danzig6767

My big beef with many umpires is the high strike is rarely every called anymore. That 2-2 pitch to Berkman was right down the middle and just a sliver above the belt, yet it's called a ball for being to high. I think this hurts Gagne because he throws the changeup a lot and his nearly always drops somewhat. So the ball will cross the plate fairly often on his change around the belt, then drop a bit as Kendall catches it, but it's called high. It seems like nearly every ump has their own idea of what they'll give on pitches around the corner of the plate, but most will shaft pitchers by calling pitches at the belt or a bit higher as a ball for being to high. Then if it's a ump with a tight zone on the corners, that leaves pitchers with a strike zone about the size of wallet.

Gagne was getting squeezed and he did get jobbed on that call at first base. With that said, Gagne's biggest mistake IMO was pitching Bourn like the little slap hitter was instead Jim Thome. Gagne kept trying to get Bourn to chase a changeup and it lead to a walk. We had a two run lead at the time and Tejada/Berkman close to being due up next, throw Bourn some fastballs and make the guy with a .333 SLG percentage hit his way on instead of trying to paint the corner with a changeup. It drives me nuts late in close games when pitchers nibble around the plate with pretty much a slap hitter batting, thus a walk comes from it. If a guy that's mostly a singles hitter rips a ball hard, so be it, but don't friggin walk him while trying to hold on to a lead and the 3-4 hitters right behind him.

It would be nice if Hardy had a really good year because he'd then become a quite attractive trading piece, package with another player or good prospect.

I'm by no means a big fan of Gwynn, but whenever Branyan gets brought up here, it leads to stats like he'll post an .800ish OPS and play multiple positions, yet he couldn't get a spring training invite from even the more saber lead type of teams. I'd prefer someone DH that isn't Gwynn or Gwynn playing while say Braun is the DH. I just can understand why some don't find the Branyan option to be very appealing.

This isn't a nice question given a guy is hurt, but if Gallardo missed the rest of the season, does this still count as a year of service time for him?

What a punch in the gut This is the bummer about loving sports, so much rides on the health of the athletes and any fluke play can seriously damage the hopes of the teams you love. If Pie starts that game instead of Johnson, the injury never happens. Ugggg

I don't know if i'd blame the work load for the walks by Mota, he now has walked 9 hitters in only 11 innings.

It was only a matter of time that all the walks Mota has given up this year would finally burn him.

Safarte has never been able to throw enough strikes to match his golden arm and is why i'd bet his major league career will end up being a fairly short one. The guy walked 78 batters in 125 innings and 47 batters in 61 innings during his two years in AAA. Yet, we have people wondering why the Brewers didn't call him up? The last two years, the Brewers were trying to secure a playoff berth, it wasn't the dark days where the goal was to hopefully win 75 games and it was worth giving any younger pitcher with a great arm a shot. As for this Safarte was to bored to throw strikes crap, gimme a break. Dennis was playing professional baseball, not little league where everyone has to play. The Brewers didn't have Safarte still in A ball, he spent two years in AAA for us, that's one stop away from the bigs. With his great arm, if Safarte had went to AAA and got hitters out, the Brewers would have been thrilled to call him up. If you're actually right that he was to bored to do his job well and earn a berth in the bigs, i'm not sure if that's pure speculation, but if it's true, then Safarte obviously wasn't professional enough to deserve a shot in the big leagues. No baseball player is entitled to a job in the majors regardless if they posses a great skill, it has to be earned. Whether Safarte was so unprofessional that he got bored and it lead to his ugly AAA stats or he simply was following his career pattern of being unable to throw strikes, the end result was the same, a 25/26 year old guy with ugly WHIP's of 1.62 and 1.75 in AAA. He gave the Brewers absolutely zero reason to pitch on the major league roster given he couldn't get minor league hitters out, so they eventually cut ties with him since he was about to become a minor league free agent. Melvin isn't a moron, before just flat out waiving Safarte, i highly doubt that he did so without first assessing if he had any trade value.

Yea Stetter looks brutal to face for lefthanded hitters. If he can prove to just be solid when facing righthanded bats, he could become a key cog in the pen. Shouse is also tough vs lefties, but man, Stetter has made lefthanded hitters look silly.

Was Krivsky really that bad? He stole Hamilton and turned that into Volquez Cueto looks like he could become a stud starter Bruce is one of the best prospects in the game Votto is a very impressive young firstbaseman Bailey is a very highly rated young starter Did he steal Phillips or inherit him? I like Keppinger quite a bit Krivsky made some mistakes, but he brought in some fine young players that should make their pretty near future look bright as they get experience. If the Reds end up winning under Jocketty, odds will be high that a good chunk of the reason why they'll win is because of the young players Joketty inherited from Krivsky.

Besides all the countless camera debacles already mentioned, i have a peeve with the post game show. We already get subjected to tons of pretty much worthless babble by Craig and Davey stammer half the words i speak Nelson, but then nearly every time they go to Ned being interviewed by the press, they cut from the Ned question/answer after like a minute to go back to more uninteresting babble between Craig and Davey. Don't they realize most fans would rather hear Ned's thoughts or reasons for why he did what he did than listen to even more pointless talk from Craig or hear Davey stammer his way through every other sentence like it's his first time in front of a camera?

Do you have a job? Do you ever leave the house? How the hell do you find time to watch that many shows? I am surprised to see that wrestling is still this popular that so many on here watch it. What's the appeal of watching a staged "sport"? Edit: Unnecessarily long quote taken out. - Toby

I wouldn't want to be a stepdad I've seen my share of stepdad situations up close and it sure didn't look very attractive. My mom remarried and my sister chose to live with my mom after our parents divorced. My sister hated this new "father" in her life and she was brutal cold towards him for years, i don't know how John took that for so long. My sister gets along great with him now, but that 5ish year stretch, i'd have bolted given how terrible my sister was towards him. I was very close to a pair of cousins growing up. They sorta got along with their stepdad when they were kids, but once they became teens, man they hated Art and treated him like garbage. My daughter's mom got remarried about six years ago. My kid has never liked him and only talks to him when she absolutely has to. She is a teen now and i won't tolerate her giving him lip if i'm around when he is also, but i can tell they have no sort of caring relationship whatsoever besides having to live in the same house because he's married to her mom. She's told me numerous times that she hates him, even though i've been around him many times and he seems like a decent guy. I've seen other not very pleasant step parent situations, they don't look fun at all. Maybe when it a step parent enters the picture when a kid is very young, things go better, but just from my personal experiences seeing step parent situations, i'm glad i wasn't in that place.

What? The Bulls never bought into his defensive concepts? Skiles took over a 23 win Bulls team and the next season they won 47 games and were one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. This year the Bulls imploded, but during his times as their head coach, Chicago for the most part has been one of the better defensive teams in the league. In ranking of FG% allowed on defense, last year the Bulls were 2nd best and the two years prior to that they were best in the NBA. If in a three season span your team finishes 1st/1st/2nd on defense, i'm having a hard time grasping how that equals only "talking about" playing defense.

I think one reason many fans are more nervous about Gagne compared to Cordero is perception. When Cordero was on, he'd look flat out dominating with that mix of a 96-98mph fastball and a devastating slider. Gagne without his high 90's fastball looks more like he's trying to fool the hitter than blow the hitter away like Cordero could. For me, all i care about is the end result. So long as he can continue getting the save and job done, that's all i care about.

Given Zambrano has thrown 200 plus innings the last six years and Harang has thrown roughly 675 innings the last three years, i think there is a legit reason for a here we go again theme when it's Sheets leaving a game with arm soreness vs the other two guys. Whether it's pure back/good luck or something in an athletes body makeup, some manage to stay healthy better than other athletes at the same position. Sheets for whatever the reason can't seem to stay healthy and make his starts the last three years, it's not something people are fabricating, it actually happened.

Sheets is such a dilemma IMO His importance to this team is so obvious when he's healthy and when he's not. He's due to be a free agent and with the huge cash high end starters get, Sheets injury issues the last few years, and the young kids not that far from getting paid, Ben likely is gone. Because of those issues, i'll understand while the people in charge let Sheets walk. We are going to miss him though, most teams that make the playoffs also have that No.1 starter who can shut any team down. I put myself in the place of Melvin or Attanasio and the Sheets situation is frustrating. They can see how much better the team is when Ben is healthy and pitching well, but if they suck it up and pay Sheets and he continues with the inability to stay healthy, a 15-18 million per year contract is a killer to a smaller market team. There is big risk in letting Sheets leave, but IMO the risk is bigger in paying him big cash and then Ben not staying healthy enough to justify the big contract.

One other thing i didn't mention is if you do want a blog that eventually has lots of traffic, you'll need to get it linked with other blogs. Even though i'm not much of a blog reader, at times i'll read some here and there. Nearly any popular blog i've read has links to other blogs on it, they do this to share traffic. You could end up having brilliant opinions on sports that you post on your blog, but if very few people even know the blog exists, you can't get traffic. Since i don't have a blog, i don't exactly know how you would go about asking other sites if they would be willing to put up a link to yours, maybe it's as simple as emailing them and some will agree? Maybe email some blogs/sites that deal with various Wisconsin sports teams and ask if they want to share links or how you would go about doing so. I also think you might struggle getting hits even if your opinions are good because you aren't talking about a specific team. My guess is that most fans who visit certain sites or blogs do so for a specific team they like whether it's the Brewers, Packers, or say Badgers hockey, moreso than a blog or site that is about every team in the state. There are Brewers sites out there that are thriving. There are a couple Marquette sites that focus just on mens basketball that get tons of traffic. Badger boards/blogs that are very popular. As you probably know, there are quite a few Packer boards/sites with tons of traffic. From my surfing days, i've yet to come across a thrive blog/site that's about all the teams in the state. There might be one, but i haven't seen it. Be confident in your opinions to, sorta bland milk toast views won't get repeat visits. Even if people don't agree with you a lot, your posts and how you present them have to be interesting or you'll get someone to look once and never return. Maybe before you post stuff or as you evaluate the blog, read it and think to yourself, would i bookmark this site and spend my time checking back in quite often if it wasn't my blog, instead it was just a link i clicked on? Enough of my amateur ramblings given i don't have a blog or read them all that much. Good luck with it.

I might be a bad person to give advice given i don't have my own blog, nor do i read any blog on any sort of regular basis. With that said, i checked your blog out. If you are looking for a bunch of traffic and/or any sort of loyal following, no offense, what you're doing very likely isn't going to cut it. The internet already has so many information based sites on sports along with opinion based sites/blogs that if you want people to also visit your blog, you have to provide a reason for them to spend their time to visit it. Basically you need to come up with a niche that makes people want to bookmark your blog to see what you post next and that will be very hard to do given all the stuff already out there. Just posting mostly recaps of sports stories that anyone can already find on a bunch of other places they already visit isn't going to get people to visit your blog. Regardless of the subject, whether it's sports, politics, or say movies, the blogs that generally have a good following seem to be opinion based ones. If you can get people to be interested in your views, then they might come back to see what your opinions are on the big stories as they come out, they aren't going to check in just to read a recap that they can get from the local paper or various other bigger sports sites. Lastly, i'd say don't expect any sort of immediate following even if you can over time manage to create interesting opinions. There are so many sites and blogs out there already that you are that needle in the haystack.

The terms of that contract look pretty damn good to me from the Rays perspective

Obviously any starting pitcher is a bigger injury concern for a team vs a position player when handing out a long term big money contract. With that said, i think anyone is kidding themselves to think that teams won't view Sheets as a higher injury risk than most other pitchers who have secured big contracts. Just because starting pitchers as a rule come with extra risk, they don't all come with the same risk factor.

According to muscoop, Marquette might be landing a young assistant named Josh Pastner from Arizona University, a highly thought of assistant coach and supposedly an extraordinary recruiter. Good news if it ends up happening

The entire team deserves to get some of the blame for giving up 151 points. Just because he's on the court, though, doesn't mean he was guarding Duhon, who DID score most of his points during junk time. During junk time? That whole game was junk time. Yesterday was the first Bucks game i've watched in awhile and i found it hilarious entertainment. It almost felt like i was watching one of those AND1 streetball games minus the flashy dunks. Entering the 4th quarter, the Bulls were shooting an astounding 72% and i'm not talking about from the free throw line, it was comical. I was almost waiting for Medowlark Lemon and Curly Neal of the Globetrotters to burst on the court and start pulling down the shorts of players on the court and throw paper in the crowd. A random rec league game at the YMCA would have had more defense, pride, and intensity than that joke of an NBA game last night with two teams that absolutely had quit on their coaches and played with zero pride except for a few hungry young players. Glad i tuned in though to watch that debacle, it was pretty funny

I eat more cereal than Jerry Sienfeld did and love Golden Grahams also. Between myself and my kid, we go through 3-4 boxes a week. Right now we have on the shelf Golden Grahams Honey Nut Cheerios Cranberry Almond Crunch Frosted Flakes Cocoa Puffs The only bad thing is cereal seems to be getting quite expensive the last year or so