Pushing Paulino

Dejan returns with a Hot Stove update. Jack, Grabow, and Ronny are for sale. Neal is "kicking the tires on every 4-A starter out there." The Astros recently expressed interest in JVB as a hitter, but he wants to keep pitching.

Rinkumania

Brilliant move by Neal, making history with signing Rinku and Dinesh. Now Neal needs to seal the deal, for the betterment of humanity, and make the continuation of The Million Dollar Arm Blog a condition in the contract.

Dinesh on Barry:

Mr. Bonds sir has the finest house anyone could ever imagine. He has many animals that he has hunted and preserved to display. He has his own real movie theater. he also has many cars and a gym just like the one at USC. He even has a mirror that turns into a TV! GAZAB!

Rinku on pork ribs, cops, and healthcare:

Back at home; we had Marty sir and his wife over for dinner. Just like we promised. You’ll know the menu by now. We don’t want to risk making anything but pork ribs. However, I’m not gonna ever handle pork ribs after today. I cut couple of my fingers trying to slice it before serving. Marty sir called the cops. They need to be informed about the smallest incident here. Poor Marty sir came under suspicion initially when the cops got in. They left us with a hospital address once they were satisfied nothing untoward had happened.

I wish I hadn’t gone for any treatment though. I reeled at the bill they produced for some simple bandaging and a tetanus shot. 300 bucks! It’s whooping. They took me to the emergency room for such a clear-cut case (pun intended). I didn’t get any meds and neither did they do anything to ease the pain. To put salt to injury, we had a stack of forms to sign as a procedure. Deepesh sir and I went into hysterics and laughed our guts out. It was crazy. Back home in India, we would’ve gotten treated just fine for a mere twenty rupees. Healthcare here is indecently expensive. I hope I don’t make another visit to a hospital here for whatever reasons.

Walkoff Walk has been following our two new heroes for awhile.

Are you not entertained?

Bucs sign two Indians

Bucs sign two young Indian pitchers, winners of the "Million Dollar Arm" contest, reports the P-G. The two have their own blog (link via Deadspin). Welcome aboard, Rinku and Dinesh!

Hot stove

The Tigers are still looking at Jack Wilson, reports the Detroit Free Press. Matt Capps is potentially available, says ESPN. No word yet on possible McLouth and Freddy suitors, perhaps because Neal has been overwhelmed by near-ubiquitous interest in Ronny Ballgame.

40-Man

Set for the Rule V draft. Bucs protect Lerud and Uviedo over Romak and Bloom. Bloom has been on fire in Hawaii, but career-wise, is no stranger to the base-on-balls. Romak has an Eldredesque K-rate and has not yet established himself at AA. Assuming Jason Davis does not belong on the 40-man, it seems the Bucs have room for Eduardo Morlan or another Rule V pick.

In other news, we raise our glass and wish the best of luck to JVB, who will be playing for another team next year. All hail JVB!

NFL week 12

Starts tomorrow.

Bengals at Steelers, 8pm.

Daytime high in the mid 30s, cloudy, some wind, good chance of snow. Should be fun.

NFL week 11

Chargers at Steelers underway. Ben only sacked once in the first four minutes.

Free agents

Given this free agent list, which cheap free agents should Neal pursue for a RH power hitter, a veteran starter, and a bullpen guy? I'll start with: Milton Bradley (OPS+ of 153 and 163 the last two years), Josh Fogg, and Julian Tavarez. The 2009 Bucs should not enter the record books without a fight, and a Bradley/Tavarez ticket would fight this fight, with or without Dirty Doug.

Week 10 NFL

... Steelers host the Colts on Sunday at four. The way the Steelers defense has been playing, I almost pity the Colts' offense.

Election Day

Get your vote on.

Week 9 MNF

Steelers (5-2) at Redskins (6-2).

Halloween

hooooo ooooooo ooooooo

/ghost

2008 World Series

Are you watching this?

Joe Kerrigan

New pitching coach announced today. Kerrigan will try to clean up Jeff Dr. James Andrews' mess.

NFL week 7

The Steelers play the Bengals in Cincinnati. Not sure what the Bengals will do to the field this year to try to gain a small advantage -- maybe a ton of sand, or maybe they leave the sprinklers on all night -- but they will probably do some kind of low-class chiseler move since they usually do.

The Bengals are 0-6. Teams that have not yet won a game at home can be dangerous at home, since there is an extra ton of pressure to win for the season ticket holders. And I have friends who worry that the Steelers (at least under Cowher) had/have a tendency to play down to bad teams on the road. I don't remember this happening so much, I say in response, with division games. If they were at Kansas City, I would be more worried.

Anything can happen of course. We all know that. But this one is not making me nervous a few hours before kickoff.

It looks like Casey Hampton, Willie Parker, and Marvel Smith will not play. Hampton might be the most underrated Steeler as the DT in the 3-4. But Chris Hoke is even more underrated as his backup, so the defense should be OK. Moore should start for Parker, who kept missing practice last week with the knee injury, and the Undertaker will start for Smith. Rookie wideout Limas Sweed should make his debut today. All in all, I don't think all this player news amounts to much beyond the fact that such key injuries expose the Steelers. If Hoke is healthy, they will be fine if Hampton sits; but if both those guys are too hurt to play ... etc. etc.

Finally, let's cheer sludgeworm for his 61-27 record against the spread this season. He is blowing away the rest of our pool. All hail sludge!

On bye

No game this week for the Steelers. The Ravens are in Indiana, the Bengals are at the Meadowlands, and the Browns will host the Giants tomorrow night on Monday Night Football.

Bay vs. Manny

Decent chance we'll see this in the World Series.

Trading McLouth

Are we going to be reading about such things all winter long?

NFL week 5

Ever stay up really, really late on Saturday just so you could roll out of bed, Sunday, just in time for the 1pm kickoffs?

Lanny retires

News here at the Post-Gazette.