hopefully he does a chapter on C-Bills like I requested.

Everybody who isn't the best hitter in 40 years had a different opinion.

That's actually a really nice quote from a great hitter on an opposing team.

Except for the previous 54 hits he got with the Twins.

http://tinyurl.com/58nrst

Yes, I want Hicks or Melville. They both carry risks. But I like the "reward" half of the risk/reward equation with those guys.

Where did you see video on Ordorizzi? I remember Melville from the AFLAC game last year and I really like his mechanics also; they have a Phill Hughes/Roger Clemens vibe to them like you said.

I still can't get over the inconsistency he has shown this spring though. He has attributed it to the weather and the lack of long tossing he has done but it still makes me skeptical. If i were to choose between the two though, I would take Melville over Hicks.

What are your thoughts on Brett Lawrie? It seems like his bat plays, and plays big. Zach Collier too.

Stan from Tacoma

I really like Collier. I rank him third after Hicks and Melville for my choice at #15. Lawrie, I don't know. No set position. He's Canadian, so he is bound to be pretty raw. He could be another Kyle Orr, who hasn't looked good in two seasons in the pros.

691 Charles Wright has been getting significant playing time on my iPod the last few months.

Tom, let me say I love reading your stuff, and I'm glad you've been commenting so often lately. It really increases the class of this already first-class site. Thanks.

You get the idea.

It was fun watching Kershaw warm up in the bull pen before the game today. When it was time to exit the pen and go to the dugout all of the pitchers in the bull pen lined up and gave Kershaw high fives as he pssed by on his way out the gate, followed by Martin and Honeycutt. The three of them stayed in single file all the way down the line and down the dugout steps.

I got the feeling that Kershaw was startled by the second base umpire asking him for the ball after his first strikeout. It looked like the ump had to request the ball of him more than one time. The celebration that followed was memorable. I don't remember ever giving a pitcher a standing ovation for getting a strikeout for the first out of a game before.

http://tinyurl.com/yt7e9f

Yeah, I like flowers. Wanna fight about it? I didn't think so.

Enjoyed the photo day. Kemp acknowledged and seemed to enjoy hearing his Bison nickname being called out. I also told Delwyn that he had a sweet swing and I wish he can get more AB's to prove it and he said "Yeah, tell em about it" with a half smirk. He also thanked me for the vote of confidence. Andre was so popular he never made it to our area before the time was out. Russell came in the same group with Nomar, so I kind of got boxed out from shaking Russell's hand and showing my appreciation to him, darn it. It was a great two days at the stadium from the 60's luncheon yesterday through the game today. I had a blast!! My wife deserves Kudos for being with me at the stadium for most of the past 36 hours at the ball park.

I didn't spoil anything, because the entire third act is so obvious it doesn't need spoiling.

There are simply many, many more right-handers than left-handers who are physically able to throw a baseball 95+ mph. If pitchers were distributed by their ratio in the population, only 10% of major league pitchers would be lefties. But of course, there are many more than that. Not to get all Rule 5 here, but baseball has affirmative action of sorts for left-handed pitchers.

The soft-tossing lefty can have a major league career, while the soft-tossing righty usually cannot. The right-handed equivalents of Jamie Moyer and Ted Lilly and Dennys Reyes, for the most part, never reach the major leagues. Therefore, the average major league right-hander throws much harder than the average major league left-hander.

This is not to say that lefties like Kershaw, Koufax, or Randy Johnson can't be outliers and throw as hard as any right-hander does. It's just that there will be nine times more right-handers who can throw that hard.

Obviously, humanity doesn't die. Nobody would ever see that movie. That's not a spoiler. It's uplifting. It's a happy movie.

Despite the fact that the whole thing makes you want to kill yourself.

I kind of rooted for infertility.

Let me try to get this straight.

There are more righties than lefties in the world. Check.

Therefore, there are more righty hitters than lefty hitters in baseball. Check.

The lefty hitters who do make it get to feast on the overabundance of righty pitching. Check.

Somehow, this translates into the need for lefty pitchers of even dubious quality. I guess this is because while righty hitters are more used to facing righty pitchers, lefty hitters are less used to facing lefty pitchers.
But wouldn't righty pitchers be more used to facing lefty pitchers? I guess I don't understand why lefty pitchers are so much more necessary.

It's nearly impossible to change your handedness for throwing. But batters have switched sides for a long time.

The idea of Schmidt coming out of the bullpen is intriguing to me because such a move has potential to be very useful for a team whose starters have not consistently pitched deep into games. One of the team's biggest assests this year has been its ability to bring Kuo out of the bullpen for multiple innings when the starter only pitches 4-5 innings. Perhaps Schmidt could be used in a similar manner.

So about 40 percent of the plate appearances in the NL this year have been by people batting left-handed. That means there are 40 percent of PAs in which a left-handed pitcher is desirable. But pitchers just can't start pitching left-handed willy-nilly, so teams have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for people like Tom Martin.

The whole thing is brilliant.

And I don't like the films of Wes Anderson either.

I am heading up Greg Brock's proscription list.

I doubt that changed Jon's reasoning, as I thought he was A-minus-y about NCFOM.

And I really liked Children of Men, for what its worth. The last act's predictability was offset but a great deal of the sound work, in my mind (ears?)

Shimmin, however, won't be so lucky.

I fell asleep in the theater.

But then I might bean outlier in that sense.

https://screenjam.baseballtoaster.com/archives/545410.html

That might be the best single scene in a very long time.

A water polo ball is a lot bigger than a baseball and you don't have to try throw it 90 mph over a small target.

Over and over and over.

After the Lakers came back from 20 down in Game 1 he was ready to say the series was over. After the Lakers blew the Spurs out in Game 2, he was planning the parade route. After the Lakers lose by 20 in Game 3: the Lakers can't win if Odom continues to play like he has been.

This, I think, is important to keep in mind come July when he can only focus on the Dodgers or Angels.

48 Self-caricatures? Guys who will do anything if you pay them enough money?

I know that because you're not an idiot. You're Eric Enders, my guy. One of my top three guys here. So you don't think that of Olivier. Because that would be silly. And you're not silly.

http://tinyurl.com/26avsz

There are only so many Morgan Freeman performances that are going to grace this world. Why do some of them have to be wasted on crap like Deep Impact?

Lumping Olivier in with DeNiro and Pacino is unbelievably unfair. Those guys sold their soul. Olivier made a couple of really decent movies that aren't the greatest things ever.

I can't imagine how disappointed you're going to be when you see Righteous Kill.

Kershaw looked great out there today. Now if only we could get Andy up here.

Is there anything in the world quite like a mother's love? This quotation is so amazingly selfless. I think I'm happier for her than for her son.

http://tinyurl.com/5o2gzn

http://ilab.cs.byu.edu/zappala/mystery.mp3

Pierre, LF
Ethier, RF
Martin, C
Kent, 2B
Sweeney, 1B
Kemp, CF
DeWitt, 3B
Maza, SS
Billingsley, P

Really? Cause I thought there was only one and we keep seeing it over and over agin. But honestly, two or three more movies of the same role and I moght actually believe he is God.

Sorry for the optimism, but I am trying to balance my cynical reputation.