Totally Unreadable

[BH]

His article highlights all the reasons why i refuse to wear my Fukodume jersey.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Check it out. I hink his blog has been Ratto'd. taken down to cull future embarrassment temporarily because his host's servers are getting slammed with traffic.

Outrage porn of the moment'd

[Wheezer]

He appears to have paid his bill.

[CBStew]

Mr Wittenmeyer gives us a lesson in how to write an incomprehensible run-on sentence:


"Back-to-back singles by Carlos Lee and Brett Wallace sent home the first two Houston runs — with Zambrano angrily throwing up his arm after Wallace's liner on a 3-2 pitch, then kicking the rubber and dirt and snatching, barehanded, the toss back to him."

Later in his story Gordon threw mama from the train, a kiss.

[Wheezer]

Have I ever mentioned my feelings about the crazed grandiosity of academic librarians?

(Seemed as good a place as any.)

Edit.--Holy cats.

I don't disagree with everything Trzeciak's tried out at McMaster. [...] He got the library involved in Second Life, which is something I was glad they were testing because I had absolutely no interest in it. It turned out to be a dud, but someone had to find that out.

I do not even know where to start.

Edit 2.--OK, I know where to start. You boneheads have been pretending to fulfill the role of subject, design, and applied computer science experts for a quarter of a century, to the general irritation of countless victims, and now you're worried that your gigs will be taken by your imaginary personas? Go manage your fucking collections.

Edit 3.--IF IT'S TRULY "INFORMATION SCIENCE," YOUR EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN BLOWS.

Edit 4.--Comment from "PC" is great:

The things we were trained to do with our MLS can allegedly be done just as well by paraprofessionals. Exciting new projects are/will be the purview of postdocs, or possibly new graduates who have had the advantage of learning about data curation in their programs.

"Paraprofessionals"? Do you mean people with a "Ph.D. in Human Resources"? Oh, no, you mean people who have completed meaningful Ph.D. programs. Maybe we can fit you in somewhere below the pinnacle of MLS Mountain, if we can spare a Sherpa.

[CT III]

Baseball supergenius Steve Stone wrote a book!

Here's the excerpt that's been distributed for marketing purposes:

You cannot possibly win in the major leagues without pitching.

Just ask the former owner of the Texas Rangers, Tom Hicks, who signed Alex Rodriguez for $252 million — about $70 million above the next highest bidder. Hicks went on to sign just about every hitter he could when he first took over the Rangers. The belief was, in that park, in the American League West, in the AL, the best thing to do was assemble every bit of offense you could. That's how he planned to win games.

When he finished last in 2007, I'm sure somebody finally mentioned to him that it would help to have some pitchers, too.

The wonderful thing about pitching is that everyone has his or her own ideas and theories on what is the most important pitch.

Some people will tell you the well-located fastball is the best pitch in the game because you can move it up and down and in and out. Plus, if you can locate it, it sets up your other pitches. There's certainly a great case to be made for that.

Some people will tell you if you have a curveball that you can throw for strikes at different speeds, that is the best pitch in the game because, in the end, nobody hits a good curve. As an example of that, I give you Bert Blyleven and his 60 career shutouts.

In the 1990s the split-finger fastball was the pitch du jour, and everyone threw that. I'm sure some pitching coaches taught that pitch a lot better than others. I think that a good split-finger fastball or a forkball is a very good pitch. However, I think it also helps to destroy elbows.

Some pitchers have lived and died with the slider. Larry Andersen pitched for at least parts of 17 seasons, and he threw 98 percent sliders. Everyone went into the at-bat knowing what he was going to throw: a slider low and in to the left-handers; for the right-handers, it was a slider low and away.

Another popular pitch nowadays is the backdoor cutter. A right-handed pitcher will try to hit the outside corner to a left-handed batter, while a left-handed pitcher will try to hit the outside corner to a right-handed batter. But those aren't used as often as normal cutters are. The circle change was around last decade, and they're using it more this decade. There's also a three-fingered change and a number of other changeups as well.

But which is the most important pitch in the game?

Greg Maddux was most likely the smartest pitcher of his generation, but there's one aspect of pitching that I disagree with him on. Maddux will tell you the most important pitch in any sequence is the 1-1 pitch because it sets up the rest of the at-bat. If it's 1-2, it's very much a defensive at-bat. If it's 2-1, it becomes very much an offensive at-bat.

But I disagree. Keep in mind that disagreeing with a guy who has that much ability, is that intelligent, and understands the game and has broken it down as well as he has is something I take pause before doing.

But I will do so, nonetheless.

I think the first-pitch strike — whatever type of pitch it is — is the best pitch in the game.

If you throw a first-pitch strike, you then have the opportunity to go 0-2. If you take a look at statistics and computer models, you'll find that the batting averages are ridiculously low on 0-2 counts. So if you're throwing a first-pitch strike, it automatically sets up a defensive at-bat.

This may be the most boring thing I've ever read.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Baseball supergenius Steve Stone wrote a book!

Here's the excerpt that's been distributed for marketing purposes:

You cannot possibly win in the major leagues without pitching.

Just ask the former owner of the Texas Rangers, Tom Hicks, who signed Alex Rodriguez for $252 million — about $70 million above the next highest bidder. Hicks went on to sign just about every hitter he could when he first took over the Rangers. The belief was, in that park, in the American League West, in the AL, the best thing to do was assemble every bit of offense you could. That's how he planned to win games.

When he finished last in 2007, I'm sure somebody finally mentioned to him that it would help to have some pitchers, too.

The wonderful thing about pitching is that everyone has his or her own ideas and theories on what is the most important pitch.

Some people will tell you the well-located fastball is the best pitch in the game because you can move it up and down and in and out. Plus, if you can locate it, it sets up your other pitches. There's certainly a great case to be made for that.

Some people will tell you if you have a curveball that you can throw for strikes at different speeds, that is the best pitch in the game because, in the end, nobody hits a good curve. As an example of that, I give you Bert Blyleven and his 60 career shutouts.

In the 1990s the split-finger fastball was the pitch du jour, and everyone threw that. I'm sure some pitching coaches taught that pitch a lot better than others. I think that a good split-finger fastball or a forkball is a very good pitch. However, I think it also helps to destroy elbows.

Some pitchers have lived and died with the slider. Larry Andersen pitched for at least parts of 17 seasons, and he threw 98 percent sliders. Everyone went into the at-bat knowing what he was going to throw: a slider low and in to the left-handers; for the right-handers, it was a slider low and away.

Another popular pitch nowadays is the backdoor cutter. A right-handed pitcher will try to hit the outside corner to a left-handed batter, while a left-handed pitcher will try to hit the outside corner to a right-handed batter. But those aren't used as often as normal cutters are. The circle change was around last decade, and they're using it more this decade. There's also a three-fingered change and a number of other changeups as well.

But which is the most important pitch in the game?

Greg Maddux was most likely the smartest pitcher of his generation, but there's one aspect of pitching that I disagree with him on. Maddux will tell you the most important pitch in any sequence is the 1-1 pitch because it sets up the rest of the at-bat. If it's 1-2, it's very much a defensive at-bat. If it's 2-1, it becomes very much an offensive at-bat.

But I disagree. Keep in mind that disagreeing with a guy who has that much ability, is that intelligent, and understands the game and has broken it down as well as he has is something I take pause before doing.

But I will do so, nonetheless.

I think the first-pitch strike — whatever type of pitch it is — is the best pitch in the game.

If you throw a first-pitch strike, you then have the opportunity to go 0-2. If you take a look at statistics and computer models, you'll find that the batting averages are ridiculously low on 0-2 counts. So if you're throwing a first-pitch strike, it automatically sets up a defensive at-bat.

This may be the most boring thing I've ever read.

Huh.  In his cliched example of Alex Rdoriguez--which has been used by every hack to mark the End of Baseball--he makes no mention of Chan Ho Park, whose contract, at the time, was probably a worse value than ARod's.  That's the nice thing about Stone--he never lets the facts get in the way of his agenda.

[R-V]

Baseball supergenius Steve Stone wrote a book!

Here's the excerpt that's been distributed for marketing purposes:

You cannot possibly win in the major leagues without pitching.

Just ask the former owner of the Texas Rangers, Tom Hicks, who signed Alex Rodriguez for $252 million — about $70 million above the next highest bidder. Hicks went on to sign just about every hitter he could when he first took over the Rangers. The belief was, in that park, in the American League West, in the AL, the best thing to do was assemble every bit of offense you could. That's how he planned to win games.

When he finished last in 2007, I'm sure somebody finally mentioned to him that it would help to have some pitchers, too.

The wonderful thing about pitching is that everyone has his or her own ideas and theories on what is the most important pitch.

Some people will tell you the well-located fastball is the best pitch in the game because you can move it up and down and in and out. Plus, if you can locate it, it sets up your other pitches. There's certainly a great case to be made for that.

Some people will tell you if you have a curveball that you can throw for strikes at different speeds, that is the best pitch in the game because, in the end, nobody hits a good curve. As an example of that, I give you Bert Blyleven and his 60 career shutouts.

In the 1990s the split-finger fastball was the pitch du jour, and everyone threw that. I'm sure some pitching coaches taught that pitch a lot better than others. I think that a good split-finger fastball or a forkball is a very good pitch. However, I think it also helps to destroy elbows.

Some pitchers have lived and died with the slider. Larry Andersen pitched for at least parts of 17 seasons, and he threw 98 percent sliders. Everyone went into the at-bat knowing what he was going to throw: a slider low and in to the left-handers; for the right-handers, it was a slider low and away.

Another popular pitch nowadays is the backdoor cutter. A right-handed pitcher will try to hit the outside corner to a left-handed batter, while a left-handed pitcher will try to hit the outside corner to a right-handed batter. But those aren't used as often as normal cutters are. The circle change was around last decade, and they're using it more this decade. There's also a three-fingered change and a number of other changeups as well.

But which is the most important pitch in the game?

Greg Maddux was most likely the smartest pitcher of his generation, but there's one aspect of pitching that I disagree with him on. Maddux will tell you the most important pitch in any sequence is the 1-1 pitch because it sets up the rest of the at-bat. If it's 1-2, it's very much a defensive at-bat. If it's 2-1, it becomes very much an offensive at-bat.

But I disagree. Keep in mind that disagreeing with a guy who has that much ability, is that intelligent, and understands the game and has broken it down as well as he has is something I take pause before doing.

But I will do so, nonetheless.

I think the first-pitch strike — whatever type of pitch it is — is the best pitch in the game.

If you throw a first-pitch strike, you then have the opportunity to go 0-2. If you take a look at statistics and computer models, you'll find that the batting averages are ridiculously low on 0-2 counts. So if you're throwing a first-pitch strike, it automatically sets up a defensive at-bat.

This may be the most boring thing I've ever read.

Thanks for posting this. I've been having trouble sleeping lately and reading the first couple sentences of that should do the trick.

Does the book come with a towel to wipe up all the smarm that drips off the pages?

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Does the book come with a towel to wipe up all the smarm that drips off the pages?

Maybe Stoney could lend you his...

[CBStew]

Gordo in the Sun Times today.  It could make a high school English teacher weep:

"Yet the Cubs have managed to win six games decided by two or fewer runs and win another by three. And twice more they had one-run leads in the opponent's final at-bat and couldn't hold it."

[CBStew]

The Sun Times left the "byline" off of this gem this morning.

"The fact Fukudome is a platoon player — leading off against right-handers, usually sitting against righties — makes the playing time especially predictable and also keeps Fukudome more rested."

[Brownie]

Gordo in the Sun Times today.  It could make a high school English teacher weep:

"Yet the Cubs have managed to win six games decided by two or fewer runs and win another by three. And twice more they had one-run leads in the opponent's final at-bat and couldn't hold it."

So, 80% save rate? That sounds about right.

[Slaky]

The Sun Times left the "byline" off of this gem this morning.

"The fact Fukudome is a platoon player — leading off against right-handers, usually sitting against righties — makes the playing time especially predictable and also keeps Fukudome more rested."

Apparently being able to write isn't a requirement for being a writer.

[Internet Apex]

The Sun Times left the "byline" off of this gem this morning.

"The fact Fukudome is a platoon player — leading off against right-handers, usually sitting against righties — makes the playing time especially predictable and also keeps Fukudome more rested."

Apparently being able to write isn't a requirement for being a writer typist.

Gordo'd.

[Saul Goodman]

Typing SOME words in ALL CAPS is a GREAT way to UNDERscoRE important POINTS I am MAKing and thus CaPtIvAtE the READER reader READER reaDER REAder READER.