No big deals -- Ibanez and Veras

There's not much new that's concrete in baseball right now.
The Angels finalized a 1-year contract with former ancient Mariner Raul Ibanez, who could DH and play a little bit of outfield.
The Cubs agreed to a 1-year contract with RHP Jose Veras, who would be their 2014 closer. Now there's not a lot to close on the North Side, and Veras seems likely to blow a number of the opportunities he gets. Expect him to join RHP Carlos Marmol and the ranks of other failed closers for the Cubs.
I'm working on some projects to produce some quantitative fantasy baseball information. I hope you can see at least one piece before the year ends.
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Basketball. Carmelo Anthony didn't play Friday night, and isn't going to play Saturday. I still can fill all 10 spots in my lineup.
I had set up my lineup for Thursday, and neglected to change it for Friday. Thus, I left on my bench Victor Oladipo and his 16 points and 11 assists.
Through Thursday, I had been tied in blocked shots as part of a 5-2-1 lead. I figured Serge Ibaka would help me in that area, and sure enough, he blocked three Friday and helped me take the lead in that category. However, my lead is down to 5-3, partly because Anthony didn't play. But my 16-point deficit coincides exactly with Oladipo's 16 points that didn't count for me. We'll see what happens Saturday.
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Hockey. I was buried under an Avalanche tonight. Colorado lost 7-2 to the Blackhawks. Jan Hejda and Erik Johnson were both -4, and Nathan MacKinnon was -3. That was 11 of my minus-15 for the night. That dropped me down to sixth in plus/minus at plus-19. Somehow, the Avalanche's and my, Paul Stastny broke even. Now I have four individuals on my team with season plus/minuses of 19 or more, but I haven't had those players in my lineup at the right time. Mikko Koivu also has been killing me; he was -3 tonight. In addition, Jean-Sebastien Giguere gave up seven goals in two periods. That's a 10.50 goals against average. And the only thing I can say about his save percentage is that at least it isn't less than 0.
My plan is to divest myself of some Colorado players, and Koivu if I can. I'm a little light in forwards. Despite the debacle with Hejda and Johnson, my defense is pretty good. I'm even using a defenseman as a utility player. But I had Dallas' Brenden Dillon on my bench. He was plus-2 Friday, and he took a minor penalty. Another problem with my lineup was that my lineup totaled 0 penalty minutes. How is that even possible? I probably need a fighter.
Somehow I escaped the night losing a mere two points in the standings.
It's too late to make coherent moves tonight. I got home from the Predators-Stars game at about 1.

Shakespeare weighs in on steroids, Ibanez

Jerod Morris in the Midwest Sports Fans blog had the audacity to wonder whether people would think Raul Ibanez has been aided by performance-enhancing drugs in his one-third of a career year at age 37.

Putting Ibanez's name in the same headline as "steroids" called the blog post to the attention of someone in Philadelphia. That someone might or might not have been Ibanez himself, but he spoke out on how he would bring legal action against anyone who slandered or defamed him, and was willing to undergo drug testing.

Here's a quote from a Philadelphia Inquirer article by Jim Salisbury:

"You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool - anything you can test," Ibanez said. "I'll give you back every dime I've ever made" if the test is positive.

Here's where I stand. I admire Ibanez as a player. He's not going to help a team much in left field, but he is (and has been) a steady run producer. He plays almost every day, and seems to be a stand-up guy from the limited exposure I've had to him. But is Ibanez a guy who should all of a sudden be on pace to hit 50 home runs, or is he a latter-day Brady Anderson or Luis Gonzalez?

The most disappointing thing about Ibanez's comments is that they're cheap and meaningless. I'll stop short of calling them gutless. But he knows the Players' Association would never let any player undergo testing to prove a point. We saw that when Rick Reilly challenged Sammy Sosa a few years ago by actually bringing a specimen cup out to batting practice.

I also won't quote Act 5 of Macbeth by saying Ibanez's comments were "a tale told by an idiot," but those words are "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

To quote Act 3 of Hamlet, Ibanez "doth protest too much, methinks."

Or perhaps he simply misremembers.