Game 138 Open Thread: September 7, 2007

Brandon Webb's pitched better on the road than at home this year and newest Cardinal Russell Branyan has absolutely raked Webb throughout his career.

Did you hear about the new Cubs soda?  Two sips and then you choke.

No one's afraid to call for pizza.

Albert wondered the holding room for a bit and decided to approach someone.

"Hello", Albert greeted.  "What is your IQ?"

"180." responded the woman.

"Wonderful!", replied Albert, "We can discuss the theorey of relativity."  

After a nice conversation, Albert approached a gentleman.   "Hello, sir, what is your IQ".

"135", replied the man.

"Great, we can discuss the affects of war on marco-economics."  said Albert.

With the success of the first two encounters and more time to kill, Albert Einstein approached a third man.

"Pardon me, sir, what is your IQ?", Albert inquired.

"78", responded the man.

Albert paused for a brief moment and replied, "How about those Cubs?"

of course we had to go and spoil that one.

Fellas it's good to be in Arizona. I've been to Arizona once, I was apprentice to a water salesman. He tried to pawn me off to some marauding nomads, but he was a terrible salesman. Terrible salesman, turned out he couldn't sell me in the desert.

I got crank called the other day. Yeah, cranked called, the joker asked me, "Do you have Prince Fielder in a can?" Of course I said yes, and he said, "Why, that's some kinda can!"

Did you hear about the new Mark McGwire biopic? Variety wanted to interview the director, but the producer was just there to talk about the cast.

You heard Jack Benny has a new sponsor, of course. That old cheapskate's got a lot in common with Jason Marquis, but I tell you what, at least he can get a Lucky Strike.

LLRSRRRSR

Wish Jimmy wasn't in.  I'd rather see Ludwick or (gasp!) Skip.

BTW, very few So sightings recently.

However, when Branyan is playing third, Ryan should be at SS or 2b.  There's no reason for Miles, or even Eckstein, to be getting starts ahead of Ryan.

eckstein ss
ankiel rf
pujols 1b
edmonds cf
duncan lf
rolen 3b
molina c
looper p
miles 2b

it stuck out to me at the time that Edmonds and Duncan weren't separated by Rolen, since TLR's well-established MO is always to alternate whenever possible.

But three lefties? That is weird....apparently Webb has a nasty lefty-right split for his career. (You knew there had to be an angle to it.)

1. Honestly, how would you react if the story was about Derek Lee (or another rival player)instead of Rick Ankiel?
2. What do you think of McGwire's alleged doping?  Since steroids weren't against baseball's rules (at least explicitly), should it affect his HoF bid?

-run backward
-hop on one foot
-do the potato sack thing
-moonwalk
-pull a sharpie out of his sock and sign autographs for all the other infielders

and still beat molina.

poor YADDA.

at least joe garagiola is kind of funny. darren's just a jackass.

c'mon eck. set it up for ank.

cause we go station to station like it's cool.

One day my roommate calls me into the kitchen and asks if I know whose car that is in the driveway....I look out and see my guitar player's bare ass bumping against the windshield....4:30 in the afternoon, broad daylight, adjacent to the alley the whole block had to use to park....this guy (married, natch) was banging some blonde he'd met at a bar after work....he ended up getting mad at me because my roommate told the rest of the band.

Hilarity ensued....

he could get ahole of one though.

now a hitter like Ryan has a much better chance of slapping the ball the other way for a single and getting the run in from 3rd. that right there is the only reason why i would have PH Ryan for Russ.

Branyan is the classic three true outcomes player -- he leads baseball in the % of his PA's that end up as a BB, a K, or a HR.  46.7% of his PA's end up as one of those 3 true outcomes.  Lyon averages 2.91 BB/9 and an unbelievably low .28 HR/9.  He wasn't going to homer there so we had to hope for a walk.  The likelihood of a K there was really high and we needed someone who could get us a flyball or at least put the ball in play and give us a chance.  Branyan is the worst in baseball in putting the ball in play.

It's not all Tony's fault we lost, of course, but the decision to go w/ Branyan in that PA was horrible and, IMO, indefensible.

and that was right after he & Stan got into it so he really wasn't welcome back in the STL to begin with.