The Monday Musings

Happy Monday. Well it's probably not a happy Monday unless you're on extended vacation after the 4th o' July long weekend. But for the rest of us, here's a mostly baseball Monday Musings. Before that though, The World as Favre's Indecision Turns came had this from SI's Peter King.

"Two: Say the Packers allow Favre his freedom, which I think ultimately is what Favre wants if he doesn't get his starting job back in Green Bay. Overwhelmingly the team that makes the most sense to sign Favre for a couple of years is Minnesota. The Vikings are training Tarvaris Jackson to be their quarterback of the future, but he's an unproven commodity with promise at best. Their offensive coordinator is Darrell Bevell, who was Favre's quarterback coach for three years, from 2003-05. They have a close relationship. Not Steve Mariucci-Favre close, but Favre has a lot of respect for him. Imagine Favre in purple. It's an absolutely vomitous scenario for the Packers, imagining Favre playing for their arch-rivals -- and imagining Favre charging out of the tunnel at Lambeau Field for the opening game of the 2008 season. Lambeau Field, Monday Night Football, the night Favre was supposed to have his number retired for the Packers."


Wow. Just wow. King's about as good as it gets for NFL writers, so when he speaks, the football world listens. If he says there's a legit chance Favre comes back, then I believe him, and as I said Friday and as King reiterates in the story, this a no-win situation for the Pack and their fans.

But Minnesota? Can you even imagine Favre in purple? Good gosh the beautiful, sweet delicious irony that would be #4, the player who every Packer fan has rubbed in my face, playing in purple and kicking Green Bay's ass all season? Glorious! That's what it would be- glorious! Plus it'd be fun to watch people like Porta squirm. You know, the native MInnesotans who jumped the Favre bandwagon, all the while ripping the Vikes organization and why they couldn't cheer for the Vikes anymore. Whoever made Porta's furry Favre jersey might want to start making a furry purple #4 for Danny so he's properly attired for the WMW. It's ok buddy, we'll accept you and the rest of the native Minnesotan Favrey bandwagoneers back with open arms. Oh we'll remind you often about your two-timing bandwagoning ways, but you're still welcome to cheer for the team you should have been cheering for all along.

Ahhhh how sweet that would be. Of course, as King says in the story, you gotta think it'd be a cold day in hell before Green Bay would release Favre and allow him to play for Minnesota or Da Bears. A very cold day. So they either keep him and burn their bridge with Rodgers (the Brian Brohm 2nd rd pick is looking smarter and smarter), or deal one of the most popular athletes in the history of sports. IF Favre plays again, this will definitely hurt his reputation, at least with the fans. There's just no way Packer fans ever look him the same again if he does this and plays for somebody else. Bottom line is, we haven't heard even close to the last of this, and of course the best part is that no matter what happens, it's great for Vikings fans. Bloody fabulous is what it is. GO VIKES!!!!

*There hasn't been any baseball talk here because a) the Mariners have been reinventing the definition of awful and b) it's hard to follow the sport in Canada unless you like the Blue Jays. Since I hate them, I'm pretty much SOL. I'd be interested to know what the vibe is in the Cities right now for the Twinkies, who miraculously are just a game back of the White Sox in the division. Anyone still wondering why the Twins didn’t shell out $150-200 million for Johan and Torii? Anyone? I’m not going to sit here and say I believed the team would be a serious contender this season. Hell even the most die-hard Twins fan wouldn't have believed you if you'd told them that without Torii, Johan, AND Liriano the Twins would be only a game out of first place at the all-star break, but I did believe they’d be decent and would be back to contending by next season. Not giving huge money to two of their most popular players may have hurt their image around town, but it was absolutely the right move. Their success so far only helps to heal that wound with their fans and will hopefully get to realize they know what they’re doing. With a farm system stocked with pitching and an improved defense, the Little Engine that Could are right there again in the heat of the pennant race. What's more, they've locked up Mauer, Morneausy and Nathan to extensions, and are filling in pieces around them.

* Since I can’t seem to stop talking about the state of Wisconsin, the Brewers made a bold move towards a World Series by dealing for rental pitcher CC Sabathia. While they gave up Matt Laporta, one of their top prospects, and probably the biggest impact bat in the minor leagues right now, they still kept the farm system largely intact and now are sitting there with a great one-two punch of CC and Ben Sheets (at least until Sheets’ next visit to the DL, which could be any minute) to go along with a loaded offense. Sure they’re still terrible defensively, but Sabathia should help that once every five days.

I like the move for the Brewers because while they give up a great prospect in Laporta, he was blocked at first by Prince Fielder and in left by Ryan Braun, so he had no immediate spot. While I don’t believe in gutting your farm system, I DO believe in dealing prospects when the time is right, and for the Brewers this is the right time. However, make no mistake that this is simply a rental, as Sabathia WILL be a free agent this winter, and I’d be shocked if he’s not in Yankee pinstripes next year. When stupid teams like the Mariners give Carlos Hi-HO Silva! $48 million, just imagine what Sabathia will command.

* Finally, baseball, like every other sport, is a copy-cat. Other teams will follow the blueprint successful clubs to try and emulate their results. While nobody can spend like the Yankees or Red Sox, if you’re a baseball fan, let’s hope every team jumps on board the Rays bandwagon of success. And no, I’m not talking about their years of sucking- that we could do without. But what the Rays have done is drafted well (remember that the Pirates and Royals, just to name two, have had a lot of top 10 picks over the years just like Tampa, but have not gotten the results), developed well, and not overspent on free agents when they know whey can fill those positions from within.

But the two biggest problem areas the Rays had last year that were corrected this year were their defense and bullpen, and both were done on the cheap. Last year the Rays weren't just the worst defensive team in baseball, they were one of the worst of the past 10 years. BJ Upton at 2nd, Aki Iwonara at 3rd and Brendan Harris at short meant anything hit on the ground against them was getting through. So to fix it they called up "Eva"n Longoria, a plus defender at 3rd with 30+HR power. Sure, most organzations don't have that luxury- ok NOBODY has that luxury!!!- but his D at third allowed them to move Iwamura to 2nd, where he's decent, and move Upton to center field, where he doesn't kill them. They then made the deal with the Twins for Matt Garza and had Jason bartlett, one of the top defensive shortstops in the game, thrown in, and he's been awesome at short. Bingo, they now have one of the league's best defense this season.

Instead of blowing their money on a Francisco Cordero or Scott Linebrink or another expensive free agent, the Rays bullpen was rebuilt either with inhouse options or cast off free agents. Troy Percival anyone? Like their defense, the bullpen has gone from of the major's worst in 2007 to one of its best in 2008.

In case you haven't noticed, the Twins are already following this blue print pretty well. In the Terry Ryan Era the team was incredible at drafting and developing pitching, both starters and relievers, and you could argue nobody's done it better this past decade. Under new GM Bill Smith the Twins also took some steps to upgrade, or at least maintain their D, by signing Adam Everett to play short, calling up Alexi Ramirez to play 2nd, and getting some great D out of trade pickups Carlos Gomez and Delmon Young. I have no idea what's going on over at third or who's even playing there right now, but I figure it I've never heard of the guy, he can't be good with the bat which means he must be good defensively. And again, these were all moves made in house, through trades, or cheap free agents.

The one thing Smith can improve upon from Ryan's tenure is drafting and developing hitters. Mauer was a no-brainer and Morneausy developed well, but that's really been it for Twins prospects. They have a list as long as the Mississippi of position players who were 1st and 2nd round draft picks who were highly touted but never developed. In this day and age where teams are getting smarter and good hitters are harder to find, you HAVE to develop your own. But the Twins are doing a lot right, and have a very bright future as they move into their new ballpark in a couple of years. And hey, they're light years of my Mariners.