SimonOnSports

Oh the Red Sox fans, so cute with their addition skills. 04 + 07 = 11 . It's their year. Ugh. Vomit. Ugh. I've got math too, it says "Snobby Yankee Fan, we have more championships than you. Even if 22 of them came before I was born."

1. AJ Burnett is the 6th Highest Paid Starting Pitcher in MLB this season. He is the 20th highest paid player in all of baseball. 2. Of the 93 MLB pitchers whom qualify*, AJ Burnett ranks dead last in ERA. 3. Of the 93 MLB pitchers whom qualify*, AJ Burnett ranks 89th in WHIP. 4. AJ Burnett is currently tied for having the second most losses in the league trailing only Kevin Millwood (Oreos) and Joe Saunders (LAA/ARI). 5. Of those 15 losses, just one was dubbed a "Tough Loss" which has the not so difficult bar set as a loss in which you earned a Quality Start. 6. Speaking of Quality Starts, AJ has thrown 13 this season putting him at a percentage of .41% which ranks him 101st of the 107 pitchers with over 140 IP. 7. AJ Burnett ranks 40th out of the 107 pitchers with over 140 IP in regards to run support. In comparison Kevin Millwood ranks 90th and Joe Saunders ranks 79th. (King Felix ranks dead last, ouch) 8. AJ Burnett has a WAR of 1 which values him at ...

Oh look, delicious Pork Chop on a stick. Let me have that Kim Jones. Yummmmmy. H/T Couchwarmers

Many people do walks for charity, I'm thinking maybe I'll donate 25 bucks to whatever I can deem as Nick Johnson's favorite charity for each mile he "Walks" this season. Currently through 1+ months of the season Nick Johnson has walked 22 times and at a rate of 90 feet per walk he's reached the equivalent of 0.375 miles. Nicky J needs no bat!

And just for fun lets look at where Robinson Cano will end up if he managed to keep up the pace he currently is on... Cano would finish with 243 hits, 60 HRs, 155 Runs, 141 RBI, and 13 steals. Quite obviously he needs to pick up his speed game because he's slacking.

This post is brought to you by SPORTSBETTING.com. Get best online sports betting bonuses at this sportsbook . My father, the bright man that he is, said something in Spring Training that I kind of laughed off but is looking like a distinct possibility just 1 month into the season. The phrase was quite simple and quite brief, "You watch, Cano just might win the MVP this year". His reasoning was quite simple, if Cano ever could bottle up all of his potential and put it together in a season while hitting in the 5 hole behind Teixeira and A-Rod he just might wind up hitting .340 with 130 RBIs and 30+ HRs at second base. Again, its just one month into the season, but I certainly wish I went to Vegas and put some money on Cano for MVP for what would have been relatively long odds. Here's what Robinson Cano's rankings look like through the month of April. Cano sits first in the AL in Hits, Average, Runs, OPS and Slugging Percentage. He sits 2nd in the AL in Home Run...

During the offseason we were bombarded with articles talking about defensive metrics and how the 2010 Red Sox were going to be drastically improved as a result of these measures. The Sox decided to not give Jason Bay and his 35 HRs the money this offseason and instead went for Marco Scutaro, Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron (in addition to John Lackey). The collective defensive trio had UZR's through the roof and were supposed to save their pitchers over a run per game. there's just been a flaw or two to this philosophy early on this season. Their pitching has been crap and their hitting has been worse so honestly defense means shit when you're not doing anything else. Coming into today the Red Sox ranked 25th in the Majors in runs scored at 48 runs through 12 games. Throw in todays two run output and the rest of todays slate of MLB games and the Sox will likely slip even further down the chain. Meanwhile their team ERA came in in the bottom half of major league baseb...

Maybe pure at heart fans like every single player on their roster but considering I was dubbed the "Most Bitter" kid on campus when I was in college, I'm not that type. With that being said sometimes it's fun to have a little bit of scapegoat hate on someone on your roster, it's like bringing a little bit of the Philadelphia out of you. So through the past decade it's seemingly been some random guy in the bullpen that's sucked tremendously that you could lay the blame on. There was Felix Heredia whom my father and I nicknamed "The Exit Sign" because when he entered the game it was time to leave. There was Kyle the crier Farnsworth and then Latroy Hawkins aka "Black Farnsworth". Last season there was Dumbassho Marte, but considering he was a god in the postseason he's forever no longer the hated one. And thus we need a new Bullpen man to disdain, this new man is Chan Ho Park. One night in and he already sucks. Furthermore last...

Now that the offseason outfield moves have concluded and Curtis Granderson and Johnny Damon have flip flopped places it's time to take a look at which squad was the winner and which was the loser. Age The biggest Granderson advantage is the fact that he is 7 1/2 years younger than Damon and much less likely to see a steep decline in production over the next few seasons. Contract Granderson is set to make 23.75$ million over the next three seasons with an option of $13 million in year 4 or a 2$ million buyout. Damon is set to make 8$ million over one season. Both of these contracts are extremely manageable for the production that the two are expected to produce. Fielding Damon has become a poor fielder. His speed is no longer what made him a solid centerfielder and his arm strength is as embarrassing as ever. Granderson's fielding isn't the greatest in the league but he is certainly an upgrade over Damon.

All the talk in Yankee land has been about how Johnny Damon will no longer be a Yankee next year and whether or not that's a good thing. Somehow completely lost in the media shuffle is Chien-Ming Wang, how quickly Yankee land has forgotten it's former ace. From his rookie year in 2005 to his injury in 2008, Wang amounted 54 wins to just 20 losses. He never posted a season ERA above 4.07 and his WHIP and BAA against were all average to better than average. Unfortunately, Wang's comeback bid in 2009 can only be characterized as a complete and total disaster which has lead to the Yankees basically expressing no interest at all this offseason. As of right now Wang's best option just might be the Washington Nationals, weeee that sounds fun. What a precipitous fall for the one time Cy Young runner up and former ace of the New York Yankees.

There are smart people in the Major League Baseball offices wondering if there's hope of even discussing a potential move of the Rays to New Jersey or Southern Connecticut over certain protests from the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Phillies. [ Peter Gammons article on the Rays ] I caught wind of this thanks to a post by Matt at Fack Youk , who went over the potential landing spots city by city rebuffing all CT cities, but I'd like to put my 2 cents in as well. Frankly this is possibly one of the least likely things ever uttered by Peter Gammons. As Matt at points out in much longer analysis, Connecticut has just 3.5 million people, no viable Major League city, has essentially failed everytime a pro team was in the state and barely supports it's minor league teams. To think that Southern Connecticut could even really support a team if we had no other options would likely be questionable. But we do have options and this is the biggest issue.

If you are looking for a single individual that epitomizes the Scott Boras method of free agency, look no further than Johnny Damon. Johnny Damon loves money. His goal in free agency is to grab as much money as possible regardless of where it leaves him. Money is what matters to Johnny, to hell with the rest. Let's travel back in time to the 05-06 offseason when Johnny Damon was a fresh free agent. Johnny was the face of the Boston Red Sox. He was a lynchpin in the Red Sox 2004 curse breaking World Series Champions. He was universally loved by all Red Sox fans and universally hated by all Yankee fans. Of course Johnny Damon was going to stay in Boston. Life was seemingly perfect, how could he possibly want to leave when the Sox offered him a solid contract and when he was already quoted in the papers saying that he would never play for the Yankees. Money, that's how. Johnny jumped to New York for the additional cash. It was essentially the singular difference between w...

Well yesterday was certainly an interesting day in the baseball offseason. The Red Sox made two huge signings. Two of the best ten pitchers in baseball were moved. The World Series MVP is now on a different team. So it's time for some quicknotes to cover the big day. ~While I picked on Meech, Bill Baer and CRM this morning , if I had read Rosenthal's post over the weekend, I probably would have thought the same thing. "This trade seems a bit far fetched." Bill's post was likely the best rundown of why it didn't make much sense. The Phillies were giving up an Ace and Prospects for an Ace. Why not just give up the prospects and have two aces? Your best chance to win a World Series is 2010 before J-Roll and Utley start creeping towards regression and players like Werth demand huge salaries on the open market. In reality it seems like the Phillies made this move strictly because Cliff Lee apparently desires to test the Free Agent waters and Roy Halladay...

Now that the month of November is over I thought it would be a good time to revisit the win total chart of the New York Franchises that I did a few weeks back . The Yankees finished with more wins in November than the Nets, Jets and Giants and just one less than the Knicks. The Rangers however managed to get to 5 wins more than doubling the Yankees total. Unfortunately for the Rangers they played many many more games in November than did the Yanks.

The chart shows a tracking through November of the total wins by each New York team. The Yankees won on November 1st so on that date they are at 1. They then won on November 4th so on that date they are at 2. They have not played a game since so they have stayed at 2. What you will notice on the chart is that none of the major New York Teams (Knicks, Nets, Jets, Giants, Rangers, Yankees) have won more than 3 games in the month of November. The Yankees who shouldn't really be playing in November have picked up more wins this month than the Nets, Jets and Giants combined. The chart is a bit tough to see at this size but if you click on it to enlarge you should be able to find humor.

Let's take a quick look back at some of the players from 2001-2008 that never got to lift up a World Series trophy with the Yankees. Mike Mussina (2001-2008) The man is sandwiched between World Series victories. Is there anything worse? He's a borderline Hall of Famer (I don't think he gets in) and he left after his first and only 20 win season. His departure, in part, led the Yankees to bring in CC and Burnett. 8 seasons in pin stripes for Muss. 7 trips to the playoffs. 1 epic relief appearance. 2 World Series Trips. Zero Rings. Gary Sheffield (2004-2006) The Sheff came into the Bronx coming off a terrific year with the Bravos. He then dominated AL pitching finishing 2nd in the MVP voting in 2004. Unfortunately he was a part of the epic collapse against Boston. After being ravaged by injuries in 2006 the Yanks let him find employment elsewhere. 3 Years in Pin Stripes. Zero Rings. Alphonso Soriano (1999-2003) I'm not sure Soriano counts because he was a Septembe...

~The main cogs in the game 6 wheel were very fitting. Andy Pettitte picking up the victory. Mariano closing the door. Jeter going 3-5. Matsui picking up his first World Series ring and doing it in style. Oh and Pedro lost. ~Mr. Pettitte tied a record that Derek Lowe also shares and probably somebody else too. He was the winning pitcher in each of the series clinchers. ~Everyone making a big deal about 3 days rest can all shut up now. What a stupid topic. Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett have all pitched on 3 days rest before. They are all massive men. They have gotten ample rest the entire postseason. They weren't going to be asked to throw 8 innings. Each and all of them could pitch on 3-days rest without being significantly diminished or diminished at all. Pitching Gaudin would have been stupid. AJ Burnett pitched bad because he's AJ Burnett. He also pitched like crap on full rest in his 2nd start against the Angels. ~Can Mo continue to dominate into his 9...

In the words of Dave Chappelle as Rick James... "It's a Celebration Bitches!"