Vic Sage

HULK is totally missable. CAPTAIN AMERICA is not only an excellent movie in its own right, it's prerequisite viewing for the AVENGERS.

i have to wait an extra week, because my family is taking me for my birthday (5/13)... but i might sneak out of work on Friday afternoon for a "long lunch", and just not tell them. but that would be wrong. i'm conflicted.

i hate being in line for something behind people who, when they get up to the window/cash machine/clerk/etc, act as if they didn't expect it, or are too busy texting/phoning/etc to notice, and so don't have their card/cash/item/etc ready to use/purchase/etc, and have to dig through their bags/wallet/pockets/etc looking for the thing THEY SHOULD HAVE OUT AND WAITING SINCE THEY HAD SO MUCH GODDAMN TIME WAITING ON THE GODDAMN LINE ALREADY! It started with old people at cash machines but its become everybody everywhere and i want to kill them. kill them all. skinning them slowly with a dull blade and stuffing their flayed flesh down their goddamn throats... ah, don't get me started.

he's been a mainstay of our lineup, rotation, bullpen and bench (not to mention our minor leagues too) for decades now. where have you been? As for being too leftilicious, the only spots you could even start a RH bat over a current starter would be Nickeas over Thole, but Thole is a better hitter against LHers than Nickeas is against... well, anybody. or you could start Turner or Lutz over Davis, but Collins already said he was going to stay with Davis today ("cahnfidence, dontcha know").

schadenfreude is not a German beer. it's the way i feel right now...

m.e.t.b.o.t. wrote: Duda 2.44 Thole 2.44 Francisco 1.58 Rauch 1.05 Murphy 0.66 Hairston 0.63 Santana 0.60 Ramirez 0.43 Turner 0.18 Please explain the formula that ends up with Santana = 0.60

Ceetar wrote: i doubt it, if they needed to replace Tejada for a time, I imagine Jordany is it. i will refrain from complaining about THAT until it happens.

Edgy DC wrote: He's not going to start. He's going to maybe get A start. I thought you liked managers having the courage to use guys who are hitters first as part-time infielders. i do, i just don't see Valdespin as much of a hitter either at this point. His AB the other day is indicative of his "thou shalt not pass" approach. While i think he's got more offensive upside than Cedeno, he's got alot a learning to do at the plate before he should get a shot at regular major league ABs. AS for his D... well, lets just say if he hit like Kevin Mitchell you can play him at SS, 2b, LF or anywhere you damn well please. And he was put in the outfield for depth reasons because he could play there, not because he couldn't play elsewhere. yeah, maybe. and maybe they were tired of seeing his athleticism wasted on muffed grounders. Anyway, obviously, i'm overstating the impact of who our BACKUP ss is for comic effect; i don't think it will matter all that much, unless Tejada gets hurt. At which point, they'll likely make another move rather than rely on Spinny to be the everyday Ss.

Santana 4.00 Rauch 0.75 Francisco 0.75 Ramirez 0.50 Murphy 1.00 Duda 1.00 Thole 0.75 Nieuwenheis 0.50 Wright 0.25 Hairston 0.25 Turner 0.25

so, a guy who sucked as a 2bman and SS in the minors, who was then moved to the OF, is now going to back up (and potentially even start) at SS in the majors? Wow. I'm starting to think my projection of 72 wins was optimistic.

so who's the backup SS now? Turner? Lutz? Valdespin? Does this mean Tejada will now play every inning of every game until Cedeno returns?

i loved every moment he was in the 20s and loathed every minute he was in the present. that he would be affianced to such a bitch in the first place does not make me like him either, but that he was so liked by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc., made me like him again. as to where this fits into the Woody filmography, i'm just too tired to update that thing.

Niese - 3.0 Tejada - 3.0 Murphy - 1.5 Wright - .75 Bay - .75 Francisco - .50 Duda - .25 Hairston - .25

Duda 2.75 Dickey 2.25 Wright 2.25 Thole 1.0 Parnell 0.5 Rauch 0.5 Francisco 0.5 Nieuwenhuis 0.25

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: 32 starts, 205 IP, 20 HR allowed, 135/50 K/BB, 12-10 record, 3.51 ERA, 1.25 WHIP this, more or less, with the W-L record reversed.

well, THAT was fast. Captain Kirk flying in to take up Torres' spot

Santana 2.75 Wright 2.75 Francisco 1 Murphy 1 Byrdak 0.75 Rauch 0.50 Thole 0.50 Torres 0.50 Ramirez 0.25

I'm listening on FAN at work; so far, so good. except for this mad Scotsman.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Something the Mets are better at than any other team. It's important to start out at a high point, so the fall can more easily kill you.

yup. What a fool I was, what dominated fool, to think that you were the earth and the sky, What a fool I was, What an elevated fool, What a mutton-headed dolt was I! No, my reverberated friend, you are not the beginning and the end. There'll be spring every year without you. England still will be here without you. There'll be fruit on the tree. And a shore by the sea. There'll be crumpets and tea without you. Art and music will thrive without you. Somehow Keats will survive without you. And there still will be rain on that plain down in Spain, even that will remain without you. I can do without you. You, dear friend, who taught so well, You can go to Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire. They can still rule with land without you. Windsor Castle will stand without you. And without much ado we can all muddle through without you. Without pulling it the tide comes in, without your twirling it the Earth can spin, Without your pulling it, the tide comes in Without your twirling it, the earth can spin Without your pushing them, the clouds roll by, If they can do without you, ducky, so can I I shall not feel alone without you I can stand on my own without you So go back in your shell I can do bloody well Without you! -Alan Jay Lerner

too bad. it's the best part.

Edgy DC wrote: Edgy DC wrote: I think you understand me perfectly well. Enough goofiness. you constantly overestimate my understanding and underestimate my goofiness. Hoping a man prospers is not the same as hoping he continues to garner playing time should he fail to prosper. yeah, i don't know why you waited 2 weeks to respond with this gem but whatever, dude. hoping a man prospers is also not the same as expecting him to prosper. I hope he hit like Manny Ramirez; i don't expect him to. Given Bay's age, recent years of unproductivity and a vesting contract option, what i am "ROOTING FOR" is that, when the inevitable occurs and Bay continues to play as he has in NY to date, that instead of just trotting him out to LF every day, he goes either into a platoon or to the bench (or released outright) rather than waiting for him to play up to his contract. Even if the players we run out there instead don't match his mediocre output, they at least have the potential of exceeding it, and every AB he doesn't get inches the Mets towards a future without his bad contract strangling their limited means.

Expecting? no, not really. Hoping? even that would be too strong to describe my feelings. It's just that, until the final roster establishes itself, you can maintain the fantasy that anything still seems possible. And then reality sets in and you realize you're screwed. So, it's not that this final roster is unexpected, just that it feels, upon its arrival, as pathetically inevitable, and "Oy" is not an angry statement of my disappointment, just an utterance of resignation to my fate.

1) Andres Torres CF 2) Daniel Murphy 2B 3) David Wright 3B 4) Ike Davis 1B 5) Jason Bay LF 6) Lucas Duda RF 7) Scott Hairston DH 8) Josh Thole C 9) Ruben Tejada SS other than the DH, I assume this will be our opening day lineup. If it stays healthy (a big "if", with so many players coming off significant injuries), this lineup could generate a sufficient amount of runs to be a winning team. Unfortunately, the pitching and fielding are sufficiently inadequate as to make it unlikely that those runs will be able to stand up.

i don't think a contract that pays an MVP-type player an average of $22.5m/yr moves the market, with the top players still making in the $25+m/yr range. Votto is one of the handful of best players in baseball; a healthy, athletic player, age 28, with no history of injury or likely to be slowed by girth. He's a GG type 1bman; he won't need to be hidden or DHed. The contract doesn't take him into his 40s. And by the time he gets to that point of the deal where his salary will overtake his WAR, average compensation will have grown to the point where it won't be much of a difference. I think its a great deal for the Reds, him, and the fan base.