Monday, August 01, 2005

Day 1 - Oxnard

First day in California, and I am ready for some football. The Blog won’t knock your socks off today, but it will be solid this week with Cowboys topics, so keep checking back:

Rangers keep Soriano

I like the fact that they drew a line in the sand and insisted that they got a huge ransom for Soriano, but we must now consider two things: 1) he is now your responsibility to tender in the winter, lest you lose him for nothing. That cannot happen. And 2) we must now brace for many, many Wilson, Benoit, Ric-Rod, and C Young starts the rest of the way. I hope they are up for it.

Zubov, 3 years – 12 million …offers good news and bad news:

Good News:

Zubov's deal includes a no-trade clause, according to his agent, Jay Grossman. It makes him the second-highest paid player on the team to Bill Guerin ($6.8 million).

With nine players under contract, the Stars have spent almost $22 million. If the team has a budget around $35 million (90 percent of the NHL's $39 million cap, as prescribed by GM Doug Armstrong), they have about $13 million left to spend on 14 positions.


And now, the Bad News:

The Zubov deal could make it difficult to fit Mike Modano and another high-level defenseman under the cap.

Modano said the Stars have never put an offer on the table, and he is confused by their approach.

Said Armstrong: "We have had conversations with Mike and were never able to find common ground. That said, we still want to talk to him after he explores the market."


But wait, Modano hints that he will give the Stars a chance to match offers


"I don't think they know my value right now," Modano said. "Maybe come next week, I'll have something to be able to take back to them."


Meanwhile, Finley to the Knickerbockers? …If you are a Knicks fan, aren’t you saying, “wait, we just bought out Al Houston so we can trade for another goofy contract?”…


Finley will be a former Maverick by Aug. 15, the deadline to exercise the amnesty clause.

Trade possibilities exist, but the returns would be marginal. New York appears to have legitimate interest as Isiah Thomas and Larry Brown begin remaking the Knicks. It's possible they would explore swapping Anfernee Hardaway or Tim Thomas for Finley.

Hardaway ($15.75 million) and Thomas ($13.975 million) have contracts that expire this season and both would match Finley's salary this season ($15.938 million) in trade scenarios.


I prefer that deal than Finley ending up in Phoenix now That Joe Johnson is out of the picture ...The Suns just took a big step back..

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's going to be 100 degrees in DFW today. Please don't beat us down with "how beautiful the weather is" in Oxnard.

Here's hoping that BaD Radio freezes their #%@s off this week, or at least that it rains so much that golf is impossible.

By the way: Jerry Jones needs to move the daily Bill Parcells conference (snooze) to 10:00 every day except Mondays and Fridays which would be at 12:00? Good Lord, what a total tired head, beating, whip, powerdown!

Anonymous said...

The Joe Johnson story is the part of the NBA that drives me nuts. I don't blame him for wanting a ton of money, but the SUNS WERE WILLING TO MATCH IT! He would prefer to be on a terrible team so that, in his words, he can be a bigger star than when Nash and Stoudemire took most of the glory.

Let's see - more points and ZERO chance of the playoffs with one team, or less points on a fun, very talented, and young team.

Idiot

Anonymous said...

THAT'S the good news about Zubov? That he has a no trade and that the Stars can spend barely more than $1M per player for the bulk of the roster?

Funny, I thought that signing him was the good news, not that the stars are starting to run low on cap and that they can't trade him.

Anonymous said...

i don't really care to see anfernee hardaway or tim thomas here, but if they have contracts that expire this year, that could be great for a midseason trade. the mavs could possibly come out winners in this after all. if we have to drop finley, it's best to send him to the east. and to keep him from the suns would be awesome. the suns are definitely weaker without johnson as there already lack of depth dwindles a bit more.

hmm..why are we talking mavs, when cowboys training camp has just opened....

Anonymous said...

Bob and Dan need to steal Peter King away from the morning show. The guy is great and he's radio gold, just listen to him when he's on with the FAN in NY.
The musers just can't get anything out of him. The Questions are as generic as it gets. And it always seems like they're already setting up a bit for the next segment while he's talking.

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot Hicks. Sure, you re-signed Zubov, but with him making $4 million per year and Guerin eating up $6.75 million, you have no money left for Modano, Hatcher, or any other decent free agent.

All I can say is...Get ready for a perennial .500 hockey team Dallas. However, you should be used to it seeing as how that's exactly the same as the baseball team in town does every year too...

Anonymous said...

apparently wfan is reporting that rafiel palmeiro tested positive for steroids. havent seen any confirmation yet though.

Anonymous said...

Phil Nevin??? Are you kidding me? .256 with 9 home runs, dont we already have that guy with Hidalgo. This is just another way for Hicks to put more money in his own pocket. Its not like he cleared up a bunch of room to go get the top free agent pitcher this off season. We all know he wont do that. Park was not worth his contract by any means, but I would rather have him out there that Beniot or Wasdin or Wilson.

Mike

Anonymous said...

The Raffy rumor is flying now, its all over the message boards, and supposedly going to be reported by MLB later.

Is the hardline going to be ok? LOL

Anonymous said...

seems the ticket just broke in with the raffy situation.

Anonymous said...

Palmeiro should be brought up on contempt of congress charges for lying about having never used steroids I guess huh? Oh...and he owes Jose Canseco and apology. The full story is here...

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/orioles/2005-08-01-palmeiro-suspension_x.htm

Anonymous said...

Bye, Bye, HOF.

And I now think that Canseco is 100% right about everyone he mentioned in his book.

Anonymous said...

How crazy is this 10 games suspension?
Like in 2 weeks it's no longer cheating.

Anonymous said...

So much for Raffy Hall of Fame talk. Who looks more like an idiot now, Mark McGwire for neither confirming nor denying in his testimony or Raffy for denying ever using steroids and then now getting caught?

Disco

Anonymous said...

Yep...looks like Canseco was telling the truth all along after all. Raffy should definitely get in trouble for lying to Congress too.

Anonymous said...

This may be a little gay, but I am extremely disappointed with Raffy. I almost feel betrayed by his self righteous BS. Good Lord, if there was EVER a time to stay clean, it would be now....maybe it was Viagra.

No wonder he had such good bone marrow.

I still hate the P1, but really hate Raffy today.

Gravypan said...

Memo to Greggo,

There's no speculation involved. Major League Baseball isn't going to suspend somebody over an allegation of Steroid use. They need a positive test.

Well guess, what? They got it from Raffy.

And the The Ticket wonders why some of us accuse the station of favortism towards certain athletes.