Dejan Kovacevic describes the shape of the starting pitchers. When did we first learn that Kip Wells had an elbow problem in addition to a carpal-tunnel problem? I must have missed or forgotten that news. Burnett, of course, is out for awhile. JVB will come back slowly. And now Vogelsong's shoulder is tired. He only started about 34 games, summer and winter combined, so who knows what's up with him. He looks to start the year in the back of the bullpen. It's not hard to see why Littlefield wants to acquire another starting pitcher. You need about twelve of these guys to start the year even though you hope to never use your seven back-ups.
Around the blogs, bkopec has a herniated disc and is headed for the DL. Trev isn't sold on Jose Castillo and wants to see more Freddy Sanchez. Charlie answers the ten questions. For the front page at OnlyBucs, Richard A. Mathews has been profiling the players. While you are there, take a minute to admire this painting of Honus. It brings a tear to me eye. See Paul's other work, which is equally impressive, here. I find this one especially entrancing.
While we are talking art, don't miss "Creation of Big Ben". I was on an airplane and missed the game during which CBS featured that thing.
And did any of you New Yorkers get over to Brooklyn to see the Roberto Clemente exhibit (scroll down, under "Vamos!")? More here and here. Maybe it's Rowdietta's remarkable artistic talents, or maybe not, but these days I'm a real sucker for kid art. I'm sorry I missed the exhibition and wish they had some of the work posted online.
Back to football. For the Trib-Review, Bob Prine offers a valuable dissertation on the arguments against the NFL's current hard-salary-cap pay structure. It seems that the players pay a toll, physically, for their inability to miss games without having their pay docked. This leads me to wonder if the NFL shouldn't be reporting who will miss games with and without pay. When the Steelers decide to sit Burress, for example, does he take a pay cut for that game check? This doesn't appear to be a salary issue so much as it appears to be the NFL's management using the salary cap to crack down on suspected malingerers. Maybe I'm not following all the arguments. Anyone, there's the link for now. Don't miss it or file it away for later.
I'm not sorry the Astros won't get Carlos Beltran. The AP reports there that they may be using the "R-word" - rebuilding - more often. Lance Berkman tore his ACL washing his truck. Jeff Kent will make $8.5 million playing for Los Angeles. Wade Miller got cut. Clemens is on the fence. But they still have a former Bucco managing the team, and Jason Lane is not the worst option to plug into centerfield. The team re-signed Jose Vizcaino for $1.25M and Orlando Palmeiro for 800K. Hmmm. We'll see them six times before May 5. Hopefully Berkman won't come back until May 6.
It's getting time to look in at the other clubs. The Cubs let Moises Alou go to San Francisco. Insert pee joke here. Matt Clement went to Boston. They lose Grudz to St. Louis. Ramon Martinez was lured away by Detroit for one year and $1M. How is Abraham Nunez still out of work? Kent Mercker left Chicago for Cincinnati, yawn. The Cubs resigned Nomar, Neifi, Todd Hollandsworth, Glendon Rusch, Todd Walker, and Ryan Dempster. They also picked up Henry Blanco. I'm not sure if these moves make them a stronger or a weaker club though I'm tipping toward weaker since Matt Clement was solid for them. We see the Cubs for a three-game homestand starting April 15th.
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