Basketball

Big news of the day: The Warriors traded Stephen Jackson and Acie Law to the Bobcats for Raja Bell and Vladamir Radmonovic. [CC Times] RT, will have something a little more in-depth later today, but the Warriors definitely are "winners" in this trade. The team could be worse without Jackson from a talent standpoint, but the Warriors weren't going to the playoffs. Sorry Dubs fans. Acie Law and Raja Bell are on expiring deals. Radmonovic has a $6.9M option for next season, while Jackson has $28M over the NEXT three years, not counting 2009. We'll wait and see if RT thinks there is any more wheeling and dealing left.

Kawkami chimes in, from vacation. [SJ Merc]

Football

The Raiders' failures are directly related to their last three 1st round picks: Russell, McFadden and Heyward-Bey. [CC Times] I'll even expand on the last 10 Raiders' first round picks: Michael Huff, Fabian Washington, Robert Gallery, Nnamdi Asomugha, Philip Buchanon, Derek Gibson, Seabstian Janikowski. One great player, Asomugha, and the rest is garbage.

Gwen Knapp summarizes the Alex Smith experiment. [SFGate]

JaMarcus Russell, still bad. [SFGate]

Stanford is the Bay Area feel good football story. [SJ Merc]

Matt Maiocco presents the 49ers road to a Wild Card slot. [Press Democrat]

How an uncapped 2010 affects the 49ers roster. [Sac Bee]

Baseball

* When your starting pitcher walks the first hitter of the game on 4 pitches, you are going to lose. I actually turned off the game and did something productive with my evening. How many of you did the same?

* The Dodgers signed Manny Ramirez so they are going to win the West. The Giants didn't sign Manny Ramirez so they won't. I don't think baseball has ever been this simple.

* True or False. The Red Sox don't really want to win the division because they own the Angels in the post-season and would rather face them than an AL Central team? (Hint: True)

* The A's win and again ... nobody cares.

* The player du jour is Eugenio Velez. When he starts to struggle, here are the odds on the next utlity player that everyone will hail as a hero: Ishikawa 2 to 1, Juan Uribe 3 to 1, Bowker 5 to 1, Ortmeier 20 to 1, Aurilia 200 to 1. My money is on Aurilia.

Football

* I hate pre-season football. Here is your meaningless Raiders article.

* I hate pre-season football. Here is your meaningless Niners article.

* I hate pres-season football. Here is your meaningless Stanford article.

Soccer

* Speaking of meaningful football ... USA v. Mexico tomorrow.

Baseball

* Unlike the Giants, there could be hope for the A's this season.

* If you are working in Baseball Operations for the Giants, you might want to start finding some boxes and the closest unemployment office. This team is bad and you built it.

* It is awesome that the SJ Mercury blog on the Giants is almost entirely focused on the San Jose Giants and not the big club.

* Best article of the day - Pedroia ripping his hometown. Awesome stuff.

Basketball

* This is one of the worst Warriors seasons in recent memory. People should start writing about them.

Football

* Here is to Andrew Luck as the starter for Stanford this season. The garbage I was forced to watch last year was painful.