My name is Windy…and i like to blow trees…

With all the Atlanta dick-riding going on, it made me think of what other cities are relevant in hip hop today. Miami is makin some noise, obviously NYC is the mecca, but I think the next top city is Chicago, Illinois – and not just because our president reps it.

What it does have is most everything Atlanta has. It’s a city whose name was kept alive for over a decade by a superstar R&B singer. Atlanta has Usher, Chicago has Kellz. It’s a city that features one of the 3 mainstream-relevant rapers right now. ATL has Tip, Chicago has Kanyeezy. The only other mainstream-relevant rapper is a guy from New Orleans (which had its’ own time) who now lives in Miami, and is part of that movement there. It has secondary stars as well. ATL has Jeezy and Luda. Chi-town has Common and Lupe. But oh yeah, Chicago is a much bigger city. And that Obama guy reps it. Dwayne Wade and Derrick Rose? Yep, them too.

As far as professional sports go, Chicago’s a mixed back. The Cubs are good every year, but not great. The White Sox won a title a couple of years ago, but I wonder how far they can ride Carlos Quentin this year. The Bears aren’t too good, and the Bulls are lookin like they’re gonna grab either the 7th or 8th spot in the NBA playoffs.

But its all about hip hop in the Chi. Even beyond the holy trinity of Kanye, Common and Lupe, there’s Twista, Rhymefest is ill, and there’s the 90’s staples Do Or Die on the underground and Da Brat on the radio.

But it’s not just that Kanye, Common, and Lupe are dope. It’s not just that Twista and ‘Fest can rhyme. It’s the conscious underbelly of all five emcees’ material. All five of them are more righteous than club-hoppers. Kanye’s greatest asset as an emcee is the soul and spirit with which he makes his most emotional material. Think the uplifting joy of “Family Business” or “Good Life,” the despair of “Roses” or “Heartless,” or the anger and frustration of “Crack Music” or “Two Words.” Common is similarly soulful, dating back to his “I Used To Love her” days. Like Kanye, he makes music about love, pain, joy, and struggle. Lupe is another range. He likewise rhymes about conscious themes, but has been an even bigger inspiration to the current fad of “hipster” rappers out there. ‘Fest falls somewhere in between Kanye and Lupe. Meanwhile there’s Twista, the underground legend/multi-platinum rapper. He crosses the line between gangsta and righteous as well as anyone.

While there are more dope rappers on the underground tip, the mainstream ones line up with just about any area. Especially when you throw the R&B singers like R. Kelly and Donell Jones in there. Altogether, it’s about time Chicago started getting its’ props!

How It Was Supposed To Be….

The World Baseball Classic is already really good, but….
it could be great.   It just isn’t.  Yet.  I love Jayson Stark’s column about how we could fix it.  How we could get all the big names involved.  Namely….let’s do it All-Star Weekend.  The weekend will actually be a weekend. As opposed to the worst all-star game of the 3 sports.  All anyone really cares about is the Home Run Derby.  And even that is losing fans’ attention with the lack of big names entering (ala the NBA Dunk Contest).  Because, though I always root for Korea, let’s face it: the American Hemisphere faces a distinct disadvantage, because so few stars actually participate.

So for this imaginary sequence, we are going to forget about the Asian side of things, and just assume Japan and Korea make the final 4 (which they always do anyway).

Let’s start with Venezuela, a country in which most of the top players actually played – with a couple major exceptions.   They are already in the final four anyway this year, but just imagine if they had added Johan Santana and Carlos Zambrano.  Who in the world would be able to hit a Santana/Felix Hernandez/Zambrano trio?
Perhaps a Dominican team with this starting nine:

1. CF Jose Reyes
2. SS Hanley Ramirez
3. 1B Albert Pujols
4. LF Manny Ramirez
5. 3B Alex Rodriguez
6. DH David Ortiz
7. 2B Miguel Tejada
8. RF Alfonso Soriano
9. C Miguel Olivo

Ouch.  Any lineup in which Soriano hits eighth is impressive/historic.  Of course we really have three shortstops out there.  Tejada’s shown he’s willing to play out of position (he played third this year anyway), and Reyes definitely has the speed to play center.  Did i mention that they’d also have a rejuvenated Pedro, Edison Volquez, and Ubaldo Jimenez as the team’s starters? Pretty solid….but that doesn’t quite compare to the pitching the States could throw out there.

Pick any three out of Tim Lincecum, Jake Peavy (who’s there anyway), Cole Hamels, Brandon Webb, Jon Lester, Dan Haren, or that Josh Beckett guy. Roy Oswalt’s already there, and Roy Halladay should go too. I’m leaning towards Beckett/Hamels/Halladay.  Love Oswalt and Peavy.  But those might just be the three best pitchers on the planet.  How about Brad Lidge, Trevor Hoffman, and Kerry Wood as your closers? Plus the US’ lineup wouldn’t be half bad like this:

-At catcher, Brian McCann’s a solid pick, but I’d lean more towards Joe Mauer, given the choice.

-I like both Mark Teixera and Ryan Howard at first.  Let’s put Tex in the field and bring in Howard as the DH.

-Let’s get Howard’s teammate Chase Utley to play second.  Nothing against Dustin Pedroia, but Utley is hands down the best second baseman on the planet.

-The David Wright/Chipper Jones and Derek Jeter/Jimmy Rollins combos at third and second are fine how they are.

-The outfield needs to be completely re-modeled.  Let’s go with Matt Holliday in left, Josh Hamilton in right, and Grady Sizemore in center.   If we need a bench, we can get Braun and Dunn back.

So our final lineup would look something like this:

1. SS Jimmy Rollins
2. CF Grady Sizemore
3. 1B Mark Texiera
4. DH Ryan Howard
5. LF Matt Holliday
6. RF Josh Hamilton
7. 3B David Wright
8. C Joe Mauer
9. 2B Chase Utley

But all this talk leads me into something I’ve wanted to write about for a while…
The 20 Best Hitters In Baseball

20. Carlos Quentin, CWS
He probably wins the MVP if he stays healthy last year. But it was really his only good year thus far, which is why he’s as low as he is on this list. He probably also leads the lead in dingers if he stays remotely healthy (as was he finished one behind Cabrera). I’m not sure what direction Ozzie’s going in, but i bet he’s building around CQ.

19. Alfonso Soriano, CHC
Soriano gets the nod here despite a slightly disappointing season last year (though he still .280 with 29 dingers and 75 RBIs). That his numbers gone down each of the last 2 seasons makes you wonder if he peaked already in 2006. But he carries the Cubs for large stretches of the season and, when on, can take a good club and make them great. But where is in the clutch?

18. Lance Berkman, HOU
I’m prone to chalk up last season to a random lucky year. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. But let’s face it, Lance is 33 and was coming off his worst year as a pro. To give him the benefit, he did have a great year two years ago. It’s hard to read how he’ll do this season. For now, 19 feels like the right spot for him.

17. David Wright, NYM
Though i still think he’s slightly overrated, Wright is no doubt among the best players in the NL. The Reyes/Wright debate has some weight (Reyes probably juuuust misses this list), though last year Wright was vastly superior. But like Soriano, where is he in the clutch?

16. Miguel Cabrera, DET
Did you know: his .886 OPS last year was his worst since his rookie year? And he still led the league in bombs. What’s crazy is, despite the great lineup he hits in, he never gets walked. Hitting .292 with 37 homers and 127 RBI is a great year for most. But not for a guy whose OPS is typically right around the 1.000 line.

15. Kevin Youkilis, BOS
This is a guy who was overrated for so long, then you turned around and he had become just as good as advertised. I didn’t realize he had a .959 OPS last year. Or that he was third in the league in slugging percentage. He’s almost gotten good enough to replace Manny. almost.

14. Chase Utley, PHI
I think Rollins probably juuuust misses this list, or we’d have gotten all three Phillies’ superstars. But Utley will win an MVP one of these years, provided he stays healthy, to join his buddies. He had a better year than Pedroia, who won the AL MVP last year. Utley is hands down the best second baseman in the business (as i noted above). And that’s that.

13. Justin Morneau, MIN
The Canadian slugger is probably the opposite of Youkilis. He was underrated for a couple years, but his production started to slip right when everyone was realizing he was underrated – so now he’s overrated. But he’s still a great, great player. .300, 23, 129? Any team in the league could use that.

12. Chipper Jones, ATL
I couldn’t quite keep him in the upper half of this list despite his numbers from last season deserving it. It’s just….he’s getting really, really old. The crazy thing is, he’s hit his stride here in the latter years of his career. In the past 5 seasons, his lowest OPS is .968. And last year he spent most of the year toying with the .400 line.

11. Ryan Braun, MIL
I’ll admit that I’m a tad biased towards this guy. Braun is outrageously good as it is, but he just goes about his business the right way. He realized he wasn’t the best 3B, so he was open to letting the Brewers put him in Left. He didn’t want his contract negotiations to be a distraction, so he took the best deal on the table. And he dropped 37 bombs with 104 RBIs and hit .285.

10. Milton Bradley, CHC
While his game is often overshadowed with his mouth and actions, Bradley has quietly become one of the best hitters in baseball. Do you realize he had a .999 OPS last year? It was a career year for him at age 30. He was also third in the league in batting average, fourth in slugging, and his earlier mentioned OPS was tops in the AL.

9. Grady Sizemore, CLE
There are a few who thought Sizemore was the best player in the AL last season. While his outfield play should be strongly considered, he wasn’t quite touching the best guys in the league. Does that make him a worse hitter than Youk, Pedroia, or Hamilton? Not necessarily. It should be noted he stole 38 bases in addition to his 33 bombs (one of two 30/30 guys last year). But his average was down a bit, to .268. That’s perhaps a result of feeling the pressure of being the only worthwhile guy in his lineup.

8. Hanley Ramirez, FLA
The other 30/30 guy from last year. He’s .940+ in OPS the last two years. He also launched 33 from the leadoff role and stole 38. And did i mention he hit .301 last year? He’s the best player on a very impressive Florida club.

7. Josh Hamilton, TEX
One of the best stories from last year was Hamilton’s comeback from drug abuse. And he put on quite a show in the home run contest. He hit .304 and slugged .530 and had 130 RBIs. He rarely walks, and thus ended up with 190 hits (!). We’ll see if he can keep it up before we move him up in the rankings.

6. Mark Teixeira, NYY
Tex hit .302 with a .962 OPS in a very potent Angels’ lineup. It should be noted that he’s going into a great Yankees lineup, but will be without A-Rod for long stretches. So he’s actually joining a weaker lineup by going to the Yankees. Will he keep it up or will he drop to “Great player on a bad team” numbers like he had the year before (Runs and RBI’s drop dramatically)? If he doesn’t, he’s a true superstar.

5. Matt Holliday, OAK
The problem with Holliday is it was hard to judge him in Colorado. Now we’ll see how he does in a pitchers’ park in Oakland. He’ll actually be in a better lineup too. Despite Oakland’s historically terrible lineup last year, he’ll have Jack Cust, Jason Giambi, Orlando Cabrera, and either Nomar or Chavvy hitting around him. But his OPS has been above .900 for three straight years (including a rediculous, Bonds-ian 1.012 in 2007), and he had a slightly “disappointing” .321/25 hrs/88 RBI/28 SBs last year. He is the main reason I’m PSYCHED about this year in Oakland.

4. Ryan Howard, PHI
Yes his average has gone down for a couple seasons. But he’s still the best pure slugger in baseball. He’s the ultimate three outcome player. His notorious slow starts always keep his seasonal numbers down, but he’s always catching fire down the stretch. If you argue “who’s the most feared hitter in baseball” he might be number one.

3. Alex Rodriguez, NYY
I might catch some flack for not having him at number one, but the guys above him have had more team success with them as the absolute best player on the team. Plus he actually had worse stats last year than both of these guys. I think there’s some argument with A-Rod and my pick for number 2. But I think number 1 is completely clear. Oh yeah, A-Rod hit .302 last year with 35 homers, 103 RBI, and an OPS of .965. You could make the argument that he’s on the “downside” of his career. But still has top 5 in the league numbers. I’ll have to see another “down” season to move him lower than 3 for now.

2. Manny Ramirez, LAD
You can say a lot of things about Manny. You could say his personality overshadows his play. You could say he doesn’t always give it his all. You could say he doesn’t play defense. But Goddamn if he can’t hit. He had a 1.031 OPS last year. That’s after supposedly “dogging it” for most of the year in Boston. He still had 37 homers and 131 RBI. He hit .301, slugged .601, has two rings, and single-handedly led his team to the NLCS. Did I mention he might be the best right handed slugger ever?

1. Albert Pujols
As i mentioned above, I don’t think there should be any argument for Pujols. It should be noted that these three have been 3 of the 4 best players in the league since 2004. And if you throw Barry Bonds in the mix, these are the best four hitters since the turn of the decade. Let’s compare:.

2002:
Bonds: .370 avg/1.381 OPS/46 HR/110 RBI/Giants Lost WS to LAA
Manny: .349 avg/1.097 OPS/33 HR/107 RBI/Red Sox second in AL East
A-Rod: .300/1.015/57/142/Rangers last in AL West
Pujols: .314/.955/34/127/Cards lost ALCS to SF

2003:
Bonds: .341/1.278/45/90/Giants lost in NLDS to Marlins
Pujols: .359/1.106/43/124/Cards third in NL Central
Manny: .325/1.014/37/104/Red Sox Lost ALCS to NYY
A-Rod: .298/.996/47/118/Rangers last in AL West

2004:
Bonds: .362/1.421/45/101/Giants second in NL West
Pujols: .331/1.072/46/123/Cards Lost WS to Red Sox
Manny: .308/1.010/43/130/Red Sox Won WS
A-Rod: .286/.887/36/106/Yanks Lost ALCS to Red Sox

2005:
Bonds: (played very little due to injury)/Giants 3rd in NL West
Pujols: .330/1.039/41/117/Cards lost ALCS to Astros
A-Rod: .321/1.031/48/130/Yanks lost to Angels in ALDS
Manny: .292/.982/45/144/Sox lost ALDS to White Sox

2006:
Pujols: .331/1.102/49/137/Cards won World Series
Manny: .321/1.058/35/102/Sox 3rd in AL East
Bonds: .270/.999/26/77/Giants 3rd in NL West
A-Rod: .290/.915/35/121/Yanks Lost ALDS to Tigers

2007:
A-Rod: .314/1.067/54/156/Yanks Lost in ALDS to Cleveland
Bonds: .276/1.045/28/66 (played sparingly)/Giants Last in NL West
Pujols: .327/.997/32/103/Cards 3rd in NL Central
Manny: .296/.881/20/88/Red Sox won World Series

2008:
Pujols: .357/1.115/37/116/Cards 4th in NL Central
Manny: .332/1.031/37/121/Dodgers lost NLCS to Phillies
A-Rod: .302/.965/35/103/Yanks 3rd in AL East

With the exception of his injury-plagued 2007 and Manny’s Bonds-impression in 2002, Pujols has clearly been the cream of the non-bonds crop.