I got nothing so let's go with an unsolicited message on Facebook.

I saw your profile and i admired it and will like to know more about u and also want u to know that i have being badly hurt and don't want
that to happen to me again..i am looking for that great man that will always be there for me and treat me real good...I will like you to get back to me on my private email address /b/e/n/i/t/a/*********@/y/a/h/o/o/./c/o/m/ b e n i t a _ *********@ y a h o o . c o m..If interested in knowing
me better...Hope to hear from you soon
benita********* at yahoo dot com


/b/e/n/i/t/a/_**************@/y/a/h/o/o/./c/o/m/ b e n i t a _ b r o w n 0 0 8 @ y a h o o . c o m

Benita

  For being her personal email address she sure does put it out there a lot in one message. And I have no idea what this is about so it's just filler. And I redacted some of email address but if anyone's interested shoot me an email and I'll send it to you. I have not idea what this particular scam's all about.

I've been having some issues with the pages taking a while to load and not just the 1,000+ comment posts. Also my Z button is hit and miss - sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't and I'm on Internet Explorer. We were discussing this yesterday but that fanpost is gone for whatever reason so this is a new one.

I emailed SBN and they've responded wanting to know the details but I don't want to speak for everyone here. I know some have had some problems and some have none. So put in this post if you've had any problems, what those problems are (if any) and what browser you're using and I'll link this post to the guy at SBN when I email him back.

 

Too many comments in the other. Cool story bro.

I went to Taco Bell to pick up lunch and it was weird. I noticed they sell shrimp tacos but have a disclaimer on the ad warning people with shrimp allergies they prepare shrimp there. What a weird thing to do. If you're looking at the ad for shrimp tacos shouldn't you be able to figure out there's shrimp there? 2 - what if a person's there just to get a beef taco? Why would they scan the menu to make sure no shrimp's prepared there? So I ordered my $2.00 meal and the guy says "that'll be $2.12. Alright?" What if I said no? And is the "z" function wonky for anyone else on LSB?

That other one is off the rails.

 

So a while back I'm at the office in the evening and had turned my stereo way up and my cell phone rings. I answer while in the process of turning down the stereo and hear a snippet of what the person said and thought it was a client. I then mute the my stereo and start going into status of the case, etc., etc. Person on the other end says "what are you talking about?" Without thinking who it might be I just say "who fuck is this?"

It was my 77 year old mom who had a cold so I didn't recognize her voice in that split second.

The original one is way too huge now. I have to work probably most of the night so I need something to pop into when I need a break so this is not altruism. So here's the lineup for the first Rangers game I attended.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL199706170.shtml

 

Texas Rangers				Colorado Rockies
1	Mark McLemore	2B		1	Eric Young	2B
2	Ivan Rodriguez	C		2	Ellis Burks	CF
3	Rusty Greer	LF		3	Larry Walker	RF
4	Juan Gonzalez	RF		4	Andres Galarraga	1B
5	Will Clark	1B		5	Dante Bichette	LF
6	Dean Palmer	3B		6	Vinny Castilla	3B
7	Damon Buford	CF		7	Kirt Manwaring	C
8	Billy Ripken	SS		8	Walt Weiss	SS
9	John Burkett	P		9	John Thomson	P

Don't really want another 1,300 comment post to screw with.  For whatever reason it's slow to load at that volume and my guess is folks might be commenting more as Friday progresses as they get their crap wrapped up for the weekend.

Listened to NPR over lunch and they were talking about texting and mobile devices and how that might interfere with parenting. I don't care since I'm not a parent and my parents have no idea how to text. My dad's voicemail message on his cell phone is actually him just saying "press pound?"  I love it and have instructed all of my brothers and mom to never point it out to him.

Anyhow, I've come around to texting but I still hate it when it turns into a back-and-forth conversation.  That's annoying as hell - just call if you have that much shit to say.  On the other hand I don't like answering my phone every time it rings.  Then the person leaves a message which pisses me off even more.  I have no desire to go through the process of actually listening to a message so instead I'll just call them back.  I say "what's up?"  They say "I left you a message."  Me: "I know and I haven't listened to it.  They have this thing called caller ID so I know you called.  What do you want?"  I like and hate technology all at the same time.

 

It seems we talk about food a good amount here and various folks certainly do cook so I thought we could have an OT clearinghouse of it. My thought is folks could say they want to make X and are looking for recipes and see what comes up. It could be dorm food or whatever but we probably shouldn't get all Juliet Child on it (decent movie, by the way).  Others could just say they think Y is a kickass recipe. Whatever. Besides, we're mosty guys and anything to help you cook only scores you points with the opposite (or even same, I suppose) sex.

Not a huge recipe guy - more concepts.  One concept is taking a NY strip (or any steak, I suppose), and making a rub of a decent amount of brown sugar and whatever spices you like (cayenne, garlic powder, lemon pepper, whatever) and then really coat the steak and grill it. The sugar should stick and be about 1/8 - 1/16 inch thick, it'll carmelize and lock in the juices. It's tasty.

A side could be couscous (cold). Cook some up based on the instructions (1-1 couscous to water with some salt) and make a mixture of balsamic vinegar, maybe a touch of olive oil and some cayenne pepper. Mix that up with some diced cucumbers and cut grape tomatoes and you're done. Just chill it.

There. You've just made your date dinner for about $12.00 and he/she will be impressed.

I'm just traveling by myself so I was wondering if anyone staying in downtown Fort Worth wants to meet for a beer Friday night and watch the junior circuit NL games. I know this seems creepy but I don't have crap to do and I'm not a sociopath. Not officially diagnosed at least. Beats wandering around by myself. I think the Cali Rangers fans will be down there and Brian Thomas (if I remember correctly).  Just checking to see if this is something anyone's interested in. I think I fly in at 5:00 probably at the hotel by 6:00 or so.

 

I listened to myself on the LSB Radio and didn’t think I conveyed everything I had to say (or accurately for that matter). Since it’s zero hour I figured I’d put this together.

 

Cuban/Monarch Dealings

 

It would be odd for Monarch to enter into new financing.  I checked their website and they specialize in buying debt of distressed assets.  Why would they get into the business of new financing?  Sure, Cuban could just be assuming some of the debt they purchased but that doesn’t really seem like Monarch’s business plan which seems to be liquidation of debt for a profit.  I don’t really think the two are in bed together.

 

Cuban/Crane

 

Tough call here.  I think this would be a bad marriage.  Cuban (I believe) was kept out of the Cubs sale.  Crane possibly backed out of the deal on the Astros.  The two together would seem toxic to MLB.

 

Auction Rules

 

This was actually conveyed OK by me (and moreso by Maury).  Someone(s) need to submit a bid exceeding the Greenberg/Stalking-horse bid by $15MM.  If that happens then an auction begins with each party going up in increments of $2MM.  Eventually, the Rangers and CRO approve.

 

Here’s where it gets a little odd.  The Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) previously submitted by Greenberg controls the terms although a bidder can add, change or subtract provisions from the APA.  That could be an issue.  The US Trustee (who oversees BR compliance) has only small issues with the APA (broad exculpation from third-party claims and governmental claims).  So the APA seems pretty OK but if a bidder starts putting new terms in or deleting some out it could their undoing. It's not just the money but the terms as well. 

 

The bidding procedures have been challenged often by the lenders.  Judge Lynn recently said they are mostly fine.  He made two changes recently (7/30 I believe) in which he said the breakup fee was unclear.  Now Greenberg must decide beforehand whether he wants a $10MM breakup fee OR 125% of his expenses (capped at $13MM).  The timing of the auction, etc., are all fine by Judge Lynn.

 

One new thing just occurred which is CRO Snyder voted to reject the Rangers plan.  Not great news but I suppose not unexpected since it was based on their older offer which didn’t include the additional $40MM

 

Lenders’ Motivations

 

As I mentioned during the LSB Radio show, the lenders made a recent motion at almost midnight on Sunday.  The basic premise was the transfer of the ballpark lease (there was another issue but that’s what I’ll focus on).  The motion was made by JP Morgan who hold basically blanket security interests in HSG.  This means everything HSG has is covered by their loans.  The question I have is why do they care if the ballpark lease is transferred from one HSG entity to another?  It’s still collateral covered by the loan.  Granted, the transfer shifted the lease to the loan capped at $75MM but at the end of the day does that matter?  By including the lease in the BR case, it becomes liquidated that much faster instead of the lender having to go after HSG for the value of the lease.  Legally the lender’s motion may make sense but factually it may not so why file it?  Just to delay?

 

That’s about all I got for now. Oh yeah, nothing in here is legal advice. Just musings.

These projections are all over the place. 3.38 ERA by Kinslerhomer to 7.89 by PM Productions. I'm pretty high on the guy but that's just me. He and Harden's health could be a big deciding factor on this season.

 

Oh yeah, if he's so damn great why did the Rangers get him for a reasonable contract, sucked in The Show previously, Japan is glorified AAA baseball, etc., etc., etc. Words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words.

Well, that thing's going to turn into a trainwreck if we don't have this post.

Let's see, 72 ABs, 5 infield singles, mismanagement, buried, JD, This Thing, etc., etc.

over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over

 

I know there a few people here that play games on the Xbox. I was thinking about buying one since 1) I kinda like some games and 2) one of my DVD players took a crap on me so I figured get a gaming system that can do that. Kill two birds with one stone. Here's my issue - what's the difference between the arcade version versus 360? I've researched it and all I've figured out is the 360 is more expensive, has a bigger hard-drive and comes with a headset. I don't care about any of that. So I was going to buy an arcade but I've heard it doesn't play some of the 360's games. Can someone help me out?

I'm curious about what people thought/did. Can you have any interaction with the players or is it just moving through a line? Anyone have any conversations with player/personnel?

Reason I ask is I was close to going. Saw that I could get a flight out of Denver for $150 if I stayed until Monday. 6:00 am flight which would have meant leaving the house at about 3:00 am. Just didn't know what I'd do all day Sunday and I didn't tell anyone at work I'd be gone Monday. Wondering if I missed something really cool, fairly cool or meh. Regale me with your stories so I know what I missed.

Oral arguments in American Needle v. NFL were/will be heard by the US Supreme Court today. The basic facts of the case are that American Needle challenged NFL's rights to enter into an exclusive, licensed-apparel contract with Reebok. American Needle claimed this was an antitrust violation since, basically, the NFL is not one entity but 32 separate teams. The 7th Circuit agreed with the NFL.  American Needle appealed to the Supreme Court.  The interesting thing is the NFL also appealed the ruling and is seeking a broader decision holding the NFL isn't subject to the Sherman Act and has antitrust exemption.

The reason I'm bringing this up on a baseball blog is I'm sure the precedence relied upon by the NFL is MLB and MLB's exemption from antitrust legislation could be at risk. Losing antitrust, among other things, would allow teams to more freely move from city to city. No one is expecting this to affect baseball but there is that possibility.

Drew Brees did an op/ed piece on the case (last link) and I added a couple other links discussing the case.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabriel-a-feldman/american-needle-and-the-n_b_409532.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/sports/football/07needle.html

http://www.walkoffwalk.com/2010/01/american-needle-and-the-americ.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/07/AR2010010702947.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

 

This game has gotten a good amount of attention so perhaps a fanpost is in order.  Interesting facts about the MWC:

MWC is 4-0 in bowl games thus far.

Each MWC team was an underdog heading into their bowl games. They've beaten the spread by an average of 22 points.

MWC is 14-4 in bowl games since 06-07.

Big 12 is 4-3 in bowl games with terrible losses to Georgia and Navy (snicker). I guess you could say OSU was close against Ole' Miss but I'm not.

I wouldn't be heartbroken if BSU won. They're a damn fine team and deserve to be in this game.

 

I don’t think Moneyball is the greatest, most influential book in baseball history.  Nor do I think it’s a bunch of nonsense.  The idea that capitalizing on undervalued assets could help small market teams was interesting and it was interesting to see how someone did so (or tried to do so).  I enjoy intelligent critiques of Moneyball and this is not one of them.

Against Moneyball (Buzz Bissinger)

http://www.tnr.com/article/against-moneyball?page=0,0

Whatever happens in the National League and American League Championship series unfolding over the next week or so, one outcome has already been decided--the effective end of the theories of Moneyball as a viable way to build a playoff-caliber baseball team when you don't have the money. . . .  [B]ut all you need to do is keep in mind one number this postseason: 528,620,438. That's the amount of money in payroll spent this season by the teams still in it--the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Angels, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

So what is “a viable way to build a playoff-caliber baseball team when you don’t have the money”?  /reads further/.  Oh, you don’t have one.  Your point in this column is that it’s easier to make the playoffs when you have oodles of money.  That’s…not very insightful.

The sabermetricians, unloved and unwanted for so long, scorned by the baseball men brotherhood for their nerdy obsessions, fell to their knees like attendees at a revival: Finally someone understood them.

Right – the only way to understand the game is if you played it.  Waaaait, Buzz is 4 ½ feet tall.  Why is he talking about baseball?

The explanation was dazzling, although Lewis barely mentioned the three reasons the A's had been so successful--pitchers Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson. The three won an astounding 149 games during that span. Each of them were 20-game winners in at least one of those seasons. The odds of three young pitchers coming together like that on one team was basically a matter of baseball luck.

 That’s an interesting point.  Thank you for adding some information.

Beane had seven first-round draft picks that year, each of them extolled by Lewis for their buried-treasure status. Three of them are still playing in the majors [who?], none with anything close to superstar careers and all of them long gone from the A's. Three others were busts [who?]. . . .  His theory that only college pitchers should be drafted over high school ones because of their experience sounded plausible. But it flew in the face of the Atlanta Braves, who won their division 14 years in a row from 1991 to 2005, and relied on pitchers drafted straight out of high school all the while [who?].

 I retract me previous compliment. Sure, I could look this information up, but isn't that the journalist's job (three are Swisher, Blanton and Teahen)? Or more importantly the columnist who's trying to make a point/convince me of something? Why throw out three guy's names and refuse to name any others? "Beane's 7 draft pickes really sucked that year." "Who were they?" "Oh, you know - those guys." "No." "Trust me, they fucking sucked."

Beane was also flippant, especially to the ears of anyone who'd ever faced the Yankees' Mariano Rivera in the postseason, about how there was no need to pay exorbitantly for a closer because just about anyone could close--but then he traded away one of his vaunted draft picks [who?] for a reliever who turned out to be lousy anyway [who?].

 What I don’t get is the point of this column.  Is it that Lewis glossed over things in his book, like Zito, Hudson and Mulder, that detract from the theme? Or is it that high payrolls equal success? Maybe it’s the latter.

For the four teams in the championship series this year, parsimony is not a problem. Each ranked in the top ten in baseball payroll. All of them topped the $100 million mark and the Yankees went over $200 million.

 Gotcha – teams with big payrolls win.  Let’s just double check that to make sure I (and Buzz) am not glossing over anything.  OK, last season at issue in Moneyball was 2002 so let’s start there:

2002: Angels – 15th highest payroll in baseball (about the middle);

2003: Marlins – 25th;

2004: Red Sox – 2nd;

2005: White Sox – 13th;

2006: Cardinals – 11th;

2007: Red Sox – 2nd;

2008: Phillies – 12th.

 

In 2009, the remaining 4 teams are all in the top 10.  For the past 7 years, only twice has a team in the top 10 won the WS.  And in 2008, the top three payrolls (Yankees, Mets and Tigers) all missed the playoffs with the Tigers finishing dead last in their division.

Maybe the point of column is that Buzz just doesn’t like Beane (or Lewis).

Since Beane has compared himself to J.D. Salinger, just wanting to fade away, maybe the best thing for him to do is retire and write a book about how, in the end, it all really didn't work.

 I think that’s it.

Here's my issue. Some people rail on Lewis/Beane/Moneyball claiming it is now a failure but that's not the point. Everyone's trying to make more out of less in every profession and this book explained how it was being done in baseball. Lewis probably took some liberties by trying to show that Beane was on the cutting edge but I'm guessing lots of teams were doing it. Red Sox held onto Youk the entire time. I just find it odd that a very good sports writer takes time out of his day to poorly bitch about an interesting sports book while taking to time to bitch about geeks in their basements.

I can't remember which commenter (sorry) mentioned this, but I believe it was yesterday he compared MY's average HR distance and speed off the bat from last year to this year. Both were up this year. I figured it was just related to him bulking up some or a small sample size.

Then I ran across this article and here's the money quote:

So, very early this season (actually on the second full day of games), I had already noticed that balls were seemingly flying farther than they usually do, so I checked my numbers, and noticed that the standard distances of all the home runs around MLB were a lot longer than those hit in 2008. Since then, I’ve continues tracking this, and what was little more than a feeling and some numbers off a very small sample size have become a lot more compelling: the first 350 home runs this year are flying, on average, about 6 feet farther than last year. The likellihood that such a difference could come about by chance is exceedingly low, less than 0.0031% the last time I ran the stats on that. I’ve tried to come up with some other possible ways that league-wide homers could be flying so much farther, given that the weather is already factored out, and the ball is the most likely explanation.

http://waswatching.com/2009/04/19/is-the-new-yankee-stadium-a-homer-haven/

 

It sounds like many traveled for the game. I thought perhaps we could exchange our stories.

Based on FuturePants' recommendation I stayed at the Melrose. I don't think I'll stay anywhere else in the future. Cool old hotel and a very nice bar. Based on the recommendation of the chef I sat next to on the plane I went to Steel for sushi. Outstanding.

Here's the interesting part of my story. I was at the bar eating and a regular came in. Older gentleman. He and I start talking about baseball. He said he'd been a season ticket holder since the Rangers arrived in Texas and his seats were behind Hicks'. I mentioned the distance I traveled and crap I went through just to get to the game. At the end he said he was friends with Hicks and whether I had anything to pass on. I told him to tell Hicks to stay out of Jon Daniels' way. That started a conversation about the bad trades Daniels made and my defense of the health of the entire system. Thought that was pretty entertaining. 

I've watched a good portion of the games and have enjoyed them.  But I was wondering how they could improve it. One idea I had was to limit the number of MLB players on the rosters somehow (like 8-10 positional players, 2-3 starters and 3-4 bullpen arms) then fill out the roster with minor league players. To me, this would help with a few things:

1) It would make selection more elite.  Perhaps MLB players would be more gung ho with going since they'd be selected as the best US CFer for example.

2) It would help with making sure the MLBers get their ABs to get ready for the season.

3) Guys wouldn't be playing out of position to get them playing time. The way I would see it, you'd be selecting the best 3rd baseman you can get and best SS, etc., so that's where they'd be playing.

The minor league players probably wouldn't be getting as much playing time but that should be a far lesser concern for organizations than their stars not getting ABs or having to play out of position (so not getting ready for the season at their position). This wouldn't solve the Max Ramirez situation but I don't think that's too critical.

I'm mostly thinking this more from the perspective of the US, DR, Venz, and countries with more proven stars. The downside might be that teams like Japan and even Cuba would have a competitive advantage because their total roster might be stronger than the minor league players.

Anyhow, I've really enjoyed watching but was wondering if this might be something to reduce the complaints.

I'm going to delete this after I've gotten what I need since I've already made this type of fanpost a month or so back.

Now I'm traveling by myself since the Girl is gone and I'm taking a HS buddy and he lives in DFW. Here's what I envision: show up Sat, Sun maybe sit by an outdoor pool then walk around to a restaurant and some bars, Mon game and then hit another good restaurant, Tues home to Wyoming.

I'm thinking I'd like to stay downtown since I presume you can wander around from place to place to find a cool bar to sitdown in. I've got it down to the Hyatt, Indigo, Lawrence, Adolphus, Marriott and Magnolia (most expensive option). The alternative is fly in Sun, leave Tues and stay at the Ritz Carleton since it's actually a reasonable rate for two nights and I'm thinking of treating myself (for a decent price).

Do people have any suggestions regarding my list of hotels or other hotels that will fit my plans?

A couple people people were talking about stat cites and one mentioned that BP is becoming obsolete. The other day I just discovered (based on a discussion here) that baseballcube is really good for draft information. But the fact is, I'm not really well versed on what site is good for what (nor do I know all of them).  I basically use baseball-reference for most things since it has OPS+ and ERA+ and also look at fangraphs, mlb.com, yahoo, but I'm wondering if other people want to share their opinions.

What I'm thinking is: what site do you use and for what specific purpose? A unique metric, intuitive organization, easy to categorize what you're looking for, good biographical information, good minor league site, individual pitch information, etc. I'm sure people use different sites for different purposes so that's what I'm trying to figure out. If I want to find X categorized by Y I'd like to easily do it.

I'd like to understand what sites offer what without spending hours trying to figure it out plus I'm guessing there might be some lesser known sites. I'm unlikely to subscribe to a site but it would be good to know what they have to offer.