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bjkrautk

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Everything posted by bjkrautk

  1. bjkrautk
    Your selection is simply not good; while I may never hear it again in my lifetime, it doesn't try hard enough to make 'worst song ever.' To truly transcend, it has to have enough of a hook that people treat it as if it were good. Repeated playing of a bad song makes it worse. 'My Humps' is one of those songs, but it is not the worst offender. There exists one song with the utter genericism to apply to convince a plurality of people that the song applies to them, combined with some of the most vapid, incoherent lyrics ever penned. That song is, and always has been, "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison. You my...worst song ever. Sha-la-la- la-la-la- la-la-la- la-ti-da.
  2. bjkrautk
    His swing - but for the release of the bat - looks too smooth for this to be real.? It could be the video quality, but I don't know how his hands could get to the post-release position after that release.? I want to believe it's real...but it just can't be.
  3. bjkrautk
    The reason 'signability' is such a big concern in MLB and not in the other sports is because in the case of an Eli Manning (or John Elway) scenario, the team with the top pick cannot be adequately compensated. They have two choices: make the player hold out, or pass on the "top player" and take someone who will sign. The alternative to the Eli Manning scenario actually also involves the city of San Diego. In 2004, the Padres passed on Jared Weaver (7-2, 2.08 ERA; 74 SO / 90.2 IP this season) and Stephen Drew (.728 OPS) to select Matt Bush, who never came close to making the majors. The Padres were surprisingly open in admitting that signability was the reason for the pick. Justin Verlander (7-3, 3.39 ERA; 110 SO / 90.1 IP) went second to Detroit. Under the NFL rules, the Padres would have at least been able to accumulate additional picks by trading down, so that they could make a disasterous pick in the top 10 instead of #1 overall.
  4. bjkrautk
    Things I'd like to see in a new CBA: - Worldwide draft, treating Japanese high-schoolers the same way we treat Canadian high schoolers. Professional baseball players in foreign leagues should still operate under the type of buyout system we've seen for players like Ichiro. - Tradeable draft picks. - If a draft pick is granted to another team in compensation for losing a Class A player, the granted pick should be transferrable if the receiving team signs someone else's Class A player. (e.g. The Brewers would have received the 29th overall pick from the Yankees in compensation for C.C. Sabathia, instead of the 73rd? pick) Sandwich picks are non-transferable / non-tradeable (like compensatory picks in the NFL).
  5. bjkrautk
    (No, I'm not bumping the thread to evangelize Valkyria Chronicles again....although there is new DLC available...) With the shipment of the much-hyped, much-delayed, Ghostbusters game this week (in stores today or tomorrow, depending on how they restock), I thought I'd give the games thread a bit of a bump to see what you're playing / interested in for this year. It's mostly sequels for me this year: Assassin's Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, Uncharted 1 & 2, and the new Rachet & Clank game. The only new IP that I'm really looking forward to is Scribblenauts -- a DS game you really have to see played in order to understand. Current gaming rotation: World of Warcraft, Mass Effect (360), Fire Emblem (DS) & Rock Band / Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta (PS3 - although I haven't played either in awhile).
  6. bjkrautk
    The Dodgers drafted Brooks Bollinger of the Badgers a few times, despite the UW not having a baseball program. It happens.
  7. bjkrautk
    For all the talk about patience at the plate, only two of those players you listed have actually had the p/pa numbers increase over last year (Hart & Kendall...excluding McGehee due to sample size concerns). The focus on the Brewers having poor years also diverts attention away from the successes of players like Braun and Fielder (two players who have greatly benefitted from being more patient at the plate). Despite the slump, Cameron's current OPS (.855) is higher than any season in his career (previous high is .837 for the Padres in 2006). Weeks' 2009 season - shortened as it may be - is his best OPS season by .050. Also, Sveum wasn't the hitting coach for the Brewers last year, so I don't think that the success of former Brewers is that relevant (particularly Branyan - who hits well everywhere he's been, so long as he stays healthy enough to do so). As I see it, the problems for this team's hitting have been: 1.) Hardy's bad luck (BABIP about .03-.05 behind his career numbers) 2.) Hall's 3rd consecutive reduction in year-to-year OPS. 3.) Corey Hart looking more like 2008 than 2007. (I see the Weeks injury as a 4th problem long-term, but one that is being mitigated quite well by McGehee's hot stretch.) I can't put the blame for any of that on the hitting coach.
  8. bjkrautk
    I have to say Mike Minor, despite him being listed as a top-10 guy by both Mayo and Callis (I like him, but a likely # 3/4 starter doesn't usually warrant that high a pick). Sticking with my top college lefty starter philosophy. Barring that, but still sticking to the low-risk strategy, I keep coming back to Pollock (although I'm afraid he might put up Brady Clark-type slugging numbers, which would make him more of a marginal MLB starter). As far as the type of player I think they'll actually take, I'll stick with the LHP and say Tyler Skaggs, a projectable HS'er. (Of course, I dislike the idea of taking HS pitchers in the first round of the draft, but his profile matches the kind of guy the Brewers would look at.) That said, I haven't put nearly the amount of time in reading scouting profiles this year, so I don't think I'll have a strong reaction regardless of the pick.
  9. bjkrautk
    I tend to disagree with the argument. One start for a (starting) pitcher is about 3% of his season; a comparable percentage suspension for a position player would be 4-5 games.
  10. bjkrautk
    I'd be a lot more interested in smart-phones (including the Pre) if they didn't require me to double my monthly phone bill. I just don't have enough legitimate reasons to browse the web at all times in order to justify that added expense. If carrying around an iPod Touch (which has only one app, and I've never even used that) in addition to my cell-phone makes me a luddite, then so be it.
  11. bjkrautk
    Since the game is being developed by BioWare (KOTOR, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 1&2), it would be far more likely to come out for 360 than PS3. That said, there are very few console-based MMORPG's out there (FF11 is the only one I can think of, unless some PSO servers are still up; FF14 and DC Universe online should be out in the next 12-18 months as well), so the odds are against this coming out on a console.
  12. bjkrautk
    Tuned in a few minutes late, so I missed the running joke. The Universal Studios tour was evertyhing I would have expected out of Conan O'Brien.
  13. bjkrautk
    Maybe Coffey should start wearing a "Not Tim" shirt for warm-ups.
  14. bjkrautk
    These conclusions match up with what I'm seeing by Tracking Corey's Plate Discipline numbers off Fangraphs over the course of the season. Corey's swinging at fewer pitches overall (balls and strikes) while making contact considerably less often than he has over the course of his career. Not sure if it's a slump, or something of a long-term problem (like fitting the square peg into a round hole -- making over Corey's swing doesn't seem to be helping).
  15. bjkrautk
    1) Your laptop has vents on the bottom for air circulation. I'm guessing that, when you actually use the laptop on your lap, you're blocking the fan from doing its job. 2) I'm guessing you have a variety of programs which auto-run ever time you start Windows. While computers do get slower as time goes by, a component of that is the slow drag on system resources. Aside from removing programs you don't / won't use again, or backing up the drive and making a clean install, there are ways to remove programs from your boot list (I just don't have a good link to help with that).
  16. bjkrautk

    Podcasts

    bjkrautk replied to Katuluu's topic in Off-Topic Forum

    I listen mostly to the video game / pop culture podcasts (Listen Up, Giant Bombcast, Totally Rad Show, Co-Op, etc.), some tech industry casts (Tekzilla, TWiT, Buzz Out Loud), and Belling's podcast (if I miss the live version).
  17. bjkrautk
    Big Gamel Hunter?
  18. bjkrautk
    Thank you for your time in Milwaukee, as well as taking the time to interact with the commenters here at Brewerfan. Here's a question for you: As someone who remembers the MLB expansion draft, what was that process like? Did Tampa Bay know that you were interested in pitching when they drafted you, or were they looking for a hitter. (Obviously, being in the AL, the pitcher/pinch hitter concept has less value when you can do either one or the other.) Do you feel that baseball teams do a disservice to two-way talents (pitcher and hitter) by forcing them to focus on one role, or are players like Rick Ankiel and yourself exceptions to the general rule?
  19. bjkrautk
    4/22/09: 27.0 OSwing% 64.2 ZSwing% 44.2 Swing% 36.7 OContact% 86.9 ZContact% 70.3 Contact% 46.1 Zone% 60.3 F-Strike% 5/21/09: 22.5 OSwing% 66.6 ZSwing% 44.5 Swing% 41.3 OContact% 80.5 ZContact% 70.6 Contact% 49.9 Zone% 55.0 F-Strike% Interesting update. Hart's actually doing a better job of swinging at strikes and not swinging at balls out of the zone. Unfortunately, he's still doing a lot of swinging and missing; his Contact % and ZContact % are the lowest in his career (excluding his 1 PA in 2004, for obvious reasons). That's why, regardless of his walk numbers, he's still on a pace to strikeout 161 times this season. Pitchers are throwing him more strikes, as his Zone % is reverting to the mean.
  20. bjkrautk
    ...so, that's over. This season marks the first time that I was able to stay with the series through every episode (tip of the hat to TiVo for making that happen). Safe to suggest that Jack isn't going to die before next season?
  21. bjkrautk
    Suddenly I'm going to be watching Gamel's defense at third much more closely tonight, as that could make Hall an option at 2b. I also see that Escobar is going to be playing more at 2b in case of further injuries; that .676 OPS (in only 153 ABs, granted) isn't raising my confidence level in him as an everyday player, however. I think Rickie needs less tape on the end of his bat, and more tape on his wrists!
  22. bjkrautk
    I'll take Pitcher B over Pitcher A anyday. Having too many 4 IP starts will overwork a bullpen very quickly. The second part of the quote is more in-line with my thinking on quality starts: the number of them isn't as important by itself as it is relative to games started. It's a measure of consistency; it is something that you expect from your top 1-2 guys in the rotation, and hope for out of 3-5. Just look at the QS numbers for our starters last year (per ESPN.com) C.C. -- 17 GS (in Milwaukee), 15 QS -- 88.2% Gallardo -- 4 GS, 3 QS -- 75.0% (...the one non-QS was his first game back, when he only threw 4 innings) Sheets -- 31 GS, 18 QS -- 58.1% Bush -- 29 GS, 16 QS -- 55.2% Suppan -- 31 GS, 14 QS -- 45.2% McClung -- 12 GS, 5 QS -- 41.2% Parra -- 29 GS, 10 QS -- 34.5% Villanueva -- 9 GS, 3 QS -- 33.3% ...add in Looper (15 QS in 33 GS = 45.5%) between Bush and Suppan, and that tracks pretty closely with our evaluation of the pitching staff. As another indication of how good the staff has been this year, only one guy is under the 50% mark for quality starts, and that's Looper (2 in 7 GS -- the Brewers record of 5-2 in his starts is due in part to some above-average run support).
  23. bjkrautk
    Does Amy Winehouse count...or is she not 'rock' enough?
  24. bjkrautk
    What are the chances that the (rare) Trevor Hoffman bobblehead will come with the audio opening of "Hells Bells" a la Uecker's call of Braun's homer? (I realize there are tons of legal / copyright issues involved, but I would just hope that the Brewers had that kind of foresight. Plus, it's not like they need the full song...just the opening. At the same time, I'm operating under the assumption that this is something they're doing with all of this year's bobbles, so it's completely possible.) It's just amazing to watch Trevor come in and dominate the way he does. It reminds me a little bit of Doug Jones back in the day, except that Hoffman can still bring upper-80s heat if you're sitting on the changeup. I'm sure that he'll blow a few saves this year, but I have absolute faith in this team when they have the lead after 8 innings.
  25. bjkrautk
    15 teams / league means that either an interleague series is always ongoing, or one team in each league always has a night off. Neither one fits what MLB wants to do with its scheduling. EDIT: Curse my slow typing; there were no replies when I went to post this!
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