Where do you draw the line when you're cheering for your team -- or perhaps more importantly, against another team? Does a gutsy play by the other guys draw a respectful acknowledgment of a a worthy adversary? Do you applaud a bad call that goes against your rivals?

Do you hope the other team's players get hurt?

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Hey everybody! Help a brother out: I can't tell what the heck the difference between a "replica" jersey and an "authentic" jersey is. Other than $130.

Trying to decide on a birthday present for the wife, and I want to get her something nice, but it seems like $100 for the replica jersey is what's up. As far as I can tell, they're the same thing minus the patches and crap? Are they the same material? Aargh.

Awwww!

Boo. Gobble was my favorite non-Twins player in the division. 

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Here is a brilliant (and long) Q&A that Bill James did with the Freakonomics NYT blog. Absolutely worth a read for anyone who digs baseball.

Turns out he's neither a robot or a computer, though I'm sure that some will still argue that he doesn't understand "what the game is really about" or some such.

Man, it sure is February. The frozen bloody North we call home sure is frozen, and we're all getting a little squirrely. That's okay, though, because Spring Training has sprung and the end of it all is in sight. We've got a whole slew of young guys who will be fun as heck to cheer on this summer whether or not we contend. And so, I present to you a short read to make your day a little better.

This article at USS Mariner (which is an excellent blog that I highly recommend to everyone here, despite their misguided fanatacism for the poorly run M's) reminded me, more than anything yet this almost-spring, why I love the game so. It's a great read, and it sure as heck brightened my day even though I've never heard of Dave Niehaus.

Quote: "I learned baseball from him. I learned that Jim Presley was terrible, Harold Reynolds was fast, that Alvin Davis was Mr. Mariner, and that the team didn't have any pitching. They never had any pitching. Through Bill Swift, he taught me what a sinkerball was. Through Scott Bradley, he taught me that catchers could be left-handed. Through John Moses, he taught me that you can give anyone a nickname by just shortening their last name. And through Ivan Calderon, he taught me that hispanic players could have Russian first names."

As a side note, this is the kind of thing that makes the baseball Hall of Fame the kind of institution that other sports can only dream of. Nevermind the yearly arguments about the BBWAA's voting -- the century-plus of history enshrined in Cooperstown from announcers to bloody socks makes me smile every time I think about it.

Silva's apparently about to sign with the Mariners for $44MM/4yrs per Ken Rosenthal, and boy oh boy are the M's fans unhappy with it.

Good analysis and discussion by Dave at USS Mariner (a site that you should probably be reading anyway; I certainly enjoy it even though I don't feel very strongly one way or the other about the M's). Weirdly enough, seems that the posters over yonder aren't too keen on the idea of committing $11MM per annum to Senor Silva...can't imagine why. Though to be fair, I don't know what the M's fans were expecting their front office to do with that money anyway.

Whee, we got ourselves a shortstop. One who can't hit, of course, and figures to be a noticeable downgrade from Bartlett most likely if he's the everyday starter.

One-year deal, no specifics yet. I imagine it's cheap, at least. Sigh.

Link: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7559454?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49

This guy is easily  my new favorite sportswriter. He writes for Page 2 over at ESPN, yet pens more insightful and reality-based commentary than anything I've seen in quite a while.

And he doesn't even spend half his columns tooting his own horn! Amazing.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. I've enjoyed his columns quite a bit, and I figured some around here would as well if they're not already reading him.

Now, I love Torii as much as the next guy. I've got nothing but respect and appreciation for his years of holding down CF on Twins teams good and bad. But the man seriously needs to stop talking to the press.

Joe C's latest entry is yet another example. Yes, Mr. Hunter, we all know that the bottom half of the lineup has been perhaps this team's biggest problem. No, Mr. Hunter, your less-gifted teammates don't need you throwing them under the bus by admitting that you swing for the fences because you have no faith in the guys hitting behind you.

Anyone else feel like Torii's just personally done with playing here?

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-0626marlins,0,5116352.story?coll=sfla-sports-front

Ahh, Jacque, we hardly knew ye. Off to the land of oranges and apathetic old folks for a [reported, but not confirmed] mid-level single-A prospect.

That's what happens when you're OPSing .623 as a corner outfielder on a team that already DFA'd the superior Matt Murton (why is he not a Twin yet, btw?).

/salute, Jacque. I did so love your constant, beaming smile.

This is a bit of a whiny post, but I figured that I could come here and get some commiseration from you all. It's been a really, really bad start for my fantasy team. Check them out here if you're bored at work or something. And please, hit me up with input on players you feel are worth cutting bait with. I'm at a loss; I feel like I have a decent team but everyone is sucking. The ass-bats are out of control.

I just posted this message to my fantasy league's message board:

You didn't think I could do it, did you? You didn't think I had the guts. But oh yes, I went there. I took the challenge. I manned up.

Yes, that's right. For the day of Wednesday, April 18, the Southside Sabres collectively OPSed less than .500! And I didn't stop there; oh no. The pitching staff got into the game too. Big Z, Carlos Zambrano, posted his third awful start of 2007, going 6 innings and allowing 5 runs for a daily ERA of 7.50 and a WHIP of 2.17. Todd Jones hastened the ascendancy of Joel Zumaya, blowing his first save of the year...against the Royals.

I hereby claim moral victory over Heart of a Champion Baseball. Even at this early date, you say? Oh yes. You see, we're in the right.

...

Yeah. Sorry for bitching, but dear god could I have a couple more players go in the tank? The moral of the story is don't draft an entire team of players who are going to start the season ice cold.

http://www.startribune.com/509/story/1088140.html

Well, there he goes. Best of luck, JD; may your fine stuff carry you to a successful major league career.

Rabe's down, which isn't really any big surprise. How many backup outfielders does a team really need?

The irritating thing is that Christensen (the Strib writer) implies that management is planning on putting Heintz on the big club. NOTE TO GARDY: Quit being a freaking moron about 3rd catchers. Yeesh.

Yep, it's official. Off he goes. Crappy veterans ahoy! Santana/Bonser/Ortiz/Ponson/Silva, if anyone wasn't paying attention.

http://www.startribune.com/blogs/christensen/?p=85

Any bets on how long it'll be before he's up to the big club? I'm thinking mid-May, after Silva completely implodes.

Sigh, now my fantasy team needs pitching help too =\

Joe Christensen's blog (http://www.startribune.com/blogs/christensen/?p=11) notes that Gardy has basically handed the 4 and 5 spots to our brilliantly overpaid washed up FA signings.

Gardy: "I view [Ponson] being one of our starters," Gardenhire said. "I expect him to step up and take one of those jobs. Whether it happens or not is totally up to him."

Ugh. I know it's still earlier than early, but I'm already getting flashbacks of Gardy mismanaging Bartlett and Cuddyer for years on end.

Gardy, re the young guys who could compete for a spot: "It makes them all work harder to change our minds," Gardenhire said. "We have great young arms. You're looking for a few veterans so you can give a little more time to these young arms [in the minors], but if that doesn't happen, like we've said all along, we'll go the other route."

I just don't see what exactly we're gaining by staffing Rochester with a starting rotation that several Major League teams would probably trade for in a heartbeat over what they've got for 2007. I mean, yeah, they're not all going to be ready. I get that. But do we really thank that zero out of these four guys (Baker, Garza, Perkins, Slowey) are going to be ready and step up? EDIT: Loving the new blogs by the Strib guys, by the way. They're definitely worth throwing on your RSS feed.