GAME05

lately: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with a voter."

i found that the chocolate syrup i'd been adding was helping to thicken the shake up. now it's just water and sugar and it's been fine. those little debbie snack things are great, too, so cheap and nothing but calories. so i'm probably only getting 400-600 calories extra per day, which isn't too much, but fine. the benefit to that is although i won't gain as fast as i'd like, the bodyfat% doesn't really go up, that the gain is mostly muscle.

it's Disney, but if you've got money you can try the Richard Petty Experience. Gatorland SkyVenture is one of those simulated skydiving places with a wind tunnel Wet 'n Wild is a big waterpark orlandojaialai.com yeah, Kennedy Space Center is 50 miles away, but you could have lunch with an astraunaut. Daytona Beach is 50 miles away if you're into racing Mount Dora is a half hour away and doesn't have much, but it does have Florida's only Icelandic pub. Blue Water Balloons (hot air balloon ride for $175) Boggy Creek Airboat Rides i've left out the more-relaxed sort of stuff because you said you wanted "to get in trouble". as crazy as a hot-air balloon ride is, anyway.

i'm not saying a prospect needs to be in AAA to be valuable, but it certainly helps his value, and you end up having to give up more prospects if they're a collection of A and AA players than AAA guys, is what i meant. If i were thinking Gamel could stick at 3B, then i'd give him more value than LaPorta, but the jury's out on that one. though i don't really see how Gamel is closer to being ready when he's still making the errors at 3B. really, i guess i don't see a giant difference in either player to make one more valuable than the other. although i'd probably give LaPorta the bump because he projects more power than Gamel. i used to be of the opinion to keep LaPorta and trade Gamel, but now i just don't want to see either go, even if it means no replacement pitcher for this season. Gamel and LaPorta are both about the same age. Gamel: .355 BA, 5 HR, 76 TB, 1.037 OPS LaPorta: .330 BA, 9 HR, 74 TB, 1.128 OPS

i don't think i'd want to work for a manager who didn't get shaken up some by having to fire somebody, even if they did deserve it.

According to the Power 50, we've got 2 guys in our top 25 who are in AAA at the moment, Iribarren and Pena, neither of whom are going to excite a lot of other teams. i guess we could dump an OF or two, for whatever that's worth. but then everyone always wants pitchers, and all we've got is Jeffress and a bunch of A-ball guys. i'm still fine if Gamel is traded. i figure he may very well end up as a corner OF, and we're loaded at that position with LaPorta above Gamel in the system. plus Gamel won't have all that much power for OF or 3B. we could always use LH Brad Nelson as a PH off the bench if needs be this season.

WAY too early yet, even if he does lead the league in blown saves. we know he won't do well in the setup role from what happened in Boston, so if he's not closing, there's not a huge use for him and he basically becomes Turnbow. plus closer ego is fragile, so you really can't go fiddling around with his role unless you're going to make it a permanent move. and Riske i thought was sort of being groomed to take the closers role, and i'd still give it to him if the Brewers wanted Gagne out. you never know sometimes if pitchers can step it up and do better under higher-pressure situations. or heck, i'd give it to Mota before i'd go and trade prospects for a closer. plus the position is fragile enough as it is, and enough closers have come out of nowhere to do well that that's the last position i'd trade a prospect for. not to mention that a starting pitcher is far more pressing at the moment than a more reliable closer. don't trade LaPorta for anyone! please!

it's sad that i have a college degree (granted, it's Liberal Arts) and struggle for jobs and money, then hear all about people who simply mow lawns, valet or bartend and make twice what i do. I can tell you all about the Transcendental movement and know the political structure in many countries--a lot of good that does me.

it's definitely going to be last-second if the Brewers are going to be sellers. but yeah, we've got a ton of players to dump if needs be. i also think Hardy would be a good candidate to trade with Escobar rising in the system. i doubt we'd trade Weeks and replace him with Escobar, just because then we'd be needing a leadoff hitter. though i do think we'll be getting a decent number of college players in this draft, remember that though they do rise through the system faster, you're also generally getting a lower ceiling than high-school players, particularly when it comes to pitchers. i don't think it's necessarily bad that we draft HS guys. pluse we've got Villy and Bush(?) and Parra and Gallardo just starting out, so we should in theory have plenty of time to allow HS pitchers to develop in the minors for a while. although the lack of depth at the upper minor league level makes me think that we're not really in a position to be buyers if we are in contention in June, and to just go with what we've got.

i'm not a giant fan of trading away prospects who will be integral parts of the franchise soon and for years to come, which is how I view LaPorta. I'd rather take my chances this year and hope for the best than sacrifice the future of this team. I'm not against making a trade, but i just really hope it isn't LaPorta. 1. i know we're thinking about Pittsburgh and San Diego and SF and other bottom-dwelling teams, but isn't it WAY too early for teams to start dealing their good players yet? Won't every team wait until at least June to start dealing guys so they can keep up the pretension that they're still in it? 2. What about Cameron? Certainly he has value. obviously we just signed him, but isn't a newly-signed player available to trade starting in July? Sure, Gwynn isn't as good, but he at least has good D and is a lefty, so he'd be an ok fill-in. Also, what about trading Cameron and/or Gwynn and then calling LaPorta up and moving Hart to CF? LaPorta could platoon with somebody. I could live with Kapler as a starter if needs be. 3. What about trading Hardy? He's certainly got value and comes cheap to another team. Then we just call up Escobar. Yeah, Escobar would probably be a terrible hitter, but we won't miss a beat on defense. it almost seems inevitable that Hardy would have been traded at the end of the year to make room for Escobar, anyway, so why not sooner than later? 4. It's nice to think about adding a top-line pitcher, but i really wonder about our budget when it comes to that, if we really have the funds to even add $10M to our budget to bring in a guy like that.

calling out Johnson for Yo's injury reminds me of Albert Belle elbowing Vina when Belle was with the White Sox. now THAT was pretty much done to injure or at least hurt Vina. there's no way i see Johnson trying to hurt anyone. bad slide, bad angle, whatever--that's just players being players. "Wow, some Brewers fan on the ESPN boards is suggesting a TGJ/Yo for Peavy trade" if you've ever worked fast food, you know those guys who buy a cookie with a $20 bill, then try to confuse you with the change, maybe making themselves $20 in the process. We need one of those guys to try it out on San Diego's GM and maybe we could get Peavy FOR FREE!

when we cut Hammonds, didn't the Giants pick him up right away and put him in AAA? naturally they wouldn't have picked up his whole salary.

how about Brian Butch going down right before the tournament a couple seasons ago? AA Will Inman is no Gallardo; he wouldn't have had the ability to step in and be our #2 pitcher. I think more of Jeffress than Inman, not that Jeffress should be brought up. forget LaPorta, trade Hardy and call up Escobar!

thing is about a trade, that basically means the other team trading a good pitcher is giving up on the season. i don't even think the Giants are ready to do that yet and hurt ticket sales.

can we trade Cameron in June? maybe LaPorta can come up then and Hart can take over CF. i'd rather not let LaPorta go, either. Gamel would be fine with me, though. can Gallardo just pitch sitting down? that might still be more effective than Bush or Weaver. is Barry Zito available?

Coast to Coast AM has talked about it before. it's amazing that whenever something is theorized or spotted in space, it's always "headed right for us."

no comment, just wanted to post some OPS numbers vs. RHP from the 07 season: Hardy: .729 Fielder: 1.100 Hart: .824 Braun: .845 Cameron: .700 Branyan: .720 (in 108 AB) Gross: .792

....or would it be better to wait around the All-Star break to trade Gwynn when we (hopefully) would be running for the postseason and would have a better idea what our needs might be.

unless i'm hiking for a weekend, i don't do any cardio. just won't grow the muscles unless you're adding calories beyond what you need per day to maintain. i wouldn't contend that cardio in itself makes you stronger or weaker, just that if i burn 400 calories on the rowing machine, i'll need 400 additional calories per day to make up for that--at this point i already want 3,000 calories per day, so i don't want to make it harder on myself. i'm pretty happy with the 6-day split i'm on (including two rest days). it's been plenty of recovery time and i haven't plateaued yet. could i gain more weight by working out less? yeah, but working out has been so much fun, plus i don't want to risk losing my motivation/routine or have a bodyfat % that rises too fast. hasn't been too bad, though, about +0.75 lbs. per week but have only gained 1.5% bodyfat in six weeks. so i guess this bulking phase will take a lot longer than i hoped for, but so be it (was hoping to discover some abs for pool season, but maybe next year). to answer your question, i go with a generic GNC weightgainer/protein powder. i can't afford the pre-mixed stuff. my next strategy is getting up earlier this week to have a protein shake for breakfast instead of oatmeal, and i'm confident that should do the trick as far as the calories and protein that i've been short on, plus i should then be fine appetite-wise, i'm sure. also taking creatine, which i know is mostly useless, but i'm totally fine with a water-inflated false bulk for the summer season, and i'll go off it next winter.

i don't exactly know how much help this could be, but i got tendinitis a couple of times in the front of my ankle when i was hiking, though i'd imagine the achilles would be a more serious issue. i tried just taking it easy for a week and it didn't go away, but then i switched to sandals and it helped immensely. i think it was mostly that the tendons weren't constrained by the shoes/laces and then had a chance to heal.

yeah, Gopher, i'll say i respectfully disagree with you on the not eating part. it's that starvation mode thing again, your metabolism is just going to slow down, thinking you're going to be a while without food. so maybe you'll lose some in that day or two, but the next few meals you eat are going to be stored right away and not really burned as energy. but yeah, it's hard to argue with the results you've got, though losing that much weight that fast might be ok temporarily, but it couldn't be good for someone trying to change a lifestyle. though to everything else that was said, i couldn't agree more. i actually haven't come across that drinking water strategy before, but that really makes a lot of sense--fill the stomach up before you start eating the calories. it's been interesting now that i've been exercising most every day now, and just an hour a day. i'm on a mass-building cycle of my weightlifting, doing my best to pound the calories, but because i'm still exercising (naturally), it's been near-impossible to gain weight. the appetite has really shrunk and those protein shakes are so filling it's hard to eat anything else. so for all the pills and all the gimmic diets and all the other stuff, it's just all about regular exercise and everything else falls into place for getting in shape. i wasn't exactly big to begin with, slender but with a beer gut, and for just 5 months of regular lifting, it's already made a world of difference. i know it was mostly a come-on, but when a random girl at the bar grabbed my left arm and then said "oh, you must work out," it was the coolest feeling in the world.

well, kool-aid is still better than soda. half of that can is sugar. try to eat 4-5 small meals per day instead of three big ones. breakfast is especially important. if you don't eat it, your body shifts into starvation mode from not eating for 12+ hours and starts storing all your fat. eating a carrot in your car on your way to work would do wonders to increase your metabolism.

I wonder how "The Hungover Thread 1/2" would read?

you could take caffeine pills, get the same effect and not the side effects, not that i'd recommend taking caffeine pills. pills and other gimmics are just a way of a person avoiding the exercise they know deep down they have to do. plus, energy pills really aren't that good for your heart to be keeping up a high bpm all day. check out your Basal Metabolic Rate online, it's a good way to start. that'll give you a fair idea of the calories you need to consume (or not consume) to start losing weight. keep in mind that a pound is 3500 calories. So with some pretty basic cardio, it wouldn't be hard to be 500 calories under your BMI per day, and then lose a pound per week. avoid the saturated fats and it'll become pretty routine to start checking the backs of labels for a calorie count. it kinda becomes fun to see where you are per day calorie-wise. fiber is a good food to be taking in, too.

if the cold feet relates mostly to you thinking you'd be jumping head-first into fatherhood, i only think it might be a far slower process than you think, or maybe not at all if the bio-father is in the picture. i could see that you'd end up deferring most or all of the discipline to her not out of laziness one bit but out of respect. a coworker had a few kids before her second husband, and he defers a lot of the disciplining.