My Bigger Fatter Baseball Preview - NL Central

Before I start, let me just say this. Congratulations Knicks fans! For only 60% of your starting line-up and half your team, you were able to go from being the 6th best team in the east to being the 5th best team in the east. Quite a day in the big city. Let's get to the baseball.

Milwaukee Brewers
Opening Thought: "Hello, Baxter? Baxter, is that you? Bark twice if you're in Milwaukee."

I read a story a while back about the food at Miller Park. The writer talked about eating for the cycle, which included four different kinds of sausage. The sausage race at Miller Park also includes four kinds of sausage (including, I'm told, chorizo. Yum). I don't really have a joke or a point, I just think more things in life should include four kinds of sausage.

Off-season: Who knew Milwaukee would be the eventual winners of the Zack Greinke sweepstakes? Add the Shaun Marcum trade and the Brewers spent the off-season improving their starting pitching, which is good because Milwaukee's team ERA was only better than Arizona and Pittsburgh in the NL last year. Sure, nobody wants to be the team stuck with Yuniesky Betancourt, but that's just the way it goes sometimes.

Questions: Can the move to the NL help Zack Greinke bounce back? Can Rickie Weeks do that again and stay healthy?

Answers: Hell yes and probably not. Pencil Greinke in for an ERA in the low 3's and 17-20 wins. Not only is he still really good, but you can't underestimate the psychology of getting out of Kansas City. As for Weeks, last season was the first time he played in more than 130 games and it was the first time he hit over .235 while playing more than 100 games. I need to see both of those things happen again before I'm sold.

My Favorite Thing: Offense. Fielder and Braun are sure things. Casey McGehee and Corey Hart round out a really strong middle of the order. I know people worry about Hart's strike-outs, but he went .283/31/102 last year with 140 strike-outs. It's not like he can go much higher, right? Right?

My Most Unfavorite Thing: Bullpen, but I actually don't hate it too much. John Axford is a perfectly adequate option at closer and Manny Parra's move to the bullpen gives them a solid lefty out there. I think they'll need another right-hander (I would count on getting anything useful from LaTroy Hawkins or Takashi Saito), but I've certainly seen worse bullpens.

Closing Thought: Quick disclaimer, all predictions regarding the Brewers assume that the entire state of Wisconsin won't be on strike/laid off/on fire/abandoned by September.

Prediction: First place, really interesting playoff team with Greinke and Gallardo at the top of the rotation and some chips in their system to trade if they're in contention.

Cincinnati Reds
Opening Thought: "We said we weren't gonna talk about Cincinnati ever, OK? - Is that why you have that shoebox in your closet that says 'Cincinnati'?"

I wrote a whole thing about my trip to the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. Great park, nice people, awful team. Since then, the Reds have become decidely less awful, and may be growing into the team that the fans and the stadium deserve.

Off-season: If all the Reds did this off-season was get rid of Aaron Harang, that's not such a bad use of their time. And, as far as I can tell, that is basically is all they did. I know they picked up Edgar Renteria, but he's not even slated to be starting and he apparently doesn't become useful until you get to the World Series.

Questions: Can Edinson Volquez get all the way back to his 2008 form? Are Homer Bailey and Travis Wood ready? Is it finally Jay Bruce's year?

Answers: I think so, I honestly don't know and I think so. Jay Bruce turns 24 on April 3rd, so even though he's been up since 2008, he's just now nearing his prime. If Joey Votto can keep up last year's MVP production and Bruce can add a break-out year of his own...watch out. As for the pitchers, I really like Volquez, we'll just have to see how healthy he is. I'm not sure about Homer Bailey, but Travis Wood strikes me as the kind of guy who settles in quickly and puts together a run of perfectly average 15-win seasons.

My Favorite Thing: I like the balance with the Reds. They certainly have the weapons to score runs, the starting pitching is solid and the bullpen might be my favorite part. Francisco Cordero is another perfectly adequate closer and he'll be set-up Aroldis Chapman and Jose Arredondo. Chapman looks as good as advertised and I've always liked Arredondo.

My Most Unfavorite Thing: It's hard to pick something here. This isn't a perfect team, but they're balanced and they've got good organizational depth so they can keep building. The Reds were even tied for the league lead in fielding percentage last year. I guess the bullpen has some question marks, but I really like the upside there.

Closing Thought: Repeating as a division champ isn't easy. As much as I like the Reds, you have to be really good to go back-to-back and I'm not sure they're that good.

Prediction: Second place and a wild card birth. The NL wild card is going to have to deal with the Phillies, so that's probably where the Cincinnati train stops.

St. Louis Cardinals
Opening Thought: "At the current time I am looking at a number of different fields from which to disseminate which offer is most pursuant to my benefit. What do you want? What do I want? What does anybody want? Leniency. These circumstances are mitigated. Right now. They're mitigated. He knows what I'm talking about. A retainer. Nobody in this town works without a retainer. You think you can find someone who does, you have my blessing. But I think we all know that person isn't going to represent you as well as I can...Re-TAIN-er. Retainer."

Off-season: $8 million to Lance Berkman, 2 years at just over $8 million to Jake Westbrook. I could probably find about 8 million Yankee fans who will tell you that Lance Berkman is 8 million percent finished. Meanwhile, they can't scrape together the money to resign Albert Pujols. St. Louis gets no credit for any moves they make until Pujols is signed or traded.

Questions: Just one, because it's the only one that matters. What happens without Adam Wainwright?

Answers: Bad things, very bad things. I've always thought the fortunes of this team were tied to Chris Carpenter and how healthy he can be, but that was because Wainwright was good for 18-20 wins and a sub 3 ERA and you didn't really have to think about it. Now they have to ask Carpenter to carry this pitching staff on his very fragile shoulders. I like Jamie Garcia just fine, but it could still be a long season in St. Louis, especially with the game's best hitter peaking toward the exit.

My Favorite Thing: Offense. This team still has Pujols, Matt Holliday, Colby Rasmus, and an underrated Skip Schumaker. Jon Jay, who hit .300 in 287 at-bats last year should replace Berkman in right field by opening day. The Cardinals can hit.

My Most Unfavorite Thing: Pitching. Can you win a division if Jake Westbrook is your number 2 or 3 starter? No, no you can't. Plus, Ryan Franklin is 37 and didn't exactly light the world on fire with his 3.46 ERA last year.

Closing Thought: "Allegedly, I'm saying your situation would be concurrently improved if I had two-hundred bucks in my pocket right now."

Prediction: Third place, and that's only because I know Dave Duncan can make any pitching staff respectable.

Chicago Cubs
Opening Thought: "fool me once, shame on...shame on you...fool me-you can't get fooled again."

The Cubs have been fooling their fans since the Taft administration. All I wanted to do was go out on a limb and pick the Cubs to finally win one. Then, I looked at their roster and, well, here we are.

Off-season: The Cubs replaced Derek Lee at first base with Carlos Pena. Pena is a .241 career hitter who hit .196 last year. That's right, .196. Not against lefties, against everyone. At least he's also old and way past his prime. Also, Chicago may be attempting to return to the glory days of the last time they almost won a championship but then didn't, signing Kerry Wood as a set-up man. I'm setting the over/under on Wood's first DL stint at May 12th.

Questions: Do the Cubs have an ace? Do the Cubs have a number 3 hitter? Is Alfonso Soriano finished?

Answers: No, no and yes, but that happened years ago, why are you just asking now?

My Favorite Thing: Starlin Castro. Castro hit .300 last year as a 20-year old rookie. Things like power and learning how to steal a base will come with experience and the Cubs can build around Castro for the next 12 years.

My Most Unfavorite Thing: So much to choose from, but I'll go with starting pitching. At least the bullpen has Carlos Marmol, who struck-out 138 batters in 77.2 innings last year. That's not a typo. Marmol recorded 233 outs last year, 138 by strike-out. That's crazy.

Closing Thought: The Cubs make me sad. Not only have they gone without a title since 1908, but they aren't even close to one now. This team is old, lacking in talent and just not that good. Help appears to be on the way from the farm system (Trey McNutt, Brett Jackson), but we've heard that before in Chicago and just this off-season they dealt Chris Archer to Tampa.

Prediction: Fourth place. The season is already over for St. Louis' ace, and it's not even March yet. And still, the Cubs won't be better than their rivals.

Houston Astros
Opening Thought: "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves." (maybe I need to explain some of these...Astros...this is from the episode when Homer was an astronaut...some of these are just for me)

Off-season: Houston is another team that seems to have napped through the winter. It seems like they've got a bunch of young guys and they've decided to run them out there this season. I like the attitude, I don't know if they'll like the results.

Questions: What now with Carlos Lee? How good is JA Happ?

Answers: Best case scenario, he starts off hot and the Astros can pawn him off on some unsuspecting contender (as a Yankee fan, I'm shaking my head somberly). As for Happ, very good, I think.

My Favorite Thing: Starting pitching. Happ, Wandy Rodriguez, Bud Norris (who wasn't that good last year but should get better). Teams that are hard to score against are always worth keeping an eye on, and Houston might be hard to score against.

My Most Unfavorite Thing: Offense. Specifically, I'm not sure what to make of it. The numbers from Hunter Pence are almost identical for each of the last three years. .280ish, 25HR, 80-90 RBI. Pence turns 28 in April and I'm pretty sure that's what he is. So, who carries this offense? The aging Carlos Lee? Chris Johnson? I'm not sure anybody will.

Closing Thought: This division has too many teams. You can really get bogged down in the middle.

Prediction: Fifth place, but I think the Astros are the wild card in this division. I know what the Cubs are and I know what the Cardinals are without Adam Wainwright, but I'm not really sure about the Astros. Could they finish second, or even contend for the top? Sure. Could they finish last? Well, maybe not in this division.

Pittsburgh Pirates
Opening Thought: "What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things that I've ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul."

The Pirates haven't been even remotely close to possibly contending since Barry Bonds left. Even the Royals have been decent a couple of times in the last 20 years. Even the Nationals have been OK once or twice. The Pirates are just an abomination.

Off-season: The Pirates spent $5 million on Lyle Overbay. I don't even know what to say about that. Do they believe he's the missing piece that'll vault them to 68 wins? They'd be better off just giving five dollars to every fan who shows up in Pittsburgh this year.

Questions: Which Pirate gets to finish the season with the Yankees?

Answers: My money's on Joel Hanrahan.

My Favorite Thing: The Pirates should be fun to watch. Jose Tabata, Pedro Alvarez, Andrew McCutchen. If they actually keep everyone and develop some pitching, Pittsburgh is about three years away from contending. Of course, we've been here before.

My Most Unfavorite Thing: One look at Pittsburgh's pitching staff caused me to immediately look up the single season record for runs allowed by a team (answer: the 1899 Cleveland Spiders who allowed 1252 runs in 154 games).

Closing Thought: When do the Steelers report to training camp?

Prediction: Last place. Another long season in Pittsburgh.

Deadline

It wasn't too long ago that the NBA trading deadline was almost as boring as the NFL's annually uneventful deadline. In the last few years though, the NBA deadline has blasted right past the NHL and is quickly approaching baseball's level of deadline interest. On top of that, they've successfully paired their all-star weekend with the deadline, allowing a double dose of NBA excitement. Or, in the case of this season, allowing them to clean up the disaster that was the all-star weekend with some hot new trade stories. I'd like to personally thank the NBA for giving me something to sort of care about this last week without having to talk myself into snowboarding as a sport. Let's take a closer look at all-star weekend and some of the deals we saw leading up to 3PM today, and let's see if I'm getting a little nervous about my pre-season NBA picks.

There's nothing original in saying the slam dunk contest sucked, but I'll say it anyway. Boy did that slam dunk contest suck. Do you think they talked about ending it after the second round of dunks? They had to at least consider it, right? If I were NBA supercommish David Stern, here's what I would have done. Right after the first round of dunks, I would have pulled Dwight Howard off the sideline and offered him $500,000 to save my crappy dunk contest. Then, after the crappy finals, right as they were getting ready to announce the champ, all the lights go out. Cue the superman music and out runs Dwight. He spends five or ten minutes doing all the insanely athletic things no human should be able to do, but that he can do while also smiling and looking like he's not really trying. The crowd leaves totally satisfied, and Dwight gets his money and a nice trophy.

I, David Stern, can either tell the truth and be a genius for saving an event that was dying right in front of us, or, I say we had it planned all along and I'm the diabolical genius who tricked everybody into thinking we were putting on such an awful event and then surprised everyone with a great finish. Either way, the NBA looks great and all anyone talks about the next day is the awesome ending.

As for the rest of all-star Saturday; the shooting stars thing with the WNBA players and the TNT staff is a joke. The 3-point contest is usually something I enjoy, but this year's felt strangely unfulfilling and even a little awkward. The point guard thing is just ridiculous. The HORSE competition continues to be a solid idea, but they're going to need to start Durant-proofing the course, and it also appeared to be happening in a high school gymnasium, which I thought was weird.

The all-star game itself was perfectly adequate. For everyone whining about the lack of defense; boohoo, it's an all-star game, it's supposed to be fun, and defense is tiring. The one thing I always find interesting about games like that is the alpha dog factor. Who jumps out at you as a star among stars? You know who jumped out at me? Carmelo Anthony. And I remember thinking the same thing about the 2008 olympic team. I've never been too high on Carmelo, I've always seen him as a notch below your real NBA stars. I've changed my mind. Carmelo can carry a team through the playoffs. This completely changes my view of the Denver Nuggets. I never considered them a real contender, because you need an alpha dog to get past Kobe and LeBron, and I didn't think Denver had one. Now? I'm convinced Denver has one.

By the way, I also noticed that Chris Kaman was an all-star. It's a tragedy how that plane full of all the other western conference big men went down over the rocky mountains. I hope we find those guys soon.

On to the trades, starting with the Knicks, since I'm from New York and I still get to see all their games. They traded Nate Robinson to the Celtics for Eddie House. I can't complain about this from the Knicks' side. Just by showing up, Eddie doubles the number of Knicks who can shoot. For the Celtics, who I root for, the value is a little less clear. You can be crazy and still be valuable in the NBA, like Gilbert Arenas was. But Nate isn't as good as Gilbert, or Artest, or even Rasheed Wallace from five years ago. To be valuable, I think you need to be at least as good as you are crazy, and I'm not sure Nate's there.

The Knicks also traded Darko Milicic for a guy they're immediately releasing, they literally gave him away for nothing. I have some ice cream in my freezer, and if I was an NBA owner, I could have traded it to the Knicks for Darko. Is Darko the worst draft pick in sports history? Who can give us an official ruling on this?

The main trade for the Knicks was the T-Mac thing. Sports radio in New York has been buzzing about this for weeks, which tells you how awful basketball in New York is right now. The idea of adding a guy who was great six years ago and might get you to 35 wins gets everyone all worked up. The Knicks gave up Jordan Hill (8th pick in last year's draft, which is handy, because he'll never be anything better than the 8th man on a winning team) and some draft picks, in exchange for which they got McGrady and they got someone to take on the ridiculous Jared Jeffries contract. Seems like a pretty good deal.

Along with the usual salary cap related flotsam and jetsam, the Rockets got Kevin Martin and the Kings got Carl Landry. Boring names aside, I like both of those guys for their new respective teams. The ball belongs to Tyreke Evans in Sacramento now, so Martin kind of had to go, but a legit power forward fits in well. The Rockets desperately need a scorer, and Martin fills that role. The rare good trade all around. Also, the Kings got Larry Hughes, which is good because last time I saw the Kings play I was thinking they needed someone to miss ridiculous jump shots.

The Hype King and his Cavs picked up Antawn Jamison. This really doesn't change my opinion about them at all. My favorite part of this trade was Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The Cavs traded big Z to Washington, where he'll take 30 days off and then come back to the Cavs. NBA trades aren't always the most interesting, but the NBA definitely has the goofiest trades. It may be time to re-think the salary cap structure a little.

Sidenote, here's my thing about Lebron. Two things really. First, I never like players who get the hype before they get the wins, at least not until they actually get the wins. More importantly though, it's this: MJ, Kobe, guys like that, they need to win. I'm honestly not sure if MJ would have survived an NBA career without titles. I'm not sure yet if Lebron needs to win, or if he just wants to win.

I think I'm more interested in all the things that didn't happen. The Suns, after weeks of trying to trade him, didn't trade Amare Stoudemire. Um...awkward. Especially since this is the second year in a row that happened. So now Amare has to play the rest of the season on a team that can't possibly win a title and couldn't possibly be less interested in still having him around. Sounds like fun.

Lots of teams just did nothing. I don't mind the Magic doing nothing, I'm not sure they needed to add anyone. I don't mind the Heat doing nothing, they weren't going anywhere this year either way, so why bother. But if I'm a fan of a non-Lakers western conference team, I'm a little punchy right now. Kobe won't still be limping around come playoff time. In fact, he'll be even more well rested for destroying you. The Jazz even gave away one of their better players, Ronnie Brewer, for nothing. Is there something in the NBA rulebook that would allow western conference teams to just surrender to L.A. instead of playing them? Probably not. Too bad, because I think the Jazz are ready and that would be pretty fun to watch.

I picked the Magic to win the east, and the title. I'm still fine with that, at least the east part. I don't like the Cavs, the Heat didn't get any better, the Hawks are still the Hawks and I just don't see the Celtics making it through the playoffs. The team I picked to lose to the Magic, the Spurs, has me pretty nervous. Even if the Lakers stumble, my new found belief in Carmelo Anthony makes the Nuggets very scary. Plus, to be honest, I hate rooting for the Spurs. Something about them has always really annoyed me. I feel the same way about Tim Duncan as I used to feel about John Stockton. I respect his game and he seems like a really nice guy, but sometimes I just wish one of the NBA's crazy people would tackle him on the court for no reason.

That's pretty much it. Truth is, I was 10 times more interested in pitchers and catchers reporting to Yankee camp than I was in anything that happened in the NBA. I'm trying to get back into basketball this year, but once April comes and baseball really starts, I can't promise anything.

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.