Pirate Call Ups

The September Call ups for baseball are upon us. Usually it is a time for losing teams to get a glimpse of next year, but not so this year with the Pirates. The reason appears to be the current try-outs they have going on at the Major League Level. Primarily Lastings Milledge as well as Andy LaRoche and Steve Pierce. Charlie Morton pitching may also be trying out for the future.

The Pirates have only announced that they are calling up pitcher Daniel McCutchen, who will be starting on Sunday, and recent trade aquisition Jeff Clement. It is also known that the Pirates will also bring back Donnie Veal from the DL at that time as well. He is a Rule 5 pitcher who cannot go to the minors without the Pirates losing rights to him. One can also assume that if Jeff Karstens is able to get off the DL he will also return to the major league team. The other players one can only speculate at this time.

What we do know is who you are not going to see. You will not see Jose Tabata, who will be in the Arizona Fall League this year. You will not see Pedro Alvarez, which basically assures he will start off next year in Triple A. You will not see Brad Lincoln as a pitcher. These three guys have the potential to have a huge impact on next year's team although all three may start off in Triple A.

The only other players you are likely to see in Pittsburgh are Robinson Diaz, who filled in nicely while Doumit was hurt, and a few pitchers. Jose Ascino will probably get a call up, and maybe one or two more pitchers to help out in the pen. Virgil Vasquez, Jeff Suez, and Jon Meloan are the nominees. However, they will not all come and it is possible that none of them will come. The only real hope is that Neil Walker, the long expected Third baseman might get a call up. He had another lack luster year at Triple A, but is on a massive hot streak right now.

So Pirate fans will have to watch Jeff Clement as the only call up with a future for the Pirates. How well he does these last few weeks will determine whether he heads into the off season with the first base job or whether Steve Pierce is able to hold on to it. Milledge is improving at the big league level, but will he be able to hold off Jose Tabata for a starting spot in next years outfield? The Pirates are going to give him every plate appearance they can to judge him. Andy LaRoche too is on a ticker. Alvarez will probably follow the path of Andrew McCutchen. He will be ready right out of spring training, but will play Triple A for a few months to get his confidence high and maybe allow the Pirates to work a trade. This does not mean LaRoche is done in Pittsburgh. His glove has impressed, and a move to second could be in his future. How he hits in the next few weeks will impact their thinking on that one. As well as how Neil Walker plays if he is on the team. Neil could be the back up third baseman since he has more power than Andy.

Even the bullpen is not going to be the same next year. Dumatrait will probably get some starts down the stretch, which could be interesting. Expect Veal and Ascino to be in Triple A next year trying to make it as starters. Daniel McCutchen will be fighitng for the two open starter positions. So will Dumatrait. I guess since we are talking about Morton is fighting for one of those spots as well. Anyone else the Pirates bring up might have an outside shot at making next year's bullpen, but it will be an outside shot.

I guess in the end I am worried about whether the Pirate management is going to play to win next year. They have the talent in the organization now (with the exception of the pen) to make a push for at least an NL Central Title. I am just afraid they are going to stick it all in Triple A until it is too late.

Ted betrayed the Kennedy family values

I think it should be noted that Ted Kennedy is the Kennedy that the liberal media idolizes the most. When they talk about the Kennedys they are talking about Ted and his ilk. The people of the country mostly think of John Kennedy, the President, and Robert, the younger brother. Ted is the liberal that the media adores. President Kennedy and Robert are both modern day embarrassments to the Liberal agenda. Sure they are still trotted out as Democrats from time to time, but they would be run out of the modern Democratic Party and Ted Kennedy betrayed most of what his family stood for.

Ted was a wildly liberal man. His legislation has been disastrous. A few years after his minimum wage hike we have high unemployment, just as the detractors of his bill said would happen. No Child Left Behind is a disaster of epic proportions. I think he may have helped out on the AMBER Alert system, but other than that, just about everything he has done has blown up. He is a model liberal because it is his hate that now fuels politics. Before Ted Kennedy’s attacks on Robert Bork the atmosphere in Washington was different. Ted’s attacks from the floor were often just as weird and hate filled, but more often than not they were stumbling ramblings. Ted was not a thinker, and that too is often a trait of the modern liberal. Action is more important than outcome and intentions are better than logic.

John and Robert were by no means conservative, and liked a bigger government to be sure, but they were not like Ted in the least. John cut taxes, and unthinkable thing for liberals. John and Robert were both stridently anti-communism. John invaded Cuba because Cuba was Communist and was willing to go to war against the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Robert worked for Senator McCarthur during the Age of McCarthism. John did not vote to censure McCarthy and Robert once walked out of an event where McCathy was being attacked. Ted on the other hand tried to transform America into what his brothers hated, a Communist Country. Ted loved tax hikes and is against military action whenever possible.

As we remember Ted Kennedy let us not forget the lesson of Chappaquiddick: Ted believed he was more important than anything else. He left Mary Jo to die in an air bubble in the back of the car where she probably suffocated rather than drowned. He did not contact the police, left the scene of an accident, slept off his booze before calling his lawyer. If anyone else in the country would have done that they would have been in jail. Ask Congressman and Governor Janklow. Yet, Ted was let off and continued his term in the Senate. The strange people of Massachusetts re-elected him over and over.

The left today thinks of Chappaquiddick and is sad because it ruined Ted’s political hopes of becoming President. We ought to think of Chappaquick and think of how it ended one girls life and ruined people’s faith in the justice system.

I just find all of this media coverage of the Kennedy family legacy as interesting. Ted did not stand in the tradition of the Kennedy’s. His pro-communism, pro-abortion, and pro-taxes stance puts him at odds with John, Robert, and Eunice Shriver who are the reason there is a Kennedy legacy. Why on earth are people not reporting on that angle of this story.

Calvin on Ecumenical Unity

John Armstrong is arguing on his blog that modern day Presbyterian and Reformed believers are too schismatic and not looking to the whole body of Christ enough. In one respect he is right. We all have tendencies to make mistakes and to think too much of ourselves. To deny that this is a bent to sin among the Presbyterian and Reformed would be foolish. But that does not mean that Rev. Armstrong is right. In fact, he is provably wrong in his recent series of posts.

What has Rev. Armstrong so upset is that a Presbyterian or Reformed pastor wrote a letter to man who had left the Protestant church for an Eastern Orthodox church and in that letter stated that the man had left the Christian Faith. This would indicate that Rev. Armstrong believes the Eastern Orthodox Church part of the Body of Christ and the Christian Faith. Whatever Armstrong believes the essentials of the Christian Faith, the EO church has them. Armstrong then goes on in his next post to make the claim that John Calvin was on his side. The third post, after noting Calvin’s desire to be unified despite disagreement on non-essentials, goes on to note that Calvin tried to get meetings with a goal of unity with Lutherans and even have a meeting with Romanists in Poissy in 1561, after Trent. For some reason Armstrong believes these facts make his case. Let me show the obvious as to why the do not.

I agree that Calvin thinks only essentials should divide the Christian Church. In non-essentials liberty. Fair enough. Now, Calvin tried to hold talks with even Romanists to seek unity. A grant the point. But that should make it clear that Calvin clearly thought that Lutheranism and Romanism were not worthy to unify with now. Calvin left the Romanist church after all. And if he had thought he could unify with the Lutherans, he probably would have done it. Why need to have talks to work things out if nothing stands in the way. Which means Calvin clearly thought them deficient in some “essential” of the Christian faith. The same can be said of the Anabaptists. Calvin thought them truly deficient or he would have unified with them.

What is the real difference between the Romanist that Calvin so clearly thought were outside of the Christian pale and deficient in essentials? The Eastern Orthodox do not submit to the Pope and reject that the Holy Spirit comes from Christ. It is highly likely that Calvin would have also rejected union with them and viewed them as deficient in essentials. After all, Calvin must have known of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and yet he did not join them. He rejected union with them as well. So, Armstrong seems to have proven the letter stating that the Eastern Orthodox convert had "left the Christian Faith" is exactly what Calvin would have written.

I am sure that Armstrong is not quite done, but I am waiting for him to make an argument that helps his cause. It will be interesting to see what exactly the "essentials" of the Faith are.

Book Reviews

Supreme Conflict by Jan Greenburg is an excellent book. It is a great look at all the major events in the life of the Supreme Court from the Reagan Administration to the appointment of Samuel Alito. Greenburg has a lot of inside information that really gives one an inside look. I highly recommend this book if you are interested with one word of caution. You will probably lose a lot of respect for the Supreme Court.

Greenburg keeps her personal views out of this book, which is a nice change of pace. But if I were guessing I think she favors those on the court who moderate it, and as she describes it "have no overarching judicial philosophy." Those include O'Conner, Kennedy, and Souter. The book really makes O'Conner look awful, but clearly it was on accident. The book starts with a glowing account of O'Conner, but it is later revealed that she voted conservative the first few years because Justice Blackman upset her with a caustic remark during conference. Then she began to vote liberal when Scalia was too rough on her during a written dissent. Of course this does not bode well for the first female on the court, but that is never brought up. O'Conner's hypocrisy is not mentioned either as she actually mentioned Justice Thomas by name over a dozen times in one opinion from the court. That was the sort of behavior that she found unacceptable if it was directed at her. The insights this book gives into the thinking of each justice and the work of the court is great, but you will soon realize the court is not such a great place after all.

Holy War by Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God, is absolutely awful. Avoid it at all costs. Armstrong starts off the book by thoroughly demonstrating she knows nothing about Christainity, Islam, or Judaism. Armstrong breaks her own back trying to make Islam into religion of peace. A few examples are worth noting. Armstrong thinks that Mohammed led an unarmed group of people from Medina to Mecca because their "swords were sheathed". Who cares a sword that is not sheathed and does that not make them armed? Of course Jihad is written off as something that Islam abandoned until the Crusades made them have to take it up again. She does admit however that Islam always had a "few token Jihads". What on earth is a "token" Jihad, and why does that not count? The battle of Tours where the Islamic invasion of Europe is written off as "raids" rather than an actual attempt to takeover Europe or France. The source for this claim . . . the fact that Islamic historical records do not discuss it much and because many Islamic people had not liked the climate of Europe. Really this book is that bad.

Forgotten Reformer: Leo Juda

Leo Juda is another of the forgotten Reformers, although he was also one of the first. If he is remembered at all it is the Robin to Zwingli's Batman. But contemporary views of Juda put him as a first class scholar and a beloved individual.

Leo was born in 1482 to a priest in Alsace, which makes Leo sort of a living embodiment for why a Reformation was needed. He went to Basel to study, first medicine, and then theology. It was here in Basel that Leo probably became converted to the Reformation. He studied under Wittembach, who did teach justification by faith alone. It was during his time of listening to Wittembach that Juda became good friends with Zwingli. This was probably around 1505. Juda graduated and left to be a priest in Alsace in the church of St. Pilt. Juda would replace Zwingli at Einseideln in 1518. This shows that he was clearly reformed by this time. He served there for four years. Juda left to take a job in Zurich and Oswald Myconius replaced Juda at Einseideln (making Einseideln an early training ground for Reformed ministers).

Juda took a church in Zurich and quickly helped Zwingli purge out the Roman Catholic elements in the city. It was Juda who took on a traveling Romanist friar who was teaching salvation by works. The uproar resulting from that helped tip the city permanently toward the Reformation. Juda was one of the main teachers at the Prophezei school opened in Zurich in 1525. Thus, Juda had a great impact on the students of the next generation of the Reformation.

Juda was also the driving force behind the Zurich Bible. Juda was skilled in the languages and while it is impossible to tell how much of the translation was done by Juda, most seem to think he did the lion's share of the work. He would also go on to make a Latin Translation of the Old Testament. Juda understood that the word of God is what changes people's lives, and that needed to be able to read it. Thus, the Zurich Bible put the Word of God in the popular language of the day in order that all would have the opportunity to hear and understand.

Juda appears as a name in many of the debates of the day. Juda took part in the Zurich debates and several others although he seldom gets credit for being a leading Reformer. What is most remarkable is how loved Juda was by all. He is stated to be the "most loved" of all Zwingli's friends. Despite his diminutive size (he must have been rather short), his heart appears to have been large. He was not a front man, a spokesman, or one destined for long term fame. But Juda did the behind the scenes pastoral work that made the Reformation so successful in Switzerland. We too often get caught up in thinking the Reformation was a large scale intellectual movement, but it was a pastoral movement as well. Juda trained young men at the Prophezei school, put the word of God in the hands of the people, pastored churches, and loved with a forgiving heart. In these ways the Reformation grew. May we remember Leo Juda for his work as a Reformer.

Trade Deadline Winners and Losers

I will do a post in the next day or so on another forgotten reformer, but I have to post about the winners and losers of the MLB Trade Deadline. I have been amazed at ESPN's continued fantasy about Boston. Most of their radio hosts have claimed Boston was the big winner just edging out Philadelphia. That is completely wrong. Philly is the big winner because they got the best Pitcher available: Cliff Lee. They did not have to sell the farm system like they would have to get Roy Halladay, but they still got a pitcher to make them battle ready in the post season. Boston got Victor Martinez who does make them better. He will be able to make Boston injury proof at several positions and help management give Ortiz and Veritek "days off" so they can get someone who can actually hit in the line up. However, this was Boston's last big chance to win. They needed more pitching to do it. Dice K is awful and Smoltz is no longer starter material. A few young guys and Josh Beckett are not enough to pull off a title, or maybe even a trip to the post season this year. Boston tried to get both Lee and Martinez in one deal, but could not. Thus, Boston is the big loser. Note they are still dropping in the AL East. Plus, they did have to give away some young guys, and it only further depletes the Boston farm system. Their team is old. Ortiz is done. Veritek is done. Lowell is done. Their offense is not what it used to be. Beckett is having a good year this year, which means next year he will be a .500 pitcher. Add in the fact that their first title was basically proven to be on the back of massive steroid use, and you see the desperate need for a title this year.

The only other option for biggest loser is the St. Louis Cardinals or the Minnesota Twins who both failed to improve their club. The Twins have pulled off a post deadline deal, but it may not be enough. Seattle also made some trades where they gave up some young talent, and got almost nothing in return. They may well be a loser too.

The biggest winner has to be the Phils, who proved they are thinking about the post season match ups in a seven game series now. They needed another dominate pitcher to be comfortable against the Dodgers and they got that. I still think that they will disappear and miserably fail, but they have a much better shot at actually pulling it off now.

The real biggest winners are Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Toronto. Pittsburgh because of the sheer number of people they have added to their farm system. They now have five of the top 75 prospects in baseball. That is pretty good. Cleveland got a bevy of young guys as well. Toronto also is a winner because they got to keep Halladay. He gets one more year with the Blue Jays and they can add their young guys to him and maybe get a free agent to help out. It is a long shot because of the division they play in, but it is still a good thing for the fans of the Blue Jays. They still have the best in baseball.