caulfield12

How did Campbell play today for C.R.? I tried to wake up at 4 a.m., then 5 a.m. around halftime and couldn't quite motivate myself to get up...

Something with the hitter's backdrop? Didn't/doesn't this happen with Beckham as well...Quentin? Or, conspiracy theory, he's trying to get traded and will become an All-Star once he leaves Chicago.

Mexico got conservative there at the end. It's the equivalent of the prevent defense in the NFL. Nothing Ochoa could have done on either of those goals. Marquez was a bit lucky he didn't get called for another foul earlier in the game...at age 35, he just doesn't quite have the quickness anymore to stay with Robben one on one. Netherlands has the better team and is still one of the 2-3 favorites to win it all, but close to tragic for Mexico, if there's such a thing in sports (when an entire country's hopes are pinned to a team in a national sport and they seem poised to win).

Ochoa, Neymar and James Rodriguez are the 3 best players in the tourney so far... Where the hell was Van Persie today? Only Robben showed up.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 29, 2014 -> 09:58 AM) I can't figure out why else a guy who spent 6 innings hitting 93-94 with the fastball regularly wouldn't be able to start missing more bats. See Felipe Paulino at 94-96.

Mexico with a very solid first half but couldn't punch across a goal. Both teams looked very tired at the end of the first (cooling break), Mexico has seemingly controlled 70% of the game. Van Persie and Robben haven't had many chances....a bit of a controversy near the end about a takedown of Robben in box but it wasn't called.

Some of the more interesting names on the market right now (among the hitters) are Cuddyer, Willingham, Seth Smith, Gerardo Parra and Ben Zobrist. Also, Nolan Reimold's about to be released by the Orioles. Career .766 OPS, unfortunately not left-handed. 29 years old.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 29, 2014 -> 07:41 AM) Anyone that takes tmar seriously will be pointed at and laughed at That really stings.

QUOTE (Tmar @ Jun 29, 2014 -> 04:25 AM) Pound the greedy traitor Ummmm..."traitor"? Really? We're better than Indians fans booing Jim Thome, I'd hope. Imagine you worked at a company and your boss encouraged you to look around at other opportunities and admitted they couldn't pay you anywhere close to $56 million over 4 years. Would you refuse his advice and ask to stay for 3 years and $36 million instead? If you want to blame someone, blame Loria in Miami.

http://www.boxoffice.com/latest-news/2014-...opening-weekend Looks like the "China strategy" with Transformers 4 is already paying off nicely. Will end up around $95 million, setting the record in China for Opening Day ($38 million) and opening weekend, and probably beating the US/North America total, which is expected to be in the low 90's. Avatar's all-time is in sight, but I would expect the negative word of mouth to prevent that from happening. On the other hand, there's no way this picture's going to make it to $1 billion. UPDATE: U.S. total now predicted to be $102 million, so Chinese box office will be 2nd.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 28, 2014 -> 09:24 PM) Crain... Thornton... LaTroy Hawkins all come to mind as well. Marte and Howry would be other guys in that category. Then you have those one-year wonders like Hermanson first half of 2005 and Jason Grilli last year with the Pirates. But that success almost never continues for a veteran who rises to closer in the 2nd half of his career after being a reliever or mostly a starter...unless his name is Eckersley.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 28, 2014 -> 03:58 PM) Normally as players advance in minors, organizations have them run less (once they have proven themselves) as there are more risks to nagging injuries, etc, and they want to make sure those players (who have legit other tools) are advancing those tools and healthy and able to work on that stuff. Was told that from multiple people back when I spent a few different summers at the various minor league facilities. This included conversations with the Sox minor league coordinator at the time. That's all fine and good, but then Micah Johnson has to be more of a Ray Durham clone (who later starts hitting 12-18 homers per year in the second half of his career) at the next level...if he's not going to be like a Pods or Hamilton that will give you 50-75 steals. If your number 1 asset's speed, then you have to use it to affect the outcome of games or your lack of other tools (defense, power, arm, etc.) will always hold you back.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 28, 2014 -> 08:55 PM) They still had reasonably defined roles when Beli was the closer. They just couldn't handle them. I really don't know why it would freak a major league pitcher out coming in during tje 8th inning vs. the 7th, but if it does, that isn't a guy you want on your roster moving forward. The game will dictate when these guys come in anyway. It even happened with Dotel and Linebrink when they were moved out of the 7th and 8th inning, and they were the quintessential experienced/veteran relievers with a track record and pretty huge contracts for relievers.

Ramirez padding his trade-worthy stats. Hey, a Ventura PHing move actually worked out.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 28, 2014 -> 01:13 PM) I love penalties so much. Those last 30 minutes of extra time, obviously they were gassed and Oscar got pulled, but it seems Brazil was only interested in pressing the defense for 6-8 minutes...and Chile was just sitting back for the penalty kicks, although Pinella or whatever was just inches away from knocking out Brazil and then also missed his penalty kick, so he'll be the one with the most nightmares, along with the dude who missed the final attempt (Jara or something).

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Jun 28, 2014 -> 01:09 PM) How many times has Tyler kd today? 2/3, continuing to lead the AL in strikeouts.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 28, 2014 -> 01:09 PM) You have to go with the hot hand when the current closer is as bad as Bella has been. I don't know how many games you allow the current hot hand to blow. It's kind of an eye test thing. It'd be criminal to put Bella out there again. It's kind of a deal where you just "know" if you are the manager. Don't want to keep Belisario, that's not the issue. It's deciding between Guerra, Putnam and Petricka. Today, it seems Guerra will be entering bottom of the 8th.

Those two early saves by Julio Cesar rattled Chile a bit and had them on the defensive. Of course, Willian and Ramires didn't distinguish themselves either, but Neymar came through when it was essential.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 28, 2014 -> 11:21 AM) Are you saying Micah didn't replicate those numbers at higher levels? Stolen bases.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 28, 2014 -> 12:58 PM) Also, Jays fans must be ready for rip Gibbons head off for that move. Why pull Stroman who has dominated Viciedo in his first 2 AB? Awful decision to pull him there. Harrelson supposedly told the Jays' radio guys that Stroman has the best stuff of any RHP he's seen this year other than Scherzer. Should see a RH reliever against Encarnacion in the bottom of the 8th. Sale's already at 108 pitches. Then Navarro and Glenn.

LOL. Viciedo only 2 for 13 on the series, 7 K's but two huge homers. That's making them count. Guerra's up in the pen. Sale's velocity is down quite a bit today in the late innings. Okay, still at 94-95. Saw a couple at 88. Reyes is undoubtedly looking to go. 16/17. But Sale will keep him close, the left-handedness gives him a huge advantage here.

Things were getting a little chippy in there after Hulk got taken out in the penalty box and Neymar was upended. Brazil controlled the first 30 minutes, but couldn't push another goal across...Neymar's header was the closest. There was another shot from (Alves) outside the box that was right on target high on the goal but got deflected by a leaping one hand save over the crossbar. Sloppy back pass by Brazil's defensive left side opened up that scoring opportunity, didn't react quickly enough to the window of opportunity they created.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 28, 2014 -> 10:21 AM) So the most common theme is having players without egos, thus no "star" players. So all teams should go the cheap route and not attract star players with egos I guess it depends on the egos of those star players. Abreu has a certain confidence, but he doesn't have the attitude of a star, at least yet. Sale's pretty down to earth and can make fun of himself, too. With the A's, Cespedes carries himself like a star. Donaldson's been on the map for two years now, but isn't nearly as hyped as Pablo Sandoval across the Bay. It's more Moss who has emerged this year. The pitching staff, Kazmir has battled back from the verge of being out of baseball, and Gray/Doolittle are largely unknown out of the roto leagues and West Coast baseball fans.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/winnin...p;vkey=news_mlb Winning Formula...Five Reasons For Oakland As Lasting Success

Well, Transformers 4 is better than Transformers 3, maybe...barely. This is one is at least 30 minutes too long, 10 product placements too many and suffers from one of the most incoherent scripts in recent sci fi memory, but the action and improvements in CGI almost make it worth it. Stanley Tucci deserves 1/2 star alone for his performance. The movie would have been pretty hard to watch without him. And 1/2 star simply for not having a Victoria's Secret model muddle her way through a top-billed role. But SNOWPIERCER, far and away, is the best new movie of the weekend, and it's not even close. http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/06/26/snow...vans-weinstein/ Let me be clear, I'm not one of those knee-jerk Michael Bay haters. I'm not even against the Transformers movies. I thought the first one was kind of fun in an inane, unleash-your-inner-child, rock-'em-sock-'em way (Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon, less so). But Age of Extinction is lazy hackwork. It isn't just narratively incoherent. It's one of the tackiest and crassest blockbusters I've ever seen, wasting no opportunity to shamelessly plug products such as Bud Light, Chevy, and Beats by Dr. Dre. It doesn't even try to conceal its cynicism. ..... The American flags billowing in the wind and the film's Friday Night Lights bath of warm, Lone Star state sunlight signal to us that these are good people. But Bay doesn't let that stop him from tarting up Peltz in Daisy Dukes and creepily leering at her with his camera. As for her dad, well, all the semaphore in the world won't help you buy Wahlberg as either a Texan or the brainiac tinkerer he plays. ..... But enough about the puny humans. You didn't come to see them. You came to see giant sentient robots smack the snot out of one another and make crap blow up. And blow up it does. For the first hour, Bay's baroque orgy of ear-shredding, eye-dazzling destruction is impressive. Then you realize there's almost two hours left to go, and the movie becomes numbing, exhausting, and migraine-inducing. (A great missed opportunity: a scene in which one of the characters twists open a bottle of Excedrin.) Ultimately, Age of Extinction is an endless barrage of nonsense and noise. You almost don't even care who wins, just that it ends. Bay has said that this film will kick off a second trilogy of Transformers movies — and I think he's serious. That means there will be (at least) two more of these things. God help us all. D+ www.ew.com/movies/ (Chris Nashawaty)