Stuff like this makes me almost want to like the Blackhawks

Blackhawks 2009 All-Star Game campaign commercials.

Angels Make Big Offer to Big Teix

8/160.  Not quite the 7/160 that was rumored yesterday, but still pretty damn big.  Honestly, I hope this gets it done.  He's 28, and he's very good.  I think this is a fair deal, and most importantly, it's not my money.  

I just hope that if he signs, they commit to Kendry Morales in the outfield.  I think he'll be a nice replacement in left, and that lets them shore up the defense with Matthews in right, assuming they can't cut him loose.  And I agree with Rob's commenters.  He's nuts if he thinks this is a bad deal.

Bruin Hoops - Starting to come together

It's becoming increasingly clear that Ben Howland is going to rotate about eight or nine guys once conference season rolls around.  He's got his starting five, then Roll, Dragovic, a freshman guard, and a freshman front court player.  The minutes are there for someone to step up, but Lee, Anderson, Gordon, and Morgan will have to earn them, and the team will be better because of it.

Today's game was a nice tune up for next month.  DePaul is not very good.  Their coach sucks.  Their best scorer has a serious attitude problem.  They are simply not major players for the best recruits in Chicago (who are now heading south to Champaign, as nature intended).  And it's kind of too bad, because I live about 200 feet from their campus (though 25 minutes or so from All-State Arena).  But there is no buzz whatsoever in this town about DePaul basketball.

One thing I've finally realized about Ben Howland basketball is that UCLA is almost always going to look bad against a zone defense for the first 10 minutes of the game.  That used to frustrate me, but I've finally come to the realization that it's really a feeling out period for the Bruin offense, and they're taking the first ten minutes to figure out what they're going to do over the last 30 minutes.  Roughly ten minutes into this game, the Bruins led by five points.  With roughly 11 or 12 minutes to go, they were up by 20.  The Bruins are patient on the offensive end, and as a fan, you need to patient watching them.

One player who had a nice game for the Bruins on the offensive end was Nikola Dragovic.  He was 5-7 for the game, but 5-5 inside the arc.  He seems to be adding another dimension to his offensive game, no longer content to just wait on the perimeter for jump shots.  That's a big addition for a team that needs interior scoring.  He still needs to step it up on the defensive end, though.  I also noticed a concerted effort by Darren Collison to take more jump shots.  On the negative side, Josh Shipp missed all of his three point attempts.

Tonight's game was not a test for the Bruins.  It was a high profile scrimmage, and I think Ben Howland knew as much.  Things are progressing for this young team, though, and they'll be ready for conference season next month.  Special appreciation goes to Coach Howland for getting Tyler Trapani into the game.  It had to be special for both him, and his great grandfather, to play in the Wooden Classic.  The man is a national treasure, and I'm thankful for the opportunitiy to have seen him speak last summer.

A few more cupcakes await before conference season.  Plenty of time to keep moving forward.

Ted Leo @ AV-Aerie - 12/10/08 - Updated with link to photos

This is the third time I've seen Ted Leo live, but the first time I've seen him with no Pharmacists*.  It was kind of an interesting aesthetic, really.  I've seen singer/songwriters before.  I've even seen singer/songwriters who were part of a band play without the band (Grant Lee Phillips doing his Buffalo material, for example).  But I've never seen a singer/songwriter play something pretty close to the same arrangements he plays in the band setting without the band behind him.  

In other words, usually when guys play a solo set like this, they have an acoustic set up.  The acoustic guitar almost allows the artist to add a little of his or her own percussion to a given song.  Ted Leo basically just played lead guitar for the entire night.  Picture him playing a typical TL/Rx show, but without anyone behind him.  It was really cool to see once.  I'm not sure I'd be particularly jazzed about seeing it again (I would go, of course), and it's really made me want to listen to the studio versions of all the stuff he played.  

Speaking of the stuff he played, he sample a little from just about every album, and played a bunch of covers including songs by Lungfish, the Waco Brothers, Blondie, and set ending rendition of Bruce Springsteen's 'Dancing in the Dark'.  From his own songs, he played a bunch of stuff that was unfamiliar, but also played:

• Timorous Me (which had some improvised handclaps)
• Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone.
• The High Party
• Ballad of the Sin Eater
• Me and Mia
• Bleeding Powers
• Colleen
• Bottle of Buckie

He played for about an hour and a half, only stopping occasionally to tune and joke around with the crowd.  He was entertaining even when he wasn't playing.  

As for the venue, it was the third floor of a semi-industrial building converted for music in an industrial part of town just northwest of the United Center.  I imagine, per their website, that this was one of the "fund raising arts and cultural events whose revenue will go to local socially and/or environmentally focused initiatives in partnerships chosen on a bi-annual schedule."  It had a really high ceiling, but you wouldn't know, because the whole performance space was covered by a large parachute draped from above to make it feel much more intimate.  The house lights never went down, which almost gave it the feel of a casual evening with a friend, assuming your friends invite Thax Douglas over to read strange poems.  Even beer was cheap.  $2 bucks for a can of High Life, and that was a "suggested donation".   *UPDATE* - Photos of the night at this link.  Pretty good look at the venue.  

So a really cool show, in a very different type of setting than I'm used to.  I look forward to seeing who else they'll book there.  Enjoy some Ted. Two versions of Rude Boys to choose from, and two great live songs back to back.

*There may have been actual pharmacists in the audience.  I didn't poll everyone's occupation.

Rude Boys solo live


Rude Boys studio recording (you'll have to turn it up a bit)


Timorous Me/Walking To Do

Bruins Get Slaughtered

No surprises here.  Although, for a moment there, when the Bruins took a roughing the kicker penalty on fourth and 17, I thought I was watching an Illinois game.  Those types of penalties pretty much killed the Illini season this year.

The UCLA season basically comes down to the offensive line.  I don't care how good your skill players are.  If you can't block anyone, you're not going to be successful.  The Bruins could have had John Elway, Jerry Rice, and Eric Dickerson in their prime, and it wouldn't have made a difference.  They simply could not block anyone all season.  That's an issue that will take maybe another season or two before it's really top notch, though I expect the line to be better next season.  Still, it's disappointing.  UCLA is not going to be competitive week to week until they have a decent offensive line.  We all knew that was an issue going into the season, and we can't be surprised with the way thing turned out.

Speaking of the Illini, they kicked the living crap out of Georgia today at the UC (which I watched at a bar, but didn't see in person for reasons I won't go into here). They finished the game on a 22-0 run.  This U of I basketball team actually may be fun to watch this year. It's looking more and more like Sean Pruitt and Brian Randle were more trouble than they were worth.  Demtri McCamey is playing well most of the time.  Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis are really helping with the scoring inside, as is Dominique Keller.  And Alex Legion is available in a couple weeks.  These guys could actually make the tournament.  It's fun to be an Illini fan again!

Hall of Fame

I really don't care all that much about the baseball hall of fame, but if I had a vote, my ballot this year would list:

• Bert Blyleven
  
• Rickey Henderson
• Alan Trammel
• Tim Raines

That's it.  I'd give a lot of though to McGwire, Lee Smith, and Andre Dawson.  But those four would probably be it.  

Did you know I still write about sports?

Me neither. Another bout of laziness. Anyway, I got a not from one of my most loyal readers, Anonymous, about the upcoming slaughter at the Rose Bowl. Specifically, he asks about this item about Pete Carroll deciding to go with U$C's red jerseys this weekend, an NCAA no-no.

I doubt I have to explain it, but the short version is that when both teams played at the Coliseum, UCLA and U$C used to wear their colors (home uniforms), since they were really both at their home stadium. Sometime thereafter, the NCAA passed a rule that says one team must wear white under penalty of one timeout per half.

Over the years, the idea of having both UCLA and U$C wear their home jerseys has been discussed, but nobody ever wanted to go through with it. There was talk of the actual home team burning a timeout per half to even things up, but it never came to pass.

But the era of two teams in home jerseys is back. Carroll will bring the trojans out in their red unis. The NCAA has since caved (a bit), and will now penalize the visiting team only one time out. Rick Neuheisel has announced that he'll use a timeout early in the first half to level the playing field. And

Really, they could probably take away all of U$C's time-outs and give UCLA about 15 per half and it wouldn't make a difference. As long as your offense scores 28 points for the other team, it probably doesn't matter how many time-outs you have, or how many your opponent doesn't have. I know the game from a few years ago should give me hope, but I just can't see the Bruins being competitive on Saturday (and no, the basketball team doesn't play on Saturday). And is this case of Pete Carroll saying "we don't need time-outs to beat UCLA"? Sure it is. But he's kind of a dick, so it's not surprising. That doesn't mean that he isn't right.

Personally, I think it's dumb rule. Who cares if one team is wearing white? Sure, it's a problem if two teams have similar colors, but just make a rule that says a team has to wear an alternate color when they share a primary color with the home team. There's really nothing holding this rule in place aside from the NCAA not wanting to spend time granting schools waivers. A couple years ago, Illinois wore their orange basketball jerseys at the Hall against Wisconsin, and with the small, not so great T.V.s at the Parkway (R.I.P. - man, that was a great bar) it was hard to tell the teams apart. So just don't let them do that when the colors are similar. Problem solved.

I think under different circumstances, it would be fun. Unfortunately, I don't this game will be very fun.

I Cherish With Fondness the Day That I Met Them

The latest band I can't stop listening to is Los Campesinos! I wasn't really excited when I wrote that. The exclamation point is actually part of the name, and the name of each of their members, who are Aleksandra Campesinos!, Ellen Campesinos!, Gareth Campesinos!, and so on.

This is another band from Wales, which produced probably my favorite currently existing band, the Super Furry Animals. They are very poppy, and very energetic, and infectuous. I will be seeing them live in February when they come to the Logan Square Auditorium. Also, new Song of the Day from your truly, which is a good place to start. If you like the music I like, you'll be hooked about 15 seconds into the first song embedded below. Enjoy:

Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats


You, Me, Dancing


My Year in Lists

More Spiritualized

I'm trying to think of the best way to describe J. Spaceman and the various incarnations of Spiritualized since the dissolution of Spacemen 3 about 2o years ago or so, and I think the best description came from either Greg Kot or Jim DeRogatis in the episode of Sound Opinions where they reviewed "Songs in A&E".  Spiritualized basically has three styles:  Straightforward rockers, ethereal/ambient ballads, and, well, spirituals - real gospel type stuff.  

Occasionally they overlap a bit.  You can hear hear tinges of gospel stuff in their rock songs.  Of course, a quicker, pithier explanation is from Pinko Punko, in which he termed Spiritualized 'drug boy singing about drugs'.  I can't honestly dispute that.  The endless allusions to drug use and the effects thereof are unavoidable.  But hey, music's gotta be about something.  So here are the three phases of Spiritualized:

Ambient:

Rock:

Spiritual:

And that, in a nutshell, is Jason Pierce and his professional output. And it's pretty amazing live.

Well, at least it's still early - Updated

He's seen it year after year after year, and Ben Howland still hasn't figured out how to prepare a team for a 1-3-1 zone.  The Bruins dropped an early season game to an inferior opponent primarily because they simply can't beat John Beilein.  On a neutral floor, with even teams, Beilein will win every time.  UCLA only wins when they have far superior players, like last year.

*Update* - When I originally wrote this, I figured Howland teams had played Beilein teams quite often when they were in the Big East, but I was too lazy to look it up.  As it turns out, they've faced off more since Howland left.  While at Pitt, Howland faced Beilein only twice, and won both matchups, albeit with a top 10 team against a coach in his first year at West Virginia.  I don't think it changes the analysis (such as it is) very much.  

Part of it is a testament to Howland's stubbornness, which is a reason he's successful.  It's the second week of the season, and he's got a fairly young team, and there's no reason to spend a week preparing for a defense you won't see the rest of the year.  That's why I'm not overly disappointed.  In fact, it's a sign that he knows what's important is not what you do in November, but what you do in March.  

But what this game did show us is that UCLA is in, well, I won't say a long season.  The Pac 10 sucks this year, so the Bruins should have a very successful regular season.  But the post-season will be short by UCLA standards.  Unless one of their freshmen big men really figure out how to play, or unless James Keefe takes the next step, they will be forced to play on the perimeter all year.  They have absolutely no interior offense.  They have no one they can give the ball to when they absolutely need a basket.  Or more accurately, they have no one on the inside who can keep the defense honest, allowing them to get the ball to Collison for a needed basket.  And with the extension of the three point line, it will be much harder to win on the perimeter this year.  

In a way this might be a good thing.  If they can't beat Michigan, they would have been slaughtered by Duke.  I'm not sure they'll beat SIU quite frankly, and it doesn't help that the guy who sits in the office next to me is an SIU grad.  And we saw why college basketball is occasionally a joke.  A Michigan player throws the ball away about three seconds before running into Aboya, and Al is called for a block.  Josh Shipp barely makes contact with an elbow, which causes his defender to leap backwards about five seconds after it happens, and the official completey across the floor decides to make the call.  College basketball is consistently the worst officiated sport that still maintains a large following.  But that's not why the Bruins lost.  

But it's a long season.  They have a lot of time to grow.  Hopefully this is a learning experience.

Two things that keep me from celebrating

1) A majority of people in my home state decided that simply being bigots wasn't enough.  They decided to write it into the state constitution.  Fuck the initiative process, and fuck the LDS "church".

2) My brother's current home state took the title of 'laughing-stock' away from Florida by electing a convicted felon to the Senate.  

And I'm also pretty disappointed that pieces of shit like Norm Coleman and Gordon Smith won.  

Who's the Happiest Man In America?

My guess?  It's Levi "fuckin' redneck" Johnston, who may now be able to avoid that shotgun wedding.  Good luck, brotha.  

Checking back in

Couple of things I'd figured I'd post.

UCLA

I know I've been light on the UCLA stuff of late, primarily due to my laziness, and also due to the fact that they just haven't been much fun to watch on the football field this year. But Basketball season starts tonight (unofficially), and after reading the updates from Brian Dohn, and this piece on Ben Howland in the Times, I'm pretty pumped for hoops season. For UCLA the last few years, this has been one of the more fun parts of the season. They've been pulling in such excellent talent that it makes the first five games or so, when we all get introduced to the new recruits, very exciting. And with the nation's top class taking the floor, this year is no exception.

Illinois

Not sure what the basketball season will hold this year, but early reports are mixed on the optimistic side. Supposedly the atmosphere around the team is much better, with some seniors who maybe weren't the best teammates having moved on. They add a little talent when Alex Legion returns next month. Both Jamar Smith and Brian Carlwell have left, so hopefully the distractions from that incident are gone from the Assembly Hall for good. The real talent influx starts with next year's recruiting class.

Speaking of the Hall, I spent some time in its parking lot this weekend as I was down in Champaign for the Illinois-Iowa football game. Interestingly enough, before Saturday, I'd been to two Illinois football games since graduating, and both were played at the Rose Bowl. This was the first time I'd been in Memorial Stadium since the upgrade, and it's pretty nice. They need an extra video screen, and they need to be a little larger, but generally the facility looks pretty decent, and it's always nice to be back down on campus. Better yet, I saw the Illini win, something they failed to do in the previous two post-graduation games I'd seen. They made it more exciting than they should have, and Ron Zook showed the country that he's not quite sure how to handle time outs, but a win is a win, and fortunately it pissed off the douchebag Iowa fan that was sitting in front of us.

Spiritualized

Just an update to my Spiritualized post from a few days ago, you can listen to a full set from their last tour at this link. It doesn't quite capture how amazing it was in person, but even if you don't want to listen to the whole thing, the first two songs are worth 10 minutes. They're the best back to back openers I've ever seen at a live show.

Happy Halloween

So Remember When I Used to Blog Here?

Man, it's been a while, huh? Nice long break. Anyway, with basketball season ramping up, I'll probably have UCLA stuff to post about soon. And we should be moving into some good off-season stories for the Angels, so activity should pick up again soon.

In the meantime, here's some Spiritualized. These two songs, in this order, led off the their Pitchfork Festival set, which I wrote about here. This isn't a perfect facsimile, as this version of 'You Lie You Cheat' doesn't descend into the three minute maelstrom at the end like at P4k, which then led into the gorgeous opening of 'Shine a Light'. And this version of 'Shine a Light' cuts out the first verse. But this is arguably the best back to back opening of a concert I've ever seen. It was even better when they they played the Metro a couple months later.

'Shine a Light' was really pretty perfect. It's a song with an album track that must be incredibly difficult to duplicate live, so they don't bother trying. The lyrics are given some relief in the life version, whereas they flatten into background noise on the album (Lazer Guided Melodies). The guitar/sax becomes simply guitar, and is amped up. And it's a really powerful moment at about 3:25 when the backing vocals kick back in. Enjoy.

What to Do - Vlad

Another in the series I've shamelessly stolen.

There's a club option for 2009 for $15MM. They can also buy him out for $3MM and make him a free agent.

Again, I think picking up the option is a no brainer. Vlad had the worst season of his career since his rookie year, and was still the best hitter on the team. Napoli and Teixeira both were better in terms of OPS+, but both did them in shorter Anaheim seasons. Still, going into next year, even assuming they re-signed Teixeira, Vlad would enter the season as the team's best hitter.

Going forward, I'd love to see them re-up Vlad for another term. Three or four years would be great, but probably won't get it done. I think it will take at least five, and that's a deal I'd be willing to make for something close to his current deal. He's still an elite hitter, but he should be thought of as an 80%-90% DH from this point forward. Next year the Angels will have Hunter in center, hopefully Morales at a corner outfield position (if they can re-sign Teixeira), and either Mattews or Juan Rivera at the other corner, again, subject to certain signings.

Believe it or not, the DH spot has actually been a real problem for the Angels over the last decade or so. Picking up guys who are clear cut hitters and clear cut non-fielders isn't as easy as it sounds. Any time you can lock up a position, even one with as little scarcity as DH, I think it's a good idea.

On the emotional side, five years will take Vlad to the end of his career. He's likely to be around 500 homers by that point (he'd need to average about 22 per year), 1,700 RBIs, and a career average over .300, and right around 200 stolen bases. That's almost guaranteed hall of fame territory, and there's never been a hint of steroid speculation around him. Unless someone beats him to it (and right now, I can't think of a candidate), he'd probably be the first player to enter the Hall of Fame with an Angels cap, and as far as I'm concerned, that counts for something.

So I say exercise the option, negotiate an extension, and hand him the everyday DH role through 2014.

What To Do - John Lackey

Another in the series I'm stealing from the Rev.

So, Lackey. As big a no brainer as we'll find. He has an option for 2009. Pick it up and extend him for as long as you can. All pitchers are injury risks. Lackey's injury in 2008 was his first. He's a critical piece of the Angels' future, and he needs a long term deal. I'm thinking five to seven years.

Look, this is Chuck Finley we're talking about. An Angels lifer for this generation. He needs to be wearing the haloed A as long he can be effective. I can't imagine him leaving anytime soon.

What to Do - Mark Teixeira

Third in the ongoing theft of idea's from the Rev.

So, what to do with Teixeira?

Sign him. Next question.

In all seriousness, I say something around 7-8 years, up to roughly 22 million per, depending on how crazy the market gets. Remember that the idea behind not spending too much is that you can use that money on, say, two good players. But if the market goes nuts and the two guys you could get for $11MM each now cost $15MM each, then you have to go higher for the premium players like Teixeira. If the Yankees just blow everyone out of the water, which seems to be the indication, then there's not much you can do except try to bid them up and make them pay more than the want to.

I can't see him signing in the exclusivity window. There's just too much market uncertainty to sign at a comparable number from last year. I think he's got to test the market and see how it shakes out. I'd put the odds on him coming back to Anaheim around 6-1. I'm not optimistic.

What To Do - Jon Garland

Part two in the series I'm shamelessly stealing from the Rev.

Another toughie, in that there's no obvious replacement in the organization. There are candidates, but none are particularly trustworthy in a fifth starter role. I'm not Steve Green is ready for a regular rotation spot. I'm more sure that Nick Adenhart isn't ready. I'm not sure Dustin Moseley will ever be ready. All three are potential sixth starters, but none jump out at me as rotation regulars at this point. Escobar looks like a mid-season bullpen guy at this point.

Not having a capable replacement in line presents a problem for a pitcher like Garland. I'm not sure the market knows what he worth, though I suspect it's not the $12MM he earned last year. So let's say they re-sign him at $7MM per, maybe $8MM. That takes them out of the market for C.C. Sabathia, unless they're willing to sign both and deal with it later. But there's no guarantee they end up with C.C. or even a solid middle rotation starter in free agency. If you wait to see what you can get on the market, you may end up waiting too long, at which point even Garland is gone.

I think the prudent thing to do is offer him arbitration (to preserve the compensation). Then they make a run at a front line starter. If they land one, they don't re-sign Garland and hope he doesn't accept arbitration. If they don't, they re-up with Garland for a short term deal. If they fail to land a good starter AND Garland leaves, they go after a Garland comparable, or try to land one via trade.

Key point about arbitration, awards are for one year contracts. Worse case scenario, they sign a guy like Sabathia, and Garland accept arbitration. In that case, the Garland deal is only one year, and the Angels go into spring with six starters. Someone's likely to get hurt (remember when Santana and Saunders were battling for one rotation spot?), or you deal Weaver or Saunders for a big bat. I don't want to see either of those guys traded, but I'd do it for the right return.

New Feature!!! I'm Stealing the "What To Do" Series From Mat

The Rev's new deal at Halos Heaven, at least for a little while, is "What To Do With..." I love concept, but I don't like the idea of answering in a simple comment, so I'm going to leave my responses, trackbacks if you will, right here on my own blog.

So, Mat starts with.......Garret Anderson!

Can't say he's making it too easy right out of the gate. There's a lot of emotion involved in this one. G.A. is the last link to the 1995 collapse. He's a world champ. He's a lifer. And unfortunately, I think he's done.

So here's the layout. He has an option for 2009 at $14MM. The Angels can also buy him out for $3MM and make him a free agent. I think step 1 is to exercise the buy out. Even if they re-sign him, they save some money.

They need to be straight with Garret. The Angels have a full time DH in Vladimir Guerrero. They have a center fielder in Torii Hunter. And right now, I'm going to say they (ugh) keep Gary Matthews and re-sign Juan Rivera to give them three outfielders. Another thing to keep in mind (but we have yet to cross that bridge...) both Chone Figgins and Sean Rodriguez can play in outfield. Wood at third, and an outfield of Rivera, Hunter, and Figgins would work for me. That requires re-signing Rivera and Figgins, of course.

But ultimately, I think they need to be straight with Garret and let him know that they'd like to have him around, but not at his current salary. Let him test the market. If someone wants to make him an everyday player, then let him go that route. If he can't find a taker, then they go the Salmon route. Invite him to Spring Training. Let him earn a job. If he deserves it, he's back with incentives. If other guys outplay him, release him and let him sign with someone who will give him at bats.

I love G.A. I love everything he did for this franchise. He drove in the runs that provided the Angels with their only World Series. And it won't be easy to see him playing for another team, though it will be easy to root for him. It's a tough decision, and a brutal way to start this series, but I think they need to buy him out and let the chips fall where they may.