A bunch of random things

It occurred to me today...is Lastings Milledge the new Milton Bradley?

Milledge's skill set now is similar to Bradley's as a 22 year old.  Milledge has a little more power, but they were both toolsy centerfielders who had a bunch of solid skills but no one signature tool that you could hang your hat on.  Both dealt with injury issues and off-the-field issues.  

Bradley was dealt by the Expos for a return that was considered...insufficient, from a talent standpoint.  Milledge was dealt to the Nats (formerly the Expos) for an underwhelming package.  

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I thought of that comparison after reading this John Manuel chat session, where Manuel said, in response to a question about whether Milledge would be a stud or a bust:

That screamed Bradley, to me.  

The other thing that I thought about, regarding this chat...last year at this time, with a prospect chat, I could just hit Ctrl-F, type in "Hurley", hit return, and be done.  Now I have to go through and read every question, because there are so many Ranger prospects who could get mentions in one of these sessions...

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If you're still bummed about McCarthy and Millwood being scratched, consider this...the D-Rays have had to scratch Scott Kazmir and David Price from their first spring outings.

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Bill Simmons' latest mailbag has a couple of Mavs related items I wanted to mention (although I promise I'm not going to keep mentioning the Mavs or the Kidd trade every day).  First:

zywica and I have both talked about this...but I find it interesting that you now have a national writer talking about what a control freak Avery is.

And then this:

I think this analogy is the first thing that's made me feel maybe almost sort of okay about the trade.

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And part of the reason for that, fwiw, is that "Better Off Dead" is one of those movies that hit the sweet spot in my personal development.

I was explaining to someone at work today that I thought "Stripes" was the perfect movie as a 13 year old boy, because it had a lot of dumb visual humor, a lot of hilarious lines (I still crack up when Psycho/Francis say, "If any of you...HO-mos touches me...I'll kill you"), and lots of titties.  What more could you want?

But "Better Off Dead" is a movie I watched over and over again as a 15 and 16 year old because I related to Lane, because I was a geeky loser teen with no girlfriend, and because I felt like it encapsulated, better than any movie, what it felt like to be a geeky loser teen (at least until "Superbad," which definitely brought back some uncomfortable high school memories).  So the analogy in that mailbag question speaks to me.

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Also, if we are going to pursue this analogy, Mark Cuban is Curtis Armstrong.  I'm just not sure if the fat neighbor is the Spurs or the Suns.  Maybe he's Kobe.

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It occurs to me that, if I were to go through and identify movie characters that I really identified with, Cusack's characters in "Say Anything" and "High Fidelity" are also high on the list.  Maybe Cusack is my cinematic doppleganger...

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Does anyone else find themselves going through the box score from a spring training game like today, and reacting to each good thing (like Josh Hamilton's line or Luis Mendoza's performance) with a, "Alright, this is a sign of things to come!", and each bad thing with a, "It doesn't matter, it is just spring training"?

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The only best picture nominee I saw was "No Country For Old Men."  And you know, for about 5 minutes after I got done watching that movie, I thought about getting my hair cut like Chgura's.