Author Archives: Ted Berg

What? No.

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However, Reyes added a new twist by telling Viloria that while he would prefer to stay at short, he “hasn’t ruled out” changing positions. More specifically, Reyes mentions that “I played several games at second base for the Mets,” referring to the 43 games he logged at the keystone in 2004.

Reyes’ preferences aside, there is an argument to be made for bumping the 27-year-old one slot to the right. First of all, one of the team’s top position prospects (along with Fernando Martinez and others) is 18-year-old shortstop Wilmer Flores, who has been showing promise at the lower levels of the Mets system—though some see his future outside of the infield. In any event, once the Mets are free of their commitment to Luis Castillo at the end of 2011 (or sooner by trade), there is no ready replacement within the upper levels of the system save Ruben Tejada, a natural shortstop like Reyes but without his speed or offensive ceiling.

– Nick Collias, MLBTradeRumos.com.

No disrespect to Collias, but there really isn’t any argument for it at all. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s cool that Reyes is willing to do whatever the team asks. But there’s just no reason the team should ask him to switch positions as long as he’s an above-average defensive shortstop.

I just don’t understand the logic here, even a little bit. Am I missing something?

Just a friendly reminder

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If anyone asks, remember: Tonight’s Braves starter, Tulsa-born Tommy Hanson, is first cousins with the pride of Tulsa, the band Hanson.

Commenter Brad Gates, whom former roommate Ted reports to be the nephew of Bill Gates, will tell you otherwise. But even though he claims to know the pitching Hanson personally, he is just deceiving you on behalf of his friend. Tommy Hanson doesn’t want to be known as the first cousin of the band Hanson because Tommy Hanson has set out to make it on his own, without the type of favoritism generally bestowed upon relatives of pop icons.

But look, there’s evidence. Here are all the Hansons at a recent family reunion:

Jayson Werth brings shame to great beards

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Look, truth be told, if a player on any other team did the same thing I’d say, “Meh, he was obviously in the heat of the moment and ballplayers are intense competitors, he probably regretted it later.”

But Werth’s a Phillie, so the Eck thing applies again. Plus the fan in question was also in the heat of the moment, and was probably too busy looking at the ball to have any idea that Werth was charging at him. And I’m sure after he got yelled at in front of his kid by a member of their favorite sports team, he was intentionally vomited on by some drunk guy in the row behind him. He’d almost be a sympathetic figure if he weren’t a Phillies fan, deserving of the public humiliation and inevitable vomit bath. Plus you gotta assume he’ll pay it forward anyway.

Comic Sans backlash backlash

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Gilbert, the Cavaliers’ majority owner, wrote an angry letter on the team’s website after LeBron James’s nationally televised announcement that he was leaving the team. It cited what he called James’s “cowardly betrayal” of the team and called the TV event a “narcissistic, self-promotional build-up.”

For whatever reason, all 421 words of the screed were written in the less-than-intimidating Comic Sans font. This fact is already on the Comic Sans Wikipedia page and it was all over Twitter shortly after Gilbert’s letter was published. A Tweet from Jsmooth995 decried Gilbert’s choice, saying “nobody who posts official statements in Comic Sans MS should be running an NBA team.”

– David Biderman and Emily Steel, Wall Street Journal.

I fail to see how Gilbert’s use of Comic Sans is anything other than completely and utterly hilarious. Especially now that I know, from the article, that the 48-year-old multimillionaire uses Comic Sans for all his correspondence. It’s funny, just not in the way Comic Sans is intended to be funny.

But that said, the backlash over the typeface is probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of. It’s a typeface. And thanks to its overuse, the font is now particularly useful for a variety of humorous pursuits. The movement to ban Comic Sans would rob future satirists the opportunity to use the font ironically. Consider this Comic Sans backlash backlash.

Hat tip to Can’t Stop the Bleeding for the link.

Dennis Eckersley’s wisdom

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One of my favorite lines to quote from anything is Dennis Eckersley’s advice to Mike Birbiglia around the 4:15 mark of this epic clip. Sometimes it’s easiest to just outright dismiss someone or some group of people rather than continue to fret about their decisions or actions. And I know of no better way to do so more effectively than with Eck’s epic, “Ehh, f*** ’em.”

So that’s really all I’ve got to say about LeBron James:

Ehh, f*** ’em.

In one fell swoop last night, LeBron defied logic multiple times. He didn’t just choose a team in an only medium-sized market where he’ll have to play alongside other stars while simultaneously disappointing a room full of children. He also somehow managed to make Kobe Bryant a sympathetic character. Who among us won’t be rooting for the Lakers if they square off with the Heat in the Finals next year?

Rooting for the Lakers. Who (outside LA, of course) could have imagined that a few weeks ago?

Or, I suppose, we could opt for the other approach, the one I’m more likely to take: We can continue not paying all that much attention to the NBA because the college game is more exciting anyway, and because the NBA is silly enough to schedule its playoffs during baseball season.

In other words: Ehh, f*** ’em.

On the brink

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The Knicks didn’t get LeBron James, but the Yankees were on the brink of obtaining Cliff Lee late last night for a package that would include top prospect Jesus Montero, the Post has learned.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman and Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik have been in constant contact over the last week, but it was only last night that the Seattle GM told Yankee officials he wanted to move quickly, possibly before the All-Star break…

In the offseason, the Yanks tried to make a deal with Philadelphia and offered Montero as the key piece. But the Phillies decided to take the Mariners’ offer instead.

– Joel Sherman, N.Y. Post.

OK, lots of stuff here. First, the requisite skepticism. Sherman’s generally not the type of baseball columnist that traffics in unfounded or sensationalized scoops, but I’ve learned to take all trade rumors with many, many grains of salt until the deal is final.

Second, if the deal really includes a package of three prospects including Montero, Mets fans should be happy their team will not match it. Like I said in the talk with John Hickey yesterday, the assessment of the Mariners’ scouting department ultimately matters more than Baseball America‘s, but BA ranked Montero No.4 overall among all prospects this offseason. Going by that ranking, the Mets would have to gut their system to beat the Yanks’ offer.

Third, and again, going only off that ranking and a few others, it’s a little bit bizarre if it’s true the Phillies opted for the Mariners’ package instead of one built around Montero in the offseason. None of the three prospects the Phils received appears to have anything like the upside of the Yanks’ mashing young catcher, and all have been pretty crummy in the Phils’ system this year. A lot can change, of course, and who knows how or why the Phillies’ preferred the guys they got to the ones they supposedly could have got, but Ruben Amaro’s administration has made a whole lot more eyebrow-raising deals than clearly good ones so far.

If Jack Zduriencik pulls this off, he should be commended, even if his Mariners have been terrible this year. A completed deal would mean he spun three underwhelming prospects for at least one awesome one, with 13 amazing starts from Cliff Lee thrown in as gravy. If Double-A second baseman David Adams is also in the deal, as Sherman has reported, then the Mariners get back at least two prospects who are, on paper at least, better than any they gave up.

Lastly, many have wondered why the Yankees should work to upgrade their rotation when they already have a lot starting pitching, much of it high-priced. The Yanks need more help in the bullpen, or maybe the outfield, they say.

Only it doesn’t work like that, and Brian Cashman seems to understand as well as any GM in baseball. Instead of targeting a specific position where his team needs an upgrade and seeking the best available player in that role, he finds the available player who will best improve his team. This trading season, it appears Lee is that.

There are many ways to win baseball games and playoff series. You can do it with a ton of offense, like the Yanks did last year, or you can do it with an unbelievable and unbelievably deep starting rotation, as the Yanks are apparently trying to do this year.