Author: AJ

In Z we Trust?

By Blaidd Drwg

I have been thoroughly confused by the moves that his Holiness, Jack Z has made over the last few weeks – not as confused as I am with the moves that Wunderkind Theo Epstein has made, but that is for another post. Z’s moves over the last couple of years have really made me wonder if he is the guy we want running this team.

I was ready to write a nice post praising Z for the signing of Jack Cust and trading Jose Lopez. I really like Cust –  yes, he strikes out a ton and yes, he is a butcher in the OF (hey he is no worse than Raul Ibanez ever was), but the guy is a LH power bat who has posted decent numbers in Safeco over his career. More importantly, Cust has great plate discipline and walks a ton, a direction this team really needs to start heading in to be successful. Getting rid of Lopez is addition by subtraction – he can’t hit, he hasn’t met a pitch he didn’t like and he was generally not good defensively. The fact they got a warm body for him was an added bonus. My only question is – does signing Cust mean that Saunders is not going to get regular playing time in LF?

Then Z goes and makes some moves that just are mind blowing.

1) He signs Miguel Olivo for 2 (!) years. Olivo is basically Jose Lopez but a catcher – he swings at everything, hits for occasional power and really is not considered a good fielder. The Mariners moved him a few years ago when he was younger because he couldn’t hit and the pitchers hated throwing to him. I am pretty sure nothing has changed. And before you point out his decent production over the last few seasons – I would like to point out that 3 of those 5 seasons came in the NL, he posted an OPS+ greater than 100 only once and his walk totals in those 5 season were 9, 14, 7, 19 and 27 – every one of those seasons he racked up at least 360 plate appearances.

2) He trades for Brendan Ryan. Ryan is a spare part – a Josh Wilson kind of guy who can play 3 IF positions, none extraordinarily well, but well enough and can hit a little, but you are probably asking for trouble if you give him north of 300 plate appearances. I fundamentally have no problem with getting Ryan, they gave up a guy who probably will never make the majors for him; it is what they are planning to do with Ryan that makes no sense – make him a starter. How many Jack Wilson/Josh Wilson/Matt Tuisasosopo guys do you need on your roster – they are all interchangeable parts and carrying 3 or 4 of them will really limit your team – how does it benefit you if you have 3 guys who all can do the same thing with the same basic abilities.

3) Releasing Rob Johnson. I have no love for Johnson – he can’t handle the pitchers very well, he has trouble with keeping the ball in front of him (as evidenced by the 9 PB in 61 games last year), hasn’t shown that he can hit MLB pitching and really shouldn’t be a starter. He is 28 and probably primed for his best career season, is making close to league minimum and has shown that he can hit in the minors. You are telling me that you had to DFA him instead of finding someone that would be willing to take him for a warm body? They needed to clear a roster spot for Jack Cust, but I don’t understand dumping a catcher. Someone will end up signing him.

The Mariners are going to have to make another move when Olivo officially signs. I can only hope that they guy they get rid of is one of the Jack Wilson/Josh Wilson/Matt Tuisasosopo three headed monster.

Alternate Au Gratin

by A.J. Coltrane

I’ve tried making Potatoes Au Gratin using the Joy of Cooking recipe many times.  I’ve never been able to get it to come out “right” — it always comes out too “soupy” for my taste.

The picture above shows my latest go at it, using the Joy recipe as a jumping off point.  (The dish tightened up quite a bit after a few minutes of cooling — the finished product had almost no “liquid.”)

Here are the two ingredient lists, side by side:

Joy of Cooking Coltrane’s Alternate
1 Clove Garlic 1 Clove Garlic
1 TBP Butter 1 TBP Butter
2.5 lbs baking potatoes, peeled 2 lbs “Red Skin Golden” potatoes, unpeeled
3 cups milk or half-and-half 2 cups half-and-half
1 tsp salt 1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp pepper
pinch nutmeg pinch nutmeg
Cheese, bread crumbs, and dots of butter to cover. 1/2 cup shredded cheese

The potatoes in the Alternate are Jolly Green Giant “Red Skin Golden Potatoes.”  I think they’re just new red potatoes.  I also left the skins on, because I didn’t feel like peeling smallish nubby potatoes.  (Read:  Didn’t feel like the extra work or throwing away nutrients.)  It turns out that when the potatoes are sliced super thin the skins don’t have any substance left;  peeling the potatoes isn’t really necessary.   Besides, if anyone asks then the dish was intended to be “rustic.”

The recipe:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Halve garlic clove and rub on interior of baking dish.  Rub the butter in the baking dish.

3.  Combine potatoes, milk, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and milk or half-and-half in saucepan.  Bring to simmer.  Simmer until liquid reduces slightly, about 5 minutes.

4a.  Joy recipe:  Pour mixture into the baking dish, top with the cheese, butter, and/or breadcrumbs.  (The butter and cheese are “optional.”)  Bake until the top is golden and the potatoes are tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

4b.  Alternate recipe:  Pour half the mixture into the baking dish.  Top with half of the cheese.  Pour remaining mixture into the baking dish.  Top with the remaining cheese.  (This keeps the cheese from all sitting on top, as the Joy recipe calls for.)  Bake until the potatoes are tender, 1 hour.

The cheese can be a combination of chedder, gruyere, and/or anything else that shreds well.

This is another recipe that the thin slicing disk on the kitchenaid is the Best.  Thing.  Evar.  Total prep time was maybe 5 minutes, plus another 5 minutes of simmering the potatoes on the stove.

I’m guessing reintroducing the knobs of butter wouldn’t hurt the Alternate..

It’s A Slippery Slope

by A.J. Coltrane

LaDainian Tomlinson will join the NFL Hall of Fame after he retires, and his retirement is probably coming up soon.

Here are Tomlinson’s Career Yards Per Carry, season by season:

Tomlinson’s Yards Per Carry declined steadily after his age 27 season  —  four years ago he averaged 5.2 yards per carry.  Since then his average carry dropped to 4.7 yards, then to 3.8, bottoming out at 3.3.

At that point the Chargers had seen enough, and they released him …  Running backs don’t stay employed for long while averaging under about 4.0 yards per carry.

The Jets decided he could still play and signed him to a two-year deal.

Tomlinson started this season going gangbusters for the Jets.  Television analysts were saying things like “He hasn’t run this well in years!” or “He looks like the LT of old again!”

That lasted four or five games:

Yards Per Carry, 2010

Note the helpful “trend line.”

Fortunately for Tomlinson, he started well enough that his season average sits at 4.3 yards per carry — even after a six-game stretch of fewer than 4 yards per attempt.  I’ll be interested to see if  Tomlinson plays next year, and if so, how much the team lets him handle the ball.  My suspicion is that he’s basically a 3rd down back at this point in his career, and the Jets have tried to use him as an every-down back — a role he can’t capably fill anymore.

Great career though.  He’s 6th all-time in career rushing yards, 2nd in rushing touchdowns, and 7th all-time in total yards from scrimmage.

Fruits and Vegetables in Season

by A.J. Coltrane

I was in the grocery store today and it occurred to me that I don’t really know what’s “In Season” during December.  It also occurred to me that I could be eating for less money if I had a better idea of what to buy.

The table below is adapted from this website.  (Though there are many sites that seem to have the same list, or something remarkably similar.)  I consolidated their information and removed the stuff I’m unlikely ever to purchase (“Ollalieberries”??) —  I wanted the table to be small enough to print and keep in a coat pocket:

All Season March-May June-August September-Nov December-Feb
Apples Apricots  Apricots Acorn Squash Belgian Endive 
Avocados Artichokes  Beets Asian Pear Brussels Sprouts
Bananas Asparagus  Bell Peppers Belgian Endive Chestnuts
Bell Peppers Belgian Endive Blackberries Broccoli Collard Greens
Bok Choy Broccoli Blueberries Brussels Sprouts Grapefruit
Broccolini Butter Lettuce Boysenberries Butter Lettuce Kale
Cabbage Chives Butter Lettuce Butternut Squash Kiwifruit
Carrots Collard Greens Cantaloupe Cauliflower Leeks
Celery Root Corn Casaba Melon Diakon Radish Oranges
Celery English Peas Cherries Endive Passion Fruit
Coconut Fava Beans Corn Garlic Pear
Leek Fennel Cucumbers Ginger Sweet Potatoes
Lemons Green Beans Edamame Grapes Tangerines
Lettuce Honeydew Eggplant Jalapeno Peppers Turnips
Mushrooms Limes Endive Kumquats Winter Squash
Onions Mango Figs Mushrooms  
Parsnips Morel Mushrooms Garlic Passion Fruit  
Potatoes Mustard Greens Grapefruit Pear  
Snow Peas Oranges  Grapes Pineapple   
  Pea Pods Green Beans Pumpkin  
  Pineapple Honeydew Melons Radicchio  
  Radicchio Jalapeno Peppers Sweet Potatoes  
  Ramps Lima Beans Swiss Chard  
  Rhubarb Limes Turnips  
  Snow Peas Nectarines Winter Squash  
  Spinach Peaches    
  Spring Baby Lettuce Peas    
  Strawberries Plums    
  Sugar Snap Peas Radishes    
  Swiss Chard Raspberries    
  Vidalia Onions Strawberries    
  Watercress Summer Squash    
    Tomatillo    
    Tomatoes    
    Watermelon    
    Zucchini    

The Battle In Seattle, And Other Ruminations

by A.J. Coltrane

Some impressions of two games I watched on Saturday:

UNC-Kentucky:  Kentucky entered the game ranked 10th.  UNC entered the game unranked due to three (close) early season losses.  I don’t really see a dimes worth of difference between them.  Both teams feature young players that will be playing in the NBA soon — at times there were as many as about seven NBA guys on the court at once.  UNC has more overall depth, especially in the frontcourt.  Kentucky has the better guardplay, and their guards should improve between now and the NCAA tournament.  (This can’t be said of UNC’s guards — they’re both combo guards who are miscast when playing the point.  Neither has good court vision, and neither is very good at creating for other players.  I don’t think UNC’s guards will experience any real improvement between now and tournament time.) 

The outcome was an entertaining win for UNC, 75-73.

Two Players Who Caught My Attention:  Kentucky freshman guard Doron Lamb and UNC’s 6’10” sophmore forward John Henson.   UNC’s freshman Harrison Barnes was a preseason AP All-American.  As of right now he’s shooting 33.8% for the season, and you can see why — too many forced shots.  If he gets it together, look out, but I don’t see it yet. 

Demetri McCamey

Gonzaga-Illinios at the Key:

Many thanks to the veteran usher who took mercy on us at the Battle in Seattle.  The Gonzaga-Illinios game was (predictably) a blowout.  We were sitting in relatively inexpensive seats, and our row contained three infants on the laps of parents.  (I’m not making that up!)   Naturally, this turned into a Chinese Fire Drill of people getting up to use the “facilities.”  We vacated our seats to sit somewhere further back, and the young parents didn’t hesitate to wave over a female friend of theirs, who was carrying a fourth(!) infant.  (She had a baby in one hand and was texting with the other — I didn’t see a lot of basketball watching happening from any of the parents.)  Here’s a tip folks:  Next time, hire a sitter.

In any event, kudos to the usher who moved us away from the bedlam and into good seats where we could actually *watch* the game.  He took what had been a crappy situation and turned it into a positive experience.

As for the game, Illinios had the two best players on the floor in senior point guard Demetri McCamey and senior center Mike Tisdale.  They look like an Elite Eight team to me.  (You could argue that Illinois had something like 5 or 6 of the best 7 players in the building.)  Gonzaga doesn’t have their usual Big White Scorer (Boldin, Dickau, Morrison, etc) this year.    Elias Harris will be an NBA guy, but the rest of the team lacks the ability to consistently get and execute good shots.

Illinois entered the game ranked 21st.  Gonzaga was ranked 24th.  The final score was 73-61 Illinios, and for most of the second half it wasn’t that close.

Predictions on end-of-season ranks and tournament performance:

Kentucky:  9th.  (Sweet 16, due to lack of depth.)

UNC:  11th.  (Elite 8.)

Illinois:  15th.  (Elite 8.  In March, I’m going to like Illinois more than everyone else does, unless everyone likes them by then.)

Gonzaga:  24th-30th.  A couple of league losses would knock Gonzaga out of the top 25, and it’s possible they’ll miss the NCAA tournament.  Best case is that they make the tournament and survive a round or two.

TTO Revisited

By Blaidd Drwg

Back in July, I made this post about Three True Outcomes. Well, now that the season is over, we can crown this year’s champion. The winner – Mark Reynolds of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not only did Reynolds win the award, he blew away the second place finisher, Adam Dunn, and Reynolds also won in spectacular fashion by striking out 211 times, having the second lowest batting average for guys who qualified for the batting title, going 5 for 64 in September for an .078 BA (and still managing to post a .231 OBP) and essentially getting benched for the last 8 games of the year.

Here is the 2010 leaderboard:

Mark Reynolds - your 2010 TTO Champion!
TM PA HR BB SO OPS+ TTO%
Mark Reynolds ARI 582 32 83 211 98 .56014
Adam Dunn WAS 635 38 77 199 138 .49449
Carlos Pena TB 571 28 87 158 102 .47811
Colby Rasmus STL 527 23 63 148 132 .44402
David Ortiz BOS 600 32 82 145 137 .43167
Drew Stubbs CIN 569 22 55 168 108 .43058
Justin Upton ARI 559 17 64 152 111 .41682
BJ Upton TB 603 18 67 164 105 .41293
Prince Fielder MIL 692 32 114 138 137 .41040

With that incredibly ugly season by Reynolds, I believe the all-time leader board now looks like this:

TM PA HR BB SO OPS+ TTO%
Jack Cust OAK 2311 102 400 732 122 .53397
Mark Reynolds ARI 2285 121 260 767 108 .50241
Adam Dunn TB 6065 354 990 1632 133 .49068

Cust is still #1 for his career (he had a .48941 TTO% in 2010, but only had 425 PA, so he didn’t qualify for the first list), but the lead is shrinking and Adam Dunn has now passed Rob Deer for #3 all-time.

Congratulations, I guess, to Mark Reynolds, who will probably be rewarded by the Diamondbacks not renewing his contract and letting him become a free agent.

What was that again?

by A.J. Coltrane

Sandy Barbour, California Director of Athletics was interviewed during the 2nd quarter of the Cal Bears – Washington Huskies football game on November 27.  Cal has begun building a new stadium, here’s part of the reason why:

“…one of the priorities was very clear, that we needed to renovate Memorial Stadium, for safety reasons with the Heyward Fault running right down the middle of the stadium…”

What?!

The Ohio State University Whiners

By Blaidd Drwg

Let me be honest, I have never liked Ohio State. I think they are overrated every year because they are Ohio State and play in the Big Ten and I think it is a bit pretentious to call yourself “THE Ohio State University”, because, you know, I might get it confused with some other Ohio State.

Today, ESPN linked an article where Ohio State’s president dissed TCU and Boise State by saying that neither team belonged in the National Championship game. Here is a fine comment:

“Well, I don’t know enough about the Xs and Os of college football,” said Gee, formerly the president at West Virginia, Colorado, Brown and Vanderbilt universities. “I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it’s like murderer’s row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day.

Ok – Ohio States non-conference schedule over the last couple of seasons:

2010 – Marshall, Miami (FL), Ohio, Eastern Michigan
2009 – Navy, USC, Toledo, New Mexico St
2008 – Youngstown St, USC, Ohio, Troy
2007 – Youngstown St, Akron, Washington, Kent State
2006 – Northern Illinois, Texas, Cincinnati, Bowling Green

Looks like their non-conference schedule contains at least 2 games each year against teams that would be competitive with Little Sisters of the Poor. In that stretch, the Buckeyes have played 3 ranked non-conference opponents – USC in 2008 and 2009 (both losses) and Miami in 2010 (win). In the 20 games over the last 5 years, they haven’t exactly scheduled the toughest non-conference games.

As for the Big 10 Conference, there is nothing to suggest that they are great teams. The Big 10 has been around forever and has always been associated with great football, so I think their reputation is built greatly on that. How else would you explain Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St, Penn St, etc. being ranked in the top 25 every pre-season only to see them have mediocre seasons (I call it the Notre Dame effect – they are ranked every year and get a shot at a BCS berth because they are ND, not because they have been dominant in the last 15 years). How overrated is the Big 10 – well let’s look at their bowl performance:

2006 – 2 wins, 5 losses
2007 – 3 wins, 5 losses
2008 – 0 wins, 6 losses
2009 – 4 wins, 3 losses

That, my friends, is a 32% winning percentage in bowl games. It might be hard to argue that Ohio State faces a murderer’s row every week when the combined win percentage of the teams they are playing in 2010 is a whopping 68-64.

I know that the BCS is all about money and the big schools don’t want anyone encroaching on their paydays (2 non-AQ schools means that 2 BCS conference schools have to go to a “lesser” bowl game with a much smaller payout), so here is my solution for Ohio State – if you are so good, how about you schedule Boise St. and TCU and play them both on the road next year. That should prove once and for all if those teams are deserving or not to play in the championship game. Besides, I would love to see THE Ohio State University get its ass kicked on the Smurf Turf up in Boise.

You Think You Are Having A Bad Day?

By Blaidd Drwg

No matter how bad your day is going or how much shit has gone wrong for you today, you are still in better shape than the Carolina Panthers. Their starting quarterback is out for the year, their backup QB is out with a concussion and their 3rd string QB doesn’t give the coach the warm fuzzies that he is ready to start an NFL game. So what do you do, you go out and sign and start Brian St. Pierre. Never heard of him? Not surprised. St. Pierre after very underachieving career at Boston College (he was very highly recruited) managed to spend 8 seasons as a back up QB for the Steelers and Cardinals. In those 8 seasons, he managed to throw exactly 5 passes. Yep, not a typo.

I feel bad for Tony Pike (the aforementioned 3rd string QB) – he is being passed over for a guy how has thrown fewer passes in the NFL (Pike has 12 attempts), was not even in any team’s training camp this summer, and, up until last week, he was stay at home dad, although, Carolina coach John Fox isn’t exactly giving St. Pierre a ringing endorsement:

A season of anemic offensive play, multiple injuries and one victory took an even stranger twist Thursday when coach John Fox picked the 30-year-old St. Pierre over rookie Tony Pike to play against Baltimore.

“The guy has been in some games,” Fox said.

That’s good enough these days to start for Carolina (1-8), the NFL’s lowest scoring team that has scored nine touchdowns and has no healthy, experienced quarterback.

Let’s face it, Carolina is probably the worst team in the NFL, is 1-8, has averaged 12 points per game and is playing Baltimore this weekend. I want to watch this game purely out of morbid curiosity.