Cup of Coffee

October 31, 2011: Trick or Treat for Unicef

108 Comments

We've had kind of a busy few weeks, so I'm probably going to end up being 9 again (from the movie 9). The Greatest American Hero will have to wait another year, I guess.

108 thoughts on “October 31, 2011: Trick or Treat for Unicef”

    2. if you're gonna go, go out on a high note

      also, LaRussa is a first ballot HOFer....right?

    3. Arguably, the St. Louis job is the best one in baseball. If I'm Francona, I'm making myself available. Talk about a soft landing!

    2. Sweet. Dr. Chop and I are on our way to StL this weekend. She has a conference, and now I have something to do.

        1. Hey! That's right you may or may not live around the StL. Dr. Chop and I will be sans car, staying downtown somewhere. I just read that they have a complementary tasting of food prepared by the head chef from Blood & Sand(yeah, terrible name for a restaurant) at the contemporary art museum on saturday. Free vodka. I have a feeling that I'll be looking at the art...

    1. Any thoughts on whether or not the league will stay with Yahoo next year? I don't know if anyone else participates in a fantasy baseball league hosted on ESPN's architecture, but the interface and intuitiveness of the 4ltr's product greatly outstrips the competition.

      Also, looking at the list I take it that it was settled that only drafted players could be kept? I seem to remember some discussion of this point, but don't remember the outcome.

      1. There was a poll before the season started, and that's what was decided. I think this had a lot to do with the complications involved with where to rank the undrafted players since the keepers take the place of the 2012 pick for the round the player was drafted.

        I had also stated before the draft that once a player hit the waivers, they couldn't be kept for the next season.

        I prefer yahoo since that's where my other leagues are, but if the rest of the league would prefer ESPN, I could certainly make the switch.

    2. first of all, for the spreadsheet:
      vote rob
      second, are the rules somewhere on the interwebs? i'm not to savvy on keeper leagues. how many are we able to keep again?

      1. The rules should still be posted on the yahoo fantasy league page as a commissioner note, unless that's moved. That does bring up another point - should we create a homepage for the league outside the specific site we go with so we can keep up with the offseason chatter?

        Also, vote hungryjoe for voting in a nested reply!

        1. uhh... i think it's 5. looks like there was a lot of discussion about various rule ideas (tl;dr), so i'm not sure what flies and what doesn't.

          1. I can't get at the site from work, but I'll sign on when I get home and make some definitive statements at that point.

  5. From the "I don't believe in jinxes" department:

    If the NFL playoffs started today, Buffalo would have a first round bye.

      1. i had half of one eye on the cowboys game last night, but for at least 3 quarters i thought rob ryan had become the head coach with as much as NBC was showing him on the sidelines.

        1. apparently he thinks he's the head coach too, from his comments.

          Ryan, the Cowboys defensive coordinator, fired up the Eagles with some trash-talking during the summer after they added several big-name players. The son of beloved former Philadelphia coach Buddy Ryan called the Eagles the “all-hype” team and predicted the Cowboys would “beat their (butt).”

          He was way off.

          “I got outcoached by Reid and their staff,” Ryan said. “It’s ridiculous. I never gave our guys a chance. The whole thing was on me.”

          1. I believe he also said recently that the Cowboys had two wide receivers better on their team than Calvin Johnson! The Ryan schtick has gotten old quickly for me.

  6. So, I'm knee-deep in work on the Spookymilk Survivor-type game for the Teen Arts Council event in Palo Alto. I'm just throwing this out there: the group wants a "Spookymilk" logo. I have a guy who's done great logos for me in the past (he's also done them for some big-name bands) but he's expensive and I won't be paid for this for a little while here.

    If anyone is interested in creating a cool spookymilk logo for a possible stipend down the road, I'm all ears. I wish I could make promises, but the negotiations on my cut are...let's politely call them "heated."

    1. So, offer Kubel and Cuddy arbitration, and see how that falls out, right? Please, please let Capps go ruin someone else's bullpen.

      1. that's why i put capps in parenthesis. the twins would be mad to offer him arbitration. accorded to Bref, cuddy made $10.5m last year, and kubel made $5.25 (capps made $7.15m (capps middle name is "dicus"? wtf?)). what's the average arb increase? 1.3x or so?

        1. Depends. When the player isn't a free agent, it's usually a 20-30% increase. When it's a free agent, it depends on how they did the last year compared to other (free agent!) players, and how much those other players made. +/-20% would be a good range, though don't count on a negative change.

    2. The system for ranking relief pitchers apart from pitchers as a whole is brutally flawed. That said, I think this is pretty cut and dried. At best, Capps is worth 1.5 fWAR, so even if he stayed at $7M, he'd be overpaid. Just say no to an arbitration offer. (And even if you do offer arbitration, he's probably going to go to a team that either already signed a better Type A pick--and is therefore losing a 2nd- or 3rd-round pick instead of their 1st-round pick--or a team with a protected 1st-round pick. The supplementary round is huge these days, so even if Capps goes elsewhere, the reward is likely a pick in the 70-100 range plus the supplementary pick.)

      I wouldn't mind Kubel or Cuddyer on a one-year deal, so go right ahead and offer them arbitration.

      1. Am I the only one who thinks it odd that teams can't trade draft picks, but they CAN lose draft picks for signing FAs? WTF?

        2. The whole FA compensation thing, I think, is a terribly thought-out system to try to prevent (wealthy) teams from loading up on elite players (taken from low-budget rosters.) There are probably a million (okay, maybe a thousand) better ways to accomplish this goal than to punish them by taking away draft picks. But, I guess draft picks are inexpensive and desirable for low-budget clubs, so that's probably why they've adopted this odd system.

          I think I know where you're going with this--that you would prefer that teams have the ability to trade their draft picks--but I think baseball has it right to otherwise prohibit teams from trading draft picks. A GM's incentives are often not aligned with the long-term good of the club, and it's too easy to screw over an organization for many years to come just by trading away even next year's draft picks, let alone the picks from years after that.

          1. I'm not sure that I believe that there is a significant misalignment of goals between the typical GM and the typical "club" (meaning owner(s) of the club). That presumes that the discount rates/time horizons of the GM and his bosses differ considerably. Why should that be true?

            Even if it is, GMs presumably have to get approval up the food chain before sealing "major" transactions or, if they don't get prior approval but the boss seriously disapproves, such GMs would sometimes get fired.

            A GM who has a "win now at all costs" attitude presumably is responding to express or tacit threats from his boss. Those would be exactly the times at which I'd expect the boss to exercise additional prior review/restraint on the GM's trading activities.

            1. The thing is, I don't think the owners can be trusted to transact in what is a difficult "product" (for lack of a better term) to price. How much next year's draft pick is worth compared to other players is not an easy question to answer, and while a lot of the owners have general good business sense (which is how they made their money in the first place), a lot of them lack baseball expertise. In other sports, owners are so afraid of "pricing" some of these "products" that they restrict the pool of potential draftees.

              Also, I'd say that this really protects the fans more than the owners. Owners can always move the franchise if they feel like the fans aren't coming out enough to support a losing team. (What I like to call "The Montreal Option.") I think that letting MLB GMs start trading draft picks is asking for trouble.

  8. why you should never buy a gift for a celebrity wedding: Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian are getting divorced. They lasted 72 days

    2. I gave one couple a table saw (they had registered for it, and he was my best friend at one point) figuring if they split up it would still come in handy when dividing their property.

      1. And if the divorce was really ugly, hey, table saws have other handy uses!

        The aforementioned Ben made a pretty great joke when he told me he wouldn't be able to be at my wedding because it was closing night of a national tour he was doing - "I promise I'll be at your next one."

        He's gotten married twice in the last two years now, the poor sap.

            1. strangely enough, i was involved in the exact same endeavour my senior year of high school.

    4. It's sad but Sheenie and I have waited a couple of months for an acquaintance's wedding, just to be safe.* We'll be giving them their gift shortly as they're approaching the two-month zone. I still don't give it more than two years.

      *and lazy

  9. the Twins made a trade today

    AaronGleeman
    Twins have apparently acquired Matt Maloney from Reds. Shockingly, he's control pitcher with high-80s fastball who serves up lots of homers.

    2. Of course, everything about this move hinges on what they gave up to acquire him and how they intend on using him from here on out. Consider Maloney and Perkins in the minors:

      8.3 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 0.7 HR/9 -- Maloney, minors
      8.7 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9 -- Perkins, minors

      Perkins throws harder than Maloney, but they both seem to me to be the sort of pitchers who are really marginal as prospects for the rotation, but who have plenty of potential to be useful out of the bullpen. You only really need one good pitch to be an effective reliever. Perkins got a lot of mileage out of his slider this year. Maybe the Twins really like one of Maloney's secondary offerings.

      On the other hand, maybe they have unrealistic expectations and figure him for a rotation spot. At any rate, having been to the majors in three different seasons, he's likely out of option years, so the Twins probably got him on the cheap.

    3. I don't know that I agree with the "serves up lots of homers" part. He has in the majors, but that's in 80 innings spread over three seasons. His minor league numbers look a lot better.

      He'll be 28 next year, so he's probably not going to get a lot better (although it's not unheard of). As ubelmann indicates, a lot depends on what they gave up for him. It seems to me that he could be able to help. When you get yourself in trouble with a move like this is when you convince yourself that you've solved a problem with it, and so stop looking for anyone else.

    4. AaronGleeman Stocking up on replacement-level arms. RT @1500ESPNJudd: Twins claimed LHP Matt Maloney from Reds and RHP Jeff Gray from Mariners.

      AaronGleeman Not really sure what the Twins are doing. Filling 40-man roster spots with the caliber of guys they could just sign to minor-league deals.

        2. Gray throws hard, Maloney has good peripheral stats in the minors. It's a battle of scouting vs. sabermetrics!

      2. Again, it's not that claiming Jeff Gray is so bad in and of itself. I'm starting to think, though, that the Twins are just going to pick up a bunch of marginal guys under the theory that a few of them will somehow magically turn out to be good. That's the kind of thinking that brought us Jim Hoey, Dusty Hughes, and Phil Dumatrait last year.

        1. To be fair, that thinking also got us Matt Guerrier and Dennys Reyes (two good examples that came to mind off the top of my head.) You don't want to base your team around the bargain bin, but if you look in the right places, you can find some leftover talent.

          1. Guerrier was selected off waivers in November. His minor league numbers: 7.0 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 as primarily a starter. One datum point doesn't mean much, plus Guerrier was younger, but the pickup...-type is very close to Maloney.

            1. I would be even more impressed if Maloney were to announce, a la Dread Pirate Roberts, "I'm not left-handed either" and started pitching right-handed.

          2. Sure you can. As I said with Maloney, it's not unheard of that players get better at that age. When they do, though, it usually doesn't just happen. Something causes it to happen. Maybe they learn a new pitch, maybe they gain maturity and learn how to pitch, maybe they get healthy, maybe they're given a new role. It's not impossible that you can pick up guys like that and have it work out, but you can't just expect it to work out. You have to do something to make it work out.

  11. In "I'm OK, but..." news, there was a bomb threat at the shopping center here that also happens to be a large tram hub where we switch trams on our commute to school. We could kinda see inside with cops looking all over for something, so that's what we deduced. As far as I know, it was a hoax and everything's cool now.

  13. I dont get the love for the McRib sandwich. Its a terrible tasting sandwich.
    Also, since people love it so much, why is it off McDonalds menu for 10 months?

    1. The McRib has always struck me like something that people assume they love, but then when they eat it it comes flooding back (only for the memories to disappear in a few months).

      This may refer to all of McDonald's items, though. Every now and then I crack, but normally I have indigestion and swamp-ass after an hour. Suddenly I remember there's a reason to never, ever go there.

        1. Ah, yes.

          I avoid it in Seattle, though. They have a Gordon Biersch place there, and that's perfectly acceptable and drinkable brew, and the food there is surprisingly great for being at an airport.

          ...but, yes, I fall back on the airport McDonald's often.

    2. I like eating a couple of them a year, though they never are quite as good as I remember them being from the year before.

    4. I've never had a McRib. Is it like eggnog? As soon as eggnog reaches the stores after Thanksgiving, I down a half gallon in about two days. Then I'm good for a year.

      1. I tried one out of sheer curiosity and was let down. It tasted like a McNugget with no batter slathered in barbecue sauce. 4/10.

        2. Crappy BBQ sauce. Put something decent on it, or even the McNugget sauce, and you've got something I might eat.
          Had one last year headed to Deer Camp with my dad. BBQ sauce was very watery and more like slightly spiced Ketchup.

  14. Run, don't walk, to get this beer. Spoons, take note. {edit} it's not really 'winter' where you're at, but this will help you remember chilly nights.

    Oh, yeah, and the McRib is back.

    1. Jubelale is definitely my favorite Winter offering. I haven't spotted it yet, but I haven't been to BevMo in a couple of weeks either, so I assume it's about to land in my parts.

      Strangely, I forget about it every year. One day it's "Does Deschutes have a winter?" and the next, I'm freaking out when I spot it in the aisle.

        1. Deschutes ran sales constantly in Washington, but I don't get much of that here. Well, another buck isn't going to stop me from supporting my favorite brewery (with the possible exception of Surly, though I can't make that call based on just one selection from Surly).

          1. This is a first for me - 7.49 a sixer. The mercury topped 80˚ here today, not really a winter ale kind of day, but still very enjoyable.

    2. I can neither walk nor run to get it, unfortunately. I have to rely on friends and family from Minnesota who never visit us. My mom is coming down in a couple weeks to visit, but if I ask for Surly, she brings 12 cans, so I ask for Surly.

      1. cheap - I can make something happen there. I've only had the Jubelale a couple of times but I really enjoyed it and will happily get some your way.

        1. Hey, thanks for the offer, but no worries. I'll be up where I can get some around Christmas time anyway.

    2. None of the Five Guys I own have my name on it.

      If he owns some Five Guys, he got a crapload more likeable in my book.

    3. Also, I may not have needed any more reason to dislike Kobe, but I'll gladly take the additional evidence.

    4. Shaq is one of my all-time favorites, maybe my favorite athlete not on one of my favorite teams. I like the Lakers growing up and then with Shaq, but once Kobe sent Shaq packing, that was it for me. I cheer for anybody against the Lakers now.

  16. Nice weekend in Chi-town. Then back to this mess.

    My own street looks like a war-zone, with fallen trees strewn akimbo. Yet we have power, unlike the majority of CT'ers.

  17. Prolly should be posting this under The Nation Reads or such...

    Man Booker Prize winning Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending was a good/quick read on the flight from MSP to BDL, yet was chillingly mysterious and compelling.

    I've never read a novel where the last two pages were so critical that I read them several times. Wow, and wow. Do not cheat and read ahead.

    1. I'm actually gonna produce a First Monday post for next week, so don't be afraid to bring the heat again.

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