So, I’m trying to think of something I want to write about rather than rehash yesterday’s Orioles game. No one wants to hear about it – O’s fans will just get depressed, and the Rays don’t have any fans. Maybe the players’ mothers. Anyway. So I thought I might write about Quacker of the House Nancy Pelosi advising the President to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies to protest China’s all-around unpleasantness, but then I was reading the article and my eyes started to glaze over. No one cares what advice Nancy Pelosi has for President Bush. She’d be more likely to get a reaction out of a large rock. Then I thought I should say something about IBM’s temporary suspension from getting federal contracts for some horrendous thing they did to EPA that no one will explain. This is huge news, but until we get some more details, it isn’t all that interesting. Or maybe it’s not interesting because my mind is refusing to grasp the massive incompetence or malice necessary to actually be disciplined by the government at all. But really, the most exciting thing about today is that I plan to go meet Charles Stross at the Brickskeller tonight. He’s one of my favorite authors, and he’s in town for something or other. He claims he’s trying to fend off jet-lag, but anyone going to a place with a beer list like this is merely fending off sobriety.
Tag: baseball
Orioles in HD!
I know that many of you are sick of hearing about baseball, but you’re going to have to deal with a bit more. We have the Orioles in HD! Last year, the Comcast feed from MASN was not in HD, and it was absolutely terrible. It was poor even for a non-HD channel. But today, I came home from work a bit early to watch the Orioles opening day, and we have MASN HD. Now all we need is an Orioles win.
Ok, back to baseball. And politics.
Nats 3, Braves 2 What a heck of a way to break in the new stadium. I don’t think anyone could have scripted a better first game at Nationals Park. Cristian Guzman singled on the first pitch a Nationals player saw in the new park. The Nats scored two runs in their first inning. And then Nats golden boy Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off home run to win it in the bottom of the ninth. Never mind that the home run was just about the only ball any National hit hard all night, it was still a great win. And, perhaps more surprising, George W. Bush hung out in the announcer’s booth for a few innings after throwing out the first pitch, and actually sounded like a human being. He didn’t talk about terrorism, even when they brought up 9/11. He joked with the announcers, and just generally talked like a baseball fan. I wonder what would have happened (Bear with me here, I know this is a stretch) if he had become MLB Commissioner instead of the President of the US. First, it would save us from Bud Selig, who, despite his recent minor victories in the steroid battle, is still a schmuck and not good for the game. Second, I think many of Bush’s qualities that I hate in a President, I would love in a commissioner. I’d be fine with a preemptive strike into Florida (Or Baltimore) to bring about regime change before another Marlins fire sale. I’d be fine with tax cuts for the richest teams – I think these revenue sharing deals are dumb. if the Yankees and the Red Sox want to have payrolls that are twenty times that of anyone else, let them. The A’s and sometimes the Marlins have proven you don’t need to spend that much to compete, so poor teams shouldn’t be getting handouts. I’d be fine with the commissioner acting as if he were endowed by god with infallibility. The commissioner is supposed to be the final word, and while there are issues on which I disagree with god on how to run a country, I’m pretty sure I’m cool with the way god would run baseball (I’ll bet he’d raise the mound a little bit and abolish Coors Field, for example). As baseball commissioner, Bush wouldn’t be in control of the military, so there would be no waterboarding of Jose Canseco, as much as many people might like to see it. We would still have to deal with the pro-Texas bias, but I think that’s a small price to pay. Too bad no one thought of this about ten years ago.
More Orioles crap
Marred with a possible drug suspension, Orioles release Gibbons
Gibbons is owed $5.7 million this year from the Orioles and $6.2 million for 2009.
That must be kind of depressing for Jay Gibbons. The Orioles have told him they’d rather just throw away $11 million than have him on their team. I’m not terribly sad to see him go. Even though his picture in MLB 2005 for the Gamecube looks just like my brother’s friend Jay, he’s only managed 500 at bats in a season once. His OPS+ last year was 62. Since 100 is average, it follows that 62 is bad. He’s 30, so his durability is unlikely to improve. Still, he was a career Oriole – all his major league at bats are for Baltimore. And you hate to see the guy just dumped so unceremoniously. Oh, well. I’ll write about something non-baseball related tomorrow.
Please, just get this over with
The Official Site of The Baltimore Orioles: News: Roberts seeks closure on trade front
“I don’t know what the resolution is — I haven’t heard anything except what somebody told me,” Roberts said Thursday. “[Andy and I] talked for two minutes here yesterday. ‘Highly unlikely’ doesn’t seem like a resolution to me.”
I still think this trade is going to happen. And quotes from Roberts, obviously unhappy that it’s not resolved, reinforce my point that he’s not going to be on top of his game. No one wants to be strung along, not knowing what city he’s going to be in next week. At this point, it’s ridiculous not to trade him. Just make the deal already. I think it sucks if he leaves this way, but I don’t see how you can salvage much of anything at this point. The whole situation is soured.
Now that they’ve said that . . .
The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Roberts deal appears unlikely
Baltimore manager Dave Trembley has consistently said that he can’t imagine his batting order without Roberts, a switch-hitting fixture at the top of the lineup. However, he’s also said that he’ll do whatever he needs to do.
Now that they’ve said that Baltimore is unlikely to trade Brian Roberts, I expect a trade to come through in the next day or two. I mean, why wouldn’t the Orioles get rid of a switch-hitting second baseman who stole 50 bases last year with a 112 OPS+ and happens to be one of the biggest fan favorites on the team? I mean, everyone in the league gets 42 doubles out of their second baseman, right? I know, it makes sense to deal him if you’re rebuilding. And if the Orioles aren’t rebuilding, then they’re completely insane. I just don’t see his value going up as the season progresses. The team is a mess, so I don’t expect a career year out of him. The Orioles should probably take whatever the best offer is right now and call it a day.
I’m so glad baseball is back.
Even if it’s just Oakland playing the f’ing Red Sox in Japan, I’m so happy that the baseball season has started again. Just looking at box scores, seeing that Daric Barton walked twice more, bringing his OBP to .444 despite not getting a hit yet, and seeing Rich Harden make the Sox look silly, striking out nine in six innings, it just brings a smile to my face. Never mind that the Orioles aren’t expected to win even 70 games this year. I’m not going to worry about that right now. Instead, I’ll point and laugh at Jason Varitek, 0-8 with six Ks so far. And who knows – maybe the Orioles will flash back to 1989 and unexpectedly make the playoffs. I can’t imagine Jeff Ballard is too busy these days . . . Edit: Article here mentioning Barton as an AL Rookie of the Year candidate.
Barton has never hit up to corner-infielder standards — though he’s still young enough to develop the power — but he has never not hit, topping .300 everywhere he has been. He is a remarkably disciplined hitter at a young age — his Minor League totals show 303 walks versus 255 strikeouts.
I like this kid more and more. He’d probably be the poster boy for Moneyball II – What Can Billy Beane Get for Huston Street?
Why the save is a stupid stat
So, Oakland and Boston opened the baseball season with a game in Japan at what is, in the US, a ridiculous hour. The ten inning game just finished around 930AM Eastern. It gave us a good look at why the save is a ridiculous stat that tells nothing about the usefulness of a pitcher. Sure, good closers get a lot of saves. But that doesn’t make it a good measure of the quality of the closer. Take Jonathan Papelbon’s performance this morning. Now, I won’t argue that he’s not a good closer, because in his three seasons, he’s been utterly absurd. But this particular save he “earned” is absolutely in no way a reflection of a good outing. He came on to start the tenth, Boston leading by two. He began the inning by walking Daric Barton, who must have read Moneyball dozens of times. He then struck out Jack Cust (Who was 0-4 with 4 strikeouts. What a wonderful way to start the season). Then he allowed a double, scoring Barton. The hitter, Emil Brown, was thrown out at third trying for his 11th career triple in his 620th career game. Good job, clown. The next two batters singled, meaning that the game would have been tied if Brown had just held up at second. I didn’t see the game, so maybe he made the right call to try for third and it just didn’t work out, but I think that’s unlikely. Finally, Papelbon got out of the inning. Three hits, a walk, and only a baserunning mistake away from an eleventh inning or a loss. But he gets the save! Way to accurately measure the quality of a pitcher’s outing, save. Really. Nice job.
So what’s in it for us?
Shysterball | Can We Build It? Ev-en-tu-ally!
Know what? Something tells me slogans like “you gotta wait 10 years for this to work out” weren’t part of Evans’ pitch back when he and his colleagues were voting to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from impoverished D.C. residents to wealthy baseball owners.
I’ve always thought that the public shouldn’t be on the hook for any part of the construction of a sports stadium unless the public is realizing profits above and beyond tax revenue. I may be totally making this up, but I’m pretty sure I’ve read that most studies indicate that the city doesn’t really benefit much from a new stadium. The team owners really benefit from a new stadium. As such, it seems reasonable that the city should get something back. If DC gives $100 million towards the new Nationals Park, it seems reasonable to me that the city get, say, $5 million a year in profit sharing. Certainly with $100 million, any marginally competent financial adviser could turn a 5% profit. So it seems fair that the Nationals should kick that back to the city. I don’t know the actual numbers here, I’m just making these up, but I think the argument holds. Still, I’m looking forward to checking out the new stadium. I drove by yesterday on the way to visit my family, and it looks pretty impressive.
Peanuts and Cracker Jack
ESPN | Humble Jones gives Orioles a face for the future
His name is Adam Jones, and the Orioles spent the better part of two months this offseason prying him loose from Seattle. . . If the camp buzz means anything, the effort was worth it.
Too bad “camp buzz” doesn’t win championships. Jones better be humble – he struck out once every four at bats at AAA last year, and he gets thrown out on 35% of steal attempts. And that’s by minor league catchers. I mean, he’s young. He’s going to get better. But what we gave up to get him was only one of the best pitchers in the league (I think Bedard led the league in strikeouts per batter faced last year, picking up 221 in only 182 innings). I’m all for going young – if the Orioles want to totally rebuild, and realize that they have to let Bedard go to pick up the prospects to make us competitive in three years, fine. Rebuild. But then why is Melvin Mora still on the team? You can’t go half way on rebuilding. Ditch everyone over 25. Orioles fans really will stick with you if you’re making a real commitment to winning. We’re just getting tired of this pretending. The team hung on to Mora too long. They hung on to Tejada too long. They seem to be stringing Brian Roberts along over a trade to the Cubs. I do like Jones’ attitude, though.
“I hate it when people say, ‘Look at all the stuff you’ve done,'” Jones said. “Well, I did it in Triple-A. When I got an opportunity in the big leagues last year, I hit .246. I didn’t do everything I could with the opportunity I had.
That’s exactly what you want to hear from your new 22-year-old outfielder. He’s not coming in cocky, crowing over his .968 OPS last year. He’s putting it on himself to perform and prove he deserves to be there. The season starts pretty soon, and I’m getting into the baseball mood (At least I will be as soon as I’m mathematically eliminated from my NCAA tournament pool). I’m curious to see how Bedard does in Seattle. Part of me is hoping he strikes out 350 with a WHIP of under 1 and wins the Cy Young. That way I can say, “I told you so”.