Some Friday afternoon links from around the web, and some thoughts:

The Starting Five split up a bit, but everyone is still writing.  In fact, it seems everyone is writing even more, in fact.  D-Wil has been pretty prolific this week back at his old site, Sports on My Mind.  Today he wrote a piece on the coverage of Joe Torre's rejection of the Yankees' one-year offer, in which he took to task all those writers who argued that the Yankees insulted Joe Torre with their offer.

Like I wrote in the remarks:

There is no reason to feel bad for Joe Torre. He got an offer which would have made him the best paid manager in the league.

Willie Randolph gets $2 million a year.

Terry Francona got a 2-yr/$4.05 million extension before this season. That's around $2 million a year. It's actually $1.65 million for 2007, plus bonuses for, gasp, making the playoffs, winning the LDS, LCS, and World Series. Plus a signing bonus.

Chicago gave Piniella a 3 year, $10 million contract, or about $3.3 million per year average. That was based on his Rays contract, which was 4 years, $13 million.

Tony LaRussa is in the high $2 million, low $3 million range.

No other baseball manager is even close to Torre's range, even at the $5 million, much less with incentives that could make it $8 million.

Now, are the Yankees brass equally guilty of being arrogant? Absolutely. They have long been jealous of all the credit Joe Torre gets for the Yankees success, and would love nothing more than for someone like Mattingly to come in, completely novice, and lead the Yankees to a WS. It would show that the success of the Yankees is due to the brass (Cashman, Steinbrenner, Newman, whoever), not the manager. Will they be right? We'll find out next season....

Furthermore, in response to a comment about "Torre...why would he accept $2.5 million less?", meaning why would he accept a contract for $5 million (with incentives that could make it $9 million) when his last contract paid him $7.5 million this season:

I think the answer to that is... declining production. Joe Torre earned $7.5 based on his World Series wins and the early dynasty. This contract offer is based on regular season success, but three straight first round exits. Not saying it's fair, but an athlete who drops from 40 HRs per season to 25 HRs per season is going to take a hit in his contract negotiations, too. At the end of the day, is it a fair offer?

I think so. And I also think it's perfectly reasonable for Joe Torre to walk away from the situation, given the stresses he has to deal with, namely Steinbrenner, and the front office, which has hidden behind the facade of Steinbrenner (but are just as conniving and jealous).

And now we begin the Mattingly, or Giraldi (or Tony Pena) Era.  Only after seeing how that goes will we know for sure if this was a good move or not for Joe Torre, or for the Yankees front office.  Hey, 12 years ago the Yankees looked completely ridiculous for wanting to get rid of Buck Showalter and replacing him with, gasp, a clueless loser like Joe Torre. 

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Mizzo has kept The Starting Five website, and added a new writer.  The Brother Report had a piece on Kobe Bryant, and predicted that "the Kobe Bryant/LA Lakers feud is at the point of no return".  The Commission also has a post on Kobe, where we find out that two/thirds of The Commission are Bulls fans that also hate Kobe.  Ergo, they are rooting against a trade for Kobe.

Personally, as a Knick fan, I'm hoping that the Lakers can't find a taker for Kobe among the Bulls or Mavs, and have to consider the Knicks package (and Kobe decides to give NYC a chance).  My prediction, though:  The Lakers hold on to Kobe until at least February's trade deadline, if not the whole season.  They hope the Bulls panic at February, or at the end of the year if they fail to make it out the first round, and roll the dice on a trade with Kobe.  By the end of this season Kobe will have only one season left on his contract anyway.  And he'll be one season closer to being over the hill, making the Lakers look smart for dumping him while they could.

The Lakers have almost nothing committed past 2009.  Kobe, if he opts out, comes off the books.  Lamar Odom comes off the books.  Kwame Brown comes off the books at the end of this season.  If the Laker don't make any moves, they are still about $10 million under the cap at the end of the season.  If they trade Kobe to the Mavs for, say, Josh Howard and two expiring contracts (Shawn Bradley!), they can save another $10 million.  If they wait until 2009, with it's great free agent class... you now have $25-30 million to spend on two or three superstar free agents.  Plus you still have a dirt cheap Andrew Bynum, Jordan Farmer, Javaris Crittenton, and Luke Walton to build around.  Maybe the Lakers can get rid of their only really bad contract, Vladimir Radmanovic, in a Kobe trade.  The end result is a team that can instantly become a contender if they exhibit patience and play this right.  So don't bet on a Kobe trade anytime before February, and really before this winter.
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Signal 2 Noise has a post suggesting that maybe the NFL should consider Kanye West for the Super Bowl halftime show.  I'm in favor of this.
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You know I hate linking to MC Bias, because that mo-fo will never link back (just kidding - I'm not petty like that).  He does have a great post discussing the hot topic of the day: Gawker Media.  New York Magazine did a profile of Gawker, it's history, how it got started, and why it has been as successful as it has.  I'm always amused by this topic, because I somewhat knew one of the earlier Gawker editors (those Columbia connections), and have been to Nick Denton's place before (it's freaking big) in SoHo for a party.  I've been reading Gawker for a long time, and the transformation over the past 5 years... it seemingly reinvents itself every six months, with a new goal, and yet manages to increase traffic. 

I drop a comment on why Gawker is able to attract talent, but overall I am impressed by MC Bias' points here.  He makes some good connections about why people are attracted to online communities, and how the extension of adolescence to people's 20s (and I would add, in NYC, you will find lots of people in their 30s still living like college students) helps keep Gawker's community strong in numbers. 
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Cobra Brigade has a post on the possible "shift in the paradigm of building a successful baseball team".  Basically Jack Cobra speculates on what possible results the success of the Rockies, D-Backs and Indians might have on the rest of baseball.

Personally, I don't think any of those three teams are as "small-market" as their salaries make them seem.  While all three are below the mean in salary, all three teams have also spent big dough on free agents in the past:  The Rockies with Todd Helton, Danny Neagle, Mike Hampton; the D-Backs with Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson; the Indians... shoot, they had Juan Gonzales, Manny Ramierez, and Jim Thome at one point, no?

The point being:  People are well aware that "Money = Wins", i.e. the higher the team's payroll, the likelier that you will win or at least compete (see the Dodgers, Giants, Mets this season).  You probably won't finish last with a big payroll in baseball, unless you are really mismanaged (see the Mets in the 90's). 

But people often forget that "Wins = Money" just as much.  The Indians have doubled their payroll in the last three seasons, and will continue to pay more.  Grady Sizemore and Faustino Carmona are due big raises, for starters.  You can cut corners, but it's hard to win consistently without seeing the payroll go into the top of the league.  Remember, winning games means your starting pitchers have high win totals.  That means more money in arbitration or contract negotiations.  Winning more games generally means more saves... which means to more money for the closer.  Winning games requires offense, and that means your cleanup hitter, your leadoff guy, everyone is going to get raises.  Your manager, too. 

Hopefully I'll go into this in a little more depth via a post, but winning equals a higher payroll, unless you pull a Florida Marlins.  And speaking of the Marlins... there are really only about 6-8 "small market teams": the Royals, Rays, Marlins, Pirates.   Washington, Minnesota, Milwaukee, maybe Cincinnati.  Those teams will never bid on a free agent, and will always lose players when they get to free agency.  The Reds are a little bit of an unknown, and the Nationals... they shouldn't be small market for too long.  Oakland falls in here, too.

After that, you have the big market teams:  The Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cardinals, Angels.   These teams will never have a small payroll, and might shrink their payroll a bit when they are relying on youth, but they will always be able to retain their players, and sign whoever they want (for the most part).  The White Sox, Tigers, Orioles, Phillies, Braves and Mariners are in a similar bracket.

Now the rest of the league: Giants, Padres, Blue Jays, Rangers, etc... they are closer to the first group then the second.  No one is going to take Chase Utley or Ryan Howard from Philly if they want to retain them.  No one is taking Roy Halladay from the Blue Jays.  And that's where the D-Backs, Indians and Rockies all fit in.  Matt Holliday is not going away from the Rockies.  Brandon Webb is a D-Back for at least another four years.  Grady Sizemore... it's up to the Indians, but they will probably reward him like they did Travis Hafner. 

*******

Last note:  Verbs of Leisure is not a sports site, but a blog one of my friends has to keep a tab on her experience in Kyrgyzstan.  She's one of the funniest, wittiest people I've ever met, so hopefully her site and writing will come to reflect that.  Here's a piece she wrote on yesterday's Kyrgyzstan-Jordan soccer game, which I'll now copy and paste for ya'll (as a point I don't copy and paste whole posts from other blogs; I personally asked her to write this recap for me so I could use it on SML):

Yesterday we went to a soccer match at Bishkek's Spartak stadium, Kyrgyzstan versus Jordan.*  I know you're probably sick of the coverage of this game, but read on anyway.  Below is a list of what I learned.

*It was a qualifying game for the 2010 World Cup.  They start early, no?  I feel like there are lessons there on not procrastinating.

1. If you can't pony up the 50 som for an entrance ticket, an alternative is scrambling up a tree behind the stadium and hoisting yourself over the wall.  We watched as the police officer who stands guard there not 15 feet away kept a very deliberate blind back turned toward this.  I am not sure how much it costs to maintain his blindness.  Our guess was 10 som a head.
2. Although they are all great sports, those Jordanians were no match for the Kyrgyz, who are accustomed to the brutality of buzkashi and muscling to the head of queues.  The medics came on the field with a stretcher no less than 8 times throughout the game, and many a Jordanian were left rolling around the field clutching their face, leg, arm, etc after a particularly forceful Kyrgyz interception.
3. I kept waiting for a chance to use the one sports expression I learned when my high school Russian club went to the Russian-US hockey game:  Судья на мыло!  The referee's on soap! When I heard people yell much more colorful things about the referee at this match though, I thought maybe I'd been sold a very G rated sports slur all those years ago.  But then I heard a little boy holler it himself!  Baby steps with the ref dissing.
4. People were so loving the wave!  As was I!  Stand with me and say WHOOOO!   Even the crowd of like, 30 Jordanians got into it.
5. The most important thing I learned is that it's better to sit toward the top of the stands, since you're less likely to be downbleacher of the hail of empty bottles that people chuck when jubilating.
6. The Kyrgyz won, 2-0.   Наша команда was sponsored by наше пиво.   Nashurally.
7. Next time in Amman. 

For the record, she's given me some great info which will be worked into the 2008 Olympic Preview posts we've been doing here.  Those will continue next week, one on Monday, one later in the week. 
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Football picks:  Last week we tied in our Best Bet (the Titans +3 vs. TB), then went 5-6-1 in the other 12 games.  Our record for the year:  32-35-4, with a horrible 5-11-1 record in Best Bets.

This week's bets, as we are one good week away from .500:

1. Arizona +8.5 at Washington.  Washington's banged up OL scares me more than Arizona's lack of a healthy quarterback.

2. NO -8 vs. Atlanta.   The Saints are marching in.

3. Baltimore -3  vs. Buffalo.   No McNair, but they can cover three points (I hope) against the Bills.

4. Cowboys -9.5 vs. Vikings.  Bounce back game for the NFC's best.

5. NE -16 vs. Dolphins.  I think the Dolphins can keep it close, but I'm not beating against the Pats.  I will bet that if the Pats keep running up the score like a Barry Switzer-lead college football team, someone is going to take a late cheap shot at a player on that team and hurt them. 

6.  SF +9 at NYG.  Let down game for Giants.

7.  TB +2  at Detroit.  So wait... now TB is an underdog to the Lions?  Last week they were favored over the 3-1 Titans?  This must be a trick.

8. Titans -1 at Houston.  Vince Young wills them to a victory, even from the sidelines.

9.  Oakland -3 vs. KC. 

10. Jets +6 at Cincy.  One of few teams in worst shape than Jets.  Plus the O-line is finally getting it together for the Jets.

11.  Philly -5.5 vs. Chicago.  Philly is getting its swagger back. 

12.  Seattle -8.5 vs. St. Louis.  They have to win.  They can't lose again after last week's loss to the Saints.

13.  Pittsburgh -3.5 at Denver.  Quietly a legit contender.

14.  Indy -3 at Jacksonville.  Really, only three points?  Is this a setup?  Indy should be favored by 6.5 according to my calculations.  This is either a Best Bet lock, or a setup.  I'm going to with... BEST BET.

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