Frayed Knot

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.

Mildly entertaining crude-humor-fest, [crossout]nothing more[/crossout] with a lot of great lines.

Ummm, it's kind of hiding in my computer. The snag is that I'm not good at converting it into a pdf file that would be easily viewable. KC used to do that for me and then store the result on some web space so it could be seen via a link but he couldn't use the most recent files I sent him and I haven't gotten around to doing anything else with it.

Early lock of the season: Colin Firth is winning best actor.

Yeah, it was recently re-released in theaters in the wake of Golden Globes nominations and whatnot. Was at a theater near me on discount night for less than what it would eventually cost to rent it ... so I figured whatthehell.

Any Favre siblings in it?

The dialogue in 'Sports Night' was frequently too cute by half but seeing as how both that one and 'Studio 60' were so short lived and that I never watched 'West Wing' I guess I'm still safe from OD'ing on Sorkin-itis. A few notes on the cast: - Zuckerberg's girlfriend in the opening scenes was played by Rooney Mara, the granddaughter of both the Giants & Steeler owning clans - the part of the crew-rowing twins was played by one actor, Armand 'Armie' Hammer, great grandson of the industrialist Armand.

I didn't care about the outcome of the legal proceedings either - but on the other hand I don't think we were supposed to. To me that was merely a device which allowed the characters other than Zuckerberg to "narrate" part of the story. I agree that the snappy dialogue was especially good. I figure that was Sorkin's doing.

No movies, aside from documentaries, present historical stories in complete factual detail (and I doubt the accuracy of most docs I see too).

So did the entire Facebook crowd here all miss this flick, or just not care enough to put up a thread?

I don't think I've done this update in a while: Of the 605 players who received scores in this project - 288 are 1-year Mets (or at least only made a top-30 list in one season) Those 288 range from Mike Hampton in slot #123 to Gus Bell in #605 2 Year Mets: 131 -- From Eddie Murray (89th) to David West (569) 3 Year Mets: 63 -- From John Olerud in 41st place (Santana - currently 50th overall - is next) to Dave Schneck (419) 4 Year Mets: 44 -- From Carlos Delgado (48) to Ron Grdenhire (276) 5 Year Mets: 27 -- From Armando Benitez (27) to Todd Pratt (205) 6 Year Mets: 16 -- From Carlos Beltran in 20th place (nudges out David Cone - 23rd) to Mike Jorgensen (234) 7 Year Mets: 10 -- From David Wright 7th (replaces Keith) to Ken Boswell (100) 8 Year Mets: 10 -- From Darryl Strawberry (4th) to Wally Backman (59) 9 Year Mets: 4 -- From Cleon Jones (9th) to Rusty Staub (22) 10 Year Mets: 4 -- From Sid Fernandez (10th) to Craig Swan (45) 11 Year Mets: 2 -- From Dwight Gooden in 2nd to Jerry Koosman in 3rd 12 Year Mets: 5 -- From Tom Seaver (1) to Ron Hodges (144) 13 Year Mets: 1 -- John Franco (6th) 17 Year Mets: 1 -- Ed Kranepool (12th)

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Didn't we once calculate how long it would take Tom Seaver to drop out of the top 500? I think the answer was something like 60,000 years. A discussion after the 2007 season results were final led me to declare Wright to then be 'a minimum of six good years away' from potentially catching and passing Seaver. Now, three seasons later - thanks in part to two of the last three years being sub-80 win seasons - it's clear he'll need more than just three years and will have to step on the gas to get there in four more. As things stand now he's a virtual lock to pass Franco & Piazza next season and into the top 5. The big gaps ahead of him are between the 4th & 5th slots, and then between #1 & #2.

13th actually, but still. btw, this thread should eventually be moved to the Ranking Forum.

With the incorporation of the 2010 composite list into our player rankings, David Wright moves to #7 overall up 7 slots from the end of 2009 - speeding him past Al Leiter, Keith Hernandez, Howard Johnson, Sid Fernandez, Cleon Jones, and Edgardo Alfonzo while becoming the first guy to crack the top ten since Piazza & Franco earlier in the decade. Other active players moving up (or not) as a result of 2010: Reyes from #24 to #17 Beltran -- 23 to 20 Santana -- 72 to 50 Pelfrey -- 120 to 78 Feliciano -- 91 to 80 Angel Pagan -- 203 to 98 Castillo -- 113 to 102 F. Rodriguez -- 222 to 139 Francoeur -- 234 to 170 Thole -- 566 to 275 Parnell -- 414 to 316 Dessens -- 583 to 336 Cora -- 426 to 431 (going the wrong way) Misch -- 483 to 487 Santana’s move knocks George Foster out of the top 50, while Mike Cameron & Roger Cedeno drop out of the top 100 as Pelfrey & Pagan move in. 14 players hit the list for the first time: RA Dickey - 168th place Ike Davis - 177 Jonathon Niese - 214 Hisanori Takahashi - 224 Jason Bay - 237 Rod Barajas - 308 Manny Acosta - 393 Chris Carter - 412 Ruben Tejada - 430 Dillon Gee - 446 Henry Blanco - 465 Raul Valdes - 485 ----------------------- Lucas Duda - 509 Jenrry Mejia - 538 And, for the first time since the invention of this goofy project, the list of players who received at least one vote somewhere is over the 600 mark (605). Sounds like a lot until you realize that nearly 1 in 3 players ever to put on a NYM ML uni didn’t even get that far. But, since we use just the top 500 for our ‘Player Status’ list, the addition of the new players means that we say goodbye to the likes of Pumpsie Green, John Thomson, Tom Sturdivant, Doug Simons, Bill Spiers, John Cangelosi, Jack Heidemann, Mr. Dae Sung Koo, Chuck Taylor, Bill Denehy, Kuan Acevedo & Julio Velera. The current ‘intro guy’ for newcomers (#500) is now the great Greg Harris. Mileposts: #100 - Ken Boswell #200 - Ryan Church #250 - Al Luplow #300 - J.C. Martin #400 - Gene Walter #500 - Greg Harris

RANKPLAYER30D. WRIGHT29A. PAGAN28J. SANTANA27R. A. DICKEY26I. DAVIS25M. PELFREY24J. REYES23J. NIESE22H. TAKAHASHI21J. BAY20F. RODRIGUEZ19C. BELTRAN18J. THOLE17J. FRANCOEUR16R. BARAJAS15P. FELICIANO14E. DESSENS13L. CASTILLO12B. PARNELL11M. ACOSTA10C. CARTER9R. TEJADA8D. GEE7H. BLANCO6R. VALDES5L. DUDA4J. MEJIA3A. CORA2P. MISCH1F. NIEVE

Figure to keep this open until New Years - so speak soon or forever ...