Man, am I glad that Junior returned from Brazil. He was reading a mailbag with questions and answers by Jon Heyman, a baseball expert who frequently appears on the Michael Kay Show on ESPN radio (Oo we got Jon Heyman, oo we got Jon Heyman, oo we got Jon Heyman on the Michael Kay Sho-oo-o-oo-o-oo-ow). Anyway, Junior dives right in, and reacts to a question by "beautiful, charismatic, saintly Carolyn" from Boca, and an answer by Herr Heyman:
From Carolyn: "Regarding your NL MVP candidates, how about those two guys in Florida? Yes, the Marlins are not in playoff contention, but it's hard to ignore Hanley Ramirez and Miguel Cabrera, especially considering they're first and second, respectively, in the NL in VORP, and rank in the top three in Runs Created. It looks like you went through all the playoff-contending teams, and chose a "good" player from each. Let me ask you: If Cabrera were on a playoff-contender this season, would there be any doubt who the MVP was?"
-- Carolyn, Boca Raton, Fla.
Junior: Carolyn makes a lot of good points, and I imagine she lives in a gleaming white Spanish-style home in Boca Raton and rides horses bareback in the springtime. But back to the point: yes, Hanley Ramirez and Miguel Cabrera sit 1-2 in the NL VORP standings (BP subscription req'd), followed very closely by Misters Wright, Jones (Larry, not Andruw), Utley and Pujols. A San Francisco outfielder ranks seventh. So yes, Carolyn, Cabrera would be a very strong MVP candidate if his team were any good, as would Hanley. As for your accusation that Mr. Heyman only looked at playoff-ish teams --
John Heyman: "Actually, you're right. That's exactly what I did, and how I came up with Prince Fielder as my NL MVP leader. His "good'' year is actually more than good, and the Brewers are right in the thick of the playoff race."
Junior: Prince is having a terrific year, and he probably actually is the lead dog in the NL MVP race because it's an award voted on by guys exactly like Heyman. Is this just? Well, he's 10th in the league in VORP, a full 21 points behind both Cabrera and H. Ramirez. He has an excellent EqA (.322 -- lower than Cabrera's, Pujols', Bonds', Utley's, Jones', heck, even Hanley's), and he plays indifferent to bad defense at the easiest position on the diamond. To be honest, I don't think he's all that strong a candidate.
Schmutter: Anyone who read my last post may now come to offer their obeisance.
If you want to read this from the source, check out http://www.firejoemorgan.com/ and look at the posts from Wednesday, August 29th, 2007.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
At the Risk of Losing Readership, Another Baseball Post
I was doing my usual perusal of the various baseball Sabermetrics blogs out there, and on beyondtheboxscore.com, as they do every week, they listed their weekly awards. Most of these awards are based on advanced statistics, and some of them make fun of traditional statistics, such as "The Rey Sanchez Batting Average Is All I've Got Award" and "The Harmon Killebrew Batting Average Is For Wussies Award." What caught my attention was the NL MVP award. He said that for the season, "the national media has seemed to have been hyping Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard more than Wright," although according to his metrics, the current MVP leader is Hanley Ramirez. Az I spent some time this morning compiling some stats from baseball-reference.com, baseballprospectus.com, and fangraphs.com, and came up with some of my own conclusions. I obviously chose to look at Wright, Fielder, Howard, and Ramirez, but I also tossed in four more legit MVP candidates (Utley, Pujols, Holliday, and Cabrera), and a couple other odds and ends (Bonds, Braun. (again, more odd than end)) to make it a nice round ten. I tossed in Bonds and Braun just to compare their stats with the others', even though there's a negligible probability that the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) will vote either of them in. And that's also what this post is about, not only my feelings about who should win, but also who I think has a legit shot at getting the votes from the BBWAA, who look at much different factors than I would. Anyway, you'll see which stats I used once I get to the players, but what I also did was rank each of the ten players in a few of the important stats from one to ten and summed that total at the end. A low total is good. You'll get the idea.
Stats used: OPS+: On Base Percentage + Slugging Percentage, measured against the league average, and adjusted for ballpark factors. League average is normalized to 100.
RC/27: Runs Created if that player took every at-bat for his team for a whole game.
WPA: Win Probability Added: The sum total of the probabilities of winning each game that was added by each of that player's at-bats.
EqA: Equivalent Average: A calculation of several hitting stats averaged to .260 to mimic traditional Batting Average.
VORP: Value Over Replacement Player: A baseballprospectus statistic, which determines how many runs a player has produced during the season above a replacement level player.
WARP1: Wins Above Replacement Player: A baseballprospectus statistic, which determines how many wins a player has produced during the season above a replacement level player.
Let's start with the guys that beyondtheboxscore.com thinks will win:
-Prince Fielder, 1B,
Pertinent Stats: 39 HR, 97 RBI, 99 Ks, .376 OBP, .604 SLG, 150 OPS+(Rank: 6), 8.28 RC/27(7), 4.04 WPA(2), .316 EqA(8), 49.8 VORP(8), 5.1 WARP1(8), 39(which I got by adding 6+7+2+8+8+8) Total Rank(7).
Prince will garner a lot of attention from the BBWAA because of his gaudy counting stats (HR, RBI), especially since he leads the NL in Home Runs. Additionally, since the Milwaukee Brewers moved to the NL, the team has been a disaster, az their return to contention this season makes their offensive leader an attractive choice. I believe he's having an outstanding season at the plate, and I think he does deserve a few votes, but we'll see soon that he might not even be the top MVP candidate in his own infield.
-Ryan Howard, 1B, Philadelphia PhilliesPertinent Stats: 34 HR, 106 RBI, 1 SB, 152 Ks, .388 OBP, .566 SLG, 142 OPS+(10), 7.77 RC/27(10), 1.88 WPA(9), .310 EqA(10), 39.2 VORP(10), 4.7 WARP1(9), 38 Total Rank(10).
Umm, he doesn't even belong in the discussion. He is 2nd on this list in HR, Walks, and RBI, which is pretty good, I guess... but he's either last or next to last in all the Sabermetric stats. That's not to say that he's having a poor season, not at all! He's just not the MVP.
Now let's move on to the real contenders:
-Matt Holliday, LF, Colorado Rockies
Pertinent Stats: 44 2Bs, 24 HR, 103 RBI, 102 Ks, .338 BA, .397 OBP, .580 SLG, 144 OPS+(9), 8.26 RC/27(8), 2.98 WPA(7), .313 EqA(9), 53.5 VORP(7), 7.4 WARP1(7), 47 Total Rank(9).
Man, he's just getting crushed by Coors Field. He has very nice numbers in all the counting stats, but the normalized Sabermetric stats are really penalizing him for his ballpark. Although his WPA is still low on the list, az maybe he deserves to be low on here. He also plays brutal defense, although I haven't been able to get any Zone Rating data, etc.
-Chase Utley, 2B,
Pertinent Stats: 42 2Bs, 18 HR, 84 RBI, .339 BA, .416 OBP, .592 SLG, 156 OPS+(5), 10.24 RC/27(2), 3.07 WPA(6), .327 EqA(4), 57.9 VORP(4), 7.2 WARP1(5), 26 Total Rank(5).
Utley is an interesting case because he's been injured for the last six weeks, but he's still managed to accrue some very nice stats, especially for a 2nd baseman. However, the time he's missed has affected his Sabermetric cumulative stats (VORP and WARP1), and he also gets marked down by the Citizen's Bank band-box in which he plays. Nonetheless, his rate stats (RC/27 and EqA) are outstanding, and his performance over the last month of the season could push him over the top. I love Max Kellerman, but each time he says that Robby Cano is a better hitter than Utley, I lose a little bit of faith in him.
-Albert Pujols, 1B,
Pertinent Stats: 30 HR, 84 RBI, 79 BBs, 54 Ks, .319 BA, .420 OBP, .568 SLG, 157 OPS+(4), 8.19 RC/27(9), 3.64 WPA(3), .330 EqA(3), 56.9 VORP(5), 9.2 WARP1(1), 25 Total Rank(3).
Jesus, he is such a good hitter. He started off the season in a horrible slump, but has come back since June with a vengeance. He leads the NL in WARP1, he never EVER strikes out, and according to soulofbaseball.blogspot.com, he's the top fielding 1st baseman in the league. I don't quite know why RC/27 doesn't like him, but since that's like my favorite stat, that's going to count heavily against him. I think he might very well deserve to be the MVP, but the BBWAA won't vote for him because he doesn't have many RBI, and his team has not played well this year.
-Miguel Cabrera, 3B,
Pertinent Stats: 30 HR, 91 RBI, 104 Ks, .318 BA, .397 OBP, .585 SLG, 158 OPS+(3), 8.43 RC/27(6), 3.49 WPA(4), .329 EqA(2), 60.9 VORP(2), 8.1 WARP1(2), 19 Total Rank(2).
What an excellent year he's having! It's really a shame that the Marlins pitching staff isn't nearly as good as it was last year, because if they made a playoff push, Cabrera would absolutely be the MVP if I had to choose. The only things that go against him are his RC/27 and his horrid play in the field. Again, I don't have any zone rating stats, but I've watched him play a lot, and I see that he has almost no range to his left or right, and watching him lumber in on a bunt is like watching an elephant on a nature show. Either way, he's still one of the best mashers in all of baseball.
-Hanley Ramirez, SS,
Pertinent Stats: 101 Runs, 23 HR, 41 SB, .331 BA, .389 OBP, .558 SLG, 149 OPS+(7), 8.54 RC/27(5), 2.06 WPA(8), .318 EqA(7), 71.0 VORP(1), 6.6 WARP1(6), 34 Total Rank(6).
This guy sure does bring a lot to the table. He hits Home Runs, he steals a lot of bases, he gets on base, and all of these contribute to his league leading VORP. If he could develop a little more plate discipline (44 Walks) and learn how to play shortstop (even worse than Jeter according to Soul of Baseball), he could truly become the best all around player in baseball. He might be already.
-David Wright, 3B, New York Mets
Pertinent Stats: 23 HR, 86 RBI, 28 SB, 77 BBs, 102 Ks, .316 BA, .410 OBP, .530 SLG, 149 OPS+(7), 8.78 RC/27(3), 3.16 WPA(5), .327 EqA(4), 60.8 VORP(3), 7.6 WARP1(3), 25 Total Rank(3).
He's my favorite player. It's really a crying shame that he doesn't have more RBI because he's really putting together a memorable season. His plate discipline has become terrific, and he's one of the top fielding 3rd basemen in the league. He's very close to projecting to 30 HR/30 SB this year, which would be quite a feat. He really knows how to run the bases, and really picks his spots well (28 SB, 4 CS). Combining his offense and defense makes him a very strong MVP candidate, but I still have to go with Cabrera this season.
And now, for fun:
-Ryan Braun, 3B, Milwaukee Brewers
Pertinent Stats: 82 Games, 332 ABs, 25 HR, 11 SB, .334 BA, .378 OBP, .648 SLG, 161 OPS+(2), 8.69 RC/27(7), 1.30 WPA(10), .327 EqA(4), 46.4 VORP(9), 3.5 WARP1(10), 42 Total Rank(8).
If only he was the starter for the whole season... It's amazing that he's even better than Ryan Howard in VORP, which is a cumulative stat. He has the highest SLG in the NL, and is on pace to set the rookie record for SLG. And he's Jewish! Check his page on wikipedia (Hebrew Hammer, Hah!)
-Barry Bonds, LF, San Francisco Giants
Pertinent Stats: 27 HR, 64 RBI, 126 BBs, .495 OBP, .595 SLG, 184 OPS+(1), 40 IBB, 11.35 RC/27(1), 4.53 WPA(1), .368 EqA(1), 55.9 VORP(6), 6.2 WARP1(7), 17 Total Rank(1).
Even at 43 he's playing a different game than everyone else. It's absolutely ridiculous that he's still performing at such a high level. If he wasn't a huge jerk and a cheater he'd get a ton of votes. I hate him.
Az here's what I think:
Should win: Miguel Cabrera
I want to win: David Wright
Will win: Prince Fielder
Monday, August 27, 2007
Adventures with Cell Phones
Let's rewind. Around ten weeks ago, I finally switched my mobile phone service from AT&T/Cingular to Verizon Wireless. I used to have a great phone, the Samsung D900, the slimmest slider phone available at the time. It had a 3.0 megapixel camera, it played mp3s, and it had bluetooth technology. It came with all the software and wires that you needed to transfer pictures and music between the phone and your computer. It could even hold around 12 songs in its internal memory. The only accessories I bought were a car charger and an adapter that enables you to use regular headphones to listen to music. Once I switched to Verizon, I decided I needed a phone that was, at the very least, only slightly less awesome than my old one, az I got a Moto KRZR. I was pretty pleased with it for a while, az I went ahead and bought a few accessories for it. I bought a car charger, and I also got this cheap CD and cable so that I could transfer songs from my computer. See, these new Verizon phones all have VCast, which allows you to download songs and such. What they don't tell you is that in order to take full advantage of VCast you need to buy the Verizon music kit, which is designed specifically for each phone. I obviously didn't want to spend the $30 on it, az I bought that cheap kit online. Needless to say it didn't work. I also bought an SD memory card, because unlike the old Samsung D900, the Verizon phones can only hold like three songs. Meanwhile, I determined after a couple of weeks that I didn't really like the phone, az I went ahead and exchanged it for the far-cooler LG VX8700, the prom queen of phones, as I mentioned previously. Az it became a waste for me to have bought the KRZR car kit and the music kit. Fine, they didn't cost that much. No big deal. Az now I have the LG, and I know two other people who have the same one, az I asked them if they have the music kit, and lo and behold, one of them did! Az I borrowed the kit from her and attempted to use the software and cable to put some songs onto my phone. The SD card I had bought worked for this phone too, az I figured I was set. Well, needless to say, again, that didn't work either. At this point I'm thinking, "screw it, I'll just buy another used ipod on ebay." But I really have no business spending that much money right now, especially since I already invested so much effort into getting the phone to work. Az I spoke to another friend, and he said I should just buy a card reader/adapter for my computer. That way, I could take the SD card out of my phone and attach it directly to my computer and put songs on it. Az that's what I did; I went to Radio Shack today and bought the adapter for like $10. I figure even if it doesn't work for the music I could still use it for transferring pictures or something; it's a useful item regardless. I came home after work and plugged in the adapter, and put the card in it, and it worked! I put like 25 songs on the card and replaced it in my phone. I started up the music player and a not-so-terrible sound came out of the phone's speakers. So far so good. Now the phone comes with an adapter for headphones, az I plugged the adapter into the phone. Then, as expected, I hit the next snag; the outlet on the adapter only fits 2.5 mm headphones. 99.9% of headphones are 3.5 mm. Why the hell do they do that?! Seriously, I went to a website to see if I could get some help, and this is what it said on a site that reviewed my phone:
"In fact, the retail package includes only a charger and a headphone adapter, and the adapter only accepts 2.5mm headphones. As the phone is branded a "V Cast Music Phone," we think this omission borders on false advertising. We can think of no dedicated music player that lacks memory, a transfer cable and a pair of headphones, but still Verizon Wireless sells these as separate "accessories." We can't say it enough, this is an unacceptable nickel-and-dime practice, and phones that are advertised as music devices will always lose points in our ratings if they lack the essentials needed to actually listen to music."
Now I'm really at my wit's end. I planned to go to Target to pick up a few odds and ends (mostly odd, not so much end), az I went to Radio Shack next door to buy a 2.5/3.5 mm adapter. I literally asked the guy 19 times if it was the item I needed, and he was absolutely certain it was. Az I get home and I plug the adapter into the adapter, and plug my headphones into the new adapter. Guess what? I only heard sound through one of the ear pieces. Az I borrowed my roommate's headphones to try to determine which was the defective part. His headphones didn't work either, az now I think there's a problem with the phone. I think I'm gonna go to the Verizon store tomorrow and ask them what I should do. If they tell me to buy their music kit, which comes with their headphones, I just might throw a temper tantrum. Why oh why did I leave you, my precious AT&T/Cingular? I feel as though I've betrayed you. Please forgive me. I'll be back in a little less than two years; I promise.
"In fact, the retail package includes only a charger and a headphone adapter, and the adapter only accepts 2.5mm headphones. As the phone is branded a "V Cast Music Phone," we think this omission borders on false advertising. We can think of no dedicated music player that lacks memory, a transfer cable and a pair of headphones, but still Verizon Wireless sells these as separate "accessories." We can't say it enough, this is an unacceptable nickel-and-dime practice, and phones that are advertised as music devices will always lose points in our ratings if they lack the essentials needed to actually listen to music."
Now I'm really at my wit's end. I planned to go to Target to pick up a few odds and ends (mostly odd, not so much end), az I went to Radio Shack next door to buy a 2.5/3.5 mm adapter. I literally asked the guy 19 times if it was the item I needed, and he was absolutely certain it was. Az I get home and I plug the adapter into the adapter, and plug my headphones into the new adapter. Guess what? I only heard sound through one of the ear pieces. Az I borrowed my roommate's headphones to try to determine which was the defective part. His headphones didn't work either, az now I think there's a problem with the phone. I think I'm gonna go to the Verizon store tomorrow and ask them what I should do. If they tell me to buy their music kit, which comes with their headphones, I just might throw a temper tantrum. Why oh why did I leave you, my precious AT&T/Cingular? I feel as though I've betrayed you. Please forgive me. I'll be back in a little less than two years; I promise.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Questions
Firstly, the first anniversary of my blog came and went without much fanfare last Thursday. Happy Birthday Schmuttblog! I didn't think you'd make it.
Anyway, I have noticed that there are certain questions people ask you, which are absolutely not fair. When people ask you these questions, they already assume that they know the answer, and no matter what your response is, they'll never change their minds, despite all anecdotal evidence to the contrary.
This one is an obvious one, and only applies when a woman is asking you: "Do you think I'm fat?" Never EVER answer this question. If you say "yes" then you're obviously a huge jerk and have absolutely earned a non-derech chiba smack in the face. But if you say "no," often times you'll be accused of lying and then you're in trouble because not only do you think she's fat, but also you lied to her face. See, women who ask you this ALWAYS think they're fat. Best to avoid answering this question if possible using one of the standard evasion methods: pretend you have a phone call, pretend you didn't hear the question, or pretend you need to use the bathroom.
The other two questions can come from members of either gender. The reason I bring up this discussion is because I had to deal with this question numerous times last night at my friend's wedding. "Have you had too much to drink?" Now, to be fair, I have developed a bit of a reputation as someone who enjoys a scotch from time to time, which is absolutely true, but I'm also an extremely responsible driver, az I feel completely confident that having one drink over a five hour span will not affect my driving. But someone who asks me that automatically assumes that I've had too much to drink and I'm only saying that I haven't because I want to be able to drive. Implying that someone has had too much to drink can be extremely offensive because there's no way to convince them otherwise. If you've been drinking, then unless you're completely plastered you won't admit that you're drunk. Feh!
This last one is a bit more innocuous, but can still be irritating: "do you like that girl?" As I said earlier, no one is asking you this question unless they think the answer is "yes." Now, if you say "yes" then you don't even get any credit for correctly responding, because the one who asked you will say something like "hah! I knew it!" and then act like it was his/her idea all along. But if you say "no," then the asker will say something like "okay, whatever you say..." and walk away smiling because he/she's positive you're lying. And then the only thing you can do is stand there, roll your eyes, turn your face up to shamayim and ask "why me?"
Tell me I'm wrong.
Anyway, I have noticed that there are certain questions people ask you, which are absolutely not fair. When people ask you these questions, they already assume that they know the answer, and no matter what your response is, they'll never change their minds, despite all anecdotal evidence to the contrary.
This one is an obvious one, and only applies when a woman is asking you: "Do you think I'm fat?" Never EVER answer this question. If you say "yes" then you're obviously a huge jerk and have absolutely earned a non-derech chiba smack in the face. But if you say "no," often times you'll be accused of lying and then you're in trouble because not only do you think she's fat, but also you lied to her face. See, women who ask you this ALWAYS think they're fat. Best to avoid answering this question if possible using one of the standard evasion methods: pretend you have a phone call, pretend you didn't hear the question, or pretend you need to use the bathroom.
The other two questions can come from members of either gender. The reason I bring up this discussion is because I had to deal with this question numerous times last night at my friend's wedding. "Have you had too much to drink?" Now, to be fair, I have developed a bit of a reputation as someone who enjoys a scotch from time to time, which is absolutely true, but I'm also an extremely responsible driver, az I feel completely confident that having one drink over a five hour span will not affect my driving. But someone who asks me that automatically assumes that I've had too much to drink and I'm only saying that I haven't because I want to be able to drive. Implying that someone has had too much to drink can be extremely offensive because there's no way to convince them otherwise. If you've been drinking, then unless you're completely plastered you won't admit that you're drunk. Feh!
This last one is a bit more innocuous, but can still be irritating: "do you like that girl?" As I said earlier, no one is asking you this question unless they think the answer is "yes." Now, if you say "yes" then you don't even get any credit for correctly responding, because the one who asked you will say something like "hah! I knew it!" and then act like it was his/her idea all along. But if you say "no," then the asker will say something like "okay, whatever you say..." and walk away smiling because he/she's positive you're lying. And then the only thing you can do is stand there, roll your eyes, turn your face up to shamayim and ask "why me?"
Tell me I'm wrong.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Malevolent
This morning I drove to work because I'm going straight to a wedding by the Jersey Shore. Now as everyone knows, you absolutely cannot park anywhere in midtown and it's foolish to even try, az I parked on 9th avenue and 45th street, roughly a 12 minute walk from my office. I drove two other guys down with me and we all got out of the car and started walking towards our offices. Around half a block away from the car I started to get the nagging feeling that I forgot to lock the car. That's the sort of thing that can drive a person mad over a period of several hours. Az I left work at around 11:45 for "lunch" and went to check the car. Obviously I remembered to lock it, az of course it was still there. I guess I'd gladly trade half an hour for some peace of mind.
Several months ago on Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN Radio, the guys were trying to determine what word they should use to describe pitchers/pitches that are particularly difficult to hit. Baseball Tonight has a segment called "That's Nasty" where they show highlights of these pitchers/pitches. People e-mailed in suggestions to the Mikes such as "filthy," "raunchy," and "redonkulous." Some of those were okay, but the best I've heard is what I saw today in Bill Simmons's mailbag on ESPN.com. When referring to Joba Chamberlain's pitching, he says his stuff is "positively malevolent." Wow. Most of the adjectives they use have the connotation of physical cleanliness, but this takes it into the realm of good and evil. I never thought about a pitcher actually being a bad man when he throws certain pitches, but I like it.
On the topic of words, remember way way back, many centuries ago, not long after the bible began, my third post was about words I need to use more often. Well I was reading "The Guns of Avalon" by Roger Zelazny this week, and I came across an awesome word that I'll need to begin using immediately. One of the characters had called someone else a "ratfink" and the other character said that he was not familiar with that term of "opprobrium."
Opprobrium:
Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct; ignominy.
Scornful reproach or contempt: a term of opprobrium.
A cause of shame or disgrace.
Man, did Joba Chamberlain throw that pitch with opprobrium.
Several months ago on Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN Radio, the guys were trying to determine what word they should use to describe pitchers/pitches that are particularly difficult to hit. Baseball Tonight has a segment called "That's Nasty" where they show highlights of these pitchers/pitches. People e-mailed in suggestions to the Mikes such as "filthy," "raunchy," and "redonkulous." Some of those were okay, but the best I've heard is what I saw today in Bill Simmons's mailbag on ESPN.com. When referring to Joba Chamberlain's pitching, he says his stuff is "positively malevolent." Wow. Most of the adjectives they use have the connotation of physical cleanliness, but this takes it into the realm of good and evil. I never thought about a pitcher actually being a bad man when he throws certain pitches, but I like it.
On the topic of words, remember way way back, many centuries ago, not long after the bible began, my third post was about words I need to use more often. Well I was reading "The Guns of Avalon" by Roger Zelazny this week, and I came across an awesome word that I'll need to begin using immediately. One of the characters had called someone else a "ratfink" and the other character said that he was not familiar with that term of "opprobrium."
Opprobrium:
Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct; ignominy.
Scornful reproach or contempt: a term of opprobrium.
A cause of shame or disgrace.
Man, did Joba Chamberlain throw that pitch with opprobrium.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Just Churning Out Some More Insanity
I have a few entirely unrelated things to discuss today.
Rick Ankiel! Come on down! You're the next contestant on "The Price is Right!" Speaking of which, how the hell is Drew Carey going to replace Bob Barker as the host? He's awful! He was terrible on "Whose Line is it Anyway?" Whatever, totally off subject. Anyway, yesterday marked the return of Rick Ankiel to the Major Leagues. Now before I scare all of you away (blah blah blah, more sports, I hate you Schmutter, write more about the A-train, write a song about me, send Trogdor over to my house, put on a purple thing and dance around. Well I've had it! I will never ever ever ever ever write a song about Sibbie. See SB E-mail #76 "Sibbie." Wow, been a long time since I had a Homestar Runner reference.), this is not a rant about statistics or bad sports writing/commentating; it's a feel good story about a man. Rick Ankiel was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1997, and in 1998 was their Minor League Player of the Year. In 1999 he was named the Minor League Player of the year for the entire Minor Leagues, az the Cards called him up to the Show in 1999. He had a very respectable first season in the Majors, posting high strikeout totals and an 11-7 record. He continued to pitch well in his second year and his team made the playoffs. The manager selected him to start the first game of the NLDS agains the Braves, and he began the game fairly well, but in the third inning, Ankiel absolutely fell apart. Little did anyone know that this was the beginning of the end of his pitching career. Here's how the third inning went down for Ankiel:
1. Greg Maddux walks
2. Rafael Furcal pops out in foul territory (1 out)
3. Wild pitch to Andruw Jones (Maddux advances to second base)
4. Wild pitch to Andruw Jones (Maddux advances to third base)
5. Andruw Jones walks
6. Wild pitch to Chipper Jones (A. Jones advances to second base)
7. Chipper Jones strikes out (2 outs)
8. Andres Galarraga walks, wild pitch on Ball Four (Maddux scores, A. Jones advances to third base)
9. Brian Jordan singles (A. Jones scores, Galarraga advances to second base)
10. Wild pitch to Reggie Sanders (Galarraga advances to third base, Jordan advances to second base)
11. Reggie Sanders walks
12. Walt Weiss singles (Galarraga scores, Jordan scores, Sanders advances to second base)
And then he finally gets replaced. No one knows why he was suddenly unable to pitch; his mechanics didn't change and he was completely healthy. He just couldn't pitch anymore. Since then he's been up to the Majors a few times, but continued to throw wildly. He was sent down as far as the Rookie Leagues, playing with kids right out of high school. During his time in the Minor Leagues he worked on his hitting and in 2005 after his recovery from Tommy John surgery he decided to abandon pitching and tried to reinvent himself as a slugging outfielder. His progress was delayed because of knee surgery in May of 2006, but was healthy enough to continue playing at the start of the 2007 season. He began the season at AAA Memphis, and through August 8th hit .267 with 32 Home Runs and 89 RsBI. He played a quite respectable outfield too with only seven errors in 95 games. He finally returned to the Major Leagues on August 9th and got one hit in four at-bats against the San Diego Padres. His one hit was a three-run homer to deep right field, and the Cardinals went on to defeat the Padres 5-0. I'm going to leave it as it is for now and let each of you come up with your own superlatives about this story.
Moving right along, I was reading The Soul of Baseball blog by Tom Posnanski online today, as I often do, and he made some comments about today's society. He mentioned that we have so much available to us today that we don't even need to be exposed to things with which we might disagree or things we dislike if we don't want to be. For example, he was at a restaurant and he heard a Billy Joel song playing on the radio there. It was the first time he had heard this song for like 15 years, because he is entirely in control of the music to which he listens. What he means is that you can listen to only the music you want because of Ipods and satellite radio, etc. I only take note of this story because something similar happened to me this week. My friend picked me up from work on Wednesday and I was looking through her CD collection to see if there was anything worth hearing, and I found the first Shalsheles CD. Az I popped it in the player and listened to Mi Ho'ish for a minute or two before deciding to switch to song eight, Asher Bara. Now over the past six years or so I've copied numerous CDs onto my computer. When I first copied Shalsheles 1 all those years ago, I deliberately did NOT copy Asher Bara; it's just that bad. Every couple of years I manage to get my hands on that CD and decide to listen to that song on the off chance that I've been wrong all these years. Nope, it's really an awful song. Yitzchok Rosenthal should really just stick to composing the songs and quit singing them. He has a decent voice like I have a decent voice, but his talents really lie in writing songs.
As I mentioned in an e-mail last night, we're rapidly approaching the best time of the year on the sports calendar. Yes, my friends, as the baseball season heads into the home stretch of the pennant races, the clock is ticking down to the opening kickoff of football season. That being said, I'm trying to organize both a Fantasy Football league and an Eliminator league. The purpose of this post is not to promote my leagues, but if any of you or your friends want to join please let me know. What I AM trying to accomplish with this post is to obtain some help from you. Here's the thing: last year I was involved in two fantasy football leagues. Fantasy football is really awesome, but it can be extremely nerve-wracking and time consuming. Last year I invited my friend and his infant son to come over to my apartment to watch the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets one Sunday. Let's just say that he was really giving me a hard time because I was barely watching the game; I spent the majority of the time following the stats from all the other games going on to see how well my fantasy players were doing. Az please, friends, don't let me fall into the same routine this year. Seriously, at like 1:45 every Sunday, give me a call and ask me what the score is and how many yards Chad Pennington and Thomas Jones have accumulated. Thanks.
Rick Ankiel! Come on down! You're the next contestant on "The Price is Right!" Speaking of which, how the hell is Drew Carey going to replace Bob Barker as the host? He's awful! He was terrible on "Whose Line is it Anyway?" Whatever, totally off subject. Anyway, yesterday marked the return of Rick Ankiel to the Major Leagues. Now before I scare all of you away (blah blah blah, more sports, I hate you Schmutter, write more about the A-train, write a song about me, send Trogdor over to my house, put on a purple thing and dance around. Well I've had it! I will never ever ever ever ever write a song about Sibbie. See SB E-mail #76 "Sibbie." Wow, been a long time since I had a Homestar Runner reference.), this is not a rant about statistics or bad sports writing/commentating; it's a feel good story about a man. Rick Ankiel was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1997, and in 1998 was their Minor League Player of the Year. In 1999 he was named the Minor League Player of the year for the entire Minor Leagues, az the Cards called him up to the Show in 1999. He had a very respectable first season in the Majors, posting high strikeout totals and an 11-7 record. He continued to pitch well in his second year and his team made the playoffs. The manager selected him to start the first game of the NLDS agains the Braves, and he began the game fairly well, but in the third inning, Ankiel absolutely fell apart. Little did anyone know that this was the beginning of the end of his pitching career. Here's how the third inning went down for Ankiel:
1. Greg Maddux walks
2. Rafael Furcal pops out in foul territory (1 out)
3. Wild pitch to Andruw Jones (Maddux advances to second base)
4. Wild pitch to Andruw Jones (Maddux advances to third base)
5. Andruw Jones walks
6. Wild pitch to Chipper Jones (A. Jones advances to second base)
7. Chipper Jones strikes out (2 outs)
8. Andres Galarraga walks, wild pitch on Ball Four (Maddux scores, A. Jones advances to third base)
9. Brian Jordan singles (A. Jones scores, Galarraga advances to second base)
10. Wild pitch to Reggie Sanders (Galarraga advances to third base, Jordan advances to second base)
11. Reggie Sanders walks
12. Walt Weiss singles (Galarraga scores, Jordan scores, Sanders advances to second base)
And then he finally gets replaced. No one knows why he was suddenly unable to pitch; his mechanics didn't change and he was completely healthy. He just couldn't pitch anymore. Since then he's been up to the Majors a few times, but continued to throw wildly. He was sent down as far as the Rookie Leagues, playing with kids right out of high school. During his time in the Minor Leagues he worked on his hitting and in 2005 after his recovery from Tommy John surgery he decided to abandon pitching and tried to reinvent himself as a slugging outfielder. His progress was delayed because of knee surgery in May of 2006, but was healthy enough to continue playing at the start of the 2007 season. He began the season at AAA Memphis, and through August 8th hit .267 with 32 Home Runs and 89 RsBI. He played a quite respectable outfield too with only seven errors in 95 games. He finally returned to the Major Leagues on August 9th and got one hit in four at-bats against the San Diego Padres. His one hit was a three-run homer to deep right field, and the Cardinals went on to defeat the Padres 5-0. I'm going to leave it as it is for now and let each of you come up with your own superlatives about this story.
Moving right along, I was reading The Soul of Baseball blog by Tom Posnanski online today, as I often do, and he made some comments about today's society. He mentioned that we have so much available to us today that we don't even need to be exposed to things with which we might disagree or things we dislike if we don't want to be. For example, he was at a restaurant and he heard a Billy Joel song playing on the radio there. It was the first time he had heard this song for like 15 years, because he is entirely in control of the music to which he listens. What he means is that you can listen to only the music you want because of Ipods and satellite radio, etc. I only take note of this story because something similar happened to me this week. My friend picked me up from work on Wednesday and I was looking through her CD collection to see if there was anything worth hearing, and I found the first Shalsheles CD. Az I popped it in the player and listened to Mi Ho'ish for a minute or two before deciding to switch to song eight, Asher Bara. Now over the past six years or so I've copied numerous CDs onto my computer. When I first copied Shalsheles 1 all those years ago, I deliberately did NOT copy Asher Bara; it's just that bad. Every couple of years I manage to get my hands on that CD and decide to listen to that song on the off chance that I've been wrong all these years. Nope, it's really an awful song. Yitzchok Rosenthal should really just stick to composing the songs and quit singing them. He has a decent voice like I have a decent voice, but his talents really lie in writing songs.
As I mentioned in an e-mail last night, we're rapidly approaching the best time of the year on the sports calendar. Yes, my friends, as the baseball season heads into the home stretch of the pennant races, the clock is ticking down to the opening kickoff of football season. That being said, I'm trying to organize both a Fantasy Football league and an Eliminator league. The purpose of this post is not to promote my leagues, but if any of you or your friends want to join please let me know. What I AM trying to accomplish with this post is to obtain some help from you. Here's the thing: last year I was involved in two fantasy football leagues. Fantasy football is really awesome, but it can be extremely nerve-wracking and time consuming. Last year I invited my friend and his infant son to come over to my apartment to watch the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets one Sunday. Let's just say that he was really giving me a hard time because I was barely watching the game; I spent the majority of the time following the stats from all the other games going on to see how well my fantasy players were doing. Az please, friends, don't let me fall into the same routine this year. Seriously, at like 1:45 every Sunday, give me a call and ask me what the score is and how many yards Chad Pennington and Thomas Jones have accumulated. Thanks.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Ridiculous
And no, I'm not trying to exorcise some boggarts. Hehe, get it? It's a Harry Potter joke! See how into pop-culture I am?
Wow, I need to spend the next several minutes hanging my head in shame.
Anyway, what actually was ridiculous was this morning's commute. The purpose of this post is not to tell the story of my commute, since I'm sure that most people have similar stories. By the time I get to the end of the story, you'll know why I'm telling it; it just had this one hilarious, brilliant moment. Here goes:
I got on the A train at 181st street at the usual time, around 8:25ish, and the doors were closing just as I got on. I usually try to walk as far south as I can because that's where I need to be to exit the station. Az at 175th street I get out of my current car and move to the next car. I bump into my friend and we chat a little bit, and soon the train arrives at 168th street. We waited there for about 15 minutes listening to the voice over the PA system telling us that the entire subway system is flooded from the torrential rains earlier that morning. So much for the downtown A experience, right? Anyway, my friend persuades me to go with him to the 1 train to see if we have more luck. Obviously we didn't and we ended up going back to the A train. We just missed getting back on our own train and had to wait 15 minutes for another one. Now we're riding downtown, stopping for a few minutes at each station. Finally, we get down close to 59th street, and the train stops for about 10 minutes twice just as we're closing in on the station. At this point everyone knows that it's the last stop on the train, and no one's complaining that they can't ride farther, because everyone is so hot by now that they can't wait to get off that G-d forsaken subway. Nonetheless, and this is the hilarious part, when the subway doors open, a woman sitting on one of the benches declares "getting off!" This was absolutely unbelievable, and I almost lost it. Blah blah blah, then I just walked to my office from Columbus Circle and arrived at a quarter past ten. I hope the commute back is quicker.
Wow, I need to spend the next several minutes hanging my head in shame.
Anyway, what actually was ridiculous was this morning's commute. The purpose of this post is not to tell the story of my commute, since I'm sure that most people have similar stories. By the time I get to the end of the story, you'll know why I'm telling it; it just had this one hilarious, brilliant moment. Here goes:
I got on the A train at 181st street at the usual time, around 8:25ish, and the doors were closing just as I got on. I usually try to walk as far south as I can because that's where I need to be to exit the station. Az at 175th street I get out of my current car and move to the next car. I bump into my friend and we chat a little bit, and soon the train arrives at 168th street. We waited there for about 15 minutes listening to the voice over the PA system telling us that the entire subway system is flooded from the torrential rains earlier that morning. So much for the downtown A experience, right? Anyway, my friend persuades me to go with him to the 1 train to see if we have more luck. Obviously we didn't and we ended up going back to the A train. We just missed getting back on our own train and had to wait 15 minutes for another one. Now we're riding downtown, stopping for a few minutes at each station. Finally, we get down close to 59th street, and the train stops for about 10 minutes twice just as we're closing in on the station. At this point everyone knows that it's the last stop on the train, and no one's complaining that they can't ride farther, because everyone is so hot by now that they can't wait to get off that G-d forsaken subway. Nonetheless, and this is the hilarious part, when the subway doors open, a woman sitting on one of the benches declares "getting off!" This was absolutely unbelievable, and I almost lost it. Blah blah blah, then I just walked to my office from Columbus Circle and arrived at a quarter past ten. I hope the commute back is quicker.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
A-train Experience Follow-Up
Wow! I got so many comments about my last post! I hope you all responded because you enjoyed reading and not because you disagreed with anything I said. Hold on. If so many of you have ridden the A-train experience, why haven't I seen any of you on the subway? I guess I'll have to be late more often.
Anyway, since so many of you commented, I decided to do a little bit of a follow-up. I'm going to totally botch this story, but no one will know the difference. Az the story goes as follows. roughly six years ago, I went down to Florida with my mother, and we were joining my grandmother who had already been there for a few days. We flew down to Ft. Lauderdale / Hollywood International Airport on Spirit Airlines (They've got spirit, yes they do. They've got spirit, how about you?), which isn't exactly the most luxurious airline of all time, but they got the job done. Az we landed safely on the tarmac, and while we're pulling into the gate, the captain adresses us over the loud-speaker and says something a-like-a-this-a:
We hope you enjoyed your flight with Spirit Airlines today. But if you didn't
I just...I just don't really care. In fact, I care so little about what you think of
me, that I'll do whatever I want. I will now sing to you.
And the captain did just that. We all found it highly entertaining. Now THAT's the Spirit Airlines experience!
Anyway, since so many of you commented, I decided to do a little bit of a follow-up. I'm going to totally botch this story, but no one will know the difference. Az the story goes as follows. roughly six years ago, I went down to Florida with my mother, and we were joining my grandmother who had already been there for a few days. We flew down to Ft. Lauderdale / Hollywood International Airport on Spirit Airlines (They've got spirit, yes they do. They've got spirit, how about you?), which isn't exactly the most luxurious airline of all time, but they got the job done. Az we landed safely on the tarmac, and while we're pulling into the gate, the captain adresses us over the loud-speaker and says something a-like-a-this-a:
We hope you enjoyed your flight with Spirit Airlines today. But if you didn't
I just...I just don't really care. In fact, I care so little about what you think of
me, that I'll do whatever I want. I will now sing to you.
And the captain did just that. We all found it highly entertaining. Now THAT's the Spirit Airlines experience!
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