"Here come a word for you... shut the fuck up"
A really good movie.

P.S. For wht it's worth, Goldman likes CC but thinks Tex is more important. I gotta agree. Our pitching (due to the farm) is getting better, while our offense, due to age, injury, losing Giambi and Abreu, soon JD and Matsui, is getting worse.

Oh, Grodin had a good moment in "Dave". Short, but reminded you what a great chracter actor he is (or was).

Lately, I've started to say something long and informed, then deleted it after reading it. My mind keeps changing with all of the informed arguments for signing CC or Tex, one over other, etc. I still think those two are the only ones they need to bother with on the FA market, but I can't decide which one is priority number one. I only wish I was even an average baseball player right now, cuz $1 million can go a long way for us up here. I wonder if I can get Boras as my agent when I start directing (or maybe he can refer one to me he knows...)

Joe Pos has a wonderful blog post on King George today... Let's see if I can get this code right...

I also love the Dennis Farina - Philip Baker Hall moments in this flick. I just love the movie in general.

Moron number one, put moron number two on the phone.

Dennis Farina always brings the goods..by the way. as much as I love De Niro..has he made a good film in the last 15 years?? Besides "Heat" i can't think of anything...

havn't seen Charles Grodin in anything for years either, is he just doing the character actor cameo thing?

CC or Tex...it's taunting me even over here. Across from the "CC Lemon" Auditorium is the "Tex-Mex Mexia Grill & Bar" (odd English names the rule in this town..)tried to get a picture of both signs but they wouldn't fit in the frame...

[2] Chyll - Here's one way I looked at it in the CC vs Tex debate.
If we stand pat for the 2009 AND 2010 seasons, what's our lineup for 2010?
I see a decent BP.
I see a decent SP, with Joba, Wang, Phil and a list of 6 possibles
Now for position players? We are missing 2 OFs (maybe 3) and a 1Bman.
And our SS, who was just resigned, could probably use some backup.

All things being equal, CC is more valuable then Tex. However, considering the makeup of our current team, and our farm, it seems like we are short of position players. And as a team that targets offense, I like the idea of having a guy who is actually above average on D.

Last year, even with Wang out, Joba missing time and ZERO contributions from Phil, we were 8th of 14 in ERA, However, if with look at DIPS (defensive independent) ERA we see:
ERA DIPS Team
3.82 4.20 ...TB
4.01 4.09 ...Boston
4.28 3.94 ...Yankees

Of 14 AL teams, we were 13th in DIP% (DIP ERA/ERA). TB was first. Now DIPs is not the be all to end all, as like BABIP, it doesn't account for giving up more LDs and hard hit balls. A high BABIP doesn't always mean lucky... it could mean hitting the ball HARD. Still, look at our DIP ERA compared to TB & Boston.

Simply put, while the numbers above may not be 100% accurate, there is no doubt that our denfense makes our pitching look worse then it was. There was a long article on this in THT, stating how much defense is underrated when talking about Pitchers ERA.

As an aside, Steve Goldman thinks our issues are (in order):
Defense, Offense, Pitching.
If we win a game 4-1, we say "Great Pitching"
If we win a game 11-4, we say "Great offense"
If we have a game with 4 great defensine plays, that may have been lost 6-4, but instead we win 4-2, we say "Great Pitching".

In 2008, the AL Average for RS/game was 4.78.
In 2008, we LOST 22 games where the other team scoreed 4 or less runs.If we could have won just ONE THIRD of those games (7), we finish with 96 Wins, a game behind TB, and a game AHEAD of Boston.

CC will help out team greatly... no doubt.
But Steve G. says Tex is like upgrading with TWO players, as we have upgrades at positions on BOTH offense and defensive.