Over: The Admiral
Under: Skybox

yes I used 666 to rate strip clubs in the Chicagoland area

O: Exploded Drawing
U: Shapes

O: Female circumcision
U: Male circumcision

underrated:

endomorphic body type
simple slow paced living
backstroke swimming

overrated:

good grades in school
cool records out of print
classic all stars tennis shoes*


*I have flat feet

O: Billy Beane

U: Mark Shapiro

Angus Jung wrote:O: Billy Beane
U: Mark Shapiro

Point taken, but Billy Beane really isn't overrated.

O: Sacrifice bunts
U: Having the ability to execute a sacrifice bunt

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:Point taken, but Billy Beane really isn't overrated.

You can be really, really good and still be overrated. That's Billy Beane.

He makes godawful trades (the Hudson and Kendall trades are the lastest examples), godawful decisions (Arthur Rhodes for closer, Scott Hatteberg for anything), and he employs puppet moron managers whose incompetence costs his teams dearly year after year.

And he gets a free pass on most of this, while the media Mensas still bicker with each other about "Moneyball" and on-base percentage.

Over the past 2 years, Mark Shapiro has thoroughly out-GMed Billy Beane.

Angus Jung wrote:And he gets a free pass on most of this, while the media Mensas still bicker with each other about "Moneyball" and on-base percentage.

I don't think that there is any free pass. To the extent that there is, I think that it's because his teams win a lot of games with a low payroll and high talent turnover.

We will agree that Billy Beane is really, really good and leave it at that.

Now, you'll excuse me, Angus Jung. I have to get back to hoping that I at least will be able to cry myself to sleep tonight, at least as opposed to staying awake all night having flashbacks of Aaron Boone hitting a two-out, two-strike pitch up the middle for two runs.

I think that I now have some small insight into Tim Wakefield's soul. Salut, Tim Wakefield.

Why couldn't Aaron Boone have found a good pickup basketball game yesterday afternoon? There are plenty of courts on the South Side.

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:
Now, you'll excuse me, Angus Jung. I have to get back to hoping that I at least will be able to cry myself to sleep tonight, at least as opposed to staying awake all night having flashbacks of Aaron Boone hitting a two-out, two-strike pitch up the middle for two runs.

In the second game of their series with the Indians, Kirk Saarloos pitched a 1-2-3 6th inning with two strikeouts. His pitch count was at 87. The score was 2-0 Athletics.

Ken Macha took him out of the game, and the bullpen promptly blew it.

In the last game of the series, Barry Zito was pitching in the 7th inning of a tie game. He had walked two runners on base, and came back from a 3-0 count to get a strikeout. He had thrown over 120 pitches. He was clearly through.

After going to the mound, Ken Macha left him in the game, and he promptly served up a 3-run homer.

It is no comfort at all to you or me, but if the Athletics had a GM who valued smart managers, the Sox could be in a much better position right now.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:Overrated: caffeine
Underrated: naps

Overrated: music
Underrated: silence

Overrated: Stevie Nicks
Underrated: Christine McVie

Overrated: "spoken word"
Underrated: poetry

Overrated: big tits
Underrated: big ass

Overrated: irony
Underrated: courage

Damn. Damn.
That list is teflon.

O: Kobe Bryant
U: Kobo Abe