MLB Trade Deadline - Atlanta Braves

In baseball and golf there is a lot of old school thinking and unwritten rules. During this season the Atlanta Braves have approached the trade deadline with this same old school thinking and I believe they have to change quickly to compete with the better teams in the National League, Phillies and Giants to name a few. The trade deadline is today so go "all-in."

The Braves, according to reports, have been unwilling to deal some of their known pitching prospects to get a bat in the lineup. The one pitcher whose name keeps coming up is Mike Minor. While I agree Mike can help this team in the future, the Braves are extremely deep with starting pitching at the major and minor league levels. If Mike Minor has to be a casualty to get a bat to make a run this season, this deal should have already been done.
The other part is that the Braves seem scared at times to pull the trigger on a big deal ever since the Mark Teixeira deal a few years back. Well that was a few years ago and you are a better team now.

The Braves must absolutely do something, and I do not mean Josh Willingham or Michael Cuddyer anymore. The Braves must get a hitter or someone who brings a new dynamic to the team, so Carlos Quentin, Michael Bourne, Hunter Pence come on down. The Giants have already made their big move getting Carlos Beltran and the Phillies will most likely end up with Hunter Pence before the deadline. The offense needs a boost and with Uggla finally do what he does, one more bat could mean a championship. So Frank Wren, Liberty Media, etc. make a move.

I hope by the time you read this the Braves have already made their big move and he is in the lineup.

Movie Review: Friends with Benefits

So this week took the wife out for dinner and a movie and we decided to go see the new movie with Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, Friends with Benefits. The name pretty much tells you the premise of the movie, but with all romantic comedies there is an ending that most can predict before seeing it. Leading up to seeing it I had heard a lot of comments about the hot sex scenes, while obviously there are sex scenes, there was nothing that was over the top or caught us off guard. They actually do a good job of putting some funny things during the numerous scenes. As an added bonus, Mila Kunis' mom in the movie is the mom from "Easy A" and the Lonely Island videos "MotherLover" and "3-Way." She is always funny as hell and is good again in this role. Woody Harrelson is also in this movie playing a gay guy who works with Justin and is pretty damn funny himself. The intro to the movie has a few cameos that are pretty funny as well to set the stage as to why Mila and Justin are damaged goods and looking for just sex, no relationships.

Overall the movie was good and it didn't seem to be right at 2 hours long. The movie has its funny moments and is definitely worth seeing.  I would give it 3 out of 5 beers.

Beer Craving

One of my besties (Wiltin) sent me this link that other day and I must say this could be a great find for all beer lovers.

Beer Craving (@beercraving) is a website helps beer lovers and connoisseurs to talk about their beer tastings, favorites, if their local pub just tapped a new beer, etc. The site can be used to see what is going on in your local beer scene or the beer scene across the globe. I see it be really user friendly when you travel and want to find a spot to have a good local brew. The site is set up to where photos are uploaded and if that beer looks interesting to you, click on the picture and it will take you to the beer's webpage. The site does not want a lot of beer haters so they do not have a rating system, they simply have "crave" a beer or "love" posts.

College Football Countdown

There are officially 36 days left until the kickoff of college football, if there is one thing that came out of the lockout and basketball playoffs was me not thinking about how miserable the summer usually is waiting for cfb to return. Well it is here and I cannot wait.

There is not a lot of talk about the Georgia Bulldogs right now and I am not sure if that should concern me or if that is right where you want them, no one talking about them. I know that they have set themselves up to know the type of season they will have after week two, opening up with two Top 10 teams. They open up against Boise State in the Georgia Dome, which is one of those games where Georgia is playing a home game and they are damned if they win and damned for sure if they lose. One thing that came out this week is that Georgia will wear Nike Pro Combat uniforms and helmets for this game. They will be unveiled at picture day in a few weeks. After Boise, they get their first SEC game and it is a doozie. They welcome South Carolina between the hedges. After week two Dawg fans will know how their season will turn out. My challenge to UGA fans this year is to stay on the bandwagon, do not start killing the coaches or team after the first series of the game against Boise. They deserve our support and will respond to it!!

There are as always some concerns going into the 2011 season. If you remember last season the main concern was how well Aaron Murray would do being his freshman season, well I think everyone can agree that he was one of the few bright spots in a 6-7 season. Aaron returns as one of the best QBs in the SEC. The concern this season will be at the running back (tailback) position as two players are no longer on the team (Ealey and King). Richard Samuel has returned to this position from linebacker and UGA will welcome touted recruit Crowell as well. If Crowell can be half of what Lattimore was for South Carolina last season I think the rb position will be solid. The other issue could be the offensive line, for years all you hear about is how this is the strongest part of the team. Again, everyone can agree that they have been a disappointment and will have to step up again this year with a lean offensive line to start the season. There have been career-ending injuries and players leaving the program. The offense has a lot of weapons and with the incoming wide receiver recruits they can be deadly. On defense the one area of concern is the safety positions. Ogletree has been moved to linebacker, a position which I believe he will become an All-SEC performer. Rambo is back and must play better this season to solidify his role on this team.

Overall I look forward to a much better season this last year and believe Georgia will win the SEC East and play LSU in the Georgia Dome in December. I believe 10-11 wins will be what it will take to get them there.

Looking forward to September 3rd in the Dome and hope to see all the UGA fans show up in mass to support this team!!

College Football Conferences

With the official move of the University of Nebraska to the Big Ten Conference it got me thinking about the names of the conferences and why people are so dumb, that's right.....dumb.

So with Nebraska's move, the Big Ten Conference now has 12 teams and the Big XXII (12) where Nebraska left now has 10 teams. However, during the summer meetings both conferences agreed to keep their names. Why don't conferences take a hint from the SEC (Southeastern Conference), ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), Big East or Mountain West? Keep it simple and make the name geographical. I will give one conference credit, the Pac-10 added Colorado and Utah and they changed their name and logo to the Pac-12. I realize the belief that you are tied to a part of the country if you have a geographical name, well that is not the case, because TCU (Texas Christian University) is moving to the Big East in 2012 and needless to say they are not in the East.

 

Part of the issue is the so-called historical piece, the Big Ten is the oldest conference and they are part of the reason I believe that the BCS is still in place. The freaking Rose Bowl issue every year is crazy to me, the Big Ten has a sense of entitlement and needs to get over themselves.

So how about the following:

Big Ten - Midwestern Conference (MWC)
Big XXII - Southwestern Conference (SWC) bring back the SWC
Pac-12 - Pacific Coast Conference (PCC)

Another example of pride over common sense!!

Boeing....Free Country???

My hiatus is officially over, let me congratulate Mike and Mandy on their recent marraige and wish you guys nothing but the best. It was an honor for Stacy and I to be asked to participate if your day!

I recently overheard this story and could not believe it, because it seems too blatant of an abuse of power.

Boeing in 2009 decided to build a plant in South Carolina, no doubt part of the decision was due to union strikes in previous years in Washington. The plant was being built as a second assembly line for their 787 airliner. However, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has stepped in and filed a complaint for the motive of Boeing to build in South Carolina. The NLRB is a government agency charged with safeguarding union rights. The NLRB wants a temporary line in Washington to become permanent. However, making the temporary line in Washington permanent would effectively shutdown the South Carolina facility. In actuality the complaint stems from leaders in Boeing saying the union strikes played a role in the plant in South Carolina.

The Boeing officials have called the attack on their ability to do business freely. Of course this has turned into a political debate as well. Repubicans feel the NLRB has overstepped its bounds as unelected officials and have even requested for their funding to be suspended temporarily. Democrats, who have always favored unions, accuse the Republicans of meddling and call their actions, "disgraceful and dangerous."



Boeing has recently stated this is another reason for companies to look to foreign soil to build facilities to keep the labor and union issue out of it. The plant is scheduled to open in July and Boeing plans on that still happening believing that will win. One other issue on the table is that South Carolina is a right-to-work state with scares the Democrats as well.

This ruling will be large, especially with an upcoming Presidential election. It is a shame this is not getting big press, but this outcome can again change the way we operate businesses in the US. To me this further shows the far reaching socialist viewpoints of groups like NLRB and our elected officials, all the way up to Obama. They are in favor of unions and will still try to get card check passed when no one is looking. In this case Boeing is not taking away jobs in Washington and has actually created more there and will create thousands more in South Carolina. To me this is not a government issue and Boeing should yell and scream from the rooftops here about this abuse of power.

The picture below is a t-shirt that has been seen in South Carolina.

Here is a link from radio personality Neal Boortz on his viewpoints of this issue.

http://www.boortz.com/weblogs/nealz-nuze/2011/may/02/obama-administration-attacks-right-work-states/

Sunday Alcohol Sales....story continues

So the bill in Georgia looks like it will soon be passed and it now will go to cities and counties. I continue to believe that this is not a government issue other than the tax part which we know they will always get their hands on the money. The real shame here is that the wrong people will be out at polling locations to support or tear down this proposal. The Christian Coalition has stated they will be in local areas, but conceded that faith will allow them to understand it will be voted for in metro Atlanta, so they will not spend their time and energy in those areas.

Under state election law, questions can only be put to voters on certain dates. The next chance to do so is November 8th. Which is perfect, because no action could have taken place before November regardless.

Like I said before no one else should make the decision on what day an individual can buy alcohol, it is a privledge once you reach a certain age and that is it, after that buy at your leisure.