Rule 5

Starting today, Donald Veal and Andres Santos will attempt to fill the void left by Ronny Franchise. The P-G reports Ramon Vazquez will be signed soon. Vazquez's fourth most comparable batter is Ed Ott. Veal will be entertaining. Neal should hire Kerrigan some Special Assistants.

Farewell Ronny Ballgame

Ronny traded to the Phils for Jason Jamarillo, the P-G reports.

I've seen them; kids, men, women, worshippers all, hoping to get his name on a torn, dirty piece of paper, or hoping for a grunt of recognition when they said, 'Hi-ya, Ronny.' He never let them down; not once. He was the greatest crowd pleaser of them all.

Winter Meetings

The Marlins want Ronny but are underestimating his worth, Dejan reports from Las Vegas.

Cowboys Steelers

Should be a good one.

Endearingly ridiculous

Bruce Reed, Pirate blog connoisseur and former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton administration, writes a fantastic piece on Rinku and Dinesh for Slate.

Meanwhile our new friends appear on CNN and have Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone is just stuffing their heads.

Waiting for the trade

Both the Dodgers and Tigers are in the mix for Jack Wilson, and Jack is willing to renegotiate his contract for the Dodgers, the P-G reports.

Tracy flashback

A search for a suitable Jack Wilson tribute video on youtube instead turns up one of Tracy's attempts at the longest sentence ever, from the glory days of the DL firing (fast forward to one minute for Tracy and Jack on DL's pink slip). Tracy:

You know I have a job to do here and I can honestly tell you that up to this point I can hold my head very high knowing the fact that where I felt like we were when we began on opening day of 2006 and where we're at right now, this is heading in the direction that a guy, as the manager of this club, would want to see it go.

Jack not traded yet

Dejan reports that Coonelly denies the report that Jack Wilson has been traded to the Tigers.

Gayo

Dejan thinks he failed to put Rene Gayo into words in Part 3 of his Dominican series. The walking contradiction of Rene Gayo could be simplified into Tracyese: Rene is a big, powerful-looking, big man. Who breaks into tears upon remembering giving away an extra 10K of Mr. Nutting's money.

In other news, Rinku and Dinesh don't yet break the top 5 international Bucco prospects, and Ed Eagle catches up with Dave Parker, who makes his case for the Hall-of-Fame.

NFL week 13

Hellified ball at Foxborough starting soon.

All hail Sadid

Part one of Dejan's Caribbean story (with movie) features Rene Gayo at work signing 18-year-old Sadid Frias for seven times what Rinku and Dinesh got. The story mentions the Pirates used DNA and bone tests to nullify the contract of one of last year's Dominican signees, "Joldi Sierra", who was lying about his name and age. All hail honest young Sadid Frias, and the tripling of Rene Gayo's budget!

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.