SB Nation User Blog: jwiscarson

Mechanics Request: Brad Kilby

jwiscarson — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:13:09 -0000

While watching last night's A's/Rangers game, I watched in amazement at the bizarritude of Brad Kilby's mechanics. I'm at work, so I don't have any motion picture evidence to offer up right now.

Suffice to say that my reaction to his pitching motion vacillated between, "surely that's a joke" and "surely that's a product of blunt force trauma to the brain." But I am no expert, so I thought I would ask for the advice of the experts.

OT: Fidelity Investing in Genocide

jwiscarson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:07:47 -0000

Adam: If you feel that the content of this FanPost is just too far removed from normal context of the site and wish to delete it, I completely understand.

Last week, I received a notice from Fidelity International regarding an upcoming Board of Directors meeting and a proposal brought before the shareholders. This proposal, simply stated, would prevent Fidelity from investing in companies that "substantially contribute to genocide or crimes against humanity." The Board of Directors has recommended that shareholders vote against this measure. I've contacted some local print and TV media in the Metroplex, sent e-mails to various human-rights-related non-profit organizations, and have even contacted my employer's HR department as well.

Nevertheless, I feel obligated to mention this here. If you or anyone you know have a ~~Fidelity 401k or~~ (I've subsequently learned that no 401k mutual funds are affected by this proposal) Roth IRA, you may be eligible to vote in this shareholder's proposal. Obviously genocide has its potential upsides in that the Sudanese genocide might give the world the Darfuri Mel Brooks, but I'd rather take my chances and go the other direction.

Anyone seeking further information can find lots of it at Investors Against Genocide.

Baseball-Reference.com's New Design

jwiscarson — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:43:03 -0000

Baseball-Reference.com's New Design

Not sure if others had seen the new design before it went live. I love the upgrades overall, but it teeters on information overload on the advanced statistics pages. One huge boost? TotalZone now included for fielding data past 1954.

Here's a link to the blog post on the new features.

Is baseball special?

jwiscarson — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:09:33 -0000

Is baseball special?

I ran across this great THT article by Dave Studeman, where he tries to reason out why steroid use in baseball is a bad thing in the context of baseball's historical importance.

At the end, he also links to a Joe Posnanski article which might be the best article I've ever read about baseball.

THT: Ranger Futility Reigns Supreme

jwiscarson — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:29:51 -0000

This article at The Hardball Times ranks the chances of various long streaks of winless...ness. Although there aren't many such streaks compared, we nevertheless nailed top honors.

I've never heard of Rangers fans getting up in arms about how miserable their team's performance has been historically, maybe because it includes some Senators years, but the Rangers have outdone two Cubs streaks in terms of futility.

An interesting read otherwise, talking about the methods used to determine the chances of these events. Personally, I always bring the Rangers' one playoff win up in sports futility discussions. Granted, the article also mentions the Arizona Cardinals -- can anyone think of comparable incidents in other sports?

Driveline Mechanics: Justin Smoak (Part One)

jwiscarson — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:21:23 -0000

Driveline Mechanics: Justin Smoak (Part One)

Kyle posted the first part of his hitter's analysis of Smoak.

I didn't see many LSBers over in the comments section, so I thought I'd post this here in case interested parties missed it.

Also worth noting that Kyle and another poster (Teacherman) get into a long discussion on perceived flaws in Smoak's swing.

Beyond the Boxscore on the Eddie Guardado Trade

jwiscarson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:19:22 -0000

Beyond the Boxscore on the Eddie Guardado Trade

I skim BTB most of the time, but I found RJ's back and forth who's-on-first-esque write-up on the Eddie Guardado trade quite funny.

...Did I miss something in tonight's Rangers game? Has anyone else ever seen GameDay break like...

jwiscarson — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:45:36 -0000

...Did I miss something in tonight's Rangers game?

Has anyone else ever seen GameDay break like this?

What the hell, Houston announcers?

jwiscarson — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:27:38 -0000

What the hell, Houston announcers?

I'm not familiar with their commentators, but their color guy has this to say about Max Ramirez's first home run (35 seconds into the video):

"I saw him play at triple-A last year, year before that and he was uh a pretty good player there. Taken him a little while, but boy he hit the heck outta that ball."

Hmm...Ramirez has never played above double-A, and is 23. Good scouting job!