UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

- So importing my blog entries from Blogger was quick and simple. Unfortunately, I ran into a couple of problems. First, Wordpress tagged all the Blogger entries with the “Sports” category. Second, the naming convention of each blog entry changed (instead of /yr/mo/xxxxxxx.html, it got changed to /yr/mo/dy/yyyyyyy.html). Of course, that means that people who linked to my Blogger entries will either to fix their links, or, as Krunk suggested, I’ll have to enter a few “redirects” into my .htaccess file.

I thought about doing that, and then I decided to look through my Google Analytics history to see what were the most popular pages on my site all time. The first one isn’t really surprising; apparently lots of people don’t know where the scroll lock key is on their Logitech MX3200 keyboard. The other two were quite interesting:

• Apparently, lots of people were interested in getting information about the Citibank Dividend World Mastercard. I also got quite a few visits, courtesy of mikesmullin.com (the link is now broken, due to the Blogger import, but I added a line to my .htaccess file to point to the correct page).
• Much more amusing, though, was seeing a bunch of keyword hits to my site consisting of some form of “dangers of a laser printer.” Now, don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing amusing about the fact “that some laser printers emit large amounts of tiny particles, which may increase the risk of cancer and heart disease.” What I do find comical is the fact that people who were obviously looking for information regarding article above ended up on my site, reading (hopefully!) about how dangerous refilling a toner cartridge is. Of course, the dangers were exacerbated by the fact that I’m a total klutz.

For now, I’ve since repaired a few links, and re-categorized the last three weeks or so of blog entries. UngsungBlog 2.0beta is still a work in progress, after all.

- Other quick baseball trade thoughts:

• Eric Gagne was traded to Boston for a package including Boston starter Kason Gabbard. I’m not sure why Boston was interested in Gagne, but I can understand why they traded away a starter, with the return of Curt Schilling impending. I’m thinking this was a keep-away deal, because there were rumors that the Yankees were involved.
• The Cleveland Indians reacquired Kenny Lofton from Texas, and I love this deal for Cleveland. They get a veteran OF to play LF, and speed and a veteran bat at the top of the lineup. And all it cost Cleveland was a catching prospect.
• And the winner of worst deal of the trade deadline absolutely has to go to Pittsburgh’s acquisition of pitcher Matt Morris from the Giants. First of all, San Francisco was practically trying to get rid of the guy, apparently offering to pay teams to take him off their hands. Instead, Pittsburgh swooped in, offered to pick up Morris’ entire salary, and threw in two players (one to be named later)! That’s like spotting an ad on Craiglist, seeing a guy trying to sell his car below cost–he’s moving overseas, maybe–and offering him MSRP + $1,000 for his troubles.

As badly as the Dodgers have been playing recently, at least they’re not the Pirates.

by Peter
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- So I’m sitting here, having returned from my trip to the post office, with a Slurpee in hand (Coca-Cola, of course). I’m down to the last six ounces or so, and I realized that the Law of Diminishing Returns really applies to Slurpees!

(Tangent: The Law of Diminishing Returns, as it applies to food or drinks, probably applies to anything. There are some foodstuffs, though, that the Law REALLY applies to.)

I was craving one so badly this morning, that the first few ounces rivaled that of a chilled MexiCoke! Then I started downing the Slurpee like crazy, and that’s when I hit a wall; the Slurpee was only OK at that point. Now, with only a few ounces to go, I feel sick. I’m probably just going to toss what I have left.

Ugh…damn Law of Diminishing Returns. Of course, this won’t stop me from craving a Slurpee a couple days from now, and repeating the process over again.

(BTW, I don’t need any Econ majors to tell me that I’m misapplying the Law. Go away.)

- Thanks to a BargainShare member, I found yet another FW Cash Back/eBates/BigCrumbs-type site: DealKing.com.

(Let me know if you are interested in signing up for any of those sites, if you don’t already have an account, so I can refer you :)).

Anyway, there is an awesome deal on AT&T prepaid phones via DealKing. They have a (refurbed) Sony Ericsson J220a phone for $9.99, which includes $10 of airtime (10c/min with a $1/day access fee, or 25c/min). Also, mobile to mobile minutes are FREE; whether or not that incurs the $1/day access fee, for those of you that picked that plan, I’m not sure. The best part of the deal is that DealKing pays you $20 upon activating the phone! Best of all, you can do this twice, and possibly earn $40 cash back from DealKing, and have two phones! Activation is waived, and there is no obligation to remain a customer after the $10 in airtime is used up.

eBay value on the phone is about $10, but I’m probably going to give these phones away to my siblings to leave in their car, for the sole purpose of using it to dial 911 if the need arises.

- The baseball trade deadline came and went a couple days ago, and here are my quick thoughts on some of the trades that went through:

• Mark Teixeira and Octavio Dotel go to Atlanta, for a number of prospects (including touted prospect Jarrod Saltalamacchia to Texas). Great deal to Atlanta, even considering the short-term costs. Of course, this probably spells the end of Andruw Jones’ stay in Atlanta; I don’t see how the team could afford him next year. Dotel’s a nice bullpen arm, though an injury risk, and I think Atlanta really needed a starter. Then again, the market on starters was very thin (as you’ll see later), so I think Atlanta did well to help themselves at the deadline. It didn’t hurt that Teixeira hit a homer in his first game as a Brave. It would not surprise me if Atlanta topped the Mets and Phillies to win the NL East. Texas did well, getting five prospects, and the Royals had to trade Dotel; they weren’t going to offer him an extension upwards of $6 million/yr.
• The Dodgers swapped Wilson Betemit, who’s been reduced to a platoon 3B/power hitter off the bench, for Yankees’ reliever Scott Proctor. No, it doesn’t bother me that Betemit hit a homer today against the ChiSox; the Dodgers had enough guys hitting in the low .200s, and I’m glad they got rid of one. Scott Proctor’s a nice arm, one that the Dodgers’ bullpen really needed, but he’s been overworked badly in recent years (135 appearances in this season and last combined). However, pitching in a pitcher’s park in the National League, and being option #3 (behind Saito and Broxton) can’t hurt. I’d expect him to fill in for Broxton or Saito on occasion as well. Good move by the Dodgers; I’d rather have Proctor than Dotel. The best thing about this deal is that we didn’t have to give up any of our key prospects to make the deal happen. Had we traded for Teixeira, for instance, we would probably have had to give up James Loney, Andre Either, and a pitcher. Interesting move by the Yankees, though; they need all the bullpen help they could get, so they traded away one of their reliable arms? I get that Joba Chamberlain is major league ready, but do you really want to depend on the kid in a pennant chase, in the Bronx?

There are a couple more deals I want to get to, and I’ll go over those another time.

Happy blogging!

by Peter
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- Well, it took a while, but the UngsungBlog switch to Wordpress is nearly complete, and it somehow took me five times longer than it should have to do!

(There’s a 99.9% chance that the delay was caused by a PEBDAC. For those of you that don’t know, PEBDAC stands for Probable Error Between Desk And Chair.)

All I have to do now is find a good template, categorize the rest of my posts imported from Blogger, and restore my Adsense banners.

- Thanks Krunk for telling me about Amazon.com’s Affiliate Program. If I can get just one person to buy through my Affiliate account, signing up will be totally worth it!

- So I’m really happy that Bonds hasn’t homered yet against the Dodgers. Unfortunately, he gets to face Brett Tomko tomorrow.

- I know this was announced a couple of days ago, but here are my thoughts on the Kevin Garnett to Boston trade. For the few NBA fans out there who haven’t yet heard of this deal, here are the particulars:

Boston sent the Minnesota Timberwolves forwards Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Gerald Green, guard Sebastian Telfair and center Theo Ratliff, two first-round draft picks [one of which was their own, initially traded away in the Ricky Davis for Wally Szczerbiak and Mark Blount deal] and cash considerations.

I’ll start with the Wolves. It appears that all they’re getting is Al Jefferson, a budding power forward in a conference full of them, cap relief in the form of Theo Ratliff’s contract, the right to no longer have to pay KG, a draft pick that they traded away, and a draft pick in 2009. Talk about getting 30 cents on the dollar. They were willing to take Jefferson, four scrubs, and two picks potentially in the late teens/early twenties, but they wouldn’t take a similar package and the #5 pick from this past draft? That makes zero sense to me. One has to wonder if KG privately pressured Minnesota to make a deal after the NBA draft.

As far as Boston is concerned, they now have three legitimate All-Stars in Pierce, Allen, and now KG. Too bad all of them are probably on the downside of their career. They also are in absolute salary cap hell, owing the three $56 million next year. Still, considering that KG hasn’t played with two guys of the caliber of Pierce and Allen–no, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell aren’t equivalent to those two, no matter how good that Wolves team really was that year–and considering that the East is as weak as ever, one has to like Boston’s chances of winning the East, right?

Not in this blogger’s opinion. Even if the three stars should make it through the season uninjured, the team is now woefully short at PG, C, and bench.

(I just read over at Hoopshype.com–an excellent site, btw–that the Celtics signed veteran guard Eddie House to a one-year deal. Yawn.)

They have second-year Rajon Rondo (and now House) at PG, and Kendrick Perkins at C. Yeah, they have Tony Allen coming back from injury, and yeah, they have Brian Scalabrine (hahaha), but not much else. It sounds like the Big Three are going to have to play nearly 40 minutes a game each. If that happens, you can forget about any one of the three making it through the entire season without injury.

Boston should be a lot of fun to watch, and I hope I get to see them play several times this year. They have no reason to not make the playoffs, even with a crap surrounding cast, but I can’t put this Boston team above Detroit, Cleveland, or Chicago. It really wouldn’t surprise me if Boston gets a four or five seed, though. I don’t see Boston winning the East this year, though. However, another year of meshing together, with another year of seasoning for Rondo, and who knows what will happen?

By the way, what’s with the sudden about-face by KG about wanting to play in Boston. Not only does he now embrace Boston, he was even willing to sign a “discounted” extension (three years and nearly $60 million). You can’t tell me that the addition of Ray Allen changed KG’s mind that much!

Oh, and has anyone heard from Kobe Bryant yet?

- I am officially addicted to rebates. I did a deal, so complex, that I spent four hours yesterday filing rebates, and that wasn’t enough time to finish!

I am now well over $1,000 in rebates owed

Happy blogging!

by Peter
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