It’s been a couple weeks since my last post, but I’ve been keeping track of things I wanted to talk about. Rather than write an insanely long post in which I go into detail about each, I’ll try to keep each short and sweet.

Back on May 22nd, it was reported that the Texas Rangers are exploring a long-term contract for Josh Hamilton. Hamilton won’t hit arbitration until after the 2009 season, and he won’t be a free agent until after 2012. For a guy with his talent, I’d normally say that it would be a good idea to get him signed long-term, but for a guy with his off-the-field past, I’m a lot more hesitant. I’ve heard stories about how Johnny Narron went with him everywhere on the road last year to help him stay on the straight-and-narrow, and he also mentioned in an interview last year about how he never carries more than $20 and how his wife keeps possession of the car keys to remove temptation to go buy drugs. I admire that Hamilton has turned his life around and takes precautions like I mentioned so he never goes down the road again, but is this a guy you’d be willing to wager millions of dollars on for the next 5+ years?

Concussions are an issue that typically doesn’t get enough attention. This article is a few days old but I’d suggest reading it if you haven’t. It seems that people hear concussion and stop worrying about the injury like the player will miss a day or two, and everything will be fine. As Corey Koskie unfortunately demonstrated, concussions are serious. The expectation for players to be willing to play through a concussion is terrible, and then actually using said players is even worse. I’ve often wondered if using the term “brain injury” instead of concussion would make people step back and think, “Hey, maybe we should take this more seriously.”

J.P. Ricciardi has been getting a lot of criticism lately, and it’s easy to see why. One particular move that made no sense at the time was the release of Frank Thomas. Although Thomas is now on the DL, he’#### .319/.417/.516 since being picked up by Ricciardi’s former employer, the Oakland A’s. Ricciardi was quoted saying, “I told Frank our decision is based on performance.” Thomas said, “Sixty at-bats isn't enough to make that decision.” Thomas only has 91 at-bats with Oakland, but it doesn’t appear that Frank Thomas is done quite yet.

Speaking of criticism, Jose Guillen recently criticized his teammates and even called them babies. I find that funny coming from a guy who has had his own maturity questioned throughout his career.

Moving over to fantasy baseball, prior to the season, I traded Alex Rodriguez and Mariano Rivera for Hanley Ramirez and Cole Hamels. Now, I know that the #1 overall pick doesn’t typically get traded, but I feel like I got a pretty good deal there. What I really want to point out is that if you are going to trade a player like A-Rod, make sure to do better than this.