The World's Greatest Athlete? WSJ says Sid's #6

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121392004594090355.html?mod=todays_us_weekend_journal

With the Olympic Games approaching, The Wall Street Journal set out to answer this parlor-game question: If Earth had to send one man to the Intergalactic Olympics, who should go?
WSJ reporter Reed Albergotti visits with decathlete Bryan Clay to see how a mere working stiff measures up to what some consider the best all-around athlete.

Identifying the world's greatest male athlete turned out to be easy to argue but difficult to answer empirically. No matter how impressive, world-class athletes mostly excel at single tasks. Olympic gold medal weightlifter Hossein Reza Zadeh can, in two quick motions, lift 580 pounds over his head, the equivalent of a year-old heifer. Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie can run a mile in an astonishing four minutes, 45 seconds, and repeat the performance 26 times in a row. Put either man on a tennis court or pitch them a 95-mile-per-hour fastball and they might whiff as badly as any weekend hacker.

Sports physiologists don't have a system to rank all athletes. University of Texas exercise physiologist Ed Coyle said doctoral students have tried in the past "only to have their professors shut them down after months of continuous work."

The Journal sought to identify the world's greatest athlete with an approach that, while not completely scientific, took a number of measures into account. A panel of five sports scientists and exercise physiologists was given a list drawn up by the Journal of 79 male athletes. Candidates had to be active in their sport and among the all-time best. (Women will be featured separately in a future article.)

The panel weighed individual performance stats, along with their subjective judgments about the relative difficulty of each sport, to give an overall grade to the athletes. (See "How We Did It" for details.) The judges graded athletes on speed, reflexes, stamina, coordination, as well as power, strength and size. The finalists, they said, exhibited a wide range of athletic skill in highly competitive environments.

There were some surprises. Tiger Woods, a dominant figure in professional sports, didn't crack the Top 10. Panelists said they didn't give golfers much weight when assessing overall athletic ability. Michael Phelps, one of the greatest U.S. swimmers of all time, also missed the top tier because, the judges said, swimmers generally don't perform well out of the water. Such endurance athletes as marathoners and Tour de France cyclists also failed to impress. Too one-dimensional, the panel said.

Trib: Malone to test free agency

Rob Rossi of the Trib reports Malone will not sign with anyone until  after July 1:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_573270.html

Left wing Ryan Malone said Tuesday he plans to opt for free agency -- a significant blow to the Penguins' chances of trading him for a pick in this weekend's NHL Entry Draft.

"We will not talk to anyone until July 1," said Malone, who will become an unrestricted free agent on that date.

Talks between Malone's camp and the Penguins hit a wall last week, and the Pittsburgh-born Malone is warming to the possibility of continuing his NHL career outside of his hometown.

Penguins officials, including general manager Ray Shero, are currently preparing for the NHL Draft Friday and Saturday in Ottawa. Those preparations include conversations with several clubs about acquiring early-round picks.

Shero is not commenting on off-season dealings.

The Penguins do not pick until the fourth round. Their first-round pick was included in the package sent to the Atlanta Thrashers on Feb. 26 for right wing Marian Hossa and forward Pascal Dupuis. The acquisition that day of defenseman Hal Gill from the Toronto Maple Leafs cost the Penguins their second-round pick. And their third-round choice was shipped to the Florida Panthers on Feb. 27, 2007, as part of a deal for right wing Georges Laraque, also set to become an unrestricted free agent.

The Penguins had hoped Malone could net them a needed early-round draft choice, perhaps from the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are known to have serious interest. The Columbus Dispatch reported Tuesday the Blue Jackets could strike a deal with the Penguins to acquire Malone's rights for possibly a second- or third-round draft pick.

Those plans now appear to be dashed because the Blue Jackets will not deal a draft pick to the Penguins unless Malone provides a guarantee he will sign with Columbus.

The Dispatch reported that the Jackets are willing to offer Malone a four- or five-year deal worth at least $4.5 million annually. The Penguins are not willing to go much beyond $3 million annually for Malone, who posted a career-best 27 goals and 51 points during the regular season.

Who Can Pens Keep?

There has been a lot written and spoken about who the Pens can keep for next season and beyond in hopes of keeping a championship caliber team together. So we decided to look at the salaries the team has committed to and are likely to pay out over the next few seasons.

We came up with a surprising conclusion: this is not a Tampa situation. The Pens can keep together a good bit of their team and will likely be Cup Contenders for years to come.

Here is our first look at the situation (we will update the numbers as they become official):
Pens payroll projections
-yellow cells are our projections
-red cells mean that player is gone from the team.


Assumptions we made:

• The salary cap for 2008-09 will rise to about $55 million.
• The Penguins will be willing to spend up to the cap limit.
• Contracts extend out through the 2012-13 season bu estimating the roster and how much each player makes beyond next season is near impossible.
• We budgeted for 22 players in 2008-09; additional players will be added as the season goes on to compensate for injuries and promotions/demotions.

GBoF Conclusions:

• If Marian Hossa is serious about taking a bit less to remain with the Pens, and the team is serious about him being their #1 priority, then there is no reason why they cannot come to an agreement. We budgeted Hossa for $8M per year and think it would be a great signing at that price.
• Ryan Malone has played his last game as a Penguin. He priced himself out of a Pens sweater with his play and the organization's correct determination to make Hossa their #1 priority over Malone sealed the deal.
• Even with the news that the Pens would take Fleury to arbitration, we expect a long term deal to be agreed upon before the July 20 deadline and we assessed the Flower to earn $4M per year. Maybe a bit low, but Fleury may take the security over having to prove himself for another year before cashing in.
• Gino Malkin cashes in at the same rate for Hossa ~ $8M/year. GBoF has no problem with Malkin getting more than Hossa but since Hossa has a few more years in the bank, their deals may well be very similar. Between the two, we budgeted for $16M per year - split it up however you want but that should be enough to sign them both.
• Jordan Staal may have to sit tight through another season. A future Selke winner? Probably. But 12 goals in a year isn't going to get him what he wants and will likely deserve. And the Pens could use a little relief this offseason though this decision would likely turn into the biggest story of the upcoming season and following offseason. The Trib is reporting that the team may negotiate with Staal during the season and we projected $5M per year starting in 2009-10.
• On defense, say godbye to Orpik, Sydor & Nasreddine. But welcome Alex Goligoski and pray that Mark Eaton, resigned at a projected $800K, can stay healthy.
• Up front, Big Georges can stay for a small raise to $1.5M.
  
• Dupuis can still be a bargain at $1M, though to be honest, we can easily see him leaving and being replaced with someone for about the same rate.
• Jeff Taffe and Adam Hall stick around and play larger roles of the team.
• Two new players totaling about $1M will join the roster - these could easily be Jonathan Filewich and Ryan Stone, or perhaps Luca Caputa or some other WBS Baby Pens player.
• Those new, cheap players will replace Scary Gary and Ruutu. Roberts may retire or if he is willing to take a serious paycut of about 50% may be welcomed back. Ruutu will invite bidders and his price will be too high for the Pens.
  
• Conklin is gone, Sabo is the backup.

So our initial analysis is this...

• Staying or signing an extension: Hossa, Eaton, Fleury, Laraque, Malkin, Dupuis, Taffe, Hall.
• Joining the team: Goligoski and two players such as Filewich and Stone.
• Leaving: Malone, Sydor, Orpik, Roberts, Ruutu, Nasreddine.
• One major headache on the way: Staal
  

With our projections, the roster would put the Pens at just under $53 million and under the probable $55M cap.

More importantly, this team would still have the potential to contend for the Cup. It would be impossible to say it is better than how the roster currently stands, but if players step in and contribute, which is always needed in any Cup run, there is no reason why this can't remain at the top of the Wales Conference. The nucleus remains intact and while a deal with Staal might become a major issue, especially if he regains his goal scoring touch, that decision can be made in relative isolation during the season or next offseason. Most importanntly, we can very realistically hope to see Hossa skating with Sid for another 5 years, Malkin feeding Sykora and opposing coaches trembling.

Last Night was NOT the Night

Somehow this team is allergic to .500. They have now failed 5 times this year to win a game that would ahve put them at the break even mark. Last night was the most frustrating as they held a 6-1 lead after 4 innings and then proceeded to watch not quite ace Phil Dumatrait walk the house and the bullpen blow up, leading to a desultory 9-6 loss to the O's.

Just to respond to a few bloggers/media types who say that .500 is nothing to rally behind, I say feh! This team hasn't seen it in 15 years and they are not going to the playoffs this year so it would be a sign of progress that the team could build on. And though they've been at .500 at similar points in past seasons, it would be nice to get there and maybe beyond, but you have to get to .500 first. And 0-5 when one game below doesn't cut it.

Some nice articles and links from Baltimore yesterday, mainly discussing the Bucs/O's rivalry or 2 World Series they played in the 70s:

• Pirates: Ahoy, memories
• Looking back on '79 Series
• Former Pirate has fond memories of '71
• Photos from 71 & 79

Trib: Hossa is Pens' #1 priority

Interesting. Seems like the Pens are trying to keep Sid very happy and content. Though having one of the NHL's top 3 two way players (with Zetterberg and Datsyuk) on your team is never a bad thing.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/s_572725.html