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The Grill (and Game Thread) that’s actually (mostly) about baseball 66

  1. Interesting analysis of the leaked MLB financials. And another.
  2. Not-promising outlook on Cust for 2011
  3. Neat A’s ballpark renderings. ML lets his pro-SJ side show at the end after making a token gesture to Oakland boosters at the beginning.
  4. Boy, and you thought our lineup was bad …
  5. Well, there’s an accusation I hadn’t seen before (second primary comment)
  6. Euphemism watch: getting kicked in the face by the mayor of Winnipeg, visiting the Slinky factory
  7. This looks really good. Brad Anderson is a very smart and skillful dude.

66 thoughts on “The Grill (and Game Thread) that’s actually (mostly) about baseball

  1. nevermoor Aug 25,2010 12:32 pm

    With so many teams leaked, seems like it should be a pretty narrow list of potential leakers.

    "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
  2. nevermoor Aug 25,2010 12:35 pm

    2: I don’t think his power is gone.

    "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
    • monkeyball Aug 25,2010 12:38 pm || Up

      I don’t either, but his ISO sez otherwise.

      I still think the A’s have been screwing with his plate approach.

      you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
      • mk Aug 25,2010 12:59 pm || Up

        Not just the A’s:

        Eckstein and myself and others have mentioned to him how much damage he could do by not taking as much, and you know, I can’t explain it, but there’s just something about these guys, I mean you can go back to the history of Ted Williams in the game who they say they used to try to get him to go out of the zone a little more and swing at some pitches, and he just either couldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it, wasn’t comfortable with it, it messed up his game or whatever, but, I know what you’re alluding to, you know, I felt the same way in the last inning, if he airs one out there, who knows what happens. But, he’s selective up there, his OBP is usually up around .400, it’s been a successful style of play for him, but I hear what you’re saying, every now and then you’d like to see him go out of the zone and hit one even if it’s the other way.”

        Just think how awesome Ted Williams would have been if he’d swung at more bad pitches!

        For what it’s worth, Dunn is in fact walking (a lot) less and swinging at (a lot) more pitches outside the strike zone this year.

        • nevermoor Aug 25,2010 1:53 pm || Up

          But we need him because HOMERZ

          "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
        • lenscrafters Aug 25,2010 3:31 pm || Up

          Don’t ever take hitting advice from an Eckstein.

          I don’t understand baseball’s obsession with being “aggressive” and “swinging moar” when it’s clear that some guys are good because they swing less. Is it the machismo that “being aggressive” connotes? Or is it baseball’s own acknowledgment that it is a slow and boring game and patient hitters just make it worse?

          • mk Aug 26,2010 6:32 am || Up

            Maybe partly those things. Maybe also partly

            1. The appeal of sacrifice – that is, adapting, even undermining, your own (“selfish”) approach for the good of the team. There is cache in ostentatious selflessness, irrespective of whether that selflessness is rational or productive (or actually selfless, for that matter).

            2. Once you learn something, however wrong it may be, you’re not likely to unlearn it. (political parties know, for example, that if you get them young, you’ll have them forever)

            3. Stat people are regularly accused of overcomplication, but it is often the case that managers and pundits and Regular Dudes are the ones doing the overcomplicating, by layering personality based irrelevancies over the top of structural truths or simple coincidence, or by expounding an elaborate interplay between observed “nuance” and shifts in performance or unexpected outcomes, or, as in this case, by insinuating the hallowed, mystical situational adaptation matrix into circumstances that do not call for it, which is to say most circumstances.

            Managers are cast in the role of expert, so they have to at least occasionally demonstrate expertise. Because they either lack genuine expertise or possess it but are inarticulate, more often than not these demonstrations come couched in all that old-saw overcomplication.

            4. People are definitely biased in favor of action.

            5. I have to admit that as I’ve learned more about the game, and shed many of my misconceptions, I have come to enjoy it somewhat less. It is much more difficult to achieve optimism now, for example, as there is always a “but” I didn’t know about five years ago. I have a theory, which I may operationalize next season, that if I stopped following the “smart discussion” I’d have a better time. Of course, I don’t like the dumb discussion either, so clearly this theory is still in its gestational phase. That is all to say that while I make fun of the same delusions we all make fun of, I also sympathize with the deluded.

            • Leopold Bloom Aug 26,2010 6:49 am || Up

              five. Watch baseball, discuss other things.

            • monkeyball Aug 26,2010 6:52 am || Up

              Add to rotating FK motto gallery: “We also sympathize with the deluded”

              you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
              • mk Aug 26,2010 8:02 am || Up

                I am astonished and not a little disappointed that you failed to capitalize on my usage error by making some sort of cash/cache/cachet joke. You need to drink more coffee or something.

  3. monkeyball Aug 25,2010 12:37 pm

    Glibertarians are glib: one, two

    Also: what would happen if a glibertarian were ever questioned by the po-po?

    you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
    • nevermoor Aug 25,2010 12:49 pm || Up

      Re one: JC rebuts.

      "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
      • nevermoor Aug 25,2010 2:08 pm || Up
        "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
  4. monkeyball Aug 25,2010 12:40 pm

    FKatherhood bleg: anyone got any experience with Vincent shoes?

    you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
    • Leopold Bloom Aug 25,2010 3:34 pm || Up

      Did you just throw out a link for baby shoes?

      • Ice Cream Aug 25,2010 5:05 pm || Up

        This URL was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

        Where is the good in "good-bye"?
  5. andeux Aug 25,2010 1:20 pm

    re 4: Jai Miller! He was the guy that Oakland picked up on waivers and then dropped after he went 4/34 with 19 strikeouts in Sacramento. He’s actually hit OK for KC’s AAA team, though.

    TINSTAAFK
    • nanotrebuchet Aug 25,2010 1:29 pm || Up

      We need LOLcats of Jai Miller doing…I dunno, something…with the caption “O JAI”

      • monkeyball Aug 25,2010 1:40 pm || Up

        you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
  6. monkeyball Aug 25,2010 1:27 pm
    you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
  7. ptbnl Aug 25,2010 1:49 pm

    re 4: WFB hits the go-ahead homer in the top of the 12th.

    If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
  8. monkeyball Aug 25,2010 2:20 pm

    And just like that the Jeff Larish Era draws to a close.

    you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
    • lenscrafters Aug 25,2010 3:26 pm || Up

      The A’s basically sent down Travis Buck to give Gabe Gross more at bats over the next month and a half. Yet another proud moment for this management.

    • nanotrebuchet Aug 25,2010 3:29 pm || Up

      man, larry sutton lasted longer with the a’s.

      • andeux Aug 25,2010 3:36 pm || Up

        He’s still here, just not in the lineup. Larish, that is. I have no idea where, or for that matter who, Larry Sutton is.

        TINSTAAFK
        • nanotrebuchet Aug 25,2010 3:49 pm || Up

          He hit one of my favorite homers.
          http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200205220.shtml

          this was right after little g was run out of town and the a’s were unrecognizable for a moment.

  9. FreeSeatUpgrade Aug 25,2010 4:14 pm

    I didn’t know until I read the sportspage over lunch today that Roy Oswalt played some left field for the Phillies yesterday, and made a putout.

    "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
  10. FreeSeatUpgrade Aug 25,2010 4:21 pm

    Out, Walk, HBP, Single, Walk, Single, Double…five runs and counting!

    "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
    • andeux Aug 25,2010 4:21 pm || Up

      Yeah, right.

      TINSTAAFK
    • monkeyball Aug 25,2010 4:25 pm || Up

      Let’s hear it for Geren’s astute personnel management in giving Kz a night off to think about how poorly he’d been playing from a vantage point on the bench Mediocre Mitch Talbot!

      you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
    • nevermoor Aug 25,2010 4:25 pm || Up

      Cleveland sucks.

      "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
      • FreeSeatUpgrade Aug 25,2010 4:30 pm || Up

        OTOH, the weather is apparently more pleasant there today than it has been here in Oakland. I bet there aren’t more than five days a year when that can be said, if that.

        "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
  11. andeux Aug 25,2010 4:38 pm

    Colorado comes back from 10-1 deficit to beat Atlanta 12-10.
    San Francisco comes back from 10-1 deficit to lead Cincinnati 11-10. Now 11-11 in the 11th.

    TINSTAAFK
    • nevermoor Aug 25,2010 4:42 pm || Up

      Which is the more unlikely development, either of those games or the KC lineup winning?

      "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
    • andeux Aug 25,2010 4:43 pm || Up

      Zito now pitching in relief.

      TINSTAAFK
      • monkeyball Aug 25,2010 4:57 pm || Up

        And giving up the go-ahead run.

        you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
    • FreeSeatUpgrade Aug 25,2010 5:19 pm || Up

      Suddenly the A’s 5-0 lead feels flimsy.

      "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
      • FreeSeatUpgrade Aug 25,2010 5:21 pm || Up

        Fortunately, Trevor Crowe is in hot pursuit of the single series LOB record.

        "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
  12. monkeyball Aug 25,2010 5:27 pm

    TWKMS

    It was very hard, personally.

    you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
    • andeux Aug 25,2010 5:35 pm || Up

      He often wondered why gay voters never formed common cause with Republican opponents of Islamic jihad, which he called “the greatest anti-gay force in the world right now.”

      That’s just one of those mysteries that we may never be able to answer.

      TINSTAAFK
      • monkeyball Aug 25,2010 5:37 pm || Up

        It can only be explained by quantum physics: the eternal subatomic dance of the gay force and the anti-gay force.

        you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
      • nevermoor Aug 25,2010 7:03 pm || Up

        He often wondered why gay voters never formed common cause with Republican opponents of Islamic jihads, which he called “the greatest anti-gay force in the world USA right now.”

        "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
  13. monkeyball Aug 25,2010 5:43 pm

    That inning right there (heck, this game) would be a good argument for Cahill being lucky.

    you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
  14. andeux Aug 25,2010 6:10 pm

    The flip side of dropout factories.

    TINSTAAFK
    • monkeyball Aug 25,2010 6:28 pm || Up

      If I had the time, I’d rewrite that as letters from teachers at Andover and Yale in the ’60s.

      you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
    • nevermoor Aug 25,2010 7:09 pm || Up

      The show-up-for-grade story is shocking.

      "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
  15. FreeSeatUpgrade Aug 25,2010 6:54 pm

    A’s pitchers K eight of last nine Cleveland batters to finish the game. I’m starting to feel good about next year’s bullpen. Of course, we all felt that way last fall also.

    "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
    • sslinger Aug 25,2010 7:24 pm || Up

      Henry was really dealing. Just filthy. And the A’s rotation even got a mention from Sutcliffe during the Rangers-Twins game.

  16. FreeSeatUpgrade Aug 25,2010 11:07 pm

    Without spoiling much, lemme just say that I like all five remaining chefs, but Ed, having outed himself as a Red Sox fan, is dead to me.

    "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
    • Leopold Bloom Aug 26,2010 3:40 am || Up

      Strange, I thought the same thing. Surely Angelo’s a Yankees fan. I do not like him. The other four are fine.

    • andeux Aug 26,2010 8:33 am || Up

      1. Angelo is in everyone’s head. At this point he could start giving people good advice, and some of them would do exactly the opposite.
      2. More generally, this seems like an especially catty bunch.
      3. Was it really a good idea to leave Ed and Tiffany alone in the stew room?
      4. I was pretty surprised by the final decision. It seems like they chose to punish what was mostly a cosmetic error instead of other dishes that tasted worse. Maybe complexity also entered into it, or maybe it was just the editing.

      TINSTAAFK
      • andeux Aug 26,2010 1:22 pm || Up

        4b. Having now read the judges’ blogs, I retract 4.
        5. Brilliant editing near the beginning when Amanda mentioned that Angelo read Tony Robbins books and then they cut to Angelo looking deeply ashamed.
        6. Ball park food needs moar kraut.

        TINSTAAFK
        • sslinger Aug 26,2010 1:28 pm || Up

          Yeah, I loved Ripert’s comment that it could’ve killed him.

          • FreeSeatUpgrade Aug 26,2010 1:42 pm || Up

            Haven’t read the judge’s blogs (I need to get in the habit of doing that), but serving raw fish that looks like it’s gone bad, whether or not it actually has, seems like a pretty unforgiveable offense. And choosing to serve raw fish at a ballpark is just dumb.

            "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
            • Leopold Bloom Aug 27,2010 2:12 am || Up

              Yeah, Kevin’s critique seemed right on wrt the tartar. It’s a baseball game (but not really a baseball game–no game was being played…). Tartar might not be the best choice.

              • monkeyball Aug 27,2010 7:17 am || Up
                you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
                • nanotrebuchet Aug 27,2010 9:20 am || Up
                • sslinger Aug 27,2010 9:25 am || Up

                  Who was that guy who made that comment? Sure haven’t seen him around in a while.

                • nevermoor Aug 27,2010 9:29 am || Up

                  Some nerd.

                  "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
            • batgirl Aug 28,2010 6:31 am || Up

              from Tom’s blog:

              
Meanwhile, can you believe Buzz Aldrin appears in our next challenge? I thought it would be hard to top the CIA…

              Uh, yes I can…you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting that shameless attention whore.

  17. Leopold Bloom Aug 26,2010 6:50 am

    Christ, what an asshole.

    Also, I think I’m on the dole, FK.

    • FreeSeatUpgrade Aug 26,2010 8:29 am || Up

      Revenue sharing: it’s not just for multi-millionaires anymore!

      "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
    • andeux Aug 26,2010 8:34 am || Up

      I thought monkeyball was on the Dole.

      TINSTAAFK

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