Trading deadline thoughts and bullpen usage

Well, there weren’t too many major deals on the July 31st trading deadline. But there was one that stuck out.

The Boston Red Sox traded for Eric Gagne, even though they already have a closer. Usually, teams won’t trade for elite closers if they already have a good one like the Sox do in Jonathan Papelbon.

I had always wondered why not. It’s not like closers can’t pitch at any other time than the 9th inning. Hypothetically, imagine having Frankie Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, Papelbon, Gagne, Joe Nathan and Billy Wagner all in the same bullpen. Wouldn’t that be a good thing?

The more good arms in the bullpen the better. Having to choose which one of them to let get the “save”, which is an overrated stat anyway, is a good problem to have, not a bad one. Being able to turn to one of the best relievers in the game before the ninth inning is a good thing.

I always figured a smart general manager with a lot of money would figure this out. I was just hoping it would be Angels’ GM Bill Stoneman, to build a Speier-Shields-Gagne-Rodriguez bullpen. I never really expected it. But I can dream, can’t I?

Trading deadline day

The MLB non-waiver trading deadline is only hours away. We’ve already had one big deal (The Braves have landed Mark Teixiera and Ron Mahay for Jarrod Saltalamacchia and two prospects) which is more than you can say about several of the last few seasons.

Other big names seem to be seriously be on the trading block too (Eric Gagne, Adam Dunn, Jermaine Dye).

I remember the days when big names being dealt at the deadline was common, not rare. If everything goes right, a return to the past happens today maybe? It was fun to see Mike Piazza as a Florida Marlin for a few days, and Randy Johnson pitching for Houston.

Welcome!

To those of you coming to this site from Either Relevant or True or Larry Brown Sports, welcome! Feel free to look around and leave a comment if you want — I won’t bite too hard.

And if you come here just for me — check out ERT and Larry Brown Sports. They are excellent blogs.

We all hate ESPN, but need it too

Larry Brown Sports had an excellent post the other day about how hypocritical sports bloggers can be. For those of you who are too lazy to click the link, basically, he writes that even though we all bash ESPN, we continue to link to it.

That reminds me of something I’ve always suspected. The overwhelming majority of sports bloggers, myself included, feel that the quality of the ESPN networks has declined over the years. ESPN is full of self-hype, self-promotion, making controversial and loud statements, and less about pure sports than it used to be.

But we still watch it. We have to — ESPN has a virtual monopoly in the sports world. They televise games we watch (Monday Night Football, Sunday/Wednesday/Monday Night Baseball, NBA, college football and hoops, etc.) And on TV, there’s few other places to turn to if you want to watch sports news. Fox Sports Net seems to have focused on regionalized programming, and reruns a lot of old games and programming. And the other sports networks that exist seem to focus on one sport (NFL/NBA network, The Golf/Tennis channel), one team (YES) or sports that few people watch (CSTV).

So we’re stuck with ESPN. And I hate that we are.

Growing up, I’d watch SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight and College GameDay religiously. Now, I still flip to those shows when I have free time and I’m watching TV, but a few minutes later, I flip away, disgusted at something stupid I just saw or heard.

If anyone was ever going to build a serious competitor to ESPN, now is the time. Now is when its viewers are getting sick of what they do. But until then, we have no choice — we’ll keep watching, at least a little.

Edit: As OSQ commenter Noah pointed out, I forgot to include the Versus and NHL argument. Versus is another example of a sports network that has mostly non-mainstream sports. And how little has ESPN covered hockey the past two years now that Versus has the rights?

I want Bonds to get 756 in LA

I’m not as against Barry Bonds as most people (because I think most of baseball was on steroids, not just him), but I still don’t like that he’s going to break the all-time home run record.

That being said, after a homer Friday night, Barry stands at 754. The Giants play two more home games against the Marlins, then travel to L.A. to face the Dodgers for a three-game series.

I love this — Dodger Stadium is the one place I am 100% sure will treat Bonds horribly. They booed Bonds before it was cool to do it. If Barry hits 756 at Dodger Stadium there will be riots. I’m guessing fans will throw stuff on the field and never stop with the “steroids” chants.

It will be a great sight that goes down in history.

I really hate Tom Hansen

For those of you aren’t as obsessed with college football as I am, Tom Hansen is the commissioner of the Pac-10.

The Sporting News is reporting that Hansen is against the plus-one idea that other conference commissioners are embracing and threatening to leave the BCS over it. (The plus-one idea would let all the BCS bowl games be played, then the championship game would match-up #1 and #2 after the BCS games are over).

While a true playoff system would be better than a plus-one idea, a plus-one system is still better than we have now. Under the plus-one system, if there were three undefeated teams like there were in 2004 (USC, Oklahoma, Auburn), you could have two of them face-off in a BCS bowl game to prevent having multiple undefated teams and only one championship to give out. You could also essentially create a national semifinals if you match-up the top-4 teams against each other.

Yet Hansen, the commissioner of the BCS conference that anyone who lives east of the Rockies doesn’t care about, is threatening to pull out? What if they call his bluff over something that is a good idea anyway? That would be horrible for all of the Pac-10 schools.

This isn’t Hansen’s first bad decision — he’s the same genius that gives Pac-10 college basketball an exclusive deal with Fox Sports Net instead of ESPN, a network far fewer people watch. We’ve all seen what ESPN has done for Duke, the ACC and the Big East in hoops. Should we have the network that excels at hype get more people interested in the Pac-10? Nah, that would be too good of an idea.

A-Rod watch 2008

Before recently, I’d always wondered why sports fans are always looking ahead to the following season, even though the current season is still in progress. Fans looking forward to free agency, the draft, or the next season.

I’ve finally bought in to the hype.

With all the speculation of whether A-Rod will opt-out of his contract with the Yankees after this season, I’ve been dreaming of seeing A-Rod as an Angel.

It can work. The Angels have the best owner in sports, Arte Moreno, and need offense much more than they need pitching. Can you imagine Vladimir Guerrero and Alex Rodriguez hitting back-to-back?

If the money’s about the same and you were A-Rod, where would you rather play, Anaheim or New York? The Yankee fans will never love him until he wins a World Series, which is too much for any one baseball player to do by himself. Angel fans, seeing the opportunity to add a big bat, will love him. Angel fans won’t boo him at every opportunity. We appreciate good baseball here.

I can’t wait until the defending champion Angels add A-Rod in the offseason.

Why do we care if Selig is in attendance for 756?

Seriously people. I’ve heard people who seem to think that Bud Selig not being present for Bonds’ record-breaking homer would be horrible.

But everyone forgets that then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn wasn’t in attendance for Hank Aaron’s 715th home run. And that didn’t seem to take away from the moment or resonate in history.

USA in finals of softball World Cup

The U.S. and Japan will face off in the finals of the World Cup of Softball tonight (Monday) at 6 p.m. PST on ESPN2.

To my two readers out there, I ask you to watch tonight. You won’t be disappointed.

Softball moves at a much faster pace than baseball and the games are shorter, making them more exciting (7 innings instead of 9, and no annoying pickoff throws to first base). Defense matters more than it does in baseball, because the bases are only 60 feet apart, runners get to first so much faster.

The women playing for the U.S. are obviously the best in the world and for those of you watch the Women’s College World Series, almost all of them played in it.

The championship game should be a classic — this is the third consecutive year that these two teams have met at the finals of the World Cup (the U.S. won last year, Japan in 2005).

I wonder what will happen to this sport after 2008, when softball is not in the Olympics anymore. What a shame.

The Mets make me hate them and love them

Why I hate them: They designated Julio Franco for assignment. I know he was horrible this year, but I liked seeing a 48-year old in the majors.

Why I love them: Rickey Henderson’s their hitting coach now! Rickey!