Happy Christmas/New Year from Huggy Bear &T-Bone

christmas interrupted by the white sox

I heard Sisqo was releasing a single for the holidays, called "Perfect Christmas," forgetting just a minute the inherent lunacy of a short black man calling himself "The Dragon." Dude needs some serious help with his Asian culture fetish.

I got even MORE excited when I read the headline "Gload traded for Sisco" because my temporarily malfunctioning brain thought that the celebrity stock exchange game had come to life, and suddenly acquired the ability to trade in professional sports, and started wondering, hmm, is this a fair trade? Who wins in that? A useful spare part that can hit linedrives off the bench, or the "thong th-thong thong thong?"

I woke up to realize that Sisco was Andrew Sisco, a 23-yr-old lefty who's as tall as Randy Johnson, throws about the same, and if he's a third as good, this trade's awesome. Has a similar profile to Matt Thornton, a tall lefty with 95-98 velocity but control issues (which always makes me think his coworkers would say "he's too bossy" or "he never shares"). He'll probably start the year in Charlotte to see if he can continue developing as a starter, but if not, it's still a nice piece to have for Gload, whom Ozzie never used correctly anyway.

A more interesting trade is BMac going to the Rangers for precious, precious, minor league arms, the most notable being John Danks and Nick Massett. I like Baseball Prospectus' breakdown of the trade, which says the Sox get in Danks an equally talented piece as McCarthy. It just seems weird to make what looks to be a parallel move in a market where starting pitching is so valuable. I think the most viable explanation is that the Sox are looking to move one or more of the young pitching arms (TM) for a shinier piece (please Carl Crawford, NO Rocco Baldelli). So, a lot of the outcry seems unnecessary until the bigger move is made.

At least we know BMac had his Christmas dream come true, getting that starting rotation spot that he always wanted. Unfortunately, his craptacular home run rate (30 HR in 150+ IP) is going to be even more inflated in the Rangers' home park. It's not like last December, when the defending champs traded for Javy (I can't believe he's still on the roster) and re-signed Paulie, but, they're not the defending champs anymore, either.

Merry Christmas

Ikon of the Nativity of the Lord

"[The artist being aware of his own vulnerability within his art] has in it all the mystery of the relation of the maker with things made. There falls on it from afar even some dark ray of the irony of God, who was mocked when He entered His own world, and killed when He came among His creatures."

-- G.K. Chesterton, Chaucer, 1932

"Elder father, though thine eyes
Shine with hoary mysteries,
Canst thou tell what in the heart
Of a cowslip blossom lies?"

"Smaller than all lives that be,
Secret as the deepest sea,
Stands a little house of seeds,
Like an elfin granary."

"Speller of the stones and weeds,
Skilled in Nature's crafts and creed,
Tell me what is in the heart
Of the smallest of the seeds?"

"God Almighty, and with Him
Cherubim and Serpahim,
Filling all eternity --
Adonai Elohim."

-- G.K. Chesterton, "Holy of Holies," 1927

things i learned over the weekend

In teacher school, being a "lifelong learner" was always emphasized as something necessary to maintain a positive attitude toward the industry and students (although at the same time, it was an unwritten rule that this sort of canned answer was not very welcome in interviews).

So, in the interest of continuing education at the school of life, here is what was on the curriculum over the weekend:

Caroline collects her toenails when they fall off. To answer your questions, yes, it's happened more than once, and yes, it happened right in front of me. And yes, she will drive to come and pick it up if you just "happen" to find it on the floor, you know, just in passing.

Trying to think of gifts for under-2 yr olds is not easy. I mean, sooner or later, I will run out of books from my childhood to get for my goddaughter. Mike Mulligan and your Steam Shovel, you're up next.

Stranger Than Fiction is well worth two hours out of my life, and I will probably sacrifice two more hours at some point to it again. Just on a gut reaction level, I haven't watched a film in a long time where I felt I could relate to so many of the characters. Harold, because, well everyone is lonely at some point. Karen, because I have similar writing-induced neuroses. Professor Hilbert, because I would love to be that kind of oddly scholarly sage. And of course, the whole thing is about writing a book and how it's so strangely yet uniquely tied to sacrificing a part of your life (which is the way writers see it, usually).

jillapalooza

Things that Jill should demand for Christmas, sipping the champagne while her suitors haggle over her like a Japanese starting pitcher:

1. White Sox tickets - an Ozzie plan sounds about right. Also, the cancellation of the 2006 season from collective memory.
   
2. A copy of U2 by U2. Also, a restraining order on U2 best of collections, compilations, or use on popular American dramas.
   
3. Definitely some tshirts cuz it's getting colder outside.
   
4. Some new music, especially Clipse, or The Hold Steady, or Bloc Party's new one in February.
5. Oh, and something to play all that new music on.
6. Definitely not a copy of GuitarHero for PS2.
   
7. The restoration of Bob Dylan's good name.
   
8. Something to read. My sleeper favorite is Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog.
   
9. A soccer jersey. Wait, that's what I want.
10. Being home for Christmas.
    

hot stove: dooby dooby doo

Philly granolas rejoice as their number is increased. First inning Freddy and his hemp necklace shipped for uber-prospect Gavin Floyd and former Thome swag Gio Gonzalez. No word on whether Freddy will find a line on a reliable guy.

Floyd and Gonzalez is decent swag for Garcia, who's in the last season of his contract. (Basically we're getting Floyd + Gonzalez for the Phillies getting one year of Garcia + trying to re-sign him.) I guess I'm disappointed and briefly furious because the going rate for starting pitching seems so high (Ted Lilly to the Cubs for 4/$40 mill, which apparently made some people faint), so it seems like the Sox could've gotten more. The positives slightly outweigh the negatives, even if it's not a big splash. I'm not super thrilled. I guess this also means the market for Vazquez is bigger than for Freddy which is odd, since Garcia, overall and of late, has been the better pitcher.

Bad things:

• I'm hearing a rumor that Crash might be a throw-in on this trade. No, no, a thousand times NO. Let my Brian Anderson free.
  
• Seriously. Ted Lilly, never pitched 200 IP, never won more than 15 games, never had an ERA under 4.00 (not that these are the most important stats, but these are the ones idiot GMs go by), is getting $10 mill per, and Garcia's been steady with the innings, wins, ERA, and strikeout rate, has the shiny Proven Veteran (TM) tag, the even shinier Proven Playoff Starter (c) tag, and we just get two prospies? I was hoping to land a Carl Crawford with the Garcia bait.
  
• Didn't we get rid of Gio Gonzalez on the premise that prospects are expendable? And here we go getting him back. Our farm system must stink to high heaven.
• Floyd's ERA, walk rate, and WHIP look terrible.
  

Good things:

• Finally, an open spot for Brandon McCarthy in the rotation.
• This means also about $9 mill in savings in salary, which hypothetically can be used for a NEW. LEFT. FIELDER. Hint, hint.
• Floyd is only 23, lefthanded, and has a wicked curve. Coop did well in turning Matt Thornton around, so hopefully he can work the same magic with Floyd.
• Garcia was in the last year of his contract, and trying to re-sign him in the current ludicrous market would've killed the payroll, and dude was clearly on a decline.

I'm sad because I wanted a king's ransom in this pitching-crazed free for all, and all we got was... stock options. And we need upgrades in left field, backup C, and maybe center field. The best signings so far have been by the Dodgers (Schmidt, not Gonzo) and the A's (Piazza, the new hotness for fantasy baseball because he DHs with catcher eligibility).

bloggery

Stereogum put two things I like together: San Francisco Cure-wannabes Film School and comic Demetri Martin.

Fimoculous put out a list of the 30 best blogs you're not reading, including three standby timewasters (I mean, favorites): t-shirt critic, Pop Candy, and indexed.

This is going to be hellish week for grading. Yay, grading. I feel a certain solemn dignity in being the one to introduce to my future productive citizens of the world the concept of in-text citations. Hopefully, in said future, none of them will shake their fists in impotent rage at my dim memory.

Hot Stove: suckiness

Scott Podsednik signed for 1 year, $2.9 mill. Seeing how spare parts are signing for 5/$50 mill, and other overrated former Sox leftfielders are getting 6/$100 mill, this is quite the bargain. The problem is, now the Sox are set in the one position they can very obviously upgrade. I am hoping that K-Dub can hype the sellability of Pods' light contract plus a pitcher for some useful Christmas loot. Because I really don't want to sit through another summer of getting tagged out at second and helplessly flailing away at lefthanded pitchers.

Ozzie showed last summer that he's an awful lineup juggler. 2005 worked because he didn't have to make any choices; his everyday guys were clearly the best options defensively and offensively at their positions. Yes, Carl Everett sucked, but there wasn't anybody around that was any better. I wonder if K-Dub has to do something similar; construct a roster that leaves no doubt in Ozzie's mind who the best guy is. I don't need to see Mackowiak/Anderson Part Deux, cuz Ozzie doesn't know anything about defensive value.

The ridiculous free agent market is driving teams to look for starting pitching elsewhere, and the Sox have pitching to trade. I'll be disappointed if we don't upgrade before Christmas, cuz last year's was pretty great. Should be an interesting set of winter meetings this week.