Defensive Indifference

Apologies for the sudden halt in posting the last few days; Andrew’s on Thanksgiving vacation and I’ve been spending way too much time playing Worldwide Soccer Manager.

There hasn’t been a whole lot of earth-shattering news, aside from the Bonds indictment, which was only surprising to me because I wasn’t aware the Feds were still going after him. If they do indeed have a positive test on him and he is found guilty it will have permanent repercussions on Bonds’ legacy and might even effect the record books. And he probably won’t be playing next season, though I wouldn’t rule out Sabean bringing him back to fill the seats with amoral San Franciscans and to add some much-need veteran leadership to the young and spry Giants.

A-Rod is apparently still intent on returning to the Yanks, and today picked up his third MVP award. Yawn. Humorously, two dumbasses voted for Magglio Ordoñez. Oh, and apparently A-Rod has been taking advice from Warren Buffet:

“We usually visit every year. Warren is a friend,”‘ Rodriguez said. “He’s done a great job of foreseeing things in business. Now he’s doing it in baseball, too, so that’s pretty good.”

Go figure.

Let’s see, the Red Sox are close to resigning Mike Lowell to a three-year deal worth something like $38 million or so. The Sox had set a deadline for Lowell’s decision so they would know what they need going into the winter meetings, so it looks like Lowell wasn’t spouting total horsecrap when he said his first preference was Boston. He could’ve kept playing the field and might’ve got got 4 years and more money, but he took the sure bet with a sure contender. This is probably a good deal for Boston because it’s only 3 years and Lowell’s defense is almost invaluable. I would’ve liked to see Boston make a run at Miggy Cabrera, but that’s probably just my fantasy team talking.

A bunch of senior citizens have also been signed or resigned in the last few days, but this isn’t a nursing home, so I’ll skip over them.

Another trade of note: the White Sox sent Jon Garland to the Halos for 2004 WS alum Orlando Cabrera. Not exactly a blockbuster, I know, but at least involves two regulars. This is really a swap of two overrated players. Cabrera has been below-average offensively for almost his entire career (85 OPS+) and is not exactly young at 33, but by all accounts he’s great defensively. If the Pale Hose were looking to gain an offensive sparkplug, Cabrera’s not. But he should fit into Ozzie Guillen’s non-stop hit-bunt-and-run offense quite nicely, which is great news for the AL Central. Garland is 27 and has been a reliable, albeit only slightly above-average, starter (106 career ERA+), but has averaged an anemic 4.8 K/9. But a reliable slightly above-average SP is worth a lot these days. I’ll give the nod to SoCal on this one because they get 6 years younger and a durable starter with Garland, and make room for Erick Aybar in the near term and Brandon Wood (eventually) who hopefully them provide them a cheap, second power bat that they’ve so desperately needed (since they clearly have no interest in getting one by any other means).

Advantage: Bill Stoneman’s ghost