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Poison The Well - Parks and What You Meant To Me

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The Coolest Dude Around

Shoes and What You Meant to Me

Source.

In the Arab world, shoe flinging is a gesture of extreme disrespect. A notable occurrence of this gesture happened in Baghdad, Iraq in 2003. When U.S. forces pulled down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, many Iraqi detractors of Hussein threw their shoes at the fallen statue.

The shoe represents the lowest part of the body (the foot) and displaying or throwing a shoe at someone or something in Arab cultures denotes that the person or thing is "beneath them." Showing the bottom of one's feet or shoes (for example, putting one's feet up on a table or desk) in Arab cultures is considered an extreme insult. Examples include Iraqi citizens smacking torn-down posters of Saddam Hussein with their shoes, and the depiction of President of the United States George H. W. Bush on a tile mosaic of the floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel's lobby, forcing all visitors entering the hotel to walk on Bush's face to enter the hotel.

Pipe Dreams

Well, it's pretty much official; Carsten Charles Sabathia will sign a 7-year, $161 million contract to sign with the New York Yankees.

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

While the Yankees signing was always considered inevitable, the burst of media-driven hype about Sabathia and the San Francisco Giants in the days leading up to the signing had me believing that my Giants actually had a chance at inking the local lefty. I should have known better.

The deal is essentially a 3-year contract for $69 million. After the third year, Sabathia can opt out and become a free agent or re-up with the Yankees for four more years and $92 million. Unless mediocrity or injury strikes in the next three years, Sabathia will opt out to test what should be a healthier economic climate or negotiate a lucrative extension with New York if he so happens to find the situation palatable.

It's a good move for the Yankees, obviously, but also a necessary one. The team that will break the field at the new $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium only has three concrete options in the starting rotation: Sabathia, Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain. Wang and Chamberlain are both coming off injury-plagued seasons. Andy Pettitte is digging in his sanctimonious heels in an effort to retain his 2008 salary of $16 million, while the Yankees have reportedly offered a "take it or leave it" $10 million contract. Mike Mussina retired after his first 20-win season, proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he was never there for the Yankees when they really needed him. He goes home carrying a 5-7 postseason record with New York, accompanied by a 3.80 ERA. Zero titles. Rumors suggest that the Yankees have offered A.J. Burnett a 5-year deal worth $86 million. While I am a big fan of Burnett and his potential, that doesn't strike me as a very good risk to take. But whatever - it's the Yankees and money flows out on to River Avenue, regardless of economy or crisis. This is the team that just paid Carl Pavano $38 million over four years to do... what, exactly? Take the heat off the other players by monopolizing time on the back page of the tabloids?

Maybe in three years the Giants will make a real play for Sabathia. In three years, there will only (ONLY!) be two years and $46 million left on Barry Zito's contract. In three years, Matt Cain will be a free agent. In three years, we will have traded Jonathan Sanchez to a smarter team for the next Jorge Cantu. In three years, Tim Lincecum's arm will have fallen off.

And we'll still have Benjie Molina hitting clean-up (Benjie, you're the man, no disrespect, but you shouldn't be hitting clean-up). Man, I hope not.

Rebuilding is a real pain in the ass, but especially so when management waffles around. What's the deal Brian Sabean? Why are Aaron Rowand, Randy Winn, Benjie Molina and Dave Roberts still on the team? Why'd we just sign Edgar Renterria and two set-up men? I can approve of the veterans being on the squad if we're going to add some parts and take a shot at competing in the weakest division in baseball. But if you aren't going to sack up and do something serious to prop up the offense (or in C.C.'s case, seriously improve the pitching staff's ability to prevent runs), we might as well trade all of these veteran contracts for parts. And some prospects. Throw in some cash if you have to make the contracts palatable, but at this point both Winn and Molina are underpaid (another sign of baseball's financial health).

Or sign Randy Johnson. Offer Brad Penny an incentive-laden one-year deal. Sign Jason Giambi. Are we really going to go a full year with Travis Ishikawa? Trade Winn and sign Manny. Just do something while Lincecum is in one piece and Cain/Sanchez have some semblance of hope for the future. Or trade everybody and go with the kids. Just make a freaking decision!

Carsten Charles, Please Come Home

Jayson Stark, why do you tease me so?

The mustachioed low-brow baseball writer for ESPN has this nugget of knowledge in his most recent column:

It's been nearly three weeks since the Yankees offered CC Sabathia 140 million of their hard-earned YES Network/New Yankee Stadium dollars. You may have noticed that CC hasn't said yes.

Yet.

The Yankees still seem supremely confident that he will, one of these days, weeks or months. But as one GM said Wednesday, "If he wanted to go to the Yankees, he'd be a Yankee by now. Wouldn't he?"

Well, seems logical enough.

But suppose he doesn't become a Yankee. Conventional wisdom seems to be that if he doesn't, he'll be an Angel. Or a Dodger. Or a Brewer.

All good, solid conventional thinking. But conventional thinking isn't always correct thinking. So here's a word of caution: Don't rule out the Giants.

By conventional thinking, throwing yet another $100-whatever-million contract at yet another starting pitcher would seem to make about as much sense for the Giants as paving over McCovey Cove. But the more we poke around, the more we ask about the possibility that the Giants could make a play for CC, the more we hear this is still alive.

Sabathia has sent multiple signals that he would love to be a Giant. He loves the National League. He loves California. He loves the Bay Area in particular. He even loves the Warriors -- enough that he showed up at a Warriors game in person this week.

And no matter how much the Giants might want to prioritize offense this winter, if the most alluring free agent in the solar system keeps suggesting he wants to play for your team if you can make it worth his while, how can you not think about it?

So the Giants keep thinking. And the Giants keep talking. Talking to Sabathia's agent, Greg Genske. And talking among themselves to determine whether this is a road worth seriously driving.

Imagine a rotation of CC, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Barry Zito and Jonathan Sanchez. Looks like potentially the best rotation in baseball, assuming Zito can just rebound to mediocrity and Sanchez more closely resembles the Sanchez of the first half (8-5, 3.97 ERA) than the second half (1-7, 7.47).

And hot off the presses of the New York Daily News comes this piece of information:

Just how badly does CC Sabathia want to pitch at home in California? We may find out very soon.

Sources say the Giants are considering a play for Sabathia, although their only hope of landing the big lefthander would be for him to take an extreme hometown discount.

According to sources, the Giants are contemplating an offer of more than the $100 million the Brewers have bid for Sabathia for five years, but far less than the six years and $140 million the Yankees have offered.

Sabathia hails from Vallejo, Calif., roughly 30 miles outside of San Francisco.

Carsten Charles, please come home! Everyone knows of my fondness for the big black lefty from Vallejo. Everyone my age knew this guy was going to be a star, even back in high school. And now, the possibility that he could be a San Francisco Giant? My, my, my.

I will admit, after seeing Carsten Charles falter in the '07 playoffs once he got up to 260+ innings, I was wary. When C.C. started '08 by going 1-4 with 7.88 ERA and a 17/33 BB/K ratio in 32 IP, I thought... maybe the innings (1,406+ innings from 2001-2007) and weight have caught up to him.

Then he turned his season around, once again logging 260 innings for the year while going 16-6 with a 1.95 ERA and 42/218 BB/K ratio during May to October. He carried the Brewers to their first playoff appearance since 1982, making numerous starts on short rest and basically doing everything humanly possible to help the team, despite no long-term motivation or obligation to do so - after all, his arm was being abused to save Ned Yost & Doug Melvin's jobs (only half successful) while exposing himself to increased injury risk in his contract year. C.C. didn't care, he just said "give me the damn ball." This dude is a gamer.

The winter meetings start soon and C.C.'s contract situation may resolve itself by the end of those meetings, but anything less than a Giants signing of Sabathia would leave me despondent. (Sabathia/Lincecum - the two best pitchers in baseball!) We've made some shrewd acquisitions so far, signing Jeremy Affeldt, Bob Howry and Edgar Renteria to modest, short-term deals. If we can sign Sabathia and a middle-of-the-order bat, there's no reason the Giants can't win the NL West - after all, the shitty Dodgers won with 84 wins last year. With a vastly improved bullpen and rotation, aided by 50-100 more runs scored, there's no reason we couldn't jump from 72 wins to somewhere in the 80-85 win range.

Oh man, I can taste that bubbly. There's nothing quite like December optimism.

The Arcade Fire with David Bowie - Wake Up

Now This is Funny

Plaxico Burress is clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed. After a tumultuous four season run with the New York Giants, which has included a Super Bowl victory as well as nearly half a million dollars in total fines, Burress is probably headed to jail... for shooting himself in the leg with an illegal handgun.

Source.

A fuming Mayor Bloomberg said Monday he wants Giants player Plaxico Burress prosecuted "to the fullest extent of the law" for accidentally shooting himself in his leg with an illegal handgun.

The mayor also called on prosecutors to throw the book at officials of the Giants and New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell for reportedly not alerting police about the shooting immediately, as required by law.

The incident reportedly occurred early Saturday inside the crowded LQ nightclub in midtown. Sources said the loaded gun Burress was packing slipped down his pants leg and went off as he fumbled to grab it. He was struck in his right thigh.

"It's pretty hard to argue the guy didn't have a gun and that it wasn't loaded," said Bloomberg, lashing out at the Super Bowl receiver. "You've got bullet holes in and out to show that it was there."