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Friday, October 28, 2005
Link-O-RamaSethSpeaks: Specifically, would Ron Gardenhire look at things like, lefty-righty splits? It would appear that he doesn't as he continued to play Jacque Jones against lefties and Matthew LeCroy against righties?While Sheldon's statement about Jacque Jones improving against lefties "with the exception of this year" is technically true, I found it very misleading. I don't mean to pick on Sheldon here, because he does an excellent job covering the Twins and has been very friendly to me in our correspondence. With that said, this is the sort of thinking I wish more local media members would avoid. Yes, if you ignore his horrible numbers against lefties this season, as Sheldon suggests, then Jones has shown some minimal improvement against lefties "since earlier in his career." However, does saying that Jones' limited improvement "came from having his manager's confidence and knowing he would play every day" have any real value analytically when we're still talking about a guy who narrowly cracked a .700 OPS against lefties once, back in 2003? I would think that an objective look at Jones' numbers would lead to a conclusion more along the lines of "Jones has been given everyday playing time and still hasn't learned to hit lefties acceptably." Now, this was just an off-the-cuff remark said in a very informal interview. Still, it is ideas like the one Sheldon expressed -- that Ron Gardenhire sticking with Jones every day has somehow paid off -- that really bugs me. We need the intelligent, thoughtful, open-minded members of the local media like Sheldon and Minneapolis Star Tribune beat writer LaVelle E. Neal challenging ideas like that, rather than perpetuating them. And yes, I sure do have a funny way of thanking someone for saying something nice about my blog. It's as if the fact that he ran for 902 yards last year and is on pace for 805 yards this year doesn't count. Vick's career quarterback rating is a mediocre 75.3, but if you take an average quarterback and then add on the ability to rush for nearly 1,000 yards a season while chewing up 6-7 yards per carry, doesn't that equal a very good player? He doesn't derive his value in a standard way, but it's still there. As you might expect, Vick's coach, Jim Mora, agrees with me: I think it's unfortunate that people always put him in a mold. Let him be him. He's a quarterback. He's a great quarterback. ... When are we going to start talking about when Peyton Manning is going to start doing what Mike Vick does? Let's flip it. The guy wins games, and that's the role of a quarterback, to win games. ... I don't know why people are so narrow-minded that they can't understand why the guy is a great player.I believe that running quarterbacks have an impact on the game that is not accurately measured by traditional stats or even accounted for in the outstanding work the guys over at Football Outsiders are doing with sabermetric-style analysis. And at the risk of sounding like a Derek Jeter fan, Vick must be doing something right because the Falcons keep winning. In fact, here's a stat to chew on: When Vick starts, the Falcons are 28-13-1, for a .678 winning percentage. Over that same span when Vick doesn't start, the Falcons are 9-20, for a .310 winning percentage. The guy has won nearly 70% of his career starts, including going 16-5 over the last two seasons, and yet people act as if he's Bobby Douglass. * It's difficult to admit this, but there was a time when I favored Britney Spears over Christina Aguilera. That sounds crazy now, with Britney spitting out kids and generally aging slightly worse than Terrell Davis, but there was a period when Christina was not looking her best and Britney was still in her prime. However, Britney has had her Waffle Crapping privileges rescinded until further notice, while Christina is now looking better than ever. * I liked Avril Lavigne a lot better when she didn't look like Nicole Kidman. And not the old-school, Waffle Crapping-version of Kidman, either. * I'm not sure how they did it, but Arena magazine managed to make Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com, Elisha Cuthbert, look less than incredible. Today at The Hardball Times: - And Then There Was One (by Dan Fox) - World Series WPA Leaderboard (by Dave Studeman) Today's Picks (131-110, +$2,185): Colorado State +6.5 (-110) over New Mexico     
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Another Season in the BooksCongratulations to the Chicago White Sox and their fans. Aside from the Yankees, there is no team in baseball I root against harder than the White Sox, but they are deserving champions. Not only did they play well all season, sprinting out of the gates and holding on to their division lead in the face of a late-season charge from the Indians, they did so despite almost no one giving them a chance prior to the season. Hell, I predicted Chicago would finish third in the division, and all they did was win an AL-leading 99 games, go 11-1 in the postseason, and take home the franchise's first World Series since 1917. General manager Kenny Williams deserves credit for going into the offseason with a plan to overhaul the roster, following through with that plan, and having it work to perfection. And manager Ozzie Guillen deserves credit for pulling the right strings all season long. In watching the Astros get completely shut down by the White Sox for the final 15 innings of the World Series, I couldn't help but think of the Twins. The Twins' disappointing season was defined by a punchless offense that couldn't support an outstanding pitching staff, and in particular a frustrating inability to come up with hits in key spots. In the end the Astros, like the Twins, had plenty of pitching but simply couldn't put any runs on the board when it mattered. Meanwhile, the White Sox had pitching as good as any team in baseball and were able to get hits to drop when they needed them most. While the thought of the Twins competing with the reigning champs and the rapidly improving Indians in 2006 is intimidating, watching the White Sox blitz through the postseason in the manner they did does give me some hope.  I see no reason why the Twins can't become the same type of team, with great pitching and timely hitting. That feels odd to say, since for several years it was the Twins that other teams were trying to emulate, but certainly the 2005 White Sox are the model the Twins should be shooting for going forward. Chicago won this season because they pitched and played defense, and their lineup provided enough offense to win close games. The difference between the disappointing season the Twins had in 2005 and a Chicago-like run in 2006 is really not all that huge. While watching another AL Central team take home the championship was disappointing, watching how they did it was encouraging. Today begins an offseason of uncertainty and change for the Twins. I have confidence that the team will be better in 2006, but the question is whether or not their improvement will be enough to get them into the playoffs. And from there, the question is whether or not they will get the hits to drop and make the plays in the spots that matter. Chicago did just that and now their fans -- and the following outstanding White Sox blogs -- are celebrating: - South Side Sox - Exile in Wrigleyville - Black Betsy Go check em out. It's been a long time coming. Today at The Hardball Times: - A Pennant Flies in Chicago (by Dave Studeman) Today's Picks (130-110, +$2,085): Virginia Tech -13.5 (-110) over Boston College
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Almost FamousI had an odd experience Friday afternoon. There was a message on my answering machine from Minneapolis Star Tribune gossip columnist C.J., who apparently had her interest piqued by the A.J. Pierzynski photos I linked to in Friday's Link-O-Rama entry. She asked me to call her back, saying she wanted to confirm if the photos of a man doing jello shots with various women were, in fact, of Pierzynski.I didn't call her back, mostly because I have absolutely nothing to do with the pictures beyond linking to them here. In fact, I purposely didn't comment much on the link. Plus, me being quoted in the gossip column of a newspaper I've been criticizing here lately for a lack of quality content seemed sort of silly and hypocritical. Anyway, C.J. and her column went on without my involvement (shocking, I know). Here's some of what she wrote about the pictures in yesterday's Star Tribune: Type "A.J." and/or "Pierzynski" and "jello shots" into some search engines and up come photos of some party animals, one of whom looks a whoooole lot like the former Twin now with the World Series' Chicago White Sox.I don't really have a problem with C.J. writing about the pictures, but I'd just like to point out how much more attention the Minneapolis Star Tribune gave this "story" than this lowly blog did. I devoted 24 words to it Friday, while the Star Tribune devoted 375 words to it yesterday. Take from that what you want, but as someone who has had an ass-full of blog-bashing by members of the mainstream media, I found it interesting. Speaking of blogs, apparently AaronGleeman.com is worth $70,002.96. To whom it is worth that much and how exactly that figure was derived is beyond me, but I'll take it. Also, The Hardball Times is worth even more, at $180,088.26. All of which means I am suddenly fairly wealthy in the fantasy world where people are paying thousands of dollars for websites I run. I plan to spend my pretend money on lots of pretend luxuries, like really expensive imaginary cars, invisible flat-screen TVs, and vacations to places that don't exist. Today's Picks (128-110, +$1,820): Chicago (Garland) +165 over Houston (Oswalt) Wednesday's Picks: Chicago (Garcia) -130 over Houston (Backe)
Monday, October 24, 2005
Open Chat: WowAs painful as it was watching the White Sox take a 2-0 lead in the World Series -- seriously, read that again -- last night's game was amazing. For my extended take on one of the better games I've ever seen, head over to The Hardball Times and check out:The Hardball Times: Playing in the RainToday's Picks (128-109, +$1,930): New York +7.5 (-110) over Atlanta
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 Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com OFGoAG.com Timeline: Heidi Klum (8/2002 - 12/2003) Jessica Alba (12/2003 - 10/2004) Elisha Cuthbert (10/2004 - 11/2006) Vacant (11/2006 - 6/2008) Keeley Hazell (6/2008 - Present) OFGoAG.com Candidates: Marisa Miller Jenna Fischer Kate Beckinsale Mila Kunis Elisha Cuthbert |