28 February 2007
Texans cut three, eat more money in bad deals
The Texans cut three players today.
Defensive tackle Seth Payne, offensive tackle Zach Weigert, and wide receiver Eric Moulds all got cut.
The Chronicle posted a report by Megan Manfull that's heavy on quotes, but unfortunately she had nothing to say about contracts and cap impact -- rather important matters, one might think.
Payne and Wiegert were products of the disastrous Capers/Casserly regime, so we'll dismiss them as old, injured, and in the way.
Moulds, on the other hand, was brought in after Gary Kubiak took over:
Moulds, 33, a first-round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills in 1996, was obtained in trade from the Bills on draft day last year in exchange for a fifth-round pick (134th overall).
A team as lacking in talent as the Texans simply can't be giving up draft picks -- even fifth rounders -- for players who are not productive.
Even worse, the Texans restructured Moulds' contract when they acquired him, paying out a $5 million signing bonus on a four year contract worth $14 million.
Just for fun, I went back and looked at the Payne deal signed by Casserly in 2005 -- $4.5 million signing bonus, four years for $16 million.
I couldn't find details of Weigert's contract, but he apparently got a nice extension in May 2006, which makes him a brilliant decision of the Casserly/Capers AND Kubiak regimes. An estimate of his 2007 cap impact is located here.
The Texans' football people sure do waste a lot of Bob McNair's money.
Look for Domanick (Davis) Williams and David Carr to cause even more cap pain.
UPDATE (03-01-2007): John McClain elaborates on the moves in the Chronicle today, basically reporting the Texans spin (Payne and Wiegert were cap moves, Moulds was a "football decision" by Kubiak). While the story mentions the Texans' dead cap space and GM Rick Smith's efforts to manage the Texans' cap mess, there is not much analysis of how these moves affect the cap specifically (i.e. how much dead cap space does it create and for how long, how much overall cap space does it free?). The absence of such analysis would be surprising, save for the fact that we are talking about the Chronicle, and expectations are low.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston's Clear Thinkers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/28/07 08:19 PM | Technorati | Comments (1)
Ron Santo has to cool his heels for another year...
Ron Santo didn't get the votes for the Baseball Hall Of Fame yesterday.
So, is he stumped or hopping mad?
Posted by Laurence Simon @ 02/28/07 11:13 AM | Technorati | Comments (0)
27 February 2007
Does anybody edit the sports section?
Here are the worst three paragraphs to appear in the sports section of a major daily newspaper in a while, courtesy of the Chronicle's Rockets beat writer Jonathan Feigen:
More than the scoring, more than the passing, beyond the decision-making that has guided the Rockets through more than two months without Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady looked more irreplaceable the night the Rockets had to replace him.
They never shot worse this season, never scored less, never took a more disheartening loss than Monday's 77-72 loss at Toyota Center to the Boston Celtics, losers of 12 consecutive road games and 22 of their previous 23.
But all that the Rockets were missing only began with Yao and McGrady out with flu-like symptoms.
Good gawd, that is bad, especially that last sentence.
Professional writers should be able to do better than this, even when it's late and their editors have apparently gone to bed.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/27/07 10:49 PM | Technorati | Comments (0)
26 February 2007
Bad Sports podcast (2007-02-25 edition)
There is a new Bad Sports podcast available here.
It's another recording of a live BlogTalkRadio program. The service seemed to be having a few issues last night, so the sound quality may not be good.
Substantively, we check in on the Astros, Texans, local college hoops, the Rockets, and local college baseball.
As always, we welcome your feedback here. And we may start taking a few calls eventually, once we get used to the service.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/26/07 08:37 AM | Technorati | Comments (0)
20 February 2007
You know it's Spring Training when Richard Justice throws out the first boot-licking...
Richard Justice opens mouth, extends tongue, reaches for Brad Lidge's spikes:
He might be the most respected player in his own clubhouse. He might be the most well-liked, too.
Those are two basic things to know about Brad Lidge. They're the backdrop for everything else you'll read about him in this column.
When you listen to people in the clubhouse and up in the front office talk about him, you realize how special those who know him best think he is.
For instance, Brad Ausmus.
"He's such a good person and solid human being," he said. "I've said before he might be the only baseball player I'd allow my daughter to marry."
What, Bradchick? Can't find a new Jewish boy for the girl, nu?
Look, if my wife's wondering about the fifteen boxes of Alpha Bits cereal I bought this week, it's so that I can render this article up in cereal format.
Justice can eat it when Lidge's ERA is in the upper 7s come June, Dan Wheeler's shaking his glove a hell of a lot in the ninth, and Brad Ausmus' daughter hooks up with a nice orthodontist from Miami Beach.
Posted by Laurence Simon @ 02/20/07 08:45 AM | Technorati | Comments (1)
19 February 2007
So are readers who understand "less/fewer" usage too smart to read?
Chronicle columnist Richard Justice doesn't quite have the new-media spirit on his blog today:
I shouldn't mention the conversation I had with Brad Ausmus Monday morning because it will only prompt more of you knuckleheads to write in. You seem to have forgotten that the idea of this particular blog is less [sic] responses, not more. I actually don't care what most of you think. Here's a litmus test: if you get the majority of your information from Fox News or if you have a picture of a college football player or coach framed and hanging in your house, you're too dumb to get this blog.
In other words, you're not my type....
I told him the same thing I've told many of you. One opinion counts on this blog. That would be mine. No one else matters.
If he really feels that way, why not just have Dwight Silverman turn off comments?
It's easy to do in Movable Type. If it's that big a problem, it's really easy to fix.
However, it strikes me that smart journalists -- sports journalists included -- will continue to move away from the "We said it, that is the end, and you are dumb if you think otherwise" approach to news consumers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/19/07 06:12 PM | Technorati | Comments (0)
Bad Sports BlogTalkRadio/podcast (2007-02-18)
There is a new Bad Sports podcast available for download here.
The substance is mostly the same, but we tried out a new service, BlogTalkRadio, which allows for a live show (with callers, although we didn't try it that way this time) which is recorded and archived. The archive, which is linked above, is in WMA format. The sound quality on this one is not great, but that may just have been my cellphone/bluetooth combination. I'll try dialing in with Skype or Gizmo next time, and maybe also recording the stream myself (which might be useful if people tell me WMA format is a no-go).
Substantively, we tried to catch up after our two month hiatus, covering: Blog Talk Radio administrative nonsense (listen to me talk to myself!), the Rockets (go T-Mac!), the Astros (Wandy?!), the Texans (Jake Plummer, come on down!), a little college hoops, and very little WNBA (some sports are worse than bad).
Give a listen and let us know if our BlogTalkRadio effort lived up to the name Bad Sports.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/19/07 01:13 PM | Technorati | Comments (1)
17 February 2007
Guy V. Lewis snubbed again
The Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen reports on the latest finalists for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame:
Van Chancellor, who led the WNBA Comets to four championships and the USA Basketball women's team to a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, was named Friday as a finalist for induction to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for the third consecutive year.
Once again, Guy V. Lewis was bypassed.
The man deserved to be enshrined many years ago. It looks increasingly unlikely that it's going to happen while he is alive. It's a real shame.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/07 02:58 PM | Technorati | Comments (0)
14 February 2007
A Halloween special at Hofheinz
I like to call this holiday Halloween, and it certainly turned out that way for the Cougars tonight, as an empty building on a night where nothing went quite right led to a home loss against a good, likely NCAA tournament, team, but a team that the Cougars could beat at home with an actual crowd.
The photo above was taken just before tipoff. As it illustrates, not many people turned out for the game.
The Coogs have been improving after a rocky non-conference start (or maybe it's just the sorry state of the conference -- hard to know for sure), but unless teams are winning, this can be a tough sports town -- and a record near .500 isn't enough of a draw for a team in a crap conference that plays in a dilapidated facility where the sound doesn't even work in half the building (and the staff wants to insist I'm crazy for merely pointing that out, and pointing out that fixing it might actually be in their interest). Rinky dink doesn't sell in this town, unfortunately, and all too often the UH athletics program just comes across as rinky dink.
It's too bad, because this team, like the previous Penders UH teams, is fun to watch. It deserves better.
UPDATE (02-15-2007): The official box score places attendance at 3,524. Those numbers seem wildly inflated.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/07 09:47 PM | Technorati | Comments (1)
13 February 2007
Rockets trade for 50% Greek
Chronicle sports reporter Jonathan Feigen reports that the Rockets have traded for Memphis backup center Jake Tsakilidis:
The Rockets reached an agreement to acquire Grizzlies center Jake Tsakalidis on Tuesday, hours before their trade exception was to expire, sending little-used veteran forward Scott Padgett to Memphis to create a roster spot.
Tsakalidis, a 7-2, 260-pound center, played in 23 games this season, averaging 2.3 points and 2.8 rebounds in 11.2 minutes per game.
Feigen's colleague Fran Blinebury previously pointed out that Tsakalidis is only Greek on his father's side, unlike Rockets point guard Vassilis Spanoulis, who is 100% Greek.
Maybe they can have a plate-breaking competition to determine which one is the Greekiest!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/13/07 10:36 PM | Technorati | Comments (0)
T-Mac for MVP?
That's what this blogger says.
I have no objections.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/13/07 10:26 PM | Technorati | Comments (0)
06 February 2007
Carr's future in limbo?
Houston Texans owner Bob McNair says that David Carr may not be a Texan for long...
David Carr’s future with the Houston Texans remains in limbo.
Owner Bob McNair remained non-committal about Carr on Tuesday, saying he is still being evaluated and any decision on whether the fifth-year quarterback returns next season will depend on what the Texans can accomplish in free agency.
“David has been inconsistent, and we‘ve said that” McNair said at a Texas Bowl luncheon at the JW Marriott. “He’s had some good games and he’s had some games that haven’t been as good. He’s a tremendous athlete. We’ve got to get better consistency there, either with David or with some additional help. We need more consistency at quarterback.”
Consistency?
Why do I get the sinking feeling that tomorrow's headline will be "Crazy Eights: Carr For Grossman"?
Posted by Laurence Simon @ 02/06/07 06:41 PM | Technorati | Comments (0)
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