You should have been MVP because you had a better season Albert, that is the argument to make. I do not like the fact he felt compelled to complain to the media about this.

But not the average fan, who may not notice it right off the bat

Whatever the LA Area media said or wrote about him will be much tamer than anything that the good folks of the Hub come up with.

I can understand Matthews POV here, however. In anything you do, you judge yourself and expect to be judged on "what have you done for me lately?" Well, just lately, Gary Matthews Jr. has been a fine player. So I'm sure he found it weird that people would bring up his career batting average and OBP as if those numbers represented some kind of limit, the mean to which he will inevitably regress.

Matthews surely thinks, "Hey, I finally figured out how to hit. You're telling me I can't repeat 2006 or even get better?" Just because ballplayers know their stats doesn't make them statisticians. Their agents might know the age at which most players peak, but they don't mention it to their clients. Matthews sees no reason why the Angel fans won't fall in love with his production. Nor should he. It's the Angels' problem, not his.

"I try to walk," he said. "I guess it's that pitchers realize if they walk me, there's a chance I'll get on second or third. ... I never swing when it's 2-0 or 3-1. It's one of those things. Some guys can walk. I think I could get a little better at taking that pitch right off the plate. I may be a little (too) aggressive with that. But I don't want to take my aggressiveness away to where it'll affect my hitting."

Not my complaint but a complaint that was reported throughout last year.

I'm willing to give Juan (who needs a nickname*, by the way) Pierre some benefit of the doubt on his lack of walks, though not because pitchers realize he'll get on second or third, as he believes. Pitchers don't walk Pierre because they know there's virtually no chance of him hitting the ball a long way. Worst case scenario is he hits a single, after which there's a pretty good chance he gets caught stealing anyway.

It may be true that pitchers throw him a lot of strikes, which makes it hard for him to draw walks. But the strikes are not thrown out of respect for his speed, but rather a lack of respect for his power.

*I toyed with "Juan 'In play, out(s) recorded' Pierre", but didn't think it was very catchy. The acronym (JIPORP) wasn't particularly catchy either, though it's not horrible

JSP

it seems like paying 5 dollars per article is uh, quite a bit expensive.

The New York Times has gotten better over the past few years. The average reader may not notice it right off the bat, but it's been a steady progression.

I just need two articles :)

It's not that big a deal - just thought it was interesting.

http://www.citizenlunchbox.com/famous/critters-S-Z.html

Juan Pierre = Pierre Juan = Pier One = Overpriced imports...?

Saint is a good name not just because it is like GSP, but because he has a Creole name (new orleans saints) and Ned kept praising what a good person he was.

PS: I'm only temporarily Carolinian...

I'm trying! I'm sending out my application for a position at UCLA tomorrow. The odds of me getting the job are very low, as I'm probably not far enough along and there will likely be stiff competition (e.g. in the form of candidates who have been assistant professors for 1-2 years somewhere else). But it will be a good experience either way.

Cool beans.

i wonder what he was thinking in his head.

Just for kicks, you might also want to know that K-Lo ranked 10th, and Fur-kel ranked 31st.

and then caught.

Kuo gets the nod for the start against Korea, in what should be the most pivitol match of the series, he did very well allowing only 1 unearned run through 5 inning while striking out 6.

a vast improvement over his last national team showing, where he hit multiple batsmen and blew a big game, at that time he was still battling back from TJ though and really was pushing it simply to go out there.

I'll update when i can grab Hu's numbers, though not so surprisingly he's had some nice defensive plays... now if he could only hit...

http://www.doha-2006.com/gis/menuroot/sports/Baseball.aspx

I thought Kuo's last national team outing was in the WBC? or does that not count?

Mr. Blogger Man, why won't the mean GM be nice to LA?

http://www.doha-2006.com/gis/menuroot/funpage/onlinegames.aspx

on Kuo: he gave up a bunch of hits but only 1 of there were extra bases, and while Hu was the only Taiwan fielder to commit offical erros, the rest of the team had some sloppy plays which is probably why some scored the run as unearned. i'll have to see the re runs to see what happened there. Kuo appeared to really picked it up a notch after he gets into trouble though. as 5 out of 6 strike outs came with guys on base. read something about the catcher calling for way too many first pitch fastballs and didn't try to mix in a few occasional backdoor curve that we saw late in the year. was also a reason why he gave up a bit too many hits

I forgot about the WBC, Taiwan's performance there was sort of forgetable too anyway, though they did make it very close with Korea dispite missing out on a lot of their better playres (Wang, and slugger Chen Chin Fung and a few others )

and for truly addicting stuff, check out:

http://addictinggames.com/lineflyerupdated.html

Jon and all, really been enjoying reading this blog. Thanks.

That was Greg Brock's contribution, and it's a favorite of mine.

My work is done.

On another note the NY Times says On Thursday, Wal-Mart is expected to announce, based on its own estimates, that sales for November fell for the first time in a decade.

As a well known large contributor to the Republican Party it would look like they too lost a few seats in congress. Doesn't look like they will be buying Marlins and moving them to Arkansas soon.

Well that's one way to avoid being punished by Rule 5.

Though, I'm kinda partial to Juan Out

p.s. Nate, if you still need those Times Select articles, I can help you out with that.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=4875172

Ah, Andrew. Ah, humanity.

I think maybe you need to find the shorthand, like JtD.

Slappy McPutout
SMcP
Smickpee

By the way, who is Lucille II? And how did he get his nickname? Thanks!

Then we could hold a Liar's Club thread where people tried to explain what Smickpee means.

If Walmart were to buy the Marlins and move them to Arkansas would they change their name to The Arkansas Wooden Ponies?

Pretty negative, but all of them are, so far.

On the television program "Arrested Development," there are two characters named Lucille; the one who is not the Bluth matriarch is called, for short, Lucille II.

Because the shortstop Ramon Martinez is the second (and inferior) Ramon Martinez to play for the Dodgers, and because there are many Arrested Development fans on DT, he earned the nickname Lucille II.

When he gets a hit, is he "Lucky" Pierre?

Thanks! I was always going to watch that show when it first came out, but I never did.

Ramon was a great pitcher, but does anyone know what happened to the youngest brother, Jesus Martinez? I got him to sign a baseball card of Pedro and Ramon at spring training one year and he was still in the minors. I never heard of him after that.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=1573009

Also, an update, apparently the motto isn't, "Always Low Prices. Always," anymore. It's "Be Bright," which I'm not in love with. I understand the point: "Hey doofus; we're selling that pony for thirty bucks less; what's the matter with you? Are you stupid?" But, still; not in love with it.

New post up top.

All this is strictly true. However, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Angels fans will take out on Matthews the rage and frustration that should be vented in Bill Stoneman's direction when Matthews isn't hitting his weight in July. It's a simply incomprehensible signing compounded by hallucinatory comments from the player.