99 thoughts on “October 26, 2017: George Springer Overdrive”

  1. I had to go to bed so I only saw the first 8 innings. Remind me how Pacific time gets screwed, again?

    1. Last thing I saw before going to bed at 11 it was 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth. Eastern Time definitely gets screwed.

    2. I was dosed up on cough syrup so I fell asleep about when the game was tied at 3. Then I managed to periodically wake up every time the Astros had a two run lead, thinking it would be the end of the game.

    3. I thought the game had pretty good pace until about the 7th inning then all the switch pitchers happened.

        1. With different consequences, sure. I would trade the last 3 innings of the game for the first 6, but YMMV.

    5. I recorded the game (because Reasons) and added an extra hour. Which expired with Kike at the plate in the 10th. Goddamn it!

  3. I got to see the end of a baseball game! Wooo!
    And a good one at that!

    Wife: "I thought you said this was almost over?" Also, she also has reservations about bat-licking.

            1. Anybody else here hate iPads? I could write a diatribe about institutionally-bestowed electronic devices.

                    1. We still employ coders who work in systems heavily dependent on COBOL and ColdFusion, and I’m almost positive there are still people using Fortran around here. I’m waiting for the day I run across somebody on campus still administering Banyan VINES or Cray machines.

                    2. I'm not speaking about languages here, I'm talking about platforms / OS's. To use an analogy, when I go to a museum, I want to casually walk through looking at exhibits and spending time where I like; in the Apple Museum, the tour guide has a firm grip on my arm and is dragging me where he thinks I should go.

                    3. I’m almost positive there are still people using Fortran around here. I’m waiting for the day I run across somebody on campus still administering Banyan VINES or Cray machines.

                      You rang? I'm rusty with the Fortran, but I do know it. I also take umbrage at your insinuation Crays are (only) old!

                    4. Not to be a pedant, but Banyan VINES & Cray were OSes.

                      Opinions will differ on the Macintosh and the future of personal computing it (accurately) predicted. I grew up using Apple ][s, PCs, and a Mac SE, then developed Windows NT networks and used Linux machines. When I get nostalgic for a command line, I can always open Terminal.

                    5. Long story, but when Steve Jobs killed the Newton he killed a good friend's software startup. I was doing freelance PR for them at the time, they were developing mobile apps for home inspectors and appraisers on the MP2000. They minimized the platform's flaws (crappy handwriting recognition) by doing everything with drop down menus, check boxes, and a tap keyboard. Hard to believe that was twenty years ago.

                    6. *adjust his pedant glasses*
                      The VINES yes, but "Cray" has never been the OS but the entire machine. The OS for what most people think of when hearing Cray is COS. Not long after that was UNICOS. Now it's boring Linux. I suppose "platform" could apply, but that's much less true the last decade too.

    1. Did George come back from the dead?

      I don't love Girardi, but WTF? Yankees have a ton of young, exciting talent. They arguably over-achieved this year.

      1. I actively dislike Girardi, but yeah... unless they think that they're going to develop better under a different manager (or unless they were REALLY pissed about Girardi not challenging that one play in the Cleveland series that they won, anyway), I don't know.

      2. I am Girardi agnostic, but this surprised me as well. I guess his contract was up, but I doubt they can find someone who would be a noticeable improvement on Girardi. Could be a clubhouse thing, I guess.

        1. Indeed. I read someplace where Cashman was quoted as saying he wanted the next manager to have "a feel for the clubhouse."

    1. I’d read reports that there was interest in Willis. Wasn’t he with Cleveland a few years ago? He was, serving as Eric Wedge’s pitching coach from 2003-2009.

      I suspect Falvey & Levine might have very specific ideas about what they’re looking for in the team’s top spot for pitcher development. Mike Maddux seems like a guy who’s been successful just about everywhere he’s worked, but perhaps the Twins want someone who has less cachet and might be more inclined to taking direction from the front office, given Falvey’s own background.

        1. Well, you can't accuse them of going for a big name or a retread, that's for sure. I had never heard of James Rowson before he became the Twins' batting coach, so I'll definitely defer to the front office on this, for now anyways.

        2. On the Twins website, his picture has him wearing a Diamondbacks hat and the bio says he's in his first year with the D'backs and mentions nothing of the Padres.

          1. His Wikipedia page says he was with the A's for a long time and the Diamondbacks for 2016 and part(?) of 2017. The A's hired him again this year. Guessing the tweeter mixed them up.

      2. Mike Maddux seems like a guy who’s been successful just about everywhere he’s worked

        And now taken by the Cardinals.

    1. Here's all AL firstbasemen with the two stats:

      Player DRS UZR
      Jose Abreu 0 1
      Yonder Alonso -9 -3
      Miguel Cabrera -8 3
      Chris Davis -6 0
      Yuli Gurriel -5 -5
      Eric Hosmer -7 -0
      Joe Mauer 7 7
      Mitch Moreland 10 4
      Logan Morrison 1 1
      Carlos Santana 8 5
      Justin Smoak 1 2
      Danny Valencia 1 -5

        1. I consider UZR's decimals to be false precision so I rounded them all. But Hosmer was at -0.3 so I wanted to emphasize he was in the wrong side of 0.

    2. Buxton is a finalist for CF:

      Also, Dozier is a finalist:

      I don't have a problem with Mauer not winning (based on the numbers, Moreland appears to be a good choice), but hard to argue he's not in the top three.

      2. I’d be curious to see whether great defensive players who slide down the defensive spectrum later in their careers are penalized for playing an easier position well by voters who might have the mindset that “Oh, he was elite until he couldn’t play catcher/shortstop/center field any more.”

        1. I would think that, too. But Darin Erstad won a gold glove at first after playing elite center. Though in his case he moved to accomodate the team's needs, not because he couldn't play center anymore.

        2. Or could be people tend to think of a player defensively as they first saw him not as he is currently. Most players don't improve much at the MLB level, so once you get labeled mediocre or worse, you won't get much GG love. Of course, when a player makes a defensive switch to a position he has rarely played that would be a rare case where he could improve, such as Mauer has. But I wonder if voters just remember him as he was a year or two ago when he was good but not great.

          1. You could very well be right, but it's not a defense for the voters. That would be like giving someone an MVP award because he was great the year before.

  10. I’m seeing a lot of “one of the greatest World Series games ever” hype thrown around today. Seems like a pretty bold claim for a slugfest, although I get that the drama of the back-and-forth was exciting. I guess that’s one measure of greatness. Maybe the cynic in me is wondering if the same claim would be made about a game involving the Diamondbacks & Astros.

    1. I'm sure being "the greatest" depends on if you like slugfests or pitching duels. I think it has to be penalized for being so early in the series, though.

      1. I can agree with this. Though I slept through most of it, that was a pretty good damn game. It gets extra points for all the outward walking on lawns of the players when things got crazy.

    3. Dodgers fans call the Gibson game "best ever" or at least one of them and it was the first game of the series and the game was quite boring until the final pitch.

  11. I’ve been very politically active since the election, and without wading into the forbidden zone too far I feel the need to rant a bit. I’ve had several mailing campaigns (both real and email) that have resulted in letters from my congressmen, however they seem to think I agree with positions I have clearly stated opposition to. This is maximally frustrating when it’s a hot button issue that directly affects my life. I know they’re not personally reading my correspondence, but their aids should do a better job sorting out which fucking form letter I get in response.

    3. This is not a mistake, meat, this is an intentional and subtle form of gaslighting, a strategic refusal to even acknowledge your dissenting position. Its objective is to politely dismiss you, it is a patronizing pat on the head of the misguided child they are setting straight.

        1. Current events suggest that arrogance married to incompetence is an even worse scenario, IMHO.

Comments are closed.