It sucks.

Of course this is largely me being irrational based off hearing both John Heynman and Barry Larkin say that if Ken Griffey Jr doesn't retire he should sign with the Mariners because "there wouldn't be as much pressure on him'" and "it would be a great PR move."

Barry Larkin has 0 TV presence. He did admit to phoning in 2004 on the field.

Harold Reynolds is still annoying, they just did a 5 minute segment with he and Michael Cuddyer talking about playing the ball off a wall. Nothing really big but it was weird seeing them both in casual clothes for a super short segment. Their faux baseball field set is kind of cool though.

Their New Year's resolution for the M's was to improve on their losing and to find someone to replace Raul Ibanez. Then said maybe it'll be Beltre since he almost won an MVP in his last contract year.

Al Leiter says we've lost our best Pitcher and best Hitter besides Ichiro. Did say Wakamatsu is a good young manager.

Larkin says we should trade Ichiro to change the culture and mindset of the team. Larkin again says he thinks Seattle would be a great place to have Griffey back. "He'd be an elder statesman, great for the community, would help the young guys."

Al Leiter echoes these sentiments, "Great PR move."

Reynolds, "The Mariners are my team, I'd love to see Griffey retire with them."

If you were hoping for anything better than ESPN, the MLB Network is not it.

The Dodgers appear to be on the verge of announcing the return of third baseman Casey Blake.

According to various reports, the Dodgers and Blake have agreed to a three-year deal. The Los Angeles Daily News reported that the contract is worth about $17 million.

 

Link

 

LAS VEGAS -- While closing in on re-signing third baseman Casey Blake, the Dodgers further solidified their infield depth Monday night by agreeing to terms with veteran utilityman Mark Loretta on a one-year contract, according to agent Bob Garber. Loretta must pass a physical exam for the deal to be official.

Club officials declined comment when asked to confirm the agreement.

 

Link

 

Some thoughts, the Dodgers have essentially traded away Andy LaRoche who was cheap and under club control for 3 more years for 3 years and $17million to Casey Blake who is old and declining. This is the kind of dumb move that leads the team to being "Cash strapped". I don't think Blake will be productive over the length of this deal.

This also takes the Dodgers out of the immediate running for Beltre.

Stolen from LAist:

 

"Trojan protection comes in many forms. Now legally tipped: "College colors are now slightly more protected by trademark law: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Louisiana State, Ohio State, Southern Cal [that's douchebag sports announcer speak for USC], and the University of Oklahoma in a case involving T-shirts that used the colors but not the names or logos of major college football programs," US News' Paper Trail blog says via Inside Higher Ed. "The four schools sued Smack Apparel Co. over concerns that its designs could be mistaken for university-sanctioned merchandise."

Probably spells the end for all those non University sanctioned T-Shirts you see being sold on or just off campus on game day. Or the dudes who went door to door in the dorms.

Bumped - Kind of crazy the past few days so I haven't been able to to look at this closely. Thanks to BlueMax for putting this up!

Per ESPN

Ouch, this is a huge blow to the defense. Thankfully two of the next 3 games are UW and Stanford, games where we shouldn't miss him too much. However that Cal game without him could be very scary.

As best as I can tell Will Harris is next in line for his spot. Anyone got any info on Harris? I wish I knew more about him off the top of my head than I do...

UPDATE...Here is a write up on the torn Meniscus. Not uncommon but it takes a little while to heal. There is some nice interactive stuff here.

Fight On! Kevin, get well soon!

First major fall out of the Lute Olson surprise retirement:

Link.

"Abdul Gaddy, Solomon Hill and Mike Moser have all told Arizona media sources that they will look elsewhere now that Olson has retired. He left the program unexpectedly last Thursday.

Hill, from Los Angeles, is considering hometown USC, among other schools. Moser, from Portland, Ore., joined Hill in decommitting last week."

 

Anyone have any info on Hill? I'm assuming he's a decent player since he was going to head to Arizona. I wonder if our odds of landing him are pretty good now...

 

 

Sporting News Article

MarketWatch Article

 

The source I found this on seems to think it could be good due to the developer (Blue Castle Games). If nothing else it could provide another competitor to the OOTP/Baseball Mogul world. Still a real development team and an actual license makes it a pretty attactive option for fantasy GMs of the world.

I can't wait for Geoff Baker's winter articles on his team!

 

[Matthew's Note: Format links properly (see the chain link button) and use more than 75 words]

Just saw on the ESPN ticker that Shareece Wright has been charged with felony resisting arrest in connection with a party last weekend. Supposedly this comes from the LATimes so I'm looking for more info as I type this...

Horrible news and completely stupid if true. Just comply with the police and your problems aren't gonna be this bad

Insert stupid  bruin fan joke about Shareece needing to contact Rey because he owns the police yada yada yada

Edit:  here' an ESPN.com link  http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=358527

And LATIMES: http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/usc/la-sp-uscfyi13-2008sep13,0,781989.story

Just saw this in my email:

 

"Starting Tonight:  Both home and away feeds will be included as part of your MLB.TV Premium subscription.  Watch Live streams of your favorite team's home broadcasts even when they are on the road."

 

Fuck yes. No more bitching about shitty announcers from other teams! From now on we have our own choice of which feed we want to watch. Now the only road games I have to dread are trips to Angels stadium when I am forced to watch on TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTuf761yJSM&eurl=http://www.sundaymorningqb.com/

 

Or at least his singing. I saw this live on Saturday and started cracking up. Hat tip to SMQ for the you tube link.

 

I suppose to his credit they did stop booing after he got going, but it was still pretty surreal to hear the stadium start booing as soon as his name was announced. Maybe all those Bears fans hate him or something?

Per rotoworld:

The Dodgers will recall Clayton Kershaw and have him start Tuesday against the Rockies.

Jason Johnson was supposed to join the rotation and start tomorrow, but he'll either be left in the pen or get sent back down. It seems unlikely that spending three weeks in the minors did Kershaw a lot of good. He's worth owning in NL-only leagues, but he probably shouldn't be used as Coors Field.