Carnival of Madness

Come on, congress it’ll be money well spent. It’ll help me help the economy or whatever shit you want to believe.Congressional stooge Barney Frank, complained afterward that the Republicans didn’t pull their weight, of course Democrats had 94 members vote against it. Maybe instead of complaining about Republicans, they could have gotten 12 of those Democrats to vote for it, since they’re in the same party. Yeah, the majority of Republicans voted against, which is probably the one smart thing they’ve done in a long time. The Democrats wanted the Republicans to sign on too so that if the thing didn’t fix the economy, the Republicans can’t come back and say it’s the Democratic congress’ fault because they passed the bill while the Republicans voted against it.

Fortunately, for everyone involved, we don’t need congress to approve the bill:

The Federal Reserve will pump an additional $630 billion into the global financial system

Yep, so the fed will get out the printing press and make more fake money so that it can save the economy. Wanna fix the economy? Restore the gold standard, lower taxes, get rid of 90% of the government. Period, end of story….

Well another season of Major League Baseball is all but in the books. Just one more game tomorrow afternoon to make up the game between the Tigers and White Sox. If the Tigers win, the Twins win the division and the Sox are going home for the season. If the White Sox win, then there’s another game to determine the winner of the division between the Twins and Sox. Otherwise, all the other teams are done. The Pirates are finished. I’ve just been taking in the final game today. The next one won’t be until April 6th, or 190 days. 6 months, 9 days. No idea what I’ll watch until then.This was a very typical Pirates season and not so typical season. I think most of the drama was related to the future and not the current team. Most of it was about Pedro Alvarez and the draft class. Already there seems to be some bright spots from that draft like Matt Hague and Jarek Cunningham. Then there’s the current team. Until about July 31st, the pitching was terrible. Suddenly, they got a bunch of the other guys, the pitching got better, but then the team couldn’t hit. I can remember games where the Pirates would score 6 or 7 runs and still lose. Meanwhile, after July 31st the pitching got better but suddenly without Bay and Nady they couldn’t get enough runs anymore.

Best game of the season, easily the 12-11 win over the Cardinals on July 12th that ended with a Jason Michaels two run homer. Behind 10-4 entering the bottom of the 8th, I gave up and tuned back in later when it was 11-10, Cardinals in the bottom of the 10th. Right after I tuned back in, Michaels hit his homerun. Second best was the game I went to they won on July 24th. That was cool. Third best was the Jason Bay game winning home run in the bottom of the 14th on May 24th, I was at the wedding that day so I watched most of that game at Champs in a tux with a cowboy hat on and a mug of beer. Worst game, easily the June 30th game where Ken Griffey Jr. ruined a Pirates one run win with a two run homerun in the bottom of the ninth. The Brewers bottom of the 10th grandslam the other day was pretty shitty. Then that game I went to in Milwaukee was shitty as well.

Then there’s the Mets and Brewers thing. I don’t like the Brewers, but it was nice to see the Mucking Fets blow it again. I mean for the second year in a row, the Mets lost it all on the last day, again. Meanwhile, it was pretty cool seeing the craziness at Miller Park. 26 years of playoff drought ended and now they’re off to Philly to face a team the’re 1-5 against this season. I bet they are wishing they will play the Pirates in the first round. If not for the pure awfulness of the Pirates against Milwaukee, they wouldn’t be close to the playoffs if not for the Pirates. Maybe all the Brewers should send them Christmas and Thank-You cards.

Next season for the Pirates starts today. First of all, there’s the draft, which Huntington and Greg Smith has to score another A. Get great picks, take another Boras client, get him signed on time this time around and make sure he gets those good picks in the later rounds. As much as the Alvarez thing sucked, it was better than taking a sign-ability pick like in 2007. Then there’s the need to get McLouth and Doumit some good long term contracts, as long as they don’t hand out absurd amounts of money. They need to find a Mienty-type free agent that’s not gonna cost them big money to fill up the bench for another year. Need to find pitching that’s not gonna bankrupt them. Oh yeah and trade Jack Wilson and put in Brian Bixler for next season, not much difference there.

Football. Today at the family picnic, I said that Brett Favre didn’t look good so far as a Jet and that the Packers were better off without him and with Aaron Rodgers. The Packers probably saw something they didn’t like and were willing to trade him. Of course I come home and the Jets win 56-35 and the Packers lost to Tampa Bay. Um…. oops.

Ok, now it’s done. Other Pirates fans and myself have gone through the draft, the signing deadline, the hearing, the surprise and sudden signing and now he has arrived in Pittsburgh, signed the contract and heading off to instructional league and then probably to winter ball in Hawaii or the Arizona Fall League.Of course, in the press conference, Pedro was asked by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Dejan Kovacevic about mending fences with the Pirates and the Pittsburgh community and responded:

I just want the fans of Pittsburgh to judge me as the professional player that I am now, to judge me on the player that I am. I will work my hardest to be the best player I can be, to be a leader on and off the field in the community. It’s a big day for me and my family. When I was a little kid, me and my mom dreamed of this. And the fact that it’s a reality now … all I can say is, starting today, I will be the best player I can be. This is a hard, blue-collar community just like where I grew up, and my family instilled that work ethic in me. That’s what’s going to happen. I’ll work my hardest and be the best I can be.

Wow, seems pretty good. He seems like a nice guy and doesn’t seem to have any ill will towards the Pirates or Pittsburgh. But that doesn’t stop some guy commenting on the Post-Gazette blog saying crap like:

My seats are 6 rows behind the Buccos dugout. I can not wait to BOOOOOOOO the weasel that is Alvarez, out of Pittsburgh.

Yes, let’s Boo the best draft pick the Pirates have made since Barry Bonds right out of town. What a fucking dumb ass. I hope he feels like a real dumb ass when he’s in a ballpark with 35,000 other people and he’s the only one booing him…When it comes to the current Pirates team, Paul Maholm gave up 6 walks tonight against CC Sabathia. The Pirates are 1-13 against the Brewers with one game left. I can’t imagine that they’d be 2-13 after tomorrow night and I’d like to see the Brewers in the playoffs, so for the greater good of keeping the Mucking Fets out, I hope the Brewers win tomorrow and the Mets lose. Basically they have to win four of four games and the Mets will have to lose just one more than the Brewers.

Having done almost nothing except listening to the radio the last week, I have come up with a list of my favorite Real Men of Genius commercials:
1. Mr Mail Order Bride Orderer

2. Mr Fantasy Football Manager Guy

3. Mr Cell Phone Holster Wearer.

4. Mr Stadium Scoreboard Proposal Guy

5. Mr. Pro Sports Heckler Guy

6.Mr Airline Meal Chef

Yep, they’re fucking awesome…like tits.

Hahaha.In other news, the computer fund is building up fast. I have almost $900, compared to the day the iBook broke down, when I had basically nothing set in the fund. Now I have nearly half and with 7 days left and lots of work to do, it could turn out that I won’t need to dip in to my emergency fund at all. That’d be way awesome…

Yeah, today sucked.

ugh.

And the Pirates are losing to the Brewers. I should skip work and go see them tomorrow night. They’d probably lose though and there’s plenty of work still to do. Going to a game would really cut in to my new computer fund too.

Well, the one month and one week long drama which was Pedro Alvarez and the MLBPA filing a greivence against Major League Baseball is over with. Pedro late last night (before midnight…) agreed to a major league contract worth $6.355 million. So once again Scott Boras got the contract he wanted, which is the highest paid contract for the draft class this year.Oh well, it’s over with. The Pirates got the biggest bat in the draft for at least 6 major league seasons and Boras got the money he wanted and a major league contract for someone who has yet to play anything above college ball.

Watching the Iowa-Pitt game now. It’s weird to not want a Pittsburgh team to win. The game was this afternoonThere’s still a Pirates game tonight. Then the final home game of the season tomorrow. And later tomorrow afternoon, there’s the Steelers game (yah for local channels carrying the game), so I’ll get to see at least 7 now, I think).

Unfortunately, there’s also the corn to chop so I don’t have a lot of time to watch the games, or do much of anything else. I thought there would be food here tonight to eat, but instead we’re gonna go out.

Oh yeah, the Cubs won the division again today. Ugh. So let’s see that’s 3 times in 6 seasons. Um, yeah, I don’t know what their fans are bitching about anymore. Oh yeah, no World Series since 1908. At this point, i kinda wish they’d win it all, then maybe they’d all shut up about that 1908 thing. These Cubs are still not as good as the 90-92 Pittsburgh Pirates. In a head to head match, the Pirates would own the 07-08 Cubs.

Oh yeah, the Yankees are finished for the season. not going to the playoffs for the first time since 1994, the strike year. it’s incredibly likely they would have been a playoff team if not for the strike.

That’s all for now, I guess.

Geez, Bob Smizik should stop stealing money from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and turn in a good column someday. I suppose, he’s just hired to write a bunch, good or bad. Unfortunately, there’s a lot more bad than good.First there’s the claim that trading Salomon Torres was a big mistake. No argument here, but you really can’t blame the front office for this one. He was turning 36 years old this year, an age when a lot of guys, if they aren’t retired already, are heading in that general direction. Last year he had a 1.405 WHIP and a big fat 5.47 ERA and his ERA+ was just 80. After trading Mike Gonzalez to get Adam LaRoche before the 2007 season, he was named the team’s closer. Big mistake as he blew many early save opportunities last year. So he was demoted to the middle reliever guy role and Matt Capps was named the closer. It seems to me that they didn’t trade him because he was a nuisance, but probably because he just wasn’t very good last year. If he had a bad season, I doubt many people would be saying that it was a salary dump, but instead saying he’s just on his way out and the Pirates saved themselves money on a declining player. His lifetime ERA+ is 102 which means he’s average and his lifetime 1.41 WHIP isn’t exactly great. So he losses this argument when you just look at Torres’ stats. He went on to say that Torres is a star in Milwaukee. Um, nope, he’s just the closer. Matt Capps is a great closer, does that make him a star? I don’t think so. They probably should have gotten more for him, but that’s Monday Morning GMing right there.

Next up, the obligatory bashing Andy LaRoche sentence about him hitting .150 in 107 at bats. I have to admit it sucks to see him not hit all that well, considering the Pirates gave up Jason Bay to get him (and three other guys) but is it really fair to write him off already. In 2005, Chris Duffy was called up to the majors and had a .341 in 126 at bats. Basically everyone was ready to elevate him to god hood when the wheels came off in 2006 and he pretty much did nothing in 2007, except get hurt. Now a days, he’s stuck in the minors and he’s doing pretty bad. It’s absurd to write Any LaRoche off this early. If it’s a year from now and he’s still hitting .150 as a full time one year starter, then it’ll be time make noise about how awful that acquisition was.

In the middle of all this trade talk is just the bad. No mention of how “Bone Crusher” Brandon Moss won the game last night with a double (or how he’s doing ok since becoming a Pirate). No mention of Jose Tabata tearing up AA ball in Altoona since he was traded for the X-Man. No mention of how Marte has a 5.87 ERA and his ERA+ is 50 points lower with the Yankees. No mention of Jeff Karstens almost throwing a perfect game.

But the general complaint in that whole article was how much the Pirates are cutting payroll and all that. The funny part is that according this article, which appeared right along side the Bob Smizik column, the Pirates will increase payroll to pay for the 6 guys who are arbitration eligible, including McLouth and Doumit, both of whom are expected to be offered long term contracts from the Pirates that will raise their salaries in to 7 figures.

Of course it’s about money, the fact is that Neal Huntington has probably a set budget and he has to deal with the fact that a lot of guys will start to make more money next year and there’s a bunch of spare part players who are already gonna make a lot of money next year and it requires the Pirates to trade off some of the more expensive parts. Jose Bautista and Salomon Torres are not a big loss. It’s probably either A. Pay for Major League players who will at most win 80 games or B. Spend the money on the draft, player development and filling up the minor league system, which the Brewers and Rays have built their winning teams.

The fact is that the Pirates can’t build for the future and win at the major league level at the same time. They and most other small market teams can’t afford it, A’s GM Billy Beane said as much when he traded off a lot of his team for minor league and young talent. Whether or not the Pirates are successful is something we won’t find out for a few more years. I’m pretty sure after 16 years of losing, we can wait a little bit longer…

When I got the laptop on July 21, 2004, the Pirates beat the Braves 4-3 at Turner Field in Atlanta, Ga. Yesterday, the Pirates beat the Cardinals 10-2 in Pittsburgh, PA.

Let’s compare:July 21, 2004 starting lineup: 
1. J. Kendall C 
2. J. Wilson SS 
3. R. Mackowiak 3B 
4. C. Wilson RF 
5. J. Bay LF 
6. T. Redman CF 
7. R. Simon 1B 
8. J. Castillo 2B 
9. K Benson P
So just one guy starting that day is still with the Pirates: Jack Wilson. In fact, just four guys remain from that roster: Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez, John Grabow and Sean Burnett. Amazing how much turn over there’s been and yet so little progress.

Here’s yesterday’s starting line up in Pittsburgh:
1. N. Morgan LF 
2. L. Cruz 2B 
3. N. McLouth CF 
4. Ad. LaRoche 1B 
5. B. Moss RF 
6. An. LaRoche 3B 
7. R. Chavez C 
8. B. Bixler SS 
9. P. Maholm P
Of course Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez are hurt right now so they’re not even playing. It’s like a whole new team since I got the computer, but it’s really like nothing changed since that day. New and smarter manager and maybe a better GM and team president. But that’s about it. Whoa, this whole thing is blowing my mind!

Today was sultry and wet and sloppy and rainy. It’s like today was a piece of bread soaked in a glass of water for a few hours.

It wasn’t good today. My iBook generally quit working, I’ll use it for a few minutes and then it’ll freeze. So I’ll reboot it a few minutes later and it’ll freeze again and one time it froze while I was booting up. And I kept it turned off for several hours and it was still being bad. I should be able to save everything to my Time Machine hard drive at some point. It sounds bad. I guess I’ll soon have to get a new MacBook. I heard the new ones are coming on October 14th, so I guess it’ll be that day when I buy it. I really didn’t plan on buying a new laptop until next year, so this will take care of my emergency fund. It’ll probably just be a new MacBook and not a Pro or Air.

Until then I have Jesse’s ugly, gigantic heavy HP laptop to lug around. I want my Mac back. It sucks without it, but it makes sense to wait until the new ones come out. It could mean that I’ll have to use this thing until early to mid November. Already I’m getting really pissed off at this stupid piece of junk. I keep reaching to hit the shift button and instead my finger hits the up button. So yeah, the shift button is freaking huge on the Mac. On this thing it’s really tiny and if you are off by a little bit you’ll hit the up button or the / button.

Mitchell was a good laptop. He survived many days, about 1,514 days to be exact, 4 years 1 month 22 days. Minus a few days that it spent getting fixed in early 2006, but still a good long time. I got it a few days before the 2004 DNC Convention. So it lasted an entire presidential administration. I suppose that’s pretty good for $2000 or $1.32 a day. Now it’s all just a matter of getting everything sorted out on this laptop. I’m gonna be without music for a while, but I do have it all on my iPod. The hard part will be getting all my work files, budget and gas files to this computer. Perhaps a project for lunch tomorrow. Also it would seem that Mac has a recycling program for old computers so I’ll probably just send Mitchell in when I get my new laptop. Thus Mitchell won’t be wasting space here at home, it can do that at the Mac place where ever that is. Reading through the Apple Recycling thing, it says it takes mice too so I could get rid of my old Mighty Mouse since it doesn’t work anymore either. And I love this:

Beginning Jan. 1, 2005, the state of California began requiring that customers pay a small fee on certain electronics purchases to cover the cost of future recycling and disposal

HAHAHA! Apple can’t even let people get rid of their stuff for free without the assholes in the state of California stepping in and charging stupid fees.

Now to spend the last half hour before bed time trying to up date Time Machine.