clyons

Big start for Hudson, whether he stays or goes. I'm really hoping he can be this team's version of the '93 Jason Bere. Then Kenny can turn him into an '07 version of Brandon McCarthy.

Way to pick up your pitcher, Ramon!!!

That zone is horsehit. Worse, its been inconsistent. Somebody's gotta get tossed.

Juan rocks the D.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jul 24, 2010 -> 03:38 PM) This strike zone is tighter than Mark Kotsay's wife Edit: MORE GAS Come on now. You know a stud like Kotsay is huge.

Oh Gee Whiz

QUOTE (beckham15 @ Jul 23, 2010 -> 11:03 PM) anyone know buehrle's pitch count....does he come out for the ninth or is it the closer by committee thing? Low 90s. He'll finish.

I'd like a Left handing hitting right fielder, please.

This game is really dragging along.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jul 23, 2010 -> 10:28 PM) I still think they're black. Now I have to see if I can find it on the A's website. I do too. Hats and Jerseys are Black, but chest protector is green. They look bad.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jul 23, 2010 -> 10:25 PM) I think so . I was wondering the same thing. Suzuki's chest protector is th usual Hunter Green. That's how I finally made up my mind. Kotsay's really wearin' it.

I was wondering if its my TV, but the A's unis are Black, aren't they?

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jul 23, 2010 -> 10:03 PM) A's looking inept. 2-0.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Jul 23, 2010 -> 02:47 PM) So I was thinking, with the deadline on a weekend, will that push more trades up to the day before, Kind of making 7/30 the de facto deadline? Nah, it was on a Saturday in 04 too, and all kinds of stuff went down that day, including our deal for Contreras and the Cabrera to the Red Sox for Nomar three-way.

Guys I haven't seen mentioned who probably should be for the sake of completeness: Duane Allman Carlos Santana David Gilmour Chuck Berry Angus Young The following aren't what I'd call guitar heroes or virtuousos, but are very solid and underrated, probably due to the commercial success of their bands: Mike Campbell Neal Schon (seriously) Lindsey Buckingham These guys also deserve a mention because of their completely unique styles: Joe Walsh Mark Knopfler The Edge My personal faves are Townsend, Van Halen, and SRV. To me, Stevie stands out because of his session work. He could contribute incredble licks to other people's records that would mesh with that artist's style, yet still be undeniably his own. His solos on David Bowie's "Cat People" and Jennifer Warner's cover of Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan" are prime examples. They are totally different from the Blues guitar he was justifiably known for, but still incredible.

QUOTE (Knackattack @ Jul 22, 2010 -> 01:22 PM) In 2007 and 2008, Jenks' best years, his fastball was 8.5 and 8.7 runs above average, in 2006, his curve was 9.4 runs above average. Last year, his fastball was 2.9 runs below average, and this year, his fastball is exactly average and his curve is .3 runs below average. The guy has lost his stuff, and that is why he is failing. I'm not much of a stathead, but I've been a baseball fan a long time and I honestly don't know what any of that means. Can someone please explain?

Not a surprise, but Kagan made it out of Judiciary today. As he did with Sotomayor, Lindsey Graham crossed party lines to support confirmation. That earns respect points in my book. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/20/sen...dex.html?hpt=T1

QUOTE (EvilJester99 @ Jul 19, 2010 -> 10:30 PM) I see the stealth bomber is firing up eh? Yup. Flying right under that radar.

Even at his best, Bobby's always been a "tightrope" rather than a "shut down" closer. That kind is always going to have outings like yesterday, painful as they are. And those outings are always going to result in calls for the closer's job, more so when they come against the Twins. As bad as Bobby's looked for most of this year, he was looking pretty good before the bereavement leave he took. I'm in the "give him more rope" camp, because I'm hopeful he can get back in the groove that those layoffs disrupted. Also, unless Kenny can swing a deal (which I doubt, given the Phillies' needs and resources), I think we have to go "all in" with the bullpen structure we came out of camp with, because, as stated, if Bobby's worthless as a closer, he's going to be even more worthless in any other slot. And while I think Putz can be an effective closer, I don't see Santos or Jenks being effective main set-up men over the stretch. The adverse trickle down effects of reshuffling the pen are likley to exert themselves alot more in the second half than they did when Bobby missed time during our hot streak, as our starters wear down and pens become more important in the dog days. I believe an effective Jenks is key to this team's chances this year. If he can't effectively close, and continues to pitch like yesterday, we're not going to win the division, and I don;t think changing roles with Putz will change that.

Saw Hot Tub Time Machine on DVD last night. Pretty funny, and much better than I expected.

Let's get this one, please. A victory gives us a semi-win for the series (imo, ties of 4-gamers go to the road club) and leaves us in a better position in the division than when we came to Minnesota after the break. Come on Big Game Freddy!

Jesus, old man. Run much?

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jul 17, 2010 -> 02:20 PM) ZiPS projection for LaRoche the rest of the way: .277/.356/.498/.854, .372 wOBA ZiPS projection for Kotsay the rest of the way: .261/.322/.384/.706, .313 wOBA One of those is very good and the other is very bad, switching teams and leagues really shouldn't result in a .060 point drop in wOBA. Then you factor in the wild card: Those are very intriguing numbers. But do you guys see Ozzie abandoning his beloved rotating DH for an Adam LaRoche? I think he would for Adam Dunn, but would he play LaRoche enough to post those kind of stats, or just swap him in for what Kotsay does now?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 17, 2010 -> 12:42 PM) Slightly more power? Laroche has a career .829 OPS, Kotsay .749. LaRoche is 30, Kotsay is 34. LaRoche's best offensive season was 2009, Kotsay's was 2004. Both have slightly negative UZR numbers at 1b in their career. Kotsay has never hit more than 15 HR, LaRoche only hit less than 20 in his rookie season. LaRoche averages 39 2b and 26 HR over 162 games, Kotsay 33 and 12. That's like saying Paul Konerko has slightly more power than LaRoche. Fair enough. I don't follow the NL that closely, and I really don't know that much about the guy. I do see, however, that he seems to strike out an awful lot for a mere 25 homer guy, which is probably why his career OBP is nearly identical to Kotsay's, as is his career avg. His homer totals would probably rise at the Cell (which hasn't helped Kotsay's at all), but when you account for the adjustment of coming over to a new team mid-year, not to mention a new league, as well as a worst to first change in standings, I fear he wouldn't be that significant of an upgrade, especially since his playing time here is likely to diminish from what he's getting in AZ. That said, I'd love to see just about any other lefty with more thump take Kotsay's at bats, but I think the talent gap between LaRoche and Dunn is vastly greater than that between LaRoche and Kotsay, so in terms of the poll topic, I'd much rather have us pay a higher price for Adam than acquire LaRoche for cheap, even though the latter seem alot more likely.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 17, 2010 -> 12:12 PM) Adam LaRoche is way better than Mark Kotsay and it's not even close. Beyond having slightly more power, please explain.