Monday is Hot Baseball Wife Day here at Umpbump, and this week we revisit Daisuke Matsuzaka’s wife Tomoyo Matsuzaka.

When we first broke the background story of Matsuzaka and his wife back in 2006, there wasn’t a lot of time to search for pictures, so we just went with what we could find on short notice. Since then, however, we have scoured the internets to find some more photos. Observe what we managed to come up with, after the jump…

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Okay, so at a time when most people are debating whether or not the Washington Nationals can even break .500 next season, this is going to sound more than a little crazy, but I think the Nats have an outside chance at contending next season.

I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but I am saying that it could.

Let’s look at the positives.  First of all, the Nationals definitely have a high-powered offense. By most measures they’ve had the fourth or fifth-best offense in the National league this season, right up there with hard-hitting teams like the Phillies, Brewers, and Dodgers.

Second of all, the Nationals finally have a real GM. Mike Rizzo has just recently had the “interim” label removed from his title, and deservedly so, as he has done just about everything right since taking over for the hilariously incompetent Jim Bowden. Rizzo also has a track record of success as the scouting director of the Diamondbacks during the period they developed many of their current stars, and has a proven eye for talent.

Third, the Nationals have actually been quite “unlucky” this season by several measures, not least of which is their run differential, which suggests that they should actually have about 10 more wins than they’ve actually recorded.

Fourthly, the areas where the Nats most need to improve – the bullpen and on defense, are the areas most easily improved from season to season. In this way, it is possible to make a comparison between the 2009 Nationals and the 2007 Devil Rays. Both were terrible teams with terrible defense and terrible bullpens that drastically underperformed against an already terrible run differential. As you will recall, that Tampa Bay team went to the World Series the following year.

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The Mets and Yankees recently started selling fruit at their new stadiums. Is it about time? Or is it sacrilege? You decide.

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So Scott Kazmir just got traded to the Angels for three prospects.  I think inevitably there is going to be some bafflement at this move, with people wondering what the Rays are doing trading away their most well-known player, who has basically been the face of the franchise for several years now, in what appears to be a cheapskate, salary-dumping move.

But I think trading Kazmir makes a lot of sense.

For most of this decade, the Rays have had one of the lowest payrolls in the game, but after making it all the way to the World Series last season, ownership allowed the payroll to balloon by 50%, from $44 million in 2008 to $64 million this season.

Naturally here was an expectation that fans would reward the team for their fantastic 2008 campaign, but unfortunately that has not been the case, as attendence has only upticked slightly from an average of 22,259 last season to 24,168, which is still only good enough for 22nd place among major league teams.

In light of this reality, it simply doesn’t make sense for the team to allow payroll to keep soaring even further, given that there is no sign that there would be much of any return on such an investment from the fans down in Flordia.

Moreover, the problem the Rays were facing was that, even if they just kept exactly the same players they have now, salary increases to players under contract or eligible for arbitration were going to push the payroll well over its current $64 million, probably up into the range of $75 to $80 million if the Rays just stood pat.

So even if the Rays just wanted to keep the payroll where it already was, which makes sense given their stagnant attentance, someone had to go.

Given this situation, letting Kazmir go makes the most sense. He was due for a large raise, up from $6 million this season to $23 million over the next two years, but more importantly, the Rays are loaded with top-shelf pitching prospects.

Rather than trading away somebody like Carl Crawford or BJ Upton, who would be much harder to replace, the Rays dealt from strength by moving Kazmir, whose production they can at least approximate for the major-league minimum salary. Hopefully, the Rays will now be able to hold on to Crawford and maybe Akinori Iwamura as well, at least for one more season.

It’s also important to remember that there are no guarantees Kazmir will remain the ace he has been going forward. While he has pitched well of late, he has always suffered through arm and shoulder injuries almost every year and he has had a down year over all this season.

The only real question I have about this trade, which we won’t be able to start to fully answer until the player to be named is revealed is whether or to what extent the Rays may have sold too low on Kazmir during a down year, and maybe should have let him pitch out September and dealt him in the offseason to maximize his return.

But then again, given Kazmir’s history of arm injuries, maybe now was precisely the right time, coming off a start in which he struck out 10 Blue Jays in only 6 innings.

This WAR pie struck me as by turns satisfying and shocking. First, satisfying because it reveals the contributions of Jon Lester — who, earlier this season, was subjected to an embarrassing debate amongst fans over whether he was even a decent No. 3. But even so, it may be a shocking pill to swallow for Sox fans that Lester has contributed more to the team’s performance than Josh Beckett.

That big slices of pie have been gobbled up by Beckett, Kevin Youkilis, and Dustin Pedroia will not surprise observers of the team. But seeing JD Drew so high will come as a surprise to many, I fear; his playing seems to have been very underrated by Red Sox fans.

What shocks me, however, is seeing Brad Penny right behind Tim Wakefield. This is the guy Boston just released? For nothing in return? Oof. And Mike Lowell’s recent hot streak had left me assuming he’d take up more of the pie; same for Jason Bay. But their defense has eroded so much that they give up almost as many runs with their gloves as the produce with their bats. (Much to the chagrin of the aforementioned Mr. Penny.)

What should not come as a surprise, from the nice distribution of position players and pitchers above, is the even split between Boston’s hurlers and hitters in their overall pie:

Clearly, Boston can kill you on both sides of the ball. So why are they stuck 6 games behind New York and clinging to a tenuous Wild Card lead? I blame that crappy, crappy defense. Oh well.

There are a lot of brilliant moments in the movie The 40-year-old Virgin,” but the moment where Paul Rudd’s character works up the nerve to ask his boss to play a different DVD in the electronics store where they work is one of my favorites.

David: Hey, Paula.
Paula: Yeah?
David: I gotta tell you something. I’m really excited about it. Uh, for the first time today, I woke up, I came to the store, and I feel confident to say to you that if you don’t take this Michael McDonald DVD that you’ve been playing for two years straight off, I’m going to kill everyone in the store and put a bullet in my brain.
Paula: David, what do you suggest we play?
David: I don’t care. Anything. I would rather… I would rather watch “Beautician and the Beast”. I would rather listen to Fran Drescher for eight hours than have to listen to Michael McDonald. Nothing against him, but if I hear “Yah Mo B There” one more time, I’m going to “Yah Mo” burn this place to the ground.

That scene perfectly sums up the way I feel about the Geico commercials that I’m forced to watch in between every inning of every game on MLB.tv. There are a couple of different Geico spots, but they all feature the stupid cavemen and they’re all set to a 3 Doors Down song called “Let Me Be Myself.” And if I didn’t think 3 Doors Down sucked before, I surely do now. The generic lyircs. (”Please, would you one time / Let me be myself / So I can shine with my own light / Let me be myself”). The overproduced sound. I dread the end of each inning. I rush to the computer to hit the mute button. Please, MLB.tv, get rid of those cavemen commericals! Or at least, play them less frequently. I’m begging you.

Today, Rob Neyer says let’s not anoint Pujols just yet, and poses the following question:

Maybe Pujols really is the best player in the National League. He probably is. But there’s a .365-hitting shortstop with power, playing for a contending team. Shouldn’t we at least take a deep breath and think a few thoughts?

Don’t worry, Rob. I’m on it.

The MVP Award is always tricky, because nobody can agree on the best way to measure “value.” One very good way to measure value is to look at a player’s wins over replacement, and his contribution to overall team WAR.

Let’s do this thing.

We’ll start with Pujols, whose WAR is 6.4, which represents 22 percent of the Cardinals WAR.

Then there’s Chase Utley, whose WAR is 6.8, which represents 22 percent of the Phillies WAR.

Finally, there’s Hanley Ramirez. Behold, the Marlins WAR pie. As you can see, Ramirez’s WAR is 6.9, which represents 27 percent of team WAR.

That’s right, Ramirez has the highest WAR in the league among position players, and the highest percentage of team WAR. And that’s a pretty good indication that he’s been the most valuable.

But guess what? There’s another guy worth mentioning. Tim Lincecum and his 7.2 WAR should be in the discussion for NL MVP. He’s responsible for 25 percent of the Giants WAR. Without him, San Fran would be totally screwed.

Of course, Lincecum won’t be a serious candidate despite his league leading WAR, because he’s a pitcher. But he should be.

And Ramirez won’t win the award, because Pujols has more RBI and home runs, and those are stats that voters traditionally care a lot about.

But while Pujols is great and has had a great season, there are clearly more deserving candidates.

NOTE: All WAR values come from the always awesome Fangraphs.