EVIL~! alkeiper

I can't do a top ten, so I'll just add that Belle & Sebastian's The Life Pursuit is the best album I've heard in a long time.

I liked it. The extra matches aren't classics mostly, but you'll get some entertaining stuff. Curt Hennig's AWA title win is on it, as well as Lawler/Von Erich. Lawler cheats in that match better than any wrestler I have ever seen. For what it's worth, I bought my copy at Kmart for $17.99.

You know, perhaps Paul can explain for us all when he's going to pay up and assume his modship.

I did something similar for my girlfriend. Instead of wrapping a present, I put it in a gift bag and ripped up a floormat into strips to pack it.

Brad Radke announced his retirement. Radke's 1.63 BB/9 is the best control rate of any active pitcher in baseball. Hats off to Radke for a very good career.

I think that Vince McMahon was #2 when he won it. What I find more amusing is that #30 has never won the Rumble.

I like this deal as well. Miller's a fine player and the draft picks will help. I love Iverson, but Philly wasn't going to win a title with him.

I figured I'd do Jorge Posada's, since it's a fresh look. 1. Was he ever regarded as the best player in baseball? Did anybody, while he was active, ever suggest that he was the best player in baseball? If they did, it is a surprise to me. 2. Was he the best player on his team? No, although Posada played with some very good players. Posada might have a decent argument in any case, as only Derek Jeter ranks higher in Runs Created Above Position from 1998-2006. 3. Was he the best player in baseball at his position? Was he the best player in the league at his position? Posada was quite possibly the best catcher in the American League. Ivan Rodriguez edges him in some rate statistics, but Posada has an edge in Runs Created Above Average over his career. Rodriguez was a better catcher before 1998, when Posada became a regular. In the whole of baseball, only Piazza is clearly superior. 4. Did he have an impact on a number of pennant races? Of course. The Yankees won the American League East every single year Posada started behind the plate. 5. Was he good enough that he could play regularly after passing his prime? Posada is in mid-career, but so far so good. He's made it to his mid 30s. 6. Is he the very best baseball player in history who is not in the Hall of Fame? No. 7. Are most players who have comparable statistics in the Hall of Fame? Posada's number one comparable is Roy Campanella, but Campanella got started late because of the color line. Of the age comparables, three are in the Hall. This is deceiving as well however. Carlton Fisk lasted far longer than any other catcher. Campanella is on the list. Gabby Hartnett was also one of the game's great defensive catchers. So no, most similar players are out. 8. Do the player's numbers meet Hall of Fame standards? Posada scores zero on the Black Ink and 8 on the Gray Ink Test. He scores better on the HOF Standards, meeting 36.2% of Hall Standards. 9. Is there any evidence to suggest that the player was significantly better or worse than is suggested by his statistics? Posada was converted to catcher from second base. He did not get started until he was 26 years old, a very late start. If you look at catchers solely after they turned 26, Posada ranks 7th in runs created per game. 10. Is he the best player at his position who is eligible for the Hall of Fame? I think you would have to look at Ted Simmons first. 11. How many MVP-type seasons did he have? Did he ever win an MVP award? If not, how many times was he close? Catchers get little respect in MVP votes in this era. Posada did once come close, finishing third in 2003. 12. How many All-Star-type seasons did he have? How many All-Star games did he play in? Did most of the players who played in this many All-Star games go into the Hall of Fame? Posada has played in four All-Star games thus far. 13. If this man were the best player on his team, would it be likely that the team could win the pennant? I think so. They would need good supporting players, but a great catcher is a good start. 14. What impact did the player have on baseball history? Was he responsible for any rule changes? Did he introduce any new equipment? Did he change the game in any way? None apparent. 15. Did the player uphold the standards of sportsmanship and character that the Hall of Fame, in its written guidelines, instructs us to consider? Yes. Posada's not really a HOF caliber player. He's probably better however than we give him credit before. A catcher with Posada's hitting ability who can sustain it for nearly a decade is a rare quality.

Paul's gone because he used secondary accounts to try and circumvent suspension, and he bs'ed the mod auction.

I'm guessing whenever he pays Mole/Mike. Which evidently won't happen. His suspension is over tomorrow morning, btw.

http://www.shootproject.com/thepit/index.p...93&st=40725 http://www.shootproject.com/thepit/index.p...93&st=40740 So for a 24 hour suspension, we've blown the cover off of Paul. Talk about showing your hand WAY too early.

He's not. I suspended Paul for the remark.

Here's a helpful hint. Don't fuck around in Al's Sports Folder. See you tomorrow.

Right now I just intend to work at my current job and put out feelers. I'm not thinking too much about my career, I'm just glad I don't have papers to worry about in my spare time.

I'm planning on starting grad school in the fall. I really enjoyed upper level classes when there's 15-20 students and work is more independent; student driven and not just lecturing. Meatwad, thanks for the congratulations. kkk, while we have a full ceremony, we didn't even get a diploma. We just get a diploma cover while the school waits on our final grades. The real one gets mailed within a month.

I don't think there is a player in baseball whose candidacy is determined by their postseason performance. Bagwell indeed performed poorly in the postseason, hitting .226 in 33 games. But how much stock can you honestly place on 33 games? I'm not confident that it reveals much about Bagwell besides some bad luck in big games. Another thing to consider is most of that was built in his first four postseasons, consisting of 14 games. In those 14 games he faced Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine three times apiece, John Smoltz and Kevin Brown twice, and starts against Kevin Millwood and Andy Ashby. Bagwell faced enormously difficult pitching in the postseason.

Possibly the Simpsons?

If $200 is the going rate for moderating these forums, it makes me wonder why I don't rent out my username.

Between Matsuzaka signing below expectations and J.D. Drew, this has not been a good week for Scott Boras. At least he's got the Zito deal to look forward to.

Willie McCovey definitely has one of the best arguments. For three years, McCovey was absolutely the most feared hitter in the National League. Bagwell edges McCovey in OPS+, 150 to 148. Bagwell would gain an advantage when it comes to fielding and especially baserunning. It's close, but even if McCovey beats Bagwell that is not much of a black mark. Players of the 19th Century are hard to rate, yes. You tend to look at Anson's totals and assume that he also competed in a dead ball era. The average runs scored per game in the National League from 1993-2006 range from 4.49 to 5.0 even. In Anson's era however, runs per game ranged from 4.54 to 7.36! Only three years did the league average of runs scored in Anson's career fall below five runs per game. So you need to discount his offense somewhat, but you can't dismiss it. I tend to think Anson and 90% of the 19th Century players could not dominate the way they did today. The structure of the game was not as competitive as today.

I'm posting this here because I didn't feel like beating a dead horse in the MLB thread. There is a legitimate argument that Bagwell is not only Hall of Fame worthy, but he is the best first baseman in the history of the National League. Blasphemy? Check out the leaderboards. Minimum 5000 Plate Appearances for rate statistics. DOUBLES 2B 1 Mark Grace 511 T2 Cap Anson 488 T2 Jeff Bagwell 488 4 Jake Beckley 435 5 Andres Galarraga 428 6 Keith Hernandez 424 7 Jim Bottomley 419 8 Todd Helton 411 9 Steve Garvey 409 10 Charlie Grimm 394 HITS H 1 Jake Beckley 2763 2 Cap Anson 2710 3 Mark Grace 2445 4 Steve Garvey 2443 5 Jake Daubert 2326 6 Jeff Bagwell 2314 7 Charlie Grimm 2297 8 Andres Galarraga 2273 9 Bill Terry 2193 10 Keith Hernandez 2156 HOMERUNS HR 1 Jeff Bagwell 449 2 Willie McCovey 439 3 Andres Galarraga 388 4 Gil Hodges 369 5 Orlando Cepeda 331 6 Johnny Mize 315 7 Eric Karros 282 8 Todd Helton 281 9 Fred McGriff 269 10 Ted Kluszewski 257 INTENTIONAL WALKS IBB 1 Willie McCovey 248 2 Jeff Bagwell 155 3 Todd Helton 146 4 Orlando Cepeda 130 5 Keith Hernandez 127 6 Mark Grace 115 7 Will Clark 112 8 Steve Garvey 108 9 Andres Galarraga 105 10 Fred McGriff 99 ISOLATED POWER ISO 1 Todd Helton .261 2 Johnny Mize .258 3 Willie McCovey .244 4 Jeff Bagwell .244 5 Fred McGriff .227 6 Dolph Camilli .220 7 Gil Hodges .215 8 Andres Galarraga .211 9 Orlando Cepeda .209 10 Will Clark .204 OBA OBA 1 Todd Helton .432 2 Dan Brouthers .418 3 Jeff Bagwell .408 4 Johnny Mize .405 5 Roger Connor .397 6 Cap Anson .397 7 Bill Terry .393 8 Dolph Camilli .390 9 Keith Hernandez .386 10 Elbie Fletcher .384 OPS OPS 1 Todd Helton 1.027 2 Johnny Mize .983 3 Jeff Bagwell .948 4 Dan Brouthers .942 5 Bill Terry .899 6 Willie McCovey .893 7 Dolph Camilli .890 8 Roger Connor .885 9 Fred McGriff .882 10 Will Clark .880 OWP OWP 1 Dan Brouthers .772 2 Johnny Mize .759 3 Roger Connor .717 4 Will Clark .705 5 Jeff Bagwell .704 6 Willie McCovey .702 7 Todd Helton .689 8 Cap Anson .677 9 Bill Terry .674 10 Dolph Camilli .671 RBI RBI 1 Cap Anson 1748 2 Jeff Bagwell 1529 3 Jake Beckley 1455 4 Andres Galarraga 1389 5 Willie McCovey 1345 6 Jim Bottomley 1315 7 Gil Hodges 1267 8 Steve Garvey 1246 9 Johnny Mize 1158 10 Orlando Cepeda 1150 RCAA RCAA 1 Dan Brouthers 789 2 Jeff Bagwell 680 3 Roger Connor 667 4 Cap Anson 659 5 Johnny Mize 638 6 Willie McCovey 536 7 Todd Helton 465 8 Bill Terry 425 9 Stan Musial 399 10 Keith Hernandez 371 RUNS R 1 Cap Anson 1549 2 Jeff Bagwell 1517 3 Jake Beckley 1491 4 Roger Connor 1336 5 Dan Brouthers 1229 6 Mark Grace 1179 7 Andres Galarraga 1161 8 Fred Tenney 1156 9 Bill Terry 1120 T10 Jake Daubert 1117 T10 Keith Hernandez 1117 RUNS CREATED RC 1 Cap Anson 2047 2 Jeff Bagwell 1768 3 Roger Connor 1725 4 Jake Beckley 1685 5 Dan Brouthers 1652 6 Willie McCovey 1403 7 Mark Grace 1392 8 Johnny Mize 1372 9 Andres Galarraga 1338 10 Todd Helton 1306 RUNS CREATED/GAME RC/G 1 Dan Brouthers 11.84 2 Roger Connor 10.04 3 Todd Helton 9.96 4 Johnny Mize 9.51 5 Cap Anson 9.50 6 Jeff Bagwell 8.11 7 Dolph Camilli 7.71 8 Bill Terry 7.65 9 Willie McCovey 7.08 10 Will Clark 7.08 SECONDARY AVERAGE SEC 1 Jeff Bagwell .449 2 Todd Helton .439 3 Willie McCovey .418 4 Dolph Camilli .408 5 Johnny Mize .400 6 Fred McGriff .372 7 Gil Hodges .357 8 Roger Connor .342 9 Will Clark .334 10 Dan Brouthers .332 SLG SLG 1 Todd Helton .595 2 Johnny Mize .577 3 Jeff Bagwell .540 4 Dan Brouthers .524 5 Willie McCovey .515 6 Fred McGriff .512 7 Orlando Cepeda .508 8 Bill Terry .506 9 Jim Bottomley .505 10 Will Clark .505 Whether or not Bagwell is the best, he's in some select company.

Well it'd be kind of hard to pick off four runners in an inning... I guess I can say it is still unmatched, then.

Why not? If Adam Lind reaches his potential, it might be advantageous.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B08240BAL1983.htm Note Sakata 2b, c. That was Sakata's first and only MLB appearance behind the plate. He was pressed into service after Joe Altobelli pinch hit for his backup catcher in the 9th. This game is also notable for its record setting 10th inning. Cliff Johnson led off with a single and Barry Bonnard walked. Tippy Martinez came in and, possibly taking into account the second baseman he was throwing to behind the plate, devised a new strategy of letting guys get to first base and then picking them off. Martinez picked off three runners in one inning, still an MLB record. Cal Ripken led off and homered to tie the game in the bottom of the 10th. With two outs, the Orioles won the game on a three run home run by...Lenn Sakata (career slugging pct.: .330).

Tomorrow's a big day for me kids. I finally graduate from college with a dual bacholar's degree in History and Political Science. It's been a lot of work, but at this point it's been worth it.' And no, I'm not streaking during the ceremony with "The Mackenzie Group" stenciled on my back.