My Big Fat Baseball Preview - NL Central

This is the week every year when college basketball goes from being almost as good as college football to being a billion times better. How can anyone watch championship week and the NCAA tournament and still not want a playoff for football? Do you have to fail an IQ test to be a college president? Let's get to the baseball before I punch something.

St. Louis Cardinals
I really like the Cardinal organization. Classy, great baseball city, excellent history. If the Yankees suddenly disappeared, I'd be a Cardinals fan, I wouldn't even have to think about it. When I heard the Cardinals were hiring Mark McGwire to be their new hitting coach, I was pretty shocked. And not, "oh wow, that restaurant was better than I thought it would be" shocked, but more like, "how did that monkey get in my car?" shocked. I thought we were all pretty happy pretending Mark McGwire never existed. I actually thought Mark was pretty happy with that situation too. But after thinking about it for a bit, I've decided this was another classy move from the Cardinals. Here's a guy who did a lot for the Cardinal organization, and then we all found out about the steroids and everyone wants to close their eyes and pretend he's invisible, but not the Cardinals. They're willing to take the heat and give him a chance, I don't have a problem with it. Good for them.

Off-season: Quiet winter for the Cards. They have money, but not a ton, and the money they had needed to go to Matt Holliday. Holliday seems to be a good fit in St. Louis and I think he needs to be somewhere where he can be second banana, so I think St. Louis is a good fit for him too. I like Felipe Lopez for them, because I don't love most of their infield, and Brad Penny was a good bargain signing for them. I would have liked to have seen them add another pitcher, but they can probably live without it.

Line-up: Having the best hitter in the game is a pretty good start, right? You'd have a pretty hard time building a bad line-up around Albert Pujols. And St. Louis has actually built a pretty good line-up around him. If he manages to keep his second base job, I like Skip Schumaker and his .364 OBP as a lead-off hitter. And even if he can't keep his job, Felipe Lopez wouldn't be a bad lead-off option either. Holliday and Ludwick provide solid protection (people think Ludwick dropped off last year, he still drove in 97 runs in 139 games, I'll take that from my third best hitter). I'd love to see a left-handed hitter somewhere in the middle of this line-up, and I'm not sold on Colby Rasmus, or Brendan Ryan, or David Freese, but this line-up is still plenty good.

Pitching: The top two for the Cards can match up with anyone. I thought Wainwright got hosed on the Cy Young voting last year. Dave Duncan is the best pitching coach in baseball, so you can worry about the back end of their rotation, but I wouldn't worry that much. If Kyle McClellan wins a spot in the rotation, we might actually see a break out year from him. I like the bullpen too, Ryan Franklin is a stud, don't let anyone tell you different.

Final Thought: St. Louis made a bunch of big mid-season moves last year. I wonder if they've got the organizational depth left to add another bat or another arm if they need one. Also, I'd get worried about this team pretty quickly if Chris Carpenter gets hurt, which is not, like, out of the realm of possibility.

Prediction: First place, playoffs again. I like the Phillies' line-up just a little bit more, so I think the Cards fall just short of the world series, but it's certainly not out of the question.

Houston Astros
It was not easy to figure out the order in which teams fall between St. Louis and Pittsburgh in this division. Like a 7-layer dip of mediocrity, the flavors just sort of blend together. The Astros are a flawed team, but they have a history of futile late season charges, and this season's should land them in 2nd place.

Off-season: Pedro Feliz and Brett Myers are the winter headlines in Houston. Not impressed? I could see how you'd come to that conclusion, but hang on a minute. Pedro is like the new Joe Randa, he has about the same season every year, it's not great, but it's what he does and you can pretty much put it in the bank. I'm not sure what to expect from Myers. He's only 29, but he hasn't pitched to a sub 4 ERA since 2006. You could do worse for a 3rd or 4th starter. Much like the Cardinals, I think this team did what it could with the cash it had.

Line-up: This is an odd line-up. Lee and Berkman aren't done, but I think they'll fall off a bit this year. I do think Hunter Pence is up for a good year, or at least a better one (he hit .309 in September last year, that's not much to go on, but it's all I've got). Michael Bourn is really rounding into form as a solid lead-off guy, .354 on base last year with 61 steals. .354 isn't great, but that's compared to .327 for his career, so at 27 years old it's not crazy to think he can keep it moving upward. On the other hand, they've got a pretty weak underbelly and not a ton of depth. J.R. Towles seems to be the current front runner at catcher, he's a .188 career hitter. That's basically like having two pitchers in your line-up. This team can have its days, but scoring enough runs consistently could be a problem.

Pitching: I'm a huge Roy Oswalt fan, but at 32 it's hard to say he's trending in the right direction (3.54 ERA in 2008, 4.12 last year). I still think he has something left if he's healthy. Wandy Rodriguez was really good last year, and he is trending in the right direction. We already talked about Myers and I really like Bud Norris, who's 25 and struck out almost a batter per inning last year. I'm not wild about the bullpen, but I'm willing to give Matt Lindstrom a chance.

Final Thought: Is it just me, or is Astros one of the weirdest team names in pro sports. I understand why they did it, but that was a long time ago and NASA can't even get back to the moon now. How about the Houston Colts, or the Houston Big Stupid Hats.

Prediction: Solid pitching carries this team to 2nd place, barely. Honestly, the Astros could finish fifth too, it really doesn't matter, I don't expect anyone in this division, outside of St. Louis, to get near the post-season.

Milwaukee Brewers
If there's one thing I like, it's a beer themed baseball team. Beer and baseball go together like beer and...well, everything. Also, I'm told Miller Park has excellent bratwurst, complete with secret stadium sauce. I feel like I could go to a whole game there and never notice the team, which may be a good thing.

Off-season: Not a lot to like here, or even talk about really. Carlos Gomez, Randy Wolf, Gregg Zaun. Hey, Brewers fans! Did I mention the great brats at the ballpark? And if you don't like Brats (for some completely insane reason), they have three or four other kinds of sausages. Not to mention sausage races and all the Miller Lite you can drink. I, by the way, am in no way endorsing Miller Lite. But if you're forcing me to drink a domestic beer, Miller Lite isn't a bad choice.

Line-up: Another odd NL Central line-up. You have to really like Fielder and Braun, and I'm not off the Corey Hart bandwagon yet. Casey McGehee is certainly interesting, .859 OPS last season. But then you have the other guys. Who leads off? Rickie Weeks and his .247 career batting average? Carlos Gomez and his .287 career on base percentage? This line-up has a great middle, but there are a lot of outs here, especially if I'm wrong about Corey Hart.

Pitching: Man, I hate the Brewers' pitching. Before I started looking at rosters, I had Braun and Fielder in my head and I really wanted to pick the Brewers as my wild card team. I like Yovani Gallardo, especially if he can keep his walks down a little. But then you've got the likes of Jeff Suppan, Doug Davis, Manny Parra and Randy Wolf. They really thought they had something in Parra, after a 6.36 ERA last year and opposing hitters hitting .306 against him, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't even make the rotation. Miller Park isn't exactly a pitcher's park to begin with. This is another situation where fans might want to bring helmets to the games.

Final Thought: I'm also told that Bernie Brewer no longer slides into a big mug of beer after a Brewer home run. WTF? I am NOT OK with that. When did we all decide that things can't be fun anymore? I hate life sometimes.

Prediction: Third place, or fifth, or second, I don't know. The middle of this division is just a hodge podge, but I do know Milwaukee's pitching will keep them out of the playoffs.

Chicago Cubs
I don't envy Cubs fans. A century of losing, and the White Sox got their title a few years ago, just after the Red Sox did. The Cubs are now really all alone, the undisputed most pathetic losers in sports. I'd really like to tell you I see them putting an end to the pain this year, but I don't.

Off-season: Marlon Byrd and Xavier Nady. Sigh. Byrd actually hit .283 last year with 20 home runs, but that was in Texas, and this isn't Texas, and he's 32. I have to say I'd be pretty disappointed if I were a Cubs fan. John Lackey and Jason Bay could both have been nice fits here.

Line-up: This line-up really concerns me. Last year was Derrek Lee's best since 2005, but he's 34 years old and a little injury prone. Aramis Ramirez hit .317 last year when he was healthy, but he only played in 82 games and he's 31. Soriano hit .241 last year, he's 34 years old (or 37 or 43 or 62, no one really knows) and he's already injured. Geovany Soto hit .218 last year. Lots of red flags here. I think people are still expecting the Cubs to hit, I'm not sure why. They'll have their games, but not too many of them.

Pitching: My favorite piece for the Cubs is actually their bullpen. Even with Angel Guzman's shoulder problem, I still like Carlos Marmol and I think the other guys in the bullpen (Grabow, Samardzija) can get to him. You can win a lot of games with decent starters and a good bullpen. Decent starters are the question mark though. I like Big Z, but he's clearly a little crazy. The rest of this rotation is a bit iffy. Guys like Dempster, Lilly and Wells can sometimes get on a roll together and fight their way to a pretty good season, but guys like that can also get lit up at anytime.

Final Thought: When's the last time the Cubs had a big time prospect that really panned out? What happened to Felix Pie? This franchise either drafts badly or develops badly. Both are bad signs for the future.

Prediction: Fourth place, maybe under .500 and Lou Pinella sets a single season ejection record on his way out of town. Next year, new manager Ryne Sandberg starts the long journey to finally winning a championship. But that's next year.

Cincinnati Reds
I went to a game in Cincinnati 5 or 6 years ago. It was July, the Reds were, as usual, going nowhere. I wanted to see Griffey Jr. play in person once before he retired. Of course, I booked the trip in May and Griffey was back on the DL by the time I got there. Still, I had a good time at the game. Great ballpark, good food too (did you know Cincinnati is the chili capital of the world, or at least America? I know, it doesn't sound right, but I swear it's true). The team was pretty forgettable though, and they still are.

Off-season: Two big stories for the Reds this winter. The positive one, signing Aroldis Chapman. After the big money teams passed on him, I was worried he wouldn't be anything special, but now I'm hearing he looks great in camp, and he's only 22. This could turn out pretty well. The negative one, Edinson Volquez is out for the year. Well done, Dusty, well done.

Line-up: I honestly don't hate this line-up. Brandon Phillips is still only 28 and I'm predicting a big year, like top 10 MVP voting year, for Jay Bruce. I know that's a bit of a stretch for a guy who hit .223 and got hurt last year, but I really like Bruce. I'm not sold on everyone else though. Orlando Cabrera's 35, and Scott Rolen is 34 and physically incapable of staying healthy. Clearly, this is an offense in transition, but that doesn't help them this year.

Pitching: I don't like the Reds' pitching without Volquez. I'm not a big Johnny Cueto fan and I think Homer Bailey is probably one year away. I've never been impressed with Harang as an ace and Bronson Arroyo is still Bronson Arroyo, at least he was the last time I checked. Francisco Cordero is a solid closer, I'm just not sure they'll need him much. Does this staff have upside? Definitely. Do I think we'll see that upside this year? Probably not.

Final Thought: I'll be interested to see how much trading the Reds do if they're not in it by July. Harang, Arroyo, Cordero, Rolen, Cabrera, Gomes, Ramon Hernandez and Arthur Rhodes could all be interesting to contenders if the Reds decide to have a real fire sale. The Reds could be the belle of the trading deadline ball and they could get a ton of good pieces back for these guys. I think I'd do it.

Prediction: Fifth place, although there's potential here to do better. They can't touch the Cardinals either, but they can get to second if things go well.

Pittsburgh Pirates
Here, again, we get to the fun part. This team is awful, an unmitigated disaster. I wouldn't be surprised if Pittsburgh lost 100 games. And yet, when you look at them on paper, could I talk you into maybe 83 wins for this team? I bet I could.

Off-season: The Pirates don't even really count for the off-season, but they did actually pick up some players. Ryan Church can really contribute when he's healthy, but will most likely spend the season making Pittsburgh's DL league team the best in the league. Brendan Donnelly is interesting too. Yes, he's 38 and he looked done in 2007 and 2008, but he was lights out in 30 games for Florida last year, so who knows.

Line-up: Young, that's really the only word you need, this line-up is super young. 31 year old Akinori Iwamura sticks out like a sore thumb and has mid-season trade written all over him (if he can stay healthy and produce, both big ifs). Doumit is the key here. If he can stay healthy and hit, this young line-up may be able to come together around him. McCutchen, Milledge, LaRoche, Clement, Jones. If even two of those guys can step up with good years, this team will be able to score and compete most days.

Pitching: I don't hate the Pirates' staff as much as, say, the Nationals, but it's still not good. I like Zack Duke and I sort of like Paul Maholm, but that's pretty much it. We already talked about Brendan Donnelly, and they'll need him whenever they find out Octavio Dotel is done for the year, which could happen at any time. Pittsburgh should give up plenty of runs, but they'll get some good outings from some starters.

Final Thought: This team doesn't have a whole lot to offer contenders at the deadline. It's too bad they can't trade their very nice ballpark for some young pitching.

Prediction: Last place, and it could get ugly. The thing about a young team is you never really know what you're going to get from anyone. I could see this team jumping up and battling the likes of Cincinnati to get out of the basement, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Defending The BCS

I was driving today and found myself at a red light behind a perfectly nice white Toyota (buy American damn it!). This was memorable because the owner of the Toyota had put the word "champaine" on the back of the car in big black letters. I know that's not actually how you spell champagne, but the owner of this Toyota didn't. My point is, sometimes people do things, and it's best not to waste time trying to figure out why. Why would someone want to have champagne written across the back of their car, and why wouldn't they find out how to spell it first? I don't know, and I'm not going to waste what little sanity I have left on trying to figure it out.

For a long time, this is how I felt about the BCS. It was stupid, it made no sense, and I just didn't have the energy to care. But last weekend, as I watched Texas almost blow it's spot in the national title game, and as I listened to the ABC announcer tell me, after every play, how many minutes we were away from BCS chaos, I had an epiphany. I've seen the light. The BCS is a great idea, maybe the best idea in the history of sports. The rest of us were just too damn stupid to see it. But not me, not anymore.

See, sports have had playoffs for years, it's been done to death. Just thinking about some sport having all the best teams play each other on the field in some sort of tournament to decide a champion makes me yawn, that's sooo 20th century. The BCS is so revolutionary, so modern. They've got voters and computers and statistical formulas, and probably some robots and talking monkeys too. TCU, Cincinnati and Boise St. probably don't like it this year, but if they wanted to contend for championships, they should have thought of that before they decided to not be Alabama or Texas. This is the wave of the future, and I'm on board. I don't want all my other favorite sports to get left behind. So, here are some ideas for how the other sports can be more like college football. We need to get to work on this right away, before it's too late.

First, a few rules. Number one, the BCS still has a championship game, I guess they figured they'd throw the dinosaurs a bone, so we're not picking the best team, just the best two teams. Number two, we need to stay as far away from on the field competition as possible, I'm getting sleepy just thinking about it. Finally, you'd still have the same regular season, just for kicks, like college football does. We're just replacing the playoffs.

Baseball. My first thought was some kind of home run derby. But those happen on the field, that feels too much like honest athletic competition, not what we're going for. My second thought was letting the two teams with the nicest ballparks each year play for the title. The problem there is that ballparks don't change much and you'd get the same two teams a lot. College football has taught us that you really need a good rotation of like four or five teams. But I was on the right track with this.

I propose that baseball decide its two championship contenders each year based on the quality of ballpark food. Teams can change this pretty drastically from year to year if they want, so it won't always be the same teams. Plus, this would help with baseball's parity problem. I haven't been to the new Yankee stadium yet, because I don't own my own company, but the food at the old Yankee Stadium sucked. In contrast, I saw a game in Cincinnati once, they had pulled pork sandwiches and chili. The Reds kick the Yankees' ass in food. I also heard the San Francisco Giants have garlic fries at their ballpark. Garlic fries! Right there at the ballpark! You see where I'm going with this, any team can win the food competition. I don't care who the judges are, as long as I'm one of them.

Basketball. First of all, to be honest, if you suggested quality of stadium eats as a system for all four major sports, I wouldn't argue with you, but I'm trying to be creative here. A slam dunk competition has the same problem as a home run derby. I thought maybe just taking the two teams with the two tallest players. That would be funny, because teams would have to spend the off-season searching the world for the tallest freaks they could find, but you'd still need basketball talent for that championship game. Funny, but not really fun.

I've got it! Hip-Hop records. I've noticed a lot of basketball players make rap albums. I've heard they're mostly terrible, but maybe it's because they're not trying hard enough. So here's the pitch. At the beginning of every season, every player makes an album. Over the course of the season, the team works together to pick the best album they have and make it better. At the end of the season, the two teams that produce the two best albums play for the title. This would be great both for basketball players who always wanted to be rappers and rappers who always wanted to be basketball players. This would also allow the Knicks to spend an insane amount of money on a whole team of terrible rappers they can pair with their current team of terrible basketball players. I think this is a win for everyone.

Football. This was the easiest one. Three words: Cheerleader Beauty Pageant. This should appeal to most football fans and keep the same high ratings the playoffs currently get. Everyone would love it and it would lead to even more attractive cheerleaders than we have now. Sometimes life's just that simple.

Hockey. This is the toughest one for me, I've already written here about how much I like the hockey playoffs. But when it's time to move on, it's time to move on, and I'm a team player. I thought about taking the two teams with the most Canadians on their rosters. Sadly, I'm afraid this might seem vaguely racist to non-Canadians. A drinking competition would be fun, but almost every hockey player I've ever met has seemed like a genuinely nice guy, so let's not destroy their livers for sport. Zamboni races? We should definitely have them, but I don't think they're right for this.

I thought about this for a while, and it finally came to me. A beard growing competition. This is perfect because it keeps one of the traditions of the old playoffs without all the boringness of actual playoffs. Beards would be judged on length, thickness and general creepy appearance. Bonus points for cool beard design, like if you were able to cut your beard into the shape of a hockey stick. Points off for dyed beards, that would be the beard competition equivalent of performance enhancing drugs. The two teams with the highest average beard scores play for the cup.

So, there it is. If I didn't cover your favorite sport, I'm sure you can think of some ideas on your own. Think this was stupid? I dare anyone to explain how any of my ideas are any worse than the BCS. I double dog dare you.

Thankfulness Neutral

Around this time of year, most sports commentators and web sites give us lists of things for which they are thankful. I don't want to be a jerk, but going on and on about what I'm thankful for doesn't really sound like me. I've decided on a compromise. I'll give you a list of five things I'm thankful for and five things I'm not. Call it thankfulness neutral. It's like being carbon neutral, only with less hippies and more regularly shaped light bulbs.

I'm thankful for the Yankees' world series win. I always try to explain to fans of other teams what it's like to be a Yankee fan. It's a joyless sports existence. Fans of other teams celebrate when their team wins. They cheer and jump up and down, and sometimes they turn over cars(I'm looking at you, Utah fans. You can't fool me, I know what you've got planned for if the Jazz ever win a title). When the Yankees win, I just breath a sigh of relief and start worrying about next season. And when they don't win, it's just awful, because you always feel like they're supposed to. So, the Yankees spared me this year, and I appreciate it (although I'm still already worrying about next year, I hear they plan on putting Joba back in the rotation, I'm thinking of going down to the stadium and protesting, who's with me?)

I'm thankful for living in Connecticut during football season. The list of good things about living in Connecticut is pretty short. I don't think it's Connecticut's fault. Once you live in New York, everywhere else sucks. But I've got two reasons why I'm happy to be here during football season. First, it gave me a great reason to become a Patriots fan. I've never really had a football team. I liked the Houston Oilers when I was a kid, then they moved. I liked Tampa for a while, but they got boring when they won a superbowl. I never got behind the two New York teams. The Jets are just an abomination, everything about them screams "we'll never be that good". I don't know what my problem is with the Giants. For me, the Giants are like that guy you work with, he never did anything to you and he's probably a decent guy, but you just hate his face for some reason.

The other good part of living here during football season is the games I get to see. In New York, I got the Giants, the Jets and usually one other game. Here, I get the New York and Hartford networks, so I get the Giants, Jets, Pats and usually one other game on top of that. I know it sounds like only one extra game, but having two games on for all six hours most weeks is clutch, especially since NFL games spend as much time in commercials as they do showing you actual football.

I'm thankful for fantasy football. This was a close one for me, I could go either way. I'm a hyper-competitive person, I need to win at everything. So, every Sunday my fantasy team loses is completely ruined. If my team was 3-8, this would have probably gone in the not thankful category. Luckily, we're 9-2, so I'm pretty pleased (although this week isn't looking good, my opponent's up like 40 points after the Thanksgiving games, I think it should be illegal in fantasy football to use anyone who's playing the Raiders, it's just not fair).

Winning isn't a good enough reason to be thankful though. I appreciate fantasy football because of how interesting it makes unbearable games. This week, the Rams are playing the Seahawks. What a total garbage dump of a game. They should make guys in prison who killed people watch this game as punishment. But I'll be glued to any updates and highlights from this game, because I'm counting on the Seahawks' back-up running back to have a big game. Earlier this year, the Jets played the Raiders. That game was over immediately after the teams were introduced, but I watched every second, because I had the Jets defense. It takes something special to make football, which is already pretty great, roughly 39 times more interesting, we should all be thankful for fantasy football. The first guy who came up with the idea should have a monument somewhere in his honor (until my team loses this week, or in the playoffs, then screw him).

I'm thankful for the Monday Night Football announcing booth. When I was at my aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving, one of my cousins said he didn't like the MNF booth. I guess I shouldn't have dropped him on his head so much when we were kids. Seriously, I can't think of one sporting event I wouldn't want those three guys to announce, even if they didn't know anything about it. It's the best booth in sports, and it's not even close, and I should have the power to suspend anyone who disagrees from watching sports for a month.

Finally, I'm thankful for ESPN. I think we all need to take a minute to give thanks for this. ESPN gets taken for granted because we've had it for so long now, but I think we have to remember how awesome this is. Before ESPN, the only way to see sports highlights, was to watch the crappy local news for a half hour and hope they'd show you some good stuff at the end. Now, not only do we get all the good highlights, but we get so much sports that we even get the unwatchable things (I'm looking at you WNBA). I remember not having cable until I was maybe 9 or 10, no ESPN, it was awful. Life would be unbearable without ESPN, and I'm pretty sure I'm right about that.

I am not thankful for hockey on Versus. It's not so bad now, I miss a couple of games a week that I'd get if they were on ESPN, but I still get three local teams and I can deal with it. However, the hockey playoffs are the single best thing in sports, and instead of getting games on ESPN and ESPN2 like I used to, I get nothing. I've said before, I don't understand this strategy by the NHL. It's like they're playing hide and seek with me, but they're great hiders and I'm a terrible seeker. I'm getting annoyed just thinking about it, let's move on.

I'm not thankful for the BCS. I'm not sure anyone whose business card doesn't read "college president" is. This may be the single worst thing about sports in America. It looks like we may get 4 or 5 undefeated teams this year, so I'm looking forward to total chaos and to seeing BCS apologists tell me why it's actually a great thing that TCU never lost a game but still doesn't get to play for a title.

Did you read my paragraph about living in Connecticut during football season? Well, that's how I feel about living near New York during basketball season, only the exact opposite. Not thankful doesn't even begin to cover it. I'm not close enough to Boston to get Celtics games on NESN, so it's just the regular New York basketball I've always had. In my NBA preview post, I wrote that you could combine the Nets and Knicks rosters and you still wouldn't get a playoff team. After a month of the season, I'm not sure you even get an NBA team. The Nets are steaming toward the worst start in NBA history, but honestly, the Knicks are even worse. The Knicks aren't even trying, and the fact that Isaiah Thomas traded every first round pick the Knicks had until 2026 means they don't even get anything for sucking. A month ago I called the Knicks a craptastrophy, I'm thinking about downgrading them to catastrophuck.

I am not thankful for commercials. If the BCS isn't the worst thing about sports in America, commercials definitely are, especially this time of year. I'm like four commercials away from burning down a Best Buy (I'll do it when no one's inside, I'm not a monster, OK fine, I won't burn anything down, stupid society, always looking down on arson).

Finally, I'm not thankful for Allen Iverson's current pseudo-retirement. Allen Iverson is the best point guard in NBA history. You heard me. Not arguably the best, or maybe the best, just the best. Make yourself a list of the best point guards in NBA history, then cross out the name of anyone would couldn't possibly guard Iverson. If you haven't crossed out every name except Gary Payton (and maybe Isaiah Thomas, although probably not) then go back and do it again, you are awarded no points, and may god have mercy on your soul. People will say he was never really a pure point guard, because he wasn't a good sharer. Fine, let's both start basketball teams, you take the guy who can't really shoot that well and doesn't have the skills to get to the hoop and finish, but makes up for it by passing the ball to other guys who can do those things. I'll take the guy with all the talent. Let's see who wins.

I really want some NBA team to sign Iverson. I think he still has a lot left, and I don't want to see him go out like this. The problem is Iverson needs to go to a team where he can be the alpha dog. Good teams already have one of those, and bad teams don't want him because the 8-10 extra wins he might give them still won't get them anywhere. Still, somebody should sign Allen, for the most simple reason in sports. He's better then the guy they currently have at his position. And if you think he'll destroy your locker room or your chemistry, then get yourself a better coach. Because if you're bad team, and you can't figure out a way to use a player who's probably still better than all the other players you have, then you might as well just give all your season ticket holders their money back and call it a season.