Vic Sage

in the past, under Omar, i don't think it came in to play nearly enough. i recall various instances where we lost guys through waivers to add a guy to the 40-man roster, and then that added guy either got cut or sent down later. the small sample sizes of ST are no basis for decision making; they should only be used to see who's healthy enough to play, and to assess skills independent of AB outcomes. So losing personnel cuz some broken down ballplayer has a good spring is usually stupid. Resources need to be efficiently deployed. I have more faith that Sandy will do that correctly.

-Brandon Nimmo looks like a ballplayer. I have no idea whether he'll ever make it, but he sure looks like it. I'd have liked to see him in a game rather than just BP, but I was glad to get a look at him. So did Billy Beane... -Bacon-wrapped hot dog with pulled pork, cole slaw and jalapeno slices. heart attack on a bun -- where do i sign up? -Wilmer Flores looks like Miguel Cabrera's kid brother. i hope he has the same bloodlines. -Taco in a helmet. not quite a bacon-wrapped hot dog, but intriguing nonetheless.

yeah, he could turn into an all-star CFer or be out of baseball within 3 years. Hi-Risk/Hi-Reward. Worth giving him a shot, since we have nobody better in the OF, and Murphy at 2b hasn't exactly been an iron horse.

you've just described EVERY Judd Apatow movie.

With about 2 weeks to go, it looks like: CL: Bobby Parnell CL2/setup: Brandon Lyon setup: Atchison* or Hawkins* (until Francisco comes off DL) situational RH: G.Burke situational LH: Josh Edgin LH2: Robert Carson or Feliciano* spot starter/long reliever: Famiglia (until Santana comes off DL,and Hefner returns to pen) DL: Frank Francisco * non-roster invitee

Fangraphs weighs in on Tejada: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/2013-positional-power-rankings-shortstop/ Ranking our SS position at 22nd, they say: "Young shortstop, contact, limited power, defensive adequacy... Last season Tejada doubled his career home-run total, by hitting one. He had some injury problems but it remains to be seen whether he�ll be fragile or not down the road. He is patient, so he has the ability to draw a walk, but pitchers don�t have many reasons to walk him. Tejada�s a startable player who�s also an upgrade-able player." Which is pretty much what i've been saying here. Not that their view is definitive, of course, but independent verification is always appreciated.

first world hijinx... is that like "white people's problems"?

that his elevator doesn't go to 4?

"iss it safe?"

So here's the thing. i work in an office building which houses the DR embassy. They're on the 4th floor. I'm on the 7th. It is common that a group of Dominicans will get on the elevator with me in the morning, and they will stare at the buttons as if the numerals were in Klingon. In order to move things along, i'll just reach over and push the 4th floor button, and they are grateful. Then the elevator stops on the 4th floor and, despite the elevator, showing a "4", and the signs on the floor indicating "4", they have no idea what to do, so I'll say "quatro" and they'll look surprised and get off, looking around as if it were the emerald city. While stopped there on 4, some other Dominicans will start to get on the elevator and i'll have to announce that we're going up (pointing up), despite the colored light indicators above the door that shows the elevator is going up. For all my services on their behalf, the DR embassy gives me (and all the other residents of the building providing similar services to the embassy guests) not a brass farthing. which is fine, i guess. It's really a very minor inconvenience to shepherd the "quatros", as they are referred to, through our complex elevating system on a daily basis. But it does raise a question. Does the number of hurricanes that blast through the Caribbean each season keep buildings in the DR to relatively short heights, making elevators rare and exotic birds there? I'm just wondering.

one of the great films of the last 30 years. an epic with heart, and about something other than itself. with great performances.

Edgy MD wrote: How about films where the environmental reality is pretty much stable, but the protagonist him- or herself turns out not to be who they think they are? Examples include... spoilers... Angel Heart The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Maybe Blade Runner if you believe one or two of the eleven cuts circulating of this film are meant to imply in the end that Decker is a replicant. Maybe Total Recall, depending on your read of the ending, but I guess it qualifies one way or the other. oh absolutely. i even mentioned TOTAL RECALL (and all the works of PKDick) in my initial post. though i absolutely refuse to accept the "deckard is a replicant" theory that Ridley seems to be putting forth in his final cut. but ANGEL HEART? totally. good call. Having seen DR. PARNASSUS 3 times, i still don't know what its about, so i'm not sure it qualifies.

JACOB'S LADDER, absolutely. TRON? Maybe from the perspective of the lifeforms in the computer, but not from the protagonist's POV. For him, its like GROUNDHOG DAY... stuck in a different reality, but aware of it and trying to find a way out. He is not "wrong" about his reality; it simply changed and he understands that. So the core conflict i'm talking about (being wrong about the world) isn't there. PAN'S LABRYNTH? I don't remember it well enough to know if it fits within the paradigm.

yeah, it should, but it's been .667 so far. and the WAR was 1.9 last year, according to Baseball Reference. And i didn't say we need to replace him now. And could we carry him in an otherwise strong lineup? yeah, i suppose so. we won one WS with Harrelson and one with Rafael Santana each getting most of the starts at SS. But we won't need an "all-star" to replace him when we want an upgrade. Just a good player. someone with more than the 86 OPS+ he's managed to date.

He'll start on the DL, then join the rotation in May. Mediocre for 4-6 weeks, he'll get hot in June-July, which will be good enough for us to get back a prospect at the deadline. the playoff-bound team that picks him will get a few good starts out of him in August before he goes back on the DL down the stretch in September, leaving the team just short of a post-season. He'll become a FA, and no one will care. He'll get a cheap 1-year deal and pitch great in 2014, earning him a good 3-4 year deal thereafter. At which point he never pitches another game.

An empty .275 -- no power, no speed -- with a decent, but not spectacular, glove. He's been a part-timer so far, either due to injury or performance, and i wouldn't be surprised to see him miss 40-50 games again this year. He hasn't broken 2WAR in a season yet, and i see no reason to think he will now. He's an adequate place-holder until we're competitive again, and then he'll need to be replaced.

yeah, SHUTTER ISLAND is exactly the kind of thing i'm thinking of. MEMENTO is an interesting slant on this theme. The reality doesn't change, and he knows he doesn't know what it really is, but he just keeps becoming more and more aware of the truth. A great movie. SOLARIS (the Russian version) put me to sleep, so i'll have to take your word that it fits. GROUNDHOG DAY, while a great movie, isn't exactly what i'm talking about. the key question to ask is: "what does the protagonist think his reality is, and does the movie reveal him to be wrong?" In GD, Murray understands early on that his reality has changed and then spends the movie trying various ways to deal with that fact, to get back to his own "time" (as it were), to bang Andie McDowell (a worthy ambition) and then simply to live the best he can in his altered reality. This zen-like approach finally breaks the curse and he's restored. But the protagonist is never really wrong, nor does he have any doubts, about the fact that his reality has changed or what it has become, even if he has trouble accepting it at first. As for DISCREET CHARM, most European art films, and certainly most of Bunuel's, have a surreal attitude toward reality and so could technically fall within my definition. But they are primarily metaphorical and symbolic, with no attempt to construct a reality that reflects the world, so how can the protagonist be wrong about his reality when no reality is posited? So i'm arbitrarily excluding them. With SLIDING DOORS, i know what the story is about, offering 2 versions of reality based on changing the results of a single decision, but unless the Paltrow character thinks she's in one reality while she's in the other, it doesn't fit either. The essence of the conflict i'm trying to identify in films is that between the protagonist and what they understand to be their world. What happens when the world isn't what you thought it was? Films that deal with that question are the ones i'm looking for.

Other than a 2-month span 3 years ago, he's Duda without the walks. No thanks.

or they could just carry fewer goddamn pitchers!

can't overcome non-roster status to take Hicks' spot. Only gets a callup if there's an injury.

Duda / Valdespin / Byrd - They brought in Byrd to be the everyday RFer and leadoff hitter and so far, he has not disappointed. Duda gets the job by default; they really need his power and have nobody else. Valdespin has consistently shown an adequate OF glove and has the bat that neither Nieuwy or DenDekker has shown to date in the majors. if Valdy doesn't get it, i think they go with DenDekker since, unlike Nieuwy, he has a great glove to go with his huge K rate. Baxter / Cowgill / Hicks / Turner / Recker - Cowgill will back up Valdy and Duda, and Baxter will back up Byrd and offer a LHed bat off the bench. Recker's a lock as backup C, Hicks is the only viable backup MI/SS currently on the 40man, and Turner battles Lutz as the 25th man. If Valdy is on the bench, then he becomes the backup MI, and they drop either Hicks or Turner. Byrd / Baxter Tejada / Hicks Murphy / Turner Wright / Turner Davis / Turner Duda / Cowgill Valdespin / Cowgill Buck / Recker

Lucas Duda is a ten-foot tall beast man, who showers in vodka, and feeds his baby shrimp scampi. He orchestrated the merger between UNICEF and the NRA. Duda went public with his own buttocks and made seven million. Did I ever tell you about the time Duda went hunting? Well anyway, Duda decides he's gonna hunt down all four members of the Banana Splits. He stalks and kills every one of them with a machete. They all beg for their lives, except Fleagul. We once had a bachelor party for Duda. He ate the entire cake before we could tell him there was a stripper in it. He has a toenail on the end of his penis. Duda got his wife pregnant, and she gave birth to a delicious sixteen ounce steak. The afterbirth was saut�ed mushrooms. Duda's family crest is a picture of a barracuda eating Neil Armstrong. Duda is ranked eighteenth in the AP College Football Poll. Did I ever tell you about the time Lucas Duda was in a production of The King and I? Well anyway, before the show, Duda chloroforms the entire cast, and slowly eats them in front of the audience for two hours. The production got pretty good reviews. He breast feeds Ryan Howard. Duda named the group Smashmouth. They did not want to be called that. If you drop a phonograph needle on Duda's nipple, it plays "Houses of the Holy". They use Duda's foreskin as a tarp when it rains at CitiField. Duda directed that commercial where the model kisses the fat nerd. He made her do 73 takes. He wears a live rattlesnake as a condom. All the "Yes" album covers are Duda family photos. Shaq has a summer home in Duda's crotch. Did I ever tell you about the time Lucas Duda taught his son how to drive? Well anyway, Duda taught his son how to drive by entering him into the Indy 500. The kid wrecked and died. Duda said, It would have happened sometime. Duda's semen can form into a liquid human. Like that guy from Terminator 2. Duda still believes in Santa Claus, and he wants to put him in porno films. He thinks the Iron Man is gay. He framed Roger Rabbit. The character of Johnny Appleseed was based on Duda, except for the part about planting apple trees and not raping men. He gave a handjob to a drunken cougar. He cornered the market on booze. Did I ever tell you about the time Lucas Duda forced me to wear a woman's bikini? Well anyway, Duda tears off my clothes and forces me to wear this skimpy bikini. For the next three months I had to conduct my business wearing only a woman's bathing suit. I would cry from shame and question my manhood daily, but Ill be damned if at the end of the quarter my sales hadn't tripled. He'll eat a homeless person if you dare him. One time I asked Duda to dress up as Santa for a Christmas party I was having for my children. Anyway, Duda shows up as Santa, says I've got goodies for you kids. He reaches into his bag and proceeds to hand out scrap metal and cigarettes to them. Then he takes off his beard and says "There's no Santa cause I ate him!" He sheds his skin once a year. I once saw him scissor kick Dame Maggie Smith. Did I ever tell you about the time Lucas Duda and I went horseback riding, but there weren't any horses around? Anyway, Duda throws a saddle on my back and rides me around Wyoming for three days. Well, wouldn't ya know it, my stamina increased with each day, and I develop tremendous leg muscles. So anyway, Duda decides to enter me into the Breeders Cup under the name Turkish Delight. And I'm running in second place, and I'm running, and I break my ankle. So anyway, they're about to shoot me. Then someone from the crowd yells out, "God bless him, Don't shoot him, he's a human!" He jumped off the Empire State Building this one time and he only sprained his ankle. Like an alligator, he can fully digest a turtle shell. His favorite TV movie is "The Boy In The Plastic Bubble" starring John Travolta. He an eight-foot two-ton monster who can palm a medicine ball. Lucas Duda would put on a white tie and tails and walk his cobra through the park on a leash. He named the cobra Beverly, and he taught it how to fetch and dial a phone. But then one day it bit the maid. So with tears in his eyes, Duda had to shoot the maid. Duda would use his own thigh as an anvil. Ya know, it was the sight of Duda's naked body that drove Brian Wilson insane. He showers in grain alcohol. He killed Wolfman Jack with a trident. He drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls. His first name is Lucas. It rhymes with "mucus"... but don't say that to him. Not ever. Seriously. I mean it. He makes every woman that sleeps with him refer to him as Bear Bryant. He once ate the Bible while water skiing. He once had sex with a cigarette machine. Lucas Duda is a son of a bitch. A Toast To our new Leftfielder, Lucas Duda! Hurrah!

if he was going to hit 30-40hrs like Thomas (or Kingman, or Rob Deer, or whatever other exemplar of the 3 perfect outcomes you care to choose), then yeah, give him a shot. Those guys are not without their value. But unfortunately, he neither walks nor homers at the rate sufficient to offset his huge K rate. And at least denDekker is a great glove; if we're going to play a guy in CF who'll strike out 175 times without enough power to justify it, he better have a great glove. i'm starting to think Valdy is our best CF option, platooning with Cowgill, with Baxter backing up all three spots. And Nieuwy starts in Vegas. Maybe if he has a good year, they call him up in September (earlier, if somebody gets hurt or doesn't produce). .260-5hr

don't know the book; didn't much care for the movie.

The Dustin Hoffman film festival (1967-1982) Two months of Hoffman double features for your viewing pleasure, covering the most fertile period of his career as a leading man: Family man: The Graduate (1967) Kramer vs. Kramer(1979) - GRADUATE was a generational touchstone, launching Hoffman into superstardom on his first feature. It captured the spirit of upwardly mobile disaffected youth, graduating college and confronting the older generation's expectations. Similarly, KRAMER was of its time, too, as it pictured the evolution of the middle aged male learning to embrace his nurturing paternal side. Like most films "of their time", they've both dated badly, though GRADUATE has all that Simon & Garfunkel music. Viva Italia: Madigan's Millions (1968) Alfredo, Alfredo (1972) - two lame Italian comedies; Hoffman actually did MADIGAN two years earlier than GRADUATE, but it was released after to capitalize on his sudden stardom. Love & the New Wave: John & Mary (1969) Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971) - These 2 are nearly unwatchable now; pretentious contemplations on love, very much influenced by the filmaking of the nouvelle vague 2 in NYC by Schlesinger: Midnight Cowboy (1969) Marathon Man (1976) - John Schlesinger directed Hoffman to two of his best performances in two of his best films, COWBOY a moving depiction of loneliness in a decaying NYC, and MARATHON a thriller that runs through its streets. contemplations of violence: Little Big Man (1970) Straw Dogs (1971) - BIG MAN, the comic revisionist western by Arthur Penn, and DOGS, Peckinpah's thriller both offer still fascinating commentaries on the nature of violence as witnessed or indulged in by little men. DOGS is perhaps my favorite film of Hoffman's career. The Criminal Mind: Papillon (1973) Straight Time (1978) - Hoffman plays thieves and cons of different types. In PAPILLON he offers brilliant support to Steve McQueen, in TIME he takes the burden upon himself. In both he comes to terms with his tragic destiny. He knows why the caged bird dies. The Artist: Lenny (1974) Tootsie (1982) - 2 academy-award nominated performances in which he plays artists who torture themselves to express truth. In TOOTSIE, he does it comically in a dress, in LENNY he does so tragically, in black & white. Journalists: All the President's Men (1976) Agatha (1979) - Hoffman always conveyed a credibility, so playing a journalist capitalized on that innate quality. PRESIDENT'S MEN takes a true story and makes it play like a mystery thriller. AGATHA wastes Vanessa Redgrave and Hoffman in a fictional account of actual events.