My computer seems to have been hit by a virus. After a few hours of troubleshooting I was able to boot in safe mode and copy all my files (except e-mails, which appear to be lost forever) to CD and load them onto another machine. However, most of the programs that were installed are gone. Also there may be a problem with the hard drive. So at some point I’ll have to wipe the system, install a new hard drive, and reload Windows XP and a boatload of software. The good news is, what could have been a disaster (losing thousands of files) is merely a pain in the posterior.

And the even better news is, the Padres have signed Jake Peavy to a 4-year deal worth a guaranteed $15M plus incentives. This is a great, great deal. Don’t believe me? Let’s compare Peavy’s deal with those of some guys who didn’t lead the big leagues in ERA last year and who aren’t still maturing:

Player     Age Yr   $M    IP   H  BB  SO  ERA
Benson,Kr   30  3 22.5 200.1 202  61 134 4.31
Lieber,Jo   35  3 21.0 176.2 216  18 102 4.33
Lowe,De     32  4 36.0 182.2 224  71 105 5.42
Milton,Er   29  3 25.5 201.0 196  75 161 4.75
Ortiz,Ru    31  4 33.0 204.2 197 112 143 4.13
Peavy,Ja    24  4 15.0 166.1 146  53 173 2.27

And this is kind of funny, I guess, unless you’re the Dodgers:

            $M/Yr  ERA $M/Yr/ERA
Lowe         9.00 5.42    1.66
Peavy        3.75 2.27    1.65
Lowe/Peavy   2.40 2.39

Okay, so $M/Yr/ERA is totally bogus. I mean, millions of dollars per year per earned run per inning pitched? WTF? Point is, these ratios shouldn’t be this close. Or to put it another way, if Peavy had managed to post an ERA nearly 2 1/2 times higher than he actually did, would he have gotten nearly 2 1/2 times the money? I could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s supposed to work that way.

Did I mention this is a great deal?