The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

Mitt Romney is the governor of Massashusetts and this week his administration issued regulations designed to hinder stem cell research. Essentially they banned the creation of embryos for strictly research purposes. Romney said:

"I believe it crosses a very bright moral line to take sperm and eggs in the laboratory and start creating human life. It is Orwellian in its scope. In laboratories you could have trays of new embryos being created."

You could argue all day about stem cell research and the ethical issues involved. I'm not really interested in that at the moment. I'm more interested in the fact that he said it's Orwellian, when I don't think it really is. Orwell was way more about controlling the population and really taking the Socialism thing to the extreme. This isn't that.

In reading his quote immediately I thought that rather than Orwellian, really stem cell research is more Huxleyan. I mean "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley is really just about that. It's a society where the people are created in test tubes rather than sexually and the population doesn't really have a say in reproduction. It's also a statement about Socialism, but really applies much better to the stem cell argument. And the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the term "Orwellian" really doesn't apply at all.

A couple years ago Microsoft commissioned Ricky Gervais, the guy who created the British series "The Office", to make a training video for them while in character as David Brent. Obviously the American series of the same name starring Steve Carrell is based on that series and is produced by Gervais. Anyhow, the original British series is hysterical in much the same way as the American one is, some would argue even better, and the training videos got leaked somehow and ended up on the internet. Obviously it will be a short amount of time before they are removed from Google Videos by Microsoft, so try and watch them now before that happens, because they are funny.





Each is about 20 minutes long.

If you've read my blog in the past or if I know you, then you know that I've been trying to sell my dad's house for almost 2 years now with essentially little success. Well after all the downs and downs (very few ups), today we finally sold the house to someone and it's no longer hanging over my head. So now I have roughly three weeks of nothing hanging over my head until we have the baby and then that can hang over my head for the next 18 years. I'm going to live it up in these three weeks, trust me.

The reason I'm writing, though, is to express my frustration at morons who have managed to thrive in life. The short version of the story (usually I go for the long version, I know, but I'll do my best to condense) is that I have been paying the taxes and other various fees on the house with the plan that the portion that my sister owed would come off the top when we sold the house. The plan was pretty simple and my lawyer said it would be no problem. The problem is that both my lawyer and the buyers' lawyer were unable to solve a simple word problem and ended up giving both me and my sister checks for the wrong amount of money.

If you've never been to a closing bascially all the work is done beforehand by the lawyers and you go and sit at a table and sign papers that they put in front of you. Then they give you a check and you leave. It's a pretty passive endeavor for both the buyer and seller. So I know it's my fault for assuming that two lawyers were capable of doing math and I actually had a feeling that they had done it wrong and didn't say anything because I hadn't actually looked at any of the numbers until I walked out, but I'm really just enormously disappointed in America as a whole after this botched turn of events. Now I have to rely on my sister to send me a check for the difference (A significant amount of money) and explain to her that the two lawyers just did the math wrong.

Here's what they did (with the numbers changed). Let's say after all the fees and everything my sister and I grossed $20,000 for the house, which would leave $10,000 for each of us. Let's say that my sister owed me $3,000. The lawyer then said, "Ok, I'll write the smaller check so that it's $3,000 less than the larger check," and so wrote one check for $8,500 and the other for $11,500. Motherfucking whore. All she did was split the amount she owed me in half because the lady couldn't see the two different pieces separately. What needed to happen was that she should have said, "Ok the sister has $10,000 and she owes $3,000 so she'll get $7,000. The brother has $10,000 and is owed $3,000 more so he'll get $13,000." The checks should differ by twice the amount owed, once for the plus and once for the minus.

My point is that two days before I have to go back to work teaching abstract math to 14 year olds I have to deal with not one, but two professionals who are both not only lawyers, so presumably intelligent, but real estate lawyers who presumably deal with money and figures on a regular basis, who can't solve a real life problem involving division by 2 and then subtraction. Fuck me.

Brian's wedding was a hell of a good time. Beautiful day, beautiful bride, plenty of Journey music. All in all a memorable weekend.

You know the wedding was a good time from the before and after pictures. I stole some of these pictures from Lilah. Thanks Li.

And a special double before and after
Special Note for the record: The official over under on picture A (from Brian's wedding) turning into picture B (from Matt's wedding) is 24 years. Place your bets now. Just hold that beer a little higher, Matt. One more finger. You're there.
And the one artsy pic from the weekend.

If you want, you can look at the index of all the pictures from my camera.

All of the bitching and moaning was acceptable from August 1 through August 23, but now it has to end. I don't want to hear any fans of the Mets saying that Xavier Nady is a better option than Shawn Green in right field. The trade was definitely a panic move and it probably would have been relatively easy to get a reliever, even Roberto Hernandez, after clearing waivers and making a lesser trade. Omar screwed that one up because he thought he had to rush when he actually didn't. That's all well and good, but he's recitified the situation. You're not paying Green's salary and he's as good or better than Nady.

That's all, thank you.

Read Joe's Mcdonald's sign.

or you can

Make your own.

I had an epiphany yesterday. It struck me all at once that I would never see any of my students, not ghetto kids in a pejorative sense, but kids who all fit pretty neatly into the "urban youth" category, in this scenario that I witnessed yesterday.

I was in Starbucks in Englewood, NJ on my way back home. There were three kids who were probably like 17 years old in front of me and all were dressed like what you would imagine a thug would dress like. Baggy shorts, wife beaters and enormous tee shirts, non-blue Yankees hats askew on their heads. Then it was their turn on line.

Kid #1: "Lemme get a venti chai latte." (I think that's what he ordered.)
Kid #2: "Could I get a venti cinnamon mocchiato?"
Kid #3: "I'm not really sure what I want."
#2: "Do you want something hot or cold?"
#3: "Something hot...ahh, ok, lemme have a caramel light frappucino."
#2: "Yo, son, frappucino is cold. You want a macchiato. Macchiato is warm."
#3: "Oh, my bad. Venti caramel light macchiato."

I think the whole situation relative to what was expected and what actually transpired is pretty funny, but what really got me on the way home was that the kid ordered not a caramel macchiato, but a caramel *light* macchiato.

Actually, I've been watching this one for the first two seasons as well, and the third season of Project Runway is as good as ever. I love that show. I have no idea if I'm in their target demographic (probably not), or if other people like me are watching this show (if not then they should), but I can't get enough of it. Kathy loves it as much or more than I do, so this is obligatory viewing in my house every week.

I love that it's a reality show where people have to actually have skill and get to show it off to the audience. Hell's Kitchen or the Bravo Top Chef show are in the same vein, but you can't really taste the concoctions of the chefs, so it's not really the same. You can look at the outfits the designers made, though, and decide right away if you like them or not.

Also the drama that surrounds everyone on that show is great. Fashion design is a pretty artsy craft and seems to attract those artsy types of people, so the interplay between all of them is fantastic. I like to see the interpretations of the challenges and the working together in the sewing rooms. Most of the designers have a certain crazy streak in them, some more than others, and that together with what is probably the usual solitude of fashion design makes for interesting TV. What's also great is that it kindof reverses typical gender roles. The female designers tend to be the more sane ones and the, shall we say, fierceness of most of the male designers lends itself to a very fascinating type of melodrama. And that's no to imply a general homosexual sterotype, but I suppose it is to imply a rather specific stereotype of men who choose to be fashion designers. Though the couple of men on the show who are not homosexuals are often very intersting as well.

Easily the best part of the show is Tim Gunn. I love the way he talks. He sounds like a contrast between a mad scientist and a nervous Jewish mother. And since he's not in the typical reality show role of someone who's judging the contestants or making decisions on whether they stay or go, it's clear that he really cares about all of them and wants them to do well, and that's a good character to have in a reality show.

Everything about that show is entertaining, but my favorite moment of any of the three seasons so far is Santino doing his impression of Tim Gunn trying to reconcile his relationship with Andre in Red Lobster. To this day I can't pass a Red Lobster or talk about Red Lobster without going, "Awn-dray, let's not fight in Red Lobster."

My previous post was about how I learned to hit the ball straight. If you're interested in what an actual perfect golf swing looks like, then check this Nike add out that ran during the British Open. If you weren't watching the commercials of the British Open, you probably haven't seen it.

Tiger's swing in super slo-mo is pretty impressive.

UPDATE: Another good commercial from the British Open is Little Tiger winning the tournament. Imagine if Tiger did that victory dance now instead of the fist pump. Just imagine it.

Kindof selfishly, this post is really more for my reference than for you guys. I was at the driving range today and I figured out how to hit the ball straight, which is much harder than you would think it is if you've not played golf. So I want to write down how I did it for when I forget, which will most likely be the next time I go to play.

As usual, I'll tell the long version of the story. As I mentioned earlier, my friend Kiran gave me his old clubs when he got a new set. Farther back in the past someone had gifted him the clubs as well when he started playing. So my clubs are third hand and a little out of date with today's hyper technological clubs. For the most part I don't feel like it really affects my game. I'm a beginner and at this point my game needs to improve by doing things technically correct rather than trying to improve on the margins with more advanced equipment. The one exception to that I felt was noticeable was with my driver. I felt like I couldn't really drive the ball with the club and never really used it much when I would go play since I would hit the ball about the same distance as the 3 wood, the next club down, but much more erratically. If you can't drive the ball with the driver, then it's just a useless club, isn't it.

Today I went out to this golf store to look for a driver on the cheap side with a big ass club face. I found a cheap one with a big face so I decided to buy it and at the store that particular brand was on a special where if I bought a 3 woodalong with the driver, the 5 wood was free. So I was looking for one club that would be cheap (in golf terms that means under $100) and I ended up with 3 clubs for just under $100. I was pretty happy about that.

Like a nerd I went straight from the golf store to the driving range with my new clubs. At first it was just a disaster between my terrible swing and my trying to adjust to the new clubs. Then I had a realization that cured everything.

Just about everyone will tell you when you start to play golf to make sure you keep your front arm straight on the backswing. They say that most bad swings come from bending your arms at some point in the backswing. Up until now I've been concentrating on keeping my arm straight on the backswing and keeping my feet aligned properly. Everything else was different on every shot.

Two things came to me today that made my swing very consistent and very straight. The first is to keep your eye on the ball, which sounds like a stupid cliche, but is actually hard to do while your arms are swinging back and forth between your chin, which is pointed down looking at the ball. The second thing is what made all the difference, though. I realized at some poit that if I was keeping my arm straight on the backswing, then I ought to keep it stright when I swing through the ball as well. Once I did that, almost every ball went straight and long (that's what she said).

I came to this realization because I was trying to convince myself to do it the wrong way. I would change the way my arm would bend on every swing trying to hit it straight and compensate for a slice or an occasional hook and I would just end up pulling the club out of line with the ball. Not only does this cause slices, which I can feel even before I hit the ball now, but about half of the time it would cause me to just mis-hit the ball altogether. I would pop it up or hit a ground ball and it would rarely go straight.

I was trying to think through the swing and decide why, if I was starting with the club aligned with the ball, it was coming down on a different trajectory, thus hitting the ball on a different spot on the club than where I aligned it. Then I thought that if I'm bringing the club back, then I should bring it forward in the exact same way to keep it aligned with the ball. Therefore, if I'm not bending my arm on the way back, I shouldn't bend it on the way forward.

As soon as I made that change I hit the majority of my balls straight. And sometimes the other parts of my swing would fall apart, my head or my footwork, which alters my balance, but if I keep the arms straight it is often enough to compensate for those mistakes and keep the ball on a trajectory that is at least close to where I was aiming. This is a huge revelation. Before this any slight change in what was my previous swing would spell disaster.

So, as I say, I need to remember this next time I go play. If I write it here, I know I'll look it over at least a couple times. Of course, if any of you out there are having similar issues, you might want to think about the arm thing because it worked wonders for me.

Yesterday was American League, so today we'll do National. I think this is a much shorter story because there really are not many good teams in the National.

We'll start with the Mets, who are the class of the National League thus far. What I'm most impressed with is not their record, but the way they win games. They are never out of a game, and have had a bumch of comeback wins this year. It doesn't hurt that they play in the NL East, where the other 4 teams are fiarly inept. The Mets are good, but the Phillies, Braves, Marlins, and Nationals are, for the most part, also pretty bad, which helps the Mets win some games. The Mets have the best record in the National League, and each of the reast of the teams in their division is under .500. But the Mets have played well against every team in the National League, which is encouraging.

To date, the Mets have only lost 8 series, 2 of them to American League opponents, so that in itself is pretty impressive. Between Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya (who, incidentally, graduated from the high school I teach at, which is 5 minutes from Shea Stadium) the Mets have really managed to change the culture of that team. Over the past 5 years they Mets have been content with losing and have never really considered themselves contenders in their own division, let alone the NL or the league as a whole. Since Randoph/Minaya, they've turned into a team who trusts its GM to acquire quality guys and has followed their manager's lead in terms of showcasing a winning attitude.

They've made some great free agent pick ups in Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, and Paul Lo Duca. They've also picked up some real character guys from the free agent market in Jose Valentin, who has essentially taken over the second base position, and Endy Chavez who's a great outfielder and a pretty good hitter, especially in clutch situations as it turns out. Let's also not discount what Julio Franco brings to the team in the clubhouse and on the field, where he's hitting well despite his limited action.

They made a trade for Carlos Delgado the year after he turned them down to play for the same amount of money with the Marlins, and he's come in and played well. The Jae Seo for Duaner Sanchez trade was very good, even though I thought Seo had a ton of potential. Sanchez is now out for the year after separating his shoulder in a car crash, so their bullpen has to pick up the slack. I didn't like the Kris Benson for Jorge Julio trade at all, and it turns out that most of us were right. They've basically turned Kris Benson into El Duque, a trade up of about 10 years. Interestingly, though, the throw away guy in that trade, John Maine, has had two or three really good starts in a row for the Mets, including a complete game shutout a couple weeks ago.

Most impressively though, is how they've brought up the guys from their farm system in inserted them into the lineup at just the right time. Jose Reyes in reality probably came up a little too early a few years back when he was, I believe, 19 years old. He went through a couple seasons of mediocre play and lingering injuries. For the last two seasons, however, he's turned into a very good leadoff hitter, though his on base percentage could be higher, and one of the best shortstops in the National League, even the league as a whole. I don't think any infielder has a stronger arm than him. If he wasn't a shortstop, he could be one of the better center fielders in the game. David Wright just continues to deliver in clutch situations. He's got one of the best swings in the game. There's no wasted movement, even in his legs. His head is still the whole time, and he can hit to all fields. In fact, at least half of his home runs go to right-center field. He's hitting .311 right now and was leading the team in batting average until Paul Lo Duca decided to hit .410 in the month of July. He was also leading the team in RBIs until recently when Beltran has gone nuts over the last two weeks.

Reyes and Wright are their two main young players, but they've built on more than just them. They are in the process of working Lastings Milledge into their lineup, and have enough faith in Chavez and him to platoon in right field that they traded Xavier Nady for a couple relief pitchers to replace Duaner Sanchez. Milledge is very raw, and a little too cocky at this point, but he's clearly talented and will, in all likelihood, be the Mets every day left fielder next year. I'd like to see him shorten his swing a little bit, but I would assume the Mets hitting coaches have more of a say than I do on his plate approach.

The Mets were also recently forced, basically, to bring up their best pitching prospect, Mike Pelfrey, and insert him into the rotation. He's looked good in his 4 starts, but would probably be better served in the minor leagues this year.

The Mets will certainly make the playoffs, the only question is whether their pitching can bring them through to the pennant, and even less likely, the World Series. Pedro Martinez had a month and a half off, which is great for the team considering they actually managed to lengthen their lead in the division while he was out, so we can assume he'll be fresh through a playoff run. Tom Glavine has been solid this year and I like him in a playoff series. Incidentally, look for Glavine to be with the Mets next year when he will almost certainly pick up his 300th win, something no one saw coming after his terrible first season with the Mets. I'm inclined to think that El Duque will pitch well in the playoffs if he's given the opportunity, just given his history, and his craftiness, and going against a number 3 or 4 National League starter in a playoff series would have to be to his advantage. Trachsel is nothing if he's not consistent, and all you can ask in the regular season. As I say, I'd be inclined to slot in El Duque in his #3 slot in the playoffs, so I don't know what his role might be in October.

The rest of the season may be a showcase for Maine and Pelfrey to see what we've really got with those two guys, especially since it seems very likely that the Mets will win the division. The Phillies, the current second place team, essentailly gave up at the trade deadline by dealing Abreu and Lidle to the Yankees. The Braves just don't have enough this year, and the Marlins and Nationals are not going to make that run.

You could have made an argument that David Wright was the MVP of the National League in April and May. It wouldn't have been a winning argument, as Albert Pujols was a little better than everyone else in baseball during that time, but he's since been on the DL and the Cardinals have not been as impressive as the Mets. It's clear at this point in the season that the only MVP candidate in the NL is Carlos Beltran. He's leading the league in RBIs with 96 right now. Beltran is second in home runs with 33, behind only Ryan Howard with 36 and tied with Albert Pujols. Beltran is also a great center fielder, a very good base stealer, and has amazingly been the best player in the Mets lineup. I say amazingly given his mediocre 2005 and the fact that Carlos Delgado and David Wright both have the potential to be the driving force in the lineup.

What is a little distressing about Beltran is that he's hitting .348 on the road and only .216 at home. Also, 22 of his 33 home runs have come away from Shea. He's got 69 RBIs on the road and only 27 at home. To date they've played 46 home games and 48 away games. This disparity goes beyond just statistical chance. Something is definitely going on here either with the fans stressing him out or him just not liking Shea Stadium. I am officially concerned, especially given that the Mets will most likely have the home field advantage through their playoff run.

I love Paul Lo Duca at the number 2 spot. At the beginning of the season I was begging for Lo Duca to be moved down in the lineup past Cliff Floyd and for everyone else to jump a spot, putting Beltran 2, Delgado 3, Wright 4, and Floyd 5, but I was clearly wrong. Lo Duca simply does not strike out. He's got 21 Ks in 334 at bats this year, and unless I'm mistaken, he's got the best at bats to strike out ratio in the league. As I mentioned before, he's also been on a tear recently, hitting .410 in July. He's currently the team's batting average leader, at .314, and puts the ball in play just about every time. With Reyes in front of him on the basepaths, Lo Duca fits in perfectly at the number two spot.

So what about the league in general. As for individual guys, I'll repeat myself in saying that Beltran is my choice for league MVP at this moment. If all else stays equal and the Mets finish with the best record in the league, then I think he has to win it. The other cnadidates are Ryan Howard, who is having a great year for a bad team, and Albert Pujols who is having a great year for a very good team. It's entirely possible that Pujols will pull ahead in the race in August and September and if he does then he will win. He missed about three weeks of the season and he's still in the top 5 in both the RBI and HR races and is in the top 10 in batting average. So while Beltran is currently in the lead, Pujols may come away with it again. I don't see Ryan Howard winning it, but he's on the list. Other guys with an outside shot would be Lance Berkman, David Wright, and Chase Utley, but only if he can keep up this hitting streak into the 40s. Even then, Utley would have to stay red hot through September so people don't forget about him.

Let's take the Mets and the Cardinals as a given for the playoffs. You may not be ready to ink in the Cardinals, but they'll make it, so let's not argue. After them, my picks are going to be Cincinnati via the wild card and Arizona out of the NL Worst, I mean West. I'd like to say that San Diego will win the West, but I can't. Arizona has Brandon Webb pitching and some solid veteran guys who will probably pull them to victory in September. San Diego has some key injuries also and they'll probably fade at the end of the season. Colorado can't overcome the away from home disadvantage and the only ones who don't know that the Dodgers are finished is the Dodgers.

I think this would set up a New York vs. Cincinnati first round playoff matchup since New York vs. Arizona would be impossible because it would set up St. Louis vs. Cincinnati which is not allowed in the first round because they're in the same division. That was a convoluted sentence. I would have to assume that the Mets and Cardinals would meet for the pennant and though I could see the Cardinals winning, I would pick the Mets.

Bottom line, the NL pennant is the Mets' to lose at this point and the only thing that would lose it for them would be pitching matchups in the playoffs, either becasue of their short starting rotation or their bullpen, which is suddenly not as good without Duaner Sanchez. By the way, even though it's supposed to be pronounced doo-ahh-ner, it's way more fun to say dwayne-er.

Here's my basic wrap up of the American League through July, conveniently the trading deadline. Basically just trying to start up a little discussion, so let's get some comments here, people.

Let's start with the Yankees. It has become quite apparent that many Yankee fans are just posers. They don't really like baseball, nor do they understand the game. They just want to be able to say that they are Yankee fans. I guess that's been obvious for a while now, as the Yankees were the trendy team to like over the last decade, but it's just gotten out of hand this year. The Yankee posers are easy to spot because they are the ones booing A-Rod whenever he doesn't get a hit.

If you are under the impression that Alex Rodriguez has underachieved in the time he's been with the Yankees, and that you need to let him know by booing him, then you suck, and you should get a hobby other than going to Yankee games. In A-Rod's first year with the Yankees he had an "off season" and hit .286 with 36 HRs and 106 RBIs, a great year for anyone else. In his second year he hit .321 with 48 HRs and 130 RBIs and won the MVP award. This year he's noticably down from those figures, but is on pace to hit about 35 HRs and get 110 RBIs, again a year that would be great for most people. A-Rod is clearly very sensitive, and if you were a Yankee fan and were actually interested in the Yankees winning, you would encourage him through his slump and not push him deeper into it.

I'm not saying that you don't have to right to boo, but if you're booing A-Rod after every at bat, then you should be aware that you're doing more harm than good, and the Yankees will be worse off for it. A-Rod is not clutch, we know that, but hounding him until he delivers is not going to work. He will not ever deliver under that pressure.

It's not like A-Rod has left the team out in the cold. He's was the AL player of the month in May of *this year* and has gone cold since then, but is still, as I say, having a year that would be great for most players. Let my man play the game and in the end, the numbers will be there.

Here's my point, Jason Giambi is currently hitting .248 with 30HRs and 80 RBIs and everyone is in love with him. These numbers are essentially equal with A-Rod's, and Giambi is ridiculously overpaid as well, but we ain't booing Jason. We cheer him every time he hits a home run and just sit on our hands every time he hits a ground ball into the lefty shift, which is a lot more frequent than the HRs.

As for the Yankees as a whole, I really like where they are right now. They've had a lot of adversity and are still right in the mix for both the division and the wild card. If I were a Boston fan I would be upset that they didn't have a bigger lead in the division at this point in the year, especially given the Yankees penchant for having great Septembers and winning the division. I really like Melky Cabrera and I'm glad he's come on this season. Johnny Damon is solid at leadoff, Bernie Williams has done way more than you could have asked from him at the beginning of the season, and even the guys they brought in as replacements have been delivering of late. Aaron Guiel and Nick Green, both recent pickups have filled in well, and now they've filled in a lineup spot by picking up Bobby Abreu from the Phillies and maybe a rotation spot by grabbing Cory Lidle in the same deal. I like Andy Phillips at first base, and I wish he would hit a little more, but he's been hot and cold, not completely inept, which at least gives us some hope.

We've been too busy booing A-Rod to notice that Robinson Cano has been out for two months now with a hamstring injury. It doesn't hurt that Miguel Cairo is a way above average fill-in, but Cano has proven that he's a .320 hitter and would really add some punch to the bottom of the lineup these days.

At this point I really only have faith in Mike Mussina and Chien Ming Wang in the starting rotation. Both of these guys, though, are almost automatic, Wang especially in recent days (Edwina...had a feeling). Randy Johnson is more hot than cold, and he'll win maybe 16-18 games, which is all you can ask for a 42 year old guy who never really learned how to pitch. I'm hoping Lidle can bring some stability to the rotation, but we'll see how that works out. Jaret Wright is good for a solid 5 innigs every start, which is good if the bullpen is rested, but a disaster otherwise. I can't imagine that Sidney Ponson will add anything worthwhile.

I can see a scenario where Matsui and Sheffield come back before the end of the season, which would make their lineup Damon, Jeter, Giambi, A-Rod, Sheffield, Matsui, Abreu, Posada, Cano. That is really just unfair. Also keep in mind that they would have Melky Cabrera and Bernie Williams off the bench, along with Cairo, Guiel, Crosby, Green. In this scenario Sheffield would probably DH and Giambi would play first base. Abreu could DH and Sheffield could play right field, too. There would probably be some shaking up of the actual order to get the lefty/righty thing going, but shit, that's really just an All-Star lineup. Even if Shefield doesn't come back, the lineup is something akin to this with Bernie or Cabrera in one of those spots.

You could make an argument that Derek Jeter is the American League MVP this year. I love Derek Jeter, like most New Yorkers do, but I've always been realistic in my belief that Jeter was not necessarily the best player in the league, he was just a winner. This year, though, he's really carrying that team. And what's amazing is that he's doing it really quietly. My man is currently second in batting at .354, has 65 RBIs and 69 runs from the number 2 spot in the lineup. He might get 100 RBIs and 100 runs, which is one hell of an accomplishment. He's also got 21 stolen bases right now, and may end up with about 35. He's a solid shortstop, and a great leader.

Who are the other candidates for MVP in the American League? The one that jumps out is David Ortiz, who is tearing shit down from the plate, and clearly deserves the award from a batting standpoint. The problem is the he's Boston's DH, and doesn't play the field, and that will lose him some points with the guys who vote. Again, that's not to say he doesn't deserve it, but the reality is that he will lose some points. Jim Thome is another candidate, but is also a DH, and isn't even as deserving as David Ortiz, especially recently. I really can't think of another candidate. Maybe Jermaine Dye. Actually he's definitely a candidate, but if the White Sox fall apart, and it's looking like they might, then he'll fall out of contention. Joe Mauer in Minnesota made some noise with his batting average, but is down to .368, and as a catcher will break down at the end of the season. Justin Morneau in Minnesota is also having a really good year. He's got the numbers, but probably not the name recognition to win it without blowing people away.

I'm not really in favor of the MVP being a DH, but John Kruk made a good point last night. He said he's also not in favor of the DH winning it, but if his numbers are so far ahead of everyone else, then he's just got to win it. That may be the category David Ortiz falls into this year. I mean, he's already got 105 RBIs, versus Morneau's 88 in second place. He might get 170 RBIs, which would be absolutely sick. And he's also probably going to win 2/3 of the triple crown by a large margin. Not to mention his penchant for getting walk off RBIs (can you let Manny beat you once guys?).

At this point I see Detroit, Boston, New York, and Oakland in playoffs. I know that's a bit of a cop out because those are the 4 teams currently leading their divisions (and the Yankees are winning the wild card race), but that's really my feeling. I would guess that the Yankees are going to win the division by 2 or 3 games with a strong September, Boston will win the wild card over a slumping White Sox team. The real unknown here is Minnesota. Especially if the White Sox fall apart, they could easily get into wild card position and steal it from either Boston or New York. Minnesota has the best 1-2 starters in the league with Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano (though Mussina and Wang are up there). Detroit also has great pitching, which is what's carrying them right now.

So let's not be too surprised, Yankee fans, if they are on the outside looking in come October. I don't think it will happen, they're really starting play well, but it's definitely a possibility.

Oakland and Anaheim are essentially equal at this point, so if you told me that the Angels won that division instead of Oakland I woudln't be surprised.

Based on pitching, I'd have to assume that either Detroit of Minnesota would win the AL pennant. Minnesota will have a much harder time making the playoffs than winning once they get there given their short series pitching advantage. Detroit will definitely make the playoffs, but their lack of experience might hurt them once they get there. But their pitching is almost as strong as Minnesota. Along the same lines, the Yankees have a short series advantage going three deep with Mussina, Wang, and Johnson, who, even with all his ups and downs, is a great choice for a #3 starter in the playoffs.

The best playoff matchups may end up being impossible given that Detroit, Boston, New York, and Minnesota can't all make the playoffs. I don't want to discount the Whte Sox either, but I think Minnesota will catch them.

I guess that's it. I've spent a lot of time on this already. Bottom line, I like where the Yankees are, but it's really all up in the air right now. Minnesota is the team to watch. Let's hope that Boston starts to slump, which they have yet to do this year at all.