Thanks for all of the suggestions on home remedies for this cold/cough. Some of them are, shall we say, creative. Are you trying to help me or poison me? Just kidding… I think.

Let’s begin:

1. DOES ROYCE RING QUALIFY AS LOW-HANGING FRUIT? Barely. The latest contestant to fill a LH reliever role in the Cardinals bullpen isn’t impressive on the surface. He’s got some plusses, including a decent strikeout rate. But control is this dude’s problem. Example: while LH batters have hit only .229 vs. Ring in his career, because of his walks, the LH hitters have a .350 onbase percentage against him… or roughly the same (.353) as RH batters. Also, he’s labored with runners on base, .with a .409 OBP against him. And with runners on scoring position, the OBP is .432. I won’t bore you with more stats, but when Ring gets behind in the count to hitters, they just punish him. So if pitching coach Dave Duncan is looking for ways to fix this guy, that’s where it begins: getting him to throw first strikes to get a jump on the batters. When Ring gets ahead in the count, he’s much better. I know that is true of most pitchers, but in Ring’s case the disparity is really glaring. Hard to get excited about this pickup, especially with other lefties still available. No brass Ring here.

2. TONY DUNGY AS BOBBY COX: It was another one-and-done postseason ejection for the Indianapolis Colts and their classy coach Mr. Dungy. Thus the pattern continues. The Colts are the NFL version of the MLB Atlanta Braves: a regular-season kingpin that underachieves in the postseason. And in that context, Dungy’s career roughly parallels that of the Atlanta manager, Cox. Under Cox, the Braves reached the postseason for 14 consecutive seasons, but claimed only one World Series title. In Tampa Bay and Indy, Dungy has led his team to the NFL playoffs for 10 consecutive seasons, a record.  But in six of the 10 seasons, Dungy’s teams were bounced in the first round. That’s happened four times in his seven postseasons at Indianapolis, including three times in the last four years. The lone exception was the Colts’ Super Bowl win over Chicago to cap the 2006 season. But then again, the Bears QB in that one was Rex Grossman. Does it count?

3. NOW THAT THE CUBS HAVE SIGNED OUTFIELDER MILTON BRADLEY, THE CEREMONIAL FIRST PUNCH WILL BE THROWN BY … From a lineup standpoint, Bradley is an excellent pickup. He has a career OBP of .370 with good power, and figures to be an ideal No. 2 hitter to set up Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. Unless manager Lou Piniella wants to bat the LH-hitting Bradley fifth, which would also fit. But can you imagine this outfield defensive alignment of Alfonso Soriano (LF), Kosuke Fukudome (CF) and Bradley (RF?) Who will catch the ball? Will they need to use butterfly nets out there? And given Bradley’s (ahem) volatile and often disruptive personality, who do you think will try to punch him out first? Will it be the raging manager,  Sweet Lou? My vote goes to the rock ‘em, sock ‘em starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano. Well, at least Cubs ownership spends money. The gap between the Cubs and Cardinals widens a bit more.

4. NON-SPORTS NOTE OF THE DAY … My five favorite albums of 2008 were: “Fleet Foxes” from the Fleet Foxes; “Partie Traumatic by Black Kids;  “The ‘59 Sound” by The Gaslight Anthem; “Real Animal” by Alejandro Escovedo; and “Vampire Weekend” from Vampire Weekend.

OK, fellow Music Heads … share with us your favorite new albums of 2008. I’m always on the lookout to try things I might have missed. And all genres are welcome. Thanks.

5. RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT THE RAMS COACHING SEARCH: Green Bay Packers linebackers coach Winston Moss doesn’t have as much of a chance as some suggest… Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier has more of a chance than some suggest… how can the Rams consider Jim Fassel when he didn’t even make their list of finalists before they hired Scott Linehan? … the key question about Rex Ryan: would he be a terrific head coach or or does he follow the form of previous Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinators (Marvin Lewis, Mike Nolan) by bombing out in the top job?

30-second bonus:  I wanted to clarify something about a previous item: I didn’t say that Kurt Warner was a Hall of Fame QB. What I did say is that his postseason record is strengthening his Hall of Fame credentials. In other words, he’s building a case. The case isn’t finished. There’s a ways to go.

30-second bonus: About Alexander Steen, well, I hate to say I told you so, but …  since the Nov. 24 trade,  Steen has scored as many goals for the Blues as Lee Stempniak has scored for Toronto. And yet when the Blues made the deal, some fans and media whined so much you would have thought the Blues traded the next Mike Bossy for the latter-day Michel Mongeau, or something. Please.

Thanks.

Please leave your comments and dissent but keep it clean…

-Bernie