The Man in Blak

I'd probably rank a top three as: 1. Advance Wars 2. Mario Kart: Super Circuit 3. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Honorable Mention: Metroid Fusion, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Fire Emblem

I didn't hear too many people outraging when Dave Wannstedt got shit-canned by the Miami Dolphins.

No way is that song meant to be taken seriously. Of course, I haven't heard a single other song by My Chemical Romance, but "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" is waaaaaay too over-the-top to be considered a serious statement of any kind.

DISCLAIMER: I should mention that I'm working primarily from his material on You Are The Quarry but - from what I've heard - Maladjusted isn't all that different. In my opinion, Morrissey's a one trick pony. He rarely strays from conventional instrumentation. His song structures, while expertly executed, still adhere to your standard verse-chorus-verse pattern. He competently mixes and matches chords, but the chordal palette that he uses to treat his lyrics, once again, harken back to standard pop chord conventions. With such a pedestrian foundation, Morrissey's lyrics have to carry the entire weight of the song...which is something that most critics have already kind of figured out. Most of the reviews for You Are The Quarry focused on celebrating Morrissey's skewering of American culture; not coincidentally, I found his "skewering" to be uninspired, at best. And my distaste doesn't stop at the political commentary - I'm not a big fan of the soap opera drivel that takes up much of his stuff. (I try to convince myself that "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" is not meant to be taken seriously.) Usually, a great songwriter (as Morrissey is reputed to be) will find a way for his music to transcend his lyrics, or vice versa, but - in Morrissey's case - both usually strike me as mediocre offerings, which combines to make mediocre music. Maybe I need to make like Fred Durst and buy a Smiths T-shirt to understand.

If the game companies have an option of using a control contact with 90% response time for three dollars, and a control contact with 70% response time for sixty-five cents, then they're going to use the latter. Technology has nothing to do with it. Namco just figured that the increased income from having more responsive controls wouldn't match or exceed the cost of putting said super-responsive controls in...so they went cheap.

Someone's working the board again! !

Yeah, like, "Don't You Know I've Seen Chasing Amy, You Fucking Ingrates" mad.

These adventures aren't very mystical at all, are they?

Oooh, Pitchfork has reviews for Reel Big Fish and the Get-Up Kids (four of them, no less), so I better rescind my contentious comment from earlier.

Instant credibility for Reel Big Fish and the Get-Up Kids! And I'll tack on my own sensationalist pick and nominate Morrissey.

You haven't been watching the Rams play this year, have you?

After reading the Bill James Handbook thread, I thought it might be useful to put together a thread that has a little directory of books for particular statistic studies (i.e. Curveball for PGP) if anybody is interested in furthering their baseball geekery: Total Baseball - A giant encyclopedia of baseball statistics and history which, if I've heard correctly, includes new sabermetric statistics (such as win shares) for older players. Baseball Prospectus - Another reference book that focuses on the current players at the Major League level (as well as some minor league candidates), with a great deal of statistical analysis and commentary. I own the 2004 version of the BPro (the link points to the currently-unreleased 2005 edition) and it's a tremendous read. Highly recommended. Bill James Handbook - Covers the same scope as Baseball Prospectus, but foregoes the witty commentary and goes all-out on statistical metrics. Probably not a bad companion to the BPro. Win Shares - The book written by Bill James that's dedicated to explaining the formula for calculating Win Shares. Curve Ball - A very stat-heavy book that focuses on offensive metrics, such as Runs Created. I believe this book also has a big section on Player Game Percentage, though I could be horribly, horribly wrong. I've heard good things, so it gets mentioned.

If they move Eckstein to second and pick up Lugo (who hit better than Renteria, surprisingly) or Larkin (who hit better than advertised) on the cheap to play short, then I think that this isn't a bad situation. If we end up filling the hole at shortstop with Rich Aurilia, Pokey Reese, or just give up and hand over 500+ replacement-level ABs to Hector Luna next year...then we could be in really deep shit.

Yeah, that's a good point. The Colts picked the right year to have a ridiculous high-flying offense (moreso than even last year), because it seems like a lot of the teams will be going into the playoffs with secondary issues.

Remember when Philly fans booed when Michael Irvin got carted off with a career-ending injury? Karma's a bitch.

For people who think that the baseball playoffs are a complete crapshoot, I'd like you to direct your attention to fantasy football, where Nate Burleson and Drew Bennett pile up 4 TDs and nearly 300 yards of receiving, and Andre Johnson and Terrell Owens combine for 5 catches and about 60 yards.

Yeah, the Steelers have looked flat today - they look like they weren't prepared for this game at all. That, and Roethlisberger seems to be struggling with his touch on the ball with those gloves on, which might lead to some bad news in the playoffs.

Here's the five I would start: Tiki Barber Emmitt Smith Lee Evans Javon Walker Jimmy Smith At this point in the fantasy season, you want to bank on guys that have consistent playing time and your other options don't necessarily have that. Faulk's been named the official starter for this week but Steven Jackson's also coming back, which means he'll go back to sharing carries like earlier in the year. Plus, it's the Rams. Tatum Bell looks like he'll actually play but, if he does, he'll be splitting carries with Reuben Droughns, the other player you listed. Given that Bell will likely be a gametime decision, it's better to just forego both of them, even with the killer matchup against KC.

Well, we'll find out soon enough when they slap Dioner Navarro in the starting lineup early next year. If he's ends up being as good of a "prospect" as Brandon Claussen, then the returns for the Dodgers take a little bit of hit in value. Plus, Brazoban was one of the key components of the bridge to Gagne, and a young and prospering component at that. However, bringing Javier Vazquez back to the National League - in a pitcher's park, no less - is a stellar move that should help Javy bounce back in a big way. And the real addition for the Dodgers is by subtraction: Shawn Green and his albatross of a contract goes to the Diamondbacks (what a fit), and the Dodgers actually find somebody to take Brad Penny, despite him having startling arm problems. Good move for Los Angeles. For the Yankees...well, Crumb's quote is pretty apt: Dioner Navarro was the most coveted prospect in the Yankee farm, mostly by default. Now, having dealt Navarro and Eric Duncan out of the minors, the cupboard is virtually bare. Duncan, of course, was going nowhere anyway, with A-Rod taking residence at the hot corner for the remainder of the decade. Navarro, on the other hand, was being groomed as the heir apparent to Posada, who's not going to be behind the plate for much longer. With Navarro's departure, the Yankees might actually consider snatching the waivers on A.J. Pierzynski to provide a younger set of legs in reserve than John "Gregg Fuckin' Zaun is Overrated" Flaherty. Outside of the prospects, the Yankees get exactly what they want - they get the Big Unit and they get rid of Home Run Javy. Consider the Yankees' chances for revenge substantially raised along with our fortunes, since we'll have a chance of seeing one of the greatest playoff matchups in the last twenty-five years when Johnson and Schilling square off in Game 1 of the ALCS. And then there's the Diamondbacks, who are going to wake up tomorrow and wonder what the license plate was on the truck that hit them. They replace Randy Johnson with Brad Penny, who had bizarre arm troubles (involving nerve damage, IIRC) and was, at best, a six inning pitcher before that. They get Brazoban, who would make a great final piece to a contending team, but now will mostly gain dust as the setup man for Jose Valverde. The singular glimpse of hope in their entire acquisition lies in a possible power renaissance for Shawn Green in homer-happy Arizona and even that isn't guaranteed, especially with Green coming into his Age-32 season. Arizona has just enough high-priced talent in Glaus, Ortiz, Counsell, Clayton, Green, and Penny to help Diamondback fans remember the veteran-stocked team that won the 2001 season. They also have enough fragility and overpriced mediocrity to almost ensure an organizational collapse in the next two years, especially if the financial issues (where exactly did they get all that free agent money again?) don't remain as quiet as they have been during all of these contract signings. I have a feeling that this is a recipe for disaster.

Yeah, but at $6 million a year, the dollar difference for Polanco can make up for the defensive advantage that Renteria has. Additionally, Polanco can provide adequate defense all around the infield, which allows them to pursue options at 2B (Hairston Jr.?) or SS (Cabrera/Larkin) with the money saved.

I don't know about that. Losing Hudson is obviously a huge hit, but the people that are returned in the trade aren't bad at all: - OF Charles Thomas: Had an .813 OPS last year, thanks to (you guessed it) a .368 OBP, and showed a little bit of power (7 home runs in 236 ABs). He's only 25 and last year was his first taste of the show, so he could see some marked improvement in the next few years. - RHP Juan Cruz: I still don't know exactly why the Cubs got rid of this guy. Also 25, he's got 255 strikeouts in 275 career innings. He was way out of his depth as a starter, due to a lack of command, but his stuff has tremendous movement. Depending on what they decide to do with Dotel, they could easily groom Cruz for the closer job. In the meantime, he'll be an asset in middle relief. - LHP Dan Meyer: Another young player at 22 years of age. Meyer barely had enough exposure in a September callup to really gauge his true skills, but his outlook in Baseball Prospectus ("The college product has a tremendous changeup and plus command") and his impressive strikeout rate in the minors could foretell effectiveness in middle relief.

On top of that, some new stuff from Rotoworld:

I'm interested in seeing Tom's thoughts about the Sunday Night matchup, given the past "history" of both teams (Colts moving to Indianapolis) and potential for new history (Peyton's chase of Marino). I'm thinking it could be the game of the year.

Just checked it, yeah they are upset, but accurate. I wouldn't really argue that the "Renteria is a greedy piece of shit" movement is really accurate at all. Of course, the outrage is fueled by the comments that Renteria made to the Globe about "the Red Sox wanting him more", even though the Cardinals essentially tripped over themselves near the end to make a comparable deal to the Red Sox proposal. I think it really gets down to the fact that Renteria wanted to leave, plain and simple. He didn't want to sign an extension early in the year, nor did he want to talk about contracts in the middle of the year. Maybe he felt disrespected by the fact that we declined his option a while back, and then turned around and signed Pujols and Rolen to huge multi-year contracts. Plus, Renteria wasn't greedy - he gets $1 million more than what St. Louis offered over the span of the entire contract. The Red Sox's margin of monetary victory wasn't really that decisive. He left because he wanted to leave and, considering what his asking price was, I think it's better for both parties.