In the last two days, I have
written a couple of articles that got plenty of attention and
discussion. I got a number of e-mails because of
Tuesday’s entry/rant on Corey Koskie. I
got some really interesting discussion from Twins fans and Brewers
fans on my idea for the Twins to trade for
Ben Sheets yesterday. I think you’ll be able to tell which
team each writer cheers for pretty easily. I do want to thank all
those who took the time to respond to my opinions and thoughts. I
really enjoy when people decide to take the opposite side and differ
from me, especially if they explain why. And, I got a lot of that!!!
So today this site is yours. Tomorrow, stop by to read a very
interesting interview with someone that Twins fans will really enjoy
learning more about.
Corey Koskie Thoughts
Before getting to the rest of
your thoughts, I need to link you to a really good article on this
very topic, the loss of Corey Koskie to the Blue Jays.
Andy Wink, over at
Twins
Killings, used parts of my article to express his
frustration with the situation. Here is
a quick sample of the writing:
On Seth’s site he rants about the
awful handling of the Corey Koskie situation. Please visit his
site when you’re done here, you won’t be sorry. Just remember to
breathe while you read it… breathe. Sometimes people forget to
breathe when they’re mad as hell. It is in fact ironic that Seth
acknowledges how ‘middle of the road’ and how ‘little ranting’
he does on his site. Sometimes I feel I rant to much. Yesterday,
though I wrote
a beautifully constructed piece of bland tribute to Corey Koskie.
It wasn’t intended to move you, so much as inform you Koskie was
no longer a Twin. And we should miss him.
I’m not just linking to it
because he linked to me either. Andy (and now Aaron Mastrian
also) really does a good job of analyzing the Twins and you should
check it out and then bookmark it and check it out daily!
Alright, lets get to the rest of your thoughts:
From Dewey
Moede
Hi Seth, I am sad that
Corey left.....but the Twins have played enough games with him
when he has been hurt. He missed, what, 50 plus games last year?
He is a walking mash unit. Granted he is a very good fielder and
teammate. The Twins must have payroll flexibility. Look what the
Joe Mays contract has done to the Twins.......7 mil this
year...... The Twins just cannot afford to give out long term
contracts. You have to realize that if the Twins are going to
keep Santana they are going to need all the payroll help they
can get.
Losing Koskie does not
weaken the Twins.......Look at the team....on paper it is better
than last year at this time! Hopefully it will carry onto the
field.....also it is a long way from opening day, a lot can
happen and have faith in Terry Ryan and his staff they will put
a good club on the field........We will win the World Series in
2005!!!!!!!
From
Travis Brunson
I have thought for a long
while that Koskie's value to this team was extremely under-rated
by both its fan base and (now in light of what happened) the
management. I think the Twins will be much worse for this
decision. When the Twins fail to make the playoffs next year (or
squeak in again with a lame 90-win effort & get squished in the
first round ... again) and Koskie hits 280/350/480/830 next year
with 30 dingers in 130 games with the Jays then we'll all know
that this was a bad decision.
I find it interesting that the Jays, with JP Ricciardi at the
helm (a Billy Beane "Moneyball" guy) was the one who ended up
with Koskie and determined that he was worth $17M over 3 to the
Jays. I had always thought that Koskie was a $6M/year guy. If
Jones is worth the $5M he will make this year then Koskie is
worth more. If Hunter is worth $8M, the Koskie is certainly
worth $6M. While I like Stewart's batting skills
(notwithstanding his meltdown in the ALDS last year), keeping
him and Jones (uggh, this guy is aggravating, sometimes great,
often horrid, always swinging) will prevent Ford from being best
utilized and right now Ford is the best bargain they have, let
alone being their 3rd best hitter and second or third best
outfielder.
As to being injury prone, this is slightly misleading. Last
year, for example, of Koskie's three extended absences, two were
the result of impacts at third base (while covering a steal a
player slid into his wrist; and he was spiked in the ankle).
Does the same logic mean that Hunter is injury prone because he
knocks himself unconscious while running into a wall, or pulling
a Hammy b/c he goes 115%? Or Mauer for that matter with a fluke
slide & then ongoing knee issues? No, you play the game hard,
especially at a position like 3B, you may get hurt from time to
time.
With this decision, the Twins have now made their room for error
next year razor thin. 1. They will need Mauer to bat and play
the entire year at 100%. 2. They will need much better HR and
OBP production from Hunter and Jones ($13M is a lot to spend on
whiffmeisters). 3. Ford and Stewart will both need to be
300/350/450/800 guys again. 4. The pitching staff will have to
put on a repeat of 2004 (which is doubtful because I fear Silva,
Mays & Lohse will not be good enough, let alone Radke & Santana
& Nathan & Rincon just falling back to good average). 5. Some
part of this young, untested and/or pathetic hitting infield
will have to do something at the plate (Q - what's to stop
Morneau & Cuddyer & Tiffee from stinking? A - nothing, they
might; and we know Castro & Rivas stink already & are beyond
help). Any one of these five issues go missing and its a
first-round exit again. If two of them are missing the Twins are
staring 80 wins right in the face.
Pohlad thinks it disappointing to lose money on a $54 million
payroll with making the playoffs and a 90-win season. Wait until
the disappointment when your team sets a pace to win 80 games,
doesn't make the playoffs and no one shows up in the late summer
b/c the fan base has (rightly so) decided that you held a semi
fire sale with your core guys. While I too liked the Twins
letting Mientky and Guzzy leave, and would have welcomed the
departure of Jones & Rivas, the paying fans will point to these
departures as the reason for the failure to win 90 games if it
happens. I really would have liked to see a batting lineup of
Stewart, Ford, Mauer, Morneau, Koskie, Hunter.
Cheap & efficient is one thing, this is another entirely. IMO,
this is a humongous error unless somebody really steps up next
year. The absolute last thing this team needed to do was get rid
of their best power hitter. This <upsets me> to no end the more
I think about it. It was the lack of hitting that blew them up
in the ALDS last year. They were so close to being great. At
this point, I just don't see it. And I think you're right,
because of the lack of spending money on some other guys
(Castro, Jones for God's sake) there apparently was no money for
Koskie, who would have stayed with any reasonable lowball offer.
If I was his agent, I would have left town when the Twins first
offensive lowball offer hit. This sucks.
From
Shawn Bode
This is one of the few
moves (non-moves) that I'm frustrated with the Twins as well.
Even if Koskie only plays 120 games and his regular season
numbers aren't the greatest any more, he's more valuable in the
playoffs-getting to the next level. Would you rather have Koskie
or Terry Tiffee/Juan Castro facing Mariano Rivera in the 8th or
9th with the game on the line?
The scenario I'll give Terry Ryan some reprieve is: if he
doesn't sign Jacque Jones, keeping our payroll in the 50-52 mil
range, but then makes a big July acquisition strengthening our
roster immensely for October, with the 4-5 mil of this players
10-15 mil contract owed by us, putting our eventual payroll at
54-56 million. We should be strong enough to win the Central
anyway, and maybe this gets us over the top for the post-season.
From
Jim Sustacek
Hello Seth. I fully agree
with you on your Koskie rant today. Usually I give TR the
benefit of the doubt on these budget-conscious moves, but I
can't see any way that letting Koskie go can improve the team,
or at the very least not hurt them. They might make the playoffs
again, but it's going to take some work to patch together the
infield now, and that group will likely be significantly worse
than what could have been.
From
Aaron Kalina
I agree with what you
argued today about Corey Koskie being a potentially detrimental
loss to the organization, but I think they may be right in
worrying about Lew Ford. Ford is a player, no doubt about it,
but I worry that we may have seen more than what is really there
with him. I'm nervous that this guy might be a flash in the pan
so to speak, and end up being nothing more than an average
hitter, say .270 range. I think either way with Koskie, we had
to look at our starting OF as Torii Hunter, Shannon Stewart, and
do everything possible to keep Jacque Jones (who traditionally
is a much better all around offensive player than what he showed
this year). Stewart is a tough pill to swallow defensively, but
he has been our 2nd half offensive MVP two years in a row and
sets the table tremendously for our young bats like Mauer and
Morneau in the heart of our order, which was something we sorely
lacked without him in the last two seasons. I like the direction
the club is going right now even without Koskie, but you're
right that having him back would have been a huge boost. Just
one more reason to dislike Juan Castro already!
BEN SHEETS THOUGHTS
Yesterday, I proposed a deal which would bring
Brewers SP Ben Sheets to the Twins for four players. Seriously,
this was so much fun. Getting completely bashed by a bunch of
Brewers fans was a lot of fun! First, they were right. Second, I did
preface the whole thing by calling it a dream; some of the below
responses would probably call it a pipe-dream, or another kind of
dream. I appreciate all of those who stopped by and read my thoughts
and took the time to respond, not only with the point that you
disagree, but by putting in your suggestions or recommendations of
what might make it work. Twins fans also got to see just how good
Ben Sheets is. I think that his 2004 season is one of the most
underrated pitching seasons ever! And, the Brewers were credited to
have the best minor league prospects in baseball last year.
Hopefully Brewers fans now have a little better idea of just how
good the Twins system is too. I would say that it is equal to that
of the Brewers. For more on the top Twins prospects, check out
my list of the Top Twins prospects. So,
take a look through these comments:
From
Casey
Just a note that Ben
Sheets isn't a free agent until **after 2006**. Someone in the
press seems to have started that 2005 thing and it's just
spreading around like a disease.
Ben's status is pretty easy to figure out simply by looking at
his stats and counting his years in the majors, as he has no
partial seasons. (He made two starts in the minors in 2001; they
would count toward major league service time as he was in AAA
under 20 days.)
From
Mike Van
Why would the Brewers make
that trade?
1.Rivas blows, we'd have zero use for him.
2.Lohse is very mediocre and will soon start making more than
he's probably worth.
3.Sheets is the Brewers property for 2 years, we aren’t facing
losing him after this season.
4.We got a pitching prospect in the class of Scott Baker for Dan
Kolb, a WW pickup with a arm that could blow up at any point.
Trade Sheets for somewhat similar package that we got for
Kolb?Hmmmm
5.If for whatever reason the Brewers decided Sheets was
available to be traded, they would have half the league big time
interested in acquiring him.
To think the Twins would ask for Sheets from Melvin and then
say, you can't have any of our top 4 prospects. Just an
assumption, but the next sound to be heard would be a dial tone.
That would be like the Brewers asking to trade for Santana and
then saying, you can't have Hardy, Fielder, or Weeks though.
Click.
Anyways it doesn't matter since i see zero chance Sheets gets
traded before 05 is over. Only if after the season Sheets
decides he doesn't want to sign an extension or our new owner
won't pay what it will cost do i see us consider trading Sheets.
The demand for him would be huge.
From
Kevin from DC,
who now lives in Madison, WI
I would love Ben Sheets,
but I can't imagine him going anywhere anytime soon. He will
still be in his prime when all of the Brewers' prospects are
ready and currently gives them a gate-attraction. I know that I
was simultaneously excited and disheartened when on vacation
last year, I flew to Milwaukee from DC to visit some friends,
picked up some Brewers/Twins tickets, and found out it was
Sheets v. Silva. Cool, I get to see Ben Sheets. Crap, the Twins
are gonna lose. . . . (They did).
But the Brewers are cheap, and Sheets, a bargain at $5.5, isn't
going to be so cheap much longer. So maybe, just maybe, they'd
be willing to deal. Unfortunately, I think your offer is too
weak. You are essentially offering them a good pitching prospect
that probably tops out as a #3, a #3-5 type innings eater, and a
place holder for a guy that is among the league's elite
pitchers. You have to sweeten the pot. I think if you replace
Rivas with Cuddyer and Durbin with Baker, they might bite.
The problem with that is Cuddyer has become a crucial figure for
the Twins in 2005. But he actually gives the Brewers something
they might want (unlike Rivas). Durbin is a prospect; one should
have no problem trading a guy with a ceiling a little lower than
Ben Sheets for the actual real deal....
So if we assume that Durbin and Lohse are gone in this trade,
and that Cuddyer is someone the Twins can't afford to lose
(given Koskie), what can the Twins do? First: Brewers, you need
a closer. We have a cheap option for you: Grant Balfour. He's
never closed, but he throws gas and has proven his ability to
strike out big league hitters. Second: Terry Tiffee. He's better
than anything else you have in your organization at the hot
corner, is MLB ready now, and will still be cheap when your
other prospects start breaking in.
To Brewers: Lohse, Balfour, Durbin, Tiffee
To Twins: Sheets
Result for Twins? Cuddyer becomes the everyday third baseman;
the rotation becomes the envy of the league: Santana, Sheets,
Radke, Silva, Mays/Mullholland/Baker. Downsides: Castro/Punto/Rivas
will make up the middle infield; no plan B at third (just like
when Gomez was subbing for an injured Koskie in 2003; painful).
This will still likely never happen. But the Twins do have tons
of minor league depth, and I think that this year might be the
time to use that depth and land a real impact player.
From
Jim Sustacek
Obviously Ben Sheets would
be great, but if he were available, I'm sure that several teams
(Red Sox/Yankees/etc) would offer a whole lot more than Rivas,
Lohse, Baker, and a prospect. And the fact is, he's nowhere near
available. A quick Google search on "Ben Sheets" found these
recent quotes from Doug Melvin (Brewers GM):
"You can print that Ben Sheets is untouchable,'' Melvin said.
"The only guy I rule as untouchable has been Ben [Sheets],"
Melvin said.
So much for the dream. Now, back to reality: how are we going to
fill our newfound hole at 3B?
From
Al Bethke,
Al’s Ramblings
Thank you to Al for linking to the Sheets entry. He has more
thoughts on this topic at his site (click
here). Also, he asked me to be part of a roundtable
discussion on the Brewers recent trades. Check them out
here and
here.
I'd say Lew Ford and 2 of
the the Twins' top arms would be enough to get us talking. No
way Rivas has an ounce of interest, and Lohse is a decent #4/5
option, but just a throw-in in this type of deal.
From
Andy Wink
from Twins
Killings
Andy from 'Twins Killings'
here. Boy having Sheets would be a dream! If Lohse had a 3.90
ERA and 17 wins last year this trade might fly. He has the stuff
to do that one of these years too, I agree with your assessment
of his ability. I think we'd have to add a pretty good player or
two to this deal to make work. It's kinda 'rose-colored
glasses'.
I would think hard about giving up Crain, Durbin, or Lirano to
get Sheets. With pitchers, a prize 'bird in the bag' is worth
about 10 in the field. Maybe throw Jacque in there too if we
can. If the Brewers were smart they'd take a deal like that
because by the time all of their great prospects (and they have
some big time prospects) are ready to contribute Sheets will be
lost to Free Agency - and they won't have anybody but maybe Ben
Hendrickson, Jose Capellan, or Doug Davis around. They need some
more pitching depth. Another cool thing is that the Twins are
the best team to go to in terms of pitching prospects. We have
them coming out of our ears!
From
Todd Weill
I'm not sure I agree with
your proposed Ben Sheets trade. Ok, I'll admit, I pretty much
just laughed at that offer. You should ask yourself, since you
said Sheets and Santana were pretty much equals, would you have
accepted those players if you were trading away Johan? I didn't
think so either....Good writing otherwise, always look forward
to what you have to say!
Thinking more about your trade proposal, it seems pretty similar
to that of the Richie Sexson deal last year -- spare parts /
filler / quantity -- instead of a couple quality players. After
the past few days of activity, it seems as if the Brewers' brass
has gotten past just accepting a slew of castoffs for a star
player.
Being a Brewer's fan, I obviously don't know much about the
Twins' top prospects, except that it seems Morneau is going to
be a monster. That being said, if there is any deal, it would
have to start with him. Unfortunately, he plays 1B, which just
happens to be Prince Fielder's job in year and a half. So, if
Morneau can't be moved to the outfield, I don't really see a
trade taking place. I know the Twins have some decent pitching
prospects, but I don't know enough about them to be able to
compare them to, say, Jose Capellan, the stud we got for Danny
Kolb. My gut feeling is that it would take the stars for Doug
Melvin to trade this guy. He'd have to get an offer he couldn't
refuse. And if DM does decide to trade Sheets, it would most
likely be due to his salary demands. For that reason alone, a
trade would not be even salary wise, otherwise I'd imagine DM
would just bite the bullet and pay Sheets.
From
David Vogel
As a Brewers fan who would
be willing to trade Sheets for the right deal I ask you this:
Are you on crack? I doubt that package would even get you Doug
Davis. Why would Milwaukee be interested in Rivas? They already
have two second baseman who are much better than Rivas and Weeks
should be taking over the position by 2006. Lohse has proved
nothing after 4 years in the bigs and would have a hard time
breaking into the Brewers' 2005 rotation. Baker barely cracked
the Twins' top ten prospect list and I'm not sure he would make
Milwaukee's top twenty.
I'm glad that you've discovered that Sheets is a front line
pitcher, but Santana, Mauer or Kubel are the only names that are
going to put him in a Twins uniform.
From
Gerald Lunn
I love your analysis re
trading for Sheets, but see two problems:
1. The Brewers would probably want at least 1 really good player
(proven producer or prospect with huge upside) in return. I
would be willing to give up Liriano (got him cheap and has huge
upside).
2. Twins could not afford Sheets after the 1st year. Will Mays
$$ be available then? Trade Mays now and pay Brewers for the
difference between Mays' contract and Sheets' contract?
I appreciate your creativity and wish that the Twins would at
least consider going after Sheets.
I share your desire not to give up too much, but the deal also
has to make sense from the Brewer's perspective, and Sheets is
(in my opinion) one of the top 5 or 10 pitchers in baseball, and
could be the #1 or #2 on a majority of teams. As you observed,
his #s are close to Santana's (and better than Radke's). I
suspect that Brewers would require AT LEAST one player with huge
upside, and, as I recall, the Twins did not give up very much to
get Liriano (part of the A.J. trade?). Thus, I would be willing
to give up Liriano, Lohse, Jones & Rivas to get Sheets.
From
Craig Smith
As a Brewers fan, I cannot
fathom the Crew accepting your proposed deal. Terry Ryan would
have to force feed a pint of Jagermeister down Doug Melvin's
throat and that might not even work. Assuming the Crew is
willing to deal Sheets -- and considering Melvin has publicly
stated that Sheets is pretty much the only untradable major
leaguer on the roster that's a big if -- you have to look at our
needs.
In any deal for Sheets, Melvin is probably looking for three
things: a young pitcher who can start right away, a good third
baseman who can start right away and a can't miss prospect
(preferably a power-hitting OF or a pitcher). This would go
toward addressing some of our key holes. Several decent
prospects would have to be thrown in.
Rivas is useless to us. You say Rivas’s "defense may make him a
viable one-year 2B until they feel Rickie Weeks is ready to play
every day." I don't know if you actually looked at our roster
before proposing this trade, but we have two guys who will do
just fine keeping 2B warm: Junior Spivey and Keith Ginter. We
don't need or even want Rivas.
Lohse is a good first step as he is a young viable major league
starter who comes fairly cheap. He's definitely in the deal.
Helms and Branyan are pretty crappy options at third. You really
can't help us there. I've always liked Lew Ford, so send him
along. I would also want Baker as well as Crain and Glen
Perkins. We have more than enough hitting in our system, so we
need top pitching prospects.
I know you said that Crain is untouchable, but short of Joe
Mauer, you can't have untouchables when you are talking about
trading for Sheets.
Would you accept a trade of Junior Spivey, Chris Capuano, Manny
Parra and Josh Wahpepah for Johan Santana? That's basically what
you are offering us.
Here is my counteroffer:
Brewers send:
Ben Sheets
Twins send:
Kyle Lohse
Jesse Crain
Scott Baker
Lew Ford
PTBNL -- Glen Perkins
And a mid-level prospect
So, that's it for the
comments. If you have any comments on these comments, or comments on
anything else, please
e-mail me.
TWINS
THOUGHTS
Giants Release AJ
Pierzynski - Just a
day after the Giants signed catcher Mike Matheny to a three
year deal, they released former Twins catcher AJ Pierzynski.
It was coming, just a matter of when. By releasing him now, rather
than waiting until later in the month when they would non-tender
him, they allow him a few extra days as a free agent to catch on
with another team. So, the Giants gave up Joe Nathan, Boof
Bonser and Francisco Liriano for Pierzynski, and then
only gave him one year there. It will be interesting to see where
Pierzynski signs, and for how much!
Cubs Name Randy Bush
Assistant General Manager
- Randy Bush was named the Twins best pinch hitter in Twins
history. He was also a decent outfielder. After his career, he did
some coaching before becoming the head coach at the University of
New Orleans. He recently resigned from that post. Now, he re-teams
with Andy McPhail, this time in the Cubs front office.
TWINS BLOG SPOTTING
I wanted to quickly link to a number of the other great Twins blogs
out there. Again, check them out daily, and feel free to bookmark
them. All of these writers are great people and would love to hear
from you too. Of course, to bring it all together, a great spot to
talk about the Twins is the
Dickie Thon Twins Fan Forum!
Will Young’s Minnesota Twins
Page - Will had
a great
entry on
the Rule V draft, specifically more information about Twins
selection Ryan Rowland-Smith. He followed that up with
information on his agent, one David Balfour, father
of Twins reliever Grant Balfour. Will just does a great job!
Twins
Killings - As
mentioned above, Andy Wink has been writing the Twins
information on the
Most Valuable Network for awhile now. He recently wrote a
fun article on
a hypothetical discussion between the Twins and Adrian Beltre.
Batgirl
- Batgirl is so much fun to read. Lately, she has had a number of
great postings on Corey Koskie.
Twins Geek
- John Bonnes is a member of our
NFL "Expert" Panel. He is an incredible writer on all Twins
topics. He too has written a lot on the Koskie situation, but I want
to mention
a Notes posting he wrote where he mentioned the name
Norihiro Nakamura, a free agent 3B from Japan. I read elsewhere
that he is deciding between the Twins and one other team as to who
to sign with.
Twins Chatter
- The Chatter Guys haven’t written for a couple days. College finals
would have a way of doing that! Monday, they
bid farewell to Corey Koskie as well.
The Baseball Boys
- Eric may not write as frequently, but when he does, it is great!
Aaron’s Baseball Blog
- Aaron is another collegiate finishing up his finals this week. He
is also the defending champion of the NFL
"Expert" Picks and is currently in 2nd place, one game
behind our leader this year. His
most recent article was on Corey Koskie as well. You know
Aaron also
writes
for The Hardball Times.
Stick and Ball Guy
- Talks about the Twins and Wolves the most, but willing to discuss
all kinds of topics. I enjoy the broad range!
Lay It On The Line
- Another site that discusses the Twins, Wolves and much, much more.
The 7th Angel
- I really enjoy this site too. Plenty on the Twins, but also talks
about TV, movies, music and much more. Another college student, this
one goes to Drake.
BrentNet
- Brent writes about all kinds
of topics. From sports, to movie reviews, video games, TV, and a lot
more. Be sure to also check out
his forums
where there are even more fun topics! Sign up and participate!
Are there other Twins blogs that you know of? I would be very
interested to learn of them!
E-mail me.
WOLVES THOUGHTS
If you remember, the Wolves pattern of late has seemed to be to win
a big game against a solid opponent one night and then they lose the
next night to a sub-par team. Tuesday night, the Wolves beat a solid
Portland Trailblazers team. Last night, the team went to Toronto and
lost to a bad Toronto Raptors team, 96-90.
Sam Mitchell spent 12 seasons with the Wolves and although
never a star, he was a solid contributor. Long-time Wolves fans will
remember that ugly 15 foot jumper that he took, and rarely missed!
Kevin Garnett gives Mitchell a lot of credit for teaching him
the right way to play the game of basketball and how to act.
Mitchell is now the head coach of the Raptors and dealing with a lot
of issues. Vince Carter is usually hurt and doesn’t really
want to be there. Mitchell actually benched Carter for a little
while in an attempt to make a point. Jalen Rose and others are
seeking a trade as well.
Chris Bosh scored a season-high 24 points and had 14
rebounds. But the hero for the Raptors last night was probably
Matt Bonner, the 2nd year redheaded, power forward from Florida.
Halfway through the fourth quarter, he fouled Kevin Garnett
hard and was given a flagrant foul. It was hard enough that Garnett
went after Bonner and had to be restrained by Sam Mitchell
and one of the referees. Latrell Sprewell, sticking up for
his teammate, pushed Bonner and Bonner pushed back. Sprewell and
Bonner were each given a technical foul and Bonner was ejected from
the game. His actions had the Toronto crowd to chant, "Bonner!
Bonner!" as he left the floor.
Garnett did lead the Wolves with 23 points (although, on just 9-27
shooting), 15 rebounds and 5 assists. Wally Szczerbiak had 15
points. Sam Cassell scored 14 points, and Latrell Sprewell
added 13 points.
Other NBA Notes…
A night after barely getting off the bench against the Wolves,
former Gopher center Joel Przybilla played 26 minutes and
scored 9 points with 7 rebounds in a loss to the Cleveland
Cavaliers.
Speaking of those Cavaliers, raise your hand if you thought that
Lebron James would be good again this year, but didn’t think he
would have made the leap that he has this year. Last year, as a
rookie, he averaged 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists.
Through one-quarter of this season, James is averaging 25.1 points,
6.7 rebounds and 6.8 assists a game! He also is averaging more
steals and blocked shots. He is shooting 50.6% from the field (up
from 41.7% a year ago), while his 3-point and free-throw percentages
are also up. The only number that has decreased this season for
James is his turnovers! I believe that he is one of the Top 10
players in the NBA right now, arguably in the Top 5!
On the flip-side is Carmelo Anthony. He has had brushes with
the law. Had a cameo on a DVD with him talking to some drug dealers.
He had the negative Olympic experience showing just how selfish he
is. Although his points per game are up (from 21.0 to 21.6), his
shooting percentage, 3-point percentage and free-throw shooting
percentage are all lower!
The second best rookie from the 2003 NBA Draft is, without question,
Miami’s Dwayne Wade. Teamed with Shaquille O’Neal,
Wade is playing incredibly well all-around. Last night, in a win
over the Wizards, Wade scored 29 points, dished out 9 assists and
grabbed 5 rebounds. On the season he is averaging 22.7 points, 7.2
assists and 5.7 rebounds a game.
Any other thoughts on the
Wolves or the NBA?
E-mail me.
CHRISTMAS
IDEAS
If you're
looking for a great way
to organize your family's Christmas Wish Lists, be sure to
go to this site, designed by a good friend of mine.
And as I
mentioned last week, I got my copy of
2004 Hardball Times Baseball Annual! It is
far more impressive than I ever would have thought. Great articles,
get writing, and very interesting and comprehensive statistics. It
is well worth picking up for yourself or as a Christmas gift for
family and friends who are baseball fans! By it
here.
If you have any thoughts,
opinions or questions on any topic, please feel free to
e-mail me. Have a
great Thursday!
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