I've finally been watching some Simpsons again. I've still got most of it memorized, of course.
25 thoughts on “January 10, 2017: We’ve Argued Him Down to…a Booting”
And I've been playing stupid The Simpsons Tapped Out for 3½ years on my phone; I've got lots of favorite episodes and quotes through the years ("The United States of America has the best doctor-to-daredevil ratio in the world." Lance Murdoch). Just this week I pulled up two great scenes for Runner daughter that were apropos for the moment (Mr. Sparkle video, X-Files lie detector test). And of course there's the awesome Frinkiac.
I've never read it, but I definitely remember what a big deal the first Foxfire book was back in the early 1970s. NPR with an appreciation. Cool stuff.
I found a copy at Half-Priced Books and gifted it the EAR a few years back when she was showing interest in throwing it all away and living off the land or something. I think I've read more of it than she has, which is a bummer, because there were a half-dozen more.
And I remember what a big deal the Firefox movie was back in the early 1980s.
Naturally, Clint scored a role that combined those of Alec Baldwin’s & Sean Connery’s in The Hunt for Red October before the source material for that film was even published.
When I saw last night that René Rivera was signed by the Angels, I was caught a bit off-guard. I knew he’d been active last season, but had written him off as just about washed up. Perhaps because he’d not seen a major league pitch in four years when he found himself on the Twins’ active roster in 2011, I’d lumped him into the same group of glove-first journeymen as Henry Blanco and Jose Molina. I found myself surprised to learn that he’s actually younger than Joe Mauer (by two months or one “age” season, given where his birthday falls in the schedule).
While looking at Mauer’s b-ref page, I noticed that his agent is Ron Shapiro. (I might’ve known that at one point, but it struck me as new info.) You might recognize the name from a previous era in Twins baseball – he was Kirby Puckett’s agent. Other Shapiro clients include Cal Ripken, Jr., Jim Palmer, & Brooks Robinson. Given, it’s a different era in baseball and every player has their own priorities, but it struck me as a sign that Mauer’s perspective in his walk year might put greater emphasis on sticking around Minnesota if he can get a reasonable offer, and that he has an agent that understands those motivations. The Agency Database at MLB Trade Rumors only lists three other Shapiro clients (Brandon Erbe, Tim Stauffer, & Jake Westbrook), none of whom have been active recently. So perhaps Mauer is Shapiro’s (74) last client? If so, they might both be thinking about how they want to end their careers.
If Mauer has a horrible year this year I can see him retiring. But if he's about the same, yeah I see him trying to sign here. He's got young twins at home still and he just doesn't seem like the type of guy another team will want to sign for anything other than a super cheap one-year deal. League average first base/designated hitters are not that hard to find.
League average first base/designated hitters are not that hard to find.
On average.
on fWAR, Joe ranked 16th of 28 qualified 1bs (interestingly, Miggy Cabrera ranked 27th at -0.2; I had not realized just how awful he was in 2017) and 19th of 38 qualified 1bs or DHs. So, pretty much the median guy. That's different from the average guy, of course (the arithmetic mean was 1.98, fwiw; the medians were Joe at 2.3 and Eric Thames at 2.1, so the data was slightly skewed).
Dave Cameron’s final piece at Fangraphs. Thankfully, it’s not related to his leukemia diagnosis several years ago. Unfortunately, he’s not going to be writing anywhere anymore.
We’ll always have #6org.
27 seconds. I'm keeping mine in order to see #6org dies hard.
Continuing on him moving to the Padres, I had forgotten the Padres offered a large contract to Hosmer. With Cameron's pessimism about Hosmer, I wonder if that offer is still available or not.
If it isn’t, Hosmer made a huge mistake. I don’t understand the Friars’ interest in Hosmer. He’s not going to vault them into contention soon, and he’s not likely to be as capable a contributor by the time the team gets back to playoff caliber.
If the sign-a-utilityman-with-MLB-experience works out as well as it did with Adrianza, I like the move a lot. If not, at least it's a quality veteran for the Red Wings.
I did not realize Bill James has already been with Boston for so long.
That's a good memory. With all due respect to people named Jordan, it doesn't strike me as being as awesome a name as Adonis.
Jordan Pacheco did pretty well in his one year as a major league regular, batting .309/.341/.421. Unfortunately, that year was 2012 and it was with Colorado. He hasn't done much in the majors since, and really hasn't even done much in the minors since 2013. He has some position flexibility, as he catches, plays first, and plays third, although I don't know how well he plays any of them. He'll turn thirty-two at the end of the month. My guess is that he's AAA roster filler at best. Still, as I've said in numerous biographies, you've still got a chance as long as there's somebody who'll let you play.
This article about the China's emerging "Social Credit" system came across one of my feeds yesterday.
It's been less than two weeks since I watched the Black Mirror episode "Nosedive" (S3E1).
So the episode's not really forward-looking, just applying what's currently happening in China to an Anglo-American setting and tweaking it for comical effect.
Wolves & Thunder at the half: 47-47. What? ...you fellas can’t drop 69 in the first half against perennial contenders every time!?!
This team is really frickin fun right now.
There's something absolutely hilarious about Aldrich immediately rolling his ankle when he finally gets in. He's gritting it out, but he sure looks uncomfortable limping around.
That's more hilarious if you recall the Cleveland game where he got up to come in with, like, 2.5 minutes left, but stood there for the rest of the game because there weren't any stoppages.
He tried to check in about the 5 minute mark that game. I loved the point with about 1 minute left when he realized that he wasn't getting in and dejectedly walked back to the bench. Yes, that was in my mind as I was laughing at him.
Lou Freaking Williams. 50 tonight, sealed on a thirty footer. Big win at Oracle (no Blake, but also no Steph and no Klay).
And I've been playing stupid The Simpsons Tapped Out for 3½ years on my phone; I've got lots of favorite episodes and quotes through the years ("The United States of America has the best doctor-to-daredevil ratio in the world." Lance Murdoch). Just this week I pulled up two great scenes for Runner daughter that were apropos for the moment (Mr. Sparkle video, X-Files lie detector test). And of course there's the awesome Frinkiac.
I've never read it, but I definitely remember what a big deal the first Foxfire book was back in the early 1970s. NPR with an appreciation. Cool stuff.
I found a copy at Half-Priced Books and gifted it the EAR a few years back when she was showing interest in throwing it all away and living off the land or something. I think I've read more of it than she has, which is a bummer, because there were a half-dozen more.
And I remember what a big deal the Firefox movie was back in the early 1980s.
Naturally, Clint scored a role that combined those of Alec Baldwin’s & Sean Connery’s in The Hunt for Red October before the source material for that film was even published.
When I saw last night that René Rivera was signed by the Angels, I was caught a bit off-guard. I knew he’d been active last season, but had written him off as just about washed up. Perhaps because he’d not seen a major league pitch in four years when he found himself on the Twins’ active roster in 2011, I’d lumped him into the same group of glove-first journeymen as Henry Blanco and Jose Molina. I found myself surprised to learn that he’s actually younger than Joe Mauer (by two months or one “age” season, given where his birthday falls in the schedule).
While looking at Mauer’s b-ref page, I noticed that his agent is Ron Shapiro. (I might’ve known that at one point, but it struck me as new info.) You might recognize the name from a previous era in Twins baseball – he was Kirby Puckett’s agent. Other Shapiro clients include Cal Ripken, Jr., Jim Palmer, & Brooks Robinson. Given, it’s a different era in baseball and every player has their own priorities, but it struck me as a sign that Mauer’s perspective in his walk year might put greater emphasis on sticking around Minnesota if he can get a reasonable offer, and that he has an agent that understands those motivations. The Agency Database at MLB Trade Rumors only lists three other Shapiro clients (Brandon Erbe, Tim Stauffer, & Jake Westbrook), none of whom have been active recently. So perhaps Mauer is Shapiro’s (74) last client? If so, they might both be thinking about how they want to end their careers.
If Mauer has a horrible year this year I can see him retiring. But if he's about the same, yeah I see him trying to sign here. He's got young twins at home still and he just doesn't seem like the type of guy another team will want to sign for anything other than a super cheap one-year deal. League average first base/designated hitters are not that hard to find.
On average.
on fWAR, Joe ranked 16th of 28 qualified 1bs (interestingly, Miggy Cabrera ranked 27th at -0.2; I had not realized just how awful he was in 2017) and 19th of 38 qualified 1bs or DHs. So, pretty much the median guy. That's different from the average guy, of course (the arithmetic mean was 1.98, fwiw; the medians were Joe at 2.3 and Eric Thames at 2.1, so the data was slightly skewed).
Dave Cameron’s final piece at Fangraphs. Thankfully, it’s not related to his leukemia diagnosis several years ago. Unfortunately, he’s not going to be writing anywhere anymore.
We’ll always have #6org.
27 seconds. I'm keeping mine in order to see #6org dies hard.
Continuing on him moving to the Padres, I had forgotten the Padres offered a large contract to Hosmer. With Cameron's pessimism about Hosmer, I wonder if that offer is still available or not.
If it isn’t, Hosmer made a huge mistake. I don’t understand the Friars’ interest in Hosmer. He’s not going to vault them into contention soon, and he’s not likely to be as capable a contributor by the time the team gets back to playoff caliber.
Dave Cameron decides to see how hard it is to build a #6org with the Padres.
Gerrit Cole to the Astros...this mean they're out of the Darvish mix?
Also not going to the Astros. So, very, very close to being done and someone leaked a bit too early.
A nugget* and an 'explanation'.
If the sign-a-utilityman-with-MLB-experience works out as well as it did with Adrianza, I like the move a lot. If not, at least it's a quality veteran for the Red Wings.
I did not realize Bill James has already been with Boston for so long.
*Padre - would you take a Jordan Pacheco?
That's a good memory. With all due respect to people named Jordan, it doesn't strike me as being as awesome a name as Adonis.
Jordan Pacheco did pretty well in his one year as a major league regular, batting .309/.341/.421. Unfortunately, that year was 2012 and it was with Colorado. He hasn't done much in the majors since, and really hasn't even done much in the minors since 2013. He has some position flexibility, as he catches, plays first, and plays third, although I don't know how well he plays any of them. He'll turn thirty-two at the end of the month. My guess is that he's AAA roster filler at best. Still, as I've said in numerous biographies, you've still got a chance as long as there's somebody who'll let you play.
This article about the China's emerging "Social Credit" system came across one of my feeds yesterday.
It's been less than two weeks since I watched the Black Mirror episode "Nosedive" (S3E1).
Wolves & Thunder at the half: 47-47. What? ...you fellas can’t drop 69 in the first half against perennial contenders every time!?!
This team is really frickin fun right now.
There's something absolutely hilarious about Aldrich immediately rolling his ankle when he finally gets in. He's gritting it out, but he sure looks uncomfortable limping around.
That's more hilarious if you recall the Cleveland game where he got up to come in with, like, 2.5 minutes left, but stood there for the rest of the game because there weren't any stoppages.
He tried to check in about the 5 minute mark that game. I loved the point with about 1 minute left when he realized that he wasn't getting in and dejectedly walked back to the bench. Yes, that was in my mind as I was laughing at him.
Lou Freaking Williams. 50 tonight, sealed on a thirty footer. Big win at Oracle (no Blake, but also no Steph and no Klay).
Kerr joked before the game that Lou might get 50.