RobertR

Those are pretty much the stops evaluated in the Preliminary Engineering Report. As far as it goes, here are what I see at the Pros and Cons of each. Airport: Pros-It's an actual destination. Plenty of parking. Can be an intermodal hub. Cons-There are much better destinations in the Madison area. The Kohl Center: Pros- One of the destinations in Madison that makes the most sense. Near the University and State Street, although a bit away from the Capitol. Could run special trains to sporting events. Cons- Parking? Land availability? How much is it going to slow the train? Are you going to have to backtrack out of Madison? Can you set up intermodal there? Cost? The Monona Terrace: Pros- One of the destinations in Madison that makes the most sense. Near the Capitol and State Street, although a bit away from the UW. Cons- Parking? Is there any land available? How much is it going to slow the train? You are almost certainly going to have to backtrack out of Madison as there's little room through the Isthmus. Can you set up intermodal there? Cost? East Washington Avenue: Pros: You should be able to setup intermodal and have some parking. With that route, you could also have a stop at the airport, either now or in the future. Closer to the Capitol and UW than the airport. Cons: Not a destination. Robert

Might as well bump this up. It's obvious now that Peleliu is going to be the center of The Pacific's narrative in more ways than one. That's perhaps a smart choice considering that Guadlcanal and Iwo Jima have been well covered in other movies. I suspect that's going to be the lasting legacy of The Pacific. My thoughts have been covered elsewhere, but I'm glad I'm watching it, although I think overall you can tell there's not a cohesive singular vision behind it as they patch several narratives together. Robert

I'd be surprised if Lilly gets any less than Randy Wolf. Frankly, I don't think it matters though. They're locked into an aging core, and most of their large contracts are unmovable. Arguably, they should bite the bullet on Lee given his age, put one of Ramirez/Vitters at 1B, and spread that money around. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to move Theriot as well. There are some tough decisions coming up for the Cubs. Robert

I'm kind of in between books at this time, but I have to admit that I'm enjoying the heck out of R. Crumb's Book of Genesis. Crumb's art is really a surprisingly good fit for the material, adding an earthiness that really brings the stories to life. Robert

Glenmorangie is my go to, all purpose scotch, although I tend to favor the smokier scotches in the winter. Neat with a splash of water is the way to go. And I second the notion that a warm glass of scotch on a cold winter night is a treat. Robert

Have we really forgotten that the root cause of the trade was the implosion of Derrick Turnbow? The Brewers weakened one area but strengthened another with that move. They had no chance without doing something to stabilize the bullpen, even with Carlos Lee. And there's a lot of people that think the Brewers failing to make the playoffs in 2007 had more to do with Ned Yost, rather than the talent on hand. Robert

Now that's how you end an episode. And I thought the high point was going to come 15 minutes in. Pretty darn action packed for a Hurley episode as well. Things really seem to be coming together for the finale. Robert

Say hello to high early strength concrete. All in all, hardly the worst that could have happened. The bridge didn't fall down, no one was hurt, and disruption was kept to a minimum. Robert

I'll throw in Carlos Silva, Gary Matthews Jr., Yuniesky Betancourt, & Kyle Farnsworth. Carlos Zambrano could blow up in a big way before his contract is over. Alex Rios is potentially a scary proposition. I don't want a part of Milton Bradley. Brandon Webb may have reached the end of his usefulness through injuries. Edgar Renteria and Ivan Rodriguez aren't giving you much of anything for relatively large paychecks. Robert

"If they're going to pay me like (Mike) Gallego, I'm going to play like Gallego." One of my favorite Rickey quotes ever. Then again, as far as I can tell, Rickey only griped about it. He went out and played like a future Hall of Famer. And, in hindsight, it is kind of absurd that Mike Gallego ever made as much as Rickey. Robert

On the bright side, at least inspections caught the problem before something like the Hoan happened. Or the Minneapolis bridge collapse. And, non-partisan, it's why it's probably a good idea to let engineers drive prioritizing projects instead of politicians bringing home the bacon for their districts. I'm of the opinion that most public works "failures" are really political failures instead of engineering failures. Politicians promise too much. They fail to explain what a project will really accomplish and what it won't. Or they put their own pet projects ahead. And it's partly a failure on engineers. When you have lawyers, business men, and activists running for public office, of course the amount of legislators with in depth knowledge of the practicalities of transportation and infrastructure is going to be low. Robert

Yeah, Gamel will likely be sent down as soon as possible. I don't think his service time is a big deal. Possibly towards Super 2 status, and that's fairly minor in the big picture, but definitely not in regards to his free agency status. Robert

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I've no problem with them picking up an organizational soldier for the cost of carrying Matt Treanor in spring training either. Even if Kottaras falls on his face, there are Treanor types out there to be had for basically nothing. Not to mention Lucroy and Salome. Robert

My AL 12 team, 4x4 keeper league needs multiple owners. Auction was originally scheduled for March 27th, but may have to move it if we can't find new owners quickly. Tried this last year and it didn't work out as the guy completely skipped our auction. So, please be in the area and don't waste my time. Robert

Starts tonight. I don't expect it to be as good as BAND OF BROTHERS, but if it's even half as good it will still be very impressive. At the very least, production values look very good. Robert

I'm still trying to figure out what Irribarren brings to the team. Zaun and his backup, Prince, Weeks, Escobar, McGehee, Counsell, Braun, Gomez, Hart, and Gerut are basically guaranteed to make the team. Probably Edmonds too. That basically leaves one utility slot and Irribarren has less versatility than Inglett, who can play the left side of the infield, and less hitting ability than Gamel. Except possibly for some pinch running situations, the Brewers really have no use for Irribarren over any of their other candidates. Robert

Yeah, if you include Documentaries, and you should, then 2005 stacks up much better. I'll stand by it being a weak year for fictional features though. I'd agree that the second half of the decade, including 2009, was much stronger than the first half. I take more issue with House of the Devil than I do with Observe and Report, btw. Robert

BTW, looking at the list, let me add that I think Mozeliak and Smith are too low and Hendry is too high. The Cubs are poised for an epic collapse of bad contracts given to old players. Maybe not this year, but soon. Robert

There's plenty of threads where DM's been praised. But, there's also been legitimate debate over some of his moves and there's no point to claim that there's no winning. The Vargas - Estrada deal had some detractors at the time and the detractors were right. Here, I'll toss in Baseball Prospectus' take on the deal. "It's possible" is a pretty lukewarm take on the deal from a neutral party. But, the basic point being that Melvin was hardly getting ringing endorsements on it. So, yeah, I think it's fair to hold him accountable for that deal since the downsides of the deal were apparent to most observers. Mind you, I think Melvin is a good GM. He's rebuilt the Brewers and his track record in Texas is solid as well. But he does make mistakes, as does every GM, and deserves to be held accountable when they happen. Jack Z also has to do more than get the Mariners on the right track from awful. And if Jack Z takes credit for the Brewer farm system, he also has to take blame for the recent lack of pitching prospects. Mind you, I think he's a smart guy, but he's got a lot more work to do before he can really be rated higher than GMs that have actually won something. Robert

Yeah, I agree that the Lee trade wasn't a disaster at all when you figure in salary. It was basically a reallocation of resources. FWIW, I think it was a deal that worked out for both teams. The Brewers got a middle of the order stick that they couldn't get through free agency and the White Sox got salary flexibility. Robert

I criticized the trade at the time. And, I think it's a mistake to only look at a guy's previous year. And, for that matter, I don't agree that Vargas had a better year previously. Especially if you ignore that Davis threw significantly more innings. And had a better K rate. And, it's not like Davis was old coming off his age 30 year. Year, there were decline risks, but there was also a good likelihood that he would bounce back to throw around 200 innings of mid-4 ERA ball, which he did and Vargas has never approached. As for Estrada, factoring in defense he was replacement level. Heck, if you factor in baserunning, he was likely below replacement level. And replacement level for a catcher is very low. You don't need to trade for replacement level. That was a bad trade with obvious downsides at the time. (There's seldom a good trade where you give up the best player and the guy with the best long term potential.) Melvin is lucky that Eveland didn't reach his potential. Robert

Estrada being a dog was what irked me most about that deal. Eveland not living up to his potential kind of takes some of the sting out of the deal, but there wasn't any question that Davis was the best player in that deal at the time and that it didn't end up actually fixing any holes long term. Robert

I've no problem with The Hurt Locker winning, and I've seen 7 of the 10 nominees, still needing to see Precious, An Education, and The Blind Side. There were a couple of movies that fired my imagination more after seeing them than The Hurt Locker, and I still have to see Moon, but overall I was fine with most of the choices. Although I knew The Hurt Locker had it in the bag when it pulled in those Sound wins. I've heard the foreign language film winner is really good, so that goes into my queue. I'm going to have to see Logorama as well. And, fwiw, I think that it has to be an exceptionally bad year when you can't find 10 good Best Picture nominees. I don't think 2009 was the best year of the last decade, that would probably go to 2007 for me, maybe 2004, but it wasn't the worst either. 2000 and 2005 were pretty weak. Now, whether the Academy will actually nominate the best 10 is always debatable, but I thought this year was a pretty good mix of nominees. I'm not necessarily sure I like the current voting setup though. There's very little chance that a polarizing film can win under the current setup. So, expect safe concensus picks from here on out. As for the ceremony, didn't like the opening number, and Martin and Baldwin were hit and miss, basically doing vaudeville schtick. The show seemed lacking in energy. The horror montage didn't do much for me, although I'm happy to see Evil Dead 2 made it to the Oscars. I was sort of surprised that John Hughes got pulled out for special attention. Nothing really memorable about the speeches, but only the Costume Winner struck me as bad. And what the heck was up with that Best Score presentation? OTOH, I really liked Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr. as presenters, especially the little touch of Tina shaking her head as Downey blathered on. Ben Stiller's schtick worked for me too. And I liked the Paranormal Activity spoof. Edit: Some other things. You could tell Tarantino was excited to handle the Foreign Language Film presentation. There was some genuine enthusiasm there. And, although the individual tributes for the Best Actor and Actress nominees is a nice idea, the execution of it leaves a lot to be desired. Lots of rambling with very little point. It either needs to be scripted to an appropriate length or eliminated entirely. Robert

Might as well give this a bump up since the show is tonight.

"Odd" isn't the word I'd use. Crass, insulting, and flatout disrespectful would be words I'd use. Robert