Frayed Knot

50) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) -- Unlike KWAI, this Lean epic has not dated a bit, due to the moral ambiguity at its core. Not only NOT dated, but maybe less so as time goes on. The seeds of much of why the mid-east in general and Iraq in particular are screwed up to this day are in the scenes where the old men are carving up the spoils of the Ottoman Empire and distributing it as political favors amongst the warring tribes and their corrupt leaders. O�Toole is one of the greatest screen actors who ever lived, and this is his shining moment. Yup

I'm not going, but mainly because I missed #s 1 & 2 so I'm afraid I'd be lost and not able to follow the plot.

Off to a real tough start earlier this year, Thole has been hot lately to the point where he now has his season-long slash stats at .283/.354/.462 -- meaning that not only is his BA decent but he's showing fair plate discipline (.061 walk rate is a bit below average) and even Slugging a bit (IsoP = .179 -- .150 about avg). Not that he's likely to ever be a true slugger (145 ABs, 2 HRs) but he's racking up the doubles at such a rate that more than half (21 of 41) of his hits this year have been for extra bases (18 2Bs + 1 3B + 2 HRs).

Havens lands hisself on this past week's 'Hot Sheet' in [u:4h1sqgch]Baseball America[/u:4h1sqgch] Why He's Here: .360/.560/.840 (9-for-25), 3 HR, 1 2B, 1 3B, 6 RBIs, 6 R, 5 BB, 6 SO The Scoop: As discouraging as it was to see Havens miss yet more time with injury this season�in this case a strained oblique�he's proven to be worth the wait. He homered twice off Orioles righthander Chorye Spoone and once off Indians reliever Bryan Price this week, while continuing to show a discerning batting eye. That's not an anomaly. Power and patience have been Havens' strong suits�he has walked in 12 percent of his minor league plate appearances while boasting a .199 isolated power. For a middle infielder in the New York-Penn, Florida State and Eastern leagues, that's pretty darn good. Taken four picks after Ike Davis in the 2008 draft, Havens just might join Ike on the right side of the Mets infield later this season.

Yeah, let's calm down a bit here. I'd like to see the guy succeed in AA for more than three days at a time without getting hurt before we start revving up the Promotion-of-the-Month Club.

From Adam Rubin's blog: Outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis drew praise from a scout who recently watched Binghamton. The scout said Nieuwenhuis, a former running back in high school who was recruited to play college football, has the speed to play center field and the arm to play right field. While the lefty-hitting Nieuwenhuis remains susceptible to curveballs from right-handed pitchers, he�s otherwise closed up a major hole on inside pitches.

...

Well, as always, you have to take into account the totality of the player's NYM career and not just its peak(s). Keith's 'problem' (if you can call it that) is not only that everyone ahead of him lasted longer in a Met uni than he did but his seven seasons in blue and orange were somewhat watered down by his first one being a partial season and then the final two where he was rapidly fading into the sunset. That last season in particular killed him. With even a decent finish to his NYM career he's probably 6th or 7th. Keith is also still tops among those who lasted seven or fewer seasons (by a small margin over Leiter) although he's almost certain to lose that title to Wright after next year's vote.

Which Hernandez is higher, El Duque or El Duquecito? Oh, O. Hernandez (#119) is MUCH higher than L. Hernandez (#359) Even with his lost final season, El Duque was a major player on two separate good teams while Livan snagged just 13 points (18th best player) on the 70-win 2009 club. Livan didn't reach the level of Roberto Hernandez (236), and of course none of them can touch long lost brother Keith (#12) Is the full list available? If someone (KC usually handles this) has the ability to turn a spreadsheet into a pdf file and has a place to store it I'll send them both the alpha & numeric versions.

My heart is a saxophone solo from a third story window just before dawn -- Marah

Yeah I was going to ask whether the top-50 icons are not showing for everyone or just me. We should either figure out a way to fix those or kill them. They're distorting the screen.

OK, it had been two years since we updated our Rankings list. The usual reasons apply: computer crashes, new forum software, laziness, etc. But now the results reflecting the inclusion of the 2008 & 2009 seasons have been loaded into the system and are currently reflected in the new and improved status levels. A quick overview: 591 different players have now received points in at least one year. Our new “entry level” guy at #500 is now the immortal Pumpsie Green as more than a dozen players got drop-kicked out of the top 500 since our last update. So say so long to the likes of Kevin Bass, Tom Parsons, Danny Garcia, Bret Mayne (we’ll remember you), and also Jeff McKnight as the man of many numbers now has another one: #505 Other benchmarks include: #400 = Clint Hurdle #300 = Jim Fregosi #250 = Bob Johnson #200 = Todd Pratt #100 = Roger Cedeno Newbies to the list from last season include: Pat Misch at #483 Sean Green at #459 Alex Cora at #426 Bobby Parnell at #414 Fernando Nieve at 397 Livan Hernandez at #359 Nelson Figueroa at #305 Omir Santos at #293 Gary Sheffield at #244 Jeff Francoeur at #234 Francisco Rodriguez at #222 Other current players: Angel Pagan = #203 Fernando Tatis = #133 Daniel Murphy = #129 Mike Pelfrey = #120 Luis Castillo = #113 Pedro Feliciano = #91 Johan Santana = #72 John Maine = #65 Jose Reyes = #24 Carlos Beltran = #23 David Wright = #14 And in other terribly exciting news, Carlos Delgado gained just enough points in his abbreviated final NYM season to jump to 48th place thus solving what was probably the biggest comlaint we’ve had about this project for the last half-dozen years; Yes that’s right, Steve Trachsel is no longer part of the top 50. The equally popular George Foster now holds the fiinal spot.

I saw just recently - in a theatre on a big screen although not 3D. My review: Eh

Keeping in mind that BA's 'Hot Sheet' is not an assessment of overall minor league/prospect talent but rather a list of who is coming off a good week, it's still nice to see Wilmer Flores at #2 this week behind only Steven Strasburg - Why He's Here: .500/.583/.818 (11-for-22), 2 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 4 R, 2 BB, 3 SO, 2-for-2 SB - The Scoop: As more money gets thrown in to the international market (and with the possibility of an international draft coming in the next few years), more and more international players are going to be on the prospect map for years before they legally become adults. Flores was a top international sign for the Mets in 2007, dominated the Rookie-level Appalachian League as a 16-year-old in 2008 and ranked as the Mets No. 2 prospect after the 2009 season. Yet he's still just 18, still in the lowest level of full-season ball and still likely three-plus years from being able to make an impact at the major league level, so it's important to be patient. But you can certainly be excited, since Flores looks like a prodigious hitting machine, and even the power is starting to come around with five home runs on the year. He's still learning to work himself into good hitter's counts (he has 10 walks, but three were intentional), but he's such a talented hitter that it's not an issue right now. Flores also made two throwing errors and a fielding error this week to bring his error total to eight, but nobody thinks he's a future shortstop anyway; it's the bat that makes him special.

Unless someone - or several someones - have more to say on this topic, this is how our 2009 Rankings finished up: RANKPLAYER30Wright29Santana28Castillo27Beltran26Murphy25Feliciano24Pagan23Rodriguez22Francoeur21Sheffield20Pelfrey19Tatis18Santos17Stokes16Figueroa15Maine14Delgado13L. Hernandez12J. Reyes11Nieve10Parnell9Cora8Church7S. Green6Misch5Redding4Takahashi3Sullivan2Thole1Dessens This is counting votes from: 86-Dreamer; TransMonk; LWFS; Vic Sage; Seawolf; MetIrish; Frayed Knot; Nymr83; Ben Grimm; Chad 86; Edgy DC

Show biz kids making movies of themselves and they don't give a fuck about anybody else ... they're outrageous -- Becker/Fagen

Things not going well Mr. Holt. He was the third of the three first-round draft picks (#33 overall - behind Ike Davis at #17 & Reese Havens at #22) in the 2008 draft although he initially got off to the quickest pro start of the trio. This week, however, he's on BA's 'Not-so-Hot' list: Brad Holt, rhp, Mets -- It's gone from bad to worse for Holt at Double-A Binghamton. The 23-year-old began the season on the disabled list with a wrist injury and has worked on a strict pitch count since his return on April 24. In his three starts on the year, Holt has allowed nine runs in 4 1/3 innings (18.69 ERA) with batters going 11-for-21 (.524). The good news for Holt, such as it is: Of those 11 hits, nine of them were singles. After tearing through short-season Brooklyn and high Class A St. Lucie on his way to the Double-A, he has hit a serious wall in the Eastern League since making his debut there last June. In 14 starts for Binghamton, which he's made between trips to the DL, Holt has gone 3-8, 7.07 with a 1.85 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Edgy DC wrote: Watching this NOW!!!! Nobody told me Tim McGraw was in it. McGraw's merely looking to expand his acting range seeing as how his previous big movie experience was in 'Friday Night Lights' where he played a southerner who's the father of a HS football player as opposed to here where he ... oh wait! I don't know country superstars too well, and couldn't recognize Tim without the goatee, the hat, and/or maybe some spikes in his hair, but he doesn't look like him, he looks like Tug. Like a lot. If ol' Tugger had ever tried to contest that paternity suit when the kid got older the judge would have thrown him out of court before the DNA tests were even entered into evidence. I believe any hair Tim's actually wearing these days, spiked or otherwise, is, how you say, ... purchased.

BA is back with their 'Hot List' - a round-up of who's hot over the previous week in minor league ball Wilmer Flores - Met, South Atlantic Lg - Age: 18 Why He's Here: .370/.481/.741 (10-for-27), 2 HR, 4 2B, 11 RBIs, 6 R, 3 BB, 5 SO The Scoop: Flores struck out for the first time this season last Friday, in his ninth game. But as his contact rate has declined since then, his power has spiked through the roof. Six extra-base hits and 11 RBIs in a week would have been practically unheard of last season, but it could be a sign of a more mature Flores learning to identify pitches he can drive and not simply swinging at the first thing near the zone. Bear in mind, he hit all of three home runs in 488 at-bats for Savannah last season.

The priest's part in the flick and his conflict with Walt also sets Clint up for his none-too-subtle, 'why yes, I am a martyr' scene at the end. Certainly the actor was hired - at least in part - for his youthful and non-worldly look. Only other time I've seen him was as an extra in a 'House' episode, he played a dork.

Haven't gotten around to it - might now that it's out on DVD - but the reviews couldn't have been worse. Maybe it's that some folks couldn't get their heads around the idea of displaying Holmes as a kind of action hero - but in the original books that's what he was, or at least there were action parts in addition to merely the brooding, thinking Holmes. Besides, who better than to portray a drug-addict than RDJ.

soupcan wrote: soupcan wrote: Like 'Blackhawk Down' you really get a sense of the chaos and fear that must exist in Iraq. Unlike 'Blackhawk', however, this one doesn't seem to want to turn war into a music video. Very different IMO and MUCH better. 'Blackhawk' had its flaws but I thought it was very successful in relating the tense, chaotic environmemt of an urban war. That was the basis of my comparison. Obviously there were similarities. I just thought Blackhawk created its tension in a much more style-over-substance, video-gamey kind of way as opposed to the more human approach in HL. Seems to me that I had forgotten almost all of what happened during Blackhawk shortly after the movie was over.

TransMonk wrote: In my mind's eye, the Runaways movie I would want to see would be cast with a group of unknown teenage actresses who are preferably punk-rawkish and hopefully, genuinely love the Runaways. Yeah, that's kind of why I threw out Lavigne's name (or someone in her vein); the idea where you cast musicians and hope they can act rather than having actresses play as musicians. It worked in 'The Commitments'

I guess I don't share the same affinity for her part in Adventureland that others on this board have. I thought she made a pretty bad movie worse. I don't think she particularly looks like Joan Jett and she was born a decade after the Runaways were even around. Well I liked 'Adventureland' so I guess we're not going to agree there. And by 'looks like Joan Jett' I merely meant that she's the right age plus the thin, dark-haired type that gives here a leg up on most run of the mill actresses - and as opposed to trying to shoe-horn some total non-J.J. looker into the role. C'mon, admit it, you could see them trying to sell you: And, as Joan Jett; Drew Barrymore!! I am of the opinion that the only reason she (and Dakota Fanning) are in this movie is to sell it to teens. Which is fine...it's the Hollywood way. But I'm not expecting any notable performances from the cast. I'm sure the costumes, makeup and, of course, the music will be great. Sure, but you're going to have to use some teen (or near teen) actress so it's either going to be her, or someone like her, or some chancy unknown, the last of which lessens the odds that the movie ever gets made. (new thought: stick a black wig on Avril Lavigne) And don't get me wrong, I could totally see them blowing this up by aiming for the teen crowd with a slightly edgier 'Josie and the Pussycats / GRRLL POWER' kind of flick. I just don't see her presence specifically as making that any more likely to happen.

sharpie wrote: That wouldn't be the first time I've been to a depicted concert as I was at the final Sex Pistols show in San Francisco which is depicted in "Sid and Nancy" but there was no Movie Me, all band shots. Some directors just don't know what's important. TransMonk wrote: Kristen Stewart? Ugh. I dunno, they could do worse. At least she'll be an actual teenager (turns 20 in a few months) playing an actual teenager - as opposed to the usual Hollywood fare of having 28 year-olds play teenagers - not to mention looking reasonably like the J.J. part even before getting to the make-up & wardrobe stage. And, while I have no idea about how she was in those vampire movies which seemingly half the world was ga-ga over before I had even heard of them, she was more than fine in 'Adventureland' and was decent enough in a small-ish role playing the sweet young thing in 'Into the Wild'. Dakota Fanning is the only other name I recognize there although I realize as I type this that I have no idea who she is or what she's done even though I guess I'm supposed to know.