What if people could draft fictional players to your favorite baseball team? Who would you draft?

The question was posed to me, if the Cubs could draft Billy Chapel would they?

Billy Chapel is the character played by Kevin Costner In for the Love of the Game. Chapel is one of the greatest pitchers of all time in the movie. He has almost every accomplishment in baseball expect for 300 wins and a perfect game. *Spoiler* in the end of the movie, Chapel throws a perfect game and then retires.

Like any great sports movie hero, Chapel must overcome an injury sustained will working with some wood. He would damage a nerve in his hand, and not be able to feel his pitches after a certain time. Now IF Chapel was real, of course the Cubs would draft him. He would have been the best Cubs pitcher of all time. He might not have thrown the perfect game, because in real life, it is the Cubs after all. Sadly, the Cubs cannot draft Billy Chapel because he is not real.

If I were running the Cubs and I could draft a fictional character from a movie. I would not draft Billy Chapel. I would draft Roy Hobbs from the Natural. Hobbs was played by Robert Redford. In the movie, Hobbs could do it all: run, hit, and field with ease. Hobbs would knock the cover off the ball, literally. *Spoiler* the movie ends, with Hobbs hitting a walk homerun into the light at Knights field to win the game. Hobbs like Chapel had an injury to deal with. Hobbs had been shot with silver bullet by a mad woman.


That is my selection on the matter. What are yours?

A solution to a problem

There has been speculation for the last month the Baltimore Orioles will trade Brian Roberts to the Chicago Cubs for a combination of prospects. This blog will assume that the deal will be completed and the Cubs will receive Brian Roberts for Jason Marquis, Sean Gallagher, and a no-name prospect.

With Brian Roberts now in the fold, the Cubs have some questions that need to be answered.
1st. Brian Roberts only plays 2nd base, which is currently occupied by Mark De Rosa. Based on some reading that I have done, the Cubs would like to move Mark De Rosa around the diamond like a super utility man. Last season DeRosa's numbers were: 293 BA, 10 HRs, and 72 RBI's. If DeRosa does not have a permanent position, how will this affect his offensive numbers? DeRosa last season played 2nd base, shortstop, 1st base, and left field. The majority of DeRosa's games were played at 2nd base, With DeRosa on the bench, which bench player from last season is down in the minors?

2nd. Roberts would be brought in to be the 2nd basemen, but more importantly the leadoff man. Roberts' numbers from last year were: 290 BA, 12 HRs, and 57 RBIs. With Roberts as the leadoff man, where does Alfonso Soriano hit? Most people believe that Soriano SHOULD be a middle of the order guy anyways, however, when Soriano bats in the middle of the order his batting numbers significantly decrease.

3rd. This last point is made under the assumption that the Cubs have to trade Marquis and Sean Gallagher for Roberts, who pitches in the back end of the rotation for the Cubs? Most signs point to Jon Lieber and Ryan Dempster filling out the back end of the rotation. Sean Marshall would begin the season at AAA Iowa, while Kevin Hart would be the Cubs long reliever.

A trade for Roberts was supposed to be the answer for the Cubs; instead the trade would just raise more questions.

Haren's the best deal

There has been a lot of major trades made this offseason, most recently completed was the Eric Bedard deal. I believe that best trade offseason was not the Johan Santana Deal, not the M. Cabrera and Willis deal, not the Nick Swisher deal and not the recently completed Eric Bedard deal.

I will compare the Haren deal to the Santana and Bedard deals.

It was the Dan Haren deal between Oakland A's and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The reason I say the Haren deal over the others is because of the money involved and the age of Haren. Haren is making 4 million this season, 5.5 next season, and TEAM option of 6.75 in 2010.
Haren also is only 27 years old, which is a year younger than Bedard and Santana. Bedard is asking for 6 million in arbitration this year, while Santana is making 19 million this season.

In the deal for Haren, Arizona did have to give some their top notch prospects to the A's, but so did the Mets and Mariners to get their guys. The Mets also had to pay Santana 123.1 million over the next 6 years, while the Mariners will have to pay Bedard more Haren to keep him during his arbitration years, and afterwards sign him to a Santana like deal.

Haren's numbers are also going to better with a transition to the NL west. Last season, Haren was 15-9 with ERA of 3.07, and he also pitched 222.2 innings. While Santana numbers were 15-13 with an ERA 3.33 and pitched 209.0 innings. Santana's number will also improve because of his transition to the NL, but the word on Santana is his better days are behind him, while Haren appears to be entering his prime. Bedard will also see improvement in his numbers when he switches from the hitter friendly Camden Yards to Safeco Field. Bedard numbers for last season were 13-5 with an ERA of 3.16 and 182 innings.

Santana and Bedard will give their teams more strikeouts than Haren, but in my mind judging by the numbers, the Diamondbacks got the best deal this offseason.

A Giant effort ends the run at PERFECTION!

I am very pleased that Giants defeated the New England Patriots in Super bowl 42. I was so tired of the Talk about PERFECTION and dynasty! I think when you watch two weeks of TV saying that you are going to win with no problem, you start to feel confident.


The Patriots were insulted that Giants receiver Plaxico Burress dared to say they would only score 17 points in this game. The Giants defense would make good on Plaxico's guarantee.


The main reason the Giants defeated the Patriots were as followed: 1. ELI's play, 2. receiver play and 3. The whole defense playing well.


1. Eli Manning was the better quarterback in the SUPERBOWL and probably the best quarterback since week 17 of the regular season. He was an escape artist late in the game and made extraordinary play after extraordinary play. ELI deserved the MVP, because he had ice water pumping through his veins all game.


2. David Tyre made two of the biggest catches in his life, a late third down conversion after ELI escaped the blitz, and a touchdown pass. Steve Smith made a big catch and got out bounds in the 4th. Plaxico caught the game winning touchdown.


3. In the first meeting between the Patriots and Giants, Tom Brady was hit TWICE and sacked once. This game Brady was hit constantly and sacked 5 times. The reason the defensive line of Giants could get some much pressure on Tom Brady was because of the Coverage Down the field. The Giants did not let the Patriots receivers catch the ball down field.


Congrats to the Giants!

And your winner is ..THE METS

The winner in the Johan Santana sweepstakes is the Mets. The Mets agreed to a four for one player swap today with the Twins. The Mets now have 72 hours to negotiate a deal with Santana. Santana will receive a deal similar to the Barry Zito deal, which was seven years and 126 million dollars.

This deal is a huge win for the METS, who needed a front line starter more than any other team involved in the Santana sweepstakes. This move could propel the Mets to their first World Series since 2000.

The Mets are receiving Santana in his prime, 28, with two CY Youngs under his belt already. Santana has pitched over 200 innings the last four years, and has an ERA under 3.00, three out of the last four years. Last year was a bad year for him, his ERA was 3.33. These numbers would have been the best on the Mets staff last season.Tom Glavine was the only pitcher on the Mets staff last season to top 200 innings. He pitched 200.1. Glavine is no longer with the Mets, he signed with Atlanta.

Santana will also be the stopper in the Mets rotation, that will prevent PRO-LONGED losing streaks. Mets fan need not to worry about a collapse like last season with Santana on the pitching staff.

With every deal, there has to be a loser and the Twins are the loser in this deal. The Twins waited to long to deal Santana. This package of prospects are inferior to that of the one offered by the Yankees and Red Sox in December. The Twins were hoping the Red Sox and Yankees would enter a bidding war over Santana driving the price up for each team. In the end, the Twins had to deal Santana or let him walk after this season. Santana would have not re-signed with the TWINS.

The Twins took the best deal still on the table which was the METS deal.

Boot Gate is a PLOY!

I am so sick of all the media coverage of TOM BRADY's Boot! Everyone in the media is being sucked in by the ploy of Bill Belicheck and Tom Brady. The fact that Brady has not been at practice the last two days adds to this RUSE!

Their are some elements of this story that raises red flags with me:
1. The Boot was worn by Brady during the day and not at night while dancing!
2. He wore the boot in front of the media for everyone to see!
3. Belicheck is his coach!

Bill Belicheck has been using ploys with Tom Brady since Brady emerged as the MAN in New England. Brady has been listed on every injury report since becoming starter of the Patriots, he has not missed a start in that time. Belicheck is never truthful about injuries to his players.

Brady will play for the following reasons:
1. This is a ploy enginnered by the Master of SPY GATE (Belicheck).
2. He has never missed a start due to injury since becoming Pats quarterback.
3. It is the SUPERBOWL!!
4. The Patriots would not be undefeated without TOM BRADY!
5. Brady injured is better than MATT CASSEL (Pats backup) HEALTHY.

BRADY is going to play in the SUPERBOWL, their is no doubt in my mind! THERE SHOULD NO DOUBT IN ANYONE ELSE's

NFC Championship

The NFC championship was the tale of two quarterbacks, one experiencing a career reawakening, Bret Favre, while another quarterback, Eli Manning, seemed to finding his way after four years in the league.

Before this game, I would have never guessed that Eli Manning would play that well and Brett Favre would play that BAD! Eli was unstoppable, going 21/40 for 254 yards and NO TURNOVERS! While Brett Favre went 19/36 with 2 TDS and 2 INTS. The 2nd INT would ultimately end the Packers season.

Eli Manning is playing his best ever and is playing better than any other Quarterback in the last month. THAT INCLUDES TOM BRADY! Ever since that Sunday night game, where the Giants tried to ruin the Patriots dreams of perfecting, ELI has been AMAZING. I would expect this type of play from his brother Peyton, but never ELI.

Brett Favre, on the other had, turned in one of his worst games of the season. He committed costly mistakes that the "old gungslinger" would commit, not the "game manager" that we saw this season. The Packer offense looked overmatched by the Giants defense, because of their inability to run the football effectively with Ryan Grant. With no running game, Brett felt more pressure and tried to take more risks.

If ELI keeps playing well, the Patriots could have their greatest superbowl challenge yet.