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By Jimmy, 8/27/2009 8:52 am

The writing was on the wall after the portly pitcher was bumped from the rotation in lieu of a rookie who was pitching for the Portland Seadogs only last month.  Neither Brad Penny nor the organization really knew where to go from here, so the news that Penny requested his own release comes as a bit of a relief.  No distractions, no awkwardness, no hard feelings.  Just a handshake and a goodbye.

I’m not really doing cartwheels here; I’ll admit that I enjoyed watching him pitch (sometimes).  He had a fastball that could light up a radar gun and a knee-buckling curveball.  Alas, both pitches proved to be hittable in the American League.

Penny won’t have much difficulty catching on elsewhere.  I feel confident in saying that he’s just as good, if not better, that the 5th starter on at least 20 MLB teams.

Godspeed, my starlet banging friend.

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By Jimmy,

Ortiz hits a walk off HR (AP)

It’s been a while since we’ve seen David Ortiz circle the bases and end up in the middle of a raucous mob of celebrating teammates at home plate.  Roughly two years, if you can believe that.  After watching it go down last night, it seemed like only yesterday when such a scene was considered an ordinary occurrence.

David “The Natural” Ortiz.

His OPS since June 6th (Dry Eye Day)? .930

His training regimen?  Who cares.

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By Jimmy, 8/25/2009 2:02 pm

According to several reputable sources, the Boston Red Sox have acquired reliever Billy Wagner from the Mets for two players to be named later.

I’m completely floored by this stunning turn of events.  From what I was reading only hours ago, it seemed like the bridge between the two sides wasn’t just burnt, it was hit with a hydrogen bomb.  This will be interesting.

Link and additional details to follow.

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By Jimmy,

I’m going to list 5 players, along with a brief summary of each player’s MLB resume.  One of these guys doesn’t really belong in the same group as the others, based on their accomplishments and effectiveness as a player.  Let’s see if you can figure out which one I’m referring to.

• Wily Mo Pena – .253./307./.447 in 1,725 plate appearances.  Averages 150 Ks per 162 games.  Defensively, he is terrible.  Currently out of baseball at age 27.
• Daniel Cabrera – In his 6 year career, he has led the league in earned runs once, walks twice, wild pitches twice, and hit batsmen once.  He has been below average in every season.  Currently has a 14.40 ERA in AAA.
• Elijah Dukes – Hitting .233/.292/.388 this year.  After the Nationals acquired Dukes, they felt the need to hire an ex-cop for a new job within the organization titled “Special Assistant: Player Concerns”.  That person’s sole function is to follow Dukes around and prevent him from getting himself arrested.
• J.D. Drew – An All-Star right fielder with a career .282/.391/.500 line in 4,357 plate appearances.  His career OPS+ is 128, 1 point below that of Carl Yastrzemski.  Along with his offensive skills, he’s one of the best defensive right fielders in the league (14.5 UZR/150 this season). Has played in 107 games this year, the 5th most on the Red Sox roster.
• Mike MacDougal – A reliever who, while effective, averages 32 innings pitched per season.  Walks nearly 5 hitters per 9 innings.

Okay, I think we can agree that one player sort of stands out from the rest.  Why did I just list those 5 players?  According to a recent SI poll of 380 current Major League Baseball players, here are the top 5 biggest underachievers in the game:

1. Wily Mo Pena
2. Daniel Cabrera
3. Elijah Dukes
4. J.D. Drew
5. Mike MacDougal

So, given J.D. Drew’s performance throughout his career, this group is basically saying he’s an underachiever for not being the next Roberto Clemente.  They are critiquing him for being a very good player, instead of blossoming into an inner circle Hall of Famer.  Man, talk about high expectations.

To be fair, this is the same group of people who brought us Derek Jeter’s Gold Glove in a year in which his UZR was double digit negative, and Raffy Palmeiro’s 1B Gold Glove after he played about one fifth of the season at that position.  Sometimes, the players are the quickest to get hoodwinked by the idiotic groupthink, the Flavor-Aid mentality.  That’s what we’re seeing here.  It’s not really their fault; they can only watch 1 game on a typical night (the one they happen to be playing in).  So, when they hear morons in radio and print repeating the tired “J.D. Drew is lazy/heartless/whatever” mantra, what else are they supposed to believe if they don’t actually see his contributions to the field?

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By Jimmy,

We have two pitchers, both with good stuff, and both with their fair share of problems.  One is older, out of shape, and relies too heavily on his fastball.  The other is young and promising, but displays what could be viewed as an abysmal lack of confidence.  Pick your poison.

Clay Buchholz was conjuring up memories of 2008 with a performance that the WEEI crowd might call “gutless” but I’ll simply refer to as “poor”.  Luckily, the baseball gods were in a generous mood, as a Jose Contreras error allowed the Sox to post a 6-run inning in the third.

"Ow. There goes my fibula. And my tibia. And my clavicle. And my scapula. And my femur. And my patella. And my metatarsals. And my....ass bone."

The error itself was just very fortunate.  David Ortiz was apparently conceding the out as he slowly cruised down the first base line after weakly tapping a 3-0 pitch to the mound, but lo and behold, he apparently found an extra gear and increased his running speed two-fold after seeing Contrares boot the ball.  Yes, Papi’s initial approach is what some might refer to as (GASP) not hustling.  Let’s just be grateful that he doesn’t wear dreadlocks, or all hell would be breaking loose right now.

Hey, it’s another ugly win, but I’ll take it.  With the Rangers and Yankees playing each other, I found myself in an emotional dilemma for about 2.5 seconds, and then quietly decided that I will be happy if the Rangers lose the majority of those games.  The Sox can separate themselves from Texas in these next few weeks, which could make September a little less miserable for us all.

Next up – we’ll take a look at some promising news from minor league rehab land.

Comments (2)

By Jimmy, 8/24/2009 8:34 am

Zack Greinke
Felix Hernandez
Roy Halladay
Justin Verlander
Josh Beckett

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By Jimmy, 8/20/2009 11:42 am

After a prolonged hiatus which spanned the majority of the 2009 regular season, iconic color analyst Jerry Remy will return to the booth tomorrow night.

Over the years, Remy has received lots of criticism  in certain circles, most of which is aimed at his relentless “Remdawg” brand salesmanship, his interactions with the anthropomorphic “Wally the Green Monster” doll that sits in a small white chair in the broadcast booth, and other  such gimmicks and tangents.  However, after witnessing the parade of replacement analysts circulated by NESN over the past few months, I think we can all agree at one thing: Remy is decent at what he does, and it’s definitely not an easy job.

So, how have his replacements fared thus far?

Dennis Eckersley
Grade: B

Dennis is one of the more popular personalities in NESN’s pre/post game studio.  He’s known as a down-to-earth guy who tells it like is with little regard to politics, and most people, including me, like that about him.  However, once he started broadcasting the actual games, we were all a little nervous about the rate at which he was using certain buzzwords , and how that would obviously distract the easily-amused Don Orsillo (note: I like Don, and I’m not using “easily amused” as an insult, like in the Nirvana song.  He’s just a jolly guy; nothing wrong with that).  However, Eck seems to be uttering “cheese” and “hair” less frequently these days, which is great.  He’s new to this gig, and appears to be learning on the job.  I hope he’s the guy who fills in for most of Remy’s future absences.

Sean Casey
Grade: C-

I’m going to go easy on Casey, since he cured my leprosy while I was meandering around a Lawrence soup kitchen back in 2006.  Casey seems like a smart enough guy, but he’s a little too goofy for media work, I think.  He’s like a more intelligent, coherent version of Rex Hudler.  Casey is living proof that you can’t just pluck any clean-cut “nice guy” from MLB retirement and drop him in a studio.  Maybe, like Eckersley, he can improve, but I think the problem is his voice and his demeanor, which aren’t characteristics that you can change easily.

Frank Viola
Grade: D+

With the thick Northeast accent, the mumbling, the 1987 vintage mustache, and the gold chain, he’s esentially the baseball version of Fred Smerlas.  One day, I expect to hear him on The Big Show on WEEI, telling me how J.D. Drew does not have “hot”.

Dave Roberts
Grade: F

Wow.  Does he look uncomfortable up there, or what?  You want him to do better, but it just seems like this is the last type of career he should pursue.  It’s the Sean Casey effect magnified by 10: sometimes being popular isn’t enough to cut it.

Lenny Clarke
Grade: Z

I made up a new grade for Lenny.  It’s in a dimension beyond “F”.  Lenny is a 350-pound time capsule from the Boston busing crisis era, and damn proud of it.  A fat, loud, disgusting, belligerent townie.  He laughs extremely hard at his own jokes, and his laughter always stands alone.  Lenny is at this best when he is playing himself on shows such as “Rescue Me”, and at his worst on live television, or anywhere else an audience may be present.  Really, he doesn’t belong in the same category as the guys listed above, but I wanted to create an opportunity for myself to rant, so there you have it.

I think Boston was hit with a reality check over the past few months.  Even if you are of the opinion that Jerry Remy is mediocre at what he does, “mediocre” is difficult to find in a world where Joe Morgan is considered the gold standard.

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By Jimmy,

In an odd turn of events, Clay Buchholz (he of the astronomical ERA last season) did what Cy Young Award contender Josh Beckett could not: tame the mighty Blue Jays in their roost.

Here’s an interesting little factoid for you to digest: on average, Buchholz’s fastball last night was exactly the same speed as Beckett’s, right up to 1/100th of a mile per hour.  They also topped out at the exact same speed, with nearly identical strike percentages and very similar break physics (data courtesy of Brooks Baseball):

These guys went to battle with nearly the same fastball, and produced very, very different results.  We can’t really blame this one on Jason Varitek’s absence now, can we?  There difference can likely be found in their timing and command of secondary pitches (Buchholz’s changeup and Beckett’s curveball).  What do we make of this?  I’d say this is can be interpreted as a reason to be impressed/optimistic with Buchholz, as opposed to being worried about Beckett (who appeared to have decent stuff, but simply had shitty command).

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By Jimmy, 8/19/2009 9:04 am

For a game to be labeled “The Ugliest Win of 2009″, it needs to be extraordinarily ugly, because the 2009 Red Sox have played their fair share of stinkers.  It needs to be uglier than that dog who wins the “ugliest dog” contests, the one who resembles a microwaved gremlin.  Uglier than that British reality TV star who looks like John Candy in drag.  Yes, last night’s victory surpasses all of that on the scale of hideousness.

Things Nick Green Can't Do, Volume XVII

The usually dominant trio of Josh Beckett, Dan Bard, and Jonathan Papelbon combined for 7.1 innings, 13 hits, 4 walks, and 9 earned runs.  Thankfully, some timely offense coupled with some untimely Toronto errors allowed the Red Sox to reclaim a share of the Wild Card with the Texas Rangers.

If you didn’t realize how old this team is, hopefully you do now.  On top of the usual issues Terry Francona has with trying to keep Mike Lowell from wandering aimlessly around the room during Wheel of Fortune, we now learn that Jason Varitek was a late scratch with a “stiff neck”.  The ol’ rheumatis, I reckon.  Yup, I guess that means rain tomorrow night.  Seriously, as skeptical as I am of Varitek’s god-like status as a handler of pitchers, I cannot completely dismiss the theory that his absence had at least something to do with one of the most dominant pitchers in the game having one of the worst outings of his career.  I think there will be a period of adjustment for Victor Martinez as he slowly usurps Varitek’s regular catching duties over the next month and a half, one that hopefully won’t lead to too many more outings like last night.

NOTES:

• Dustin Pedroia is on paternity leave.  Not sure when he’ll be back in the lineup.
• Rocco Baldelli will make one more rehab appearance for Pawtucket before returning from the DL, hopefully bringing the Brian Anderson Era to a merciful end.
• John Smoltz appears to be on the verge of joining Julio Lugo on the St. Louis Cardinals.  That’s the first place St. Louis Cardinals.  If the Sox don’t make the playoffs, the irony of watching these two on national TV in October will be about as enjoyable as ripping out my eyeballs and cooking them in a fondue pot.

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By Jimmy, 8/17/2009 9:21 am

As suspected, the Red Sox didn’t exactly set the league afire during the league-mandated unpaid vacation levied upon their best hitter.  Exacerbating their misery has been the absence of J.D. Drew (groin strain).  Their replacements, Brian Anderson and Casey Kotchman, have combined to go 3 for 18 as replacements for Drew and Youkilis.

Hey there, champ. Whats that? Beat the Red Sox for you? Why, sure thing, champ. Sure thing.

Anderson, in particular, was painful to watch yesterday afternoon.  His approach in a key 8th-inning at bat was just heinous.  Full count, tying and go-ahead runs on base, one out in the inning, and he’s facing a reliever with a 2.7 K/BB ratio.  With #9 punch-and-judy hitting Alex Gonzalez on deck, Anderson has to be trying to make solid contact here at the very least.  Instead, before C.J. Wilson even threw his pitch, Anderson made up his mind that he was going to take all the way on anything close, and hope for ball 4.  Of course, the 90 MPH fastball sailed in at the knees, and despite Anderson immediately beginning his triumphant jog towards first base, the umpire, correctly, wrung him up and killed Boston’s best chance to tie the game.

With a career .287 on-base percentage, Anderson has to be the last guy you want to see at the plate in a key situation.  Hopefully, J.D. Drew’s groin strain isn’t serious.

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By Jimmy, 8/14/2009 1:31 pm

Believe it or not, the Red Sox have just acquired a shortstop who doesn’t suck.

The Boston Globe is reporting the the Red Sox have traded for Alex Gonzalez, the defensive wizard who played SS for the Sox in back in 2006.

We haven’t heard what the Sox are sending Cincinnati in return for Gonzalez, but my initial reaction to this move is loud, frantic applause.  Jed Lowrie is nowhere near the player he was in 2008, and Nick Green’s defensive abilities appear to have been honed at events sponsored by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, so this move fills a gaping hole in the middle of the infield, hopefully at minimal cost.

Offensively, Gonzalez in about on par with Nick Green.  He’s a #9 hitter, plain and simple.  However, the comparison ends there.  While playing for the Red Sox, Gonalez boasted an amazing 16.9 UZR/150, and has a solid 4.0 thus far this year.

He is only 32-years-old, and comes with a $6 million team option for 2010.

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By Jimmy, 8/12/2009 4:54 pm

Per WEEI (a radio station that will have a brand new competitor starting at 1pm tomorrow afternoon), Kevin Youkilis has been suspended for 5 games, and will begin his suspension immediately, starting tonight against Detroit.

Youkilis will miss the following games:

• Tigers tonight at home (Armando Galarraga)
• Tigers tomorrow at home (Justin Verlander)
• Rangers Friday @ Arlington (Kevin Millwood)
• Rangers Saturday @ Arlington (Derek Holland)
• Rangers Sunday @ Arlington (Dustin Nippert)

The games against Verlander and Millwood will be especially tough without the best hitter in the lineup for the Red Sox, but I think it’s a decent idea to get this over with as soon as possible.  Do it while Lowell is still able to move (somewhat) and is still swinging the bat well.

Also, a tip of the cap goes to MLB Dean of Doom Bob Watson for what seems to be a fair enough punishment.  Five games is pretty much the minimum suspension I expected Youkilis to receive.  No complaints here.

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By Jimmy,

Never underestimate the rallying effect a Furious Bald Guy will have on an organization, whether it’s a labor union, a Los Angeles police precinct, or even a Major League Baseball team.

After Rick Porcello “unintentionally” his Kevin Youkilis right between the numbers on the first pitch, Youkilis went into raging bull mode, charged the mound, and hugged the pitcher for a bit before a mutual tackle ended the melee.  While this move might seem inspiring, it will probably cost the Red Sox their best hitter for a period of five games or more.

Stuffing clumps of grass down the shirt of your opponent results in automatic victory, according to ancient Greek wrestling rules.

Look, both sides of this were in the wrong in some way or another, but Rick Porcello is a textbook New Jersey douchebag.  This was apparent when we witnessed his reaction to getting tossed; pretending to be “held back” while spitting and swearing uncontrollably.  He’s textbook.  Porcello should just embrace who he is, and start using a Dodge Charger with a “Tap Out” bumper sticker to transport him to and from the pitcher’s mound.

Did I enjoy Youk chasing him around the infield for a bit?  Sure.  But the consequences are going to hurt a team with some tendencies to enter prolonged offensive lapses.

Anyway, the Sox hit a few bombs after the brawl and ended up beating the Tigers.  The true stories of the game were Mike Lowell, who had two home runs, and Junichi Tazawa, who showed incredible poise for a guy making his first MLB start amidst a very heated environment (more on Tazawa later today).  Lowell is beginning to look more and more like a platoon partner for David Ortiz at the very least.

Given Lowell’s lack of range at 3B, it’s difficult to insert him into the lineup in that capacity for any regular amount of games, but at some point his defensive shortcomings will be offset by the offensive improvement he brings over Jason Varitek.

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By Jimmy, 8/11/2009 8:43 am

I’ll admit this straight away; when the Tigers tied this game in the 7th inning, I went to sleep fully confident that the Red Sox would lose their 7th straight game.  As Barry Bonds once said to a bloodthirsty group of reporters; “I’m tired.  I’m just tired.”

Watching bad baseball is really, really exhausting, isn’t it?  During that 15 inning loss to the Yankees, I was delirious and hallucinating.  After the 5 hour mark, I thought I was “Bib Fortuna”, Jabba the Hutt’s henchman.  I was afraid to walk over the center of my living room, for fear that my obese cat would pull a lever and sacrifice me to the rancor.

We’ve been spoiled over the past 2 years (my entire stint writing on this blog), and sometimes we take success for granted.  This is hard to do when the Red Sox are playing like a jar of spoiled mayonnaise.  So, this result was a nice little surprise to wake up to in the morning.

"WASSSSAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

I managed to catch Brad Penny’s outing, and despite a hiccup here and there, he looked fine.  As much heat as he’s received over the season, he’s been just fine for a #5 starter (his original purpose).  The problem is, Penny is now our #3 starter.  However, with Daisuke Matsuzaka throwing a bullpen session and Tim Wakefield throwing a simulated game, reinforcements could be on the way.

A solid win against a solid team.  Thank you sir, may I have another?

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By Jimmy, 8/10/2009 9:12 am

Hard throwing rookie Daniel Bard arrived at the abyss of his young MLB career last night, yielding an 8th inning lead to the Yankees and cementing a humiliating sweep at the hands of the Bronx juggernaut.

"Wait a minute...I'm the steroid user here. Why don't MY forearms look like that?"

Fittingly, it was the big money players who did the most damage in the series; C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Alex Rodriguez, and of course…Mark Teixeira.  With the struggles of guys like John Smoltz and Brad Penny, you could almost hear a message being whispered to the Sox front office: forget the “creative” approach next winter.  Spend, spend, spend like a rapper after his first record deal.  The creative approach will work when you’re lucky, but the smart money should always be on the $200 million dollar machine.

I’m not saying that we should be pressing that big red Panic Button just yet, but, let’s just say the admiral and the first mate have taken their keychains of their necks and are awaiting orders from the Pentagon.

If you’re looking for a silver lining in this nuclear meltdown of a weekend, here are a few:

• Beckett and Lester are pitching as well as anyone in baseball.
• Victor Martinez is looking like a terrific pick up.
• Despite this tailspin, the Sox are still tied for the Wildcard lead.
• Ehhh, that’s about it.  Things are quite shitty right now.

We’ll see how this team handles themselves at home against the Detroit Tigers (first place in the AL Central), and the Texas Rangers (tied for the Wildcard lead).  Two tough teams, not quite as strong as New York.

It will be a very telling week.

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By Jimmy, 8/7/2009 4:53 pm

The 2009 John Smoltz experiment will go down in the books as an abject failure.  Per Amalie Benjamin’s Twitter feed, the Red Sox have designated the future Hall of Famer for assignment, effectively ending his Red Sox tenure, and quite possibly, his major league career.

Bummer.  He seems like he still has some life left in his arm.  His velocity is decent and his slider looks nasty at times, but his command in entirely in the shitter.  If I were running the show, I’d send him on some sort of phantom Matsuzaka-esque DL stint and let him throw a couple more starts against AAA competition.  Maybe he’d object to that sort of thing, which is why we’re now in this position.

I assume it’s either Michael Bowden or Junichi Tazawa who will jump into the rotation until Wakefield returns to the fold.  Either way, it’s likely an improvement.

40 innings, 25 extra-base hits allowed, an 8.32 ERA.  After all the hype, the implosion of John Smoltz was both shocking and depressing.  There’s not much else to say.

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By Jimmy,

That two game series against Tampa Bay was quick and humiliating; it was an undignified fart in the middle of the 2009 MLB schedule that we will soon mercifully forget.  This four game series against the Yankees, however, is shaping up to be more of a prolonged torture session, one that Red Sox fans will remember for some time.

Throwing stones from a glass house. A large, overpriced, publicly funded glass house.

The team is beaten and battered, missing several of the key players used to rack up those 8 straight wins against the Yanks.  The criminally ineffective John Smoltz and Billy Traber were used as cannon fodder for the surging New York lineup, hence the lopsided score in the first game.

Today, with Josh Beckett on the mound, there is at least a chance for some redemption before Clay Buchholz is thrown to the wolves on Saturday.

Some more good news: you remember Jed Lowrie’s surgically repaired wrist?  Yeah, it’s experiencing “numbness and tingling”.  Not the good kind of numbness in tingling, like the kind I get when I snort model airplane glue every Tuesday morning.  This is the bad kind you get, when one or more of your bones/tendons are not functioning as they should.

So, brace yourself for some more playing time at SS for Nick Green (ugh).

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By Jimmy, 8/5/2009 9:03 am

A lot of folks are going to blame this one on a combination of bullpen failures and managerial mistakes, but I don’t think the return of Boston’s offensive ineptitude should slip under the radar here.

This Red Sox lineup is making a decent pitcher look much, much better than he actually is. The hitters have seen him enough times; this simply should not be happening anymore. J.D. Drew and David Ortiz, our major left-handed weapons, came up especially small in a combined 0-9 effort.

For some reason, I’m not entirely confident in the team’s chances tonight against David Price, a hard-throwing left-handed rookie.

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By Jimmy, 8/4/2009 7:29 am

For those of us hoping the Sox would acquire San Diego slugger Adrian Gonzalez, learning of the Victor Martinez deal initially felt like winning $10 on a lottery ticket.  You’re somewhat happy about it, but it’s kind of a pain to go to the store to cash it in.  In this metaphor, “going to the store to cash it in” refers to giving up on one of the most promising and well-liked pitchers on the team, as well as a decent left-handed minor league pitching prospect.

Let’s look at this deal:

Red Sox get: 1B/C Victor Martinez – earning $5.8 million this year, with a $7 million club option for 2010 (which will undoubtedly be exercised).

Red Sox lose: RP Justin Masterson, SP Nick Hagadone, SP Bryan Price

While I was initially a huge Masterson supporter and still believe he has significant value as a reliever, it was becoming more and more apparent that left-handed hitters are kryptonite to him.  All throughout his minor league and major league career, his L/R splits have been extreme.  This will likely keep him from achieving a large amount of success as a starting pitcher.  It’s difficult to win a lot of games when guys like Gabe Gross morph into Justin Morneau when batting against you.

Nick Hagadone is the wildcard of the deal.  He’s a hard-throwing left-handed prospect with a nasty slider, and is slowly working his way up the chain after undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing over a year.  He’s been absolutely toying with the Single-A Greenville hitters (.149 batting average against), but he has yet to a) throw a significant amount of innings, and b) face age-appropriate competition.  Next season will be the key year in his professional development. Bryan Price has some potential, but nothing really close to Hagadone’s ceiling.

Victor Martinez is a versatile slugger who can be used as a catcher and a first baseman.  While there has been much noise made about his lousy throwing arm, note that he managed to gun down 37% attempted base-stealers last season, and is having a slightly better year than Varitek in this department (which, admittedly, is not saying much at all).

Martinez will probably be a big hit with a lot of folks here due to his rare characteristic: he’s a power hitter who doesn’t strike out very often.  Martinez, amazingly, has never K’d more than 80 times in one season.  He’s a switch hitter who, unlike our other catcher, actually should be a switch hitter (a career OPS difference of 33 points from both sides of the plate).

If Terry Francona plays his cards right, V-Mart should start in roughly 95% of the remaining games on the schedule, giving Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek occasional days off.  His bat will bring a significant improvement over the likes of Lowell and Varitek, and the cost was a commodity that the Red Sox have plenty of.

Verdict: Thumbs-up

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By Jimmy, 8/3/2009 9:12 am

We’ve had a very eventful weekend.  You’ll have to excuse my tardiness on covering certain subjects.  I’m just back from Baltimore, and I feel as if Jared Remy had me in a sleeper hold for the past 10 minutes.

Coming later:

• Our verdict on the V-Mart, Kotchman deals
• A closer look at Josh Reddick
• Revisiting the Power Rankings
• Other stuff