Sporty Sports

A little sports post today. First the Texas Rangers basically let Marlon Byrd go when he declined their arbitration offer. Through a trade with the Red Sox they have replaced his bat (not his position) with Mike Lowell. Fine, whatever I just let it go. My ears do perk up though when one of the hosts on the radio is going on and on about how Mike Lowell can't possibly replace the production that Marlon Byrd gave Texas. I just had to look it up.

Avg.
Byrd: .283
Lowell: .290

HR
Byrd: 20
Lowell: 17

RBI:
Byrd: 89
Lowel: 75

OBP:
Byrd: .329
Lowell: .337

OPS+
Byrd: 106 (!)
Lowell 106 (!)

SO:
Byrd: 98
Lowell: 61

I mean they are almost exactly the same player and Lowell did that in 27 less games. The only major factor in the trade is Mike Lowell is 4 years older.


Another thing I want to give a hearty congratulations to the SMU Mustangs who have finally reached a bowl game for the first time in 25 years. Head coach June Jones did what no other coach has been able to do, and he did it in his second season.

I always felt that SMU was wrongly given the death penalty way back when, not so much as they didn't deserve it per se, but all of the other school who have been proven to have committed worse infractions didn't. It is greatly believed that the NCAA won't ever impose it again, after seeing how crippling it is to a school. If you remember they got a one year penalty, but had to cancel the next year as well as they couldn't get enough players to the school to field a competitive team.