It’s Just Not the Same

Here’s your Green Day: Rock Band opening cinematic. As I’m sure you remember, one of the best parts of The Beatles: Rock Band was the insane, I’m going to call it a short film, that started things off. I find it so depressing that that game didn’t sell better and that Green Day: Rock Band might actually do better because more gamers like Green Day than the Beatles. That makes me feel ill. Kids these days.

Da Podcasket Iron Man 2 Special

After what must have felt like a lifetime da morticians are finally ready to discuss Iron Man 2. What will the guys have to say? Is this the blockbuster we’ve all been waiting for or a real train wreck? Pretend you haven’t already read the review or seen it. It’s more fun that way.

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What I Would do

Not a very pleasant time in Marinerville. Anyone who watched yesterday’s game is ready to jump off a cliff. If you read USS Mariner this morning, you’re even more depressed. The seasons probably over unless we go on one of those 20 game winning streaks like those pesky A’s did back in the day.

This really is the worst-case scenario that nobody planned for. No one thought Lopez, Figgins, Johnson, Moore, etc would be this bad. We knew going in there were risked. We could have set our watch to the fact that Bradley would freak out and Jack Wilson would get hurt. But there were things that we could have done better roster wise. And while our playoff hopes might be lost, there are moves that can be and should be made internally to squeeze every last win out of this schedule, because my lord we need it.

Griffey to the 15 day DL for CSS (Carlos Silva Syndrome)
It’s no secret, Junior is bad. He is awful. He is terrible. There is no way around it. I love him dearly and I hate to say this. But the fact of the matter is we have two players on the team that can’t play the field. That is unacceptable for a professional baseball team. You cannot waste two roster spots. The boys at LL had a great idea to put Jr. on the DL until around August, and if we’re out of it by then he can come back and parade around like last year. That is the ideal plan, because every day that he is on this roster, our chances of winning are slimmer. At this point in their respective careers, Sweeney does have more life left, and as terrible as he is, Junior is just that much worse.

When Bradley comes back, slide him in to full time DH role while Saunders takes over in LF full time
Hopefully when Bradley comes back, there will have been a miraculous change of character, he will be born again and start hitting. He was hitting when he left, and we could really use some of that as has been well documented. But we need Bradley in that lineup EVERY GOD DAMN DAY. You cannot put him in left field as much as you did before, because he will get hurt. He plays harder than his body will allow and gets hurt, so limiting him to DH is the best thing for everybody involved. Plus by doing this we get to keep trotting Saunders out there, who is a stud in the field and at the plate. Sweeney will become the back up DH/pinch hitter and Langerhans will be your greatest Mariner of all time 4th outfielder.

Get rid of Jesus/Sean White
It’s one thing to have two players that can never pick up a glove and it’s an entirely other thing to have that plus a seven man bullpen. Bedard is set to come back in early June and with the way things are shaking out it looks as if Hyphen has already lost his rotation spot. So you’re probably gonna move him to the bullpen leaving you with Aardsma-Lowe-Kelley-League-Snell-RRS. By getting rid of both Junior and the extra pitcher, it leaves you much more flexibility. No one wants Tui to play short stop in a Major League Baseball game. And with Jack Wilson seeming to have been constructed out of glass, you need an effective backup like Josh Wilson that can eat innings at SS with out totally embarrassing himself at the plate. Plus Sean White sucks. He has two strike outs this year. In total. TWO!

So there’s all I can think of for now. We needed a lot of things to go our way and until we do some of these things we are only hampering our chances even further.

Sign him up!

Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle has a nice little tidbit of information for all those fans that are still getting over the tragic “Eric Byrnes” era. Byrnsy is doing just fine and found a everyday job, in a slow pitch softball league.

Wednesday night, in the Menlo Park League, Byrnes, the cleanup hitter, led off the bottom of the second inning against Vintage Construction.
The Vintage pitcher was Bill Lopez, who, as a local Little League coach, passed over 9-year-old Eric Byrnes in a draft.

Revenge time, 25 years later: Byrnes hit the first pitch deep over the left-field fence. When he arrived back at the dugout, Lopez nodded and rolled the ball to Byrnes, a souvenir of his first slow-pitch homer.

If come August the Dutch Goose need a sweet-swinging lefty, hopefully the M’s can make another deal.

National Treasure

The National – High Violet

The National’s last two albums were great. So great that both of them probably could have had a chance of making it on to my Top 10 of the decade list, if wasn’t for the fact that I first got into them about a month after the decade ended. Their latest release, High Violet is at that same high standard that The National have set for themselves.

The National already have a bit of a reputation for having a sad-sack mopey quality to their music, and yet High Violet has an even darker sound to it than its predecessors. Matt Berninger’s deep baritone still serves as one of the most interesting voices in indie rock, while his lyrics make him sound like he’s just as much of a wreck as ever. And just like on their past albums, drummer Brian Devendorf’s intricate drum patterns give the band that same driving sense of immediacy.
Overall, High Violet has a bit fuller sound than 2007’s Boxer, with plenty of strings and horns complementing the guitar work of brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner. As they also did on Boxer, a number of the songs such as “Terrible Love” and “England” share the characteristic of starting off in a very unassuming, subdued manner before building and building to these huge beautiful climaxes.
The National’s albums have often been described as “growers”, in that they take quite a few listens before they start to grow on you. Well High Violet is no exception, and I can say that because I’ve been listening to it pretty constantly ever since it’d been streaming over the internet a few weeks ago. So if this album sounds a little boring to you at first, do not give up on it my friend, it’s another fine release from The National that’s more than worthy of your time.
Favorite Tracks: “Terrible Love”, “Bloodbuzz Ohio”, “Conversation 16”