Cruisin' the Web

According to Friedman, "It’s morning again — in Saudi Arabia," because Americans have short memories.

Sadly, the Minnesota Twins "do not have a department devoted to statistical analysis." In the last decade the Twins have gained an edge by developing talent through excellent scouting and managing at the minor league levels. Unfortunately, while the rest of major league baseball has integrated advanced metrics into their player evaluations, it appears the Twins are resting on their laurels. Perhaps this explains why one analyst ranks the Minnesota farm system 21 out of 30.

"Small-market teams love salary caps. Or rather, they think they do. " If a salary cap were implemented in Major League Baseball, 13 teams would have to spend an extra $15 million to meet the minimum.

Why is it that conservatives only fight for tax relief that would benefit the wealthy? "If the Republicans were more serious about their philosophical commitment against taxation, why not instead propose a either a long-lived holiday or a permanent reduction in the FICA (payroll) tax as the entirety of their stimulus package?...because the payroll tax is capped at about $100,000 in income, suspending or reducing it would not be all that helpful to wealthy Americans, to whom it represents only a tiny fraction of their tax burden." (Read more)

A nice chart of President Obama's cabinet (with pictures and everything).

A liberal uses the "n-word". (More people just like him.)

Greg Boyd finds it a bit ironic that Colin Powell was the keynote speaker at a Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast. Makes a lot of sense to me.

"Liberalism is not America’s problem. A comfortable Church with a tamed Jesus is." (More here)

The current free agent compensation system is screwed up. When the Brewers receive a second round pick for losing C.C. Sabathia (instead of a first) and Jason Varitek is held hostage because any team that signs him will have to give up a first rounder, something needs to change. Look for this to be a topic for discussion at the next round of collective bargaining. In the meanwhile, since the Yanks have already forfeited their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round picks with this year's big free agent aquisitions, Ken Rosenthal believes they should solidify their bullpen by signing type A free agent, Juan Cruz. I totally agree. Meanwhile, Yankee blog, River. Ave. Blues makes some suggestions for how to fix the free agent compensation system.

There's a lot of hype around the Cleveland Indians this offseason, but "the Twins will be a tough beat in the AL Central in 2009."

Back in October, I complained that the Twins were forced to play a tiebreaker against the White Sox in Chicago because they lost a coin flip. This, despite having won the season series. Well, looks like those coin-flips won't be happening anymore. Thanks Bud. Better late than never I guess.

Check it out, the White House has a blog!