Sunday, January 21, 2007

News of the day

Chase gets paid.

Moyer gets sentimental.

Pre-Clearwater promotions.

Late Sunday night update: Dan Rubin's blog.

Unbelievable oversight

I totally forgot... Congratulations to Ryan Howard, National League MVP. I frankly thought the vote would be a lot closer, and I could have voted for him or Pujols.

But as sophisticated as baseball nerds are these days with their sabermetric stats, some writers still can't resist a gaudy number of home runs and RBI.

I'd still love Ryan to strike out as little as Pujols does, but I hope he never becomes such an ego-swollen jerk. As it is, if I lived in St. Louis, I'd be prouder of my native son Howard than of my resident brooder Pujols.

Mrs. Utley's move pays off

Chase got a four-year extension, seven years total, at $12M per.

I like it. He's 28 this season, 34 in the final year of the deal (2013), probably exiting his prime though still quite talented. Easier to get him to agree to a four-year extension past the three he has now than to get him to sign a four-year deal once he's a 31-year-old free agent. That ain't happening.

Also, the annual cost is a steal. Ryan Howard, though, will not be a steal. If he makes less than $18M per, I'll do cartwheels. He's still sewn up through this decade, but hard to imagine the Phillies going into arbitration with him again next year, not having locked up a long-term deal.

One pet peeve: In several of the stories announcing Chase's deal, his age was not listed. As a reader, I'd like to know how old the man will be when he's up for a raise again. Bearing that in mind, I told you up front.

-yan-ard, Brett Myers and Geoff Geary are still up for arbitration. I honestly don't know what strategy I'd support on the hotheaded wife-slapper. Reader(s), suggestions welcome!

I'll work on updating the site and making it a bit more user-friendly during the conference title games today.