Friday Links

BBTF has a fantastic breakdown of Oliver Perez and his mechanics (thanks to reader Trey Beamon for the tip). Unfortunately, things are not stacking up well for the team that traded Ollie away (that would be us).

As usual, there's some good stuff in Dejan's Q&A today. On the subject of trading Mike Gonzalez or Salomon Torres he says it would seem unlikely for either to go because they probably would not bring the "Lefty McThump" return that the Pirates are looking for this offseason, though he makes it clear that no one has been designated as "untouchable" which is very comforting, because no one on this team should be. He also closes the Q&A with this line:

You are all insane for hanging with this team long enough to still be
paying attention.

In our defense, being insane is the only way we ended up Pirate fans in the first place.

Paul Maholm will also miss his Sunday start, which will be taken by Marty McLeary. Set your TiVos accordingly.

Jeffrey Loria should be outlawed from owning a baseball team. Reports say that likely NL Manager of the Year Joe Girardi has a "zero" percent chance of returning to the Marlins in 2007. That's really a shame. Loria has now tanked two franchises and somehow has a World Series ring to show for it. Life is not fair.