I love the choice of Castro. Well played, sir.

is a wonderful choice J.D. But you just as easily could have chosen Mark Bellhorn, Mike Stanton, The Rheal Deal, etc. etc. Sad but funny as the other cats tried to take it seriously. Can't wait for Eric Young's take.

This happened to umm... a friend of mine.

to the critique of the Daugherty column, here's my favorite part...."Case in point: They brought up lefty Phil Dumatrait and discovered he couldn't pitch in the majors. Maybe that convinces someone important that more starting pitching needs to be found."

That one blew my hair back. No kidding Dock, but before you write that, couldn't you have looked at who is coming up in the free agent market. It was Carlos Zambrano, and now that he's gone it's a bunch of overpriced mistakes. Where do you propose Sweaterpants gather said pitching? Dock is great at talking shit and then telling everyone to be realistic, and then going right back to talking shit again. I know his business and understand phoning a few columns in, but I'm not sure why this one irritated me so much. I don't think Dock really understands or wants to talk about baseball. Just a feeling I get.

I dislike him more than I dislike Wayne Krivsky. I don't get how he still has a job. He's not controversial, he's an idiot who is too lazy to actually do his job, resulting in him pretty much constantly being a dick.

But Anyone else hear Krivsky & Gregg Doyel get into it on 1530 AM Today.  Listen to the 8-22 Hour 1 Podcast (About 10 or 12 minutes into the hour) for some pretty good stuff.  Doyel asked some great questions, and openly disagreed with Sweaterpants, but Wayne held his ground.  Wayne really got defensive about Votto, Bruce, Cueto, and sending down Coutlangus.  Also, he completely side-stepped Mike Stanton.

http://www.1530homer.com/cc-common/podcast/single_podcast.html?podcast=GreggandMo.xml

But I thought it fit in nicely with the Krivsky stuff.  On the radio today, Wayne gave the reason for demoting Coutlangus as too many walks (citing a BB/9 over 6) and not getting the first batter faced out, which is important when coming in with inherited runners.

% of times first batter is retired
Coutlangus 65%
Weathers 65%
Coffey 60%
Stanton 60%
Burton 56%
Bray 33%
% of inherited runners allowed to score
Burton 19%
Coutlangus 22%
Weathers 30%
Coffey 46%

Yeah, Cooter leads the team in getting the first batter out, and is second in not allowing inherited runners to score.  Nice try, Wayne.

So Cueto belongs in AA?  Huh?

I remember seeing him a lot with the Giants and thinking he was very underrated. When the Reds got him for Eddie Milner, I was really pleased. The guy could pitch.

IMO, the problem was not that it was at the ballpark, it was that it was so public.  You really have to be sure she wants to marry you before you do that to her.

Some guys do it out of cluelessness.  They just think it would be so neat to propose on television or the big screen.  But some are being manipulative SOBs.  They ask in public, in front of a huge audience, hoping to pressure the woman into saying yes.  That kind of guy deserves popcorn dumped on his head.

I remember when Ahmad Rashad proposed to Phylicia Ayers-Allen during a Thanksgiving Day football game.  She said yes, but you could tell she was pissed off to be put on the spot that way.  

And I witnessed another public proposal that didn't turn out well.  On stage at a science fiction convention, actually.  She was a really nice woman, and you could tell she didn't know what to say.  It became clear that they had talked about marriage in private, she had said no, and he proposed in public trying to embarrass her into saying yes.  It didn't work.  The audience clued in, and started yelling things like, "Don't marry him unless you want to!"  "You don't have to say yes!"  "He's a jerk to do this to you!" He was so pissed off.  He yelled at the hecklers, "I spent $10,000 on this ring, are you going to pay for it?!"  She eventually shut down the discussion by saying, "We'll discuss this later, in private."

Definitely think twice about proposing in public, at a ballpark or elsewhere.

Sutcliffe is not crazy.  That is the way baseball was back in the days when batters were not 240 pound steroid addicts who tear a pitcher's head off and would take a half hour to round the bases following a dinger (replete with pointing to the skies, kisses, finger twirls, and other forms of conspicuous oneupmanship).  Come on, guys, for those of you old enough remember, tell me you did not take joy in watching Mario Soto headhunt an arrogant batter that was able to get to him.  I always enjoyed watching the Braves come into town back in the day, because I knew there was a good chance Claudell Washington was going to get beaned.  It is too bad that the game is not that way anymore.  It kept the hitters honest.  Now, with few exceptions (apparently, someone grandfathered in Pedro Martinez), you cannot pitch that way anymore.  The hitter is liable to pop you with his 16 inch biceps and the geeks from the commissioner's office will come down on you for trying to balance the distribution on the side of the pitcher.

That comment about benching Dunn in favor of Keppinger is complete insanity. You don't bench a guy who has a direct role in over 20% of your runs.

Does anyone else think that Keppinger gets his shot at 2B, with Phillips finally sliding over  to SS?