bigredrobbo

I had concerns about the bullpen - now, with the Saito signing, I have fewer. I'm hoping that the biggest concern we have about the bullpen this season is that starters are going too deep into games and some of them need more work!

None of this answers what was a very reasonable question. What more does Casey have to do as the incumbent Brewers 3rd base guy to make people believe he's worth keeping and not replacing with Gamel? All he's done is pretty much all we've asked and more.

As long as we are clear that arguing for McGehee no more logical than arguing for Gamel.I'm not using opinion to argue for McGehee, though. I'm using statistics, history (we have more for Casey than we do for Mat) and the lack of a compelling reason that he'll regress other than "he just has to, nobody saw that production from a waiver wire pickup", which seems to be the main gripe against him.

That's an awfully arrogant statement. Claiming his opinion that Gamel over McGehee would be an improvement to our lineup in your mighty opinion doesn't "follow any sort of reasonable logic?" I think it does, and I think he laid it out. I think McGehee's played over his head, I think Gamel's going to be the better offensive player, and McGehee is a terrible defender as well, so not much concern there. And it's not exactly irreversible. I for one will take Gamel as well.....though I must be void of any reasonable logic. Not to drag this down a semantics corridor, but a whole bunch of "I thinks" are pure subjective opinion, not logic. You also have not provided a logical argument beyond pure conjecture. You think Gamel is a better player that Casey. Fine - he very well may be, but without any sort of argument beyond "because I said so" IS lacking reasonable logic. It just is. And "not exactly irreversible" means that it IS reversible. So are you saying that Casey can get better at defense or he can't? Now I'm confused...

The prospect of the Brewers trading any warm body that can post a sub 5.00 ERA as a starter anytime soon doesn't seem very likely, in my opinion.

Another point that came up from Gallo's defense lawyer was that he only drove because his drinking buddy in-law was too drunk. Don't you almost have to be dead to be more drunk than someone who is over 3 times the legal limit? Why would you even take your car out to the bar when you know the consequences of another DUI? Well, if you think the laws don't apply to you, you do. Gallo's arrogance and disregard for things put in place to protect us from idiots like him mean that 3 families have a space at their Xmas table this and every year from now on. He deserves every day of his sentence, and the sooner Wisconsin gets its head out of the 19th century and imposes tougher sentencing for DUI, the safer I'll feel driving in this state...

I frankly don't know what else Casey has to do to be taken seriously. Dude plays his heart out for 2 years, puts up numbers of guys earning 10 times what he does, yet because he was a waiver pick up, rather than an anointed farm hand, he's somehow less valuable and should be benched. I just don't get it...

10. Chemical Brothers – Further. Over 15 years into a career as “festival-headlining, dance pioneer boffins” Tom and Ed continue to make albums as listenable and danceable as anyone. Track to download: Escape Velocity 9. Massive Attack – Heligoland. Maybe they are on the back-end of a very tidy little career, but even a less than great MA album is better than 90% of the rest of the charts. Guy from Elbow, Tunde from TV on the Radio collaborations? C’mon! Track to download: Girl I Love You 8. Hot Chip – One Life Stand. Three albums into the list and they are all non-chart dance acts? Hmmm… Anyways, Hot Chip have always been better live than on record, in my opinion. This, for me, was the first album they’ve done with beats that are more beefy than anemic. Track to download: Take It In 7. Beach House – Teen Dream. Okay, for the first couple times I listened to them, I thought Nico-esque singer Victoria Legrand was a bloke! There, I admitted it. This, their 3rd album, has been labelled by muso-types as Dream Pop, for some reason. Alls I know is, it’s reverb-y and has a great 60s vibe. Track to download: Zebra 6. David Gray – Foundling. It kind of sneaked up on us, released a mere 11 months after 2009?s Draw the Line, and it’s kind of a brave album. Very raw, stripped and low-fi, it’s much more like his early, folky albums than the crisp radio-friendly White Ladder. I’m guessing it didn’t create any new DG fans, but made this one very pleasantly surprised. Track to download: We Could Fall In Love Again Tonight 5. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes – Up From Below. Okay, okay, it came out in 2009, but never hit my radar until this year, so I’m including it. My blog, my rules! This bunch that sound like Arcade Fire crashing a Polyphonic Spree church festival, produced the sunny summer hit of the year in Home, and Janglin’ which is currently pimpin’ the Ford Fiesta. Track to Download: Desert Song 4. Band of Horses – Infinite Arms. See the Heligoland clause above – even a slightly disappointing BoH album is superb. Maybe Cease to Begin, from 2007 is just so good that comparison is unfair, I dunno. Fewer anthemic tracks like Funeral or Is There a Ghost and more alt-country type folk jaunts that brought out all the tiresome Neil Young comparisons (I don’t hear it, really I don’t!). Track to Download: On My Way Back Home 3. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening. If James Murphy’s threat to split LCD is correct then he’s done that rarest of things; had a band with 3 albums, each better than the last. Flame out brightly, baby! Punk funk at its absolute best. Weird white-people dance music sung by an often-reluctant sounding front man? Who thought that would work? Track to Download: Home 2. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach. Concept albums ahoy! An ode over an hour or so to the perils of environmental neglect, Damon rounds up a bunch of great co-stars to give the middle finger to all those moaning about how it’s not Demon Days. It’s not – it’s better! Snoop, Lou Reed, Gruff Rhys, De La Soul, Bobby Womack and most of the living members of the Clash – how could it be bad? Track to Download: Superfast Jellyfish 1. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs. And the winner is……another concept album, this time to the titular suburbs of the Texan upbringing Win Butler enjoyed as a kid. Maybe the concept nature of the album helps, but I think it’s their most complete set of tracks to date. Even the occasionally grating vocal stylings of his missus (from previous albums, anyway) sound great here – go figure! Track to Download: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) Bubbling nearby – 2010 offerings from Ray Lamontagne, OMD, The National, Jonsi, The Heavy, Sufjan Stevens, Scissor Sisters. ? Reprinted from my new blog - http://scottishdj.wordpress.com/

Here goes, from 5511 tracks. Klaxons - As Above, So Below The Pretenders - Hymn To Her Editors - When Anger Shows Generation X - King Rocker Gary Numan - We Are Glass Beck - Go It Alone Depeche Mode - Dirt Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart Spoon - Don't You Evah Flaming Lips - The Observer Daft Punk - Human After All OMD - The Romance of the Telescope Faithless - Salva Mea Simon and Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson Simple Minds - New Gold Dream Muse - Map of the Problematique Madonna - Candy Perfume Girl Flock of Seagulls - I Ran Paul Simon - Still Crazy after all these years Blur - Birthday Radiohead - The Tourist Blondie - Rapture James Brown - I Got the Feelin' The Verve - History Moloko - Bring It Back The Who - You Better You Bet The Plastics - Last Train To Clarksville Depeche Mode - Rush Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side Gomez - Notice D.A.F. - Der Mussolini Sorry, got carried away!

He hates NASCAR - now I KNOW I'm gonna like him!

But then the 1997 Marlins became the 2003 Marlins a mere 6 years later... I'm sorry, but give me a WS to tell the grandkids about any day of the week!

I stopped reading after seeing his comments on "Cliff" Narveson!

DM translation - "we realize he's a piece of crap but we REALLY wanted Greinke and KC wouldn't play otherwise"

As Christmas gifts go, Suppan compares to Greinke, as socks do to an Aston Martin DB9!

But, on the plus side, has a beautiful singing voice!

You will notice that we never get any Gabe Kapler calendar shots with Prince, however. Baggy jerseys hide a lot!

Maybe Doug can pull a Jedi mind trick and convince the Stros to swap Betancourt for Bill Hall. "These are not the shortstops you are looking for"!

We lost our niece to SIDS - our deepest sympathies to you and yours. You'll hear a lot of people saying time heals, and it really does.

The merits of Betancourt? We got Megan Fox!!

And that Travis Wood guy makes for a pretty good #5!

Everybody's been great with DM - what could you possibly be referring to?

All this talk of how bad Betancourt is feels a little like telling your friends that you are dating Megan Fox, but that she wears Crocs. People, we are dating MEGAN FOX!!

Caption Contest - "I'm being dealt to the AL East? Cool. Who? The Orioles? Crap...."

Last 3 years Team G GS W L SV BS HLD CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP BAA 2007 TOR 38 25 12 6 1 1 1 0 0 159.0 149 76 73 27 49 122 4.13 1.25 .249 2008 TOR 25 25 9 7 0 0 0 0 0 151.1 126 60 57 21 50 123 3.39 1.16 .222 2010 TOR 31 31 13 8 0 0 0 1 0 195.1 181 84 79 24 43 165 3.64 1.15 .242 Career (Full) 120 95 37 25 1 1 1 1 0 592.0 549 264 253 86 184 479 3.85 1.24 .244 The past few (other than the year off with TJS) he's been better than league average - much better in 08 and this year. For a better team (and an easier division) than Toronto he's a 17 win pitcher, IMO and round these parts, those are pretty darn rare.

I believe I said a better version of Dave Bush. But lets try to look at the Dave Bush we got. Everyone was raving about his previous season, and peripherals in the vaunted AL East. And I think you will be stunned then. "Better" needs a little quantification. Sabathia for example, is better than Dave Bush, much better. Had we gotten, say Jon Garland, for Lawrie, I'd agree with you. Shaun Marcum is a surprisingly good guy for another team to trade away, given his opening day status with TOR last year. I like Lawrie a lot, but we need pitching, so if we've slightly "lost" this trade on paper, at the moment, I'll take it. I don't think we have lost, and time will tell if Lawrie ends up like Braun or not. We've shown we can draft and develop Lawries. Marcums, not so much...