Quisy Leaves...Oh, Too Bad!

So, let me get this straight: In 2005-06, it cost $15.7 Million to have Keith Van Horn on the Mavericks, and $5.4 million to have Marquis Daniels. That is $21.1 million dollars. Then, the Mavs still owed Daniels over $24 million more for the next 4 seasons.

They drafted Ager to replace Daniels who will make less than a million for each of the next two years, and traded Daniels for Croshere who will replace Van Horn and make just $7.3 million? Are Ager and Croshere great? I don’t know, but I am sure they can at least duplicate the measly contributions from the dearly departed, at less than 40% of the cost.

And, somehow they moved the rest of Daniels contract. What is not to like?

In closing on Daniels, I am not saying he has nothing. He will put up great numbers for years in this league on teams that are going nowhere. He just is a dumb player who makes dumb decisions. His focus lacked, and Avery has no patience for that (nor do I). Nelson loved him, and like Bradley, Avery is slowly extracting the final pieces of Nellie’s team from his roster. Pavel, you are next.

Daniels dealt away for Croshere …

The Mavericks accomplished another of their primary off-season goals by agreeing to trade guard Marquis Daniels, team sources and his agent confirmed Wednesday night.

Daniels, 25, is being shipped to Indiana in exchange for forward Austin Croshere in a deal that can't be finalized until next Wednesday. The swap could save the Mavs $19 million and fills the need for a backup behind Dirk Nowitzki.

France 1, The diving, stinking dopes from Portugal 0 …I do want to say that Luis Figo doesn’t seem like a diving, stinking dope, but the rest of them and their stupid coach are diving, stinking dopes.

No way! A losing team of diving, stinking dopes blame the refs? …

It was always unlikely that Portugal would leave this World Cup quietly and so it proved last night as Cristiano Ronaldo and coach Luiz Felipe Scolari laid the blame for their semi-final defeat at the feet of the Uraguayan referee Jorge Larrionda.

The incidents that sent the Portuguese camp scowling towards Stuttgart for a third-place play-off against Germany on Saturday night came within five first-half minutes as Larrionda first awarded France a penalty for a foul on Thierry Henry and then denied Ronaldo a similar prize as he flew theatrically to the ground in a crowded French box.

Ronaldo claimed after the game that he was pushed by the French defender Willy Sagnol as he attempted to reach a Luis Figo cross. "He was a very bad referee, I should have had a penalty," said the winger afterwards. His coach agreed that a foul went unpunished, a sentiment demonstrated when he led most of Portuguese bench to the edge of the technical are in protest at Larrionda's decision to wave play on.

"It was a penalty, they had to give a penalty, and against Ronaldo it didn't happen," Scolari said before implying that the officials had conspired against his side. "The referee made a mistake when he did not give a penalty when Ronaldo was fouled. The referee knows exactly what he is doing. We know South American referees know how to kill the game."

And, if you, like me, think that Chrstiano Ronaldo is everything that is wrong with football, enjoy I hate Ronaldo.com …And to the newbies, we aren’t talking about the fat guy from Brazil who scores all the goals and has buck-teeth…

Meanwhile, I will admit I am jealous. The Coyotes sign Georges Laraque to pound the Pacific Division into submission. Why, exactly, are we getting the washed up Matt Barnaby when this guy is available?

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RANGERS QUALITY STARTS

The Rangers Rotation is something that we haven’t focused on too much so far this year with all of the attention on the disappointing seasons of Teixeira and Cordero. I was at the Newberg Report Night on Sunday at the Ballpark and GM Jon Daniels was addressing the audience for about 90 minutes before the game. He made the point that although the season has certainly not been wonderful, where would you have thought the team would be entering 2006 if you knew that Tex and CoCo would give you very little. While Adam Eaton wouldn’t pitch at all?

From that standpoint, the combo platter of DeRosa, Barajas, Matthews, Kinsler, Koronka, Rheinecker, and friends should all be offered high congratulations. They are still in it, although, as I said yesterday on the air, I think the Rangers are the definition of average. Not good, not bad. Just an average .500 baseball team.

But what about the Starters and that rotation that occupies every waking hour for us in the winter time?

As you know if you read this website, I am obsessed with Stats that are not often printed. In baseball, that means Quality Starts, which I think, although flawed, give us the best indication of a pitcher doing his job. It has nothing to do with his run support (see Chris Young, 2005) but instead is all about a guy getting through 6 complete innings with 3 Earned Runs or less against him.

Here Is my last study from 2005 …

Total for 2005: 66 of 162 40.7%
2004: 61 of 162 37.6%

Well, in 2006, through 7/5, we are off to a Team record of 41 Quality Starts in 86 Starts (47.6%)

Here are the individual marks. The asterisk means QS, and the W or L is the TEAM result for the night, not his decision.

Millwood
H 4/3 L, 4/8 L, 4/24 L, 5/4 W*, 5/9 L, 5/25 L, 5/30 W*, 6/16 W*, 6/21 L*, 7/2 L
A 4/14 W*, 4/19 L*, 4/29 W*, 5/15 W*, 5/20 W*, 6/6 W*, 6/11 L*, 6/27 L

11 QS in 18 starts (61%)
Home: 4 of 10
Away: 7 of 8

Rangers Record when Millwood Starts Game = 8-10

Padilla
H 4/4 W*, 4/9 W*, 4/25 W, 5/5 L, 5/10 L*, 5/23 L, 5/28 W*, 6/14 W*, 6/20 L, 6/30 W* , 7/5 W*
A 4/15 L, 4/20 W*, 4/30 W, 5/18 W*, 6/3 L, 6/9 L*, 6/25 L*,

11 QS in 18 starts (61%)
Home: 7 of 11
Away: 4 of 7

Rangers Record when Padilla Starts Game = 9-8

Loe
H 4/5 L*, 4/21 W, 4/26 L*, 5/6 L, 5/22 W*, 5/27 L, 6/13 L, 6/18 W
A 4/10 L, 4/16 W*, 5/1 W*, 5/12 W, 5/17 L, 6/2 W*, 6/8 L

6 QS in 15 starts (40%)
Home: 3 of 8
Away: 3 of 7

Rangers Record when Loe Starts Game = 7-8

Koronka
H 4/7 L, 4/23 W*, 5/3 W*, 5/8 W*, 5/26 W*, 5/31 L, 6/12 L, 6/17 W, 7/4 L*
A 4/12 W*, 4/18 W, 4/28 L, 5/16 L, 5/21 L*, 6/7 W*, 6/23 W, 6/29 L*,

9 QS in 17 starts (53%)
Home: 5 of 9
Away: 4 of 8

Rangers Record when Koronka Starts Game = 9-8

Rheinecker
H 4/22 W, 5/29 W*, 6/15 L, 6/22 W, 7/3 W*
A 6/4 W*, 6/10 W, 6/28 L,

3 QS in 8 starts (38%)
Home: 2 of 5
Away: 1 of 3

Rangers Record when Rheinecker Starts Game = 6-2

Tejeda
0 QS in 5 starts (0%)

Wasdin
1 QS in 3 starts (33%)

Bauer
0 QS in 1 starts (0%)

Dickey
0 QS in 1 starts (0%)