Kingdom

It's easy to criticize officiating in all major sports. Sometimes we enjoy it. Sometimes we are purely pissed off cause we feel our team was screwed. It's fair to say since 1980, we've probably had one unforgettable officiating GAFF each year, regardless of the sport. I've seen teams I cheer for be screwed. I've seen my team benefit from a bad call. It happens, it does, every sporting day. No one person and no system will ever be perfect. We have to live with that. And then post or tweet ...

Roy Oswalt is currently 3-6. Who would want that? Oh wait, yes, wins are an overrated statistic for pitchers. You want the WHIP barely over 1.00, the ERA under 2.50, and the 69 strikeouts vs. 17 walks in 69 innings. Power pitcher anyone? Ace potential? Playoff and World Series experience perhaps? Yes, that's what any team should want. Face, Houston has to deal Oswalt, as well as Berkman and possibly Wanda Rodriguez and Hunter Pence. They have no future. They need better scouts. They need ...

I put away my bias, so don't expect Devin Ebanks or Da'Sean Butler to be high, or my favorite non-WVU player, Jarvis Varnado to be in round 1. And I won't drop DeMarcus Cousins or Ed Davis to the bottom of round 1. We begin with the lottery picks:


1. Washington: PG John Wall
2. Philadelphia: SG Evan Turner
3. New Jersey: PF Derrick Favors
4. Minnesota: PF DeMarcus Cousins
5. Sacramento: SF Wesley Johnson
6. Golden State: C Greg Monroe
7. ...

I remember when Barry Zito was a pending free agent. His last amazing act of awesome in Oakland was putting Johan Santana in his place, in the playoffs. If you look back at the playoff game against the twins, yes, Zito is not a Cy Young fluke. He is not Pat Hentgen. The potential is there. It's just hard to notice when you're not hitting 90+ on the gun.

Flash forward to the off season. As you might expect, one destination I did not like was obviously either New York team. Imagine ...

Look at the numbers so far, for 2010. Consider he was a platoon guy to begin with and now has been splitting time between being a DH and an outfielder again.


9 homeruns, 5 steals, .676 slugging

Sounds like AJ circa early 2000's. And obviously, he has enough mobility to be a regular fielder again. Sure, he's striking out a lot, but that's really nothing new to the Jones stat line. He has walked 13 times, so it's not horrific (example of horrific: Cedeno, Ronny). ...