The Man in Blak

I wouldn't say that Cabrera was as bad as Reyes, but I do think it's difficult to say that Reyes was the worst starting pitcher on his own team, let alone the league. Don't forget that Mike Maroth and Kip Wells suited up for the Redbirds last year.

Hilariously, I found myself listening to it all over again after hearing - get this - "15 Step" on a commercial for a local talk radio station (The Big 550...KTRS). And I think I like it more now, as I've finally decided to soften up a little bit on "All I Need", Boards of Canada be damned. Haven't touched the second disc since my initial review, other than redirecting my affection from "Up On The Ladder" to the skronky guitar wigout of "Bangers and Mash." It's an absolute throwaway, far away from the big moments that you would prefer in their catalogue, but it's hilarious, with the terrible guitar sound and Thom chuckling after the breakdown (which is still stupid, of course).

Since we don't seem to have any way to respond to posts in the Gulag... For one, I can't really see Wellemeyer (12 career MLB starts in 5+ years) and Thompson (19 career starts, 3.51 ERA in 109 games as a reliever) as proven, average starters. As encouraging as their performances are this season, they have come from a Rockies team that seems to be in a little bit of a hangover from their World Series loss last year. Secondly, I completely understand how easy it is to come to such a conclusion about Reyes by simply taking a look at his stats, but you're missing the context behind those numbers, which drives most of the angst surrounding this guy. On his way to the majors, Reyes was considered a difference-maker with a great minor league track record; his cup of coffee in 2005 didn't seem to derail that potential either, as he averaged almost a strikeout an inning. But, for whatever reason, LaRussa and Duncan were wholly convinced that Anthony Reyes needed to adopt a two-seam fastball to be successful in the major leagues, without ever really giving him a chance to fail. And, through Spring Training in 2006, that was the directive; learn the two-seam fastball or else, results be damned. And, predictably, Reyes struggled with adopting a brand new pitch into his repertoire and lost the "competition" for the #5 starting role to Sidney Ponson, reinforcing a growing sentiment in and around the organization that management held a bias against young pitchers, either out of fear that they may turn into Rick Ankiel or Alan Benes, or out of sheer stubbornness for their ground-ball orthodoxy. Reyes has been up and down from the minors to the majors since then and the results seem to indicate that, when he's allowed to pitch as he did when he was once considered one of the top prospects in the league, he has fairly good success. But the adoption of the two-seamer, which he's never really been successful with over the last two years, has taken a toll upon his mechanics (never Duncan's strong suit) and his velocity, which has dropped 3-4 mph (until this year, suspiciously, where he seems to have returned to his four-seam fastball ways). I wouldn't say that Reyes is as good as his first relief appearance this year (1.0 IP, 3 Ks), nor would I say he's as bad as his last (0.2 IP, 2 ER), but there is still upside there, despite the chronic mishandling of his career to this point. That upside is important to the long-term success of the Cardinals, either from direct contributions to the rotation, or from whatever value the team can extract from his return in trade. And though I wouldn't disagree that the Cardinals may have the capacity to surprise some people this year, the division should be soft enough for them to see what Reyes can offer them in the rotation and, as you've already explained, the short window of time for Pineiro's injury gives them the perfect "trial period" to do so.

Well, somebody had to be deposed for Metal Ed to have a moderator slot, right?

Yeah, I'll go ahead and take The Velvet Underground and Nico, if it's actually my turn. (Whither Darthtiki?) When the draft first started, I was actually banking on taking 1969: The Velvet Underground Live late in the game, until I found out that it's actually compiled from two different live recordings, which would disqualify it from selection here. Ultimately, though, I think they slid through the draft because the four "proper" VU albums are all well-regarded and, as a result, there was a lot to choose from. From a drafting perspective, there is much less scarcity around the Velvet Underground's catalogue than, to cite a recent example, a group like Slint, who have one seminal album and then nuthin'.

Important reference thread.

I don't disagree with the idea that they should trade him, but I also don't understand how stuffing Reyes in the bullpen really aids in his development or adds to his value for any potential trade suitors. Of course, that's of little concern to LaRussa and Duncan, who operate under the same kind of warped world-view that would lead one to think that butter makes a fine vegetable or that TV On The Radio would fare better as a bluegrass band (because there ain't nothing like that there music of the heartland). The 2008 St. Louis Cardinals: This Year, We Drive The Fans To Drink Too

If there's such a large concern about non-worthy topics cluttering up the landscape, how would everybody feel about turning on topic moderation in this folder? In other words, people could still submit new topics, but those new topics would not be created on the board until a moderator (essentially acting as an editor here) would approve them. It would create some actual work that the new staff may not be willing to undertake, but it should also theoretically cut down on a lot of the threads that are useless/redundant/etc.

Yeah, I'm officially distraught now. In Utero is actually one of my top three favorite albums ever, and I gambled that it would be around when the picks came my way next round. Should have known better.

Radiohead - Kid A Explanation later, once I get some time to actually write it out.

The Stooges - Raw Power It's a good thing that Milky reminded me that punk music existed, because I've got a gaping hole in my collection thus far where some loud, vicious, lawn-melting rock should be. Raw Power certainly qualifies as such; it's a loud motherfucker, with a mix that's almost constantly in the red. The visceral production is almost enough on it's own - and, frankly, it's what made me choose this over the more conventional-sounding Fun House - but the songs themselves continue to pile it on through a destructive, sexually-charged protopunk assault.

But, you see, Rain is the purple ninja, and Paul is a big Prince fan.

You and me, we're going to have to duel to the death before this draft is over. Damn it, DAMN it, DAMN it.

The recording of the song is terrible, so it makes it a little hard to discern some of the chords, but most of what's in there at the beginning is just standard jazz stuff, dom7s and whatnot. I can probably scratch out the full chord structure, at some point. Here's your chord structure, with my best guess for the voicings on guitar. As I initially noted, the chord textures themselves are criminally easy, relying mostly on dominant (Major chord, minor 7th) sevenths. The song never truly leaves GM and the only turn that's a little out of the ordinary comes from the consecutive dom7s in the chorus; theory-wise, I think the first C dom7 would be a tritone substitution (C "subbing" in for F#, resolves to B) functioning as a secondary dominant to the relative minor (after resolving to B, B finally resolves to E)...but I'm a little bit rusty, so caveat emptor, I guess. Anyway, here you go. Verse (I - VI - II - V): GM (3-2-0-0-0-x) Em (0-2-2-0-0-0) Am (x-0-2-2-1-0) D dom7 (x-x-0-2-1-2) Chorus (I - V/IV - IV - Tritone Sub V/V/VI - V/VI - VI - V - V: GM (3-2-0-0-0-x) G dom7 (3-2-0-0-0-1) CM (x-3-2-0-1-0) C dom7 (x-3-2-3-1-0) B dom7 (x-2-4-4-4-5) Em (0-2-2-0-0-0) DM (x-x-0-2-3-2) D dom7 (x-x-0-2-1-2)

The recording of the song is terrible, so it makes it a little hard to discern some of the chords, but most of what's in there at the beginning is just standard jazz stuff, dom7s and whatnot. I can probably scratch out the full chord structure, at some point.

OutKast - Aquemini I'm not a huge hip-hop fan by any means, but Aquemini is irresistible, even when taken out of a historical context that shows it may have momentarily saved the genre from Puff Daddy's tyrannical run of samples posing as singles, even when shifted away from a wistful remembrance of days before Andre went all trimillennial. Here, they simply tip their hat in respect to P-Funk musically, rather than completely drive their adoration through a brick wall, and the result is their most consistent offering to date. This would be worth it even if the only track was "Rosa Parks", which still provides the best encapsulation of all of their influences and rhyme-javelin' inclinations.

Any impressions or recommendations regarding the Viera line of TVs from Panasonic? I'm looking at this 32" Viera LCD TV and, thanks to some employee benefits, I could actually pick this up for around $700. Would that price be a good deal for the features offered here?

God dammit. I was looking for WL/WH on the (long) way back around.

David Bowie - Low Fractured cocaine genius, pure, imperfect, refined psychosis. Side two boasts the most poignant, stirring instrumental of the Berlin Trilogy ("Subterraneans"), a perfect end to begin with before crashing head first onto that patented drum crash on "Speed of Life", that distorted -crack- that drives the entire album, -crack-.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme I too have about three or four albums that will probably be toast when my turn comes back around, but I can't leave this one, the album that really hooked me into jazz, out there on the table. Right at the crossroads between his past virtuosity and his future journeys into wild experimentation, Coltrane envelops himself in spiritual contemplation. Set upon a rich modal backdrop supplied by the best rhythmic support of his solo career (Tyner/Garrison/Jones), A Love Supreme is a multi-faceted, emotional work and, though they may not touch upon as many notes as Giant Steps, Coltrane's solo runs throughout the entire album are among his most memorable. An unbelievable album from one of the most intriguing figures in the entire genre.

TEAM 1380 in St. Louis just reported that the Cardinals have released Scott Spiezio, who is wanted for arrest on a drunk-driving incident in December of last year:

I wasn't even going to dignify the attendance comment with a response, but let's not forget that 2005 was the Nationals' inaugural season in Washington. The Orioles should probably be happy that they only had around a 3% (yes, three percent) drop in sales with such an alternative emerging in their local market.

The difference between '04 and '05 is over 100 runs of offense, which can be attributed to precipitous offensive declines throughout most of the roster: Melvin Mora dropped almost 70 points of OBP, Javy Lopez dropped almost 50 points of OBP, David Newhan and Larry Bigbie came crashing back to Earth, etc. Sammy Sosa's disappointing performance certainly contributed to that dip in offense, but it wasn't the root cause of it. Also, as Czech mentioned, the bigger steroid cloud over the '05 Orioles actually came from Palmeiro, who not only managed to get busted in the most ignominious way imaginable, but also found a way to rat out the team's centerpiece player (Tejada) on his way down.

An outcome that has absolutely nothing to do with the continued deterioration of the Orioles franchise from the ground up, I'm sure.

Yeah, that was kinda the basis for my comment in the first place. There's nothing for it on the Tribune, there's nothing for it on ESPN.com, there's nothing for it anywhere else, except for a blog entry on Bleed Cubbie Blue (which, of course, was created in response to the Score's announcement). Don't get me wrong: I can understand the outrage, if this were to come to pass. (Okay, maybe only some of it.) But much of the story still seems speculative at this point; "talks" can mean just about anything.