ players that were beating the living crap out of his players on a nightly basis. Funny how the refs started calling fouls on opposing players once I went “berserk” as you referred to it. You think it was so easy? Then you do it!

LoHud: Abraham: Should the Moose make the Hall?

More importantly...should Abraham base his HOF vote on what Johnny Damon says and “that wins and losses matter” (among other things, natch)?

As for me, I don’t have a vote yet. But I will when he comes up for election in five years and I will vote for him.

I was on the borderline until a few months ago until a conversation with Johnny Damon convinced me. Johnny brought up the point that Mussina spent his entire career in the American League East and faced eight teams that won the World Series (Blue Jays 1992-93, Yankees ‘96, 1998-2000, Red Sox 2004, ‘07).

...A “win” is not necessarily a telling stat in a particular game. A pitcher can get rocked and get a win. Just as a “loss” often doesn’t indicate much beyond the score of the game.

But over the course of time, I do believe that wins and losses matter. Going 270-153 is indicative of durability and success. A starting pitcher can’t be 117 games over .500 by accident. Over that many games, the undeserved wins and undeserved losses balance out.

Mussina is one of 25 pitchers to have won 270 games since 1900. Only five – Lefty Grove, Christy Mathewson, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Grover Cleveland Alexander – have a higher winning percentage than Mussina’s .638. That’s not company you can ignore.

There are many old-school writers who say Mussina never won the Cy Young, never won the World Series and won 20 games only once. Or they will focus on his falling short of 300 wins. That is weak reasoning.

Statistically Speaking: World Famous StatSpeak Roundtable: November 21

With...Jayson Stark?

Question #4: Which under-the-radar free agent would best indicate that the team signing him has a clue as to what they’re doing?

Jayson Stark: Great question. It might be easier to pick the ones who indicate teams have NO idea what they’re doing (Oliver Perez, for instance). But to answer your actual question, I think it’s smart to look at those little moves, because in the end, they do as much to help good teams win as the big splashes. (Does the team that “wins” the offseason EVER win the World Series?) I guess in terms of bats, I’d go with Raul Ibanez. Total pro who almost slugged .500 in a pitchers’ park last year. And if I had to pick an arm, I’m going to pick a name you probably won’t hear anywhere else - Russ Springer. Only reliever in baseball to rip off three straight seasons of 70 games or more while allowing fewer than seven hits per nine innings.