Control Your Peeps, Yi
Word on the street was that Yi Jianlian's Chinese team, the Guangdong Tigers, will block his move to the NBA unless the Milwaukee Bucks trade him to another team. Now, the new word on the street is that the Bejing newspaper reporter used incorrect "second-hand information" in his report. Yi and his associates now say they "are waiting for any chance to cooperate with the Bucks" and that the Bucks are "not a suitable team for Yi, but this is not the same thing as saying he will not play with Milwaukee."

Forgive me for being a little confused here, but which is it? His agent wants him traded. The people of China want him to sign. The Guangdong Tigers wanted him traded, now they want to sign. The situation has now become worse than any other past draft holdout. Steve Francis, Eli Manning, and John Elway ain't got nothin' on Yi.

What's puzzling about this is that the only person who hasn't offered his opinion is ... Yi himself. We the public have no idea as to what Yi wants to do. He needs to stop letting other people tell him what to do and issue a statement about his intent from this point forward. If he doesn't mind playing in Milwaukee, then sign. If he wants to go to a larger market or some place with a Chinese population, then push for a trade.

I don't blame the guy for wanting out of Wisconsin (the dozens of Chinese that live there probably wouldn't have been enough to make him feel comfortable). But if you want out, just give us the real reason. It's because of the city's market and population and not this "not enough playing time, bad for my his development" bullshit. If Yi is really worried about getting playing time among the likes of Andrew Bogut, Charlie Villanueva, and the UCLA legend Dan Gadzuric, then maybe he didn't deserve such a high draft pick to begin with.

Life Found in Dodger Bats
It's common knowledge around baseball that since Bill Mueller took over as the Dodgers hitting coach, the team has shown remarkable improvement offensively. They even scored enough to net Brett Tomko a win (no easy feat). After taking two of three from the Phillies, they now start a four game set with the Mets.

Now that we're past the All-Star break, I feel like making some playoff predictions. So here they are:

AL Divison Winners
West - Angels
Central - Tigers
East - Red Sox
Wild Card - Indians

ALDS
Red Sox over Indians (3-1)
Tigers over Angels (3-2)

ALCS
Red Sox over Tigers (4-2)

NL Division Winners
West - Dodgers
Central - Brewers
East - Mets
Wild Card - Padres

NLDS
Mets over Brewers (3-1)
Dodgers over Padres (3-2)

NLCS
Dodgers over Mets (4-3)

World Series
Red Sox over Dodgers (4-0)
J.D. Drew wins World Series MVP by hitting .650 with 7 home runs in the series. Which is what I predicted before the season (See April archives).