Chase Utley Deal, Mike Vick, and Tampa's OF

So Chase Utley, in my opinion the best 2nd baseman, got a deal for 7 years 85 Million Dollars. Good deal if you ask me. He doesn't have a history of getting injured, he's fairly young at 28, and he's probably the best 2nd baseman right now. He's a lefty, he's a fan favorite, he plays solid defense, and he's a 5 tool player. 302/339/532. Great numbers for a 2b, but he does play in Philadelphia where the park is nice and easy, especially for lefties. His away numbers are 289/361/485 which aren't much worse, because his OBP is so much higher. All in all, I'd say 12 million dollars per year is a pretty sweet deal. Only way it could be bad is if their buying high (he only has 2 full years of experience), if he gets injured, or if he ages quickly like Erstad. But with the way prices are right now, I'd pay 12 million a year for a 5 tool lefty second baseman. (Jon's Comment: The Phillies are also forfeiting the contract they currently have with him which is probably for a very cheap deal).
Mike Vick is supposedly going to be exonerated for the water bottle incident. First of all, he's an idiot. I never liked him as football player, and he's an idiot for flicking off his own fans too. Everyone knows you can't carry water bottles into airports, especially a guy like him who flies all the time. Why would he have a special water bottle like that anyways? ESPN's report says that it had a "compartment that contained a small amount of dark particulate and an odor consistent with marijuana, according to a police report." That seems fishy to me that it WASN'T marijuana, and I wonder if he didn't' pay the police off or something. What the hell could it possibly be? Anyways, the Falcons can't really cut him, he's a big time publicity stunt/fan draw, and he is supposedly the highest paid QB in the NFL. I don't think Schaub's the answer, but if Vick can't get it done with 3 solid RB, 3 big first round pick WRs and Alge Crumpler, then the Falcons should draft some O-lineman and if Vick STILL can't get it done, then they should cut him. There's no reason a team that good should suck that much. At this point he's just a glorified Seneca Wallace. (Jon's Comment: everyone used to say that Vick wasn't a conventional QB and that he didn't put up the great passing numbers but he had something that was more important: he knew how to win. WELL GUESS WHAT? Now he's not winning and I'm pretty sure the reason the Falcons were winning before was a great defense and a good running game. I hate the "he just knows how to win despite what his stats say" argument. Wait long enough and see if it works, and for Vick it didnt' work. This goes for Brady too. See how many more Super Bowls he wins now that his defense ain't so great).
I was reading Buster Olney's article on young talent in baseball, and I didn't realize that Rocco Baldelli had such a good year last year. .302 average with .339 OBP and .533 slugging percentage? When did he get that much power? In 92 games, he hit 24 doubles and 16 hrs. Thats a heck of a stat line, especially for a CF. He's pretty much comparable to Sizemore or Crawford now. Combine him with Delmon Young, who can rake at a 317 clip with a 476 slugging, and Crawford, who had a stat line of .305/.348/.482 and 58 SB (he also missed 11 games from jumping after he scored a run), and you have by far the best young OF in the league. They could even be the best OF period, even better than Matsui, Damon, and Abreu/Sheffield or Dunn, Griffey, and Kearns (oh wait, that never panned out). I was hoping some combination of Reed, Jones, Snelling, and Ichiro would be great but not powerful, but it looks like that won't happen.