#Cardinals make minor pitching move; I'm underwhelmed

Well, Mike Matheny now has his Saturday starter..

Too bad it's Justin Masterson.

In a decidedly underwhelming move, the Birds have acquired the enigmatic Cleveland pitcher, a free agent at the end of the year, in exchange for AA outfielder James Ramsey.

No big overpay, no. But, no real help for the team.

Since becoming a full-time starter, Masterson has alternated good and crappy years, and he's on a crappy year this year. And, this year's the crappiest yet of them.

Even in his better years, Masterson has a low K/BB ratio. And until last year, he wasn't a big K guy in general. Add in that he'll be coming off a DL stint on Friday, and I'm even less impressed. Miklasz claims, along with a few fans, that his FIP says he's better than that. I disagree. Contra Bernie, his bad WHIP is not all a problem with bad luck on batted balls in play; his walk rate is the second-worst of his career and the worst since he became a full-time starter. Bernie says that he talked about Masterson's walk rate as much as his bad luck on batted balls in play, etc., but I'm not totally convinced.

Shockingly, David Schoenfield agrees with my thought, that Masterson will provide little boost. He says he does expect him to be of some help against the righty-heavy Brew Crew, but then notes:

While Masterson's ultimate performance is unpredictable, especially given his knee issue, he's probably not a big upgrade over what the Cardinals have received so far from their back-end guys. The risk for St. Louis was continuing to rely on Miller or Martinez; Masterson should at least provide a little more certainty than those two offered.

Yet more analysis of that trade here.

Maybe a change of leagues will help. But, it can't help that much. And the Cards no longer have Dave Duncan as pitching coach to perform salvage work on guys like this.

Plus, the Cards got somebody who's kind of full of himself. ESPN reminds us that, preseason, he wanted $17M a year.

Yeah, good luck with that.

Again, not a huge overpay to surrender a mid-level OF prospect for a two-month rental. But, it is a mental overpay to expect what I think Mo is expecting from a man named Justin Masterson, not Bat Masterson.

#Cardinals at trade deadline — Price? Lackey? Colon? others?

With about 36 hours left before the non-waiver trade deadline of July 31, trade rumors continue to rise up hot and heavy.

The latest, per Bob Nightengale, has Tampa ace David Price headed to the Cardinals for a return of Oscar Taveras, Shelby Miller, and the competitive balance "sandwich" draft pick the Cards got awarded a couple of weeks ago.

The Rays' resurgence in the AL East has dampened the likelihood of Price moving anywhere, in my estimate and that of many others. I'd put it below 30 percent.

But, never say never.

As for making that move? I'd prefer to have it tied to a Price contract extension,  but I'll take it as it stands. Price has a great WHIP and FIP numbers, and no significant injury history. Taveras has been struggling. He may need more playing time that — Mike Matheny blind haters aside — he has yet to earn. Speaking of Matheny, Taveras may need a change of scenery. Or, he may be the dreaded "pheenom." The Cards had one in the minors a few years back, guy by the name of Brett Wallace. Oh, he's had multiple cups of coffee, and even a half a pot or two, at various stops in the majors. But, never panned out, and the Cards got a great haul.

Otherwise, compared to last year, Miller's K rate has been down and his BB rate way up, even before his back problems. The pick? The Cards will get that back on a QO for Price, post-2015, if they can't resign him.

As for the Rays having a crowded OF themselves, as some fans say? Desmond Jennings isn't that great, and is arb-eligible after this year. Matthew Joyce is a somewhat better in left, but is on the same free-agency timeline as Price. The Rays have incentive to want Taveras. Tampa fans who don't see that should maybe re-examine how well they know their own lineup, because I've seen claims that Tampa doesn't really need to trade for an outfielder.

The Cards have other options.

John Lackey is presumably resigned to the fact that he'll be pitching for the MLB minimum of $550K next year. He's solidly above average, and with that low contract price is well worth a trade. However, given what the Sawks want for Jon Lester as a two-month rental, the price on Lackey might be steep. And, I hope this blog and others are wrong about the Cards being hot and heavy on Lester.

Bartolo Colon? Laugh at his age and his weight, but he can still throw the ball, and has been relatively healthy. He has a relatively inexpensive contract, too.

The Mets offering to eat $2M of his salary this year sounds nice, but really, that's chump change if your payroll is much above Tampa's. Rather, it seems part of a Mets move to angle for a bigger haul in return. Since that initial announcement, there's been zero additional talk, which makes me think the price is too high.

Cole Hamels is way too high. Shock me; it's Ruben Amaro Jr.

The "others" could include someone like a Dallas Kuechel. He's drawn some rumor, but it's unclear how likely the Astros are to move him, or what their price is.

The final option is to do nothing, or phrased differently, to stand pat while hoping Yadier Molina comes back sooner rather than later and that Michael Wacha comes back some time this year. I lay at least 50-50 odds that is the end result.

Update: Or, Mozeliak could do the equivalent of nothing and acquire back-of-rotation low-fiber filler like Justin Masterson. Ugh.

On the Rays' end, because of new playoff hopes, I don't see a trade right now. In addition, agreeing with this blog, if other teams will only really pay high for Price in conjunction with being able to extend his contract, that's a lot easier to do in the offseason.

#NYTimes forgets when Reagan sold $165M in arms as ransom to terrorists

If the President says it's not "arms for hostages," then it's not!
Ronald Reagan Library via Wikipedia

Oh, those spineless Europeans, with backbones like chocolate eclairs! Why can't they be like tough Americans?

The New York Times gives Western European governments an official Old Gray Lady (or would that be Old Grey Lady, in Times-speak?) spanking for giving Al Qaeda groups as much as $165 million in the last six years to ransom European citizens taken hostage:

While European governments deny paying ransoms, an investigation by The New York Times found that Al Qaeda and its direct affiliates have earned at least $125 million in revenue from kidnappings since 2008, of which $66 million was paid just in the past year.

In various news releases and statements, the United States Treasury Department has cited ransom amounts that, taken together, put the total at around $165 million over the same period.

Sounds horrible, does it not?

But, the Times article neglects to mention that the US did similar almost 30 years ago. I'll bet this stash was worth at least $165M in today's values, because Wiki gives us a nice Iranian shopping list about the Iran-Contra affair:

The following arms were supplied to Iran:

• August 20, 1985 – 96 TOW anti-tank missiles
• September 14, 1985 – 408 more TOWs
• November 24, 1985 – 18 Hawk anti-aircraft missiles
• February 17, 1986 – 500 TOWs
• February 27, 1986 – 500 TOWs
• May 24, 1986 – 508 TOWs, 240 Hawk spare parts
• August 4, 1986 – More Hawk spares
• October 28, 1986 – 500 TOWs

Too bad the Times neglected to tell us this.

Fortunately, we don't even have to guess. Weapons plutocrat Raytheon tells us that its current version of a TOW runs $58,000 per. Rounded to that even dollar value, all the TOWs alone?

A cool $140 million.

And, everything those naughty Europeans did sounds like it came from the pages of Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, John Poindexter, Robert McFarlane, Caspar Weinberger, George H.W. Bush, Bill Casey, Richard Secord and others:

These payments were made almost exclusively by European governments, who funnel the money through a network of proxies, sometimes masking it as development aid, according to interviews conducted for this article with former hostages, negotiators, diplomats and government officials in 10 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. ...

Yet the fact that Europe and its intermediaries continue to pay has set off a vicious cycle.

“Kidnapping for ransom has become today’s most significant source of terrorist financing,” said David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a 2012 speech. “Each transaction encourages another transaction.”

Yep ... exactly the same happened after Iran-Contra.

Going back to Wikipedia:

In September and October 1986 three more Americans—Frank Reed, Joseph Cicippio, and Edward Tracy—were abducted in Lebanon by a separate terrorist group. The reasons for their abduction are unknown, although it is speculated that they were kidnapped to replace the freed Americans.

So, if the Times is writing as a tsk-tsk mouthpiece of America's bipartisan foreign policy establishment, it needs to shut up.

Southwest Airlines still doesn't get it

A decade ago, Southwest was the undisputed leader among non-legacy airlines, not just in discount pricing, but customer service, overall quality, on-time rate and more.

Heck, it was the leader in most if not all of that on at least a semi-regular basis among ALL airlines, legacy and non-legacy alike.

Plus, it had Herb Kelleher at the helm, seemingly the most popular, and fun to work for, CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Then, the FAA started asking questions about Southwest's plane maintenance.  Then, one of its 737s blew a hole in its fuselage; even if it was a Boeing issue more than a Southwest issue, as seemed to be the case, it still didn't look good.

And now, the FAA ...

Wants to fine Southwest again ...

For a combination of the first two problems! The second problem, beyond the fuselage hole in one case, being skin cracks in other planes. The first problem, over other issues, being lack of adequate maintenance oversight:

The FAA said that beginning in 2006 Southwest made "extreme makeover" alterations to eliminate potential cracking of the aluminum skin on 44 jetliners. An FAA investigation determined that Southwest's contractor, Aviation Technical Services Inc. of Everett, Washington, failed to follow proper procedures for replacing the fuselage as well as other work on the planes, the agency said. All of the work was done under the supervision of Southwest, which was responsible for seeing that it was done properly, the FAA said.

Southwest is going to continue to lose the edge that got it to a position of pre-eminence unless it truly gets serious about these maintenance issues.

Add to that the fact that, with the phase-out of the Wright Amendment, there's no excuse for it not being listed on Travelocity and Expedia, etc., but it continues to hold out, and there's less and less reason to fly Southwest.

#Israel enters the #StarTrek phase of its war on Gaza

Israel's war with Gaza has gone beyond US drone strikes in trying to make war as "humanless" in some ways as possible.

When posting more briefly on Facebook, I started with the rhetorical line of,

Is there an app for that?

Israel said it sent text messages and phoned residents of northern Gaza — including Shijaiyah, the site of one of the war's bloodiest battles last week — urging them to flee their homes and move toward Gaza City.

What next, Eminiar VII in "A Taste of Armageddon"?

In case you don't remember that episode of the original "classic" Star Trek, it's about a centuries-old war between two planets in the same solar system.

It's lasted that long because it's waged by computers, and like super-neutron bombs, they "kill" people while not damaging property. The "kill" is in scare quotes, because people have to report to disintegration chambers to actually be killed. A couple of actual quotes will illustrate:

Anan 7: We have been at war for 500 years.
Captain James T. Kirk: You conceal it very well.

Obviously, Israel and Hamas would never reach an agreement about that. But, the text messaging is in that general direction. But, could they still be at war 450 years from now? Your guess is as good as mine.

Another quote from that Star Trek episode may illuminate:

Spock: [after hearing Anan 7 explain their system of computerized warfare] There is a certain scientific logic about it.
Anan 7: I'm glad you approve.
Spock: I do *not* approve. I *understand*. 

Exactly.

Meanwhile, will the fighting stop soon? Well, the US and EU are trying to stop it:

The United Nations on Monday called for an "immediate" cease-fire in the fighting and on Sunday, President Barack Obama called Netanyahu to push for an immediate end to the conflict.

This, though, is one of the cases where the old cliches about the word "try" are correct.

If Dear Leader were serious, he would take a page from Poppy Bush's book and freeze some of our foreign aid money to Israel.

But, as the Al-Jazeera leaks showed, his actual seriousness has been about freezing aid to Palestine and nobody else.

Big biz tells West, Texas to fuck itself over fertilizer blast

Now, no newspaper would write a headline like that, or anything even close to that without massive bowderlization.

But, that's what the story and the actual headline of "Motions seek to blame city of West for devastating explosion" are saying:

Two of four fertilizer manufacturers or suppliers named as defendants in the massive West explosion litigation are seeking to blame the city of West and its volunteer firefighters for the disaster.

In recent motions aiming to designate the city of West as a “responsible third party” in the lawsuits, El Dorado Chemical Co. and CF Industries contend the city failed to properly train the first responders and had insufficient protocols in place to battle the April 17, 2013, blaze at West Fertilizer Co. that triggered the explosion.

Here's part of the insult:

 The motion from El Dorado also alleges that the city should be named as a responsible third party because it failed to protect its citizens by allowing through its zoning authority schools and a nursing home to operate in a close proximity to the plant.

First, funny how GOP-driven "tort deform" always targets individuals and not shyster businesses like this. That's because the like of Greg Abbott like shyster businesses like that.

Second, despite all this, will West go still go 70 percent or more GOP, as it has for a number of elections? I've got at least a fiver that says it does.

And, if it does, without being petty? Citizens of West, schadenfreude's a bitch.