Pirates Preseason

Since no one responded to the movie post I put up, and spent a lot of time on, I assume interest is almost completely dead on this blog. But, if anyone still wants to discuss the Pirates please do.

I don't know if any of you read the PG Pirates Blog on a daily basis like I have for the last 2+ years, but the love fest Colin Dunlap has been giving to everyone makes it seem like the Buccos are going to win 120 games this year. Here is a summary of some of the players being talked about;

- Neil Walker is working hard at 2B and is looking fantastic, as well as his chemistry with Cedeno.
- Alvarez gained weight, but it is muscle so he should be fine. Translation - he will probably start camp out of shape and have a terrible first few months of the season.
- Tabata put on a lot of muscle and is crushing the ball to both Left and Right-Center. That I believe.
- Garrett Jones is slimed down. Not sure how that will help him because he seemed pretty slim before.
- Corey Wimberly is the next David Eckstein.
- Andrew Lambo is a future all-star
- Rudy Owens is looking excellent
- Jeff Locke is looking excellent
- Ross Ohlendorf works very hard.
- McCutchen is very fast and in run-down practice he could easily have beaten the fielders. Doesn't that say more about the defense?
- Morton is throwing a lot of fastball strikes. Translation - his ERA will drop from 7.57 to 6.57.
- Alex Presley has a nice compact swing. So did Mclouth, so we'll see how that turns out.
- Ryan Doumit is working hard on his defense, and so far is excelling. Translation - he will be an all-star catcher for another team.
- Matt Diaz is roping the ball and is good buddies with Cutch
- Paul Maholm increased his arm strength and is throwing 90 MPH now (just kidding...)
- Kevin Correia will shock everyone and finish as our ace. Translation - the rest of our pitchers are terrible.

That is all I can think of for now. I'm not saying he is lying or exaggerting in any way, but not once has he mentioned anyone looking bad. Do you think a beat writer covering the Pirates should be fair and balanced, or should he say the things that will make all the fans happy and delusional? In my opinion I would like to know which players have not progressed and what they need to work on so I at least have some idea of how they might perform this season. I know there are other sites that probably go over the weaknesses more in depth, but Dunlap has the most access to the team and should be in the best position to realistically evaluate players. Let me know what you think.

(Fantasy baseball time yet?)

The Year in Movies: 2010

I went on a movie bender the last month or so and have now seen most of the movies from 2010 that I wanted to see, with the notable exception of Scott Pilgrim v. the World and 127 Hours. In my opinion, this was an excellent year for movies and I enjoyed almost everyone I saw. Here are my rankings for the year as well as my Oscar picks;

The King's Speech
True Grit
Black Swan
Kick-Ass
Inception
The Social Network
The Fighter
The Kids Are All Right
How to Train Your Dragon
Toy Story 3
The Crazies
Shutter Island
Easy A
Winter's Bone
Despicable Me
Robin Hood
The Town
The Book of Eli
Salt
The A-Team
The Expendables
Clash of the Titans
The Other Guys
Date Night
Daybreakers
Legion
Saw: The Final Chapter
Alice in Wonderland
Valentine's Day
The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
From Paris With Love

Best Animated Feature: How to Train your Dragon - Toy Story 3 is overrated, and seemed like it wanted to make you cry just for the sake of it. If I go by entertainment alone, Dragon would be my top pick. I did not see the Illusionist.

Best Director: My nominees would be very different from the actual nominees. I would nominate; Christopher Nolan (Inception), Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (True Grit), Tom Hooper (The King's Speech). It is hard to argue against Hooper winning since King's Speech will win best picture, but in terms of scope and degree of difficulty, it would have to be Nolan. On a side note, did anyone else notice the Tarantino influence in Kick-Ass, especially in the last scene? It had a definitely Kill Bill feel to it.

Best Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit). She was outstanding. Melissa Leo (The Fighter) will win though.

Best Supporting Actor: Matt Damon (True Grit) - He is not even nominated but I am giving him a write-in vote. His character was the best in an otherwise amazing movie and I feel he got robbed in favor of Jeremy Renner. The Town was not very good, or original, and he was not even in the movie very much. If I have to pick one of the nominees, it would be Christian Bale (The Fighter).

Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan) will and should win. The final scene in Black Swan is one of the most moving I've ever seen.

Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech) will and should win. Best performance of the year by a long shot.

Best Picture: The King's Speech. I am very surprised that The Social Network was the early favorite. In my opinion, it is not even close. This was the most emotional I was in the theater since Gladiator, which is basically how I judge movies...

It would be pointless to do an Oscar's poll this year since most of the awards are set, but I'd be up for it anyway.