JoeHova

"mongoloids" by devo is a great song that I think can stand on its merits and doesn't have to be a guilty pleasure. as for guilty pleasures, I guess the difficulty of admitting that I like certain bands depends on who the audience is. for some of my more strident friends, admitting to liking anything other than hardcore hip-hop is sacrilege. I really like Cat Stevens, which I don't think is that embarrassing except that he's a little more soft rock-y than I normally like. I also really like Oasis, who I used to strongly dislike, so I guess they count. Blue Oyster Cult, Silkk The Shocker, Eric Clapton, Queen, Pat Benatar, Weezer, R.E.M., John Hiatt, Marc Cohn, Mariah Carey, Cher, The Animals, Neil Diamond, Fabolous, Shakira, Jonny Lang, B-Rock & The Bizz, Eminem, Big Tymers/Hot Boys, Everlast, Groove Armada, Royksopp, The Bucketheads, Fatboy Slim, Moby, Pet Shop Boys, Prodigy (the band, not the MC), The Streets, Gloria Gaynor, Kansas, Jewel, Ben Lee, Bee Gees, Bowling For Soup, Fountains Of Wayne, Marilyn Manson, The Darkness, Men At Work, Jay & The Americans, Bobby Darin, Johnny Mathis, Scorpions, The Heights, The Proclaimers, Simon & Garfunkel, Wham!, Soft Cell, Scandal, The Bangles, & Stan Bush are also all artists that I have some qualms with liking. I could go on, but I was getting bored.

I don't know that I've ever heard a Nickelback song except in advertisements but criticizing a band for sophomoric or trite lyrics is a slippery slope to head down, imo. Bad boy rock,bad boy roll, Gabba gabba,see them go, C,Jay now hit the gas, Hear Marky kick some ass, Go Johnny,go, go, go Tommy o-way-o I'm a person just like you But I've got better things to do Than sit around and smoke dope 'Cause I know I can cope Laugh at the thought of eating ludes Laugh at the thought of sniffing glue Always gonna keep in touch Never want to use a crutch Crazy, but thats how it goes Millions of people living as foes Maybe its not to late To learn how to love And forget how to hate Back in black I hit the sack I've been too long I'm glad to be back Yes, I'm let loose From the noose That's kept me hanging about I've been looking at the sky 'Cause it's gettin' me high The first verse is the Ramones, the 2nd is Minor Threat, the 3rd is Ozzy Osbourne, and the 4th is AC/DC. Those were just four songs with stupid lyrics that came to mind. That said, I still like all these songs and artists. You could argue that the Ramones were being stupid on purpose with those lyrics, but the point is that stupid lyrics alone aren't enough to condemn a band, imo. That said, all 4 of the groups listed had some long-term artistic merit. The Ramones were a progenitor of punk, Minor Threat started the straight edge movement, and Ozzy Osbourne and AC/DC have had a large influence on hard rock and heavy metal. Nickelback is unlikely to have any influence in 5 or 10 years simply because they (and plenty of similar bands) are merely vehicles to sell records (not that many bands ever objected to selling lots of records). Cynical, I guess, is the word I would use to describe much of the current pop scene.

I dunno, only 2 guys ever hit 70 and only 3 others have ever hit 60. 60 is still pretty rare, done by only 5 guys in 130+ years (although only 85+ years in the live-ball era). I hope Prince can hit 60 or even 70 (or 74?) homers in a season, but I would put the likelihood somewhere below 10%, despite his prodigious power at such a young age.

based on Newsweek's rankings, which had King as the top school in Wisconsin 4 of the past 5 years. Also based on their being one of only a couple hundred schools in the country to win the National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award multiple times. I didn't go there and I am the first to bash MPS, but credit should be given when it's due and King deserves a lot of credit.

but surely there were other factors involved in the team's lack of success? Home run hitting does not equal losing.

Until Sampson got hired at IU I never knew he had this kind of reputation. I always thought he was well-respected, wasn't he even the president of the coaches association? However, I don't think UW fans should be too smug about this. UW has committed plenty of NCAA infractions over the years. That's the most well-known one, but it alludes to other recent "major" violations at UW, which, iirc, included bribes paid to coaches by boosters.

Rufus King isn't just "pretty good", it's the best high school in the state and one of the best in the country. Anyway, I went to MPS. When I was in middle/high school my friend's sister was probably the most feared person in our school(s). When she fought other girls, she made sure to rip off their shirts/bras after beating them down in order to cause maximum embarrassment. She was about 6'2 and built like a man. Once she got arrested for knocking our (male) Physics teacher unconscious in a melee. Nobody wanted to fight her, male or female, student or teacher. She eventually got expelled, of course.

If Nix makes the team, he definitely has a leg up on getting hated. That ESPN article on Tony Gwynn's hit described Nix as "slumping" last year. His whole career has been a slump! Kendall also will probably get hated, due to his horrible hitting and throwing. I'd say the candidates for hate in 2008 are approximately: 1: Laynce Nix 2: Jason Kendall 3: Eric Gagne (people may be skeptical due to his time in Boston and his PED use, so if he gets off to a bad start...) 4: Derrick Turnbow (people are getting sick of him) 5: Chris Capuano (the long losing streak will be in the front of people's minds unless he gets off to a good start) 6: Ned Yost (if the Brewers aren't well above .500 by the break, I expect people to start being very upset with him) 7: Guillermo Mota (see Gagne, substitute New York for Boston) 8: Gabe Kapler (Milwaukee has no affection for him, unlike Boston, so if he gets many ABs, I expect some dissatisfaction) 9: Claudio Vargas (if he is in the rotation this year with guys like Villy and Parra waiting in the wings, it could get ugly) 10: Abraham Nunez (because he is absolutely terrible and should not see the field)

once again, we're getting too far into theoretical happenings, imo. Livan has beaten his xERA each of the years you posted the numbers for, usually by quite a lot. Meanwhile, Bush has been significantly above his xERA the last 3 years. Both of them played for two franchises during that time span, so I'm not comfortable attributing all of the difference to defense. If you are, that's fine, but I don't believe things like xERA and FIP have been proven to be accurate enough to throw out all the actual data. Those things say Glendon Rusch should be a good pitcher and Tiger Wang should be terrible. I'm not that comfortable relying on something that sometimes misses reality that badly. Sure, sometimes ERA doesn't tell the whole story, but it does tell a story, unlike the other things. ERA measures how effective a pitcher and his defense were at keeping runs of the board that year. I realize that I may be coming off as something of a Luddite, which is far from the case. I have plenty of books on sabermetrics. It's just that I have not been convinced that these fake ERA's are better than regular ERA's, at least over an extended period. I think they are just pieces of the puzzle and if a guy has a multi-year track record of them being horribly inaccurate, it's better to throw them out rather than keep clinging to them.

ok, but if you aren't using ERA or FIP, what are you using? I inferred that you were using FIP based on your denigration of ERA. Are you using k/bb ratio? because that's a key component of FIP. I realize Livan's was bad last year but he usually gets an ok amount of Ks. Also, my main point wasn't that I'd rather have Livan than Bush, just that Livan has some value and is not total garbage like Ponson or R. Ortiz. He's still a legit major leaguer despite my lingering antipathy toward him for blowing Game 7 in 2002.

like has been pointed out, this would only really make sense if LaPorta isn't good enough to crack the Brewers as an outfielder or be used as trade bait. It would be sweet if he could still catch though. Although if he could, he may have been gone by #7.

This is mere ignorance masquerading as comedy, which is why I dislike guys like Rome so much. Like Bullox pointed out, the name of the boat was clearly a pun referring to Sprewell himself. Puns are very common in names of boats and it's stupid to make fun of Sprewell for a pretty funny one. And as for yachts in Milwaukee, I guess they didn't realize Milwaukee is situated on the largest lake in America. In addition, one of the oldest and most prestigious builders of luxury yachts in the world is located in Wisconsin (Burger Boats).

Ok, but Livan and Suppan are the same age, have both thrown over 2000 career innings and their career ERA+s are within 1 point of each other. You aren't going to convince me that they haven't been similarly effective over their careers. Also, if you're basing your argument solely on DIPS/FIP, hasn't that been discredited as being the end-all of pitching stats? I'll take 10+ years of track record over theoretical results any day. Theoreticals are interesting, but at some point they have to become reality and so far the theoretical idea that Suppan is better than Livan has not come to pass. I learned this lesson with my repeated championing of Dan Gadzuric based on what he could theoretically do given enough PT. It's been many years now and it hasn't happened, thus the fact that a case could be made for it happening is pretty irrelevant.

To be fair, Livan is significantly better than Ramon Ortiz. He had a better ERA+ last year than Bush, Capuano or Vargas. He had a season that was basically identical to Suppan's, which makes him pretty useful, albeit underwhelming.

Is that a reputable site? I kinda want that to go with my other pink Brewer hat, but I don't know...

I think rich guys go broke not necessarily because they spend so much money (although they do) but rather because of how many family members, hangers-on, and other associates they are supporting or ennabling. I know if I was rich, everybody I know would be asking me for money, I imagine it's the same for athletes and entertainers. It's probably even worse for them because they are famous in addition to being rich, so everybody that they ever knew knows that they are rich.

It's funny how much an extra 2-3 MPH affect what people think of a guy. If Villanueva threw 91-94 and had the same exact track record and age, people would be talking about him as a potential ace. I'm not a scout, but I do know that the vast majority of MLB pitchers do not throw regularly in the 90s.

LaPorta, Braun, Hart and Prince in the same lineup? Sounds good to me. I always preferred the AL because I don't see the point in subjecting ourselves to pitchers batting or to managers trying to figure out how to do a double-switch (I'm looking at you, Dusty & Ned).

here's another idea for the front of a "Tour" shirt or as a stand-alone design. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/chief119/brewerfan-netI.jpg

thanks for the feedback on Amazon's marketplace guys. btw, pogo, I've got another one for you. I found "God Bless Satan" by Mephiskapheles for $2.95 at a record store the other day. I bought it because I thought the title (and cover) was funny but now I can't believe I somehow missed this record when it came out. I was never that into ska, which is probably why. You may or may not have it already, but "The Bumble Bee Tuna Song" is a real standout. It's a fun album, despite the title.

Ok, here's a quick tour idea. I'm pretty happy with the back part, but I don't know if other people will like the name of the tour or the tagline or the front design. It's kind of funny to me, but people not into stats might not get the reference (plus, maybe it's just not funny, I don't know). Also, I don't know if we can have a front and back or not. If not, I can modify. Anyway, here's the back of the shirt: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/chief119/bfnetnattour.jpg and here is the front. I'm picturing a relatively small printing on the front, not a design that covers the whole front: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/chief119/computerguytour.jpg

well, here's another idea. Let me know what you think. I plan on working on the tour idea some more today, but it's hard to think of logos (especially when you have limited artistic ability). http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/chief119/startbrewers2.jpg

That's my favorite part of the article. I generally like Karabell, but that quote indicates that he has no idea how park effects work. Maybe a so-called expert should know something like that?

speaking of this topic, has anyone tried ordering used CD's through Amazon's marketplace? There are a few out of print CD's I want, but I don't want to hunt all over town and have a slim chance of finding them even then. So, I'm curious if people have had good experiences or not (and if there is any policy to protect buyers).

could someone hook me up with a high resolution bf.net logo? The guy drinking the beer would be best.