Didja hear about all those Cubs trashing their manager’s car as a “prank”? It was nearly Cartman-esque, but they did get him a new one to replace it, so it’s all good. While doing a cursory search for a photo, I found this shot of Cubs manager Lou Piniella and wanted to share.

So, now this post is officially NLC-related, which is my security blanket because I don’t know whether people care about these “crap going on in the blogger’s life” posts. I feel like I’ve got to hedge my bets.

The Google Page Rank here on RHM has been all over the place the last few days. If you don’t have the Google toolbar installed with the PageRank displayed, you might not be familiar, but it’s just a rank of a page based on a proprietary set of factors, such as inbound links. We’d been happily hanging around at a 6 for the last few months, which had me overjoyed. So you can imagine how the bottom fell out of my stomach when I loaded the site on Thursday to see that number cut in half.

The CTS and I did some research to show that this happens to people all the time as Google updates their indexes to discount sites that are trying to game them, and that the ranks usually come back over time. The research also told us that we ought to clean up broken links in our archives, which we have a lot of thanks to a less-than-perfectly-smooth conversion to WordPress a couple months ago.

Since then I’ve loaded the site to see the PageRank at every number between 3 and 6 inclusive. It’s still disconcerting, but at least I’m not someone who depends on their PageRank for their livelihood. It’s just a matter of arrogance, really, and an indication of our effectiveness in actually making “Javier Valentí­n” a household name.

Meanwhile, I’m hitting some information sessions about MBAs at nearby schools. If I were to go that route, I wouldn’t even be starting until the end of the year, but it’s still sorta exciting to think what a very executive tone the posts on RHM could take before too long.

On the horizon are Opening Day, our big spring-break trip to Houston, and Red Hot Mama’s third blog day. Lots to look forward to, but its keeping me busy too. Which is why you’re subjected to a post about a stupid Cubs prank and the distractions in my life written as I watch a rerun of Saturday Night Live and nudged a little, time-wise, to prevent the site from having two consecutive days without posts.

Thanks for hanging in there, and enjoy the photo.

And no, it’s not Mike Stanton.

Yesterday, the Reds traded Brad Salmon to the Kansas City Royals for a player to be named later or cash.

Salmon didn’t have a legitimate shot of making the Reds bullpen this year, but I imagine he’ll have better chances in KC. Of course, thinking that the Reds are better off than the Royals might simply be delusional thinking. Neither have done anything for quite some time.

But hey, I look forward to seeing that cash contribute to the Reds!

Lisa Gray at The Astros Dugout took a look today at the spring training performance of some recent, but no-longer Astros in comparison to the guys who replaced them:

– Chad Qualls (D-bax) – 5 IP, no homers, 3 hits, no walks, 5 K in 5 games. Good thing we got rid of THAT good for nothing. Our NEW bullpen guys are SOOOOOOO much better.

– Chris Burke (D-bax) – 15/38 in 14 G – 11 RS, 15 H, 5 doubles, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 4 BB, 2 K, 2 SB, no CS: .395/.489/.763/1.252 – yeah, GOOD thing we got rid of that worthless good for nothing in favor of Kaz Matsui. Oh yeah, of COURSE these numbers are perfectly valid – didn’t we all decide by 20 ABs last year that Burkie-poo was washed up, useless, worthless? That he should be DFAd and Pence installed in center? Oh yes, you did.

The list goes on. You’ll want to click over there to read the whole thing. I mention Chris Burke there specifically because that’s him in the picture. It looks like Astros red, but if you look carefully you can see that it’s actually the crimson of the Diamondbacks. If you’re bothering to look that high.

Contrary to popular belief, the world failed to end on Monday night when Tom, my buddy and the foremost Pacer’s blogger, received media credentials for a Pacers’ game at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Just listen to his outlandish behavior:

Once I was set to go, I wanted to make sure I represented the blogosphere well. So, after I picked up the credential I tried to stay out of the way and observe while others were working. I had my voice recorder just in case and a notebook. Before the game I hung out in the media room and pored over the game notes.

Shocking. And how did he deal with going into the locker room after the game?

Finally, I approached Stevie, remembered to press record, and asked him a few questions. As expected, he was great. On my way out, I spoke to Mike Wells who was real nice even after I mentioned my blog.

Congratulations to Tom and Indy Cornrows. May we follow in his footsteps someday.

The comparisons between newest Pirates GM Neal Huntington and not dearly departed former GM David Littlefield are flying with the recent demotion of Steve Pearce.

Pearce may not be the best prospect in the world, but he is 25 and has little to nothing to prove in Indianapolis.

Because of that, it’s easy to connect the two GMs, since basically, it’s the Pirates choosing a mediocre veteran over the higher potential of an unknown prospect. It’s been the Pirates’ motus operandi for so long.

Pat at WHYGAVS expresses his displeasure very clearly.

To put things simply, the next Pittsburgh Pirate team that plays meaningful baseball after the All-Star break almost certainly won’t have Xavier Nady on it, but it might have Steve Pearce. Because of that, there’s no reason to play Nady over Pearce, whether there’s a buyer for Nady or not.