False Alarm

beckham played 2B for the entire season in the AFL last year IIRC and i read multiple reports saying he was good out there. not worried about the position change at all and i'm glad they're doing it if it's true.

i generally fall more on the stathead side of the spectrum (eg, i was pro-swisher), but i'm with chisoxfn and KHP on getz-nix. nix has never shown he can hit major league pitching. getz has a track record as a guy who can make contact and get on base. nothing fancy but he's much more likely to be a useful starter. i do worry about his durability a little bit. also i've been married for 5+ years and still have way too much useless sports info. for example i remember how bad i wanted to see arnie munoz pitch when he was a prospect and how disappointed i was when i found out i wouldn't be able to see his first MLB start cuz it was on my wedding night. he got lit up, horribly lit up, by the expos and i believe is now a rent-a-cop somewhere, though not a very intimidating one. anyway, not sure what any of that says about me.

yeah, the velocity issue's all cleared up. BA's velocity reports have always been really trustworthy.

america's most blunted, madvillain my favorite chords, the weakerthans carry on, elliott rhyme time travel, arsonists smile decoy (to mars and back mix by micromars), her space holiday left, jakki tha motamouth beijing, ee hear you me, jimmy eat world (wife) i got you (at the end of the century), wilco we are underused, pavement

thanks, jose.

love hawk and stoney, like farmer and DJ. tell you what though i really miss john rooney. i loved when he had the play by play and farmer did color. farmer's play by play annoys me sometimes but i thought he was real good as the color guy. and i like his monotone. kinda his signature.

hey thanks y'all.

heh. BA.

i'm also amused by the idea that peavy is "locked into a deal that pays him more than he would receive on the open market today" and "what [we're] paying Peavy could have bought [us] much more value on the open market." what, would peavy get gil meche money if he were a free agent?

i liked poreda more than most. a lefty pitcher with that kinda power, control, and sink is extremely rare. i think he'll be erratic in the bigs for a couple-three years. a lotta peeps'll start to write him off. then the secondary stuff'll click and he'll pretty quickly turn into at least a good #2. that said, i LOVE this f***ing deal. kudos, KW.

regarding carter, i wouldn't be surprised if they're keeping him at low A for now to make sure he maintains the dominant #s for the sake of his trade value. he's a good arm, but he's a serious flyball pitcher, and cuz of that i have trouble seeing him making it to the bigs with a team that plays in the cell. he'd have better value for someone with less of a HR ballpark.

QUOTE (BobDylan @ Jul 9, 2009 -> 06:30 AM) So, yeah, I'm thinking of joining the forces. Been thinking along the lines of the Navy, Air-Force or Coast Guard. Basically, I'm tried of this s***ty economy, tired of this s***ty job I have even with this fantastic city I live in. Hell, even if I were offered a better job, I'm not sure I'd want it. Working behind a desk for somebody isn't something I really want to do now, or ever. For whatever up reason, I've wanted to install cable for people because it seems like an easy job that pays well enough. I can't get that f***ing job. So, the Navy intrigues me because I'd basically get paid to work on a boat and see the world. The Coast Guard could keep me in the states (possibly even on the West Coast) and I could rescue downed fishermen. The Air-Force... hell, I don't know. Truth be told, I don't know a lot about any of the branches - that's why I'm posting this. What do you guys know? Is anybody in the military, or has anybody been? What's it like? I'm still a young guy, so I have time and it seems like it'd be better to do this than work s*** jobs for the next few years. Those crappy jobs will always be here. If I'm 40, well, the military is much less of an option. So it kind of seems like now or never. my best friend took a similar track. college degree, supersmart, and hyperliterate but had no idea what he wanted to do so he joined the navy a year or so after he graduated. thing is, you get a job in the navy. a lot of those jobs are just as s***ty as civilian jobs. he's an electrician now, and that's a fine job for some peeps but he ain't liked it, and he hasn't been able to move into any of the areas of the navy he actually wants to work. he's seen the world some, but like NSS says he's seen a lot more of cramped quarters, empty ocean, and whatever town his ship's been based in, and he didn't see the birth of his first son (didn't even meet his first son till the kid was about six months old) and couldn't come to my wedding even though he would've been best man. all of which isn't to say you shouldn't sign up. i know you write, which my friend doesn't, and there's a long tradition of writers who've served in the navy and on merchantmen, whalers, etc just to travel and experience things to milk for their writing. the pay's not good, but i don't get the sense from talking to my friend that it's quite as bad as NSS suggests, and the benefits are really good. in fact they're the reason he's renewed his contract a couple of times now despite not caring for the work--the medical bennies for his family. but yeah, what other people said: talk to as many people as you can about whatever branch you're considering. it ain't a decision to make lightly.

no problem with this move.

V., by thomas pynchon. it's funny.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 17, 2009 -> 04:54 PM) I read an earlier Iraq book of his, called Fiasco, that was (IMO) essential reading if you want a picture of how things went in Iraq. Actually, that could be an interesting reading list. To understand the Iraq War, the essentials: All three of the Woodward books on BushCo and the war on terror Cobra II by Gordon, Trainer Curveball by Bob Drogin Fiasco by Thomas Ricks Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill Idiot's Guide to Surviving in Iraq by James Janega That should give you a pretty good picture of the various military, political, intel and ground factors. The only missing piece really is a good cultural guide to Iraq, so, you'll have to find that youself, as I don't know one off hand. i get the sense that if you considered fiasco essential you'd probably dig this one a lot too. seems very thorough, and it's interesting how much disagreement there was in the military over the change in strategy. lotta generals and admirals feuding and stuff like that.

so after railing against nonfic earlier in this thread i'm now reading The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, by thomas e ricks. it's all right. quite a bit of interesting stuff on tactics and strategy.

i guess i need it explained to me why you guys insist swisher is worthless even now. i get it; you like contact. but research and analysis of the ways runs are generated in a baseball game show overwhelmingly, inarguably, that guys who are on base at a .357 clip are very useful at said generation of runs. and guys who are on at a .394 clip are extremely valuable, especially when they hit 25 HR a year. i mean, this is old hat, just understood stuff, and i know y'alls understand it cuz i know you're savvy baseball fans, so i don't understand how you can call him a "bad baseball player" or talk about how he's addition by subtraction no matter what we got in return. absolutely he blew last year--a .219 average is just death in a lineup even if you do get on base at an average clip--and if you think his average is bound to decline from .255 back to that level, then i can see why you hate him. but how can you consider his present production in NY to be bad? he'd be one of the three best hitters on our team right now. i guess maybe having him and thome in the lineup at the same time might be part of the problem. they'd take up enough PA that their strikeouts would hinder run production in some really visible, frustrating ways (though he'd still be an asset). maybe that's what bothers you guys about him? or maybe it's just off-field/intangible/personality stuff? anyway, i like average too. i agree that it's underrated in some circles. but a player's ability to hit for contact--no matter how good his hit tool--is generally much more variable than his ability to get on base via the walk. so if you build a team focusing too much on empty batting average, it's a great way to have an inconsistent (ie, bad) team, one that's just as ineffective as a bunch of plodding three-true-outcome guys. swisher's not great by any means, but guys who hit like he's hitting can certainly have a place as starters on good teams, and his salary is significant but not unreasonable for a solid starter. i dunno. just my $0.02.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 4, 2009 -> 03:56 PM) Anyone read The Road? I was...disappointed. It had such promise, but nothing happened. I felt like it was a good first 5 chapters of a 20 chapter book. thought it was really good. plenty happened, it just didn't follow freytag's triangle (standard plot structure). the plot wasn't a triangle, it was a meandering line--like a road. if there's any real criticism i think it should be re: the ending. i didn't personally have a problem with it but i could see how maybe someone could.

i dunno. i mean, yeah, the dude doesn't seem to acknowledge that age is slightly less important for pitchers, and it was ignorant of him to write off omogrosso and a couple others with no apparent idea about the book on them, but his general point is true. age relative to league is probably the most important number for a prospect when determining his chances of being an impact player. not the only number by any means, and obviously numbers shouldn't be looked at while ignoring the scouting report, but people here (and i agree this is a great minor-league resource) do sometimes seem to ignore age more than they should. (david cook excitement last year, for example.) i share his doubts about shelby--if he doesn't succeed this year he'll be 24 at AA next year, which is old for a prospect, and that'll dim his star considerably. (scenario, don't bother pointing out that 24's younger than league average [if it even is]. 24 at AA is old if you're supposed to be a major league baseball prospect.) his athleticism'd allow me to still hold out hope for him, but i wouldn't be real bullish on him at that point. finally, all kinds of useful players can be found who aren't young on the prospect curve, particularly relievers like omogrosso and link, but it's tough to disagree that most impact players show up young (guys like ryan howard being the occasional exception, and he's an old-player-skills guy anyway; they tend to follow a different curve). those are the real commodities. serviceable regulars aren't very hard to find in comparison. all this, btw, is why viciedo's still #2 on my chisox top 10.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 28, 2009 -> 01:01 PM) Currently reading... heh, behemoth. i love that f***ing book.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 27, 2009 -> 06:35 AM) Jordan's BABIP has to be well over .400. That's simply not going to last. Will see where he is a month or so from now. it's .500. pretty high line drive rate too though, plus he's a lefty with good speed, so yeah it'll regress but those two facts should help him maintain a high average (assuming he maintains that LD%).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 20, 2009 -> 05:31 PM) I was more directing my question at people here in this thread, for discussion purposes. i know, sorry. i was just saying i'd expect ss2k5's to be the standard answer here, since it is everywhere else in the country: QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 20, 2009 -> 05:32 PM) I barely read fiction anymore, it is almost all non-fiction of some kind. With my limited free time, I feel better learning something. so utilitarian. so grown-up.

QUOTE (Kid Gleason @ May 20, 2009 -> 06:03 PM) I've gone back to reading a lot lately. Not sure why I stopped. I think it was just a lack of time, but I am working on making up for it now. I'm reading The Summoning by Bentley Little right now. I've liked everything I have read from Bentley so far, and this is starting out as one of his best so far, which is the reputation it has. Also grabbed the newest issue of Cemetery Dance magazine last night (along with a couple of books), so I am reading through that right now. Anybody else on here use Library Thing? It lets you list 200 books for free, but for $10 a year you can list as many as you like. I am thinking I will be spending the $10 soon. I like the site quite a bit. Here is my link: http://www.librarything.com/home/CarlIsonhart I think you can see it like that. i use goodreads, which is more a books-centered social network than library-fetishizing site like librarything. goodreads is still pretty good for cataloguing your library (and free, and has more book reviews). all things considered i'd probably rather be on librarything, but no way i'm payin.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 20, 2009 -> 03:44 PM) Last few years, I've read more non-fiction than fiction. Anyone else read any substantial amount of non-fiction, particularly history-related books? most of the book-buying public. why do you think we've seen such a rash of "memoirs" that turned out to be fake in recent years? most people want stuff they perceive as real. nonfiction sales crush fiction sales. QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 20, 2009 -> 03:44 PM) Here's a seperate question. Name an author who you like that you'd call a guilty pleasure. Something you know is not great literature, but you just enjoy it anyway. I'll throw one out there: Tony Hillerman don't really feel guilty about it but RA salvatore's an author i followed for years who'll never have library of america editions of his novels. he's a sharecrop pulp fantasy writer and i no longer read everything he puts out, but he's done many great, energetic scenes over the years, and that does take skill. he's got nothing to be ashamed of. ------------------------------------- mentioned it in another thread but right now i'm reading red mars, by kim stanley robinson. it's good hard SF and well written. deals a lot with terraforming. i guess the environment's a big thing with robinson. last book i read was elric, by michael moorcock. was a fantasy collection of the first nine elric stories and novellas basically. elric is considered classic material in fantasy circles, so i was shocked by how bad the writing was in most of this early stuff. i can see why it was influential though too so i gave it somewhat of a pass.

yeah i thought about mentioning heinlein. so influential, and good heinlein is so freaking good, but bad heinlein can be pretty embarrassing. he'll always have a place in my heart anyway.