The Man in Blak

There, it's fixed now.

And there's the rub. Brown probably isn't passing a physical, what with his back resembling something out of an Escher painting.

That was me. You throw down a single character party, equip a ribbon and that other relic that gives your character auto-invis, and then walk around outside Cyan's castle, smacking things. Basically puts your power levelling and uncursing into one fell swoop.

It sounds strange to say it, but Nomar could make one hell of a utility guy for the Yankees. He could handle first, then spot at 3B or SS, maybe even corner outfield, if the Yankees were feeling brave.

And the gimmick successfully ensnares its first victim.

Given that all of the other franchises have ganked the MVP pitching mechanics in one way or another, NCAA doesn't really seem that special to me. It doesn't help that there's no free agency, trades, anything like that - I'm sure there will be recruitment and such, but asking that to hold up the entire season/franchise mode for the game is a tall order, in my opinion.

Well, depending on the CMS you're using, that could be fairly stress-free. Are you guys using a custom-built CMS or one of the popular online models, like Mambo?

All right, I'll play devil's advocate. For one, putting together a board and having it stay consistently busy isn't easy. TSM itself was boosted (tremendously) by all the legwork that Scott Keith and the previous regime had done from the Smarksboard and all of its various and sundry iterations (Delphi, Blue, Yellow). Think about all of the boards that have splintered off from TSM in one way or another and think about how many of them are still around. WDI, SNKT, Underground Smarks, Brave New World, NMB, the Pit, etc. The latter two are still around because they've been created in the last year, but who knows if they'll be around next year? There are tons of things that contribute to boards going downhill: technical issues, people disagreeing with bannings / administrative decisions, general boredom. And it isn't easy to be an "alternative" to TSM or anywhere when you're inviting 90-95% of your population...from TSM. How much of a difference can it be when it's the same people who, in all likelihood, are having the same discussions that are being had here? Unless you really buy into the forum, you're going to chip into the discussion at TSM where more people participate, where more people read what you're saying. So, yeah. It isn't easy. And those moderator/admin-types at the Pit would probably like it if you spammed nine different folders, if it helped to get some discussion going. The admins can only do so much - at some point, the posters have to like the board enough to continue to post and make a community out of it. Oh, and welcome to the board, whatever the hell your name is. I don't feel like going back to the first page.

Haha, it would help if I would RTFA, wouldn't it? Never mind that then.

Interesting that neither Pete Alexander nor Christy Mathewson popped up on your list, but Sandy Koufax did. I'm guessing you put more weight on more modern run environments when considering this ranking?

Yeah, there are slimes. (C'mon, it's a DQ game. ) And yes, you definitely are going to be hanging around collecting coins for a while before you can upgrade your equipment. The battle system can't get much more old school than DQVIII. It's basically the same battle system they've had in the series for years, but with a couple of new things (Psyche Up) and some interesting graphics. It even has the trademark "ding" bell whenever you win a battle.

If you're referring to the Sosa trade, didn't you guys get a decent haul from that? I mean, regardless of what Hairston & Fontenot did, you didn't have to watch Sosa bat .221/.295/.376 in Wrigley this year, did you?

It is voiced, but I believe you can skip through their lines. I didn't fiddle around with the config enough when I rented it to find out whether you could turn the voices off or not. Funny you mention that FFXII wasn't very MMORPG-ish - I definitely got that feeling from the game, at least with the Active system. The Wait system, not so much (which is probably why I really enjoyed it).

If we're focusing on "noisy", Otomo Yoshihide comes to mind. Check out something like Anode or Flutter (the latter, if I recall correctly, has more jazzy arrangements).

Somebody has bid $5000 for the rights to Wetrix. Hilarious. This may be a silly question, but does source code & development documentation fall under "rights and title" for these games? If so, even some of the lesser titles may have some worth for a technical school to pick up, use as examples of code from the industry.

And I don't know if it was mentioned in Part II, but the Cubs have reportedly contacted Miguel Tejada's agent to gauge his interest in playing for Chicago. If I'm Baltimore, I'd hesitate to trade Tejada for anything less than Mark Prior and Ronny Cedeno - not only is Tejada an MVP-caliber player on offense and defense when he's motivated, he's also quite a fairly decent contract (at least when compared to the current inflated market). 06:$10M 07:$12M 08:$13M 09:$13M

Bernie Miklasz mentioned a quote from Jocketty on his morning radio show today that Walt felt that the market for corner outfielders was too expensive this season and that the Cardinals will have to make a trade to fill their need. In other Cardinal news, Rotoworld reports that St. Louis is expected to announce a two year deal for Ricardo Rincon. Tyler Johnson and Carmen Cali can't be too pleased.

I don't get it? Maybe that would make sense if they hadn't already released Dragon Warrior 7 a few years ago. He's cracking on Square's naming strategy for the Final Fantasy series in the US. The American release of Final Fantasy IV was called Final Fantasy II, because the original II & III had only been released in Japan. DQVIII is a wonderful game. I'm not sure that the more recent advertisements are really that huge of a step forward from the original vine-riddled ads but, then again, Dragon Quest isn't easy to sell, especially in a market that is inundated with mediocre-at-best RPGs. Maybe it's a gross generalization, but DQVIII seems way too old school for the current wave of RPG fans. The rentals will probably go through the roof, though, given that it's packaged with the FFXII demo (which is a pretty interesting playthrough in itself.)

Now you're just being silly.

Well, they're trying to bring back all five starters now - they just proposed a three year deal to Matt Morris. If Morris is that "big pitcher we need" that Jocketty is willing to punt 2B and COF for, then we're in some serious trouble. Maybe not as much this year (though I'm certainly not as enthusiastic as you, Al - 2003 wasn't that long ago), but probably next year, especially if it's in the range of the 3/25-ish deals that Morris has been receiving from other teams.

Maybe it's a Cindy Sandberg situation? It is a little suspicious that Tejada makes those comments right after they announce the Ramon Hernandez signing.

I think their best play would be to try and move Lowell and let Youks/Marte play it out at the corners. Marte is a major league caliber hitter right now - he could probably outhit Renteria next year, especially if he stays in Fenway. Or, alternatively, give Marte some seasoning in AAA and let Lowell/Youks man the corners next year. If Lowell bounces back and hits well enough, deal him to make room for Marte in 2007.

I dunno. Franco hit .275/.348/.451 in limited time last year, with nine home runs and four (!) steals. He already seems like a better bat off the bench than Woodward - maybe he can teach Reyes how to work a walk.

Reggie Sanders was far from finished - in fact, if he hadn't been derailed by injury, he might have been on his way to a career year. In almost 300 ABs, Sanders hit .271/.340/.546 with 21 home runs, stole 14 bases in 15 attempts, and played solid defense. Even granted some regression to the mean over the remainder of the year, he was probably a gold key lock for 30 homers, 20 steals, and an OPS in the high eight hundreds. And Walker's performance was hardly sneezeworthy; I don't foresee So Taguchi putting up a .289/.384/.502 line with 15 home runs next year. Would either of them hit that level of performance again? With Walker, we'll never know due to retirement, but Sanders has a halfway decent shot at a 20/20 season with an .800 OPS and that's typically not a line you find hanging around on the waiver wire. If the Cardinals pick up Rondell White and Juan Encarnacion (two inexpensive free agent options) in the next couple of weeks and ensure that those guys remain bench players, then yeah, the bench isn't too shabby. The problem is that those guys haven't been signed yet and there hasn't been a lot of noise from the media that the Cardinals are actively pursuing either of them. If Morris accepts arbitration, the Cardinals are going to get taken to the cleaners to the tune of $6-8 million, which will put a damper on any of their future moves. But he's probably not going to do that (most reports mention him as cashing in on a larger free agent paycheck), so let's look past that for a second. The Cardinals don't have a lot of trade leverage with Marquis - the other clubs know full well of his attitude problems, as well as the fact that he looks poised to get a big salary bump in arbitration this year. Jocketty won't be trading Marquis for pennies on the dollar, but I would be very surprised if we were going to be able to fill a hole at 2B/Corner Outfield in 2006 with whatever we would get for Marquis. If Marquis gets traded, Thompson probably could fit into the rotation but that puts another hole in the bullpen to fill. And I'm not sure he could fill it that admirably either - his second half K/BB ratio of 14/12 in 30+ innings (in conjunction with his minor league peripherals) doesn't necessarily bode well for the future. You mention Wainwright, but he was pummelled in his cup of coffee last year and he didn't have a tremendous time at AAA either. I'm not saying it's a foregone conclusion that he wouldn't pitch well, but the odds seem to favor another extended look at AAA. Counting on him to hold up every fifth day in the majors is probably not the best plan. And the waiver wire isn't teeming with quality starting pitching - otherwise, all of the other pitching starved teams would be feasting off of it. Al Reyes is out for the whole season next year, so he's not an option. And, sure, there's a ton of right handed relief out there, but the Eyre/Howry signings have pushed the market up and we're not the only ones fishing that pond. We will have to make some very savvy pickups to address this bullpen and, while that's certainly not beyond Jocketty and company, it's not something that you can just take for granted. If those three guys stay healthy, then the Cardinals will still be in the hunt, no doubt. But if these guys falter or get hurt, they're in a world of trouble, because right now they don't have the strong supporting cast (Sanders, Walker, Grudzielanek, Nunez) of recent years to bail them out. You've kind of touched on the issue: this is a very strong rotation, with a good infield. Now, Pujols and Rolen have flashed some serious leather and Eckstein will make virtually every play he can get to, but Grudzielanek's departure leaves a gaping hole in this infield. Reyes isn't as dependent on the infield defense, but Suppan, Mulder, and Marquis (the last two especially) could take a noticable hit in performance if the Cardinals can't address the hole at second base. And no, Aaron Miles isn't the answer. Also, the Cardinals have been very fortunate when it comes to injuries in the rotations over the last two years - how many teams can say that they had their primary five starters chip in 30+ starts each for one year, let alone two? If they can do it again, it would be fantastic, but you can't bank on it. I agree that Randy Flores (and even Tyler Johnson) will probably give the Cardinals more than Ray King would have in 2006. The problem is the rest. ZiPS (the projection system used at BTF) likes Juan Mateo, the kid that they picked up in the Rule 5, but he's 23 and he hasn't even seen AA yet. There are potentials out there, but the market for even halfway decent relief pitching is becoming pricey and it's unlikely that the Cardinals can fill all their holes through free agency, leaving the wire and other NRI/MLCs. And counting on the waiver wire and other sundry MLCs introduces a great deal of risk - you can end up with an Al Reyes or you can end up with a Kevin Jarvis or an Esteban Yan. The Brewers have enough youth and talent that they will probably improve by default, just from having a year of major league experience under their belt. Prince Fielder moves into first base with the Overbay deal, and Gabe Gross is a good addition to their outfield depth. And the pitching isn't exactly shit - Sheets is a Cy Young candidate when healthy, Capuano made tremendous strides last year, and Doug Davis and Tomo Ohka are solid. The bullpen was a disaster early on last year, but it's looking to be a strength going into 2006, with a solid core of Matt Wise, Mike Adams, Derrick Turnbow, and Julio Santana. That's not even counting if Capellan or Justin Lehr perform well on the big stage. The Cubs aren't world beaters yet, but they're at least trying to make moves. Misguided moves, but moves nonetheless. And that's what's frustrating about the Cardinals so far. It's not that we have holes to fill - every team does - but that Jocketty and co. doesn't seem to recognize them or they seem content to fill them with inexpensive crap. Jocketty can't work his trading magic if he doesn't have any chit to trade with, and the fact that we were chasing Burnett when we had a strong rotation doesn't fill me with ease. Letting players go from a 100-win core isn't a bad thing by default, but you've got to replace them and, right now, what replacements we have are looking mighty thin. If Jocketty realizes that we've got needs to address and is allowed to spend money on it, then the perception of the St. Louis offseason will turn around accordingly. However, when LaRussa and Jocketty are crying poverty in the wake of a new stadium (as well as new funds from the MLBAM earnings), while free agents and potential trade returns get swooped up one by one, I tend to get a little frustrated and a little skeptical about our future progress.

For one, Jones may not still be available - there are three or four other clubs in the running for him and his price is escalating beyond the point where the Cardinals are likely to pay. With the Casey trade, I'd imagine that the Kearns-for-Marquis rumblings are dead in the water. (Not that trading Marquis is the best solution anyway.) I'll grant that Mabry is replaceable, and that Nunez probably isn't going to replicate his 2005, but Grudz is a solid major league player whose departure leaves a gaping hole in the infield. And there hasn't really been much of a replacement for these guys in terms of depth either - Deivi Cruz? Aaron Miles? The Cardinals bench is a wasteland, even worse than the benches of recent vintage, which were remarkably poor. These aren't the only guys that we lost either. Reggie Sanders and Matt Morris are gone as well. Matt's departure will be taken care of with Reyes' promotion to the rotation, but Sanders was a valuable player in left, offensively and defensively. Dotel is no sure bet for next year health-wise and, technically, neither is Looper, who was pitching through an ailment in his elbow. And neither have been officially announced as being signed. It's a strength, but it doesn't save the entire team. Pujols is a lock, but Edmonds is flirting with decline, and Rolen is seemingly a perpetual injury risk. Even if all three are healthy, I wouldn't expect a repeat performance of 2004. The rotation is probably the strongest aspect of the team, outside of the Pujols/Rolen/Edmonds core, but there are plenty of uncertainties: does Carpenter continue his excellent performance? Does Marquis finally figure it out? Does Suppan continue pitching better than expected? And the bullpen's no great shakes either. Isringhausen is good, but not great, and right now, all we have to bridge to him are Randy Flores, Brad Thompson, and Tyler Johnson. Bullpens can be put together on the cheap, but it introduces more risk, and there's already plenty of risk throughout other parts of the roster. Given that the Cubs and Brewers are both improving, I think it's very realistic for Cardinal fans to express concern.