Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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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
1) Much more than I would have ever expected to read or see about Randy Wolf in January is provided to us by Jayson Stark of ESPN.com.
2) Two good titles for recent posts at True Blue L.A.: "We're Going to Miss Aaron Sele" and "We Paid Gary Sheffield 29 Million Dollars". Regarding the first:
While losing 45 terrible starts from Tomko, Perez, Hendrickson and Seo will certainly help the Dodgers, this type of analysis ignores the 34 great starts that the Dodgers got from Aaron Sele, Greg Maddux, Hong Chih Kuo, and Eric Stults. Sele somehow managed to accumulate a strong 4.18 ERA in almost half a seasons worth of starts. Greg Maddux put up ace type numbers after we acquired him, and Kuo and Stults were lights out in September. Combined these pitchers threw 197.7 innings of 3.60 ERA ball. Effectively, this mishmash of starters gave the Dodgers another number one starter, and we'd be very lucky if Jason Schmidt could equal this contribution. ...
3) Should Joe Beimel earn more than a million in 2007 or less? Tony Jackson at the Daily News sets up the change-your-world debate. Yep, he's killing time until pitchers and Martinthals, just like the rest of us.
By the way, the answer is, Beimel pitched worth a million-plus last year, but it's unlikely he'll do so again this year. But since arbitration basically rewards you for past performance, the only thing stopping Beimel from getting his $1.25 million is probably how much the arbitrator cares about that one night in October.
As always, the best argument against overpaying Joe Beimel is how the Dodgers found Beimel to begin with. But it's nothing personal.
Anyway, I expect the plexiglass principle to hit Beimel hard.
Argh, another Norbit commercial! That's it, I'm turning the TV off.
If you have a last name that people will already butcher (Arneson, Shimmin), do you really want your child to have a first name they have to spell every time they give it?
1. schmidt-above average
2. lowe-average/above average
3. penny-above average
4. wolf-average/above average
5. bills/kuo-WAY above average
Driving through Louisiana, I was paying for gas and sundries at a gas station. I handed over my credit card, and the cashier said, "Your name is so unusual. How do you pronounce it? Jonnn?"
http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=14493
Needless to say when he runs into Bob, he just sort of goes, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm very sorry."
I like Colts DB Bob Sanders because I like to know that there are people younger than me who go by Bob. Even rarer, when such people are African-American.
Rookie mistake there.
But you know, some people put middle names or middle initials on their credit cards, but I don't. I don't think they're that strict about it.
"craigary" (craig + gary)
The drugs wore off, however.
Wish I could change my boring last name, though.
Why a guy based in Orlando might be at "home" in Honolulu is a question I often pondered.
Bob Schieffer's real first name is Bob.
God bless his parents!
Common is nice for many reasons and certainly easier, but not necessary in my opinion. My wife and I simply like the name to have meaning behind it. Our son is due on the 24th of Feb and we are naming him Benjamin. The 'B' is from my grandmother Bernice who passed away last year. It is sort of a Jewish tradition to select a letter from a recent family member who died.
My wife and I met while traveling to Poland and Israel with Warsaw Ghetto fighters on a teachers training seminar that was led by a couple who smuggled weapons into the ghetto before the uprising. Vladka and Benjamin Meed then married and lived in New York and were leaders in Holocaust education. Ben passed away a few months ago. Because we wanted to use a B and were having a son, we went with Benjamin since he wasn't a family member.
The name Benjamin is more common than our daughter Anneliese's name (after Anne Frank if you were in on the previous thread), but we think the names of our children honor the previous generations of Jews who faced much more difficult lives than we have to.
Of course, every parent has a right to decide themselves and my children might not ever like their names, but we did our best to have substance behind it.
Now if things ended differently in October and we won the Series, my son might be called Olmeda...
Lately he's been using Gary for some reason...
John Weisman wrote for TV Guide.
Jon Weisman plays for the Wayne State baseball team.
And there was a Jon Weisman, about the same age as me, who was killed in a car accident on Malibu Canyon Road in about 1985. My answering the phone was very weird for some people in the ensuing days.
In my case, my parents were expecting a girl and had run out of ideas for boys names as I am the fourth of four sons. I doubt they put a lot of thought into it.
At least they didn't name me Mario or something like that because I was supposed to be named Mary. But back in 1965, you couldn't find out the sex of your baby ahead of time. It was just like a casino game!
I believe some people had bet $5 on the "No girl" line and won big!
My wife's maiden name is Weissman. Two s's. I don't know of a John or Jonathan or even a Jon in her father's family.
Thankfully, you don't have to give a name at the moment of birth. My wife had plenty of time to think it over afterward.
Okay -- I have a bit of a problem with this argument. This is essentially saying that we should enter the year with the 4th and 5th spots unoccupied, and hope for miracles with late spring pickups, journeymen, and trades.
It's easy to sit back and notice this kind of remarkable stat, but it's a much better chance that Schmidt will do well. It's not a guarantee, but you're definitely more confident about it.
So no, I'm not going to miss Aaron Sele.
21 The Jewish tradition is to name a child (the whole name - not a "letter") after a relative who has died (recently or otherwise). A middle name is fine though, it doesn't have to be the first name. "Letter" sounds like a personal accommodation - nothing wrong with that, but it's not a tradition. However it may derive from the common process of "anglicizing" first-generation immigrant names in second (well, usually third, after a grandparent) and later generations, so the "same" name gets altered in translation.
A corollary is that you are not supposed to name a child after a living relative - as it would tend to imply that you wished the relative dead. A taboo, and expains why you don't see Jewish children with the same name as their father or mother. (No Moishe Katz IV, so to speak.) That seems to be true (he says anecdotally with no SABR-like documentary evidence whatsoever) even in non-observant (non-religious) Jewish families. A pretty strong taboo.
i am seriously considering changing my DT user name to repent or burn, though.
I'm not advocating that we attempt the strategy again this year. Lucking into half a season of greatness from a journeyman certainly isn't a reliable strategy. I'm saying that we can't easily replace the performance we lost from these journeymen. It's like the Beltre situation in 2005, we needed to find someone to replace Beltre's production, and Beltre would not have been the man to do it.
The "We're Going To Miss Aaron Sele" bit was a bit facetious, we aren't going to miss him at all, but we are going to miss the 4.15 ERA he somehow provided in 15 starters.
He wasn't saying you should want Aaron Sele over Jason Schmidt. He was saying that as an overall staff, the Dodgers did better in 2006 than some people are giving credit for, and therefore the impact of the new acquisitions might not be as much as people expect.
Hmmm... I am not religous and don't claim any true knowledge about this but I've seen the use of the first letter and the whole name as a middle name of the recentley deceased much more often than using the full first name.
The use of the first letter was explained to me by my mother who sure isn't an expert or anything, so I might be wrong about my intial statement that it is a Jewish tradition. Perhaps it is a family tradition based on Jewish heritage and Americanization of past practices. I'd be interested in what other Jewish people have to say about this. I live in Palmdale so there aren't many tribe members to survey up here.
There aren't any Jewish children I know of with the same first name of their parents.
I think you're missing ... oh, never mind.
I just got here. Plus, I usually wait for a trifecta (not just a difecta) of nearly congruent posts before chiming in...
Two is just an exacta.
Three is a trifecta.
Four is a superfecta.
I think most race tracks got rid of the quinella when the exacta wager was lowered to a buck. You used to be able to bet a $2 quinella (first two finishers in either order), but now you just bet a $1 exacta box (you get 1-2 and 2-1) and that costs the same.
You can bet the superfecta now at Santa Anita for just a dime.
I'm not sure how important it is to not have guaranteed crapiness. While someone as bad as Odalis was last year is clearly harmful, Seo had five quality starts out of 10. Can Wolf do much better than that?
Is #17 imminent...?
Kemp and even Loney can improve the home run production from the outfield. Saenz on the bench and a spot start, same with Anderson. I think with plate discipline (hear me Juan?) we can generate as many runs as last year. Perhaps more?
Average Dodger starter according to 2007 ZIPS: .160 Isolated Power
While having Betemit/LaRoche for a full year will certainly help, the Dodgers don't look like they have much more power than they did in 2006.
I hope Mrs. Zappala has wide hips...
My mom would judge her sons' girlfriends by hip size.
She would not pass on her assessments to the women in question.
Were her hip size preferences strictly monotonic...?
My best day was when they had the Breeder's Cup Races at Santa Anita and I hit a couple of longshots however I could not get my usual perch in the clubhouse so I had to be amongst the people.
I have a friend who once made a pretty large superfecta bet and then saw one of those signs about being a compulsive gambler so he went back and changed it before the race, you all know what happened, one of his many scenarios came in and he missed out on making a couple of grand.
"It's Az-wee-pay! It's French!"
Would you care to supply us with the names of your tribe?
His conclusion is it's not worth overplaying/straining your starters, since replacements don't make that big of an offensive difference. (I'm not sure if this translates from paper to dirt, but still a fun article.)
Of course, as he notes, defense may be a factor, depending on the player.
He doesn't supply the averages but here they are. Go ahead and trust my math skills.
Starters and Backups
BA .274
OBP .343
SLG .444
OPS .787
Starters Only
BA .280 +.6
OBP .352 +.9
SLG .461 +.17
OPS .813 +.26
Further, "Using the simple version of runs created, the difference between an average starter's playing time and a guy making every single start is a little less than three runs."
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/average-is-as-average-does/
I gravitate toward that kind of conclusion. Great case in point:
Pierre at $9 million/year vs. Repko at $400k/year
83 Logan and Sandy both seem like good solid Dodger names.
Nothing Dodger-related in the chat.
And if he hits 3rd, with Pitcher-Pierre-Martin in front of him, that's probably worse than last year with #7 (Ethier/Betemit)-Martin-Pitcher.
How should my friend and I go from Downtown to Anaheim during rush hour?
1) Just give up
2) Suck it up and take the 5 all the way
3) Use carpool lane advantages to go 110 South to 105 East to 605 South to 91 East to 5 South
He should take Metrolink, I say in my most convincing urban planner tone.
Any route by car is going to stink, but (3) sounds better than (1) or (2). 60E to 57S also gives you a fighting chance, but you have to deal with the vagaries of heavy trucking.
24 killed in a car accident on Malibu Canyon Road Distracted perhaps by an apparition of the pink lady of Malibu Canyon?
Really it ends up being faster, although it is always smart to check the traffic reports for those uber-accidents that close down freeways or close off multiple lanes and then adjust accordingly.
I know of an El Segundo / Valencia vanpool that in the 4PM uses 105E / 110N / Figueroa etc. / 2N / 210W / 5N. They consistently make it in 70 minutes (obviously they don't care about the miles they are accumulating on the company-subsidized van). 405N would be probably be 20 minutes more.
Of course, my friend and I are going to Staples tomorrow and we will just walk.
And the game at Staples starts at 7:30 while the one in Anaheim starts at 7:00.
90 Metrolink crossed my mind, but they can't get back!
I forgot you were a planner. I think we may have talked about that before. Where do you work?
That was graffiti at its finest!
96 I've gone to Angel games via Metrolink and taken Amtrak back. Not necessarily convenient, but its do-able.
Cool. I used to work for a council of governments in Oregon. If you're going to be a planner in a public capacity, COGs are definitely the way to go.
I recall reading somewhere that he goes with that spelling because of a misprint on his birth certificate. Urban legend?
http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/players/playerpage/1179741/rss
Glad to help.
But yes, I'm watching the Stanford game. Go Tree People!
I don't know what that means, but it sounds disgusting.
I love tomatoes, and tomato sauce. But I hate tomato juice and tomato soup.
Free hoops on The Farm!
I love you a little less, Leland Stanford Jr. University.
Have you seen Gonzaga's out of conference schedule? No one should be embarrassed to lose to them, they have a solid team.
Date Opponent / Event Location Time / Result
11/15/06 vs. Baylor Spokane, Wash. (Spokane Arena) W, 78-69
11/22/06 vs. Gonzaga @ North Carolina New York, NY (Madison Square Garden) W, 82-74
11/24/06 vs. Butler New York, NY (Madison Square Garden) L, 79-71
12/02/06 vs. Texas Phoenix, Ariz. W, 87-77
12/05/06 at Washington State Pullman, Wash. L, 77-67
12/09/06 vs. Washington Spokane, Wash. W, 97-78
12/16/06 vs. Georgia Duluth, Geo. (Gwinnett Center) L, 96-83
12/21/06 vs. Duke New York, NY (Madison Square Garden) L, 61-54
12/30/06 vs. Nevada Seattle, Wash. (KeyArena) L, 82-74
01/03/07 at Virginia Charlottesville, Virg. L, 108-87
01/31/07 at Stanford W 2ot
They've beaten North Carolina, Texas, Washington, and gave Duke a run for their money.
I did omit the gimmee's, just pointing out they have a tough schedule outside of their conference.
And I needed to lash out a little bit at Stanford. It felt good.
For once we completely agree on something.
Also, could anyone link me to Jon's interview with Paul Depodesta. I was just reading the Athletic Nation interview with Billy Beane and it reminded me that for a brief moment the Dodgers also had a GM who valued its hardcore blogger fans. I am relatively young and only became a really passionate Dodger fan Beltre's career year (I was a fan before then, but it really got taken up a notch that year). However, in that that time, I can say that the single worst day of being a Dodger fan was the day Paul Depodesta was fired. I don't want to open the debate again, but I really felt hopeless about the team that day.
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Is anybody here-ere-ere?
Sorry - it was daddy-daughter day at preschool this morning, so I'm running behind ...
That's got all the makin's of an instant classic.
This makes twice I've violated that rule.
So let's just say I made the whole thing up.
Tonight on The Office: "As Stanley takes leave to play for the 76ers, Pam confesses her undying love to Creed."
All the makin's.
Have we learned nothing from Dungy vs. Lovie?
("Why did you say, 'of course'?")
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