This Can't Be Good

I rouse from my New Years stupor to see this horrifying story.

Maybe the most freightening line in the entire article:

When asked specifically about the likelihood of Marbury joining the Celtics this season, the source predicted that "it will happen."

Oh my god Danny, please don't do this. Anything was this. I know you're trying to get people off your back for sticking with Sam Cassell, but going with an even crazier old point guard is not the way to do it.

*crawls back into a bottle*

Newman's wax beans...

Obscure Seinfeld reference for you. Anyway, it's no secret that there haven't been many posts lately. Whether it's the time of year, a laissez-faire funk, or the fact that I can't access G-mail, we've sort of bottomed out here at startplayingleonpowe.com. I'm heading back to the east coast tomorrow and will meet with the rest of the contributers to figure out where we go from here. Hopefully we can get back on track.

Until then, Happy Holidays.

Finally!

I know the Casey Blake and Adam Everett signings were setting your world on fire, but the first big signing of the offseason is official. CC Sabathia has been signed by the New York Yankees for 7 years at $161 million (with an opt out clause after only 3 years) making the 28 year old, the second richest player on his team. Many reports were saying that Sabathia wanted to play for a west coast team but as Ted Dibiase always said, "Everybody's got a price."

Breaking news: Dude is fat.

The Yankees' starting rotation looks a wee bit better with the big guy at the top. A healthy Chein-Ming Wang shifts down to number 2 and the second coming of Roger Clemens, er, I mean Joba Chamberlain will be third. Now MLB.com has some guy named Alfredo Aceves after Joba followed by Phil Hughes. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say New York is going to sign one more starting pitcher but if they don't, that's Sabathia followed by 4 right handed pitchers all of whom are under 30. The fun stat of the day is that CC is 21-8 lifetime against the four other AL East teams.

If the Rays end up dealing Sonnanstine or Jackson, they can still put David Price into a rotation that won 97 games last year. I haven't heard anything out of Tampa Bay, but I would consider using the Jonathan Papelbon model and converting Price into a lights out closer. Either way, that starting five is tremendous. A healthy Josh Beckett is still one of the best in the game, but he needs to show up to camp in shape next year so he can avoid those nagging injuries. But he along with Daisuke, Lester, possibly Masterson and whatever free agent Boston inevitably signs (John Smoltz, really?) comprise a pretty formidable rotation as well.

Of course, Sabathia signing with the Yankees leaves the Dodgers a little high and dry. Lowe is obviously not staying and they don't seem to be on Burnett's radar. So without a top pitching free agent to sign, I think Ned Coletti has do something he wasn't too keen on doing: paying Manny Ramirez a lot of scrilla. Fortunately for LA however, not too many teams seem to be chomping at the bit to sign Manny. On a side note, I love how the GM meetings are at the Bellagio. Awesome.

So will Teixeira be the next one to sign? Are teams seriously considering giving Derek Lowe a 4 year deal? Also, can we expect a few big trades (hey Kenny Williams, I like Jermaine Dye, don't trade him, thanks) before the New Year? Why don't I have Peter Gammons' phone number? We should totally hang out!

UPDATE: The Yankees just offered A.J. Burnett five years for $80 million. Hmmm....

UPDATE #2: Friday - Sabathia, Wang, Burnett, Joba, Phil Hughes. Yikes.

Dear James...

SUCK IT!!

For those of you who care (read: nobody) I'm still fighting for a playoff spot in one league, the one that all other writers for this blog are a part of. I went into last night trailing James, who is in 1st place in that league, by 30 points with DeAngelo Williams left to go. I trailed by over 20 points going into halftime. And I left the game victorious. Because DeAngelo Williams is effing AWESOME.

Sure, James will still be in the playoffs, while I have to win next week and outscore the 4th place team by 40 points. But I don't care right now, because I went from 2-7 to 7-7 and at least have a reason to care about fantasy football for another week.

Also, James: continue to suck it.

6 20 17 12 9 18 11

No this isn't some crazy new Lost number sequence. It is actually the number of minutes Leon has played in the last seven games dating back to 11/26. Only one of those games was a back to back so Doc can't use that excuse. In fact, there is no discernible pattern to his playing time. Nine minutes against the Pacers at home in a 114-96 final? (Scalabrine had 15 for those of you keeping track at home/hating life.) His total number of minutes is down to 16.3 on the year. Celtics fans can't be complaining too much since the team is a ridiculous 20-2 but I'm not going to let up on Doc. One negative thing I can say about Leon's game though is his free throw percentage is down. (Fun fact: Leon has gotten to the line every game except one so far this season.) Other than that, why is he only getting two more minutes per game than last year? Is it matchups? Is Garnett refusing to leave games? By the way, KG's numbers are all down across the board except FG% and FT% so it's not like he's lighting it up.

Halp Plz.

Quick note

I realize I haven't been writing about Leon all that much so far this season but I wanted to pass this along. I was reading through some Bob Ryan posts on boston.com and came across this excerpt from a couple of weeks ago:

"You have to love the bench. Man-for-man, they don't seem that imposing, but they have really developed a group rapport and it's really fun when they get into the game. How can you not appreciate Leon Powe? That is one inside scoring, rebounding, and hustling kid. You say, "Wow, wouldn't it be great if he were 6-foot-11?" but then you realize he might not try so hard if he were 6-11. He's just right at 6-8."

The Celtics host the Pacers tonight who are coming off a gigantic last second win against the Lakers. Indiana is also the last team to beat Boston...on November 1st.

12/1/08: Celtics v. Magic

Thanks to my obsessive refreshing of Ticketmaster, Ben and I were able to grab some cheap seats to see the defending champs take on the Orlando Magic last night at the garden. Psyched! A few random thoughts from last night:

• J.J. Redick started the game, thanks to a host of injured Orlando players. A shooting clinic it was not, however, as Jonathan Clay managed only six points despite playing 31 minutes. The crowd was pretty excited by his appearance, though, but not nearly as excited as they were for..
• SCAL-A-BRI-NE. Alright. Yes. It's funny that he's goofy looking and terrible, and when the blinding all-orange AT&T ad comes on while he's playing, he looks even goofier. But he's BAD. Stop the chants, people. Doc doesn't know you're kidding and actually puts him in. Just stop.
• Nine technicals in the game! The Celtics now lead for most technicals in the league, thanks in large part to Perk's nine on the season. I had two favorites on the night:
• Sam Cassell drew a technical and was ejected (to massive cheers) in the 2nd quarter for arguing a technical that was called on Perk. And no, he was not playing at the time.
• Rashard Lewis got a technical and was stewing, perhaps thinking about starting a conversation with the ref. Hedo Turkoglu noted that this would be a bad decision, and ambled over to Lewis to talk him down, rub his back, maybe make him a warm cup of milk, but Rashard would have none of that and shoved Turkoglu down. Which leads me to this..
• Orlando looked like a pile of garbage. Clearly evident from the score (107-88), and the shooting %s (54%-42%), but this looked like a dysfunctional team. Dwight Howard looked annoyed that he's not still playing with the Olympic team/impatient for the dunk contest. Obviously this was not the usual Orlando starting lineup, but they just looked off for much of the game.
  
• Kind of a lackluster night for Leon.. 12 mins, a couple rebounds, a couple points, and three fouls. Note to Leon: work on your damn free throws! I'm sure RayRay can help you obsessively practice this shot until your arms fall off...

A great night for Pierce, Rondo, Allen, Garnett, House, and the row in front of us that won free bowls of clam chowder from Legal. Jerks. I'm hungry now, after looking at pictures of clam chowder, so I'm out.