Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

There was a heavyweight title fight last night. Did anyone notice?... The fact that Mike Cameron has more career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) that Kirby Puckett shows how flawed any stat can be. How many people who saw both players in real life would have pegged Cameron as the better player? Zero maybe? Yet you can make that argument using WAR. Lies, damned lies and statistics... I wonder if Harvard is selling Jeremy Lin jerseys in their bookstore. I would think that would be a big seller...  As a Red Sox fan - I would laugh my ass off if AJ Burnett flunked the physical for the Pirates and had to return to the Yankees. Please God make it so... The highest unemployment rate under President George W. Bush was 7.7% and he was crucified for it. The unemployment rate under President Obama has been over 8% basically his whole time in office. When does President Obama get held responsible for that?... FWIW - Casey Blake has a career batting average of .311 and an OPS of .999 in 103 plate appearances at Coors Field. He could be a sleeper at 3rd base if you play fantasy baseball... On this day in 1980 - Bon Scott the lead singer for AC/DC passed away. He was 34. His death remains one of the great "what might have been" moments in rock history.

Cleveland Indians

Steve Henson of Yahoo! Sports has a "hot stove" look at the Cleveland Indians. I got a good chuckle out of this part:

The versatile Casey Blake also is a year from free agency, and nobody recognizes his value more than Shapiro. So expect a serious attempt to keep Blake in the fold as well. Maybe that's why the Indians announced Monday they have raised prime season ticket prices by 11 percent.

Yeah - sure. Good luck to the Indians trying to justify a big ticket increase so that they can re-sign Casey Blake. To be fair - Henson had just got done saying that CC Sabathia will be a free agent after 2008 and I think he meant to justify the ticket price increase on the re-signing of both players. The way its written is ambiguous and I chose to chuckle at the idea of re-signing Casey Blake to a mega-contract causing the ducat inflation.

It's also amusing to see the love for Casey Blake when everyone was ready to give 3rd base to prospect Andy Marte before the season started.

The Indians two big needs are a starting corner outfielder and a closer. I would go after Japanese free agent outfielder Kosuke Fukodome but I'm not sure about what they can do about a closer. Francisco Cordero coming over to the AL would be just as big a risk as sticking with Joe Borowski. And Cordero would be looking for Casey Blake type money.

If the Red Sox were to lose out on Mike Lowell it would be pretty ironic that the Indians would need an outfielder (Coco Crisp) while the Red Sox big need would be a 3rd baseman (Andy Marte). I chuckle at that almost as much as Casey Blake's contract necessitating an 11% hike in ticket prices.