RobertR

Kitzinger Cooperage in St. Francis is one spot. Century Products in Sussex is another. Robert

Alfonso Soriano is going to join that list right soon. At least the 2005 to 2015 list. BTW, I disagree that Gary Matthews has been useful. I'd take Suppan over him even with an ugly 2009. Robert

That seems o.k. cost wise. Especially since Figgins should post a very good OBP. You don't necessarily have to hit HRs to score runs if your team does enough things as a whole. They still need at least two bats, LF and DH. Not bad places to go cheap on, but you still have to find guys for the position. Certainly they've been linked to Matsui for awhile, so that would be a pretty solid acquisition. Still, it's easier to go from terrible to about 80 wins than from 80 wins to 90 wins. Robert

While I'm at it, a shoutout to two movies that aren't exactly new, but we first got a chance to experience in America in their current form. The Big Red One: The Reconstruction Army of Shadows Robert

Just remember, Scutaro apparently wasn't good enough for the former regime to give a chance to, despite putting up fine offensive numbers and being flexible. They just needed that Luis Lopez to provide veteran presence. Robert

Fox isn't a premium bat. DH isn't as good as people seem to think, so even if he can't play anywhere else he could still have value, but moving Fox to the AL is something that needed to be done. Miles is bad, but likely not as bad as he showed last year. There's no doubt that the A's won the deal on a talent basis. The Cubs saved a little bit of money, although $1.7 million doesn't buy you that much. Most likely Fox will have a couple of decent seasons and get moved when he starts to get expensive. A small stopgap move, IMO. Robert

Like I'm not going to reply to a movie list. 1. City of God 2. Mulholland Dr. 3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 4. Downfall 5. No Country for Old Men 6. American Splendor 7. Memento 8. Grizzly Man 9. The Incredibles 10. Lord of the Rings (If I have to pick one I'll go with Fellowship) Other Notables, in no specific order: Bloody Sunday There Will Be Blood Zodiac Requiem for a Dream Man on Wire Pan's Labyrinth The Lives of Others Children of Men Y Tu Mama Tambien Adaptation The Dark Knight Black Hawk Down Brick The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Gosford Park The Aviator Once Before Sunset Shaun of the Dead Still need to see: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Memories of Murder Oldboy Letters from Iwo Jima Most of this year's best, by reputation I'm a little slower at catching movies than I used to be. Still, there's a lot out there if you look. Robert

Mark Ellis probably falls into the "failed SS" category. Still, I think the point stands. A SS prospect works out at SS, can be converted to 2B if the glove isn't up to the task of starting, or can become a versatile utility infielder if the bat isn't up to the task of starting. There's little fallback position for a 2B prospect. Given the amount of relief pitchers that teams are now carrying, there's little use for a utility infielder that can't play SS (and/or CF) or hit like a corner infielder. It's also worth noting that Farris will be 24 at AA next year while the likes of Belliard, Cano, Kinsler, Kendrick, Castillo, Utley, Durham, and Hudson were in the majors or getting cracks at the majors. He's more on the Mike Fontenot career path, a guy who might be out of a job in the spring, than a starting 2B path. Obviously, if Farris hits at AA this year, he'll have some value. But he's running out of time and there's no evidence that he has the versatility to be anything more than a 2B. I'm all for stockpiling talent, but 2B is not the position I would concentrate on, as there's little fallback. At this point, I haven't seen enough from Farris to declare him part of the future. A low .700s OPS at High A, even with a really impressive steal total, doesn't convince me he has the bat to start given his age. And the versatility to backup is more unproven potential than reality at this point. All the same, I can see being somewhat optimistic about him and see no problem with promoting him until he fails or succeeds. Robert

I was fully expecting Katulu to have a podcast that I could download for my drive up north for hunting. But noooo! Too busy for us, apparently. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Robert

I'm generally of the belief that there's no such thing as a second level 2nd base prospect. If you're going to be a future utility man, you should be playing SS regularly in the minors. Or have a real stud SS prospect next to you. And if you project as a starter at 2B, it will show up in the hitting line. To me, you can stop talking about 2B prospects in the Brewers organization once you get done with Lawrie. Robert

What I found works well were car floor mats turned upside down. And persistence. Crate training doesn't hurt either. Robert

Let me add to this. One of the things that I'll never, ever forgive previous ownership for was how dirty and ill maintained County Stadium was in the last few years. Not keeping the place at least clean was, in my mind, pretty contemptuous of the paying customer and showed precisely where their priorities were. That was a cheap organization that was second class in every way by the end. Attention to detail and customer service is one thing the new organization really gets. The Brewers aren't going to win every year, but they can control the customer experience in all other ways and, so far, the Attanasio regime has been first class in that regard. It probably costs them extra, but I, for one, appreciate it. Robert

I'll add that there are lots of things to be said for long term stability of ownership, which being able to turn a profit encounrages. At least if they're competent, which Mark Attanasio seems to be and Wendy Selig-Prieb seemed not to be. There's more to being a good owner than spending money on free agents. Marketing, helping decide long term strategy and supporting it, and hiring the right people for baseball operations, to name a few things. Robert

Jayson Stark takes a look at this over at ESPN. See http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&page=rumblings091119 I think more analysis is needed for these numbers, but I think it certainly points to the idea that there are teams turning a solid profit out there. Then again, I'd have expected a team like the Pirates to sell if they weren't turning a profit by now, since they're not getting a newer stadium than the one they already have. Robert

I'm heading up to the family farm this afternoon. Honestly, I like being in the woods and away from everything. Not every day, but nothing quite like being in the woods at daybreak and away from all the distractions of life. It's not my turn to cook, so that makes it easier. I'll be back during the week though to spend Thanksgiving with my mother and my in-laws. Robert

Finishing off 1986 Best Supporting Actor Michael Caine - Hannah and Her Sisters Dennis Hopper - Hoosiers Denholm Elliott - A Room With a View Tom Berenger - Platoon Willem Dafoe - Platoon Other Notables: Dennis Hopper - Blue Velvet, Ray Liotta - Something Wild, Woody Allen - Hannah and Her Sisters My choice of the nominees: Michael Caine My choice overall: Dennis Hopper - Blue Velvet Thoughts: Solid set of nominees overall, although I think there's a glaring omission. Michael Caine was a solid choice out of what was nominated and it was his first Oscar win in a long and distinguished career. At least when he wasn't just cashing paychecks, I think I'd rather see films of the house Caine bought with his paycheck from Jaws the Revenge than that movie. No really bad choices though and Berenger would only look slightly out of place in retrospect. That said, there's no question in my mind that the performance of the year is Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth in Blue Velvet. And, I'd bet he'd walk away with that if the voting were held today. Frank Booth is one of the all time great movie villains, perverse, scary, funny, and undeniably human evil. And it wouldn't necessarily have worked even half as well in another's hands. Blue Velvet was a divisive move though and Hopper left the Academy an out by also being excellent in Hoosiers and A River's Edge. He clearly was the most important actor of the year and made a huge declaration that he was back in 1986. Best Supporting Actress Dianne Wiest - Hannah and Her Sisters Maggie Smith - A Room With a View Piper Laurie - Children of a Lesser God Tess Harper - Crimes of the Heart Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio - The Color of Money Other notables: Barbara Hershey - Hannah and Her Sisters, Mia Farrow - Hannah and Her Sisters, Cathy Tyson - Mona Lisa My Choice: Dianne Wiest Thoughts: One of the few advantages of putting this down for awhile is that I got to catch up with some movies I missed. One of them was Hannah and Her Sisters. And, honestly, it was a missed opportunity to see such a flat out terrific film sooner. Heck, even Carrie Fisher is good in that movie. It's a terrific ensemble and manages to be funny and insightful in equal measures. Dianne Wiest is the heart of that movie though with nervous energy to match Woody Allen and yet self doubt and an inability to express herself artistically and the frustrations it creates giving her a real crisis to overcome. There are some fine performances that year, but Wiest's sticks with me the strongest. Good choice Academy. Robert

It's worth pointing out that baseball is a $6 billion a year industry. Obviously it's not spread around entirely equally, but the rough average is $200 million per team. Player payroll is well short of that. Robert

From what I can tell, Boras is in the ballpark. The national media contract alone is worth $34.5 M per team. Toss in merchandising, MLBAM, and XM radio and it adds up. Toss in any substantial revenue sharing for teams like the Pirates, Rays, and Marlins, and I'm sure that some teams, not all, are getting $80 million in shared funds, although the average is obviously lower for teams in better markets. And, yeah, I believe the Pirates are kind of running a scam on their fans, although they at last seem to be pointed in the direction they should have been pointed in 10 years ago with a concentration on assembling young talent instead of paying just enough to have a 75 win team so that they could say, we're only 8 games out at the All Star Break, if we get hot we could get in it. And, of course, those 8 games turned to 16 to 20 games back by the end of the year. In any case, I'm sure that there is substantial shared revenue and that even the Marlins could sustain a $50 million payroll if they chose. Even while running a farm system, etc. Robert

Kevin Kline won Best Supporting Actor for A Fish Called Wanda certainly would fit the criteria. Looking through past nominees, I don't see many precise fits but I'd call the following significant comedy nominations: Jack Lemmon - Some Like it Hot Dudley Moore and John Gielgud - Arthur Peter Sellers - Being There Woody Allen - Annie Hall Lee Marvin - Cat Ballou Sally Kellerman - MASH Judy Holliday - Born Yesterday William Powell - The Thin Man (an outstanding choice BTW), My Man Godfrey Gary Cooper - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town Jimmy Stewart - Harvey Tom Hanks - Big Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator Jean Hagen - Singin' in the Rain Clark Gable - It Happened One Night Claudette Colbert - It Happened One Night Carole Lombard - My Man Godfrey Definitely short on some of the most notable comedy performances though. Robert

1986 Best Actress Marlee Matlin - Children of a Lesser God Sigourney Weaver - Aliens Sissy Spacek - Crimes of the Heart Kathleen Turner - Peggy Sue Got Married Jane Fonda - The Morning After HM: Melanie Griffith - Something Wild, Helena Bonham-Carter - A Room With a View, Anne Bancroft - 'Night Mother My Pick: Sigourney Weaver - Aliens Thoughts: Jane Fonda was nominated for that movie? Really? Marlee Matlin - Academy Award worthy performance or gimmick? I'll kind of split the difference. Very good performance, but the Academy probably knew that there simply wouldn't be many opportunities for her over the years. Still, even with only limited opportunities I'm going to say that Matlin got lucky. I never get tired of watching Aliens and a lot of that is due to Sigourney Weaver. There really aren't that many action lead performances that also are award worthy. This is one of the few. I think in hindsight that Kathleen Turner was the only other true contender this year. We'll get to it later, but Hannah and Her Sisters has three strong female performances, but they're all of the supporting variety in that ensemble. I thought about including Isabella Rosellini for Blue Velvet, but couldn't quite pull the trigger. Mistake on my part or unsentimental appraisal? Robert

Wow, how time flies. 1986 Continued Best Actor Paul Newman - The Color of Money Dexter Gordon - 'Round Midnight William Hurt - Children of a Lesser God Bob Hoskins - Mona Lisa James Woods - Salvador HM: Gene Hackman - Hoosiers, Harrison Ford - The Mosquito Coast, Jeremy Irons - The Mission, Jeff Daniels - Something Wild, Danny Devito - Ruthless People, Matthew Broderick - Ferris Bueller's Day Off My Pick: Paul Newman My Thoughts: Looking back on it, that's a more than reasonable list of nominees. Was it a "make up" award for Newman? I don't think so. I don't think it was Newman's best performance, but the performance is still awfully good and there's not a single role that I would say was clearly better. This was probably Harrison Ford's best case for an Oscar. Maybe Hackman and Ford would unseat Dexter Gordon and William Hurt if the award was redone, but it's by no means certain. Good set of nominees and good award. Robert

After looking at the alternatives and what's coming up in the system, I could live with a second year of Counsell. Yeah, he'll be old and potentially bad with the bat, but there's not much out there that has the versatility and "upside" of Counsell as a utility player. If he's bad, he's probably no worse than the random alternative. If he's good, he's fairly close to average at MI with the bat. Without going into the vagaracies of the statistic, how many utility infielders can put up a WAR of 4 or more like Counsell did in 2009? Granted, no guarantee that he'll repeat that, but he's still probably the best you can do that's available. At worst, you'll probably overpay by a million or so compared to the FA alternative. And there aren't very many alternatives with any track record that don't have downsides as well. Unless he gets a completely ridiculous deal from the Yankees or some other big payroll club, I can live with matching his offer. Perhaps it's not ideal, but the utility infielder market is far from ideal. Robert

I'm outraged that the writers made the right choice. What is the world coming to? Robert

The second night was better, but still this is a pale shadow of the original. It lacks the moral outrage embodied in McGoohan's character and it mistakes incoherence for challenging. The original was quite trippy at times, but it embedded that trippiness in solid arguments / parables. Ian McKellan is quite good and there are some solid visuals in the new version. There's nothing there that leads me to believe that there will be a solid payoff for this, but I'll stick through to the end regardless. I'll probably regret it in the morning though. Robert

Oh yeah, I did Horror Express for Halloween, after Horror of Dracula and The Devil Rides Out. Horror Express became our de facto Midnight movie and was perfectly suited for that purpose. Lots of fun had. Robert