January 14, 2009 – 1:32 pm
Walk Off Walk is another one of those blogs I would never have read without Google Reader, which is exactly why I love Google Reader as the blog is right up my alley. It’s about baseball and it’s humorous. What’s not to like? Reminds me a bit of an idea I had a few months ago to create the “Deadspin of Seattle sports” before giving it up when I realized the work/reward ratio was ridiculous.
Anyways, they have a story up right now about the Indians front office contacting season ticket holders to talk. Maybe it’s just because I am a GM fanboy, but this is pretty amazing to me that a team would do this. The idea that, next season, Mark A or Doug Melvin is going to give me a call to talk me into renewing makes me want to renew right now. Which I probably will anyways.
January 14, 2009 – 1:18 pm
I’ve been thinking about the Trevor Hoffman signing a lot lately because, well, I always think about the Brewers these days. (I’m a 20 game season ticket holder!) At first I liked the deal. Proven, decent deal, low risk, but the more that I think about it the more I think it’s going to turn out bad. Consider the fact that his fastball tops out at 86 MPH, no matter how good he changes speeds you wouldn’t want Jamie Moyer closing out games. His career Fly Ball percentage is 45%, he is currently projected to give up 1HR per 9IP and Miller Park is a hitter’s park. How do we see this ending well again?
EDIT: And of course FanGraphs agrees.
January 8, 2009 – 1:07 pm
I love that last season the Brewers needed a closer so they got a guy with a solid track record but a rough year the previous season for $10M dollars and then THIS year they got one of the best closers of all time (who still had a rough previous season if you call a 3.77 ERA rough) for $6M (max $7.5M). I realize that we could have the same exact result with Hoffman’s ERA ballooning, but that’s just a chance you take. For the price you really can’t beat it.
EDIT: I just realized we get to hear Hell’s Bells in the 9th now. That makes it so worth it!
January 7, 2009 – 2:07 pm
I know that complaining about the Hall of Fame is old news, but man this post at Deadspin is just making my head spin. Someone purposefully left Rickey Henderson off their ballot. Seriously! Apparently this happens all the time look at this list.
• Cal Ripken, 8 (537 of 545). That whole consecutive games playing streak thing? Overrated.
• Hank Aaron, 9 (406 of 415). There’s still some question about those absentee ballots from Minnesota.
• Babe Ruth, 11 (215 of 226). All 11 also thought Hitler was no particular threat.
• Ted Williams, 20 (282 of 302). Sorry Teddy Ballgame, not quite good enough.
• Willie Mays, 23 (409 of 432). Curiously, all 23 did vote for Art Shamsky.
Ugh.
I gave up on the Hall of Fame once I was old enough to learn that 2/3 of the guys from Tinker to Evers to Chance made the Hall of Fame based mostly on the poem. This is not to say that it is unimportant to me. I think that Rickey Henderson is one of the greatest players ever and he deserves a shrine to him (Kirby Puckett, not so much). I love the idea of the HoF and I am pretty sure I will attend when Ichiro is inducted and maybe even Edgar Martinez (who fucking better be) too. Stuff like this is just so infuriating. A secret club that makes sure no one is a unanimous vote even if they are the all time home run or stolen base leader? Really? Baseball will always be connected to its past, but that doesn’t mean they have to live in it.
January 7, 2009 – 12:58 pm
After reading about Giambi’s deal with the A’s you have to wonder if this is just Jason saying “You know what I had the best days of my life here in Oakland, then I got paid entirely too much money by the Yankees and now I just want to finish out my career in a place that I love.” And if that’s the case, I like Jason Giambi a little bit more than I did yesterday.
Which when you look at this picture is obviously a lot.
(Of course, it could be because nobody else really wanted him and he was happy to get a multi-year deal. Regardless Jason Giambi is cool by me.)