DLD 8/27/07 Should I Read BTF? Let's Find Out
by mikeA on Aug 27, 2007 1:12 AM PDT
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PrintAside from checking out stats, this is the only baseball website I visit on anything resembling a regular basis (well, LL too). Some of you like to link to BTF and I invariably enjoy the links. Ought I visit on a regular basis, or should I continue to rely on AN readers to alert me to the cream of the crop?
Let's find out.
First up:
US deploys baseball coaches to Vietnam:
US baseball coaches will be sent to Vietnam to help develop the sport in the Southeast Asian country.
Sounds like a recipe for good comments. I found the results mildly disappointing. Many were guilty of the (ruinous of their contest) New Yorker Caption Contest sin of just restating the already obvious joke. If any of you weigh in saying you enjoy the caption contest in its current iteration, I shall update this diary with a personal rebuke, which will strike you where you are most weak.
Cal Ripken is an out and out commie, endorses ties.
Jokes aside, and validity of his points re: learnings lessons blah blah blah in youth baseball, ties in baseball are completely abhorrent.
chris p. said it best:
i think all of my t-ball games ended in ties. at least that's what the coaches told us.
He didn't exactly say it best, because he didn't make my point, but there were ties in my youth sports career that irritate me to this day (and certainly much more at the time), whereas the losses have faded away. AN parents, take notice. (Certain Expecting AN parents: your son may or may not excel in Little League, but the Flynn Effect dictates that he will surely one day rule us all, so just try to prepare him for that.)
This was a good one: Bonds's (proper names ending in "s" should have the possessive form "xxxs's" although pointing that out ends in a long and confusing link) predictable power progression.
The author apparently argues that Bonds's power surge was part of a natural upswing. I'm something of a Bonds defender, but come on.... Commenters don't pull their punches.
Bonderman:
What's wrong with Bonderman?
FACT: Jeremy Bonderman, who is advertised as one of the better pitchers in baseball, has posted an ERA better than league average only once in five seasons. His career ERA+ numbers: 77, 92, 93, 111 (last year), 95 (this year). So the truth is, even though ESPN has you convinced Bonderman is an ace, he’s really just a good LAIM (League Average Innings Muncher).
By odd coincidence, I had made the same discovery just yesterday, and was very surprised that he had done so poorly. But what stuck out was not his poor performance, but that fact that he's 24 and in his 5th full year (i.e. younger than most A's pitchers in their first full year). Bad job Detroit. He apparently also consistently underperforms his FIP and struggles in the first. I was interested to learn that.
Our own Mike Piazza on Clemens (leave it to the Globe to bring that up in 2007):
We’re just different people, I guess. I don’t carry a resentment or anything like that. Someone made a comment to me the other day in Canada that, ‘With all your accomplishments, you’re going to be remembered for that.’ Are you that shallow that you only remember me for that? If that’s true, then you’re too stupid and I can’t help you. I don’t look back in any sort of regret. He’s who he is, I am who I am, we’re two different people, but we’re both very competitive and strong-willed. He does his own thing and he’s had a very successful career. I’m sure we can coexist in the future in some way, shape, or form.
Commenter Chip wins for (ostensible) Boston h8:
Is there a beat writer who knows less about baseball than Nick Cafardo? Whatever the last scout he spoke to said becomes the theme of his piece that day - even if it completely contradicts what the next-to-last scout said the previous day. Isn't he supposed to be out in Foxboro covering Pats camp by this point in the calendar year?
Racist or just really old?
"Andrew Aitken Rooney" had the right spirit, but lost some steam by the third sentence:
I am very sorry for those that I've hurt. In a long life, you can sometimes regret an action or two, such as the afternoon when some chums and I took the streetcar to Chinatown and boxed the ears of a Chinaman. Have you ever noticed that they don't make racists like they used to? Today's racists couldn't terrorize a Negro-run drugstore soda fountain.
What have I learned, you may ask. Well, a daily visit to btf is probably not worth it.
What's more, I would advise against hemming in your DLD by committing to what is probably an ex ante dubious theme.
For redemption's sake, I offer this quote from Martin Amis:
What we eventually run up against are the forces of humourlessness, and let me assure you that the humourless as a bunch don't just not know what's funny, they don't know what's serious. They have no common sense, either, and shouldn't be trusted with anything.
Lesson: Good jokes are serious business. They can sometimes be hard to come by, but I find them here. Get to it.
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October already?
"You're too stupid and I can't help you."
I love Mike Piazza.
"Yeah? Well, look how big mine is!"
Brett Myers is a MAN! Don't mess with him! Rawr! [pounds chest]
A reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer questioned whether Myers really thought they were pop ups, and Myers got angry.
"You’re not even a beat reporter, you’re a fill-in, you don’t know anything about baseball," said Myers, who then called the reporter "retarded."
The reporters response:
Probably
but it depends on how it was asked. "Can you even spell 'retarded'?" = tool. "Uh...how do you spell 'retarded'?" = appropriate response.
REAL men say:
To be fair, the reporter was this guy:
Later, Myers took him to Ihop.
The Flynn Effect
Reminds me of Scott Adams's "Redmond effect."
Also of note: his prescience (this was written in 1998).
Flat-panel screens on each wall will give the impression you are in a hot-air balloon floating over the Alps. Noise-cancellation technology will block out the surrounding sounds while providing a symphony within the cubisphere. The computer will continue its evolution to a full entertainment center, providing a constant supply of first-run movies, live nudity, gambling and video conferencing.
His dystopian vision applies to AN, too.
I heard about an experiment where rats were given the choice between food and cocaine. They chose the cocaine until they starved. The same thing will happen to the engineers. I predict they'll all starve to death inside their cubicle wonderlands.
LOL
My uncle eventually got so bald that I became valedictorian.
I have to admit
that it took me some time to figure out that the "Redmond effect" was not related to the Twins' backup catcher.
Are games now being removed from the TV
schedule the day before the event? I could have sworn todays game was scheduled to be broadcast on FSNB, but now it's not.
My magnet schedule from April shows no TV today.
Sorry... :(
Just a little reminder...
New AN sucks. KTHX!
K BAI
On Bonderman
I interpret those ERA+ numbers quite a bit differently. They seem to me to be a pretty nice trend of improvement by a very young pitcher, which is stalling this year, for some reason. I'd be wondering if he was hurt.
If you look at his splits
his OPS+ against this season took a big jump in June, and yet another big jump, from what it was in June and July, in Augut. He was fine in April and May.
According to a Tigers fan in the linked
discussion, he has suffered a notable drop in fastball velocity.
It's clearly a case of Infloiaza
My interpretation:
the most worthwhile free agent in next year's class.
Is Bonderman?
I thought he came up in '03. Wouldn't he be a free agent after the '09 season?
He did ...
which means he'll be a FA after '08
Minimum: 03 04 05
Arbi: 06 07 08
you'd think ...
that when I looked at that very page to verify his service time I would have bothered to look at the contract information ...
you'd think that ...
Interesting
I wonder if Beane borrowed the essential idea of the Swisher contract (arbitration plus a year or two beyond) from the Tigers, who seem to have done it with other players as well.
Now, if only he'd borrow their draft strategy...
(That may be unfair; we've no way of knowing what's going on behind closed doors with regard to the draft. Tough.)
Question
Is it too early to post a diary about Spring Training 2008?
Okay.
It's up.
Tango's fan scouting report.
Seriously guys. WTF?
Are we going let the M's fans destroy us in fan scouting report? There have been 42 responses from A's fans. 42! Boston has had over 200. Seattle over 300.
The point isn't to stuff the ballot with how great our fielders are. It's to get lots of honest participation so that we have a good fan-based scouting report on our fielders. And it requires NO USE OF SABERMETRICS.
And, most importantly, do not, absolutely do not, look at any numbers. Don't look at his fielding percentage, range factor, zone rating, UZR, or anything else that someone else is telling you. I just want you to rely on your eyes. You are the scout. I need you to rely completely on your own observations.
Go do it!
Damn A's fans
And it requires NO USE OF SABERMETRICS.
Isn't that why so few A's fans have voted? Or could it be the general malaise that has settled on the nation?
In regards to the study, is the theory that all the homer biases will cancel out?
Homer bias
Yup!
Or at least, we can try to tie the homer bias to other parameters (W/L record, team errors, age/reputation, etc).
"I need to grow up."
No, it's not a Melissa Etheridge song. It's part of Michael Vick's statement after pleading guilty.
Also used was the classic "Through this situation I've found Jesus" line.
Oddly enough,
He made his discovery early. It usually takes at least until the second week in prison for such enlightenment to occur.
There is a "Vick" in "victim".
"Vick was met by cheering supporters as his attorneys and federal marshals escorted him into federal court in Richmond."
Did anybody else see the Sportscenter which showed statements by some NBA players in support of Vick? Those guys are mental.
JJ?? Our Billy's a big-time animals guy.
by The Dogfather on Aug 27, 2007 12:08 PM PDT up reply actions
it was a joke referring to the comments from some
that the Vick prosecution is somehow race related
Oh.
Ne-VER mind. 
by The Dogfather on Aug 27, 2007 12:29 PM PDT up reply actions
Absolutely not.
Painful roids will develop within the first few hours. It's only later that the source is identified as Jesus (Hay-sooz), who happens to be an influential member of a Columbian cartel serving a 70 year sentence.
Apparently
the prospect of spending a year in prison and having to return $22 million in bonus money can be quite the eye-opener. (I prefer a bloody mary.)
Also contributing some football theology is Travis Henry, who has reportedly "fathered nine children by nine women in at least four Southern states":
Wait, which is it?
this thing is pretty hilarious
by closetasfan on Aug 27, 2007 10:15 AM PDT up reply actions
My goodness.
According to court records, the judge wrote that Henry displayed "bad judgment in his spending habits," dropping $100,000 for a car and $146,000 for jewelry. Henry fell behind on support payments for onechild. Threatened with jail, he borrowed $9,800 from his former team, the Tennessee Titans, to pay the bill, according to court records.
He borrowed money?
he wasted all his money
buying defective condoms (pinholes are extra)
Why is the fact that he borrowed money
such a surprise?
Apparently is was a judge
on the Alabama bench. Their job description/title can be incredibly confusing to an overworked father of nine.
hulk hogan's son was in a serious car accident
yesterday.
hulk jr. was released from the hospital today but his passenger in his car remained in critical condition.
sigh
Hulk Hogan's son drives a Supra?
I guess things are pretty rough at the Hogan ranch.
So that's how you turn a Supra into a compact car
and how you sever a head
and make it hover above the car with a mysterious white background.
I'm just impressed the radio antenna didn't bend.
That's one hell of a high grade radio antenna.
The hood isn't bent, either.
You what's awesome about it though?
Hogan's son was in a coma at the scene. The Paramedic lifted his hand a few times to see if he was conscious and it dropped to the floor each time.
But the third time he tried? Hogan Jr's hand stayed in the air, then started to shake, then he pumped his fist a few times and totally Hulkasized.
Then he kicked the passenger in the head and gave him a legdrop, which is where the majority of the damage was done.
You know why else the passenger got hurt?
You can't make a bald statement like that
and not expect a debate among AN's legion of editors, ex-editors, and wannabe-editors.
Chicago Manual of Style says:
The question of how to form the possessive of names of more than one syllable ending in the sound of s or z probably occasions more dissension among writers and editors of good will than any other orthographic matter open to disagreement.
CMoS agrees with your rule but adds, "The Press is willing to accept other ways of handling these situations, however -- if they are consistently followed throughout a manuscript."
you have GOT to be kidding
Who uses AP anymore?
I've got my points of contention with Chicago, but AP? Lame-o.
boo!
Don't make me unleash the Jabberwocky on you.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
If it weren't for The fruminous Bandersnatch...
jubjub would get no bandersnatch at all.
that's my modus operandi
Pick one style, and stick with it throughout the document/project/client in question.
I thought your MO was to
Stick one pile, and...yadda yadda yadda.
To hell with all style manuals.
Proper English dictates you drop the second S (or first, if you're dealing with a Z).
You Americans, you're always messing with the Queen's lingo. 'Colour' has a U in it, damn your bones!
There is nothing more exciting than
a daring grammar provocateur. Truth be told, I have barely cracked open any style manual. Most things can be resolved with logic.
Don't even get me started on the serial comma!
by Englishmajor on Aug 27, 2007 5:38 PM PDT up reply actions
And now for a rebuttal...
This dump sucks, it doesn't even contain one single non-baseball related link.
Yours truly,
McFood - President and CEO of the "Committee to Keep mikeA's Ego in Check, OMG! Look Who's Talking! Committee"
Don't forget to pick up a buttural turkey for
Thanksgiving this year.
Vick again?
There's no sham in my gam.
From Gaslamp Ball
I'm loving Milton Bradley right now. I'm not sure the Padres have ever had a player taunt fans and other teams like he does after scoring or driving in a run. Can you think of one? The Padres are seriously the most emotionless team in the Big Leagues. Khalil, Adrian, Kouz and others sometimes seem like zombies on the field. It's nice to see a guy so amped that he gives the whole team a boost and shows some heart. Most Major Leaguer's give the same old cliches after a win about how they respect the other team and thank the fans, etc. but it's nice having Bradley keep it real. I'm a little conflicted because I usually like the modest players but this is exactly what the Padres need from Bradley in the home stretch.
sound familiar?
I'll give him credit.
Nobody whoops up a torn hammy like Milton does.
A's fans would never do this to an Angels fan
Aggravated assault charges have been filed against a church deacon and University of Oklahoma Sooners fan after officials say he grabbed a University of Texas fan between the legs during a scuffle in an Oklahoma bar.
http://www.nbc5i.com/sports/13968715...
Serves the UT fan right for going into a bar in Oklahoma
Not that's what I call the deacon blues.
"Me and Mrs. Jones"....
soprano note on "Jones".
Why Ichiro loves his dog
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/photos...
Dogs now outnumber children aged 10 and under in Japan -- there were 13.1 million dogs in 2006. As the number of humans shrink, the dog population is growing, research firm Euromonitor said, and so is the market for dog-related products.
Dog products in high demand:
dog boxing gloves, dog brass knuckles, dog steel-toed shoes, dog wrestling mats...
Dog sized casserole dishes....
"Hey McFood," said Shep,
"Eat me."
by The Dogfather on Aug 27, 2007 1:49 PM PDT up reply actions
Nice Kitty. Now go fetch that Milk Bone...
in the oven over there.
Good puppy cat.
Iams in yeruvvin...
...gobblin' upp yer fudz.
by The Dogfather on Aug 27, 2007 4:18 PM PDT up reply actions
That dog....
that dog is...winking at me!
Not to be morbid, but some Utahn *did" ...
... try to bake that pooch. His (the owner's) sentencing hearing is pending. Maybe he'll get to be like/liked by Mike.
by The Dogfather on Aug 27, 2007 4:33 PM PDT up reply actions
I hope they throw that rat-bastard in an oven.
Good lord
there's enough silicon there to keep Apple Computers supplied til the decade.
by kaweahkaweah on Aug 27, 2007 11:32 AM PDT up reply actions
NO!
Breast implants are made from hard silicone shells filled with saline. They used to be made out of silicone gels. But they were never, ever made of silicon. Silicon = computer chips. Silicone = fake boobies. Big difference!
Agh!
Silicon Valley - where semiconductors and computers are were made.
Silicone Valley - see pic above
sal and me
two science geeks of the same mind (except I'm 13 seconds slower)
<sheds tire>
you work so the rest of us don't have to.
If it doesn't exist, then where do I go every...
morning, and why does my job suck?
I guess if some lady on the interweb said it, it must be true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon...
Geographically, "Silicon Valley" encompasses the northern part of Santa Clara Valley and adjacent communities in the southern parts of the San Francisco Peninsula and East Bay. It now reaches approximately from San Mateo (on the Peninsula) and the Fremont/Newark area in the East Bay down through San Jose, centered roughly on Sunnyvale. The Highway 17 corridor through the Santa Cruz Mountains into Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz County is sometimes considered a part of Silicon Valley, as well as the East Bay cities of Livermore and Pleasanton.
Can you send a letter...
to Chuck Norris' right foot?
No, but it can still deliver roundhouse kick to my head that would create a bigger empty space than that 1 billion light year across void of emptiness that astronomers just discovered.
Game. Set. Match.
I don't believe in Chuck Norris
He was just made up to make troubled yutes straighten their acts.
Late comment: change this to "it can still
deliver a roundhouse kick to your head" and you got yourself the comment of the month. QOTMIMHOROFLMAOJK.
HAH!
The Hwy 17 corridor is way more a part of "Silicon Valley" than anything north of the SC/SM County line is. It's a frame of mind, not a place.
"Frame of mind" can aldo be dealt with by a....
Chuck Norris roundhouse kick.
You've been working there too long.
Your brains is addled.
The Twilight Zone aka Silicon Valley
And a bountiful valley it is.
And to think...
I posted that comment believing it would lead to a discussion about boobs.
:-(
by kaweahkaweah on Aug 27, 2007 3:03 PM PDT up reply actions
Hot air balloon fire and crash video in Canada
Holy fireballs, Batman!
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/videos...
Dr. Dorian says,
"It's floating wicker propelled by fire!"
Scientists discover A's Offense
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/0...
The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That's an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday.
Scientists only observed the phenomenon recently following the A's moves to trade their sucking black hole to the Cubs, place their stray star on the DL, and trade their mysterious dark matter to the Padres.
it's actually my fault
"a void that's far bigger than scientists ever imagined"
a void that's far bigger than Scientologists ever
imagined
- Tom Cruise's career
But jeez, what if our universe is really just ...
... a few molecules on umpteen-universe-sized Milton Bradley's hamstring?
All together now: "WE'RE ALL GONNA ...
by The Dogfather on Aug 27, 2007 12:39 PM PDT up reply actions
Style manual: ''helpy?''
I usually like Scott Ostler’s pieces alright, because I’m an easy mark for humor columns. But the more serious he tries to be, the worse he gets. Here, Ostler rates Geren and Bochy on their rookie managerial work so far. He gives each of them two stars (on a 1-5 scale). About Geren, he says:
At least one of those stars is for niceness. There is no more pleasant, affable, genuinely friendly person in baseball. Which, naturally, some players are going to see as a negative...Geren gets dinged for less-than-authoritative handling of the Milton Bradley situation. He gets good marks for his handling of the pitching staff and for aggressively pushing the offensive action more than might be expected of a man with Beane on his shoulder like Jiminy Cricket.
In addition to the Shallow Eval (an underrated film), Ostler loses points from me for the poor choice of Pinocchio analogies. If you’re going down that road, Beane simply has to be Geppeto to Geren’s long-nosed boy. Jiminy Cricket is a conscience; Billy Beane is nothing if not a puppet master.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Aug 27, 2007 12:35 PM PDT reply actions
Style manual: editor?
That post title would have made more sense if I'd left in the relevant part of the article. Which said:
"The A's are unmanageable because there's nothing to manage. Everyone's injured. And general manager Billy Beane is the most helpy general manager in baseball, so the A's manager always will be considered by many to be a co-manager."
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Aug 27, 2007 12:37 PM PDT up reply actions
Atros fire GM, manager
And the best part...
Owner Drayton McLane expected the team to contend after signing left fielder Carlos Lee to a $100 million free-agent contract and adding starting pitchers Woody Williams and Jason Jennings.
oops
He'd make a hell of a lot better baseball GM
than basketball
Astros-Rockets swap
as god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly
Joke's on you.
Monkeys are all atheists.
by The Dogfather on Aug 27, 2007 2:30 PM PDT up reply actions
Think again.
(Aside to monkeball: there are probably some siglines in there for you.)
I see, so now it's monkeymonk?
by The Dogfather on Aug 27, 2007 3:15 PM PDT up reply actions
Turkeys... in *Berkeley*?
Moooooo...
(hmm... doesn't work.)
Ozzie ball!
Ozzie's lil grinders did it again, scratching out five runs on four homers (all in one inning).
Nuke plant guard found asleep at post.
But have they seen the boobs working in sector 7G?
Boobs? ...in *Sector 7G*?
Pics, pls. Kthxbye.
by The Dogfather on Aug 27, 2007 3:42 PM PDT up reply actions
UNICORNS!
and it's green and yellow. Perfection!
http://www.threadless.com/product/96...
Xclnt!
How about this one?
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF024AD-N...
<waits for it> uni-corn.
uni-
corn
No, too obvious
It's because Mark Ellis is from South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace!
by Englishmajor on Aug 27, 2007 5:40 PM PDT up reply actions
Maybe this will help
http://www.vintagevantage.com/produc...
I like this one!
http://www.threadless.com/product/15...
clearly unicorns didn't do nearly enough of that
otherwise there be more than one left
The Viet Nam baseball piece is old news, too
Danny Graves was there with a Viet Nam baseball project before the beginning of spring training last year.
We suck.
Like so
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Aug 28, 2007 11:44 AM PDT up reply actions
Free bleacher ticket for tonight's game
I have a free bleacher ticket for tonight's game agaisnt Toronto. It will also be Mark Ellis bobblehead night. The game starts at 7 i'll be there around 3:30 at Gate C. My email is orod510@yahoo.com.First to contact me gets it.
by OakAs33 on Aug 28, 2007 11:49 AM PDT reply actions
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