1. They seem to have trouble hitting the ball, which is fucking typical, seeing as that's the one thing that's been there for this team for an entire decade. They're jacking plenty of balls out of the home run crazy Ballpark in Arlington, but the team as a whole is not getting good contact on the ball. Every starting pitcher that goes against us seems to fan at least 8 batters per game, and players like Hamilton, Murphy, Salty, and (...) Chris Davis have batting averages sitting at .255 and below for the year and are K-ing like crazy. Even Kinsler, who started off as hot as he ever has, has dropped from .400 to .279 in less than a month's time. Chris Davis lately has been an absolute frustration at-bat after at-bat. He continually gets behind in the count and on every single fucking 1-2 or 0-2 count, pitchers know exactly what to pitch at him because the league knows he will swing at nearly anything. He struck out six times Friday. SIX TIMES. Granted, it was a doubleheader, but that is still ridiculous. If we want to stay ahead of the Angels, the hitting just has to be there.
2. The pitching is going to drop off. It's inevitable. It's already beginning to happen. Harrison got absolutely shelled against the Yankees and I know for a fact Matt Harrison is not a guy that is going to keep up consistent performance. It seems like Matt is either absolutely fantastic, going 9 innings and shutting out teams or he gives up 7 runs in like 3 innings. Most of the time it is the latter, and Matt just got sent to the DL so we don't know how well he will recover. I would also be shocked if Feldman keeps up what he has been doing. Holland hasn't looked good on the stat sheets, but he definitely has great velocity and nice movement on his pitches and I think he can eliminate the mistakes enough to be a really good pitcher next season, maybe at the end of this season with some luck. Millwood hasn't been pitching nearly as well as early in the year, but I feel he can sit around a 4 ERA for the season and at least be decent, and the same goes for Padilla. McCarthy might have been the most impressive pitcher in the rotation so far. He only really had one bad game against Oakland where he gave up 7 runs in 4 innings, and the rest has been consistently solid pitching. He also is the only starter that can rack up lots of strikeouts in a given outing. The bullpen has been unreal lately, though that could easily be attributed to the starters staying in so long. I'm trying to stay optimistic that the starters will be able to stay in games and put out quality starts, but I just think they are going to wear themselves out too much and the Texas heat will catch up with them.
3. Ron Washington is a very, very bad manager. I really think he is leaving the starters in way too long on multiple occasions and though I'd like to buy into all this DFW media hype about how the pitchers "improved their stamina" in the offseason, it's just too hard to believe that there would be this much change this fast. It's going to get hotter, the pitchers are going to tire more, and being at the top of the AL in starter's innings pitched right now doesn't help much. We already have had two starters and our closer go to the DL for some period of time, so I just hope everyone can stay healthy and stay fresh enough to pitch late in the season. Most of these pitchers are not built for these kinds of innings. Ron also manages the lineup terribly. I don't know why the fuck Andrus is not batting leadoff yet...Kinsler could drive in so many more runs if he was in the 3 or 4 hole and it appears he has developed into the kind of power hitter that can be slotted there. Andrus is an absolutely perfect leadoff man, especially if he keeps hitting over .280. And Marlon Byrd should NEVER be batting in front of Nelson Cruz EVER and nor should Andruw Jones. Putting Andruw behind Hamilton does not give Ham much protection at all, and I'm certain Andruw is going to come down to earth soon and stop putting up these mediocre numbers everyone is all giddy about. The lineup, no questions asked, should be as follows:
1. Andrus
2. Young
3. Kinsler
4. Hamilton
5. Cruz
6. Blalock/Jones
7. Byrd/Murph
8. Davis
9. Salty
Move Davis above Byrd whenever he comes out of this atrocious funk he is in. But seriously, if this team just tanks late in the year and drops way behind the Angels, Washington needs to be fired on the spot. If he's not I'm going to put Nolan Ryan in a headlock and punch him in the head.
4. The upcoming stretch, from June 2 to June 14, includes at New York, at Fenway, Toronto, and the MLB best Dodgers. We have not played well against good teams lately, and this stretch frankly scares the living shit out of me. If we lose enough of those games, the team confidence is going to turn to diarhea and it could lead to a stumble into the all star break that I don't want to witness. I'm crossing my fingers and hanging up rabbits feet and around the television for this stretch.
The one thing that has been fantastic is the defense, and maybe, just MAYBE that can keep a couple of runs off the boards every game and keep us in 1st. I really, really want this team to do well this season, but something tells me 2010 is a chance for the Range to do special things. It would be a nice bonus to make the 2009 playoffs though =D
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DRAG ME TO HELLI walked into Drag Me to Hell expecting an Evil Dead with a hot blonde rather than Bruce Campbell. It wasn't, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
Firstly, Alison Lohman is absolutely gorgeous and was really good in this movie, except for a few failed Bruce Campbell-esque lines that Bruce could have pulled off without flinching...but really, no one can pull off those lines like Bruce can. I know what Sam was trying to do, and I forgive him. I don't want to give too much away, but one was "EAT IT, BITCH" or something along those lines, while she was shoving [something] into [evil lady's] mouth. Other than a couple of those moments that sort of made me shake my head, she was great.
The plot was kind of silly, but amazing in a Raimi way, and a few of the scenes were legendary as far as horror films go. The scene towards the end where the four sit around the table and try to cast out the curse ranks up there with some of Raimi's best scenes, and many parts of it give you fond memories of Evil Dead 2. Every part where Lohman would get tormented by the curse in her home was fun as hell (heh heh) and there were tons of really funny gimmicks that every non-Raimi horror film lacks. My theory is that horror movies should never take themselves seriously ever, because the plot of every horror movie is filled with stupid supernatural bullshit that never makes any sense. Most horror films just take a shitty premice, like a ghost, a witch, an evil kid, a creepy horny old guy with a mask, an evil tooth fairy, whatever, and they just throw in alot of stupid jump scenes and make actresses scream and actually try to scare the audience. Raimi reallizes that horror movies are fucking stupid by nature, so he influxes into the movie awesome, hilarious things like old ladies getting hit in the head a hundred times or eyeballs flying off into peoples mouths or goats screaming demonic phrases. When he has Bruce Campbell, the comedy elevates to a whole new, untouchable level.
Raimi did make this film a much more conventional horror flick in many ways, which kind of pissed me off. Anyone that has watched a horror movie knows they ALWAYS have 4 or 5 "jump scenes" early in the movie before the actual movie starts. One thing I always liked about Evil Dead movies is that they never beat around the bush and they just dive right into the action and keep it going the entire movie. Drag Me to Hell was modeled like today's conventional horror movie in that it had stupid "jump scenes" and not much happened besides that for about 30 minutes except for a, I might say, rather enjoyable fight between the old lady and Lohman. DMTH also had a kind of stupid twist that every single horror movie since the 6th sense has had, but I've seen worse twists I suppose. These things made it feel more like a shitty horror movie that comes out every week, but don't get me wrong, this film has elements that place it high above any horror movie I've seen in a long time. Sam working with an actual big studio probably is what required him to apply some conventional horror rules, which sucks, but whatever.
A great horror movie should also never have a happy ending. What kind of horror movie ends happily??? Living happily ever after isn't scary. You're not supposed to walk out with a smile knowing that everyone made it out okay. You want everyone to fucking die!!! Or get dragged to hell, or whatever. Raimi understands this, that's all I'll say.
Justin Long kind of sucked too...and I'll just go ahead and blame the studio for that too. He wasn't as annoying as I thought he would be, but come on, it's Justin Long. He sucks.
Overall, I will give this movie an 8/10 as an actual movie, but a definite 10/10 on a horror movie scale. Sam is brilliant and his return to horror was very very good. I went in with super high expectations, and the fact that I was satisfied should say how good a horror movie this really is. If you like the Evil Dead trilogy or just a fine horror film, see it. Now.
RATING: 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment