Vic Sage

disclaimer: My "assclowns" comment was directed at Mets management, not anybody here. We're allowed (i think) to cuss out non-Forumites on baseball-related matters... especially when its a cuss popularized on the CPF to begin with. And i did not say, imply or think loudly that anybody HERE who disagrees with me on this issue is stoopid, or even stupid. Just WWSB and Omar...

i have an idea for reducing the burden on Heilman... put him in the fukking rotation you assclowns! you win by giving your GOOD pitchers more IPs than your NOT GOOD pitchers. I know it seems complicated, but my degree in rocket science gives me the confidence to make this categorical assertion!

]It�s worth noting that Robert Manuel was pretty awesome last year for Gary Carter�s frontrunning Gulf Coast Mets. He compiled a 1.04 WHIP in 56.2 innings along with 49 strikeouts and (can this be right?) 4 walks. Is 22 an age thats old for rookie ball? Was Manuel just physically overmatching much younger kids? Still, it doesn't sound like we gave up "virtually nothing" to acquire a guy like Williams, whose numbers reflect a pitcher who'd have to improve alot just to reach replacement level performance. his career ERA, BB/K ratio, WHIP... none of those numbers indicate a pitcher who has been an effective major league starter. He's 27, and lefty, so peeps are seeing all kinds of upside. But i don't. PUT HEILMAN IN THE FUKKING ROTATION, YOU ASSCLOWNS, AND STOP DIDDLING AROUND!

i'm so glad Ducky is mentally strong. Maybe he can develop his psi powers, so then he can WILL the ball to home plate after his arm has fallen totally off. Julio has more upside than Bell, and Ducky boy gives us nothing more than we'd get from the recently released Jeremi gonzalez. i don't hate the trade, but i don't seeing it helping us much.

it was a typo...

so its el duque and soler, until Bannister gets back. Not that Bannister is any great shakes, but if Soler is doing the job and Ducky isn't, and if WWSB keeps running Ducky out there at that point (assuming the Duckinator continues to pitch like the broken-down 40 year old he is), then it'll be willy pulling the Cairo thing all over again. I don't think any of them is as good as Heilman is at this point.

Julio for Bell = not much of a downgrade, if any at all. Duque for J.Gonzo = not much of an upgrade, if any at all. I actually think the impact of this trade will be negligible, in the short run, since I don't see El Duque being superior to Gonzalez at this point in their respective careers. I think they're both just short-term place holders for the #5 slot in the rotation, until Bannister gets back. But what about the #4 slot? We still don't have a SPer to replace Zambrano, unless we're convinced that Soler is a long term solution. I'm all for giving him enough of a shot to establish himself, but we're going to be in a pennant race and we can't stay too long with duque or soler if they're not getting it done. And metaphysics aside, i don't credit El Duque as beling more useful in "big games" at this point in his career, due to age, physical condition and the consequent overall deterioration in his play. #4 - El Duque / Bannister / Gonzalez #5 - Soler / El Duque / Bannister / Gonzalez / Maine / Oliver these are our choices? but Heilman still isn't a consideration? fukk.

KC, i don't think it would be easy to create the stat, and there may be a number of factors in play, but i really don't see anything wrong with the suggestion that it'd be interesting to try to understand the nature and extent of a particular skill that some catchers may be better at than others.

yes, i've heard his "Acme Novelty Co" books are quite good. I'll check them out. They just didn't fit into my purposely narrow definition of "graphic novel". Maybe graphic short stories, perhaps.

i find it kind of interesting that Valadius and Willets have taken the exact same approach to our league... that is, they've done absolutely nothing with their teams since the draft, including leaving DLed players in their lineups... and yet Valadius is in 1st place and Willets is in last. So, benign neglect doesn't have to be a losing strategy, it seems. i need to pay less attention to this whole thing, i'm thinking.

i keep telling myself "I won't get sucked into the McFatass discussion". It just sucks the emotional energy out of me for at least 3 days. ohmmmmmmm ohmmmmmmm ohmmmmmmm....

i always hold the TiTTS aloft, swelling with pride... I'm thinking the TiTTS need a mascot or logo. I can think of some. Perhaps a thread? with pictures? oh please please please?!!!!

]IIRC ..if I remember correctly FWIW - For What It's Worth IMO - in my opinion Hey, Irish, i could be wrong but I think these are more generally used internet abbreviations, rather than being CPF-based. What i was hoping for is a compendium of CPF-specific terms.

I posted but did not define the following acronyms: WWSB - the abbreviation of Wee Willie Small Balls", a pejorative nickname for Willie Randolph describing his managerial philosophy. TiTTS - coined on the MOFO, i think, stands for the "Trade in Tomorrow Today Society" which, in recognition of the low rate of success of any team's "prospects" and the $$ advantage the Mets have as a big-market team, advocates the trading of prospects for established stars, trading in tomorrow's speculative production for today's actual production. It was formed, i think, in reaction to Edgy's HBO... HBO - "home boys only", which advocated not trading any Mets at all, preferring to fail with homegrown talent rather than succeed with mercenaries.

we used to have a "dictionary" of our unique terms, abbreviations, acronyms and phrases. Or was that on the MOFO? I've seen 3 terms i initiated used by others ... WWSB and TiTTS, plus someone shortened my phrase "big hairy moose cock" to "bhmc", which means it became ubiqitous enough to be understood as an abbreviation. and Jonny just resurrected his MASATO. i'd like to see a new list of definitions posted (or a resurrection and editing of the old list) so "newbies" can know what we're talking about.

this appeared on the old forum. Chuck brought up the topic in the other thread, so i found this and offer it here. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Graphic Novel as American Literature... beyond MAUS Sal brought up an interesting notion, when he said he was searching for a graphic novel to include in his lit. class on the CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN NOVEL, beyond the obvious choice of the pulitzer-winning MAUS by Art Speigelman. I've given it some thought, and have constructed the following list, based on the following criteria: - "Contemporary" - no adaptations of old or classic works, so excluding the Opera adaptations of Kane and PC Russell, or KAFKA, etc. - "American" - therefore the brilliant output of the British writers like Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore are not included. But, since their work is amongst the best, i feel one must mention Mr. Moore's work on FROM HELL, V FOR VENDETTA, WATCHMEN, and SMALL KILLING; and Mr. Gaiman's MR. PUNCH, STARDUST, SIGNAL TO NOISE, VIOLENT CASES, and SANDMAN:ENDLESS NIGHTS. This also excludes excellent works by the Japanese and Italians (but they're Axis powers anyway, so who cares?), and the French (but they're French, so who cares?). - "Graphic" - i was looking for narratives that used words and images, not merely books with illustrations. This excluded Lynda Barry's THE GOOD TIMES ARE KILLING ME, etc. - "Novel" - I was looking primarily at fictional works that were not reprints or compendiums of ongoing comic books, but were either 1-shots or limited series originally published in the GN square-bound bookshelf format, or oversized GN format. This excludes trade paperbacks of all the SANDMAN books, MIRACLEMAN, CEREBUS, BONE, STRANGERS IN PARADISE, JIMMY CORRIGAN, LOVE & ROCKETS, SIN CITY, etc. I did include some non-fiction, however, to the extent it was autobiography, and not just reportage. And i didn't exclude superheroes, as they are as viable a genre of fiction as any. With that in mind, here's a list of stuff i've either read or heard about: * Ghost World / David Boring / Like a Velvet Glove Cast In Iron - Dan Clowes *Tale of One Bad Rat - Bryan Talbot *Brooklyn Dreams - JM DeMatteis *Jew of New York - Ben Katchor *Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Kim Dietch *Golum's Mighty Swing - J. Sturm *Why I Hate Saturn - Kyle Baker *Road to Perdition - Max Collins *Heavy Liquid - Paul Pope *Green Candles - Tom DeHaven *My Cancer Year - Harvey Pekar *A Contract with God - Will Eisner *Fax From Sarajevo / Yossel - Joe Kubert *Stuck Rubber Baby - Howard Cruse *Cages - Dave McKean *The Score - Gerard Jones *300 / Hard Boiled - Frank Miller The following books feature established superheroes: *Batman:The Dark Knight Returns / Elektra Lives Again - Frank Miller *The Death of Captain Marvel - Jim Starlin *Marvels - Kurt Busiek *Kingdom Come - Mark Waid *Iron Wolf: Fires of Revolution / Twilight - Howard Chaykin *Batman:War On Crime - Paul Dini *Golden Age - James Robinson -------------- Note: i'd think you'd also want to read Scott McCloud's excellent UNDERSTANDING COMICS, a very readable philosophical exegesis about how to comprehend visual storytelling.

The secret to Rand is to read her in high school. At that point, you're vulnerable to her appealing philosophy of self interest she called "objectivism". Nothing appeals to a teenage personality more than being told "selfishness is not only acceptable, its the highest moral virtue", since teens are (in general) the most self-absorbed creatures on the planet. Its only later on that you figure out that she's built an edifice out of a pile of total crap, both in the style of her awful prose and the content of her philosophical assumptions about the nature of reality and humanity. If you've got Rand and Neitchze, you don't need another fucking person on the planet, and for a moment there in HS, thats a pretty good place to be.

"firefly" season 1, just came in from NetFlix.

i loved the part toward the end of the game, where Morgan was announcing what Wagner was going to throw next and was wrong EVERY SINGLE TIME! I also loved Jon Miller's line, regarding a hitter (i forget which one) and his career track record against a particular pitcher (i forget which one), in which the erudite Mr. Miller said: "they have some history in the past." Yes, i bet they do, Jon. As do we all.

there were moments that i gagged so hard, I nearly threw up.when was the last time you HEARD something... just HEARD something... that made you so nauseus you had to concentrate to keep from vomiting?its a work of freakin genius!

1) trading mediocre SP for good setup guy = bad idea (though it has actually turned out OK, cuz Seo has sucked and Sanchez has been lights out) 2) subsequently trading another mediocre SPer for failed closer = really bad idea that was roundly criticized here, there and everywhere (though starting to be less disastrous, as Julio has pitched better and Benson continues to be mediocre) 3) trading SPers when the front of your rotation is old and fragile = bad idea made worse (still a bad idea!) 4) keeping a quality arm in the bullpen (to pitch 70+ IP) instead of 4th slot in rotation (to pitch 180+ IP) = bad idea (though Heilman has been invaluable in the pen) 5) Keeping Heilman in pen while promoting Lima and Gonzalez = bad idea made worse (still a bad idea) 6) promoting Soler, once he'd shown he could get hitters out = good idea (we'll see what he can do) 7) upon seeing how bad the market is for even a mediocre SPer is (duh! Omar doesn't have Omar as a trading partner!), he may turn toward getting another RPer and moving Heilman to rotation = very good idea (depending on what he gives up for RPer) 8) Pedro / Glavine / trax / Heilman / Soler-Bannister = good enough

I screamed for us to go hard after Leyland. WWSB was the booby prize.

its a great list. i just picked the ones i thought most relevant, under the circumstances.

i couldn't choose the appropriate response to CleonJones, so i'll post a bunch and he can choose whichever ones he likes: I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce. I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public. I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid. I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth. Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view. Too many freaks, not enough circuses. If I throw a stick, will you leave?

another one for the RLF