Best Player in Baseball?

Sauce-Sages,

So unless you live in isolation (Wyoming? The Ukraine?) you heard about Roy Halladay tossing a no no last night against the Redlegs. It was an impressive performance to say the least. Halladay's gem brings up an interesting argument, can a pitcher be the best player in baseball? I have listed a couple pro and con points below. Post your opinion in the comments for this article and add to the conversation,

Pro- Pitchers can single handedly control a game. They set the tone for the game, an impressive pitching performance can inspire good hitting and effective defense. Good pitching generally beats good hitting. Halladay beat the Reds by himself last night driving in a run and not giving up any hits. The Phillies had a very mediocre hitting performance last night and still won in a convincing fashion. Halladay not only affected the outcome of last nights game, but he set the tone for the series.

Con- Starters only play once every 5 games, relievers pitch at most every other game and only for an inning at a time. Pitchers are throwing fewer and fewer innings as Old Hoss Radbourn (678 IP in 1884) laughs in his grave. It seems that at most a pitcher could win 25 games in the current era of baseball. Pitchers also need defensive support and runs scored to be successful. Position players are paid more.

So what do you think, is a guy like Halladay more valuable than Albert Pujols?

Ahh! Local Sports Personalities in Commercials!

Bad locally made advertisements provide a steady stream of viral videos to the American public. The only thing better is when these videos contain sports 'personalities.' Below is a link to the Cincinnati Enquirer's list of the 5 worst local commercials featuring Reds players.

Bronson, Pete, Jr, say it aint so!

The best parts are the Kool Aid guy busting through the scoreboard and then making the catch with the worst looking over sized brown plastic glove of all time

In Bill We Trust?

Let me start by saying that as a Pats fan, I know I haven't had much to complain about the past 10 years and to the Bills and Lions fans out there, I'll prbably sound like an ungrateful whiny b*tch. But this move sure is a head scratcher.

Its no secret that Moss was upset with his contract and wanted a new deal. After a thrashing of the Bungles in week 1, he publicly voiced his displeasure but he also claimed he wanted to finish his career as a Patriot. Rumor has it that he asked for a trade the following day. At this point, put yourself in Belichick's shoes. His best deep threat is unhappy and has a history of quitting on teams if he doesn't get his way. Bill has three options: try to work an extension with Moss; tell him to play out the season and that they will address the issue in February, risking Moss qutting on the team; trade him and get something for him. As a fan, I wouldve preferred one of the first 2. I dont think Brady would have let Moss mail it in. Even if Moss ended up quitting, the Pats could've handled it like they handled Adalius Thomas last year.

For the past 10 or so years Pats fans have more or less blindly followed Bill's personnell decisions. When Lawyer Milloy was cut, there was some backlash but Belichick knew that Rodney Harrison could ball and made the tough choice cutting the fan favorite (and half of The Lawfirm with Ty Law.) Belichick brought guys in who were either washed up (Junior Seau) or given up on by other organizations (Mike Vrabel with the Steelers anyone?) and made them into legitimate starters on one of the best defenses in the NFL. At that point he was immune to any criticism.

However, recently his moves have not panned out. They drafted Laurence Maroney in the 1st round in 2006. Maroney had a promising rookie year in a timeshare with Corey Dillon. However fumbles, injuries, and overall just running like a pussy forced the Pats to trade him to Denver 2 weeks ago. Adalius Thomas was a disaster as were Duane Starks and Joey Galloway. The tipping point may have come last year when they traded Richard Seymour to the Raiders. They got a 1st rounder for this years draft (Mark Ingram? AJ Green?) but the defense was never the same after his departure.

Bill must believe one of the following to justify the Moss move: 1)Brandon Tate can replace Moss as a legitimate deep threat to open up space for Welker, Edelman, etc. 2)The offense will be more effective running TE sets with Hernandez, Crumpler, and Gronk. The money saved on Moss will then be used to sign holdout guard Logan Mankins. 3) The Pats have enough draft picks to trade for Chargers holdout Vincent Jackson.

Whatever it is, it better be worth potentially seeing Moss light up rookie CB Devin McCourty on Halloween when the Vikes visit Gillette.

Full Moon over Minneapolis?

This would be the most highly anticipated homecoming since Rick Reilly's show (which blows). Randy Moss (not the NASCAR guy), looks set to be return to the town where he made a name for himself scoring touchdowns and hitting traffic cops. All sources say that today is the "target" for this trade to go down. What this means for the rest of the NFL is that Father Time under center has an extremely viable target in Moss to complement Harvin, Shiancoe and Sidney Rice when he returns. Being an NFC North fan, in particular, a Lions fan I can only see this trade further solidifying our winless divisional record and league-worst defense.

Oh well, if Randy Moss fake-moons a crowd again, I hope its Detroit because that means people were actually at the game.

Stay classy Sausages,

- KA

New Video

Recently, the Ohio Bobcat has had a monopoly on the mascot fighting media. However, everyone's friend the Oregon Duck laid a huge beatdown on Houston's mascot a few years back. Little known (made up) fact is that the man in the costume was a young LaMichael James.

My favorite moment from the video is the duck's post fight celebratory high five with the fan

-Regan

Coming Up

Stay tuned for our MLB postseason preview and awards picks. Until then take a look at this week's "Get him outta there he blows" Player of the Week as nominated by 'The Boy' Pat 'Ficus' Falvey: Chris Capuano

Baseball Playoff Predictions

What up Sausages?

Do you have that October playoff baseball fever yet? Fall air hitting you with hardball nostalgia? Well TSR is drinking the October Kool Aid and is ready to see which teams are clutch and which teams will choke in the clutch like Gunner Staal in D2.

TSR's three writers have made a bet to go along with their predictions. The writer who does the worst must take a picture of himself in a rival sports team's gear and post it on TSR. Anyways here are Timmy, KA, and Regans predictions for the playoffs and post season awards,

KA
ALDS: Rays over Rangers in 4 / Yankees over Twins in 4
NLDS: Phillies over Reds in 5 / Giants over Braves in 4
ALCS: Rays over Yankees in 6
NLCS: Phillies over Giants in 6
WS: Rays over Phillies in 6

MVP: Miguel Cabrera & Joey Votto
Cy Young: (His boy) David Price & Roy Doc Halladay
Rookie of the Year: Austin Jackson & Buster Posey
Manager of the Year: Ron Washington & Dusty Baker

Regan

ALDS: Rangers over Rays in 5/ Twins over Yankees in 4
NLDS: Phillies over Reds in 5/Giants over Braves in 3
ALCS: Rangers over Twins in 6
NLCS: Giants over Phillies in 5
WS: Rangers over Giants in 6

MVP: Russell Branyan & Joey Votto (just kidding, AL is Josh Hamilton)
Cy Young: King Felix & Doc Halladay
ROY: Neftali Feliz & Buster Posey
Manager of the Year: Ron Washington & Bud Black

Timmy/Himmy

ALDS: Rays over Rangers in 4; Yanks over Twins in 5
NLCS: Phillies sweep Reds; Braves over Giants in 5
ALCS: Rays over Yanks in 7
NLCS: Phillies over Braves in 5
WS: Phillies over Rays in 6

Awards
MVP: Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Gonzalez
Cy Young: CC Sabathia and Doc Halladay
ROY: Austin Jackson and Jaime Garcia
Manager of the Year: Ron Washington and Bobby Cox

If you disagree with us than post it in the comments!