An Actual Sports Article

Title says it all. This one will not be based on dangerous animals or things I hate.

As a White Sox fan, I feel it's time somebody made the case for Alexei Ramirez as rookie of the year. The only other viable candidate is the Rays' Evan Longoria. Longoria is injured but ad about 70 more at bats than Ramirez before going down so it's doesn't make a difference. Their lines are:
Longoria- .278 BA, .353 OBP, 22 HRs, 71 RBIs, 7 SBs.
Ramirez- .311 BA, .330 OBP, 14 HRs, 55 RBIs, 9 SBs.

Looking at those surface stats, Longoria looks slightly better. Thankfully, we have many more stats to look at. For example, with runners in scoring position, Ramirez is hitting .400. Longoria is hitting .235. With scoring position and 2 out, Alexei hits .351. Longoria hits .246. Who would you rather have with a man on second and down 1? Probably the guy hitting 100-165 points higher in those situations. Alexei's also a better fielder. You can find that out by checking the stats or watching Baseball Tonight. Chances are he's on there making another web gem. And I don't like to make this kind of argument, but Alexei would have more RBIs if he weren't buried in the 7th or 8th spot. Quentin, Dye, and Thome already clear most of the baserunners, and the Sox have too much invested in strugglers Paul Konerko and Nick Swisher to drop them behind 7. Would you rather have the super clutch, strong fielding, .310 hitting second basemen with partially deflated RBI totals? Or do you prefer the mashing, decent fielding third basemen, who gets on base more often? They are both good options, but I think one is better than the other. And while I don't have a vote, ROY voting is really a popularity contest. So I'm going to introduce the world to my man crush, Alexei Ramirez.

The Bulls completely screwed up with Ben Gordon. Way to go Bulls management, you finally add a penetrating presence (giggle) to the team, only to get rid of your best perimeter shooter. You know who really benefits from a driving point guard? Good perimeter shooters. Anyway, he announced that he's played his last game as a Bull and he needs to be traded. So I came up with a few scenarios. These assume Gordon takes the 6.4 million qualifying offer.

The stretch deal:

1. Bulls send Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich to Denver, utilize 5.2 Joe Smith trade exception.
Nuggets send Allen Iverson to Chicago.

The Nuggets do this in order to get younger, something they made a priority when they traded Marcus Camby for nothing. They would have a core of Hinrich, Gordon, Carmello, and Nene. Not bad. The Bulls do it as a 1 year flier on Iverson, and it makes them an Eastern Conference version of the 2007 Golden State Warriors. They would have slashing guards, a strong scoring threat, a good midrange shooter in Deng, and some tough defensive guys in the post. It goes against the youth theme, but at a certain point the Bulls have to make a splash. Maybe at the deadline they could acquire a center and turn the team into a championship threat.

2. Bulls send Ben Gordon to the Nets.
Nets send Stromile Swift and a first round pick to the Bulls.

The Nets would move the 6'6" Vince Carter to SF and have a core of Harris, Gordon, Carter, Yi, and Brook Lopez. They could trade either Gordon or Carter when LeBron comes to town in a couple years. Swift gets buried for the year and take a first rounder in the teens for their troubles.

3. Bulls send Ben Gordon to the Magic.
Magic send Hedo Turkoglu to the Bulls.

The Magic don't have a crunch time perimeter shooter, look up Turkoglu's brick on the final play against the Pistons, and Gordon would give them that. Hedo brings some size and replaces Gordon's perimeter shooting.

4. Bulls send Ben Gordon to the Raptors.
The Raptors send Anthony Carter and Joey Graham to the Bulls.

Carter is a decent young player, but Gordon is a clear upgrade. The Bulls don't need Graham, but need his salary. He'd probably be flipped for a second rounder. It's 80 cents on the dollar, but it may be as much as the Bulls can get.

I personally believe that the best and most likely deal is Gordon for Turkoglu.

So the US basketball team looks pretty dominant, huh? I love how I'm surprised by that. I also love how we beat down the Aussies when some of their guys were chirping before the game. My favorite is the Australian who said Team USA was in "deep s---" because they were overconfident. Really, who was in "deep s---" Mr. Kangaroo? Who was overconfident? The scoreboard would indicate that "the Kangaroos" would be a correct answer to both of those question. (Note: the Kangaroos is not their official team name, however it seems appropriate.)

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3542649. Rick Reilly basically summed up how I feel about the Chinese government and the olympics. This year they have been a particularly spectacular sham. Falsified documents, outright lies, a fascist and moderately tyrannical government, and some questionable judging. Nineteen of China's 45 gold medals come in events that are scored subjectively, while only 1 of their silver medals comes in scored events. Isn't that odd? Wouldn't you expect the ratio to be a little bit more even at the top levels of elite competition than 19:1? Also, China has 10 more gold medals than they have silver and bronze combined. Every other has about the same amount of gold, silver, and bronze, if not a little more in the silver and bronze. This is more questionable than Justin Timberlake's manhood. And that is highly questionable to anyone who has heard him sing like a pre-pubescent girl.

Feeling sad about the end of summer? Football starts soon. And once that happens, I can write a real post. So now you have something to look forward to. Until then, good day.