Congrats, ACC Champions!!!

Congratulations to the Virginia baseball team, unlikely ACC Baseball Champions. And everyone said this was supposed to be a rebuilding year, too. It’s been my pleasure watching you and covering you all season. 

[PS: I know what's coming. Someone's going to criticize this post because it's about college baseball, which most people presume is stupid and unimportant because ESPN doesn't cover it 24/7. Well, how many of you bashers have been to a game? Ever followed a team for a couple weeks or seen every game in a good ACC Baseball series? It works for the same reason college basketball works: It's less about egos and more about teams. Did you know that the greatest Cinderella story in college sports history happened in baseball just last year? I read the Washington Post sports section every day, and the entire series got just a paragraph mention. Ridiculous. College baseball needs more love. I predict that the next MLB commissioner will put in an age limit like the NBA has, and there will be an upswing in interest in the college game.]

This is why I hate baseball “analysts”

Top of the 6th inning, Fightin Phils: 2, Dodgers: 3. Runners on 2nd and 3rd and a wild pitch. Ryan Howard comes home to score and easily beats the tag/throw.

Tim McCarver: “And Ryan Howard came very close to not touching the plate on that play.”

FOX shows the replay. Howard executes a nice slide just in case and reaches his hand out to slap the plate. Clearly touches it. Not even close to not touching the plate.
Tim McCarver = whatanoob.

Scott Boras strikes again

Scott Boras is pretty amazing. Sure, tons of people dislike him, his attitude, his approach, his (fill in the blank), but you gotta respect the guy for making crazy cash. He has negotiated some of the worst contracts in professional sports history, topped by Barry Zito’s $126 million/7 year contract (yes, that Barry Zito – the one who was moved to the bullpen because his performance was so god awful). He also worked out A-Rod’s $275 million/10 year deal, along with Johnny Damon’s $52 million/4 year contract. That’s gotta translate into hefty change for Boras, considering he probably earns about 10% per transaction (pure speculation). But Boras’s most recent work is seemingly going unnoticed. He negotiated a $36.2 million/2 year contract for Andruw Jones, making him the 5th highest paid player in the league (in terms of average salary) (foxnews).

ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?!?! ANDRUW “STRIKEOUT” JONES!?!?!?!? That is garbage. One of Andruw Jones’ best years was in 2005 when he finished 2nd in the MVP voting. His batting average = in the 260′s. I don’t think Andruw Jones would crack most top 20 lists. From the Braves alone, I’d put Smoltz, Hudson, Chipper, McCann, and possibly even Francoeur and Kelly Johnson all ahead of Andruw Jones in terms of value.

Now supporters would stop this blasphemy and point out Andruw’s amazing defensive abilities. They would note his million gold gloves and proudly rest their case. (Then they would laud Derek Jeter’s defensive prowess…and …yup.) But with the way Jones’ is playing right now, he’d better be fielding all 9 positions at once.

Here are his current stats: .170/.277/.268. Nope, that’s not a typo. The player with the 5th highest average salary in the league has a batting average of .170. Well that’s fine I suppose, I mean he always had a low average but hit for power and drove in a lot of runs right? Not so much. Jones has 1 homerun, and 5 RBI’s. ON THE SEASON.
(Note – this is not a personal attack on Jones; I would take $36.2 million for 2 years every time as well. I probably wouldn’t tell a team to lower the amount of money it was offering me. But still)