thebruce44

I am kind of baffled at the exuberance by fans regarding next years team. People are excited because this was a playoff team last year while dealing with injuries in the rotation and every offensive player underachieving besides JJ. I can go through the numbers if you like, but I think it has been posted here before. I would feel better with another starter, but I would not be surprised to see this team win 87 games as it stands now.

I too am looking for a part time job to supplement my unemployment (most likely I won't be able to find a full time career until spring or summer so I have all but given up in this department). Pizza delivery sounds like a great idea and was something I hadn't really considered. I thought about bartending/barbacking, but these jobs seem to be in extremely short supply around me on the north side of Chicago...especially when you have no experience. Pizza delivery seems like another great way though to get paid in cash. For people who have delivered pizzas in the past, do you have to share your tips? I assume you get paid a base pay per hour in addition to tips. You pay for your own gas typically, correct?

I've always thought an OBP heavy guy who sees a lot of pitches has a positive impact on the players around him as well (although I don't have any statistical study to prove so). Not only would we be adding Dunn's OBP heavy lefty bat to our lineup, we would be helping our OBP lacking righties.

I thought we were calling him G Love and the Special Sauce. GG is just way to confusing.

I don't think Christian Bale would allow himself to be in a sub-par movie, so I will continue to have high expectations for it, despite what I may or may not hear about the film before it comes out. Reign of Fire was a futuristic sci-fi action movie that flopped pretty badly I have high hopes for this movie even though it is being directed by McG (Charlie's Angels Movie/Chuck/The O.C.) instead of Cameron for several reasons: Bale would only sign on for the movie if the dialog and narrative could stand on their own with no effects (he rejected the first script and brought on Jonathan Nolan eventually to work up a new draft). Bale seems like the perfect actor to play this kind of role (Connor has to be a badass and someone people are drawn to and Nick Stahl was not). Moon Bloodgood is really hot even though her name is kinda weird. EDIT: Everyone will know who Sam Worthington is by next Christmas after he stars in Terminator then Avatar, James Cameron's upcoming movie being shot in a new 3-D format. He must have sold his sole or something.

But short of a rash of injuries, it's not going to be 2001 rebuilding, its gong to be more like 2007. So everyone is freaking out because there is a good chance we will be well in first place entering September...only with a properly managed pitching staff? There is a lot of off season left and even if no moves are made, we are in a position to compete. Enough with the sky is falling posts already!

Everyone needs to take a deep breath. The middle of our order will not all slump this year. We will trade for a starting pitcher, add a backup lefty OF or sign a lefty to start and trade the player he is starting over for SP. Those few moves will keep us competitive and able to compete for the division and the wildcard. People seem to forget that 2 years ago we had the division all but wrapped up before our Ned-led Sept collapse. Last year, we had caught the Cubs before a similar collapse, and this was with almost our entire offense slumping. Pitching was not the problem last year, it was our offense. Melvin will square that away, then add a SP via trade, and we will be in the same position as last year with better in game management.

I would be against signing Patterson as well, but just thought I should remind everyone that Melvin himself did comment that speed players often take longer to develop than other types of players (he said that when talking about Scotty Po seemingly coming out of nowhere).

The tempo of that game definitely favored MU. Still, Marquette needs to go to the hoop more if they are going to survive in the big east. They are not a jump shooting team.

Hardy for Young...Braun back to 3rd. Come on people. Lets try to make informed posts here. We all seem so concerned about cutting ties to the players we already have or potentially blocking someone coming up from the minors. The Brewers should in fact be in a win now mode (assuming they get another pitcher) and be looking to add an impact bat anywhere they can while not worsening the defense. This may mean signing Dunn and sending Hart to another team for pitching or to burn Soup's contract.

Isn't that what the Phillys tried to do and they ended up loosing the case and paying Howard a record 10 mil. Lowballing isn't necessarily the way to go.

Soup's VORP - IP: 08 - 3.1 - 177.7 07 - 23.0 - 206.7 06 - 27.0 - 190.0 (for Stl) That averages out to a VORP of 18.17 over 574.4 innings of work the last 3 years in the NL. Vazquez'a VORP - IP: 08 - 23.8 - 208.3 07 - 51.1 - 216.7 06 - 22.8 - 202.7 That averages out to a VORP of 32.9 over 627.7 innings of work the last 3 years in the AL. Combine that with the fact that the Sox HAD to trade him this offseason due to their front office and Chicago media throwing him under the bus for not being "a big game pitcher", and he could have been had for cheap. Mac, Jurko, and Harry ripped on the guy every day for over a month this summer with every southside fan calling in to confirm how much he sucked.

I know (or know of) several of the less public owners besides Mark. The economy is hitting their outside investments and businesses the same way it is hitting everyone else. The difference is that they of course have larger pockets to absorb the recession. How that effects their spending towards payroll, I couldn't say. While they wont sink all their money into the team, it is obviously a labor of love and I am sure Mark and the other investors would take a loss if it meant another smart shot at the playoffs. We are very lucky to have the ownership team in place that we do, as they are just as good of fans as we all are.

I thought the episode was amazing and very well done. Story wise, there are a few things I would have like to have wrapped up or done differently, but I can't really complain. Shane killing himself and his family was very shocking, but looking back at this season, totally in character. He has been heading in this direction and getting more unpredictable for a while, especially with all the drugs. I would have liked to have seen more with Ronnie. His "ending" of being taken away was way too brief. Vic's ending was perfect. The punishment he got was way worse than death or jail. He was always about family, friends (until he had to chose between the two), and his badge. All were taken away from him. Has any show ever done more with silence? Between Vic's long pause in the second to last ep, the silence when they found Shane and his family, Vic when Claudet showed him Shane's note, and Vic at the end in his suit at the cubicle as the power went out...wow.

My buddy is adamant that Ronnie will kill Vic, but I don't know. Ronnie has shown that he is capable of things I never thought he could do, and he is going to be pretty pissed that Vic basically set him up to go to jail for life. I also fear that Vic will do something to Corine if he finds out she was working with the cops. There is so many ways this could go, its crazy right now. Whatever happens, I feel like there are two parts that should definitely be in this last hour and a half episode. Vic and Shane need to square off, its been building for years now. How Maura and Jackson factor into that, I am not sure...I hope Shane finally has the sense to stop hiding behind his family, especially since Vic has shown he will kill them too if need be. Second, the storyline with Dutch and that psychopath kid needs to conclude (for that reason alone, I would think Dutch isn't actually fired). They have spent way too much time on that to not have an ending. It would be great to see that somehow factor into what is going on with the strike team.

I just started watching the DVDs and am about to finish Season 1, but I really like this show. It shouldn't take me too long to catch up as I end up watching like 4 episodes every time I sit down planning to watch 1.

Anybody else religiously watch this show? The series finally is on tomorrow night, and I'm bummed it has to end but excited to see how it goes down. The last 3 episodes have probably been the best in the entire series. (SPOILERS) The episode where Shane tries to kill Vic and Ronnie, only to be narced on by the guy he had help him may have been the best hour of tv I have ever seen in my life. Last weeks episode where Shane's wife shot the two people and Vic confessed all his sins was probably also top 5. It was crazy to hear him sit there for what amounted to 3-4 hrs of show time and tell all the stuff he has pulled. I have always considered him a good guy, but when you hear it all at once, you realise what he really is. It makes me think they are setting up his death in some ways and getting the viewers ready for it. Also, I can't beleive he screwed Ronnie over.

I stood next to Prince in Beloit. Im 5'10' amd even with cleats, he was at least an inch shorter than me.

Don't you have to have extremely long fingers for a knuckle ball? Not to be sexist, but I wouldn't think this would be something women would excel at vs a man.

I would guess that his working at 2b would not necessarily mean that he'd be moving there full time, but a concession that he will be our backup MI for next season. I think the only way we see Escobar in the majors next year is if Hardy or Weeks goes on the DL for an extended amount of time. He will start the year in AAA and get consistent ABs. If there is an injury, then perhaps he gets consistent ABs in the majors. A prospect like Escobar will not be sitting on the bench though at any point.

Wasn't Shea more of a pitchers' park than AT&T? Good point. I guess I just think of all West Coast stadiums as being overly pitcher friendly. In terms of their competition, one would assume Lincecum had it much easier since he was in a worse division. However, Santana had a 0.737 OPS against vs 0.730 for Lincecum. Maybe someone with more stats knowledge can turn that into an average runs per game as Ender did for the AL, but I am guessing its fairly minor. In any event, as long as both awards go to those top 4 guys in some form, I can't complain. They are clearly a step above the rest of the league.

Ah yes, I forgot to mention that I have been working out more and cooking every meal (mostly eggs since they are so cheap and I will be so poor eventually). Still, there is no excuse not to work out every day now, and it helps that the grocery store is right next to my gym. I will have to start stopping by there more often. Blatz, how long were you unemployed if you don't mind my asking. I just have this feeling that I will loose my mind after another month of this. When I first started working, I hated always being busy and never having time to relax. Now, I don't know what to do with myself.

A little background: I live and used to work on the northside of Chicago but was let go from my engineering company a little over a month ago. They were vary reliant on the housing market and when things went bad, they went bad very quickly. The company was already down to around 50% of what it was a year ago, and I had survived several large rounds of layoffs already. I was also being told the whole time by my boss that I was safe and was on the short list of young engineers they had big plans for within the company. Problem was, I had only worked there a little over a year, and in the latest round of cuts, it just came down to who had been there longer. They let 12 of us go, basically everyone who had not been there for 5+ years. Now all of us are looking for jobs, and only one girl found one (right away actually as it was identical to what she had been doing and the job opened up the Friday before we left). For the rest of us, we have all had 2 interviews (where we are competing with eachother and no doubt countless other qualified people) but both companies decided they can't afford to bring another person on right now. Some people are moving back home with their parents or finding seasonal work to get them through to the spring when things hopefully pick up. I have a condo here that I refuse to sell and loose all this money on. I am getting quite a bit from unemployment and have saved up a lot in the past, so I should be good through the winter even if I don't find anything. I still haven't given up yet as I have some resumes out yet and am still hoping to hear back. I also have a few connections I am following up that will hopefully pan out. In the mean time, I am quite frankly borded out of my mind. Since graduating college 3+ years ago, I have worked around 50 hrs a week. Now, I have nothing to do, especially since I have slowed down dramatically on sending out resumes as there are not any companies in Chicago left. If you had all the free time in the world, but limited money, what would you do? Any ideas to pass the time would be appreciated. I have been watching TV shows that I missed out on in the past such as Dexter, Entourage, and Heroes. I am also going to get my buddy's Rosetta Stone DVD and try to learn Spanish again, as I spoke it fluently in highschool but have forgotten most of it by now. The language thing seems at least productive, but I feel like a waist of space sitting around watching TV and movies. I would love to go back to school and get a masters to go along with my engineering degree, but I am pretty sure that would mean no unemployment. Any thoughts? Sorry for the long read, but I would imagine there are others in my position these days.

There were really 4 pitchers (5 counting Sabathia from in the NL) who were well ahead of everyone else. Personally, I think I would have voted for Santana all things being equal (home park and competition). Player ERA IP VORP 1. Cliff Lee 2.54 223.3 75.0 2. Santana 2.53 234.3 73.4 3. Lincecum 2.62 227.0 72.5 4. Halladay 2.78 246.0 71.5 5. Lester 3.21 210.3 58.2 6. Dempster 2.96 206.7 57.5 10. Sheets 3.09 198.3 52.4 11. Sabathia 1.65 130.7 52.2 14. Webb 3.30 226.7 50.8 (Someone can feel free to make that look sexy) (sexified --1992)

Mark Rodgers, yea. I guess my back and forth analogies got a little confusing.