JoeHova

That's surprising to me too. I guess they think Salome and/or Lucroy will pan out. Or will Brett catch a little like how Rottino was transitioned to catcher in 2005 & 06?

I kind of liked the first one, it was more entertaining than spring training games, but it wasn't on the level of the Olympics or World Cup or other things like that for me. It will take time to build up that prestige and it might never happen because those other events are marked by people going all out to win, which can't necessarily be said of the WBC yet (at least, not for all the teams). I'll watch it again though.

Funny. I guess Willie Mays talked Griffey into going to Seattle, according to the M's president.

Nice. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif Good to see Mike not having a negative attitude about Kendall's somewhat inexplicable ironman status. I assume he was happy to finally spend a whole season in the majors, even though he barely got to play. I realize Rivera isn't perfect, but I like him and I hope he does well with his (allegedly/hopefully) increased playing time.

I am surprised by this, for both sides. My wife is not pleased with this development but if he can put up an ERA of 4 or below, all will be forgiven, I'm sure.

I'm not talking about contract, I'm talking about using his family as flimsy cover for not wanting to play in Seattle.

It's so lame of Griffey to keep trotting out his family as an excuse, first with the forced trade to Cincy, now with spurning the Mariners again (not that they should have wanted badly anyway). He lives in orlando so it's not like he gets to sleep in his own bed every night and baseball season mostly takes place during the summer anyway so his wife and kids could visit him for half or more of the season wherever he played. I guess he just doesn't like Seattle.

It's a sad commentary on Ned's reign of terror when we all get so excited by a manager saying he won't start a 35 year old catcher every day. Great move, obviously, but why did it take two managerial changes for it to happen?

Interesting. I'll give him a chance, hope he does well.

I don't know, it's hard to think of a good movie with a similar plot to "The Road". Too bad the movie isn't out yet. The only thing I can think of is to use a war movie like Apocalypse Now or a western like High Plains Drifter because those often have a similar feeling of desperation. Both of those are rated R though. On that note, "Grave of the Fireflies" is an animated movie that has a pretty similar theme to "The Road", in the sense that it's about two young children (rather than one kid and one adult) trying to stay alive while Kobe is being firebombed during WWII. A lot of people consider it one of the greatest war movies ever, as well as one of the greatest animated movies ever. It's only an hour and a half long. It's unrated by the MPAA but it was originally shown in Japan as a double feature with "My Neighbor Totoro" (by the same studio), so it is safely below an R. That's the best fit I can think of off the top of my head.

They aren't dumping salary to sign a free agent, they are dumping salary to re-sign Sessions and Villanueva, both of whom are currently better than Jefferson. If they are able to dump Ridnour as well, they might be able to bring back Ersan Ilyasova, who they still have the rights to. The Bucks are right up against the luxury tax limit next year and Sessions and CV are both free agents. Think of it along the lines of dumping Suppan to be able to re-sign Sabathia.

Bell's contract also expires the same year as Redd's and Gadzuric's (and Jefferson's). It will be great to be out from under those contracts. Anyway, I really hope this Portland trade goes through. If it does, it'll be like Christmas morning. They could solve most of their problems with that one deal. They get 3 better players by trading RJ (assuming Ersan come back), no matter who they actually get in return for him.

PF is easier to replace, and we might already have that replacement in Illyasova I kind of disagree with this. PG is vastly easier to replace than PF for a similar reason that 1B is easier to replace than SS. In other words, the population of guys who are 6-1 is much, much greater than the population of guys who are 6-11. Sessions is much better than CV and he's two years younger so I would keep him no question, but all things being equal, PF is harder to replace. Look at how the Bucks just signed a serviceable PG out of the D-League, yet they had to give Malik Allen, a legitimately terrible player, a 2 year deal just because he's 6-10. Look at the D-League in general. There are dozens of guards who are probably good enough to play in the NBA if they get the right break. The situation is not the same with big men, there are probably 2 or 3 who have any chance at all of being NBA contributors.

Nice signing for the Angels. To get Abreu for only 1 year is great because he's getting old.

If it's fair to say the Angels had a bad offseason because they lost Teixiera and K-Rod, why isn't it fair to say the Brewers had a bad one too? I think it's totally fair to say that. It doesn't necessarily mean the Brewers will be terrible next season or that they could have done anything to stop those guys leaving, getting hurt, or retiring, just that they lost a lot of talent and replaced it with two guys who aren't especially good and a random AAA scrub.

The alleged lying wasn't during testimony in front of congress, it was during preliminary questioning by congressional staffers and Tejada wasn't under oath. It's not perjury and the difference isn't "semantics". However, even if he had perjured himself, I would support that as well. No reason to snitch on your friends, although he probably should have just refused to answer questions rather than lie. Live and learn, I guess.

He isn't being charged with perjury, he wasn't under oath. Also, he's being charged because he didn't snitch on other players. Despicable move by the government. I applaud Tejada for not snitching on other people and I hope he still refuses to do so despite these charges.

It all depends on Gallardo and Parra. If they develop some, the rotation could be fine. If they get hurt or regress, the rotation will be a disaster. I really wish they didn't have Suppan. sigh....

Sessions needs to be retained. CV would be nice too, but sometimes his game is too one-dimensional. Another problem for the Bucks is that Ersan Ilyasova may come back to the NBA and the Bucks will need money to re-sign him as well (he's been playing extremely well for Barcelona in the Euroleague and is still only 21). I don't really know how people can claim Sessions has been inconsistent. If anything, it's his minutes that have been inconsistent. When he gets to play, he usually plays well. For example, in 12 career starts at PG, the fewest assists he's handed out is 7. So, if Sessions averaged his worst game as a starting PG, he would be 11th in the league in assists (9th among PGs). I'm not sure who to compare Ramon to, exactly, but so far in his career he has been pretty excellent. To claim he hasn't been requires a lot of nitpicking, which is fair, but let's also remember that he is a 22 year old 2nd round pick (#56 overall!) with 68 games of NBA experience before we go overboard bashing him for perceived weaknesses. davego, I don't agree with you that digging out from under Harris is what is required this year and if that's what Hammond has been attempting to do, he's done a remarkably poor job of it. If anything, the Bucks 3 best young players are all in place because of LH and Hammond's moves have been very average with the exception of drafting Mbah A Moute. The Jefferson trade is OK simply because Yi and Simmons have been useless the last couple years, but unless/until he moves Jefferson for an expiring deal and/or talent, it's not an actual good move. Man, if they can just dump RJ for LaFrentz or Szczerbiak or whoever, they will be in good shape. Redd is overpaid, but still a pretty good player. I think you can live with his contract until it expires or you get a good offer. What they can't live with is losing Sessions, CV and Ilyasova (all of whom are likely better than RJ right now) but keeping Jefferson. For that reason, moving him is absolutely imperative. If they don't, they likely lose all 3 of the young guys. I'm worried that Hammond thinks Jefferson's still a good player though. I guess we'll find out in the next 2 weeks. OTOH, maybe other teams have realized that Jefferson is useless (at his salary) and won't make trade offers, in which case the Bucks are boned.

He's on the preliminary roster, as are Alex Periard and R.J. Swindle: http://www.mlb.com/wbc/2009/rosters/index.jsp (That's the list of all players on the preliminary rosters, regardless of country. There are 10 Brewers, the other 7 are: Braun (US), Gallardo (Mexico), Julio (Venezuela), Mendoza (Panama), DiFelice (Italy), Rottino (Italy), and Welch (Australia).) I'm not sure when the final rosters have to be decided.

I'd take Braun over Hamilton simply because he's 3 years younger. Hamilton is a CF, which gives him an advantage, but he's allegedly a pretty poor fielding CF, so it's not a huge advantage. Because of that, age is the deciding factor for me (of course, it could be argued that Hamilton may still have room to develop because of his years away from baseball, but I have no idea if that's plausible or not). It's too bad tough, that Wayne Krivsky saw something Doug Melvin didn't and was able to get Hamilton from the Cubs. OTOH, it was good that Hendry didn't see it either and gave Hamilton to the Reds.

When I was a kid, I bought a 40 year run of National Geographic's from a neighbor for $5. Needless to say, I never looked at any of them. A waste of $5. I did use a couple for school projects though. anyway, here's a link to a guy selling a 30 year run of playboys (50's to 80's) for $7,500: http://www.antiquarianboo...m/collections.htm#playboy A guy selling a 40 year collection (60's through 00's) for $3000: http://www.sell.com/22FR3L Here's a guy buying old playboys: http://backin.thedays.com/sellingc.htm he says the Marilyn Monroe, Vanessa Williams, and Drew Barrymore issues are most in demand. going rate per issue for stuff from the 80s and more recently (except the Williams and Barrymore issues) seems to be about 30-50¢. Not sure about older stuff per issue. Complete runs seem to be worth more than the individual issues would be. I think buying used porn is a bit gross, but apparently there is a bit of a market for it.

Here's a link to a new 3rd party controller: http://www.techloops.com/...suni64cob&channelid=SHOPC Here's another thing, not sure if this is 1st or 3rd: http://www.playerschoicev...com/pd_controller_n64.cfm And you could always try amazon's marketplace: http://www.amazon.com/gp/...g/B000I0396E/ref=dp_olp_2 http://www.amazon.com/gp/...TF8&qid=1233878257&sr=1-1 you can get a new red one there for $90, or used gray in "very good" condition for $15. I'm sure you could find some cheaper (probably with a whole system too) on craig's list or a local video store, but I don't know if you want to make it a huge production.

Is there anybody they could have picked that would appeal to everybody? I doubt it, music is so subjective that nobody feels the same way about various acts. No matter who they pick, a bunch of people will complain, so why be so harsh about their choice? It's just a halftime show. The bigger question is whether doing a Super Bowl halftime show makes you a sell-out. I tend to think "yes", but I could be convinced otherwise. Also, most guys have sold out so many times that once more doesn't make any difference.

Aerosmith: 67 million albums sold in the US N-Sync: 32 million albums in the US Britney Spears: 31 million albums sold in the US Janet Jackson: 26 million albums sold in the US Justin Timberlake: 7 million albums sold in the US Those acts might all suck, but their lack of appeal to "average people" isn't the reason.