Halfway to the post-season

After 82 games the Boston Red Sox are 51-31 and on a pace for 102 wins this season. At the writing of this, the Angels (51-31) were losing to Texas and the Indians (50-32) were locked in a tie with Detroit. If the score remains the same in the Angels game and no matter the result of the Indians, then the Sox retake the mantle of having the best record in baseball.

The Sox owe this to two things, being in the top six in hitting in spite of carrying the light hitting Julio Lugo (.191), and players like JD Drew, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz hitting below their career averages. The other - their pitching. Currently they're tied for fourth in team ERA at a 3.71 (not including tonight's game). After tonight's win, Daisuke Matsuzaka is the team's second ten game winner, joining Josh Beckett (11-2), and the team has three pitchers with at least eight wins (Tim Wakefield at 8-8).

With their ten game cushion, and an injury to the recently surging Coco Crisp, the Sox have been able to audition prospect Jacoby Ellsbury at the major league level. With David Murphy available at Pawtucket, one has to question why Ellsbury was promoted.

Was it with the idea to increase his trade value in order to make a big splash before the trade deadline?

Was it to audition him for the majors in order to see how expendable Crisp is?

If it's the former, then the Sox can expect flak for that trade given the play he made on the passed ball against Texas. If it's the latter, then the Sox are acknowledging that the future is now in their quest for a second World Series title this decade.

Considering the way the offense has sputtered lately, the latter might not be a bad thing. Ellsbury may very well provide the Sox the spark they have been needing as well as the true lead-off hitter they have been missing. He may even succeed in taking the pressure on Lugo, which in turn might allow Lugo to get back on track.

NFL Questions: NFC East

Like I did with the AFC East, here I am taking a look at what is the major question facing each team in the NFC East. There are so many issues facing each of these teams, it was difficult to choose just one.

Dallas Cowboys - Oh, so many to choose here, and so many obvious ones...Tony Romo's development? T.O., AKA The Mouth That Roared? The Dallas O-line? New coaching staff? Ultimately, I think it all comes back to the offensive line. Can they do better than they did last year? If they can, they have a shot. If they can, then Romo has a chance to develop, Romo has a chance to get the ball to Terrell Owens and keep him happy, and Wade Phillips has a chance to see if his offense really works. Considering that the Cowboys' big off-season offensive acquisition was a left tackle that couldn't cut it on the offensive powerhouse that is the Arizona Cardinals, this might be a tall order.

New York Giants - Can Eli Manning become the player that the Giants need him to be? We could ask if Jeremy Shockey could ever become the player the Giants need him to be, but we already know he's not dedicated to the improvement of the team. But can Manning become consistent, can Manning become a leader, can Manning smack down the idiots when they open their mouths? It's unlikely that the Giants will see any improvement on last year if Manning can't be the guy that the players rally around. And if it's more of the same, expect Coach Coughlin to b e looking for a job come January.

Philadelphia Eagles - Can Donovan McNabb stay healthy for sixteen games? The only way that this happens is if Andy Reid learned his lesson last year when he called just about as many running plays as he did passing. In each of McNabb's injury plagued seasons, passing plays made up close to 70 percent of the calls for the Eagles offense. If Reid stays with what I call the McNabb ratio (70-30), Kevin Kolb needs to be ready for extended action. If Kolb is starting for the Eagles, they will struggle.

Washington Redskins - Did Dan Snyder finally get out of his own way? Lord only knows if that will even help. For the first time during his tenure as owner, Snyder has reigned in the need to win the Super Bowl during the off-season and avoided making the big splash. Last year he went out and signed Adam Archuletta, a hard hitting safety with mediocre cover skills, to play opposite of Sean Taylor...a hard hitting safety with mediocre coverage skills. Instead of complimentary pieces, the Redskins were concerned with getting the players with the biggest reputations that were available. Last season that resulted in a gaping hole in pass coverage in the middle of the field. Maybe, for the first time since Snyder took over, the team will show some growth due to the lower key effort.

NY Nuggets

In a season during which things seem to fall apart for the Yankees just when they seem like they might turn the corner, or at least get some sort of season highlight, it has happened again. On the night that Clemens gets his 350th career win, the Bombers' best offensive player injures himself and is likely headed to the disabled list.

For those out there that don't think Alex Rodriguez has been the best player at the plate for the Yanks this year, you're either blind or stupid. For the next two weeks, the Yankees are likely to be without the guy who has produced 80 of the team's 315 RBI's from the (current regular) starting nine. That's 25.4 percent of the team's RBI's. They lose the guy who hit 28 home runs of the starting nine's 68 homers, 41.18 percent. He has hit more than three times the number of home runs than the next most on the team (Posada, 9), and of the current line-up, to even come close to matching his home run production, it would take Posada, Matsui (8), Jeter (5), and Abreu (5) - in essence, half the line-up.

Call it a hunch, but this is going to be a long two weeks for the Yanks if A-Rod's hamstring is bad enough to be put on the DL. Add that to the fact that a hamstring injury makes A-Rod a less tradeable commodity if the Yanks wanted to try to replenish the farm system. Hamstrings are notoriously tricky and can have an adverse affect on a player's power numbers.

Yankees fans take note...
Yankees ownership feels that you are less important than the players. At least that is what the message seems to be when they allow Cynthia Rodriguez, A-Rod's wife, to wear a shirt that tells the fan base what it can do with itself.

Any fan would have been escorted to the gate, or at the very least, asked to cover the rude and inappropriate message on the shirt.

This is not going to help A-Rod endear himself to the New York fans.

Farnsworth on way out the door?
According to reports, after the blow-up between Joe Torre and pitcher Kyle Farnsworth, Farnsworth has been unavailable for the last two games due to what Torre told reporters was a sore or stiff back. When approached by reporters, Farnsworth said his back was fine and that he would have been able to pitch in either of the last two games if needed.

This sounds like someone who has seriously fallen out of favor with his manager, and might be suited to a change of scenery.

The hard truth...
The hard truth for Yankees fans is that their team through 79 games has won only 38. Sure, they're only about 8.5 games back in the wild card race, but the wild car leading Tigers are on pace to win 95 games. Seattle, Minnesota, Oakland, and Toronto are all between the Yankees and the Tigers and all are playing better baseball than the Yankees.

For the Yankees to get to that magic number of 95, the Yankees will have to go 57-26 for the remainder of the season.

It's time for New York to write off this season, trade some veterans for whatever they can get (and let's face it, Abreu isn't worth much, A-Rod is injured, decreasing their return on him, Giambi isn't worth anything to anyone, and a broken down Damon isn't going to draw much interest). But if they can get even three prospects that are even close to major league ready, that would be quite an accomplishment.

Let's look at one last hard truth. Brian Cashman isn't that great a general manager. He was not the architect of the World Series winners in the 1990's. Gene Michael and Bob Watson were. Watson and Michael built the farm system that produced Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, were smart enough to not trade away Jorge Posada, and generally had more power than what Cashman has been granted through the years.

Cashman has pretty much just had more that he could spend on the top free-agents than anyone else. This year he tried to put together a team on something of a budget and failed miserably.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K

For the last week or so the Mariners have been the best team in baseball. Yesterday, manager Mike Hargrove didn't just resign. When you read his words, as reported by the AP, it appears he has retired -

"I have never had to work at getting that level myself -- ever -- until recently. I've found that I've had to work harder in making that same commitment to my bosses, to my players and to my coaches. And that's not right," Hargrove said, turning away and choking back tears.

"They deserve better. They are good people. There is a good thing going on here. And it's time for me to leave."

Hargrove's voice often cracked. His eyes were moist and red, remnants of a meeting he called with stunned players moments earlier. He said he initially made his decision June 20, just after a six-game losing streak.

General manager Bill Bavasi said that on a scale of one to 10 on being caught off-guard, Hargrove's departure was "an 11." Hargrove agreed with Bavasi to delay leaving until the All-Star break, and Bavasi and McLaren tried to talk Hargrove into reversing his decision.

"We've won seven in a row and the feeling hasn't changed. I never thought it would end like this. And I am grateful that it has," he said, adding this is probably his last job.

The timing of the announcement is puzzling to say the least, but when you're heart's not into something anymore, success can seldom change that feeling.

Frustration mounts in the House that Ruth Built...
According to reports, the usually even tempered Joe Torre went nose to nose with Kyle Farnsworth, and players like Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada are attacking the professionalism of their teammates.

Scouts have speculated that the lack of depth in the minors has allowed for a lack of urgency on the part of the team's veterans. People like Robinson Cano know that there is nobody threatening to take his place if he plays poorly. This has led to speculation that, for the first time in over a decade, the Yankees will be forced to be sellers before the trade deadline...most likely selling A-Rod.

The question is, after so many years at the top, can Boss Steinbrenner and the Yankees brain trust adjust the mentality that has allowed the Yankees to clear-cut their own farm system for the last seven seasons in the pursuit of championships that never manifested? Can they change gears to rebuilding, or will they be stuck in this self destructive loop?

More football sizzling on the grid-iron...
After the announcement of the United Football League coming soon, it appears that a new league, the All-American Football League will beat the UFL to the starting line. The league plans on using college rules and playing in the spring in college hotbed areas.

An interesting idea, but it's not the first time a league has tried the spring in order to avoid competition with the more established leagues. I'm not convinced playing up the college rules is a solution either, as I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of the collegiate game.

However, playing the games in areas that don't have professional teams may be the smartest decision involved - it's the same thing that allowed for the development and growth of the Arena Football League. It's only been over the last decade that the AFL really made in-roads into major markets like Philadelphia and New York.

Throwback - looking at the Patriots Snow Bowl from the 2001 playoffs

Recently ESPN or the NFL Network ran a show on the greatest bad weather games ever played. Amongst them was the game the Patriots played against the Raiders in the Nor'easter in Foxboro back in 2001. As is the formula with these shows, they talk to commentators, coaches, and former players.

One of the former players that they talked to for this game was a former Raider whose name escapes me, but he wasn't even involved in this game. This dude played in the 1970's and he cemented the perception in my head that the whining nature of Raiders fans starts with their former players.

This guy addressed the tuck rule, saying that the refs made a call that was never made before, nor since. Of course the call had been made several times before in the regular season, and has been made several times since. And for the Raiders fans that want to continue whining about this, consider the following - "NFL Rule 3, Section 21, Article 2, Note 2: When a Team A player is holding the ball to pass it forward, any intentional forward movement of his arm starts a forward pass, even if the player loses possession of the ball as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body. Also, if the player has tucked the ball into his body and then loses possession, it is a fumble."

And this - immediately after the overturned call, Brady completed a pass to a completely uncovered David Patten for a first down. The Raiders defense stiffened, forcing the Vinatieri field goal with less than a minute left to tie the game. It was not an easy field goal in those conditions, the refs did nothing to help the ball along, and based on the percentages at that distance (even in decent conditions) Vinatieri was unlikely to make that kick.

The Raiders got the ball back with 27 seconds on the clock, and I believe one time-out. Gruden had his team take a knee and go to overtime. Ample time to run between three and four plays in an attempt to get into field goal range.

The Raiders lost the toss and never saw the ball again.

A few important facts about the Raiders defense in the overtime loss - on the second pass that Brady threw, JR Redmond caught the ball for a short gain when two Raiders defenders blew tackles on what should have been no more than a five yard pick-up. Redmond turned it into a 21-yard gain.

Six plays later the Raiders had the Patriots in a fourth and four situation and gave up the first down. All in all, after the tuck ruling, the Raiders defense had 17 plays to come up with either a turnover or the big stop and they couldn't get it done.

On a separate note...

For Sox and Patriots fans traveling to our nation's capital, this place will make you feel at home. The owner is from Boston, portions of the staff are from New England, and they have the packages to get all the Sox and Pats games.

The Bottom Line

For all the writing about the big three (professional) sports in the United States, I've really only ever been drawn to two - baseball and football. I will admit, for me, football is king.

I enjoy baseball, and as a Red Sox lifer, I can hold my own with the most knowledgeable of fans. But to me, football is a game in which strategy is much more important. Sure you have your pitching and hitting match-ups, fielding shifts, but if the right fielder takes a few plays off...hell, even a few innings off...during a game in which the pitcher is lighting it up, that player's mini-vacation can go largely unnoticed.

On the grid iron, if a player takes a few plays off, well, it could get the quarterback killed, it could mean a quick six, or it could mean a running back with no room to run. It will not go unnoticed.

No, the bottom line with baseball is it's an exercise in math...statistics. It's a chance for the fans and the press to wrap their minds around numbers in a sports context, in an effort to make those numbers meaningful. We look for trends, eye batting averages, pour over ERA's, and we use these numbers to argue and debate a player's worthiness. We check the pitching match-ups to see what sort of ground our team can make-up on or gain distance on a rival.

The Red Sox, based on April (16-8) and May (20-8), it can be said have experienced a slump in June (13-13, tonight's game determines whether or not the Sox have a winning record this month). In three more games, we hit the halfway mark of the season for Boston, and, based on career numbers, it can be opined that both David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez are having off seasons as they are both on a pace for only 100 RBI's each.

In light of Baseball's predeliction towards the mathematic, production is gaged often in arcane ways - Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched (WHIP), On Base Percentage combined with Slugging Percentage (OPS).

I present another way. Something a little less arcane, and maybe a little more accurate in regards to a player's production - Runs Scored and Runs Batted In Per Game, or as I call it; RSBIG. Yes, it does cause for a "production overlap," but it also gives a sense of how much of the scoring the player has been involved in.

This is the (regular) Red Sox line-up based on OPS -

David Ortiz																																1.004
Kevin Youkilis																																.902
Mike Lowell																																.866
Manny Ramírez																																.862
Dustin Pedroia																																.851
Jason Varitek																																.805
J.D. Drew																																.751
Coco Crisp																																.680
Julio Lugo																																.540

Based on Batting Average -

Kevin Youkilis																										.325
Dustin Pedroia																										.321
David Ortiz																										.319
Mike Lowell																										.296
Manny Ramírez																										.290
Jason Varitek																										.266
Coco Crisp																										.262
J.D. Drew																										.257
Julio Lugo																										.190

RBI's -

Mike Lowell																54
David Ortiz																48
Manny Ramírez																43
Kevin Youkilis																41
Julio Lugo																34
Jason Varitek																33
J.D. Drew																32
Dustin Pedroia																23
Coco Crisp																22

Runs -

David Ortiz						49
Kevin Youkilis						46
J.D. Drew						43
Coco Crisp						41
Manny Ramírez						40
Julio Lugo						33
Mike Lowell						33
Dustin Pedroia						30
Jason Varitek						29

Now my statistic - RSBIG

David Ortiz......................1.33
Mike Lowell ...................1.19
Kevin Youkilis.................1.19
JD Drew...........................1.10
Manny Ramirez..............1.09
Julio Lugo........................1.08
Jason Varitek.................0.98
Coco Crisp.......................0.88
Dustin Pedroia................0.83

As much as Julio "What Mendoza Line" Lugo has struggled, offensively he has been almost as important this season to the Sox pushing runs across the plate as Manny Ramirez by either getting on base and scoring, or by knocking them in (he only has 9 fewer RBI's and has scored 7 fewer runs, in spite of batting .191 to Ramirez's .290), and in baseball, producing runs is the bottom line.

NFLE RIP

As a football fan, today was a sad day for me. The NFL announced that NFL Europa, its developmental league ceased operations, playing its final down last weekend with a tilt between the Hamburg Sea Devils and the Frankfurt Galaxy for the NFLE title.

The two teams played in front of a crowd of 48,125.

In spite of the respectable crowd, the NFLE has hemorrhaged money throughout its existence dating back to when it was the World League of American Football (WLAF, or as many called it - the WeLaff). This year the NFL lost $30 million on the league.

I for one, a proud owner of a Barcelona Dragons sweater, will miss the league. I understand that in the end this was a business decision, but I can't but help saying that I am disappointed.

Sure, it wasn't the best football out there. But I thought it was fun to watch.

The league was the subject of a lot of ridicule, but it produced Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme, Adam Vinatieri, Joe Andruzzi, and Marco Rivera...just to name a few. It was a chance for the highly talented, but less polished players to excel, and it created an opportunity for international players such as British-born Sea Devils wide receiver Scott McCready who earned a Super Bowl ring as a member of the Patriots practice squad in 2001 and Osaka native and Frankfurt Galaxy linebacker Rikiya Ishida.

The league had grown enough in Germany that five of the six teams were based there - the Rhein Fire, Frankfurt Galaxy, Cologne Centurions, Hamburg Sea Devils, and Berlin Thunder.

Now the NFL, while dropping the league, is eying Germany for their international games in coming years. Germany could host games as soon as 2008, say league officials.

I find it ironic, however, that the NFL will hold its first regular season tilt abroad in London, the former home of the NFLE's London Monarchs, defunct now for close to a decade.

Although, with the advent of the Arena Football League, a league whose funding is not dependent on the NFL, it is hard to see the NFL restarting the league, no matter how much I would like to see the league restart. It does beg a question. Is the NFL eying Germany for expansion? There has been talk about Canada and Mexico. Would it be unrealistic to expect four new AFC and four new NFC teams between Europe, Canada, and Mexico over the course of the next decade? I wouldn't be surprised.

In the meantime, I'm going to turn my attention to the JAFA, American football in Japan. Maybe if enough people contact them, we can get the Football Network to cover it

Odd little glitches

Just a quick note about Blogger.

Evidently, I have 97 posts this year, not including this one. For whatever reason, the first week of the year during which I had two posts does not appear on the links to the right. Don't know why, not going to bother looking into it, but it was nice to find a couple of posts that I didn't even remember.

Coming soon, more questions about the NFL.

Clemens...a year too long?

Throughout his career Roger Clemens has been an impact player. He has averaged just under 15 wins per year over his 24 seasons (including this one) and only 7.5 losses. Only twice in his career has he finished a season with a losing record, both times with Boston.

He has been one of the most dominating pitchers for the better part of the last three decades. Sure, he's had problems coming up big in the post season. But his wins will help you get there.

He has also been implicated by Jose Canseco and Jason Grimsley in baseball's sordid performance enhancing drug use story. When looked at, one can guess where this might even have started if it is indeed true...

In 1993, Clemens, then 30 and about to turn 31, started a three season stretch where he threw for fewer than 200 innings for the first time since 1986 - throwing 191 2/3's, 170 2/3's, and 140 innings respectively, starting 29, 24, and 23 games in each of those seasons.

During that stretch he had garnered a reputation in Boston for coming into spring training fat and out of shape and garnered a reputation as fragile. A long cry from his current reputation as a workout warrior.

Jose Canseco joined Boston in 1995. Clemens pitched 242 2/3's innings in 1996 before moving on to the Blue Jays.

As bad a rap as Dan Duquette gets, the writing was on the wall in 1995, and it wasn't that hard to read. Clemens was on his way out. He spent significant time on the disabled list in all three of those seasons leading up to 1996, and one healthy season after three straight seasons of decline...that was just too much of a gamble for a general manager with some sense.

Somehow at the age of 34, a year after meeting Canseco, Clemens began a career renaissance. Over the course of a ten season period, when other pitchers are on the decline, Clemens went on a tear during which he pitched fewer than 200 innings only twice, and never pitched fewer than 180.

This season, the Rocket has touched down in the middle of the Bronx, and while still early, is sporting a 1-3 record with a 5.32 ERA and with opponents batting .284 against him. Maybe he's trying to do this without the help he may have had in past years due to more stringent testing in MLB, maybe his age finally has caught up with him, maybe its the difference between pitching in the American League as opposed to the National League.

Either way, it's looking more and more like the Savior of the Yankees has hung on for a
year too long. At the end of last year, Clemens walked away from Houston with a 2.30 ERA, and hitters only accounting for a .214 batting average.

If the season keeps going like this, that's a lot of aging during one off season.

NFL Questions: AFC East

As we approach the NFL preseason, only a month away, each team is faced with major questions - but what is the major question faced by each team? The Angry Fan takes a look, starting with the AFC East.

Buffalo Bills - Can Anthony Thomas emerge as an every down back? Even in his best seasons in Chicago, the A-Train, the knock against Thomas was durability. Last season was the first time in Thomas' career that he played in 16 games, but he started only two. If Thomas is unable to fill the void created by the departure of Willis McGahee via trade, it will be a very long season for JP Losman, or whoever else is under center for the course of the year.

Miami Dolphins - What are they thinking in Miami? It's hard to fathom what is going on in Miami as the Dolphins are beginning to look more and more like the East Coast version of the Raiders. Sure, hiring Cam Cameron seemed like a good idea, but what about their other moves - they draft a glorified return man with ankle problems with their first pick, they trade their leading receiver to the division rival Patriots, they add a linebacker that might face league discipline for an off season assault, and they try to rectify last season's quarterback fiasco by replacing a rehabbing Duante Culpepper, with a fragile Trent Green who never seemed to be the same player when he returned from his concussion last season.

New England Patriots - Can Brady and the receivers gel by the first game of the season? With games against the Jets, Chargers, and Bengals over the first four weeks of the season, the Patriots defense will best be served by having an offense that can run the opposing defenses ragged. If the new receiving corps develops chemistry faster than last year's group, this team could easily head into Indianapolis with an 8-0 record. If it takes them some time to come together, the record could easily be 6-2 with those losses happening during the first four weeks of the season.

New York Jets - Can the Jets build off of last season? First year head coach Eric Mangini worked miracles in getting this team to play as greater than the sum of its parts, but can he work that magic again? The key will be whether or not they can get two straight healthy seasons out of quarterback Chad Pennington. If they can't, then the offense falls on the shoulders of the untested Kellen Clemens.

Demoralization

This time one year ago the Red Sox and Yankees were fighting it out for first place in the AL East. After a rough start, the Bronx Bombers fought their way back with the best line-up that George Steinbrenner's money could buy.

New York surged, and at the right time, peaked to take the AL East (although they peaked to early to win it all).

This year, for a brief period after Roger Clemens made this season's major league debut in pinstripes, the Yankees surged closing to within seven-and-a-half games of the Sox. They played their best baseball of the season, and even began to worry members of Red Sox Nation.

And then something happened, something inevitable.

The Yankees stalled.

A popular choice to win the AL East crown during Spring Training, New York has dropped five of their last six games to the surging Colorado Rockies (38-37) and the previously slumping Giants (32-42), to drop back to half a game under .500 (36-37), into third in the AL East, and 11.5 games behind the Red Sox. It is a season that has gone horribly wrong for the Yankees, and it's not likely to get any better.

The Yankees have a line-up that can tear the cover off the ball,

They have a pitching staff that can make opponents look every bit as good as that.

Red Sox fans know, from decades of experience, that this is not a winning formula. In 1997 the Sox scored 851 runs, 5.25 per game, and finished the season 78-84, 20 games behind the first place Orioles and barely two games ahead of cellar-dwelling Toronto.

The Yankees made their run, and now the team, once again, looks like it is done. What will this do for the morale of that line-up?

Their pitching is what it is, and looks it - old and ineffective. They are the Dirty Dozen, the twelve starters that have combined for 25 of the team's 36 wins, and 26 of the team's 37 losses. Of the 646.2 innings thrown by Yankee pitchers, 236.1 have been by the bullpen (not including the relief stints by starters Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Kei Igawa, and Matt DeSalvo). The only Yankee starters with more than one decision and winning records - Chien-Ming Wang (7-4), Tylar Clippard (3-1), and the man Clemens (1-2) replaced in the rotation, Kei Igawa (2-1).

The Red Sox, on the other hand, have winning records from four of five of their starters, and 39 wins combined from the rotation. Josh Beckett (11-1), Daisuke Matsuzaka (9-5), and Tim Wakefield (7-8), account for more wins (26), than all twelve of the Yankees starters combined.

Maybe Clemens gets better as the season wears on, but I wouldn't count on it. An ERA of around 5.00 is about what I expected of a 44-year old pitcher that had an overall ERA of about 4.00 during his last stint with the Yankees.

The Yankees don't get any younger in that rotation until the return of Phil Hughes in August, the same pitcher that GM Brian Cashman didn't want to bring to the majors in the first place. If the Yankees aren't even in contention for a wild card berth come August, Yankees fans shouldn't expect to see Hughes until next year. In the meantime, they should forget about their memories of 1978, because history isn't about to repeat itself.

Down under in the Nation's capitol

The Baltimore/Washington Eagles extended their unbeaten streak to nine games dating back to last season with Saturday's win over the Boston Demons in the Eastern Australian Football League. The win broke a losing streak to the Demons dating back to 2000 when Baltimore beat Boston twice.

For more photos from the game, click here.

For more on the game, click here.

Baseball Math

Taken over the course of a season, the math of the standings makes sense. Sometimes, when taken as a sample of part of the season, it can make none whatsoever. There are probably some Yankees fans waking up this morning, looking at the standings and wondering...

They're wondering how, less than a week ago the Yankees had clawed their way to 7.5 games behind the Red Sox, the closest they had been since the end of April, only to have fallen 10 games back again. They're wondering how their team could go 7-3 over that span, the Sox go 6-4, and somehow lose ground...honestly, it's why I have always hated that "last ten" column in the standings.

Sure, it can show you trends, but it doesn't really show you what's happening. Not in any meaningful manner.

Ultimately, you have to go back to the win-loss column to see what's happening. Right now, the Yanks are playing a hot Colorado club that recently beat up a bit on Boston and are coming back down off what appears to have been a temporary high caused by Clemens' return to the rotation.

They'll probably look hot again for a little while after this series by playing a very cold Giants team and a struggling Orioles club in back to back series before a somewhat tougher stretch to close out at the All-Star break against teams like the Athletics, Twins, and Angels.

And on another note...

It has been reported that Pacman Jones will face two felony counts of coercion in relation to the incident at a Las Vegas strip club during the NBA's All-Star weekend.

As I was unfamiliar with the charge, I looked it up. It typically caries a one to six year sentence, and while Nevada lawyers talking to the Tennessean, Nashville's daily newspaper, claim to have never seen anybody actually charged with this (typically, they said, this is a charge that people plead down to), I did a quick Google of the term "felony coercion sentence Nevada" and came up with this. Evidently, people do get charged with this, it just doesn't happen that often.

Somehow I don't think this is just going to go away.