The trend needs to stop already, but I support this one instance of making someone’s name into something that people photograph themselves doing. From Taco Bell’s Facebook page, of all places, via Randy Medina:
“Paganning:” a thing?
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Category Archives: Baseball
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Today in unanswerable questions
I’ve asked this before but now seems as good a time as any to revisit it. Last night, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout won the NL and AL Rookie of the Year Awards, respectively.
In 2012, Harper hit .270 with a .340 on-base percentage and a .477 slugging. He hit 22 home runs and stole 18 bases and played strong defense in the outfield. By WAR, his was by far the best season of all time by a 19-year-0ld position player.
Trout posted a .326/.399/.564 line with 30 homers, 49 steals in only 54 attempts, and outstanding defense in the outfield. By WAR, his was the best season in the modern era by a 20-year-old position player*.
That the pair should unleash themselves upon baseball in the same season is enormously exciting, and their shared youth, talent and position means they’ll likely be linked and compared for years to come. So, you know, who ya got?
*- You know why we need to specify “position player,” right? It’s this guy.
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Mustache hat now a thing
In conjunction with their new affiliation with the Kansas City Royals, the Single-A Lexington Legends unveiled new uniforms. Here’s their new road hat:
If New Era hats fit my head better, I’d probably be miffed that this thing was already sold out and searching for one in my size on eBay. But I find American Needle caps better suited for my massive melon.
Via Dan Lewis.
Who needs Dickey?
Well, most teams. But still:
The drunkard’s GM meetings
“Hard work and talent is what brings you success,” Mlodinow said he told the group. “They are two big components of success, but also luck is a big component of success. Players have the talent but are subject to the random fluctuations that happen. You look at a player who’s on a hot streak and think that he’s seeing the ball better or concentrating better, but a large component of that is randomness.”
Mlodinow writes about how those theories apply to baseball and other sports in his book, entitled, “The Drunkard’s Walk,” which was published in 2008.
“When we look at extraordinary accomplishments in sports — or elsewhere — we should keep in mind that extraordinary events can happen without extraordinary causes,” he wrote. “Random events often look like non-random events, and in interpreting human affairs we must take care not to confuse the two.”
Leonard Mlodinow’s The Drunkard’s Walk is one of the more fascinating and enlightening books you’ll ever read. It’s downright awesome that he addressed the Major League GMs on Friday, even if a more thorough grasp of randomness league-wide could reduce some clubs’ competitive advantages.
Via BBTF.
Friday Q&A, pt. 1: Mets stuff
https://twitter.com/rosstheboss66/status/266918955552215040
Something similar came up last week, but I assume it’ll keep coming up until Dickey’s situation is resolved. And as long as it keeps coming up, I might as well keep repeating myself.
SI think it will work out in the Mets’ best interests to trade Dickey this offseason — especially if it looks like the two sides are far apart in extension talks — if they can get at least a promising, cost-controlled young outfielder in return. I mentioned Peter Bourjos as a potential target a month ago, and though I don’t think Bourjos alone should be enough to get it done, I do think he’d be as good a fit as any of the reasonable possibilities I’ve seen floated: He’s young, he bats right-handed, he plays exceptional defense, he hit well in his one season of full-time play in 2011, and he’s under team control through the next four seasons.
Predictably, many people speculating about possible Dickey trades don’t seem to consider that teams far from contention might not want to trade away all their best prospects for a 38-year-old signed to a one-year deal. Rampant, reckless trade talk is an unavoidable part of the baseball offseason and there’s no reason not to have fun with it, but it’s always more interesting when you figure out the needs of the team that’s not the one you root for. Which is to say, I don’t think the Royals are going to trade Wil Myers and Bubba Starling for one year’s worth of Dickey.
I think I’m a bit more bullish on Thole than most Mets fans. He suffered an awful season at the plate in 2012, but it seems at least a bit suspicious that his offense fell apart immediately after he returned from his concussion. If he can recover, I think he’ll be acceptable — if never quite good. When he’s right, he gets on base a bit, which in a catcher is enough to make up for a bunch of other inadequacies. And he hits left-handed, which makes it far easier for the club to find a viable platoon partner in the Kelly Shoppach/Ronny Paulino mold. I think, ideally, the Mets find a right-handed hitting complement who can play a bit more often than just against lefties, and Thole gets about 90-100 starts in 2013 to show that his 2012 was a fluke.
https://twitter.com/TheSeanKenny/status/266917475273293824
What is it you think J.P. Ricciardi does?
https://twitter.com/RobvanEyndhoven/status/266917450900193280
Dude, were you not on the Internet yesterday? YOU MISSED THE PARTY!
https://twitter.com/Ceetar/status/266918578106806272
He should stay there. His UZR does not look pretty, but I’m not sure a single year’s worth of UZR data is more valuable than empirical evidence. And by the end of the year, Murph looked downright tolerable at second base.
Alternately, they can move him back to left field for LOLs.
https://twitter.com/JoeLoVerde81/status/266919365486731264
Movement: Spearheaded. You know, I’ve been looking for an excuse to get in touch with Citi Field’s executive chef. How do I go about getting this done? Do I just point out how great it would be to have delicious banh mi available in the Taste of the Citi area, or do I accentuate the negative and try to guilt them into it somehow? Why are the classless Mets ignoring thousands of Vietnamese living in Queens?
Column about Walt Weiss’ hiring contains seven references to Colorado’s new marijuana policy
The good folks of Colorado voted on Tuesday to legalize marijuana….
Forget OBP and WAR. The Rockies surely lead the league in empty Cheetos bags littering the offices….
Cheech and Chong would be proud.
What are they, high?…
Who’s on the short list to succeed Weiss? Willie Nelson?…
You would think after all these years, they would have an app for that. Or a medication for that (Tuesday’s vote in Colorado, ahem, notwithstanding)….
Through the haze, it’s hard to tell.
The rest of the column is actually worth a read, as Miller outlines the Rockies’ struggles with a problem only they face: Altitude (get it? they’re high). The Rockies’ geographic isolation from the rest of the baseball-watching country probably helps us ignore or gloss over some of the oddities of their circumstance, but they go way beyond fly balls flying further. Pitches break differently and muscles suffer from the relative lack of oxygen, for two.
You’ll see a lot of Rockies post pretty extreme home-road splits, and when their names come up in trade or free-agent talk, you’ll hear their road splits emphasized with the suggestion that they’d be inferior players outside that environment who get bongs and pipes you can buy at Smokewire headshops. But I suspect there’s a lot more to it than that, and that Carlos Gonzalez would not collapse to a .735 OPS if he had the opportunity to adjust to a season playing at or near season.
My former roommate and namesake Ted Burke is a Rockies fan from Colorado, and we’ve spent hours trying to come up with ways they could get over the hurdle. We never figured a certain solution, but there’s no almost no doubt they need to do things a bit differently than everybody else.
Mostly Mets Podcast presented by Caesars A.C.
With Toby and Patrick:
On iTunes here.
A note: I mentioned late in the podcast the story that George W. Bush accidentally voted for Barack Obama. That was, it turns out, not even a hoax but a satirical article mistaken for truth by a variety of blogs and at least one Mets blogger who probably shouldn’t be clicking and reporting on links while podcasting.
Tedquarters 