NL East article on ESPN

I was reading ESPN today and they had a really good article about the beat up NL East. For those of you who skip my baseball blogs, there is more under this article so if you want you can scroll down.. :P

The NL East is playing out like a really nasty game of dodgeball, and if you're keeping score at home, you could probably count the bodies left standing on one hand.

You know the New York Mets have lost their best home run hitter, their All-Star shortstop, two-fifths of their rotation and their second most important off-season acquisition in J.J. Putz … and at the end of play Tuesday night, the Mets were still just 2½ games out of first place.

The Florida Marlins saw their most consistent starting pitcher from last year sent to the minors, and their starting center fielder batted .202 before being demoted. They've had to make do at third base with a youngster who had always played in the middle infield. Dan Uggla, one of their few returning veteran stars, is batting .217, and shortstop Hanley Ramirez has a nagging groin injury. Today, these Marlins, with the lowest payroll in the majors, are three games out of first place.

The Philadelphia Phillies might have lost No. 2 starter Brett Myers for the rest of the season, No. 3 starter Jamie Moyer has a 5.97 ERA, and No. 5 starter Chan Ho Park lost his job. Closer Brad Lidge was much less than perfect before landing on the disabled list, shortstop Jimmy Rollins has battled a slump most of the year, and now Raul Ibanez is hurt.

And the Phillies lead the NL East.

So in other words, this battered and tattered division -- major league baseball's Black and Blue Division of 2009 -- is a very long way from being decided.

A few hours before Tommy Hanson pitched out of trouble over and over again and the Braves shut out the Yankees, Atlanta GM Frank Wren spoke with optimism, and who could blame him? The Braves have been one of baseball's worst offensive teams; their outfield production was easily the worst in the majors, prompting Wren to trade for Nate McLouth. And those Braves are four games out of first place.

"I think none of us foresaw what the [Phillies and Mets] would have," Wren said. "We're sitting where we thought we would be. … I actually feel like over the last week, we've started to make some strides. The last five days, we've swung the bat as well as well as we have all year."

Casey Kotchman has been swinging better of late, Wren says, but hasn't had a lot to show for it yet. Garret Anderson ripped a two-run double Tuesday night, and is hitting .435 over the past week. McLouth has helped the Atlanta offense, creating more opportunities for Chipper Jones, Brian McCann and others. If the Braves can muster any offensive consistency, they'll be dangerous because of their rotation and bullpen depth.

Wren is open to adding a hitter "who is available and who fits what we need," but like a lot of other GMs, he reports that there are few players on the market right now. And in the end, Wren's hands could be tied because of expense. "There's very little financial flexibility [among other teams], and for us, as well," Wren said. (Yet another reason why the trade market will probably be a dud: It's unclear whether even the Dodgers can take on money, as Bill Shaikin writes.)

Soon enough, the Mets will get back Jose Reyes, John Maine and Carlos Beltran, and it's possible they will get help from Carlos Delgado and Oliver Perez. And the Mets, one of the few teams willing to take on money in trades, are looking for a hitter. The Phillies are looking for a starting pitcher, but without success so far. The Marlins have historically made runs in the second half of the season, as their young players improve.

Jeff Schultz wonders if better days are ahead for the Braves. These days, the Mets must hit and run and pray, writes John Harper.

I hope at least some of you thought that was interesting.. If not, too bad.. To keep my blog legal I should say that Buster Olney wrote that..

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I went to my cousin's wedding on Saturday and Sunday I went to see Hangover with my dad for father's day... Hangover was such a bad movie.. I recommend nobody see it..

I went bowling with Lynz on Thursday which was tough on my feet but good too. I think there was a ball magnet in the gutters because my ball really liked hanging out there. I was adjusting my approach to not hurt my feet so I was all over the place but I had fun and I feel it did a good job of building up some muscles in my legs.

Saturday at my cousin's wedding I ran a little bit and that really strained my calf muscles, I am thinking next week I will hit the gym and try the elliptical machine. If that fails I'll be swimming for sure and maybe some very minor weights.

Anyway, back to work for me...

中車

Holy crap, I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last blog... I keep meaning to blog but then I get tied up with other crap and now I feel like so much has happened I don't know where to start or what to right about...

So, big news... Sonic has moved onto another life, I didn't bring him to Subaru heaven but instead sold him to a repair shop in Putnam who is taking care to bring him back to his full glory. I am very sad to part ways but he needed more a more car savvy person to continue a healthy long life.

I did a bunch of research and ended up with another Subaru. I checked out the new Outback Sport and found the cargo space was way to small. I checked into other makes as well (Audi A3, Toyota Matrix, Pontiac Vibe, Suzuki SX4) but none of them had anywhere near the cargo space as Sonic. Apparently people want the look of a wagon, but don't want the cargo of a real wagon. I forget the exact numbers now because I did all this research a few weeks ago and didn't write it down, but the new Subaru Outback has 3 more cubic feet of storage then my old car.

Pictures of the new car are up on Flickr, although I have not posted a blog in awhile I have been updating Flickr. New car is the color of the blue Totoro, his name is ironically Chū Totoro (Chū meaning middle or medium). I say ironically because he is the middle sized Totoro, the big guy is Oh Totoro and the little one is Chibi Totoro (Oh means biggest or great, Chibi means small). Well if the Impreza is Subaru's little car or Chibi car and if the Forester is their big car (Oh car) then the Outback is their middle or Chū car. Car translated in to Japanese is 車 which can be pronounced Ka or Kuruma, hence the new car's name is 中車. 中 = Chū.. I have not decided yet if I want to pronounce it Chū Ka or Chū Kuruma.

I have ordered replacement stickers for everything but the Studio Ghibli one. I tried to call the Museum shop but they don't accept calls from outside Japan, I tried to email them and my email address got rejected. I emailed a friend who works in Japan and hopefully they can get in touch with them.

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Went to Yankee stadium for the first time on Saturday to see the Mets play, luckily for me the Mets won that game. That stadium is the worst of the new stadiums I've been to. It feels like your in a corporate park and not in a baseball stadium, when you're at your seat the stadium is just like being at the old stadium except the massive scoreboard. The problem is when you leave your seat to get food. The food is WAY to expensive and not very good, they apparently have really good food but you need reservations to get into those sections. They did have a nice Yankees museum.. Speaking of that museum, they had seats behind glass from four different times in Yankee Stadium history (2009, 1976, 1950s, 1923), the smallest seat was the 2009 seat and the biggest was the 1950s seat by a long shot.

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Other things since last I blogged...

May Laire.. The plotline was really neat but it was a very frustrating event for me. I really miss fighting and hate to be a bystander during big battles where I know I could help. Can't fight till September event, figure I'll play non-combat Daimone in July to show off my new summer outfit, play a combat Brother Hawk in August and then a full combat Daimone in September!

Arkham Horror.. Me and Jessie went to Steve's house at the end of May to play Arkham Horror, if you have not played it yet I would recommend it. It's sorta like Betrayal at House on the Hill on steroids. You and the other players are a team and your goal is to out live the board, you draw a random big monster at the beginning and you have to stop the monster from awakening, if you fail and he awakens you have to try and kill it before it kills you. According to Board Game Geek rankings Arkham Horror is #51 all time. Speaking of Board Game Geek, I don't really know how they determine their rankings. I was highly offended to see Empire Builder at #387, especially since their biggest bitch was the fact that the crayons broke!

June 5th marked my one year anniversary with Lynz. What a crazy roller coaster ride of a year it's been. Looking back at everything it's sorta amazing that it all happened in one year. I'd rather have a full crazy life then a boring one. What would you rather ride, the roller coaster or the Ferris wheel? Well, I for one hate Ferris wheels.

On June 6th I went to the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Festival in Charlton MA. It's a nice faire but you can tell it's a new faire. The camp ground is owned by a LARP (Lione End of Seasons), it's a really big camp but they only used one field for the faire. If they had spread it out more they would have done a lot better, as it was you walk into the one field and you can see all the faire has to offer in one glance. In terms of entertainment, they only really had musical acts and no "plot shows" to speak of. To me it seemed the faire was a LARP membership drive, the main focus of the faire was a boffer tournament which took place in the center of the ring of stores. I ended up buying a really nice summer outfit for Daimone that I can't wait to wear.

Speaking of Ren Faires and LARPs.. I still have not been able to get in touch with Son of Sandlar, I will try to call them again today when I leave work. I've emailed them a few times and left messages for them a few times as well with no responses. When I talked to them at the NY Ren Faire last year they told me to contact them via myspace and they would provide me shipping instructions to get my boots fixed.

--Diversion of the Day

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