Phightins

http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/topic/12649-nhl-offseason-2010/page__st__20

First somewhat-major trade of the deadline trade season. Rangers get Bengie Molina from the Giants for Chris Ray and a player to be named. Rangers look damn good.

Wow, Leafs trade for Kris Versteeg.

Anybody else as excited as I am? One of my favorite days of the year.

This team has so many goddamned issues right now. Starting to wonder if it will be too much to overcome. Obviously the big one now is the Chase Utley injury, and how nobody seems to know how long he will be out for. The fact that he has been looking for second and third opinions today does not sound too terribly good though. Other issues: -JA Happ. This is probably the longest "rehab assignment" of all time. His velocity is apparently stuck at 85 mph on his fastball right now, which is a significant dropoff from his norm (90-91). For a guy who relies on his fastball as much as he does, that is very very worrisome. If he can't come back, they need to trade for a starting pitcher even more desperately. -Who the hell is the closer? Brad Lidge looked awesome for a brief while, but he has an ERA over 13 in his last few appearances. Can Charlie afford to keep him in that role as long as he did last year? I don't think so. -All the other key injuries. Placido Polanco, Carlos Ruiz, Ryan Madson, Antonio Bastardo, and Chad Durbin. -Who are they going to trade for? What do you address first, the pitching, or finding an infielder (depending on how long Utley and Polanco will be out for)? If the answer to that is "a long time", and Happ doesn't miraculously find his velocity, the answer is clearly both. Obviously, a playoff team cannot have half of its starting infield made up of Greg Dobbs and Wilson Valdez. Sure I am missing a few. This is so [expletive]ing frustrating. Ruben, you have many doubters right now (myself included), so now is the time to win some support back. You have [expletive]ed this team up enough in your tenure thus far, so you now need to prove yourself.

It's going to be a $1.55 mil cap hit. He will make $1.5 mil this year and $1.6 mil next year, from what I've read.

If Halladay got half the run support Moyer does, he'd have 15 wins right now.

If they use all this money they're saving to sign Coburn and Volchenkov, no complaints from me. There has to be something else coming. Some of the local writers think they will still go for another goalie tomorrow, but probably not Nabokov or Turco. Maybe Niitty comes back? I actually wouldn't mind that.

Michael Leighton has signed a 2 year/$3.1 M contract with the Flyers. Not sure what to think of this right now.

That was rough... Matchups for Pirates series: Tomorrow: Cole Hamels @ Daniel McCutchen Friday: Jamie Moyer @ Ross Ohlendorf Saturday: Kyle Kendrick @ Paul Maholm Sunday: Joe Blanton @ Jeff Karstens

I'd still be surprised if he doesn't go to market, to at least see if the Flyers or Lightning make offers.

South Carolina wins it in 11 innings.

Has anybody been watching the College World Series? Game 2 of the finals is on now. In extra innings, pretty entertaining.

I like Valdez. Double play machine, but he is a hell of a fielder. 2B, 3B, SS, he has been super impressive everywhere they've put him. And he is a much better hitter than Abraham Nunez or Eric Bruntlett, so not terrible for a utility infielder and certainly an improvement over what we've had here in the last 4 or 5 years in that department. Just unfortunate that he is basically a starter right now, lol.

Up 6-3 with 2 outs in the 9th and nobody on base, and Brad Lidge gives up 2 hits and then a 3 run homer to Joey Votto to tie it. It's been that kind of day I guess.

Canadiens get the rights to Dan Ellis and Dustin Boyd in exchange for the rights to Sergei Kostitsyn. All 3 guys can hit the market on July 1st. I'd be kind of surprised if Ellis signs there before July 1st, I thought he'd want to at least try to find a better opportunity to start.

Only thing needed for this season to be any more of a kick in the balls is for the Mets to trade for Cliff Lee.

Anddddd it's official. Chase Utley and Placido Polanco both to the DL, Greg Dobbs and Brian Bocock called up. RIP 2010 season? I'm usually very optimistic about my teams, but this might be the final straw with this one. Also...Brian Bocock has a .470 OPS this season.....in AAA.

But there is good news today... Dom Brown is now ranked as Keith Law's top prospect on ESPN. [expletive] Keith Law, but this is one thing he is good at.

Chase Utley and Placido Polanco are both going to the DL, from the sounds of it. Fish, can the 2009 Mets comparisons start yet?

And he officially plays in front of the worst defense in baseball. Well, we knew that already.

Chase Utley injured his hand tonight. No word on how serious it is. Good lord.

Yeah, so, the Reds are legitimately good.

Sign Brian Scalabrine!

Yeah, lol. That was great.