You’re right of course, but it hurts the hyperbole a little to say, “he’d have to eat 2 apple pies a day to achieve those numbers!”

And Doug, I *love* the hat!

“I think the problem with Red Hot Mama’s post on Prince BMR is that she is trying to calculate how much Prince would have to eat in actual vegatables. I would suspect that the true calculation should be made in vegatarian pizza, nachos, pasta and protein shakes.”

Prince isn’t eating meat, but meat isn’t supposed to be the primary source of calories in anyone’s diet. Plus, he’s not full-blown vegan, so he’s still eating cheeses and the like.

The good news for Pirates fans–and all the NLC, really–is that Huntington seems to be doing things correctly so far.

So now that Griffey’s traded, what do you think they can get for Brantley?

This should tell you how good the NLC is. Not only do they have half of the final four, but they actually traded away another one.

And the Yankees have signed Eric Milton.

The top three teams in the division as the All-Star break approaches are within 3-1/2 games of each other. The Reds are 10-1/2 back, but I think they could still sneak back into the race.

Soriano’s out for 4-6 weeks. Last time the Cubs had their best player go on the DL for a long time it was Derrek Lee, and the team sunk like a rock to the very bottom of the NLC pool in fulfillment of a now-famous prophecy made by RHM on the day Lee got hurt. This Cubs team is better than that one was, and I’d be surprised if they fell that hard, but this still might let someone else slip by them

Cardinals? maybe. But their best pitcher so far has arguably been Kyle Lohse. And Pujols has that bum elbow, making him an injury time bomb…if Albert The Great has to go on the DL for Tommy John surgery, his season’s over, and maybe the Cardinals’ season as well.

The Brewers are not last year’s Brewers. But if you’re a fan of any NLC team other than the Brewers, pray that the Indians don’t trade C.C. Sabathia to Milwaukee. Sabathia and the rejuvenated Ben Sheets at the front end of the Brewer rotation could spell big trouble for the rest of the division.

Then there’s the Reds. They’ve had a hell of a time keeping shortstops healthy. But they have the best pitching they’ve had in several years, and they have a couple of key guys (Griffey, Phillips) who’ve shown a tendency to get hot when IT gets hot…and we’ve just entered July.

The Astros and Pirates are about where I figured they’d be, back when everybody was coming out of spring training. I expect that’s where they will pretty much stay, too.

Which brings me to this: When Mr. Castellini fired Wayne Krivsky he told us, “We will not continue to lose.” Since then the Reds have played under .500 and all that Walt Jocketty has done about it is to bring in Andy Phillips - twice. well, okay, yes, he called up Jay Bruce, but frankly, Trey Griffey could have gotten that move right.

I’m sure I needn’t remind anyone that the trade deadline is now less than a month away. So the ball is in Jocketty’s court.

Lights…camera…ahem, Mr. Jocketty, are you there?

HMZ