MLB

Boy do I miss my childhood days of being paraded into the good ole Astrodome to watch the Houston Astros.

Walking up those long, wide ramps and your feet sticking to the ground with every step; the smell of beer, popcorn, and hotdogs; the long lines to the bathroom to stand over a urinal that looked more like something you’d see in a jail over a baseball stadium.

But wow, those are some of my best memories from my childhood.

Since I have a bunch of time on my hands in this month, being that I'm off from college, I've been compiling a leaderboard of what I call "True ERA." The formula for that is pretty simple:

True ERA = FIP + (xFIP - FIP) + (.92tRA - FIP)

How did I come up with this, you ask?

Well, FIP is widely regarded as a sort of "true ERA" since it takes out all luck. xFIP (Wow, I just started a sentence with a lowercase letter, and it was correct) is FIP with a HR/FB adjustment, so we can say that (xFIP - FIP) is simply a "homer adjustment."

The Cincinnati Reds have recently upgraded third baseman Scott Rolen's contract to tie him up for the next three years. That is all well and good, but I believe we had him for this year already, am I right?

We have more pressing problems than pacifying a player for whom we already had mortgaged the farm—no play on words.

Shortstops still change teams or get re-signed by their own club while we sit and wait it out.

No.

I could probably end the article right there, but perhaps I should elaborate.

After winning the World Series MVP, Hideki Matsui has drawn praise from Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese-born player to play in the MLB.

Murakami stated that "Ichiro Suzuki has had many accomplishments, but they've all been in the regular season. As the first Japanese to win an MVP in the World Series, this is a great accomplishment for Matsui and will have a huge impact."

You have got to be kidding me.

The Mike Lowell to Texas trade is officially off reported by Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe .

I’m not normally one to criticize Chris Carpenter.

I spent a solid month arguing with whoever would listen about why he should win the Cy Young, and even wrote a manifesto about why he was a the best choice.

While Scott Boras patiently waits for some team to offer Adrian Beltre a four-year deal worth around $10 million annually, the market for Beltre is simply not developing at this point.

And to make matters worse, the Red Sox, who were one of the few teams interested in Beltre that could come close to giving him the contract he wanted, might not be in the market for a third baseman anymore. The reason? The Mike Lowell to Texas trade is was cancelled yesterday:

Recently, Theo Epstein proposed a trade to the Rangers: Mike Lowell and cash for minor league catcher Max Ramirez.  

Ramirez was the eighth best prospect in a stacked Rangers organization.  

The Rangers agreed.  

Pending physicals.  

Barry Larkin spent his entire 19-year career playing for his hometown Cincinnati Reds. Considered by many to be one of the best all-around players of his era, Larkin is now eligible for baseball's highest individual honor.

While statistics are the primary tool for measuring a baseball player's greatness, there are vital qualities and characteristics that a computer can't necessarily figure out. Larkin excelled in many of those categories.

You see plenty of moves like this in football, but contract restructuring is not nearly as common in baseball. But yesterday, the Reds and Scott Rolen agreed to a restructured deal that will keep him in Cincinnati for the next three seasons: