JoeHova

Well, they traded their future (not all of it, obviously, but some very nice pieces). Let's see how it works out, but I do have to say I'm quite unimpressed with the return.

Amen, QFT, etc. You said it perfectly, in my opinion. If you give up an Inman along with 2 other guys who have good shots at the majors, you hope to get an impact player, not an OK 7th inning man. The Brewers pen has been pretty good, I dunno why the brain-trust was so keen on making a move of this nature.

How about SD/Brewers in the NLDS with Inman playing the K-Rod role while Linebrink pitches in mop-up situations? How much would that suck?

Yeah, Estrada is underwhelming, but he's probably fine for a catcher. The reason I qualify that is that there was a lot of talk out of AZ about him being a Latino AJ Pierzynski, meaning that everybody on the team hated him and was glad to see him gone. That may just have been the typical bash-guys-after-they're-gone thing that most teams seem to do, but perhaps not. This is where trading Bush+ for Salty from ATL would make some sense, if they could get that done. I don't see the Brewers going for that though, as they seem to be stupidly obsessed with going for it this year.

Sure, but what did they get? 20 innings? 25? No way would they have dealt the first 6 years of a Gallardo or a Braun for something like that, even if you consider the possibility of compensatory picks (which I'm skeptical of because Linebrink isn't that good. I think they end up non-tendering him after he gets rocked down the stretch or if they tender him, he takes the deal like Graffy did).

I'm not so sure that this is true. I know that a very good predictor of being a great hitter is debuting at a young age. I would assume that a similar thing is true of pitchers. There will always be guys that debut at a young age and flame out and old guys who develop late, but in general, getting to MLB very quick is an excellent sign for a player's future.

The problem is that with Gallardo and Braun in the majors, he was their best prospect. I'm not sure why the Brewers didn't like Inman that much, especially when you consider that they have just had success with two guys who aren't that big and don't throw that hard (Villanueva and Gallardo) and just signed a 3rd guy like that to a $42 million contract. Inexplicable, imo.

He looks like a real idiot. The interview that he gave on the show where he debuted that haircut was interesting, but he seems so condescending towards Americans. I'm not a "rah-rah USA" type of guy, but it does annoy me to some extent that he seems to have made such generalizations about a place with 300 million people. He seems to think that a subset of 450 young, famous, multi-millionaires represent the whole of American culture.

Ok, so Dumbledore's original explanation in the Half Blood Prince was a lie to protect Harry. That's kind of what I figured.

This story has been around for awhile, I saw Green talking about it on ESPNews a couple months ago. I guess it's back in the news because they picked the family they were going to give the down payment to. Anyway, Simmons got the idea from Warrick Dunn, who has been doing this for years. That's why I've always liked Warrick Dunn. So far, his foundation has done this 60 times. He "assists single mothers in owning their first home by providing the down payment on a house and then filling the house with everything a first-time homeowner would need including: furniture, food, linens, lawn mower, gardening supplies, washer, dryer, dishes, pots and pans, etc."

I almost read it as the opposite (however, that may be colored (or should I say coloured?) by my desire for more books in the series). Rowling didn't mention at all any of the main character's occupations (except Neville's, but that has seemed a foregone conclusion since he discovered his aptitude in an early book) or anything. It seemed like she was leaving it open to go various ways. All we really know is that Harry is alive, married, and has 3 kids by the time he's 36. Wizards seem to live a very long time (Dumbledore seems to have been at least 80 judging from the timeline of the books and he was still in his "prime", as it were) in her mythos, so plenty could still happen to Harry even if we rule out a flashback to a time before the epilogue. We don't even know what career Harry chose. You would think he could have a nice political career if he was interested (and he may have been, considering the various semi-political causes he endorsed throughout the series), but he may also have become an auror, a pro Quidditch player, or whatever. I do have on equestion though. There were 7 horcruxes, right? Diary Ring Locket Cup Diadem Nagini Voldemort Harry But that's 8 things. Which was not a horcrux? Voldemort himself? But that makes very little sense, doesn't it? How could he be alive without some remnant of himself present in his body? Or were there 8 horcruxes and Dumbledore just lied to Harry so as to not freak him out? But if that's the case, why stop at 8? The rationale for 7 was that it's a very magical number, which made some sense. Oh, and one more question, how did Gryffindor's sword get back in the sorting hat after Harry traded it to that goblin? Was the one Neville pulled out of the hat another fake made by Dumbledore? Those were really the only two things that stuck out to me as being kind of poorly explained or plotted.

I'd keep Prince and Braun where they are for now, but I don't see why Braun couldn't hit cleanup. Anybody that hits for power can hit cleanup. As for JJ, I'd prefer to move him down to 6th in the order before I started messing with Prince or Braun. I was looking at the numbers and JJ is slugging under .300 since May 25th. I don't think Babe Ruth batting behind him would make any difference, he just isn't hitting well lately. In fact, that's sort of an argument against protection mattering, because JJ's stretch of horrible play coincides almost perfectly with Braun's callup and Braun has been hitting at an MVP level the whole time he's been batting behind JJ.

you hate to see that. Hopefullly no misfortune befalls Ryan.

Tommy Lasorda is huge douchebag, you should hear how he treated his dying son and that would eliminate any warm feelings you had for him.

I remembered it, it's "Here I Go" from Mystikal's 1995 album "Mind of Mystikal". The song is a classic of southern hip-hop. However, I didn't realize that Mystikal is currently serving a 6 year prison sentence. I guess I haven't been following hip-hop much the last few years.

No, Prince's song is an old Mystikal song. I can't recall what it's called, but Gary Sheffield also used it as his walk-up music when he was in Atlanta.

oops, then I'm doubly sorrry. I'm a woot noob though, so I wasn't aware.

I think that was the point, that it was so out of character. After all, it was a fight to the death and one of her sons had already been killed. Decorum is usuallly out the window in that sort of situation, which I think Rowling was trying to stress. I liked it, but I wish the epilogue had been a little more robust. I wanted to see what a sans-Dumbledore/Voldemort wizarding world would look like. I guess that comes from me wanting there to be more books, which I know (probably) won't happen. As for Draco, I think his mom redeemed him when she lied to Voldemort about Harry. That was my take at least.

close, but it was his 3rd career AB (2nd game with the team).

Apparently (I can't find a box score that confirms that he actually played), Coolbaugh was a member of that 2000 Olympic team with Ben Sheets. No (current) article that I've seen has mentioned that fact though.

I agree that this may be the simplest solution. You could even consider going to Disneyland with one set of parents and Disneyworld with the other set. I also agree with pogo that there are literally thousands of great places you could visit in the US and thousands more abroad. And if both sets of parents are set on the same location, why not just all go together? Do your in-laws not get along with your parents? Why couldn't you all schedule a trip at the same time? It could actualy be more fun for everybody because there would be more people in each age group to hang around with. I don't know what your family situation is like though, so that may not work.

Sorry about this thread, but I remember that in the recent woot off thread, a couple people were lamenting missing out on roombas so I thought I would just give a heads-up.

That's so crazy. I can't believe that that happened. I can only hope that he had at least been enjoying his new job before he died (he started coaching 1st this month). I am just shocked.

Hmm, he's still only 27. Maybe we'll some day see a Jim Morris or Joe Winkelsas or Salomon Torres type story from him. We can only hope. I have no idea if he is even still interested in baseball or anything though.

It sounds like they aren't fans of each other. It's kind of funny that it got so personal.