Coming in at 3rd place and 7.5 back, the Dodgers picked up pitchers Ted Lilly (3-8, 3.69 ERA) and Octavio Dotel (21 saves, 4.28 ERA), outfielder Scott Podsednik (hit .353 with 30 SBs for KC), and 2B Ryan Theriot (.284 BA, 16 SBs) at the break.

In first, the Padres traded for OF Ryan Ludwick (.281 BA, 11 HRs, 43 RBIs) and SS Miguel Tejada (.267 BA and 39 RBIs).

In fourth place at 8 games back, the Rockies did nothing trades-wise.

And in second at 2 games back with the wild card lead, the Giants dealed for a much-needed lefty reliever in Javier Lopez (2-2, 2.79 ERA) and righty Ramon Ramirez (0-3, 4.46 ERA).

The Dodgers’ acquisitions grab the headlines with two quality pitchers and two solid position players. San Diego added veteran hitters that can aid them down the stretch (though Tejada is 3/20 lifetime at Petco Park as of Saturday night). Rockies stood pat with a young team led by ace Ubaldo Jimenez as they hope to go on another late-season run (and they can score runs). ‘Frisco now puts its hopes in two of their bigger moves this season with the calling up of catcher Buster Posey (.355 BA/34 RBIs/8 HRs) and centerfielder Andres Torres  (.286 BA/42 RBIs/10 HRs), but they did add two arms to bolster an injury-ridden bullpen. Giants apparently were in the Adam Dunn sweepstakes, but the asking price was too high as the Nats wanted Jonathan Sanchez or Madison Bumgarner. Toronto’s Jose Bautista and Milwaukee’s Corey Hart were also names floated around for San Fran. Padres didn’t add another starter as was rumored with the likes of the Pirates’ Maholm. Dodgers had their eyes on Roy Oswalt at one point, but the price became too high – overall, they got what they wanted. The Rockies had some talk on adding hitters then talk shifted to them being a seller, and ultimately they said ‘no deal.’ So with the deals done for the most part, here are the standings at the trade deadline from MLB.com:

OTB’s NL West Projected Final Standings

1. San Diego Padres
2. San Francisco Giants – 1 GB (Wild Card)
3. Los Angeles Dodgers – 3 GB
4. Colorado Rockies – 6 GB
5. Arizona Diamondbacks – 20 GB

What Happens…

• Padres have one of the best staffs in baseball right now and a home-heavy stretch that will keep them at number one to the end.
• If the Giants can survive a 10 game road trip to start September, they play 12 of their final 18 at home including series with LA and San Diego. Their road record is second best in the West at 28-25, and home record is 32-20. The staff holds together for a record in the mid-90s which will be good enough to earn the wild card in the NL this season.
• Dodgers are 22-29 so far on the road, and play 16 road games in September. But in their favor, every home series to finish the season is with a NL West foe. Statistically, LA is playing middle of the road ball – if hitters like Kemp and Blake really click then they can move past the Giants, but I’m skeptical.
• The Rox play San Diego and LA 12 times in September and wild card contenders Cincy (home) and St. Louis (road – 4 game series). Colorado owns the best home record of any NL West team and play 17 home games in September which makes things interesting in the West. In the end, they just can’t keep it all together for that last push.

Nick Saban thinks agents are pimps, eh? I’m sure he had this strong of an opinion before his school was being investigated. I can’t remember a summer quite as active as this one with conference expansion and now agentmania affecting UNC, South Carolina, Florida, Bama, and possibly Georgia too.

The NCAA apparently is blowing the lid off from the shady side of college athletics meeting pro sports – but I’m not sure it is as widespread as some have pointed out. Right now, we are looking at two incidents. The supposed Pouncey money transfer at UF and the party in South Beach involving players from SC, Bama, and UNC (possibly GA?). The loose tweets of one Marvin Austin at UNC have blown this situation to a whole new level.

I’m a college sports guy. MLB is about the only pro league that has me checking blogs/news everyday. All of this news hurts the game, but it’s a necessary evil to clean up the sport in some areas – and scare everyone else that they’re next. The first shot across the bow was the USC punishment of a 2 year postseason ban and several scholarships taken away. In fact, the situation is much like the steroids scandals of pro baseball. When they were in the news everyday, MLB suffered, but now, how much do we hear about it post all the new rules/regulations? Not much.

As long we can trust the NCAA (*crosses fingers*), this can be a much-needed ripping off of the bandaid of shady dealings in college football. There seems to be a notion that “we all know” that this is going on at the big-time schools, and because it happens “everywhere” supposedly, it’s not okay, but an evil we just have to live with. I’m not okay with it. I want teams to get players the right way, and keep them the right way. If that requires providing meal/entertainment money that they would have if they were allowed to have a job – do it. Keeping the agents off campus with “gifts” to keep the playing level fair in college football is huge – it comes down to the integrity of the game.

But it will still hurt to clean it up – people will lose money, coaches will lose jobs, players will lose eligibility and UNC’s head is on the chopping block right now with even NC’s state government now involved. What will be interesting is who we blame. How much weight does the player being an “adult” by most gauges mean to an agent situation? Or is it all on the school for not monitoring their players enough? Should pro leagues start to penalize agents and players already out of college after finding wrong-doing? Obviously, it goes case-by-case, but with the UNC example, Austin hasn’t been bashful about his lifestyle – anyone just to take a glance at his Twitter account could see questionable behavior. Could UNC have sat him down and got him to stop this? Who knows, but now we will all find out something from the investigation.

I’m just hoping football talk takes over this weekend’s ACC media days, and I only hear the word “agent” when Butch Davis is being questioned.

]]> http://ontheb-rink.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1564 0 http://ontheb-rink.com/blog/?p=1560 http://ontheb-rink.com/blog/?p=1560#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:13:44 +0000 B_Rink http://ontheb-rink.com/blog/?p=1560 I watched the ESPY’s Wednesday, and despite all of the complainers, it was ESPN at its best. The fusion of entertainment and sports combined with feeding the egos of athletes and celebrities with awards – but really, it was entertaining.

SNL’s Seth Meyers killed the monologue, including several Tiger Woods’ jokes. You can see some of them here:

As Tiger continues to take shots from former fans and to his wallet via divorce lawyers, I can’t help but start rooting for him again.

He’s just a shell of the golfing machine he was just months ago. Normally, I root for the underdog, but golf has never been about the underdog. It was Arnold, then Jack, and then Tiger burst on the scene with dominance we had never seen before. We rooted for him – we rooted against him – he was just like no one we had ever seen before. Tiger wore his red shirt on Sunday and we watched – to see if anybody, anybody could take him down.

But now it isn’t golf competitors like Rich Beem or Phil Mickelson beating him. Personal demons, divorce lawyers, muckraking media, and a wealth of other detractors have taken him down bit by bit until that typical Tiger focus has been broken. The situation is just kinda sad. Golf made Tiger – golf is Tiger, and golf has taken Tiger down a dark road in his life. With the inability to keep the temptations away, Woods finds himself in a place where he is losing his family, his fortune, and quite possibly his mind. And golf, which has put him in this place, is quite possibly his only way out of it.

So as a fellow human being, I hope he succeeds, and is able to chart a positive course to his life from here on.

Go Tiger.

They ended up with that split-screen of the King’s jersey burned live on his infomercial, as this sad, lost robot sat in a leafy suburban gymnasium with children as props and the world watching, those empty eyes masking a lost, dazed Lebron James. This was the champagne shower for the Championship of Me, an exercise in self-aggrandizement and self-loathing that will have far-reaching implications for the NBA and James. What a spectacle, what a train wreck.

Adrian Wojnarowski wrote this. He was serious. I laughed.

Lebron James chose to leave his hometown team for supposed greener pastures in Miami, but no, we can’t write it like that – it was “an exercise in self-aggrandizement and self-loathing” from a “sad, lost robot.” Wojnarowski wrote just one of a 1,000 of these similarly themed columns post “The Decision” – and most all of them were ridiculous as this one. It is simply a column that is doing much of what he’s accusing Lebron of – killing somebody for self-gain. He will get pats on the back from fellow writers and fans – undoubtedly will be getting more calls for writing gigs across the country – all because he had the “guts” to call out this selfish superstar for spurning a city and doing what he wanted.

On the other hand, I feel Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert’s pain. He’s invested. He has the hopes of a franchise in his hands and obviously felt like he was used by Lebron. I don’t have much of a problem with his impassioned, misguided, and overly-optimistic rant. He doesn’t have much to gain from it – sure he has become a bit of a cult hero in Cleveland now, but overall, he will take the brunt of negativity from his unfiltered thoughts. Gilbert isn’t innocent – his staff failed to put a team good enough around Lebron to keep him, but he said what was on his mind last night and I’m glad he did.

Lebron is a pro superstar. Shock of all shocks, Lebron likes him some Lebron, and could really care less about all of you in Cleveland, Yahoo Sports, or anywhere else really. He has friends that have attached to him a la Entourage, and he’s lassoed a trip to the wild side of American life as a star in a big-time city like Miami. If you’re really honest with yourself, you’d take Miami over Cleveland. If you are a international superstar in your mid-20s with all the money in the world, what can you really do in Cleveland? I sincerely hope Gilbert is right and they do win their title first, but I don’t blame Lebron for leaving – it was waaaaaaaaaay over-the-top – but blame America, ESPN for that. We’re all at fault for how this all went down. If no one cared, ESPN wouldn’t spend an hour on it. Well, I have no witty hyperbole or vehicular crash analogies to end this rant – so I’m done and good luck to Cleveland.

Ole Stephen A saying Lebron, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade to Miami last week. ESPN insider Chris Broussard suggesting Lebron and Amare Stoudemire to the Knicks with Carmelo Anthony coming to town down the road in 2011 or with a trade.

Even the supposed summits being held among the best of the best in free agency is just great to me.

Sure, there is a degree of selfishness in wanting to align the stars for a dominant team a la 2008 Celtics or Shaq-Kobe Lakers, but I like that Lebron/D-Wade/Chris Bosh/the like are not wanting to go to a garbage team just to make the max – they are telling each team that they want to win a championship–therefore upping the ante for these teams to get creative with the salary cap and bring in two or more big name guys at a time. It just makes the NBA interesting (and I’m not much of an NBA fan).

As for what I would like to see: Lebron going to the Knicks, Wade and Bosh to Chicago, and for the Hawks to go back in time to not give Joe Johnson $119 million over 6 years. Is Johnson really an elite player for that kind of money? Nope. I know the Hawks are happy to be making the playoffs, but they could have picked up a couple quality players for that kind of money.

One major domino has fallen with Stoudemire to the Knicks. If Lebron and Wade stay in place, this much-hyped summer will be known as a dud, but already, it has given me hope for the future of the NBA – maybe championships do mean more to players than money.

There are like 2,000 games to the season, but MLB watching spikes this time of year. Though many dislike it, I’m a fan of the MLB All-Star Game and send in my mostly irrational ballot in electronically every year (usually pile the NL with my team, the Giants, and pick random players for the AL or good ones on my fantasy team).

Taking a look at the standings for the first time all year – quite a few surprises. Texas, San Diego, Atlanta, and Cincinnati are all division leaders, but leading now is one thing, leading in September is completely different. My Giants sit in second place at 4.5 games out as I type this. Not in a good stretch after losing 6 of their last 10. Ace Tim Lincecum hasn’t been dominant, but 8-3 and a 3.13 ERA isn’t terrible. The hitting has been better despite Sandoval slumping a bit from last season  (bound to happen with how he hacks), but the Giants are still scrounging for any run they can get to support the excellent pitching staff.

There’s always NASCAR. I was watching NASCAR Now on ESPN today for no other reason than I couldn’t operate the remote correctly at someone else’s house, and like there has been all year seemingly, another driver feud is all over the show. Apparently, Jimmie Johnson racing with a little edge this season after winning the last 20 titles (or something like that) and was “livid” with Kurt Busch for pushing him out of the way with a few laps to go. Suck. It. Up. Jimmie. Sure, he bumped him going into the corner, but Johnson didn’t crash and he ended up winning the race – it’s no big deal. But I haven’t watched a race all the way through all year (and won’t start now) – so take my opinion with a healthy dose of salt.

And then my personal favorite, college football preseason rankings. Everybody is undefeated and going to make a run. My conference is superior to your conference. That team couldn’t possibly be number one! You think we lose to who?!

Just 100% awesome. *Shameless plug* My ACC football previews start tomorrow on ACC Blogger so check it out. Haven’t done a lot of national research yet, but Sporting News has a top five of Bama, Ohio State, Boise State, Miami, and Florida to which I “lol.” Heck, they have Nebraska as being better than Texas and Oklahoma. Athlon has a top five of Bama, Ohio State, USC, Boise, and Oklahoma. Boise has put themselves in a prime spot with their recent success. Boise State will be the team to watch this season if they can take down Virginia Tech in game one at Fedex Field near our nation’s capital. They run the table and the Broncos more than deserve to play for a national title – which is sure to knock out a “deserving” 1 or 2 loss team from the SEC or another BCS conference. It will be fascinating to see if they can handle the pressure.

A couple underrated teams in Sporting News that might make a run: 61) Clemson – Seriously? 34) Boston College – Schedule lends me to think they will end up with near double-digits wins and above which will rank them higher. 37) Navy – Finished around the top 25 last year and seem to have the option scheme fine-tuned for a consistent run.

Overrated from the SN Top 100: 4) Miami – Not buying them as a top ten team – for more read my column at Southern Pigskin on them. 5) Florida – Yeah sure, post-Tebow, post-Meyer drama, Florida is going to be a top 5 team. 7) Nebraska – Huskers winning the Big XII in their final season in the conference? Ha. Every remaining Big XII member will have an ax to grind. 8) Wisconsin – They looked good in the Champ Sports Bowl, but top ten good? 26) Houston – They flirted with the top 25 last season, but a C-USA team stringing that back-to-back will be tough.

Besides that, there’s the British Open which is half-entertaining for golf. Hot dog eating contest on July 4th coming up.

Yeah, it’s a tough time of the year for sports.

People still dislike soccer in America. I heard one sports-talk radio show where the host felt betrayed that his producer enjoyed one soccer game. We’re still a long ways from soccer being a universally accepted sport in the States, but man, was that game was great for the U-S-A.

They were two minutes from irrelevancy again in America. The Red, White, and Blue was screwed again by the FIFA referees with a disallowed goal early on from heart-on-his-sleeve-with-true-American-spirit-of-awesome-Clint Dempsey, but Donovan knocked through the easy goal that deflected off the Algerian goalie in stoppage time.

Donovan single-handedly (or footedly?) lifted the soccer-crazy and casual fans in America to the new height of winning a group in the World Cup – and most importantly, finishing better than England (wasn’t so E-A-S-Y was it, Brits?).

They now play Ghana on Saturday at 2:30 Eastern. I’ve seen all of Ghana’s games so far as well, and this is a more than winnable game for the States. They play much like the U.S. with lots of energy, but also have the same defensive liabilities. They have a strong goalie, but the way the U.S. is playing – I think the quarterfinals are a high possibility.

They would play the winner of Uruguay and South Korea next Friday with a win – not exactly the toughest draws either.

Hey, I’m happy with winning the group, but this is the best U.S. team ever fielded and by winning the group – they now have an opportunity to set all-time highs in advancement.

They’ve got America’s attention now (fan and skeptic) – no reason to stop winning at this point.

I’m writing this during game 7 of Boston-LA, and I’m 10x more excited about tomorrow’s US of A match with Slovenia that starts around 10 a.m. ET.

What is wrong with me?

It’s a fair question. Nothing excites about either the Celtics or the Lakers. I’m not a fan of Bryant, and don’t have anybody on the Celtics that I care for. The Celtics-Lakers “rivalry” all seems kinda pushed upon me by the media when in actuality — it’s pro basketball — Kobe would play just as hard if he had to beat the Bobcats for a championship.

When it comes to the US-Slovenia match, I’m invested. These are guys that I admire as hard-workers that represent my country on the world-stage. They’re not the best and brightest of the soccer world, but they grind out big results and are just likable. From a South Carolinian perspective, Onyewu and Holden played at Clemson — Clint Dempsey is from Furman University in Greenville, SC so that brings a local flavor for me.

And Tim Howard is awesome.

They are the kind of underdog/mutt in the World Cup that makes the NCAA Tourney’s first round so great. I know little of Slovenia, but with each stage of the World Cup, the U.S. is fighting against constantly high expectations for a country that has never been consistently successful.

After the 1-1 draw with group favorite England, beating Slovenia puts the Red/White/Blue in a strong position to advance and possibly as the top dog depending on the amount of goals they can put up in tomorrow’s game and against Algeria later. But the pressure is on as a loss makes them an unlikely advancer and secures an abject failure of a World Cup that was so promising.

So, don’t lose, USA, and don’t draw — just win.

As for the NBA Finals, wake me up in the 4th quarter.

Mixed emotions.

There’s a side to me that wanted a little bit of a lot of chaos (and maybe end up with a playoff). Yet, I didn’t want an ACC/Big East merger due to raids from the Big Ten and SEC. It’s a cake and eat it too sort of deal.

In the end, I’m pleased that the SEC and ACC remained the same, Big Ten and Pac-10 finally conformed to having 12 team conferences and got off their tradition/round-robin schedule high horses, and the Mountain West got a boost with Boise. It’s pretty rich that the Rose Bowl barons will be adding championship games while the Big XII contracts theirs.

Last week, I theorized media intervention in this whole ordeal, but it didn’t come exactly as I wrote for Southern Pigskin:

The fascinating part of the SEC vs. ACC conference arms race is that ESPN holds the TV cards for both conferences. For the Big Ten and Pac-10, the circumstances are different. The Pac-10 has their games on Fox Sports while the Big Ten splits their games between the Big Ten Network and ESPN. But it’s just ESPN solely for all the rights for these two southern powers. Can ESPN influence the SEC to not to go full-out raid on the ACC for the interests of their TV deal?

I don’t know why not.

A weakened ACC does ESPN little good. ESPN obviously wants the SEC’s interests kept in this expansion mania, but not at the expense of another partner. ESPN could be the only thing between the SEC and ACC consuming each other. I’m sure ESPN would like to get into the super-conference TV game, but they have $3.86 billion invested between the two for over the next decade plus.

ESPN has to decide between allowing the sacrifice of the ACC for a Super South/EasternConference and throwing away the $1.86 billion for big money down the road.

It seems that who actually bought the Big XII teams back from the Pac-10 is debated, whether Fox or ESPN or both, but the media had a definitive footprint in the near future of college athletics.

So, all is calm on the mega-expansion front for now, but we all know this isn’t over. Every conference caught off-guard by the developments of spring-summer of  ’10 will have their own expansion plans ready for the next round, contingency plans for other conference raids, and contingency plans of contingency plans to stave off elimination like the Big XII did.

It’s not over, but at least we can talk about football now for the next couple months.

• ACC Analysis (With Obligatory SEC Mentions)

From covering the ACC, fanbases are all over the place on expansion. The fanatics at football schools, such as Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech — say go to the SEC! The more thoughtful begrudgingly accept that the SEC would be a positive move. And those trying every last measure to save the ACC (or vehemently anti-SEC) are looking everywhere for a way to keep the conference intact.

What’s hilarious is that basketball schools, Duke and UNC, are reportedly the targets of SEC Commish Slive’s wish list. The head-scratching stops when the driving forces of TV markets are presented as the reason for the SEC’s interest in the Heels and Devils.

Right now, nobody knows what’s going to happen, and depending on what team you follow, emotions range from nervous about not getting an invite out of a raided conference to jaded about fellow conference members leaving that perpetuates the ACC blogomessageboardasphere. It’s going to be fun to see how this all goes down over the next weeks and possibly months/years (or maybe not).

• Big Ten’s Big Move/Big XII’s Sorta Big Move Before the Really, Really Big Move

So there goes Nebraska/Colorado – a rivalry that I usually looked forward to for years on the Friday after Thanksgiving when I grew up. They’ve both gone down as college football programs from past glory, but Nebraska has made a bit of a move under Bo Pelini.

Of course, they are making the right moves for their schools in these crazy times. Nebraska does fit well among schools like Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin (a lot better than with Texas, eh?). The ‘Huskers were increasingly obscure in the Big XII with Oklahoma and Texas grabbing power under Stoops and Brown. They now have a fresh start with a conference gaining in power, but not quite where the Big XII is/was with athletes and CFB powers.

For Colorado, it looks like a move of self-preservation. Texas and Nebraska were bringing the end of the Big XII and the Pac-10 wanted its Big XII brethren — they did everything they could to get in the conference (especially when Baylor was rumored to replace them). For the Buffs, I don’t see where they compete better in a Pac-16, but don’t blame them for the move.

• MWC + Boise = ?

Finally, Boise is in a strong(er) conference.

It’s kinda sad that all of the BCS conference expansion overshadowed the “mid-major” move here. Seeing Boise vs. BYU/Utah/TCU in-conference is a win for college football. Heck, the Mountain West may have a shot to add a fallen Big XII member for even more of a boost. The Broncos have shown they are not afraid — and that’s good for college football.

As for the WAC, merge with the Sun Belt?

• What About the Bowls?!?!

You see where everybody is up-in-arms about the effect of expansion on the bowls? Wait, you don’t? Yeah, I’m not seeing it either. Maybe we’ll get to the conference-tie-ins-bowls-talk  when we have a little less to discuss, but this all shows how unimportant the tradition of the bowls really is. I imagine the Pac-16 and Big Ten will divvy up the Big XII’s tie-ins with more matches with each other and what smaller conferences are left from all of this. The Pac-16 vs. all-takers bowls will be interesting with a Oklahoma or Southern Cal being a possible first-team-outside-BCS-bowl to face in a higher mid-tier bowl (that is if we don’t see a total revolution with a playoff included *crosses fingers*). The ACC’s bowl tie-ins will still kinda suck.