Saturday, November 8, 2008

Five Things On My Mind

I haven't posted since after the Pats game last Sunday night. A lot has happened since then. No, I won't talk about the election but I will tell you some things that are on my mind.

1) The fact that the Celtics are a shaky at best free throw shooting team will be a big deal. Other than Ray Allen, who on that team do you trust to hit two of two from the line on a consistent basis?

2) On the plus side, Rajon Rondo seems destined to average about twelve points, eight assists, five boards, and two steals a game this year while keeping his turnovers to a minimum. Let's just say that if you are getting an all encompassing stat line like that from your third year point guard than you should feel pretty damn good about your team.



3) The Red Sox need to get a bat this offseason. Maybe even two. There is a reason for hyping the crap out of the Michael Bowden's of the world and that is to turn guys like him into proven major league talent. The only person outside of baseball whose opinion I would trust on Michael Bowden would be Pricing Boy's. If he thinks he is the complete real deal then I will defer to him. ESPN's Keith Law is skeptical though and he knows his stuff when it comes to minor league talent. Remember how enamored the Yankees were with Ian Kennedy last year? Exactly, let's not let Michael Bowden's potential get in the way of making a deal that could drastically upgrade the team.

4) Speaking of offseason moves for the Sox, count me in as somebody who would love to see Nick Swisher in a Sox uniform. The White Sox want to move Swisher for a speedy outfielder who plays good defense. Sound like Coco Crisp maybe?

Look, I know that Swisher hit .219 last year and is a career .244 hitter. I get that. But dig deeper. In 2006 his OPS+ was 125 and in 2007 it was 127. While a marked drop to 92 in 2008 would be a big red flag for a lot of players, Swisher will be 28 for the entire 2009 season so conceivably he is in his prime. Furthermore, as one of the stars of Moneyball, having him and Youk on the same team would be the exact circumstances which would push Joe Morgan over the edge in regards to his abject hatred of the Red Sox. In fact, if Swisher came on board I would not be surprised at all if by May Joe Morgan got picked up for mailing anonymous anthrax letters to the Sox offices. Isn't that consolation enough?

On a serious note though, take a look at this blurb from Rob Neyer's blog on Wednesday, 11/5 and tell me if this doesn't do some convincing.

...apparently Nick Swisher is available, too. Well, I said teams would be lining up around the block for a shot at Vazquez, and I suspect the same might be true with Swisher. If you look at Swisher's .219 batting average this year, you'd think he had a lousy season. You'd be right. But even more, it was an unlucky season. Swisher's walk percentage, his strikeout percentage, his line-drive percentage … they were all right in line with his career norms. So what happened? He just hit too many atom (as in, "at 'em") balls. Sometimes this happens, though usually not to Swisher's extreme degree. Just watch. Next year, if he's healthy, he'll hit .250 and score 100 runs.

5) Something tells me that people are going to pissing and moaning about the Patriots and how much they suck all the way to the AFC Championship Game.

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