A Blog Safari

There's been some confusion as to how to "follow" or "track," as I like to call it, my blog. I think the main problem is that Blogger, unlike MySpace, does not email you when I blog (and neither will I). So, for those of you who want to be up-to-date on the life of Brett and related materials, you have three options, as I see it:

1. You can literally "follow this blog" by clicking on that link to the right. As you can see, I have three "followers" now: B, Jenny, and the mysterious Dew. If you "follow this blog," you'll need a Blogger, or maybe just a Google, account. Those are obviously free and pretty easy to set up. The problem with this plan is that you will only get updates on you Blogger homepage. As you can see (also on the right), I'm following two blogs: Penny Arcade and PCG. Their updates show up here and on my Blogger "dashboard" or homepage. So this method only helps if you plan on being on Blogger a lot.
   
2. You can RSS or "subscribe to" my blog. I've added a "subscribe to" application to my blog page (also on the right and now on the top). If you click on "Posts" over there, it'll give you a drop-down menu with a few options. If one of those options looks tempting to you, feel free to choose it. If you click on the final option, "Atom," it should take you to another page that differs depending on what program you're in (probably Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox). If you use Firefox, like I do, the "Atom" link page allows you to subscribe using Microsoft Office Outlook, which some of you may find appealing. You can also go directly through Outlook and set up your own RSS feeds. That's how I'd do it, if I weren't always already aware of when my blogs go up. Both Firefox and Internet Explorer also have their own RSS systems, but I'm not entirely sure how they work. If you go with this option, you should be alerted in whichever program you pick about when my blogs go up, or at least, that is my understanding of the process.
   
3. Of course, the simplest method may just be to bookmark my blog, which I'm assuming you all know how to do. If you do this, you'll have to check the blog for yourself to see if there are updates. As a general rule, I'll try to post at least twice a week, so if you go with this method, you might want to check the blog twice weekly, at least. Or not. It's up to you.
   

On to the news:

The proverbial "stove" is, in fact, very "hot" right now. A lot of pitchers moved in the last couple days, including F-Rod, as I call him, and J.J. Putz to the New York Metropolitans. The big news, though, was the Yankees signing of CC Sabathia. The Yanks are also trading Melky Cabrera for Mike Cameron in the increasingly rare "straight-up" trade. According to Buster Olney, this trade happened, in part, because Cameron and Sabathia are chummy in real life. The Yanks aren't done though; they evidently have an offer in to A.J. Burnett and will probably get another (ace) pitcher at some point.

So, this is my understanding of how the AL East will play out now. The Red Sox are pretty much required to get Mark Teixeira. Then, they'll probably trade Mike Lowell for some relief pitching and offer a $50 million contract to the best pitcher in the Mexican leagues. After that, the Orioles will probably make a move for John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, or even Barry Bonds, who I refuse to link. At which point, the Rays will probably trade Dioner Navarro or B.J. Upton for some Double-A prospects who will all win Rookie of the Year within the next five years. And the Blue Jays, well, they're in Canada, so…

It was an interesting night in the Association last night, but I don't imagine any of you care about that, so I'll just wait until I see Bryan tonight and talk about it then. I will mention that I had previously imagined it impossible to score negative points in our fantasy basketball league, until Greg Oden scored an astounding -1 for my team Tuesday night.

I also have to mention the "hot stove" in the NBA, since it involves a Charlotte team. Charlotte traded extreme baller Jason Richardson and former BC Eagle Jared Dudley to the Suns for international superstar Boris Diaw, Kobe-hating Raja Bell, and fellow former ACCer Sean Singletary. I don't mind the trade for Charlotte. It just left me wondering why they got JR in the first place, considering they only kept him for a little more than a year and gave up a top-ten draft pick, Brandan Wright, for him. Did they expect to win the championship last year? Was he the one piece that they needed to put them into the last year's elite tier?

Question of the Day:

I was going to ask about the Heisman, but I feel like this blog is a little oversaturated with sports news. So, the question is: How do you expect to "track" my blog? Also, feel free to write about any problems and/or solutions that I've skipped in my explanation above.

My take: By writing it.