Frayed Knot

Baseball America put out a list of their top-30 prospects for the Mets and where each is starting the season. Some (Hi Lucas Duda) may already be having their mail forwarded to a new location. NAMERANKTEAMDoB1Jenrry MejiaBuffalo10/11/892Wilmer FloresSt. Lucie08/06/913Cesar PuelloSt. Lucie04/01/914Matt HarveySt. Lucie03/27/895Kirk NieuwenhuisBuffalo08/07/876Reese HavensBinghamton10/20/867Lucas DudaNYM02/03/868Fernando MartinezBuffalo10/10/889Aderlin RodriguezSavannah11/18/9110Brad HoltBinghamton10/13/8611Juan UrbinaGCL05/31/9312Robert CarsonBinghamton01/23/8913Jeurys FamiliaSt. Lucie10/10/8914Darrell CecilianiSavannah06/22/9015Cory VaughnSavannah05/01/8916Dillon GeeBuffalo04/28/8617Erik GoeddelSavannah12/20/8818Steve MatzGCL05/29/9119Zach LutzBuffalo06/03/8620Robbie ShieldsSavannah12/07/8721Brad EmausNYM03/28/8622Mark CohoonBinghamton09/15/8723Matt den DekkerSt. Lucie08/10/8724Armando RodriguezSt. Lucie01/28/8825Jordany ValdespinBinghamton12/23/8726Jefry MarteSt. Lucie06/21/9127Kyle AllenSt. Lucie02/12/9028Manny AlvarezBuffalo12/18/8529Blake ForsytheSavannah07/31/8930Pedro BeatoNYM10/27/86

I always found: Melanie Griffith = Actress to be a big enough stretch.

Brief write-up from BP today: Every team has a guy like Jeurys Familia: young and athletic, with excellent size and stuff, yet the results just aren't there. Familia is repeating the Florida State League after putting up a 5.58 ERA there last year, but at this rate, his return engagement won't last long. Sitting at 90-97 mph with his fastball and showing a much-improved power breaking ball, Familia faced the minimum 21 batters in his seven innings on Friday, allowing just one hit and striking out seven. Six-foot-three and long-armed, the 21-year-old Dominican has a history of control problems and still needs to improve his changeup to avoid a trip to the bullpen, but with 2010 first-round pick Matt Harvey and top prospect Jenrry Mejia both impressing in their season debuts, the Mets suddenly have a trio of power arms to make many organizations jealous.

Director of, among others, 'Twelve Angry Men', 'Network', 'Serpico' and 'Dog Day Afternoon'

I was intrigued enough by this flick to seek out and read the book that was the source. That's fairly unusual for me, first because I'm not much of a fiction reader but also if I'm going to read a book and see the movie I usually do so in that order. Can't think of a recent time when it's been movie first. Anyway, the book of the same name by Daniel Woodrell is a short little read (can knock it off in a few days) but the movie holds fairly true to the source. Aside from the usual caveat about how the book can flesh out the characters more fully, Ree's younger siblings are both boys in the book* and the character of her best friend is a bit more prominent. But mostly it's the same story and much of the dialog and great lines are ripped straight from the written page. The author turns out to be someone who both grew up and still lives in the Ozark Mountain region near the Missouri/Arkansas border, lending some authenticity to LWFS's idea about how people like this and the world they inhabit really exist. He's a guy who joined the marines the day he turned 17 before eventually getting a college degree in his late 20s and later attending writer's workshops in preparation for a literary career. * there was some note in the credits which indicated that the actor who played the little sister was a local, someone who lived at or near where the film was shot - that was possibly the reason for the change from two younger brothers to one brother and one sister.

"It's that damn stuck-up MTV girl!!"

Sitting at home sick today I found 'Dirty Harry' while channel surfing and watched it for the first time in like a thousand years.

A Liverpool teen named John tries to define who he is while navigating the gulf between the emotionally distant and strict aunt who raised him and his loving but flighty mother who couldn't. And out of that he forms this band ... Sidenotes: - Most of you are probably up on at least the basics of this tale, although some of the (apparently accurate) details of the back story were new to me. The movie is based at least partly on a book by one of John's half-sisters, one of three daughters his mother had via two relationships during separations from, and following the split with, John's father. - The now twenty year-old lead actor took up a relationship with the film's director and the two are now engaged and parents of a newborn. She is a divorced 44 y/o mother of two.

I'm not quite as negative here as Vic, although am at least in the same zip code with his 'what's the point?' angle. The fact that it's an unusual family getting past a crisis (or maybe not) doesn't make it a better flick IMO - particularly when the crisis barely made sense in the first place. Good performances only take it so far.

'Teardrop' was one hard-ass mutha-fucka ... but at the same time I don't know that his future is going to be all that long.

I manage to conflate 'Singles' with 'Reality Bites' even having never seen either one of them.

Ceetar wrote: congrats on your clean sweep, but that night was hardly "perfect". It was just about the worst Oscar show ever. Seemed fine to me. But I dunno how to judge these things. Maybe I just don't expect much. This is pretty much where I'm at too. I only occasionally watch these things so when I do it's not like I'm expecting some boffo life-affirming show. And, let's face it, on the awards you actually (might) care about you generally know in advance who's winning at least 3/4 of them. In a bad year I guess 6 of the big 8 correctly and that's usually without seeing any of the movies. So I half pay attention while doing the crossword puzzle and if there's the occasional laugh, meaningful speech, or stunning cleavage it's OK with me. As for last night: Hathaway was fine. Franco looked/sounded detached. If they want to go back to a more 'big name' veteran hosts I'm fine with that but I'm not going to man any protest lines over it. Melissa Leo pretending she had nothing prepared (after winning every award for the last few months) then 'accidentally' dropping the F-Bomb was neither real nor funny. And Kirk can stay on stage as long as he wants for all I care.

Jaws as compared to JP = Worse fake critter but much better humans

metirish wrote: Are people voting now looking back or voting what they felt at the time? I didn't like it much at the time and have probably seen only snippets of it since. I also never saw any of the sequels (for the most part I HATE sequels) so it's not like those are having any after-the-fact negative effect on my vote

My vote = ** ... but only because I was feeling generous. Good special effects surrounded by cartoon characters.

fwiw on the Charlie Sheen front, now that he's added call-in radio rants against the writers and producers of 'Two and a Half Men' to his usual staples of drinking and drugging and whoring, CBS has pulled the plug on T+1/2M for the remainder of this season and who knows about its future at this point. For a network to go that route with the highest rated sit-com in the country is no small measure.

I like how Wesley Snipes who, by the time the sequel came out, was "too big" to reprise his role in a dopey comedy has no apparent problems signing up for this one. Amazing what tax penalties and jail time will do to career decisions. What'll you think the insurance rates will be casting Sheen in anything right now?

Seen that one often enough that I could probably recite the entire script. I remember posting the final quote from the movie right after the D'Backs knocked off the Yanx in 2001 "For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."

Edgy DC wrote: Best/Worst Tool: Speed/defense That's always an unsettling combo. Except that I think, with a young player and particularly with an outfielder, defense is probably the one skill that's most possible to learn and improve upon, especially when the tool of raw speed is a given.

Kevin Goldstein's write-up at Baseball Prospectus: DOB: 4/1/91 Height/Weight: 6-2/195 Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Signed: 2007, Dominican Republic 2010 Stats: .292/.375/.359 at Low-A (109 G) Best/Worst Tool: Speed/defense Year in Review: This teenage Dominican recovered from a slow start to put up impressive numbers at Low-A. The Good: Puello is arguably the best athlete in the system. He's a plus-plus runner, and some scouts project some power for him down the road based on his size and strength. His arm is another plus tool, and he made some adjustments to his swing as the season went on, leading to more consistent contact. The Bad: The debate over Puello's power is wide-ranging, as some see him becoming a real power threat, while others see a line-drive swing and more of a leadoff profile. His second-half breakthrough came with a far more aggressive approach at the plate, and he'll need to find some balance there. He's a poor defensive outfielder who needs his speed to make up for poor jumps and routes, which have so far limited him to a corner. Perfect World Projection: If the power comes as some scouts believe, Puello could become a monster. Without it, he's a unique talent as a corner outfielder with a center fielder's skill set. Path to the Big Leagues: Puello will make his Florida State League debut just days after his 20th birthday. Even if he begins to drive more balls, it won't show up in the stat sheet until he gets to Double-A. ETA: 2013.

Was better than I thought it was going to be about 15 minutes in. When it started it had all the makings of one of those films/TV shows that thinks a loud, dysfunctional, and constantly arguing family is funny as long as said family is [insert ethnicity here]. Maybe a lot of people buy into that theory but, if so, I'm not one of them. This one, while not great, grew into something more. Didn't realize that was Garcia's daughter.

Carl Spackler fulfills his dream and wins the Pebble Beach Pro-Am this weekend. OK, it really helps when your paired pro - D. A. Points in this case - wins the overall competition, but the amateur part of the pairing can't screw it up and Murray, for all his clowning antics, is more than a decent golfer. It was a Cinderella story really.

metirish wrote: The Wayne True Grit os doing the rounds on AMC lately , I did DVR it a few weeks ago but it clocked in at three hours and I didn't have the heart for that. But that's with commercials - which AMC tacks on a ton of these days. The movie clocks in at just over 2 hours IIRC and you can DVR that down to almost the running time. It was also making the rounds of TCM about a month ago where I caught it commercial-free. Had seen it mega years ago so it was a nice refresher course. The Oscar was def Wayne's lifetime achievement award.

The movie reminds me a bit of 'Easy Rider', very symbolic of its era but hasn't aged well.

I remember George Plimpton, fairly late in his life, writing a piece about 'Caddyshack'. Mostly it was about how for years he was constantly being told that he absolutely HAD to see this movie; about how much he, as a golfer, would enjoy all the wonderful one-liners, inside golf jokes, and country club satire. So he finally did - maybe two decades after its release. He thought it was trash. Not quite sure that had I been friends with George P. I'd have been so quick to recommend it as his kind of flick.