Time to Panic?

This encapsulates the Astros season so far, where Jeff Luhnow (GM) is Buzz and I (and many others) are Woody.  Yes, it's early in the season.  The Astros are 5-11 (and losing 5-0 as I type).  It's only sixteen games in, out of 162.  That's only 1/10th of the season.  There's plenty of time to come back!

I mean, after all, Tyler White is looking good.  Jose Altuve is raking.  They won AL Player of the Week the first two weeks!  Colby Rasmus is crushing the ball and significantly more patient at the plate.  George Springer is getting hot.  Chris Devenski has been a revelation in the bullpen.

Yeah, but.  They have the worst team ERA in the American League.  They are tied for the worst record in the American League.  Ken Giles has already given up more home runs this season than all of last season.  The starting rotation, even Dallas Keuchel (save his home start against the Tigers) has been awful.  Speaking of awful, Jason Castro, Luis Valbuena, and Carlos Gomez cannot hit to save their lives, and the other options on the bench are not much better.  Oh, and then there's the complete and utter inability to hit with men in scoring position.  And should we mention how the two big trades, to the Brewers and the Phillies, are already looking terrible?  Domingo Santana is playing much better than Gomez.  Vincent Velasquez has a 0.93 ERA through three starts with 29 Ks in 19 innings.

So, what do I do?  Can I look on the bright side?  After all, Lance McCullers should be back in the next month.  Colin Moran, Danny Worth, and Alex Bregman are looking good early in the Minors (pay no attention to A.J. Reed's .208 batting average).  Plus, you can't really judge a team's season until Memorial Day.  And, as I long time fantasy baseball player, I know not to make any rash moves the first month of the season.  Just let things play out!

Ok, but what if the ship does not right itself?  What if McCullers has a sophomore slump?  What if they simply cannot handle the pressure?  What if they're so far out by Memorial Day the tombstone is in place?  What if they make another bad trade in an attempt to fix things?

Right now, I'm going to choose to panic.  I can't help it.  After all, I can't really turn to soccer in the meantime.  Everton is even worse.

French Revolution?

A little thought experiment I had in class the other day.  This is the problem with having a mind like mine that makes connections like this. 

The ultimate question became, did the French win the American Revolution?

In Modern Philosophy the professor was trying to pronounce Arnold Geulincx's name.  After being told he was wrong by a student who speaks French, he said "if it wasn't for us they'd be speaking German, so that gives me the right to say pronounce French however I want."  This was, of course, a joke, so don't get all upset about that.  But it lead me to think this: well if it wasn't for them we'd still be bowing to the Queen.  Which led me to this proposition: the French won the American Revolution.

But, my thought process went, French involvement, particularly monetarily, was a major impetus for King Louis XVI calling for more taxes.  (Pardon my quick and dirty history)  So he called for the Estates-General, which led to the French Revolution, which led to his departure, much death, Terror, the Republic, Napoleon, etc.  In many ways, France was worse off thanks to their Revolution.  So in that way, their involvement in the American Revolution led to their downfall.

I suppose it comes down to (at least) two questions.  Is a republic better than a monarchy?  Is secularism (a clear result of the French Revolution) better than Christianity?  Those are two big questions, of which I would answer "maybe" and "no way."  But depending on how you answer those two questions, you can answer my bigger question.  Did the French win the American Revolution?

Batman v Superman

I finally saw Batman v Superman.  I've been waiting a long time for this.  I almost went on opening day, but since it was Good Friday I thought that wasn't the most appropriate thing.  Since then I have been waiting for a chance, and finally got it.

I went into the movie with mixed feelings.  At first I was very excited at the chance to see the two biggest superheroes on screen together.  Add Wonder Woman and you've got a very compelling opportunity.  I was not the biggest fan of Man of Steel, and certainly not of the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight series, but I still had hope.  Then the reviews came out, and I got worried.  So I went with a mixture of high anticipation and weariness.

I am not an expert of the comics, but I am a big fan.  Batman has always been my favorite major character, and DC much more than Marvel.  I have read most of the major stories for both Batman and Superman, so I think I have a pretty good idea of what the characters should be.  In short: I love Batman: The Animated Series, really like Michael Keaton, think Val Kilmer was better than his movie, George Clooney was a joke, and Christian Bale was more Bruce Wayne than Batman (the complete opposite from the way it should be and a critical miss).

Let me start with the good, and there will be spoilers.

Ben Affleck was great.  I was not one of the those who feared his casting.  He has been great recently, and I liked the idea of an older Batman.  He was miles better than Christian Bale, though his Batman was pretty bad.  Of the live action versions, I'd say he fell just short of Michael Keaton, but better than the rest.  He was definitely more gritty, brutal, and was Batman more than Bruce Wayne, fixing the problem with the Dark Knight series.

Gal Gadot was very good.  I do not know Wonder Woman nearly as well as the other two, but it was very cool to finally see her on the big screen.  I very much look forward to seeing more of her in the future.

Overall the casting has been great.  Henry Cavill has a very good Superman in him, I just think the way he has been written has been a little off.  Jesse Eisenberg was fine for how they went with Lex Jr., but he was definitely the weakest link.

I am ashamed to admit it, but I never realized Martha was the name of both their moms.  That was an interesting bit, and was a smart way to turn Batman to realize Superman's humanity.  Great job there.

Now, some problems.

I thought the "can we trust Superman?" part of the story was great, which only left me wanting more.  I guess my biggest problem with the movie is they tried to bite off more than they could chew.  As someone else said, there were about five potentially great movies crammed into one.  If they would have focused on the big question about Superman, and the distrust between Batman and Superman, it probably would have been a better picture.  Keep in Lex pulling the strings, keep Wonder Woman doing her thing, all that is fine.

Adding to my biggest problem was the ending.  The fight between Batman and Superman was fantastic.  You could really feel the two titans beating each other up.  Either one could win.  It was balanced very well.  Then, they added one of the greatest Superman villains, and it all seemed rushed.  They fell prey to the problems of Venom in Spider-Man 3 and Two-Face in The Dark Knight.  Throw in one of the great villains at the end and use him up.  That should have been a movie all on its own.  Then they could have properly introduced the entire Justice League to band together to take him down (which I suppose they are waiting to do for Darkseid).

Speaking of the Justice League, what about those non-cameos.  You hype the heroes, especially Aquaman, and then show them for about thirty seconds total?  It's like a worse version of Luke in The Force Awakens.  That was disappointing.

The death of Superman.  Look, I get it, Doomsday means Superman has to die.  I just thought it was a little weak, which comes out of the rushed feeling of that final fight.  Again, it should have been a movie unto itself.  And please do not get me started on the completely cliched bagpipes for the funeral.  I literally rolled my eyes when they started up.

The score.  I have learned to temper my expectations any time I see Hans Zimmer's name attached to a superhero movie.  Clearly the best parts of the Dark Knight series came from James Newton Howard.  He completely botched Man of Steel.  The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a travesty.  Here, we get more of the same.  It's basically just noise.  There's a reason Danny Elfman's Batman and John Williams' Superman remain the best superhero scores.  They were epic, with instantly recognizable themes.  The Superman theme, like the Batman theme before it, is minimalist and underused.  I will admit I liked what I'm guessing is the Wonder Woman theme that kicked in when she showed up, though again it pretty much devolved into electric guitar noise.  I could not be more happy with his announcement that he is "quitting superhero films."  Someday I will rank the superhero scores just to show how bad his have been.

End rant.

All that being said, I liked the movie.  Similar to The Force Awakens, it made me excited to see more from the universe.  I cannot wait to see more Batman and Wonder Woman in particular.  If they want to, the DCU can be immensely better than Marvel.  I just hope they can tighten the stories a little more.

7.5/10

2016 Baseball Season Preview

BASEBALL SEASON IS UPON US!!!!

As you can tell, I am very excited about tomorrow being the best day of the year: Opening Day! (never mind the games played today)  So, I wanted to present my predictions for the year. 

AL East

Toronto - building on last year

Baltimore - I liked their additions

Boston - Price was a good pickup, but too high a price (HA!)

New York - old men get older

Tampa Bay - still a year or two away

AL Central

Kansas City - love this team makeup

Cleveland (Wild Card) - a solid young team

Detroit - do they have enough?

Chicago - good pieces don't add up

Minnesota - not enough

AL West

Houston - too much talent not to

Texas (Wild Card) - a healthy year for a strong team

Los Angeles - somewhat of a mess

Oakland - always in the chase

Seattle - King Felix no more

NL East

Washington - only Matt Williams could fail with this much talent

New York (Wild Card) - fantastic starting rotation and just enough offense

Miami - if Giancarlo can stay healthy

Philadelphia - rebuilding mode

Atlanta - blowup mode preparing for new stadium

NL Central

Chicago - drinking the Cool-Aid

Pittsburgh - a tough division means they just miss Wild Card for first time in four years

St. Louis - because they can't keep winning

Milwaukee - trying to copy the Astros

Cincinnati - Votto is gone by the All Star Break

NL West

Los Angeles - they eventually have to live up to the hype

San Francisco (Wild Card) - because it's an even year

Arizona - Pollock injury crushes them

San Diego - not much to see here

Colorado - even less here once CarGo leaves

ALCS - Houston over Toronto

NLCS - Washington over Chicago

World Series - Houston over Washington (complete homer pick, I hope it is not a jinx)

And now a few points on the Astros:

They already have the best double play combo in the game, by the end of the season they will have the best young infield in the game as Tyler White secures 3B and A.J. Reed secures 1B.

They best outfield defense in the game is a little too crowded.  I would say Marisnick gets traded, but that would leave two lefties in left field (Rasmus and Tucker).  This means either Tucker or Gattis may be used to upgrade catcher (Lucroy from Milwaukee?)  I would prefer Rasmus was gone, but they spent too much to keep him.

Lance McCullers will return from injury and become an ace, even with Dallas Keuchel having a solid year following his Cy Young.  Mike Fiers will hold down the fourth spot in the rotation and Doug Fister the fifth.  They will try to trade Scott Feldman, but no one wants his contract.

Ken Giles will be good, but perhaps not as dominant as last year.  Nevertheless he will anchor the best bullpen not in Royal blue.

The Astros will miss 100 wins largely because of the strength of the division.  My prediction is 95, good for second or third best in all of baseball.  Carlos Correa wins MVP, Tyler White wins Rookie of the Year.