Digressions in Abundance

The Dark Knight

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:31:00 +0000

I had never been more excited for a movie's opening than I was for The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie. I LOVED Batman Begins...and this new one looked even better.

So Mikah and I went to an early morning showing today to check it out. I was crazy excited and really hoping it would live up to the massive hype it has received.

It did.

It overshot my expectations. I don't want to say too much about the movie except to say that you MUST go see it. Heath Ledger was unbelievably good. Seriously spectacular.

Plus I have a decent sized crush on Christian Bale.

Go see it. Now.

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The Sideliner

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:50:00 +0000

There's a new very funny sports blog out on the intergoogle called The Sideliner. In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to mention that the author is my sister. But that doesn't change the fact that it is a very well written blog.

So go check it out...you won't be disappointed!

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My Baseball Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:51:00 +0000

I haven't written an actual post apart from my baseball stadium reviews (and still one more to come). I have been a bit busy with my book review website, Letters On Pages. Hopefully I can keep up with Digressions in Abundance too. I am sure my tens of fans have been pretty sad without these posts.

So...here are my first half baseball thoughts:

The Reds are not very good...but they aren't too bad either. I really like the baseline that they have. Some really promising young pitching...some really promising young hitters...and a bad manager :)

I really think the Reds need to sign Adam Dunn long term. He is really good and will be VERY difficult to replace. I am tired of hearing all of the Adam Dunn complaints. True, he won't ever win a gold glove...but his defense has vastly improved. He probably won't ever hit .270 either. That's OK. He hits 40 HR, 100 Runs, 100 Walks, and is just generally awesome.

I don't like the move the Brewers just made to get CC Sabathia for a couple months. They traded away their top AAA prospect to rent out Sabathia for half a season. True, they will probably make the playoffs (although the Cubs just traded for Rich Harden from the A's). I suppose they have a chance to keep him next year...but I kind of doubt it.

I found out the other day that there are other teams besides the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, and White Sox. For a little while, I thought they canceled the seasons for all the other teams...or at least that's how ESPN seems to want it!

I am torn on Dusty Baker being the manager. Part of me likes the legitimacy that he has brought to the team. But the much larger part of me hates the baseball decisions he makes. I HATE the bunting decisions he has made...but I will comment on that more later in a future post)
How bout those Rays?!?! More importantly...how bout those Rays' fans! All of the sudden they are selling out and making a big deal out out of the team. It's funny. It reminds me a lot of Red Sox fans from a few years back.

I have been to 4 MLB stadiums this year. The best was San Francisco. Cool place.

My prediction for the World Series is Red Sox vs. Phillies. And, if you know me at all, you KNOW I will root against the Red Sox!

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Ball Park Review: Angels Stadium (Anaheim, CA)

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:34:00 +0000

The other night, Mikah, my sister and I went to Angels Stadium in Anaheim, CA. This is the home stadium of the stupidly named Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. This was the second stadium of the trip. As you can see from the first picture...they really like giant sized models of baseball items.

You can read my other reviews of my Ball Park tour here.

Parking/Access
If you are not aware already, going anywhere in Los Angeles takes forever. We left my sisters apartment around 5pm. The game started at 7:05 and the trip out to Anaheim (assuming no traffic) is about 45 minutes. We arrived at our parking spot at about 6:45. We crawled down "The 5" pretty much the entire way. It was awful. However, once we arrived, we pulled right into a lot next to the stadium and paid $8. That's a good deal. Much better than San Francisco's $30 parking. Leaving the stadium was theoretically going to be much better, but they were doing work on the highway. Therefore our return trip took about 1.5 hours. Yeah!!!!

Food

Once again, I got 2 hot dogs ($3) and Mikah got 1 pretzel ($5). The hot dogs were 25% cheaper than San Fran but the pretzel was 33% more. Both tasted about the same. There weren't as many different places to get food here, but they had all the standards.

View
Here you can see the view from our seat. The stadium was pretty big, although not full. The view from my seat was of the highway and the Amtrak station...which is classy. They also have a neat rock water fall thing in center field.

Jumbotron
They actually had two Jumbotrons here, which was nice. The main one was in right field, with a smaller one in left. This allows almost everyone to see one. Excellent idea. Neither was up to par with the San Francisco one...but I suspect I will not find one that is.

Misc
The most obvious random thing about Angel Stadium is the presence of the Rally Monkey. For those who don't know, back in 2002 during a late season game, they showed a monkey with an Angels uniform on jumping up and down...calling it the Rally Monkey. It worked. So they did it again a few days later. It worked again. They continued to use it all the way to the World Series, which they eventually won. I assume all due to the Rally Monkey. Well...now the Rally Monkey is the most important thing at an Angels game. They have in between inning videos starring the rally monkey. In one, the monkey sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" with Queen. In the other, the monkey starred as the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. But unlike 2002...the monkey had no effect on this game.

The team spirit wasn't all that high, certainly not as high as San Fran. A lot like a Reds game actually...except more people go to the games in Anaheim.

This game was played pretty poorly by both teams, but especially the Angels. Their base running alone made me think I was watching a C-ball game. Or the Reds. It was really that atrocious. The Mets actually played a pretty good game until they had to go to their bullpen, who almost blew the 5 run lead they had. But that's what the Mets bullpen does, so I guess it was business as usual. In the end, the Mets won the game 9-6.

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Ball Park Review: AT&T Park (San Francisco, CA)

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Last night we went to AT&T Park, which is where the San Francisco Giants play. The Giants were my second favorite team for a long time because Will Clark played over there. So I have a bit of a soft spot for them.

You can read my other reviews of my Ball Park tour here.

Parking/Access
We were able to get to the park pretty easily, but we didn't look up places to park first. So we ended up following the herd and paying $30 to park. Which is totally outrageous. I am sure there were cheaper places to park a little further away from the stadium, but we didn't know where those were. Oops.

Food
I got two hot dogs ($4) and Mikah got two pretzels ($3.75) over the span of the game. That seems a bit expensive for the hot dogs, but the pretzels seem reasonable. There were a TON of different types of food you could get there, ranging from their famous Garlic Fries (which i opted out of, due to the desire to not get sick and the desire for Mikah to continue to talk to me for the rest of the night), Soup, Seafood, Pulled Pork, etc... They also had churro vendors, which looked good.

View
Here you can see the view from our seat. I don't think there is a bad seat in that place. Everything seemed to be directed at the field. A couple spots have no access to the Jumbrotron, but that is to be expected. Additionally to the view of the field, our seats on the third base side afforded us a fantastic view of the Bay (picture shown taken from a different angle, but I promise it's the same Bay).

JumboTron
The Jumbotron is awesome. It is enormous and crystal clear. FAAAAAARRR better than the one in Cincinnati.

Misc
The most significant other thing of note about the game is the fact that it is freezing there. I knew it got chilly, but the wind that whips off the water and through the stadium is terrible. It got so bad that we even filled out those credit card things to get free blankets (which are nice by the way!)

Giants fans display their loyalty more that Reds fans do. There were very few people in the park that didn't have on a Giants or A's shirt/hat. Since the A's were "in town", the place was packed and had a lot of energy. I think there were more A's fans than Giants fans though.

The game itself was pretty well played considering how bad both teams are. Both starting pitchers pitched very well, but the Giants lost 4-0.

It was a fun time and I got to cross another stadium off the list. That said, the next time I come to a Giants game I hope it's in August and in the day time. Or anytime where I don't have to sign up for a credit card application to stay warm!

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NBA Finals - Game 1

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:36:00 +0000

I am watching the end of game one of the NBA finals. It looks like the Celtics are going to win.

I hate the Celtics. In fact, I hate all of Boston sports. Totally insufferable.

For Example: tonight Paul Pierce twisted his knee. They CARRIED him off the court. They then put him in a WHEELCHAIR (accompanied by about 33 people) to the locker room. About 3 minutes later he came back out of the locker room and is now on the same level as Michael the Archangel.

Reminded me more of Mateen "IT'S BROOOOOOKE" Cleaves than Willis Reed.

(note: I don't blame Piece for this...apparently he wanted to walk off under his own power)

I'm sure there will be stats to prove me otherwise, but I think there have been 254 fouls called on the Lakers, vs 3 against the Celtics.

I hate Boston.

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Ball Park Review: Fifth Third Field (Dayton, OH)

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:08:00 +0000

Next in the series of ball park tours: Mikah and I took a mini trip up to Dayton recently to watch the Dayton Dragons play. The Dragons are the Reds Class Single A team. I don't really follow Single A baseball much, but if the game we were at is any indication of how good the team is...then they are terrible.

You can read my other reviews of my Ball Park tour here.

Parking/Access
Apart from some completely wrong directions we got from the hotel, access was easy. There were plenty of parking lots surrounding the stadium and we paid $6 to park.

Food
I got 2 hot dogs ($3.50) and Mikah got 1 pretzel ($3). The hot dogs tasted fine, though not as good as The Charleston River Dogs' hot dogs! As usual, the pretzel tasted like a pretzel.

View
Here you can see the view from the two different seats we sat in. We moved from the left field wall to behind home plate to get a different view.

JumboTron
Their Jumbotron was nothing special and at times difficult to read.

Misc
As with any minor league game (especially the lower minor leagues) there is plenty of entertainment between every half inning. Which I suppose is good, but after a while I kind of just want to watch a baseball game.

As I mentioned before, the Dragons were really bad. They lost that game 7-0. They had also lost the first game of the double header 11-3.

It was good to get up to a Dragon's game considering they are only 45 minutes away from my house and they are a Reds team. Sometime soon we want to go see a Louisville Bats game as well.

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NBA Playoffs

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:33:00 +0000

I'm an NBA fan. There I said it. No. Wait...please don't go! Just give me a second.

This year has been an awesome NBA season. Very exciting with a lot of cool stuff happening. And the playoffs have been fantastic. Living in Cincinnati, I don't really have a "team". I've been rooting for Cleveland, but only because Bron Bron is there (for now!). They are pretty terrible...but Bron is sweet.

My new favorite team is the New Orleans Hornets. They have Chris Paul (CP3) who is AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. He is so fun to watch. I feel like he gets a triple double every night. Basically, he is Steve Nash x infinity good. That's pretty good.

Anyway...I recommend you check out some New Orleans Hornets action during the playoffs. CP3 is too fun to miss!

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Draft Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:38:00 +0000

Yesterday and today was the NFL draft. There were some pretty "exciting" things that happened. None more exciting than the fact that I got to see Mel Kiper Jr. for the last time this year. Thank goodness!

A couple teams seemed to have really good drafts which will improve their team a lot. I think the Bengals had an OK draft.

I am still upset they could make it happen to draft Sedrick Ellis. Now, maybe the Pats refused to trade with them or something like that. But I have to assume the Bengals just didn't get the job done.

That said, they did get Keith Rivers...who I like...and who will probably start pretty quickly for the Bengals.

I don't know who Jerome Simpson, their second round pick, is. Apparently he can jump high and went to Coastal Carolina. I think the Bengals only picked him to prove they don't need scouts. "See! We found this kid down at some random school in one of the Carolinas! Who cares that we could have picked him in the 5th round. Whatever!"

So we'll see. Like I said before, they did fine. Now we just need to hope our "coaches" know how to make them better.

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"we're just not going to lose anymore"

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:09:00 +0000

"We're just not going to lose anymore."
-Reds owner Bob Castellini 4/23/08, noon.

"9-3"
-Final Score 4/23/08, 10:00pm

oops.

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Why The Reds Won't Win

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:27:00 +0000

Yes, I know...it's very early in the season. No one really knows what is going to happen. But here is why the Reds won't win this season: Lefties.

All the other team has to do is throw out a lefty to pitch...and the Reds hitters look like 10 year olds facing Walter Johnson. What? Too old of a reference? OK. Um....OK. They look like 10 year olds facing Randy Johnson. But when Randy Johnson was good. Hmm...I'm not very good at this. But you get the point...right?

2 of the last 3 games the Reds have faced an average to below average left handed pitcher. And he has totally shut them down. It's embarrasing.

Also, Ryan Freel and Norris Hopper are terrible. They both make pitchers look like Roger Clemens...efore he got caught cheating.

Dang! One of these days I'll think of a good one. Then who will be laughing?!?

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Letters On Pages

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:28:00 +0000

I wanted to let everyone know that I recently started a new blog called Letters on Pages.

Letters on Pages is a book review blog, dedicated to non-fiction books. I am trying to update it with new reviews as much as I can, and I am really enjoying doing that.

Please check it out! Once there, you can subscribe to the feed in the normal RSS fashion. Or you can enter your e-mail and then you will be e-mailed new postings as I write them.

Thanks...and I hope you like it!

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Awesome!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:40:00 +0000

You thought this post was going to be about Johnny Cueto didn't you?!?

Nope.

Even better!!

NKTOB is getting back together!

I couldn't be more excited. Jordan was my favorite.

err...ummm...I mean...The New Kids are stupid...yeah...that's it!

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Tom Izzo and Rick Barnes

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:45:00 +0000

I may be the only one...but probably not...that thinks that Izzo and Barnes are both cowardly coaches?

During their respective games against Memphis, they employed the "Hack-A-Shaq" method of defense. This style of defense entails of grabbing whatever player that has the ball. A foul is called. Said fouled player then shoots free throw.

This is common at the end of games to try to extend the time you have to come back. I have no problem with that. And fouling Memphis in a close game is a great idea. During the regular season, Memphis shot around 52% free throws. Which is unbelievably bad, considering how good they are. But again...I have no problem with fouling at the end of game when it is close.

But neither of these games were close when the other team started fouling. I think Memphis was up about 15-20 in both games.

All that does is draw out the game and makes the basketball insufferable to watch.

booo to Tom Izzo and Rick Barnes for having no respect in defeat.

BOOOO I SAY!!!

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Free Sports Betting!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:16:00 +0000

Yes...this is actually true, at Cent Sports. A buddy of mine told me about it the other day.

The bets are "free" because they are paid for by the advertisers of the site. They start you off with 10 cents in your account. With that 10 cents you can bet on any of the sporting events that are going on. If you win...you get more money in you account (the amount depends on how you bet). If you lose...you get to start over with 10 cents!

You can also get bonuses on your wins if you look at a few more ads, which only takes a few seconds.

I tried it out last night. I took the Nuggets (-9 at home against the Mavs. I won the bet...and now my account has 28 cents in it. You can cash out once you reach $10.

Go check it out...it's a lot of fun to bet with other people's money!

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Greg Oden is Funny

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:48:00 +0000

This was pointed out on a couple other sports blogs...but I'm posting it here anyway. It is a Portland Trailblazers pregame show segment where they followed Greg Oden around at the grocery store.

heh...heh...I love that he gets mad at the guy for putting stuff on top of the eggs.

Here's hoping more Greg Oden videos show up soon!

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Tournament Time

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:06:00 +0000

I have Georgetown winning it all. I don't think I am right...but I am always really bad at these things.

Also, I am in an NIT and CBI contest with my dad. I picked OSU and Viginia to win, respectively.

Go Bulldogs, Bucks and Cavs!

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New gig - Jdsblog.com

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:55:00 +0000

I recently started a new writing gig for an upcoming business blog at www.jdsblog.com.

I will be writing about purchasing/buying/inventory control. (that's what I do in real life. During the day, I buy things. At night, I fight crime. And sometimes write stuff. But mostly fight crime.)

I am pretty excited about it and I hope you will check out the blog. It is an interesting blog with some interesting business tips.

Tell your friends about it!

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Bron Bron

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:59:00 +0000

I'm watching the Thursday night NBA game, and tonight it is Cavs vs. Wizards. Both teams are pretty bad, but I wanted to spend a little time here talking about LeBron James.

disclaimer: LeBron is my favorite player. Whenever I play basketball and I shoot a good shot I yell out, "LEBRON!!!!!" Also...I am 7 years old.

Anyway...I am watching this game and LeBron is literally being triple teamed. Sometimes when he gets the ball in the corner he has his man forcing him to the baseline...where a large defender is waiting. And there is also a guy standing at the free throw line just in case LeBron gets past the first two. There is one reason why this keeps happening:

The rest of the Cavs suck. They are terrible. If LeBron passes it to a wide open teammate (which happens a lot because of the triple teams)...they miss the shot. I feel bad for Bron Bron. I mean, sure...he is making 1 trillion billion dollars to play basketball and gets anything he could ever want. But his teammates suck!

But here comes the 4th quarter...and that's Bron Bron time!

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"Doctor of Changeupology"

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:00:00 +0000

That's right...Reds baseball and George Grande are back!!!!

Tonight the Reds were on TV for the first time this year, and it was a nice opportunity to see some people I have been hearing about. And a nice opportunity to try to learn the names of players with super high uniform numbers before they get sent down to the minors!

More importantly, it is a nice opportunity to start watching the same 7 commercials I will watch for the entire summer!

And even morer importantly...nay...the mostest of importancy...the WONDERFUL opportunity to hear George Grande speak again! This year, I set a record by uttering my first snide/derisive statement about George Grande's commentary. It took me about 12 seconds into the pre-game to mock his laugh. I am hoping next year to break my record by at least 5 seconds.

Georgie was in mid season form tonight...but nothing was better...and it might not be topped all season...than when he said "Having Mario Soto around is like have your very own DOCTOR OF CHANGEUPOLOGY." BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!! SOOOO BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!INAWFINA@N!INASDKFN!K!!!!!!

Actually, I like George Grande well enough...by all accounts he seems like a super guy and is very well respected around MLB. I just wish he would stop talking so much. That said...I am very much looking forward to hearing him exclaim, "HE GOT IT!!!" I am also looking forward to seeing "those flashbulbs a poppin" when Griffey gets close to 600. Good times.

Anyway...about the baseball...Bailey was average, but did throw a couple real nice change-ups. But the real star was Edison Volquez, the guy we traded Josh Hamilton for. He struck out 7 in 4 impressive innings. His fastball was fast and his change-up was devastating. Apparently Johnny Cueto has an even more devastating change-up. (I would assume this is all because they have been attending classes taught by the doctor. Which doctor? The doctor of changeupology of course.

They are on TV again next Monday and I am looking forward to watching that too. The team will start to round into shape. Hopefully Cueto is pitching.

Reds baseball is back. And man did I miss my good buddy George! I think this season will be fun to write about. I will try to mention as many "Grandeisms" as possible, but I don't know if I want to write about that every night.

Cueto for President!

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Schmap: Cool New Feature

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:46:00 +0000

I was contacted by the creators of Schmap.com, and asked if I would help them test/show off their product. It is a really cool interactive map website. You should check it out.

The feature they asked me to test is their sports map. If you look at the right side of the page, you will see my Cincinnati Reds map. It currently shows the 2007 season, but will update soon for the 2008 season. It's a neat little thing if you are interested in who they are playing next, or whatever. You can also check out the other teams in the league...if you so desire.

So go to Schmap.com and check out their other city maps.

Plan a trip...and use Schmap as one of your guides!

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The Bengals are confusing

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:32:00 +0000

The NFL's free agency period started on March 1st at midnight. It is usually a huge mess of rumors and signings and people getting angry that their favorite team didn't do what they thought they should. But instead of the Bengals inciting their fans to anger this year...they decided to up the ante! This year, the Bengals decided to get their fan's hopes up (3 times so far)...and then crush their dreams (2 times so far)...then not say anything about what is happening, leaving everybody confused.

The Bengals had apparently agreed to trade a 3rd and 5th round pick to the Lions for Shaun Rodgers, an awesome, yet troubled DT.

(this is where the fan base got excited. I specifically remember blathering on about it to Mikah at Cici's Pizza. I believe my exact words were, "this is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me....(long pause)...(wonder why Mikah looks mad)...(realize why Mikah looks mad)...Except for my wedding day of course!!")

Anyway...fans got all excited, only to find out later that evening that the trade fell through. But not only did the trade fall through...but he signed with the Browns. FOR THE EXACT SAME DEAL. WHA?????????????????? I still don't know what the problem was. I am hearing rumors of $1 million signing bonuses and stuff like that. If that is the real case...then I despise Mike Brown more than normal.

So the Bengals moved on to plan B...Dwayne Robertson, DT from the Jets. We apparently had a deal set for him too. Just a 5th round pick. But it fell through again. I don't know why. Something about his big contract or something. Of course, he had that same contract when they started the trade negotiations.

Now there are rumors that we are going to sign Antwann Odom, a DE from the Titans. I guess that's a good signing. He is certainly better than any other DE we have. But that's not hard to do. As my mom always says, "I COULD PLAY BETTER THAN THOSE GUYS!!!!!!"

(by the way - I dispute this. While I agree that my mom probably has better and more diverse pass rushing skills than Justin Smith...I just don't think she has the same "non-stop motor" to keep it up all game)

Anyway...that is my update on The Bengals free agency. A whole lotta nothing.

Like usual.

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Help Fight Breast Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:16:00 +0000

The Breast Cancer Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on 'donating a mammogram' for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising.

So go to The Breast Cancer Site and click on the big pink button in the middle. It only takes a few seconds of your time and could help in the fight against breast cancer.

DO IT NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

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Spring Training is Here!!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:37:00 +0000

Hi everyone...I'm back.

I took a month of because I was so exhausted from my writing training regiment I was undertaking. Hopefully my writing will be less obtuse and vapid. (note: exhaustive training = reading a couple of articles on the intergoogle about how to write better. Also, I refuse to be less vapid. REFUSE!!!!)

So...now that I am back to hysterically writing about things that don't actually mean much...here are my thoughts on this year's Cincinnati Reds.

I have mixed feelings about the hiring of Dusty Baker. One one hand...he wins everywhere he goes (but never a World Series). One another hand...he tends to bury young players in favor of "veterans". This is not what the Reds need. They have a really nice young team coming up. I would much rather have Jay Bruce playing out of position in CF than to bring in 54 year old Kenny Lofton. One a third hand...he seems to get a lot out of his players. They like playing for him, and he demands excellence. But on the giant 4th hand is the fact that he thinks OBP is over rated ("they just clog up the bases"), he thinks pitch selection is over rated. And yet, puts a premium on "scoring runs". I ask this...how does one score runs without people on base? HOW? Solo home runs? I'm just not sure about this

I predict Jay Bruce starts the season in AAA, tears it up, and is with the Reds by June at the latest. He will the proceed to have a solid season and hit .290 with decent power numbers. I hope this prediction is wrong and he starts the season with the Reds

I think Homer Bailey has a great year and becomes the real #2 starter ahead of Arroyo

I think Johnny Cueto plays for the Reds at some point and pitches lights out

I think David Ross will still not be able to hit

I think Reds fans will inexplicably love Ryan Freel because "he plays the game the right way"...which I disagree with. I think the "right way" to play the game is "well". Which Ryan Freel does not do. He is WAYYYY overpaid for a lead off guy who strikes out a lot and doesn't have a very good OBP (although I suppose that would be good in Dusty's eyes!)

I think Adam Dunn will continue to put up great power/OBP numbers as he has his entire career. Yet people on the radio will continue to ream him for the things he doesn't do well.

I think Jeff Keppinger should be the starting SS and Alex Gonzalez is no better. (If you look at their defensive metrics...Keppinger is only very slightly worse defensively.)

I think the bullpen is vastly improved with the addition of Francisco Cordero, which helps everyone out

Even with all of that...I still don't think we make the playoffs. Still a year away.

Here's hoping I'm wrong!!

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Stracka: Online Golf Management

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Wilson) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:13:00 +0000

Full Disclosure: This is a paid review

I was asked to take a look at the new website, Stracka.com: A Social Network for Golfers. The purpose of this page is online golf management...but really it's more than just that.

The first thing you see is that it has an awesome Google Earth/Google Maps mashup with basically every golf course in the country...and worldwide. For example, here is the page for Pebble Beach Golf Course in California. As you can see, the yardage for the course is entered, you can talk with members of the course, you can watch video flyovers, and post scores you have shot there. It's really neat.

Not all courses have information loaded though, but that's only because people haven't done them yet. If you play at Blue Ash Golf Course here in Cincinnati, you can mark up the map for other people to see and use.

There is a forum where you can discuss courses and get and give tips and just basically talk about golf with other golfers.

Another neat feature is the online management system. You can track all of your rounds, manage your handicap, and other things that should improve your game.

At Stracka, they do a really nice job of getting people the information they need to succeed everything they hit the links. And best of all...it's free to sign up.

I'm not a golfer myself (because I suck really badly at it)...but I love to see how technology can make things better and easier for people.

I think the site is really neat and would recommend to anyone who is either a nerd who loves statistics (like me) or really loves golf. Or, I suppose, people who fit both categories.

http://www.stracka.com

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