Sheets

I like it. Ben Sheets is awesome. He also is always hurt, but hey, 10 mill on a one year deal isn't really that much, considering we only pay like half of that when we trade him midseason. Which we will do. If he gets hurt we're fucked, no way around that, but honestly, all we lose is the money. We weren't going to spend that money on other players at this point, may as well spend it on a gamble like Sheets.

I don't think this makes us a playoff team though. We'd need all three teams in our division to get unlucky and suck more than they do. Which hey, could happen I guess, but unlikely it happens to all 3. Also, our team is full of players that are either unknowns or walking injuries. If we make the playoffs, it'll be because Brett Anderson took another big leap forward and cements himself as a top 5 pitcher in the league (hey, a guy can dream right), sheets and duke manage to keep their arms healthy, mark ellis finally stays healthy or patterson remembers that he shouldn't really suck this bad in the bigs, Daric Barton or Chris Carter break out, Sweeney somehow manages to maintain his godlike fielding in right, crisp/davis dont suck or taylor replaces one of them and doesn't suck, o and pennington somehow manages to not be pennington. Pretty much if all those things happen I could see us being a playoff team, and honestly, I dont see any of those happening (except the whole brett anderson turning into some kind of deity thing, this I very much am looking forward to).

So yea, unless hurt, sheets is gone by july. Same with crisp. would not be surprised if kouz and duke also are shipped, that being if cardenas and cahill are succeeding like I hope they will be doing at AAA. Every year I go into the season with optimism thinking this might be the year. It never is. This year, not so optimistic. Team simply has too many question marks. Still can't hit, still way to much potential for injury, other than Brett Anderson, this is shaping up to be an ugly season. That being said, this is probably the year we win the world series, if only because I'm always wrong about these things.

Grades

Don't think I ever did a Fall 09 grades post. Went much better than expected. A- in J4, kinda bummed but probably deserved. P in neuroscience, which was fine. Real grade was probably a B, I'm fine with the P tho. Pysch I got a straight C. Which is awesome. I seriously thought I was going to fail that class. I had a D+ and a D on the first two midterms. The mean on the final was a 25/30, and grades were curved. That tells you how well I did on the final. I owned that shit. And icing on the cake, I didn't get an incomplete! The class required 6 hours of research work, zero of which I completed. I checked the grade list, I's were given out, not to me though. So overall, not great, but for the amount of effort that went in, very relieved.

This quarter was shaping up disastrous, as I didn't get into Ling 103. Here at LA, pretty much all upper div ling classes have 103 as a prereq. I found a loophole though, my Syntax II class at SC counts as a prereq for an upper div elective here, so I got into that class earlier than I probably should be allowed. Its called Mathematical Structures in Language, which, quite frankly, sounds fucking AWESOME. Also taking an intro to logic course, which also for some reason counts towards a linguistics degree here. Optimistic at the moment, logic has potential to be interesting I guess. An then J5, which pleases me. So feeling alright about this quarter I guess. Still been feeling a bit down mood wise, but hoping that turns around if I can manage to get swept up in my studies.

Ynoa!

So I've been sifting through the Sickles an BP A's prospects lists, I think they're kinda nuts, but that's just me. Anyway, I came across this interview with Eric Kubota at BP, and its free! What got me was this part:

DL: Can you address Michael Ynoa?

EK: He's the kind of guy that any scout who just saw him play catch would almost get goose bumps over. I mean, he's this special talent who, literally, I was very excited just watching him play catch. Anybody who has seen him would say the same thing, I think.

That seems like the consensus on Ynoa right? People drool over the kid. But they drool only once they've seen him. Goldstein still likes him quite a bit it seems, and I remember last year he wrote something similar to Kubota's quote above. Sickles seems pretty cool on Ynoa, but then again, I doubt he has seen the kid throw. What I want to know is, why is it so mesmerizing watching Ynoa throw, and does this mean anything. I mean, is there something to this? You'd think that if there was one team in MLB to not be fooled by how good a kid looks in a baseball uni, it would be the A's, yet that's the only thing I can find when it comes to what makes Ynoa a great prospect. He's young, great arm, strong bloodlines, what have you. Nothing concrete since he hasnt played a game. It makes skeptics out of internet bloggers (myself included I guess) but believers out of "witnesses." Pretty much this whole post is trying to say "I want to see Ynoa throw sooooooo bad. Not some crappy youtube video, lemme see him throw in person!" I want to see in him what made the A's spend over 4 million in such a young kid. But that won't happen. Hopefully he doesn't flame out in the low minors, I really want to see this kid throw a damn baseball some day.

While we're on the topic of gifting Seattle talent...

Lets just give Milton Bradley, cranky yet talented outfielder, to them for Carlos Silva, cranky yet zero-talent pitcher. What the fuck man, just what the fuck. Maybe the M's new front office does know what they doing, only make deals with complete fucking idiots. Rebuilding and competing is a breeze when you get free top flight talent given to you fucking weekly; oh and also the idiots agree to take on your franchise crippling contracts. Seriously, what the fuck man.

It's late...cut me some slack...

but have you ever google'd yourself? I just tried it. Pretty boring. Lot of old ATDP rosters. But there is this gem. I stared at it for a while. Like. wtf is this? Then I remembered, I took debate for a year in high school! It even has my record! Apparently I was 3-6 for my career! Fucking awesome! I don't even remember ever winning a match! I thought it was amusing. I think one win was because my opponent didn't show. Let's just pretend I was awesome for 3 debates though...and ignore the other 6...

Taylor for Wallace

I've been trying to rationalize it. Still can't. Closest I've come was this Neyer post. Yea, we have a shit load of infield prospects. And it probably was incredibly optimistic to think Wallace may stick at 3rd.

The way I see it though, we have a suuuuuuuuper crowded outfield. Sweeney was awesome last year, he's going to play. Rajai played quite well last year, he's going to get a shot. Cunningham is a fantastic prospect, he's going to get a shot. Travis fucking Buck is still alive and begging for a outfield spot! Scott Hairston, as much as I hate him, probably will get a starting spot in our outfield. Sean Doolittle, even though he really is a 1st base prospect, will see time in the outfield, if only because he won't beat out both Barton and Carter for the 1st base job. Eric Patterson, who I guess conceivably could play 2nd, is very much deserving of playing time in the outfield.

And let me just mention, that is simply our major league ready talent. Our system is fucking flooded with outfield talent, Brown, Demel, hell even Sulentic could turn into something. 3rd base though, we have nothing. NOTHING. Be it in the bigs or in the minors, there is no one to play 3rd. If there was any slim chance, I mean any chance, of Wallace being a 3rd baseman, I prefer him to Taylor. Taylor is a fucking giant who suposedly plays a decent left field...I'm just saying, doesn't take much to play a decent left field, and that body is not built to run year after year. Health record isn't exactly encouraging seeing as he is diabetic. I believe the difference between positional adjustments from 3rd to left field is something like 10 runs. You have to be pretty bad at 3rd to give up one win. Yea, I don't like the trade. I guess the front office is just positive there is zero chance of Wallace sticking at 3rd for the time being.

As a depressing closing note, fuck the Phillies. Why the fuck did they just hand Cliff Lee to the M's. Merry fucking Christmas seattle, I wish we could get a free ace.

Bayonetta

I played the Bayonetta demo. I fell in love. Holy crap is that demo fun. Game appeared awesome before I played this, now that I've played it, I'm afraid I'm going to have to part with $60 in the near future. That combat is so fucking smooth. I can see it getting kind of easy with the dodge button, seems kind of imba, but I trust Kamiya to bring the challenge. Man I cannot wait for the American release.