I can't recall the last post I put up here, if there were any at all. I'm not even sure if I should be posting on the pancake or on my own blog - I just chose here because I think mine may have atrophied by now.
Anyways, this has been an interesting couple of weeks for me. I've officially been unemployed during that span, for reasons I'm not sure I'm at liberty to disclose. At least that's what the agreement I signed says - which always confused me: what if I had blogged before signing? Would I be legally in the clear then? Hmmm. Either way, it boiled down to my company having some internal strife and my department getting axed entirely. Kinda lame, actually. The strange part is, leading up to the end of days I didn't feel any apprehension, or even loss. I wouldn't say I was upbeat, per se, but to the untrained eye I may as well have been.
I don't want to say that I didn't like my job; I loved the people, the end product, the processes by which that end product comes to fruition. Even the day-to-day work wasn't so bad - and yet I remained unfulfilled on almost a daily basis. I'm not exactly sure why that is, though. Maybe it's some deep seeded belief that I'm destined for more than where I was headed. Maybe it's because my fantasy team was a bunch of underachievers.
All I know is that when that last day came it didn't feel like a burden was heading my way, but rather like the last day of school before summer vacation. Like the whole world was out there waiting for me, I just had to heed it's call. Thoughts of catching up on some reading (books were purchased), finally learning to play Scar Tissue in its entirety (the guitar was taken out of storage), finishing up that screenplay (a notebook was purchased... even though it all goes down in Word, so that was a waste of money), taking up Japanese again (the associated Rosetta Stone was "acquired") all danced through my head. And what happens? 14 days of movies, video games, live E3 coverage, and Sam Adams Summer Ale.
Now, my severance should be able to tide me over for a while, but if I'm not going to pursue other avenues of potentiality, the least I could be doing is busting out a job search every now and again.
Sigh
The next seven days will decide everything...
Friday, June 5, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Another All-Star Bites the Dust
First it was Brian Giles, then Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton. Both with mixed reactions and results. The Ramirez and Lofton trade brought back the Pirates a second basemen with a baseball IQ below the mendoza line and a bag peanuts. Who am I to argue, I like peanuts. But the Giles trade brought us back 2 all-star calliber players in Oliver Perez and Jason Bay. Ollie started to fizzle so the Pirates ousted him, but Bay...oh Bay; He was a different story. He was our All-star. He became the face of the franchise for a short while averaging about 30 Hr's and 100 RBI's a season while he donned a Pirates uni. However as we all know, Bay along with Nady (who both had another year on their contract left) were traded with Damaso Marte to the Red Sox and Yankees Respectively, to trim payroll and get rid of the head ache of having to shell over multiple millions of dollars to a couple guys who would certainly be worth the money the Pirates cannot afford to give, to bolster a weak minor league system with a few prospects. In my opinion at least one of those prospects seems like he may work out in Andy LaRoche, who is hitting .300, and has an OBP around .370. Both respectible, but a little more power (2 HR's all season) couldn't hurt. Jose Tabata seems like a ligitimate future star, but he still has a couple of years to grow, Hanson needs to learn some control, that and get healthy, and I'm still in the wait and see mode for Moss, who I think was the worthless piece thrown in, but I digress. The trade has been OK, for the Pirates, it was a complete failure for the Yankees (haha!), but it has been Gold for the Red Sox and Jay-Bay who is making a run at making it back-to-back seasonal MVP's for the Red Sox Affiliate.
The first major move by Huntington and Company, had most everyone in Pittsburgh second guessing his scouting savvy. His managerial prowess of assessing the future stars for the franchise from players still in professional diapers spitting up on themselves, gurgling, and doing it all over again and calling it progress, has most of us scratching our heads. But, we give him the benefit of the doubt because it doesn't seem as if he's trying to make progress for progresses sake. Maybe it's because he looks so much like the kid on MAD magazine that we look the other way when he starts analyzing the trade market or available free agents (craig monroe?). Or, it could've been the contract extensions he gave to the Pirates "Core" Players four months ago, that we all figured Hunt and Co. are headed in the right direction and have the right idea for the future of the currently miserable franchise.
Signing Ryan Doumit and Paul Maholm were big deals for us. It signalled the end of a losing era, the beginning of a bright future from 2 above average players who were ready to take one more step to start calling themselves all-stars. Hell, even fantasy experts started to agree with that assessment, ranking Ryan Doumit in the top 8 of catchers and maholm, well maholm didn't get the best ranking #81 for starting pitchers, but he was the best ranked pirates pitcher since Jason Schmidt. Then just when there was a peep of rejoicing the Pirates signed Nate "the great" McClouth to a multi-year deal and solidifying him as the face of our franchise and my peep upgraded to a hollow belch. His ranking was in the top 15 of outfielders, ranking him ahead of ichiro, crawford, upton, abreu, etc., and make people (me especially) to start praising the work of the Pirates front office and can't wait to see what will happen after we get that 17th consecutive losing season(you all know it was going to happen regardless). I was thinking .500 was right around the corner in 2010, the playoffs in 2012 and beyond. But, my burping parade was smothered with a fistful of lemons and my hopes of a .500 season dashed as I can faintly hear Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" as an anthem towards the remainder of the Pirates season after Hunt n Co. traded away "...your best all around player..." as stated by Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson.
Gorkys Hernandez, Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke...say hello to your 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates! Atleast thats when they are projected to POSSIBLY make a difference in our franchise. Gorkys Ma-Morkys is playing very well in Double A ball and was the Braves number 4 ranked prospect. Locke, the 7th ranked prospect out of the Braves system, is kind of struggling in A ball, but is left handed, so that makes him valuable despite his 5+ ERA and his worse than 2-1 strike out to walk ratio (43 K's/26 BB's) . Morton is another story all together. He wasn't even ranked, but he is dominating triple A and should be seen in a pirates uniform in the coming month, barring any injury. He's got the frame of a pitcher at 6'4", and throws a mid-90's fastball and is crushing triple A hitters with a 7-2 record, 2.51 ERA and 55 K's to 16 BB's. He's 25, so he's in that stage where he's still young but his window of opportunity is closing. Not as quickly as the Pirates 2009 season, but still it's not as bright as it used to be.
Now, I have to question...Why even give Nate that extension if you were just going to trade him away? It's not as if the Pirates aren't financially stable that we have to unload contract after contract. The front office has been making strides in so many directions. They have invested in expanding over seas, have been building a brand new training facility in the dominican, have shown us how eager they are to put a winning product in the most beautiful stadium in baseball. Why then would they put so much of pittsburgh.500 baseball hope on Nates slender 5'11" frame only to give it away to the team who is so good at destroying pittsburgh baseball dreams (NLCS '91&'92). I can't help but invision Nate making the game winning slide in the bottom of the 9th inning mirroring Sid Bream's gloriously mocking smile as Nate hands us our 82nd loss of the 2009 season and once again dashes my pittsburgh baseball hopes and dreams and for the 17th time in 17 years I toast to the future of my God-Damned Pirates Baseball team, always to the future, never to the next series or the next game as it should, always to the future. I give my silent toast, raise my empty Iron City can, strike up the band and turn up the volume on "::bum:: ::bum:: ::bum:: ::ah:: Another one Bites the Dust!"
Gotta love that Pirates baseball!
The first major move by Huntington and Company, had most everyone in Pittsburgh second guessing his scouting savvy. His managerial prowess of assessing the future stars for the franchise from players still in professional diapers spitting up on themselves, gurgling, and doing it all over again and calling it progress, has most of us scratching our heads. But, we give him the benefit of the doubt because it doesn't seem as if he's trying to make progress for progresses sake. Maybe it's because he looks so much like the kid on MAD magazine that we look the other way when he starts analyzing the trade market or available free agents (craig monroe?). Or, it could've been the contract extensions he gave to the Pirates "Core" Players four months ago, that we all figured Hunt and Co. are headed in the right direction and have the right idea for the future of the currently miserable franchise.
Signing Ryan Doumit and Paul Maholm were big deals for us. It signalled the end of a losing era, the beginning of a bright future from 2 above average players who were ready to take one more step to start calling themselves all-stars. Hell, even fantasy experts started to agree with that assessment, ranking Ryan Doumit in the top 8 of catchers and maholm, well maholm didn't get the best ranking #81 for starting pitchers, but he was the best ranked pirates pitcher since Jason Schmidt. Then just when there was a peep of rejoicing the Pirates signed Nate "the great" McClouth to a multi-year deal and solidifying him as the face of our franchise and my peep upgraded to a hollow belch. His ranking was in the top 15 of outfielders, ranking him ahead of ichiro, crawford, upton, abreu, etc., and make people (me especially) to start praising the work of the Pirates front office and can't wait to see what will happen after we get that 17th consecutive losing season(you all know it was going to happen regardless). I was thinking .500 was right around the corner in 2010, the playoffs in 2012 and beyond. But, my burping parade was smothered with a fistful of lemons and my hopes of a .500 season dashed as I can faintly hear Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" as an anthem towards the remainder of the Pirates season after Hunt n Co. traded away "...your best all around player..." as stated by Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson.
Gorkys Hernandez, Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke...say hello to your 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates! Atleast thats when they are projected to POSSIBLY make a difference in our franchise. Gorkys Ma-Morkys is playing very well in Double A ball and was the Braves number 4 ranked prospect. Locke, the 7th ranked prospect out of the Braves system, is kind of struggling in A ball, but is left handed, so that makes him valuable despite his 5+ ERA and his worse than 2-1 strike out to walk ratio (43 K's/26 BB's) . Morton is another story all together. He wasn't even ranked, but he is dominating triple A and should be seen in a pirates uniform in the coming month, barring any injury. He's got the frame of a pitcher at 6'4", and throws a mid-90's fastball and is crushing triple A hitters with a 7-2 record, 2.51 ERA and 55 K's to 16 BB's. He's 25, so he's in that stage where he's still young but his window of opportunity is closing. Not as quickly as the Pirates 2009 season, but still it's not as bright as it used to be.
Now, I have to question...Why even give Nate that extension if you were just going to trade him away? It's not as if the Pirates aren't financially stable that we have to unload contract after contract. The front office has been making strides in so many directions. They have invested in expanding over seas, have been building a brand new training facility in the dominican, have shown us how eager they are to put a winning product in the most beautiful stadium in baseball. Why then would they put so much of pittsburgh.500 baseball hope on Nates slender 5'11" frame only to give it away to the team who is so good at destroying pittsburgh baseball dreams (NLCS '91&'92). I can't help but invision Nate making the game winning slide in the bottom of the 9th inning mirroring Sid Bream's gloriously mocking smile as Nate hands us our 82nd loss of the 2009 season and once again dashes my pittsburgh baseball hopes and dreams and for the 17th time in 17 years I toast to the future of my God-Damned Pirates Baseball team, always to the future, never to the next series or the next game as it should, always to the future. I give my silent toast, raise my empty Iron City can, strike up the band and turn up the volume on "::bum:: ::bum:: ::bum:: ::ah:: Another one Bites the Dust!"
Gotta love that Pirates baseball!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
VOTE!
Come on people, voting is low this week. Marisa Miller is hot, so take 5 minutes to vote for her!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
AAAA Baseball at its Best
I went to the Nationals / Pirates game last night and was treated to quite a pitcher's duel(ha). The Pirates have won 5 straight games, but winning 3 straight against the Nats is like beating a blind kid in a seeing contest. Anyway, here's a recap of my night:
5:30 - Leave work and hope to get home by 550 so we can leave for the 7 oclock game at 6.
5:45 - Hit horrendous traffic.
6:05 - Arrive home in an extremely bad mood, not even caring if I go or not anymore.
6:10 - Leave anyway, without directions to the parking lot where we prepaid to park in, expecting to arrive around 6:40.
6:40 - Have been sitting in stand still traffic because of an accident. At least at this point, it is laughable.
7:05 - Game starts, I am not there. Why can't they start at 730??
7:20 - Finally get into the city, but now I can't find the parking lot, and GPS cannot help me.
7:40 - Find the parking lot that was labeled poorly after driving around the Capitol Building 3 times.
7:41 - Kick myself because the lot is right off the offramp that comes into the city.
7:50 - Arrive at the stadium after about a 10 minute walk (yes I paid 18 dollars to walk 10 minutes to the stadium). Oh, and I saw free parking right next to the lot I was in.
7:51 - Enter the gates and see on the scoreboard outside that it's only the bottom of the 2nd inning...Oh baseball and its slowness. This is when I first notice the large number of people with Pirates hats and jerseys on. The vendors outside the gate were selling as much Pirate gear as Nats...
7:55 - Get food before we get to our seats because we are famished. Some Pirates fans see my Pens shirt and yell "GO PENS." I smile.
8:00 - Get to the seats in the beautiful stadium (no sarcasm). It really is a nice place, just a severe lack of fans. There are a mix of Nats and Pirates fans around me, but not many people at all. I am in the lower section, about 30 rows behind third base. Definitely great seats.
8:00-9:35ish - Neither team can muster up much offense as both teams had their aces on the mound. It is a 1-1 game going to the top of the 9th, and Leigh begins to get anxious. She refuses to stay past 1015, so I guess this game better end soon.
9:40 - Thank God for Joel Hanrahan. He loaded the bases with 1 out, and after Brandon Moss couldn't get the run home, Hanny threw a wild pitch (which followed about 10 pitches in the dirt, one had to get by eventually) and the Pirates scored their second run. Pirates fans stood up and cheered, and Nats fans began to leave.
9:50 - Enter Matt Capps. Leigh is excited because the game will end soon, but I warn her that Capps is terrible and this could go to extra's. After giving up a hit and me thinking the game was over, he gets a double play inducing ground ball, and things are looking up. In steps Willingham, who is struggling but definitely has some pop. Well Capps lays a fat one in there and Willy crushes it. I haven't seen a home run in person in a looong time, so from my angle this looked way gone. I groaned to myself as I realized I probably wouldn't get to watch the end of the game, but luckily the ball fell JUST short and Nate was able to snare it. The 3 very loud drunk Nats fans booed their team and yelled sarcastically "damn, this is so surprising!" And other similar phrases. I feel bad for them...maybe we can let them win 1 game this series.
10:00 - Actually left when I had hoped we would, and the drive home was much more pleasant.
Oh, one other note that I forgot - Sean Burnett came in in like the 8th, pitched to a lefty, gave up a hit or walk or something, and was pulled. I figured it was for a righty to match up with the next hitter...then I noticed the hitter was a lefty and Grabow was coming in. Wow, John Russell has a lot of confidence in Burnett...
In semi-related news, my friend Haley, who probably only Ryan knows and who Kevin had a thing for, got Ian Snell's phone number 2 nights ago at the bar she works at. She is short and curvy, and decently attractive and works at a bar that promotes hot girls. She dances in beer baths and stuff...Anyway, she didn't even know who Snell was, she just said she got a Pirates' phone number and his name was Ian...Nice. She did disclose the fact that she has a bf to him, so good for her I guess...I hope something comes out of it though, because it would be pretty cool to be in with a major leaguer.
UPDATE: Here's what Haley told me: "He's pretty attractive, I was tempted, seeing he has like a 9 million dollar contract, but i didn't even know he was a baseball player until one of the periogies told me who he was! More importantly I met Oliver Onion Perogie and i"m gonna go root for him tonight at the game, ha. I may or may not text Ian and say good luck, just to see. He said he would fly me out to parties in Houston and Miami, I'd be down for that ;)" Good stuff.
5:30 - Leave work and hope to get home by 550 so we can leave for the 7 oclock game at 6.
5:45 - Hit horrendous traffic.
6:05 - Arrive home in an extremely bad mood, not even caring if I go or not anymore.
6:10 - Leave anyway, without directions to the parking lot where we prepaid to park in, expecting to arrive around 6:40.
6:40 - Have been sitting in stand still traffic because of an accident. At least at this point, it is laughable.
7:05 - Game starts, I am not there. Why can't they start at 730??
7:20 - Finally get into the city, but now I can't find the parking lot, and GPS cannot help me.
7:40 - Find the parking lot that was labeled poorly after driving around the Capitol Building 3 times.
7:41 - Kick myself because the lot is right off the offramp that comes into the city.
7:50 - Arrive at the stadium after about a 10 minute walk (yes I paid 18 dollars to walk 10 minutes to the stadium). Oh, and I saw free parking right next to the lot I was in.
7:51 - Enter the gates and see on the scoreboard outside that it's only the bottom of the 2nd inning...Oh baseball and its slowness. This is when I first notice the large number of people with Pirates hats and jerseys on. The vendors outside the gate were selling as much Pirate gear as Nats...
7:55 - Get food before we get to our seats because we are famished. Some Pirates fans see my Pens shirt and yell "GO PENS." I smile.
8:00 - Get to the seats in the beautiful stadium (no sarcasm). It really is a nice place, just a severe lack of fans. There are a mix of Nats and Pirates fans around me, but not many people at all. I am in the lower section, about 30 rows behind third base. Definitely great seats.
8:00-9:35ish - Neither team can muster up much offense as both teams had their aces on the mound. It is a 1-1 game going to the top of the 9th, and Leigh begins to get anxious. She refuses to stay past 1015, so I guess this game better end soon.
9:40 - Thank God for Joel Hanrahan. He loaded the bases with 1 out, and after Brandon Moss couldn't get the run home, Hanny threw a wild pitch (which followed about 10 pitches in the dirt, one had to get by eventually) and the Pirates scored their second run. Pirates fans stood up and cheered, and Nats fans began to leave.
9:50 - Enter Matt Capps. Leigh is excited because the game will end soon, but I warn her that Capps is terrible and this could go to extra's. After giving up a hit and me thinking the game was over, he gets a double play inducing ground ball, and things are looking up. In steps Willingham, who is struggling but definitely has some pop. Well Capps lays a fat one in there and Willy crushes it. I haven't seen a home run in person in a looong time, so from my angle this looked way gone. I groaned to myself as I realized I probably wouldn't get to watch the end of the game, but luckily the ball fell JUST short and Nate was able to snare it. The 3 very loud drunk Nats fans booed their team and yelled sarcastically "damn, this is so surprising!" And other similar phrases. I feel bad for them...maybe we can let them win 1 game this series.
10:00 - Actually left when I had hoped we would, and the drive home was much more pleasant.
Oh, one other note that I forgot - Sean Burnett came in in like the 8th, pitched to a lefty, gave up a hit or walk or something, and was pulled. I figured it was for a righty to match up with the next hitter...then I noticed the hitter was a lefty and Grabow was coming in. Wow, John Russell has a lot of confidence in Burnett...
In semi-related news, my friend Haley, who probably only Ryan knows and who Kevin had a thing for, got Ian Snell's phone number 2 nights ago at the bar she works at. She is short and curvy, and decently attractive and works at a bar that promotes hot girls. She dances in beer baths and stuff...Anyway, she didn't even know who Snell was, she just said she got a Pirates' phone number and his name was Ian...Nice. She did disclose the fact that she has a bf to him, so good for her I guess...I hope something comes out of it though, because it would be pretty cool to be in with a major leaguer.
UPDATE: Here's what Haley told me: "He's pretty attractive, I was tempted, seeing he has like a 9 million dollar contract, but i didn't even know he was a baseball player until one of the periogies told me who he was! More importantly I met Oliver Onion Perogie and i"m gonna go root for him tonight at the game, ha. I may or may not text Ian and say good luck, just to see. He said he would fly me out to parties in Houston and Miami, I'd be down for that ;)" Good stuff.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Finally you can look at Hot Chicks Again!
Sorry for the delay, but here are this week's ladies to vote on. Enjoy!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Ugh
I am reading this from all over the place, so that means it is obviously true. Manny Ramirez is going to be suspended for 50 games for testing positive for PEDs. Does this really shock anyone? At this point, I will be shocked if a player does not test positive. I wonder if it will "come out" that his medication is prescribed, and this was all a big misunderstanding.
How bad is this for Dodger baseball? Something tells me that MLB will try to make this go away.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
An Amusing Observation
This is totally overkill, but let's look at how the 2002 MLB draft went down. The Pirates had the #1 pick and took...
1. BRYAN BULLINGTON - Pittsburgh
Fine, it was a poor draft class, we made a mistake, let's move on. Wait, it wasn't? Sh*t.
2. BJ UPTON
6. ZACK GREINKE
7. PRINCE FIELDER
9. JEFF FRANCIS
11. JEREMY HERMIDA
12. JOE SAUNDERS
15. SCOTT KAZMIR
17. COLE HAMELS
22. JEREMY GUTHRIE
25. MATT CAIN
That would be 6 competent aces, a quality starter, and 3 young, proven MLB talents. Now I understand sometimes the draft can be a crap shoot, but GOOD LORD! Is the Pirates scouting really THAT BAD?
Well, they made up for it in Round 2 at least...or not.
42. BLAIR JOHNSON - Pittsburgh
44. JOEY VOTTO
57. JON LESTER
60. JONATHAN BROXTON
64. BRIAN MCCANN
Sure, a lot of teams passed over some of that talent as well, but it is a horrible recurring theme through the years for the Pirates to miss these guys. If there is a scout from 2002 who recommended Bullington and Johnson over some of those other names, I sure hope he is working at Burger King now, because any job where he would have to use his brain would turn into a disaster.
On a side note, I'd like to honor (as much as I can on a blog that 4 people read) Zack Greinke for his unbelievable start to the season. This guy could barely make it through life, let alone pitch in the major leagues, just 2 or 3 years ago. Pretty amazing, ditto for Josh Hamilton.
1. BRYAN BULLINGTON - Pittsburgh
Fine, it was a poor draft class, we made a mistake, let's move on. Wait, it wasn't? Sh*t.
2. BJ UPTON
6. ZACK GREINKE
7. PRINCE FIELDER
9. JEFF FRANCIS
11. JEREMY HERMIDA
12. JOE SAUNDERS
15. SCOTT KAZMIR
17. COLE HAMELS
22. JEREMY GUTHRIE
25. MATT CAIN
That would be 6 competent aces, a quality starter, and 3 young, proven MLB talents. Now I understand sometimes the draft can be a crap shoot, but GOOD LORD! Is the Pirates scouting really THAT BAD?
Well, they made up for it in Round 2 at least...or not.
42. BLAIR JOHNSON - Pittsburgh
44. JOEY VOTTO
57. JON LESTER
60. JONATHAN BROXTON
64. BRIAN MCCANN
Sure, a lot of teams passed over some of that talent as well, but it is a horrible recurring theme through the years for the Pirates to miss these guys. If there is a scout from 2002 who recommended Bullington and Johnson over some of those other names, I sure hope he is working at Burger King now, because any job where he would have to use his brain would turn into a disaster.
On a side note, I'd like to honor (as much as I can on a blog that 4 people read) Zack Greinke for his unbelievable start to the season. This guy could barely make it through life, let alone pitch in the major leagues, just 2 or 3 years ago. Pretty amazing, ditto for Josh Hamilton.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Who doesn't like hot girls??
Visit my blog to not only vote on which is the hottest, but also just to look at a collection of pictures it took me weeks to compile!
Still haven't been caught looking up and saving these pictures at work, although there have been some very close calls...
Still haven't been caught looking up and saving these pictures at work, although there have been some very close calls...
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