I'll admit this about the Red Sox...

... they are definitely the most entertaining! See below.



Oh it's Manny Being Manny(tm)! So is Manny beating the crap out of club officials. Also, how come that's the first article ESPN covers of Manny when they'll post essentially what's being printed by E! about Alex Rodriguez?

Being,
Greg

The Yankees and Barry Bonds

Alright, a quick update on the state of Yankees Baseball.

Right now, they are 44-38 and 5 1/2 games out of first place- 5 games out of the wild card lead. There's plenty of time to erase those game margins from now until October- honestly, we've overcome worse deficits in the past. For a little bit, it looked like things were really clicking- A-Rod hitting one out for 4 days straight, Giambi (mustached and) playing like he did 2001, Wang figuring it out again and shutting teams down, Jeter, Abreu, and Cano all breaking out of their slumps, Petitte pitching like a no. 1 starter, Joba is now a full-time starter, Matsui hitting .330+, Damon hitting .330+, Mariano is pitching out-of-his-mind- yep it looked great. It was during this streak the Yankees left .500 ball behind them winning 8 in a row.

But not all good things go on forever. First Wang goes down and may be out for the season- we had to rely on Dan Giese and Sidney Ponson to start a double header against the Mets a few days ago. Then Damon and Giambi are on mini-slides starting bring them out of the stratosphere while Melky seems to have forgotten how to hit and Cano seems to be reverting to early season form. Fortunately, it doesn't seem that those slumps will really last. Our bulpen's inexperience is beginning to show as Edwar and Ohlendorf had a couple of trip ups and we just split a series with the Mets- THE FREAKIN' METS!

The guys over at noMaas.org (one of my favorite Yankee blogs) had an interesting suggestion: sign Barry Bonds. Apparently Bonds says he just wants to play, willing to sign for the veteran's minimum salary. In fact, Bonds' agent Scott Borris said that Bonds "would play for free - offering to donate whatever salary he receives to purchase tickets for children. (source)"

My response: just do it.

Barry Bonds put up a .480 on base percentage last season. In other words, he ended up on base nearly half the time he stepped up at bat. That's ridiculous.

Everyone knows what Bonds can do with a bat by launching a ball at any given moment (if pitched to). Imagine this as your batters 1 through 6: Damon (LF), Jeter (SS), Abreu (RF), A-Rod (3B), Bonds (DH), Giambi (1B). Each of those guys have the potential to crank the ball out at every at bat, each of those guys can take more than 5 pitches an at bat, each of those guys are tough outs. After those 6 batters, a pitcher might very well have spent 50 pitches in one or two innings! I don't care who pitches against that line up, they'll struggle.

Bonds doesn't have to play DH either. With Matsui perhaps ending up on the DL, Bonds could be put out in LF and I'm sure if you give him a glove, he could handle 1B at least to Giambi's defensive standards.

Sign Barry Bonds, it makes the Yankees better.

TV, baseball, movies, and life reflections

This is me talking about anything and everything that I haven't mentioned.

First of all, my school kicks ass at lacrosse. We crushed Duke's dreams yet again- that's 3 out of the last 4 years, the one year that we didn't crush Duke's dreams, they were crushed by an ill organized house party and the subsequent allegations of rape. As a result of that one particular event, they've become pariahs that the popular media roots for. Oh well, we put those little bitches in their place. I have no sympathy for them. (My, I am quite the ruthless fan!)

Second is TV in general. I've been doing a lot of watching recently- mostly online ironically enough. The four shows I watch regularly, The Office, House M.D, Scrubs, and The Big Bang Theory, all saw their season finales.

The Office's end was satisfactory and leaves me yearning for more. I hope they have some interesting things planned for season 5 and whatever their spinoff will be.

House's season finale was also great. They kill off a semi-major character that viewers have become accustomed to- they teased it in seasons past, but they actually did it. I was impressed. Those two shows were examples of shows that did positive things despite the writers strike.

Scrubs' "season finale" was a disappointment, especially considering the gaffe in continuity (involving Dr. Kelso- that's all I'll say). They really suffered because this would have been the last seaons if it weren't for the strike. After all the finale was what was supposed to be the 9th episode of the season- the true finale is put off. They have to put it off for one more year- which isn't so bad, but it'll be on a differnt network at a different time- what a bitch.

The Big Bang Theroy's seaons finale was too good- I need to know what happens next. My enthusiasm for that particular show says too much about what I think of myself. Oh well.

Moving on, how about those Yankees? They actually put together a winning streak. Starting pitching hasn't absolutely bombed while the offense is finally living up to the "Bronx Bomber" nickname. I'm glad that Jason Giambi (and his golden thong), Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez decided to join us. You know what will make me happy, IPK to continue pitching like he did a couple of nights ago, Phil Hughes to pitch like Phil Huges once he comes back, and Joba being Joba in the starting rotation. Then I'll be a happy Yankee fan.

I haven't said too much about the medium known as cinema in a long time. I just saw the new Indiana Jones movie. What'd I think? Well it's not going to be the best movie I'll see all summer, but it was fun. I think it was so difficult to top the first three, especially with an older Indiana Jones. The Communists are upset about it, but we needed a dastardly enemy to the same effect as the Nazis in Raiders. In a lot of ways, this movie was an homage to Raiders. The enemy uses and pursues the same thing Jones does, Marion is literally back, and the sequencing of the action and plot movement are parallel. Plus, the bad guys both melt at the end. But I will say, aliens are kinda ridiculous. Fun film still, I recommend it with a large tub of popcorn.

I saw Iron Man back when it opened at the Senator theater about a month back- YES GO SEE IT IT'S AWESOME OMG!!1 Robert Downey Jr. as an actor really carried that film considering how limited Iron Man's actual presence in the film was. Plus there was the little cameo in the end (after the credits) that has me excited.

On to life. I don't have much to say about that. Read my haikus, I say plenty in those.

On and about,
Greg

Opening Day

Today is baseball's official opening day (despite the Red Sox and A's playing a couple games in Japan already a couple of days ago). A bunch of teams kicked off their seasons- the Yankees have to wait an extra day because of a rain out. This means the last season opener at Yankee Stadium will be a night game- that's a little strange. Let me talk a little about the Yankees this year.

ESPN seems to hate the Yankees- no one predicts that the Yankees will win it all, only one person predicts that the Yankees will win the division. This is contrary to almost every SABRmetic prediction estimating that the Yankees will win about 94 games over Boston's 92- assuming the Blue Jays and Rays (no more "Devil") remain who they are, that would mean the Yankees are predicted to win the division by most "SABRmatricians". To further shame ESPN and their predictions, only one of 4 analysts correctly guessed the total average number of wins per team in 2008: 81. How do you not know that? Isn't that just basic math? Each team plays 162 games, there must be a winner and loser in each game, thus the average number of wins per team should be exactly half of 162- 81.

I'm particulaly excited about the Yankees this year. First, we have three young and promising pitches in Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlin and Ian Kennedy. As a Yankee fan, you have to be excited- this group can potentially end up as a Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz for us. Second, a we have a new intelligent manager in Joe Giardi- no longer will I have to wonder if the manager is asleep during the game. He'll manage the bullpen much better, using more than the 3 people Torre seemed to abuse. Third, the future is so bright I need sunglasses, but the present ain't all that bad in itself.

Like I mentioned, most SABRmatricians predict a very Yankee season out of these Yankees. At the very least, our starting pitching will be better. Wang and Pettite will be about the same, Mussina can't be as bad as he was last year (it was statistically a ridiculously unlucky year for the guy), and the combination of Hughes, Kennedy and Chamberlin in the back end of the rotation has to be better than the parade of mediocre-at-best pitchers filling in the 4 and 5 spots last year. Our bench is quite solid as well- Wilson Betemit, Morgan Endsburg, Shelly Duncan, Jose Mollina could all easily be starting on another team. Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu are all in good shape and seemed promising in the spring.

It's good to be a Yankee fan.

In the end, screw baseball, when's the NFL draft?

Watching the waiver wires....

This is a bad, bad move. Why are the Yankees doing this? Why? He has so much promise! If you don't know what I'm talking about, the Yankees released this prospect today. I mean, c'mon! One bad at-bat- that's it! Sure he struck out, but the Yankees never gave the guy a chance to show what he could do. He was DHing for Christssakes! I'm sure he could have flashed some leather to win at least the utility infielder spot away from former Attorney General of the United States Alberto Gonzalez.