brettac1

That PPV on the whole was better than the standard TNA one. I don't know why they haven't gone to a full feud with Storm and Roode. That match with Hardy/Roode was pretty good. It seems like they book PPV's to try to get people to watch Impact, instead of the other way around. Normally you would do the DQ finish on TV and the clean finish on PPV, don't understand why they can't grasp that.

Any of those "normal guy" gimmicks of the mid-90's. Duke "The Dumpster" Drose, Isaac Yankem, The Goon, etc. I do think this might get over on a Rikishi level. The question is really whether this is a potential main event talent and if this gimmick blows that opportunity. Rikishi's heel run... not so good.

Exile is my favorite album of all-time.

Let's also not overlook the fact that Mitch Williams is an idiot and that he's not in contact with Fielder, nor does he know what it's like to be a great player that's a free agent.

Have you heard a Rolling Stones ablum in the last 40 years? They've beeen terrible for that long but you can bet Jagger makes hundreds of millions a year. Dude... Some Girls is a classic album and that was only like 34 years ago. Since then, yes.

I see Leuer is starting in place of Ilyasova tonight. Someone better snatch up those $8 seats while they're hot.

And they would have to pay it once they got it.

He's not making such an amount that if he is out-performed in spring training or they determine he's not good enough that he can't just be released.

He's also a LHP that pretty much K's a guy an inning, throws pretty hard, and made $1.2 million last year. Sounds about right to me. It's not an exorbitant amount for a second year arby guy.

From Haudricourt a short while ago: I am told the Brewers have not made a 1-year offer to Fielder. This is either old news from earlier this winter or a suggestion.

I had probably 3" on my deck this morning. Definitely light and fluffy - I was able to clear it off in two minutes with a regular broom.

But that was also the case when he turned down the safe and secure $100 million for 5 years from the Brewers. Yes, but I don't think he'll take that risk again. Also, he probably didn't want to stay in Milwaukee.

Exactly. Because he didn't write a book.

There have only been two significant snowfalls this winter, with the November one (7-8" that melted in a couple days) and then New Year's Eve (maybe 4" where I am and nearly all gone now). Pretty scary how little precipitation there has been, as well as the temps lately. It's felt like spring training the last couple days.

I think he'll take the most years and the most money possible. I can't see why it would be a good idea for him to leave any money or years on the table. There's always the chance of catastrophic injury.

Jon Heyman is definitely one of those Boras media plants that I mentioned earlier. If you watch any of his segments on MLB Network, the "tidbits" he has are almost always for Boras clients. I'm not a Boras backer per se, I'm a backer of the players getting all the money they can. If it's not Boras, there will be some other evil agent for people to point to as the scourge of the game. Arn Tellem, most likely.

I was sort of thinking the same thing when I saw that interview. He can flat-out mash LHP's.

He had Tommy John.

I think part of the Canseco reputation is built out of his self-mythologizing. I loved his book and thought it had some great information in it and was entertaining, but we're talking about professional athletes here. Even without Canseco, steroids would have been widespread due to them becoming more readily available. Football players were using them long before Canseco started. Canseco is a face for steroid usage primarily because he was willing to be in order to sell books.

When the commissioner gets paid $22 million a year, the game makes more money than ever, they bleed taxpayers for stadium money, etc., I am all about every single player trying to get every single red cent they can get their hands on. In turn, I can't hate Boras for helping to make that happen and especially can't fault the players for employing him when he is the best at helping make that happen.

To quote Mike McCarthy, "the train has left the station".

I understand where you're coming from regarding your hatred for Boras, but Prince Fielder does not equal Ryan Madson.

Caring and doing what's best for the game are 2 different things. Baseball has grown in spite of him - not because of him.Seconded.

The market of teams looking to spend way too much for a reliever on a long term deal was essentially just the Phillies and the Marlins. I really don't believe he turned down that offer from the Phils, like reilly said. Now, it's certainly possible that Boras floated that number out to the reporter that ran with it (he certainly has several allies in the media), but I don't think that it was a legit offer.

Since we were sort of on the topic of PED's and whatnot, I just want to say that it's incredibly unfair to judge on body type and keep a player out of the Hall, especially one as great as Bagwell. There are certainly guys that are already in that likely used them, and there will be plenty more to join. There is such a bias toward power hitters that it's laughable. Clemens (who will go in) had actual physical evidence tying him to steroid use, but there isn't the cloud of suspicion surrounding pitchers. Randy Johnson springs to mind immediately, but the fact that he was tall and thin, he never would show as pronounced an effect as a hypothetical user like Bagwell. The thing is, Bagwell had a pretty natural career arc for a HOF talent level player, with his production dropping in his early 30's, never putting up insane HR totals (even after moving into Enron), and never being "freakishly" big. He played with Caminiti. That's pretty much all. Then you get to Johnson. The guy who was striking out 300 a season in his mid and late 30's, and punched out 290 at age 40. He played with a load of almost certain juicers, with that 2001 D'Backs team being the closest thing to poster boys for juicing since the '93 Phils or the Bash Brothers A's. You had the likes of Matt Williams, Luis Gonzalez, Jay Bell, and Steve Finley on that team, who all are quite suspect in their own right. To me, there is every bit as much to tie Johnson to PED's (actually, far more) as there is Bagwell, but every time Bagwell's name came up in the Hall of Fame discussion this year, steroids were in the same breath. Despite the fact that he wasn't in the Canseco book, wasn't in the Mitchell Report, never had his name leak out from the anonymous tests of '03, never had a teammate accuse him, never had one bit of reason to suspect him of wrongdoing aside from being a power hitter in the "steroid era" (who never hit over 47 HR in a season) and being short and stocky. It's just incredibly unfair. He was a truly great player and by all accounts a good guy who loved the game, especially if you remember watching him gut through the later part of his career after he had that shoulder injury. I'm almost never the fan who gets wrapped up in defending athletes, but to me the Bagwell case strikes a nerve.