Mar
31
Major League Baseball Preview: NL East – Florida Marlins
March 31, 2008 | 1 Comment
The final preview, and just under the wire (no including those three games that have been played). Slightly enhanced production: OF) Jeremy Hermida, 1B) Mike Jacobs, SS) Hanley Ramirez, SP) Andrew Miller In the midst of drek, a few bright spots. Ramirez was the best offesnive performer in the National League, and the kid is [...]
Mar
31
Major League Baseball Preview: NL East – Washington Nationals
March 31, 2008 | 2 Comments
I was very tempted to pick the Nats to finish third, but their lack of depth in the starting rotation makes me unable to go that far. But if they get any decent starting pitching this year, they could be a competetive ballclub. Enhanced production: OF) Lastings Milledge, 3B) Ryan Zimmerman Milledge will of course [...]
Mar
31
Major League Baseball Preview: NL East – Philadelphia Phillies
March 31, 2008 | Comments Off
Few of the experts are picking the defending division champs to repeat. There are several reasons for that. Enhanced production: SP) Cole Hamels The pitching-poor Phils do have one very bright spot. Hamels is impressive no matter where he pitches. He should emerge as one of the five best pitchers in the National League as he [...]
Mar
30
Happy Birthday to me
March 30, 2008 | 5 Comments
31 feels much like 30. Funny how that happens. Sorry for the silence, but I was back in New York for the weekend. Of course I had the busiest traffic of my blog life the past few days, thanks mainly – of course – to a post where I had one original sentence apart from [...]
Mar
27
Major League Baseball Preview: NL East – Atlanta Braves
March 27, 2008 | Comments Off
In recent days a lot of ESPN and other national talking heads have hopped aboard the Braves’ bandwagon. Thanks. That’s the kiss of death right there. Enhanced production: 1B) Mark Teixera Teixera was more than the Braves hoped he would be when they traded for him at the trading deadline. Unfortunately the rest of the team [...]
Mar
27
Anything else you’d like to share?
March 27, 2008 | 5 Comments
At the Safeway near my office, checking out, I got to hear this from my cashier, chatting it up with the mailman: Yeah, my girl [friend] got an abortion today. Aside from the moral horror at hearing this guy describe the event as casually as if he mentioned that she was getting a tooth pulled, [...]
Mar
27
Major League Baseball Preview: NL East – New York Mets
March 27, 2008 | Comments Off
I was going to write something here about how I managed to predict that every single division winner from last season would repeat, forgetting of course that the Mets didn’t actually win the division last year. Funny forgetting something like that. It’s as though the final two week collapse didn’t really happen – wonder what [...]
Mar
27
Is the Easter Vigil too long?
March 27, 2008 | 3 Comments
That is the question posed by James Martin, and relayed by Amy Welborn. Let me add my voice’s to Amy in declaring, emphatically, “NO!” Confession time. I went to an Easter Vigil Mass once in my life before this year. I was ten years old, so naturally I was bored to tears. This time around, [...]
Mar
26
Major League Baseball Preview: AL Central – Chicago White Sox
March 26, 2008 | Comments Off
How did this franchise win a World Series? Enhanced production: OF) Nick Swisher The Swisher acquisition should prove to be fruitful for the White Sox, both this year and for many years to come. Slightly enhanced production: OF)Jermaine Dye, 3B) Josh Fields*, SS) Orlando Cabrera, DH) Jim Thome, SP) Javier Vasquez, middle relief I put [...]
Mar
26
Major Lague Baseball Preview: AL Central – Kansas City Royals
March 26, 2008 | 2 Comments
Very, very slowly, the Royals are climbing towards respectability. Unlike certain franhises coughTampaBaycoughFloridacoughhPittsburgh the Royals have made an attempt to spend money on mid-level free agents. They still have a way to go, but by 2016 or so the Royals might be in legitimate competition for a division title. For now, at least they’ll escape [...]
Mar
26
I like my garlic nose
March 26, 2008 | 13 Comments
Ahh, it seems Jeremiah Wright will be a never-ending source of amusement. Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago where Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been a member for two decades, slurred Italians in a piece published in the most recent issue of Trumpet Newsmagazine. “(Jesus’) enemies [...]
Mar
26
I pledge allegiance to the Democratic party of America
March 26, 2008 | 1 Comment
It still amuses me that the thesis of Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism is any way controversial. It is fairly obvious to me that the fascism is a left-wing phenomenon. The latest example comes straight from Ohio. It seems the Democrats in Ohio are really upset that Rush Limbaugh had the temerity to try and influence the [...]
Mar
25
Major League Baseball Preview: AL Central – Minnesota Twins
March 25, 2008 | Comments Off
Like the Oakland A’s, I do not expect the Twins to be quite as bad one might think. Sure, they just traded away the best pitcher in baseball for a pittance, and they also lost a very good (if slightly overrated) center fielder, but they have enough left to still remain a competetive team, if one [...]
Mar
25
The Audacity of Rhetoric
March 25, 2008 | 4 Comments
Thomas Sowell has a typically excellent column up today on Obama. In Shelby Steele’s brilliantly insightful book about Barack Obama — “A Bound Man” — it is painfully clear that Obama was one of those people seeking a racial identity that he had never really experienced in growing up in a white world. He was [...]
Mar
25
It begins
March 25, 2008 | Comments Off
No, I didn’t get up at six in the morning as I did a few years back when it was the Mets that were playing in Japan, but it was cool to wake up this morning, flip on ESPN2 and see some regular season baseball. Of course I happened to tune in during the Bud [...]
Mar
24
Benedict in America
March 24, 2008 | Comments Off
The omnipresent Christopher Blosser has a new blog chronicling the Pope’s visit to America. Like everything Chris does, it’s full of good information. No Tag
Mar
24
Major League Baseball Preview: AL Central – Detroit Tigers
March 24, 2008 | Comments Off
They might be the sexy pick, and indeed if things break the right way, the Tigers could be a runaway 100+ win team. On paper they look good, but something about this team just doesn’t feel right. Enhanced production: 3B) Miguel Cabrera, SP) Jeremy Bonderman Brandon Inge is a nice player. Miguel Cabrera is a much, much [...]
Mar
24
Major League Baseball Preview: AL Central – Cleveland Indians
March 24, 2008 | 6 Comments
This is another tough call, but I have my doubts about the Detroit Tigers. Sure, they seem to have a great lineup and a pretty good staff, but they have a lot of older players and a bullpen in chaos. The Indians, meanwhile, even though they won the division a year ago, actually had quite [...]
Mar
24
Good analysis, bad application
March 24, 2008 | Comments Off
In today’s Wall Street Journal John Yoo wrote an editorial about the Democrats’ Super Delegate problem. Yoo is essentially correct in his historical analysis of why the Framers rejected the idea of having Congress choose the President. This delegate dissonance wasn’t anything the Framers of the U.S. Constitution dreamed up. They believed that letting Congress [...]
Mar
23
Kmiec’s Easter gift
March 23, 2008 | 4 Comments
I really didn’t want this to be my first blog post back, but I have to report on Douglas Kmiec’s ridiculous endorsement of Barack Obama. Sorry Doug, no matter how brown you get your nose, Obama is not going to appoint you to the Bench. I do have confidence that the Senator will cast his [...]