Edgy MD

Maybe if he does poorly he can void his contract with moral turpitude again.

I don't quite get close analysis of batting average on balls in play for hitters. I mean, yeah, any time a guy is widely divergent from his career norms, that increases the likelihood of a regression to the mean, but no more with any other stat --- batting average, slugging, walking, striking out. The notion to pay more attention to batting average on balls in play was conceived to better analyze pitchers, for whom the stat is much more volatile.

They have this hot prospect at Lehigh Valley named Ryan Howard. They say he's not quite ready for a callup.

No, but the Hefs are expecting one.

Come one. Really? You read judgment there?

Happy birthday to Sara Grace Hefner.

I think folks need to raise each other's game. Somebody shows up at the park with just a hat, ask where his jersey is. If you see someone with a jersey, but wearing it open as some sort of jacket, roll your eyes a little, and maybe give a disappointed snort. Got the jersey and hat? Good! But ask your fellow fan where his pants are if he's so hardcore. And glove, and stirrups, and spikes. We've got to have the highest standards. When folks finally start coming out to Citi Field appearing as if they're ready to play, it's up to you to study their thighs for the telltale imprint of the hem of their sliding pants under their uniform pants. I mean what kind of show are we trying to put on here? We've got to represent. And we need to do impromptu cup checks. I volunteer Lefty Specialist for that.

Vin Scully observed.

How did you spend your Mets day off? Cameron Maybin spent his this way.. Helped the Padres beat the Diamondbacks, 6-2. In games with more local signif: the Cubs beat the Braves, 4-1 (yay!), the Brews beat the Marlins, 6-5 (yay!). A buncha teams with wild card hopes beat a buncha other teams with wild card hopes, so it's kinda hard to sort out a rooting interest in that regard. Cincinnati returned to the league-wide business of sinking the S.S. Dodger.

Is this the same as Moonrise Kingdom?

Awesome snit fight going on between Tony LaRussa and Dusty Baker over snubs to Brandon Phillips and Johnny Cueto. Cueto fired off the big shell, though. �I thought the way I pitched this year, I�d have a chance to go to the All-Star Game. I don�t know what happened. I don�t know if the manager of All-Star Game is (ticked) at me because I went out with one of his girlfriends.� Fwhat?! Did a hockey game just break out?

More important is going to be the big Schaefer announcement.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Chad Qualls DFA'ed. Been struggling recently ... Chad Qualls, welcome to the Yankees. PtBNL or cash.

I would submit that, to the extent that the "boring exhibition" label is fair, the counterproductive voting system is a big part of what makes it so.

I'm sure their computer skills and baseball knowledge are comparable to or better than most cities (it's northern Cal, for Pete's sake). They're not the issue. The issue is a system designed to fail at what it's allegedly supposed to do.

Bobby Scales went to Japan. I imagine the Mets received modest compensation. He'd have been exposed also before being farmed out, so there's that, so the logjam really begged to be cleared up with a trade --- or, barring that, exposing one of the middle infielders, indeed like Turner. Turner, meanwhile, has appeared in eight games this season as a firstbaseman, going .160 / .192 /.160 // .352 in 26 plate appearances. What really grinds my bones about it all, as I tried to say in the other thread, is that he's getting the call for psychological reasons, and not strategic ones. Meanwhile, he's fielding .975 at the allegedly easiest position on the diamond. The only players with more than two games at first who have done worse are Jim Thome (Phi) at .974 over four games and Laynce Nix (also Phi) at .974 over 10 games.) He had no experience at first at the big-league level before this and only one game in the minors, but fucking managers always believe their middle infield reserves can play anywhere, and that any fool can play first. Ask Jerry Manuel how Jeremy Reed played first. What's more is my completely speculative belief that sticking crappy choices into your lineup is demoralizing to the less crappy choices, and gets them to feel crappy and play crappy. I ever tell you about Maria O'Sullivan's wedding? Lemme tell you about Maria O'Sullivan's wedding. Maria was a beauty. Her dad was a tough-assed Irish cop --- the toughest-assed, really. My dad had about 60 pounds and half a foot on him, but even though they both boxed, my dad refused to spar with him. And my Dad was tough. Her mom was a Cuban beauty queen about five inches taller than him, as funny as she was pretty. Is now a seniors tennis champion. Maria was lovely and sunny and open-hearted and free-spirited and her friends were lovely and sunny and open-hearted and free spirited. The sort of women that sun dresses were made to adorn. When Maria got married, what a wedding it was going to be. At the reception, most of my family ended up at the same table. Lacking room to fit us all, they bumped my brother and I to the next table. Handsome and rugged young bachelors in our mid-twenties that we were, we were cool to be separated from the social anchor that our family represented --- until our table companions began joining us ---- all 12-16 year-olds. Motherfuck it, but Maria had put us at the kids' table. That's what she thought of us. And you know, picking through my beet salad, I began to think a little less of myself as well. I did not dance much that evening lovely and sunny and open-hearted and free spirited women in sun dresses, but I played a lot of Mad-Libs. And not particularly well. What I'm saying is that last night's performance by the Mets was the baseball equivalent of a poorly executed round of Mad-Libs from a buncha ballplayers who found themselves at the lineup equivalent of the children's table.. Oh, and I voted for Pascucci, although I think he's been through a lot of demoralizing shit in his career, too. His whole life has been at the children's table, hasn't it?

I'm telling you --- bullshit lineup choices undermine the team and lead to bullshit play. I can prove it. (All I need is that McArthur Genius Grant to come through.)

Nothing good happens Sunday nights on ESPN. Nothing.

Oh, mercy.

Ronald Bellisario up in the Dodger pen. An relation to the guy who produced Magnum, PI?

Vinny come back Any kind of fool could see Sandy was wrong And he just can't live without you

bmfc1 wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Zvon wrote: Fuckin in between hops. But that's no excuse Turner. I told you people. I TOLD you. Gah! Nobody ever listens. GAH! See my comment on page 1. I heard you. It's all psychological, you know. A highly disproportionate number of big league managers come from the ranks of second-string infielders, and so they have a personal interest in using their position to demonstrate the utility of second-strong infielders, and so feel better about their own careers.

I think Gee needs a rescue here.

Zvon wrote: Fuckin in between hops. But that's no excuse Turner. I told you people. I TOLD you. Gah! Nobody ever listens.

That had to be one of Wright's cheaper trips around the bases.