Time for a Mad Cal Hot Stove League baseball report

I already have 2 Boston World Series t-shirts and this weekend I received my Red Sox dvd. I didn't get the MLB World Series one, I got the one produced by NESN, titled Faith Rewarded. After spending 86 minutes to unwrap the darn dvd, I really enjoyed it. I was getting all excited and yelling and cheering while watching it. There was a lot of focus on the rivalry against the Yankees, and a lot was made about what a bunch of goofballs the team was. Even though Dave Roberts got taken off my NL-only fantasy baseball team last year, it was worth it for that one stolen base in the ALCS (hint for the Giants to improve team speed). The most entertaining part of the dvd was one of the special features where Orlando Cabera (I call him the O.C.) describes all the different handshakes he does with each of the team members.


I like all of the Giants' moves so far. Should have worked harder to get Steve Finley, and I would rather have Derek Lowe or Odalis Perez than Kirk Reuter in the rotation, but I'll wait to see what Sabean does.

A National League team will win the next World Series because the balance of good pitching is now in the senior circuit. Among those going to the NL: Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Pedro Martinez. Some moving to the AL: David Wells, Carl Pavano, probably Randy Johnson. That's why I think the Giants need to get a better 4th and 5th starters behind Schmidt, Tomko, and Lowry. I have no idea what the Oakland A's are doing. It takes a lot of moneyballs to trade the top 2/3 of the highly praised Big 3.

The Mariners are going to be the baseball version of the Warriors. Lots of big contracts for players that will not win. Adrian Beltre pulls an Erick Dampier and Richie Sexson played about 7 games last year. There are better ways to spend $114 million. Same thing applies to the Arizona Diamondbacks. They lost 244 games in a 162 game season. No amount of money is going to make them good for at least 3 years.

Boston needs to re-sign Jason Varitek. If Curt Schilling returns healthy, with 49 years-old David Wells and Matt Clement, the BoSox staff is still pretty good. Mantei and Renteria are solid pickups. The Yankees still suck.