bjkrautk

If pressed for a Yes / No, I'll have to say 'no.' As much as I love watching him pitch, I not comfortable trusting Sheets to make 30+ starts. After Gallardo went down, I don't think they have the depth to absorb Sheeter being out of the lineup for an extended period. ...besides, it's much easier to predict failure and be pleasantly surprised by success than for things to go the other way.

I usually won't watch any late night shows unless I want to see one of the guests (ie., they booked an attractive lady), so I'll watch either Conan or Ferguson. I'm not going to google up the reports, but since the strike, Ferguson has actually beaten Conan in the ratings once or twice. Considering NBC is pushing Leno out the door to give O'Brien the keys to the 10:30 show....that can't be great news for them. Open-minded on Jimmy Fallon; I liked him on SNL. The key will be finding out whether his new writers will stack up against his old writers.

58 BB : 1262 ABs. Safe to say he did not - in fact - draw a walk all that often. (Edit: in all fairness....if my history playing baseball video games tells me anything, I'd be even worse at drawing a free pass.)

Note to the new director: When the umpire steps in front of the plate and start jawing with the catcher between pitches....SHOW THAT! (They did replay the whole thing....but I don't know why they waited until after Molina was tossed to show the argument.)

I guess I don't see 'pulling the ball' and 'hitting to the opposite field' as Schroeder-isms....so much as part of the business of calling a baseball game. It's jargon in the strictest sense, but important jargon as it explains the way defense lines up against a hitter (e.g. teams that shift when Prince Fielder is at the plate). Maybe if you mean hitting the ball where it's pitched (ie, it's easier to pull an inside pitch, and to hit an outside pitch to the opposite field), that is something that could be attributed to Schroeder, but he's by no means the only one who says it. (Of course, I've been listening to Bill for years, and since Brewers baseball is my primary source of baseball knowledge, my sample size is hardly neutral. And Catchers are awesome; B.J. Surhoff was one of my favorite Brewers!)

Out of curiosity, how does the Brewers schedule splits in '08 compare with the Cubs in '07 (or the Rockies for that matter, teams that went on an incredible winning clip during the second half of the season).

...Their Mothers' Day campaign is easy to explain. (Yeah, I get it....even if it did take ~10 minutes to think up a reference someone else hasn't used already.)

Mark Belling just threw out an interesting name for a potential Brewers manager: ESPN's Buck Showalter. He's the former manager of the Yankees, Diamondbacks, and Rangers. As someone who is personally tired of seeing the Brewers fail to execute with runners in scoring position, and failing to make good decisions in the field and on the basepaths, a no-nonsense Manager like Buck would be very interesting.

I thought that recent versions of iTunes had an option to "reverse sync" material onto a new computer (provided you are within your DRM usage limits). You might want to look for that before downloading additional software.

Professional ne'er do well. (See Also, Attorney. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif)

"It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside -- whether you're white...or black...or sasquatch even. As long as you follow your dream, no matter how crazy or against the law it is -- except for sasquatch. If you're sasquatch the rules are different."

When playing on Hard mode, do you call in the pinky finger, or still slide the main 3 fingers up and down the fret board? I'm over 90% on most of the songs at medium difficulty (using the 3 fingers), but find myself failing quickly when trying songs on Hard mode. Practice is obviously the key, but I'm curious to find out if there's a universally preferred way to go about practicing these songs. (Moving to Medium, I made the conscious decision to shift fingers to the middle 3 buttons, and slide up to green....thinking that would make the transition I'm currently working on an easier one.)

I wouldn't go that far; he back-doored the fastball. The Catcher did set up off the plate to Hall, but the ball cut towards the hitter and was on the plate. Hall just gave up on the pitch way too soon....and got burned for it. Bad approach at the plate; nothing we haven't seen before.

Jeff Weaver threw 6 innings in 12 of his 27 starts in 2007. WHIP: 1.53 BB/9 IP: 2.15 K/9 IP: 4.91 HR/9 IP: 1.41 (admittedly, in Seattle) ERA: 6.20 Manny Parra has thrown 6 innings in zero of his 6 starts in 2008. WHIP: 1.99 (1.70 MLB Career) BB/9 IP: 5.55 (4.81) K/9 IP: 7.16 (8.0) HR/9 IP: 0.98 (0.67) ERA: 5.86 (4.83) I'm not saying that Jeff Weaver is a cure-all, or even a cure-much, but he's far more likely to reduce the strain on the bullpen that Parra is right now. I think the case for Weaver replacing Dave Bush is almost as good at this point....but a major-league starter just has to be able to give you six innings work, if not more.

Honest question: is the hitting coach at fault when players don't do what he says? I find it hard to believe that he's teaching the hitters to try and pull everything, take poor approaches at the plate, and to tense up whenever you start to slump. That said, whatever it is he is teaching the Brewers hitters doesn't seem to be taking hold anymore. (I had high hopes in the beginning of the season, when the Brewers were playing A-B-C baseball, but the past few weeks have been discouraging.) When does a new voice saying the same old things actually induce better performance?

I saw a full-page ad for this promotion in Friday's(?) Journal-Sentinel (paper version). Any time I see an ad that size without an obvious product, it piques curiosity. ...not enough curiosity to do that kind of legwork, but I'm glad to see that someone else did it.

I bumped the Sveum thread after the decision to send Sheeter on that play. I don't want any starting pitcher involved on a play at the plate; I'd rather take my chances on the top of the order getting a base hit. Part of the problem was that Sheets didn't have a good jump, as he had to make sure the ball wasn't caught....but that's all the more reason not to wave him around on that play.

The # 1 SP should never be involved in a play at the plate while running the bases.

I was surprised that they cut off the throw. Sheets even looks good at the plate!!!

The 80GB PS3 can play PS2 games (via software emulation), the 40GB PS3 cannot. (The earlier 60 GB PS3's have the PS2 hardware inside the console, so it has very few compatibility issues....that's why I bought my PS3 back when the 80GB units came out in Europe.) Look to this page on the PS3 website for a searchable database of PS2 games and whether they are playable on your PS3 of choice. It's far easier to for you to look up the games that you are concerned about, rather than leaving it to us to track down and list every game. It is my understanding that PS1 games work on all versions of the PS3. The PS3 can create a "virtual memory card" for your PS1/PS2 game saves. Be warned, though, that you will need to buy (or at least borrow) a memory card adapter for your PS3 in order to transfer memory card data from your PS1/PS2 to your PS3.

Note to Marvel comics fans: STAY THROUGH THE CREDITS! (None of that Cloverfield, audio-clip-played-backwards junk.) There are definitely scenes in the movie where you can tell the people who know and love the comic book characters, and the people who are there to see a popcorn flick or were dragged to see it by someone who loves the characters. I don't know whether Jon Favreau grew up a comic book fan, or whether his supporting role in Daredevil brought him into the characters....but it's pretty clear that this is the movie he wanted to make...and not just a paycheck (Ratner's X-3) or having characters forced in by the studio (Venom in Spider-Man 3). It had a number of surprisingly funny moments (mainly centered around the Stark mansion) for an action film. Personally, I'm just glad they found a way to introduce the character without using any of Iron Man's weirder / racially insensitive (Mandarin) rogues gallery. Robert Downey Jr. is pitch-perfect as Tony Stark, such that I can't wait to see follow-up films with him in that role. Likewise, when they cast Gwyneth Paltrow as Tony's assistant, I was afraid they'd overuse the character; I'm glad to say that didn't happen.

Presuming you're going to sit a few feet away from the TV, you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between 1080i and 720p from that distance (or 1080p for that matter). Honest question: what brands of TVs are 1080i nowadays? I bought a CRT that way about 2 years ago, but I had thought that the other technologies (LCD, Plasma) were progressive scan (the 'p') and not interlaced ('i')? Know that none of the TV broadcast networks air shows in native 1080p; some do 720p (ABC), others 1080i (CBS). Any TV you buy now should be able to receive the other two signals, and properly render the picture consistent with the HDTV's native format. Video games and Blu-Ray discs are the only current sources of 1080p video (unless one of the HD cable / satellite channels broadcasts in that format). As to your main question, Wii games vary greatly in terms of control scheme. Some of them only use the Wiimote held sideways like an 8-bit Nintendo controller (e.g., Fire Emblem), others use the Wiimote held like a pointer, still others use the Wiimote and 'nunchuck' attachment, and still others allow you to use the 'classic controller' attachment to the Wiimote, or just plug in one of the GameCube controllers to the ports hidden on the top of the Wii. Games like Smash Bros. or Mario Kart let you choose from multiple options; other games lock down to a single control scheme.

Kendall caught Parra on 4/11 (Loss to the Mets at Shea) and 4/22 (12th inning Win hosting St. Louis). Rivera has caught 3 of Manny's 5 starts this year. While Ned Yost likes the familiarity between the two, based on their time in AAA together, it's not an exclusive "personal catcher" scenario.

I play my PS3 most often (actually, second most....but the Nintendo DS isn't one of my options), then Wii. If you don't own an HDTV, you should give serious consideration to the Wii. (Doesn't mean that games won't look good in Standard Definition....it's just an admisison that you're not getting the most for your dollar with the other two.) Second, as others have said, it depends on what you want to play. I own a PS3, but I'm not about to advocate about either system's offerings. You're going to have to put in some groundwork based on what you like. Third consideration is taking your console online. Many new games offer (or will offer) additional content or multiplayer modes which can be accessed online. All three systems have firmware which has been (and will be) updated multiple times per year. The Wii can access a wi-fi network out-of-the box, but doesn't have an ethernet port (for wired networking). The PS3 has both wired (ethernet) and wireless (wi-fi) capabilities. The XBox 360 has an ethernet port, but charges $100 for its Wi-Fi adapter (a ripoff, IMO). For both 360 and PS3, you'd actually be better served to wait a month or two. Sony is still bundling the PS3 with the SIXAXIS controller, and not the new Dual Shock 3 controllers (the old controllers lack rumble support). Likewise, Microsoft will eventually replace their current system setup by replacing the CPU and the GPU with different chipsets, which should finally and completely solve the "red ring of death" hardware failure problem. There are about a million other concerns we could spout off (XBox live has better services for online play, but comes at an added fee; PS3 is a Blu-Ray player, PS3 allows you to manually upgrade the size of your hard drive, the 40GB PS3 is no longer backwards compatible with PS2 games, and the 80GB version only has limited backwards compatibility, etc.), but for most people....it comes down to which games they most want to play.

Spoken like a true vampire. We won't be fooled so easily.