SB Nation User Blog: JediLeroy

Jason Thompson, Foul Machine

JediLeroy — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:17:33 -0000

(From the FanPosts. - TZ)

Much has been made of Jason Thompson's foul troubles. Last season, he finished with 314 personal fouls in 82 games, and the second-place fouler was not even close. Paul Millsap of Utah tallied 288 fouls.

Big men are much more likely to foul than smaller players, given the intensity of the game near the basket. This is nothing new. But being among the leaders in fouls committed does not necessarily reflect poorly on a player. Some previous season leaders in total fouls include Shawn Kemp, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, and Hakeem Olajuwon. Of course, leading the league in fouls doesn't instantly make you a superstar. Just ask Shawn Bradley, Danny Fortson, Jason Collins, Ervin Johnson, and Mikki Moore.

If you look at the league leaders in total fouls committed so far in 2009-10, JT's got the eighth highest total (Greg Oden leads the pack). In personal fouls per game, JT is second. So, who cares if JT has a bunch of fouls?

Furthermore, are fouls necessarily bad? It entirely depends on the foul. Some fouls come during the recovery from a blown defensive assignment, while others are the product of hard-nosed defense. Some result in free points via free throws, while others limit the scoring from two sure points to zero points or one point.

With fouls, the biggest issue is lost playing time. With a 21.6 PER so far this season, Thompson is proving to be a valuable asset that needs to be on the court. Last year, JT averaged 6.5 fouls per 48 minutes, and was only able to play 28.1 minutes a game, which--being plenty of playing time for a rookie--was surely lower than it would have been had he been able to curb the fouls a bit. That foul rate was actually 18th-worst in the league--bad, but not as horrible or "telling" as leading the league in fouls seemingly was. As a side note, Andres Nocioni finished 21st in 2008-2009 with 6.3 fouls per 48 minutes.

This year, he's dropped his fouls to 5.7 per 48 minutes, which is a much more respectable 65th. He's up to 34.4 minutes per game, which is probably close to what it will be for most of the year, provided he can keep his fouls down like he has. In comparison, Jon Brockman gets 10.4 fouls per 48 minutes, which, if we set the qualifying bar at 7 games played, would place him 4th-worst in the league, behind Hasheem Thabeet (14.9!), JaVale McGee (11.8), and Rasho Nesterovic (10.6).

In Ziller's recent front-page post, we read:

There has been one other stand-out improvement, but credit for this one likely goes to Paul Westphal: Thompson is playing more minutes this season. Last year, J.T. averaged 28 minutes per game. Even after the All-Star Break, when Brad Miller, Shelden Williams and Mikki Moore were exiled, Thompson still averaged less than 32 minutes a game. Thompson's foul rate hasn't lowered significantly (4.9 per 36 to 4.3), but Westphal has decided to keep him on the court for longer stretches. That's helped the per-game numbers reach (to date) All-Star level.

I submit that a drop from 4.9 fouls to 4.3 per 36 minutes is a significant improvement, provided it holds for the whole season. At 34 minutes per game, JT's averaging a half of a foul less per game this season. That greatly increases the odds that he'll be on the court.

Ironically, Thompson's foul total may increase this season, in spite of a decrease in his foul rate. If JT averages 34 minutes per game with 5.7 fouls per 48 minutes for all of 2009-10, he will finish with about 331 fouls. That total could very well lead the league again, though a healthy Greg Oden might challenge him.

JT is apparently learning ways to limit his fouls, but he probably won't be averaging fewer than 4 fouls per game anytime soon. As long as JT is able to avoid the cheap ones, it's okay if he's up with the league leaders in total fouls. Just make them count, and keep playing 34+ minutes per game.

Sweet New Kings Pics!

JediLeroy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:06:58 -0000

I just got back from the latest Kings photo shoot. The Players are looking as good as ever.

For example, our buddies from Washington posed for the following heartwarming shot:

More photos after the jump.

Our foreign small forward, Garcasspi, wasn't available at the photo shoot (due to injury), but here's a pic provided by team photographers:

Our sexy, unshaven Benoc also smiled for the cameras:

The young, freakishly athletic Evanson will bring nightmares to all:

Quinté Grouby still needs to prove whether he was worth the two late first round picks:

Unfortunately, Grant Napear seems to break every camera capable of taking high-res pictures.

Omrisco Garcasspi from the latest team photo shoot

JediLeroy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:22:44 -0000

Omrisco Garcasspi from the latest team photo shoot

Amick: Nocioni Might Take Mason's Starting Spot Wednesday

JediLeroy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:50:02 -0000

Amick: Nocioni Might Take Mason's Starting Spot Wednesday

Incontrovertible Evidence that Matt Holliday Hated Oakland

JediLeroy — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:44:03 -0000

A lot has been made of Matt Holliday, and his perceived indifference while playing on the A's. I set out to 1) see if Matt Holliday did, in fact, hate his time here and 2) quantify this indifference. You'll find the shocking truth after the jump.

I needed a solid methodology, given that quantifying emotions can get a bit tricky. So I went with the foolproof Google Image Search. To analyze the photos, I have created a caring scale from 0 to 2, where 2 points equal the maximum amount of caring. A laugh, toothed smile, or clearly angry face is awarded a 2, while a closed-mouth smile or uncomfortable grimace is awarded 1 point. Stone-faced or sulky countenances are awarded 0 points, since he clearly can't care less than 0. Batting photos are immediately disqualified because icy nerves of steely cold-blood are preferable during a plate appearance (defined for the purposes of this study as the period of time during which he is holding a baseball bat during a game), and virtually indistinguishable from indifference.

Let's check his time with the Rockies, which, while long past, shows that he did, in fact, care. Keep in mind that these are the first non-swinging images, and have not been cherry-picked to fit my preconceived notions.

Starting at the top left and moving in a clockwise rotation, we have photos with scores of 1,2,0,0,2. That gives us a total score of 5 with an average caring score of 1.000. Fact: Matt Holliday at least somewhat cared during his time with the Rockies.

Now let's look at his time with the A's.

Now, if we total the scores, row by row, we get:

0, 0, 0 (It looks as though someone stole Holliday's puppy.)

0, 0, 0 (I would have given him a point or two, except Cabrera likely initiated the hug, and we can't see Holliday's face--Geren cares 2 points-worth.)

1, 2, 0 (We see that his happiness was merely an unsustainable statistical blip, and that he regressed to mean. He's not even looking at Cust. He loathes his existence.)

This gives us a total of 3 caring points, and an average of .333 caring points per photo. It's quite clear that, during his time in Oakland, he didn't care much. He could care less, but not by much.

Now, let's turn to his short time in St. Louis.

It's a small sample, sure, but clockwise from top-left, we get 2, 1, 1, 2, 2.

Dugout-leaving for an encore is an automatic 2 points. In the bottom right photo, teeth are showing. Half-teeth still equals full points. With a total of 8 caring points in the five pictures, Holliday cares at a 1.600 clip with the Cardinals.

Here's another look at how much Holliday has cared with each team:

So, there it is. Proof that Matt Holliday didn't give more than 1/3 of a lick while playing in Oakland. I defy you all to challenge this rock-solid bastion of hard data.

Just wanted to let everyone know that Mia was released from the NICU on March 28th after nearly...

JediLeroy — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 02:10:28 -0000

Just wanted to let everyone know that Mia was released from the NICU on March 28th after nearly four months. She was born at around 1.7 pounds, and now weighs about 6. She's a healthy crying, sleeping, and excreting machine. It's great to have her home.

DLD 2/12/09 Smooth Criminals

JediLeroy — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:24:50 -0000

3 days in a row is great, but 4 is better.

Michael Jackson has a flesh-eating superbug!

"There's a chance it could turn into a flesh-eating disorder where it begins to kill off his skin, so he’s being very carefully monitored."

Michael Phelps will pay for his blunders with his LIFE!

Some pranksters hijacked a Taco Bell drive through radio signal. If caught, they could face criminal charges. Sedalians don't take radio terrorism lightly. But seriously. Who hasn't hijacked a radio signal once or twice in their life?

Mmmm. Forbidden doughnut.

Everybody's a criminal these days. Let's send them all to jail and make them pay for their own toilet paper. That'll teach them.

You wanna catch some criminals? Blow their minds with spelling errors.

And in other news, what better way to say I love you than making him or her watch animals get it on.

Dump.

DLD 2/9/09 I Need a Fix

JediLeroy — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:49:18 -0000

I have a confession to make. I'm addicted to DLDs. A few years ago, when I really wanted to fit in with the all-time AN greats, I not only started using DLDs, but I also occasionally stooped to the level of creating crude ones in dark rooms. Anything to get my fix.

So, now I'm going through withdrawals. It's relapse time. In truth, I never stopped using—my supplier just ran out. I'm not only ready to use, I'm itching to abuse. Let's make this daily, folks.

I don't care if this discussion is already going on in MARQUEZ67's front page post. A-rod confessed to using steroids from 2001-2003.

"When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day," the New York Yankees star said in an interview with ESPN that was broadcast Monday shortly after it was recorded.

Then there's this little bit at the end:

He gave $3.9 million to the school in 2003, the largest gift ever to the Hurricanes’ baseball program and money that provided much of the resources needed for renovating the existing on-campus stadium. In return, the baseball complex will be called Mark Light Field at Alex Rodriguez Park.

His body is so artificially, steroidally muscular that they are building a baseball stadium on it. This was probably posted elsewhere, but I'm too lazy to look.

A British university has apologized to a Ph.D. student for throwing away his treasured, seven-year collection of lizard dung.

Yeah, I know I can do better. We can do better. Dump.

Baby Mia

JediLeroy — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:32:12 -0000

Baby Mia

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everybody for the prayers, good vibes and well-wishes. Baby Mia is steadily improving each day. We're really hopefully that she'll be O.K. We really are touched by the outreach here. Thank you all so much.

A plea for help

JediLeroy — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:58:33 -0000

I'm not normally one to do this, and I do so at the risk of offending some on here. But I believe in the power of prayer, and we need all the prayers we can get.

Earlier this year, my family and I moved to a small island in Japan. My wife was pregnant, so it was a big leap of faith for her to come out. Early Monday morning (in Japan), she was having a lot of pain in her stomach, so we called a rescue boat to the island to transport us to the hospital. She gave birth to a 26-week-old girl on a tiny rescue ship in the middle of nowhere in a country where she doesn't understand the language.

Baby Mia was born weighing 1.9 pounds. Her lungs and heart are underdeveloped. She is fighting for her life. For such a premature baby, it's a miracle that she is as strong as she is. We would appreciate any and all prayers on her behalf.