My 2008 Un-All-Star Team – Revisited

On May 7th this year I made my “2008 Un-All-Star Team.” I wanted to re-visit this, as some of the players have turned their seasons around, and some have tanked even farther down than I could have imagined. Some have grown mustaches to bust out of their slumps, while others seemed content with a mediocre year and released from their teams. I love when people say that some players are “second-half guys,” as you can see, not all players end up heating up as the temperature rises.

The batting averages in italics are as of May 7th, 2008.

Infield
Rickie Weeks – .195 – currently .229 – not an everyday starter
Robinson Cano – .157 – currently .264 – a true second-half guy
Kenji Johjima – .189 – currently .213 – lost his starting job
Ben Broussard – .159 – currently .159 – released and now currently in minors with Yankees
Johnny Estrada – .179 – currently .170 – released by Nationals
Casey Blake – .202 – currently .292 – traded to Dodgers, doing very well.
Ryan Howard – .168 – currently .235 – tied for major league lead in home-runs

Outfield
Andruw Jones – .158 – currently .161 – injury-plagued season
Alfonso Soriano – .177 – currently .293 – made actual all-star team
Nick Swisher – .196 – currently .213 – been very streaky
Jose Guillen – .165 – currently .252 – great second-half
Jim Edmonds – .172 – currently .240 – released by Padres, signed with Cubs, has been on fire when in the starting lineup
Michael Bourn – .194 – currently .226 – an off year, hasn’t stole many bases in the second half

Designated Hitter (barely)
Gary Sheffield – .176 – currently .223 – injury plagued season
Jose Vidro – .192 – currently .234 – released by Mariners
Jim Thome – .209 – currently .250 – a very resurgent second-half, big power numbers as well
Jason Giambi .157 – currently .252 – great middle of the season, has fell off here of late

The baseball season is a long and grueling marathon, not everyone can sprint the entire season. A lot can change during the season, but if a player can stay healthy and consistent throughout their career, they will have long playing careers in the Majors. For those you stay injured or struggle, it is easy for a club to cut their loses and a career can come to an end.

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Song of The Day – A Rocket To The Moon (I Think About You Everyday)

I found out about ‘A Rocket To The Moon’ as I was surfing around on Purevolume.com. I had a pretty lazy saturday and found some nice stuff that I’m sure that I will share with you over the next few days. If you are a fan of ‘The Secret Handshake,’ I think you will enjoy ‘A Rocket To The Moon.”

Fueled By Raman/Decaydance Records have done a great job at finding talented acts over the past few years. The Academy Is, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, and Gym Class Heroes are a few of the acts who have made it big on FBR. A Rocket To The Moon released a Summer EP and it is very enjoyable. Their sound is similar to The Secret Handshake, so they are not creatively different than some newer bands in the genre, but the song-writing is a notch about the rest.

Check out the audio of A Rocket To The Moon’s “I Think About You Everday.”

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Song Of The Day – Feral Children (Spy/Glass House)

As you may already know, we are becoming big fans of the bands on Sarathan Records. If it wasn’t for a chance email, I may have not known about this label. I dedicated a “Song Of The Day” to War Tapes over a month ago, they were the first band off of Sarathan we listened to. Feral Children is the new band on the label that we are enjoying.

I want to compare Feral Children as mixture of Against Me! and The Arcade Fire. Their songs are pushed by a huge amount of percussion and rhythm. The lead singer reminds me of Against Me!’s vocalist, he appears to be very passionate about his music. I think Feral Children is a nice addition to the label and should do very well. You can still download a free EP from Feral Children HERE!

Here is a video for “Spy/Glass House” by Feral Children.

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I Feel Like Bob Barker…

Over the past couple months we have built up this website and you have responded with great viewership, honest opinions, and the ability to type in my website url in your web browser. We have been approached by a few people about holding a few contests in the very near future. DVDs, CDs, and depending on your gender, age, and location, free massages by yours truly. Keep tuned to the upcoming festivities. I’ll need some ideas on how to pick the winners. I will need to make a fun game that all of our viewers will enjoy.

I’ll give you two hints on what we could be giving away.

1# – Mullets

2# – Destruction

Everyone have a great day and remember to get your pet spayed or neutered to help control the pet population. Now I am off to do things to some Barker Beauties.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Song Of The Day – Relient K (Must Have Don Something Right)

Relient K has been around for awhile, very long in terms of their genre. Most pop-punk acts spark and fade rather quickly. Relient K built a strong fanbase before going mainstream with their music. They started out on some smaller Christian labels and started seeing their fanbase grow to a point where they were getting the attention of major labels. “Be My Escape” was their first mainstream hit and then last year they released the album “Five Score and Seven Years Ago” with much success.

The video for “Must Have Done Something Right” is a pretty awesome concept. It follows a traveling soccer ball around. Relient K has always had a sense of humor in their song-writing, so it was just the next logical step to use some of their creativity in their videos.

Relient K will be around a long time, they don’t seem to be slowing down. Here is the video for “Must Have Done Something Right.”

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Song Of The Day – Shwayze (Corona And Lime)

Shwayze seems to be the “it” group of the summer. The song “Buzzin” has stayed near the top of iTunes charts all season and with their new track, “Corona and Lime,” they are not slowing down. The track is at #3 on iTunes currently and is also a nice and breezy summer track that will do very well for them.

Their album is set to be released on 8/19/2008, I’m assuming that they re-recorded the album to add more Cisco Adler, since any other group’s band would have already been released if their first track did as well as Shwayze’s. They are currently on Warped Tour and will be touring until the end of the year with Metro Station (a fellow “Song Of The Day” honoree).

Look for Shwayze’s album out later this month, I’m sure it will be a top 5 album that week. Here is the video for “Corona And Lime.”

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Manny Loves L.A.

Manny Ramirez made his Los Angeles Dodgers debut last night, and the normally quiet Dodger fans were loud for a change. Every fan from the front row to the All-U-Can-Eat Dodger Dog section, was chanting “Man-ny Man-ny” every time he was up to bat. Could Manny change the dynamic of being a regular, non-caring Dodger fan?

If I have learned something about Manny Ramirez during his career is that he has a way of making fans actually care about the team he is on. If you look back to his days in Cleveland, the team was a lowly basement dweller that was relying on Albert Belle for cheers. Manny changed the dynamic of the team and carried them into the playoffs year after year. His arrival in Boston was roughly the same, the Red Sox had a decent team, but could never win a championship, Manny helped them win two. The Dodgers could easily win the NL West, since no other team seems to want it. The Diamondbacks looked like another trip to the playoffs was a lock, but then June and July came and Justin Upton decided that he couldn’t hit the baseball. The Dodgers has a really good shot at winning the West and even a better chance if Brad Penny starts pitching up to his talent and if they can pull off a waiver trade to pick up Greg Maddux.

The acquisition of Manny made a lot of things happen. Andruw Jones is now expendable and possibly Juan Pierre could see his way out of L.A. during the waiver period. Manny might have the defensive abilities of a bored little leaguer, but his offensive abilities cannot be over-shadowed by anyone in the game.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Song Of The Day – Newton Faulkner (Dream Catch Me)

I know, I know…why am I putting the spotlight on a white boy with the #1 white boy offense, white man dreadlocks. I held off on listening to Newton Faulkner for this reason, but I stumbled upon a song of his called “Dream Catch Me.” I have really fond of this song for really unknown reasons. I have listened to the rest of his debut album, “Hand Built By Robots” and I haven’t found anything else on the album close to the quality of “Dream Catch Me.”

I will let Mr. Faulkner off the hook for his dreads only for the fact that he is British and sometimes they are a little quirky. If he was from Des Moines, Iowa, I would put him “On Notice” and send a formal letter to Stephen Colbert to announce it on his program.

This song charted all over Europe last year at this time, but was pretty much left alone over here in the States. Newton Faulkner has some talent and maybe his next album will have some popularity over here, if he does something about that rat nest on his head.

Here is the audio for “Dream Catch Me.”

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Song Of The Day – Metro Station (Control)

I heard Metro Station’s “Control” in a random tv commercial about a month ago. I didn’t know who the song was by, but the commercial caught my attention every time it was played. I guess it wasn’t a great commercial, I can’t remember what it was advertising, but I do remember the song.

Metro Station is a dance-punk band that reminds me of The Secret Handshake and The Faint. They are all young guys that should have a long career in the music business ahead of them. Their self-titled debut album is doing well and I am seeing their name all over last.fm user profiles.

I couldn’t find an official version of “Control” that they would let me embed, so here is a user’s video with lyrics.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

It’s Been Awhile – Part 2

I know the pictures doesn’t fit the blog, but it didn’t with part 1 either. I’ve always thought Lacey Chabert was cute, but then like a couple years ago she got hot, so I like to feel like I was one of the first people on the bus. I need to start a petition online for her to be in more movies. I know she does a lot of voice-over work, but I think she is very nice to look at and seems to be a good actor. That’s my opinion on her and I just wanted to share that.

I haven’t posted since like early July and that is going to change. I’ve been in the middle of starting a new career, moving my corporate office (apartment), and started seeing a new ladyperson, so I guess all those things added up means less nerd time for the blog. I am going to make more time for this since I love writing posts and receiving some pretty creative feedback from readers. Instead of writing a bunch of individual posts about little things, I’m going to have some bulletins on stuff I’ve ran across since my last post.

Before I start posting some small stuff, I have one large thing I’ve noticed. I have had a pretty good month with traffic and I wanted to see where this traffic was coming from. I noticed something a little disturbing and hilarious. A lot of my traffic is coming from search engines when people type in their favorite athlete, but then typing “shirtless” after it. “Ryan Braun shirtless,” “Tim Lincecum shirtless,” and for some odd reason “Josh McRoberts shirtless” is a common phrase to find my website. Maybe I should be shaping my site to cater to male athlete groupies. I know my traffic would double if I had some sort of “Grady Sizemore shirtless” posts…maybe if I just put shirtless in every post this page will rival Perez Hilton. Now, random things…

– Manny Ramirez plaing for the Dodgers makes sense, most L.A. fans don’t show up until the 3rd inning anyways. Sounds like an ideal setting for Manny being Manny.

– Columbus Clippers game can be a lot of fun, especially when guys like Pokey Reese makes a mockery of the sport. I did get to see Ryan Zimmerman during a rehab assignment, he’s going to be very good.

– I enjoy baked goods more than I thought.

– “One Day As A Lion” is very good, Zack De La Rocha and the drummer from Mars Volta will do great things together.

– “Once” is a good movie, even if you’ve seen it more than 10 times.

– “Dark Knight” was the best movie I’ve seen at least 4-5 years.

– I could care less about Brett Favre.

– I kind of want the Bears to get Brett Favre, but I would like ESPN to stop with their hourly “Where In The World Is Brett Favre” segments.

– I hate moving.

– I know more about vinyl fencing than I should. Please go to usavinyl.com for all of your vinyl fencing needs.

– The Cubs are much better against the Brewers than they are against any other team.

– While listening to 1460AM THE FAN in Columbus, OH, turn the station with the “Mid-Day Show” comes on. The show was much better than Chris Spielman was on the program.

– I’m still not a fan of Futurama, but I have a feeling that that could change.

– Last.FM is a pretty nice program

– I am still laughing that someone still thinks Kyle Farnsworth is still worth more than a “player to be named later.”

– Maybe I say “shirtless” a few more times

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Song Of The Day – Manchester Orchestra (I Can Barely Breathe)

I know it’s been awhile since my last “Song Of The Day” or any post really, but that’s going to change. I have been moving the America’s White Boy corporate offices (I got a new apartment) all week and have been really busy this month.

I was bored and looking around myspace and realized that one of my friends has an interesting cousin, so I clicked on her page and a beautiful song started playing. It took me awhile to find out what this track was, but it was Manchester Orchestra’s “Sacred Heart.” It sounds like Bright Eyes, but good. I’ve always had this anti-Conor Oberst thing, but I do like a few Bright Eyes songs, but not enough to like them. Anyways, I found out that I already have the new Manchester Orchestra album and I checked it out, it is quite good.

Here is the very artsy video for “I Can Barely Breath.” You will like it, I’m sure of it.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Fantasy God – Jason Giambi

The name of this post should be “Fantasy God – The Mustache,” but I felt that Jason Giambi should get some credit for his performance. I had a post in early May about my 2008 Un-All-Star Team and Giambi was batting a measly .157 and it didn’t good. He has since grown a crazy-man mustache and raised his average over 100 points since then and making the Yankees look like a possible contender.

Jason Giambi is hitting in the 5th spot for the Yankees, which is one of the best spots to be hitting in. Alex Rodriguez receives plenty of walks and Bobby Abreu and Derek Jeter get on base at a high rate. The possibility for Giambi to drive in 120 runs a season is always a possibility. He has hit 18 homers, drove in 52 runs, and is currently batting .268. In the past 30 days, he has hit 7 homers, 24 RBI, and batting over .300.

I haven’t seen such a facial craze since Johnny Damon looked like Jesus for a couple seasons in Boston. The Yankees are only allowed to grow mustaches (team code), so don’t look for him to go mountain man on everyone. Giambi’s 70’s porn ‘stache should be adorned by the entire roster and maybe the Yankees could catch the Rays and Red Sox in the AL East.

I picked up Jason Giambi on my fantasy team by a fluke. I traded Jay Bruce to a team for Miguel Cabrera, Billy Wagner, and Jason Giambi was thrown in the trade as “trash” at that point. I was expecting to release Giambi, but the first day I had him, he knocked two homers and he’s been a staple in my starting lineup ever since.

I look for Giambi to hit around 40 homers this season and get near 120 RBI and should finish the season with a .280 batting average. It sure looks like The Great Giambino is back this season.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.