The Man in Blak

I hate to ask...but how many of them had Dempster walked?

You know, slapping FrigidSoul into lockdown in the OAOAST folder is like subjecting him to the programming from A Clockwork Orange. You may as well just ban him and put him out of his virtual misery.

So, out of all the people that have been tossed into the Gulag, exactly how many have emerged reformed and able to contribute to society?

Way to bring the thunder, Lambchop.

Dude, it's going to hang around forever, maybe even longer with every post that you make, attempting to feign apathy about the situation. It's the internet.

*watches American Idol*

This is the most insane logic. First off, many reality TV shows have been exposed to using scripts for particular moments, so it's not like they're completely eliminating jobs. But, more importantly, it's completely illogical to say that, by having absolutely no scripted shows, MTV isn't taking away jobs from writers. Read that sentence again. MTV is taking away more possibilities for writing jobs than any other network by having less scripted material and, by being successful with a completely unscripted lineup, they're influencing other networks to make the same decision. MTV has created scripted shows in the past - sure, Beavis and Butthead, Daria, The Maxx, and Aeon Flux were all animated, but that means that they were all scripted as well - and even aired other scripted shows in syndication (My So-Called Life), but the number of these shows has dwindled due to MTV's own preference for the reality TV, which brings in better ratings. And why does it bring in better ratings? It brings in better ratings because you watch it. One hand washes the other, Mole, and you help to engineer your own dilemma by watching reality TV on MTV and then hypocritically blasting another network for daring to attempt to follow MTV's success, which you helped to create.

Look, when I brought it up, I wasn't meaning to open up a whole new chapter in the litany of "Vick is GAWD! Nuh uh! Uh huh" arguments that we've had here. All that I was saying is that: 1. Vick and the Falcons have won in the cold before, so it's useless for everybody to chirp about the Falcons as though they were playing their games in a sensory deprivation tank all year. 2. Because it's snowing in the Philly area and could continue snowing through the game, the conditions are going to be crappy, which is effectively going to drag down the offenses of both teams. This affects the Falcons less because they have less of a passing game in the first place. Westbrook is a great back, but his primary strengths are his speed and his versatility, both of which are going to be hampered by the slow track and the inclimate conditions. The same can be said of Warrick Dunn as well, but the Falcons can grind down the field with T.J. Duckett, who is a better option for Atlanta than Dorsey Levens is for Philly. This is a game where the better team (the Eagles) can easily lose, just with a bad break. A bad snap in the snow leads to an Akers miss. The ball slips out of Vick's hands on a handoff. A kick returner falls in the snow and fumbles, leading to the only score the game. There's an inherent element of chaos in any football game, but the crappy weather just amplifies the possibility for anything to happen, which always favors the lesser team.

Actually, there's a lot of chit-chat going around that Clemens may have the upper-hand, as he falls into having a lot of "special achievements", which allow him to make comparisons to, say, the guy that he beat for the Cy Young last year, Randy Johnson. Johnson just received a two-year, $16 million extension to his contract, which means that Clemens could potentially command something higher than the midpoint of $17.5 between the arbitration offers. (One less year means more guaranteed money for this single year to compensate, he beat out Johnson for the Cy Young, etc.) And, according to one of the arbitration experts that popped up on Fred Claire's radio show on MLB.com yesterday, when it comes to arbitration cases, it's not necessarily arguing the $13 million versus the $22 million figure, but arguing which side of the midpoint that Clemens' true value falls upon. I'm not saying that he should get the $22 million - I think it's absolutely ridiculous - but that there may be more of a chance that he will, given the way that the system works.

It doesn't work. Trust me.

Just another side note - there's a lot of banter about Atlanta's chances in Philly because they're a dome team, but everybody seems to forget that Vick & Co. went up to Lambeau a couple of years ago and won against one of the best "cold weather" teams around. The elements will play a part, no doubt, but - if anything - that actually favors the Falcons because, if the snow picks up during the game, both offenses will be neutered, leaving it wide open for the team that gets a good break late in the game (penalty, fumble). It's an equalizer.

I've got a Dell Inspiron and it's a wonderful piece of work. Centrino processor lets me do my wireless thing, and it's got enough speed and RAM to run things at a nice clip (though I'll admit, I haven't went on a binge with Doom3 or HL2 to check out the real gaming power of the machine). Price is fairly reasonable too.

Ah, but bringing a sports team to a city adds prestige and value to the community, which leads to more people moving to the city, which equals more dollars for the city. I'm not saying that the city should foot the bill for the whole deal but, in principle, I think the city and the sports team should work together on a stadium deal.

It's been said around here before, but Hawkins really wasn't that bad. But hey, somebody's got to be the scapegoat for the September collapse! Kid's got a decent career strikeout rate (7.28) and he managed to snuff hitters in relief in his limited stint last year (.606 OPS, with a .273 SLG percentage), so he's definitely worth a shot. Sure, lefties have a tendency to go off on him (.951 OPS vs. Dempster over last three years), and he'll probably walk himself into trouble (1.39 K/BB ratio last year), throwing Cubs fans into a collective panic every third appearance or so, but he's got a higher ceiling than Borowski and Hawkins is...*ahem* "much more comfortable in the setup role."

Jordan will probably get around 70 games but, being as though it's the Braves, Mondesi will probably throw down .270/.340/.465 with twenty home runs and almost twenty steals.

Here's Dubois' minor league figures: Single A - .321/.422/.562, 20 HRs Double A - .269/.367/.458, 15 HRs Triple A - .316/.389/.630, 31 HRs The home run boost in Triple A may be a perk of playing in the PCL, but the walk rates and slugging percentages are encouraging and, even though he hit .217/.240/.435 in his september call-up, that was in 23 at-bats. When Hollandsworth gets his annual injury and leaves the platoon open to DuBois, it may actually be a blessing in disguise.

Honestly, I think the Cubs should go: L - Walker R - Lee R - Nomar R - Sosa R - Ramirez R - Patterson R - Barrett R - Hollandsworth / Dubois Patterson's the guy who really needs to step up - if he improves his hitting (hit .260 last year) and becomes more patient, they could stuff him at leadoff, then hit Walker, Lee, Sosa, Ramirez, and have Nomar give Ramirez some protection.

Well, the usual recovery time for Tommy John surgery is 12-18 months. A ten month recovery period (August) isn't unheard of, but it definitely would be exceptionally fast.

Here's the question I have - do you think these guys (in this case, the Cubs) went up to every at-bat with the singular approach of hitting a home run, or did they "switch" approaches and try to slug it out only in critical situations? To me, it seems like it would be hard to switch batting approaches like that. These guys aren't playing on an X-Box - the muscle memory for a swing, which you train through years of playing experience, can't just flip on a dime. I tend to think players have the same batting approach every time up in every game - now, whether Dusty or the hitting coach influenced them to try to drive the ball more and sacrifice power in spring training, and said influence carried through a season...I don't know. Whatever the case, it's not like they were "home run or bust" - the Cubs hit .268 collectively as a team, which was good for sixth in the NL. When it came to patience at the plate, however, (in this case, quantified by OBP-BA), the Cubs were next-to-last in the NL: SFG: 0.087 CIN: 0.081 PHI: 0.078 HOU: 0.075 ATL: 0.073 MIL: 0.073 LAD: 0.070 COL: 0.070 SDP: 0.069 NYM: 0.068 STL: 0.066 FLA: 0.065 MON: 0.064 PIT: 0.061 CHC: 0.060 ARI: 0.057 The most egregious offenders in OBP-BA that got significant at bats for the Cubs were: Macias: .024 Grudzielanek (go cards.): .040 Barrett: .050 Patterson: .054 Ramirez: .055 Other than Grudz, all of these guys are coming back next year. Todd Walker will help matters by playing everyday (.078), but Alou, who was one of more patient Cubs at the plate (.068), is gone and having Nomar all year (.057) won't help in that regard either. You can't play for the three-run home run when nobody is willing to draw a walk to get on base. Of course, walks clog up the basepaths, right?

I heard if all goes well he can be out there by late July. He had Tommy John surgery in October - if he were to come back in July, his arm would be jello.

For what it's worth, I used Mahnken's new park-adjusted DIPS to crunch Kennedy's DIPS (defense-independent pitching statistic, IIRC) ERA: 2004: 4.02 2003: 5.12 2002: 4.80 2001: 4.63 If you want some comparisons, here's some choice pitchers' 2004 park-adjusted DIPS data: Randy Johnson: 2.32 Pedro Martinez: 3.47 Jason Marquis: 4.73 Chris Carpenter: 4.02 Shawn Estes: 5.30 Russ Ortiz: 4.82 Derek Lowe: 4.39

It is kind of ironic that both Chicago teams hit a ton of home runs, but didn't have anybody that got on consisently enough to make them really hurt. On top of that, both Chicago teams got hammered by injuries, and didn't have anybody in the bullpen to hold on to the slender lead provided by said home runs. Maybe it's something in the water?

Better question. Who would you rather have - Carlos Lee or Scott Podsednik?

Pittsburgh over Atlanta.

Here's a couple of numbers that I stole from BTF: Correlation of Home Runs to Wins: 0.441 Correlation of Singles to Wins: 0.197