Gregory Pratt

Tom Green still has a show? s***.

1. Did he start all that season? 2. Wasn't that his rookie season? 3. Didn't he get much better, not just in 05, but after that?

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jul 26, 2007 -> 07:25 PM) Floyd reminds me so much of a young Jon Garland it isn't even funny. He needs a year of the Guillen treatment to get him mentally ready for the big leagues, because he has the best arm on the staff. Garland was never anywhere near this bad. Nowhere near as bad as Floyd was in Philadelphia or here.

Can't blame Schuerholz for the playoffs. He's built teams plenty good enough to win in the playoffs. But hey -- I'll take fourteen division titles and 1 World Series win over what we've got here: years of mediocrity, a bad farm system, average (at best) teams in the Comedy Central and 1 World Series win as well. And why would they be ridiculing Williams, who is in another league and they hardly deal with? They'd be more likely to ridicule Steve Phillips or Pat Gillick, with good reason (Kazmir: bullpen, Garcia).

QUOTE(Jim Spencer @ Jul 26, 2007 -> 06:14 PM) I sure wish the Sox had the Tiger's problems with pitching Verlander 11-3 Bonderman 10-2 Durbin 7-3 Miller 5-3 Grilli 5-2 Jones 27 saves Seay 2.96 ERA in 36 games and don't forget Zumaya will be back next month. I also wish the Sox had the Tiger's problems with hitting Durbin, Grilli and Jones aren't players to envy. I don't think Seay is, either.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jul 26, 2007 -> 07:23 PM) hmmmm, I remember select start at the end of that code for sure. I think your image is cut off or wrong. Might be a difference in arcade and console.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Jul 26, 2007 -> 03:19 PM) Well if there is a good side to the Cubs making the playoffs, maybe Mr. Reinsdorf allows Kenny to spend a little more this off season knowing that you can buy your way into contention and attract fans. Doubt it.

Oh, and something else, but those two would be a fine start. And the other piece wouldn't be something crazy like a Felix or something.

I'd take Clement and either Wladimir or Clement

John Schuerholz once traded someone for a bag of balls, literally.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jul 26, 2007 -> 01:16 PM) up up down down left right left right baba select select start

You know why all of baseball feels that way, Canseco? Because Schilling is 1. More talented and successful than most people in baseball 2. A better communicator and 3. Because so many people in baseball are upset with him for speaking out against the steroids that they were on and are. Schilling's a bit of a b****, but I like him enough.

Nobody is going to trade for Bukvich.

Yeah. You and I, like I wrote, are in complete agreement except I give it a smidge more plausibility and you give it none at all.

You have the "best of both worlds" now just as you did in the nineties and the eighties as Schuerholz does.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 10:24 PM) Don't tell me you're talking about Scout's Honor. Christ did that book suck. "The Braves scouts didn't need no stinkin' numbers or new-fangled computers. The Braves scouts were able to see that this kid had heart." No. I'm talking about Built to Win and it is fantastic. By the way, all he does is talk about how many pages of statistics he goes over, along with handfuls of scouting reports. So, if you're under the impression that he's a Grinder GM, you're mistaken. He ridicules Sabermetrics in general but talks about how he's always used stats and always will. It's very good stuff. And there was never a single reference to "heart" in the book I read, although he talks about winning, team attitudes, though that's a lot more sensible than "heart" as an intangible.

A small, sadistic part of me wants Podsednik back next year.

Well, that and the fact that he's slowed down, his bat has slowed down, and he isn't getting younger. I don't think I'm going to want anything to do with him after this season. I'm open to the possibility, but I doubt it.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 11:53 PM) Some team is going to get a very dangerous hitter in Dye, and probably for an average package. I actually am not against offering him a 2 year, 20 million dollar deal. However, I think he wants a longer-term contract. Whatever happens, we better not trade him to the Cubs. I might not be opposed to that if he's good for the rest of the year, but we need to get cheaper, younger and faster, not take gambles on relatively old guys who have been slowing down for years and are likely to keep slowing down.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 11:59 PM) I have no idea why, but I always loved when the game was over, seeing the newspaper come up with some lame headline... Those were pretty good!

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 11:55 PM) Anyone ever make it to the final level of Super Mario 3? I went back and played it last year, and the last level is so intense. Yeah! -- So I recently fell in love again. I love shooters. Old school shooters. Contra-types. And now they're making Contra IV for the DS? Mmhmm

Made another Benoit entry. Forgive the HTML. Back to Benoit John Kronus died on July eighteenth. He was a professional wrestler who wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling, Xtreme Pro Wrestling and the United States Wrestling Association, as well as a variety of independent federations, but he never made it to WWE. I bring up John Kronus because he died of an enlarged heart (possibly from steroids or drugs, but not for sure), and his death was brought up in the media as another example of a WWE employee dying young. In an equally disturbing story, CW Network runs WWE's Smackdown! wrestling program and their President was asked whether or not Benoit's murder-suicide would affect their ratings. He said, "No," because Benoit has never been on Smackdown! which is obviously false as Benoit had only recently been moved from Smackdown! to ECW. How shameless is that? Either he doesn't have a clue what's on his show or he's lying about it. Either way, you've got to shake your head. There have been so many glaring examples of incompetence and dishonesty in the media that knowing about all of them will make you doubt the non-print press for the rest of your life. Let's take Glen Beck's recent take on the matter. He starts by calling The Great American Bash, which is a WWE Pay-Per-View event every summer, the "All American Bash." He continues with a rant about how wrestling "glorifies" the worst violence of our society, the TVs on his background read, "WWF" despite the fact that the company's been under a different name for a long time now. He trashes the wrestlers as little more than "B-Movie actors" in "Spandex" (wonder what he'd call Reagan), completely discounting the obvious athleticism involved. Says that there's more athleticism in a "Jackass movie" than in wrestling (I say there are more facts in a Jackass movie than on his show) and then he adds that because of that, you can't call your event "The All American Bash" (fortunately they don't call it "All American Bash"). Then he pretends that he gives a damn about Nancy or Daniel Benoit by ranting about how terrible Chris's actions were, which they were, but the truth is that he doesn't care because if he did, he would be talking about doctors and the schedule they worked, not trashing the industry for ratings and kicks. Beck, adding to his disgraceful rant, cited the misleading "62 wrestlers have died young statistics" and then started to babble about the industry. "Many of these sports entertainers come from troubled backgrounds," he said, talking about how wrestlers are generally bad people with bad histories. I say, first: Isn't that a lot of athletes? and then I say, How do you know what their histories are and why should we believe you? You don't even know the name of their PPV, let alone the histories of 'many' wrestlers, and probably not 'any,' either. He then said, "There are far more tragic endings than happy ones [in wrestling]" (how would he know?) and referred to the wrestlers as "trash-talking thugs," all of which conflicts (is he bashing wrestling? wrestlers?). You've got to believe a guy when he talks like that, though, because he's obviously done all of his homework. At least, that's what someone would believe until he started to speak with Mark Mero. First he called Mark "Jack," then he paused and said, "Mark" and then finally called him "Mike," which he repeated over and over. He interviews him about the industry, along with a doctor (and, as I've said, there good points all around, but Mero is an opportunist and he's dishonest as well, as Lance Storm points out). The rest of the show isn't worth talking about. There are other examples of media coverage being off in this whole ordeal, but you know the script by now, and so allow me to explain why I haven't been writing about this situation lately: I've been busy with work, and the news hasn't been particularly newsish with regard to this matter, so there you go. There are a few things that are going on with this situation, though, that I'd like to talk about. First: Benoit was likely on steroids and the fact that he didn't test positive for them means nothing, just like his testing clean for Human Growth Hormone means nothing. It could simply mean that he was on the off-portion of a steroid user's cycle, or that the tests couldn't catch them after death, but it's fairly certain he was juiced up. Not that it has much, if anything, to do with the murder, but that's the consensus. Second: there have been two interesting ideas floating around, and I'll express them as Two A and Two B. Two A: Former Wrestler and Harvard alum Christopher Nowinski has speculated that Benoit's actions may have been influenced by concussions he suffered and knew about (or didn't). It's entirely possible. Concussions happen all the time in wrestling and Benoit was especially prone to them as he used to do a move called the Kamikaze Headbutt off the turnbuckles. It is a move that should be banned as it is unsafe for anyone to do, much like WWE has banned select moves that affect the cranium. I'm not sure I believe the concussions are a leading or even minimal cause, but it's definitely interesting and it certainly doesn't do him, or anyone, any good to live your life concussed. Two B: The theory that Benoit killed himself to expose the wrestling business has been floated around by Bryan Alvarez and while it sounds ridiculous on the surface, it has some merit, I think. The theory is that Benoit was so disgusted by his best friend Eddie Guerrerro's death and the deaths of several other professional wrestlers that he decided it would be a good idea to kill his family and leave his steroids out in the open for everyone to see. Benoit, as has come out, destroyed a variety of family photos and documents on that fateful weekend but he did nothing to hide his drugs. Isn't that interesting? Not sure how true it is, as Benoit loved wrestling, but perhaps he loved it so much that he suffered through the deaths of so many friends and thought, "Someone has to blow the whistle and shake it up." What makes that theory less plausible to me, though, is that Benoit loved his wife and kid, despite whatever problems he had with Nancy. I still believe that Benoit killed her somewhat on accident and then lost his mind, but that theory, like all the others, has some issues (though I think it has the least amount). Rumors are running that Benoit's diary has yet to be found but will be and if that's true, we might gain more insight into his thoughts.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 10:32 PM) Why the heck wouldn't there be? I don't think anybody is wanting to trade him for beans, but he's by no mean untouchable. I personally think Anahiem might be a great fit, provided Casey Kotchman is coming back our way. Kotchman has been Konerko's equal this year, according to OPS+. If Stoneman offered, say, Kotchman, Willits and Santana for Konerko, it's definitely an offer I'd listen to. And as far as trading away the team's "heart and soul", the only thing that really matters to Sox fans are wins and losses. It's definitely an offer that should be accepted if it's made to us, even if Santana's a bit of a project. I think I'd prefer, say, Kochman, Willits and a SS/2baseman, but I'd do either one, I think.

Made another Benoit entry. Forgive the HTML. Back to Benoit John Kronus died on July eighteenth. He was a professional wrestler who wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling, Xtreme Pro Wrestling and the United States Wrestling Association, as well as a variety of independent federations, but he never made it to WWE. I bring up John Kronus because he died of an enlarged heart (possibly from steroids or drugs, but not for sure), and his death was brought up in the media as another example of a WWE employee dying young. In an equally disturbing story, CW Network runs WWE's Smackdown! wrestling program and their President was asked whether or not Benoit's murder-suicide would affect their ratings. He said, "No," because Benoit has never been on Smackdown! which is obviously false as Benoit had only recently been moved from Smackdown! to ECW. How shameless is that? Either he doesn't have a clue what's on his show or he's lying about it. Either way, you've got to shake your head. There have been so many glaring examples of incompetence and dishonesty in the media that knowing about all of them will make you doubt the non-print press for the rest of your life. Let's take Glen Beck's recent take on the matter. He starts by calling The Great American Bash, which is a WWE Pay-Per-View event every summer, the "All American Bash." He continues with a rant about how wrestling "glorifies" the worst violence of our society, the TVs on his background read, "WWF" despite the fact that the company's been under a different name for a long time now. He trashes the wrestlers as little more than "B-Movie actors" in "Spandex" (wonder what he'd call Reagan), completely discounting the obvious athleticism involved. Says that there's more athleticism in a "Jackass movie" than in wrestling (I say there are more facts in a Jackass movie than on his show) and then he adds that because of that, you can't call your event "The All American Bash" (fortunately they don't call it "All American Bash"). Then he pretends that he gives a damn about Nancy or Daniel Benoit by ranting about how terrible Chris's actions were, which they were, but the truth is that he doesn't care because if he did, he would be talking about doctors and the schedule they worked, not trashing the industry for ratings and kicks. Beck, adding to his disgraceful rant, cited the misleading "62 wrestlers have died young statistics" and then started to babble about the industry. "Many of these sports entertainers come from troubled backgrounds," he said, talking about how wrestlers are generally bad people with bad histories. I say, first: Isn't that a lot of athletes? and then I say, How do you know what their histories are and why should we believe you? You don't even know the name of their PPV, let alone the histories of 'many' wrestlers, and probably not 'any,' either. He then said, "There are far more tragic endings than happy ones [in wrestling]" (how would he know?) and referred to the wrestlers as "trash-talking thugs," all of which conflicts (is he bashing wrestling? wrestlers?). You've got to believe a guy when he talks like that, though, because he's obviously done all of his homework. At least, that's what someone would believe until he started to speak with Mark Mero. First he called Mark "Jack," then he paused and said, "Mark" and then finally called him "Mike," which he repeated over and over. He interviews him about the industry, along with a doctor (and, as I've said, there good points all around, but Mero is an opportunist and he's dishonest as well, as Lance Storm points out). The rest of the show isn't worth talking about. There are other examples of media coverage being off in this whole ordeal, but you know the script by now, and so allow me to explain why I haven't been writing about this situation lately: I've been busy with work, and the news hasn't been particularly newsish with regard to this matter, so there you go. There are a few things that are going on with this situation, though, that I'd like to talk about. First: Benoit was likely on steroids and the fact that he didn't test positive for them means nothing, just like his testing clean for Human Growth Hormone means nothing. It could simply mean that he was on the off-portion of a steroid user's cycle, or that the tests couldn't catch them after death, but it's fairly certain he was juiced up. Not that it has much, if anything, to do with the murder, but that's the consensus. Second: there have been two interesting ideas floating around, and I'll express them as Two A and Two B. Two A: Former Wrestler and Harvard alum Christopher Nowinski has speculated that Benoit's actions may have been influenced by concussions he suffered and knew about (or didn't). It's entirely possible. Concussions happen all the time in wrestling and Benoit was especially prone to them as he used to do a move called the Kamikaze Headbutt off the turnbuckles. It is a move that should be banned as it is unsafe for anyone to do, much like WWE has banned select moves that affect the cranium. I'm not sure I believe the concussions are a leading or even minimal cause, but it's definitely interesting and it certainly doesn't do him, or anyone, any good to live your life concussed. Two B: The theory that Benoit killed himself to expose the wrestling business has been floated around by Bryan Alvarez and while it sounds ridiculous on the surface, it has some merit, I think. The theory is that Benoit was so disgusted by his best friend Eddie Guerrerro's death and the deaths of several other professional wrestlers that he decided it would be a good idea to kill his family and leave his steroids out in the open for everyone to see. Benoit, as has come out, destroyed a variety of family photos and documents on that fateful weekend but he did nothing to hide his drugs. Isn't that interesting? Not sure how true it is, as Benoit loved wrestling, but perhaps he loved it so much that he suffered through the deaths of so many friends and thought, "Someone has to blow the whistle and shake it up." What makes that theory less plausible to me, though, is that Benoit loved his wife and kid, despite whatever problems he had with Nancy. I still believe that Benoit killed her somewhat on accident and then lost his mind, but that theory, like all the others, has some issues (though I think it has the least amount). Rumors are running that Benoit's diary has yet to be found but will be and if that's true, we might gain more insight into his thoughts.

I doubt they'd give up Salty for a guy who will cost them so much money. Schuerholz doesn't give out No-Trade Clauses, and that's another thing that I think will give Tex trouble coming to Atlanta expecting some money.