EVIL~! alkeiper

Edison Volquez is having an impressive spring as well for the Reds.

I'm also looking forward to the Ernie Ladd stuff.

Unless this is obvious, it's the Nitro match that wandered into the horse stable.

Beware of Dog is the power outage PPV, so that one will be very interesting to watch again.

The Cardinals sent Colby Rasmus to minor league camp, it looks like he will start in AAA rather than with the big club.

I always find it amusing when the "experts" have all #1 seeds going to the Final Four...way to be original, guys! Honestly, they're the favorites for a reason. You want them to start running down that the probabilities make the whole process random and picking winners is impossible?

How important is a specialist in the grand scheme of things? To put it in a perspective you might better understand, what's the value of a relief pitcher in baseball or a good bench in basketball? Extremely important, or as Agent put it, ask Scott Norwood. Punting can win or lose a game. For reference, see the Green Bay Packers/Chicago Bears second game from this past season in Chicago. The punting turned what otherwise might have been just a close loss or whatever into an absolute blowout. Several other games, particularly defensively minded ones, are won entirely on special teams, and having a punter that can kill the ball when you have an ineffective offense (or are up against an amazing defense) is very helpful, and can be the difference in a game. I'll grant you it is important, and I would relate it to a relief pitcher or bench player in baseball. The problem is, are we really going to rush to put those guys in the Hall of Fame? Jesse Orosco is probably the greatest non-closer reliever of all time, watch how many votes he gets next year. Maybe 1-2%. CanadianChris mentioned Rabbit Maranville. Maranville was a borderline choice, he is difficult to categorize because he was seen much as a team leader. He was the top glove man of his era, the starting shortstop on two different championship teams. For what it's worth, his range factor is the highest all time among shortstops. The worst player in Baseball's Hall of Fame is almost certainly George Kelly. The only reason Kelly was in was because he played next to Frankie Frisch, who as Veterans Committee chairman decided practically all of his old teammates were Hall worthy. Of the sixteen Frisch teammates elected as players, five are legit (using BTF's Hall of Merit as a point of reference). Boxing has some poor choices in their Hall. Jess Willard is in, he has one good win to his credit over his entire career, and many people think Jack Johnson threw that one.

Marquis has beaten the league average ERA three of the last four years, and he's made 32+ starts a year every year in that span. There are much worse problems to be saddled with (like Adam Eaton).

Santino is getting over with a retooled gimmick after his first one bombed. I wouldn't run to start retooling him again right away.

For as fun as the offseason was with trades, this Spring Training has been equally boring. It's sad when the highlights include Jim Bowden on a Segway and the Orioles on heelys. Someone really needs to do something interesting.

Without Gene, there's no one representing the first eight shows. What they do of course is film 3-4 shows at a time with the same panel, so there are limitations to what they can do. I doubt bringing guys into the studio for the "perfect" roundtable group is high on their list of priorities.

Fuck. The service at the place has gotten bad enough without the associates slowed even further by making f'n wraps.

This thread has officially become stupid.

By posting this, milliondollarchamp is only facilitating their behavior.

This thread is done, in any case.

What fared worse, hitting or pitching?

How important is a specialist in the grand scheme of things?

Lawler's WWE stint did him good, because he displayed that he was every bit as capable a heel as he was a face.

I'll switch to Tiger Stadium if it absolutely becomes a problem.

I chose Yankee Stadium. You can't take the park away from me, I arranged my entire draft around it. I mean, not to be picky but it's not in the rules that two teams can't use the same park. I have four lefties in my starting rotation.

I wanted to create an "It's a Wonderful Life" parody. The climax would come when Marvin inquires about the storefront of black and white televisions. "You weren't there to tell them about high definition."

Wrestlemania is up on my system. Sixty minutes long. Honestly, this was kind of a wasted effort for the most part. Pat Patterson had a few interesting tidbits but the other three (Hayes, Foley, Dusty) weren't even around for 2/3rds of the shows.

This just came to my attention. The Society of American Baseball Research has created an online encyclopedia of minor league statistics. It's absolutely incredible. Have a great-uncle who claims of his days playing AA ball in the '50s? Check out his story. http://minors.sabrwebs.com/cgi-bin/milb.php Here's a treat. Randy "Macho Man" Savage: http://minors.sabrwebs.com/cgi-bin/player....ID=poffo-001ran Obviously statistics are not entirely complete, but this is an absolutely incredible resource.

I think most of the players who have the numbers will get in eventually, including McGwire, Bonds and Clemens. As time passes, the character of players becomes obscured and the argument rests further and further on their statistics. So many professional athletes have taken some kind of drug that it becomes silly to punish a few. Wrestling's big problem is that the common drug concoction includes or included painkillers and recreational drugs. Baseball had a recreational drug problem in the 80s, but not to the same extent as professional wrestling. To answer the HOF voting question, I think Greg Maddux would draw the highest percentage. No steroid whispers, 347 career wins, if not Maddux then you might as well not have a Hall vote.

The shame is that the Baseball Cube is far behind (still no independent league stats for 2007) and quite buggy at times. It is honestly too ambitious a site given its resources. One really great thing about this site is getting information about defunct minor league franchises in Allentown, Scranton, etc. Heck, Stroudsburg PA is represented!