The big market teams are making it rain on some hos (in this case "hos" refers to free agents).

The baseball off-season has been slow to develop, unless your team was already awesome.  The Yanks got Granderson; the Sawx got Lackey and Mike Cameron; the Phillies traded one ace to Seattle (Lee) for another from Toronto (Halladay); the Angels got Matsui; the Mets will probably land Jason Bay; the Cardinals are desperate to re-sign Holliday.

What is the significance of these moves other than to their respective teams?  The good teams got better, and they’re all big markets except the one with the best player on the planet [Note: the Mets were not good last year, but they are a big market team with a high payroll].  That’s how it goes in recession-era sports.  Want more proof?  Here are the major NBA off-season moves:

LA got Artest; the Spurs got RJ; Dallas got Matrix; the Magic got VC; Atlanta got Crawford; the Celtics got Sheed; Houston got Ariza; and the Cavs got Shaq.

The parallels are all there.  If your team was in contention or close to it, they got better.  If they weren’t, they got worse.  Why?  Winning teams in big markets sell tickets.  Thus they can afford to raise payroll (or in the case of the NBA, afford to pay the luxury tax for exceeding the salary cap).  All of those teams who did/will contend are from big markets with two exceptions 1) Orlando is a small market, but only has one team that is well-supported and contends; and 2) the Cavs/Cardinals: both desperate to hang onto the best player of their respective sports (LeBron & Pujols) with the fear that they will leave town for a team with a higher payroll who can pay for other top players and win titles thus ultimately devastating the team and the city’s economy and perhaps lead to the team having to leave town.

Yes, these are the economics of sports in the current recession.  Yes, the playoffs of both sports will be immensely entertaining due to the arms race of talent signings and trades.  The good teams got better.  The bad teams got worse.  And we may see a series of teams having to relocate in the next few years as a result.  Just like in real life over the last decade, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Oh, and then there’s my Chicago teams which are in the 3rd biggest market and have tons of money, and yet all of them suck (except for the Blackhawks, but nobody cares about hockey anyway).  At least my fantasy teams are worth rooting for.

Are you young, mentally unstable, and a coworker of Steve Phillips? If so, Steve Phillips wants to f#ck you, and then tell you things about his personal life that he definitely shouldn't.

Yesterday I ran a story about an incredibly dumb thing Steve Phillips said on the air.  Well apparently his stupidity isn’t just limited to things he says in TV about baseball.  This morning ESPN suspended him for an affair he had with a 22 year old production assistant that led to her stalking him, his wife, and his teenage son.  His wife has filed for divorce and ESPN will likely fire him.  This isn’t the first time Phillips has been suspended for having an affair with a coworker, either.  He was suspended from his job as the Mets’ GM in 1998 after sleeping with an employee who later sued the team for sexual harassment, and he’s admitted to other affairs in the past.  I could take several angle with this, but I’m going to go the a$$hole rout.  He chose to sleep with a mentally unstable 22 year old (who isn’t even attractive) who then went on to wreak havoc in his marriage, career, and relationship with his kids.  That sounds about on par with his decision-making skills as a GM.  Steve Phillips, everybody!  Let’s give him a round of applause!

Steve Phillips enjoys talking to himself, mostly because he 's the only one who thinks he's worth listening to.

ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips proved why he doesn’t work for any teams after being fired by the Mets.  Phillips just said on air that he didn’t think the Yankees should start CC Sabathia today because starters on short rest in the playoffs historically have a worse record than when they start on a full 5 day rest.  HOWEVER, the stat that he used to prove this was that these aces on short rest still had a record above .500.  He said that manager Joe Girardi should instead start 5th starter Chad Gaudin, a guy who was cut by TWO different teams earlier this season.

So according to Phillips, it’s better to start a terrible pitcher in a key playoff game than to start a guy on short rest who will still give them a better chance to win than anyone else on their roster, just not as good a chance as he would if he were well-rested.  Way to go Steve.  Way to show us why you’re sitting in a TV studio making idiotic and irrational statements instead of being in a team’s front office turning these horrible ideas into actual baseball decisions.

Yeah, THAT’LL solve your problems, Omar Minaya.  What’s he gonna do?  Keep all the other players from getting fat by hogging all the sunflower seeds for himself?  Didn’t the Mets organization read Twan’s piece on performance killing drugs?  I mean, I know that Doc Ellis threw a no-hitter on acid, but I still don’t think it’s a good idea to be stocking your bullpen full of drug users.  What’s that?  It’s just his name?  Oh.  Well, I stand by my statements regardless.

Probably just one of many who are using PEDs in basketball.

The Orlando Magic’s Rashard Lewis tested positive for elevated testosterone levels yesterday and was suspended by the league for 10 games.  Lewis claims it was from an over the counter supplement that he took, which must have had a banned substance in it.  It seems pretty believable, and it does happen.  But are we just being naive when it come to PEDs in basketball compared to other sports? What if we heard that statement from a baseball player?  Would we believe them?  Shouldn’t we be looking further into this issue?

Kirk Radomski, the former Mets clubhouse employee who was wrapped up in PED distribution for years, alleged that there are NBA players taking HGH, and he doesn’t know why that wasn’t being looked into.  Well, someone did look into it.  In this column fromFebruary 2009,  Mark Woods of the UKs Guardian (probably the most respected newspaper on Earth) goes on to explain the loopholes in the NBA’s testing system, the lighter penalties for infractions than in other sports, and the naivete of the argument that steroids and HGH wouldn’t benefit NBA players.  Basically, this positive test is just the tip of the NBA/PED iceberg.  But is anyone going to seriously look under the surface of the water to see how big the rest of that iceberg is?  I seriously doubt it.  I think, just like baseball, it will take a major BALCO-like scandal to get the ball rolling.

Francisco is seriously considering not inviting Luis to his birthday party.

Sorry Frankie, but you knew what you were getting into. The Mets are the opposite of Mark Teixeira hustling from first on a routine pop-up to win the game. That would never even occur to them. Honestly, can you even picture Jose Reyes doing that?

Every season the Mets begin with a seemingly (although sometimes only to themselves) well-built team. And every year that team sinks. Sometimes sooner rather than later. The overpaid, underwhelming, and possibly drunk (Jeremy says he’s a drinker) Luis Castillo is the current captain of this sinking ship.

Look at the picture. Even the mighty K-Rod is starting to thinking about it:

“Why did I sign here? Why doesn’t Ryan Church play? Oliver Perez? Really? Why did they have to sign Gary? I hate Gary. John Maine? Really? Why is David not getting better? Where’s that fast guy whose skills are already declining? Where is fucking Pedro? Tim Redding? Really? I bet its warm in L.A. or Anaheim today. Can Johan pitch everyday? Why? Why? WHY?”