fstorm1

Last week we knock off the most dreaded team in the (softball) league, and move into first all by ourselves (4-0). Literally, they have been the best in the league for about 15 years. This week? We tie (8 innings) a team that's 1-3. D'oh. Yeah, it's not a loss, but it sure feels like it.

HA! Well said. I left the house this morning with a hat on, as I didn't want to get hit by any sky.

3 more...still down 3%.

1, 2 , 3 votes for Kate. But she's still down 5%.

Good points. Are you talking about the catch Counsell did make? That thing was a beauty. Plenty of blame to go around, which is almost always the case with a loss.

fstorm...seriously, you believe it was the right call for Yost to bring in a guy that scores virtually all inherited runners? If not all. You actually believe Yost didn't leave that pitcher out there too long? lamp, I trust the judgment of Attanasio and Melvin, who both believe Ned Yost is the right man for the job. I'm not going to join in the hatred of Ned, because frankly, I don't think I or anyone here could do any better. This is something that alot of folks here don't agree with, sadly. Are there people here who know more about baseball than I? Probably. And that's fine, that's one of the reason's why I visit this site as often as I do. But the hatred of Ned around here is ridiculous. Absurd. Does he make mistakes? Sure. I won't throw out the "nobodies perfect" cliche again, as it apparently holds no water. But it's easy to rail on a guy after the fact. If I were in Ned's shoes tonight would I have made the same moves? I don't know. But I tend to be quicker to lay blame on players for screwing up than coaches. I blame Aquino for much of tonight. There were multiple instances, tonight and all season thus far, where players have not come through. Most, including yourself, choose to blame Ned for that. I blame the player. We see things a little differently. But we all hate to see the Crew loose. And that's good. Now, I do find Ned's "fielding" comment odd, but I'll wait for a little more info before holding him to it. As for joey, I've never used the "nobodies perfect" comment in defense of Ned. I was, in fact, using it on Turnbow, Cordero, and Rivera. Cordero had a fine '06 with the Crew. Aquino has had success in the big leagues. Not on the level of Cordero, or Turnbow, but he's pitched good in many more games than he hasn't: in '05 he had 4 outings were he got rocked, out of 35 total. Take those out (like removing Cordero's bad April last year), and his ERA would have been 3.14 (mmmmm, piiiiiiiii). In '06, he had 4 out of 42 bad. Remove those: 2.01 ERA. Is he a great pitcher? No, he isn't. But he's no dead beat. I certainly expect this team, if healthy, to win far more than 45% of the time this year. I'm not sure I could say that about any of the last few years (mainly because of the health issues). If they don't, then I will certainly question the who's, the why's and the how's, just as I expect Melvin and Attanasio to.

Hatred?? -- c'mon -- Ned choked this game away. No one hates Ned. Ned should be called out for this. Because he pitched so poorly this evening. So what? -- that makes leaving Aquino in the game defensible? Read the rest of my post. I mentioned "nobodies perfect". Everybody screaming for Turnbow and Cordero every night. The Turnbow everybody was ready to throw into Lake Michigan after last year. The Cordero who pitched so badly in Texas last year they were happy to send him over here. "Nobodies perfect". This is true -- but we should win the games we are in. I agree. And I think that would be lovely. But there's alot of very good players and teams in this league, and, to throw out the cliche, "You can't win 'em all". Yost has a career 45% winning pct. he has never had a winning season -- why should he not be feeling some heat? He should be feeling heat. Because this year he has the talent to succeed. Can we honestly say he had this kind of talent in previous years? Healthy talent? Now I remember why I rarely post in the Major League forum anymore. As razzzorsharp put so eloquently (punctuation aside) in the 300 wins thread: "300 (wins), thats pathetic? Most Brewerfan posters would have had at least double that in that time.".

Let me just say I'm not defending Aquino. He screwed up, again, and as far as I'm concerned, he should go down and (hopefully) work things out. But I'm not going to jump on Ned for this. It's not Ned's fault that Aquino couldn't throw strikes, and then when he did, he hung 'em. It's all about hatred and by golly, this site is full of folks who are willing to jump on Ned for anything. Sure, Cordero was ready. Heck, Turnbow probably could've gone too. But then they'd be burned for the next game, and maybe another. Makes zero sense to overwork these guys in April. It was a tie game. Tomorrow they may be up by one and, if they'd used Turnbow and/or Cordero tonight, they wouldn't be able to go. Then who do we use? Dessens? Aquino? And let's not forget Turnbow got poked around the other night. Mariano Rivera got ripped tonight in Boston. I'm not comparing Aquino to either of those guys, but nobodies perfect and in Ned's case, all he can choose from is who he's got out there, or whomever Melvin gets him. Hate Aquino for this, that's fine. He screwed up. But I really think the hatred for Ned is extreme around here (Powell mentioned it the other night on the radio...not sure if it was directed at BF.net, but it certainly applies).

Turnbow and Cordero had both pitched in the last two games. Wise can't go more than an inning, much less on more than a day or two. Aquino is part of the pen, at least he was...can't see what he's got in him unless you use him. I'm not happy about it either, but given the bullpen and who's pitched recently, he was the guy. Too bad Capellan is being such a knucklehead. He would be with the club tomorrow (and still might be).

Huh. Let's see, Aquino prior to tonight: 7G 6.1IP 0R 2BB 5K 0.00ERA 1.11WHIP .217 BAA Seems to me he had done alright. Why not give him a chance in a tough situation? Never know if he's got the toughness to handle it. Better to have him fail in that situation in April than "test" him in that situation in September. Wise had tossed in back to back games. Is he a better option than Aquino? Sure, but with what Aquino had done this far, why not put Aquino out there, then have the regular 8th/9th rotation? Why get into a trend of overusing guys in April? But, yeah, Yost is an idiot for throwing him out there, and telling him to loft 50 foot fastballs. And for telling Bush to struggle all night, and let Cincy back into the game so many times. And for making Hardy and Hall commit errors. And for screwing up the ozone layer. And stealing the Lindbergh baby. I hear Dusty Baker is available.

Continuing my catching up... Doom- Let me be the first to say I've played the game exactly once in my life. Didn't do a whole lot for me, and I didn't have any grand expectations for the movie, either. Perhaps that's why I somehow enjoyed this thing, on some low level: my expectations were so low, there really wasn't anywhere for this film but up. It's not great, nor even good, but it was okay in a mindless way. I like Karl Urban enough, and The Rock is certainly charismatic, and I suppose they raised the film up slightly. There's a fairly interesting little plot twist to start the third act, and a sorta nifty "homage" to the game at about the same time. I'd hazard a guess this is probably the best of the "video game to movie" films ever made, though I haven't seen them all. I think from this point on I'm just gonna refer to any film that "does something for me on a low level" as "the Soldier effect", named after one of all time favorite mindless films. Layer Cake- Somewhere along the line, I got the impression this was another "Snatch"-like funny violent British crime movie. Whoops. Note to self: read write ups for films a little more carefully, perhaps twice, if you've had a few Spotted Cows. Decent enough film, not the "great film" I thought it would be based on reviews.

More catching up...I suppose there is one thing to be gained be being out on sick leave... Miami Vice-I'm a pretty big fan of Michael Mann, and firmly believe "Heat" is one of the finest America police thrillers ever made, and I've enjoyed all of his films to a certain degree, but I think he misstepped badly with this one. Perhaps it's my bias against Colin Farrell (never seen him give a good performance, his best being Minority Report, and even that was so-so), but almost assuredly it was the writing. I don't think either of the two "heroes" had anything interesting or deep to say and I developed no emotional attachment to them whatsoever. Not a terrible movie, just not very good. Monster House-I've gotten tired of all the CG animated films coming out these days, and it takes alot for me to even get interested enough in them to rent them (except when my daughter would like to see them), but this was actually pretty good. One of the biggest problems I have with any CGI is motion, and how it tends to look artificial and "slow", especially when whatever is animated is running, but this was very fluid, very nice to look at. The Big White-A very good cast essentially wasted in what turned out to be a fairly lackluster film. At first I was thinking comedy, then not so much, then comedy again, then not so much...well quit screwing around and pick one. Nothing special. This is actually the same way I feel about... The Break Up- I'm a fan of Vince Vaughan, and am man enough in my masculinity to say he's handsome and fun. I'm also a fan of Jennifer Aniston because, well, she's Jennifer Aniston. But this was another lackluster film which couldn't make up it's mind. Sad really when the funniest piece on the disc is the outtake from one of the other characters. King Kong-Peter Jackson's uber long adaptation is apparently much closer to the book than it's 1976 version (yikes), but again, as I felt with all three of the LOTR films, they're too long, feature waaaaaay too many wide panoramic shots, and I failed to develop any actual attachment to the characters, except Kong, which was extremely well realized. Poseidon - Oy vay, even my hero Kurt Russell couldn't save this piece of garbage. As I've mentioned before, attachment to one or more of the characters is important to me (and to alot of other moviegoers), but I've never seen a film where I cared so little about all involved, and how there was no emotional attachment between the characters. Terrible film. Jackass 2- I'm proud that I can be high or lowbrow when it comes to comedy, and I enjoyed much of this sequel, just as I did the first, but I found the "stunts gone wrong" bits considerably funnier than the "gross out" bits.

I just watched Talladega Nights last night. I had to force myself to watch it because a) I think Wil Farrell is wildly overrated and b) it just didn't look fun from the trailers. Incredibly, I enjoyed it alot on some low level. Not a great movie by any stretch, but I laughed out loud quite a few times. I especially enjoyed the ridiculousness (?) of Ricky and Cal's relationship after Cal "takes over" his life. And I especially liked Gary Cole as the father. The scene where he is talking to his grandkids on the front lawn is priceless. All this after i couldn't even finish watching Anchorman all the way through. Maybe the reason I thought it was as funny as I did was because I just saw "The Ringer" the other day, and that was a complete waste of time. Maybe one or 2 laughs. Maybe. Also saw The Descent, and at the time, I thought it was okay, nothing special. But it wasn't until after the movie, maybe over the next 24 hours that I really thought about the film and realized how good it was. The multiple "antagonists" (setting, the beasts, the underlying story between the leads) was very very good. On a side note, I went back and watched a couple of my favorite films' commentaries in the last coupe days, Predator and Hellboy. I remember the good old days when director's commentaries were rare and a real treat, but now every movie has them, and they all tend to be boring. But McTiernan's candor on Predator and Del Toro's shear passion make those commentaries 2 of my all time favorites.

Ho boy, get ready for the Gwynn bashers to jump on that one. I like TGJr alot, and would like to see him get a chance, but even I don't think he's as good as Baldelli.

Although I see your side, and I agree that having that type of player at that age would be great, I'm still not sure if I'm sold on the idea. We're talking about 3 pre-29 year old pitchers, two of whom I happen to think could be very good for quite some time (Cap and Vill), especially Vill. At 22, he gave us all a delicious sip of of the full bottle this past year...those 3 should, in my opinion, net us not just a "potentially" great player, but a "proven" star. Maybe 2 of the three, but not all three. Plus, I still look at it from a replacement standpoint: which is easier, 1 good outfielder, or 3 good/above average arms? And yes, I apologize for what may be the weirdest analogy I've ever used in my life. I have no idea where that came from, and again, I humbly apologize. "Delicious sip..."? What did I drink tonight? Yikes.

I always thought you weren't supposed to deal that much pitching depth for a single guy? Granted, I've always liked Baldelli, and it would be lovely to have him, but 3 pitchers, including Vill? Seems awful steep... Guess I was just always under the assumption that pitching depth was more valuable, easier to replace one outfielder than 3 pitchers. Am I wrong in that thinking?

Islands-soooo, when you're plastered and roaming through downtown Neenah...does the city Christmas tree look more crooked, or does it actually look straight?

Pretty slick, I tell's ya. Thanks for starting it.

Man, you guys make me feel like a kid again, as I live vicariously through your many drunken exploits. Summer, Luke's Sports spectacular, then passing out on the hood of a car in a Webb's parking lot. *sniff sniff* Keep it going fellas...just for us older farts.

Baaah. No originality. Where's McClendon when we need him...? Whatta shmuck.

Please. Two weeks into the season, and there were (and are) daily posts of how Helms "sucks". People aren't necessarily pulling for Wes, they're pulling for the team, which is fine, but all the posts about how he "sucks" and needs to go blah blah blah...those are uncalled for and useless. The guy's 27. Last I checked, he had a decent year last year. Only with playing time can he get better. If anything, Craig should sit, move Spivey to short and play Gint at 2B. And yes, there are plenty of people here who have "ill will" towards Wes. I don't have the time now, nor the desire to go back to each game posts and find all the bashers, but feel free. I just thought he should be given more time than just 25-30 games.

Careful there, Peavy. Words like that'll get you lynched by many of the locals around here. Atta boy, Wesley. Still pullin' for ya.