EVIL~! alkeiper

When they weren't old enough to see it then and there's little video footage, it's easy. The only two Hogan/Andre matches I've seen prior to Wrestlemania III come thanks to WWE's own dvd library. I don't mind it. Andre was an easier person to slam in 1980 than in '87. It was six or seven years prior anyway, and it is not like Hogan had pinned Andre in those matches.

I hope not. The only advantage Beckett has over C.C. Sabathia is that 20 is a round number.

The Phillies' uniforms look like the late '40s unis.

I'm still not banking on the Phils until they actually lead. It's unbelievable though that the easiest route to the playoffs now resides in the N.L. East.

I think if a wrestler is deceased he is off the list.

Absolutely. Look for it the day the season ends, or thereabouts.

Wagner's not even in the bullpen, so something is amiss.

I would argue Hamilton has the chance to be every bit as good as Dunn. He hadn't played high level ball consistantly in 4 years and played great this year. If he had 600 at bats this year he'd have 40 home runs as well. He's got a shot. What people don't realize is that at 26, Hamilton doesn't have a lot of development left. Dunn is just a year older. (As a side note, Ryan Howard is only ten days younger than Dunn.) Remember that Hamilton has been protected against lefties as well.

He's saying that although the Phils never made the postseason, he built a quality team. Honestly, he never really made a truly boneheaded move. He traded Scott Rolen but that was after a public feud between Rolen and Larry Bowa that forced a deal. The Curt Schilling trade brought over a couple good seasons of Vicente Padilla. I can't really find a single player the Phils traded under Wade that came back to bite him. Meanwhile, the major pieces of the Phillies as mentioned were drafted under Wade. The Abreu for Stocker deal occured on his watch, as did the Estrada for Millwood deal. Wade was GM when the Phillies took Shane Victorino in the Rule V draft. The only strike is that Wade tends to overpay for middle relief. I miss those days.

I'll remember this night every time I see Matt Maloney win a game for the Reds. Anyone with the Phillies feed ever notice when they run a stat on the screen. Gary Matthews awkwardly reads the stat and pretty much states what it says. They show Jason Bergmann's first/second half split. "Jason Bergmann's ERA in the second half has been higher." Sarge seems like a likeable guy. He adds nothing to the broadcast. Come to think of it, neither does the pitching.

As for Dunn, it's easy to say he could cut back on the strikeouts. Just as I could say Jeff Francoeur should walk more. But it's not so easy to actually do it. Dunn's approach works in its own way. One of Earl Weaver's truisms was that a good manager looks at what a player CAN do, rather than what he can't. Bad organizations look at what a player can't do. Unfortunately Reds' broadcaster Marty Brennaman really gets on Dunn's case and I think that poisons the fanbase.

Hopper's a AAA guy, he's not a long term solution. Neither him or Hamilton are better players than Dunn. Jay Bruce maybe, he's VERY highly regarded.

Why won't the Padres lose? Jesus f'n christ.

It's mostly kayfabed. We go through this every year.

Ed Wade got a bum rap for failing to put the Phillies over the top. Pat Gillick has not done much better. Under Wade, the Phillies turned from a 90-loss team to a contender, and drafted and developed Pat Burrell, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels and Brett Myers. I've had the opportunity to meet him and he is a great person.

here's spooky for you...watch WM7...or is it WM6? Kerry Von Erich vs. Dino Bravo. Musta been WM7 because Von Erich debuted summer of 90 in the WWF. Nah, the worst Kerry moment is the 1984 title win. His 13 year old brother greets him in the ring to celebrate. Both eventually committed suicide.

Let's see if I can't explain this properly. Batting average at one time was THE statistic for evaluating hitters. In the 1910s, Chalmers awarded automobiles to the best hitters in each league, and that was determined simply by batting average. The problem is that hitting success, ultimately scoring runs, involves more than batting average. Studies have shown that the most important factor in hitting is whether or not the hitter makes an out. That is where On Base Percentage comes in. Think about it. If you reverse OBP, you have a percentage of the time a hitter makes an out at the plate. To illustrate the point, look at the 1936-39 New York Yankees. They were simply one of the most devastating offensive forces of all time. Four consecutive seasons, they led the league in runs scored. They never led the league in batting average. Batting average is just a starting point. In order to determine a hitter's quality, you need to look at other factors, namely his plate discipline and power. Adam Dunn is hitting .266 with a .387 OBP. Juan Pierre is hitting .293 with a .331 OBP. Pierre has a higher batting average, but he makes outs at a far higher percentage as well. Now what of the value of simply putting a ball in play? The effects are insignificant. Advancing runners is about 5% of offense. Getting runners on base in the first place is the other 95%. The average team makes an error less than once a game. Again I point to running correlations among offensive statistics. The Phillies are third in strikeouts and first in runs scored. The Giants are last in strikeouts, and second to last in runs scored. What does that tell you about the value of putting the ball in play? You mentioned Adam Dunn hitting with a runner on third. I don't have the out situations handy but I can tell you with a runner on third base, Adam Dunn does strike out less (at least this season). The main problem with a hitter like Dunn is that the opposition is going to pitch around him in a key situation. But if Dunn doesn't strike out, he's either going to walk, or he's going to hit the ball so hard that it will result in a sacrifice fly. Ultimately, there is no single blueprint for a hitter. Some guys are high average, medium power hitters who are highly productive. Dunn is a unique player, but he produces as many runs at the plate as any other hitter in the league.

It's getting late for myself, but sometime in the near future I'll tackle this in a little detail. It's fairly common and I think it could provide for a good educational experience. I don't want to see a poster piled on unnecessarily.

Adam Dunn has struck out 1,089 times coming into tonight. 181 times (16.6%), it was on an 0-2 count. 300 times (27.5%) it was 1-2. That's assuming they don't hit a foul ball with two strikes. Besides that though, we have a concrete measure. Adam Dunn ranks fourth in the NL in pitches per plate appearance. Juan Pierre is not a good leadoff hitter. He led the National League in outs last season and is second this season.

Juan Pierre. If a batter strikes out, there's still a chance for an error as the catcher has to catch the third strike. You can reach first on a strikeout and error. OBP is the only thing that matters. The manner of the out is meaningless. Don't believe me? Take a stat page from any league and run a correlation study between runs scored and strikeouts. Then do the same for runs and OBP.

How high?

You could ground into a double play. And if Derek Jeter could hit 40 home runs a year instead of 20, imagine how high his slugging percentage would be.

.249 career. It depends on the walks however. Dunn's career OBP is .381, a very good mark. Compare that to say Dave Kingman, who hit .236 with a .302 OBP in his career. If a guy walks 100+ times a season, he can get away with a low average.

The suspension was solely for the Eagles chant. If the Eagles go 0-3, I'm going into the NFL thread and typing "P-H-I-L-L-I-E-S! Phillies!"

With Ted Turner willing at least to broadcast wrestling on his networks, I'm certain a company would at least get national airtime. Perhaps we get a resurgent AWA, or Global takes off.