crewcrazy

Looking around at my classmates now, I seriously think I'm in the minority when it comes to this generation. I'll admit I get upset when I don't get at least an A-. I don't get upset at the professor, or the class, or the university. I get upset with myself, because the way I was brought up, anything below a B was unacceptable to my parents. If I didn't get the right grades, they didn't call the school to complain...they told me to sit my (butt) down and do the work. Usually, I didn't have a problem with it -- I grew up on a farm with no Internet access until I was about 12 or 13, and no cable/satellite TV until I was 17. I probably benefited from a lack of distractions like that, but I still had a PS2 for the latter half of my teenage years that my parents didn't like to see me playing. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif It was bad enough to get to high school and have my classmates constantly beg and plead for an extra point or two on every assignment corrected in class just because they thought the teacher worded a question in a confusing way (nevermind they were usually the only ones that thought so). My senior year of high school, one of my best friends was actually in position to be class salutatorian. The girl that was ranked #3 found out that she wasn't #2 heading into the last quarter, begged to get every last A- changed to A, and actually succeeded. After she usurped the salutatorian spot, she had the audacity to complain about having to write a speech for graduation. Things aren't much better here in college. I'm a part of a small but highly regarded broadcast journalism program, and part of the reason my school has such a good reputation is because according to people in the business, the curriculum leaves us as some of the better prepared students in the area. As a result, the classes tend to be challenging. As a part of the journalism department, an emphasis is put on meeting deadlines. I was in one journalism class where I was one of 3 or 4 people in a class of 16 to submit all their stories when they were due. I'm in another where students constantly complain about how harshly the professor grades things (god forbid the man takes off half a letter grade when you don't do something he's told us to do at least 20 times in class). They even complain about the fact that the department requires all students to get at least a C in a prereq in order to take the next class. These people don't seem to understand that the entire point of majoring in something in college is to prepare you for a career, and that means turning things in on time. I'm not about to worry for them, though. It's hard enough to get a job in this economy, but even harder to get a job in the journalism field (or at least one that will let you pay off your student loans on time). The less qualified people out there competing for jobs with me, the better. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif I'm sure when I go in for interviews, employers will choose someone like me -- who doesn't make excuses for failure, who does quality work and gets it in on time -- over some of my classmates who pout about having to do the simplest assignments. This post is long enough, but I could complain about my generation for ages. I didn't even get into attendance policies or class participation. I don't know how anyone could think that it's enough to just sit in a chair for 90 minutes or so, then expect the professor to grant you favors (let alone know who you are). I can't speak for the various professors here, but it's been my experience that professors are more accommodating when you show that you're a dedicated student by not only doing the work but also participating in class discussions. You're more likely to get that absence excused or deadline extension if you prove yourself as being a responsible student who didn't just wait until the last minute to think of an excuse.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/a...mp;fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb Word is that it's a one-year deal worth $1 million guaranteed, and $3.5 million worth of incentives. It'll be interesting to see if he can still pitch after having surgery for a torn flexor tendon late last year, but it looks like the Braves are going to give him all the time off this Spring he needs to be ready for the start of the season. Even if he can't pitch very well anymore, at least he's likely going to retire as a Brave.

85-77 seems about right with this current team. I think Gallardo/Parra will be fine, but I'm not entirely confident that Macha will be much better than Yost, and those last few weeks are scary (lots of games against the Cubs and Phillies). I think they start the season a little slow against tough opponents like the Cubs, Mets, and Phillies, but slowly crawl back into things in the middle months.

I doubt losing Pena is going to be a huge blow, but even if he does put it together at least it'll be in the AL (and for a pretty bad team currently). Best of luck to him.

If Selig starts selectively stripping records, it's the start of a pretty slippery slope. What's next, stripping the Giants of the NL pennant Bonds carried them to?

Jon Heyman noted that Abreu is the only player in Major League history with a .300 career BA, .400 career OBP, 200 HR, and 300 SB, saying that Bonds and Henderson nearly made that "club" but failed to hit .300 lifetime. I think he'll be remembered as a pretty well-rounded hitter, but not necessarily the kind of guy you'd fear....I'd say no to the HOF, but who really knows who the voters will consider "worthy" of votes from this era. Good signing for the Angels, though. He'll provide some much-needed OBP in the middle of that lineup.

I got a kick out of little Carsten II's face in that photo. It's probably not often he meets someone who could probably beat up his dad.

Considering risk vs. reward, I think it's accurate to say that the Red Sox have had a pretty solid offseason. I don't know if it'd be Top 3, but in an offseason where it was basically only the Yankees spending money, it's hard to really say who would've been a better fit in that spot. The Brad Penny signing was one that I thought was very good considering the price, and they didn't really overspend on any of their offseason deals. They didn't sign any huge names, but they really didn't need to sign anyone to contend next year. Epstein's just taking affordable gambles that might end up paying off. If they don't pay off, he still has a playoff team. I'm trying to think of who else could've gone in that #3 spot. Cleveland, maybe? They added Kerry Wood and Mark DeRosa, but not much else. San Francisco added some pieces, but they're all old and mostly past their prime. The Braves did a nice job rebuilding their rotation, but that Derek Lowe contract could be a killer down the road. To me it almost looks like the Red Sox could have that #3 spot by default. Not everything is a blatant Boston/New York bias. I'll disagree with the Brewers being named one of the bottom three, but at least people are interested in seeing how the team does without Sheets and Sabathia. Can't hurt to have a little national attention at the start of the year.

The real challenge is finding someone to play Nick Swisher. I'm having a hard time thinking of anybody that could match that kind of crazy. He just might have to play himself.

Do you have the same doubts that Pettite only took PED's to rehab from injury? Everyone seemed to accept that excuse and no one has talked about him since. But as always, A-Rod gets different treatment for the fans and media. I agree that A-Rod's getting put through the wringer here, but I do have the same doubts about Pettitte. Rodriguez is probably getting treated worse than anyone else has (especially by the New York media) because he was being built up as one of the last few true "clean" guys. People were depending on him to "cleanly" break the HR record and remove Bonds from the books. I can understand why people are reacting the way they are, I just don't really agree with it.

I think he's appropriately rated. Most people seem to realize that he's been one of the better offensive players on the team the past couple years, but his tendency of being streaky detracts from his value in some people's eyes. I'll admit to being one who's been very pleasantly surprised with how he's bounced back from his early-career problems, and I really hope the team can find a way to keep him around long-term. I'll agree with Nate that he tends to be overrated on defense and underrated with the bat. That leads to a pretty even "rating", no? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

We're really supposed to believe that he only took steroids for three years, and conveniently stopped using PEDs before he jumped to the Yankees? Who's not to say that he used something in his last years in Seattle to help him get that monstrous contract from Texas? And who's not to say that he's still taking stuff that can't be detected in any tests yet? Overall, I'm not really surprised at this, and I'm not really all that bothered. Rodriguez has a history of being selfish, aloof, and a highly private person that doesn't play well with others -- it's always seemed like he had something to hide. So when something like this comes out, it's not all that hard for me to believe. Considering the sheer number of other players that tested positive, I'm not really bothered by it, either. I'd be willing to bet that there are a lot more players than the 104 that tested positive...there are rumors that the union was tipping some players off ahead of time and there were likely others that had already moved on to undetectable stuff.

The rule change doesn't bother me. It's still semi-competitive baseball in the Spring, and I'll still watch it. Americans may think it's boring, but we've never been ones to take international competition seriously, anyway. I have a lot of fun just watching the fans of the other countries completely digging the idea of the competition and coming up with chants and ringing cowbells and all that fun stuff. They love baseball so much they don't care what form it's played in (not to imply that those who aren't in favor of the WBC don't love baseball -- my point is that their enthusiasm for the game is unmatched).

But his nickname is "Big Game Ollie" -- he's so clutch! Any other year this probably wouldn't be a bad deal for a guy like him, considering the going price for average pitchers. With this market, though, you have to wonder why they didn't just roll the dice on 125 IP of Sheets rather than guaranteeing Mr. Inconsistency $36 million. Not that I'm complaining.

Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3878987 Hill was out of options, and Wuertz probably wouldn't have made that bullpen out of ST. Before the news of the Wuertz trade I was going to bust out a "Melvin:Rangers :: Hendry:Orioles" joke. The Cubs are getting OF Rich Robnett and IF Justin Sellers from the A's for Wuertz. Hill should be a nice little reclamation project for the O's...he showed a bit of promise earlier in his career but couldn't seem to throw a strike in Chicago or Iowa last year.

Considering Randy Johnson signed for a similar deal with San Francisco and would be a huge cash cow for them as he chases 300 wins, I'm having trouble figuring out why they would elect to go with Garland instead. Wouldn't it have made more sense to keep Johnson around, since he'll likely be better but just as cheap?

They're also a Milton Bradley injury away from having some combination of Soriano, Reed Johnson, Joey Gathright, and Kosuke Fukudome in the outfield. If Soriano and Bradley get injured at the same time, things get really ugly for them. I'm not a huge fan on counting guys from division rivals getting hurt, though, so I'm not going to mark them down that much. They've got some pitching depth right now and their bullpen looks pretty decent, and when everyone's healthy they have one killer lineup. They'll be tough to be most of the season...they just have to avoid all getting bit by the injury bug at once.

With Garrett Olson being a part of this trade, it means the Cubs effectively traded Felix Pie and Ronny Cedeno for Aaron Heilman. Jim Hendry's really hard to figure out. The Cubs need all this depth because Harden's practically guaranteed to miss time every year (he's already hurt, for what it's worth) and Zambrano has shown signs of wearing down. He's still a very good pitcher, but not where he was 2 or 3 years ago...all those innings and poor conditioning are starting to catch up to him. If Harden and Zambrano miss significant time, they're down to Ryan Dempster (who's bound to regress) and Ted Lilly being their top guys.

Interesting what this could mean for the Peavy talks. On one hand, Cedeno was rumored as one of the players that would likely be involved, wasn't he? On the other hand, maybe this allows the Cubs to deal one of their younger arms now that they have depth. They could send someone like Sean Marshall to the Padres now and keep Heilman as that emergency starter, or maybe even deal Heilman as well. If he repeats last year's numbers, though, I don't think this is going to hurt the Brewers too badly. I got a kick out of this response on NSBB:

The second the Sonics left Seattle, I developed a fear of the "Seattle Bucks" becoming reality. The longer Kohl goes without selling the team, the more he'll be pressured to sell it to someone who's not entirely committed to keeping the team in Milwaukee.

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Well it would stink only getting a 2nd rounder from Texas for Sheets, but I guess it beats only getting a 2nd rounder from the Mets (K-Rod rates higher than Sheets, IIRC) while also seeing a wildcard rival getting much better. Seeing him go the AL would make it easier to root for him to succeed on his new team...it'll be interesting to see just how close he is to signing with Texas, and how long of a deal he'll take if he does end up there. Texas doesn't seem like the ideal place to go to prove your free agent worth on a short-term deal.

I don't think there is anything Melvin can do in Gallardo's case, but I think I remember reading something saying that the Cards could block Pujols from participating since he had offseason surgery. I'm not positive on that, though...I'm still trying to find something to back that up. I'm a little worried about Gallardo, but I'm not worked up about him being overworked. There wasn't a single MLB pitcher that threw more than 14 innings in the last WBC, but Nate Silver guessed the bad performances from the pitchers in the last WBC were more due to them being taken out of their routine. I'm also one of those hoping Mexico gets eliminated early, or at least guys like Oliver Perez, Matt Garza, and Jorge Campillo get more innings than him.

They probably had to overpay a bit to lure him away from the West Coast, but I almost never have a problem with one year deals. I agree that it'd be great if they could sign Chad Cordero for cheap or even bring back Mota at a reduced price to add more depth to the bullpen, but I like the way it's shaping up, especially if they can get a starter to ensure that Villy and McClung stay in the bullpen.