I'd have gone for the chicken sandwich
How can they be so stupid? Just another
example of how politicians are a separate class unto themselves. Would it have killed Kerry to eat a hamburger or chicken sandwich? How do you arrive at a point in your life where you can't go even 1 day without a catered gourmet meal? Further evidence that the system is broken. Where is our choice for president? It's either the stupid rich guy out of touch with the public, or the smart rich guy out of touch with the public.
What year IS this?
(I guess today is bash the GOP day. They make it so easy.)
This is the kind of person the GOP is comfortable putting on the ballot for Congress. I guess Candidate James Hart slept through the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's. Or else he feels we finally have the right climate for his type of politics. Maybe he's right about that. Let's hope the good people of Tennessee say otherwise.
Terror alerts
Many Dems have accused the GOP of using terror alerts for political gain. I'm not too concerned about that because I largely think the terror alert system is a bunch of crap anyway. But it's hard not to think there might be something behind the criticism when Tom Ridge issues the following statement in conjunction with the latest alert:
"But we must understand that the kind of information available to us today is the result of the president's leadership in the war against terror, the reports that have led to this alert are the result of offensive intelligence and military operations overseas, as well as strong partnerships with our allies around the world, such as Pakistan."
Be afraid!!! Be very afraid!!!!!!! And then vote GWB in '04.
According to several news sources, Katherine Harris told an audience at a Bush rally in Venice, Florida that the mayor of Carmel, Indiana told her that a middle eastern man was arrested and hundreds of pounds of explosives confiscated after it was revealed that "he had plans to blow up the area's entire power grid." She later repeated the claim in an interview with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Phew! That was a close one! Great job by the authorities to derail this terrorist plot...except that Harris completely made the entire story up. When questioned about this "terrorist plot", a spokesman for the mayor explained "The mayor never talked to Katherine Harris. They never had that conversation."
When questioned about this on Wednesday, Harris issued a statement saying "I regret that I had no knowledge of the sensitive nature of this situation."
WH-WH-WH-WHAT?? What sensitive situation? No knowledge? Katherine, you completely made up a bogus story in order to scare people into voting for Bush, then you apologize not for lying, but for not having knowledge of the sensitive nature of the situation? What the heck does that even mean?
She went on to explain that her story was meant to remind us that it's important "for each of us to remain alert and vigilant in fighting terrorism." Oh ok! You were lying for a good cause, so it's ok.
I'll add this to the "manipulating the war on terror for political gain" stack. It actually surpassed the "using images of 9/11 to manipulate public opinion" stack some time ago.
Random notes from a Pirates loss
I caught most of the Pirates 2-1 loss to the Dodgers last night. Just a few random thoughts:
Josh Fogg bears a slight resemblance to Duke Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Fogg pitches on the razors edge. Even on his best day, you get the feeling that Fogg is just on the verge of giving up home runs to the next 5 hitters in the lineup. No doubt he is a smart pitcher, but guys like Fogg don't age very well. I think there is a great chance that he is out of baseball in 3 years.
Jose Lima is a maniac. I wouldn't be able to tolerate him as a teammate.
Lima bears a slight resemblance to Gastone Moschin, the actor who played the Don of old town New York (Don Fanucci) from the Godfather II.
Big Mac looks like he's getting a lazy eye. Maybe he's always had it and I never noticed.
Jason Kendall gets more 'flare' hits to RF than anybody in the league.
The Dodger trade with the Marlins is remarkable in that the Sabermetric community uniformly believes the Dodgers did great, but the traditional media uniformly thinks the Marlins were the big winners. This is one case where I am squarely in agreement with the Sabermetric guys. Encarnacion is worthless. LoDuca is a nice durable, league average catcher. Don't feed me the BS that his leadership will be missed. Leadership never drove in a run. Mota is a valuable bullpen arm, but the Dodgers got Penny in return. Give me a good starter over a great reliever any day. Choi is already twice the player Encarnacion is, is cheaper, and has alot of room for development. Plus the Dodgers got a decent AA SP prospect, which they immediately flipped to the Diamondbacks in a package to get Steve Finley. Sound like the Dodgers
are big winners here.
Announcers are idiots, part one: Between innings I flipped to the Phillies - Padres game on ESPN. Jim Thome was at the plate in the top of the 3rd inning. There was a man on second, nobody out. The previous 4 batter had all reached base, started by the pitcher who received a lead-off walk from Adam Eaton. Jim Thome proceeds to hit a weak grounder to second base for the first out, moving the man on second base over to third. The ESPN color commentator, don't know who he was, proceeded to explain how it was important that Thome moved the runner over. Hmmm. Let reassess this
situation. You've got a young pitcher on the ropes early in the game. You've got the league leader in home runs, your highest paid player, at the plate with a man in scoring position. If I was managing the Phillies and I found out that Thome intentionally gave up an out in order to move the runner over in this situation, I'd fine him a game's pay. If I need to explain why, then you'll never understand anyway.
Announcers are idiots part two: It amazes me that year after year after year, the Pirates STILL do not know how to run the bases. In fact, terrible baserunning cost them this game, yet Greg Brown and Steve Blass couldn't even be bothered to point it out. Actually, they made excuses for it. Bobby Hill is on second base with 1 out. Jason Kendall hits a flare to shallow centerfield that lands about 30 feet in front of Steve Finley. Hill freezes at second until he is certain the ball will drop, then has to stay at third. I have no idea how Hill thought Finley might even have a shot at this ball. He should have scored walking. Steve Blass makes the excuse that Finley made a 'veteran' play and pretended like he was going to catch the ball. They
immediately showed the replay and you could see that Finley did no such thing. Hill simply either didn't know how deeply Finley was playing, or grossly misjudged the ball. No excuse.
Earlier in the inning, the Pirates had Hill at first, Wigginton at third, and Fogg at the plate with 0 outs. As you would expect, Fogg squares to sacrifice. My jaw dropped when I saw what happened as Fogg took the first pitch. The Dodgers chose to have Beltre and Choi charge, leaving Cora to cover first, and Hernandez to cover second. This strategy left third base unguarded. In this situation, the runner on third should be coached to follow closely behind the third baseman as he charges. There is no risk in doing so as long as nobody is left to cover third. If the third baseman charges too far, you can simply walk home as the throw is made to first on
the sacrifice, otherwise you force them to run you back to third and the bunter is safe at first. Instead, with Beltre almost 60 feet from third base, Wigginton was about 10 feet off the bag. Simply inexcusable, and not even noticed by the announcers.
Test Post
Please ignore this post, or treat it as an open invitation to post whatever you
want in the comments section. I'm testing a new way of posting blog entries.
Hopefully this works.
Mmmmmm....lefties
Forgive me for belaboring the point, but can you imagine a Pirates rotation in 2006 featuring:
1. O.Perez (L)
2. K.Wells (R)
3. S.Kazmir (L)
4. J. Van Benschoten (R)
5. S.Burnett (L)
Look at those 3 lefties. Damn. Remember, missing out on Kazmir was the price Littlefield paid to get Wigginton/Peterson/Bautista.
Bonnifield/Littlefay
Maybe comparing Littlefield to Bonifay is a little harsh. After all, I think he did fairly well in the Benson trade. And some of the other bad trades he's made have been forced on him. But a couple of things that happened this week underscore my opinion that Littlefield is not the GM who will take the Pirates to the promised land.
First, while everyone in Pittsburgh was distracted by the Benson trade, the Mets made 2 other deals around the deadline. First, they traded a top catching prospect, Jason Huber, for Jose Bautista. This deal was made in order to satisfy Littlfield's fetish to get Bautista back into the Bucs fold. Clearly, Bautista is a decent enough prospect....but what has happened in the past 6 months that has made Littlefield desire Bautista more than a top flight catching prospect like Huber? 6 months ago, Bautista wasn't even worthy of a spot on the 40-man roster! Now, after riding the pine for the first half of the season, he is suddenly more attractive that Huber? I can't imagine the Royal GM Allan Baird's glee when he gets a phone call from the Mets saying they need Bautista to complete a trade with the Pirates, and are willing to offer Huber in return. Essentially the Royals turned a $50,000 transaction fee into a top flight catching prospect. Must be nice. Obviously the Mets were willing to include Huber in the deal for Benson. Why wouldn't Littlefield want that? My suspicion is that Littlefield simply didn't have anyplace for Huber to play next season (and is obsessed with making up for the 'mistake' of letting Bautista go via Rule 5). Doumit will be catching in AAA next year. Cota, who should really be thinking about life after baseball, will be the backup next season. House will be....um....riding pine for someone at the major league level. Kendall will be stuck in Pittsburgh at least to start the season. So the Pirates would either have to: retard Doumit's development and keep him in AA next season, give up on House totally, dump Cota, or trade Kendall for table scraps, for Huber to have a place to play. Frankly, I like all of those options better than getting Bautista back.
Second, the Mets made a third deal at the dealine, acquiring Victor Zambrano from the Devil Rays for Scott Kazmir. Who is Scott Kazmir? Probably one of the top 5 pitching prospects in all of the minor leagues. The Pirates pride themselves on their stable of young arms. Kazmir would have immediately gone to the top of the list of Pirate pitching prospects. Yet the Mets gave up Kazmir for a pitcher of equal or lesser value than Benson. This leads me to believe that Littlefield could have gotten the same or better package for Benson. Essentially, it seems Littlefield had the following options to choose from for Benson:
1. Kazmir
2. Wigginton, Peterson, Huber
3. Wigginton, Peterson, Bautista
All 3 of those are fairly attractive options, but why did Littlefield opt for the least of the 3??
The other thing (other than the Mets mess) that happened this week, and that probably flew under the radar of the average Pittsburgh sports nut, was the debut of Devil Rays SS BJ Upton. So what does this have to do with Littlfield? In 2002, the Pirates took Bryan Bullington with the #1 pick in the draft. In most circles, Bullington was tabbed as a future #3 starter in the big leagues. He was a low risk pick as he was considered fairly polished. Drafting #2 in 2002, the Devil Rays selected high school SS BJ Upton. Baseball America had Upton ranked as the #1 prospect in the draft with the strongest arm and 3rd best speed of all high school prospects.
I'm of the 'Moneyball' opinion that if I have to choose between 2 players of fairly equal potential, it's wiser to pick the player that has been more productive against a higher level of competition. For this reason, I think its wise to choose college players when you are dealing with a large pool of fairly equal talent. However...when you have the #1 pick in the draft, you HAVE TO SELECT THE PLAYER WITH THE GREATEST UPSIDE. It would be completely different if Bullington was considered a potential #1 starter. But all of the reports on him said his upside was going to be as a solid major league pitcher, meanwhile Upton was being compared to A-Rod. Of course, hindsight is 20/20...but while Upton plies his trade against the Red Sox and Yankees, remember that Bullington is languishing in AA, not even considered one of the 3 top Pirates pitching prospects. The Pirates would be fortunate if Bullington turned into Kris Benson.
PS. The Mets took Scott Kazmir at #15 in 2002.
Posts
It's been a few days since I've posted. I was totally swamped this weekend, then my computer was out of commission last night while I moved it to another room in the house. Hopefully I'll have more time to post later this week.
