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There are endless sites by which to get your daily entertainment from all over the interweb and most of them host content that in one way or another, disregards some copyright laws. You probably have gotten over the initial conscience guided decisions to not sample at least some of these sites, but battling your inner voice has just become a bit easier. Archive.org is one for abiding by all federal and international copyright laws.

You can find music, film and a host of images. But now you’re probably asking what does this hafta do with gangsters, hit men, bank robberies and striking femme fatales? Well, the Archive hosts a section strictly dedicated to Noir.

Hosted herein isn’t the largest collection of film you’ve ever seen and in all actuality, you probably have a friend who owns as many movies as are hosted here. But, these films aren’t your run of the mill fare. Each has had its copyright lapse and has thusly become public domain. What that means to you is that you can view and download any film (or image or song) hosted by Archive – and it’s totally legal.

Some of the quality varies, but a number of these films won’t be so easily located in your local Blockbuster or even through Netflix. Archive isn’t the end all of film, but there are some great finds on there. And if you spend enough time sifting through the content, you’ll probably find something that you wanted to see, but didn’t necessarily know existed.

Q. What's the local consensus? A. That Carp isn't a blue-chipper, but that he does become the best 1B prospect in the system. Also that he moves the ship into the direction of LH power and higher eye ratio. . Q. Does he have upside? A. The idea has been floated that his ceiling is to be a Lyle Overbay-type hitter. That's an interesting stylistic template -- .290/.370/.460, let's say -- good gap power, some walks, no speed. If Carp panned out, you could see the template there. Actually, from where I sit, Lyle Overbay was always a lot more talented than Mike Carp seems to be. Overbay came right out of college and posted 900-1000 OPS's from day one, never posting a minors OPS of less than 895 at any time. In Overbay's first crack at AA, he posted an OBP wayyyyy over .400, and then repeating AA the next year, he was .400-and-plenty again. Granted, Carp is a high school draftee, so the numbers have to be transliterated. But you can see where the minor-league performance has been quite pedestrian by comparison. And the suggestion of course would be that an Overbay-type major leaguer is Carp's ceiling, to have a few .310/.370/.500 seasons in the bigs, as Overbay has. But I'm not sure you should be hoping for an Overbay-type top end on Carp, any more than you would for Bryan Lahair. . Q. Does the pedestrian minors performance rule out Carp's being an impact player? A. Not really. For example, Michael Saunders is viewed by baseball execs as having the ceiling of an ML All-Star. Saunders' minor-league performance has been considerably better than Carp's, but nothing like that of a Jose Lopez, who starred in AAA at 20. Saunders' minors hitting doesn't suggest ML All-Star, but his tools and physical potential do. In other words, there are some guys who aren't yet producing like blue-chippers, but the scouts see the flashes .... along comes the day, for some of these thoroughbreds, when they explode. Carp isn't known for having this kind of physical skill, that I've seen. . Q. Does he compare well to any major league star that you know of? A. You go through and compare him to past and current ML stars who played the corner and hit lefty .... just grabbing a few here, stream-of-consciousness style: Nick Johnson always had far, far more walks. Mark Teixeira (LOL) hit for a 1000 OPS in AA in his first year out of college, and was always accused of light-tower power. Carlos Delgado was a Grade-A prospect from the day he was 6 years old. Ryan Howard, known for his slow start, was always a huge guy with big power potential -- and he also was well ahead of Carp statistically. Check Prince Fielder's track. etc etc. It's kind of chickenfeathers to compare the guy to the ML stars, and doesn't prove much, but the point is -- if you are hoping for ML impact from a prospect, he should have either a fast-track performance, or signature physical talent. . Q. How does Carp compare to, say, Bryan Lahair? A. A lot better than he does to ML starters. Carp is about a year head of Lahair, but then again Lahair's a draft-and-follow. Carp has a somewhat better eye, but is physically smaller, by quite a bit. . Q. So where is he as an org prospect? A. Not in a top ten, unless by default in a weak field. Sorry. He'll prove me wrong shortly, if applicable. :- ) . Q. Can he help the Mariners win their next pennant? A. If the question is, can he help the Mariners win their next pennant, my answer is, I do not like his performance record. Not for the position he plays, and what he'd have to do at 1B to help a good ML ballclub. Obviously, that's not the final word. Everybody will be watching Carp at AAA. If he puts up a big season, great -- Zduriencik identified a player BEFORE the player broke through. That's what we all want to see. For me, the 3rd player in the Putz deal was Maikel Cleto. Carp is -- hopefully! -- a push for Valbuena, and the other guys are nonissues. In my world, the Mariners traded Putz for Heilman, Gutierrez and Cleto, which is a deal I don't like nearly as much as everybody else does. But that's another subject. Let's hope for that big year in AAA from the new fish in town. Cheers, jemanji ...................... image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/ Binghamton_Mets_Mike_Carp.jpg/280px-Binghamton_Mets_Mike_Carp.jpg

Q. Is there any good news? A. That Zduriencik likes him. I hate to be the wallflower here, but let's hope that Zoidberg likes Carp specifically, and not because Carp is left-handed. We're all interested in giving Mr. Z credit for targeting individuals, rather than vague ideas -- let's hope that Carp isn't an "idea" -- generic corner LH'er with power and some walks. Because if that's what he is, it isn't a decision that's any better than one Bavasi would make. It's quite possible that Zduriencik sees something in Mike Carp that he specifically likes. Carp in 2008 took a real nice leap forward, from lousy hitting stats in 2007 to a .300 AVG with .400 OBP last year. Maybe he showed something. I wouldn't doubt it. . Q. Prospect Insider has the Mariners starting Carp in AAA and maybe getting a look in Safeco in 2009 -- maybe even early in 2009. Does that make sense? A. Carp's career path suggests to me that he'll need two full years in AA/AAA from here, and then 2-3 years of development in the majors before he'll produce. But if the Mariners are THAT high on Carp, to be talking about him for Safeco, then that gives us hope in the direction of their believing that Carp "put it together" in 2008. . Q. In what scenario could Mike Carp contribute to a pennant in Seattle? A. Realistically, if Carp can produce somewhat-close-to-league-average performance at 1B -- let's say .270/.340/.460 or something, and do it for peanuts -- Then he could serve as the $400,000 Scrub that allows the Mariners to deploy their $100M around the diamond and become an excellent team. That's kind of tough at the position Carp plays. If Carp is at 1B, hitting kinda-sorta okay, that frees up money for ... what? Not for Adam Dunn, nor for a DH (since you'll have Clement and others at that spot). It's harder to do this than you might think. Milwaukee in 2008 didn't use org guys like Bryan Lahair posting 100 OPS's at corner spots. They used young superstars like Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, and had vets like Mike Cameron, Bill Hall, and Jason Kendall around them. Rickey Weeks was a cheap 100-OPS youngster, but Weeks is at a glove position and besides, Weeks is a 1st-rounder. Still, any time you can get a 100-110 OPS+ Scrub playing for the minimum, it makes it easier to figure out the rest from there. A great precedent for this kind of strategy would be the Oakland A's, who have gotten "surprising" -- and cheap -- production from guys like Dan Johnson and Travis Buck.   These guys weren't blue chippers, either. The Dan Johnson - Travis Buck type of strategy isn't especially a Milwaukee strategy, but it certainly is an Oakland strategy.  Billy Beane would probably be pleased to add Mike Carp to his organization. . Q.  Does this strategy work?  Under what conditions? A. Notice that the A's tend to let these guys develop in the minors, and then make immediate contributions at the ages of 24 or 25 or even 26. If you're going to try to squeeze three years of cheap, and SIGNIFICANT, production out of a Mike Carp type, you probably want to let him spend that EXTRA year in the bushes. . Q.  Executive summary is? A. I like Carp okay if he's held back until he's more-than-ready, and then used as part of a scaffolding to prop up a core set of star players in Seattle.   He's a nice add in that scenario. Cheers, jemanji

Q. What is the attitude of the reincarnated jemanji towards the rest of the Mariners' blog-o-sphere? A. Jeff Sullivan -- about whom we've always been politely appreciative -- cowboy'ed up for this tremendous article.  In it, he encourages all of us to Rodney King it and Just All Get Along. Granted, Jeffy is in an altered state-of-mind, daffily euphoric like the rest of us, over the GM and manager that he sees as a lifeline-tossed-over-the-side.  :- )  But that's all to the good.  He says,

It seems like, as we've put more distance between ourselves and last season, when it comes to points of intra-blogosphere disagreement we've been able to raise the level of dialogue and reduce the amount of snark and dismissiveness of which we were all guilty, and that can only be good for everyone.

Amen, brother.   Point taken and seconded. Jeffy is the college party boy who, at the marriage of his favorite uncle Zoink, stands up teary-eyed and raps the glass for the "time for us all to grow up" speech that leaves everybody somber.  Dr. D's own reaction to this is to, without irony, raise his glass and nod. Lookout Landing points out, along the way,

Because who wants to feud with a beat writer who actually has the stones to ask Raul Ibanez about his defense?

ROTFL!  Wade jumps into the passing lane, rockets downcourt, and rips the rim off. ............... Geoff Baker, as we've been saying since he got here, deserves the cyber-"C" on his jersey.  He's the guy with the access, the guy who is equal parts athlete and math-literate, and the guy who has set the tone for friendly cooperation.  He is apparently grabbing the sled by the ropes and yanking it over so it's bearing straight down the hill. There are all of us Jeffs and then there's the Geoff around here... .................... D-O-V's has always respected Prospect Insider. A few ups and downs occurred over things that we won't get into -- obviously, spending time on them would counter the spirit of Jeff's call and of this post. We've always enjoyed Jason's feel for the game of baseball ... his feel for the right questions to ask an insider, which (and this is saying a lot) exceeds even Kap-i-Tan Baker's ... and the fact is that Jason has more minor-league-relevant access than anybody, which is a nice resource for the community. Past ups-and-downs notwithstanding, jemanji (for his part) views PI as a friend. ................... USSM, you'll grant, is not going to be a viable partner for D-O-V tattoo-sharing, given the persona non grata and other policies.  But do be aware that for our own part, when we disagree with an analysis that they have publicly disseminated, it will not be with any motivation whatsoever to leave them looking "corrected." Also, we will make an extra effort to acknowledge where we agree.  This will, from our side of the table, hopefully leave a non-antagonistic tone.  Undoubtedly this is what we should have been doing from the start. Be aware also, that as it comes to evaluation of their ability as analysts, we have never offered any opinion other than that they are very fine baseball analysts.  IMHO, their lead analyst has improved lately, also, from even the former high level, perhaps through their interaction with Tango, Hardball Times and others. .................. So, for example, a comparison has been floated -- by USSM and LL -- that Mike Carp's reasonable ceiling is to hit like Lyle Overbay.  I don't agree with that, but also don't consider the position one not to be taken seriously.  In offering our own comment on that judgment, it won't be for the purpose of trying to start a food fight. One thing that I have always found amusing -- in the good-natured sense -- is how I seem to be able to honestly disagree with one single analyst on so many "gray area" evaluations.  We remember Jim Bowden telling Gary Huckabay that he wouldn't hire a sabermetrician because there's never a dime's worth of difference between them.... "you like pitchers who strike out a lot of people, walk very few, and keep the ball on the ground.  No kidding, Sherlock.  Us dummy scouts would have never thought of that." USSM offers interesting, quality analysis.  I'm sure they'll remain the most visible Mariners blog from the national point of view. ........... Mariner Central is curious whether to link us via D-O-V, or SSI, or whether we're going to do a bi-monthly article there, or what's going on.  We'll know in a week or two, amigos.  :grouphug: ........... Fanhome and Dave Clark, as well as JFro's sites, etc., have never been anything but friendly-neighbors-on-the-block, from my own point of view, at least.  Hence Fanhome's linkup at D-O-V, for example. ........... The Klat group commissioned us to do some writing by-the-article, so we're gettin' the feet on the ground within that process.  Each time all of y'all click on a "rate this article" button, and especially each time you link up one of our articles offsite, it's huge to me, so thanks to those of you who have. Not sure when the right IT job will come through, and how that will affect anything.  If MSNBC hires us to mess up their website it will of course bring the 5 articles a day to a screeching halt, but hopefully by then we'll have the knack of posting 3-a-week without throwing the rest of our lives off kilter :- ) With a little luck, Klat will agree that detectovision.com itself is a streamlined path to the kind of traffic and networking they are after.  But if not, we'll no doubt morph into using all three sites (PB, SSI, DOV) for our comedy stylings. ............. What gets posted in the blog-o-sphere is fair game -- locally and nationally.  The Seattle internet is the best in baseball, one of the most visible in baseball, and the open-table contributes to that. Like Master Sullivan says, it will be even better served as the era of Zduriencik and Wakamatsu ushers in a brighter mood all around.  :- ) Jolly good shew, jemanji