The Man in Blak

I call the Kansas City Athletics.

Whatever you do, please don't forget to come back here and post about it.

Pussies.

I wonder if ESPN is going to have a "Reyes Hamstring Cam".

Yeah, those are terrible. And, in the category of "Nickname That Is Cooler Than The Guy It Names", I enter: Joe Randa - "The Joker"

Good lord, talk about high risk / high reward. All five of these guys could completely implode due to injury this year. Interesting draft otherwise, though. Not too bad for a twelve teamer (though it's hard to really evaluate without knowing, round-by-round, what picks you made in the draft).

Too bad they've already been trumped on the "next generation" front by the Dark Cloud series. Frankly, Square needs to hire better writers. The first couple of PS1 Final Fantasies were front-loaded with graphics and "gameplay innovations" like Materia and the Draw System, but they both contained stories that, in my opinion, were pretty terrible. I don't find myself replaying them because it would be like re-reading a book just to enjoy the grammar. But both of those installments were outrageously successful and - save for a handful of exceptions - that pattern hasn't really let up since then. Square can design the games without a problem but, nowadays, they just seem to be missing the mark on the very component that made their earlier games, such as Chrono Trigger and FFVI, legendary.

... Come on, dude, you're leaving us all hanging with that comma.

Bettman: "It is imperative that we conclude our negotiations today and come to an agreement, as we have already squandered sixteen days of Black History Month."

This thread has more WDI than WDI does nowadays.

"For Sale - (555) 555-5555" or whatever Gary Bettman's number is.

n/m, didn't see A-Rod was off at 3. As far as Vladdy vs. Abreu, I think both could maintain the levels of performance that they set last year, even with Abreu recently jumping to the wrong side of 30. I'd take Abreu.

ZiPS (same system used at Transaction Oracle at BTF) has Beltre at .292/.346/.528 with 37 homers. Players that I would consider sleepers...David Wright, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford (he'll still go high, but he could be undervalued if he develops some power), Kaz Matsui (was heating up in July before injuries derailed him)...those are some just off the top of my head.

If the Cubs lose out this year, Baker better get turfed because virtually all of the scapegoats from last year have been disposed of.

It's got to be - after all, we know the real Dickie V would say "God. I...I’m starting to feel faint. I’m dizzy. Help me." in ALL CAPS BAYBEE.

Animal Collective and the Jesus Lizard? Damn.

I dug Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, so I'd recommend that one. To use an incredibly nerdy reference, it reminded me of the background music for Phantasy Star IV, which isn't a bad thing.

Blame the Yankee fans for constantly chest-thumping about the Yankees and Babe Ruth to Red Sox fans and giving them a collective inferiority complex in the process.

I think that, even if you want to argue diminished talent level, you can counter that by saying that the smaller amount of teams cancels out the lower talent level by reducing the amount of jobs available for the Scrappy McScrubberson's of the world. Though, ultimately, it's hard to compare coaches from different eras, even harder than players, in my opinion. It's impossible to say how Vince Lombardi would have managed in the salary cap era, just like it's hard to tell how Bill Walsh would have fared in the pre-Super Bowl era of football.

The real test for Belichick will be next year - if the Patriots get to the Super Bowl again, without Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis, then I think that probably solidifies his claim for best coach of the ESPN era and probably makes a great case for him being the best of the modern NFL.

Somehow, I think Czech's math works like this: x errors for Tampa Bay < the error after the Bartman ball where x is any number in the base-10 numbering system.

Al should crop that last cell down to the angry Phillie face and use it as his avatar.

Nope - when they signed him, they said that he'd be holding down third base. Remember - this is the Devil Rays we're talking about here.