JumpinMacFlash

The only thing that ever bothered me about the assist machine was how it may sometimes lag if you pull yourself up faster than it glides. You could pull yourself off the the pad, and it catches up and hits your knees. It is a nice thing to be able to use, and I know I used one. Working those muscles in some fashion is an excellent place to start.

I have one and I like it. It's especially nice since we're currently renting and can't install one. It's held up for quite a while now, but I sometimes wonder how long it will last. That being said, I've more than gotten my money's worth out of it.

First off, pull-ups (along with push-ups) are great. Wonderful exercise. I used to do pull-ups with an underhand grip, until I was told by one of my friends that those are chin-ups, not pull-ups. Now, I try and mix in multiple grips. The most I've ever done to failure was 17. I was never able to do them until about five years ago, so I'm relatively pleased.

Haywoode Workman is an NBA referee. I didn't realize that. He wasn't special, but I remember him sticking with the Bucks for the season in 1998 after receiving a couple of 10-day contracts. He helped the Bucks out some more last night. Fantastic.

I'm going to preface this post by stating that I don't think the Brewers will or should trade Ryan Braun. That said, I don't really understand the anger toward Gammons. This is exactly what he said in the audio: "I think one name to watch, and I don't know if it will happen or not, but there is some talk in Milwaukee that Ryan Braun could get traded. I think the Red Sox would jump big into that if they could possibly get him." He heard talk that Braun could get traded. He reported it as that. He even said he didn't know if it would happen or not. He reported some chatter that he heard, not that the Brewers were discussing Braun with other teams. Could they be? Sure, but Gammons doesn't say that. He says the talk is in Milwaukee. That sounds more to me like internal dialogue. Also, he's on NESN talking about the Red Sox. He's speculating (which it's clearly evident that he's speculating based on the words he uses) that the Red Sox would go hard after Braun if he were available. That doesn't really sound like a stretch of the imagination. I would think most teams would go hard after Braun considering his contract and level of production. Really...he's on a Hot Stove show talking about rumors. He mentions some idle trade talk that he heard. There's nothing irresponsible about it. We're going to hear oodles of rumors between now and Spring Training. What makes this rumor so offensive? The fact that involves Braun? It's completely beyond me why people would instantly assume he's lying. From our perspective, it makes perfect sense to hold onto Braun. He has a favorable contract, he's the face of a franchise, he's a star, he's marketable, and all those good thing. If we understand that, the organization has to understand that. That doesn't mean that there isn't some internal dialogue about trading him. The things that make him valuable to the Brewers would also make him valuable to another team, and could net the Brewers a haul in a trade. We immediately jump to Jon Lester as a trade target. Of course that makes sense to us, but Lester is signed by Boston through 2013 with a $13 million team option for 2014. The things that make Braun valuable to the Brewers make Lester just as valuable to the Red Sox, if not more so considering he is 26, left-handed, and very successful. Really, it's something that's very unlikely to come to fruition, but that doesn't mean the idea hasn't been privately explored. I'm not trying to be a wet blanket; I know we're here to debate topics, including rumors. However, let's treat it like the rumor it was reported as and not be so quick to discredit the messenger.

I think we should all withhold judgment on Roenicke until at least December. I started hating Roenicke in August before I realized who he was. I figured I'd beat the Christmas rush.

Wow. I was really surprised by this. I was confident Valentine or Cora was going to be the choice. I'm looking forward to learning more about Roenicke. This should be an interesting ride. Now let's see what kind of roster upgrades occur.

Another funny part is, it's almost always Victor Martinez that does it to him. That's why the bottom one is my favorite; he distracts Beltre and has someone else do it. Fantastic.

Yeah, that's a bad headline. It makes it sound like he's never been a starter much before.

I went to Platteville also, and I thought that was absolutely hilarious. There are no shortage of attractive women there. Actually the male to female ratio has gotten better in recent years.

My wife and I welcomed our first child into the world this morning just after midnight. A just-under-eight-pound boy named Ben. No photos yet, but I'm working on it. Also trying to find a baseball to put near his left hand. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Last night, I was at a Endter's in Hartland having wings with my wife and a friend of ours, and I noticed that they had Harvest Moon. I was excited, because I had been waiting for fall beers and pumpkin beers to make an appearance. I've like Harvest Moon since the first time I've tried it. This year I intend to find and try more pumpkin beers. I'm typically a fan of fall beers, so I'm also thinking about buying some to store for winter. Does anyone have any suggestions?

The "tough lefties" thing was in quotes so it came from Macha, not Witrado. Witrado actually seems to be questioning the idea of using such a ridiculous strategy: Cain was a guy Ken Macha shielded from what he called "tough lefties" like Hamels, but with the way Cain has played since being recalled, it's difficult to shield him any longer. I feel dirty defending Witrado. He makes me cringe and feel cold inside. Edit: However, he did misspell "this" in the first sentence.

You might have a point about the title of the blog post not being Haudricourt's doing, though as it's just a blog post, my guess is TH is responsible for that. I doubt those blogs go through much of an editorial process. Depending on the size of the publication and the staff, copy editors are frequently in charge of writing headlines in addition to proofing and editing articles. I'm not sure how that works for blogs but there tend to be more errors (mostly grammatical) in those posts, so you may be right about the process. He said something to the effect that Gamel didn't say he wasn't excited about playing first but you could tell he felt that way by the way he talked. This is the line from the comments: "I'm not saying Gamel won't play first base. I'm just saying he's not that excited about the position, which was quite clear when talking to him about it." He said in the published article that Gamel stated that he preferred right field as opposed to first. He wrote the title, because if you read the comments he came back on and defended the post when people started to question his slant. Those two aren't necessarily causal. He may just be defending his reporting, which looks to be accurate. hard to argue that the headline as it is, is a lot more catchy than "Gamel just happy to be playing." It's not even that it's more catchy. His positional preference is the most interesting part of the post. It's the new information that piques the most interest. Based off of the information presented in the article and the blog, I would have used "Gamel prefers right field." The challenges of first base are simply his reasoning.

Really? Yes, really. There could also have been more to the interview that wasn't explicitly posted. Gamel could have said that he wasn't excited, we don't know. Haudricourt may have just written it as a statement and then given Gamel's justification by providing the quotes you read. If you look at how it was printed in the published article, Haudricourt says Gamel stated his preference. "There has been speculation he might move to first next year if Fielder is traded over the winter for pitching, but Gamel said he preferred right field." It's followed up by the quote in the blog post. It's not the injustice you're making it out to be. That may be how you read it, but if you look at the comments you are in the extream minority. Judging by comments like "Play where your told" or "getting choosy about his position" or "He comes off like a big dumb ingrate," it looks like a lot of the people commenting didn't even read the post. If that's the case, should I really be taking their comments seriously?

I didn't see anything wrong with the blog post. Haudricourt said Gamel wasn't excited about first base. Judging by Gamel's comments, he isn't excited about it. I don't think he sounds like a whiner at all. I don't think Haudricourt painted him as a whiner. To me, it comes across as nothing more than relaying what was said in an interview. I don't see anything to get up-in-arms over.

The claiming team only has the first two options that you list; the original team can pull the player back. If a claim is put in there's no passing and the only way claiming team doesn't get said player is if the original team revokes waivers. If that's the case, I believe the waived player can't be placed on waivers again for 30 days, which at this point is irrelevant. I think that's right. Is that right?

It was Ray King...Very nice guy. I'll second this. In 2000, my dad, my brother, and I went to a game (I think against the Reds) and it was Jewel Osco Camera night (or something like that) where pre-game people got to go on the filed and get photos taken with some of the players. I completely avoided longer lines and was walking around trying to find some players to get a photo with. Poor Ray King had no one in his line. He was right next to the Racing Sausages and they had a much bigger turnout. I came up to get my photo with him, and he was completely blown away and excited that someone finally came over. No one else was lined up, so instead of going to any other lines we stayed and talked with Ray. He was an incredibly nice guy. When the Brewers traded for him in 2007, I knew he wasn't as good but I didn't care. I thought it was cool to have Ray back.

Akitas can be amazingly large dogs. One of my friends had an Akita. Easily one of the gentlest, friendliest dogs I've ever seen. However, he was close to 120 pounds. He was trying to play with a small sheep once and accidentally killed it. He pulled it up near my friend's dad and whimpered. It's both a sad and cute story.

Ohhhhhh myyyyy gooossshhhhh! Seriously, that is an adorable dog. He looks like he's gonna grow up to be a monster.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs150.snc4/36864_606977901458_219701744_34867372_4085399_n.jpg My wife and I have an 8-month old border collie/black lab named Jack. We both wanted to get a dog, she wanted a border collie and I wanted a lab. We found an ad in the Journal Sentinel for puppies, and we picked up Jack the next day. I was a little worried about him since we lived in an apartment and border collies have so much energy, but it hasn't been a problem. Since border collies are so smart training has been pretty easy. He picks up on things very quickly. He does have to be alone for a few hours each day, but he's never chewed on or destroyed anything of ours. He does have to go on two four-mile runs/walks a day in order for him to get enough exercise. He also loves playing with his Frisbee. I can't wait for when we buy a house, so we can have more space for him to roam and we can work with him on learning more tricks and tasks. The only other thing that concerns me is that we're expecting our first child in the next month and a half and I wonder how he'll act with a baby. We actually got him in January and we found out later that month that we were having a baby. The timing with the puppy could have been better, but I couldn't imagine us not having him.

I only have 8 teams in my league, and it looks like half of them aren't even bothering anymore. The rest have McCann, Mauer, Posey, and Olivo. I don't really have any glaring positions of need either. I've won the last 13 weeks on head-to-head match-ups. I kept him on the DL as long as I could, the second he was activated, he lost DL eligibility. I'm using him right now on the bench to fill in at catcher and a 1B spot on off days, but my corner IF are Adrian Gonzalez, Joey Votto, and Scott Rolen (I also have Adam Dunn stored away in the outfield with 1B eligibility). I'd get rid of Rolen, but I have no other 3B options. It's hard to keep him on the bench either, because our scoring favors pitching and you do better by cycling through starters. The league rules are kind of stupid and it's handcuffing me at the moment. It's not a keeper league either, so that's almost making me lean toward losing Santana.

So I have a problem at catcher. I had Victor Martinez, but then he broke his thumb and went on the DL. I picked up Carlos Santana immediately and he's been absolutely fantastic. However, now Martinez has been activated. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but no one else in my league will trade with me (or they make awful trade proposals, such as offering to take Kelly Johnson, Zack Greinke, and Jason Heyward off my hands for Ben Zobrist, AJ Burnett, and Barry Zito). I've tried packaging Martinez with outfielders, infielders, relief pitchers...everything, and to no avail. They seem to be very similar players with similar talents. Basically, I have to release one of them. I have no idea who to chose. Any suggestions?

I'd also recommend doing whatever you can yourself. If you don't find what you're looking for online, you probably know people who can help you. On my vehicle, I recently replaced the struts, the alternator, the belt tensioner, brakes, and muffler. I only had to pay for the parts, and my in-laws were more than willing to help me out/teach me what I needed to know. Now, if something breaks, I have more confidence to be able to do the work myself. And, you'll save a crapload of cash.

I'm bringing this back again. I had a problem with my Vibram KSOs. The strap was breaking on both sides of the right shoe. I took them back to Morgan's Shoes in Madison and they took them back and gave me a brand new pair in a M42. I was very happy, because I really like them. If I have the same problem with this pair, I might take them back and try upgrading to the Vibram Bikila. They have a different strap design and are (supposedly) even better suited for running. While I was without my KSOs, I decided to take a couple of short jogs completely barefoot. I had to go slow because I didn't want to injure my foot, but they went surprisingly well. The varying types of ground were a little rough on my feet, but I didn't feel and ill effects. The only downside was how dirty my feet were. It would still take quite a while to get used to being completely barefoot. On a side note, I thought this looked really interesting: http://www.dwddevilslake.com/ I think this would be a fun thing to train for. I didn't know if anyone else had seen it or was thinking about participating. Thoughts?