Emmz

Eh, I thought his closest comparison, Benoit was much better. If you're only going by wrestling, which is the subject, not morals, Benoit was one of the last wrestlers I truly enjoyed watching. He didn't give a s*** about getting hurt, he used to do all sorts of risky moves, he got hurt a lot but he was also one of the most entertaining stars. I really thought they would make something more of him.

Edge is pretty good, just not a mega star like the WWE tries to make him. He was better off as a intercontinental champ type, who's just under superstar status. I will say though, that The Miz is the worst. Idk how they let that guy be the champ, he's horrible. Even Cena is better than him.

I watched that link to the CM vid, and all of the CM punk videos from then on to 8/22. Awesome, very good storyline, I like this a lot. You're right, they could make this into something seriously good, and I hope involves minimizing that no-talent Cena. Cena sucks, and Vince has really let the business go, because he tries to push people like Cena and Edge and The Miz on people.

Interviews Before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK7J0jYKpiY Interviews Now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw1gV7_zQVs

He has, but Gonzo has the glam stats that will give him the MVP most likely. If he has a .340 BA with near the top RBIs and 25 or so homers, he will get it IMO. The voters really like RBIs homers and BA, which is unfortunate because those stats are pretty useless, really.

All the good wrestlers are retired or dead. The interviews aren't even good anymore, they're always serious now. There's no good characters, and there's no face of the business IMO, at least not one like The Rock was in the 90s and Hulk Hogan was in the 80s. There's no more of those awesome heel characters who provide the best interviews, like Randy Savage (RIP Macho Man) and there's no more good guy vs. good guy rivalries, like Ultimate Warrior vs. Hulk Hogan. Overall everything just stinks. Though, I haven't watched hardly anything since about 2004 or so.

Joe Mauer needs to find a power stroke. Seriously, he's huge, yet he hits like 10 homers per year except for the one outlier, he looks like he could slug like 30 homers per year, he needs to. I got my hopes up that one year, granted I didn't expect him to keep hitting like .400 for most of the year or anything like that, but still, look at him, he's a beast. Hit more homers and get injured less. As for Ells, I'd like to say it's going to be a regular occurrence from now on that he puts up power numbers to compliment his other skill set, I'd be satisfied if he even put up 20 homers next year, but I got to see it again before I believe it's the real deal.

Target Field is great, I've been there about 5 times this year, I just don't like how similar it is to Jacob's Field.

You can only post in this gamethread if you've joined on January 25, 2006????

The firing squad is your removal plan, but we could at least get a couple of new bats, and possibly a few baseballs as well if we traded him. We might even be able to get a gatorade dispenser out of the deal.

http://mugs.mugbug.co.uk/500/r7.oh_fuckety_fuck.right.jpg

Eh, preseason really doesn't mean anything though.

the Salty Martin tandem with the Yankees being forced to use Cervelli would be awesome, especially that the Yanks would have to use that piece of junk Cervelli.

True enough, but Lackey fights are starting to get really bad, like I said, he's replacing Drew as the new guy everyone fights about, even when he's pitching well, people just s*** on him, even though it's obvious he still have the capability to earn his contract value, or get fairly close to it. You weren't here when Drew was still a good player I don't think, but people used to fight over him all the time. They used to consist of frustrated logic (the pro Drew side) versus irrational hatred of his inability to play games (the anti-Drew side). No matter the evidence to support Drew, the haters would just keep arguing. This was two years ago where he had earned, up that point, every penny of his contract. This is starting to remind me of that, where people just keep saying Lackey sucks, and he has sucked ever since we got him. They forget that he's earned his pay for his first season, and while he will not come close this year, he has turned it around, and shows no signs of being "finished" like so many are saying. So yeah, Lackey is pretty much the new JD Drew.

I agree that Crawford is better in theory than having McDonald batting second, regardless of his handedness. Even when he sucks, he's better than McDonald and you sort of have to figure, what's to lose, maybe it will kickstart him to perform better. Go ahead and bump him up to 2nd, he should not be hitting behind McDonald, EVER.

Oh boy.

Lackey is part of Theo's legacy, but you're right, this should be about Theo and not derail into a Lackey fight thread. I have a feeling Lackey is going to be the new JD Drew in the sense that everyone's just going to s*** on him regardless of his performance, and underrate his actual value to this team, and be the new guy that derails threads with huge fights about whether or not he's good or bad.

Well it is sort of like an instrument.

Because those are facts?

That's about in-line with his career averages, and last season. He's not done yet, not at all. He just needs to pitch like he can for a whole year. There's no indication IMO that he's a bust yet, considering he had pretty much earned his pay his first year. This year is sort of like Crawford, but like Crawford, he just has to perform at his normal levels for the rest of the contract to earn it. It's a uphill battle, but people will be satisfied if he earns at least the majority of his pay.

Dude, he gives the team a chance, give it a rest with the anti-Lackey stuff. If he's "now a mediocre pitcher" why was his WAR$ 15.9M USD? That's a substantial amount, this season is lost, but he's pitched like his old self for a while now. He's not incapable of producing good seasons work anymore, and he's proven to be a very good pitcher over his career so far. He still has it, he's proven that.

It's not really at all, but he's extremely cheap, because one of the things that Bill Smith apparently did pick up from Terry Ryan who is IMO one of the best GMs of the past 20 years, is how to get players for very cheap. I don't want to hear about Mauer either, there was no way he was going to come cheap, a catcher who produces consistent .900 OPS and is pretty much a constant batting champion is extremely rare. On-topic: Thome has a very affordable contract, and he actually expects to be mostly on the bench, and used as a clutch bat off the bench. I love Thome coming off the bench for the Twins, especially when there's that guy who, you know, sucks late in the game, you got your secret weapon who has about a 40% chance of reaching base, and even better, still has a lot of power. Thome's still a game-changer on the bench, and he could definitely be a good presence. Thome is one of my all-time favorite players, and is going to retire one of the greatest sluggers in baseball history. Honestly the more I think about it, why the hell not? He's cheap, the Sox are a contender.

I actually agree with this argument, last year, Lackey was almost worth his average salary for the contract, worth 15.9M in WAR, and his stats were similar to his career numbers overall. This year he won't make it, but he's fought back since his early struggles, and IMO, Lackey definitely has the ability to earn his contract, or at least get close to the value in WAR. Ik everyone says he wasn't worth 16M per year, or whatever it is he's making, but his WAR converted to $ from 2005-2009 was about 20 million per year, if you forget the one season he was hurt in 2008. He really just needs to perform at that level to have earned the value of his deal, which is IMO not out of his reach. John Lackey does not suck, and he is not "done". He's shown signs of still being the guy he was with the Angels. He's not really an ace, he's just a very solid pitcher. He's pretty much played like he did with the Angels for the last couple of months, just like last year when he started out poorly and turned it on.