SB Nation User Blog: jtts

Scrappyness

jtts — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:06:11 -0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJD8k2hgRmU

Playing Hardball with Ron Stalinovich, career minor leaguer.

When you go to the ballpark, are you seriously gonna pay 4.50 for a hotdog?

Links to the other videos (and an AWESOME '86 Mets music video)

Commercials for Easton bats. The other videos feature Carlos Zambrano, Andre Ethier, Brad Hawpe, and Matt Kemp. Watching Zambrano in the "taking one for the team" video is delightful.

John Patterson

jtts — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:26:43 -0000

Released by the Nationals.

He lost the last two years to injuries after a really nice 2005. Now 30, he's lost a chunk of velocity and isn't likely to ever regain his past form.

cribbed from rotoworld:
"Nationals released RHP John Patterson.
Stunning. Obviously the Nationals shared the same concerns about Patterson's lack of velocity that we did, but he still looked like their probable Opening Day starter and they'll only save about $600,000 by cutting him. They're left with a rotation of Shawn Hill, Jason Bergmann, Tim Redding, Odalis Perez and either Matt Chico or John Lannan. They'll probably need both young lefties initially with Hill likely to open up on the DL."

Did You Know of the Day / Week / Month / Year

jtts — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:52:29 -0000

The Rangers currently lead the majors in HR with 64. That puts them on pace to hit 230, tied for 24th most in the history of baseball.

Amongst the 24 teams to have hit more than 230 HRs in a season, 17 finished with records above .500. The overall winning percentage of these teams was .532 (86-76). To reach 86 wins, the current Rangers would need to win 58% of their remaining games (68-49).

Switching gears...

Since the change to the divisional playoff format in 1969, 142 teams have finished May with a .400 winning percentage or worse (they finished the year with an average winning percentage of .415).

Of those teams, four of them came back to reach the playoffs (3%). Most recently, the Houston Astros won the Wildcard in 2005 despite starting the year off 19-32. The others to come back from a horrible first three months were 1989 Toronto Blue Jays, the 1981 Kansas City Royals, and the 1974 Pittsburgh Pirates

Did You Know (of the day / week / month / year)

jtts — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:02:49 -0000

Three women played in the Negro Leagues.

Replacing Hank Aaron, Toni Stone played 2B in 50 games and hit .243 in 1953 for the Indianapolis Clowns.

Mamie Johnson pitched herself to a 33-8 record in three years between 1953-55 also for the Clowns.

After selling Stone's contract to the Kansas City Monarchs in 1954, Connie Morgan played two years at 2B.

Millwood to DL, Littleton called up

jtts — Sat, 05 May 2007 21:30:56 -0000

cribbed from texasrangers.com:

The Rangers have placed pitcher Kevin Millwood on the disabled list with a strained left hamstring muscle.

The move is retroactive to April 29. Reliever Wes Littleton was called up from Triple-A Oklahoma. Mike Wood, who started against the New York Yankees on Thursday, is replacing Millwood in the rotation

Kinsler gets a deeeluxe apartment in the sky

jtts — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:58:50 -0000

Cribbed from rotoworld:

Manager Ron Washington said Monday that he likes Ian Kinsler hitting seventh against right-handers.

Kinsler should never have been hitting ninth against them in the first place, so moving him up a couple spots is at least a start. "Everybody kept asking me when I was going to move him up. Well, I jumped him two spots," Washington said. "To go any farther, though, he's going to have to move past some veteran hitters. When he does that, it will be safe to say 'He's arrived.'"

He's not quite as high as some of us think, but Washington's certainly not saying that he won't move up higher. I'm satisfied for now.

My Cowboy Draft

jtts — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:05:43 -0000

1/22 - Dwayne Jarrett(WR) - USC - Whereas Ted Ginn reminds me of Steve Smith, Dwayne Jarrett reminds me of Keyshawn Johnson. I think he has the talent to be a top notch possession receiver that goes over the middle to make tough catches for about a decade.

2/53 - Quentin Moses(LB) - Georgia - He's free falling because of concerns about his work ethic. He originally looked like he could have been a top 10 pick. I like Bobby Carpenter as much as the next guy, but I think he can play any of the LB positions.

3/87 - Michael Bush(RB) - Louisville - Another player freefalling, this time because of injury. Before his second surgery, I was in favor of taking Bush with the first round pick. When I look at him I see Brandon Jacobs. I want a Brandon Jacobs on this team.

4/122 - Ikaika Francis(DE) - Hawaii - He'd almost certainly need a year to develop, but the Cowboys may have the luxury of him playing sparingly at least to start. He's shown good instincts and continuous improvement throughout college.

5/159 - Tyler Palko(QB) - Pittsburgh - If I had concerns about Romo, I'd have taken a QB before the 5th round. No, Palko is an insurance policy should a rash of injuries occur. Palko seems like the kind of player that could get into 3-4 games at the end of a season when the QB gets hurt and some other team turns around and gives up a 1st or 2nd round pick for him. In a lot of ways he reminds me of Romo (similar size, run and gun mindset, leadership, etc), but I wouldn't draft a guy only because he reminds me of Romo.

6/195 - Chris Denman(OT) - Fresno St - Big Guy. Coachable. Project. My master plan has McQuistan developing enough to replace Flozell after next year with Denman becoming the new 3rd/4th tackle being groomed to move onto the line.

6/200 - Tim Mixon(PR/CB) - UC-Berkley - Small guy. Punt Returner. Project at CB. Mixon is probably too small to ever be an everydown CB (5'8"), but he's a good punt returner and I expect that Reeves will be given the first shot at the nickel CB role if Aaron Glenn (another small guy) ever retires.

7/212 - Ryan Poles(OG) - Boston College - I know nothing at all about him other than that he went to Boston College. Seriously. I looked at their roster from last year and he's was the biggest senior that I expected to still be available at the end of the draft. He could be a one legged albino with severe brain damage, but as long as he went to Boston College I'll take a flyer on him. (I found something about him! - "Ryan C. Poles, born September 20, 1985...Earned All-America honors from Parade, SuperPrep, PrepStar and Riddell...enrolled as a communication major in the College of Arts & Sciences...Ryan and his younger sister Kelli are the children of Mary Ellen and Robert Poles, Jr. ...his sister is a sophomore member of the University of Vermont women's basketball team ... his father was a standout defensive lineman at Boston College from 1979-82." - Sounds like a winner to me!)

7/234 - David Ball(WR) - New Hampshire - Broke Jerry Rice's DI-AA TD record. Did I say broke? I meant SMASHED. He obviously won't have the same type of success at the next level, but he's got good size and has shown the ability to be a very good possession receiver (I'm all about moving the chains).

7/237 - Craig Dahl(ST/S) - N. Dakota St - Small school guy with good size that can contribute to special teams while they decide whether or not he can play defense.

4-4-07 Lineup - Sosa Sits. Kinsler 6th

jtts — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:45:06 -0000

http://tinyurl.com/2glukr

Lofton, CF
Cat, DH
Young, SS
Teixeira, 1B
Blalock, 3B
Kinsler, 2B
Wilkerson, LF
Cruz, RF
Laird, C

GMJ, CF
Cabrera, SS
Vlad, DH
Anderson, LF
Kotchman, 1B
Kendrick, 2B
Izturis, 3B
Molina, C
Willits, RF

OOTP2007

jtts — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:09:13 -0000

I had major issues with OOTP2006 to the point that this was the first time I haven't pre-ordered the game in about 4-5 years. Today they released the new version to people who pre-ordered. Anybody here buy a copy of it? Early thoughts? Anyone else waiting for the reviews before jumping in?

http://www.ootpbaseball.net/ for those with no idea what I'm talking about.

OT: College Basketball - Round 1

jtts — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 02:02:05 -0000

Wow. VCU showed some real chutzpah at the end of that game. After getting beat for layups two straight possessions, I guess I can see how Duke might play a little bit off of him, but he had no pressure when he stopped at the FT line and took that shot.

Always nice to get Bob Knight out of the tournament as early as possible. Hopefully nobody want to ask him to do any studio work. Even though Indiana fired him, I still can disassociate them enough to not hate the Hoosiers.

How about Marquette's inability to score? they made 15 field goals all game, 10 of them were from 3pt range. That's just terrible.

As the first major sporting event I've watched in HD, I'm now totally sold on its greatness.