Rove to leave White House in August!!!!!!!!

It may seem like I just hate Karl Rove. That's wrong. I also hate George Bush and most republicans. Hate is strong word and I try not to use often for example I dislike the Yankees, but I have begrudging respect for them. Rove has been the mastermind behind many of the Republicans key "victories" over the past twenty years using tactics that both undermind and demean this country. He essentially committed treason when he and his buddy Scooter Libby outed CIA agent Valrie Plame yet there he is sitting right behind Bush smuggly grinning and laughing at everyone who ever cared about the democratic process. He is a disgrace to our country, our world and existance itself.

At least he's still deluded as he predicted that "Bush will regain his popularity, which has sunk to record lows because of the war in Iraq. Rove also predicted conditions in Iraq would improve and that the Democrats would nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, calling her "a tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate."

Here's the thing about Hillary I know she's desicive and I know lots of people can't stand her. But after eight years of having a president who can barely tell time or read a book don't the american people deserve a president that can do those things? I was shocked when Bush was reelected. I said to myself the American people can't be that stupid. Yet here we are. Rove's resigning will last as long as it takes him to find the next moron he deems stupid enough to run as his next puppet.


Here's a link to Guardian story about Rove from 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1165126,00.html

I hate him.

I'm on the record as being in favor of the Red Sox going out and getting Eric Gagne. And I still am. Stockpilling pitching is always a smart move. That said Gagne has been awful so far. Perhaps its time to consider flipping him and Papelbon. I don't know. At least we get to know that we're not alone in being frustarted by him.....

“It’s stupid,” Gagne said. “They brought me here to do a job and I’m not doing it. I gotta step up my game. It’s ridiculous. These guys play eight great innings and I go out and blow it. That’s just . . . a shame.

“It’s a bunch of (expletive) is what it is. You go out there and do your job. I’m not doing my job right now. I’m letting everybody here down. I need to step up my game and find my game. That’s it. It’s pretty simple.

“This game is simple. I’m (expletive) this up right now.”

Hang in there.

I saw The Ten on Friday night. Most people I'm guessing would hate this movie. But if you were a fan of The State this movie should be right up your alley.

The Two Worlds of Chase Utley

To say that Chase Utley prefers the home whites is like saying Barry Bonds has hit a couple of home runs in his career. Utley, the Philadelphia Phillies all-star second basemen, was truly having a season for the ages this year before breaking his hand on July 26. I'll get to his overall numbers a bit later. What I discovered apon looking into Utley's stats for this season is that there are actually two Chase Utley's. One who plays at Citizens Bank Park and the other one who plays everywhere else.

Utley's home stats are simply Ruthian. His away stats although good for a second basemen are no where near his home stats. You don't believe me? Try this: this season Utley's OPS at home is 1.152, this season on the road Utley's OPS is .856! That's almost three hundred points lower! Three hundred! That's insane. And it's not just his OPS. His entire batting line at home .394/.471/.681 with 11 of his 17 home runs. Lets contrast that with his away batting line .284/.363/.493. Those are quite the spilts. Consider this when looking Utley's home OPS of 1.152. Babe Ruth's career OPS, the highest of all time, is 1.164. Ted Williams is second all-time with an OPS of 1.115. Consider this when looking at Utley's away OPS of .856. Josh Willingham's OPS this season is .856. Nothing againest Willingham. So Ruth at home and Willingham on the road that a big difference.

I checked Utley's 2006 statistics to see if this was a fluque. Nope. More of the same, but not as extreme. That season Utley hit .329/.397/.571 for an OPS of .968. His away stats for 2006 .289/.361/.485 for an OPS of .846. A .122 difference. In contrast Utley showed little difference in home and away stats in 2005 having a .917 at home and .914 OPS on the road in 2005. Its a small sample size just looking at three seasons but this could be a developing trend as continues to mature and play. If Utley stays in Philadelphia for the majority of his career he's going to put up some serious numbers and break some records. I'd just advise the Phillies to make sure that over the next few years that all of Utley's days off come on the road.

Many players throughout history have had their performance effected by their home ballpark. Would Todd Helton be Todd Helton if he played anywhere else but Coors Field. Would we even know who Jim Rice was if he hadn't played in Fenway Park. When Jimmie Foxx hit 50 home runs in 1938 he hit 35 at Fenway and only 15 on the road. That's a difference of 20 homers, that's huge. Players traditionally and even for a while these days don't always control where they play their home games so its unfair to knock them for benefitting from their home ballpark. But back to Utley.......

I first came accross Utley's stats when I checked the League Leaders for doubles. To my surprise Utley was still leading the majors with 41 despite being on the disabled list since the end of July. I was amazed by that total. I did some quick calculations based on Utley's stats and saw that if he maintained that pace over 162 games he would have finished the season with 66 doubles. Just one behind the all time mark of 67 by Earl Webb set in 1931.

Utley isn't only the best second basemen in majors he's also one of the best hitters overall. He currently sports baseball's seventh best OPS with .996 and there aren't any other second basemen within one hundred points of him. Just how valueable is Utley? There's a stat out there called RC27. That translates to runs created per 27 outs. Basically it's saying how many runs that a team made up entirely of Chase Utley's would score over the course of a game. The answer is 9.24. No other second basemen is higher then 7.4. If thats not enough he ranks second among all players with only Barry Bonds ahead of him. Bonds RC27 of 10.54 is amazing but such things are to be expected from Bonds. The next highest is Maggilo Ordonez at 9.05. Among the top 20 in RC27 the only other middle infielder is Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez. Utley, already the games best middle infielder, may take the mantle of best player with Bonds retirement.

Random observations from the video store

Did you know they made a sequel to Road House? Well they did. Don't get worked Swayze isn't in it. Instead Johnathon Schaech (lead singer of the Wonders)stars as Swayze's son who turns up to clean up the roadhouse this time. I couldn't make this up. So this means that there was meeting somewhere in Hollywood where someone actually said "I think there's more to say with Roadhouse." Imagine being the studio exec that hears that. Then imagine thinking it's a good idea and having to tell other people about it. Priceless. I was going to show the cover here but I just don't have the energy.

I was holding the Mark Wahlberg movie "Shooter" in my hand and I just couldn't rent it. I thought Marky Mark was great in Boogie Nights and outstanding in The Departed but I just can't buy him as a lead actor. Every time I think about I just start to hear "Good Vibrations".

The insanely hot chick from Transformers, Megan Fox is engaged to Brian Austin Green from 90210. She was born in 1986 so that would make her 6 or 7 when 90210 was on. How on earth did she even know who Brian Austin Green was? Why didn't she run away after finding out? He's a year older then me for crying out loud.



I had to go to the video store because TV right now is just filled with crap. Except for Entourage and Big Love I don't believe I've seen another scripted show all summer. That Glenn Close show Damages is supposed to be pretty good but I haven't seen it yet. With a fall schedule filled with reality Shows and Game Shows the TV landscape looks pretty grim.

Thoughts

I'm glad it's over. I didn't watch it. I was glad to see, but not suprised, Hank Aaron act with such class in light of the situation.

On Bonds himself - I'm not a huge fan. I read Jeff Pearlman's excellant "Love Me, Hate Me" biography of Bonds so I totally belief that Bonds is a pyscho. I remember a few years ago when Bonds draged his son pictured above into an interveiw to try and garner sympathy for himself. No class what so ever. He's a great hitter even putting up great stats this season. That being said the Giants should release him this morning having milked 756 for every cent possible. I admired Peter McGowan for building a stadium using private funding instead of holding San Francisco hostage to get funding. To bad he's goiing to go down in history as a scum bag and Bonds lackey. Rumors that Bonds wants to stick around to chase down his 3,000th hit he currently has 2915 so he'd have to play next year. He won't be back with the Giants because he can't play the outfield any more so he'd have to go to the AL. I could see a team without a soul like the Rangers or the Orioles signing him. Both have welcomed Sosa onto their rosters.

God damn it! Why can't the Yankees just stop winning? Clemens drilled Toronto's Alex Rios in the back yesterday to pay the Jays back for hitting A-Rod. This enough! Someone must kick Clemens ass'. Seriously, break his hip or something. Just imagine how many hits that video would get on You-Tube.

State of the Game

Which one of these names looks out of place atop the AL Home Run leaderboard Alex Rodriguez, Justin Morneau, Carlos Pena, Gary Sheffield and Paul Konerko. I'd say Carlos Pena's name looks pretty strange up there. Pena was released flat out last season by the Red Sox who now must be kicking themselves. I remember when Pena was drafted out of Northeaatern the Red Sox appeared to interested in keeping their hometown boy in a Red Sox uniform but the Texas Rangers got him first. Pena was then flipped to Oakland and then finally Detroit in the Jeff Weaver deal that sent Weaver to the Yankees. Pena, who is flashly with the first basemen's mitt, has always had a fatal flaw: strikeouts. In 1466 at bats with the Tigers Pena struck out 442 times. He also wasn't particulary adapt at getting on base. But he could always hit with power. The Tigers released him in 2005 and he was picked up by the Red Sox and sent to Pawtucket. The Red Sox had in the bigs for 33 at bats in 2006 and then let him walk after the season. This year he's exploded and hit .279/.389/.589 with 26 HR's putting up .978 OPS. It's been his ability to get on base to the tune of .389 that has improved his value this year making the strikeouts irrelevent. He'll soon be cashing in on those numbers. It's rare to say....but good job Tampa Bay.

Lots of surprise about Bud Selig's reaction to Barry Bonds tieing Hank Aaron's home run crown. I don't understand why? He did nothing. He just stood there and watched and did nothing. Why is that surprising. Selig has well documented history of standing there and watching and doing nothing. That's exactly would he did throughout the steriod era. Nothing. But seriously if you're not going to talk to Bonds or recognize Bonds' acheivement why even go?

Numbers. Lots of talk about how 755 used to stand for something and now because of Bonds that number loses it relevance. I disagree. People still knew Babe Ruth hit 714 after Hank Aaron broke the record. People still knew Willie Mays hit 660 and that number still means something. What I think people aren't getting that numbers are a reflection on the greatness of the acheivement. 755 will continue to be a bench mark for greatness. Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941 and that number is tied to him. Would that be diminished if some guy hit .407? I don't think so.

Is it just me or has there been a baseball wide power outage this season? At least for anyone not playing third base for the Yankees? We're into August and only one player in the AL has 30 home runs. That hasn't happened for quite some time. At least the NL has three. Beats me.

With Tom Glavine winning his 300th game the other night there's been alot of questioning of if we'll ever see another 300 game winner. Most pundits have been saying no. With five man rotations, late inning specialization and with the money being thrown at pitchers today they won't have the drive to stay in the game if they're rich. I disagree. Today except for the war years there are more forty year olds playing in the major leagues then at any other time. Careers are getting longer not shorter. Great players have a drive to compete. That drive doesn't always go away. Take Clemens for example. Now I know this guy is the greatest pitcher of my lifetime so he's an extreme example. Last time I looked hewas already rich before accepted his 20 million from the Yankees. I'm also guessing that the majority of Clemens games have been won in the five man rotation. And the specialization has been going on for years. Pitching adjusts. I imagine that every ten years or so there must a varient of these conversations especially among older players saying the kids can't do it the way we could. But take Phillip Hughes and Clay buckholtz as examples extremely young pitchers coming up to very good teams with the means to keep them and still compete for years to come. It will happen.

What's going to happen to the Cubs with Soriano out for a month? I think there's actually a bigger question is how are the Brewers going to play. If they continue to tank it the Cubs will be fine. The Brewers are a young team getting their first sniff of a pennant race so some sdjustment time is to be expected. The problem is they don't have their rock to lean on with Ben Sheets being out. The Cubs on the other hand have Derek Lee smoking the ball after falling prey to the power outage earlier this year along with Aramis Ramirez the Cubs should be ok. They luckily still have their rock in Carlos Zambrano. Along Ted Lilly the Cubs have a good one-two punch and with a bullpen that's not blowing leads every night they should be OK.

Speaking of Milwaukee how about that Ryan Braun the Brewers 23 year old third basemen? The kid flat out rakes he's hitting .346/.388/.669 and in just 266 at bats he already has 21 HRs and 54 RBI. I know most of the talk im Milwaukee has been about first basemen Prince Fielder but if the Brewers make the playoffs this kid should MVP and Rookie of the Year joining Frd Lynn and Ichiro as the only players to do that.


Lots of thoughts today


As far as the AL Rookie of the Year running it's simply a choice between members of the Red Sox. Will it be the Red Sox second basemen Dustin Pedroia who rebounded from an early season slump to put up a statline of .320/.396/.435. In most years that would be more then enough to win. But there is also rookie relief pitcher Hideki Okajima who came out of nowhere to give the Red Sox the best bullpen in baseball. How good has Hideki been? In 50 games Okajima is 2-0 with 4 saves and an ERA of 1.00 and he's averging 7.33 K's per nine innings. Not to mention a whip of 0.81. If it was any other team he'd probably be the closer. On the Red Sox he's currently number three on Boston's late inning depth chart Many called him the Red Sox first half MVP. So it's him then right? Nope it will be the Red Sox other Japanese import, Dice-K. So far he's 13-8 with an ERA of 3.70 and among the league leaders with 152 K's. Dice-K has been good but I think one of the two other players be chosen. Playing professionally in Japan for seven years before coming to the U.S. Dice-K isn't a really a rookie. Saying that his professional experience in Japan doesn't count against their rookie status is absurd. Earning a few million in Japan before coming over makes the rookie experience easier I would imagine. Knowing that you could go back to the Japanese League and make a decent living would relax me even moreso. If I were Dice-K i'd step aside so the voting would focus on my two teammates. I mean Dice-K has been outstanding so far but that was hardly unexpected. If anything he hasn't dominated the way he was supposed to. Most media (ESPECIALLY ME) Thought he come over and change baseball. He can throw deeper into games then anyone else in baseball and I figured with being on the Red Sox he could possibly lead the league in wins and complete games. Okajima came out of nowhere and has just been a relevation. So he should be rookie of the year, right? Not exactly. Okajima has the same problem as Dice-K, years of experience in Japan so cross him off. Pedroia is an actual rookie. If he couldn't cut it he'd of been off the team. That's a rookie. And he overcame a terrible slump to battle back and set him up as one of the better young second basemen in the league. He's also a recent example of the Red Sox reliance on statisical evalution of their prospects. Much like Kevin Youkilis Pedroia is the major leagues for one reason. His abilty to get on base. His minor league OBP was .392. Feeling that that is baseball's most important stat the Red Sox took a chance. It's paid off.




Phillip Hughes scares me.

It doesn't scare me that the Pythagorean Theorem (The theory is that in baseball, the greater the run differential while maintaining low scores is, the more likely a team is to win. Runs scored/(Runs scored x 1.83) + (Runs againest x 1.83) = winning percentage.) has the Yankees and Red Sox having winning percentages
RS^2
Winning Pct = WPct = ------------
RS^2 + RA^2


Red Sox 576 444
Yankees 665 514

........is tied at .564. Doesn't scare me in the least........actually it terrifies me. Just keep telling yourself that their pitching isn't deep enough.

Trying to give the site a new look

Theo should be bold

When Theo Epstein was named the Red Sox GM in November of 2002 his father advised him to be bold. If anything Theo has surpassed his father's advice by trading Boston icon Nomar Garciappara at the 2004 trade deadline. But even that wasn't Theo's boldest move. His boldest move was actually going into the 2003 season and planning on using a "bullpen by comittee". His detractors said that this "Moneyball" kid GM didn't know what he was doing because he never played baseball on the professional level, so how could he possibly know what it takes to close out the ninth inning in Yankee Stadium. Epstein said the basis of his idea was to use his best reliever in the most important situation of the game. Not save a "closer" to pitch the ninth inning with a three run lead when the game had been tied in the seventh with two runners on. Using your best reliever in the most important situation.......radical thinking.

Unforunately the Red Sox blew some early leads and the players quickly turned on the young GM's thinking. Particularly ace Pedro Martinez. So Theo brought in Byun Young Kim from the Arizona Diamondbacks to assume closing duties. When asked about his reversal Epstein said it wasn't the idea that was flawed but his bullpen. It didn't have good options to live up to his bold plan.




Cut to today.........the red Sox now have four legitmate closing options in Papelbon, Okajima, Declaremen and the recentaly acquired Eric Gagne. With Gagne willing to forgo ninth inning duty in favor of joining a winning team why not use him as an example to the rest of the pitching staff. Be bold. The save is essentially a meaningless statistic that Epstein and advisor Bill James don't care about. Alan Embree yesterday game into a game in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and one out and retired the side and didn't get a save. So know that you have the horses Epstein should turn baseball on it's ear and launch his bold plan once again. But unforunately it will never happen. Papelbon has performed to well as closer and trying this again would likely give Dan Shaughnessy a heart attack. But going against convention has served Epstein well so far in his career. If he took the chance the bullpen would be far more effiecent and the team would stand a better chance to advance to the World Series but I imagine it's too radicle.

The Yankees hit five more HRs yesterday and again A-Rod hit none of them. The New York Post asks "What does he think this is.......the playoffs?" Ouch.......please don't come to Boston next year. Johnny Damon is currently losing playing time to Shelly Duncan and is hearing trade rumors.

Hot Rod

Hot Rod! Andy Samberg, SNL's digital shorts, along with friends Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer have crafted an enjoyable little film in Hot Rod which is being released this Friday. After seeing the previews I quickly came to the conclusion that one way or another I was totally going to either love this movie or completely loath it. So I was pleasantly happy to find out how much I liked it. I think alot of it has to do with the fact that Samberg just seems to be a likable guy. He just seems normal. If I had to compare this movie to anything it would have to be Billy Madison, Adam Sandler's freshmen project. This movie gives off the same feeling as Billy Madison. Basically that the movie is a mild celebrity making a movie about what he and his freinds found to be funny. Not the cookie cutter formulic movies that Sandler has perfected. In the movie Samberg is Rod a decent guy who envisions himself a stunt man like his father before him. The problem is he's not very good at it. I hated Jackass the Movie because those guys knew what they were doing and they purposely messed to hurt themselves. That just makes those guys idiots. Samberg's character despite the evidence surrounding him honestly believes he can perform these stunts he's trying to perform. I know it's immature but I found the footage of Samberg repeatedly crashing into things and hurting himself to be hilarous. I was literally laughing outloud in the theater. The sub plot that Samberg has to raise 50,000 to get his step father a heart so Samberg could finally kick his ass and prove himself a man could of been awful but Ian McShane, from Deadwood, is wonderful as Andy's step father. And Sissy Spacek, Carrie herself, plays Samberg's mother well. Isla Fischer, gorgoues as always, brought likeablity to the role of the girl next just like she did for Wedding Crashers. And the eighties music montages that litered this movie were simply awesome. Especially the ridiculous Footloose one. I found a scene were Samberg is walking down the street with his friends and people start randomly following them and singing hilarious because itactually terrifies Samberg and his friends because that would never happen in real life. For me this movie really works because it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's supposed to me a stupid fun movie and that's exactly as it is. Samberg manages to come off as likeable and dim-witted at the same time. Two thumbs way up.

The Yankees hit eight home runs last night and A-Rod didn't hit any of them. I think as long as the Yankees can guarntee 16 runs a night that they could be trouble.
I do agree that Brian Cashmen has punted the AL East after the Rangers informed him that if the Yankees didn't up their offer for Gagne he was going to end up in Boston. I think Cashman is a good GM. I don't agree with everything he does but the prospects Texas wanted for Gagne were too high a price. Even with Gagne on the Yankees that doesn't make their starters go seven innings. It's becoming more and more apperant that after Johan Santana blasted the Twins front office that his future lies with another team. The Twins will trade him before he hits free agency so next year Yankees fans will be happy Cashmen held on to the prospects. It is sad to Santana's comments because they're actually correct. Even though the Twins do have a good front office because of their payroll the Twins are never going to be able to add that one player to put them over the edge. The Red Sox paid Dave Roberts 3-4 million dollars to Dave Roberts in 2004 to essentially a pinch runner and a late inning defensive replacement. The Twins could never do that. I know they're getting a new stadium in the future but if they have to trade Santana this could follow them.

I think the Red Sox getting Gagne was a great move but I'm still concerned about their offense. There were a couple of games before the break where the Red Sox just couldn't push a run accross the plate. There wasn't a bat out there that the Red Sox could get without giving up some of their core young guys. What the Red Sox need is for Drew to find a pulse and hit closer to what he hit last year. His slugging percentage is down .123 from last season .495-.375. Youkilis who hit .328/.419/.502 before the All-Star Game is hitting .200/.338/.329 since. This is the second year in a row that Youkilis has tired down the stretch so I think the Red Sox have to give somewhat of a rest. The Red Sox are a much better team when Youk is getting on base.
Drew and Youk aren't alone in not being able to find their bats Varitek is hitting .214/.310/.358 since the break. Positives are Lugo and Coco are the playing the way the red Sox envisioned when they signed these two since the break Lugo is hitting .316/.358/.434 and Coco is batting .333/.390/.467. Ortiz and Manny are both on tears. Ortiz is hitting .355/.420/.613 with four HRs since the break and Manny's hitting .366/.435/.735 with seven HRs. If those two can hit close to those numbers for the rest of the season scoring runs shouldn't be a problem.