Phightins

It was announced today that all minor league players will now be subject to random blood-testing for HGH.

Haha I dunno, I might have to tape a sign to it saying to take it away. I dunno if they will want to touch it though. Covered by maggots. And as somebody who sweats a lot due to bad genes, Sacha, you have no idea what you are talking about and you're coming off as a huge douche.

That is very insensitive.

My maggot-infested trash can (really, no idea how this happened). When I was taking the trash to the curb last night, I almost passed out. Which reminds me, I need to get to Home Depot to pick up a new one at some point....

Well, it would surely give the Cardinals the best rotation in baseball, I do not think there is really any question there. I am not sure about a few of your points, though. First, I don't think there is any way the Cardinals give up that much to get him, especially if Shelby Miller is a part of the deal. Second, I don't really see how this strengthens their chances of keeping Pujols. Apparently, one of the main sticking points of acquiring Oswalt (whereever he may get traded) is that he wants his 2012 option picked up, which would mean he's guaranteed $32 million over the next 2 seasons. (Yes, I know, somebody is saying that he might not demand this if he goes to St. Louis, but I have yet to see a quote directly from him about it). For a middle-market team that is already nearly stretched to their payroll limit such as the St. Louis Cardinals, that is no small chunk of change. I think we all know what kind of deal Pujols is going to want/get. Granted, I see no way Pujols leaves the Cardinals and I think they will make it happen, but adding a huge salary like Oswalt's is certainly not going to improve their chances of keeping Pujols.

I am not taking anything away from the Braves, that was more of an indictment of the Mets and Phillies.

Darroll Powe gets a 1-year deal, $750k. Wonder if there is still room for Turco and Asham.

Could the Braves have gotten any more lucky this year? The division is being handed to them on a silver platter, they barely have to do any work on their own for it.

And tomorrow there will be a new team that comes out of nowhere and is the "frontrunner". Do not trust any of these "insiders", no matter how many fancy "sources" they have.

You'd think that the law of averages would bring at least a little good fortune to this team at some point. Thought it might happen tonight. Had a very good chance to win a very unfavorable pitching matchup (Joe Blanton vs. Jaime Garcia). Guess not.

Shut your mouth.

This line should be put in the main banner or something. If more people realized this, we would not have nearly as many "conflicts" on here as we do.

Noodle?

Good.

Welcome to the show, Vance Worley.

There absolutely will be.

Looks like a trade is coming this week.

*Sigh*

Andy Martino is a traitor. He is not to be trusted.

Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News suggested that Marty Turco might be willing to sign for $1.25 million, or somewhere in that neighborhood. That would be a nearly 800% pay cut from last year, but he may have no choice if he wants to stay in the NHL. Anyway, if this is true I certainly hope the Flyers sign him. If they are able to get Walker through waivers and into the AHL, they will have a little more than $3 million in cap space.

The moves that really screwed the team over were when he overpaid for Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell back in 2007, which is what got the team in this terrible cap situation in the first place. Zherdev was signed to basically replace Gagne as a 1st or 2nd line winger. I happen to like that deal a lot, very affordable for a guy with that much potential. And it is only for one year. If he winds up being a bust, he is only on the books for this year, and if he plays himself into a bigger contract, hopefully Giroux, van Riemsdyk, etc will have progressed to the point where losing Zherdev won't be a huge deal. The Meszaros deal is a bit suspicious. He is definitely overpaid, but he (along with Sean O'Donnell) provides a significant upgrade to the 3rd pairing, which was the main objective of this offseason. In order to afford these upgrades, one of the expensive forwards had to go, and Gagne was the only one even slightly trade-able. If Scott Hartnell, Danny Briere, James van Riemsdyk, and Claude Giroux do not underperform again this season (and of course if Zherdev plays well), the loss of Gagne will not be a huge deal. Losing Gagne obviously sucks because of how great of a player he has been. But he was the second most tenured athlete in Philadelphia (only David Akers has been here longer, and Jimmy Rollins is the only other guy anywhere close). He is loved around here. The fact that he was let go for salary cap purposes is a very tough pill to swallow. But at the same time, it had to be done.

Not really. Salary dump, Homer's hands were tied. Of course, he brought this on himself with poor cap management earlier in his tenure as GM. But, he had no leverage and it was not realistic to expect much of a return for Gagne in terms of talent/draft picks/whatever. In the end, the Flyers got precisely what they wanted, which was cap flexibility. Would it have been nice to get a great goalie prospect or a first round draft pick for him? Absolutely. But which GM in their right mind would pay that kind of a price for a guy who was going to have to be waived if the Flyers couldn't trade him soon? Always sucks to see a terrific and beloved player moved strictly for cap purposes, but that's unfortunately the case here.

I'm not surprised really. And if I was Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, Toronto, or any of the other teams who were reportedly interested in Simon, I wouldn't have offered much either. Flyers had absolutely no leverage. Everyone knew they had to trade him.

Sucks to see Simon Gagne leave as a cap casualty. This trade is basically what I expected though. As expected, most Flyers fans are not at all happy. Any Flyers fan that had an illusion of trading Gagne for an elite goalie prospect, high draft pick, etc. is either very unrealistic or has no idea how the NHL salary cap works. If there is anything to be upset about with this trade, it is the fact that Paul Holmgren overpaid for Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell 3 years ago, which is what put the Flyers in this position in the first place. Of course, I didn't see many Flyers fans complaining then.

Nevermind, not Smith. Matt Walker and a 4th round pick.