garza/delmon

perhaps tampa bay really is a second-class baseball town.


i was willing to give the d-rays a chance for awhile. i really was. but i'm starting to think they're a pathetic organization, and i think i have almost every right to think so.

if there was one guy the rays should have cut the cord with, it was elijah dukes. they did, i guess. because delmon, bj, and carl were the future. all the drays needed to do was get evan longoria to the bigs and they were golden for 10 years at the plate, because evan longoria is the serial hotness, delmon young is a vlad guerrero clone, carl crawford is amazing and bj upton had a sneaky amazing year. and that's reality.


now, the d-rays will try to throw delmon under the bus, even though by all rights, delmon had earned his way to the bigs in 2005. don't believe me? consider this: young destroyed single a in 2004. he slaughtered aa in 2005. he would learn nothing in aaa. he knew it and tampa knew it, and yet tampa tried to keep him from gaining service time by not calling up the AA PLAYER OF THE YEAR.

then tampa didn't give him a chance in spring training. they got away with it, because delmon threw the bat and then he became the quintessential scapegoat. he's a bad kid playing for a bad franchise: tampa got to make him their b**** for a year and a half because of it. it's true that delmon didn't run out a ground ball; that he's acerbic, and that he's probably the second coming of albert belle.

let me hit you with some more truth. albert belle would be the best hitter (apologies, i guess, to wade boggs) to ever grace a d-rays uniform. and like it or not, you win with the best players.

and delmon was second in rookie of the year voting last year at age 21. he probably should have been first, but oh well.

so let's be clear on one thing before i trash the rays some more: matt garza is good enough for the rays to save face. he is a premium guy: he could be a 20-game winner. he has the stuff, and the twins didn't treat him so well either. and that's nice for tampa, 'cause they're all about saving face.

discard all the other guys from the trade. you can't build a team around bartlett, and the twins suckered the rays out of brendan harris, a guy who had kind of a good year last year. morlan is sneaky good, but the rays got around $.70 on the dollar for delmon. the only reason they were able to get $.70 is because garza hated the twins organization.

now, allow me to trash the rays some more: the tampa bay devil rays are the only team on the planet that could manage to trade a #1 pick, a premium guy, for $.70 on the $1 because they were intent to ruin his market value. not even the royals, pirates, or reds could do that.

that type of logic is inconceivable... miguel cabrera is remarkably lazy, yet the marlins got a king's ransom for him: with miller and maybin, they assured themselves of at least getting two shots at hanley ramirez. delmon young isn't equal to miguel cabrera, but he's not so far away. but that's the difference between the marlins and the d-rays; the marlins know to let young talent develop, and the d-rays trade it. exit stage left, bobby abreu.


and they almost did the same thing with bj upton! fortunately upton was a phoenix, another #1 pick who could rise from the ashes. but it sure wasn't easy...

the devil rays have no ability to support their young players in the minors, and it shows. is it tampa's fault that josh hamilton became who he was? no, but tampa sure cut the cord quickly with that guy.

and the rays will suffer. they will suffer, because crawford/upton/pena won't last forever. the lineup could have been like a young cleveland indians team, but the rays gave up on the next albert belle. enjoy your new charles nagy. and enjoy your 70 wins.

an open letter to the chicago bulls.

dear chicago bulls:

maybe it's time for you to look at scott skiles and the players that you have on the court and make changes.

i understand that skiles is, in principle, a tough, hard-nosed, gamer. i understand that he is widely respected for his coaching prowess in the league, and that he is not a bad guy.

i understand that he led the bulls close to the promised land last year, and that his ability to coach on the defensive end is unparalleled.

but it's time to make a change.

because this year, the bulls are 2 and 9, and they recently lost to the knicks.
because this year, ben wallace, an ALL-NBA player for five years in the 2000s, is only averaging 28 minutes per game.
because this year, skiles is arbitrarily calling out tyrus thomas, a second-year pro who is still learning the game.

in principle, john paxson has given the bulls enough talent to win. and in principle, they should turn it around.

but we should be worried. because the bulls haven't thought it would be good to get backcourt depth, ben gordon is now starting, and he has to shoot a lot. since deng can't shoot the three, and since duhon was never a good shooter, the bulls have had to depend on gordon all the time. and that can never work. thabo was supposed to be the answer, but he's been disappointing.

so the bulls can't score when they should be able to. and since ben wallace isn't playing, they're left with the undesirable outcome of trying to have ty thomas guard the four, and it hasn't worked. and thomas and wallace have been thrown under the bus by skiles since they've been there. noah will never score in the league, and so nocioni is forced to play too much D, even though he won't be able to start in the league with the way he gives up points to small forwards. thabo plays better defense, and he doesn't even know what he's doing out there.

and the bulls should be worried, because they haven't played the spurs, cavs, mavs, magic, or celtics yet. and that's dangerous.

and the bulls should be worried, because even though the bucks and pacers should be much worse than they are, they aren't, at least so far. and it looks like the bucks will be able to score all year.

and maybe paxson isn't the renaissance man we all thought. it's true that he drafted gordon and hinrich, but he traded aldridge, drafted noah over al thornton, didn't trade for kobe, etc. and the j.r. smith and pj brown deal for tyson chandler ended up with the bulls only receiving pj brown. with chandler, there's no need for wallace (or at least noah).

i'm all for acting rationally. i'm all for giving coaches an opportunity to make amends. and i believe that skiles is a premium guy, one of the better coaches in the league.

but the bulls had better start thinking now, right now about making changes. new players, new coach, new gm, something... because they're in the danger zone: we all thought that gordon/hinrich/deng/thomas/noah/wallace were near championship quality, but now i could easily recast that into "bosh/bargnani/ford," "jefferson/williams/kidd/carter," or "lbj/who cares." and i haven't even brought up detroit, boston, or orlando.

and there's a good shot that we simply overrated luol deng, although i'll be fair: he's been hurt. because we all knew that at some point, ben gordon would shoot under 40 percent in the league.

and considering the fact that the bulls have missed on two opportunities to obtain/keep dominant scorers (who recalls elton brand?) in the post, it's not inconceivable to believe that the bulls, young as they are, may be watching their championship window expire. because we all know that free agency is soon inevitable.

so think, chicago. think about making changes now.

brief comment.

perhaps the most frightening thing about sports journalism is what goes unnoticed.

here is one relatively disturbing thing that i uncovered this week: the al mvp voting.

lost among a-rod's majority of the first place votes was a breakdown that seriously makes me question the competency of our best and brightest baseball minds. i reproduce the results here for convenience (total number of votes are in parentheses).

1st: alex rodriguez (382) 2nd: magglio ordonez (258) 3rd: vladimir guerrero (203) 4th: david ortiz (177) 5th: mike lowell (126) 6th: jorge posada (112) 7th: victor martinez (103) 8th: ichiro (89) 9th: carlos pena (64) 10th: curtis granderson (51) 11th: derek jeter (17) 12th: grady sizemore (15) 13th: jj putz (12) 14th: cc sabathia (11) 15th: torii hunter, orlando cabrera (5) 17th: bobby abreu, john lackey, placido polanco (4) 20th: justin morneau, chone figgins (3) 22nd: josh beckett (2) 23rd: fausto carmona, frank thomas (1)

for some reason, carlos pena got more votes than curtis granderson, despite granderson having one of the all-time great seasons. now, this is because pena hit 46 home runs, and i appreciate that. i also appreciate the fact that tampa finished last. pena was valuable, to be sure, but surely he wasn't as valuable as granderson.

chone figgins, frank thomas, and bobby abreu got votes for no good reason. and somehow jj putz received more votes than cc sabathia, which is inexplicable on many levels. for one, it's hard to describe how a relief pitcher could ever be more valuable than a true ace, although if the reliever was gagne-dominant it might be possible. but if this sort of reasoning is true, then why didn't jonathan papelbon get a single vote? isn't he, give or take, at the apex of closing? why didn't manny ramirez get a single vote? why hasn't ramirez won an mvp?

if we're trying to recognize overall value to the team, then why did eric byrnes receive way fewer votes than ryan howard? why did jose valverde receive more votes than brandon webb?

the whole process stinks, and it's probably because voters don't care to think past the first five votes. there's one way to settle this: reduce the number of players on the ballot ranked from 14 to 10, or even 5. cy young voting is much more plausible simply because it doesn't allow us to see how ignorant voters really are. and i think that's better for everyone.