RobertR

If ARam's contract is reported accurately, I think that makes the possibility of the Brewers holding onto KRod more likely. I'm o.k. with that. Robert

I like Saito too, but it's hard to get too broken up over a reliever who pitched under 30 innings in the regular season and is going to be in his 40s leaving. Robert

I don't have a problem with the signing with the caveat that I don't know money yet. It's protection against either Green or Gamel really struggling to make the transition and it's probably not too much that if both come out swinging you can't move him to an AL team in the future. Who knows, the Brewers might be able to swing a trade for McGehee in the meantime with some certainty in place now. Ramirez might even be a plus first baseman defensively if he makes the transition there. Certainly it seems unlikely he's worse than Prince. Robert

The Walking Dead picked a good time to air their best episode since the premier. Even beyond the fine ending, the character moments were crackling for a change. Shane may be going off the deep end, but it's to the show's credit that he makes some fine points. Hopefully when they return they'll remember what they did and won't meander as much. Robert

I'm willing to accept in a generic sense that the guy that pitches the 9th is likely to have more leverage/affect on WPA than the guy who pitches the 8th. And, moreso, that it's often hard to tell when the biggest leverage situation is going to come in a game. That said, it's also true that bullpens really need to be regarded as a unit. Having a lights out closer doesn't do you much good if you blow the lead in the 7th or 8th. Having lockdown pitchers for 2 innings is certainly worth going cheap on backup utilityman, for instance. If KRod is awarded $9 to $10 million in arbitration, arguably he's only getting overpaid by $3 or $4 million given the market for setup man. Certainly, I expect KRod to pitch significantly more innings with a lower risk of injury than Saito. Frankly, that type of overpayment is not a big deal in the grand scheme of the Brewers as KRod certainly helps you win games. Also, there's nothing stopping the Brewers from signing Aramis Ramirez to a multi-year deal and structuring his deal in such a way that it preserves his present value of the contract while giving them some flexibility this year. After all, there's reasonable expectations that Peralta will take up a spot in the rotation by 2013, which should give the Brewers some salary flexibilty with Wolf off the books. Robert

I'm not against having him back, even if he's more expensive than other setup men. KRod is also better than most other setup men. As long as the salary isn't truly excessive, I think the Brewers can live with the results. Robert

Any news on money yet? I'm not expecting much, but it would be good to confirm it's a cheap signing. Robert

Gomez found his niche last year. A predictable one at that, platoon, bottom of the order, defensive plus. I've no real expectation of him getting much better, but that's a role that he can be a valuable contributer in. Heck, I'm more worried about Morgan in 2012. Robert

At this stage of his career, I'm curious to see if Ramirez isn't well suited to a shift to 1B. I certainly can't imagine him being worse than Prince defensively and he might be quite a bit better. In any event, I think there's an argument that relying on Green or Gamel to break through is more likely to succeed than relying on Green and Gamel to break through. Robert

I've no problem with Santo getting inducted. There are plenty of players inducted that Santo is better than. FWIW, I'm a proponent of inducting at least 1 player a year. Maybe it will water down the HoF standard a little, but it will keep the museum functioning and frankly that's a more important mission than a purely figurative honor. Maybe it's time for someone to make the case for Ted Simmons again. Or Lou Whitaker. I suppose it opens the door for Mattingly eventually, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Robert

What, they're not taking their suits and shirts to the dry cleaners every week? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. Robert

Stoker basically made up nearly everything in Dracula, so I have no real problem with bending the "rules". Most of the "rules" aren't even Stoker's. If you're looking for a way to wash the taste of Twilight vampires out, I'll point out that the Times is showing Nosferatu with live music on December 3rd. It's always a treat with an appreciative audience. It's surprising how much I'm enjoying DC's I, Vampire relaunch. The Twilight influenced covers are misleading. Robert

I made more than $2,000 working summers in the 1980s. Heck, we pay our engineering interns more than that for a summer. Granted, I consider tuition, books, and board to be payment, but I think the bar should be higher than basic minimum wage for a college student if you're going to pay them at all. Robert

Comedy and horror are the two genres where I start to worry when I see running times much above 90 minutes. Not to say that it can't be done, I'm a proponent that a movie should be as long as it needs to be, but you're generally playing with a smaller base of emotions and ideas. And, extended, "unrated" comedy DVD editions are almost always filled with junk that wasn't funny enough to make it into the movie in the first place. There obviously have been films that have been hurt by studio mandated cuts/decisions, Brazil, Kingdom of Heaven, and The Abyss spring to mind, but the vast majority of extended editions only succeed in making a film longer. Robert

It's easy to make the right decision when you don't have to take a person's feelings/attitude into account. I'll bet most managers can give the "right" answer in a hypothetical situation. But, making a hard decision about a player you like? That's tough. Especially if the potential manager knows that you're asking what "the book" says you should do. Not, that I don't think you can come up with some hypotheticals. It's possible that you can set up some traps too where there's no "right" answer. Give the potential manager your players and see how he would set up a lineup. Give him some options and check not so much which player that he picks for a certain situation but if he's smart enough to ask "how many ABs make up these stats" so that you know he recognizes sample size. Heck, role playing "how do you tell a player who's struggling that he's being benched" might be more important in the long run than debating what's a significant sample size. Robert

I actually don't have a problem with that. Why shouldn't an athlete have the right to sell/barter his own property? I understand the potential for abuse, but when a rule pretty much flies in the face of the rest of society which almost venerates buying and selling of goods for profit, you have to question how realistic is the rule. Are they prohibited from trading in a vehicle for sale? Does the fact that the rule becomes null and void the minute an athlete uses up his eligibility make any sense? You don't want athletes selling/bartering jerseys, then you make them return the jerseys at the end of the season. Robert

I'm quoting myself because I find it hard to invest more energy and thought into the show than the writers who have apparently learned nothing from the first season. Robert

Bridesmaids biggest problem is that it needed an editor willing to cut down bits that went way too long. Wiig does some good stuff at times and I liked that it was dealing with the fallout from economic failure as at least part of the story, but McCarthy easily makes the most impact. I should tout some films that are out on video now (or will be soon) that I saw in theaters earlier. Incendies easily had the biggest impact on me when I saw it in the theater so far this year with the final revelations being a real gut punch. Definitely not light viewing, but a really well made, hard hitting film. I also found Midnight in Paris really enjoyable and I believe it's due out on dvd by the end of the year. It's more than a bit fluffy and blunt about it's ultimate message and Rachel McAdams is a bit too shrewish, but it's a fun romp, it looks terrific, and Owen Wilson hasn't been so engaged in a long time. Plus there's a great Luis Bunuel joke that you don't have to know much about Bunuel to get. Robert

As long as zombie shark continues to attack human zombies, all is well. Even zombie sharks should be useless on land. Robert

What I learned from the movies this weekend is that a pet Tiger Shark is the way to deal with zombie invaders. I'm thinking a moat plus shark and I'm secure in my home. Robert

American Horror Story is ridiculously over the top and steals from everything creepy that's come before. I think I love it for that. Robert

Playing catchup for Halloween. The Wicker Man Not the Nic Cage version. This is a weird movie. For about the first half it threatens to become this strange, Pagan/folk musical. It's almost a farce. But, it does create a creepy, stranger in a strange land atmosphere. And the ending is really something, where everything clicks into place. It may require some patience on the part of the viewer, but it's worth it. Carnival of Souls Part Twilight Zone, part Kafka. This is a low budget movie that's part supernatural / part psychological. Or at least it pretends to be. The cinematography is stark, high contrast, black and white and I have to think Romero viewed it before Night of the Living Dead. It creates horror, in the daylight, in the middle of Salt Lake City, which is really something to behold. There's plenty of scenes of isolation / alienation in the middle of America. Terrific movie, albeit the final twist isn't really a surprise at all. The Reptile One of Hammer's one off entries. It's a nice, atmospheric movie set in a village in Cornwall. It shares many similarities with The Plague of the Zombies utilizing the same sets and having similar setpieces. There's a theme of the British colonial mistakes coming back to haunt the country itself as the film centers around an Indian/asian horror, with symbols of Britain's eastern colonialism everywhere. The first 40 minutes are a bit slow as the mystery is obvious and we're waiting for the protagonist to catch up to the audience, but it's still nicely atmospheric. Plus, Michael Ripper, a long time Hammer regular who mostly played bartenders, gets a really extended part as kind of a bartender-hero. Not top tier Hammer, but solid. Black Sunday (aka The Mask of Satan) Mario Bava's horror debut and it's a terrific film. It's definitely one of the best looking horror films I've seen with deep, lush black and white photography, atmospheric sets, and a camera that glides through it all. It may be the best shot horror film I've ever seen, totally immersing you in the environment and mood of the world it creates. It's a pretty solid vampire movie as well and Barbara Steele really makes an impression in a dual part. Tim Burton was obviously influenced by this. The pre-title prologue really makes an impression with its brutality on display. Highly recommended as a link between old school, atmospheric Universal horror films and the more modern horror films. Suspiria There's lots of great stuff here, but you really have to take it as a nightmare / fairy tale as it's certainly over the top. The colors, especially red, really pop. The murders are beyond brutal and grotesque. Goblin's score is memorable. There's some hints of camp to it as well. And, I still can't make heads or tails of it, I guess I can follow the plot but the plot seems more of an excuse for these exquisite setpieces in this fairy tale wonderland than a movie with any actual meaning. But, it does all of it with great style. Not for everyone, you want solid plots and fully fleshed out characters look elsewhere, but unforgettable all the same. Zombi 2 (aka Zombie) Lucio Fulci's gory, pseudo-sequel to Dawn of the Dead, this time taking you to a tropical island and linking Romero's flesh eaters to voodoo. What I like best about this is that it's not trying to be deep in social commentary, but just deliver shocks and thrills. It's a total midnight movie, and it's a blast at it. There's nudity, extreme gore, and a jaw dropping centerpiece of a zombie fighting a shark. But, the film also has a nice rich color scheme, the action is staged well, the pacing is good, and the zombie makeup is very good. It's not as good a fully rounded movie as Romero's Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead, but it might surpass those two in delivering zombie setpieces and shocks. It's just a straightforward zombie exploitation movie that delivers on everything it promises. I've a theory that an exploitation film can be labeled a success if it does at least one of two things; 1. Deliver all the expected thrills as good or better than often bigger budgeted studio fare or just the more respected films of the genre, and 2. Bring something new to the genre. Zombi 2 delivers all the promises of the genre AND brings some new stuff to the table. Not Halloween related, but I watched The Quiet Duel from Kurosawa as well. At the end, I kind of wish Ozu had directed it instead of Kurosawa. Kurosawa just seems straining to do more where when the material demands a patient chamber piece approach and I think when he finally gets a chance to let loose, Kurosawa lets Mifune go too big. There's a nice opening setpiece set at a Japanese field hospital during WWII and a lot of nice acting and filming on display, but it doesn't fully work. Robert

You're failing to connect the dots there. Betancourt drove in 68 runs because he had Fielder (who you cite reaching base 287 times) and Braun ahead of him in the lineup. The average SS didn't hit behind two MVP candidates with high OBPs. It wouldn't at all surprise me if Betancourt lead all NL SSs in PAs with RISP. Robert

I think that's a good call and certainly contributed to the Brewers financial problems of the time. There's a good argument that it's the biggest mistake the owners of MLB ever made. And Selig shares in the blame for that. Is it ok to have a view of Selig that's not pure pro or con? We don't have to be talk radio here. To me the pros outweigh the cons for Selig. He brought the Brewers to Milwaukee and once they outgrew their expansion struggles they were a solid team for about 15 years while he was an active owner. Before 1992, I don't have much bad to say about him other than his haircut and involvement in collusion, the latter being a much worse sin than the former. In some ways, I think Selig got out of active day to day ownership while the getting was good. It's pretty clear that the Brewers farm system and scouting was gutted at about the same time. And, I don't think you can spin Wendy and Laurel's term running the team as anything short of a disaster. I don't necessarily think they tanked 1993 through 1995 on purpose, but they certainly cut back disproportionately to what a team coming off playoff contention should have. Maybe they thought they could win on the cheap, in which case they were either delusional or incompetent, take your pick. I hold Selig's choice of people to succeed him as a major strike against him. The 1994 strike, cancellation of the World Series, and hit baseball took as a result I consider a failure on his part. Ownership got very little out of it, the distrust from collusion was understandable on the players' part, and Selig was a speaking and PR disaster during it and the fallout. Frankly, I think he perjured himself in front of Congress. I have very mixed feelings about public money involved in stadiums and coordinated blackmail by sports teams. Selig was a big part of that. I'm not going to give Selig a pass on the steroid issue, either. If Selig had truly felt strongly about it, he had a bully pulpit to use to address it. He didn't. While I don't think he deserves more blame than anyone else, it's clear that owners, players, press, and fans all deserve blame, he was part of the system and trying to pretend he wasn't after the fact doesn't sit well with me to this day. However, I think he's had a mostly good 21st century. I don't for a second believe that Selig wasn't involved in the choice of Attanasio as owner of the Brewers and that's been a great choice. MLB clearly embraced the internet and that's a plus for Selig. And, for the first time in forever, the relationship between owners and the union seems to be relatively civil. The last 2 CBAs have been relatively non-contentious and we're probably in a golden age of peace and prosperity for the game. And, when the steroid issue finally erupted I think MLB and the Union reached acceptable compromises that have mollified the public. (And I still don't know why football gets a pass.) I think the Mitchell Report is kind of a whitewash of ownership, Selig has been kind of heavy handed in selection of owners, baseball would have been better off if a more critical look had been taken at Loria, McCourt, and Hicks, the Expos final years in Montreal were a bad joke, and there's clearly been some abuses in the revenue sharing system by the likes of the Marlins and Pirates, etc. but the good greatly outweighs the bad. Robert

Yeah, Community really knocked it out of the park last week. It's ironic, but that show often struggles the most when it actually involves classroom hijinks instead of just letting the ensemble bounce off each other or aiming really big. Hitting what should be the show's routine formula is where it struggles most. Robert