BillScottCanRake

I have only done pastrami once, but I used this method: http://virtualweberbullet.com/pastrami.html Other than not using a Weber as my smoker, I followed this method pretty closely since I'd never made pastrami before. The only real change I made was I only smoked the meat for about 2 1/2 hours (that's how long my wood chunks lasted)- after that, I just applied heat. It turned out very well in my opinion, excellent flavor, nice color, and good texture. I'm the only one in my house who likes pastrami, so I didn't get any other opinions but I liked it. I didn't have a good slicer at the time, so my pastrami was a bit too thick for my liking. Since most of the time is put into the cure and it only smokes for between 4 and 5 hours, it's a nice alternative to smoking a whole packer cut brisket. I think it is something I'll try again this fall before it gets too cold outside.

I obviously can't speak for Yount, but if I had to guess I'd say he doesn't need the "stuff" because he got to live it. Yount gets to remember how he felt being in the batters box, what Molitor and Ganter said to him when he got to first, etc, etc. He doesn't really need the bat he used or the ball he hit to relive the experiences of his 3,000th hit. For most fans, memorabilia is a way for us to connect and get closer to the game. It wouldn't surprise me at all if having a bat or ball or something that was used in a game or is a milestone may mean more to fans than the players.

My favorite Corey Hart memory was when he was playing third in Huntsville and he threw his glove at a batted ball he couldn't get to. People talk about baseball being a child's game played by adults, and throwing a glove at a ball hit over ones head is something that thousands of kids have done on sandlots over the years. Congrats on a great career and the next chapter.

I suppose this could be my issue, but I don't like the word "blame" because it implies that someone has done something wrong. I can get behind Lucroy being the reason the trade didn't happen, but based upon the information we have to date I am not comfortable using the word "blame". It is very possible that Lucroy told Stearns that he was prepared to waive his NTC, and when he said it he meant it. It would be perfectly reasonable for Lucroy to change his mind, particularly if new information became available that caused him to question his original decision. If that's the case, I don't think anyone is really to "blame" anyone- Stearns communicated with Lucroy, Lucroy in good faith told Stearns he would waive the NTC, Milwaukee and Cleveland negotiated, new information made Lucroy uncomfortable, so he vetoed the trade. If that's the case (and I don't know if it is or is not), "blaming" anyone seems a bit harsh. Which is why I am not comfortable with that phrase.

It seems to me it is entirely possible that Lucroy and his agent initially OK'D discussions with Cleveland and changed their minds later after further consideration. People do that all the time with things like groceries or clothing, so it wouldn't be a stretch to think something akin to a job change might lead to change after sleeping on it. As much as I would like to see Lucroy trade while he is healthy, I am not sure that there really is anyone to blame here. Maybe some evidence will come out later, but until it does I think all parties probably did what they were supposed to do and it just didn't work, which happens sometimes. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

On the Brewers side, Lucroy blocking the trade risks Lucroy sustaining an injury that turns this trade into a comp pick. Or maybe the market for Lucroy isn't as strong this off season as some believe (maybe like now?) and they get less in November. I would love to have stolen a future ace from Cleveland but that does not appear to be what Lucroy was worth. I am please enough with this return that I don't want to see the Brewers risk a lesser return holding on for something they may never get. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

To expand on the point you are making, teams only have a very limited amount of control over the present- the schedule, injuries to your team and others, luck for your team and others, others teams playing out of their minds, slumps at the wrong time, etc. are all things largely outside of a teams control. The Brewers can do a lot of things to put the odds in their favor, but they can't exert enough control over the present to ensure anything. Which is why I hope that Stearns and company are able to produce long-term success instead of rolling the dice on a one- or two-year window. As a Brewer fan, I know how fickle luck can be an in general how back their luck has been, so give me six years with 85-88 win talent over one or two years of 95 win talent any day. And if that means the run starts in 2021, so be it.

I think both parties got exactly what they wanted out of the Milwaukee's interest in Wade. Wade needed some teams to be interested in his services so he could get as much as he could from Miami (which is where he wanted to be) and Milwaukee helped him with that. I'm not sure that Wade would have been the best fit in Milwaukee, but having the Bucks linked to an elite player in July kept them in the news when they otherwise may not have been. I think it worked out for both of them.

Did I say point down? I meant up... don't kick me out of the club fellas! I actually am trying something new tonight with my brisket. I am still smoking point side down, but I took some of the fat that I trimmed off and laid that on top of the brisket. It probably doesn't matter, but I figured it was worth trying to see if I can combined the two methods. I should know in 16 hours how it went. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

I'm pretty new meat-smoking, so my list of go-to sites is pretty small. I also go to http://amazingribs.com/, along with a few others. https://majorleaguegrilling.com/ (also has an archive to grillinfools.com) http://www.thehogblog.com/ http://virtualweberbullet.com/ (http://virtualweberbullet.com/brisketselect.html is where I get almost all of my information on brisket, even though I don't have a Weber Bullet) One thing I look for is techniques, methods, processes and flavor profiles moreso than recipes. I have changed some of my methods recently without changing ingredients and have gotten much better results for it. I now only use dry wood, for example, and I always smoke a brisket fat (point) side down instead of up. Both changes have resulted in better food, in my opinion.

Parking lots... where ambiguous traffic flow and poor visibility meets unfocused drivers who all too often are only focused on finding open spots in which to park. And, oh yeah, pedestrians of varying levels of awareness and attentiveness meandering in and out of traffic. My goal is to spend as little time in them as possible, so I too tend to park near the parking lot entrance and exit instead of the building entrance and exit unless it's raining or really cold.

The question I would have regarding the before and after pictures is how much is the added muscle due to players changing their diets and workouts and how much is due to PEDs? Those guys all played not only in the "PED" era, but in an era of great changes and advancements in diet and workouts. I met Rickie Weeks when he was in Beloit in 2003, when he was 20. Weeks was built like an NFL safety, and noticeably bigger than before McGwire and Bonds. Was that because of PEDs or because Weeks worked out differently than younger Bonds and McGwire? So my question is (and has been) how much of an 'E' have players gotten taking PEDs? I don't know what the answer is, but I do think players can transform their bodies without resorting to PEDs. Do they turn players who hit 20 home runs per year into guys who hit 35 or 25? I just don't know what the answer is.

One of the things that sort of bugs me is the inconsistent application of the rules from race to race. I am with you that Hamilton should have had to cede his position to Ricciardo when he cut the chicane, but I wasn't totally surprised that he wasn't penalized because that sort of thing really seems to be hit-and-miss in F1. What is a "racing incident" at one race is penalize for causing a collision at another. Sometimes exceeding track limits is a big deal and sometimes it's ignore. That lack of consistency drives me batty sometimes, especially as someone who is still trying to learn the sport. Does the FIA have professional stewards that go from race-to-race or do they hire different ones for each race? Sauber. It would have almost been funny if they weren't in such dire straits financially. I don't want Sauber to be the next Caterham. That's what I was trying to articulate. I enjoyed the race and Rossi winning, but it didn't make me want to take a vacation to Indy next year. One thing that I was really surprised to see was drivers still racing that were down 20, 30, 40 laps. Was that an ABC snaffu or do drivers not retire like they do in F1 and drive to the bitter end?

That was an interesting weekend in open wheeled racing. Monaco was highly entertaining. The mixed weather brought out a number of different strategies and a few on track incidents (Sauber? Really?). And a botched pit stop probably costing Ricciardo a win (Red Bull gives you wings, but not tires). I loved seeing Perez get a podium for Force India. Not a lot of overtaking, but it sounds like there never really is at Monaco. Still, I enjoyed it thoroughly. The Indy 500 had a great finish and result, but didn't hold my interest quite as much. In Formula 1 I didn't have a rooting interest, but I was definitely pulling for Rossi at Indy, which made the last 10 laps or so really exciting. I found it interesting that Rossi was 33rd at one point and still won, which is something that I'd never expected would be possible, but it sounds like that isn't necessarily unusual. The back-and-forth, trading positions between the first and second place drivers was odd to me. I understand the why of it from watching the race, but there was something about it that just doesn't seem right. I am excited to see IndyCar return to non-oval circuts in Detroit and Road America in the near future, because they make more sense to me than oval track racing.

I saw something interesting on an old episode of Good eats last night. Alton Brown made a smoker from a terracotta pot and a hot plate. He put the hot plate at the bottom of the pot with the cord running thru a hole in the bottom of the pot. On top of the hot plate he placed a pan with hard-wood chunks. Near the top of the pot went his rack, and then above that a ceramic pot as a cover. He used that to smoke a pork shoulder for pulled pork. It was an interesting (and inexpensive) improvised smoker. I'm almost curious to try it for the experience alone, even though I already have a smoker.

This might just be my go-to off-topic thread. The boat/car analogy is something I never thought of, but now that you say it makes a lot of sense. That's something I can practice on our Weber before I buy my next smoker. In my opinion you will want to have a water pan separate from your wood (which some people like to soak and others like to keep dry). My setup is to place a pan containing wood chips or small chunks above the burner, and then a pan of water above the wood. My understanding is the water serves two purposes: it helps regulate the temperature and it also provides some moisture to help keep things from drying out.

When did it all natural I had more trouble controlling the temp, so my results were a bit uneven. The very best meat I smoked that way was better than my current setup, but I also had some poor results that I think are largely due to poor temperature control. That was probably largely because I was/am a relative novice and also because my all wood smoker had a really poor layout that didn't lend itself to adding wood quickly. I'd like to upgrade at some point to a bigger model so I can smoke larger cuts a bit more comfortably, and when I do that I will look strongly at an all wood model. Of course, any tips or trade secrets that you have would be appreciated.

I have a "refrigerator" style propane smoker that I got last summer. So far I've used to smoke packer cut briskets, flat cut pastrami briskets and St Louis-style ribs. I'm looking to do a pork butt sometime this summer, and I've love to try making my own bacon. My smoker is divided into two parts: The very bottom of the smoker has a propane burner that is used to provide heat to get wood chips smoking. Above that is my water pan. The burner, wood chips and water pan are all services by a small door at the bottom of the smoker. Then above that I have four racks for the meat that I am smoking, also served by it's own door. I usually put a drip pan on the bottom most rack to help limit the amount of drippings that end up in the water pan and it's cover. When I smoke my means I always do so between 200 and 225 degrees. So far I've had good results keeping things most because I am pretty diligent keeping the water pan full and the smoker closed. I have gotten to the point where I usually add wood chips and water every 90 minutes or so, but otherwise I keep the smoker closed unless I'm doing something specific with the meat. Also, even tho I may not smoke the meat the entire time I cook it (ribs, for example, only get smoked about 1/2 the time they are cooked), since the cooking is almost always done at the same temp I use the smoker to do all the cooking. That frees up the oven and stove for other things. For ribs, I smoke them for about 2 1/2 hours, followed by about 90 minutes in a "Texas Crunch" and another 45-60 minutes being grilled. I've done two or three briskets and I usually let them go for 14-16 hours, plus another couple for the burnt ends. The pastrami I smoked was done in about 4 1/2 hours. It's kinda a long time, but I usually use my tablet and Netflix to help pass the time, which helps. Also, the end results have been good, so it is time well spent for me. One recommendation: Make sure you keep your heat below 250 and make sure you clean your drip pan (if you use one) when you add wood and water to help prevent any sort of flair-ups. I had a bit of an issue the last time I did a brisket so it ended up a bit drier than normal. EDIT: The first time I ever did ribs I used a competition method I found on the Internet. If you read the article, it's more about the method for smoking the meat than a recipe, so after a while you'll find your own flavor profile as well as your own methods. When I do ribs, I tend to only cook them about 5 hours- just long enough to be tender but not so long they are falling off the bone.

Thanks for the suggested viewing. I've been tempted to watch "Rush" but haven't done so yet, and I hadn't heard of "Senna" (the documentary, I've heard of the man). I have seen "1" right around the time of Bianci's crash in Japan, so it was very timely when I saw it. I recently watched "Weekend of a Champion" on Netflix about Jackie Stewart's week at Monaco in 1971. It was well worth watching, I thought. Thanks for the movie suggestions!

The Brewers should handle him just like they handled Nick Neugebauer.

The first driver that I really liked in F1 was Jules Bianchi - what he did with Marussia in 2014 at Monaco was pretty remarkable. Since his crash at Suzuka, I haven't had a rooting interest until Haas this year. I have started watching more Indycar races this year since the guys on NBCSN have been talking it up and it has been enjoyable. I'll definitely watch the Indy 500 after Monaco this Sunday. I have thought about going to Road America to catch the Indycar race there since it's going to be easier for me to go to that than Austin, Montreal or Mexico City to watch F1.

Are there any fans of F1 here? I'd never really been much into racing, but I started watching at the end of the 2013 season thanks to Top Gear (UK) and have been been either watching or recording each race since the beginning of 2014. My wife likes Lewis Hamilton and follows him on social media, but she's a very casual racing fan and only watches with me if she doesn't have anything better to do (which isn't too often). So my fandom has been pretty lonely.

Brew4U, 3TO is "3 true outcomes". Russell Branyan is an example of a 3TO player.

By WAR and per baseball-reference.com: - Rickie Weeks (2) was the best player taken in the first five picks of the 2003 draft by a fair amount. - Justin Verlander (2) was the best player taken in the first five picks of the 2004 draft by a huge amount. - Alex Gordon (2), Ryan Zimmerman (4) and Ryan Braun (5) have all arguably better than the first pick in the 2005 draft. - Evan Longoria (3) was the best player taken in the first five picks of the 2006 draft by a pretty wide margin. - Matt Wieters (5) was the second best player taken in the top five picks after David Price (1) in the 2007 draft. - Buster Posey (5) was the best player taken in the top five picks of the 2008 draft. Again per baseball-reference.com, the AL starters in the 2015 All-star game were drafted: 25th overall 48th overall 13th round Amateur FA (international) 17th round 37th overall Amateur FA (international) Amateur FA (international) Amateur FA (international) 7th round The starters for the NL All Star Team were drafted: 11th overall 34th overall 1st overall 8th round 5th overall 6th round Amateur FA (international) 11th round 2nd round 6th overall Only one guy was drafted first overall and only 3 were drafted in the top 10, while 6 players were drafted in the 6th round or later and 5 were international FAs. I am unconvinced the Brewers need to pick first lest their rebuilding plan be setback. I don't believe the evidence supports that conclusion.

Why is it necessary to have a "best" indicator when there is lots of available evidence from which to draw conclusions? You're really asking why it's necessary to use the best indicator?. Perhaps Toby is making a different point, but I think he's saying why just use the "best" indicator when you can use a bunch of different ones and draw conclusions from them?