You're a bigger man than me, Jon Weisman. This delights me.

Erstad's quote of "I don't care who you are!" is interesting. Kind of implies that one of the Angels veterans is getting a little snippy. Maybe Lackey, though his start was nothing to write home about.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06137/690635-126.stm

I say again, Mickey Hatcher needs to go. I think his hitting philosophy is close your eyes and swing as hard as you can.

I can't imagine losing alone would end the honeymoon - people know the Pirates are low on talent. I'm assuming it must be the way the Pirates are losing that has raised the eyebrows of the press and the tempers of the fans.

Ive heard from many color commentators that when a team that lives by the homerun doesnt get homeruns they cant score because they cant play small ball. Last night was an example of a team that relies on contact hitting and when the hits dont fall in, they cant score either. The Angels as a team are hitting .245, second worst in the league, infront of TB and ahead of KC. Batting average can be pretty fluky and the Angels are not a .246 hitting team, last year they hit .270 and the year before they hit .282. Eventually the Angels' hits will fall in and they'll hit .300 for a month or so, forcing us to hear about the wonders of small ball.

Last year's team was similar to the Padres in the sense that they had one really good run and then played around .500 for about 80% of the season until the last 2 weeks when they beat up the A's and the Rangers to take the division.

But they got great pitching that kept them in games. But their lack of offense should not be a surprise, when I last looked at their 2 corner infield spots, catcher and DH, they were hitting about .200 as a group with an on base and slugging pct. of .300.

That quote in yesterday's UTK about the Angels waiting until after the draft to decide on if they are going to call up their kids and let them play was interesting.

Its funny how no one talks about Finley for Alfonzo deal, not that Steve is killing the ball but he is playing everyday and contributing, not much power but certainly doing more than Alfonzo.

or, perhaps Tracy just doesnt take to loosing very well. He reminds me of Larry Brown in how he tends to deflect blame when the team is loosing and that becomes tiresome really, really quick.

The first team decided right away that they were not going to resign their 3B and did not even offer arbitration to him, while the second did offer arbitration and continued to negotiate a possible contract.

Both teams started 2005 with different 3B and they are still trying to fill that hole. As for the players, Troy Glaus has not suffered any major setbacks and has hit over 50 HRs and driven him 120+ runs in 1 1/4 seasons while Adrian has not yet adjusted to either his contract or new league.

You can certainly argue that based on what contracts those two players eventually received, they were overpriced but just another interesting comparison of something similar that went on with both the Angels and Dodgers in recent years.

Personally, I feel very bad for Pirates fans. For starters, I've met some people who are Pirates fans and they're very nice. (Warning: small sample size!)

The Pirates were also the first team outside of L.A. that I rooted for. I think that was because, in the first year I followed baseball closely (1971), the Pirates beat the Giants in the LCS (YEA!) and they beat the Orioles in the World Series. I didn't know much about the Orioles except my older brothers told me not to root for them. I liked the Pirates fuzzy helmets and very odd shade of yellow on their caps then.

I even liked the 1979 "We Are Family" Team, although it was probably hopped up on so many different types of drugs that I'm surprised that Chuck Tanner didn't try to pick the roster by checking the size of his players' pupils.

And then I really wanted one of the three NL East champion teams managed by Leyland to win. But they lost to the 1990 Reds (Marge Schott! Lou Piniella! Rob Dibble! Each a bigger jerk than the other). And then they lost those two LCS series to the Braves. Very sad.

Now they are a hopeless team playing in the nicest park in the majors.

It's beyond putting lipstick on a pig. It's like putting lipstick on a side of a bacon.

Is swinging 3-0 a manager thing (strategy) or a hitting coach thing (approach)?

On the Dodgers and Luke Hochevar, this is from today's BaseballAmerica.com

"We're cautiously optimistic that there's an outside chance (to sign him)," Dodgers scouting director Logan White said. "I've seen his first two starts and I'll go back and see him again. Then (GM) Ned (Colletti) and I will get our heads together and see what we can do."

Here's a link:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/features/261299.html

Even the Griddle posted something in its comments about next week's "Lost" that I could have done without ...

No guarantee of people not spoiling the plot is implied.

Guarantee not valid in New Mexico and the Maritime Provinces of Canada.

"Seth and Summer will attend separate schools in Providence."

As in Providence College and Brown? Are the kids' needs and desires so specific that they would go all that way, but to separate schools? One school wouldn't have provided enough storylines - they have to create two separate school environments?

I had watched. I didn't know I had to watch an episode that hadn't aired yet ...

27 Thanks - a glimmer is better than no hope, though I'm still a little pessimistic about it.

14 - Try Google. I'm sure you could find something if you were willing to order it off the internet.

I find when I finish working out, My brain works alittle better.

well atleast you'll be watching history. IF he hits it today.

So is he now out of options?

But he still stinks.

alot of people have posted that he's our new version of Carrara, He was pretty good at Vegas, so let's see how he dose in blue.

Where were you in April?

How would that have helped?

It still blows my mind that we have Hamulack and Carter on the squad...there's nothing to justify it. Just go get someone off the waiver wire, they might stink too but at least you're trying other options rather than running those two guys out there when you KNOW they're going to stink it up.

there Colletti's boys.

We, do, however have the option of going with younger guys with higher ceilings. Brox, Kuo, Osoria etal. Yeah,they will definitely blow some games, but at least there's the chance, if not the likelihood, that they will improve.

[81] why do you think that is? are hitters just better now, so a mediocre pitcher is going to be made to pay more often than not?

"We, do, however have the option of going with younger guys with higher ceilings. Brox, Kuo, Osoria etal. Yeah,they will definitely blow some games, but at least there's the chance, if not the likelihood, that they will improve."

great point.

note to self it's spelled they're ; )

Of course, he's no longer last man on the staff, now that Carter's back.

I didn't know that Fassero retired. He has something left in the tank. Alou didn't use him right.

http://tinyurl.com/jl96f

not in My computer it's not, I guess it hasn't down loaded or something.

throwing 83-85 miles an hour will do that to you.

I did bro. I'll try it again.

Btw, on that topic: Perspective check: Jeff Fassero, Scott Erickson, etc.

http://tinyurl.com/ntvwj