God and Bill Belichick not Bound by Time

Bill Belichick has finally reached god-like status. Depending on the translation of your religion, until last night, God himself was the only entity not constrained by the rules of time. Sure, the fact that the NFL's rules don't apply to Belichick was a strong move towards the Patriots' coach reaching deity status, but last night he clinched it. With one second still still remaining in the world's biggest sporting event, Belichick decided the game was over. He was informed by many men, some game officials, some on his own staff, some even the hired law enforcement that the game was not over and he would have to return to the sidelines. Belichick, however, does not bow to a time or the game clock and continued his quest to move past being a loser.

What a glorious moment that must have been for him to finally be a god. The divine grace that comes with reaching deity status was evident as he managed to look Coughlin in the eye and muster more of a conversation with the winning coach than just "Well done", as he is quite accustomed to doing. Then the derelict deity and most of his team disappeared before the game came to a conclusion.

The NFL took advantage of the change in their self made disheveled demigod by making him speak with Fox reporter Chris Myers after the game. Myers, who must be the devil himself, brought the all-knowing one back to human status as Belichick returned to his sinful ways of showing no class whatsoever. Traditionally these interviews are kept short, but in the spirit of celebrating an amazing season and giving the Patriots one last chance to be in the spotlight, Myers prolonged the interview. The typical politically correct phrases are tossed out at this time by coaches, "My hat is off to the New York Giants", "That is a first class organization over there and if it couldn't be us, I'm glad they got it"... etc. Belichick offered up no such praise for his counterparts, as you could see his blood boiling through his skin at the thought of losing out on "perfection". He would only concede that his team failed to make plays, for in his mind, his team lost the game... they were NOT beaten by an opponent. In his mind they were still perfect as it was the Patriots who defeated the Patriots, the only team worthy of playing against the Patriots. This man has been criticized for many, many things, but this one act of unsportsmanlike conduct should have him called to the carpet for his many transgressions and finally punished.

Spy-gate might finally be that punishment. I don't believe Congress should be involved in investigating whether the rules of a game have been broken. I do believe the NFL should except their credibility has been tarnished and publicly investigate what Belichick has done with videotape. Of course, it might all be impossible to prove as Belichick can defy time, Quantum Leap back to his first video tape moment of indiscretion and stop all wrong doing. What moment is that exactly? Did he videotape the second Kennedy shooter? Was he the director of Denis Rodman's cinematic debut, "Double Team"? Was it actually him behind the camera for Paris Hilton video? Or will he finally admit to cheating and stop himself from videotaping other teams back when he was with the Browns? Since he is not bound by time or rules, I don't think it will happen in my lifetime.

---

In a side note, Tom Brady's Sum of All Fears came true last night. Gisselle refused to be associated with a loser and left him. Bridget Moynahan, the mother of his child, would only take him back if he quit football and became Mr. Mom. Tom dropped his child off at daycare this morning and hit on the college student working there. She was unimpressed that he was the quarterback of a losing team.

.

First Bad Move?

Late yesterday Neal Huntington made his first real head scratcher of a move with the Pirates. Neal threw away injury prone Sean Burnett in order to acquire another back-up utility infielder. Had it been Littlefield making this move, you would have heard everyone in the media shouting about this.

I may be an idiot, but even I know
more about baseball than Littlefield

Since we are flying the "under new management" banner, management that includes Burnett's former pitching coach Jeff Andrews, I'm going to give Huntington some leeway on this one. They must know his arm is not MLB ready to let him go now. The last two off seasons have shown how important starting pitching is. The Pirates have chosen depth at a bench position they have addressed twice already in free agency over pitching.

That's like breaking up with Blanche so you are available
to date the rest of the bags on the Facts of Life

Burnett was out of options, which meant he had to make the MLB 25 man roster out of spring training or go through waivers to be sent to the minors. By designating him for assignment, the Pirates have chosen now rather than later to try and slide him through waivers. So why wouldn't they wait until the Spring to see if he even needed to be sent down? Why not keep him as the long man coming out of the bull pen?

Why ask why?

Burnett showed great promise in his first 9 MLB starts by posting a 3.40 ERA. His arm was injured, but he gutted out 4 more starts and his ERA ballooned. The next 2 seasons were derailed by arm injuries. Finally in 2007 he came to spring training healthy, and showed little command, but good stats. The command issues forced him to continue his rehab in AAA, but progress was slow. He did have an excellent showing in Winter Ball this offseason, causing optimism for the spring. Such optimism would surely cause the Pirates to want a good look at him in the Spring, if only to increase his trade value, let alone make the club. They had nothing to lose by waiting, except if Burnett was horrible in the Spring. Perhaps they believe they are selling high now???

Like I said, I don't want to judge Huntington based on the precedent set by Littlefield, but this move smells a lot like Matt Herges for Chris Young.
We won't know until the games start to mean something.

Supernatural Santana For Less Than $14.99

The highly anticipated Johan Santana deal has finally be accepted, pending the typical physical and 72 hour negotiation window. You can read anywhere that this deal was not the best out there and I concur the Yanks and Red Sox were making better MLB ready offers. Most are chalking this up to the Twins wanting Santana out of the American League, like the cousin you refuse to see anymore thanks to the "weird" feelings between you.

You know Daisy was a naughty cousin

What is not talked about is what the Twins signaled with this trade. This trade is an admission they do not plan to compete for 2-3 more years. They didn't get back the Mets' best hitting prospect, Fernando Martinez, or the Mets' best pitching prospect, Mike Pelfry. This trade will certainly mean Joe Nathan will walk after his contract expires this year and yet the Twins didn't get the Mets' top relief "prospect", Aaron Heilman. One has to wonder if Dave Littlefield was a personal adviser to new Twins' GM Bill Smith.

Ask Omar Minaya for a pudgy 3B, their third best pitching prospect
and a player that you accidentally unprotected in the Rule V draft

The Twins do have a tremendous track record for these kinds of trades, which I'm sure you will read about on other sites as well. But this deal just wreaks of Pirate patheticness. I can't lump the two together though as the Pirates would never make a trade where the players coming back to the team are younger, with a better upside, than players who are MLB ready.

It does feel good to see such a major deal take place that leaves everyone scratching their heads and not have the Pirates be involved. We're now guaranteed to see Santana once a year during his prime. As a Pirates fan that will be frustrating. As a baseball fan, it is nice to have the game's best pitcher in the NL again. Brandon Webb argument aside, this hasn't happened since maybe Greg Maddux was at the height of his game. Randy Johnson was an elite pitcher for most of his years in Arizona, but Pedro was clearly the better pitcher during that stint.