NBA Mega Trade

New Jersey gets:
SF Carmelo Anthony
PG Chris Paul
C Emeka Okafor

Denver gets:
PF Derrick Favors
SF Damion James
PF Troy Murphy
NJ's 2013 and 2015 1st rd. pick

New Orleans gets:
C Brook Lopez
PG Devin Harris
PF Kris Humphries
NJ's 2011 1st rd. pick

Washington gets:
G/F Terrence Williams
SF Quinton Ross
$3 mil cash
2nd rd. pick

Analysis:

New Jersey:
The Nets get there dynamic duo. In Paul and Anthony the Nets get 2 of the 10 best players in league. The franchise now has two young stars in their primes as they gear up for the eventual move to Brooklyn. This move does completely deplete the depth of the team and creates a gigantic hole at PF where NJ will likely be forced to start well past his prime Joe Smith this season before being able to add someone via the MLE next offseason.

Denver:
In return for Anthony who is almost certain to leave after this season, Denver gets Favors, the 3rd overall pick in this year's draft. Favors is raw, but has All-Pro potential. James, the 24th pick in this past years draft, is an athletic forward who can swing between the 3 and the 4. The addition of these two officially begins the Denver rebuilding process and it does so with a bang. Finally, Murphy, who is still a quality player, should net Denver even more assets at the trade deadline on account of not just his playing ability, but because of his $12 mil expiring contract. Financially, Denver goes from $15 million over the luxury tax threshold in 10-11 to $11 mil under the salary cap (before draft picks) next offseason. The cap space and rebuilding assets could be even greater if Denver chooses to shop Chauncey Billups. Denver also gets two future 1st rd. pick from NJ.

New Orleans:
This deal forces the Hornets to part with the best PG in basketball and the face of their franchise. However, it might be a move they have to make given Paul's apparent desire to leave once his current deal expires. This trade gets the Hornets two young pieces including a 23 year old all-star center. Moreover, it gets NO out from under Okafor's burdensome contract. Additionally, NJ's 2011 first round pick could also turn out to be a decent asset as the Nets are forced to deplete their roster in this deal. Finally, but perhaps most importantly, after this trade New Orleans will go into next offseason approximately $31 million under the cap (this assumed David West does not exercise his $7 mil player option, which he wont). Therefore, they will have more cap space than any other team.

Washington:
Washington essentially just gets paid to make this trade work under the cap.

Post-trade lineups:

New Orleans:
C Brook Lopez
PF David West
SF Trevor Ariza
SG Marcus Thornton
PG Devin Harris

New Jersey:
C Emeka Okafor
PF Joe Smith
SF Carmelo Anthony
SG Anthony Morrow
PG Chris Paul

Denver:
C Nene
PF Troy Murphy
SF Damion James
SG J.R. Smith
PG Chauncey Billups

AL Cy Young - Welcome to the 21st Century

On PTI Wilbon and Kornheiser said they would not give the Cy Young to Seattle's Felix Hernandez because he hasn't won enough games.

Hernandez leads the league in ERA, Ks, and IP. But he only has a 13-12 record. (Before moving on consider that the rest of the Seattle pitching staff is a combined 48-84).

Wilbon calls WHIP and Sabermetrics "junk" and says you still have to win the games.

Funny thing is your offense has to score runs for you to win. You cannot get wins unless your team scores runs and a pitcher, especially in the AL has no control over that.

Wilbon instead said Sabathia should probably get it because he has 21 wins. Well, the Yankees have scored an average of 5.61 runs per game in Sabathia's 34 starts.

In Hernandez's 12 losses, the Mariner's scored a combined 14 runs or 1.17 runs per game. Overall, the Mariner's scored 2.97 runs per game in Hernadez's 34 starts.

That is a 2.64 run per game difference.

Wins are a relatively unreliable indicator of pitching performance at least relative to other available measures like WHIP.

In 2003 Jeriome Robertson went 15-9 for the Astros. That is a better record than Hernandez has. That year Robertson's ERA was 5.10, his WHIP was 1.51 and he walked almost as many batters as he struck out. That year though the Astros scored a ton of runs during his starts (5.56).

The win argument makes everyone look dumber. Stop making it.

Added:

Hernandez against the Yankees this season: 3-0, 0.35 ERA (1 run in 26 IP)

Childhood Obesity & Pork Politics

Some of you may know that childhood obesity is a topic I am interested in and feel strongly about. This week the Senate passed a bill that will call for "healthier" school lunches as well as what can be sold in school vending machines. (Story in link below).

The new nutrition standards would not remove popular foods like pizzas from schools completely, but would make them healthier, using whole-wheat crust or low-fat mozzarella, for example. Vending machines could be stocked with less candy and fewer high-calorie sodas.

Decisions on what kinds of foods will be sold — and what ingredients may be limited — would be left up to the Agriculture Department.

I have long advocated action in this area and am hopeful that the Agriculture Department will draw appropriate and meaningful guidelines. This is a tricky area as the temptation to be overly paternalistic is an easy one and one that often gets the best of me.

Furthermore, what this move controls is only the food American students have access to for one meal a day. A breakfast featuring sugar loaded cereal (making students prone to crash in the morning and reduce focus and performance in the classroom) joined with some sugary drinks after school and a less than healthy dinner makes these lunchtime changes almost trivial.

Again, this is a move in the right direction, but it is a culture shift we need not just a dietary adjustment.

The disconcerning political part of all of this comes at the bottom of the story.

Part of the deal to move the legislation this week was to change the way it was paid for. While the committee bill partially paid for the legislation by reducing conservation subsidies paid to farmers for using environmentally friendly farming practices, the Senate-passed bill took $2.2 billion out of future funding for food stamp programs instead after some farm-state senators objected to using the subsidy money.

Hunger advocates who had previously supported the bill said they would now oppose it.

I don't know whether cutting subsidies to farmers or reducing food stamp benefits is the more prudent way to fund this legislation, but it just jumps out at me how these games are played.