SB Nation User Blog: shroomer

Chick Thuggery

shroomer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:44:27 -0000

Chick Thuggery

BYU vs NMU in women's soccer. Oh, the humanity.
[This might serve as a weekend EPL thread as well, I suppose.]

Wayne Brady sketch

shroomer — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:04:48 -0000

Wayne Brady sketch

They're Creepy And They're Kooky - Mysterious And Spooky - The Tevez Fam-i-lee! Okay, so City...

shroomer — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:53:07 -0000

They're Creepy And They're Kooky - Mysterious And Spooky - The Tevez Fam-i-lee!

Okay, so City aren't a bunch of runway models. We're still masters of our domain.

Another weekend of EPL to stun you with my knowledge. Yee-uh ...

Pretty, ain't he? We have some new WC qualified entries and the EPL is back in action this...

shroomer — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:30:27 -0000

Pretty, ain't he?

We have some new WC qualified entries and the EPL is back in action this weekend. Thought I'd start a soccer thread.

Is Arsene Wenger admiring himself in the mirror right at this moment? Discuss ...

Hey avid EPL fanz - need your help. I've never followed any pro soccer team except the old...

shroomer — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:05:48 -0000

Hey avid EPL fanz - need your help.

I've never followed any pro soccer team except the old NASL Tornadoes when I was a tyke. With p2p however, it makes it pretty easy to see tons of matches and follow a particular club. So, I'm gonna pick a team.

It's my boy Noel Gallagher's fav team and I've already watched 2 or 3 of their matches this season and find them fun to watch. It's Manchester City.

They have several fast rangey relentless players like Petrov and WP. Tevez is ugly but productive. Adebayor is kinda nutty but dangerous. Their goalie looks pretty solid. But it's this Bellamy guy who I really enjoy. Dude is pretty firey and brings lots of speedy danger in his game.

First off - any other Man City fanz here? I figure I need some links to MC fan sites and forums and newsletters if I really want to learn about what they're doing. Read the local press - that sorta thing. Any hints from you guys about the best websites to get started with? Thx.

Also, what do you guys thing of the team I picked? Any HSO's from my new enemy fellow EPL fanz?

Beatles Anthology

shroomer — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:55:49 -0000

Beatles Anthology

Humongous 1995 documentary about the Beatles - good video quality, great audio quality. I'd never heard of it before, but I ran across it a few days ago and I'm up to the 20th viddy. Greatness so far. Highly recommended if you like the Beatles.

Rudy Jaramillo's Hitting Fundamentals - video link

shroomer — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:36:28 -0000

Rudy Jaramillo's Hitting Fundamentals - video link

About five and a half minutes long.

Manny being a douchebag

shroomer — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:41:53 -0000

Manny being a douchebag

"The above story is significant only because Manny Ramirez, in five minor league games split between Albuquerque and Inland Empire (San Bernardino) chose not to buy the spread for either his Isotopes or 66ers teammates."

Watched a few innings of Shelby Miller in Mineral Wells Saturday afternoon. He throws hard. His...

shroomer — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:34:55 -0000

Watched a few innings of Shelby Miller in Mineral Wells Saturday afternoon. He throws hard. His FB just overpowered the HS kids. Never saw a gun reading despite lots of scouts and radar guns there.

He seldom threw below thigh high tho - kept the ball up mostly. The eye-high strike-out FB worked a few times. He threw a few curves. Sharp break but I don't recall any of them threatening the strike zone. A hanging change-up was tattooed on a line straight at the CF'er once. The next pitch was EXACTLY the same resulting in a fisted ducksnort over the SS's head for a hit. Next, he hit a kid in the middle of the back, but luckily it wasn't a FB. He threw a few pitches that just screamed MLB-quality ... you can see why he's a desired commodity. But not overwhelmed by his command - control is pretty solid tho. He got jobbed on a beautiful knee-high FB for ball 4 once - stupid ump. Miller questioned the call some but didn't obsess about it - good poise there.

His delivery seemed very simple and repeatable to me. His warm-up pitches were impressive because he can probably throw casual FB's in the high 80's all day long - effortless gas. The heat coupled with some baserunning and a long inning seemed to tire him some midway thru the game - he allowed a run just after this impression crossed my mind.

I read tonight that Brownwood won 3-1 with Miller hitting a decisive 2-run HR after I left. I don't know how long he pitched - if he went 9 then the kid's got some nice reserve tanks on him.

Slideshow

I got lots of pics, so if someone wants a different angle or delivery point let me know. He seems to have a very nice raw set of tools. Not a bad guy to draft at all - but overall I doubt he's a quick comer or anything.

Kevin Millwood chat at Inside Corner

shroomer — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:32:06 -0000

Kevin Millwood chat at Inside Corner

I hadn't seen this mentioned anywhere and I thought there were some interesting HSO's from Milly ...

On Maddux -
Mike's approach is not that different from other pitching coaches. I just think he does a better than job of relaying the message. It's pretty simple stuff: Throw strikes, get ahead in the count and stay on the attack. Tempo plays a big part of it. It keeps everybody ready. Shows the other team that you've got a lot of confidence out there. I think offenses have had a lot of confidences playing against us in the past and I think that's starting to change.

On Holland -
I think Derek has a chance to be very special. I think he has all the tools that you need. Now, it just comes down to applying it and learning how to pitch to big leaguers. He really wants to learn. He wants to get better. And that's the only way you are going to get better. And believe me, there have been plenty of guys with talent who just didn't care. I think he really knows his place as a rookie right now. He doesn't act like the proverbial "10 year veteran." He just goes about his business the right way.

On Harrison and BMac -
Well, we've already touched on Holland, but as for Harrison and McCarthy - don't forget Harry is only 23 - he may have the best stuff on the team. I think he's got a chance to be very, very good. I think his presence on the mound right now is really, really good. He's got a lot of confidence working and he's getting everybody out. Brandon is going to get better and better the longer he stays healthy. That's been the biggest obstacle for him. He's a very smart young pitcher. Knows what he's doing and why he wants to do it. He finally gained some weight and that will be important.

On Salty and Tea -
To me, it really doesn't matter. And it shouldn't matter. I call my own game. The thing that helps is when we are on the same page early in the game. Salty is a lot better player this year than he was last year. I think it's because he's played a full year and he's worked his tail off. He's got a great ethic. He does everything he can to be mentally and physically prepared. When I pitch, we talk a couple of times before the game and he talks a lot with Mike and [bullpen coach] Andy Hawkins. He's constantly asking folks about how are we going to go after this guy or that?

On the improved defense -
I think any time your confident in your defense, you are going to pitch better and you are going to be more willing to throw more strikes and not worry about letting guys hit the ball. You aren't trying to strike everybody out; you are just trying to keep it off the sweet spot.

On who would win an arm-wrestling match between him and Padzilla -
I would kill him. I'm bigger, stronger and I'm smarter. What else do you need?

On Andrus -
I think he's a really hard worker and he's got crazy range. He gets to a lot of balls that off the bat you would typically say, "that's a hit," and let it go. He gets to them and then he throws guys out. He's been better to this point than I thought he would be.

On the upcoming Angels series -
I think you can expect a great series. It's going to be close games with a lot of excitement. And how good is it to be talking about important series in the middle of May? Everybody likes that.

Thanks everybody. I really enjoyed being able to chat. Sorry we couldn't talk longer. But having your support and your interest means an awful lot to everyone in the clubhouse.