vivalaultra

Down in Houston, everybody's all over Astros' top prospect Hunter Pence's nuts. Admittedly, he's having a fantastic first week of spring, batting .750 (9 for 12) with 4 RBI and 17 total bases. Today he was 2-2 off of Tom Glavine with a triple and a walk. Out of the other two RF options, Richard Hidalgo is 0-12 and Jason Lane is playing mediocre enough that he'll probably get the back-up job to Luke Scott and proceed to stink it up before getting cut, if only because he's out of options and can't be sent down without someone claiming him. Also, there's this pitching prospect name Paul (pronounced Pah-ool) Estrada that's getting a lot of buzz. I expect he'll probably make the team. Everything said about him so far is how filthy his stuff is. I had never heard of him before ST started. I'm excited that this year I'll actually get to go to some spring games, one against the Fish and one against the Yanks. The most fun part of Spring Training is that it means that the regular season is only a few weeks away.

Not really. Not jazzy in the jazzy sense; jazzy in the...jazzy sense. You know what I mean.

Gogoplata Basically choking someone out with your shin. Sweeet!

Looking it up...he tested positive for Boldenone, the same thing Josh Barnett tested positive for when he was stripped of the HW title a few years back. Yeah, that stays in the blood for several months after use. Not too smart, Stephan. It also says he was suspended for 9 months, so, I guess if they'll take him back, it'll be some time in May.

My Dad's a really big Nick Diaz fan. However, he sometimes gets him confused with Diego Sanchez...for some reason I'm not sure of. Speaking of UFC guys under suspension, shouldn't Bonnar be coming back sometime in the next couple months? I miss Bonnar. Maybe Forrest Griffin can beat up on him again and build some momentum.

By worm, you meant weiner, right? I forgot to put Summerteeth up there. Next to "YHF" and "Being There", "Summerteeth" is my favorite Wilco CD. I forgot "Being There", too. And Czech would dig Dismemberment Plan. They're...jazzy.

You were all waiting with baited breath for my opinion: In no order and off the top of the head. 2000s "Return to Cookie Mountain"-TVOTR "Apologies to Queen Mary"-Wolf Parade "Seven Swans"-Sufjan Stevens "Funeral"-Arcade Fire "Roots and Crowns"-Califone "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"-Wilco "Agaetis Byjurn"-Sigur Ros "Change"-Dismemberment Plan "Stankonia"-OutKast "You Forgot it In People"-Broken Social Scene 90s: "Siamese Dream"-Smashing Pumpkins "In Utero"-Nirvana "Emergency & I"-Dismemberment Plan "Loveless"-My Bloody Valentine "The Bends"-Radiohead "Slanted & Enchanted"-Pavement "Exile in Guyville"-Liz Phair "Perfect From Now On"-Built to Spill "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One"-Yo La Tengo "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"-Neutral Milk Hotel

I'd agree with heartbreak. That's the thing with the Astros-since they haven't won a WS and have only won an NLDS series twice, people without interior knowledge assume that they're a shitty team or a mediocre team, but, if you look at the overall numbers, it doesn't add up. Any team that has had players the caliber of the players in Houston and with the overall records that winning % that Houston has seems like they should've won a championship by now, but, for whatever reason, it just hasn't happened...yet.

Actually, the Astros have been a franchise since 1962 and have been, more or less, average to good to really good since about 1976, so to say that they've only had one good decade isn't correct. They had several good years before 1996, I assure you. The last time they were consistently bad for more than a year or two in a row was the early to mid 1970s.

Pfft. They can stick it up their OPSholes.

I'd rather not turn this into an arguement, but the Astros have not been historically bad. They've had 2 seasons under .500 in the last 15 years and have finished 1st or 2nd in the division 12 of the last 13 years. Sure, they have no World Series rings and only 1 pennant in their history, but, no, the Astros have not been a 'historically bad team' by any stretch of the imagination.

Rich Franklin. He's down w/ MFS.

Well, clearly Randy wasn't kidding when he said that he found holes in Sylvia's game. Randy just came right at him and Tim had no idea what to do. Rogan pointed it out-when they were standing up and Sylvia was jabbing, Randy was just moving side to side and baffling him. If Sylvia would've thrown a high kick or a knee or SOMETHING besides cluelessly punching, he probably would've been able to knock him out, instead, Sylvia was his sluggish, one-dimensional self and he got schooled. I liked after the fight when he gave the old, "Well, I had an injury coming into the fight..." line and he got booed mercilessly. As freakin' jacked as I was to see Couture win, now all I have to look forward to is seeing him get his head knocked in by Cro Cop. Crop Cop won't be afraid to throw a high kick. And I was happy to see Lytle have a good showing, and I was disappointed to see MacDonald get whipped, but Silva/Franklin II is gonna be all kinds of good.

Resplendent. Thank God Randy Johnson was on the team instead of Pete Schouerk. The next series with the 98 'Stros and the '06 Twins will be interesting.

Hey, Pence and Patton aren't ranked 99 and 100. That's cool. I'm actually surprised that a few other Astros' prospects didn't crack the list, as I'm sure that some of their AA and AAA arms are worthy or at least a spot in the 90-100 range over some of the guys listed. But, oh well.

I just got the game today, and I'm still adjusting to it after skipping 2K6 in favor of The Show '06. I haven't yet played an actual game because I spent like...5 freakin' hours switching rosters and renaming prospects and Barry Bonds so the rosters are accurate. I did, however, attempt to make use of my 14-day trial of MLBtv, but I don't think the website worked or I did something wrong. Has anyone else had success doing that? If so...hook a brotha up, yo.

Expect an asswhoopin', dawg. No, it should be interesting. I think the '98 Astros team was one of the top 3, if not the top, team they ever assembled. Biggio, Bagwell, Alou, Bell, and Carl Everett went absolutely bonkers that year. It was one of only two good years Jose Lima ever had. Randy Johnson had the best 2nd half of maybe any pitcher ever (10-1, 1.28 ERA, 116 K, 26 BB in 85 innings, 4 CG SHO). The whole pitching staff was good that year, too. Shane Reynolds won 19 games...Billy Wagner was great...Yeah. The O's had good pitching with Mussina and Key and Randy Myers, but outside of Alomar and Palmiero, the offense was just pretty good. If I had to guess, I'd stay 'Stros win 4-2, but, the way the other series have been going, it'll probably end up 4-3 O's with at least three games going into extra innings, two games where the teams combine for over 20 runs, and two more that are 1-0 shutouts.

Mine shipped yesterday so I should have it by Friday. If anyone wants me to do little write-ups on certain players, just shoot me a line. Could you do little write-ups on: Roy Oswalt Jason Jennings Woody Williams Wandy Rodriguez Chris Sampson Craig Biggio Chris Burke Lance Berkman Carlos Lee Morgan Ensberg Luke Scott Adam Everett Brad Ausmus Fernando Nieve Dave Borkowski Trever Miller Dan Wheeler Chad Qualls Brad Lidge Mike Lamb Orlando Palmiero Mark Loretta Richard Hidalgo Humberto Quintero Oh...and also Reed Johnson. I'm considering picking him up on my fantasy team. And my late opinion to the stats v. human element quandry: I'm far from a stathead, but I've found that even my limited knowledge of somewhat upper tier statistics have done nothing but enhanced my enjoyment of the game. However, I also believe that an overreliance on statistical analysis which leads to breaking down the game to a pure science detracts from the fun of everything. It's the same as with anything. When I was young and I read books and listened to music, I enjoyed it on one level, but now that I have a decent knowledge of the process of writing and musicmaking, I'm able to enjoy these things on multiple levels; it enriches the whole process. Contrariwise, I think I would like the game less if every time Chris Burke stepped up to bat in the 7th inning with runners on 2nd and 3rd down a run with two outs, I stopped to compute his VORP, WARP, groundball to flyball ratio, ISOp, OPS+, and other assorted stats. There's something to be said for the human element and drama of the game as well. After all, the game is played by humans who are capable of overcoming their statistics, and that, to me is what the game is made up of. But for a so-called sportswriter to be so dismissive and derisive of modern stats is just shoddy journalism. And besides, I don't need to know everything about stats, there's several people here who can always shoot down my optimistic decries with concepts represented by acronyms that sound like left-wing political organizations.

Here's an article from today in the Houston Chronicle about a drug raid on a pharmaceuticals company in Florida that was selling steroids over the internet. It mentions that several current and former MLB players, NFL players, and a former Mr. Olympia were customers. Interestingly enough, it mentions Gary Matthews Jr. as a customer by name. Career year, anyone?

To add on to the Alice in Chains discussion, I'm probably in the minority (at least I know I am among people that I talk to), but I really like the Alice in Chains/Pearl Jam side project Mad Season. The one album they put out, I think, is on par with anything Alice in Chains ever did, especially their first few CDs, but that might just be because I prefer the depressed Layne Staley to the angsty, grungy Layne Staley.

"The Very Best of 10cc" that came out in 97 on Mercury Records is about all the 10cc I'll ever need. It's got pretty much every good song they did and a few that aren't good, and it's got "Cry" by Godley and Creme. As for Alice in Chains, I'll say that, in agreement to previous comments, all of my favorite songs are on their EPs and their last album, my favorite song of theirs being "Don't Follow".

I'm not completely familiar with the Marcels, but after looking at a few and noticing that they look kinda...low compared to other projections I've seen, I read the description and, just to make sure, they're calculations based on career averages regressed to the mean proportionate to the time a player's been in the league, right? And therefore, they're nothing more than a baseline projection? I ask only because if Roy Oswalt is projected to win 14 games and Carlos Lee is projected to only hit 29 homeruns, there might be some disappointed people in Houston.

The Dirty South-The Drive-By Truckers. These guys should be alot more popular than they are. Indeed.

Hey now...there ain't nothing wrong with Bruntlett. Bruntlett's clutch, yo. I'm not basing that on any statistic, but, Eric Bruntlett's the clutchest motherfucker in the world.

Ah, so what would be a good ISO for a 2B or for a #2 hitter?