Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Jon's other site:
Screen Jam
TV and more ...
1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
Amid my nearly lifelong fascination with pitchers trying to play the field and fielders trying to pitch, Baseball Think Factory led me to these two articles: one by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Rick Ankiel, the former pitching prodigy trying to forge a second career as an outfielder ...
How much of a future Ankiel has as an everyday outfielder could crystallize in the coming weeks. At two levels last summer, he hit 21 home runs with 75 RBIs in 85 games. He caught eyes. He evolved from experiment to curiosity to, although 26, prospect. When a club official was asked to ascertain what Ankiel's status would be if he saw the numbers produced, his age, his position, but not the name, he said: "Prospect. Definitely a prospect."
... the other by George Vondracek of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times (your vice-presidential gunfire headquarters) on Brooks Kieschnick, who actually succeeded in the double role for a season or two, depending on how generous you are.
He finishes his six-year stint in the majors with a .248 batting average, 16 home runs and 46 RBI. In 74 appearances over two seasons as a pitcher, Kieschnick posted a 2-2 record with a 4.59 earned-run average, 67 strikeouts and 26 walks in 96 innings.
Maybe major league baseball is just too tough a game, but I really lament that teams can't find more pitchers who can hit on their days off. Ankiel's on-base percentage in AA last season was .295, so he's going to have to come on strong and fast to make it to the bigs as a hitter. In the Dodger organization, Ankiel probably would fall behind Joel Guzman, Delwyn Young, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Justin Ruggiano and perhaps Cody Ross as well.
* * *
Thank goodness for reruns - otherwise the cliché of a team like the 2005 Dodgers looking like a MASH (or M*A*S*H) unit might soon be gone forever.
* * *
In a dream last night, the Dodgers signed Neifi Perez and I was in a quagmire of writing about it for Dodger Thoughts. Many of my nighttime dreams are about going far down the road on or toward something but not being able to finish or arrive. None has ever been about Neifi Perez.
* * *
Good news: first baseman Jon Weisman is back for his junior year at Wayne State. Weisman OPSed .969 with a team-high nine home runs last season. He also had a 4.0 grade-point average last semester.
Most lose at it anyway
The final out I'll someday make
So that is something we have to take ...
But two-way stars are painless
They brings on endless changes
And I wish I could see it if I pleased.
http://www.neweracap.com/eshop3/
2006-world-baseball-classic-landing.cfm
I think I'll pick up a Canada hat. I'm going to become a Canadian citizen if '08 goes as '04.(*)
(*)Politcial commentary.
One of my brothers complained about it during the dream.
I do dig the China hat. It's got that whole hammer-and-sickle feel. The Olympics needs more of that. Enough of this feel-good stuff, let's get some USA v. USSR going. The Us v. Them is what the world go 'round. Even the arcade table hockey game would boo when the Soviets scored....
He crushed the ball.
You've done it, Jon. After years of skilled and careful writing, you've coined a phrase. I thank you for your correction in 4 - I thought I'd run across a metaphor I hadn't heard before - but now I see that it was merely accidental genius.
So, to enter it into Wikipedia, we'll need to define the parameters of "burnishing one's cat." With all due respect, this turn of phrase seems bigger even than Bob T - it should probably be defined in more general terms than "embarking upon a Timmermannian (Timmermannic?) song parody." And, of course, in sticking with the G-rating of the site, it'll have to be something that won't offend the APSCA. I'll open it to the floor.
As soon as it's defined, I'll work on burnishing my own cat.
Like I said, if Ankiel can come on fast, great. But he's still got a ton to prove.
A few years ago a group of my friends were watching TV and happened on an old tv star doing an infomercial for woks. After that, "He's selling woks" became a euphemism for a washed-up actor in my circle.
Um, ASPCA.
Hartman's Law of Prescriptivist Retaliation states that any article or statement about correct grammar, punctuation, or spelling is bound to contain at least one error.
http://tinyurl.com/8xvz6
I assumed that was a mistake and corrected it when I typed it. Shoulda recognized the implicit irony.
Unless, perhaps, Jake Gyllenhaal's character was considering a career as a florist.
#1. DePo knew the value of acquiring young cheap position players entering their prime (Antonio Perez, Jayson Werth, Milton Bradley, Hee Seop Choi).---->>>> I've only seen Colletti acquire Seo in this fashion. There's alot more upside to DePo's pickups, than with Colletti's. Every team with a normal needs cheap, effective, young position players in order to be able to afford the higher priced stars.
#2. DePo also seemed comfortable with giving young players a shot. Colletti has gone with vets past their primes (Nomar over Choi, Mueller over Aybar, Lofton over Bradley, Tomko over Billingsley)...
#3. At the beginning of the off-season it seemed they were similar, but as time has passed the Tomko, Nomar, and EJ/Tiff deals were enough to see a pretty pronounced difference in my opinion. DePo was all about bringing in cheap value guys, and using the saved cash to acquire legit stars. Colletti just seems content with having a roster full of middle priced guys, but whom dont make alot of difference.
My imagination runs WILD.
http://fenglish.wordpress.com/
This site is called "I am Chinese. Correct My English." A Chinese student at Cambridge University blogs about idiomatic expressions he hears and what he thinks they mean, and the commenters try to help him refine his understanding of them. Obviously, the feedback he gets helps the blogger, but it also gives native English speakers a fresh angle on the oddness of our language and expressions.
Meanwhile, I'm getting my cat together and taking it on the road....
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