Morning Cuppa Joe

There was no ballgame last night. The Giants got their first day off in a while, and all of the NL teams played during the day. It completely changed my TV viewing.

Instead of jumping around the dial checking out the Giants (and other stuff during the ads), I watched the last episode of Will and Grace. I've only seen a few episodes over the years, and now I know why. It wasn't that funny, it wasn't that poignent, and the over-acting was over the top. Nice to see it...leave.

Meanwhile, although there are virtually no public comments lately, I suddenly have received some emails from the boys. I started writing a little about fantasy baseball and BABI in particular, and suddenly I'm wrong, stupid, and slow. That all may be true, but there is only one thing I can say to you all: Bite Me.

First, from the hinterlands. I know George reads Sour Grapes, but he's always quiet until I touch a nerve. Usually that nerve (or lack thereof last season) relates to his constant insecurity about his team and his awe of the Leaguers. Here is what he said about my comments yesterday on the state of the Leaguer Franchise:

You might be counting Jeff out a little early...

At this time last year, Jeff was thinking about "next year". Remember what happened after that?

Of course, one difference was that last year, he had Pujols, along with a few other studs. His team truly stinks right now. But as you also pointed out, he has possible studs that are
underachieving right now.

And don't bet on Borowski losing his closer role before June, as some _____ did a couple seasons ago...

It's all true, but sorry, I don't see it. But the reason I don't see it is I'm just not as good as Mr. Leaguer at this. He probably does have an overall plan to get back into the thick of it, but I'm just not smart enough to devine how he's going to do it, so I assume he can't. George doesn't know how he's going to do it, but he's sure he will. That makes one of us a half-full glass guy and the other a half-empty glass guy, but I'm not sure who is which.

I was sure I was going to hear from Noel after I wrote about Larry Dot Net's competition. Sure enough...

I did have a mild spit-up over .net site, but the big news could be Coffey getting his first save. That trade may whip-saw the Old Rips faster than a speeding bullet. Heaven forbid Wagner has any of his annual arm problems.

I think the big fact in the Cartel trade is how much it is going to hurt his batting average. He had a huge lead, and has already dropped a point. Check his batting average since the trade. I think that is going to hurt the most.

I noticed Coffey's save. What was interesting was that Weathers pitched the 7th and 8th, so this had to be by design. Has the mantle been passed in Cincinnati already? If so, to quote Howard Baker during the Watergate investigation, what did Kevin know and when did he know it? If Coffey is the closer, this is a MONSTER trade for the Pounders, possibly the greatest since Pujols went to the Leaguers.

As for the BA thing, it's why I've never been on the Adam Dunn bandwagon. He hits for BA just long enough to think he's found the answer, and suddenly he's down there in the Dave Kingman area. We in the Pickle Jar tend to overlook BA too. It cost us severely last season. I hope the Cartel didn't make that same mistake.

Quick...who is leading the major league in doubles? You have to look at the other side of the box score page for this one...

It's Mike Lowell.

Remember last year how Larry Dot Net kept trying to sell Lowell based on how many doubles he was hitting? He finished last season at 8-58-4-.236 in addition to his 36 doubles. This season hitting in the middle of the Red Sox lineup he's at 4-23-1-.317 plus his major league leading 20 doubles. Diebold is probably doing the doubles counting.

I have a couple of ideas to write about this week that are NOT directly about BABI. I imagine the only emails I'll be getting are from Boof Brittain asking if Carlos Lee is available yet. He is, Boof. I want Utley and Coffey. The offer will probably something like Mike Cameron and Dan Wheeler.