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MARTIN-WILHELMSEN DEAL
Tacoma Rain has an interesting comment:
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I am having a tough time imagining how this trade ended up getting consummated. I would think GM's are trading for players that they want, or they think will improve their team... but that does not seem to be the case here.
Texas immediately cuts Jones after Kivlehan is announced as the last player in deal?? why trade for Jones then?
And I really wonder why there was a delay on annoucing Kivlehan at the time of the trade. Was there another player as an option instead of Kivlehan? Or did the trade happen so fast that Texas needed a day or two to decide who to cut? Then, after a day of being cut, Jones decides to sign a minor league deal... with Texas? Why? Why not with Seattle, since Jones did not have time to move in this short week? Or did Dipoto just want to get rid of Jones?
Dipoto lets Bass go play in Japan because of money?? Dipoto knew that Bass was going to get a raise in arbitration, but what makes Bass look to Japan for more money? That can't be a normal negotiating ploy by Bass's agent...right? Now the amount of money to go to Japan has not been announced, but at what dollar value does Dipoto just give up on a player he wanted in a trade - one he knows is due a raise? Does Dipoto have a hand on Bass going to Japan??? Doubtful, but... just strange.
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If you want to get a feel for how many of these things are driven by Machivellian politics behind the scenes, try a book like North Dallas Forty - not the movie, but Gent's own book. Out of Their League by Dave Meggyesy was similar, though more grim than colorful. In baseball terms, anti-establishment tell-all books like Ball Four give you a feel for it; nowadays when you are told that Kazuhiro Sasaki "fell on his suitcase" it's almost like they're laughing with you to wink offer such an obviously fabricated story.
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It is POSSIBLE that the only thing going on with Bass was that DiPoto grabbed option A, and then later preferred option B. But here's a case where I'd really like to know just what Bass did and said when he was traded to the Mariners. Just my $0.02.
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The James Jones thing, it's believable that -- for a day or two -- the Rangers figured they were covering their backsides in the defensive outfield and then decided they were okay. SOME of these decisions are nothing more than agility and open-mindedness.
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Patrick Kivlehan being the PTBNL?! Something sounds fishy to Dr. D. Always did. Cannot imagine what it is, because in my memory backlog there's no precedent within a million miles of it. I just can't get a purchase, as it were, on the rock wall here. But, man, I'd like that trade back.
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Would also love to have the Wade Miley deal back, but. It's straightforward in its logic and if there's anything behind the scenes, it probably has to do with DiPoto's (and the Sox' own inside knowledge that drove Miley's price up.
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MARSHAWN LYNCH
It says here that Marshawn simply did the sensible thing, backing away from smashmouth football after they'd cut open his abdomen. As far as him being absent from the team, the Seahawk players have all signed off on that.
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BENGALS-STEELERS
I was a Deion Sanders fan, but did you hear him on NFL network, defending Vontaze Burfict to the death? Not the defense of Burfict, as such, but the shrillness Deion used in arguing ... well, HIS point of view. Suddenly the clouds part, and you remember the almost manic way in which he argued Richard Sherman should flip sides, and ... he lost me tonight.
As far as Burfict and Pac-Man Jones throwing away the Bengals' win by going psycho ... You non-AARP kids don't remember when the NBA was full of brutal fights. The NBA simply told all the players, you close your fist during a game, you're going to be out of the league. And it stopped right NOW.
The NFL could stop headhunting just as quickly. Not sure why they don't, exactly; could it be that they don't care enough? And one more time you've got to give Pete Carroll kudos. He seems to authentically care about player safety, at certain points (rugby tackling, eliminating Seahawk headhunting, etc) caring about safety even more than he does winning.
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BARRY SANDERS AND MEGATRON
Two Detroit Lion Hall of Famers retiring in their primes, confusing the stuffing out of everybody. Well, one-and-a-half Lions retiring. What's going on here? My own wild guess is, both coming from worldviews like Steve Largent's and Russell Wilson's, both were disenchanted with the NFL environment in general and with the Detroit Lions especially.
Of course, you get into such a situation and it's like a migraine headache trigger ... 25 points for stress, and 20 points for MSG in your burger, and 35 points for salt and blood pressure, and you tripwire over 100 points and the h/a sets in ... certainly a guy like Megatron, his injuries count some points in there, and losing counts some points, and some people he doesn't like counts some points, and maybe his contract does. But I think some guys, if not these two, get out of pro sports in part because of its seamy underbelly.
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-15 WIND CHILL HAPPY PLACE
Last night I read a buncha stuff about high-tech heated benches they sit on, and hot pads they tape to their feet, and like that. And it started to make sense as to why NFL teams seem to perform quite well in Martian environments. There's also something about RW3's attitude that gives you the impression that he's got his snake eyes on against the weather.
And if, on the first drive, the Seahawks' passing offense looks complex and viable, then Lynch's absence may actually be a good thing. That's when the Seahawks' offense became ridiculous, when the coaches had to pass to set up the run.
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BABVA,
Dr D
