More on the 2006 Baseball World Cup

Craig Burley posts his thoughts on the World Cup over at The Hardball Times: World Cup 2006: A Look Ahead -- The Hardball Times

Yee Haw!

ESPN.com - MLB - Report: Baseball World Cup set for 2006

"The first World Cup of baseball will be held in March 2006, Japanese baseball officials told the Japan Times, following meetings involving American, Japanese and Korean officials."

I hope this is true. I can't wait to see it.

UPDATE:
You've gotta like the Dominican Republic:

Catcher - Miguel Olivo
First - David Ortiz, Albert Pujols
Second - Alfonso Soriano, Placido Polanco
Third - Adrian Beltre, Aramis Ramirez
Short - Miguel Tejada, Rafael Furcal
Outfield - Vladimir Guerero, Manny Ramirez, Sammy Sosa, Jose Guillen, Juan Encarnacion
Starting Pitchers - Pedro Martinez, Bartolo Colon, Jose Lima, Ramon Ortiz, Odalis Perez
Bullpen - Octavio Dotel, Guillermo Mota, Damaso Marte, Rafael Soriano, Solomon Torres, Jose Mesa

And the U.S.:

Catcher - Mike Piazza, Jason Varitek
First - Todd Helton, Jim Thome
Second - Bret Boone, Jeff Kent
Third - Eric Chavez, Scott Rolen
Short - Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter
Outfield - Barry Bonds, Jim Edmonds, Gary Sheffield, Adam Dunn, JD Drew
Starting Pitchers - Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Ben Sheets, Jason Schmidt, Curt Schilling
Bullpen - Brad Lidge, Joe Nathan, John Smoltz, Billy Wagner, Tom Gordon

Gold Glove - Eric Chavez

"Chavez took home the [Gold Glove] hardware for the fourth consecutive year, becoming the first AL third baseman to win as many as four in a row since Gary Gaetti won each year from 1986 through 1989."
-AL Gold Gloves

I'm pleasantly surprised to see Chavez win this award. He wasn't quite as good defensively this year as he has been in years past, and New York's own Alex Rodriguez, a former Gold Glove shortstop, played fairly well at the hot corner. I thought A-Rod had the GG all wrapped up, but Chavez's award is (again!) one of the few bright spots for the A's between September and March.

If you awarded Gold Gloves solely on Fielding Win Shares (courtesy of The Hardball Times), the AL GG's would look like this:

Catcher: Damian Miller (7.9 WS)
First Base: Mark Teixeira (2.8)
Second Base: Orlando Hudson (6.6)
Third Base: Alex Rodriguez (5.8)
Shortstop: Christian Guzman (9.6)
Outfield: Johnny Damon (7.1)
Outfield: Mark Kotsay (5.9)
Outfield: Torii Hunter (5.3)

The only player that the voters and Win Shares agree upon is Torii Hunter. Hmm.

UPDATE: With an extra two seconds of research, I could have just pointed you to this great analysis: American League Gold Glove Awards by Clay Davenport of Baseball Prospectus

Fascinating

Yahoo! News - Dow, Nasdaq, S&P 500 Retreat on Exit Poll

"That's what we're hearing," said Lisa Hansen, head trader at Transamerica Investment Management. "Apparently the blogs are saying that Kerry is ahead in one or two of the swing states and that's why the market dipped."

Advice from a Google Investor

It's the people, stupid. Shriram helped co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the Menlo Park garage by consulting his "Ram's Book of Mistakes,'' which he said he started eight or nine years ago to help remind him of all the bad decisions he'd made. Bad hiring decisions are the most fatal.

-MercuryNews.com | 10/30/2004 | Google guru shares words of wisdom

Apropos

Non Sequitur

Lloyd Braun

Why would Yahoo! hire such a loser? He lost the election with Dinkins, he was a terrible computer salesman for Frank Costanza and then ABC cut him loose.

;)

--1--
ELAINE: Lloyd Braun? How's he doing?
GEORGE: (almost gleeful) After Dinkins lost the election, he had a complete nervous breakdown. They had to lock him up.

-Seinfeld- The Gum

--2--
George: Well what about all the Lloyd Braun sales?
Frank: He's crazy. His phone wasn't even hooked up. He just liked ringing that bell.

-Seinfeld, Serenity Now

--3--
Lloyd Braun, ousted last year as the chairman of ABC Entertainment, will become head of entertainment and media content for Yahoo, the company announced yesterday.

-Yahoo Names Media Executive