bobbob1313

I like the Jack Morris body of work argument personally. Massive innings of quality performance and great results. Great results? I don't even know what to do with that. He was a league average pitcher for a long time. Not a hall of famer. Even if you just take his peak, and take his best six-season run, he has just a 117 OPS+. That would have him tied for 159th all time. And that's his peak. The fact that he even gets consideration is laughable.

Bernie Williams, gold glove outfielder with an astounding 10 year run of dominance. He had eight good seasons. Not at all a hall of famer.

From 93-02, he averaged 35 homers and 107 RBI with a batting average of .322 - that's an amazing 10 year stretch [346 homers and 1066 RBI], especially at the catching position. Should have won the MVP award in 1997, IMO. That 1997 season was incredible, especially with his .362 average and 40 HR's. How Walker won it playing half his games in Coors Field boggles my mind. The only thing I could think of was his Steals, and even then Piazza's position of Catcher should have overshadowed that. Coors Field, sure. But when you take into account OPS+, which factors in the offensive environment both players played in, Piazza only comes out a little ahead (185 to 178). Once you factor in baserunning and the fact that he was a gold-glove outfielder (I was 9 at the time, so I do not feel qualified in saying whether he was or was not good, but the perception was that he was), I don't see why it's so hard explain. Also, Walker had a better road OPS than home OPS that season.

This is an absurdly strong potential HOF class, right?

That's cool. They gave up a good 26-year-old starting pitcher for a nice middle reliever.

Don't understand Atlanta's motivation there.

For the longest time, I hoped the Killers got their name from a lyric in the Mountain Goats' song "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton." "The best ever death metal band out of Denton/Never settled on a name. But the top three contenders, after weeks of debate/Were Satan's Fingers, and The Killers, and The Hospital Bombers." No such luck.

Neutral Milk Hotel ... ... OK then! Yeah it's like bands have weird names sometimes. What the heck is a beatles anyways

He's no Alfonso Soriano.

Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel is going to be in Orlando, so that's cool.

We had a good night.

It's as simple as you want it to be.

I am going to make the White House porter next week. Mystikol, I will save you a bottle. I don't particularly like the beer itself. Not my style. But I made beer-batter fried fish with it the other day and it was the most amazing thing I've ever had. Have a picture of it? I've wanted to make fish and chips for the longest time. Do you have a deep fryer or just a pan with oil? Made tacos. Just did it with a pan of oil, about an inch thick. Just enough to cover. About one-to-one ratio on the beer and flour, with some seasoning in the flour. I also did fried avocado. It was pretty terrific. Lots of bold flavors, you guys.

I am going to make the White House porter next week. Mystikol, I will save you a bottle. I don't particularly like the beer itself. Not my style. But I made beer-batter fried fish with it the other day and it was the most amazing thing I've ever had.

I hate Marlins fans sometimes. Or do fans of other teams obsess this much over players who haven't been good in 7 years and are presently out of baseball? It's all fans.

RT @CNBC: BREAKING: Hostess and Bakers Union agree to mediation, preventing shut down.

Gosh, that was totally unexpected from a blowhard. All things considered, best post in the history of this board.

Hostess is a good example of the idiocy. The bakers are less than a third of total employees. Yet there were 372 bargaining agreements with bakers. 372. Over 80 health plans. Over 40 pension plans. Ridiculous. What kind of idiot thinks that that's a good idea or any way to run a railroad? I can definitely agree that hiring bakers was a poor decision for running a railroad. I don't see how they would be at all qualified for that job.

Unions are universally bad My numbers show an absolute landslide in favor of unions.

Actually it is proof Unions are bad. Unions can be good Feel like these things are mutually exclusive. I think what you might mean to say is that this is proof that Unions can be bad.

MOVEMBER

Boo.

Well yeah, I agree with your. They're going to be a juggernaut offensively, and it's going to help Kobe. He's a smart cutter and ball handler, there's little reason to think he will get squeezed out. The only player who might get squeezed is Metta World Peace. Which will only help, because he's absolutely horrible.

There's little reason to think Kobe will not absolutely thrive in D'Antoni's offense. Go look at what he did for a young Joe Johnson and tell me Kobe can't be a hyper-elite version of that. It's going to be beautiful. The only piece that doesn't work is Gasol. Trade him for Josh Smith and Kyle Korver and oh my god.

Lakers choose Mike D'Antoni over Phil Jackson. Wow. Bobbob, tell me why this isn't insane. Because they have Steve Nash and Dwight Howard. That's going to be unstoppable in the pick and roll, which is something that would happen very rarely in the triangle under Jackson. Also, D'Antoni's an underrated defensive coach. People look at raw point totals, rather than efficiency, which made his Suns teams look worse. They were almost always above average in defensive efficiency. And he had the Knicks playing top-10 defense before he left last year. From a tactical perspective, I think this is the right move. I vehemently disagree with Dim that this is the wrong move for the team. Hiring a coach who takes the ball out of the hands of the point guard is f***ing insanity when you have Steve Nash. Also, the "ringzzzz" argument is pretty stupid. Three of the last five championships have been won by coaches who had never won.