SB Nation User Blog: rfloh

Fatigue and injuries and Rainman.

rfloh — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:12:53 -0000

Fatigue and injuries and Rainman.

Since I saw Raiman's reply to me late, but since it really pisses me off, on injuries and fatigue, suggested reading for Rainman:

Facts and Fallacies of Fitness, Mel Siff,
Science and Practice of Strength Training, 2nd ed, Vladimir Zatsiorsky,
Supertraining, 6th ed, Mel Siff,
Strength and Power in Sport, editor P V Komi,
Neuromechanics of Human Movement, Roger Enoka,
Biomechanics of Musculoskeletal Injury, Whiting and Zernicke

If you've actually fukking interested, I can suggest even more in depth and detailed books.

When you've bothered to actually fukking educate yourself on sports science, sports training, and biomechanics, then come back and talk about opinion and fact.

OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

rfloh — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:52:08 -0000

For anyone who has every played DnD, whether on pen and paper or computers, or even medieval fantasy role playing games, Gary Gygax passed over away today in Milwaukee.

I never liked his vision of DnD, back in 1st edition days, but still, he was the founder. The father of Mordenkainen and Melf.

RIP.

So, to anyone who has played RPGs, favourite RPG games? PNP or PC would do.

Favourite DnD classes?

ZIPS for the Haren trade

rfloh — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:23:12 -0000

by Dan Szmborski are up here.

I didn't see them in any of the Haren diaries, though I might have missed them.

Haren: 120 ERA+.

Connor Robertson: 98 ERA+

Brett Anderson: 83 ERA+

Greg Smith: 85 ERA+

Dana Eveland: 95 ERA+

Chris Carter: 82 OPS+

Carlos Gonzales: 68 OPS+

Aaron Cunningham: 91 OPS+

Note, this are all just next year's projections, so the younger guys obviously don't project as well.

Also, I am being sarcastic in my tag. Just in case it wasn't obvious.

Poll

Beane sucks?

ZIPS for the A's are out

rfloh — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 12:42:05 -0000

Dan Szymborski has released his ZIPS projections for the A's in 2007.

He gets in some nice snark at the Beane bashers:

And Jack Cust, who strikes out way too much to ever hit major league pitching and who statheads don't realize won't ever hit in the majors, was made mincemeat out of by AL hurlers to the tune of finishing 8th in the AL in OPS+.

Speaking of Cust:

Name P Age AVG OBP SLG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS
Jack Cust* dh 29 .264 .394 .470 135 428 65 113 22 0 22 70 92 154 0 1

ZIPS likes Denorfia:

Name P Age AVG OBP SLG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS
AVERAGE LF ------------- lf ---- .271 .344 .447 ------------------------------------------
Chris Denorfia cf 27 .282 .350 .438 132 429 65 121 22 3 13 53 43 84 7 3
AVERAGE RF ------------- rf ---- .270 .341 .448 ------------------------------------------

Crosby:

Name P Age AVG OBP SLG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS
Bobby Crosby ss 28 .240 .305 .353 94 354 48 85 17 1 7 34 32 65 7 1

Kotsay:

Name P Age AVG OBP SLG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS
Mark Kotsay* cf 32 .260 .317 .369 103 412 47 107 22 1 7 49 34 39 3 2

DLD 10/11/2007 Schuerholz quits!

rfloh — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:46:23 -0000

Since I haven't seen this anywhere on AN, from Rosenthal:

The Braves have a major announcement scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.

It's expected that longtime GM John Schuerholz is stepping down and being replaced by his assistant, Frank Wren.

Schuerholz took over as GM in 1990 and the team won 14 straight division titles before struggling the past two seasons.

Wash hired by Texas

rfloh — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 05:55:23 -0000

According to WFAA.

The Rangers will step outside the organization for the "fresh perspective" general manager Jon Daniels said he wants to bring to the clubhouse.

Two baseball sources said Sunday night that the club had hired Oakland third base coach Ron Washington. He could be officially introduced as Buck Showalter's successor as early as this afternoon. Showalter was dismissed Oct. 4.

Washington met for the third time with Rangers officials Sunday. This time the meeting included owner Tom Hicks. Hicks did not confirm nor deny the hiring of Washington, who has spent the last 11 years on the Oakland staff, but he did acknowledge he was impressed by the meeting.

DLD 01/11/2006 -- Oakland Ham Fighter?

rfloh — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 15:07:24 -0000

According to Ken Rosenthal, Billy Beane has good things to say about Trey Hillman.

"I've heard nothing but great things about him," A's general manager Billy Beane says. "And I've heard it from a lot of people I really respect, all coming from different angles, none of whom are connected to each other."

Rosenthal also says Beane is confident that Frank Thomas will return.

Beane remains confident of re-signing designated hitter Frank Thomas to a two-year deal; he said he has been in contact with Thomas' agent, Arn Tellem, over the last few days. "Each time we talk there is some type of progress toward resolution," Beane says. "Something like this, given his year, does not get done right away. I don't think they're being unreasonable. I don't think they think we're being unreasonable. The desire for both of us is to get something done."

DLD 10/23/2006 -- More Kenny Rogers

rfloh — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:25:19 -0000

For anyone who's already sick of this, I apologise. For those[editor's note, by rfloh] [spelling] who're not, here's more reaction to pine-tar boy.

TLR says he doesn't believe that it was dirt.

Jon Heyman says it was certainly pine tar, and gets the opinion of a bullpen coach on the reasons and methods for the use of pine tar and other "foreign" substances.

"The pine tar blends in nicely with the glove if it's the right color. I'd check which gloves he was using which inning. You just get it in your hand and rub it up. The pine tar allows the index finger and thumb to apply more pressure on the ball. With Rogers and his curveball, he needs more pressure on his thumb. It also helps the ball move a little extra. If the ball is fractionally heavier on one side, it will move more.

"But the predominant reason to use the pine tar is for the grip and to apply the necessary pressure to throw your pitches. The ball was coming out of his hand pretty good. It's good for the splitter, the cutter, the slider and the curveball.

"Rogers isn't a very hard thrower. He depends on movement. It can even help with the changeup. The hard thing about throwing a splitter is controlling it. If you apply pine tar to the middle finger and index finger it allows you to grip it better and gain more control. But pine tar is very visible. That's why you have to be careful. A lot of times you have to wipe it off between innings with alcohol. It comes right off with alcohol.

"He definitely was using pine tar. It can cake with pine tar and rosin. Maybe after the second inning, he went back to the shaving cream and added moisture. I'd say he was either hiding it better or he went back to the shaving cream or suntan lotion.

The bullpen coach also speculates why TLR was reticient.

"I bet Tony La Russa's pitchers are mad at him for saying anything, because a lot of guys do it, and I'd be surprise if there's a whole staff of guys who don't do it. In fact, I'd say a majority of guys use one of the three -- shaving cream, suntan lotion or pine tar.

PAGING Sal, Jacob Luft says Rogers cheating is no big deal. He is even impressed that Rogers managed to get away with it for so long, in the ALCS for example. To his credit, he doesn't distinguish between this and corked bats, AAS. To him, it's all somewhat acceptable.

If anything, I'm impressed that Rogers has been getting away with doctoring the ball for this long.

...

This isn't the first time in recent years that this facet of the game has come to conflict with our society's newfound and complete intolerance for cheaters and liars of any sort. (Maybe this is all fallout from the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Who knows?) I was stunned at how much the corked bat incident damaged Sammy Sosa's image; allegations of something else ruined whatever was left. Speaking of which, has Rafael Palmeiro even come out of his bunker yet? Palmeiro's biggest sin wasn't taking the stuff, it was lying to us about it

Ken Rosenthal speculates on why TLR was so reticient, and sounds pissed off, he usually is never this snarky

FOX cameras detect a brown splotch on the left hand of Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers in the first inning. And Cardinals manager Tony La Russa goes nuts.

La Russa asks plate umpire Alfonso Marquez to inspect Rogers for a foreign substance. Marquez determines that the substance is pine tar. Rogers is ejected and suspended for the rest of the Series.

Truth! Justice! The American Way!

If only it were that simple. La Russa might have improved the Cardinals' chances if he had gone after Rogers, who washed his hands and pitched eight brilliant innings in Game 2 to help the Tigers tie the Series, one game each.

But the solution might only have been temporary -- for the Cardinals, the World Series and Major League Baseball.

As usual in baseball, the question is not whether one player is cheating; it's how many others are engaging in similar hijinks.

Heaven forbid that anyone follow the actual rules.

DLD 10/23/2006 -- Kenny Rogers, cheater?

rfloh — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 15:02:46 -0000

Ken Rosenthal gives a good recap of what happened. And ends with a snarky comment about Rogers.

At 41 years, 11 months and 12 days, Rogers became the oldest starting pitcher to win a World Series game. He is just the second pitcher to make three starts without allowing a run in a single postseason; Christy Mathewson had three complete-game shutouts against the A's in the 1905 Series.

"I'm no Christy Mathewson, that's for sure," Rogers said.

The validity of that statement, at least, was confirmed by FOXSports.com.

According to well-placed sources, Christy washed his hands.

Jayson Stark wonders why Rogers was so defensive

So Marquez never mentioned that humongous clump of dirt? "No."

All righty then. So that's the end of it. Right? A clump of dirt happened to appear on his pitching hand, and he wiped it off, and then went back to being Sandy Koufax.

Or maybe not.

Because his own manager, Mr. Jim Leyland, said the umpires "made Kenny wash his hands." And Steve Palermo, an MLB umpiring supervisor, reported that Marquez "asked Kenny to remove that dirt, so there wouldn't be any question as far as that controversy."

Great. Took care of that controversy stuff in no time flat, didn't they? Cleared it right up.

So this should be the point where we should be moving on to talk about Rogers' sensational evening on the old pitcher's mound, right? Nope. Sorry. Not quite yet.

Because if Rogers was so darned innocent, how come he was trying so hard to deny everything except his pitch count?

ESPN says that Rogers had a similar substace on his hand when he pitched against the A's, and provides the opinions of some former pitchers.

"I've heard [pine tar] is used for the grip," former Cy Young winner Rick Sutcliffe told ESPN The Magazine's Amy K. Nelson. "But that's what the rosin bag is supposed to be used for. When it's hot out and you're sweating, the rosin bag is there to help give you more grip, the same effect, and give it a tacky substance. But tonight the rosin bag isn't going to be much help with the cold weather.

"The pine tar, I'm told, can give the ball more rotation. It's useless for the fastball, but with the breaking pitches it can help with the movement and spin."

A former major league pitcher offered his take on what a foreign substance can do to alter a pitcher's performance.

"When your hands get cold, you can't put spin on the ball, because the ball slips out of your hands," the pitcher said. "It also changes your release point. It changes the release point because the ball wants to come out of your hands sooner so it makes the ball go high, with less spin. So it's higher in the strike zone, or not even a strike, and with less movement. But once you use something that's a little stickier, like pine tar or chewing tobacco and gum, or hair gel, anything that makes your hand look sticky or feel sticky, it brings your release point back to normal. It also puts the same spin on the ball because you have a better grip.

"The problem is there's different substances that don't have a color to them and also don't wear off after awhile. Because when you throw more than 10-15 pitches in an inning, certain things start to wear away, and all of a sudden you're throwing your most important pitches with your least amount of stuff."

DLD 10/21/2006

rfloh — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 15:22:58 -0000

Dave Newhouse continues his quixotic and idiotic campaign for Dusty as the manager of the A's.

Apparently, Dusty should be the manager because he has "presence". But then so does Sweet Lou.

That's why I'm backing Dusty Baker as the A's next manager. He has the presence to stand up to anybody. If he can manage Barry Bonds, who hardly considered him a buddy at the time, he can manage anybody.

Baker is a man's man, very popular with his players, a proven manager with a 103-win season, four playoff appearances and one World Series. Since I first supported Baker a few days ago, I've received a torrent of criticism from readers who perceive Baker as Atilla the Hun with a lineup card.

Baker led the Chicago Cubs to their first back-to-back winning seasons in 30-plus years, but he is being blamed for the team's downfall, even though the Cubbies haven't won a World Series since 1908.

That lovable, inept organization hasn't gotten anything right since Tinker to Evers to Chance. All its failures seem to have landed on Baker. Cubs fans now have Lou Piniella to kick around.

In non-baseball news, according to this article all men will have big willies

Blokes will be chuffed to learn their willies will get bigger -- and women's boobs will become more pert.

<points>, <laughs>.

British ministers are planning to impose controls on the YouTube website to try to end the broadcasting of indiscriminate violence.

Why are Americans behind the Brits in tilting at windmills?