Baseball

rileydog22 wrote: "He clearly doesn't want to be a Yankee....I don't want anybody on my team that doesn't want to be a Yankee." Hank Steinbrenner says it all.

Egregious misjudgement by Boras.  $350 million as a starting point?  No team in the league is going to pony that up, and everyone knew it.

Congratulations to Jimmy Rollins of the Philadelphia Phillies for winning the NL MVP award.

Wow!  Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers for Andrew Miller, Cameron Maybin and 6 prospects!  Now that's a blockbuster! 

darkmatter wrote: Wow!  Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers for Andrew Miller, Cameron Maybin and 6 prospects!  Now that's a blockbuster!

rushfan4 wrote: darkmatter wrote: Wow!  Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers for Andrew Miller, Cameron Maybin and 6 prospects!  Now that's a blockbuster!    Mixed feelings on this one.  I think this is way too much to give up.  Maybin and Miller were the Tigers top 2 prospects, although neither showed they were ready for the bigs last year, they are supposedly can't miss propsects.  Throw in 3 other good young arms in Eulogio de la Cruz, Dallas Trahern, and Badenhop and the Marlins might have definitely got the best of this deal.  Willis kind of stunk last year and Cabrera might be the 2nd best hitting player in the NL but he is 50 pounds overweight.  Add these prospects to the 2 prospects they gave up for Edgar Renteria (a really stupid move IMO) and they have basically depleted their minor league system which took so long to finally turn around.  In order to make room for Cabrera at 3rd base that means they are probably going to have to do something with Brandon Inge who was signed to a 4-year contract last year.  He is one of the best fielding 3rd baseman in the league and he is one year removed from a decent season as a hitter.  Every indication was that they wouldn't move him back behind the plate, but maybe that is where his future is again.  My guess is that they are not done dealing.

I agree that they gave up too many prospects, six for two players is excessive, especially when Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin have such high ceilings, and I think most of the other four were in their top ten prospects.  But Willis is still 25, and Cabrera is 24, so they still have youth on their side, which is good for the Tigers even if they gave up a lot of young(er) talent to get them. 

The Mitchell report was released today and almost 80 current and former players were named as users of various performance enhancing drugs.  I think they probably missed about 500 more.  It really doesn't bother me as much as it should.  Personally, I feel that it was so widely used that it wasn't really like players were getting an advantage over other players because there were many of them that were doing it.  Roger Clemens was one of the big names that was outted.  He is pretty famous for his workout regiment.  I'm sure that the drugs probably did help him keep going as he got older but very few pitchers work out as hard as he does.  Quite frankly the same goes with Barry Bonds.  He is known to have a strenuous workout program as well.  With my exercise program, or lack thereof, all that HGH would do for me is make my stomach grow even more then it already has.  And all the steroids would do would give me pimples, make my hair fall out, and make me sterile.  These athletes still have to work their butts off to get into the shape that they are in.  That doesn't make it right, and it is certainly a shame that it has happened, but personally I think it is a matter of the media making a bigger deal out of it than it really is. 

Sammy Sosa is not on the list.

What I feel is far more unfair, especially when it comes to baseball, is that a team like the Yankees can have a $250 million payroll, while a team like the Florida Marlins have a $15 million payroll.  The US is a capitalist society and I fully understand that the Yankees can easily afford a $250 million payroll because they play in a city with a population that is larger than many US states.  Because they play in that city they make far more advertising and television dollars than a team that is not in that city.  How are other teams to compete with that?  And yes, thankfully the Yankees haven't won a World Series in a number of years now, but the Boston Red Sox have won 2, and they have the 2nd highest payroll in the league.  That is what is really wrong with baseball. 

Yes, rushfan I agree that that is very unfair, and it is much worse in the English premiership. At least in the US, the team with the payroll doesn't always win. In the English Premiership it is always one of the 'big 4' who wins everything (Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal). No one else has even  won the FA cup in 10+ years. I disagree with your comparison to drug taking in music, as sport is all about going for number 1. Steroids help you do this. Hallucinagenic drugs certainly alter your music, but not necessarily for the better. Some people just like that kind of sound.