Not Much of a Post, But Anyway...

I don't have much free time these days. For the past year, my masters program has been set up such that both classes had homework due on Mondays, leaving the weekend to do all the reading/homework. I had become accustomed to doing the reading during the week and the problems on the weekend. This quarter, one class has decided to makehomework due 0900 Tuesdays, the other 1600 on Thursdays. Of course, I'm not working ahead, so I'm doing a lot more work at night during the week.

Which cuts into my blogging time.

That, coupled with the usual silliness and attempts to find/buy a new house, well, not much time is left over. So I apologize for being away. This will be a mish-mash of my thoughts on some recent happenings.

1. Ankiel signed for 1 year, $900K. Seems fair.

2. Molina signed for 4 years, $12Mil. Seems eminently fair. Most in the blog-o-sphere put greater emphasis on offensive statistics than defense, or so it seems; how else to explain some of the 'dump Molina, promote Brian Anderson' things I've read? I still firmly believe you win with pitching and defense. Molina handles the staff well and his defense is HOF-caliber. Great signing.

3. AP bans KTVI from his press conference at the Winter Warm-Up. I giggled (in a masculine way, of course) when I read that. Bill Simmons discusses Eff-You Touchdowns? This was the Eff-You press conference. Nice to see the irresponsible have to face the consequences of their actions. Unfortunate that it was taken out on a reporter/camerman who most likely had nothing to do with reporting the lie about AP being in the Mitchell Report. Pujols should sue the NY affiliate and KTVI for slander.

4. LaRussa jabs at Kennedy for missing the Winter Warm-Up. Unbelievable. Why take a guy to task publicly, especially over something stupid like missing a meeting (which, essentially, is what the Winter Warm-Up is)? This, coupled with the calling out of Rolen earlier this off-season, are two red flags for me. LaRussa isn't acting like a leader; he's acting like someone suffering from acute paranoia, lashing out at everyone. It's ironic to me that when he had his DUI the organization stood behind him publicly. I don't know what happened behind closed doors; I would expect/hope he had the Riot Act read to him, considering his position in the organization and his responsibilities to his men. Obviously he didn't learn from that example.

5. Not doing too well in the Tournament of Champions; so far, 1930 lost to 2000 (and got swept to boot). Eight series to go, so there's still time to tear it up. See C70 at the bat's website for overall status. I was hoping he'd post the game results (not the VEB writeup or box score, just the score), but he's not. Oh, well. Maybe I'll do that here.


Saturday's the SABR meeting here in SD, down at PETCO. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by (admission should be free, but don't hold me to that). Details are on the Ted Williams SABR web link in the margin. I'll be there; I'll be the guy wearing a Padres gray road jersey (camouflage, you see) with a 2004 and 2006 St Louis WS press pin on it (can't go completely native). I'll also be taking copious notes during DePodesta's presentation. As promised, I will post a summary of his talk here.