I was glad to see Aaron Harang pitch well.
It's weird, because it's not like his stuff has gotten a lot worse, it seems to be an approach thing.
We'll see Sunday against St. Louis.
* Aroldis Chapman pitches in Scranton, the Electric City, tonight.
Speaking of Chapman, Baseball Intellect releases its Top 100 prospects list -- and has Chapman at 8. Because most of these are done in the winter, the ones this year didn't know what to do with Chapman.
BI has Yonder Alonso at 75 and bring up the same old argument -- where to play him with Joey Votto already with the team. It also has Todd Frazier 78, Mike Leake 79 and former Red prospect (and current Blue Jay) Zach Stewart 80.
Also, gives a nod to Chris Heisey as an honorable mention.
* The Hardball Times is high on Mike Leake.
* Reds fans know they can't like Roy Oswalt, but as a human, you feel for him. The good news is his family in Mississippi is fine.
* Big night for Austin Kearns last night.
* FanGraphs looks at what Dave Duncan has done for Brad Penny. How much could it bite the Reds in the ass if Duncan gets his hands on Harang next year...
* Jeff Passan blames organizations, not managers, for the way relievers are used.
* I feel like I harp on the stupidity of booing too often -- but this is inexcusable. For the people of Kansas City to boo Mike Sweeney is like Cincinnatians booing Sean Casey. Just awful.
* I've praised MLB Advanced Media for many of the things they've done, but it has struggled with social media. The latest is banning its writers from Tweeting about non-baseball topics -- that misses a big point of the medium. Part of it is showing personality and being there and not being just baseball. ESPN did the same thing, but that certainly doesn't make it right. MLB.com denies it, but that is just making them look more silly.
I actually do understand them cracking down on players, but on writers who you entrust to write? If you don't trust your writers to know the line when they're writing, why did you hire them?
* Former Cowboys safety Ken Hamlin is in Cincinnati visiting the Bengals.
* Michael Oher, who at last year's combine said he didn't even read the book written about him, is now going to write his own.
* Is JaMarcus Russell poised to take the pressure off Ryan Leaf as the QB bust king?
* SEC commish Mike Slive is happy Lane Kiffin's far, far away.
* I do enjoy doomsday scenarios for conference expansion. Few look good for UC.
* Coco is with 60 Minutes.
* Anchorman 2? After watching Stepbrothers, I'm not as excited about this.
* Seriously, a lot of work goes into a movie. There had to be several people who thought, yeah Furry Vengeance, that's a great idea.
* I've got to agree with The Cincinnati Man on Weezer. And keep in mind, I think Pinkerton is one of the greatest albums of all time.
* The boy scouts are giving out a video game badge? Really? (Joke, also involving the joystick, is taken out here)
* Scripps has sold its licensing rights to Peanuts.
* Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday.
It's weird, because it's not like his stuff has gotten a lot worse, it seems to be an approach thing.
We'll see Sunday against St. Louis.
* Aroldis Chapman pitches in Scranton, the Electric City, tonight.
Speaking of Chapman, Baseball Intellect releases its Top 100 prospects list -- and has Chapman at 8. Because most of these are done in the winter, the ones this year didn't know what to do with Chapman.
BI has Yonder Alonso at 75 and bring up the same old argument -- where to play him with Joey Votto already with the team. It also has Todd Frazier 78, Mike Leake 79 and former Red prospect (and current Blue Jay) Zach Stewart 80.
Also, gives a nod to Chris Heisey as an honorable mention.
* The Hardball Times is high on Mike Leake.
* Reds fans know they can't like Roy Oswalt, but as a human, you feel for him. The good news is his family in Mississippi is fine.
* Big night for Austin Kearns last night.
* FanGraphs looks at what Dave Duncan has done for Brad Penny. How much could it bite the Reds in the ass if Duncan gets his hands on Harang next year...
* Jeff Passan blames organizations, not managers, for the way relievers are used.
* I feel like I harp on the stupidity of booing too often -- but this is inexcusable. For the people of Kansas City to boo Mike Sweeney is like Cincinnatians booing Sean Casey. Just awful.
* I've praised MLB Advanced Media for many of the things they've done, but it has struggled with social media. The latest is banning its writers from Tweeting about non-baseball topics -- that misses a big point of the medium. Part of it is showing personality and being there and not being just baseball. ESPN did the same thing, but that certainly doesn't make it right. MLB.com denies it, but that is just making them look more silly.
I actually do understand them cracking down on players, but on writers who you entrust to write? If you don't trust your writers to know the line when they're writing, why did you hire them?
* Former Cowboys safety Ken Hamlin is in Cincinnati visiting the Bengals.
* Michael Oher, who at last year's combine said he didn't even read the book written about him, is now going to write his own.
* Is JaMarcus Russell poised to take the pressure off Ryan Leaf as the QB bust king?
* SEC commish Mike Slive is happy Lane Kiffin's far, far away.
* I do enjoy doomsday scenarios for conference expansion. Few look good for UC.
* Coco is with 60 Minutes.
* Anchorman 2? After watching Stepbrothers, I'm not as excited about this.
* Seriously, a lot of work goes into a movie. There had to be several people who thought, yeah Furry Vengeance, that's a great idea.
* I've got to agree with The Cincinnati Man on Weezer. And keep in mind, I think Pinkerton is one of the greatest albums of all time.
* The boy scouts are giving out a video game badge? Really? (Joke, also involving the joystick, is taken out here)
* Scripps has sold its licensing rights to Peanuts.
* Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday.
Isn't Boy Scout rule #1 "Go the hell outside?"
Ah yes, but how much could it bite the Cardinals if the Reds get their hands on LaRussa and Duncan next year?
Leaf is still the bigger bust until Russell is filmed screaming "knock it off" or gets arrested
I agree C Trent, can't root for Oswalt but it's hard to not feel for a guy when that kind of stuff happens.
Anyway, the best part of the story is that he has a BULLDOZER! Who gives away bulldozers to their pitchers for making it to the series? That's both absurd and awesome.
Jemarcus Russel has been a bust but not a trainwreck of a human being. Ryan Leaf was an immature punk who did have it between the ears once he got to the NFL and liked bullying camera men. Jemarcus seems to just have gotten fat on In and Out or whatever other kind of burgers are served in Oakland. He also doesn't seem to have it between the ears, but at least he's not a dick about it.
I saw "Anchorman 2" on a list of movies that will never get made (which also included the Arrested Development movie). I think it was linked on Fark late last week.
I love how hardball times can take a look at 3 starts and say he has pitchability then predict he's going to have a 3.68ERA on the optimistic side or somewhere around 4 with upside. Seems a bit premature to me, but I'm not paid to make graphs about how a guy pitches 3 games and then guess what he'll do the rest of the year.
Weezer totally sucks now. But for some pre-suck Weezer you can always get into Surfer Blood.
I agree with you on Pinkerton ... an amazing album (more amazing when you realize it's an "reimagingin" of Madam Butterfly). And on the "Furry Venegance" front, I assume you've heard Patton Oswalt's rant about movies/Hollywood in relation to "Death Bed: The Bed That Eats People" (a real movie, look it up)? Classic rant ...