Tuesday Email bag

Last night, I answered about 200 emails. So today, you can read the best of my email bag:

BaD,

Huge Rangers fan, but the undeserved extensions for Buck and his little buddy Hart was the last straw for me. Please continue to rip them mercilessly and start some sort of anti-Rangers boycott, or talk me off the ledge by explaining to me why I should continue rooting for the management team that:

1. Backstabbed Grady Fuson (yes, I remember that class-less episode)
2. Paid $2.4MM for Barajas and Alomar, making Laird the #3 catcher. Barajas had two great months and Alomar is decomposing.
3. Held fake negotiations with Delgado to appease the fans (reversing course at the last minute and requiring him to DH does not indicate that they were ever serious)
4. Has done nothing to significantly improve a team that overachieved and still didn't make the playoffs (I know free agent prices are high, but what happened to financial flexibility?) With the current pricing structure for free agents, that A-Rod deal doesn't look so expensive now, does it? And none of the starters from last year's team are really Hart's guys, save Ryan Drese who we got as a throw-in for the low, low price of freaking Travis Hafner!

I am a big baseball fan and it will hurt to boycott the team this season, but sign me up as officially anti-Ranger (with an option to buy back in if they somehow get Sweeney or Maggs).

Frustrated in FTW,
Harrison

It is not our (or my) intention to “rip them mercilessly”, but rather it is our intention for this ownership and front office to be interested in giving those players that busted their rears last year to give this team a great season a little bit of help. So far, those who wear suits are high on excuses and low on results. But, they still have some time to prove us wrong, and isn’t that why they play?

Hey, Bob,

I think I can confirm your theory that the Rangers
threw out this DH nonsense at Delgado because they
knew it would kill the deal. This from foxsports.com:

FoxSports …

Particularly interesting was this bit:

"With the Rangers, where Delgado would play became an
issue Sunday.

"From the first conversation with the Texas Rangers,
we made it crystal clear that Carlos Delgado had no
interest in being a full-time DH," Sloane said. "If we
had 25 conversations with the Texas Rangers, we were
told in 24 of those that the question of him playing
first base was no issue. Earlier today, we were told
that is changing and that 75 percent of his at-bats,
should he choose to sign with the Texas Rangers, would
come as a DH."

So the subject of DH vs. First Base had been
discussed. The Rangers knew that he wouldn't go for
it, so when they saw there was actually a chance that
he was going to take their offer, they threw that into
the mix because they KNEW it would get them out of an
offer they had no intention of delivering on.

It's amazing to think that just a couple years ago we
were all so happy to have Hicks running the Rangers &
the Stars because by golly, winning was what mattered
to him and he was going to do whatever it took to
bring championships here. Now from his spending
habits, you would think that he owned the Pittsburgh
Pirates & the Florida Panthers. Wouldn't surprise me
if, when hockey eventually returns with the inevitable
salary cap attached, the Stars end up closer to the
minimum payroll than the cap limit. How sad. So is
discussing baseball in January when we should be
talking about how how the Pacific Division race is
looking for the Stars.


Lobster Claw,

Rod Woodruff

Thankfully, the above 2 emails are more the rule than the exception. Yet some fans still congratulate Hicks’ newly found commitment to thrift.

Have ya'll seen what Dickau's been doing since the
trade to NOH? Turning into a decent player. I kept
seeing good #'s in box scores and thought I'd check it
out. Hornets suck, but not bad for a 2nd year 6'0
honkey.

Dickau’s numbers …

Colin

Wow, his numbers are actually quite amazing.

If this doesn't back up the point you and dan were making, nothing does (from SI's rumor section)....
Sloane said, "From the first conversation with the Texas Rangers, we made it crystal-clear that Carlos Delgado had no interest in being a full-time DH. If we had 25 conversations with the Texas Rangers, we were told in 24 of those that the question of him playing first base was no issue. (Yesterday), we were told that is changing and that 75 percent of his at-bats . . . would come as a DH. After three months of negotiations, we were given less than five hours to tell them yes or no, to make a decision that affects not only the rest of Carlos Delgado's baseball career but the rest of his life." -- The Associated Press



As an aside, I consider myself a big fan of BaD radio (more than any other show on the ticket) and I'm a big fan of Bill Simmons as well, but between his Pats fandom and your anti-Philly rants, I don't think I've ever wanted a team to win more than I want the Eagles to win this superbowl... granted, I know the Pats are the better team and probably will win running away.

Let’s all hope that the Eagles do not make me ill this off-season. But, I know many are hoping they win just to spite me. That’s ok.

Dear, Dear Sturminator,

I've been meaning to write to you about this ever since Christmas, but I just know got around to it. As you no doubt know, Landon Donovan is now with Bayer Leverkusen as the loan with MLS ran out on Jan 1. I have questions:

1. How long do you think it'll take for Donovan to crack the starting XI? Or do you think he'll be a reserve, or will he warm the bench for someone?

2. Will this move finally convince European football clubs that the U.S. can produce top level Talent?

3. What will this do to MLS? They were kinda building their image around him and the other U.S. nationals. You can say Freddie Adu all you want, but he needs to crack the starting lineup (if he hasn't already), score with regularity, and MATURE, before we can start touting him. So what does MLS do now?

By the way, keep up the football (soccer) talk on your Blog. Love it.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Jason Parker

1. Not long at all. He is too world-class to sit long.
2. They already feel that way. Beasley, Renya, Friedel, McBride and many more show us that Americans can play in the top levels in Europe.
3. MLS is basically what basketball is in Europe. A nice domestic league, but when a player wants to reach his potential, he will have to leave to seek a higher level. In hoops, that is the NBA, but in soccer, that is Europe.

Bob:

There is two things that life has taught me: Never underestimate the power of the idiot and never overestimate the intelligence of the American people. These two things I have learned has helped me in evaluating the situation in regard to the NHL lockout.
Apparently, at least by the news that I have read, and the comments that I have heard, the majority of people who are aware, or care (and those numbers are dwindling), about the NHL have taken the side of the NHL owners in regard to the salary cap.
How can this be? What intellectual ground does the NHL have on which to stand? The NHL owners state that they want "cost certainty". Well, don't all business owners want "cost certainty"? I mean, wouldn't that be nice? Wouldn't it be nice to work in a economic vacuum, in which all business decisions and all business risks were not subject to the demands and the rigors of the free market system?
The fact of the matter is this: the NHL owners are acting like a bunch of children. They put themselves in the financial position that they are in and now they want the players to pay for it by installing a micro-socialist system of salary caps progressive salary restrictions.
Another fact to consider is this: the free market already has a built-in salary cap; it is called a budget! If you go outside the budget, you have to cut costs. If you don't cut costs, you face bankruptcy. Like little children, NHL owners do not understand, or do not want to understand, this concept. They want someone else, or something else, to control their costs since they are unable, or unwilling, to control their costs themselves. This reminds of an alcoholic that wants to outlaw booze since he can't control his own consumption of sauce.
Unfortunately, these facts have not stopped the American public from taking the owners' side. This largely stems from popular envy of NHL salaries, even though such salaries are market-demand driven, and popular ignorance of economics.
Even more unfortunate is that the most recent talks between the NHL and the player's union appear to be amounting to nothing, with there still being a gap on the "philosophical issue" of the salary cap. The only thing that I can hope for is the NHL players to tell the owners to piss off, and then play legal hardball by taking the owners to court and forcing the owners to pay salaries in full, on demand, all at once. Hopefully, if such an action is successful, it will bankrupt the NHL owners. After all, if those owners are not willing to understand or adhere to the rules of the free market, do they really need to be in business?

Respectfully,

Mike
Denver, CO

Ladies and Gentlemen, this man knows what he speaks of. Or else he agrees with me, and therefore I am inclined to say he knows what he speaks of.

Bob,
I'm sure you will get inundated with ridiculous stats about why Michael Irvin should or should not get inducted into the Hall of Fame. I did a little number crunching using pro-footballreference.com as a reference for my statistics. Let me preface everything below by saying that I am a Cowboys fan who is 29 years old and spent my high-school and college days (as you talked about, the crux of a fan's life) watching the mid-90's Super Bowl winning Cowboys. And Irvin was among my favorites on that team. But I am only looking at numbers below and I think you will find some very interesting stuff.
First, here's a look at some basic stats in the playoffs comparing Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice:

Swann in 13 playoff games:
3.3 rec / game
63.8 yds / game
0.62 tds /game

Irvin in 16 playoff games:
5.42 rec / game
82.2 yds / game
0.5 td / game

Rice in 28 playoff games:
5.39 rec / game
80.17 yds / game
0.75 tds / game

Stallworth in 15 playoff games:
3.5 rec / game
67.6 yds / game
0.8 td / game

Some interesting information here. Jerry Rice proves his greatness in two ways. One is that he was in 28 playoff games, that is staggering! Second, he's 2nd of these 4 in every category proves his greatness and overall consistency. What stands out to me though is that in "the big games" Michael Irvin caught the most passes per game for the most yards per game. And remember, Emmitt Smith and Jay Novacek "vultured" many short yardage touchdowns that Rice and Stallworth probably received. That's why Irvin's numbers come down a little bit in the TD category. Overall, great numbers.
Now, here's a look at Irvin vs. Art Monk using just regular season games. I added Jerry Rice's numbers for reference (I'm not making a case that Irvin is better than Rice, Rice is significantly better).

Michael Irvin in 160 regular season games:
4.7 rec / game
74.86 yds / game
.408 tds / game

Art Monk in 224 regular season games:
4.19 rec / game
56.79 rec / game
0.304 tds / game

Jerry Rice in 330 regular season games:
5.11 rec / game
75.56 yds / game
0.65 tds / game

What I find interesting is that these numbers seem to indicate that Monk has better numbers because of his 4 extra years in the league and 64 or so extra games. If you take their numbers on a "per game" basis, the difference between these two guys is actually staggering. Irvin averaged 0.5 catches per game more, almost 20 yards per game more and 0.1 TDs per game more. And I look at Irvin's numbers in terms of yards and he is actually very close to the number Rice put up. Again, this is not done in order to compare Rice vs. Irvin. I just believe that if you take out some of the current players who are racking up numbers in a new NFL (I would much rather take Irvin over guys like Jimmy Smith, Isaac Bruce, Keenan McCardell, Shannon Sharpe and Larry Centers, all guys with more receptions than Irvin), I think Irvin is a no-brainer 1st ballot Hall of Famer.
Thanks and have a great day!
-Vijay

Vijay appears to be a stats nerd after my own heart. After further review, I agree with Peter King that Art Monk is not a HOF player, but Irvin is.

Links:

Ouch, Clippers pound the Mavericks …

Lebreton on Delgado …

On to Magglio , who is a Boras client…

Club officials confirmed Monday that the club has investigated free agent outfielder Magglio Ordoñez, who will be the last major player to sign this winter. Ordoñez, 30, is a career .307 hitter. He averaged 32 homers and 118 RBIs from 1999 through 2003.

Larry Brooks on the Owners latest offer and if you read Brooks on a regular basis, you know he is generally not pro-owners…

Philly writer suggests that the Patriots are not that great …



Moss rumors rage in Minnesota …

Madden was supposed to play the role of T.O. in the MNF skit …

In Memory of Javier, Junior’s goldfish …

To return soon, The SHIELD! …

Funniest Link of the day? The Weatherman who is strug-gel-ling …