On Thursday, I drunkenly said that I'd write some sort of recap of my trip to our nation's capital.  Not only was it my first trip to DC, it was my first trip to a non-Chicago MLB park.  The results?  Well, I can't complain.  It wasn't perfect, but there were more pluses than minuses.  I certainly had more fun on my trip to Washington than Tony Hayward.

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street headed for another precipitous drop Friday as fears of a punishing global recession stirred panic among investors and sent world financial markets into a tailspin. The Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 550 points, triggering a freeze in selling.

Fearing more carnage in world equity markets, big hedge funds and other institutional investors have been pulling out their money en masse in a bid to reduce risk and raise cash -- moves that only intensify the selling.

Ahead of the market's open, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell the maximum allowed limit of 550, or 6.27 percent, to 8,224. That triggered circuit breakers that automatically freeze selling until the market's 9:30 a.m. EDT open. However, traders can still buy stocks and send the market higher. Selling eased slightly later in the morning, leaving Dow futures 548 points lower.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index futures was also down the maxium allowed 60 points, or 6.56, to 855.20, and the Nasdaq 100 index futures was down 85.00, or 6.20 percent, to 1,175.75.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081024/wall_street.html

"I don't expect Joe to play for the rest of the year," Guillen said of Crede, who missed nearly five weeks because of back stiffness before returning Aug. 25. "You come out of the game and your back really bothers you, I cannot count on him for the rest of the year.

"I'm not going to put Joe out there once a week, see how he feels and then play around it. I want him to play because he makes our club better."

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2008/09/03/ozzie-guillen-thinks-joe-credes-done/

Oakland Athletics.  Section 160, Row 11, Seats 7-10.

I work in the loop and live by the lake, so I can hand them off whenever you're around.  I'd like to get rid of these as soon as possible.  I'd hate to waste Sox tickets.

I'd make this a fanshot, but I'd like any passersbys to see this, too, so this is me yakking to get to the 75 word minimum.

aj has more than half the doubles(13) he's had in each of the last 3 seasons(24, 24, 21). he also already has 10 walks. that might not seem like a lot, but consider the fact that his career high for walks in a season is 25 (2008). prior to that he had seasons of 22, 23, 19, 24, 13 and 16. that accounts for all of his full seasons in the majors.

i’ve heard mention of some different contacts aj has been wearing this season; and, i think he was the one that got hawk raving about the nintendo ds. could these factors really be contributing to what i’m at least temporarily calling the “new aj”? i don’t know if this trend of great offensive output can continue, but aj seems like a different hitter these days.

and you know what else? many of us were probably surprised to see aj in the 2-hole in the lineup, but his current output is pretty nearly ideal for that spot in the order. so kudos to ozzie for seizing what might be a great opportunity. now if we can just get him to put swish back in the leadoff spot and drop ocab towards the bottom of the lineup i could be convinced that ozzie is starting to get the knack of this filling out the lineup business. good times!

I wanted to address Matt's post about trading Deng and Gordon, but I thought my idea took up a little too much space to be a response.  With that in mind, here's what I'm thinking:

I know a lot of Bulls fans are really biased towards BG and Deng, but there are a couple of young restricted free agents that I would much rather the Bulls went after.  

Josh Smith, Monta Ellis and Andre Igoudala are all going to be restricted free agents this summer.  Let's make a play for one of those guys.  

Let's look to make a deal moving as many of Nocioni, Gooden and Hughes as we can.  Perhaps Hinrich, too.  We've got a young group intact. Thabo, TT and Noah will still be here.  Say Hinrich stays, too.  If we could get any one of the above mentioned free agents I'd be ready to roll with that 5 as my starters.

Any way we can get some of our junk out of town is a plus.  If that can't happen, then play them, but limit the hell out of their minutes.  I'm talking off the bench no more than 10-12 minutes a piece.  We have talked so much about depth.  I think it's overrated.  Teams with a good starting group let them get most of the meaningful minutes.  You need two quality reserves, and a couple of space fillers for when your starters are tired or in foul trouble.

So imagine a starting lineup with Hinrich, Thabo, TT, Noah and one of Ellis, AI and Josh Smith.  Coming off the bench to spell them is maybe a PG you drafted this year, whoever you picked up in the Noc trade, Gooden and Hughes if you got stuck with them and then our end of the bench, just-in-case scrubs.

We would be young, athletic, fast, defensive-minded and perfectly built for a fast-paced run-and-gun style team.  Bring in a like-minded coach who wants to play up tempo with a swarming defense.  We would also be in good financial shape moving forward.

In summary, we had some good times with Gordon and Deng, but this year was unacceptable.  They both have flaws.  They both stepped back when we needed them to step forward.  Let's not throw money at a couple soft guys that showed their true colors in their contract years.

Just out of curiosity, I included a poll to see what you guys think of the Bulls' potential options this summer.