A baking and gardening journal. Mostly.
by A.J. Coltrane
From SI.com. A story about Seahawks’ first-round draft pick and pass-rush specialist Bruce Irvin.
Reading it, I don’t think it’s really a surprise that most of the “experts” felt that the Seahawks drafted him with too high a pick. Who really knows, though — Aaron Curry was supposed to be a “can’t miss” prospect at the time…
By Blaidd Drwg
The St Louis Rams apparently have one of the more bizarre leases I have seen, as a result, they are “in negotiations” with the city of St Louis to renovate the Edward Jones Dome. The city is proposing $124 million in improvements and the Rams are asking for…wait for it…$700 million in improvements, or what amounts to a new stadium.
The Jones Dome is less than 20 years old, not an old building by any means, but old by greedy millionaire sports owner’s standards. The Rams have a 30 year lease for the stadium, but can break it because of the following:
The 30-year lease signed when the Rams arrived in St. Louis from Los Angeles prior to the 1995 season requires that the dome remain among the top eight of the 31 NFL stadiums or the team can break the lease at certain junctures, the next being after the 2014 season. Owner Stan Kroenke has been non-committal about the team’s future if the dome isn’t improved.
I love the use of the “give us what we want or we will leave” gambit. The stadium opened in 1995, was completely publicly funded and won’t be paid off until 2025. The construction costs were $280 million, but with improvements made over the years and interest on the bonds, the stadium will end up costing the taxpayers around $720 million dollars.
The Rams want a retractable roof, among other things, which would require the stadium and adjoining convention center to be closed for 3 years. Additionally, the Rams want the entire thing funded by public money. The estimate is that will cost $500 in revenue. Based on that, the cost of the stadium would be somewhere around $2 billion dollars when all is said and done. Somehow I think that the city, county and state would all be better off if they told the Rams to take a hike and spent their money elsewhere rather than give a bunch of really rich people a place to socialize on 10 Sundays a year.
By Blaidd Drwg
I was reading an article on a high school pitcher, who could potentially be the #1 overall pick in the 2012 draft. The article pointed out that there has never been a high school right handed pitcher taken #1 overall – there have been left handed high schoolers and right handed college pitcher taken in that spot.
I went over to baseball-reference.com to look at the #1 overall picks through the 47 drafts and learned some interesting stuff:
Note: The catcher and shortstop thing make sense – the majority of guys drafted at those 2 positions were high school players, and those tend to be the positions where the best athletes play in high school.
by A.J. Coltrane
My earliest tangible memory of Dr. J. (source).
The ad ran on the back of comic books in 1977. It probably dates to the summer after the ABA folded. I don’t remember seeing the Dr. on TV prior to that. I don’t remember Rick Barry as an active player at all. For that matter, I don’t remember our family watching any NBA when I was young — my first NBA memory was the Sonics championship series that they lost to the Bullets. (Of course, with only one TV in the house that got three channels plus PBS, it was Wide World of Sports or nothing… A least it was a *color* TV.)
I think the ad above and the video below share some DNA. To put it another way, I think they’re sort of spiritually connected somehow…
Who else raps like this? (lyrics link)
I Want To Say a Little Something That’s Long Overdue
The Disrespect To Women Has Got To Be Through
To All The Mothers And Sisters And The Wives And Friends
I Want To Offer My Love And Respect To The End
My favorite (and the inspiration for the title of the post), the beatdown of 3rd Bass:
So many wack M.C.’s You get the T.V. bozack
Ain’t even gonna call out your names ‘Cause you’re so wack
But one big oaf whose faker than plastic
A dictionary definition of the word spastic
You should have never started something That you couldn’t finish
‘Cause writin’ rhymes to me Is like Popeye to spinach
I’m bad ass move your fat ass ‘Cause you’re wack son
Dancin’ around like you think you’re Janet Jackson
Thought you could walk on me To get some ground to walk on
I’ll put the rug out under your ass As I talk on
I’ll take you out like a sniper on a roof
Like an M.C. at the fever in the D.J. booth
With your headphones strapped You’re rockin’ rewind pause
Tryin’ to figure out what you can do to go for yours
But like the pencil to the paper I got more to come
One after another you can all get some
More spice than the frugal gourmet!
By Blaidd Drwg
ESPN has a list of the 100 greatest Fenway Park moments to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the park. I have managed to only be at one of them #99, Springsteen plays Fenway. How disappointing is that? It isn’t even baseball related. It is memorable since it was one of the last times I went to Fenway before moving to Seattle.
The interesting one is #46 – Derek Lowe’s No-No. In 2002, I was still living in Boston and my company still had tickets that they actually let employees use, and that weekend, I was given the opportunity to go to the Saturday or Sunday game. I chose the Sunday game.
The Saturday game was a warm, Saturday afternoon affair between the Sox and Rays and it was the game that Derek Lowe started. I remember watching it and calling up one of my friends who was supposed to go with me the next day and getting a world of shit for my selection of games.
The real kicker though – the next day it was cold, windy and rainy, and the Sox and Rays did not even play the game. Oh, to have a do-over on that one!
By Blaidd Drwg
I really don’t have any love for Bud Selig and I have even less love for him when he starts spouting off about how teams need lavish publicly financed stadiums to replace their current facilities. Bud did just that the other day, saying the A’s and the Rays need a new place to call home. My favorite line from his comments:
“You can’t ask people to compete if they have a stadium that doesn’t produce any kind of revenue to give them a chance to compete. So that’s a given.”
OK – so the Rays, a team that you say needs a new stadium to be competitive, has made the playoffs in 3 of the last 4 seasons, in a division with the Yankees and Red Sox. I don’t think a shiny new ballpark is the answer here; people are not going to go to Rays games either way. So does this mean that you are going to ask the Padres, Pirates, Twins – all of whom are generally in the bottom half of league payroll and all of whom have newer stadiums that were publicly funded, to finally spend some money and compete?
Another tidbit:
The last time I was there, I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’ll say it anyway, it reminded me of County Stadium and Shea Stadium, and that’s not a compliment, in either case.
Hell, the Dodgers draw close to 4 million a year in a not particularly charismatic vintage 1962 ballpark. A new ballpark gives you about a 2 year attendance boost. People will go to games to see a quality product on the field, not because of the bells and whistles at the park. Just ask the Mariners, who have what most people consider to be one of the 3 or 4 best stadiums in baseball, how well consistently losing in a nice stadium has worked out.
by A.J. Coltrane
Jered Weaver got his first career no-hitter on Wednesday; his wife and parents were in attendance at the game. (image source here)
I think it’s safe to say that we’ve always rooted for Jered Weaver here at CSE, ever since we saw him in April 2006 pitching one of his last Triple A starts — he struck out 12 Tacoma Rainiers in only 6 innings. I found the box score:
RAINIERS 4, BEES 2
Completion of April 29 suspended game
| Salt Lake | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO |
| Aybar, ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Murphy, cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| McPherson, 3b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Smith, 3b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Morales, 1b | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Gorneault, rf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Napoli, c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Specht, 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Pride, lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Pavkovich, dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Total | 29 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 12 |
| Tacoma | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO |
| Choo, rf | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jones, cf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Dobbs, 3b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Morse, lf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Sears, 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Brown, dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Cabrera, ss | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Johnson, c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Youngbauer, 2b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 30 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 14 |
| Salt Lake | 011 000 000 | — | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Tacoma | 000 000 04X | — | 4 | 6 | 0 |
E — Smith, C 2 (2). DP — Tacoma 1. LOB — Salt Lake 6; Tacoma 4. 2B — Murphy, T (5); Morales, K (2); Gorneault, N (3); Morse, M (3); Cabrera, A (4); Youngbauer (3). HBP — Napoli, M. SH — Murphy, T (1). SF — Morse, M (2). SB —Jones, A (3); Dobbs, G (4).
| Salt Lake | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Moseley | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Weaver | 6.0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| Rouwenhorst | 0.1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Jones | 0.2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Tacoma | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Nageotte | 1.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Jimenez | 5.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Dorman | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Fruto | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Nageotte faced 2 batters in the 2nd. Weaver faced 2 batters in the 8th.
W — Dorman, R (2-1). L — Rouwenhorst, (1-2). S — Fruto, E (2). HBP — by Fruto, E (Napoli, M). T — 2:42 A — N/A
(It’s actually harder than you might think to find a minor league box score from 6 years ago…) Remember the second game of the doubleheader, when Dallas McPherson lost that ball in the sun, then came back and smacked a home run to make up for it?
In a related sidenote, look at the 2006 Tacoma Rainiers roster. It’s no surprise that the M’s major league club is mediocre in 2012. The only two players of any real value were traded away (Shin-Soo Choo and Adam Jones). The rest of the squad were fringe major league talents. (I take that back, Mike Morse is having a solid, if unexceptional career. Did I miss anyone else?)
By Blaidd Drwg
Joe Maddon did something in a recent Rays-Tigers game that I doubt you will ever see again. Let me set the stage – It is the bottom of the 5th and the score is tied at 1 each. Matt Moore, the Rays uber-prospect pitcher is on the hill and he has been a bit shaky. He gets Gerald Laird to strike out and then Danny Worth to fly out, bringing up leadoff hitter Austin Jackson. Here is what happens next:
Austin Jackson – Strike (swinging), Ball, Ball, Ball, Ball, A Jackson walked
Brennan Boesch – Strike (looking), B Boesch singled to right center, A Jackson to third
Runners on the corner and 2 outs with Miguel Cabrera, arguably the most dangerous hitter in the league, up with Prince Fielder, who is no slouch with the bat, hitting behind him. Moore quickly falls behind 2-0, so what does Maddon do, he orders an intentional walk of course, loading the bases.
I wasn’t watching the game so I don’t know if Maddon saw something in the scouting report that made him think that Fielder is the better matchup (Fielder is a career .217 hitter with bases loaded and 2 outs) or if he just thought that a lefty-lefty matchup was the better choice. Either way, it is not often that you will see a 40 home run hitter intentionally walked to face a different 40 home run hitter.
Either way, it worked. Fielder popped out to end the inning.
By Blaidd Drwg
Dave Richards is chairman of the English Premier League, one of the major soccer leagues in Europe, as well as a board member of the FA, England’s governing body for professional soccer. At a recent conference, Richards had the following to say:
“England gave the world football. It gave the best legacy anyone could give. We gave them the game,” said Richards, who is also a Football Association board member. “For 50 years, we owned the game … We were the governance of the game. We wrote the rules, designed the pitches and everything else.
“Then, 50 years later, some guy came along and said you’re liars and they actually stole it. It was called FIFA. Fifty years later, another gang came along called UEFA and stole a bit more.”
To me, this sounds like sour grapes that England has been mostly irrelavent in the international soccer world since the 1960’s. It makes sense – you can play soccer in some form almost anywhere in the world, regardless of economic standing which has allowed places like Brazil and Argentina to develop world class programs, since frankly, they have a much larger talent pool to draw from. I also think Richards’ rant may have been fueled by a little alcohol:
After the conference, Richards slipped and tumbled knee-deep into a museum pool from which he was rescued by Phil Gartside, the Bolton chairman and fellow FA board member.
“We were walking across to our table in a dark courtyard area,” Gartside told the BBC. “There were three fountain areas nearby, no pool. They had switched off the lights.
“He thought he was stepping on to flat marble, but his foot went down into the water, he fell over and hurt his leg quite badly.”
Both the EPL and and FA tried to distance themselves from Richards’ comments:
“Sir Dave Richards is not representing the FA at this conference and his personal views are in no way shared or endorsed by the FA,” a statement said. “The FA greatly values its relationships with FIFA and UEFA, which it is working hard to strengthen.”
The Premier League also disassociated itself from its chairman’s comments, saying in a statement to The Association Press that, “Sir Dave is attending the conference in a private and personal capacity and his comments in no way reflect the views of the Premier League.”
Internationally, I have had a hard time taking England seriously on the pitch. Now, I am not sure I can take them seriously at all when it comes to soccer.
By Blaidd Drwg
Brad Mills is apparently going to move starting pitcher Brett Myers into the closer role for 2012. To me, this move does not make a ton of sense. The Astros traded their closer from 2011, Mark Melancon, to the Red Sox in the offseason. Melancon, while not great, is serviceable and cheap. Additionally, the 2011 offseason had a ton of closer/closer candidates available, and you could easily pick up someone for around 3 -5 million on a one year deal. Maybe the Astros didn’t have the budget for it. They probably have someone in their organization who can fill the role at league minimum if need be, but I guess management doesn’t think they are ready.
Enter in Brett Myers. He has racked up 440 innings over the last 2 seasons with an ERA just under 4, and is slated to make about 11 million next season, probably more than you want to pay him, but you are going to pay him that unless you can find someone to take that contract. I guess that Mills doesn’t think Myers will be better than the other 5 guys in their rotation. Here is who they are going to be starting, with their 2011 numbers. Keep in mind that Myers is the only Astros starter who did not miss a turn in the rotation last season and lead the team in innings for the last 2 season.
| W-L | IP | SO | WHIP | ERA | ERA+ | |
| Wandy Rodriguez | 11-11 | 191.0 | 166 | 1.31 | 3.49 | 109 |
| Bud Norris | 6-11 | 186.0 | 176 | 1.33 | 3.77 | 100 |
| AJ Happ | 6-15 | 156.1 | 134 | 1.54 | 5.35 | 71 |
| Jordan Lyles | 2-8 | 94.0 | 67 | 1.41 | 5.36 | 71 |
| Kyle Weiland (at AAA Pawtucket) | 8-10 | 128.1 | 126 | 1.27 | 3.58 | Na |
| Brett Myers | 7-14 | 216.0 | 160 | 1.31 | 4.46 | 85 |
I can understand giving Weiland and Lyles a shot, they are both young and the Astros are not going anywhere in 2012, so why not. Norris and Rodriguez are both locked in at the top of the rotation, so it comes down to Happ vs Myers. Other than being 2 years younger than Myers, there isn’t much difference between the two; they have almost identical rate stats over their careers. Wouldn’t it make more sense to let Happ, Myers, Lyles and Weiland compete for the remaining 3 spots in the rotation and figure out your closer situation later? I can almost guarantee that either Lyles or Weiland will be pitching in AAA before the middle of May, if not sooner, which will then mean you will need a replacement starter. I would guess that starter would ultimately be Brett Myers.
FlatbreadGarden 