99th Post Extravaganza - Random Thoughts on Buffets and MLB

Posted by Iroquois Plisken

In the spirit of the site, for the (almost) 100th post, I will pen a few quick thoughts on some baseball hot stove, then quickly offer a thought on all-you-can-eat buffets.

First, some breaking news. As of this typing, a report surfaced that Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee are changing teams in a three-card-monte between Seattle (who receives Lee, amazingly), Toronto, and Philly. It is interesting that after "settling" for Cliff Lee (and reaching a World Series in the process), Philly just as quickly ships him out. I'm really not sure how much of an upgrade Ol' Roy is at this point for Philly, unless they were really itching to get a RHP in there. Lee was absolute perfection when he needed to be and I'd probably have been a bit more reluctant to ship him off. Still, the details are sketchy at best, so we'll see what happens from there. Your author finds it interesting how often Cliff Lee ends up being shipped in blockbuster deals, swiftly recalling one of the worst trades of all time wherein Lee, Brandon Phillips, and Grady Sizemore for what amounted to Bartolo Colon during his Radar Love phase. Meanwhile, Seattle has another ace to stack with Felix Hernandez and Erik Bedard (if he ever figures himself out).

From talking about lefties to a guy who can't hit lefties, the Yankees acquired Curtis Granderson for a slew of prospects, mostly going to Detroit. Red Herring, the token Yankees fan, is pretty upset that the Yankees gave up Austin Jackson in the deal, and I can't say I blame him. For really what just amounts to Granderson, the Yankees threw a lot of chips out. Baby Grand was a lovely fantasy player last year (average aside) because he was Adam Dunn like, only with greater speed, but for all practical purposes, the Yanks better hope Granderson can produce that 30 home runs again because that average (~.250) is not gonna fly in the Bronx.

I love this deal for the Tigers, though. Edwin Jackson is not going to be near as good as Scherzer in perhaps as little as two years, though both are fine pitchers in their own right. In addition, the Tigers got enough pieces, mostly lefty relievers, to patch a lot of holes in their pen and a future star in Austin Jackson. What puzzles your author the most is why Arizona felt compelled to make a deal here. Really? Just Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy? How highly do you have to value both of these guys?

The Red Sox traded away Mike Lowell for Max Ramirez (nice deal, if it goes through) and signed John Lackey today. If we're going to see the John Lackey of old (the Cy Young Lackey), this is going to be an above average acquisition. Lackey's stuff isn't as dominating as A.J. Burnett, but he's more consistent, I believe. However, if this is the injury-prone Lackey we've seen in the last couple of years, it may be as questionable of a signing as Daisuke Matsuzaka's deal. Were I the Red Sox front office, I might not have paid as much, but then again, that's why they work there and I don't. I did like the original offer by the Angels for $72M over 5, which is why I believe the $82.5 is a bit high.

Finally, a revelation. In need of a good overeating binge, your author headed to CiCi's Pizza (the best pizza value anywhere, so sayeth the radio jingle) and was stunned, nay floored, to see that, of all places, they had the audacity to claim they were one of the top 5 healthiest places to eat. Surely, they could not be so bold to claim that $5.99 all-you-can-eat anything is even remotely healthy. Turns out, they weren't kidding. As long as you check your willpower at the door, apparently CiCi's actually is pretty good for you. Your author isn't quite sure how powerful the Pizza Buffet lobby is, nor is he sure of how prone the Eat This, Not That guide is to corruption (probably not very much, I'd suspect--those guys do good work), but is nevertheless apologetic and still somewhat taken aback by the healthiness of the place. This would also explain why the crust tastes like cardboard and you are able to inhale those slices; it's got nothing relatively fattening in it.

Thanks for a great inital few months, folks. We look forward to bringing you more content about sports, food, and sports-food. From the looks of it also, you seem to enjoy Stan Van Gundy's take on the NBA. We'll talk to him and see if he can supply some more reports, but you guys know Stan. The man wants what he wants and if he isn't up to more reports, then I guess you (and I) are stuck with a 1991 Toyota Tercel.