[Lucky]

Yeah, he is. And I did expect some kind of retaliation. I guess I just hoped noone would be psychotic and criminal enough to try and hurt people. I mean, Duncan's a lunatic but he hadn't tried to hurt anyone to this stage. He was just running the risk of hurting one of his teammates with a forearm smash.

Which by the way, I was waiting for. I was really curious to see how Yankee fans feel when Shelley Duncan breaks A-Rod's forearm during a HR celebration. While it would have screwed my team it would have been fun to see the 180 there.

[Tommy]

metallikid said:

Never heard of Glengarry Ross.

Glengarry Glen Ross.
It's a pretty awesome movie - I highly recommend it. I don't recommend many movies.

yu.ac.kr/~bwlee/esc/baldwin.htm

That's the speech the joke is referring to; Alec Baldwin was in the movie for 5 minutes; and these are those 5 minutes.

Need Quicktime to listen and it's got some NSFW language.

[Lucky]

I enjoyed GGR but I kinda found it awkward. Probably just the product of it being so dialogue heavy and basically a play done on film. So I'm not sure it would be MKid's thing.

But its good dialogue and good story. And about as quality a cast as you could hope for to deliver it Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, and Ed Harris.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

I love GGR - probably Mamet's best script.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

No Yankee fan can be on board with this.... this is bush.

[jmd]

Everyone in the East is going to have a rough schedule anyway, so I don't see the benefit to pissing off a team you're hoping to get at least 10 wins from if you want to make the playoffs. If the Yankees miss the division or wild card by, say, a game or two (entirely possible with how good the Sox, Indians, and Tigers all should be), and if they end up with a losing record against Tampa (also entirely possible, especially if this rivalry carries on all year and the Rays play their hardest in those series), we could be looking back at this in October.

If you have to have a retarded pissing match with some team, make it a shitty team, ideally not in your division.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Great point - it's why I never understood why the Mets threw with the Marlins in Game 161 when they had to know Florida was going to treat the next day like Game 7 of the WS. Why give a team more incentive to want to beat you?

[Jack Quinn]

and they why roll over and die in that next game too? Did you give all your motivation to the Marlins? Was a playoff spot being on the line not quite enough for the Mets? Were they just happy to be there? Did they battle? Well, no, clearly they didn't.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Thanks for joining in fucko, I missed you. My point was the Marlins don't score 7 in the first without that fight the day before.

[Jack Quinn]

they probably score 10


and why wouldn't the fight have pumped up the Mets as well? I mean there was nothing on the line really, just a division title and a trip to the playoffs.

Glavine sucked, and the rest of the Mets swallowed

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Because they were a team on autopilot all year long, why change for the 162nd game?

[DevSop]

Trying to have a logical argument with Moose, what's wrong with you Solly? And I still wish I knew what happened during that Saturday game with Reyes and Olivo. Every story I've heard from both of em make it seem like it was a joke that actually happened or something. It's almost like they were 2 drunk college roommates having one of those stupid wrestling matches that turn serious after a few minutes. But this was a dumb, "wanna fight...sure" escapade. It makes no sense.

And I still think Glavine had a Braves t-shirt on that final day. One big giant fuck you for 4 years of sucking.

[Pun]

fsolomon75 said:

Thanks for joining in fucko, :heart:I missed you.

Fixed that for you.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

I hope Sori's quads explode and the Cubs put him down like Barbaro.

[Jack Quinn]

Or trade him to the Mets for Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell

[Pun]

This sucks!

Former Cy Young Award winner Rick Sutcliffe has colon cancer and will undergo chemotherapy and surgery.

Sutcliffe, a baseball analyst for ESPN, was diagnosed with a treatable form of cancer after taking a routine test during a physical, the network said Thursday. He said he hopes to return to the network later this year.

"I deeply appreciate the support of the ESPN family and my family and friends around the country," Sutcliffe said in a statement released by the network.

Sutcliffe went 171-139 in parts of 18 seasons, retiring in 1994 after pitching for the Dodgers, Indians, Cubs, Orioles and Cardinals. He won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1979 for Los Angeles and the Cy Young Award in 1984, for the Cubs.

He joined ESPN in 1999 and has been an analyst during game telecasts since 2002. He was scheduled to travel to Japan for the season-opening games between Boston and Oakland on March 25-26. Sutcliffe will be replaced by Steve Phillips.

"Rick is an integral member of our baseball team and we wish him a full recovery," ESPN vice president of event production Tim Scanlan said. "We will keep him and his family in our thoughts and prayers."

I have always liked Sutcliffe, both as a player and a broadcaster. I was hoping he would come to the Cubs' booth when they hired Len Kasper and Bob Brenly. Good thing to see it's treatable. Good luck to him!

[Pun]

Oh, just get the fucking Roberts deal done already!

Sources confirmed Thursday that the Cubs have a four-player offer for Roberts on the table that includes the addition of hard-throwing pitching prospect Jose Ceda. Infielder Ronny Cedeno and pitchers Sean Gallagher and Donnie Veal also are in the package.

The Cubs and Baltimore Orioles talked again during the past week, and insiders in both camps have expressed strong feelings that a deal will get done for the All-Star second baseman. However, they consider it likely to take an 11th-hour agreement before the openers on March 31.

It's also possible the deal could grow to include pitcher Jason Marquis going to Baltimore and outfielder Jay Payton coming to the Cubs in a 5-for-2 or 6-for-2 trade that likely would include cash.

[Grover]

As a Cubs fan sympathiser, I would love to see Roberts in a Cubs uniform.

As a fantasy owner, I would REALLY love to see Roberts in a Cubs uniform.

Git'er DUN!

[The Jewish Cunthead]

I think it'll be easier for the Cubs to get Roberts from Baltimore than any of us getting him from Grover

[Lucky]

This is old but amusing. Brian Bannister is a sabermetrician.

sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Am3i9RnGabXsjZsjzyfcGvURvLYF?slug=jp-springbannister030808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Why is that amusing? Simple. Sabermetricians think he was a fluke.

DIPS was revolutionary. Bill James, the godfather of baseball analysis, confirmed its veracity. McCracken got a job with the Red Sox. And BABIP, all of a sudden, became another indicator of a pitcher’s likely future, depending on whether it was over or under the average, which is about .300.

Last year, Bannister’s BABIP was .264, among the best in the game.

“It’s tough because I’m a student of it, and all last year I was well aware I was among the league leaders in it,” Bannister said. “But what do you do? Just because you’re continuing to get outs, do you say, ‘Oh, this shouldn’t be happening’?

“I realize very well that I could regress to the mean.”

But why am I now a Bannister fan?

Then again, his good fortune may continue. In a late January interview with Tim Dierkes that outlined much of his sabermetric leanings, Bannister theorized that he could keep his BABIP down if he got to two-strike counts more often. It was a brilliant hypothesis that melded the practical – hitters are taught to, and thus tend to, take more defensive swings with two strikes – with numerical data.

Analysts tested Bannister’s idea, and he was right: there is a difference, though not terribly significant. Still, Bannister’s interest prompted Mike Fast to run a detailed series of analyses on Bannister with Pitch f/x, the two-camera system that tracks a ball from the pitcher’s hand to the catcher’s glove and details its speed to the tenth of a mile per hour and movement to the inch.

ITS A MLB PLAYER USING STATISTICS AND THE NEW METHODS THAT ARE BEING DEVELOPED TO HELP EVALUATE HIS PERFORMANCE AND IMPROVE HIS GAME?!?! HOLY SHIT!!! JOE MORGON WILL LOVE THIS WHEN HE HEARS IT!

Of course what are the odds of Morgon calling Royals games? But I'd love to hear it. Especially if Bannister has success this season.

[Pun]

Dusty is a walking contradiction:

Two pitching prospects -- Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto -- are making their case for joining the Reds rotation this spring.

When prompted if the two Dominican pitchers would begin the season as starters with Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo, new manager Dusty Baker didn't exactly say yes, but he didn't say no either.

"You want me to say it, or are you going to say it?" Baker told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "They're pitching like they belong alongside [Aaron] Harang and [Bronson] Arroyo in the rotation. They're dealing.

"They came in ready to pitch. They played winter ball, so they're ahead -- not so much with velocity but with command. That's what you need. They're pounding the strike zone. If you walk people, you have no chance. If you get behind people, you have a little chance."

So, Dusty, let me get this straight. It's bad to take walks as a hitter because it "clogs the bases", but it's also bad for pitchers to walk batters?

How did this guy make it to a World Series and win two Manager of the Year Awards?

[The Jewish Cunthead]

admin said:

How did this guy make it to a World Series and win two Manager of the Year Awards?

Wristbands and toothpicks.

[Grover]

If I didn't know better, I would almost say that Baker is saying this stuff on purpose at this point.

Like, he can't be serious anymore, can he? I mean, he can't be serious AND still have people believing that he is a good manager can he?

[jmd]

I think Dusty is a good manager in the right circumstances. Certainly he's tactically poor, and he doesn't trust young talent, but there's something to be said for a guy who can get veterans to play hard for him. He's a terrible fit for the Reds though.

As for his pitcher use, I might even defend that, especially for a smaller market team. Why not get what you can out of a guy when he's on and he's cheap? Projecting any starter past 30 or so is a bit of a crapshoot anyway, so use the resource while you have it. It worked for Billy Martin.

[Pun]

So, you're saying burn a guy out while he's young and that's OK?