Phightins

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Interesting Giants lineup. No Burrell, Huff DH, Ishikawa and Schierholtz playing. Man, I am going to miss seeing the Burrell Curl 3 or 4 times tonight. Seeing it really brings me back to the old days.

Bumgarner/Posey will be the first World Series battery with both guys younger than 24 since 1970 (Johnny Bench, and I forget the pitcher). Pretty ridic.

Where in South Jersey, if you don't mind me asking?

Did not see the game, but did check the box score. 4 combined walks for Jeff Francoeur, Bengie Molina, and Vladimir Guerrero? Parallel universe?

Wildest game I have ever attended. The Islanders have a bunch of [expletive]es, notably the man with the 15 year contract.

Going to my first game of the season tonight!!!

The music at Wells Fargo Center for the Sixers is absolutely brutal. I think I heard that song "Dynamite" at least 3 times last night, no joke. The only songs they have played consistently, that I can recall, are "Jump" by Van Halen for jump balls, and "Allentown" by Billy Joel (FTW!!!!) for every time AI hit a big shot last year. That doesn't really have any impact now though. Also, "The House is Rockin'" by Stevie Ray Vaughan is played when the stupid rabbit and his friends are shooting t-shirts into the stands. That probably can't be incorporated into a video game though, ha! Other than that, the music selection is horrific.

Nik Zherdev demoted to 4th line in practice yesterday, supposedly complained about it, and was scratched tonight. Have to think Lavi is getting fed up with him. Also, Pat Maroon has been released by the Phantoms. I have not seen any of their games this year, but he was supposedly working very hard and he looked awesome. So nobody seems to know what happened there, but it must have been a serious off-the-ice thing. Coaches won't elaborate and the players are not talking. Two interesting storylines to watch play out here.

Observations from Section 209.... -New year, same old Sixers. Get you excited, let you down, rinse, repeat. -It would be super nice if they played a full 4 quarters for once... -This has the makings of a super long season. As a whole, this team cannot defend for [expletive]. -It is going to be very interesting to watch this Turner-Holiday dynamic play out. So far it looks like they can't be on the floor at the same time. -I became a big Andres Nocioni fan tonight. -The pre-game video is very weird/hilarious. -Highlight of the night...5 or so young black kids a couple sections over cheering for Atlanta all game. It was pretty annoying but nobody really said anything. They start singing "na na na na hey hey hey goodbye" near the end, and a middle aged white guy behind us screams "Hey...shut the [expletive] up!!!". I felt bad, but the kids were super annoying.

Oh? So a salary cap is going to magically pump money to teams in bad markets? It will put people in the seats in Miami and Tampa and give them significant revenue? That would be pretty miraculous. Also, to Kingfish and anybody else who thinks a salary cap will bring complete parity....I challenge you to look at the team payroll rankings for the other 3 major leagues (all with some sort of salary cap) and then see if you feel the same way. Also FYI...whenever a team signs a type-A free agent, they give up a first round (or compensation round) pick. So I am not quite sure what your comment about "controlling the draft and controlling free agency" means.

Big market vs. small market in this case doesn't really have much to do with a salary cap though. The reason the Rays won't be able to keep those guys has nothing to do with a lack of a salary cap. They won't be able to keep them because they play in the worst professional sports market in America and bring in almost no revenue. If anything, we can push for a ceiling on max contracts, but the MLBPA would never go for that (and even that likely wouldn't help the Rays in the situation you gave).

First game I will be attending this season. Pretty exciting.

I heard the entire park reeked of weed last night. Lots of blazing in the RF stands. I wish this was acceptable in Philly .

The Giants have scored 20 runs in 2 games. Only scored 19 in 6 games in the LCS. Wow!!

Being lucky is not necessarily a bad thing. The Giants have deserved to be where they are right now, but it's hard to deny all of the breaks going their way. Every decision Bochy makes is turning to gold, and quite the opposite is happening for the opposing managers (see: this inning). Have to be good to be lucky, though. I don't know why that got all of the Giants fans so offended. You're in the World [expletive]in Series, enjoy it!!!

He was being sarcastic. Relax.

Ron Washington channeling his inner game 4-NLCS-Charlie Manuel this inning.

Haha I was hoping somebody would post this today.

Also....epic Ron Washington fail. He has totally mismanaged this inning.

Derek Holland...... :o

I am starting to become convinced that this is just the Giants year.

I think the ball Kinsler hit went about 55 feet farther than Renteria's. This park would frustrate the hell out of me if I was a hitter.

That was so great.

I think this discussion is always started when people see how the Yankees (and a handful of other teams) far and away exceed every other team payroll-wise, and how there are 4-5 teams that have been at the bottom of the standings for a decade + and are seemingly stuck in neutral. So people see this and assume a lack of "parity". In reality, there is much more parity in MLB than there is in the NBA, a league that does have a cap (although a flawed one I'd argue). As for the teams like the Royals, Pirates, Orioles, Nationals, etc., the reason they suck every year has nothing to do with a lack of a salary cap. They suck because they can't draft for [expletive] (well, the Royals and Pirates in particular). It may have something to do with not spending as much as other teams on draft day, but I don't think it has much to do with that. These are teams picking in the top 5 every season. I do not have the numbers in front of me, but I have found that teams picking that high generally take the best available player regardless of signing bonus demands. The whole bonus issue doesn't usually come into play until the middle of the first round, where you might see guys fall due to signability. But literally every first round pick the Pirates have made in the last 10 years has been a huge failure (Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez look promising, Jameson Taillon is still up in the air), and the same goes for the Royals with the exception of Zack Greinke and to some degree Billy Butler, and perhaps a couple of guys still in AA/AAA (Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer). Needless to say, that is an awful lot of top 5 picks that have not turned into anything. For every Greinke or McCutchen there are 2 or 3 Bryan Bullingtons, Alex Gordons, Luke Hochevars, Chris Lubanskis, and John VanBenschotens. And it isn't a matter of these teams not being willing/able to spend. The Nationals and Orioles made competitive offers to Mark Teixeira a few years back, and from my understanding the Nationals are planning on at least trying for Carl Crawford. The reason players don't go to these teams has nothing to do with finances. This is one argument for a cap I suppose, but I don't think a cap would really solve this. Big markets would find a way to circumvent it if they really want a player, much like you see in the NHL. Obviously there are the Marlins and the Rays. Neither can spend in free agency, but they have both shown that with great drafting, player development, and international scouting, it is possible to be a competitive team year in and year out regardless of revenue. And teams like these exist in every league. The bottom line is that if you don't get people into your stadium, it is hard to run a successful business. And no, I don't believe that the Rays and Marlins don't draw as a result of their reputations, they don't draw because Florida as a whole is just a terrible professional sports market. This is evidenced by the Rays attendance problems this past season, as well as the Marlins attendance problems in their playoff runs. Even winning doesn't draw fans in Florida. And there are teams like this even in capped leagues. Also, on another note, being able to spend doesn't necessarily mean success, as evidenced by the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets. IMO, player development is and always has been the most important key for success in baseball. You can spend all you want, you can have as many TV networks and supplemental revenue streams as you want, but if you aren't producing your own talent it is difficult to win consistently. And the bigger issue may be a flaw with revenue sharing. If there is anything that should be addressed, it is this. And this just touches the surface. I could go on for much longer about this. Cap won't happen, nor should it. Sorry if that is too much to read.