Horses and Phillies, live from Nana's house

This blog is coming to you live from Nana's house, from a computer that seems to be running a vintage '98 edition of internet explorer. Nana is partying down at the senior center, so I thought I'd throw out a quick blog update.

Roy Oswalt has indeed been traded to the Phillies. It's not as doom and gloom as I thought it would be, as Oswalt dropped his demand that the Phillies pick up his 2012 opion and Houston is paying $11 million of his salary for this year and next.

Though I still have many of the same concerns about Oswalt as I did in my last post, getting Oswalt for this year and next for $12 million represents good value for the Phillies. As long as Oswalt stays healthy, he'll be well worth that amount. The Phillies gave up JA Happ and some not-sure-thing prospects, and while losing Happ at his value-priced salary is a bit of a bummer, Oswalt is clearly the better pitcher, Keith Law has this to say about Happ:

"Happ is a fifth-starter type with good command and deception but fringy stuff without a real knockout pitch. He's a particularly bad fit for Houston's ballpark as a left-handed fly ball pitcher who has had some trouble with right-handed hitters. He's also coming off a forearm strain that has ruined his 2010 season. Other than that, he's everything you could ask for in a pitcher."

I pretty much echo those sentiments. I think Happ is a tough-minded pitcher who works very hard, but he's limited by his stuff. He would have to get by on guts and guile to become an elite pitcher, and that happens only rarely in the major leagues.

The Phillies are not in any shape to win it all this year, injuries and a world series hangover pretty much ensured that. But with Oswalt and the lineup waking up a bit, the Phillies do have the talent to challenge for a playoff spot. Next season looks bright as well, though I'd like the long term outlook a whole lot more if they'd have traded the same players for Dan Haren! Damn it!
By the way, Ed Wade has done his best work for the Phillies as GM of the Astros.

In horse racing news, the Haskell Stakes is this weekend. It's a tough field without any real longshots. Here are my quick picks:

1. Ice Box
2. First Dude
3. Lookin at Lucky
4. Trappe Shot
5. Uptowncharleybrown
6. Super Saver
7. Afleet Again
8. Our Dark Knight

I just recalled that I never wrote about how I did in the Belmont, so I'll recap those results when I do the Haskell finishes.

Dez Bryant makes a scene at Cowboys training camp

Cowboys rookie Dez Bryant refused to carry the shoulder pads of a veteran teammate at training camp, an innocuous hazing ritual that has been around for decades. I don't know if I like hazing, but I'll tell you what I do like: Dez Bryant already getting negative publicity for himself.

Oh, and the player whose pads Dez wouldn't carry? That would be Roy Williams, a former first round darling himself. Bryant is trying to steal Williams' position as a starting wide receiver- think that played into Bryant's refusal?

Let's hope Bryant's diva-meter keeps rising!

Phillies management look lost at the plate; Dan Haren signs with another red-and-white team

If you look back at my critique of the Phils' offseason moves, you can see that I've proven to know more than Phillies management when it comes to assembling a baseball team. I'll return to this subject in more detail in a future post, but here's a quick review of my knowing-better:

• The Phillies should have gone after Adrian Beltre instead of Placido Polanco.

• The Phillies should have kept Cliff Lee.

• The Phillies paid Ryan Howard more money than he's worth and more than he'd probably fetch on the open market.

Also, here are some things I would have written had I started this blog only a few months earlier:

• If the Phillies were going to make an ill-advised trade of Cliff Lee, they should have shopped him around and gotten more for him (You may think the trade was Roy Halladay for Cliff Lee, but it wasn't: The Phillies traded minor leaguers Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis d'Arnaud to Toronto for Roy Halladay. They then traded Cliff Lee to the Mariners for some minor league scrubs who you will never see at Citizens Bank Park- Phillippe Aumont, Juan Ramirez and Tyson Gillies.)

• The Phillies spent too much on, and gave too many years to Raul Ibanez.

• The Phillies should have matched the Astros' paltry one year offer to Brett Myers.

I'm not saying that the Phillies would win the World Series this year had they followed my advice, but I will say that the team would be in better shape right now and for years to come. Thus, I know more about assembling a good baseball team than Phillies management. The blunders by Phillies brass have had a trickle-down effect this season, and will for seasons to come.

Let's take the Polanco example. Polanco may be falling apart, and they've already invested in him for the next two years. Meanwhile, Beltre is batting .332 with 16 home runs with 63 RBI, and is slugging .547 (Polanco is hitting a respectable .316 but only has 6 jacks). Beltre is 4th in the league in batting average, 6th in hits, 7th in OPS, and has as many homers as A-Rod. And here's a trickle-down effect you won't find on the stat sheet: With Beltre on the Phillies, Shane Victorino would be batting 2nd, where he could go back to his comfort zone of slap hitting and stealing bases. Shane wouldn't be swinging for the fences as he thinks he needs to do now, and he'd probably be hitting closer to his career average of .280.

More trickle down: Raul Ibanez has been a classy and consistent baseball player throughout his career. But he is now 38 years old and you have to wonder how much chaw is left in his cheek. His current hot streak aside, he has been miserable at the plate this season and for the latter half of last season (he hit 12 home runs post-all star break 2009, but his batting average was .232). We're looking at an aging leftfielder who swings a declining left-handed bat in a left-handed lineup, and who plays a slow left field. The Phillies are on the books for 11.5 million next season for Raul, and even if they could find a sucker to take him in a trade, Raul has a full no-trade clause. The Phillies are stuck with Raul this year and next, and he's eating up payroll the Phillies could use on a better quality player (or players!).

More trickle down: Think the Phillies could use Brett Myers' 3.24 ERA in their starting rotation? Might his 6.68 strikeouts per nine innings be worth 3.1 million dollars? The Phillies didn't think so, but former Phillies GM and current Astros GM Ed Wade did. And, in case you don't remember this, Ed Wade is a moron. What does that say about current Philies management? The Phils wouldn't need to look for starting pitching right now if they'd have re-signed Brett Myers. They could focus their resources to other team needs.

But here's the trickiest trickle: After parting with Cliff Lee for nothing, and refusing to spare some chump change for Myers, the Phillies are now desperately searching for starting pitching. They halfheartedly tried to get Cliff Lee back, but his price had gone up (Seattle flipped him to Texas for more than they gave up in the Phils trade) and it's doubtful Phillies brass could have stood the embarrassment of admitting they should have kept Lee when all of Philadelphia had condemned them for letting him go in the first place.

After all this trickling, the Phillies are in a tight spot. Their playoff hopes are slim, and their world series chances are nil. Still, they seem to want to salvage this season (and be competitive in next season) by acquiring a starting pitcher that they wouldn't need if they listened to me (and all of Philadelphia).

To fill their pitching need, the Phillies braintrust zeroed in on two targets, one good (Dan Haren) and one that will only cause more trickling sadness (Roy Oswalt).

The good one got dealt today to a team in red and white, but it wasn't the Phillies.

No, The California Angels in Anaheim picked up Dan for a big bucket of nothing. According to Christopher Harris of ESPN, the prospects the Angels gave up for Haren "are not expected to be elite players," and the only major leaguer they included in the deal is "a lucky win artist." Keith Law calls said major league player "a mediocre, back-end starter"and the minor league prospects "three bodies." Are you telling me the Phillies couldn't have tried harder to get one of the top major league pitchers, a top-of-the-rotation-talent, a player who has 3 1/2 years left on his contract at a reasonable price (he'll make less than Ibanez this year, and slightly more thereafter), who is only 29 years old, who would have made the Phillies rotation dominant... and they didn't? What the hell, Phillies??? YOU SHOULD HAVE NABBED DAN HAREN, YOU IDIOTS!

**** Note, just after I wrote this, Dan Haren was smote by a line drive while pitching for the Angels and had to leave the game after pitching 4 2/3 innings and striking out 8(!) batters. That ball was my divine wrath, but I must say I wish it hit one of the bumbling fools who make decisions for the Philiies, instead.****

The Phillies will, sadly, focus their efforts on trading for Roy Oswalt. Oswalt is a good pitcher, don't get me wrong. But he isn't the answer for the Phillies, especially not like Haren could have been. Oswalt's ERA and strikeout rate are very good, but they are trending down from the elite level they peaked at from 2001-2006. He is not currently Dan Haren level, but Roy Oswalt is a good pitcher. The thing is, he isn't a good fit for the Phillies. Why? I present the trickling of Roy Oswalt, which will settle upon the Philadelphia Phillies if they trade for him-

• Roy Oswalt does not want to play in Philadelphia. He is an confirmed country boy and wants to live near his home in Weir, Mississippi. Oswalt has admitted that he'd rather be on one of his ranches than traveling from town to town with his current baseball team, which makes me question his dedication to baseball. If Oswalt is traded to Philadelphia, he'd be even farther from his coveted country real estate, and you have to wonder if living in a big city is going to affect Oswalt's already compromised focus. Unfocused pitchers ruin games.

• Roy has played on a lousy Astros team for too long, and he is habituated to losing. Losing attitudes are contagious.

• Roy demands that the Phillies pick up his 2012 option for $16 million. This, along with his $16 million pricetag for 2011 will further hamstring the Phillies payroll and make the team less competitive.

• Roy has had recent health problems, most notably a bad disc in his back for which he has already received 3 cortisone injections. Investing $16 million a year in a pitcher with a time bomb in his back is bad business

• The Bleacher Report has a nice article about why the Phillies are better off keeping JA Happ and not trading for Oswalt; The Phillies have much more payroll flexibility if they keep JA Happ.

Dear Phillies, heed my call. Do not go after Oswalt. And appoint me GM before it's too late. Sheesh. How could you blow landing Dan Haren?!

Like a hot dog left overlong in a gas station rotisserie, the last word on LeBron's "Decision"

Most everything has been said about LeBron and his Decision, so I won't pick at the bones too long here.

In the fading Decision winter, the ESPN Ombudsman posted an interesting dissection of the Decision-as-programming-event. He mentions a litany of complaints about the hour-long debacle, chief among them whether ESPN is guilty of paying for news rather than reporting it. An outgrowth of the paying for news accusation is whether ESPN is pandering to LeDiva by tossing marshmallow-soft interview questions when journalistic integrity might call for more incisive inquiry. Ohlmeyer's article is a good read and it gets to the core of who the blaming finger of public outrage should be pointed at: ESPN.

Because for what, exactly, should people be angry with LeBron? He claims to have donated all proceeds from "Decision" ad revenue to charity, so he didn't make any money from the event (if he didn't donate all of the cash, however, as speculated on Bill Simmons' recent podcast, then LeBron does have something to answer for). LeBron didn't make any promises about where he would sign in free agency, and it was well within his rights to sign anywhere he pleased. LeBron also took less money to sign with the Heat than he could have wrung from the Cavs, so we can't accuse him of being ultra-greedy.

The idea that LeBron somehow betrayed Cleveland is ridiculous. If you or I choose to accept a job in another town, are we betraying the people of our current city? What obligation does LeBron have to Cleveland? Just because a person is from Akron doesn't mean that he needs to stay there. Can you blame a 25-year-old, single male for wanting to move to Miami?

There is an argument to be made the LeBron was trying to use the hour to pump up his image as a celebrity and a philanthropist, but he failed miserably if that was his goal, and the PR hit he has taken should be punishment enough for that alleged crime.

The only things I find LeBron guilty of are egomania and lameness. Also, I find him guilty of choking in the playoffs. But I absolutely acquit him of any significant moral wrongdoing in his decision. As Ohlmeyer points out, it would have been nice if LeBron announced his decision with "style, grace, humility and appreciation," but should we expect that of our deified professional athletes?

Frankly, we, the public, are guilty of stoking the flames of this boy's egomania to the point that he thought his decision to make "The Decision" was a good decision.

What most disturbs me about the whole circus is the behavior of Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cavs. He wrote an embarrassing open letter to his fans, in which he (and I agree completely with Rev. Jesse Jackson) sounded more like the owner of a runaway slave than an owner of an NBA team. At one point in his venomous diatribe, Gilbert seethes, "Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there." Is this coming from a jilted lover or a business professional? What does dying have to do with basketball?

Gilbert released a statement that he strongly disagrees with Rev Jackson's assessment of him as having a slave owner mentality, but let's not let him off the hook too easily. As I see it, Gilbert's fury stems from LeBron holding all the cards in "The Decision," and Gilbert's being unable to control him. LeBron made NBA owners come to Ohio to meet with him if they wanted his services, ostensibly held everyone in the dark about his decision until he released it on his terms, and chose to go to a team where he could play with his friends and have fun in the sun. LeBron had the ultimate power, and Gilbert clearly resented that someone who was formerly in his employ was now free to move on- and, who now even had power over Gilbert.

Yes, absolutely yes, Gilbert displayed a slave owner mentality. I won't go so far as to say that he is a racist- though it is a reasonable assumption- but Gilbert's comments about LeBron did not, again to echo Rev. Jackson, reflect a view of their relationship as being between business partners. LeBron honored his contract to the letter, and Gilbert was not satisfied with that. He wanted LeBron under his thumb and filling his coffers. When Gilbert discovered that he did not own LeBron, and further that LeBron had power over him (in terms of selling Cavs tickets, which should be an easier get next season), Gilbert reacted like any slave owner who discovered his property to have fled his plantation.

World Cup Notes

• Most Villainous-Looking Player: Franck Ribery, France

• Best Player Name: Stephen Girard, England

• Second Best Player Name: Kaka, Brazil

• Third Best Player Name: Rafael van der Vaart, Netherlands

• Fourth Best Player Name: Bastian Schweinsteiger, Germany

• Fifth Best Player Name: Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast

• Best USA Player: Tim Howard

• Best Trivia about Best USA Player: Tim Howard has Tourette’s Syndrome

• Best Shot: Giovanni Van Bronckhorst versus Uruguay: See it here at the 12 second mark.

• Best Goal Celebration: Miroslav Klose flips after scoring on Argentina

• World Cup MVP: Thomas Müller, Germany

• World Cup Flopping MVP: Kader Keita, Ivory Coast. See him reenact The Scream after running into Kaka’s arm (and somehow Kaka gets slapped with a red card) here, at minute 2:10 of the video.

• World Cup Anti-Flopping MVP: Arjen Robben of the Netherlands should have flopped in the 82^nd minute of the World Cup Final, as he would have gotten a penalty shot and possibly won the game. He didn’t. See it at minute 2:40. Instead, Robben got a yellow card for yelling at the ref to give him the call.

• Best Team Nickname: Bafana Bafana, South Africa

• Second Best Team Nickname: Die Mannschaft, Germany

• Third Best Team Nickname: La Furia Roja, Spain

• Fourth Best Team Nickname: Los Charruas, Uruguay

• Fifth Best Team Nickname: To Piratiko, Greece

• Sixth Best Team Nickname: The Chollima, North Korea

• Best Uniform: Cameroon

• Runner-up Best Uniform: Ghana

• Sexiest Uniform: Les Bleus (France)

• Best National Anthem: Uruguay 

• Most commented-upon, and well-warranted, world cup annoyance: the drone of Vuvuzelas.
  
  
  

• Best World Cup “Fans”: North Koreans

• Best World Cup Sensation: Paul, the octopus.

• Poorest Sportsmanship: French coach Raymond Domenech refusing to shake hands with South African coach Carlos Alberto Parreira. Later, when asked to explain his lack of sportsmanship Domenech said, "I have no intention of replying to this question.” When the question was repeated, he croaked: "If these are all the questions you are going to ask me, I am going to leave you, we are not from the same world."

• Best Fashion Statement by a Coach: Joachim Loew’s lucky blue cashmere sweater, available at Strenesse.

• Worst Officiating Moment: Koman Coulibaly calls a ghost-foul, costing USA a win over Slovenia.

• Second Worst Officiating Moment: Clint Dempsey “offsides” goal disallowed against Algeria. See it at the 24 second mark.

• Third Worst Officiating Moment: Frank Lampard of England shoots a ball off the goalpost that clearly lands in goal against Germany in the round of 16, which would have leveled the game at 2-2. The goal is inexplicably waved off, and Germany goes on to win 4-1.

• Fourth Worst Officiating Moment: Clint Dempsey takes a fist to the face, drawing blood, but not a red card against Algeria.

• Fifth Worst Officiating Moment(s): It’s impossible to pick the most terrible officiating moment in Howard Webb’s performance during the World Cup Final. He couldn’t figure out when to give corner kicks. He threw yellow cards when there should have been red cards, and yellow cards when there should have been no cards. Also, no cards when there should have been yellow cards.

• Most Ridiculously Despicable, but Quasi-Legal, Play: It cost him a red card and drew a (missed) penalty shot, but Uruguay forward Luis Suarez blocked a sure-thing goal with his hand and stole a win away from Ghana. In the NBA, if you stick your hand in the basket and block a shot that was going into the net, the shot counts. They don’t make you shoot a free throw to try to score the bucket again. FIFA rules are nuts.

• Most Exciting World Cup Last Minute Score, American Edition: Landon Donovan’s goal in the 91^st minute against Algeria, catapulting the US into the knockout rounds. Like I said before, you have Tim Howard to thank for beautifully setting up that goal.

• Most Exciting World Cup Last Minute Score, International Edition: Andres Iniesta wins Spain the World Cup with only 4 minutes left in extra time.

• Best Match: Germany over Uruguay, 3-2, in the third-place game.

• Best World Cup Announcers, English Speaking: Ian Darke and John Harkes. I fancy Ian Darke’s commentary, and wish he and any of his colleagues would sign on for an NFL gig.

• Best World Cup Announcer, Spanish Speaking: Jose Antonio Camacho

• Best Comment by a World Cup Announcer: “One of the softest goals you'll ever see at this level of football. It doesn't often happen in schoolboy play.” –Martin Tyler, on Team USA’s improbable score against England goalie Robert Green.