vivalaultra

I think they could fit it all in a 3 hour movie. I mean, most of the major scenes are action scenes; there's only a few exposition scenes. But how they'll explain some of the things considering what they've cut from previous movies is a different story.

Doing a rough calculation on Adam Dunn at 1B, he would make approx. 23 errors over the course of a season given his career line of 12 errors in 76 innings there. I don't think he would be THAT bad at first, but, then again, I don't think he's as bad in LF as his reputation describes him being.

So, among other rumors, there's a rumor that Jim Bowden and the Washington Nationals are discussing trading for Adam Dunn. The reasoning given for the trade is to either attempt to keep Dunn as the future cornerstone of the team or to simply trade for him and let him walk after this season and get draft picks for 2008.

I finally finished the book. I couldn't read it all in one sitting because I had some other things to do, but I finally read it all and I thought it was brilliant. I was very pleased that she went with the conventional 'happy' ending, as I felt that the theme of the book 'Love and friendship conquer all' was best fulfilled through a happy, positive, optimistic ending where 'all is well'. I don't think the middle dragged as bad as others do, but I think it was slightly too long. I really liked how all of the action scenes were suspensfully written where there was a great degree of questioning about which of the characters died. I thought all of the deaths, though not of MAJOR characters, weren't gratuitious and served to further the storyline. I also liked how Dumbledore was revealed to be a flawed character in his past and how his backstory was fleshed out. Not only did that work to make him more than just a cardboard, one-dimensional character, the fact that he wasn't a perfect character (and certainly none of the 'good' guys were perfect characters) helped to re-inforce the theme that, though a person might have faults, it is a person's underlying ability to love and trust was the impetus for conquering hate and evil. I liked the exploration of the concept of doing something 'for the greater good' and the contrast between the near facist regime of the Death Eaters and Harry and the Order of the Phoenix. I liked how, even though the ending and some of the resolutions were conventional and somewhat obvious, they still made sense and worked in the context of the story. The last book worked great as a conclusion to the series and as a story of its own. Just excellent writing and excellent character development and the great, hopeful, optimistic ending made this a really, really wonderful book and story.

Why, Czech, have you been reading Moneyball again? I don't understand the knock on Dunn striking out for most of his outs, either. Consider: if you strike out, you see at least three pitches. Dunn usually sees more than that (I'm not sure of the specific number of pitches seen by Dunn per AB, but I'd imagine it's somewhere around 4 or so). Any way you slice it, striking out on a 3-2 count is better than hitting a weak pop-up or a slow roller to short on the first pitch. If you look at Dunn's numbers and disregard the strikeouts and the deceiving batting average, he gets on base at a 38% clip and is on pace to drive in about a hundred runs. Who cares if the 62% of the time that he's not getting on base is because of a strikeout, a line out, a pop up, or a grounder to short? It's easy to look at the 190 Ks and have it jump out at you because 190 is such a big number, but 190 Ks is the same as 60 Ks and 130 lineouts. And a strikeout with a man on first and less than 2 outs is ALWAYS preferable to a slow grounder to short, is it not? The thing that I find more odd than the fact that Dunn strikesout 190 times a year is the near two-year stretch that he went without recording a sac fly. I mean, dude usually hits the ball high and deep, it seems like he would've gotten more than 2 sac flies between 2004-2005.

I hate to double post, but I just read an article in the St. Louis paper saying that Chris Carpenter is undergoing another elbow surgery that will put him out for the rest of the year and a 'significant portion' of next year.

On that same token, remember when Barry Zito came over to the Giants with his 'new and improved' delivery? And who is Barry Zito's agent? Scott "Satan" Boras.

If you're going with Conan clips, you've gotta do the greatest Conan O'Brien clip ever: Conan O'Brien plays 1864 Baseball Here's some more: My favorite scene in my favorite movie ever Yeah, I totally can't watch this movie even today. Too damn frightening.

Hmmm....I would like to have Irish Red or the Oxymoronically named Angel Pagan to play next to Underpants...

Jason Jennings for Felix Pie. Do it, Rock-a-pella!

Koby Clemens is the 3B there, although he's not actually a prospect as much as he was a plea bargain to get his Dad to sign with the Astros for another year in 2005. The Astros' 1st rd. pick from last season, Max Sapp, is the catcher. However, he's not that good, either. James Van Orstrand, who homered in the 2007 Futures Game, is an OF there; he's actually pretty good from what I hear. Yeah, the Lexingon Legends...they're not very good. And I'm definitely going to take advantage of the MLB Extra Innings preview to watch the Tigers/Twins. I don't get to see Johan Santana pitch near as much as I'd like.

That is true...He did miss most of last year. Ah well, I'm sure that his performance in the 50 games he played last year plus his performace over this year will at least equal a low-level compensation pick. Either way, I don't think it would be worth holding on to him to get a low-level pick as opposed to trading him before the break for a legit prospect. Then again, Jim Bowden isn't a very good GM.

Yeah, the Braves trading for Dmitri would be a good idea for them; I hadn't considered an NL team trying to get him as he's absolutely brutal defensively. As far as warranting a compensation draft pick, I think if he keeps up at the rate that he's at now, he will. There's a good chance that he's going to lead the NL in average.

The Angels have optioned Ervin Santana back to AAA; I would ask an Angels who's going to slide into the rotation in his spot, but, since there are no Angels fans, I have no one to ask. Also, after watching the Nationals/Astros series, I must say that I think the Angels, Twins, As, or some other team in need of a big bat at DH should look into acquiring Dmitri Young. Dude hits everything, and he's cheap this year. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Jim Bowden just hangs on to him and gets draft picks instead of trading him, much like he did last year with Soriano.

If Houston can add a quality arm, power bat, catcher or a shortstop at the deadline in an Oswalt or Lidge deal, they should do it as quickly as possible. I don't see the sense in trading one of the top 5 SP in the National League and one of the best relievers in baseball, especially when both are signed to extremely reasonable contracts, considering the inflated market for pitching in baseball. If you trade Oswalt and/or Lidge, that pretty much takes contending away for the next 3-4 years. Why give up a power arm for a power arm, especially when the first power arm is a perennial Cy Young candidate signed to a relatively cheap contract or a guy who has 105 saves the last 5 seasons and an ERA almost a run and a half below the league average? Trading Oswalt or Lidge would make Wandy Rodriguez the ace of the 2008 staff or a guy with an ERA over 4 the 2008 closer. As a Red Sox fan, that might not seem like a big deal, but down in Astroland, that's not a sacrifice I'd like to see made. I don't think the Astros need a power bat per se; they already have Berkman and Carlos Lee. What they need are complementary players who will get on base at a higher clip than Biggio, Ensberg, and Luke Scott. I don't see a big need to trade for a catcher, as bringing up a catcher from the Astros' minor leagues will at least be an improvement over Ausmus and let the Astros be league average in that department. And I'm fine with Everett at SS, presuming the Astros upgrade 2B, 3B, and RF to at least league average-which they can do by promoting some minor leaguers and without a trade of the Ace of the staff or Brad Lidge. PS: I like how all of these 'How would you fix your team?' or 'What are your team's greatest needs?' topics turn into threads with a distinct Astros' focus, at least betwixt I and cheech.

I don't think they should deal him at the deadline; not so much for the rest of this season, but for next season. I'm not convinced the Astros should go into complete rebuilding mode; they should do more of a retooling, keeping around the productive veterans (Berkman, Lee, Oswalt, Lidge) and complement them with younger productive players (Pence, Burke, Sampson, Qualls, minor league prospects). If you trade Lidge, that gives the 2008 bullpen one good arm in Qualls and some unproven rookies. Not trading Lidge at least keeps the core of the pen solid and allows you to complement Qualls and Lidge with prospects. Because relief pitching is so overvalued, I'm sure that the Astros couldn't get a relief pitcher that could step in and perform at Lidge's level by trading away Lidge or any of the other expendable players on the team. And despite the Astros mishandling of Lidge this year, he's still been excellent and has come out publicly saying that he has no desire to leave the Astros and he wants to pitch in Houston for the rest of his career. And there have been several articles in the last week or so where Tim Purpura and Drayton McClane have said plainly 'We are not planning on trading Brad Lidge nor do we have any desire to trade Brad Lidge.' Of the triumverate (Qualls, Wheeler, Lidge), I'd like to see Qualls (94 mph sinker with ridiculous movement) and Brad Lidge stay. A 'Wheeler to Boston' trade for some AA prospect (RHP Justin Masterson, RHP Michael Bowden) would be fine with me.

That was probably some of the same crazed Astros' fans that have been suggesting dealing Oswalt to the Mets for Lastings Milledge and Mike Pelfry or, on the other end of the ridiculousness spectrum, Jennings to the Braves for Saltalamachia. I know I've been frustrated with Brad Lidge on occasion and might have even said that the Astros should trade him, but, my God, people, he's easily the best relief pitcher the Astros have. A 2.15 ERA and a 50/17 K/BB ratio in 38 innings is absolutely excellent, be it for a closer, a setup man, or a mop-up guy. The closer is an overrated position, but when you can get stats like Lidge has for any reliever, you don't trade him, especially when you look at the stats of the rest of the Astros' bullpen by comparison.

The Astros need Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Corey Hart, JJ Hardy, CoCo Cordero, Derrick Turnbow, Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Zambrano, Rich Hill, Ryan Theriot, Albert Pujols, Adam Dunn, Brandon Phillips, Aaron Harang, Tom Gorzellany, Jason Bay, Woody Williams, and Morgan Ensberg to all get suspended 50 games for PEDs. No, but, seriously the Astros have little to no shot of winning the division or WildCard this season. They can still, however, finish at .500. They should trade Jason Jennings, Mark Loretta, Morgan Ensberg, Dan Wheeler or Chad Qualls, and Luke Scott for prospects. They should cut Orlando Palmiero. They shouldn't, and won't, trade Lidge or Oswalt. They should call up LHP Troy Patton, IF Johnny Ash, OF Mike Rodriguez, and RHP Paul Estrada, move Biggio to the bench and have Chris Burke start at 2B for the rest of the season and go with a modified youth movement for the rest of the season, sign a catcher over the offseason (or promote JR Towles from AA) and make no other big signings. The team's got a good core of talent with Berkman, Oswalt, Lee, Pence, and Lidge; they just need to not be so hesitant to cut ties with guys that aren't contributing. A line-up of 2B Burke CF Pence 1B Berkman LF Lee 3B Lamb RF Rodriguez SS Everett C Towles P Oswalt is fine. A rotation of: Oswalt Sampson Wandy Albers Patton wouldn't be great, but it wouldn't be horrible and at least it would be relatively cheap.

I want to join in on the fun... MY FAVORITE TEAM WON A BASEBALL GAME!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!! And Brad Lidge got his first save of the season. That says a lot right there.

You can tell tonite's Astros/Nationals game is important. Roy Oswalt came in in relief of Chris Sampson with 2 outs in the 7th to face Robert Fick (1 for 13 as a pinch-hitter). Of course, the loser of this game has the worst record in the NL, so good move by Phil to bring his Ace in for relief.

Ben Sheets is out 4 to 6 weeks. That puts Yovani Gallardo back in the rotation, I'd presume. I wonder if that'll affect the Brew Crew in a negative way.

Ulysses S. Grant. He kicked everybody's ass during the Civil War. He was a drunk and he hated Jews. He might not have gotten shot during a speech or boxed while in office, but that was only because nobody was dumb enough to fuck with the Grant Man.

Who's 814?

I thought the Cubs were looking for more offense from the catcher position, hence their promotion of Soto. They could've gotten more offense from catcher if they would've traded for Brad Ausmus. I think Lincecum is Norwegian, by the way. Dutch, maybe. Perhaps Swedish.

That's...hilarious. What's the story on that?