some sports randoms

the raps are done for another season. things that i ponder about the season that ended and the season to come:
- its nice to see kapono found his mojo back for the playoffs. i wonder if we'll see that next year. he's much better when he slashes and drives a little bit instead of standing around in the corner. i still think he was a great pickup.
- ford and calderon. enough has been said by others. this is not the issue to me, but if it helps to get a guy who can rebound (consistently) by trading one of these guys, then they gotta do that.
- with garbo back next year, does he start. does moon start? someone else?
- rasho's great for what he is, but we need someone who can rebound, night in and night out.
- will we get anyone of any value in the draft? i say we take the guy with the highest avg rebounds per game when it gets to our turn. whoever that is, just take that guy. whats the worst that could happen? oh right, hoffa....
- in my mind, sam mitchell ain't the problem. they just need some toughness, and did i mention, rebounding? maybe charles oakley is available.

- i now spend more of my time reading and thinking baseball (even with the hockey playoffs going on).
- when are the jays gonna score some runs for halladay. it seems like they've been unable to score when he's on the mound for the past 2 years. the only reason this guy is not a 25 game winner is because they can't score more than 1 run a game for him. brutal.

Going once....going twice....SOLD (but not to us)

linda and i have started the house hunting journey in greater earnest now. we've seen about 20 houses in the past 2 week or so with minimal luck so far.

we did enter one bid on a nice bungalow. we were squeaked out by another bidder though. they decided to bid $130,000 above our price. good for you. enjoy your bungalow.

the search continues....

Some notes about Memberco.

As you might know, I recently left Old Archaic Telco. for a new role at Memberco.
It’s a pretty exciting time, as I get to do some things that I haven’t done before, and overall, I think I’m going to like working a lot better at the new place.

Here are a few observations about Memberco during my first week here:
- it’s a small family. Completely different than Telco. Strangely, I took a tour of the building and literally met every single person in the organization (5 floors). I think I met more people on my first day than my entire career at Telco.
- I got my office back! When I left for Telco, one of the things I had to give up was having an office. Now I’ve got one again. Though its not a “window” office, there’s plenty of light, and I get a little privacy. I missed that.
- Another thing I missed was just light (both natural and artificial). Telco.’s building was a dungeon. Drab and depressing. Memberco, in contrast, has a nice atrium with a skylight, and lots of light everywhere. Much easier to work in.
- My computer is from the dark ages. Well, not quite, but circa 2001 or so. I’ve already pitched for a new one. We’ll see. Oh yeah, and it’s a desktop. Haven’t had one of these since…..well…EVER, since I started working….i guess I won’t be taking any work home!
- People act like people. They chat, they have fun, they go to lunch. Ahhh…that’s refreshing. Don’t ever underestimate culture.
- Free fruit juice and apples! As hokey as it sounds, it’s a really nice perk for that afternoon hunger attack.

Overall, I think I’m gonna like my new home. :)

Lets Talk Some Ball

First baseball blog of the year. And as the reluctant accountant, its only appropriate that I’m inspired to write by the signing of the Alex Rios and Aaron Hill contracts in the past week. For those of you who aren’t in the loop, the Jays have been pursuing a Rios extension for quite awhile now, and it seemed inevitable to be completed. So its not entirely surprising. The Hill signing came as a bit of a surprise to me. With that being said, I’m in agreement with the general media consensus, that these deals are great moves for the Jays.

The jays now have a solid core of players locked up into contracts that expire at the same time (Halladay, Burnett in 2010, and Wells, Rios and Hill into 2014). Sure, the contracts are somewhat backloaded, but it’s all about AVERAGE salary, since there’s no cap in baseball. Any good accountant knows that. In the end, these guys have all been locked into current market value contracts, and if their production continues on par, they’ll be ahead by 2014. The one exception to this is Burnett, BUT, I could argue, that this turnaround of the franchise would not have been possible without a gutsy signing like Burnett. At the time, no one wanted to be here, so we had to overpay to get what we wanted. Burnett was the best available that year, and we got him. He still shows potential, and IF he can stay off the DL, his stats will turn around.

But back to the main point. What makes me really happy about these signings is that the Jays are taking the initiative by signing quality players, who have their heads on straight. Don’t get me wrong, if the Jays could go out today, and get themselves an A-Rod, I don’t think you could argue about it. I’m even of the believe that Barry B in a Jays uniform could be a pretty decent thing to do. But there is something to be said about the signing of players (both by the Raps and the Jays), who are both solid players on the field, and great guys off the field.

Hill was interviewed after the signing and, when asked to comment on his contract, and the general belief that he signed a contract that undervalued his worth, he said something along the lines of (paraphrasing) “the money that was offered was right at what we were looking for. Sure, I could have gone year-to-year, and maybe gotten a little more, but how greedy can you be”.

And that’s pretty darn refreshing to hear.