Posted by Brian Joseph on Friday, April 10, 2009 at 5:50 am

As the new managing editor, I initially thought BDD needed our own Power Rankings. But, really, who needs one more insipid rundown of someone’s meaningless opinion of why my 1-2 team is better than your 2-1 team? Instead, I figured an insipid rundown of my meaningless opinion of why you should (or should not) read these links from around the web would be better:

MLB Network

It’s not the 24 hours of baseball but the fact I have a 50-50 shot of turning on my TV and hearing Harold Reynold’s opinion on baseball that makes me thankful to the Major League executive who stole this idea from the NFL, NBA and NHL and made it better. They even got me enjoying former XFL and International World Championship of Paper Rock Scissors announcer Matt Vasgersian. Haven’t watched it yet? Go to their site, put in your zip code, find the channel, watch it… now!

Barry Zito

I’m new to Twitter and just getting the hang of it. Hats off to Zito and his “tweet” last night for making me nearly steer off I-95 on may way back from covering the Orioles-Yankees game. I wasn’t surprised to see that Deadspin was all over it and they were tipped by Pacman Jonesin’. So, I’m not the only one who thought Zito’s “tweet” was worth a mention.

Greg W. Prince

I doubt I’ll ever read all of Prince’s book on his love of the Mets but I did read the excerpt from Faith and Fear In Flushing: An Intense Personal History of the New York Mets on Deadspin. And like Johan Santana, Prince did something attached to the Mets that doesn’t suck.

Emilio Bonifacio!

Are you like me and hope that Emilio Bonifacio is the true breakout star he looks like in the first three games? Sure, Bonifacio’s average has dipped 229 points to .571 since Opening Day but it didn’t stop Will Manso of WPLG-10 in Florida from starting “The Bonifacionados” — a fan club that already has 32 members (including me) on Facebook. That’s about 75% of the attendance for the second game of the Marlins-Nationals series.

Orioles Fans v. Heyman

Sports Illustrated writer Jon Heyman hasn’t made many friends in B-more. It seems The Loss Column, an Orioles blog, finds his style of journalism “lazy”. I thought it would have been fun to ask Heyman about their comments at Tuesday’s game but then I didn’t feel like looking for him.

The Arduous Plight of the MLB Umpire

A recent Q&A with New York Times’ reporter Bruce Weber at Hugging Harold Reynolds gives a taste of what Weber had to go through as he trained to be an umpire and worked behind the scenes to capture how difficult the life of an umpire can be. If you want more, you could always buy Weber’s book — As They See ‘Em: A Fan’s Travels in the Land of Umpires — just leave a copy for me (or send me yours when you’re done… we like to “be green” here).

The Daily Herald in Chicago

The decision was made to cut travel for beat reporters for the Cubs and White Sox in an effort to keep costs down for the struggling paper. While blogger Andy Dolan at Desipio.com has done all he can to try and reverse that decision, if this is the decision newspapers continue to make, what value does the back half of the paper really have over anything available electronically?

Adam Eaton’s Return to Philadelphia

Maybe he’ll get a chance at revenge when his new team, the Baltimore Orioles, face the Phillies in Philadelphia from June 19-21 but for now, the Phillies’ fans had the last word on Eaton’s time in Philly. And that word was BOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Big League Stew blogger Kevin Kaduk thinks Philadelphia fans were out of line… my only conclusion is ‘Duk never saw Eaton pitch. I’m sure the $9 million Eaton is set to receive this year from the club (along with the shiny World Series ring he had little to do with) will heal Eaton’s emotional scars.

Stan Kasten

No matter how bad the economy is, it shouldn’t be at the cost of your integrity. And so far, the reaction from the Nationals’ fan base (or writers) hasn’t been a positive one to Kasten’s recent plea on Philadelphia’s ESPN-950 for Phillies’ fans to come down and invade Nationals Park during the next Phillies-Nationals series. I hammered Kasten’s Nationals for their poor marketing last year and I’m not alone. The Let Teddy Win blog points it out, too.

Mark Teixeira

Note to Tex: If you are trying to endear yourself to Orioles’ fans who booed you mercilessly on Opening Day, it’s probably best to leave out the fact that you wore a Don Mattingly jersey when the Yankees came to town even though you were an “Orioles’ fan”. You see Mark, the reason people are booing you is because they feel you were disengenuous in your preseason jabber about wanting to play near home… kind of like wearing a Mattingly jersey when you’re an Orioles’ fan!

Yankee Fans

Are you really going to lose your mind after every loss? Really? We know the expectations of the team from the Bronx and we know your tax dollars are funding their new home but comparing CC Sabathia to Kevin Brown, Jeff Weaver, Hideki Irabu and Carl Pavano and calling him a “pathetic waste of money” in the middle of his first game? That’s low. No wonder it’s called the Evil Empire.

Curt S(c)hilling?

I’m disappointed to see that Schilling’s comeback to the Majors ended and he is now officially retired… especially if it means I have to read more of his “unbiased” Red Sox banter. 105 wins would be a little bit more believable if you didn’t tell me how good the Yankees and Rays are.

Yahoo’s Power Rankings

Riddle me this one. Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports who decided the Rays, Red Sox and Yankees are the best three teams in baseball last week has now decreed that even though games have been played, five of the six most “powerful” teams have losing records. And what about this: #18 Florida beats #29 Washington three times and moves up to #15 while the Nats drop to #30 while #20 Texas jumps only one spot to #19 after beating #8 Cleveland three times which drops them to #14. Huh???

The Honeymoon Is Over

It took less than 48 hours for the euphoria to die in Philly. It would have been shorter but the article appeared in a local newspaper. Delaware County Daily Times writer Jack McCaffrey can see the writing on the wall of the demise of the Phillies thanks to their left-handed ways… after one game. What really struck me is Jack’s issue with Jimmy Rollins who shed light on the game afterwards deadpanning the comment, “Oh my goodness, I am heart… broken that we lost ‘A’ game.” As McCaffrey continued to rip J-Roll because some poor fan showed up to his/her only game of the season and took it more “serious” than the ‘07 MVP, he failed to mention that Rollins quickly said the club needed to win the next two… it’s called perspective, Jack. Get some.

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