Another Baseball Year In The Books

Today is the last day of the regular season and the bad news is that my Cleveland Indians are not in the playoffs...

the good news is that they won't finish in dead last place (like the Red Sox :P) and they won't lose 100 games, like the Cubs and Astros. What do the Indians have to do in the off-season to get better? Glad you asked because I'll go through that. What makes me an expert? Well, two 1st place finishes in both of my baseball Fantasy Leagues must mean I know something about baseball!

First, though, I want to give a shout-out to Pittsburgh Pirates fans who suffered through a 7-21 September, which not only knocked them out of playoff contention, but assured the Pirates of a 20th consecutive losing season. It'll get better. I promise.

As for the Indians, they need to let go and start over. Travis Hafner, you gave us some good years but when you can't even stay in the line-up for a full year at DH then it's time to go. The Indians can use the 13 million they're paying you to get a quality Free Agent first baseman.

Speaking of First Basemen, Casey Kotchman had a good year in 2011 for Tampa Bay (.306/10/48 in 146 games) and I thought he would be a good fit for the Indians so I was happy when they signed him. It just didn't work out for Casey, who stands at .229/12/55 in 142 games. Casey will be a Free Agent in 2013 but, as I said, there will be better options. The Indians can try to re-sign him but most assuredly he'll want more than the 3 million he's making this year and you're gambling that he'll have a bounce-back year. I would pass.

Grady Sizemore. If he doesn't retire I'll be surprised. He's too brittle. The Indians cut him and then re-signed him at a lower price, hoping he would be able to contribute down the stretch. His back and knees are shot. Let him go, Cleveland.

Between the three guys I mentioned above, the Indians have now freed up 21 million. All they really need in the field is a power-hitting, decent fielding first baseman. The rest goes to starting pitching.

Justin Masterson is eligible for arbitration so he's looking at a raise despite a sub-par year and Ubaldo Jimenez is locked up for 5.75 million. The Indians could try to trade Ubaldo and get at least one blue-chip prospect in return, preferably two. Chances are the Indians will hold on to him and try to make it work considering we gave up two high prospects for him. If he has another bad year, look for the Indians to try and move him at the trading deadline or, barring that, buy him out at the end of the year.

As for the rest of the rotation; Zach McAllister is a young arm with promise, I'm not too excited about Corey Kluber and Fausto Carmona  Roberto Hernandez, Josh Tomlin had Tommy John surgery so he'll miss at least half of next season and Jeanmar Gomez looked horrible this year. The Indians have to be looking at adding a Starter from the Free Agent pool.

I'm not sure about upcoming Free Agents yet but when the list comes out I'll get into more detail. The Indians have the beginnings of a good team. A team possible of making the playoffs but they need to be smart and not keep bringing back players that are perpetually hurt because of some sense of loyalty. This is a business. Let's treat it as such.

Next up: The playoff field!

Science Footnote: A couple of posts ago I wondered about how fast a star collapses into a black hole. Well, as far as I can tell no one knows exactly how fast because it's never been observed. The consensus, though, is that it happens "very quickly."
Use your own judgement.

Out There...

122 AU's from Earth (that's 11 billion, 346 million miles) and traveling at 38,120 mph, or 635 miles per minute, Voyager 1 is the farthest man-made object from Earth. It's also on the verge of leaving our solar system and flying through interstellar space.

Think about it. Think about getting in your car and driving a mile and then imagine being able to travel 635 miles in a minute! No turns, no lights, no stop signs. Just open space. Then try and imagine just how far 11 billion miles is! Then realize that even at that distance our sun still has some influence!

Even though Voyager 1 isn't heading toward any particular star, at its current speed, it would take Voyager 1 73,775 years to reach Proxima Centauri, the closest star next to our sun. That's over 700 centuries!

There are two reasons I bring this up; 1) It gives you an idea how BIG our Universe really is (Hell, it gives you an idea of how big our Galaxy is!) and 2) It certainly explains why we haven't been visited by any ET's and probably never will be (barring any miracles from unknown super-advanced cultures). I've been pondering alien civilizations on other planets and, while certainly feasible, they probably aren't any more advanced than we are.

Bear with me here.

The Earth is 4.5 billion years old and this is how advanced we are now (if you want to call this "advanced"). Since the life of our star (the sun) is only about 10 billion years, it would have to take a planet that's at least 5 to 7 billion years old and for their advanced thinking culture to have been around for at least a billion years longer than we have to even have a shot at interstellar travel. It's possible BUT, due to the size of the Galaxy as mentioned above, it could still take millions of years, if not tens of millions, for any alien race to find us, contact us and reach us.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

I'm sure that I created quite a stir in my last post by stating that I don't believe in God. I just have to share this video, that's below, which explains the Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism. There are 15 parts or so and, I believe, all are on youtube. The guy did a great job putting the ten minute episodes together and made it entertaining but, man, does he talk fast. Listen close and pay attention.

I had to laugh when I saw that Victoria's Secret removed its Asian-inspired lingerie from its website because bloggers deemed it racist (bloggers, really?)! Picture below.

Apparently, this little outfit comes with a fan and chopsticks and certain bloggers got all up in arms that it depicts Asian women as sex-starved things that are just there for the enjoyment of males.

I don't think that's what it depicts. It's lingerie! Women wear it to turn their man on! Right? Am I missing something here? Of course, all bloggers that were complaining were, you guessed it, females. Nuff said!

For the record, the movies Lincoln and Wreck-It Ralph look real good.

It's been a while....

    I noticed the other day that it's been almost two years since my last blog post. It went quick. A lot of stuff has happened in the two years since my last post about Wikileaks.
   
    Maybe you were beginning to think I was abducted by some shadowy covert operation, who tortured me for information for several months before I escaped and skirted death several times before outwitting my opponents and exposing them for the villains they really are!

    No, not even close.

    Chalk it up to a little laziness, a little bit of life and a little bit of Writing work that took up a bunch of time and then collapsed faster then a dying star (how fast do stars collapse into black holes? Info for another post!).

    I've decided to start writing more prose work and publish it as e-books through Amazon (Thanks, Tom!). If I can sell a short story through normal channels every now and then, so much the better. I'll keep everyone posted.

    Add to that my normal work schedule, trying to get to the gym three times a week and doing stuff around the house, I'm going to need to be organized about this. Right now, I'm looking at one post per week here so check back every week or so.

    I ran across this article last night. The Star Trek-like warp drive is more likely than scientists ever thought and that's good news. Our sun won't last forever. We need to be a space-faring race in order to survive and, who knows, maybe by being a space-faring race we'll actually realize what Star Trek has been trying to tell us for 40+ years; that human beings, regardless of race, can work together for the common good of all.

    Another interesting article I came across is this one. A scrap of ancient papyrus that mentions Jesus' wife. That's right, wife. I don't see what the big deal is. It makes sense that Jesus would have a wife. He was a human being with the same urges and needs that all human beings have. No, I don't believe that he was the literal Son of God. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that "God" exists.

    Which brings me to another article I came across! A lot of good stuff happening on the Science front!

    I'm sure many people who read this post will be up-in-arms about my non-belief in God. In my mind, it just doesn't make sense. Yes, I still catch myself saying things like, "God bless" or "God only knows" but I chalk that up to my Catholic upbringing. Does my personal belief that "God" doesn't exist make me an evil person? Of course not. I'm still me. A nice guy with a wacky sense of humor with an affinity for comic books, British humor and cartoons.

    Talk to you soon.

WikiLeaks: The Truth or A World Danger?

I'd like to say up front that I always thought Julian Assange's rape charge was something Sweden did under pressure from America because of WikiLeaks. You can believe that World Governments act this way or not but it's one Hell of a coincidence, isn't it?

The problem I have is that Mr. Assange was supposedly getting these highly classified cables from some Private in the Army. Let me say that again; A Private in the Army. A Private? Really?? Do Private's normally have access to documents that are this classified? Yeah. No, I'm not sure I'm buying that one either. There's obviously a leak high on the command ladder and this poor Private is going to be the fall guy.

Hey, remember that TV show The Fall Guy with Lee Majors? Shedding his Six Million Dollar Man image to play a Hollywood Stuntman who...solves...crimes. He did have a kick ass truck, from what I remember. I'm digressing, though.

Jemima Khan had this to say about Assange's rape charge:
"Assange has not even been charged, let alone convicted. Swedish prosecutors do not have to produce any evidence that he committed the alleged sexual offences to justify the warrant. On the basis of the allegations that I heard read out in court, the evidence seems feeble, but I concede that I don't know the full facts. Neither does Assange. Stockholm's chief prosecutor, Eva Finne, who heard the evidence against Assange in August, threw the case out of court, saying: 'I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape.'"

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore has lended Julian Assange a variety of help stating, "We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead," Moore wrote on his website. "Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again."

Love him or hate him, the guy has a point.

Our final bite comes from John Ziegler (pictured below):

"I agree that there are important speech issues involved here, but I think it really has far more to do with the fact that Hollywood types love celebrity, danger and anti-Americanism. Assange now represents all three of those."

Huh?? Danger and Anti-Americanism? Why because he published documents about things that American Politicians said about other World Leaders?? Yeah, don't see that, either.

The moral of this story is don't write down unflattering things about other people! Just say it quietly behind their back. THAT'S the American way!!

On the lighter side; Chernobyl is going to be opened to tourists next year!
Yeah, that's where I want to go. What, do they give you a free geiger counter when you book your trip? "It perfectly safe. Pay no attention to two-headed dog." I'll pass.

My Prediction

For those who read my blog about what the Cleveland Indians had to do to contend, let's take a look at what actually happened...and what didn't.

The pitching had to be there and, so far, it really hasn't. Fausto Carmona HAS returned to 2007 form posting an 11-8 record, 3.78 ERA and really only having about 3 or 4 non-quality starts. Mitch Talbot has been a nice surprise but walks way too many (not surprising for a young guy). Jake Westbrook has come back from major elbow surgery and contributed innings but not quality innings. Surprisingly, the Cardinals traded for him and his first start for them was pretty good so maybe a league change will work.
Not much complaint about the bullpen. They've been steady and I was actually happy to see them trade Kerry Wood to the Yankees. He blew too many games for my liking.

Well, the Indians didn't trade Travis Hafner but he still isn't hitting. .267, 9, 33 in the fourth and fifth spot just doesn't get it done. I'm sure there were no teams willing to take on Hafner's contract but when the year ends they may have to eat the rest and release him. Use the money to try and get Carl Crawford!

They needed to start hot and finish hot. A 9-13 April wouldn't necessarily constitute starting hot, especially when followed by a 9-18 May. Injuries are starting to pile up again. Santana and Hafner just went on the DL and even with all that the Indians could leapfrog out of last place over the Royals. They're 5-6 in the last 11. Playing .500 ball the rest of the way WILL get them out of the basement and allow them to play spoiler down the stretch with their last 16 games against divisional opponents.

They've got a super-young lineup but the promise is there, as long as the front office does the right thing. Let's see how the rest of the year goes. Go Tribe!