bukie

An e-mail to Ken Pomeroy from February 16:

Three goats: 1. Ryan Theriot - Responsible for 5 outs with the bat, and 2 free outs with the glove today. Not a great game. 2. Jeff Samardzija - Just goes to show the kind of day when you give up 6 runs in 1/3 of an inning and you were only the second worst pitching performance of the day. Just had nothing today from the outset. Or the last year or so. 3. Carlos Zambrano - Unlucky a bit in the first inning, somewhat the victim of bad D (some from himself, which should totally count as earned), but couldn't miss bats today outside of walks, and never could get it together. Three silver linings: 3. Aramis Ramirez - 2 hits including a HR gives hope his shoulder isn't causing problems. 2. Marlon Byrd - A brief moment of excitement from his 3-run HR in the first, and the victim of possibly the cheapest DP we'll see this year. 1. Sean Marshall - When 2 of your teammates combine for 1.2 innings and 14 runs, going 2.2 innings, not allowing a baserunner, and collecting 5 Ks makes your performance look that much better in comparison. Unfortunate they couldn't use him for another couple innings, but they may need him later this week for a couple innings.

Or Sean Marshall, or even Marlon Byrd, who will have the cheapest DP of the year on his stat sheet.

It would appear the Cubs may not keep up their 15 run scoring pace established over their first 3 innings. Now their only chance is to hope their pitching can improve upon their 36 run allowing pace established over 2 innings to remain competitive for this year.

Of course, he strikes out the next guy, he's right at the league average. Sample size issue here, just as it is with anything on the first game of the year. Plus, all balls in play are not created equal. Yes, all balls in play give fielders a chance to make mistakes, but not all at the same rate.

Your pitcher faced 10 batters. He walked 2, struck out 1, gave up 1 home run and allowed six balls in play. That's not 54.00 ERA bad, but it's bad. Saying he allowed six balls in play really obfuscates the impact of said balls.

Shaun Marcum doing ok in his first start coming off TJ surgery today.

Apparently when given the choice of Vlad Guerrero or Garrett Jones at U this week, I should have taken Jones.

I was going to pick the Yankees, but yesterday's game convinced me otherwise. Totally not clutch enough to win it all this year. AL East: Red Sox AL Central: Tigers AL West: Angels AL WC: Rays AL MVP: Kendry Morales AL Cy Young: Josh Beckett AL ROY: Austin Jackson NL East: Mets NL Central: Cubs NL West: Giants NL WC: Phillies NL MVP: Jason Bay NL Cy Young: Dan Haren NL ROY: Alcides Escobar DS: Red Sox over Tigers, Angels over Rays Cubs over Mets, Giants over Phillies CS: Angels over Red Sox Cubs over Giants WS: Cubs over Angels

The Avs ended up winning in OT so SJ gets 1 point. How do the Hawks control their destiny? We are 2 points behind them but with a game in hand. I assume that we hold the tiebreaker, but I'm not sure what the tiebreaker is. Is it H2H? Tiebreaker is wins, which the Hawks can no longer lose at this point.

Manny doesn't play RF and hasn't played it much at all compared to LF this decade (991-100). Manny only played RF regularly in 2000 and his only other year with any games at RF is 2001 with 7. In that case, Ichiro is still the top RF of the decade by WAR.

Going by WAR, Carlos Beltran was the top CF of the decade (Edmonds 2nd), Ichiro the top RF (Manny/Vlad tossup for 2nd), and Halladay the top SP (Randy Johnson 2nd).

Ichiro might be worth a look in the OF somewhere, Halladay or Johan Santana should get consideration for SP. I also might be tempted to cheat and put A-Rod at short and Chipper Jones at 3rd. EDIT: Or Randy Johnson at SP. Pedro would be an easy choice for pitcher of the first half of the decade, but has really fallen off the last 5 years.

Did they just heavily imply that Beckett was a nobody "thrower" until he landed in Boston and became a real "pitcher"?

Damn it, Nashville. Hawks are still one point away from clinching.

Not sure where this should go, but Evan Turner won the AP player of the year in a landslide, as only 3 other players got votes. Final tally: Turner 54, Wall 9, Butler (WVU) 1, Harangody 1.

Way, way too early to say, pending players leaving for the draft. I think Purdue has a shot if Hummel is healthy at the start of next year.

I think the best way to reward the bye teams (if we're looking to do that) is to hold the opening and second round at the bye team's home gym for each 3-team "pod". So, for example, let's say in the new format, Kansas is the 1 seed, and UConn and North Carolina are the 16/17 seeds in their bracket. Then, the UConn-North Carolina game, followed by the Kansas-winner game could both be played at the Allen Fieldhouse. If anything, it might swing the advantage too far in the bye-team's favor, but imagine, then, the battle to get an 8 seed over a 9 seed.

I'm happy that Escobar is pretty much guaranteed to start and leadoff all year, so now I just hope he can either be the slappiest hitter that ever slapped (i.e. Ichiro-like offense at SS), or develop some kind of hidden power. Looks like Sean Rodriguez will get a shot, somewhere, at Tampa too. If he can put it all together, I'd be really hopeful for my team.

The Hawks can clinch the division tonight if Nashville beats Detroit in regulation.

People are always like that -- like celebrities who start charities for weird diseases because their kid/mom/dad/friend is affected Yeah, like Derrek Lee. Major tool, definitely an overreaction on his part. Yes, because that's exactly what he said, that it was an overreaction to do that. In fact, your example is a prime example.

That win eliminates Nashville from the division race. Now only Detroit remains... EDIT: Also, the Hawks have clinched at worst the 6 seed. Minnesota is tied late with SJ. If the Sharks lose, the Hawks regain control of the Western Conference race.

We did a trade to fix the roster issue. Sorry about the waiver issue, Clint.

Early tennis season bump...Roddick just beat Nadal. That doesn't happen very often, so I thought it was bump-worthy.

Let's take this year, as an example. Let's just assume the NCAA instates a rule where no non-AQ can make the tournament with a losing record (which is not out of the question, since they had that for the NIT until last year). If there were a 96-team tournament, 31 other at-larges would have to be located besides the ones already in the tournament. Looking at Pomeroy's rating, here are the top 31 rated teams that didn't make the tourney: 26. Dayton 37. Virginia Tech 44. Mississippi State 46. Arizona State 48. Miami FL 49. VCU 51. Mississippi 53. Illinois 55. Memphis 56. UConn 60. Alabama 61. North Carolina 64. UAB 65. St. John's 66. Rhode Island 67. Wright State 68. NC State 69. Texas Tech 70. Seton Hall 71. Wichita State 74. Cincinnati 75. Northeastern 76. Missouri State 77. Tulsa 80. Marshall 82. Northwestern 83. South Florida 88. Kent State 90. Portland 91. Nevada 92. Arizona That's an 18-13 distribution, just going straight down the list. I'd imagine teams like St. Louis, William and Mary, Illinois State, Charlotte and Pacific would get consideration too ahead of middling and bottom feeder major teams like Arizona, St. Johns or Texas Tech, who finished barely .500. Heck, even in the NIT, Northwestern was seeded below W&M, Illinois State and Charlotte. I'm not saying a change needs to be made, just that it's not all the gloom and doom so many are decrying.