stevece80

Unless you work for the team, it's "they". Hell, I still feel weird saying "we" at work because I'm not in management or any revenue generating arm of the company. "We" is just incredibly entitled sounding. The only ones who feel anything tangible from games are those who play in them; luckily enough you can get on with your life if you try hard enough.

From what I've heard, Terry's going to reveal that Drew is the Eggman.

I wish 2090 was around so I tell him to shove that up his ass.

You're welcome. I wish I could have done a better job on the video, but I only had 30 seconds to work with, and I was trying to get that on the internet ASAP.

Oh please, before David Eckstein was David Eckstein, scouts loathed him as well. At best he was an underdog story which had some pulling for him. There's a reason teams, while scouting is very important, are replacing scouts with computers is because of idiotic comments and views like that. The only thing Eckstein has over Pedroia is speed, that's it. Anyone who has watched Pedroia play knows he's fundamentally sound at everything he does, has much more pop than Eckstein, a better eye, and can give him a run for his money defensively. The only thing Pedroia's stint this past September proved is that sometimes when you make contact, the ball sometimes finds fielders more than it should. I've seen some people react like he had a Shoppach-esque strikeout fest where he was absolutely owned, when it wasn't. Pedroia took some time to adjust in his first stint at AAA as well, he came back the next season and put up a line that Red Sox fans would die for from 2nd base.

Cordero pitched in Yellowstone Park and allowed 13 home runs, Gonzalez, for all his effectiveness, walked a ridiculous 5+ batters per nine innings. Gonzalez isn't going anywhere. I don't see why people look at the Braves (after trading Adam Laroche) and see 3 relievers and figure, "hey, they must need to trade one of them". Good bullpens have three good relievers. It's happened before. Hell, some bullpens have 4 good relievers. I'm sure they're perfectly aware that Wickman could very well be their 3rd best option at this point, and could implode at any time, regardless. Cordero is the only quality closer available out there, but even he has a ton of question marks (awful HR rate, lackluster K rate), and is an NL closer to boot. That's even before factoring in that you'd need a king's ransom for him. The Red Sox made an offer to a closer on the market with 190 career saves in the AL, a team postseason hero, who unfortunately would rather play for less money elsewhere because he was run out of town by nitwits while struggling/recovering from injuries. If Foulke does well in Cleveland while someone else flounders in Boston, that's clearly on the shoulders of the douches that made his life a living hell as a clear sign of ingratitude after he nearly ended his career bringing a championship to Boston. There was no sure-thing on the market this winter, and regardless, teams who throw s*** up against the wall are just as likely to find a reliable closer than those who have overpaid for question marks.

I think people are dismissing Pineiro as a reliever a bit too soon. Relieving is a completely different ballgame, and likely better suited for someone with Pineiro's stuff. If you look at the top 10 in saves in the AL last season, you have: Rodriguez-LAA Jenks-CHW Ryan-TOR Jones-DET Street-OAK Nathan-MIN Putz-SEA Papelbon-BOS Rivera-NYY Ray-BAL Francisco Rodriguez' final minor league season as a starter, 2001 in A ball, 5.38 ERA over 113 2/3 innings. Bobby Jenks, career minor league ERA of 4.77, 77 of his 115 appearances were starts. BJ Ryan has always been a reliever, as has Huston Street. Todd Jones flamed out (no pun intended) as a starter in the minors before making a successful conversion to a reliever. Joe Nathan sports a career 4.93 ERA in the minors on account of 93 minor league starts, he was just as lackluster in the majors. JJ Putz, Chris Ray and Jonathan Papelbon both have been successful in both roles. Mariano Rivera had a pretty rough go of things as a Yankee starter in his rookie season. Bottom line is good relievers tend to be failed starters. Look for a second at Latroy Hawkins' numbers through a similar point in his career to Joel Pineiro. Assuming Pineiro is healthy, his stuff combined with his ability to induce groundballs should make him a good candidate as any to close games. Contrary to what some might think, closers do come out of nowhere. I'd say 75 percent of them hit a roadblock before finding their niche in the bullpen.

They use blue screen technology quite a bit in commercials. That's in a studio in Japan. That's not a Photoshop job.

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20061227/capt.tok10112270308.japan_red_sox_matsuzaka_tok101.jpg

I thought you were describing a staring contest. They should have Fear Factor-style negotiations. I want to see Scott Boras eat a bowl of bloodworms.

I'm not sure that's the point of the game Chicken.

Cla Meredith drew a blue duck because he's never seen a blue duck.