Blog: SB Nation

devil_fingers

joined Mar 29, 2008 last login Aug 27, 2008 posts 66 comments 6120

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Baseball Analysts Previews 2009 Free Agent Infielders

Some of Royals Reviews favorite discussion pieces discussed here. I was surprised to see that they think Furcal will be hard pressed to get 3/39 again. Hmmm...

In RR mancrush news: "O-Dog has posted an OPS+ of greater than 100 for each of the past three campaigns. Only three other second sackers can make that claim: Ian Kinsler, Dan Uggla, and Chase Utley."

2 days ago devil_fingers comment 10 comments 0 recs

Decision 2008: God, Hoagy, I'd've Died for You; or, Nicknaming Brandon Duckworth

by devil_fingers on Aug 25, 2008 9:08 AM PDT

Remember when I was going to post a nicknaming poll every week or so? I'm sure I don't have to tell you that didn't happen. Only morale boosting victories from earlier this summer prevented rioting in the streets of war-torn Grass Creek, Wyoming. Whether in peace or war, the voting will continue!

Ok, so I sort of got bored, busy, and short of ideas. But then, inspiration came in a very likely form: the triumphant return of Brandon Duckworth to Kaufman Stadium. Sure, after taking that sweet double-guns picture for the Royals critically acclaimed 2008 team calendar, he started the year in Omaha. A lesser man might have packed it in. Not Brandon Duckworth, though. When the Royals called last week, he was ready to accept the charges.

But why Duckworth? Well, why not Duckworth? Indeed, he's perfect for this nicknaming series that from the very beginning took aim at the gritty grinders who hold this team together: Virtual unknowns like Mike "Avilanche" Aviles, unheralded set-up guys like Ramon "Ram Ram" Ramirez, Fiery Team Leader Hoagy Manwich, Team Baby Inspector. OK, so Jose Guillen isn't exactly a grinder, but Duckworth's VORP just shot past him, and that's good enough to get him a post. That's right: Brandon Duckworth is a member of the Above Replacement Level Killas. For the moment, at least.

Of course, exactly what to nickname a man of Brandon Duckworth's caliber is another issue altogether. I could only think of one, in fact, and so this will be less of an "election" than a proposition vote: a yes or no matter. But the one nickname is so perfect, so wonderful and so fitting, I can't see how it won't work. Just think: who is the movie character who, like Duckworth, just wants to be a cool guy, part of the crowd. Who has just one love. A love that, like Duckworth, rejects him. A love who he still comes through for when he is needed the most. A love that ends up dumping him in the ditch anyway? That's right, I propose that Brandon Duckworth's nickname be:

...DUCKIE...

So what say you, yea or nay?

Poll

Is Brandon Duckworth's new nickname "Duckie" or not?

40 comments | 1 recs

When I said that Carney Lansford was an awful third baseman, I didn’t mean, of course, that he was as bad a Bobby Bonilla. Bonilla, listed at 240 pounds, has played about 8,000 career innings at third base, so I suppose that makes him a third baseman, and if you sent him into space a few times I suppose that would make him an astronaut, but apart from that, he was no more a third baseman than he was an astronaut."

--Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, 565. James ranks Bonilla as the 41st greatest third baseman of all time.

Fun WIth the New Historical Abstract, or Why I'm Doing This: Recently, I was talking to a friend (and lifelong Royals fan) about the greatness of the Historical Abstract. My friend replied that he would love to look at it because he appreciates the statistical approach to baseball, but that he thought a book that was just rankings and statistics would be boring to read. But, as has been pointed out before (by James himself and others), James thinks of himself primarily as a writer who happens to writes about something that has required him to use (and create) statistics to get a handle on his subject matter. And that is where I think the Abstract shines. If it was just rankings and methodology, it would be worth looking at in the library or on the web, but, for most of us not worth buying. The anecdotes, comments, and essays are what make the book worthwhile. The above quote about Bobby Bonilla is always one of the quotes I mention when telling people about how fun the book is to page through.

With the offseason approaching, I thought about once a week I would put up a relatively brief quote from the New Historical Abstract without much comment from myself. I do not pretend to be a sabermetrics expert or a "James scholar" (make no mistake, somewhere, probably in a "cultural studies" department, someone is writing a dissertation on the significance of Bill James, not in terms of statistics, but as a representation of something or other. Hey, that would be about 100 times better than 90 percent of what goes on in those departments). I do not think this is "my" book -- there are multitudes who know the book and James inside and out (this is the only book by Bill James that I own). But that's why it's great -- you don't have to know all that to enjoy it. I'm not saying that one has to own the book to be a "real baseball fan." I simply like it very much, and recommend it to all baseball fans, even if they hate sabermetrics, the stories and impromptu essays are wonderful, whether you're a baseball historian or, like me, came relatively late in life to baseball fandom and have to piece together baseball history from the backs of sugar packets. If people want to talk about the statistical element, that's fine, but that's not the main reason I'm doing this. I simply think this is a fun and easy way not only to share some of my favorite stuff from the book, but to start discussions about history, James, writing, how it relates to baseball today (and the Royals in particular, of course!) and sometimes life in general. Or maybe it will just give people something to chuckle about during the slow offseason. If people don't respond at all, I'm fine with that. If people don't like it or whatever, I'll stop, but I wanted to give it a try. Let me know what you think of the "series" proposal.

3 days ago devil_fingers comment 3 comments 1 recs

Ken Tremendous hits it big

MIchael Schur, aka Ken Tremendous from FIre Joe Morgan who, in his spare time, plays Mose Schrute and writes for The Office, gets a big new deal.

I wonder what sort of bonus he gets for each JoeChat.

8 days ago devil_fingers comment 2 comments 0 recs

How can Dayton Moore get himself out of the regrettable Jose Guillen situation without just up and admitting it was a really bad idea?

Joe Sheehan: Say nothing, make sure Guillen plays every day for the rest of the season, and go to Las Vegas with a league-average outfielder on a two-year, $24-million contract available for trade. Be willing to take back a little bit less on the deal and spend a couple million to be done with this.... Afterwards, make better decisions."

"Tony (Royalville): Is Adam Dunn a solution to the lack of power in KC this winter? And would it be a good signing?

Joe Sheehan: Good god, no. The Royals have a massive logjam on the corners as it is, and as much as they could use Dunn's offense, signing a player who adds to that is more problem than solution.... Lots of Royals questions today..."

Joe Sheehan, Baseball Prospectus Chat, August 18, 2008

9 days ago devil_fingers comment 16 comments 0 recs

OT: Going Mach Five, indeed

Daryyl from "The Office" in the news...

I wonder if "The Office" has the same "mystery DL plan" the Royals do.

Stay strong, Craig, Dinkin' flicka.

9 days ago devil_fingers comment 3 comments 0 recs

The Inevitable JoPo Column about the Tony Pena, Jr. Bobblehead

Classic JoPo: the qualified criticism of TPJ's ability (He's a nice guy! He's a great defender!) along with not mentioning Dayton Moore in connection with him; "compliments" to Alex Gordon (he'll be an All-Star one day! Just like Mark Redman!) followed by a lengthy criticism of his defense, strikeouts, batting average, unflattering historical comparisons; the mournful retrospective glances at Beltran, Dye, and Damon; the long historical digression on Norm Cash

(Hey, Joe, does a mere 11% walk rate this year really count as Gordon "improving his plate discipline?" So generous.)

Still, as usual, it's well written, and whatever the specifics, Posnanski does a good job of illustrating his overall point about the vagaries of fandom. This should definitely make the anthology. Keep it up, Kiddo.

11 days ago devil_fingers comment 2 comments 0 recs

Real Nicknaming for a Real Royals Blog: Updates and Suggestions

Hello all. I'm on vacation again with a mystery wireless connection. I didn't want to take up a whole FanPost with this stuff, but I did want to update people on the Nicknaming situation (the link above is to my original post), as well as see where we wan to go with this. This is particularly relevant at the moment since Rany has finally come around and given a nickname to Butler. Congrats, I guess, to finally catching up, despite poo-pooing our own series. Shall we review the results so far? (If you weren't around or missed this whole thing, you might want to start by reading the original post linked above, then go through each of the following in order.

1) AVILANCHE. Mike Aviles, the subject of so much debate before his callup, was claimed by us long before the rest of KC got on the bandwagon. This is a good one, and it started here.

2) Hoagy Manwich, Team Baby Inspector. It's be initially witty, yet becomes less funny each time you hear it. "Hoagie/Hoagy/JoGui" won, and I think that's the base, but, as philofthenorth opined, the combination of several suggestions into "Hoagie Manwich, Team Baby Inspector" does sound like a Will Farrell or (shudder) Rob Schneider vehicle. And "Hoagie" is clever on many levels -- can be spelled without reference to Jose Guillen but still makes one think of him automatically, calls to mind his weight problems (and obliquely recalls "Manwich"), while also falling into/mocking the "A-Rod" boring nickname trend.

3) RamRam. This one is canonical, as I've heard that it's been used on broadcasts. It feels too easy, like we're running out of steam, but, hey, who am I to argue with the people?

So that's where we're at. We've only got about two months before Rany does another one by fiat, and I admit that I don't know exactly where to take it next. I hope that people will use the comment space here to suggest 1) who to do next (that's what she said), and 2) nominate nicknames for the players that are left.

Initially, I was hoping to do the bench players and "grinders" and avoid the "stars," and I still think that is more fun, in a way, but people can do what they want. Let's hear it!

(And, yes, if people want to abandon this mission, I will resign myself to that, too.)

20 days ago devil_fingers comment 17 comments 1 recs

Caple: "Closer" is the most overrated position in sports

I don't know how many, if any, people reading this would disagree, but it's nice to see this issue written about somewhere other than Baseball Prospectus, Hardball Times, etc.

Two particularly good quotes in the article:

1) Billy Beane: "Whitey Herzog had a lot of success with a closer by committee... Although now that I think back on it, I'm not sure they called it 'closer by committee' back then. I think then it was just called 'using your bullpen wisely.' Then closers became 'specialists'."

2) Caple on the risk of more rational bullpen usage (i.e., using the best reliever in truly high-leverage situations): "Of course, there is one inherent risk to that. While teams and fans would view the save, 'save situations' and closers in a more accurate light, there is also the unfortunate risk that they would eventually overvalue the 'hold'."

Also worth reading is Jonah Keri's article published on Page 2 today: "Should K-Rod be AL MVP?"

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