Back in The In Box Where We Belong (and on Netshrine, of course)

[cubfan33]

I had thought we'd left all the labor talk behind, but there's a couple threads left undone still and if pulled properly, could undo the entire sweater. I don't think anything will happen that will be as catastrophic as torpedoing the deal altogether, but some events are likely to happen that will shake things up. I fully expect the Yankees to end up suing in some way over the amount of revenue sharing. I have no idea if they have any case, but as with most suits and baseball, the last thing baseball wants is to have its books pulled open with discovery proceedings. I don't think George will end up paying as much and by some trickle down, the revenue sharing will end up slightly less. The Expos/Loria/MLB lawsuit is more interesting, since the Expos need to know where they'll be next year. My guess? I think the Expos will be sold to the former minority partners and stay in Montreal. I think the Marlins may talk about moving, but if Loria goes head to head with Butterworth, he's crazier than I think he is. I'm still poking my head around trying to figure out what happened with Shyam Das and the best reports I'm getting - and I don't know who's credible outside of baseball - is that he was telling MLB to settle it and kept moving his deadline as they told him how close they were. He wasn't going to make a decision if it was going to be rendered moot quickly and I can't blame him there. Finally, does it surprise anyone that the Brewers came out ahead in this agreement? Worse, you KNOW they won't spend it on players.

Should we all be impressed that Mariano Rivera played catch today? Call me when he's ready to throw off a mound. I'm not saying I think he's done for the season - and never did - but I think its a very open question on how it will be done, how long he can be effective, and if Torre can coax value out of an arm that will be under the offseason UTK microscope.

One for the "Y Files" ... WHY would the Marlins, now a month out of the pennant chase, consider risking A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett by subjecting them to unnecessary fatigue and the abuse heaped on them by Jeff Torborg? What value do they see in getting some meaningless starts out of two keystones for any future winning team? Heck, if the Fish are going to have a fire sale on what's left from the last fire sale and not have Dave Dombrowski restocking the shelves, what is this team going to be in a couple years. I have a message on my machine from Larry Beinfest offering to give me Derrek Lee for a ham sandwich and a six pack of Coors to be named later. Worse, the Miami fans are about to be subjected to Ricky Williams. Dear lord .... hey Larry, Ricky thinks he can play baseball too. Get him cheap.

If the Cardinals get one more injury, they should just call up the Memphis Redbirds and see what they can do. Likely, they would all get injured and not be able to play after a couple games. The Cardinals somehow manage to be ahead of the Astros despite it all and if another person says its Larussa, I'll vomit on them. The one injury they can't overcome is one that would keep Albert Pujols out for any period of time and tonight, it sure looked like he pulled up lame with a groin after spanking the Cubs like the Gimp in Pulp Fiction. J.D. Drew is still hurt and ineffective while I'm completely befuddled by how the Cards deal with Garrett Stephenson. Rush the guy back from serious surgery, jerk him around with minor league assignments, badmouth him in the press, then give him one start and drop him in the bullpen. Stephenson deserves better for the effort.

I forgot to put this in last night, but Brandon Larson has bad luck. After coming back off the DL, he was hit in the head by a foul ball and when he fell over, he broke his wrist. Luckily, his head is ok after Dizzy Dean X-Rays but his wrist will end his season. Larson is still likely to get a shot at the Reds roster next year when someone has the balls to tell Barry Larkin it's over. Let Barry open the new stadium, give him the gold watch, and move on.

Vance Wilson left tonight's Mets game and was replaced by third catcher Jason Phillips. That should tell you about everything about you need to know about Mike Piazza. The Mets have some very interesting moves to make in the offseason and Steve Phillips will need to have Tony Robbins in his office to make some of the deals he'll need to make.

I had a great chat today with David Srinivasan of The Sporting News. Look for a UTK mention soon. David has some very interesting takes on pitching fatigue and despite my taking him to task on an article he wrote, he really has a clue about what he's looking for in trying to predict pitcher injuries. It occurred to me after talking to him that we all may be going about this backwards - in a universe where more than half of all pitchers will be on the DL in a five year period, maybe we need to figure out why some pitchers manage to avoid it more than we should be trying to figure out what puts them there.

Researchers ... the day got away from me. I PROMISE I will have my mail out to you no later than Monday. UTK returns tomorrow with the freshly ticketed Rachael Reid and the Saturday Showcase. I still think "Bleacher Babe" is a great title, but she's still looking. I'll be back on Sunday and until then, I'll be on Netshrine.com.

What do you mean it's getting better? More features? What more could it have? What happens when the best gets better? Find out by ordering your own copy of the Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia. Version 3.0 is now ready to ship and I can't wait to get my grubby hands on it, especially since I need to beat the rest of the 1987 SAF League ... well, ok that's not likely, but I can dream. Trust me ... get the SBE.

[thebrain]

Pujuls Question. The paper today reports that AP was

"taken out with a spasm in his upper left shoulder after he limped to second on his double.

Pujols, who recovered this week from a groin injury, said he felt the spasm down to his thighs and didn't know whether he'd be able to play on Saturday."

Could this possibly be something new or just a byproduct of the groin injury?