Dan Gould

Will he? Its certainly the $64,000 question (or is that the 30 million dollars a year question?) and the one thing I have to wonder is how much Joe Torre's imminent firing may effect the club in trying to sign A-Rod to an extension or keep Posada and Rivera. In the meantime, I have to wonder how A-Rod feels about getting booed (which hasn't happened that much yet) when Derek McFistPump has been killing the team with DPs but no one gives him a hard time.

Well, I'm not Dan, but the Yankees beat the Red Sox 5 of the last 6 they played, so I sure would rather them face the Indians than the Yankees regardless of who is pitching! Well it certainly looks like it will be the Indians and Patrick will get his wish of having his two aces ready to start Games 1 and 2, but at the same time I have to point out that Manny missed all but about five innings of those 6 games when he hurt his oblique, and now he is back and crushing the ball. I'd still feel pretty good if its the Yankees if Manny is in the lineup and hot as Georgia asphalt.

You really want to do that, Goodie? Now the latest is that Conte has acknowledged giving her the Cream and The Clear. It seems that if anyone wants to fess up, then Conte decides that the "client privilege" no longer applies and he'll start telling the truth. But this clearly has important implications for Goodie's hero. Number one, it shows that the government will go after you for perjury. And number two, Bonds better hope that no one told Jones that Bonds was a client and was getting this "great stuff" too. Because that will be one more nail in his coffin when she can testify about what she was told.

And who's to say that the LCSs won't be exciting? I'm pretty sure neither will be sweeps.

I prefer to deal with Cleveland in any iteration, because this playoff dismissal will put the Yankees into complete turmoil with the end of the Torre era. Or at least the potential for complete turmoil. I would love to see a Yankee win tonight if it guarantees a dominant Sabathia on Sunday but then I'd be concerned that the Yankees would ride the momentum to a series win. So: Don't lose your mojo, Indians. Stay on top of them, work your at-bats, get it done, and may the best team win the pennant in the next round, where they will most assuredly destroy whatever pathetic NL West team wins.

Well, its interesting that there are all these direct quotes, but no real mention of his physical/medical status, except for the lead-in to his "I am in full control" quote. I'd have expected a mention of whether the interview was phone or in person, and how he sounded. Anyway, it seems clear to me an attempt to rally the players, who of course shouldn't need it. Tonight may very well be the end of an era, with Torre and Clemens gone and decisions to be made about Posada, Mo and possibly A-Rod. Posada is set on testing free agency, the interesting thing would be if any of them suddenly have second thoughts about re-signing if they know that Torre is gone. Like I said, could really be the end of an era.

Astute observation, Trot is in fact in the starting lineup! Hopefully this will work and hopefully Clemens won't be nearly as effective as Schilling... I TOLD you he should be in the lineup!!!

He's already said he'd insert Giambi (who owns Westbrook in his career) and I can't imagine pulling Matsui and leaving Mientkiwiecz at first. Even though Matsui is struggling, it makes more sense to keep him in and have Doug available for a late inning defensive replacement if the Yankees have the lead.

Hey Patrick, is there any chance Trot gets the start against the Rocket? Its been five, six, seven years, but he has had some huge hits off the old man.

Ah, now I see. I didn't think I'd given you a good reason for being ornery. A good way to avoid such confusion in the future is not to start a sentence aimed at the general population with someone's name. I always report these things to the appropriate "spoof" addy. In fact I've noticed that the new Hotmail has an option for reporting phishing attempts, unfortunately this one showed up at my gmail account.

As we head into two days of Game 3s with four teams facing elimination, anyone care to make predictions? Which team still has a chance? Which team is toast? Which team is still dangerous? I'd say the team with a chance is the Phils, if their hitting busts out. I also have a feeling that the Angels won't get past Schilling tomorrow. Something about the way Friday's game went, the injury problems, and the recent history against Boston. I think the Red Sox bats will pound on Weaver and provided Schilling doesn't make any egregious mistakes and is kept on a short leash, the Sox should complete the sweep. New York remains the dangerous team for several reasons: They play well at home and are facing fairly mediocre starters; If Wang comes back and pitches well on three days rest, Pettitte pitches Game 5 on regular rest and could repeat his Friday performance. So ... the Tribe needs to go all out to win Sunday night. Hopefully Clemens either doesn't have it or tweaks his groin and walks off the mound in the third with a big deficit and the boos raining down on his mercenary head. I have to stay positive about the Cubs but they can only turn it around if everything swings their way - pitching and hitting.

Anyone else think that their "pitch track" is either calibrated way off or else all of the umpires are having terrible days?

And you're in an equal spot of trouble if you didn't catch the facetiousness of my thread title, or the fact that I pointed out his failure to disguise his phishing URL.

:party:

Well, some of them are. This one, not so much. Yes, they're getting mighty tricky now - this particular phisher didn't even bother to 'disguise' the link, or attempt to duplicate the appearance of a Paypal message.

Thanks for your concern, but the voice is fine. What a critical win, considering how poorly Dice-K looked. Now they can go to LA needing just one, and we shouldn't have to use Dice again in this series. In fact, I am wondering if they plan to readjust the schedule for the ALCS, depending on how long it takes to finish off the Halos. I do think they want to keep Dice on a longer schedule of rest, if possible. Ideally, of course, Schilling gets it done and then the ace, Beckett, is lined up for the first game. But I wonder if they'd skip Dice and have Schilling go in Game 2, if the days of rest work out, which I am pretty certain it will. But a great win, with the bullpen doing its job (I hope no one really thinks Delcarmen was trying to get Vladi out of the game) and finally someone really paid for walking Papi to get to Manny. Now if I could just get the Cubbies in gear, all would be right with the world. But it doesn't get much better than being up 2-0 while the Yanks are down 0-2 and looking at Clemens and Mussina to send it back to the Jake. I just hope that everything holds up the rest of the way, and that the ALCS is as good as it looks like it should be.

If Carmona pitches well today, I wouldn't expect it. And working in the Indians favor is the fact that they had tremendous success against lefty starters this season. Pettitte better put his poor September behind him and pitch like its 1999 or the Yanks will go home the same way that the Cubs are: hoping to go on a three game win streak. I also find it interesting that Torre says he is considering bringing Wang back on three days rest for Game 4. How much of that is worry about Mussina and how much of that is wanting Wang to pitch at home, where he is much more of an ace, than on the road where he's basically mediocre? ************* Patrick, I'm surprised you're asking; the format for all seven game series is as its been since forever. 2 - 3 - 2.

I went to a Catholic school in 7th grade. We were still learning fractions. I wasn't in Catholic school but I know I didn't encounter quadratics before eighth grade, and I was in "advanced" math. Most of my classmates didn't get it until 9th grade.

Yes, and it really boggles the mind that in all of his regular season starts, he has two complete game shutouts while in the post-season he is already tied for second all-time with three. Now we'll see if Dice can follow it up with some magic of his own; seeing as the Angels have never seen him, I have a good feeling that he will. Not to mention the fact that they really only have one home run hitter, Vladi, and if Dice has a problem its the long-ball, I like his chances even more. So long as we hit Escobar, we should be well situated. We'll have to see if the Rockies win was a crushing one for the Phils or not, but no doubt its a very bad day when your one decent starter can't get the win at home. You could say the same thing about the Cubs except for the fact that after the number 1 starters, I think its fairly clear that the Cubbies smoke the D-Backs two and three. That's why I was telling my Mom that while it would be nice, a win in game 1 is not critical. On the other hand, having to face Webb twice in a five game set means its possible that Arizona only has to win one other game.

Unless I missed a third person reference to himself, I don't think aloc wrote this.

There's one big difference in what you said, Matthew: Turns out the Red Sox weren't safely out in front on September 8. So its not really true that Drew came up with some decent stats when it didn't count. It did count down the stretch in allowing them to clinch the division and home field.

Chris, what you actually said was "Realistically, prayer won't do it" - meaning, pray all you want, it can't have any effect on George's health. Not only does it denigrate the beliefs of some people, but Evan's article suggests that, your atheism aside, there are measurable health benefits to spiritual "assistance". Regardless, all that needed to be said is the latter half of your post: "I hope George is getting the best of care and that he regains his health."

Even worse if she found the stash of junk food with the stash of porn. That would be the Organissimo perfect storm of reasons to kill your significant other.

Count me as a fan. The one Argo that must be heard is Early In The Morning which features a front line of Basie players (Frank Foster, Frank Wess, Al Grey, Joe Newman). Great album and well worth the search.

Interesting roster decisions for Boston and the Angels: Bartolo Colon and Gary Matthews are both out for the ALDS. Matthews hurts more than Colon since Colon was out for most of the year anyway, but it leaves a big hole, offensively and defensively, for the Angel lineup. Presumably Figgins moves to the OF, and I don't think that's his best spot. Meanwhile, Wakefield had a cortisone shot in his back on Saturday and is off the roster. They do think/hope that he will be available to make a start in the ALCS and/or World Series if they go that far. Jon Lester is his replacement as starter insurance, which is an interesting choice over Julian Tavarez. Tavarez didn't get much work in September but he certainly has experience coming out of the pen if a starter has to come out early. Lester made his first relief appearance of his career on Sunday, and has been pretty darn inconsistent in his comeback season. I think the two of them are equally likely to blow up a game; they probably went with Lester because he's going to be with the team for a long time while Tavarez' option probably won't be picked up. They also made what I see as a foolish roster decision, carrying three catchers - Tek, Mirabelli and Kevin Cash. The main value Kevin Cash showed was that he could catch Wakefield when Mirabelli was hurt. Now Wakefield isn't on the roster but they keep Cash? Makes no sense, even if Tito talked some BS about making sure that they are covered if/when they need to pinch-run. Does this mean the only time they will pinch run is if Tek/Mirabelli or Cash is on base? And if they do that, that means they don't expect to use Ellsbury as anthing other than pinch runner? I just can't figure out that roster move, but with Matthews out and Colon not coming back to help out, at this point I have to say that it will be a major, infuriating upset if the Angels advance.