danzig6767

I'm one of the hating the DH rule crowd and even i'd vote Edgar in before Dawson. For me when it comes to the HOF in any sport, i prefer putting in guys that were dominant over at least 5-6-7 year stretches even if say their overall career numbers were lesser than some guys who were more consistently good over a career with less greatness though or if an injury/injuries lessened the career stats of a guy who was dominant over a 5-7 stretch. Edgar Martinez from 1995 to 2001 was arguably the best pure hitter in the game with a roughly 1.000 OPS average over those seasons. Yea i hate that there is a rule in place that allows guys in the AL to not have to put on a glove and field a position, but it is what it is and Edgar was a top 3 hitter in all of baseball over those years that no pitcher would want to face with the game on the line. He was a truly special hitter and i like greatness in the HOF over consistently good players over a long time like say McGriff types. As for the rest, everyone else covered why Blyleven should be in. Roberto Alomar should be an easy call and first ballot IMO. Larkin is also plenty deserving even though i think Alomar was a litter better. No way would i have voted in Dawson, especially over multiple more deserving guys.

I saw it in the theater and didn't understand the hype for the movie at all. I don't remember even once feeling scared or overly tense. Like you say it was pretty much trying to copy the Blair Witch format, but i found Blair Witch to be extremely entertaining when i first saw it, not so much with Paranormal Activity. I didn't think it sucked like most who i know who saw it, but i wouldn't exactly recommend it either.

This is a great CD by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41p4tB77bXL._SL500_AA240_.jpg This is a great song by them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDmClTcAnD0

I used to attend 1-2 games a year, but i must be getting old because i now refuse to attend anymore late in the year games when it's freezing. Just not enjoyable for me to freeze my balls off for three hours. With my nice big screen HD plasma and it's beautiful picture, i find it much more appealing to sit and watch the cold weather games for free in my heated home with a friend or two, dollar beers instead of eight dollar beers, no waiting in lines to take a leak, and no hour plus ride home.

While i love my dog very much, part of the reason i've been as willing to spend this much money is my daughter. Tyson was a birthday gift to her a few years ago and she loves him to death. When he first broke his leg and it was bent in three directions, she was crying hysterically. Then we brought him in the house and this look he gave me of terror and help me just melted away the money concerns that i won't lie were immediately running through my head. FWIW, i finally was able to get in contact with the vet and his initial quote for amputation was about 500 dollars, i feared much worse than that. I just pray that i don't face anymore medical issues with him for a looooooooooooooooooooooooong time.

The difference with Swisher's bad 2008 is he maintained his patience at the plate. His obp was still 120 points higher than his .219 batting average. Players with that kind of patience are far more likely to bounce back from a down batting average year. I'm not convinced Hardy will ever duplicate his 2008 season. It wasn't just 2008 that Hardy had a good season though. In 2007 Hardy hit 26 homers with a .786 OPS, which is above average production for a shortstop at the plate. If Hardy can duplicate even just the 2007 season, i'm sure the Twins will be thrilled. If i was a Twins fan, i'd love the Hardy trade.

I'd be for signing Smoltz if he'd be willing to accept an incentive laden contract. Even with his struggles last year, he still got lots of swings and misses along with giving out few walks.

I'd say they are a mediocre team when Bogut/Redd play well and terrible when they don't, especially when Bogut has his lazy games. Fans got overly excited by the good start. The Bucks had a 6 game homestand during the good start, that is very uncommon. Not only was there a six game homestand, most of the teams the Bucks played at home early on were the weaker teams in the league and on top of that, Jennings was shooting out of his mind the first 10 games. Once the schedule got tougher and Jennings crashed back to earth, the losses inevitably started to mount. As for Redd, he was overrated in his prime and now that father time and injuries have caught up with him, Redd is a below average player who gets max contract money.

Craig Smith sure loves that penalty box

That's a good one Al, i wish it was the case

Man i feel bad for those Marquette kids. They are an undermanned team and played their hearts out against two of the top teams in the Big East only to just have two gut wrenching losses to show for it.

My dog broke his leg in three places this summer and two of the fractures healed quickly. The worst fracture was a very slow heal and Tyson finally got his cast off about two weeks ago. For the first few days he rarely used the leg, but by last week he was pretty much walking on it normally. Well, something must have happened while i was sleeping because i woke up to my dog shaking like crazy and him refusing to put any pressure on his leg. I was nearly certain it was broken again. Being a Saturday, my vet wasn't open and i dreaded going to the emergency vet clinic given i've already had to take him to there twice after other instances and they are crazy expensive. Between the last visit there after breaking his leg to cast and stabalize/cast it, the eventual surgery on the leg, and all the visits until the cast came off, it cost me almost 3000 dollars. That's on top of his dislocating his hip not long after i got him which was about 500-600 dollars and 1100 after he nearly died the prior summer after a bee sting. It's been insane. So now he goes and breaks his leg again in the same place that was supposed to be healed. The emergency vet visit tonight was yet another 350 dollars for a X-Ray, splint, sedation, and medications. The doctor said the only options are another surgery or amputation. No way in hell i'm forking out another 1500-2000 on another surgery, much less take a chance it breaks again afterwards. That leaves amputation. I'll call my vet monday, but i forgot to ask the doctor tonight what roughly the cost for a leg amputation is. Anyone here know that had it done on their dog? After the amputation, is there lots of care needed? Does it take a long time for the dog to grasp what's going on? I love my dog, but wow, i've spent over 5000 on him in 2 1/2 year, it's ridiculous.

They wouldn't

Sure Sabean has a plan in free agency If you're about 33 or older http://www.starwars-collectorbase.com/Bilder/WeWantYou-black-400.jpg

I agree that visually the movie was incredible, but the weak plot frustrated me because the movie could have been so much better. It didn't have to be a visual masterpiece with a cliche riddled plot.

I'm not a big stat follower mostly out of lack of interest, but i don't think they are saying Manny pitched fine last year, he was just unlucky. They are saying he pitched poorly and was unlucky, both are able to happen in a season. Thus, his numbers were miserable instead of just being bad where they should have been with a little better luck.

Yea, this is a real head scratcher to me, paying for save numbers over production. That said, the Angels have made a fair share of moves the last few years that i questioned, yet they win 95-100 games.

I clicked on that fangraphs link. As one of the few baseball fans left that don't read up much at all on the many new stats out there, a lot of that page looks to me like it was written in Chinese. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

They really are only paying 5 million because Silva was do to make 4 million more than Bradley. I look at it this way. Silva was sunk cost as junk that Jack may have just eventually waived. If Bradley actually produces well though in Seattle, they get that production basically for free. If he implodes and acts like an asss, they can just waive him as the same sunk cost Silva was.

So let me this get this straight... A jump on the ball doesn't matter until it matters? So I guess Braun is a good fielder until he isn't or Soriano is good fielder until he isn't? How is that logic even defensible? Even if you get to a ball and catch it your feet may not be set as well as they otherwise could be if you had time to circle the ball thus allowing a runner to move up on a weak throw, maybe it adversely affects the accuracy of a throw, etc... it could affect any number of variables on given play other than catching the ball or not. This is one aspect of baseball and outfield play that's pretty black and white, either you get a good jump or you don't, and it certainly has an effect beyond just catching the ball or not. By the quoted logic you could say just about anything... it doesn't matter if you miss the cutoff man until a runner takes an extra base, it doesn't matter if you throw ahead of the lead runner until the runner behind him takes an extra base, it doesn't matter how you grip a ball until you airmail a throw, it doesn't matter if you get your glove down until a ball goes under, and so on. If you're a professional, someone who's paid to play the game, you'd better be able to execute the routine or you are opening yourself up to criticism, well deserved criticism in my opinion. There is absolutely some natural aptitude involved, some guys just have a knack for it, but that certainly doesn't excuse poor fundamentals on regular basis. Yea, guys with good natural instincts in the outfield who don't run around in circles are guys who get to balls that the less instinctual ones miss by a few feet and end up rolling to the wall. It won't get called an error because it's not an error, instead it's just the case of a subpar defensive outfielder who is unable to get to balls the better ones do. Watching Cameron in his time here, he had fine speed, but what made him a special defender was the way the minute a ball was hit in his direction, he just instinctively knew the precise route/angle to take to for tracking the ball. Thus, he'd make catches without having to dive for that a guy like Hall would fail to get to because he wasn't able often enough to read a ball off the bat instantly. That split second of indecision is often the difference between a ball in the gap or a deep fly hitting the ground/wall instead of being caught. Andruw Jones before he got fat was the best i ever saw reading balls off the bat and making catches look simple that would have better made to look tough for lesser centerfielders.

FWIW, i heard Melvin interviewed on Homer today and at least when it comes to defensive stats, Doug didn't sound like he believed in them much. I personally don't have much interest in learning about all the various baseball stats out there, i just watch the games so i don't know about how much credibility should be put in defensive stats. Melvin though did say in the interview that he doesn't have much confidence in all the defensive stats out there and instead preferred the eyeball method for evaluating defense. Listening to him over the years, my gut feeling towards Doug when it comes to statistical based analysis is that he certainly uses it and feels it has value, but that he has more "old school" type of beliefs in evaluating players and team building than some of the newer GM's who are extremely stat based in how they go about team building.

How accurate in general are these sites like CHONE anyways in predicting team wins? Enough to even bother caring what they predict?

From the time Pat Gillick took over the Phillies and since Ruben Amaro replaced Gillick, the Phillies have been a very well run franchise.

Yea his health does seem a concern, i'd worry more about that than his pitching abilities

Yea, Lee said he's testing free agency, so Philly moved on to Halladay