118 thoughts on “May 19, 2016: Moving Sucks”

  2. I've noticed there are threads here and elsewhere that are getting angry about the Twins' front office moves. And threads getting angry about the writing about the Twins' front office moves. The past couple weeks I'd become engaged in the frustration. Then yesterday I stepped back and remembered my pledge from over a year ago when Torii was signed: I'm not going to care so much about baseball. When it's _happily_ entertaining, I'll pay some attention. At this point I will step back to other things.

    Thankfully my fantasy baseball team is atrocious this year as well. Here's to the summer of family, friends, outdoors, patios, and movies!

    1. I care as much as ever about baseball, but the best epiphany I've had in the last few years is not caring what other people think about baseball.

      1. Yep. I've been pounding this drum like a dead horse for years, but your baseball, and really sport in general, consumption is much enhanced by not engaging in anything from the sports media.

        1. Spooky would have taken your advice, but he doesn't care what other people think about baseball.

        2. The exceptions that prove the rule are often national writers who don't often write about the day-to-day. My baseball experience has been enriched by JoePos, for example.

          1. True. I've also enjoyed some of the other national writers on SportsOnEarth (which I only really read when Pos was there; I doubt many of those writers are still there).
            I remember liking Passan years ago (though young, good, writers and often turn into older clichéd writers; I haven't read something from him in a long time).

            1. Jay Jaffe. Trueblood. Jeff Sullivan. And, actually, a fair amount of stuff at The Hardball Times.

              I should look to see if Dave Studeman or Steve Treder are writing anywhere...

                2. I usually do. Sometimes he goes out of his way, preemptively trashing his own readers with moralizing about life and baseball. He's a good serious writer when his focus isnt jerks in the comment section.

                  1. To be fair, based on the comment section there are a lot of really terrible people that read his articles.

    2. My son is starting to get very into "following" the Twins (for about 10 minutes at a time). He doesn't actually care so much about them winning or losing, but he likes discussing the score, and then when it changes, discussing that. He thought it was cheating that the Tigers kept scoring 2 runs at a time the other day. And he likes watching individual plays.

      It's actually been a lot of fun to talk baseball with him, and be agnostic about the wins/loses, and just enjoy the game. That's why I want the young guys up so much - to introduce them to my son, and let him get to know them, and see them make some really spectacular plays from time to time, even if they're failing more of the time.

      1. The Valet keeps wanting to watch "bee-ball" at home which is a) difficult in the morning and b) strange because I don't unusually turn the Twins on until after he's asleep. He did make it through nine innings at Target Field a few weeks ago

    3. I think it's possible to be passionate about the Twins and also not get enraged about the befuddling moves. When they do bewildering things, I'll torch them on it. But I don't let it consume me. I don't think it's possible to enjoy the highs unless you're invested and that includes experiencing the lows. The Lynx have won the championship three times and yet, I felt more excitement about the Twins winning game 163 in 2009 than all of those championships combined.

      1. I'm in the same boat - while I will write/talk about the front office, it doesn't consume me or impact my general mood at all. It is a way to pass time and think about something other than work, bills, my kid's schedules, chores, or any of the other important things in life.

      2. I'm pretty close to this. These days for me, looking at the Twins' moves is more of an academic exercise than anything else. I think they've gotten themselves in a bad position and I think it's somewhat interesting to look at how they got there. But if Terry Ryan is still the GM next year, then that's just the next chapter of the story that I never had a say in in the first place.

    4. I'm standing by my pledge to not root for the Twins until a new front office is in place. What that means on a practical level is maintaining familiarity with what's happening with the team, but not making any new emotional investment by watching bad games played by a ever-shifting roster composed by people committed to an obsolete paradigm.

      Like Beau, I can enjoy stories about baseball written by real sportswriters that transcend the endless punditry of the sports mediots. And I can observe what other teams are doing to improve and chart new plots to a success over a season that's the equivalent to Russian novel instead of a Twitter feed.

    5. "Not caring" is simply not an option for me. I don't think I could do it if I tried. I grew up with the Twins. I've rooted for them ever since I can remember. I rooted for them through the 70s,I rooted for them through the early 80s,I rooted for them through the late 90s. I'll root for them through this, too.

      1. I still care, but my passion level is way lower than a decade ago and I frequently find much better things to do. I've stopped getting to worked up about the little things like the last man on the roster (although a team never needs 13 pitchers!), but instead only get annoyed at the macro things like being shocked that your pitching staff struggles pitching in front of one outfielder and six infielders.

        1. Personally, I refuse to accept the necessity of 12 pitchers, even though many (nearly all?) teams have gone this route.

          At this point, I think it must be a perception/emotional thing. Pitchers are more likely to get outs than hitters are to get a hit. So if you put in a different relief pitcher and he gets an out, that feels better than when you put in a pinch hitter and he fails to get a hit. Therefore, having more relief pitchers and making more pitching changes makes you feel better than using pinch hitters or defensive replacements.

              1. this is what I don't understand. Is the pressure to win really not great enough to drive teams that don't make the playoffs to innovate/test convention? One would think that in the long run, any real systemic inefficiency in roster construction would be exposed and competed away.

                the fact that carrying 12 pitchers has become ubiquitous despite some sabermetric claims of inefficiency suggests to me that the inefficiency is in fact quite small, or at least drowned out by statistical noise.

                1. The thing is, it takes a lot of courage to do things differently from the way everyone else does them. It also takes a lot of support from upper management. If you try something different and it doesn't work, people will very quickly assume you're an idiot and don't know what you're doing. And even if you succeed, you're still always suspect. There are a lot of people who still think Joe Maddon doesn't know what he's doing, and has just gotten lucky. There are a lot of people who are still critical of Billy Beane, too.

                  The pressure to conform, to do things the same way everyone else does them, is huge in all walks of life. I suspect that's especially true in baseball.

                  1. Remember how much the Red Sox were ridiculed for their closer by committee approach, especially after it got off to a rough start?

                2. Well, look at punting on fourth and one in the "maroon zone". It's been almost definitively proven to be a bad idea, one that often loses football games, but it still happens just about every time.

                  I realize that's the wrong sport, and is game management, as opposed to roster construction, but it takes a lot to go against popular strategies, both in game theory and in roster construction. The GMs are trying to keep their job (or audition for a new one), too.

                  1. Chip Kelly would seem to be a good example of someone who tried to do things differently and got fired the first time he had a down season.

                  2. The silly thing is that I think most players would prefer to go for it on 4th and 1. In baseball you have players fighting back against stuff that isn't traditional, like closer mentality.

                    1. They prefer to go for it on 4th and 1 right up until it doesn't work a couple of times. They they say, "What's wrong with our coach that we keep going for it on fourth down?"

                3. I mean, the difference in that 25th man being a pitcher or a position player isn't the difference between first and last.

                  I think the problem is that the difference in effect size is small enough that it tends to get overwhelmed by the noise of all the other things that can happen. So some seasons it might look like a bad move because other things went against you and you blame it on the new strategy because that's what you changed. I think in these cases a lot of decisions are made based on what feels good and CYA considerations.

                  But it's not like baseball guys don't believe in other influences in the game that are too small to measure accurately. E.g. "protection", "clutch", lineup questions in general, etc.

                  I don't think I'd bring up the 12 pitchers thing as much except for (and I absolutely don't have data for this) it seems to lead to lots of 1- and 2-out appearances for pitchers, which leads to more pitchers throwing for 2, 3, 4+ days in a row, which seems to be worse for pitcher health.

                  1. I think the problem is that the difference in effect size is small enough that it tends to get overwhelmed by the noise of all the other things that can happen

                    I suspect that this is the right answer. There is so much noise in the system that non-optimal organizational strategies can persist, and even be sustained as cultural norms, particularly when the deviation from the optimum is pretty small.

                    Of course, that also means that testing the optimality of strategies is pretty damned hard.

                    1. For sure. It's almost like you need to wait for a lot of small inefficiencies to come into existence. Then you take over, say, a terrible minor league team and espouse a new "philosophy" of how you're going to play, and because it's easier to get buy-in from a terrible team than a good team, you get buy-in on your new philosophy and if there are enough small inefficiencies, then maybe you can make a big difference. Then you hopefully come up to the majors with some of those same players that you got to buy in while they were in the minors and you destromenate the competition.

          2. Right. Also, there is a pinch-hitter penalty, which doesn't help things either.

            It's easier to find a middling pitcher who can crank it up to 96 and get a couple strikeouts in one inning than it is to find a great defensive player who can sort of hit well enough to cover for your pitcher that puts the ball in play. Except there aren't enough of those pitchers.

            1. I also kind of feel like the general trend of AL teams beating NL teams (AL has a .527 record overall, has beaten the NL 15 of 19 seasons including the last) shows that there is something to including hitting specialists on your rosters even when you don't have the DH and can only use that hitter to pinch hit.

              It's like no one will ever replicate something like Bobby Kielty's 2002, when he came in off the bench in 39 games and hit .326/.375/.698 in those games. (Only about half of those PA were strictly pinch-hitting appearances.)

        2. I still care, but my passion level is way lower than a decade ago and I frequently find much better things to do.

          Life happens!

          1. And that's true of me, too. My life is much more full than it used to be. I rarely watch more than an inning or two. If I'm in the office or in the car, I will listen to the game on the radio, but quite often there it's just bits and pieces. I still spend much more time on baseball than the average person, but it's not as much as it used to be.

      2. "Not caring" is simply not an option for me.
        I got there real quickly with the Vikings and NFL.

  3. So the new fridge will be delivered later today, and we can be done with the series of ice-filled coolers we've been using since Tuesday. Good thing we were able to go refrigerator shopping on Tuesday night, because I spent last night treating both boys for head lice and doing laundry. (Seems to have been caught early, thank goodness.) And good thing that was last night, because tonight is going to be all about packing so that tomorrow we can head down to Iowa for my father-in-law's funeral.

    I was feeling a wee bit stressed this morning, but I had some green tea and am doing better. After all, on the VEI, this week probably doesn't rank much higher than a 3.

      1. Definitely Peléan. (Which I've just learned is also known as Nuée Ardente. Fiery cloud!)

    2. Well, that sounds cruddy. Maybe our lack of running into each other is good just to keep the lice away.

      Some Thursday morning, you may run into CER and I together. She's seeing my orthodontist.
      Most mornings we'll probably go straight to his office rather than spend an hour at mine first.

      In a year or so, I may schedule an appointment she'll have to ride the bus to in the afternoon, and I'll get a ride home with her.

      1. Well, that sounds cruddy.

        I believe lousy is the word you're looking for. 😉

        My schedule has been wonky for the last couple weeks, and new road construction has been messing the timing of my commute this week. But if I do run into you and CER, am I to interact with you? I have something for you, but I wouldn't want to raise any adolescent eyebrows.

          1. Why didn't I think of this? This is the best one ever. Well done, Corn. Well done.

        3. 1. She has met you.
          2. She should learn how to play spies before she gets too old.

    2. I'm trying to imagine how I would write if my brain functioned this way. I'm in the middle of writing a multi-thousand word poem detailing a drive that I last made over a decade ago. Google Earth & Street View has helped fill out details, but I can still see most of the entire drive in my mind.

    3. When I really get into reading a book, it's not like I'm reading but I'm watching a video of the events happening in my mind. I can't imagine not being able to do that. I certainly wouldn't enjoy reading nearly as much.

    4. "It's like trying to teach your dog to sit using nothing but a bowl of strawberries."
      Dancing about architecture?

    5. So, would every time you heard a song kind of be like the first time you ever heard that song? In a way, that would be kind of awesome, like being a kid forever. But it seems like it would almost be impossible to even have favorite songs without keeping some kind of journal.

      1. It doesn't sound like that's entirely the way it works. I think the person would remember aspects of the song, like it was long, it had three parts, there is a lot of bass guitar, the middle section was particularly sad, it ended with a rousing flourish...just couldn't remember exactly how the song went. It would make for some interesting listening, though; "Oh, that's why it's one of my favorites."

  6. CER was talking about if they ever made a sequel to Frozen, what would it be called?
    [I'm dropping formatting from here out...]
    Frozen 2 (lame)
    Melted, Thawed, Burnt (etc.)

    Then I started making some jokes she didn't get:
    Frozen 2: the Legend of Curly's Gold
    Frozen 2: Electric Boogaloo
    Frozen Part Deux
    The Ice Queen Strikes Back
    Frozen 2 1/2

    I failed to have a better list of sequel subtitles. Help?

    2. Always go to the standards: SW and Pink Panther , and Frankenstein for the fallback:
      Frozen Strikes Back
      The Return of Frozen
      The Bride of Frozen
      The Revenge of Frozen
      Frozen Returns
      and, of course
      Frozen Down Under

      1. Frozen Down Under

        That sounds completely inappropriate for a children's movie

    3. Frozen 2: Back in the Habit

      My favorite subtitles are from the direct-to-video sequels to The Substitute.

      Frozen 2: School's Out
      Frozen 3: Winner Takes All
      Frozen: Failure is Not an Option

    7. Frozen 2: Lost in New York
      Frozen 2: Cruise Control
      Freeze Another Day
      Freeze Harder
      Frozen 2: A Dame To Kill For

          1. Followed up with Frozen: Beyond the Thunderdome

            So, I can't get my head around that guy's C.V.

  7. On Sunday while NBBW was doing the Half Marathon in Mystic, CT, some buddies and I toured the Mystic river and harbor in kayaks. Neat city views from the water, marinas, big ships, etc. Also saw several osprey, geese, ducks, grebes, cormorants, and a loon.

    On Wednesday, we went out again after work kayaking on the Farmington river, and saw two Baltimore orioles, a scarlet tanager, green heron, kingbird, shorebirds, skimmers, ducks. There was another bird that I couldn't identify - medium-to-large sized bird with thin wings, thin tail that flew about 40 yds above the river flying very erratically, almost bat-like, hunting insects - any thoughts?

        1. That's right, I'm wrong. My answer is now "Probably bird, could be a bat. If it was a bat, it'd be a big one."

          1. I first told my buddy it looked like a large bat, but he said bats don't have tails...

              1. Me, too. Our fraternity house had/has bats in the walls and they'd get in on occasion. Most of us slept with racquetball rackets by our beds.

        2. Bird knows what it needs to work on. Proper gliding technique. Aerial maneuvers. Bunting. These are fundamentals of being a bird.

          Bird will be back. Trust me.

            1. Caught a fairly-tame* pigeon in my varmint trap today. The bird is white with some red splotches and a zip tie-like band on one leg.

              It was around yesterday but flew away when I got too close (~16"). Figured, "Darn, but what the heck would I do with a pigeon?"

              On a whim, I put out the cage and piled a bit of bird seed on the ground underneath. Get home from work today and there it sits. The thing didn't weigh enough to set the trap off, but I gently lowered the door and gave it some seed and water.

              Now I'm thinking, "What the heck do I do with a pigeon?"

              *gotta be a pet, right?

              1. with a zip-tie band, it probably belongs to someone.
                "Pet" might be stretching it though.

                  1. Name him George. Hug him and pet him and squeeze him and pet him and rub him.
                    Stroke his bill and rub his pretty feathers.

              2. Racing/homing pigeon. You can google the numbers on the leg band and it should give you a number you can call for the racing organization who can contact the owner.

                Seriously.

    2. I saw a weird bird! I think...

      While jogging yesterday, I saw a mediumish bird (robin sized?). At first, I thought it was a cardinal, but it was a really intense shade of red. Then I saw that the body was red, but the wings were black. With my extraordinary birding abilities, I was able to surmise that... I don't think I've seen that bird before.

        1. Fun with avian taxonomy!
          The North American "Piranga Tanagers" (Scarlet, Summer, Western, Hepatic*) are actually in the Cardinal family (which also includes the blue buntings and some grosbeaks; the other grosbeaks are in the Finch family).
          Meanwhile, the South American "Paroaria Cardinals" (some introduced in Hawaii) are actually in the Tanager family.

          South America does have at least one true Cardinal though: the Vermillion Cardinal of Coastal Venezuela, plus other members of the family.
          North America (Ornithologically speaking: north of Mexico) doesn't have any true Tanagers, though a few vagrants may cross the Rio Grande or Florida Strait from time to time.

    1. That was my guess. We used to have those flying around the high school basebll field once the lights came on.

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