10/19’s thrilling NLCS action
Wheeeeeee! Suppan v Perez! I don’t know about you, but I’m locking the door and leaving the phone off the hook. This one’s going to be a barnburner! Can we just flip a coin to declare who gets sacrificed to the Tigers and get it over with?
Or am I being too pessimistic about this whole series? What’s a good reason to hang around and see tonight’s game?
October 18th’s thrilling playoff baseball
Cardinals at Mets! Chris Carpenter faces… John Maine? Really? Oookay. 5:19ish.
I almost forgot this was going to be on… it only occurred to me that there might be something on when I took a break from book work just now and looked at a schedule page. Yes, that’s how into this NLCS I am.
Recommended Blogs
Last week, a few folks asked if we could recommend some sites that cover other teams in a similar way that we cover the Mariners. Thanks to the explosion of blogging, a veritable cornocopia of team specific sites have popped up over the past few years, and nearly every organization in baseball has a quality site devoted to the team. So, what follows is a list of my recommended blogs for the rest of baseball; these sites have all published content that I have read and enjoyed at some point in time, and while they vary in quality, they’ve all earned the recognition as one of the better sources of information for their particular club.
AL West
Oakland: Athletics Nation
Texas: The Newberg Report and LoneStar Ball
Anaheim: Chronicles of the Lad
Seattle: Lookout Landing and Marinerds
AL Central
Minnesota: Bat Girl, Stick and Ball Guy, and Twins Geek
Kansas City: Rob and Rany and Royals Review
Detroit: Tigers Central
Cleveland: Lets Go Tribe
Chicago: Sox Machine
AL East
New York: Bronx Banter, Pinstriped Blog, and Replacement Level Yankee Weblog
Boston: Sons of Sam Horn
Baltimore: Orioles Hangout and Birds in the Belfry
Toronto: The Batters Box
Tampa Bay: Rays of Light
NL West
Arizona: Snake Pit
San Diego: Duck Snorts
Los Angeles: Dodger Thoughts
Colorado: Purple Row
San Francisco: McCovey Chronicles
NL Central
Chicago: Cub Reporter and Cub Town
Milwaukee: Brewer Fan
Houston: Crawfish Boxes
St. Louis: Viva El Birdos
Pittsburgh: Bucs Dugout
Cincinatti: Red Reporter
NL East
Philadelphia: Phillies Nation
Atlanta: Sabernomics
New York: Amazin’ Avenue
Florida: Fish Stripes
Washington: Capitol Punishment
So, there’s at least one link for every team. However, there are some that are good enough that you should read them even if you’re not trolling for team specific content. These guys are the best of the bunch, in my opinion, and I give them my full endorsement:
These include Lookout Landing, Bat Girl, Pinstriped Blog, The Batters Box, Dodger Thoughts, Brewer Fan, and Sabernomics.
So, hopefully this helps you guys. If you’re looking for information on a certain team, at the very least, most of these are a good starting spot.
And I’m Back
Transcontinental flights suck. Just so you know.
Anyways, I’m back on the east coast and trying to get caught up on life. Since I haven’t posted anything here in a little while, let’s just recap some of the news in the past week.
Last chance for feed tomorrow
updated: nope, that was it, folks, you missed your chance
M’s lose Cruceta
In one of those stupid-decisions-that-didn’t-have-to-be-made, the M’s have lost Francisco Cruceta to the Rangers on waivers.
We’ve talked about Cruceta quite a bit around here. I was a fan when they claimed him, and praised the organization for taking a flyer on him. He pitched well for Tacoma but was terrible in his ridiculously small sample in a September callup. The M’s were never huge fans, and with the extreme depth of potential bullpen arms, decided to remove him from the 40-man-roster, since he was out of options and was unlikely to make the club next spring.
That the M’s decided to waive Cruceta, when they have so much dead wood on the 40 man, and are willing to hand guaranteed multiyear deals to guys like Julio Mateo, is part of what is so frustrating about being a Mariner fan. There was no reason to even try and pass the PCL leader in strikeouts through waivers, and despite their reservations about his flaws, he’s worth keeping around.
The offseason gets off to a bad start, as once again, they focus on what a player can’t do, and not on what he can.
Daily Tidbits
Some interesting news today.
First off, Daisuke Matsuzaka will officially be posted this winter. Good to get that technicality out of the way.
Also, Joe Torre will return to manage the Yankees next year. If you believe the rumor mill, this means Alex Rodriguez will probably be traded. The Angels keep popping up as a possibility, which would suck, because I’d rather they not get another all-star. John Hickey pens a weird piece in the P-I this morning putting forth the possibility of trading Beltre for Rodriguez. I can’t see the Yankees being interested, I can’t see Rodriguez being interested, and I’m not totally sure the Mariners should be interested, honestly. One of the untold stories of the past year and a half has been A-Rod’s massive defensive decline; he’s now barely a passable major league third baseman, and any ideas of him playing shortstop again are probably out the window.
And finally, looking through the RSVP emails, it looks like we still have spots open for this Friday’s USSM get together. Forget Bob Dylan; he’s in town more often than I am, and he’s not going to feed your baseball fix. If you don’t have any plans Friday night, you really should come. You won’t regret it.
Birthdays of more than one kind
1. Happy birthday to USSM authors today. Congrats, Jeff!
2. I am as shocked as anyone to see my book’s on Amazon, available for pre-order. Check it out, I can build an Amazon link and everything:
I stared at the listing for a couple of minutes, jaw open, speechless.
Then I started to think:
– 256 pages? Really? We know that already? Because legal hasn’t even been through this thing yet and I’m willing to bet it sheds a fair chunk of text
– I guess we are going for the trade paperback, which is what I wanted because I’d much rather sell this thing at $11
– They’re using the original title I pitched? I never thought I’d get away with that (but then, Rob Neyer didn’t think they’d take “Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Lineups” seriously)
– April? I think it’s February
– I HAVE MY OWN ISBN
– But no Amazon Sales Rank or reviews, which is good because I’d probably only obsess over them
So yeah, it’s a skeleton listing, it doesn’t have any editorial or other information, and some of it’s (as far as I know) wrong, but — wow. I’m so happy.
I promise that I will happily autograph copies for any USSM reader who wants to lower the value of their book.
Brundage out
Dave Brundage, manager of the Rainiers, former manager of the Missions (where he earned all kinds of accolades), won’t be back next year. The M’s organizational shakeup continues, it seems.
Previous Brundage mentions on USSM here and here.
Monday Reminder of Friday Feed: RSVP!
We’ve still got slots left, which is a little shocking since we filled about half of them in the first couple of hours. But my bafflement is your gain, as there’s still time to get in on the event of the off-season.
Details, reposted:
Friday, October 13th, ~6pm-8pm+, Capitol Hill, Seattle. About 50 people total. No announced special guests, just me, Jeff, Dave, you and a good four dozen or so other Mariner fans. We’ll probably do some Q&A, I’ll have some Q&A for everyone… good times. We may podcast any Q&A we do – Jeff’s considering how we’d pull this off.
$22 includes all the pizza you can eat (many varieties, lots of it), salad, soda, and a tip. If you want to order beer, we’ll talk about that at the feed but it’s not included in that $22. The food’s going to be great.
Generally, spots for Feeds go really fast, so I encourage you, if you want to attend, to do so as soon as you can.
To RSVP:
If you have or can use Paypal
1. Email us and say “Put me down for 12 people, please” (your number may vary). If you’re a vegetarian or have other pizza-related requests, let us know so I can get the pizza mix optimal.
2. We say “word” or something similarly awkward.
3. Using the handy information we will send you when you submit your RSVP, use Paypal to send us $22*number of people you’re bringing.
4. I mark you down as having paid on my sheet, and we’re good.
Unless you skip #3, and then I give your spot to someone else.
If you can’t use Paypal for technical, moral, or other reasons, but still feel you’re a valued member of the USSM community like, say, super-reader Paul Covert, who we wish would come by and comment sometime
Drop us a line and we’ll see what we can do.