No baseball updates, that I can find. What's that? You want to know my daily schedule?

7:00am - Alarm clock goes off. Hit snooze.
7:05am - Alarm clock goes off. Curse, mumble, and get up.
7:15am - Honey Bunches of Oats time. Man, you can't beat HBo'O.
7:30am - Leave for the NAU REC Center with Mike. Wonder (as we drive through semi-darkness) why I get up so early.
7:45 am - Read the AZ Daily Sun (Andy, they need you, their articles are pretty pitiful) while biking
8:00 am - 30 min. of cross training, strategically placed next to as many TV's with ESPN on as possible.
8:30 am - Shower, shave, leave for Adel Math Building (The Compound).
9:10 am - Teach on MWF, Lab Aide on TR.
10:20 am - Ditto
11:15 am - Lunch, if it's MWF. 2 more statistics classes to go to it it's TR.
12:40 pm - Lab Aide, if it's MWF. 1 more statisitics class if it's TR.
1:50 pm - Statistics class, if it's MWF. Freedom and lunch, it's it's TR.
2:40 pm - DONE. (unless it's Tuesday, then I have office hours from 3 - 6:30)

I usally try and update the blog somewhere in there and hopefully play a few games of Knotball or goof around in there. The other GTA's in the department are nuts, one is obsessed with Seinfeld, one with snowboarding, and the other with Invader Zim and Futurama. Yep, strange people.

Most afternoons I do homework or walk home or run errands or something. Hopefully it's warmed up to 40 degrees by then.


Wait! New article up at Astros Daily, "Handicapping the Central". Gotta analyze it.

Cubs comments -

1. Yeah, their starting pitching could be damn good, but the fact that Prior was injured and Kerry Wood always seems to be almost injured isn't just a coincidence - Dusty Baker is a slave driver when it comes to young pitchers. Expect at least one of Prior / Wood / Zambrano to go on the DL sometime this year.

2. Their bullepn isn't reliable? Well, it may well be better than ours. Hawkins is a great reliever; forget the "he can't handle the pressure" crap, he'll be fine.

3. They also lost Alou, in addition to Sosa. Their infield will be tremendous (Ramirez, Garciaparra, Walker, Lee) and their outfield will be pretty bad, especially if they don't play DuBois (Hairston, Patterson, Burnitz, UGH)

Cards comments-

1. Edmonds and Walker are both damn good but can't be said to be 'in the prime' of their careers. Edmonds was suspiciously healthy last season, Pujols still has that heel injury, Walker is old. Injuries are a concern.

2. I guarantee the Cards' pitching will regress a lot this year. Mulder has injury issues, Matt Morris has no K rate anymore, and if Chris Carpenter and Jason Marquis combine for 400 innings of a sub-4.00 ERA I will eat my hat. The losses of Dan Haren, Kiko Caleron, and Edgar Renteria will hurt. A lot.

3. It's DAN Haren, sheesh. Mulder needs to re-find his control, and quick.

4. They'll still have the defense, but the pitching has to be a concern, and there are plenty of studies that will tell you a team that wins over 100 games one year generally drops 10 or so games in the standings the next year simply because there is a high probability that team got fairly lucky (injuries, breakout seasons, etc.) the year before.

Astros comments:

1. "The Astros will score enough runs." Typical non-fact-based excrement. What the hell does that mean? Sure, a rotation of Oswalt / Pettitte / Clemens / Backe / Mr. X looks good on paper, but a lot of things could go wrong - Oswalt has injury concerns, Is Pettitte all the way back?, Clemens is 42, Backe came out of nowhere last year, who's #5?

As for the offense, Biggio is projected to fall off a cliff one of these years, and he doesn't walk much anymore, Bagwell's shoulder isn't getting any better, will Berkman be back to full health? I think the offense will revolve more around finding out what Lane, Ensberg, Burke, and Everett can do - we know Biggio and Bagwell will decline, and Berkman can't really do too much better.

2. Yeah, talent's a little short, but we've got some kids who might be able to step up. The best bullpens are usually put together on the cheap from in-organization guys, so if a few guys step up (Qualls, Harville, Burns?, Astacio?) it could be pretty decent. I do think our OF defense as it looks right now (Biggio / Lane / Berkman) will be atrocious, subpar at each position. That's a big concern for flyball pitchers Oswalt and Backe.

3. The club didn't lose that much with Kent, as we have Burke waiting, but Beltran would have been nice. We absolutely spent too much time on Beltran; we should have decided on an earlier deadline (mid-Dec.?) so if he said no we could move on without missing out on everybody (J.D. Drew, Odalis Perez, Adrian Beltre, Matt Clement).

4. In order for Houston to win they will need Brandon Backe, a fifth starter, at least three relievers, Chris Burke, Morgan Ensberg, and a centerfielder to emerge at the same time. What are the odds?

That's actually about right. What are the odds? About the same odds of Jim Edmonds staying healthy all year, Chris Carpenter dominating, Jason Marquis dominating, Tony Womack being good again, and Kiko Calero stepping up. In other words, it happens every year to some team.

I don't feel like doing the Reds, Brewers, and Pirates yet. Maybe tomorrow. We oughta try and trade for Austin Kearns, the Reds have Griffey / Wily Mo Pena (great name) / Adam Dunn.