- I’m sure we’ve all read about this already, but: (a) ouch, (b) idiot
- Erik at Fangraphs buries the lede: Braden may be throwing That Pitch He Wasn’t Supposed To Ever Have Thrown after all
Screw balls: DLD 081409 84
84 thoughts on “Screw balls: DLD 081409”
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I get the impression that Damon Bruce is not popular with the Gnats’ announcers – wait for the end of the segment as they go to commercial.
Testicles have to be about the least fun thing you could possibly need to ice.
In Arizona:
Duke-shire: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Barton: 0/2 with a K
Not that it ever seemed anything more than a pipe dream, but no chance the Red Sox are interested in Crosby now.
Remarkably, according to Fangraphs’ metrics, Gonzalez has been about five runs worse than Crosby this year, in a similar amount of playing time.
The Sox get him, the Royals trade for Yu-Bet … plus all the weird no-offers-to-the-FA-SSs-in-the-offseason … WTF is going on? Just a random trough in overall SS quality, or perhaps a regression to the mean after the (perhaps PED-enhanced, perhaps wabbitball-enhanced) SS renaissance of ~ a decade ago?
Here I am, happily reading Klein’s latest, and then it hit me. This is the problem:
This, I think, is no longer true. If there’s one thing that can no longer happen, it’s the idea that perverse lies can simply not be discussed. We do need to work out how to deal with them.* I don’t think you can say now, as you could in 1990, that the fact we’re discussing these things at all is the media’s fault.
*Maybe the NYT should team up with a more conservative, yet intellectually honest, paper and do joint editorials when things get important enough.
I REALLY like your idea in italics at the end. IMO, there are three papers which may survive and become the sole remaining: The Times, The Post and The WSJ. Two out of three of those are conservative and intellectually honest. The other is liberal and intellectually honest.
…wait, are any of them intellectually honest?
I’m not sure the rift isn’t so wide and the tactics on both sides so fractured and end-result-heavy that any sort of civility or compromise is any longer possible, not publicly anyhow. Maybe on the pages of FK.
I think you’re both wrong.
The WSJ news side is one of the best and most respected in journalism. Their editorial side is utterly craven and venal in the service of hyper-partisanship. People pay for the news content because it’s genuinely reliable and honest, and doesn’t really care about whether the facts or honesty come down on one side or the other.
I’m with Brad DeLong on the WaPo — they’re out of business (or sold off by the Kaplan arm of the business that actually makes money) within 5-10 years. The firing of Froomkin was symptomatic that isn’t concerned with intellectual honesty, but with empty formalism and access journalism/stenography. And Fred Hiatt’s editorial side is like the WSJ after huffing spraypaint.
The NYT is run by incompetent marketers and business managers, but they’ve done a lot to halt the drastic slide in their brand equity. But they’re still locked into the HS/SS “balance” foofaraw. And while they’re certainly socially liberal, their editors and most of their coverage is hardly what I’d call politically liberal (esp. w/r/t foreign policy).
Case in point. Stupid monkey.
….though this makes me happy in pants:
How can I be wrong (at least about that)?
Maybe the solution, then, is to have an article like the one in the NYT co-published by the WSJ as a “this is too crazy to continue” gesture.
Dept. of Mixed Sporting Metaphors by People Who Clearly Aren’t Sports Fans
Nice Slusser profile of Betting Everidge, with a couple choice nuggets:
the line about a “zen-like approach” brought two things mind:
1. He looks like a buddha, too.
2. Buddha Everidge would be a good nickname.
2. How about “Buddha Stick”? Gets an oblique reference to Kung Fu Panda (similar build, similar feelgood/fan-favorite story … very different hitters) plus a nice 420 reference. And the conventional “stick” = bat.
I like it. Combines children, baseball, and drugs.
Done. I will beat that meme into the ground like Rajai ought to be doing with every pitch below his shoulders.
Buddha Stick? Endorsed by MB and Sal. So, I’m to spread the word, then, right?
Don’t bogart that nickname.
{suppressing cough} That’s g-g-good first baseman… {exhales loudly}
Don’t crush salb918, hand me the pliers
Everidgeything you know is wrong.
Spread it like buttah.
FYI, there’s talk of how to catch a unique monkey on the site that shall not be named.
Okay, me and Don are sitting around talking about it, but still.
google “monkeyfishing”
oooh! Thanks for the tip, Mr. MB!
{runs off with overalls, straw hat, cork pole and no shoes)
“Hard contact” stats? Is this kinda like the hitting equivalent of PitchFx?
I would think so, but much more primitive. Basically I’m envisioning a crusty old scout/enthusiastic unpaid intern with a clipboard subjectively marking “hard,” “weak,” or “medium” contact.
Re: Beltre
Before I read the news, my son and I were playing “Hop on Pop.” He loves this game because he gets to jump on me. I love this game because I get to lie down. But yesterday, my son – who inherited his father’s physical coordination – missed the target (my stomach) and ended up burying his feet right in the ol’ brazil nuts. It hurt pretty bad.
Then I read about Beltre and was thankful that my pain was not his.
nevermoor thinks this story doesn’t live up to the hype.
i knew I could count on you.
huh? I legitimately don’t get this one
What kind of nuts were those again?
Oh i see
One of JP’s favorite games is “Pee on Pop” (though I’ve gotten much better at winning that game … there’s a certain elimination communication that’s kinda hard to miss). My other big occupational hazards are the forehead-to-forehead bonk and the chest-hair grab.
My son has a book about penguins showing them performing various actions. His favorite is “penguins bumping,” and he now re-enacts this page every time we get to it by taking a running start and chest-bumping whoever happens to be reading with him. This works great with me, but not so well with pregnant mrs salb918.
Have we known about this before?
I’m pretty sure I had mentioned in passing before.
Yeah, another boy. Won’t have to buy new clothes, can force ’em to share a bedroom from now until eternity…my wallet is happy about that.
If I haven’t offered congrats before … congrats!
Yeah, until they put you in front of the death panel, in order to get your bedroom.
the whole death panels thing reminds me of the “Hurling Day” episode of one of my favorite 90s-era sitcoms, Dinosaurs.
Congrats!
Snerk
See, it’s funny because you’re better at peeing on yourself than he is.
Regardless of your political affiliation, this is a lobbying effort we can all get behind. Everyone except mk.
OBAMACARE WOULD HAVE ABORTED THE ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT PILOT
“death panel with cocktails”
WIN
I knew I could count on you.
I’m proclaiming this the FKTGROTY.
Of course, the advantage of Obamacare (esp. for someone like Tim Goodman) is that the Death Panel would probably kill off elderly dinosaurs like ER long before they outlived their creative utility.
Is there such a time as “before ER outlived its creative utility”?
I’d say s2-4 or so, it was a solid, better-than-mainstream nighttime soap.
Yeah, the final season was an especially bad pile of “let’s find a way to wedge former stars’ cameos into… what the hell are we doing, again?”
I haven’t watched it in, geez … at least 4 years, and it was pretty bad then.
Also describes Beane’s FA strategy the last 4-5 years.
2006 fail
I’ve elected a huge mistake.
Nicely done.
For shame, monkeyball. You’re a real ass. You’re bagging on a guy who played through the swine flu?
If a bloke is that knackered, he doesn’t belong on the pitch.
Reese Witherspoon: bad at baseball.
Very smart
So I know we’re not supposed to go on and on about AN. I understand that’s not productive for us to sit over here and bag on them (especialy since a great number of them are us), but aren’t all these people who are SO HAPPY to have PT return the same asshats who wanted him banned in the first place?
It’s like a frat hazing.
Wait, did you go through that too?!
No, “secret societies” were banned at my school.
So, of course, my friends and I started one. With the reasoning that if we were ever found out, it would no longer be a “secret.”
that makes perfect sense to me and probably 90% of FK, though there may be a reason we’re locked in this room together.
squash match with cocktails
Sounds vaguely Tannenbaumish, though if I ‘member right, you detest that ‘un.
My mother’s a fish, monkey.
Ban secret societies? Why on earth…
Nah, frats don’t drastically reduce their own quality. They just get people wasted.
This (the first clip) is cruel, but oh-so-awesome.
Why are Norman Fell and Jose Ferrer angry at each other?
Is this a joke? Okay, I give up. Why are Norman Fell and Jose Ferrer angry at each other?
So, does no one want to talk about Braden’s screwball?
It’s um, good, but it hurts his big toe?
I haven’t seen him throw anything that looks like a screwball (although I didn’t watch that Orioles game.) I think it’s unlikely…
Speaking of the empty formalism that’s helped to destroy journalism, this lede is almost brilliant, but ruined by shitty editing.
(And before I clicked on the link, I was sure it was going to involve his being Tasered.)
Eh, I dunno. I’ve watched most of s2e1 twice now, and … just does nothin’ for me.
This is a far worse statement than my reaction to Brazil.
That said, maybe it’s just too sophisticated for primates. (I think the joy I got from writing that outweighs the fact that it proves I’m a dick)
We got a problem: Blacky Buck might not show. Besides, Buster’s too dumb for nightlife.
Follow-up to traffic discussion: wherever you stand on signage, etc., we all should be able to agree that people should not leave bags of dog shit in the road that unsuspecting cyclists don’t see in time and then ride over. Damnit.
I suspect it was left by a Straussian.
tee hee.
I have a new awesome idea for the next critical mass.