Dan Gould

I always felt Girardi was a poor choice and I think you can fairly say that Torre's laid back approach fostered confidence that they could turn things around while Girardi's grinding-his-teeth intensity is not conducive to come backs. But Girardi gets a pass for this season, for better or worse. It will be real interesting to see what happens. I think they have to wave goodbye to Giambi - he can't hit for any sort of average anymore and his splits against power pitchers is atrocious. Only his numbers against "finesse" guys make his season almost look like he still has a productive bat. Abreu is a tougher decision but I think that like Theo made the decision to get younger, so should Cash (assuming he comes back). Abreu's numbers on offense are pretty good but for how much longer? Plus his defense continues to be shoddy when he gets near a wall. Pettitte is a big question mark to me. He probably will decide to return so that he can play in the new stadium, but he shouldn't expect the same 16 million. He's not the guy he used to be. Mussina is another question mark. Does he go out on a high note? If he doesn't can he keep it up and pitch this well again? History suggests otherwise. His success has been a function of not walking batters and keeping the ball in the park. I don't know how you can be certain that he will not only stay healthy again but will maintain that level either. So who do they go after? Teixeira is the obvious choice, and I suspect that the pitching problems this year will mean that they'll throw money at Sabathia. But whatever happens they will still have a fundamentally old roster - Jeter has turned into a singles hitter and is 34; Posada may have trouble with his shoulder and have to play first (so long Teix, we hardly knew ye); Mariano had a great year in save situations but he'll be what, 39? Damon was better but may have to play CF regularly to play out his contract and keep the spot warm for their top position prospect whose name I can't recall. And last but not least there is Matsui, who seems to be paying the price now for being the Iron Man earlier in his career. If healthy he can hit but he should be kept out of the outfield most of the time. Nady will help there but if they let Abreu go, they'll still have an OF spot to fill.

Ken, may I recommend you get yourself a gift from the no longer stupendous, just flat out ridiculous sale? Anyway, have a happy one! :party:

And if Tito is right, this is precautionary more than anything. He told WEEI that he expects Drew to return for this weekend's series against the White Sox. So Kotsay could play once or twice and then find himself the fifth outfielder.

It doesn't bother me since Coco is still mostly flailing with the bat. Kotsay's playing better of late and gives Tito another option. Given the calendar, its difficult to think of a better player they could have gotten.

According to Olney and Gammons, they are talking to him about his no-trade clause. Certainly wouldn't bother me, if the cost isn't significant. Oh no, nothing significant, perhaps just the next Jeff Bagwell perhaps? That shit ain't funny, man.

According to Olney and Gammons, they are talking to him about his no-trade clause. Certainly wouldn't bother me, if the cost isn't significant.

Only Blue Mitchell is available. I'll put it on hold for you.

I'm curious Chuck, how quickly does Rapidshare respond to claims of copyright infringement, and what do they require to "prove" that a rights holder has a legitimate complaint?

UP, because now everything is priced to move! And an update: All domestic orders that have paid have shipped. Foreign orders that have paid will ship tomorrow.

It seems to me that ideally, the things you are hopeless with are the things she handles - makes for a strong team. Kind of like my wife and her mechanical aptitude. I also wonder about the whole "you don't care if we buy a house" difference. That to me is the kind of the thing that you compromise on if it becomes financially feasible to purchase. I wasn't gung ho about buying a house and was used to apartment living; my wife wanted a house and then out of the blue her aunt gave us $10000 towards a down payment, and before I knew it, we were officially house-hunting, and about two months later we had a contract. Growing apart is one thing, but if you are being honest that you wouldn't actively discourage buying a home, what is the problem? Why is this such a big thing to her, if its not even feasible, and you aren't drawing a line in the sand over it anyway? There must be other things going on, deeper conflicts or differences.

Alexander, I'm sorry to hear this and hope that whatever happens ends up for the best for all concerned. But I'm a little confused as to the point of "filing for separation" if you are unable at this point to move out and afford your own place. What changes, legally, after this is done? As to the seemingly popular advice of treating your marriage like its a band-aid and that it should be ripped off as quickly as possible, I'd recommend the opposite. Don't make decisions rashly, and don't assume the final outcome. I think the most important thing is getting into therapy and finding out for sure what the state of your relationship is and whether the marriage can be salvaged.

There's a reason why the opposition always seems to hate Pierzinsky. Do they play the White Sox again before the playoffs, and do you plunk him? If they don't play til the playoffs, do you plunk him then? I vote for drilling him in the next game, whenever it may happen. In the meantime, I had the exact same feeling about our game when Delcarmen came in to try to save it after Papelbon went two shutout innings. I was even more sure after he walked the first batter. But somehow he managed, and you have to be happy with back-to-back series victories before they head to NY to wrap up the last long road trip of the year. After NY we're home for 20 of 29, and if we start the home stand with some wins over Chicago, we can hope to be in decent shape on the wild card.

What it is, I thought you were continually adding new items into your list, and wondered how we'd know what was a new addition and what we'd seen before and decided not to buy... MG Until this listing that compiled every remaining CD, I was posting new portions of the listing in new threads, so everyone knew what was "new" to the sale and what they had seen previously.

Sorry Scott I forgot yours. I'll have it to you shortly.

Here's what I can't get - I extract from a commercial CD using Goldwave. While Goldwave is reading what is in the drive, Windows Media Player launches and correctly identifies the CD. I burn a CDR from the wav files created by Goldwave on my hard drive (I find that burning from the hard drive is better than having Nero burn from the disc drive, as it seems to take less time overall). I pop the CDR into the disc drive, just to be sure there are no problems - it plays, but now WMP does not identify the disc. Don't tell me its a function of extracting the files via Goldwave, because about 75% of the time, the CDR is recognized the same way as the parent disc was. Its just those few times that it doesn't that leaves me confused. On a separate note, it was this same ability of software that recognizes the disc that led to the "catching" of that British woman, the classical pianist who, it was found, ripped off other artists recordings as her own.

OK, I did a quick calculation and the offense has picked up dramatically. Granted, the sample sizes for the periods encompassing the injuries to Longoria and Crawford are fairly small. Still, the uptick is pretty substantial: Since Longoria was injured on Aug. 3 the Rays have scored 87 runs over 17 games for an average of 5.11 runs per game. Since Crawford was injured on Aug. 9 the Rays have scored 59 over 11 games for an average of 5.3 runs per game. In comparison, from March 1 through Aug. 2 (the day before the Longoria injury) the Rays scored 488 runs over 108 games for an average of 4.5 runs per game. We'll see if this holds up. (I just realized that Longoria was called up well after March 1, so I should have started the comparison sample period when he joined the roster, but I'm too lazy to refigure that now. Maybe later. I doubt it would change the number drastically though.) I don't know. Those spring training games have a lot of guys who weren't on the roster, either.

Have to smile; I just read this as the Jays made their pitching change in the top of the 6th. I'd be happy to be proven wrong but while its theoretically possible that Varitek won't hit quite as poorly the rest of the season, I can't even picture Crisp putting his swing back together. And with Drew out, there's no choice in the matter. And a nice win for the Sox as well, as now they have Lester going against Litsch today and Dice-K against Burnett on Sunday. Considering that Dice-K has been especially good on the road, if Lester continues to pitch as he has and the bats don't disappear, they'll have a shot at a sweep on Sunday. Cross fingers. It dawned on me last night that if we can say that the Yankees are in bad shape, six games out with 34 to play, then the Sox can't be in very good shape for the division, 4 1/2 games out with 34 to play. And the worst thing is the Twins/White Sox sticking with them for the Wild Card. Nightmare scenario has to be that the Yankees get eliminated with about a week to go, but then manage to knock the Sox out of the October dance at Fenway in the final series. We need one of those Central division teams to head south fast so that we can get a firm grip on the wild card. At least our chances are improved by the fact that after the Yankee series next week, we'll have 20 of 29 games at home.

Oh boy. Drew diagnosed with a herniated disc. What a fucking asshole that Brian Giles is for refusing to come to a pennant contender. It'll really piss the fucking hell out of me if we don't have the offense to at least hang on to the wild card, but Jesus Christ, there's no fucking way we can win with Coco and Varitek's anemic bats in the lineup.

Well Erik, I would certainly hope not. I mean, its sort of like whether a teetotaler has a problem with people drinking, or a non-smoker with people smoking.

And soon it will be overflowing a little more - I'll be shipping tomorrow.

Gladys is great, but this isn't one of her more memorable tunes. Respectfully disagree, although for entirely personal reasons. The lyrics resonate with me, and Gladys brings the right feeling to them for me. I never hear it without being moved (closer to my wife if she's anywhere near). Exactamundo! I'm guessing that there is another vote for Gladys but its weird - I only see one vote, mine, yet it says that there are two votes total.

I know people hate them all, but I got no problem with the Gladys Knight tune. Shows what a superior voice can do regardless of the material.

I factored that in (and I wouldn't expect that a guy like you who gets promos in the mail probably every day to even partake of my sale, so thanks for the order) and went in knowing that a lot of the BNs, among others, wouldn't find takers.

Well the news is improving today - Buchholz was sent all the way down to AA Portland, to work with the pitching coach who supposedly knows his stuff best, and Lugo had a setback in his rehab and with any luck at all won't even be physically able to perform before next season, when he will be modeling a Pirates uniform.

I don't understand your question, MG.