Friday, June 6, 2008

Miscellaneous Thoughts on a Lazy Friday Afternoon

I'm not a big fan of the NBA but I generally follow the playoffs and root for the eastern conference in the finals. Last night's performance, post knee injury, by Paul Pierce was one of those performances that we may be talking about for a while. It was very impressive.

The New York Times had an article today about Mark Melancon and how he is to succeed Mariano Rivera. I've never paid much attention to the guys in our farm system and I still don't. Lately it seems like you're not allowed to root for a team if you don't know who the middle reliever for the class A farm team is and his high school GPA. But I frankly don't give a flying [censored and fined by the FCC] about any of these kids in the minors. Remember when Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy were going to deliver world series after world series after world series after curing cancer? Well, they both sucked this season. That's not to say they won't be good, but neither of them are good now. Nor are any of these guys pitching in AAA. When they pitch well in the majors I'll pay attention, when they're striking out rusty smith, the catcher for the AA Kansas City franchise I don't want to hear about them. People make such a big deal about the farm, and I it's good to develop your own players, but please stop acting like these stats transfer to the majors. Look how dominant Joba was in the eighth. He couldn't get through 3 innings with 70 pitch cap. Joba will be a good starter in the majors but he's not now. Mark Melancon may be the next Rivera (unlikely), but he's not now and I definitely don't want to hear about him, or anybody else on the farm until they show up on the mound and I'm like, "who the [redacted by NSA] is number 79?" Until they pitch well up here, they're just a bunch of names on a list in obscure baseball magazines that no one reads unless they have serious social deficiencies. Enough is enough. No more minor league saviors. They're still in the minors for a reason.

Can we stop talking about horses as athletes? They're bred to do nothing but run and then they're whipped until they run as fast as possible. Whip the shite out of me and I'm Carl Lewis, that's all there is to it.

Alright, that's enough sun exposure talking. Enjoy the KC game.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks to the rays 5 players being suspended from last night's fight.. the yanks no longer lead the league in that category...

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

man, the rays keep one upping us. This is no good. We need everyone on the team to find a way to get suspended tonight. we can't be pushed around.

Bucky7588 said...

a train of logic to prove you cant like the celtics

Bostonions root for the red sox
Yankees fans dont like the red sox
therefore yankees fans dont like boston fans

Furthermore,

Boston fans root for boston sports teams
New York fans dont root for boston teams
the celtics are a boston team
therefor, new york fans dont root for boston teams

that took me too long to figure out

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

I don't like the celtics really, but I root for the eastern conference and that won't change. sometimes principles get the better of you.

Anonymous said...

No Jordan, no basketball.

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

I should've asked this sooner, is that really you GZA?

the NBA isn't the same w/o Jordan, I admit, but Pierce's performance reminded me Jordan's 38 with the flu. It wasn't quite that dramatic, but when you're carried off the floor, have to sit on an exercise bike so your knee stays loose while on the bench, but still manage to put the nail in the coffin in the first game of the finals that's a jordanesque performance. Not that Pierce is jordanesque, just this particular performance. Unfortunately the fact that it occurred in game 1 may make it so that some people don't remember it so well. It's different when you do it in game 6.