Funketown

Go Heels!http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif WOW! I went out to get groceries for dinner and came home expecting to see the same disappointing 3-0 score line. Epic win. The sCrUBS are now 12 games out of first place! Looks like their "dark-horse" season has been bucked.

How about Helena? Yuni's trying his hardest to end the "worst starting position player in baseball" debate. I'm really hoping his time here is nearing an end...

The cheering on Hart's double was unnecessarily loud. It probably really hurt the feelings of the Cardinals' players. You fans at the park really ought to be more conscious of the feelings of opposing ballplayers.

Well after a week down here in Chapel Hill (NC), I'm pretty optimistic about the future of the beer scene here. Nothing has really amazed me yet, although I really enjoyed Mother Earth's Endless River Kolsch (Kinston, NC). Duck-Rabbit (Farmville, NC) does some good stuff (Milk Stout, Porter both good), and I also thought Aviator's Tripel (Fuquay-Varina, NC) was a good effort at the style. Although there isn't a huge number of breweries in the state, craft beer culture seems to b pretty prominent, at least in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. There are some nice bottle shops down here, and I'm lucky enough to live about a mile from a pretty good one. In Durham, Sam's Quik Stop is the place to go for beer (about 15 minutes from me); all bottles there are available in singles and they have pretty much everything from the East Coast you can get in NC and lots of Colorado and California too (Allagash, Terrapin, Ommegang, Green Flash, Stone, Avery, Founders, Bells, etc.). I already miss my old favorites (New Glarus, Tyranena, Central Waters, Surly), but luckily I still have family in Madison to supply me when they come down. All I can say is I'd kill for a Moon Man in this heat!

Ron Roenicke makes me want to break things. I'm betting Kotsay has hit Westbrook like 3/9 or something like that. Edit: Kotsay is 7/24 with 2HR's against Westbrook. That's a .942 OPS. I do seriously hope Macha has not picked Kotsay due to the "matchup", but he never ceases to dumbfound me...

I'm a bit out of the loop, what's this deal with Carpenter and his son? Edit: Just remembered. Hopefully his son is okay, I would hate for his child to be as scarred as Prince's home run ball.

Nope, just a great baseball fan! Congratulations, hopefully Greinke throws a perfect game and there's a TV in the delivery room. Time for some poultry hunting.

Would it be really bad to have sort of "bye weeks" for MLB teams? 7 teams could play each other at a time, while the other one could have a few days off. Obviously not ideal, but the players might like it and it would solve the whole interleague problem.

That's awesome. On a side note, am I the only one who thinks he sounds a little bit like Barry Bonds, at least outside of that maniacal laughter?

Is Plush playing through some sort of nagging injury? He hasn't hit a triple since June 1.

Hopefully he was just sticking up for one of his players. I don't mind seeing Counsell getting the better end of a platoon. He still seems to be in pretty good shape and plays well in the field, so I imagine he can handle it physically. Again, Counsell won't be a world beater, but he will almost certainly play above replacement level, while Yuni most likely will not. Counsell with the "Craig Counsell Cycle" tonight. 1B, 2B, 3B, BB.

I don't think that could have happened any better for the Canucks. Nice work by Luongo, just clean, conservative goal tending. No stunning saves, but good rebound control and positioning. Excellent work by Vancouver's D-men cracking down on the few solid odd-man rushes the Bruins had. All in all, a great win.

Irregardless is not a word.? But it's commonly used.? If you think about what regardless means, you can figure out why irregardless isn't a word.? And I was told it this way so don't take it the wrong way.? I used the word before too. (I use that word all the time too, just thought of Mr. Wiggum.)

^That's the story I remember with the Pettit family as well. I'm pretty sure the franchise fee was comically absurd.

Saw that on gameday (hockey intermission!). Was that a bunt for a hit, or called by Lucroy?

Remember that one time Counsell lead off an inning with a triple? Argument ended.

I think the Oilers sold out every game at Rexall this season. Canadian fans have absolutely packed the stands in recent years, while most of the teams at the bottom of the attendance table are southern clubs and the Islanders. At some point, a northern migration is inevitable. Here's my take on some possible moves: - A second team in Toronto is going to be a really tough sell, but if there is a time to do it, it's now. The Maple Leafs are horrible. Still, I think the allegiances there are just too strong. - Hamilton may be an option though; for some reason I think Hamiltonians would be able to drop their Leafs allegiances quicker. With the Leafs and Senators right around the corner though, it would still be tough. - Quebec City is too small of a metro. - Portland is a solid 6 hours from Vancouver. The metro is about 2.3 million and they have an arena that could be used. To me, this seems like a very good expansion option. - I don't know how I feel about Milwaukee. I've just never seen it as the center of Wisconsin hockey; Madison and Northern Wisconsin have always seemed to be more interested in hockey than Milwaukee. - Boise was mentioned in the article. Seriously? - Salt Lake City was mentioned as well. Just seems far too small for a non-Canadian team. So, ultimately I think Portland (or Seattle) is easily the best remaining option, while Hamilton and Milwaukee might work as well. I'd like to see the league move back north, but I'm just not sure many more northern cities could sustain teams. Ultimately, I'd like to see Phoenix moved to Portland and both Florida and the Islanders contracted. Oh, and GO CANUCKS GO!

But Counsell has a career 10.8% BB%. For somebody to reach that career BB% simply due to variation would be absurd. How can you possibly not attribute this skill to him? Edit: For comparison, Ryan Theriot has an 8.2% BB%. That's a significant difference given the number of plate appearances each player has.

Unfortunately this logic cannot be applied to keeping Nieves.

RockCo, if walks are mostly the product of the pitcher, how would you explain this: Ivan Rodriguez: 10,232 PA, 510 BB (5%) Nick Swisher: 3,988 PA, 533 BB (13.4%)

If I'm going to get beat, I don't care who beats me. Heck, letting Pujols tee off on one is less annoying to watch than a David Eckstein infield single+SB+advance on groundout+balk off.

Just for fun, I typed Wil Nieves' career major league batting line into an MLE calculator to predict his AAA equivalent. Here's what popped out: .251/.310/.338/.648. His PCL Equivalent for this year is .172/.237/.223/.460! His A-ball equivalent is .212/.298/.277/.575. I also typed in Kottaras' AAA batting line and got his MLE. Here's what popped out: .303/.369/.516/.885. Of course these models ought to be taken with a grain of salt, but they're still a pretty fun toy to play around with. Does anybody know if Kottaras has any experience in the outfield, at 3B, or 1B? At his Zips projection (.230/.320/.380/.700) he would be a solid last guy off the bench utility type guy. Probably clutching at straws here of course.

It will probably be Castro, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sean Marshall and his 0.95 ERA makes it onto the team as a lefty specialist instead. He's actually been spectacular these last two years.

It's really hard to watch McGehee right now. I really like the guy and I really want him to succeed, but I fear his honeymoon is finally coming to an end. Taylor Greene might be closer to Milwaukee than we expect...

If people are drinking from glasses, I'd go with New Glarus' Moon Man for sure. Great American Pale (if you haven't had it already), mildly bitter but lots of fruity/floral hop character and very refreshing. Two Women would be better straight out of the bottle. If drinking straight out of the can/bottle, I'll suggest Capital Amber. Malt-centric so it should be fine out of the can. Sessionable and pretty accessible (and $10.99/12 pack, to boot). Ale Asylum's Madtown Nutbrown is a pretty sessionable and accessible one too. I don't think Kona distributes to Wisconsin, although I think they have been distributing further east. Edit: Oddly enough, I saw Longboard Lager for sale at the Harris Teeter in Carrboro, NC. I've never understood the novelty with Hawaii beers, and I haven't been impressed by any of them, but perhaps the novelty is enough to help Longboard sell out here.