I might start drinking this stuff.  I had to give up caffeine because I was addicted.  When I quit, I even went through a mild withdrawal.  Thankfully, the headaches I was getting from caffeine dependancy went away.

The examination of Sammy's bats is definitely important.  But what's more important?  How will Sammy fare in the future?  

If his homerun numbers start to drop off, and he starts hitting a lot of fly balls, or doubles, then it taints a lot if not all of his personal hitting stats.  If he keeps on putting up the same, average number of homers with increased scrutiny, then I can accept this as a mistake.  If not, his career is tainted.

For the Devils, I would think these guys...

Elias
Madden
Gomez
Nieuwendyk

I don't get why we're getting so many of certain players.  Seems a might unfair to a lot of the hardworking guys in the NHL.  CuJo has gotten a pretty fair shake in the line so far.  Do we really need another?  Especially another Red Wing?  How many do we have at this point?  Can we at least get some players from the teams that are actually in the Stanley Cup Finals?!

I agree, Giguere definitely has come to the forefront.  And with Roy's retirement, I can definitely see Giguere as being a viable candidate to take his place in NHL7.

One more thing about my Ki-Adi Mundi theory...he is herded into the center of the arena by Battle Droids during the cease-fire, when Dooku is addressing all the Jedi.  Perhaps he was intentionally spared, as to stay in the highest echelons of the Jedi order?

As for Mace, I have a hard time going along with the theory.  Jocasta Nu, I believe is a possibility, but not Mace.

Availability is a very difficult issue.  But here's my take.

How Hasbro is responsible?  The case assortments.  Some case assortments just have too many of certain characters.  And then they show up in future assortments when the demand has already been filled.  Hence, you get pegwarmers.  Next item for Hasbro:  SKU's are only for Collection 1 & Collection 2.  Individual assortments should be given individual SKU #'s.  It would help the retailers re-order the items that are selling well.

How retailers are responsible?  Over-ordering.  Again.  They did it with EPISODE I.  Those first few waves just warmed the pegs for a long time.  With EPISODE II they did a little bit better this time around, but they didn't look past the 2002 Holiday season in terms of demand.  Hence, we've got too much 2002 stuff on the pegs and shelves and we're already close to Q3 of 2003.