Shaun Alexander wore out his welcome here in Seattle and was cut by the Seahawks Tuesday in a move that surprised no one. He was just 2 years into an 8 year contract worth $62 million. Because he’s a football player that money is not guaranteed so Alexander out a hefty chunk of change. But after his performance the last couple of years, it seems about right. He’s been hurt and ineffective when healthy. Part of that has to do with the departure of Steve Hutchinson from Seattle, and other offensive line woes for the Seahawks.

Which partially answers my initial question about whether the Bears should take a flier on Alexander and see if he does have anything left in the tank? The Bears offensive line is actually worse than the Seahawks and unless that gets fixed, nobody’s gonna be successful running the ball.

But let’s pretend. Let’s pretend that Olin Kreutz miraculously finds offensive line mates who can block someone (anyone). Then would it make sense?

The question that underlies all questions of this nature are “Is this move going to help win a Super Bowl?” Would signing Shaun Alexander help the Bears get back to the Super Bowl?

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Last night Felix Pie came up in the 8th inning with 2 men on, and I whole-heartedly expected him to strike out. It’s what he’s been best at in his major league career.

I know that he has been working with Lou Piniella (and most recently with minor league hitting coordinator Dave Keller) trying to straighten out his swing and get everything figured out, but he just hasn’t produced. Until last night. His home run barely cleared the basket in right field, but it may as well have been onto Sheffield Avenue. The ‘fun’ came with Pie’s huge smile and first-pumping rounding of the bases showed that he was making progress and starting to see results. If Pie can become the 5-tool threat that he’s been advertised as, the Cubs have their leadoff hitter and centerfielder for a long time. An outfield of Soriano, Pie and Fukudome for the next couple years, sounds pretty good.

Congratulations on your progress Felix, but let’s not call Cooperstown yet.

Brian Kersey/AP

So Hank Steinbrenner tells the New York Times that he thinks that Joba Chamberlain should be in the starting rotation.

The Yankees GM Brian Cashman says Chamberlain will stay in the bullpen.

I just have to wonder what the guy who is actually responsible for making those decisions, manager Joe Girardi thinks about all this. He hasn’t been one to hold his tongue so this might just turn into something very interesting. Apparently Hank Steinbrenner is just as much of a meddling douche as his dad.

*** Update ***

Apparently the honorable Hank Steinbrenner has retracted his statements, changing his statement about Joba Chamberlain being in the bullpen. “You have to be an idiot to do that.” He said talking about keeping a guy with a 100mph fastball in the bullpen. Later in the day Monday he slowed his roll a bit by saying “sooner or later it would be nice if he was a starter.”

Hank must have realized that this is not what the Yankees need right now. They sit at 10-10 on the year and are in third place. Maybe he thought the team needed a spark with their best player, Alex Rodriguez, on the bench with a tweaky quad.

I for one wouldn’t be too upset to see them never climb higher than third place, but with the new blood on top, it’s sure proving to be an interesting ride for New Yorkers.

And we only had to part with $48 million. Not the top prospect in the farm system who is already batting .260 at the Major League level. Not to mention delivering late in games. Something it seems like the Mariners might be able to use. I have no qualms with the Mariners pitching staff. It’s just the fact that there is not one bat in the lineup that opposing clubs need to plan around (save an occasional hot streak from Rauuuuul).

Mike Morse, the Mariners right fielder Sunday, has played all over the diamond in his 4 years with the M’s. Yesterday, he proved that right field is not his home on a major league field. He misjudged or misplayed 3 fly balls in right that led to 7 runs. On the last play he hurt his shoulder diving for a ball that he should have had an easy play on. On the previous 2 bone-headed plays that led to runs, he either didn’t see the ball off the bat, or just didn’t react properly.

If the guy makes one bad play in the field, you can give him some slack, but 3 in one game, that lead to runs, that’s unacceptable at the Major League level. Morse’s poor outing in the field put spot starter Cha Seung Baek in a really bad spot. Baek actually pitched pretty well. He got into some jams, and had more base runners than you’d like, but he definitely didn’t pitch badly.

Now for Erik Bedard. It’s not serious, I know. But he’s been scratched twice already this season. I see a problem brewing. I still think Bill Bavasi made a good trade, but I’d just like to see my ace pitcher actually take the mound on his scheduled days.

When one takes a look at the Eastern and Western playoff picture, it is easy to see that there are a host of differences between them.  The end of this season will contain a wide array of games between powerhouses in the East as well as a more level playing field in the West.

West:

The West is wide open. The top 6 seeds’ records are within 3 games of each other and any one of 4 teams could still win the conference before the regular season is said and done. All current 8 seeds have winning records by 16 games or more, and Golden State, who is next in line, is also 16 games over .500.

Although there will be higher and lower seeds in the West, you can’t really base many predictions based on seeds.  Although second seed New Orleans has been solid through the season, they have also been questioned all season and conditions may be ripe for New Orleans to fall early in playoffs.  The top 7 seeds are of similar quality in the West, and the 6 or 7 seed team may be on same level in terms of talent as a a 1 or 2 seed.

East:

Meanwhile in the East, the story is a complete opposite. Teams are much more staggered, with Detroit and Boston standing a level above the rest. All but the top 3 seeds (Boston, Detroit and Orlando) are less than 10 games above .500, and Atlanta, the 8^th seed, is 6 games under .500.

Despite the atrocious nature of the Eastern Conference this year, don’t count out Boston or Detroit if they get to the finals. This year each team has had considerable success against the top 9 teams in the West. Boston is 13-5 against the 9 possible playoff teams in the west, including a spotless 2-0 record against the top seeded Lakers. The biggest obstacle in the East which may give Boston trouble would be if they played the Washington Wizards, who match up with them well and have managed to beat Boston in all three meetings during the regular season. Detroit has also has good success against the West, also earning a 13-5 record when playing possible Western playoff teams.

All this hoopla about the Kansas football team last fall, and now KU’s incredible comeback victory in the NCAA tournament, the phrase ‘Rock Chalk Jayhawk’ has been thrown around a ton.

In an effort to educate myself, I visited Wikipedia (where else would I go for that type of information?) and found that there is a lot of tradition and cool back story to the chant.

I’m still not totally sure I know what it means, or why commentators insist on show-horning it into every other sentence that deals with the University of Kansas. I’m all for school spirit but things are a bit out of whack when Jim Nantz’s championship call is “Rock Chalk Championship”.

There is some good news and some bad news.

Good news first:

• If Memphis could hit free throws, I would have locked up my second consecutive Vigilante Sports contests

Now for the Bad news:

• Memphis cannot in fact hit free throws when it counts
• Mario Chalmers can drain a prayer of 3 pointer to tie the game

All that to say (through gritted teeth), congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks who picked up the 2008 NCAA National Championship. Also congratulations to Mark Smith, who bested everyone in the 2008 Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge.

I do have to say that Mark and I both picked 45 games correctly. His counted for more and he picked up the win. I will definitely be back to bring the still non-existent trophy back to it’s rightful owner… ME!

We battled the rain, the snow, and Erik Bedard’s 5 walks, but we stuck it out for the whole game. The Mariners open the season with a 5-2 win over the Texas Rangers.

Bright spots

• Adrian Beltre - He looked comfortable hitting and if he’s hitting, the M’s have some stability in the middle of their lineup.
• JJ Putz - One of the best closers in baseball still has electric stuff

Areas of concern

• Richie Sexson - Big Sexy still can’t layoff the bad pitches. He opened the season with a walk, but proved that was an anomaly as the game progressed.
• Erik Bedard - Let’s hope it was Opening Day jitters. He look terrible. Facing the leadoff batter in the first, he was lights out. After that, he was in trouble the whole game. Let’s hope this isn’t an instant replay of Jeff Weaver. I don’t think it will be.

So, the Mariners are undefeated. Looking at their lineup, I don’t think it’ll last. Let’s just hope that they can scrap their way to first place by mid-summer and see if Bill Bavasi brings in some help at the trade deadline. They may win the weak AL West with this lineup, but they won’t get out of the first round of the playoffs.

Here’s a little preview of how I think things will end up in October.  Feel free to pick it apart in the comments.

American League East

1. Boston Red Sox
2. New York Yankees
3. Toronto Blue Jays
4. Tampa Bay Rays
5. Baltimore Orioles

American League Central

1. Detroit Tigers
2. Cleveland Indians
3. Kansas City Royals
4. Chicago White Sox
5. Minnesota Twins

American League West

1.  Seattle Mariners
2. Anaheim Angels
3. Texas Rangers
4. Oakland Athletics

National League East

1. New York Mets
2. Philadelphia Phillies
3. Atlanta Braves
4. Florida Marlins
5. Washington Nationals

National League Central

1. Chicago Cubs
2. Milwaukee Brewers
3. Cincinnati Reds
4. Houston Astros
5. St. Louis Cardinals
6. Pittsburgh Pirates

National League West 

1. Arizona Diamondbacks
2. Colorado Rockies
3. San Diego Padres
4. Los Angeles Dodgers
5. San Francisco Giants