Site changes
You can now use Google to search the web or just Batting Third. Google finally crawled enough of these pages to make it worthwhile. Give it a shot, honest it works.
I also changed the Pirates 'P' symbol to the familiar old logo.
Proving you can spin anything
Bin Laden: "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry, Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands."
GOP talking point: "Bin Laden tape intended to help Kerry."
OBL tape
Something doesn't seem quite right about the Bin Laden tape. Does it occur to you that he is using oddly conciliatory language? He warns that further attacks are possible, but implies that they are not imminent. All of this breaks from his past behavior. Clearly, something has changed though I haven't the slightest idea what.
Another odd thing about the tape is that Bin Laden seems to be well accustomed to the GOP talking points, even going so far as to poke fun of Bush for saying the US was attacked because al Qaida 'hates freedom.' He also seems to be somewhat in tune with current American politics.
It's a bit disconcerting to see evidence that a delusional, insane, mass-murderer, exhiled in the most remote region of the world, is more well-read than the president.
Bizarro world
Attention all real conservatives:
If you don't think your party has been hijacked, consider the following. Flipping channels tonight, I found Commerce Secretary Don Evans giving an 'exclusive' interview.
No big deal, right? You expect the partisans to be out in force on the Friday before the elections. But did Don Evans go on ABC? NBC? CNN? Even Fox?
Nope. Don Evans chose the Christian Broadcasting Network. That's right... Pat Robertson and the 700 club got the priviledge.
Awards
Congrats to Jason Bay for winning the Sporting News NL Rookie of the Year Award. This isn't the officially recognized award and he isn't the first Pirate to win it, (Johnny Ray, Jason Kendall) Stille, it's better than not winning it.
He also took home ROY in the Internet Baseball Awards. I've actually heard a few statheads argue that Khalil Greene should win the award and this perplexes me, because by almost every statistical measure important to the sabremetricians, Bay comes out ahead of Greene.
Of course even the statistical analysis crew is subject to predispositions to players, teams, leagues, or coasts.
For more details on who won what, and where certain Pirates ranked, the Internet awards can be found
here.
The buck stops where?
Batting Third Exclusive... Inside the mind of the Bush Campaign during the last 72 hours:
"What explosives?? There were no explosives.
Or, um, ok, then um....um...the Iraqis took them before we got there. Yeah that's right! SADDAM hid 'em!!
Er, no wait...the Russians took 'em. Yeah, yeah! The Russians took them to, um, like Syria and stuff! It's the Russians.... and um...er....um....uh....
No! No, we destroyed them. Yeah that's the ticket! The troops, um, took them and, uh, destroyed them so like TERRORISTS and EVIL DOERS couldn't get them."
Tomorrow's preview:
"The dogs ate them. Yeah, yeah!! TERRORIST FREEDOM HATING dogs ate the explosives."
Cautious prediction based on the polls
Virtually every national poll has this election in a virtual dead heat. I don't know why so much importance is paid to these numbers, since it's the individual state polls that matter.
I've heard some experts say that the most important number to look at is the president's job approval rate, which I think has peaked around 48% recently. According to the conventional wisdom, the percentage of votes cast for Bush will not be higher than this number. Makes sense to me.
If Bush's best case scenario is 48%, then he needs Nader to pull in 4% nationally to tie or win the popular vote. That's never going to happen this time. Indeed, if you examine all of the polls over the past few weeks, Bush never tops 48% beyond the margin of error and Nader is at 1 or 2%.
Another thing in Kerry's favor is that conventional wisdom says that late undecideds break for the challenger. So will it be enough to unseat Bush? Unfortunately, if it comes down to Florida again, the answer is probably not.
(Late update: Scarborough Country on MSNBC has Bush winning about 300 electoral votes when you break it down by state, despite losing the popular vote. That's hard to fathom.)
Stuck in neutral
Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone is on edge, like the world is holding it's collective breath waiting for something big to happen? Consider that the Red Sox won the World Series after coming back from 0-3 against the Yankees... it just seems like we are in a period of transition where the rules that governed the world yesterday, will no longer apply tomorrow, but the new rules haven't been finalized yet.
It just seems like we are stuck in neutral waiting to be jarred back into gear. But by what? Maybe it's just my spider-sense tingling.
Injuries
There is a chart in a free article over at Baseball Prospectus that displays the gross number of days lost due to injury for each team last season. While the chart doesn't say anything about the quality of players that were injured, it does yield some information.
It's interesting to note that the Devil Rays lost the least number of days (315), which is not surprising since they are a very young team. The Diamondbacks lost the most number of days (~1850), and it really wasn't close except for a challenge by Texas (~1700). Again, the Diamondbacks are a very old team, so this doesn't surprise.
The Pirates finished better off than most at 13th fewest days lost due to injury, roughly about 700.
Game 4
Looks like tonight might be the first good night of sleep Bill Buckner has had in 20 years.
Leyland news
Rumors are flying that Jim Leyland will interview, or has interviewed for the open managerial positions with the Phillies and Mets. It's quite a surprise that Leyland would be interested in managing again as his name hasn't been discussed in relation to any open position since his retirement.
Even if he is anxious to get back into the dugout, these 2 positions don't make much sense to me. According to MLB rules, since Leyland retired while in the middle of his contract with the Rockies, the Rockies still control his rights for another 2 years (7 total). That means they have a right to demand compensation from any team who wants to hire Leyland to manage.
While the Mets certainly would be prepared to send some dough to Colorado, I can't see the spend-thrift Phillies paying Colorado for the right to pay Leyland large sums of money. This is further compounded by the likelihood that Leyland would demand his own coaching staff, thus forcing the Phillies to eat the contracts of the current staff.
The Mets don't seem like a fit for Leyland either, though for entirely different reasons. First, the Mets simply aren't very good and don't look like they will be anytime soon. Second, can you really see Leyland managing in New York? He quit because he didn't want the pressure in Colorado.
Coincidentally, Phillip Morris stock rose 23 points after the Leyland to New York rumor.
Endorsements, for your amusement
Everyone is in a rush to submit their endorsements for offices. While I don't know anyone who ever changed his/her vote because the PG editorial board said to, it is sometimes interesting to read the explanations for the endorsements. At least it provides insight into the culture that dominates the particular newsroom.
By chance I happened upon Slate Magazine's slate of endorsements (read it
here). Slate does something I think is unique by allowing each of its contributors to publish their own separate endorsements. Not surprisingly, Kerry was endorsed unenthusiastically by the vast majority.
Scanning halfway down the page, I came upon an endorsement for Bush from the Economic Writer, Steven Landsburg. It's worth repeating for you here:
If George Bush had chosen the racist David Duke as a running mate, I'd have voted against him, almost without regard to any other issue. Instead, John Kerry chose the xenophobe John Edwards as a running mate. I will therefore vote against John Kerry.
Duke thinks it's imperative to protect white jobs from black competition. Edwards thinks it's imperative to protect American jobs from foreign competition. There's not a dime's worth of moral difference there. While Duke would discriminate on the arbitrary basis of skin color, Edwards would discriminate on the arbitrary basis of birthplace. Either way, bigotry is bigotry, and appeals to base instincts should always be repudiated.
Bush's reckless spending and disregard for the truth had me almost ready to vote for Kerry—until Kerry picked his running mate. When the real David Duke ran against a corrupt felon for governor of Lousiana, the bumper stickers read, "Vote for the crook. It's important." Well, I'm voting for the reckless spendthrift. It's important again.
Hmmm, where to start. First, I thought it was the President's job to protect and promote the interests (jobs?) of American citizens. Second, It's hard to believe that anyone would look at the candidates and conclude that the Kerry ticket has the xenophobes.
Stranger still, this writer equates the protection of American jobs with overt racism as practiced by David Duke. (Somebody arrest Lou Dobbs.) Maybe I'm a xenophobe racist too, since I prefer low unemployment. If I didn't know any better, I would think this was a bogus endorsement planted by the Kerry backers.
After someone explains the word xenophobe to Bush, I think they ought to use this endorsement as inspiration for some new campaign slogans.
"Bush/Cheney...because its better than Bush/Duke"
"George Bush - Protecting civil rights by sending jobs overseas"
Local campaign shenanigan
Dennis Roddy reported on yet another GOP voting scam, this one targetting young voters on local campuses, which you can read about
here.
Long story short: Some unknown organization has been tricking students into registering as Republican and changing their polling place.
While on the surface, this specific scam doesn't seem like something the RNC would cook up, until you notice that the scam is widespread. It also bears two markings of other RNC scams:
- filtering out likely Kerry voters by asking an upfront question
- changing the polling place without notice in an attempt to prevent the person from voting
I wonder if the purpose of the scam is to simply trick these folks into going to the wrong polling place, or if someone actually intends to fraudulently vote in their place.
Pirates 2004 review
Now that the 2004 regular season is well behind us, it's time to assess the Pirates season. To make things easier, I'll grade the Pirates on a position by position basis. The grades are strictly based on the combination of performances that the Pirates got out of the players who played the position over the course of the season. I'll sporadically post additional positional reviews in the next few days/weeks. Today, I'll take a look at catcher and first base.
Since the goal of every franchise is to win a championship, my grading scale takes into consideration what kind of performance is necessary at each position to win a championship. Each level is therefore named after a player from Pirates history that exemplifies the level of performance. The scale is as follows:
Parker - major or primary contributor on a championship quality team
Bibby - solid performer on a championship quality team
Reynolds - bit player on a championship quality team
Distefano - it would be difficult to win a championship with this performance from an everyday player
Hermanson - it would be impossible to win a championship with this performance from a player
Catcher
Grade: Parker
Judging strictly on performance, the catching position was a tremendous strength for the Pirates. Whether they got an adequate return for their money is a topic for another article. Regardless, Jason Kendall affords the Pirates a luxury that few other teams have: the luxury of plugging the same name into the lineup day in and day out. Kendall had one of his best seasons offensively, as he has reversed the severe decline he appeared to be in a few years ago. As a bonus, he appears to have found a new level defensively. The beatings he has taken will eventually take its toll, but for the short term, the Pirates will be able to continue to rely on above average production from this position. Its unlikely that the Pirates will ever get equal value for the money they are paying Kendall. This is especially true now Kendall is entering the balloon years of his contract. However, Kendall is what he is...a dependable top of the order table setter and solid defensive catcher.
Short term outlook: Set with Kendall.
First Base:
Grade: Distefano
The Pirates ended the year much the same way they entered the year with regard to first base: without much of a plan. Last off-season they brought in a number of cheap free agents hoping that one of them would earn the right to share time at first base with Craig Wilson. Unfortunately, they wasted about 200 plate appearance before they realized Randall Simon wasn't the answer. After starting the year in AAA, Daryle Ward provided a brief spark at the position before getting hurt. Other than Ward's flirtation with legitimacy and Craig Wilson's cameo appearances, first base was largely an offensive and defensive wasteland.
Short term outlook: If Craig Wilson settles into the outfield and not first base, then the Pirates need to look outside the current 40 man roster for a solution at 1b.
Sinclair: the final chapter
This past Sunday, Sinclair finally aired a much compromised piece on John Kerry, rather than the originally intended "Stolen Honor." (See my previoud post on this for a link to the transcript of Stolen Honor.)
I did not watch the program that actually was aired, nor have I seen a transcript, but all indications are that it was very much toned down from "Stolen Honor."
It's difficult to comment much further, except to say that this is a victory for all those who called Sinclair advertisers to voice their displeasure.
Just goes to show you that the power of the people does not emanate from your vote, instead it comes from your wallet. Who'd a thunk the free market would come to the rescue of John Kerry?
380 tons of Qaqaa
The big story today is that shortly after we took control of Iraq, 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives were stolen form an Iraqi military facility near the area known as Al Qaqaa. Read about it
here. This has actually been a well known secret for a short time now. It's entered the news cycle today because the "Iraqi Government" finally reported the missing stockpiles to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
(Side note: You might ask, why would the IAEA by interested in missing stockpiles of conventional explosives? For one, while not nuclear in nature themselves, these explosives could be used to detonate a nuclear device. Second, because the IAEA had control of this particular stockpile prior to the US invasion. After the invasion, US forces took ownership at which point the explosives went missing.)
Shortly after Major Operations ended, US forces discovered the evidence of looting. So why was this news held back for so long? As reported by CNN:
The discovery was not made public sooner because standard intelligence practice
is not to let enemies know such information, said a senior administration
official. There are hundreds of tons of other weapons and munitions missing
around the country, and it is impossible for the United States to track down all
of them, the official said.
I thought the purpose of this war was to keep weapons out of the hands of terrorists. So tell me how this war makes us safer? How many troops have died because we failed to properly secure these areas during the initial invasion? Who is in control of these explosives now? Where will they end up? Security moms for Bush??
Booth changes
In case you missed it, Bob Smizik announced on Friday (
here) that there will be some changes to the Pirates' broadcast team next season.
The biggest change that has already been decided is that Steve Blass will no longer travel with the team and will strictly cover home games. I've gotten fatigued with Blass over the last couple of years as he has grown increasingly unwilling to criticize anything, so I won't lament this change. Blass invoked the "desire to spend more time with family" explanation for this decision. I can't help but wonder if even Blass has grown weary of running interference for Lanny Fratarre.
I also can't help but wonder if Fratarre will be able to make it through another season now that his ally won't be there to share the grind on the road. Clearly, Fratarre doesn't get along with Bob Walk. Hopefully Fratarre will be consulted on the replacement(s) for Blass as I'd hate to see Fratarre go.
The other big news in the article is that Greg Brown has applied for the newly available position with the Chicago Cubs. As a superstation team, this is one of the biggest and best broadcasting gigs in baseball. I enjoy Brown and will be sad to see him go, if he gets this job. No word on a possible replacement. Anybody care to start a rumor?
World Series game 2 quick hits
Bye week sucks, but at least the World Series is on.
Can anyone enlighten me as to why MLB puts ugly World Series patches on the teams’ uniforms? Surely, nobody is running out to buy new jerseys with the patches on them. It just seems so juvenile.
Curt Schilling is a whiny, spoiled, blow-hard who pissed away his talent for much of his career. But he could play for me anytime because he is nails once he gets on the mound.
Recap of the Fox coverage during one particular at bat:
closeup on Damon, closeup on LaRussa, closeup on Damon, pan the crowd, closeup on Francona, close up on fan with sign, closeup on fan with funny hat, closeup on Damon, closeup on Schilling, closeup on Morris, closeup on Damon, go to CF camera for pitch. Repeat. -Ugh.
I’m of the opinion that teams don’t optimize their playoff rosters for the realities of a short series. Why do so many teams insist on carrying 12 pitchers? Too many teams staff 3-4 pitchers that they would never trust in an important spot anyway. You need 4 starters, 1 or 2 additional pitchers who can pitch long relief, and 4 relief pitchers that you would trust in important situations. That’s 10 pitchers at most. That allows you to roster an additional 2-3 position players that can be used for pinch hitting, pinch running, defensive substitutions or other one run strategies that managers love. You should never be in a situation of having to use a pitcher as a pinch hitter in a critical situation, as the Astros were in the NLCS when they sent Brandon Backe to hit.
I can’t decide if David Ortiz is more Mo Vaughn or Willie Stargell.
Seriously Fox, I’m tired of the closeups on the crowd. You are only encouraging stupid signs, silly hats, and body paint.
At some point, committing 4 errors per game is probably going to catch up to the Red Sox. Not tonight though.
Name Change: Batting Third
I've changed the name to Batting Third. Why?
- There is already a prominent blog called Omblog
- I like Batting Third better
- This blog was added to the periodic table of blogs over at Humbug, using the name Batting Third
Seriously, the Periodic Table of Blogs is what got me hooked on blogs in the first place. It's an honor to have my feeble little site listed. You can check it out by following the link on the left panel. That's me, the last lowly little element, Rh!
I apologize to anyone who has already linked to me using the old name. The web address and the content will remain the same, so any inconvenience will hopefully be minor.
