Don't Trade the Farm for a Rental

The baseball trade deadline is just five days away and it’s a nerve racking team for teams and players and fans. It’s the time of year where a team can strike up a deal that could potentially win them the World Series. Unfortunately, there’s maybe more of a chance that a team could severely hurt themselves for the future by trading away valuable prospects for a two month rental.

The worst of these trades in recent years was between the Atlanta Braves and the Texas Rangers. The Braves, thinking they were in playoff contention, traded for Rangers All Star first baseman Mark Teixeira. To land him the Braves had to send the Rangers four of their most valuable prospects: Jarod Saltalamacchia, Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz and Matt Harrison.

Saltalamacchia is now the Red Sox starting catcher, which doesn’t really matter because the Braves have baseball’s best catcher in Brian McCann. However, Andrus, Feliz and Harrison have all become productive parts of a winning Rangers team and the Braves could definitely use all three of those parts right about now.

Teixeira didn’t help lead the Braves to the playoffs that year, despite having a very hot two months with them. He wasn’t just a two month rental either as he was under contract for one more year … but, Teixeira simply became a one year rental as the Braves knowing they didn’t have the money to re-sign him were forced to trade him to the Angels for Casey Kotchmann at the next year’s trade deadline. Kotchmann didn’t do much of anything for Atlanta and Teixeira finished out the year with the Angels before signing a mega-deal with the Yankees as a free agent. The damage was done however as the Braves basically stripped a good part of their future for what turned out to be almost nothing.

Teams should beware that the bright lights of the impending playoffs are not always worth giving away your future.

Is it wrong (sexist?) that women’s sports don’t get much attention?

Is it wrong (sexist?) that women’s sports don’t get much attention?

This is admittedly a question that I’ve had trouble answering. Preferences are sometimes hard to define, after all. I don’t think that women’s sports not getting as much attention as men’s sports has anything to do with sexism ... though I do believe there is plenty of sexism going on in the world of women’s sports … which is why the most talked/written about female athletes just so happen to be the best looking among them.

I think a lot of what it comes down to is that men are simply more athletic than women and thus if you’re going to watch a sport, for example basketball you would rather see the taller, faster NBA star running up the court to dunk the ball than you would a WNBA star make a lay-up. I don’t mean anything sexist by that at all, it’s been scientifically proven that men are more athletic than women and you really can’t argue with science, no matter what certain people say.

According to livestrong.com, the average man is five inches taller and weighs 30 pounds more than your average female. The same site states that males also run faster than females and that psychologically men are both more aggressive and have higher self esteem than women. All of these factors play a huge role in why men are more athletic than women and thus prove the main point of why women’s sports just don’t get as much attention.

Why I Was Rooting for Japan on Sunday...

I was probably one of the few Americans who was sincerely rooting for the Japanese women’s soccer team to upset the U.S. women’s national team in the championship match of the women’s World Cup on Sunday. Why? Because I knew that a win for Japan would mean more for that nation than it ever possibly could for the U.S. Japan has had such a truly devastating and horrifying year with the tragedy of the earthquake, tsunami and fear of radiation from damaged nuclear reactors earlier this year that killed thousands and effected almost everybody in that country in some way. I knew that a Japanese win would help to put a smile on the faces of many in that country and would go a long way in helping the Japanese people in the healing process. I know that some people who were following along with my tweets on Twitter and my statuses on Facebook on Sunday afternoon were bothered or maybe even slightly offended by my obvious rooting for the Japanese team. To those people I have to say that sporting events aren’t about patriotism. Just because I’m an American and an American team was playing doesn’t mean that I’m obligated to root for the American team. I chose to side with the Japanese team on Sunday because I’m a caring American who understands that sports can have a positive effect on people when they’re at their weakest. The Japanese team’s win on Sunday put a smile on my face not because I wanted them to win, not because I’m some sort of anti-American, but because I know it put smiles on a lot of grieving people’s faces. That’s what’s most important anyway.

Time to Stop Ridiculous Hating on Jeter

Over the years I’ve heard a lot of hatred thrown Derek Jeter’s way saying that he’s the most overrated baseball player in the game, some even say ever. Well, Jeter went 5 for 5 against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday to become the 28^th player in baseball history to achieve 3,000 career hits. Only the 28^th and 3,000 is one of the most iconic, if not the most iconic, stats in the game. Now that Jeter has joined this class of all time greats that includes Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb, Stan Musial and others people should drop the “overrated” bit and see that Jeter is an all time great. It’s always amazed me when people tried to claim that Jeter was something less than a legend before, now if they do it I’ll know for sure that they are indeed highly ignorant. Give Jeter his due as a baseball legend and get over your asinine hatred for the man.

Bochy Makes Egregious Homer Picks

It seems almost every year the manager of the NL all star team does something either stupid or controversial. A few years ago it was Tony La Russa opting not to use his guy Albert Pujols in a pinch hit situation in the last inning of a very close game, instead using Nationals 1B Dmitri freakin’ Young. Last year it was Charlie Manuel’s controversial decision to name utilityman extraordinaire Omar Infante to the All Star team ... well, this year it's Bruce Bochy putting two of his own guys Tim Lincecum & Ryan Vogelsong on the roster, even though there are about 3-4 others more deserving candidates. This is the most egregious of the recent bad decisions by the NL All Star manager, in my opinion. Vogelsong is a close pick. He’s 6-1 with a 2.13 ERA, which would rank second in the NL, if he had the eligible innings pitched … but he doesn’t have the eligible innings pitched, so he’s taking up a spot of guys who’ve had almost as good ERAs in more games. Vogelsong’s ERA could easily be worse than those guys had he pitched the same amount of games. Tim Lincecum is an all star with a losing record. Sure, his 3.14 ERA is all star worthy, but a pitcher with a losing record, Lincecum is 6-7, should never be an all star. Bochy is giving his guys a break here, when more worthy guys (and there are plenty of ‘em) like Tommy Hanson, Kyle Lohse & Ian Kennedy are snubbed. That’s a joke.