The Man in Blak

Fair enough - here are the comparisons against the Red Sox SS and RF: Lugo: .278/.341/.421, 12 HR in 435 ABs BOS SS: .250/.306/.368, 10 HR in 571 ABs Drew: .283/.393/.498, 20 HR in 494 ABs BOS RF: .265/.352/.425, 17 HR in 593 ABs It may not seem like it at first glance, but the 100 point jump in OPS at each position (especially the ~40 point difference in OBP) is quite a substantial difference in offensive output. That being said, I think the Drew signing has the potential to be a catastrophic mistake for the Red Sox. They've got a long term contract for a guy with a degenerative knee condition who's been trending downward at the plate for three years now. There's always a chance that Drew can bounce back with .300/.400/.500 over 500+ plate appearances for the next few years, but that chance comes with pretty slim odds and, judging by the dollar amounts involved, those odds weren't considered strongly enough in the calculus behind the contract.

If you're talking about the total catalogue of Radiohead's output, then yeah, it's an absolute stretch. However, if you're looking from the perspective of your typical casual "mainstream" listener (which is why I limited it to those three tracks above) the music is not so dissimilar that it would be insane to make such a comparison.

I wouldn't trust Mike and Mike for any kind of baseball analysis. Lugo: .278/.341/.421, 12 HR in 435 ABs AGon: .255/.299/.397, 9 HR in 388 ABs Drew: .283/.393/.498, 20 HR in 494 ABs Nixon: .268/.373/.394, 8 HR in 381 ABs

Sure, Definitely Maybe is certainly comparable to Parachutes. You can spot U2 and Pink Floyd hanging around in there as well, influences that they share with Radiohead. That's a bit of a misdirection, though - would you like to answer the questions I posed in my previous post?

You know who I don't get? snuffbox. You really don't think "High and Dry" is in the same ballpark as any of the dopey acoustic ballads that Coldplay has released? You can't find any similarities within Parachutes at all?

I don't think popular radio and the mainstream music industry at large has realized how much Radiohead has changed from their OK Computer/The Bends heyday. It's easy to compare Coldplay to Radiohead if the only Radiohead tracks you've heard are "Fake Plastic Trees", "High and Dry", and "Karma Police".

No, dude, Buckethead left in '04.

Given the current state of broadcasting in baseball, this doesn't really surprise me.

The fact that the Greatest Hits album sold well means virtually nothing for the well-being of Chinese Democracy, in my opinion. It was GnR's first release in years and there was no suitable compilation of their hits released before Greatest Hits landed on the shelves. The only similarity between the albums is that they were both made by Guns 'n Roses and, ultimately, you can't even say that, since the current GnR lineup consists of Axl Fucking Rose, Shaquille O'Neal, and that scruffy dude off the cover of Aqualung. Correlation is not necessarily causation.

I highly doubt it - FFXI was developed with both consoles and PCs and mind, but the same can't be said for WoW. Converting the WoW interface into something that you could navigate with a controller is an extremely tall order that I doubt Blizzard's willing to undertake, just to increase their user base by a marginal percentage.

Well, you've got to admire his chutzpah, if nothing else. $10 million a year for Suppan would be the new worst deal of this offseason. I don't think anything's touching Gary Matthews Jr. pulling 5/55 with no-trade this year, or any other year, really. Suppan has been a league-average pitcher (or better) for four or five years now. Gary Matthews Jr. was DFA'd by three different teams and will be 32 years old.

Jason Jennings is an odd one - he put up very comparable stats to his 2002 year, which was his most successful season before 2006 happened, but he chopped nearly a run off of his ERA from that season. The only peripheral that had a remarkable difference was the percentage of line drives that he gave up - 24% of his hits were line drives in 2002, but liners only amounted to 19% of his hits in 2006 - and I don't know if that dip in LD% is a function of actual improvement by Jennings, or the result of the new super-humidor ball being used in Coors Field this year.

Is it just me, or does it seem like we're having these threads every three months or so?

There are plenty of statistics that could be cited to show that Youkilis is a decent third baseman but, since you've already stated that stats aren't important to you, why bother?

I've got one that I used to hook a PS2 controller up with my laptop - I think it's called a SuperJoyBox or something equally as ludicrous. It was a great pickup and I never had any issues with it - playing Super Mario 64 with a Dual Shock Pro is a trip.

At least the Raiders have an up-and-coming defense to build upon going into next year. The Lions' best QB prospect is currently lining up as a wideout, they have absolutely nothing on the offensive line, and they have basically nothing on the defensive side outside of Dre Bly. There's zero accountability through the whole organization (as evidenced by the fact that Matt Millen still has a job, despite steering the franchise off of a cliff), and there's no perspective in the franchise about their future (as evidenced by the fact that their best QB prospect is currently lining up as a wideout). There's really no hope for Detroit.

If Epstein can get Penny, Loney, and LaRoche for Ramirez with minimal cash kicked into the deal, there's no way that he'll refuse that offer. Not that it's a good deal, mind you - that gives Boston, what, four third basemen? - but it's one I can easily see the Red Sox taking.

Have you even seen the Falcons play this year? The Giants, for all of their warts, played a pretty solid game against Dallas and they're going to have players returning from injury as the year goes along.

They've got problems everywhere. The team was soft during Martz's tenure as coach, but now it appears that they've become stupid as well, with Alex Barron getting false starts every other drive and Richie Incognito whacking people after plays are done, on top of what seems like hundreds of other moronic penalties.

AFC: Jaguars and Bengals NFC: Giants and Panthers And I'd go with Grossman over Griese, only because Grossman's younger and they've got enough room in the standings to let him work some of this stuff through the rest of the season. If the team was fighting for a playoff spot, I would definitely let Griese have it - he's only a couple of years removed from a decent season in Tampa and, though he's prone to some stupid mistakes of his own, he's much more consistent.

Another off-beat classical recommendation: Harry Partch. Partch worked in microtonal scales and created his own instruments to match, making some generally weird music, from what I've been told. I haven't had a chance to listen myself, but some folks (Christgau, for one) has cited him as an influence on Tom Waits' later work.

One feeds into the other, though - people will pay the premium for the convenience and, apparently, market research has determined that they'll pay about $5 for a NES game. That being said, I do agree with the price being too high for some of these games - you'll never catch me paying $5 to play NES Baseball or anything like that. However, with these games already developed and with core NES emulation tech already in the can, so to speak, it's unbelievably cheap for Nintendo (and other companies) to shovel out these old games. Even if nine out of ten customers take a pass, the one customer that buys it gives that company a positive financial impact for the cheap distribution. Also, another thing to think about: Nintendo themselves are probably willing to take a loss on some of these lesser games, just because getting more games out there implies more variety is available on the medium and, thus, the Wii becomes more attractive to potential customers.

I don't think it's as bad as you think. Remember, with revenue sharing and increased attendance, there's more money out there for teams to burn. Business is good right now for MLB and we're going to start seeing that in the salaries for players as well. A couple of years ago, we thought that the Kris Benson deal was absolute insanity for a glorified innings eater but, now, it's basically the baseline for most of the contracts today. The Marlins did do an exceptional job with their rookies and they made some savvy trades to achieve that success on a smaller budget. But one thing you should remember is that young players typically have issues with consistency early on in their career - notice how Dontrelle Willis has been oscillating between dominating ace and No. 3 guy in the rotation. Same with other young pitchers, like John Lackey, Ben Sheets, etc. That's not to say that they won't be fantastic players but, for owners that are looking to win each year, that's an awful lot of risk for one season. That being said, the Marlins are in terrific shape and if they were to, you know, actually spend some money to fill some of their holes, they'd probably be in position to be the best team in the NL.

So that's why Michael Vick has been struggling. It all makes sense now.

Andrew already mentioned the PSP 'feature' attached with the PS3 VC, but there are a couple of other of things to consider as well: 1. Many customers may not know of PC emulators as a free alternative. 2. The customers that do know of emulation, may not use it, due to the technicality that it's illegal if you don't own the games for the ROMs you keep. 3. Even those customers that know about emulation and use it may still prefer the ability to play games on their TV conveniently with actual controllers. Yes, there are ways around this (controller adapters for your PC, TV output), but notice the emphasis on convenience. 4. Customers that own multiple consoles (and, thus, would have the option of just grabbing the game and playing it) may be looking for an opportunity to clear out those "old, dusty consoles" anyway. This may especially ring true for the NES, if you consider how frustrating it is to get some games to actually work on the damn thing nowadays. The Wii VC offers plenty of utility to customers and, really, it's a stroke of genius, if you ask me. Never underestimate the power of convenience - some people thought that iTunes wouldn't work because you could just download the mp3s for free, remember?