The Ludicrous Trade Proposal Contest Entries

Please vote, in a comment or via email @ rebecca@puristbleedspinstripes.com , as to which entry you think would make for the craziest, wackiest, the omg-what-was-he-smoking-and-where-can-I-get-some trade this off-season!

1) "The entire Mets bullpen (Wagner included) just for the rights for Omar to haggle with the "all-magnificent" K-Rod on what will be his 2009 salary price."

2) "Yanks "package" Darrell Rasner, Chris Britton, Wilson Betemit and Justin Christian, wrap it in a pretty box and ship to San Francisco for Tim Lincicum and Aaron Rowand.

The Giants would get FOUR (!) GUYS, how could they turn that down? If they insisted, Yanks add Shelley Duncan or Chase Wright..."

3) "Madonna for Anna Benson?"

4) "Kei Igawa, Hideki Irabu, Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano

for

My precious time back that i spent watching them start games for the Yankees :("


Voting will remain open until...oh why not...12.01 AM November 5th!

Philly Phantastic

Congratulations to the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies, Champions of Baseball.

Funny to think that last year all this fuss was made about them being the first franchise to lose 10.000 games.

Nice to see them win.

It was easily one of the odder World Series deciding games, with the whole suspension thing, but you know what it means?

It means that every Philadelphia schoolchild got to stay up late to see their team win the World Series. And, as Yankee fans, we all know what those first memories of a World Championship celebration can do.

The Countdown to the day CC Sabathia files for Free Agency has begun.

The entries for the Ludicrous Trade Proposal Contest will be posted tomorrow.

The Selig Doctrine

For those interested in the history and historiography of baseball, the Washington Post has called last night's decision the Selig Doctrine: No World Series will end with a game played less than nine innings.

While last night's game should never have been started, baseball did right to suspend it when it did, as opposed to calling the game short while the Phillies had a 2-1 lead, and thus cheating the Rays out of their possible final three innings of baseball.

It shouldn't strike any of us as a new concept; I don't think you could find a baseball fan that would not have been aghast at the idea of a rain-shortened World Series game, but now that it's official, hey maybe Bud will have something to add to his legacy other than the steroids scandal!

Some More Notes on the World Series

I have got to update this thing more often, my apologies.

Anyway, due to various personal reason I haven't been able to watch the World Series as well or as closely as I'd like, but from what I have seen:

• It's obvious that at the end of Game Three, Evan Longoria wasn't trying to throw it to Home Plate, he was simply trying to throw it to the fifth infielder

• Where did the power go from the Tampa bats? Maybe I've just been missing it because I haven't been watching so closely, but it felt like Tampa slugged their way to the World Series, and now they're dying a whimpery death.

• After Ryan Howard was busy making Alex Rodriguez look clutch, he's now exploded, proving that good things come to those who are not named Alex Rodriguez.

• The umpiring has not exactly been great.

So now Philadelphia needs just one more win to bring their city their first major sports title since...well, their first major title in my lifetime.

However, given that it's been a really sort of strange baseball year, don't count the Series over just yet...although the sooner it is, the sooner we can fire up the Hot Stove...

Contest Reminder

Just a reminder to get your entries in to the LUDICROUS TRADE PROPOSAL CONTEST, which will close after the last out of the World Series.

We've got some great entries so far, so keep them coming!

***

Sarah Palin is apparently a curse--she dropped the puck at a Flyers game and it took last night for the Flyers to garner their first win (stupid Devils, you disappoint me!) and then last night, she dropped a puck at the St. Louis Blues game, where goalie Manny Legace promptly tripped over the carpet and injured her hip.

Are we sure we really want her touching those nuclear codes?

I kid, I kid.

Just make sure you vote. It's only 10 days from now.

Phighting Their Way to a Game One Win

It was a close thing.

In a game that was without a doubt the epitome of a pitcher's duel, the Phillies used a solid starting performance from Cole Hamels as well as a key caught stealing to pull out a 3-2 Game One win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

In doing so, they've stolen the home field advantage for themselves and now can rest a little easier going into Game Two.

Some points:

• Ryan Howard has got to get his act together. It's one thing not to hit and quite another for the other team to walk Chase Utley to get to him. In the AL park the slump can be obscured by the DH, but the moment they get to Philadelphia, the Rays will have a phield field day with the Phillies if there are two automatic outs in the line up...

• While I'm all for mixing and matching pitchers when the situation warrants, I didn't quite get Maddon's almost Spring Training-like approach to the ninth inning. Granted, in the World Series, everyone is available...but I don't know...I think more than anything Maddon illustrated the lack of a solid back end of the bullpen for the Rays

• That caught stealing looms huge now, but Hamels was really, really close to a balk. The city of Philadelphia should be thanking the umpires for that ones.

• Since the strike in 1994, a National League team has won the World Series in 1995, 1997, 2001, 2003 and 2006--five times in thirteen tries. Of those five wins, only once (the Cardinals in 2006) did the National League team win it in fewer then six games. Conversley, of the eight years an American League team won, only twice did the AL team need more than five games to win the series (the Yankees in 1996 and the Angels in 2002). This might mean nothing, but I found the quirk interesting.

2008 World Series Preview

Think back to April 1, and all the baseball predictions you read.

Could you honestly tell me that you found somewhere that predicted the 2008 World Series would be the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies?

No?

Don't worry, me either.

Still, this is what the end of October holds for us baseball fans, and despite the historical legacies of both teams, this series looks like it'll be a good one.

Both teams are scrappy, feisty--getting the hits and the pitches when they need to, but making you bite your nails the rest of the time. Both teams have an unquestionable hunger--Philadelphia hasn't won a major sports championship since the early 1980s (and the times they've come close, outside of baseball, defeat seems to come at the hands of Tampa, who knew?), and Tampa, to some, still has to prove that the Rays are for real.

So, what to look for? Who will win?

Let's start with pitching.

Philadelphia has an unquestionable ace in Cole Hamels, but outside of that, in Myers, Blanton and Moyer, you're looking at pitchers that can be very...well...hittable. There's no question the pitching staff can get it done, or else they wouldn't be here, but they'll make you sweat for it. In terms of the bullpen, Brad Lidge has a ridiculous saves streak going, but like the rest of the pitching staff, he'll make you sweat before getting the final out.

Tampa's "ace", Scott Kazmir, has not emerged as the number one starter for the Rays in the postseason. Instead, James Shields has emerged as their "big game" starter, and it was Matt Garza that pitched a gem in Game Seven of the ALCS. As for the Rays' bullpen...well, you remember Game Five well enough, right? Tampa has David Price. They shouldn't be shy about using him.


As for hitting...

Philadelphia's hitters have, on the whole, been around longer than Tampa's and are thus more veteran, although this doesn't necesarily imply better. Chase Utley, Pat Burrell and Ryan Howard can all hit the ball a mile, but none of them are averse to striking out--especially not Howard. In the NLCS, Shane Victorino emerged as a somewhat unlikely hero, it will be interesting to see if the "Flyin' Hawaiian" can keep the juices flowing in the World Series.

Tampa's gotten to the point it his on the back and long fly balls of BJ Upton and Evan Longoria. Okay, so the others have helped as well, but the amount of home runs that have come off the bat of those two this month is insane, and, I believe, record-setting. Against Philadelphia pitching, with the exception of Cole Hamels, you have to imagine that this could be a powder (power?) keg type of situation.


So, while I will be rooting for the Phillies--I've got at least three friends who are admitted Phillies fans--my prediction, like everyone else's so far, will be the Rays in six.

In which case, we'd better start preparing for the apocalypse.