I can’t get to the Under The Lights picture, so you’ll have to settle for this picture of a guy mowing a lawn. Actually, this is an actual picture of me mowing just an hour ago. Fun times. So anyways, stuff in baseball happened: Jason Bay went to the Red Sox, Manny went to the Dodgers, a bunch of lesser players went to lesser teams, yadda yadda. But we get a break from the trade talk for some actual baseball tonight. Here’s what’s on tap… Read the rest of this entry »

Manny Ramirez is going to the Dodgers. Wow. The Red Sox are that fucking dumb. I have no details. I will keep updating this blog as I hear more. This was reported on WFAN by Jon Heyman.

Update 4:24

Heyman put it on SI

Update 4:29

NESN has reported that Jason Bay is going to the Red Sox

h/t Metsblog

Update 4:31

It is a three way trade between the Dodgers, Red Sox and Pirates. The Pirates are getting 4 minor leaguers. Bay to Boston, Manny to LA.

More updates after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

Busy, busy day in the sporting world. Phone lines are burning up, newspaper editors are screaming stop the presses, blog editors are yelling whatever it is they yell across their instant messengers, and in newsrooms across the country, Around the Horn panelists prepare for their collective conniptions.

Manny might still be Manny, but Manny the Marlin. Junior looks to become a White Sock, causing a collective cry from the city of Seattle. He Who Shall Remain Nameless might be traded within the Packers own division, causing a collective “wtf” from the grand state of wherever Green Bay is, or he possibly could be given $2m a year for 10 years to just stay the fuck retired.

(Note to Hef: I want one of those deals. Trade me to either Lozo or Cousins of Ron Mexico or give me 20 bucks a month for 10 years and I’m outta your hair for that many years. Sending me to The Sometimes Daily Nug ain’t an option. He’s on my no-trade list.)

Read the rest of this entry »

This is where the difference between the NFC and AFC starts to show, just like the NL versus the AL. The AFC has two divisions that are top heavy, and the tops of the AFC East and West are HEAVY, and two divisions that are stacked top to bottom with teams that will most likely play a factor in the playoff race. The NFC has one stacked division, two are top heavy with meh (NFC West and North) and one is a balanced division with no really good teams (NFC South…which we’ll cover today).

The NFC South has a few intriguing teams, all with the potential to be pretty decent squads, yet are chock full of questions and not a whole lot of depth, and one team that’s been so destroyed by years of bad drafting and off-field incidents that they probably won’t contend until at least 2010. There are some top-end players here, unfortunately, there are also some massive holes on said teams which will require these premier players to really rise to the occasion or else these teams will flounder.

Believe it or not, I’m actually planning on focusing on this division during the year with a lot of interest because it truly is up for grabs amongst the top three teams, so you know it’s going to be a tight race. Plus, there are some pretty decent coaches in this division, so there will be some decent play…unfortunately, this division is also home to three of the most awful aesthetic NFL experiences in Carolina, Atlanta and New Orleans, so while the play might be decent, the product on our televisions will be pretty hard to watch.

JAMBALAYA!!!

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it is July 31st and you know what that means? Non-waiver trade deadline day. And it should be a hoot. Well, until August 31st, when all the over priced trash that actually made it through waivers gets traded to contenders for AA batboys. This day could make or break a team. Or do nothing really. Sometimes really good trades are made but mostly it is a bunch of bad trades that fan bases regret for the rest of their lives. Scott Kazmir For Victor Zambrano. Larry Anderson for Jeff Bagwell. Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz. The list goes on and on. Anywho, it looks like it will be all Manny all the time. If the Marlins land him, I am sure it will be reported here first. That’s right a 17 year old has more of an in than Peter Gammons. Suck it ESPN. And this morning Foxsports.com is reporting the Reds have traded Ken Griffey Jr. to the White Sox. It is not know who the Reds got back but I am sure NickP is dancing somewhere in downtown Cincinnati. I have never seen some one hate a Hall of Famer from his own team so much. I guess that is what makes us jerks. Well, let’s look at the games that were played last night: Read the rest of this entry »

Seriously, Hef… You want me to preview a handful of baseballing games that occur tonight? Had I known that my unexcused absence would result in such a punishment request, I’d have continued faking my own death. As I sit here typing this, I can only hope that when I click SI.com, armed with my trusty weapon known as “copy ‘n paste”, that the night’s schedule tells me this is a league-wide off-day and that Hefler was just fuckin’ with me. Fuckin’ with you. You, the reader, who deserves so very much more betterer than what I could ever hope to cobble together.

Breaking News Alert:
4:43pm 8:47am – MLJ has not-at-all-exclusively learned that Pudge Rodriguez has been traded to the Yankees. [ed. shit, Roman scooped my scoop]

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Under the Lights thing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, this isn’t breaking anymore but the Tigers have traded Ivan Rodriguez to the Yankees for Kyle Farnsworth. This is a very good move for the Yankees. While, Pudge is in his declining years (read: non-steroids), he is still a good defensive catcher and a decent hitter. He also brings a ton of positive post-season experience with him which, believe it or not, the Yankees lack outside of Pettite, Jeter and Mariano. It also takes Jose Molina’s horrendous bat out of the lineup at least 4 days a week. For the Tigers, well, they get another hard throwing reliever that is prone to imploding at big moments. He should fit right in. I don’t see how the Tigers benefit from the trade. Unless getting Brandon Inge’s bat into the lineup is going to push them over the top. This trade came out of nowhere, which most trades do. So instead of rehashing most of the same rumors we keep hearing, I am going to leave most of it alone. Except for the rumor that the Red Sox are trading Manny Ramirez to the Marlins for Jeremy Hermida and some prospect. If that happens, Theo Epstein should be drawn and quartered. I would rather have a cranky Manny and his red hot bat (overlooked with the drama) than Hermida. Anyone would. But we hear the same shit every year and it never happens. So tune in tomorrow to get analysis on the trades that happen and maybe some that don’t. Up next…Rex Returns!

After putting Tim Hudson and Chipper Jones on the DL earlier in the week, the Braves raised the white flag even higher yesterday by trading Mark Teixeira to the Angels for 1B Casey Kotchman and RHP Stephen Marek.

Unlike fellow MLJ author NickP, I love this trade for the Angels. For one, Teixeira immediately becomes the best on base guy in the lineup, and against righties can provide a lefty bat between Torii Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero. While it could be argued that the Braves now have Kotchman under team control for 3 more seasons, he is afterall just Casey Kotchman, and though he is a capable player, he has just 12 home runs and a .448 slugging percentage this year, both of which are below par for a first baseman. Even though Teixeira adds some value defensively, his real value is in his bat: he is hitting .283/.390/.512 this year with 20 homers. I won’t pretend that what the two of them have done over approximately 400 at bats so far this year is more important than what they’ve done in their careers, but if you peruse their baseball reference pages you’ll see that Teixeira is the type of bat that pushes a team over the top, and Kotchman is a mediocre at best first baseman.

As for the prospect, Stephen Marek is a 24 year old righty in AA. He’s no blue chip prospect, but he has the skill set to be a future late innings reliever. He is extremely max effort in his delivery, but two good things are in his favor: his high strikeout rate (just over 27%) and his high groundball rate. Both of these things could put him into Atlanta’s bullpen in a couple of years, but compared to what it could have been, it was a small price to pay.

In the end, the Angels made this move not to help them win the AL West- at 11.5 games up on Texas that is going to happen- but to win in October. Casey Kotchman can be replaced very easily even if the Angels don’t sign Teixeira, either in house with Kendry Morales or a free agent signing. And, overlooked in this is the fact that the Angels will receive two draft picks if Teixeira doesn’t re-sign with the team, and I would be willing to bet those two players end up being better than Kotchman and Marek. But the bottom line is this: If the Angels win the World Series, it won’t matter how Casey Kotchman turns out.

Let me set a few rules right off the bat here starting with the fact that HE won’t be named. Got it? Good. I think we’ve all had our fair share of that pill-popping, drama queen for one summer so lets just move the fuck on.

Number two: Adrian Peterson, despite his flash, was NOT the Offensive Rookie of the Year, ok? He missed a few games. He had a few games where he did squadoosh. Two scintillating games does not a season make, regardless of how limitless his ceiling is as an NFL RB. Joe Thomas was the best player at his position, regardless of tenure, in the NFL last year as a rookie FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON, and that carries far more weight, but because an offensive lineman doesn’t have gaudy stats and highlights to fall back on, well, he got the shaft. I don’t care if you agree or not, and I don’t care if you spend 15,000 words trying to convince me otherwise, my opinion is set in stone.

Three: this division is both intriguing and painful. The cream has Super Bowl aspirations. The dregs will be contenders for the first pick in the draft. I don’t think this is up for debate either.

I hope you don’t mind if I just move on to the previews…and I hope they’re not too BIASED for some members of our fine little internet community we have here, because God forbid anyone take these things seriously after I predicted 3 members of the same division go winless.

Let’s flip this omelet… Read the rest of this entry »

In an effort to diversify the coverage of the teams here at Major League Jerk, I am going to provide a regular series called “Getting to Know”. My intent is to interview a fan of a team and ask them what we need to know about that team. If you want to be the first one on your block to be interviewed by me, the Great RomanWarHelmet, please send an e-mail to majorleaguejerk@gmail.com and put Roman in the subject. Well, this edition is going to be a tad different than the rest. I solicited TBL commenter nwilson26 to help me learn about the Royals. Well, apparently no one listens to nwilson and he got very very wordy in answering my questions. He makes me look like NickP with his amount of words. So let’s just say this one is going to be a bit long. But I will say, I think you may like this edition best of all. Truthfully, I didn’t know very much about the Royals. With the other teams, I had a pretty fair knowledge going in. This time, I learned a whole lot. So let us continue our voyage into Missouri and get to know…The Kansas City Royals. Read the rest of this entry »