Phightins

Sounds like Simon Gagne has been traded to Tampa Bay for Mike Smith. The Smith part is not official yet, but this is a sad day for the Flyers. Knew it was coming, and it had to be done, but Gags has been the only mainstay on this team for the entire past decade. He has done so much for this team, so it's sad to see him go.

That makes sense. There seems to be a lot of interest in him. The Marlins play these situations better than anybody in baseball.

The Brewers will get nowhere with this. I did not see this game so I am talking out of my [expletive] here, but these "complaints about hit batters" are ridiculous, since 99.9% of the time it's impossible to know what is intentional and what isn't. It is part of the game.

It was only a matter of time once the Kovalchuk deal went down. Just curious what we are getting back. I am hearing Mike Smith is a possibility.

Is Burnside for real? He is saying it's a 17 year deal.

They made it to the Super Bowl. This Phillies team is coming off back to back pennants and had higher expectations than ever this season. Better team "on paper" (as much as I hate that saying) than any Phillies team arguably in history. Total disappointment.

I am not going to lie.....that is the gayest 20 second video clip I have seen in my life. Every aspect of it.

Most disappointing season any of my teams has had in my life. By a lot.

Old news Cobb! Come on get with the times! Anyway, pretty obvious that this was coming. Wilson Valdez has played himself onto the 25 man roster, even with Polanco back and when Utley eventually comes back. Castro offers next to nothing. Greg Dobbs is much improved and Cody Ransom provides some right-handed power off the bench, which had been missing.

Ooo mysterious hand lacerations for AJ Burnett. This could get interesting.

There was a good reason. Schneider had just batted for Carlos Ruiz. Carlos Marmol FTW.

This offense sucks the hind tit. Another brilliant Hamels performance gone to waste.

In other news, Dan Carcillo made Maxim's list of the "Top 20 [expletive]es" in pro sports.

Infuriating. Lose by 1, give up all 4 runs with 2 outs, give up the go-ahead homerun with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 8th inning on an infield pop up that somehow winds up on the street outside the stadium, walk the pitcher to give up a run, get a runner on 3rd with less than 2 outs and don't bring him in, not getting anything off the plate from the home plate ump for our pitcher while the opposing pitchers get at least 3 inches off the corners (I believe the Cubs recored 7 or 8 strikeouts looking). And the bottom line, 2 losses to a [expletive]ty team to start the 2nd half of the season. I'd rather lose by 10 like yesterday than lose like they did today. Domonic Brown time. /rant.

Also, Danys Baez is awful (no offense Flash, or whoever is the guy that's friends with him, I forget who). When Durbin came back today, I was really hoping Baez would be DFA'd, but Nelson Figueroa was instead (and he had been very good). Gotta love it when the GM refuses to own up to his mistakes. The Phillies are on the hook for another year with Baez, while Figueroa is basically making the minimum, so that's why the decision was made. Pretty disappointing.

I think it is time to call Domonic Brown up. [expletive] the arbitration clock, [expletive] the unbalanced lineup, [expletive] everything. This team needs a spark, and he is precisely the guy to deliver it. He dominated AA so they called him up to AAA and he is dominating there too. .326/.391/.602 between AA and AAA this year (.364/.390/.636 in AAA). And that is not including tonight...he has 2 more hits. Not sure what else he needs to do to prove that he is ready. Obviously the log jam in the OF at the Major League level complicates things. It might be a pipe dream, but I would LOVE to see them trade Jayson Werth and 1-2 OK prospects for Dan Haren or Roy Oswalt. Obviously we'd need to get a 3rd team involved (Red Sox perhaps?) since neither Houston or Arizona would be interested in Werth. Then call up Brown, and to balance the lineup, play Ben Francisco in LF against left handed pitching instead of Ibanez (and let Francisco get a few starts for Brown in RF as well). 2 birds with one stone. Get it done, Rube.

Mikko Koivu signs a 7 year extension with the Wild.

Carlos Gonzalez was not an all star for the same reason that Jason Heyward was voted to be a starter: the system is [expletive]ed. I am so sick of hearing about all-star snubs though. There were over 80 players named to the team this year, after injury replacements, and guys who opted not to go, etc. That is a lot, yet there is still a list 20-30 names long of guys with legitimate "all-star numbers". That means that there are just a lot of dudes having really good years, and no matter who was picked, there was going to be a lot of crying. But as I have said all along, eliminating that "every team must be represented" rule and that "utility player" rule would be great places to start.

Escobar was a pretty preseason popular pick for NL MVP this year......lol @ that.

Well, at least the ignorant baseball haters can shut up about steroids inflating offense now. A new era of dominant pitching looks like it is officially upon us. And of course, the one year the NL gets home field will be the year the Phillies do not get to the World Series.... -_-

Not really Flyers related, but Philadelphia will host the Frozen Four in 2014. I am very excited for this. Hopefully I will be a Flyers season ticket holder by then, and they will offer some sort of discount to this because I'd really like to go.

1 year deal for Carcillo. Flyers now $2.5 million over the cap. Have to figure something goes down with Gagne soon.

My favorite George Steinbrenner moments were the SNL skit with Chris Farley, and of course the character on Seinfeld. Does George Costanza inherit the Yankees now???

I wouldn't say it was all good. He was banned the first time after giving illegal contributions to the Richard Nixon campaign, which he pleaded guilty to. He was also banned for paying a gambler to "dig up dirt" on Dave Winfield after Winfield sued him. Those, amongst some other less famous incidents, were serious issues. Not trying to start anything, just filling in the missing pieces that ESPN and MLB Network are not mentioning today. But, his contributions to baseball were mostly positive I'd say. Certainly revolutionized many aspects of free agency.

Certainly the most interesting sports figure of the past 50 years, if you ask me.