The Man in Blak

If that's the case, the whole series is a post-modern satire - there are bosses that control bees, torment you with images of the dead, wield gatling guns the size of a compact car, and use psychic powers to read the contents of your memory card and blank out the television screen. That doesn't excuse MGS2 from being incapable of achieving the same balance between plot and gameplay that the other two games bring to the table. The plot is beyond incoherent and, while that might be forgivable in other titles where you catch a brief mention of the plotline before quickly moving onto the gameplay ("The President has been kidnapped by ninjas!"), it's an absolute drag in a game where you have to sift through multiple codecs/cutscenes that last up to 30 minutes at a time.

No, not that - they took out the scenes that were connected to that, IIRC. The main thing I was referring to was the It still blows my mind to this day - what the hell is that doing in an action/stealth video game? It had absolutely nothing to do with the plot, unless the plot was to basically destroy his character for the rest of the game. There are about half a dozen other things that are really insulting to the intelligence. I know it's a video game and the first game wasn't exactly the pinnacle of realism, but Kojima hit some very intriguing ideas through the plotline, but it's hard to discern the signal from all of the noise of constant swerves, double-crosses, and other various absurdities. To use a wrestling analogue, it's like somebody spiked Vince Russo with a near-lethal dose of psychotropics and asked him to book the next Metal Gear game.

He's got five home runs, three steals, and a .950 OPS in 54 ABs this year. What exactly did you expect out of Carlos Beltran this year?

I don't think there are any doubts about the gameplay in MGS2 (when you actually get to play the game). The problem is the plotline, which goes miles beyond your typical poor video game plotline into incomprehensible and, frankly, offensive territory. MGS2 is a full length codec feature that is fortunately broke up by ten-to-fifteen minutes of riveting gameplay (a ratio that gets worse, unfortunately, as you progress through the game); it's not Xenosaga, but the fact that an action game even warrants such a comparison should trip off a few alarms in your head. If I had to recommend an MGS PS2 game, then I think MGS3: Subsistence warrants major consideration. MGS3, by itself, already trumps its successor with an comprehensible (and remarkably well-done) plotline and, most importantly, more gameplay. With Subsistence, you get that along with all sorts of additional goodies, most notably an online multiplayer experience that was reviewed very positively by most of the gaming media.

Surprised that nobody has mentioned the Agent Provocateur lingerie commerical after thirty posts.

The platoon split works both ways, but I would guess that the lefty/lefty matchup is more pronounced just because of the likelihood of facing a left-handed pitcher is lower. I don't know the exact percentages, but there's obviously more right handed pitchers throughout baseball than lefties, which means less ABs v. LHP as you progress through your career and less experience to use to correct your swing.

Riggleman probably created the issue during the '98 playoff push, IIRC, when he had Wood throw something like 130+ pitches in a couple of consecutive starts. Dusty has exacerbated the issue and I think the problem is not overuse (though he has been prone to leave pitchers out there for too long), but when the overuse takes place. There were times in that 2003 playoff drive, IIRC, where Wood and Prior were left in for some obscene pitch counts in games that were already a complete wash: 5-1, 6-0, etc. Furthermore, I think a bigger issue may lie with his overall poor use of the bullpen. He pitched Chad Fox into the ground. He never seems to bring in middle relievers quick enough, he constantly screws up matchups, and he seems overwilling to yank relievers when things go wrong (which probably contributed to stunting the development and confidence of a half-dozen young Cub relievers).

Brian Falkenborg, not Jason Isringhausen, takes the loss against the current division leader. I mean, I know that we were basically playing to lose with Pujols, Edmonds, and Rolen out, but why bring in the 12th guy out of the bullpen in a tight situation against a division rival?

I'd recommend Black Sea if you were going to check out more of XTC, if only because that album has the XTC songs that I would actually listen to ("Respectable Street", first and foremost). Don't take that as a knock on XTC, though - I'm just not a fan of the new wave genre in general.

Well, the difference between the DS and the Virtual Boy is the game library. The VB had virtually nothing of worth, while the DS has a pretty stacked library, including many titles that actually put the stylus to work. If the Wii comes along with titles that really take advantage of the innovative control system, then we're looking at a contender, silly name or not. The VB's problem was that you can't expect people to play with something that straps to your face with a tripod on it. Plus, that system never looked quite 'portable'. Point taken - the product design is probably the worst thing that Nintendo has ever committed to production. I guess my point is that, even if the hardware is a little bit quirky (like the DS design), the software can and will determine the ultimate success of the platform.

Well, the difference between the DS and the Virtual Boy is the game library. The VB had virtually nothing of worth, while the DS has a pretty stacked library, including many titles that actually put the stylus to work. If the Wii comes along with titles that really take advantage of the innovative control system, then we're looking at a contender, silly name or not.

Meredith is an interesting case. He's a college pick, so the Red Sox thought that they had to fast-track him, but he didn't necessarily follow suit, as his AAA peripherals were below what he posted in A ball the year before. He got rocked in his cup of coffee, but there's still enough there to be optimistic that Meredith could contribute in the San Diego pen in 2007, maybe even sooner. If Meredith burns out in the minors, though...the Loretta trade gets even uglier for the Padres.

Hilarious. I checked Gamefly five minutes before my previous post in this thread and they had both of those games listed at "Available Now". I guess they updated their inventory information since then.

Fun fact about the Cubs' pitching staff this year, which I shamelessly stole from BTF: Outside of Greg Maddux, Sean Marshall, Bob Howry and Ryan Dempster, every other hurler who has pitched for the Cubs this season has averaged 4+ BBs per nine innings.

If you're just looking to plow through some RPGs, then Gamefly may actually be right up your alley. You can check out one game at a time for $14.95 a month, which is probably less than the rental costs of just re-renting the same RPG over and over until you beat it. And yeah, Kingdom Hearts II and Suikoden V are both available now. In fact, virtually all of the new RPGs (Metal Saga, Atelier Iris 2, Tales of Legendia) are all available for immediate rental.

I've had it since late December - the service can vary wildly, depending on where you live. Given that your username is NYankees and you've talked about New York in other posts in the sports folder, I'd guess you're probably from that area, which means you could be looking at a particularly nasty turnaround on checkouts/returns; Gamefly only has one inventory center and it's in California. In all fairness, though, they do have a way to make the return process faster; if you return the game to a post office with the proper scanning equipment, Gamefly will be notified of your return when it hits the post office, rather than when it hits California, and they'll send the next game on your list in advance. In terms of selection, they have a fairly nice run of the next-generation consoles and, to my surprise, they even have some GBA games. I was able to catch some different games that weren't available at my local video rental stores (like We <3 Katamari, for example). Some of the more popular selections will involve some wait time, though, especially as other users may tend to "sit" on certain games. The service isn't bad, but there have been plenty of times over the last couple of months where I've considered dropping the service. You might consider trying the 30 day trial service and seeing exactly how long it takes those games to get to your doorstep.

Scott Rolen: not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Even if he ends up with 3,000+ K's? Only 13 other guys have done that, 14 if Pedro gets 139 this year. I don't think 3,000 Ks is as impressive as it might have been 15 years ago. High strikeout totals are a product of our time, and I'm not sure if the voters will take that into account or not. In fairness though, Schilling performs well on the various HOF Standards tests, and he's 8-2 in the postseason. I thin he'd miss if he retired today, but he should be able to pad his resume for two seasons. BRef has him at 7-2 in the postseason, but that's beside the point - the record actually understates his dominance in the postseason. He won the 1993 NLCS MVP and turned in an absolutely absurd run (only six earned runs through the entire postseason, including three starts in the World Series) for the Diamondbacks '01 championship run. For better or worse, he'll be associated with a gutsy performance during the "bloody sock" game, which played a hand in Boston handing the Yankees the biggest playoff upset in baseball history. Many writers and reporters consider him to be the big game pitcher of this time period, and that will go a long way towards making up ground from his statistics. The statistics aren't really that bad either. Schilling has no Cy Young Awards, but part of that comes from being in the same league (and team) as Randy Johnson - according to BRef, he has 1.85 Cy Young shares, which is the highest score for a non-winner and good for 15th all-time from all pitchers, including past winners. He's third all-time with a 4.29 strikeout/walk ratio, and he'll cross the 200 win mark later this year. He passes the Black Ink and Grey Ink metrics, which usually indicate a higher probability of HoF election and, as Al said, he's got some more time to build up his resume. He's not an inner circle Hall of Famer, but I'll be legitimately surprised if he doesn't make it in.

What I was trying to get at with Young is that the D-Rays as an organization keep players blocked in the minors for monetary reasons, as you explained with Upton. Eventually, Tampa will end up losing at least 2 of those outfielders because they won't pay market value, or those guys will get more money elsewhere when their jail term is finally up. I'm not sure if that's true as a whole for the organization. Rocco Baldelli, Carl Crawford, and Dewon Brazelton are three examples of players that the organization probably called up too soon , making them more expensive at a younger age (and, in Brazelton's case, stunting their development entirely). If anything, their actions with Delmon Young (and Upton as well) demonstrate that they've learned a little bit from their mistakes with those three players. For one, there was already rumblings that Delmon Young was probably going to get called up this year, after he got some more at-bats from the AAA level. Once again, a lot of that depends on the players at the big league level; Young, talented as he is, is not going to supplant Baldelli, Crawford, Gomes, or Huff on an everyday basis. Secondly, getting the Minor League Player of the Year doesn't necessarily mean that you're the best hitter at the highest level in the minors, nor does it mean that you're an automatic success for the major leagues. (Andruw Jones actually won two Minor League Player of the Year awards from Baseball America, for example, before getting called up.) Young put together a spectacular season for his age in AA last year, which is what earned him the award, but he still has a bit to go before he has mastered AAA. If July comes around and Young has a line of .325/.375/.525, then he might have more room to talk, especially if the Devil Rays have dealt off some of their excess talent.

It's not really "complete bullshit", though - the Tampa Bay outfield is stacked with Huff/Gomes/Crawford/Baldelli/Gathright, and they obviously haven't been able to find any takers on Huff, so there is a legitimate reason that Young is blocked, minor league player of the year or not. Furthermore, it's not like Young has been incarcerated in AAA for a long period of time - this year was set to be his first full season in AAA. And while his line of .285/.303/.447 in 200+ AAA at-bats last year is impressive for a 20 year, it's still not a line that would indicate that Young is ready to hit the Majors. Contrast his situation with BJ Upton, who has seemingly been ready to take SS or 3B for years now, but has toiled away in the minor leagues while watching the club acquire stiffs like Alex Gonzalez and Nick Green to suck up at-bats in the infield.

Yes.

That the umpire wasn't injured has nothing to do with it, in my opinion. The issue is with the intent - as Spiff pointed out, the throw was far too direct to imply anything other than that Delmon was aiming for the umpire, which really is inexcusable in this case, scab or not. I would imagine 30 games being the minimum, due to the public exposure and Delmon's past encounters, but I could see it being much more, should Selig choose to send out a message. It reminds me a lot of the Artest situation in the NBA where, even though there were previous precedents set, the event was so damaging to the league's reputation that Stern had to drop the proverbial bomb. Anything less than 30 games will bring on a PR shitstorm from all angles, in my opinion, especially given Delmon Young's status as the best prospect in the minor leagues. I wouldn't be surprised if it stretched to 50 games or more.

Further analysis shows that the Central has won the majority of those games at home. St. Louis 3-0 (swept Fla) Houston 7-3 (2-1 vs Fla, 3-1 vs Wash, 2-1 vs LAD), they also went 2-1 at Arizona, and 1-1 at SF Milwaukee 5-1 (swept Atlanta, 2-1 vs Arizona), they also went 1-2 at NY Mets Chicago 2-1 (Fla again), they also went 2-1 at the Dodgers Cincy 2-1 (Fla yet again), they also went 3-0 at Washington Home records 19-6 Away records 9-5 Against just Florida and Washington the NL Central contenders are 15-4. Granted that's why the Mets are in 1st in the NL East but the bulk of these wins are coming in NL Central ballparks which skews the numbers pretty heavily. Not sure where you got this information, but the St. Louis numbers are incorrect. The Cardinals haven't played the Marlins all year and their 3-0 record outside of the Central division comes from sweeping the Phillies in Philadelphia for the first series of the year: Away @ PHI: 3-0 Away @ CHC: 0-3 Home v. MIL: 2-1 Home v. CIN: 2-1 Away @ PIT: 2-1 Home v. CHC: 2-1 Home v. PIT: 3-0 I think your away stats for the division are incorrect too, upon another look at the schedules on MLB.com: STL HOME vs. NL EAST: - STL HOME vs. NL WEST: - STL AWAY vs. NL EAST: 3-0 (PHI) STL AWAY vs. NL WEST: - Home: - Away: 3-0 HOU HOME vs. NL EAST: 5-2 (2-1 FLA, 3-1 WAS) HOU HOME vs. NL WEST: 2-1 (LAD) HOU AWAY vs. NL EAST: HOU AWAY vs. NL WEST: 3-2 (1-1 SF, 2-1 ARI) Home: 7-3 Away: 6-2 CHC HOME vs. NL EAST: 2-1 (FLA) CHC HOME vs. NL WEST: - CHC AWAY vs. NL EAST: - CHC AWAY vs. NL WEST: 2-1 (LAD) Home: 9-4 Away: 8-3 CIN HOME vs. NL EAST: 2-1 (FLA) CIN HOME vs. NL WEST: - CIN AWAY vs. NL EAST: 3-0 (WAS) CIN AWAY vs. NL WEST: - Home: 11-5 Away: 11-3 MIL HOME vs. NL EAST: 5-1 (2-1 v. ARI, 3-0 v. ATL) MIL HOME vs. NL WEST: - MIL AWAY vs. NL EAST: 1-2 (NYM) MIL AWAY vs. NL WEST: - Home: 16-6 Away: 12-5 PIT HOME vs. NL EAST: - PIT HOME vs. NL WEST: 2-2 (LAD) PIT AWAY vs. NL EAST: - PIT AWAY vs. NL WEST: - ____________________ Home: 18-6 (.750 WPCT) Away: 12-5 (.706 WPCT) The home winning percentage is higher, but not to such an extent to suggest that the NL Central can't play teams outside of the division on the road. If there's anything that skews the data, it's Houston's bizarre schedule and absurd home park effects and, if you take them out of the equation, the numbers aren't impacted significantly anyway: Home (w/out Houston): 10-3 (.769 WPCT) Away (w/out Houston): 9-3 (.750 WPCT) Discussing how teams are going to play based on home/road splits at this point in the season is mostly conjecture to begin with but, even if you're really wanting to take this sample size seriously, there's still no substantial evidence that indicates that the Central is benefitting from a significant home field advantage.

Mena's about the worst individual voice actor I've ever heard, but the game that takes the cake for me was Stella Deus, which was a nightmare of bad phrasing, disinterested delivery, and inane scripting.