Polish Falcons

I'm with you on this Paul. I've been with AT&T/cingluar over five years now and not because I am happy with the service. Inevitably at some point over the course of a two year contract the phones they give you are going to break. The only option is to cancel the account, which is very costly, or take a new free phone or what I found to be even more laughable is the "upgrade". Then you repeat the two year cycle. Actually even an AT&T worker last time told me that technically it is not an upgrade to a better phone. And now after more like 6 years of service they are making me wait until March to qualify for an iphone4 at $199 rather than $499. I think cellphones are the one area of service where you get the least quality on what you pay for. There's no other service I pay so much money for that I am so continually dissatisfied with.

This game is so frustrating!!! Credit to the Rangers for being aggressive on the base paths, but all 3 of those runs could've been prevented with better defense. Price having some big issues covering first base quickly...

That was cool. Yay Giants and the Freak! 14 k's

I know that no hitters are spectacular but Lincecum looks just as brilliant as Halladay did yesterday if not better, if that's even possible, I guess it's not. 8 IP, 12K, 2H, 0ER. Hope he can end it like this with the complete game. This is one of the few players I want to root for in the playoffs. I would love to see Lincecum carry the Giants.

My prediction is that all the teams that I want to see win will end up losing in the first round. That means it will be the Yankees vs the Rangers in the ALCS, and the Phillies vs Braves in NLCS. Phillies beat the Yankees in the World Series. Yankees will steamroll the Twins. Phillies do the same to Cincy and Atlanta. The Yankees/Rangers series should be a good one, as will the world series. I do hope the Rays prove me wrong and end up beating the Rangers, Yankees, and Phillies. I'm also looking forward to seeing Lincecum in the playoffs.

I am surprised that the MPD has such hard evidence and the ability to track this guy down yet they are not doing anything about it. I would write a letter to the District Attorney, your local senator or congressman, or any ranking official who has responsibility to take action on such matters. If the MPD has a directive from a any such persons they will be more likely to do something about it. Keep a letter brief and to the point, include the threat, and the evidence that you have.

Also I think Fatter than Joey deserves honorable mention for predicting 78 wins in 2010 (1 win off) after correctly predicting 80 wins in 2009. This is the guy I will be looking to at the start of 2011.

Very valid points. The Marlins are getting a new stadium very soon, so they won't be moving, though. I would love to see the Rays move to the New York area. They could be the New Jersey Rays or Brooklyn Rays or something. Invader you just became my favorite commenter! I love the idea of putting a team in Brooklyn. The minor league Brooklyn Cyclones draw 8 thousands fans a game, and they are just in the meager short season NY/Penn League. Brooklyn is the most populous borough. Although there are already two teams in in NYC, it is a pain in the neck to get from Brooklyn to Flushing or the Bronx for a game, unless you have a car, which most of the 2.5+ million residents to not. For comparison it might be easier, or at least take less time, to drive from Milwaukee to Wrigley Field than it is to take the subway from most parts of Brooklyn to Citi Field. Another issue is that the Mets and Yankees do not offer family friendly prices. Lots of people want to go to games but feel they can't afford it. A Brooklyn team could take a different approach from the Yankees and Mets (lower costs and better management) which would be of great appeal to many Brooklyn baseball fans as well as other parts of NYC metro area. Affordable tickets, lower payroll, different attitude. Just carry the Rays management philosophy over. People are so burnt out on the disaster that is the New York Mets, and the other half will always hate the Yankees. It is a huge city with room for 3 teams. Although I think the Mets would take a huge hit, which they probably deserve. Anyway this is just a pipe dream but I love the idea and certainly believe that Brooklyn has the capability to run a successful franchise, far more so than any other cities that have been mentioned. Then again there is the issue of community opposition that the NBA Brooklyn Nets experienced. I don't know if the boro could go through all that again.

Pitch count Interesting, he was capped around 50-60 pitches? He threw 56. Not necessarily trying to criticize just curious...

Why did Rogers get taken out?

Like I posted, with other players getting raises, it's not quite this simple, even with cutting loose the additional ~$7M from Wheeler & Qualls. They'll get close to $50M, but not under without moving more additional salary/ies. My guesstimate is that they'll still need to cut $5-10M to get to where the owner claims they need to be. "pretty much" was meant to indicate this, and I was trying to touch on the main pieces without making footnotes for the obvious. The main thing I think is that Garza is available to be traded. I have been to Tropicana Dome and, now that the metrodome is gone, this is by far the worst park in baseball in my opinion. The stadium to me was grey and depressing. I actually left the game I attended very early, which is something I never do, because I disliked it so much. I actually think it might have been worse than metrodome for baseball.

The Rays can pretty much fall below $50M by letting Carl Crawford ($10M), Carlos Pena ($10M), and Rafael Soriano ($7M) walk, which I'm sure they will do. Therefore I don't expect some huge fire sale with loads of great trades. The one pitcher who I think will be most available for trade is Garza. He is the highest earner on their staff at just $3.3M this year, and is going into his 2nd year of arby in 2011. They don't have to trade him because he's fairly inexpensive still, but at the same time they need to make room for Jeremy Hellickson so trading Garza makes the most sense to me. It would be fun to hang ZZZZs at Miller Park for strikeouts. I would be cautious trading with the Rays however because obviously they are very smart. Garza or Shields aren't making enough money for the Rays to feel like they need to simply do a salary dump. They will be looking for value..........

I have been to 20 MLB stadiums. Fenway is by far and away my #1 favorite. It is a beautifully designed park and has held up very well with old age, and will never be beat. Every game there is sold out and has exciting atmosphere. I really liked Tiger Stadium and am sad it had to be torn down, as is the case with a lot of other old ballparks I never had the chance to see. Although I am moved by the classic stadium, I didn't think the old Yankee Stadium was that great. I like Wrigley but it is nowhere near to being on the same scale as Fenway. Camden Yards is a perfectly designed ballpark in my opinion which has not been outdone by any of the newer stadiums that have tried to replicate this style. I heard recently that Camden Yards is the 8th oldest ballpark in MLB, which really saddens me because I feel that most of the new parks are more or less the same. The new trends in MLB stadiums have really deteriorated the excitement of baseball travel for me. After seeing so many of the modern stadiums, I feel they are more or less all the same. There are exceptions I'm sure, stadiums like Citi Field, Nationals Stadium, Progressive Field and Citizens Bank Ballpark are severely lacking in character in my opinion. I also don't care for the silly field dimensions at places like Citi. The new Yankee Stadium is pretty cool, and contrary to most people's understanding they do have some really cheap seats available there. However it baffles me to think they spent $1.5 billion on a stadium that is not that remarkable in comparison to other new ballparks. I really don't understand it. I'm looking forward to going to PNC Park soon, as well as AT&T Park and Petco at some point because these seem like the best of the new. I hate to say it but I would put Miller Park fairly low on my list. Don't get me wrong I really enjoy the Brewer game experience, but I feel it was a big mistake to place the stadium in the middle of nowhere surrounded by parking lots and interstates. Architecturally speaking the dome is rather ugly. The music they play in between batters strikes me as particularly bad compared to other parks, where the bar has already been set incredibly low. I've also seen some great minor league parks. Centennial Field in Burlington, Vermont is a historic park with one of those classic grandstands behind homeplate which unfortunately don't exist barely at all anymore due to the need for luxury boxes. A few other great parks I've seen include Brooklyn Cyclones stadium and Staten Island Yankees in NYC. The reason these parks are so great is because they have successfully encorporated the surrounding area so well; In Brooklyn it is the Coney Island theme park and Staten Island's park is on the water front with views of Manhattan and all the big barges that float through the waterways. Minor League stadiums are also plagued by cookie cutter trends and I have seen some places with complete lack of character, to the point where I won't bother checking out minor league stadiums anymore without researching them first.

Derek Jeter is a little over the top here with his acting. Good for Joe Maddon for arguing until after getting kicked out here, this clip kind of disgusts me.

This article A Series in Need of a Promotion is about Mets vs Pirates but it very much reminded me of this Brewers vs Astros game. Anyone who has watched this game from front to end is seriously die hard and I congratulate you. I know I can't. Gobias, you've really been railing on Weeks throughout his slump, wow. I do agree he should get a day off.

AT&T Park has bleacher seats for like $10. You should go.

No, I'm ok letting the organization celebrate 600 for a couple days. I did think the milestone was overhyped for the duration of the season. But now that it happened yesterday I think it's worth some glory. And I enjoyed the interview with Narveson, who won't be playing for 4 days. It is pretty cool for him to be able to be part of that. Let them have something to be excited about.

Yes. I like promotions like score 100 points and win a free taco or score 5 runs and get 5 burgers for 5 bucks. However I don’t like the idea of handing out coupons for generators at the gate in place of traditional souvenirs such as pennants, lunchboxes, umbrellas, seat cushions, baseball cards, hats, beer cozies, bat day, t-shirts, etc. Hopefully these more traditional items weren’t purposefully abandoned. My feeling is that it is an economic issue since the companies pay for the giveaways, which stinks, but is understandable. To my knowledge this is not something that has been adopted around the league however. I’ve been to several stadiums in the past couple years and have not received any coupons for generators or mattresses or anything of the like. Those are probably the two worst “promotions” I have ever heard, for most people anyway.

Maybe that call is never made, but if there was ever a time to make it, that was it. Bush league play by Counsell if you ask me. He made no attempt whatsoever to reach 2nd base. His slide was 3 right of the bag straight towards Lopez, and his body was moving farther away from the bag. Funny to me that was as upset Maccha has been all year.

You guys did a good job with this. Here's 10 more I don't like: stone temple pilots clap your hands and say yeah better than ezra hootie and the blowfish staind death cab for cutie mustard plug papa roach g love and special sauce barenaked ladies

How much minors experience did Gamel get in right field? Is it feasible for him to get any starts there for the Brewers this month? I want to see Gamel play, but I don't see how you sit McGehe. He's batting .286 with an .816 OPS, 20 homers and 86 rbi's. He also has a very hot bat right now, and should be considered for August player of the month. Sure the 100 rbi stat is arbitrary, but I'm guessing it means something to him, and moreover I think he's earned the opportunity to play. I could see sitting him about one game a week. I also wonder if it's possible to shift McGehe to 2nd one day a week, resting Weeks, and letting Gamel get in games that way.

there's a pretty good recap of last night's game on the blog Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke, which is where I go for Pirates information: http://whygavs.com/

Bush is still listed as Sunday's starting pitcher on brewers.com, espn, etc. Any word yet?

I don't really think it's possible for a die hard fan, who follows a particular team from the time he was growing up, to just switch gears and become a fan of another team. Sure you can have a soft spot for other teams, just like I do now with teams the Rays, A's, O's, and Pirates, but you will never be passionate about another team in anywhere near the same manner as the Brewers. My dad grew up when the Milwaukee Braves were in town. When they left he didn't follow them or any other team until the Brewers came to town. That's the only circumstance, a new team relocates... I do like colby's comment about following the AAA team in Milwaukee, and their parent organization. Again though the level of fandom just wouldn't be the same. Me personally I would keep following MLB just as close because I am huge baseball fan, but I don't think I would ever be as devoutly indebted to another team as I am to the Brewers. I would do like I'm about to do now, turn on mlb.tv and find the best game of the evening since the Brewers played a day game.

Rays beat Phillies to win the World Series with relative ease in 5 games. Rays beat Yankees in ALCS (at Yankee Stadium). Phillies beat Padres in NLCS game 7 Twins, Rangers, Giants, Reds lose in division series. Reds and Cards finish season tied for NL Central champion. Reds pummel Cards in a play-in game, badly. Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Scott Rolen all hit homeruns off Chris Carpenter. Johny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman combine for a shutout.