A Devastating Loss, And Andruw Jones to the Dodgers!!!!!
Brrrrr….
Quick-hitters:
- Current rebate-o-meter: still at $2,600, though at least $300 in checks will be coming to me in the next couple of days.
Unfortunately for me, Christmas shopping isn’t yet complete.
(Tangent: I’m sure my loyal readers have discussed this topic before amongst their circles, but is giving gifts w/missing UPCs ever kosher? Are there situations where it is ever OK to do this?)
- Don’t you hate it when you’re mailing out a bunch of documents—rebates, naturally, in my case—and you are short a single stamp?
Argh!
- It took only a few weeks and several phone calls, but my condo intercom phone number has finally been changed! At least they didn’t take their sweet time to get the job done.
(Or, as my UPS guy put it, they averaged two [phone] digits every week.)
- Super-duper quick Week 13 (Fantasy) Football thoughts:
1) Here, read ESPN’s TMQ for my thoughts on the Pats-Ravens game. Everything he says, I would have said, except he writes about 20,000x better than I do.
2) Fantasy Football update: I’m out of playoff contention in three leagues, and have to win and get help to sneak in in a fourth.
I may have to retire the “(Fantasy)” part of my blog description.
3) It was sad to see the Redskins not win against Buffalo, and it was especially sad to see the reason why: two consecutive time outs in an attempt to ice the kicker. That is illegal under NFL rules, and it results in a fifteen (!!!) yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The penalty made a possible 51-yard game winning FG attempt a 36-yard attempt, which Buffalo K Rian Lindell nailed to win the game.
Ouch.
- So I suffered a devastating loss today, and I’m pissed off about it!
(dramatic pause)
One of the feet on my beloved Microsoft Blue Optical Mouse fell off!!!!!
(:P)
I’ve had this mouse for years—the feet are incredibly worn out—and unfortunately, I must now find a replacement for it.
Right now, I’m eyeing the Logitech VX Revolution mouse sitting on my desk right now; it’s supposed to be a Christmas gift, but it looks awfully cool…
- A few minutes before I started this blog, I went to MSN Sports’ home page, and I saw a blurb about free agent CF Andruw Jones and the word “Hollywood.” It took a few minutes for me to piece together exactly what those words meant…
THE DODGERS SIGNED ANDRUW JONES??? THE DODGERS SIGNED ANDRUW JONES!!!
Yes, I’m fully aware that Andrew Jones, who signed for two years and a somewhat ridiculous $36.2 million, could very well turn out to be another Jason Schmidt (overpaid and came with injury risks but at least it was a short-term deal) . I realize he hit .222 last season, with a .311 OBP, and hit only 26 HRs and drove in only 94 RBIs. I understand that he had poor plate discipline last year, but consider the following:
1) The Dodgers just signed a 10-time Gold Glove winner coming off the worst season of his career to a very short-term deal. As pointed out by one of my new favorite sites (MLBtraderumors.com):
The salary structure to Jones’ deal is interesting: $9MM in ‘08, $15MM in ‘09, and a $12MM signing bonus. That setup could make Jones much more tradeable if the need arises.
If he completely stinks up the joint next year, who’s to say that we couldn’t trade him to a contender willing to take a chance on him?
(EDIT: Whoops! From what I’ve heard, Jones got a no-trade clause added to his contract.)
And, as a myopic Dodger fan, I have to believe that last season was the exception and not the rule, right? j
2) He’s going to roam CF in Dodger Stadium, meaning Colletti could now move Ethier or Kemp in a deal for a front-of-the-rotation starter (Bedard? Haren?). Or, if he could find the right sucker, perhaps he could dump Juan Pierre on somebody!
3) We just signed a Scott Boras client. Clearly any rumors of friction between Ned Colletti and Scott Boras were overblown.
By the way, I cannot believe Boras would agree to a deal that would make Jones 33 years old by the start of his next deal. What if Jones doesn’t age gracefully? Depending on what Jones does in the next two seasons, Boras might have just cost his client a great deal of money. Or, perhaps, maybe he made Jones extra money with this deal; maybe Jones never recovers from last season’s slump.
4) We didn’t pay $90 million for five years of Torii Hunter, or $70 million or so for five years of Aaron Rowand.
If the Dodgers could work a deal for one more bat (Scott Rolen, maybe?) and/or another starter (not necessarily a front-of-the-line guy), I can’t help but be optimistic about next year’s team. Rolen seems to be a good possibility, given his awful relationship with Cards’ manager Tony LaRussa, and especially considering the latest spat between the two. As for the starter, I just hope we don’t decide to overpay for Carlos Silva or Kyle Lohse.
Of course, if Colletti keeps Ethier and Kemp, that means Pierre will eat into the playing time of one of those guys. Why, oh why, did we have to sign Pierre last year? Why couldn’t we have just re-signed Kenny Lofton last season?
Until next time!