Pens give up too much for Hossa

In an absurdly surprising move, GM Ray Shero of the Pittsburgh Penguins traded for Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis from the Atlanta Thrashers, giving up Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, 1st round draft pick Angelo Esposito, and next year’s first rounder. Hossa is what writers and broadcasters call a “rental” player, which is kind of a misnomer, as all players are “rentals” – just some longer than others. Hossa had been thought to be going to the Canadiens in exchange for NHL-ready talent. I find it hard to believe that they or any other clubs offered up anywhere near the amount the Penguins did, at least in terms of prospects. While Christensen still had potential and I liked Colby Armstrong, I am more worried about the 1st round pick and Angelo Esposito. Esposito has big-time potential, but fell in a Leinart/Quinn fashion to the Pens at #20 during the NHL draft. A commonly cited reason for the drop was his lack of leadership ability or some other intangibles nonsense. With Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Esposito, the Penguins would have had four great centers. Additionally, the Penguins pretty much do not have a draft next year, having traded their 2nd and 5th round picks for Toronto defenceman Hal Gill. A quarter season and playoffs of Hossa really is not worth it. The Thrashers have to be absolutely thrilled with their haul. Its hard to believe that the second-best offer to them couldn’t have been beaten by this trade minus the 1st round pick (or more preferably minus Esposito).

In any case, the Penguins have committed to winning this year. Presumably Hossa will be playing on Crosby’s line, but I’m still worried about Crosby’s return, which makes me even more down on this deal. Even if Hossa ends up signing with the Penguins for next year, they’ll still probably be paying sticker price for him, but maybe (hopefully?) Shero knows something I don’t about this.

While we’re in to hockey talk here, I would like to throw out some general thoughts. I don’t like the perceived need for an “enforcer” in the NHL. Specifically, I don’t like my favorite team thinking its a necessary component of the game; I’d rather the rest of the NHL go about believing in intangibles. I really have nothing against Georges Laraque or other enforcers, but they seem to be wholly unnecessary and outdated. Are hockey players really afraid to hit teams’ stars because of them? It doesn’t seem like it. Enforcers, such as Laraque, typically contribute nothing offensively and marginal defensive value. They are there to “change the tempo of the game”, “give their team a boost”, and “shift a game’s momentum”, which are all code for “there is no proof or reason to believe they have any effect, but I would like to think that they do anyway.”

I especially hate that head coach Michel Therrien is playing Laraque (a forward) with Malkin. I don’t understand this at all. Laraque contributes nothing offensively. He can’t pass to Malkin, he can’t receive passes from Malkin – his main offensive skill seems to be holding onto the puck behind an opponent’s net. Thats nice and all, but he can’t make a pass from there, which means it doesn’t lead to any scoring opportunities. Besides, Malkin can do plenty well enough below the end line himself. I liked Ryan Malone playing with Malkin and Petr Sykora, as he creates havoc in front of the opposition’s net and is great for chipping in rebounds or charging hard to the net to create scoring opportunities. This is great for Sykora and Malkin, who can both blast the puck.

One final note: of the handful of black hockey players in the NHL, two of them are bitter fighting rivals. Georges Laraque and Washington Capitals’ forward Donald Brashear have been involved in four fights, including two this year. Tell me that doesn’t set off your white guilt.

Also, the most embarrassingly awkward celebrity commercial I’ve seen.

Arbitrary song of the day: Kirsty Hawkshaw – Fine Day (James Holden Mix)

Ah, Dusty Baker.

We missed you, Dusty. Thank you for bring up Norris Hopper when asked about Jay Bruce. Who cares about one of the top prospects who smacked 26 homers last year in time split between A+/AA/AAA and batted over .300 at each stop? Not Dusty Baker, who is more interested in discussing Norris Hopper, a perpetual 4/5 outfielder who has less than 350 major league ABs and whose mediocre career minor league OBP is higher than his SLG. Its not too hard to imagine Baker blowing out the arms of Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey. And, really, isn’t Dusty Baker the most anti-Adam Dunn manager? Baker wants fast old people who hit .300, which is why an Adam Dunn for Juan Pierre trade is inevitable (no, not really, but that would be fantastic).

I do like the idea of starting the season with Scott Hatteberg at first and bringing up Joey Votto once they can do so without starting his arbitration/FA clock (May, I believe). The pickin’ machine has been solid since being shipped to Cincinnatti by the A’s, albeit against lower competition (NL Central) and inside a hitters’ park.

I still don’t understand the hire of Dusty Baker. He is a terrible in-game strategist, receives credit for destroying two pitching careers, and has never developed any homegrown players. I usually say that the effects of a manager on how well a team does are minimal. However, I should qualify this: the positive effects of a manager are minimal. They can still manage to royally screw up a team. And while I don’t really wish the Reds any ill will, it wouldn’t be entirely unfunny to watch Baker make a mess of the Reds.

EDIT: Dusty Baker is saying more ridiculous things as presented by FJM.

Arbitrary song of the day: The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist

Hasbro and Universal

Is this a joke? I mean, really? A Stretch Armstrong movie – people will want to see this? Like, for money?

The article mentions Ridley Scott for a Monopoly movie, which makes me doubt the legitimacy of this. The games the article lists don’t even have plots. What would happen in this Monopoly movie? The game itself doesn’t even make sense. You go around buying land from some nebulous property owner until all but one person is bankrupt. Though, I do think Forest Whitaker would be great as “The Hat”.

Do you really need to purchase the rights to the game Battleship? What element from this game would be used in a movie? I guess the movie would have a battleship in it, but you don’t need to pay Hasbro for that.

This raises many, many questions for me as one can see.

Arbitrary song of the day: Basement Jaxx – Where’s Your Head At?

2007 in Music – Part 3: quick hits

Ok, so lets finish this thing. One more post on 2007 music after this, but here are some short thoughts on a couple releases (albums and singles):

Dan Deacon – Spiderman of the Rings

With a title like this, I had to give it a shot, right? No, actually, but despite the nerdly appeal of the title, this is an enjoyable album. I know little of Dan Deacon, except for the fact that he looks like the type of guy who would create an album with this title. Spiderman is a low-fi adventure in absurdly affected lyrics and sampling. Only about half of the tracks have lyrics and all and even those that do obscure them behind a wall of fuzzy chords. Most track layers sound like they could be played using a simple electronic keyboard, but the nakedness and unpretentiousness of the melodic hooks work with the song-length tracks to create easy-to-digest poppy songs. The tracks are very listenable separably, but I found that running through the 46+ minutes straight a little tiring towards the end, which I credit to the relatively uniform textures among tracks.

Phil K – Hi Fi

Phil Krokidis’s last major release was with fellow Aussie breaksmaster Luke Chable as Lo-Step. Their Because We Can artist album had some fantastically evil breakbeats on top of some lovely melodies and all-around well-produced music. These type of sounds can be found on Phil K’s previous mix discs such as his Y4K entry. While there are some nice tracks on Hi Fi, thats kind of the problem… too nice. The sounds are more genteel and refined rather than dirtied up like his previous releases. While I’m not a big fan of electro, Phil K made that work with breaks and I’m hoping he gets back to doing that in future mix discs.

The National – “Apartment Story”

I usually don’t explore much “indie” music, but after The National’s Boxer kept popping up at the top of all the critics’ yearly lists, I decided it was worth a listen. Though the entire album is pretty good, I found myself drawn to the single “Apartment Story” far more than any other song by an order of magnitude. The first adjective that came to my mind when I heard this song was “respectable”. I attribute this to the highly subdued, fuzzy guitar coupled with the droning tapping of the snare. Lead singer Matt Berninger’s voice is utterly perfect for this attitude, providing a low energy delivery of dream-like lyrics. The lyrics are mournful, but Berninger sings them without coming off as emo. It really is a simple song and The National brings out its beauty extremely well.

LCD Soundsystem – “All My Friends”

My initial reaction to this track was a little dismissive as I felt that in order to buy the song, you had to buy the keyboard section which persists the entire 7.5 minutes of the song, which I didn’t feel was a viable hook. It sounds similar to a phased percussive string section from a minimalist like Steve Reich. A friend of mine told me that he would prefer the track without this keyboard part at all. “But then what would you have left?” I asked. He replied by stating that he liked the song for its lyrics and vocals. These are not usually my thing and I think that this holds even for this track. I tend to be more interested in song structure, instrumentation, and basically elements I would describe as musical philosophy and how they integrate with modern music. James Murphy creates a fantastically layered and complex sound from a very repetitious base of his disco-y drumming and bouncy bass. He blurs the lines between chorus and verse and toys with emotional peaks and troughs, which works well with the melancholy lyrics.

Arbitrary song of the day: Radiohead – A Punch Up at a Wedding

Links and such

There is now a links section for some/no reason. Some random complaints:

• There is far too much Super Bowl coverage. That is all I have to say about the Super Bowl, as I have realized I don’t really care if the Steelers aren’t involved (though who doesn’t want the Patriots to lose?).
• ESPN needs to stop doing these pointless “Hot Stove debates” chats. Keith Law didn’t appear to care much for it either when he moderated the Upton v. Upton debate. I realize there isn’t too much to talk about at this point in the baseball season, but c’mon.
• One reason I don’t read “The Trib”, also see this and this
• ESPN’s recent poll regarding baseball prospects and fans’ knowledge needs more answers for questions. For example, the first question, “What does your favorite MLB team rely on most?”, has the options “Building with prospects…” and “Building with veterans…”. We need a third answer just for Pirates fans: “Bobbleheads”.

Check out Keith Law’s Top 100 prospects for 2008. Good stuff as usual from Keith. He has Buccos prospect Andrew McCutcheon ranked at #12, whereas Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldstein had him at #24. The only other Pirates in Keith’s top 100 is Neil Walker at #89 and the TJ surgery-recovering Brad Lincoln at #97.  Goldstein has Walker at #94 and , surprisingly, Steve Pearce is at #43! Thats right ahead of players such as Josh Vitters and Jose Tabata, which seems a little insane to me, considering Pearce’s ZiPS projection is merely .267/.324/.462 (below average in a corner outfield spot or first base). Though I think Pearce will be at least somewhat better than that, he will be 25 in mid-April and has minimal defensive value, so I really have no idea why he is in Goldstein’s top 50 at all.

Arbitrary song of the day: Kreidler – Au Pair