emptying the notebook

I am stealing this quote from a baseball blog I read (and highly recommend) which stole it from an interview with author Philip Roth. Roth was speaking about the need for the modern reader to read books in some weird, alternative way (I blame the 21st century), as in, "what do these characters' names really MEAN?" Or "what does this tell me about the AUTHOR?" Mr. Roth says:

"It’s like baseball. Suppose you and I went up to the ballpark together and there's a guy next to us with his kid. And (the father) was saying, 'Now, what I want you to do is watch the scoreboard. Stop watching the field. Just watch what happens when the numbers change on the scoreboard. Isn't that great? Now do you see what just happened there? Did you see what happened? Why did that happen?'

"And you say, 'That guy is crazy.' But the kid imbibes it and he goes home and he's asked: 'How was the game?' And he says, 'Great! The scoreboard changed thirty-two times and Daddy said last game it changed only fourteen times and the home team last time changed more times than the other team. It was really great! We had hot dogs and we stood up at one point to stretch and we went home.'

"Is that politicizing the game? Is that theorizing the baseball game? No. It's not having the foggiest idea what baseball is."

True that, dawg.

Ambiguously Masculine Moment (TM): Durty and I, sitting on his couch, watching, laughing, ENJOYING "The Devil Wears Prada" on a slow Sunday night on TV. "This is great. I watched this with my sister. You should see the rest of it," says he. Hmm.

let me sing you a waltz

Just watched the very delightful "Paris Je T'aime." It's not as cheesy or "chick-flick" as one might expect. In my DVD collection, it'd be under "joie de vivre."



One of the taglines for the movie is "18 different stories by 18 of the most celebrated directors." Ok. How is Wes Craven one of those?

durable lefties are NICE

Mark Buehrle re-signs for 4/56mm. Take that, Barry Zito lovers.

The Sox very obviously need an overhaul, so it was a little strange to hear Buehrle's name being bandied about in trade rumors so often. Who do you build around on this roster beside someone like Buehrle?

Teams build around players that are 1) cheap, 2) young and 3) dependable. If you're young, then you're usually cheap. It's the rare treasure that is all three, young superstars like David Wright, Miguel Cabrera, and Brandon Webb. The sustainability of success depends a lot on those cheap, young, good players that keep the winning percentage up and the payroll down. Even big spenders like the Yankees (Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera) and the Red Sox (Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Kevin Youkilis) have young players playing at a high level every day, to offset all those high salary guys.

The short list of young and/or cheap is: Danks, Jenks, Fields, Podsednik and Iguchi
The list of dependable is: Buehrle, Garland, Uribe
The last list is guys who are probably too expensive to move: Thome, Konerko, Vazquez

So, with Buehrle back in the fold, the only guys left to deal are the Rotting Corpse of Jose Contreras and the Slightly Less Rotting Corpse of Jermaine Dye, both of whom have a year left on their contracts but may still entice someone into a two month rental for mid-level prospects. Vazquez has suddenly resurrected himself, having his first good year since 2003, so he looks unlikely to move.

The only other thing is to figure out which, if any, of the chumps among Luis Terreo, Andy Gonzalez, and Jerry Owens can play (survey SAYS: no), and see if we can get some more of those cheap, young, good players, because the 2007 Sox are overloaded with old, expensive ones.

Come on, Kenny!

"i'm not leaving without Bumblebee"

Amidst all the hilariously bad dialogue and indifference to things like "scripts," the Transformers movie was a good time, totally worth $10 in the middle of the summer.

"Optimus Prime gets Prostate Cancer"



Top 10 fav Transformers (I mean the old-school ones, not the crappy permutations)

1. Optimus Prime
2. Soundwave
3. Grimlock
4. Devastator
5. Megatron
6. Prowl
7. Sunstreaker
8. Sideswipe
9. Brawn
   
10. Laserbeak

Top 10 cartoons from our childhood that will be made into movies (according to me, Moose, and Young Patrick):

1. He-Man (no, we're forgetting the Dolph Lundgren version ever existed)
2. Robotech
3. JEM (truly outrageous)
4. M.A.S.K. - you forgot about it? Well, it was vehicles that turned into... other vehicles. With guns attached.
   
   
5. Thundercats (obvious)
   
6. She-Ra, if they showed it right after He-Man, like they did in real life. She-Ra's pretty much like the WNBA, the bastardized, more boring counterpart to a more popular product.
   
7. GI Joe. Oh yeah.
8. Centurions - we couldn't remember if this was really a cartoon, or just a toy.
   
9. C.O.P.S. - what's with acronyms that aren't really acronyms?
   
10. Captain Power - only if we get to shoot at the screen with those infrared toy guns.
    

all the stars you need

...and I don't mean the new Stars single, "The Night Starts Here." MLB vote tallies are in, so the hitters are set for the midsummer "classic." Instead of doffing the old hat of picking my own '07 all-stars, I thought, who are the best players of this DECADE? In the future looking back towards the Oughts (albeit an arbitrary but convenient span of time), which players will stick out? We're at a point in time where we can do that, too, being 7 years into it.

So... I picked these out by eyeballing the stats, looking at Win Shares, blabbedy blaZZZZZZZZZ. Ok here's the list.

MLB Team of the 2000-2010 (I know, it's actually 11 years)

C - Jorge Posada, NYY. Hasn't had a down year since the decade started. The NL counterpart would be Mike Piazza, who's only been middling since 2003, but had a spectacular 2000-2002.
Jorge's 2003: 281/405/518, 30 HR 101 RBI

1b - Albert Pujols, StL. The undisputed best. The AL's best for the decade was a little more cryptic, but Carlos Delgado has the slight edge over Jim Thome (injured 2005).
Fat Albert's ridic 2006: 331/431/671, 49 HR 137 RBI (in 143 games)

2b - Jeff Kent, SF/Hou/LAD. Has been very consistent even until this year, in his age 39 season. His AL counterpart is Alfonso Soriano, although his days playing 2b might be over.
Kent in his 2000 MVP season: 334/424/596, 33 HR 125 RBI

3b - Alex Rodriguez, Sea/Tex/NYY. Only because there are no AL 3bs worth a mention. Scott Rolen, Phi/StL is the best from the NL.
ARod's MVP 2005: 321/421/610, 48 HR 130 RBI 21 SB

SS - Derek Jeter, NYY. Over Miguel Tejada. Both have been consistent, but Jeter's good years have been better than Tejada's (according to OPS+). The AL also Carlos Guillen, Nomar when he was good, and ARod, but the NL is a barren wasteland of SS. Edgar Renteria had two Jeter-like years, but that's about it.
Jeter's 2006: 343/417/483, 14 HR 97 RBI 34 SB

OF
Vladimir Guerrero, Mon/LAA - Vladdy's 2000: 345/410/664, 44 HR 123 RBI
Manny Ramirez, Cle/Bos - ManRam's 2000: 351/457/697, 38 HR 122 RBI in 118 games
Steroid Bear, SF - The Bear's 2001: 328/515/863, 73 HR 137 RBI
Honorable mention OFs: Gary Sheffield, Lance Berkman, Magglio Ordonez, Ichiro!

Starting Pitchers
Roy Oswalt, Hou - 2005: 20-12, 2.94 ERA, 184 Ks, 1.20 WHIP
Tim Hudson, Oak/Atl - 2003: 16-7, 2.70 ERA, 162 Ks, 1.08 WHIP
Pedro Martinez, Bos/NYM - 2000 Cy Young: 18-6, 1.74 ERA, 284 Ks, 0.74 WHIP
Johan Santana, Min - 2004 Cy Young: 20-6, 2.61 ERA, 265 Ks, 0.92 WHIP
Roger Clemens, NYY/Hou - Rocket's 2005: 13-8, 1.87 ERA, 185 Ks (at age 42)
Honorable mentions: Roy Halladay, Randy Johnson, Mark Buehrle, Carlos Zambrano.

Relief Pitchers
John Smoltz, Atl - 2003: 45 saves, 1.12 ERA, 0.87 WHIP
Billy Wagner, Hou/Phi/NYM - 2005: 38 saves, 1.51 ERA, 0.84 WHIP
Trevor Hoffman, SD - 2006: 46 saves, 2.14 ERA, 0.97 WHIP
Mariano Rivera, NYY - 2005: 43 saves, 1.38 ERA, 0.87 WHIP
Jason Isringhausen, StL - 2005: 39 saves, 2.14 ERA