Monday, June 27, 2005
5 mlb questions:
(1) is it time to get rid of fan voting for the all-star game?
yes. while the all-star game is said to be "for the fans", how do we even know that those who vote watch the game? also, for every "fan" that just wants to see a big name player even if they are having a terrible year, i'd bet there's a fan who gets turned off by having to watch players who don't deserve to be there. just about evey year the fans vote in someone who's either spent most of the season on the DL or is having a sub par year. the obvious case this year is tino martinez. i'd rather see j. peterman in a dance off than see tino start over texeria (wait. bad analagy. you actually can see that). but starting ichiro is pretty awful too (.293 avg which is over 40 points below his career avg, .745 OPS), and the NL ss situation is getting out of hand (discussed below). so really. dump fan voting. let the players vote and have the managers pick the reserves.
(2) who should (arguably) make the all-star team but has no chance?
kevin mench. how does this guy go unnoticed year in and year out? he's slugging .545 with a higher OPS than soriano. it's sad that he occasionally loses ab's to hidalgo or nix.
felipe lopez. though his power numbers (13 hrs) are inflated by playing in the great american ballpark (10 hrs there), his average (.299) and OBP (.347) are identical at home and on the road. the top two vote getters are eckstein and izturis, but the starter should either be lopez or this next guy. [ed. note: NL shortstop has the most ridiculous voting - 3, 4, 5 are nomar, barmes, and furcal].
bill hall. has taken the job from jj hardy by mashing 31 extra base hits in only 218 ab's. OPS (.882) just 13 points below el caballo's. if only he could work in the gheri curl of one mel hall.
(3) how/why are teams still pitching to andruw jones?
this is one of the more ridulous things i've seen this year. the braves are starting up to seven rookies on a daily basis, and teams are still throwing the ball over the plate to jones. it's pretty much like being in bloodsport and volunteeting to fight chong li. honestly, this guy shouldn't even be sniffing a fastball in that lineup. ever. this weekend he was protected by estrada, franco, and larouche (none have an OPS over .770) and still hit 3 homers in the series (one a game winner).
(4) what's with the baserunning to first?
in the past two weeks, i've seen two players (ensberg, david wright) rounding first on a groundball only to get thrown out by an infielder. it's really not that hard to tell if the ball made it through or not. yuck.
(5) is joe torre going insane?
on friday nite, in the bottom of the 9th, down 2 with no one on and 1 out, torre let the worst everyday player in the majors (tony womack) hit and let the surging giambi and his .396 OBP rot on the bench. after womack and his .275 OBP (obviously) didn't reach base, jeter singled and torre then let cano hit (.310 OBP). i like cano somewhat, but don't you have to feel that if sheff and arod get up the yanks at least tie it? so he could've used giambi again to try to get runners on for his best two hitters.
then last nite, the misuse of womack continued when torre started him in cf. sure the yanks are banged up, but at least put newly called up OUTFIELDER kevin reese in center! when torre finally did lift womack in the 7th, it was with a runner on second and nobody out, the perfect time for womack to bunt jeter to third. i guess this call is more arguable than the others, but down 2 in the 7th inning i'd rather have jeter on third with one out than jeter on second with none out with sierra facing a changeup pitcher (sierra vs. heilman didn't seem like a good matchup to me).
(bonus question) so good or no good? a new yankee stadium
(1) is it time to get rid of fan voting for the all-star game?
yes. while the all-star game is said to be "for the fans", how do we even know that those who vote watch the game? also, for every "fan" that just wants to see a big name player even if they are having a terrible year, i'd bet there's a fan who gets turned off by having to watch players who don't deserve to be there. just about evey year the fans vote in someone who's either spent most of the season on the DL or is having a sub par year. the obvious case this year is tino martinez. i'd rather see j. peterman in a dance off than see tino start over texeria (wait. bad analagy. you actually can see that). but starting ichiro is pretty awful too (.293 avg which is over 40 points below his career avg, .745 OPS), and the NL ss situation is getting out of hand (discussed below). so really. dump fan voting. let the players vote and have the managers pick the reserves.
(2) who should (arguably) make the all-star team but has no chance?
kevin mench. how does this guy go unnoticed year in and year out? he's slugging .545 with a higher OPS than soriano. it's sad that he occasionally loses ab's to hidalgo or nix.
felipe lopez. though his power numbers (13 hrs) are inflated by playing in the great american ballpark (10 hrs there), his average (.299) and OBP (.347) are identical at home and on the road. the top two vote getters are eckstein and izturis, but the starter should either be lopez or this next guy. [ed. note: NL shortstop has the most ridiculous voting - 3, 4, 5 are nomar, barmes, and furcal].
bill hall. has taken the job from jj hardy by mashing 31 extra base hits in only 218 ab's. OPS (.882) just 13 points below el caballo's. if only he could work in the gheri curl of one mel hall.
(3) how/why are teams still pitching to andruw jones?
this is one of the more ridulous things i've seen this year. the braves are starting up to seven rookies on a daily basis, and teams are still throwing the ball over the plate to jones. it's pretty much like being in bloodsport and volunteeting to fight chong li. honestly, this guy shouldn't even be sniffing a fastball in that lineup. ever. this weekend he was protected by estrada, franco, and larouche (none have an OPS over .770) and still hit 3 homers in the series (one a game winner).
(4) what's with the baserunning to first?
in the past two weeks, i've seen two players (ensberg, david wright) rounding first on a groundball only to get thrown out by an infielder. it's really not that hard to tell if the ball made it through or not. yuck.
(5) is joe torre going insane?
on friday nite, in the bottom of the 9th, down 2 with no one on and 1 out, torre let the worst everyday player in the majors (tony womack) hit and let the surging giambi and his .396 OBP rot on the bench. after womack and his .275 OBP (obviously) didn't reach base, jeter singled and torre then let cano hit (.310 OBP). i like cano somewhat, but don't you have to feel that if sheff and arod get up the yanks at least tie it? so he could've used giambi again to try to get runners on for his best two hitters.
then last nite, the misuse of womack continued when torre started him in cf. sure the yanks are banged up, but at least put newly called up OUTFIELDER kevin reese in center! when torre finally did lift womack in the 7th, it was with a runner on second and nobody out, the perfect time for womack to bunt jeter to third. i guess this call is more arguable than the others, but down 2 in the 7th inning i'd rather have jeter on third with one out than jeter on second with none out with sierra facing a changeup pitcher (sierra vs. heilman didn't seem like a good matchup to me).
(bonus question) so good or no good? a new yankee stadium
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
last friday was our 4th anniversary. yup, four years since we exchanged vows and nina's brother and our college friends exchanged a blunt around a disney world pool. we generally try to do some sort of trip to celebrate, but this year travelling just wasn't in the cards. instead we went to some nice restaurant in old town albuquerque. we had a great time, and accordingly, the few potential problems were easily nullified:
downside: nina gagged on the oysters, and maybe threw up in her mouth a little bit.
upside: we tried something we've never had before, and in saying they smelled like "Ahab's Jockstrap", nina came up with an awesome band name.
downside: i didn't ask for the price of the special, and found out on the bill that my dinner was $48.95.
upside: i had me some fucking unreal $50 crabs legs. they must've needed a forklift to get that tasty crustacean out of the water.
downside: it seemed like they didn't really know how to take reservations.
upside: we wound up getting seated at the exclusive table #5 - secluded, romantic, and a perfect place for me to spend 45 minutes with melted butter all over my chin.
so, obviously, next time you're needing a little advice in the romance department, feel free to call on ol' team goetz.
downside: nina gagged on the oysters, and maybe threw up in her mouth a little bit.
upside: we tried something we've never had before, and in saying they smelled like "Ahab's Jockstrap", nina came up with an awesome band name.
downside: i didn't ask for the price of the special, and found out on the bill that my dinner was $48.95.
upside: i had me some fucking unreal $50 crabs legs. they must've needed a forklift to get that tasty crustacean out of the water.
downside: it seemed like they didn't really know how to take reservations.
upside: we wound up getting seated at the exclusive table #5 - secluded, romantic, and a perfect place for me to spend 45 minutes with melted butter all over my chin.
so, obviously, next time you're needing a little advice in the romance department, feel free to call on ol' team goetz.
Friday, June 10, 2005
i realize this post should've been made earlier in the week. but really, is there any truer sign that a sport has completely fallen off the radar when game 7 of the conference finals is on TNT? yes, the biggest NBA game of the 2005 aired not on a prime network, or even a sportsnetwork, but one whose biggest features are reruns of law and order (i can see the l&o fan's going nuts already but cmon - it's reruns!) and multiple weekly showings of cliffhanger. and one of their analysts, craig sager, was wearing a suit used by eddie murphy in coming to america. i haven't seen the ratings on this, but i bet they were lower than [reader's contest: fill in the blank].
really, there's not much the nba can do to gain fans/viewers, since you don't need to turn any nba game on until there's 6 minutes left in the fourth. if it's a good game, you watch for 20 minutes. if it's a blowout, then you don't waste your time.
it's pretty fair (and totally weird) to say that NASCAR has become the third major sport in the US.
really, there's not much the nba can do to gain fans/viewers, since you don't need to turn any nba game on until there's 6 minutes left in the fourth. if it's a good game, you watch for 20 minutes. if it's a blowout, then you don't waste your time.
it's pretty fair (and totally weird) to say that NASCAR has become the third major sport in the US.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
at the end of last week, i checked the albuquerque isotopes' schedule (these guys, but they did show these on the scoreboard) to see who was in town. as luck would have it, the team i wanted to see most in the PCL was in town friday, closing out a three game set. that's right folks, we got to see none other than the brewers AAA squad, the nashville sound.
i am not joking about me wanting to see them most of any pacific coast league team - they have 3-4 guys who will project to be very good major leaguers, including my two favorite minor leaguers: prince fielder (because he played a game on my summer league team back in summer of 01, when he was in hike school, and used damian easley game bats) and rickie weeks (for being so constantly doubted as he set the record for highest career collegiate batting average). weeks is potentially just a few weeks from a call up, as he is tearing apart AAA pitching to the tune of an OPS nearing 1.100. fielder struggled early this year, but he's only 20 years old and has had his homer total jump from 3 to 11 (as of friday) in just a few weeks. also in our favor was the fact that former braves prospect jose capellan was starting for the sounds (thanks to the great kolb trade).
i haven't been to a AAA since seeing the columbus clippers last summer, but this place was far superior to the columbus stadium (which was one of the worst minor league parks i've ever been too). here, there's a view of the mountains beyond center field. there's a chili pepper race (a la the sausage race), which of course the taco won. i swear roy halladay was moonlighting as one of the beer vendors. and where they show the pitch's mph there's three peppers (yellow, green, red) and based on the pitch speed one lights up (even at 95, capellan couldn't a fucking red pepper).
except for the one loud fan who even heckled some kids after they unsuccessfully tried to get the wave going, the whole experience was great. capellan took a perfect game into the 5th, there were a couple of nice defensive plays, and the second coming of jerome walton (read: kevin orie) busted some guy's face 10 rows in front of us with a foul line drive (not that that's great, but cmon - i had to work that walton-orie ref in there somehow). unfortunately, weeks (who works a very sheff-esque bat waggle) went 0-3 with a bb and 2 k's, and prince managed a 1-4, but the sounds still won 6-1. oddly, even with all this elevation, there were no jacks. what may be even more odd was that the isotopes (marlins AAA) seem to have very little talent waiting in the wings if someone in south florida goes down, though their catcher (josh willingham) and rf (former clemson kicker matt padgett) should get a shot in the show at some point.
anyway, with this nice yound crop, look for the brew crew to make the playoffs in 2008.
i am not joking about me wanting to see them most of any pacific coast league team - they have 3-4 guys who will project to be very good major leaguers, including my two favorite minor leaguers: prince fielder (because he played a game on my summer league team back in summer of 01, when he was in hike school, and used damian easley game bats) and rickie weeks (for being so constantly doubted as he set the record for highest career collegiate batting average). weeks is potentially just a few weeks from a call up, as he is tearing apart AAA pitching to the tune of an OPS nearing 1.100. fielder struggled early this year, but he's only 20 years old and has had his homer total jump from 3 to 11 (as of friday) in just a few weeks. also in our favor was the fact that former braves prospect jose capellan was starting for the sounds (thanks to the great kolb trade).
i haven't been to a AAA since seeing the columbus clippers last summer, but this place was far superior to the columbus stadium (which was one of the worst minor league parks i've ever been too). here, there's a view of the mountains beyond center field. there's a chili pepper race (a la the sausage race), which of course the taco won. i swear roy halladay was moonlighting as one of the beer vendors. and where they show the pitch's mph there's three peppers (yellow, green, red) and based on the pitch speed one lights up (even at 95, capellan couldn't a fucking red pepper).
except for the one loud fan who even heckled some kids after they unsuccessfully tried to get the wave going, the whole experience was great. capellan took a perfect game into the 5th, there were a couple of nice defensive plays, and the second coming of jerome walton (read: kevin orie) busted some guy's face 10 rows in front of us with a foul line drive (not that that's great, but cmon - i had to work that walton-orie ref in there somehow). unfortunately, weeks (who works a very sheff-esque bat waggle) went 0-3 with a bb and 2 k's, and prince managed a 1-4, but the sounds still won 6-1. oddly, even with all this elevation, there were no jacks. what may be even more odd was that the isotopes (marlins AAA) seem to have very little talent waiting in the wings if someone in south florida goes down, though their catcher (josh willingham) and rf (former clemson kicker matt padgett) should get a shot in the show at some point.
anyway, with this nice yound crop, look for the brew crew to make the playoffs in 2008.
oh. my. god. honestly. you have to see for yourself.
i have no words.
[ed. note: the link should work now. it's better than the first one, and i'm sporting a huge stiffy as i see this. do yourself a favor and click on the "trailer"]
i have no words.
[ed. note: the link should work now. it's better than the first one, and i'm sporting a huge stiffy as i see this. do yourself a favor and click on the "trailer"]
Friday, June 03, 2005
last weekend nina and i went camping with 2 friends of ours, dan and dee. i guess memorial day is a big camping weekend, because the established sites were all taken by 2pm on the friday. we wound up offroading it up a beaten path into some random woods, and this wound up working out great.
i guess i should specify that we were car camping. you know, where you sleep in tents but more or less bring enough supplies to survive a nuclear holocaust (the grocery run before leaving was just shy of $200). anyway, we wound up in a great spot. there was no running water but luckily, no other campers for at least a mile.
obviously, we brought enough beer to kill a small horse (but not the large one we kept feeding). as i was reminded constantly by dan, i didn't really wind up drinking that much given that we cracked the first one at around 3pm. either way, i'll give you a beer by beer recap of the first night.
beers 1 and 2
set up camp (i.e. tents, sleeping bags, and of course, the card table). collect wood for the fire pit. get distracted and have a hatchet throwing contest. feel like a real lumberjack.
beer 3
start eating ravenously on true camping essentials: chex mix, twizzlers, and sunflower seeds. start playing euchre.
beers 4 and 5
play some dice games.
beers 6 and 7
cook dinner over an open fire. like true outdoorsmen, we have steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and caesar salad.
beer 8 and 9
play catchphrase. nina and dee (relatively sober) skunk dan and i (sober not so much). dan and i are struggling to get words like "dog" even though dan and dee brought their two dogs with them and you're allowed to point at things.
beer 10
collect more firewood. this eventually turns into caber tossing with a fallen tree. minor injuries sustained.
beer 11
smores and twizzlers. dan, who's probably at beer 18 by now, is putting marshmellows on his graham crackers while they're still on fire.
beer 12
fire jumping. you had to see this coming.
sometime at 2am, after we've been a sleep for a few hours
me shitting in the woods. multiple times.
the rest of the weekend was just as grand, minus all the pooping. just call me paul bunyan.
i guess i should specify that we were car camping. you know, where you sleep in tents but more or less bring enough supplies to survive a nuclear holocaust (the grocery run before leaving was just shy of $200). anyway, we wound up in a great spot. there was no running water but luckily, no other campers for at least a mile.
obviously, we brought enough beer to kill a small horse (but not the large one we kept feeding). as i was reminded constantly by dan, i didn't really wind up drinking that much given that we cracked the first one at around 3pm. either way, i'll give you a beer by beer recap of the first night.
beers 1 and 2
set up camp (i.e. tents, sleeping bags, and of course, the card table). collect wood for the fire pit. get distracted and have a hatchet throwing contest. feel like a real lumberjack.
beer 3
start eating ravenously on true camping essentials: chex mix, twizzlers, and sunflower seeds. start playing euchre.
beers 4 and 5
play some dice games.
beers 6 and 7
cook dinner over an open fire. like true outdoorsmen, we have steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and caesar salad.
beer 8 and 9
play catchphrase. nina and dee (relatively sober) skunk dan and i (sober not so much). dan and i are struggling to get words like "dog" even though dan and dee brought their two dogs with them and you're allowed to point at things.
beer 10
collect more firewood. this eventually turns into caber tossing with a fallen tree. minor injuries sustained.
beer 11
smores and twizzlers. dan, who's probably at beer 18 by now, is putting marshmellows on his graham crackers while they're still on fire.
beer 12
fire jumping. you had to see this coming.
sometime at 2am, after we've been a sleep for a few hours
me shitting in the woods. multiple times.
the rest of the weekend was just as grand, minus all the pooping. just call me paul bunyan.
the other day we found a gift card to best buy in my glove compartment. i put this on par with thinking you've finished a case of beer only two find two renegade coronas behind the gallon of milk. anyway, it had almost $40 left on it, so for less than five bucks out of my pocket we picked up outlaw golf 2, and more importantly, midway arcade treasures.
the golf game is fine, and dave attell is the announcer. but really, the arcade game combo is just awesome. you get 24 arcade classics like rampage, tapper, spy hunter, paper boy, smash tv and the list keeps going. my favorite, though, is rampart. i'd never even heard of this, and i suck at it, but it is definitely addicting (which is more than i can say for gauntlet - worst game included). so if you're looking for me, i'll be on the couch flying around on a giant bird picking up eggs and crushing other birds. gooooood luck! youuuu'll need it!
the golf game is fine, and dave attell is the announcer. but really, the arcade game combo is just awesome. you get 24 arcade classics like rampage, tapper, spy hunter, paper boy, smash tv and the list keeps going. my favorite, though, is rampart. i'd never even heard of this, and i suck at it, but it is definitely addicting (which is more than i can say for gauntlet - worst game included). so if you're looking for me, i'll be on the couch flying around on a giant bird picking up eggs and crushing other birds. gooooood luck! youuuu'll need it!
Thursday, June 02, 2005
sure, it's been a while. i was gone for the weekend (recap should be forthcoming, but i've got a nice little thursday planned, and i..i don't know if i'll have time), then a buddy came in town, but that's all over now.
so with this great mlb season roughly 1/3 thru, im going to be giving out some under the radar-type awards, in a tv show actor/character theme. so without further ado:
the chuck norris award
david dellucci (aka walk(er) texas ranger), for keeping the rangers afloat while the stars struggled early. just like norris was an underrated star in the 80's churning out martial arts fliks while asshats like steven segal and jean claude van damne got all the fame, dellucci has quietly had a break out year and literally walked his way to the top (40 bb's, .462 obp). plus he's got some pop, with 8 yackers. i wish the yanks woulda held on to him. also, here's to hoping he's not selling total gyms with christie brinkley next year.
runner up: shea hillenbrand (leads jays in OPS, total bases)
the al the tool man award
craig biggio. much like al, who was great on his home turf (the shop), but really struggled out in the real world, biggio has been unreal at minute maid: 8 hr, 23 rbi, 1.041 OPS. but on the road? this is almost unbelievable: 0, 0, .639. jesus, next time they go out of town, they might as well conviently forget him at home to fend off the leaky bandits from breaking into the field formerly known as enron. sheesh.
runner up: clint barmes (1.101 OPS at home, .649 on the road)
the dennis haysbert award
eric chavez, mike lowell. oh how the mighty have fallen. much like haybert, who was on top of the world as president david palmer only to find himself talking about the swoop and swerve for allstate, these two former sluggers are just gross so far this year. on top of playing the role of black hole in the middle of their respective lineups, they're killing fantasy owners everywhere (read: me). there's still time to turn their years around, but so far they are most definitely the LVPs.
runner up: jason kendall (man do those a's suck)
the Aqua Teen Hunger Force award
the brewers starting pitchers. just like ATHF is the most unknown and outstanding tv show, the trio of doug davis, chris capuano, and victor santos kept the brewers in second place in the NL central despite the never ending dizzy spells of ace ben sheets. davis (7 wins, 3.62 era), santos, (2.73 era in 10 starts), and capuano (3.01 era in 11 starts): the real life version of meatwad, frylock, and master shake. (editor's note: season 1 is now available on DVD).
runner up: chad cordero (1.44 era, 13 saves)
the dr. nick award
for a guy making great contributions as a role player, jeff cirillo. once a perenial .300 hitter, cirillo suffered a few abysmal years before getting back to the brew crew, where it all started. he's undoubetly walkin around the clubhouse yelling "hi, everybody!", hitting just under .300 and filling in nicely at 3rd in a platoon role with russell branyan.
runner up: tony clark (1.017 OPS, 5 hr's, 22 rbi in 79 ab's)
the matthew fox award
nick johnson. fox hit the big time with party of five, then faded into oblivion for a few years before starring on this year's big tv thing, lost. johnson followed a similar path, grabbing some attention as the yank's new big thing a few years ago. finally able to avoid the injury bug thus far in 2005, johnson has been carrying the nat's offense in the absence of jose vidro: he leads the team in average (.323), OBP (.435), OPS (.956), and ribbies (30).
runner up: dontrelle willis (8-2, 1.67 era after 2 mediocre seasons with more hype than substance)
so with this great mlb season roughly 1/3 thru, im going to be giving out some under the radar-type awards, in a tv show actor/character theme. so without further ado:
the chuck norris award
david dellucci (aka walk(er) texas ranger), for keeping the rangers afloat while the stars struggled early. just like norris was an underrated star in the 80's churning out martial arts fliks while asshats like steven segal and jean claude van damne got all the fame, dellucci has quietly had a break out year and literally walked his way to the top (40 bb's, .462 obp). plus he's got some pop, with 8 yackers. i wish the yanks woulda held on to him. also, here's to hoping he's not selling total gyms with christie brinkley next year.
runner up: shea hillenbrand (leads jays in OPS, total bases)
the al the tool man award
craig biggio. much like al, who was great on his home turf (the shop), but really struggled out in the real world, biggio has been unreal at minute maid: 8 hr, 23 rbi, 1.041 OPS. but on the road? this is almost unbelievable: 0, 0, .639. jesus, next time they go out of town, they might as well conviently forget him at home to fend off the leaky bandits from breaking into the field formerly known as enron. sheesh.
runner up: clint barmes (1.101 OPS at home, .649 on the road)
the dennis haysbert award
eric chavez, mike lowell. oh how the mighty have fallen. much like haybert, who was on top of the world as president david palmer only to find himself talking about the swoop and swerve for allstate, these two former sluggers are just gross so far this year. on top of playing the role of black hole in the middle of their respective lineups, they're killing fantasy owners everywhere (read: me). there's still time to turn their years around, but so far they are most definitely the LVPs.
runner up: jason kendall (man do those a's suck)
the Aqua Teen Hunger Force award
the brewers starting pitchers. just like ATHF is the most unknown and outstanding tv show, the trio of doug davis, chris capuano, and victor santos kept the brewers in second place in the NL central despite the never ending dizzy spells of ace ben sheets. davis (7 wins, 3.62 era), santos, (2.73 era in 10 starts), and capuano (3.01 era in 11 starts): the real life version of meatwad, frylock, and master shake. (editor's note: season 1 is now available on DVD).
runner up: chad cordero (1.44 era, 13 saves)
the dr. nick award
for a guy making great contributions as a role player, jeff cirillo. once a perenial .300 hitter, cirillo suffered a few abysmal years before getting back to the brew crew, where it all started. he's undoubetly walkin around the clubhouse yelling "hi, everybody!", hitting just under .300 and filling in nicely at 3rd in a platoon role with russell branyan.
runner up: tony clark (1.017 OPS, 5 hr's, 22 rbi in 79 ab's)
the matthew fox award
nick johnson. fox hit the big time with party of five, then faded into oblivion for a few years before starring on this year's big tv thing, lost. johnson followed a similar path, grabbing some attention as the yank's new big thing a few years ago. finally able to avoid the injury bug thus far in 2005, johnson has been carrying the nat's offense in the absence of jose vidro: he leads the team in average (.323), OBP (.435), OPS (.956), and ribbies (30).
runner up: dontrelle willis (8-2, 1.67 era after 2 mediocre seasons with more hype than substance)
