Another Notes Post
Just because there are a couple more things I should point out that are more blog related than Mariner related, they’ll get their own post.
1. USSM on KJR returns to its normal timeslot with Groz today – you can listen at 2:20 to try and figure out how many times my voice will crack this week. And, after Angry Dave made a long appearance last week, I promise to be more positive. Yesterday’s thread was awesome, by the way.
2. Also, reader Aditya Sood alerts me to the fact that we now have a Wikipedia page. I know they frown on people making changes to articles that are about themselves, so we’ll leave it alone, but if someone out there wants to give JMB the credit he deserves as a co-founder as well, that’d be great.
3. There was an article about the Pitch F/X system on Slate the other day. As far as I’m aware, no one on earth has a picture of me actually hanging in their living room, and I’m totally okay with that.
I don’t edit at wiki, but how can the notable accomplishments not include great progress in bringing collective Mariner fandom out of the Dark Ages of Statistical Ignorance? Someone please fix this! King Felix as a nickname it fun and catchy, but I think it pales in comparison to the inroads the site cotninues to make in informing and teaching fans about the game of baseball. I fully expect to start seeing clone sites show up for other teams…you guys have made the blueprint for respectable pro sports blogging.
The Wiki article says that David Cameron is the leader of the opposition party in the UK.
If true, how does he have time to follow the Mariners?
(Note, methinks the article links to the wrong David Cameron).
Your wikipedia entry may get marked for deletion if it isn’t notable enough. It was only created today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deletion_policy
To whoever knows how to edit/work wikipedia:
When you type “u.s.s. mariner” into wiki’s search field, it displays the ussm entry. However, when you type “uss mariner,” without the periods between “uss,” the page cannot be found. Reader entries might be increased if the page can also be accessed by merely typing “uss mariner” in the field.
I doubt it will be deleted. There are many things of less note with pages – along with many things of more note without pages.
You know you’re big when you have your own Wikipedia page.
Sorry, but anyone can create a wikipedia page and it doesn’t mean anything:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_on_a_Schtick
and shouldn’t Jeff be in there, somewhere?
Go Dave – HoRam bashing!
I’m POSITIVE he isn’t good enough!
#7
Hoisted by my own petard.
LOL @ Dave and Groz killing Ramirez.
And now you can link to the USSM page from other Mariners players’ pages.
‘Willie Bloomquist has many nicknames among the Mariners fanbase, especially on the popular and awesome blog, USS Mariner…’
Sounded great on the radio this week.
graceful description of Feierabend’s unreadiness to pitch in the majors
And…once again I missed it. I assume there’ll be a clip on Groz’s webpage later on.
Willie Mays stunk it up when he first came up…
Unfortunately, Retrosheet doesn’t have boxscore data from 1951, but there are all kinds of stories about his struggles early on.
Conversely, Gregg Jeffries was supposed to be a superstar based on his 100+ ABs in 1989.
“The Wiki article says that David Cameron is the leader of the opposition party in the UK.
If true, how does he have time to follow the Mariners?”
And I’m not the gay Scottish actor!
16 – or more recently, Shane Spencer
14 – I don’t know. They haven’t put the last two up there, as far as I can tell. I’d love to listen too, so if I’m just missing the links someone let me know.
Jason Churchill has a link on his website to on-air appearances. Any chance someone could put something like that together for USSM?
19: they’re just slow…looks like they put up a few every couple of days, and the clips they put up are from many different portions of his show.
While today was good, Dave didn’t talk much about stuff that hasn’t been hashed out here endlessly.
Contreras – Dave was (surprisingly, I thought) not negative about the Contreras audition and the prospect of picking him up. Bit of HoRam bashing and why Feierabend isn’t the answer this year.
Most of the rest was taken up with a preview of the rebuttal to Geoff Baker’s views on Adam Jones not being ready or having “earned” his playing time.
Finished up with a brief overview of hot streaks and why they are irrelevant to putting the best team on the field for each game.
And when I say “not negative” about Contreras, Dave did say that being better than HoRam was setting the bar pretty low. He did note the worrying trends, but meh, he’s probably the best of what’s out there.
23: What’s the case (other than the money) against Contreras? As far as I can tell, he’s got a massive platoon split, and lefties hit him very well, but he controls righties ok.
If anyone has access to his xFIP, and other stats that might be useful, I’d be happy to see those.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/stats/players/index.php?lastName=contreras
“The Wiki article says that David Cameron is the leader of the opposition party in the UK.”
Now, that’s just CRAZY because “Ben Ramm” is some UK politician too.
Personally, I almost don’t even care about salary considerations when talking about the Mariners anymore.
They always make a variety of arcane arguments for not spending more money on payroll anyway (and use the local sports media to misrepresent their payroll spending) so I’m increasingly inclined to just look at the skills of the player involved and hope that the money somehow works itself out at the end.
Contreras doesn’t really look like a bad deal to me in a pitching market where Gil Meche is making $11 million a year.
Well, except Contreras makes ~2x as much as Meche, has ~ 60% as many K’s, has a higher BB%, worse GB%, much lower ERA+, and pretty much is worse in every other major stat.
Other than that, Contreras deal doesn’t look bad compared to Meche…
My post was meant more as a general statement about how overpriced pitching has become, rather than a “would I rather have Gil Meche or Jose Contreras” debate.
28 – huh?
Meche signed a 5 year $55M deal. Contreras is owed $10M a year for the next 2 years. So roughly comparable money.
If Contreras was only under contract for next year, this would be a no-brainer(tm). Two years makes really wonder if it’s worth it. If he’s washed up, you just paid $20M+ for 6 weeks of whatever. Depends on whether money changes hands, and/or who else is involved in a trade.
This one could go either way, but if you’re in a pennant race and desperate for somebody better than HoRam, it sure is an intriguing roll of the dice.
Um…well…um….USSM is so popular it’s got a smaller wiki page than…. rally fries! It probably has something to do with the fact that the rally fries page is marked for deletion. Hey… what about the “cult of Doyle” following, the radio show appearances by Dave, etc. Someone needs to beef it up.
Warning: don’t look at Contreras’ 2007 numbers if you’ve just eaten lunch.
Contreras doesn’t miss bats, he doesn’t get ground balls, and is a shadow of a few good years. Just say no.
I’ve now missed three KJRs in a row, and they don’t seem to be archiving the segment anymore…Is there any other way to listen?
Dave’s segment from today is up on the site.
http://www.kjram.com/cc-common/podcast/single_podcast.html?podcast=groz.xml
Thanks 35. I’m watching the Angels broadcast against Boston. They’re advertising Rally Monkey Cap Night. Fuck the Angels.
Dave is the webmaster?
Groz on USSMariner: “Always can get you thinking about different things, about how seasons are going, especially in looking at numbers and what not” 🙂 I couldn’t’ve said it better.
ooooooh, my stomach hurts after looking at Jose Contreras’ numbers.
Actually, I’m not quite so sure how to evaluate these numbers. His xFIP is 5.21, but his GB%, LD%, and BB/G are in line with his historic numbers. His strikeouts are down, for sure, and that probably has a lot to do with the decrease in velocity Dave alluded to on the broadcast.
The number that stands out at me is his LOB%. Its down roughly 10% from his career numbers. Now, based on what we’ve heard before, this is one of the most unsustainable, least tied to a pitcher’s actual talent level, stat there is (see e.g. J. Washburn). If that’s the case, and he reverts back to his historic average (does anyone know what league avg. is for this?) then his ERA would certainly decrease, and he may not look so bad.
Again, since the bar is “better that HoRam,” he’s probably met that standard.
Derek, its time you faced facts: Dave is your master… 😉
Master of your interwebs.
I thought Dave was the Keymaster!