NL Preview

Told you I'd be late with this. It's been a rough week.

NL East
1) Philadelphia Phillies - Great hitting and pitching should hold up enough to hold off the Mets (unfortunately).
2) New York Mets - Definitely improved and should get the wild card this year.
3) Florida Marlins - Hanley Ramirez is awesome.
4) Atlanta Braves - So glad they don't seem like a powerhouse anymore.
5) Washington Nationals - Dukes, Milledge and Zimmerman could be a good core but not this year.

NL Central
1) Chicago Cubs - Still the most balanced team in the division.
2) St. Louis Cardinals - Shaky bullpen could hold them back.
3) Cincinnati Reds - Could be better if young pitchers improve.
4) Milwaukee Brewers - No CC Sabathia, no playoffs.
5) Pittsburgh Pirates - Finally out of the basement?
6) Houston Astros - Another SP besides Oswalt would really have to step up to make them better.

NL West
1) Arizona Diamondbacks - Solid rotation, solid hitters, bullpen question mark.
2) Los Angeles Dodgers - Keeping Manny keeps them in the mix.
3) San Francisco Giants - One of the best rotations in baseball keeps them this high, if only they didn't have a Molina as their clean up hitter.
4) Colorado Rockies - Remember when they were in the world series two years ago?
5) San Diego Padres - Stink.

NL MVP - Hanley Ramirez, Florida
NL Cy Young - Johan Santana, NY Mets
NL Rookie of the Year - Cameron Maybin, Florida

MLB AL Preview

Look I know it is opening day, and most games are already over, but I'm a bit of a slacker ok? Might as well offer my baseball predictions now - better a little bit late than never. I'll have my NL Preview even later - like tomorrow or something. Trust me, I'm not taking today's games into account:

AL East
1) Boston Red Sox - Rotation is just too deep and I think Papi has another year in him.
2) New York Yankees - Big fat CC Sabathia will make the difference and the Yanks are the Wild Card.
3) Tampa Bay Rays - Young and will be good just not as good.
4) Baltimore Orioles - Never heard of most of their pitching, but that lineup looks dangerous.
5) Toronto Blue Jays - Roy Halladay and nobodies.

AL Central
1) Chicago White Sox - Still think with this balanced team they are the best bet.
2) Minnesota Twins - Hopefully Joe Mauer is ok.
3) Kansas City Royals - Will hang in tight with the White Sox and Twins all year.
4) Cleveland Indians - Your rotation stinks.
5) Detroit Tigers - Possible fire sale by July.

AL West
1) Oakland As - Surprise team that somehow makes it work in a shitty division.
2) Los Angeles Angels - It's just about time they don't win this thing right?
3) Texas Rangers - Just enough to not be in last.
4) Seattle Mariners - Ken Griffey Jr of 15 years ago would have to come back to make a difference.

AL MVP - Grady Sizemore, Cleveland (I know that's crazy since I think they finish below the Royals, but I just don't see that many good candidates. Teixeira? Matt Holliday? Pedroia? I just don't see it.)
AL Cy Young - Zack Greinke, KC
AL Rookie of the Year - Matt Weiters, Baltimore

Robo Recap - April 4, 2009

The thinking is that this feature would be called "This Week In Robot News" but the odds of me actually being able to do this every week are not very good. To sum up my idea for what this optimistically weekly feature is, well, robots are fucking awesome. Let's talk about what is going on with them.

- Little known movie Exterminator City has an awesome robot sword fight scene that I have recently found on the internets. Seriously, one of the robots is wearing a fucking trenchcoat! Check it out:


- Ok, I watch that Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles show on Fox. I honestly don't know many people who watch it besides me, but they are missing out. Maybe it was kinda stupid at first, and yes, it can be ridiculous at times. The acting is not always the best. But there are robots, and there are cool fight scenes, and the whole overall story of what is going on is actually pretty good. You know the deal, let's stop Skynet from making robots. Well, the last couple of weeks have been especially good - and (spoiler alert?) they've killed off like three characters in the past month. One of those characters being John Connor's uncle, Derek Reese, played by the underrated (yes, I said it) Brian Austin Green. Well the weird thing about it was the way they killed him off - it wasn't even at the end of the episode like what would normally happen. There was a fight with a terminator and he just shot BAG right in the head and kept going. Like he didn't even matter. I guess that terminator represents America.

- Speaking of Brian Austin Green - his ladyfriend Megan Fox is in the new Transformers 2 coming out this summer, and the new trailer is now available. Check it out here. I did like the first one - of course, it had robots fighting and Megan Fox, what more do you need (I won't go into my unwavering support of Shia LaBeouf, which goes back to Even Stevens). It had it's problems - nonsensical plot, too many characters, me not being able to tell which robot was which, but I ended up looking past those faults. The movie didn't take itself too seriously and had a good bit of humor which makes me think i will end up seeing the sequel in the theater.

- Japan is looking forward, as usual, and is aiming to have a robot walk the moon by 2020. I'm not really sure what the point is other than just being able to say "we had a fucking robot walking on the moon, suck it world!". I guess the robot can do some kind of scouting? Maybe they can colonize up there and build a robot community? Robot world on the moon. I'd visit.

I miss you Predator

Last night was another bad loss for the Knicks as they lost to the Nuggets 111-104. At least we got to see an old friend, Renaldo Balkman. Or as they used to refer to him as on the old Max Kellerman radio show "The Predator". The nickname was well earned - the pronounced features of his face and crazy hair make him look like the Predator, but also the way he went after the ball and went after defenders - he was frighteningly pesky and fast. There's a chance that he still is but I don't really get to see him. He was without a doubt my favorite Knick last year.


I am a fan of Mike D'antoni, but there was no need for him to go after Balkman the way he did yesterday. It was just reacting to him saying that the Knicks regretted trading him, which they clearly don't - but why kick a guy when he's down? He's got great passion for the game, I mean he has the fucking words "Hustle" and "Harder" tattooed on his legs! I know he wouldn't really fit in with the Knicks now since he has no jumpshot, but maybe he can work on it? Eh, probably not. Well, at least his current teammates appreciate him.

I for one miss you Predator, and I want you to know that I would have bought your jersey if it was ever available for purchase.