Ananas

Triple crown or no triple crown, Joey Votto is the deserving MVP entering the final month of the season. If you take defensive metrics seriously, I don't even consider Pujols #2 right now. Ryan Zimmerman has torn the cover off the ball this season while being one of the 2 or 3 best third basemen in the game defensively. It's hard to win MVP without being in a playoff race so Zim is probably fucked, but I gotta think Votto is the odds on favorite right now.

Inside the Book is one of my favorite baseball blogs. Tidbits like this are part of the reason why:

So best case scenario - Strasburg comes back relatively unharmed in 2012 after spending a year on the DL and accumulating service time, dominates and then leaves 4 years later. Worst case scenario - the arm doesn't fully recover and he ends up putting up less value in his career than Mark Prior. TJ isn't a death sentence by any means, but it's just a really shit day to be a Nats fan. Especially after Jordan Zimmermann just got shelled in his return to the rotation yesterday.

Yeah, the 18 year old me was often riding his high horse. The 24 year old me is weary of trying to sort through generations of different sorts of drug use and think weighted numbers to an era are the only strong criteria for Hall of Fame worthiness. The 24 year old me sees Bonds' OPS+ of 181 and Clemens career 3.09 FIP and sees them both has HoFers, with Bonds the more obvious candidate. That being said, most BBWAA voters are more like the 18 year old me.

The fact that Pap only blew 3 saves in 2009 glosses over a pretty noticeable regression that I doubt is lost on Theo. 2008 - HR/9 - 0.5, BB/9 - 1.0, K/9 - 10.0, FIP - 2.01 2009 - HR/9 - 0.7, BB/9 - 3.2, K/9 - 10.1, FIP - 3.05 2010 - HR/9 - 1.1, BB/9 - 3.6, K/9 - 8.2, FIP - 4.06 Virtually every projections system, including ZiPS, PECOTA and CHONE, predicted a continued regression in 2010 (though only ZiPS was even close to projecting quite so dramatic a regression). This for a pitcher who is now approaching 30 and trending downwards for 2 consecutive seasons. Over 3 seasons you've seen his home run rate double, his walk rate triple and his strikeout rate drop almost 20%. If his regression continues, his high save totals might not be enough to keep him a type-A free agent in the Elias rankings. He received 9.3 million avoiding arbitration last year despite posting a 1.9 WAR in an environment where teams pay on average 300k less than that per win. Based on arbitration trends of 40/60/80, he's likely to earn 12 million in 2012. All chasing the carrot of a first round pick in 2012. Oh, and then there's the fact that the Red Sox play in a division where you absolutely CANNOT give away wins. Not taking a look at Bard in save situations once or twice now is just asking for a blow-up in 2011. This season could just be an outlier, sure. But let's not pretend this is just some barely comprehensible blip. Papelbon has historically put up league average line drive rates (19.7/21.1/15.9 in the last 3 seasons compared to a league average of about 19), so unless he can keep his strikeout totals right about or above 9, bring his walks back down and lower that gaudy HR rate, he's not going to be that special pitcher he was from 2006-2008.

I can only assume that Jonathan Papelbon just keeps getting run out there because he's bait at the end of the year and the Sox don't think they're going to make the post-season. Bard's limited batters to an OPS more than 200 points lower in high leverage situations, Pap's now blown 6 saves this year yet still keeps getting the call. At this point he's on pace for 8 or 9 BS, you gotta question how he's still in the role given that he's got a younger, more controllable pitcher with better stuff and numbers waiting in the wings. Not that I'm complaining, it would have been really deflating to follow up one of the greatest weekend's in the history of the Blue Jays with a 3 game sweep at the hands of the Massholes.

Morrow was incredible. According to Bill James' Game Score, they have been only 3 more dominant pitching performances in baseball since 1920 - Kerry Wood's 20K 1-hitter in 1998 (105), Nolan Ryan's 15K no-hitter in 1991 (101) and Sandy Koufax's perfect game in 1965 (101). Morrow's performance rated 100, the first 100 since Randy Johnson's perfect game in 2004. For his perfecto this year, Roy Halladay rated only a 98. Was absolutely the greatest game I've ever had the privilege of being on hand for. Best weekend I've ever spent at the Rogers Centre either after watching JP's historic debut.

Given his OPS was about to fall below .800, I'd say it was about time he did SOMETHING.

Norm MacDonald and Martin Short. Hard to believe neither of them have even been mentioned here yet.

That was awesome. Can't believe how lively that fastball is. 3 digits with serious break. I remember the curve ball from the draft video last year, but wow. He got behind a few times early in the game, but when he settled down his control was absolutely unbelievable. He was locating everywhere with everything. Didn't even really make a bad pitch on the home run, just a change-up at the bottom of the zone that Young put a good swing on. I expected him to get quite a few strikeouts and show signs of greatness to come. I didn't expect him to look like the absolute definition of a ace. With core guys like Zimmerman, Capps, Storen, Lannan, Strasburg and prospects like Desmond, Norris and now Harper on the way, the future is very bright in Washington. They even got a couple high upside pitching prospects in the draft in AJ Cole and Solis.

I dare any Phillies fan to say again that they'd rather still have Cliff Lee.

What outstanding journalism. 1) Get the ending completely wrong ... check. 2) Take three negative comments on a fan board as validation for a headline declaring that the fanbase hated the show ... check. 3) Desperately use a writer from a gossip blog still beating the carcass of Defamer (the actual Defamer writers are now running Movieline) to find critical opinion siding with your own ... check.

You could argue that Walt, who was on the island for 44 days and then lived an entire life beyond it, doesn't have the same connection to the survivors. Then you consider that his father is stuck on the island atoning for his sins and it's easy to understand why Walt doesn't remember his connection to the island so fondly.

Fan 590 in Toronto reporting UFC has scheduled a press conference in the city for a "major announcement". Since I'm assuming they haven't already won the battle to legalize MMA in the province, maybe it's just that they're setting up shop in Toronto and actively fighting for sanctioning?

I've been working so I didn't get a chance to chime in on the upfronts so far. Anyways, a couple thoughts: NBC - Fairly impressed, looks like they're actually managing to put their best foot forward on just about every night. I question the logic of putting two hours of Biggest Loser together where it will serve as just one strong lead-in instead of 2. On Monday The Event's marketing is smart and catchy, and if the show is any good it could be a strong ratings draw with only FOX newcomer Lonestar as competition for drama viewers. Undercovers should be good against FOX's Lie to Me, ABC's comedies and CBS' reality. A new Law & Order: Los Angeles with new contracts for all involved should be much more cost effective than the original, and the change of scenery in Los Angeles could make things interesting. Outsourced evidently tested extremely well and the network is very high on it, so giving it the post Office slot is a no-brainer. I understand that Parks & Recreation developed by leaps and bounds creatively last year, I agree. But it's the lowest rated of any of the network's returning shows. On the lowest rated network. Anyway they've got a bunch of other sitcoms on tap, so there's a good chance that Parks & Recreation actually gets to launch an entirely new block of comedies on another night sometime this year. Love Bites could be a breakout with women if Americans are interested in watching an anthology series, and it's smart that they're playing up the Love, Actually ties. School Pride is an obvious pick for Fridays in the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition mold, but I'm not sure that day is where Outlaw belongs. Of the midseason shows, The Cape looks outstanding and the comedies all seem charming. Paul Reiser is a wildcard but the full trailer is pretty good. May not be a sensational comedy but the appeal will be broad, which is exactly what the network needs right now. Solid B+ FOX - A couple of years ago, FOX would launch a bunch of new scripted shows in the fall, half of them would be gone by the beginning of sweeps and they'd just sort of ride it out until American Idol and 24 returned in January to bail them out. Now they've actually got stability on essentially every night, and that's a good thing because 24 is on its way out and American Idol is severely weakened with the departure of Simon Cowell. They're only launching 3 new shows, 2 hours of new programming this fall with the drama Lonestar on Monday and the comedic pairing of Raising Hope and Running Wilde on Tuesday. Lonestar is unlike anything else in its timeslot, but the trailer didn't do much for me. Tuesday should be very interesting with Glee leading into the screwball pairing of the two new sitcoms, both of which looked very good from their trailers. From there it's business as usual. Imagine that. Two shows on Fox whose ratings are stable on Thursday. In midseason things get screwy again when American Idol returns to dislodge the schedule, but there are also some interesting newcomers. Ride-Along is from Shawn Ryan (The Shield, The Unit) and stars Jennifer Beals and Jason Clarke. Mixed Signals is charming in an "Apatow without the edge" kinda way. I'm not a fan of the annual FOX tradition of "let's destabilize our entire schedule and give American Idol as many hours as possible", but otherwise the schedule is fine. No game changers though, so no better than a B ABC - Stability in the fall; 12 1/2 hours of the network's 19 hours from Sunday-Friday remains in-tact from fall 2009. Last year's Shark Tank and The Forgotten make way for No Ordinary Family and Detroit 1-8-7. They can hardly do worse than last year. Better Together (ugh) slides into the Wednesday comedy block, with The Whole Truth (interesting) replacing the disastrous Eastwick. My Generation should do a somewhat better job at catching a similar demographic to Grey's Anatomy than Flash Forward did, although it's a concept that could either blow your mind or just blow. Body of Proof (double ugh) might just be able to attract an audience old enough to survive on Friday. At midseason they've got Off the Map (Caroline Dhavernas deserves better than Shonda Rhimes), Mr Sunshine (looks alright, but a Matthew Perry series not making the fall schedule? Something stinks) and Happy Endings. Not sure there are any shows with serious breakout potential, and with Lost gone and Dancing with the Stars having taken a ratings hit this year, that's a problem. Then you take in to account that ABC basically tied NBC in the ratings this year? Ouch. C- I'll hold off on CBS until they post trailers.

Chuck is now confirmed to be renewed for a 4th season with a 13 episode order, likely to be on the fall schedule with an NBC option for a back 9 order to make it a 22 episode season. Fantastic news, and if completely true we won't have to wait until January for more Chuck!

A .324/.403/.735 over a full season would in fact make Wells' contract look like a bargain. It's just obviously not going to even be close to that.

It's not as bad as the Expos. The Expos had several years where they AVERAGED smaller crowds then that. In 2004 they had 13 home games with crowds below 5,000 fans. I'm not sure that it won't get worse at some point first week of September, but I'm pretty confident that it won't get lower then that before then and when it does it won't get that much worse. If the plan being put in place by the front office is in any way effective, the crowds should start to slowly increase year by year again as the team gets more competitive. Of course if you've rather read the opinions of a jerk-off with a hate-on for Canada...

The Age of the Jay Hey Kid has begun.

I'd be down for that. Course I'm down for a lot of blogs for the first week, then once every three months.

NY Post reporting that Cuban shortstop Adeinis Hechavarria will choose the Blue Jays over the Yankees, and is close to signing a 4 year, 10 million dollar contract. The Yankees reportedly matched the offer, but Hechavarria preferred to sign with the Jays, who have no close to ready shortstop prospects. The Yankees had reportedly preferred to move him to second, giving them the option to trade Robinson Cano if they didn't wish to extend him beyond 2011. The contract tops the 8 million fellow Cuban shortstop Jose Iglesias got from the Red Sox in 2008. While Iglesias is considered to be the better average hitter, Hechevarria has more power and has a better frame.

In fairness, earlier in the season Bozak was playing his home games at RICOH and Phil Kessel had absolutely zero chemistry with the Blakes, Stajans, Ponikarovskys and basically everyone they played him with until they tried Kuley and Bozak. Glad they've put that pairing back together; nothing against Poni but Kuley's just a rare treat on the Leafs to watch when he's got somebody to play with.

I don't know what their payroll is for this year, but the last two years they've opened with payrolls above 200 million. And with the new potential revenue from the expanded sky boxes and ad-space at the new stadium... well at least the small markets can take solace in lots and lots of luxury tax.

As far as I know, Toronto is the Canadian city seriously considering a 2020 bid, Quebec City is seriously considering a 2022 bid. Like Basha said, Quebec City is ideal for the winter Olympics, not so much the summer games. Toronto's bid will be strengthened with the facilities being constructed for the 2015 Pan-Am Games, although I kind of feel like they'd probably be better off bidding for 2024 where they'd be able to tout the hopeful success of those games. And really? It's character that's kept the summer games from Toronto? I must have forgotten about all that character strewn throughout Atlanta in between meth labs.

I'm more stoked about this than I was about Salt Lake City, mainly because this wasn't just a gold medal. This was the gold medal that clinched Canada's place in the record books. It was also a storybook finish to the Olympics, with Canada having just about the best last 4 days or so as humanly possible. The other mitigating factor being avenging the round robin loss, which was really debilitating to Canadian hockey fans and we really didn't start to recover from it until we pounded the Russians.