What is BABIP? Why did Jose Hernandez have little nubs for hands? How does BABIP affect me and my children and my fantasy children? These are the hard hitting questions that my latest video, “Hitter BABIP: Yet More Dragons and Such,” tackles.
Read the rest of this entry »
With the advent of the offseason, FanGraphs writers Dave Cameron and Bill Petti have resumed their roles as guests on MLB Network’s Clubhouse Confidential, hosted by the vigorously coiffed Brian Kenny.
Dave Cameron’s lack of blinking has been covered with considerable enthusiasm in these electronic pages — most recently last week, in a Nerd Showdown between Cameron and noted Giant of the Internet Rob Neyer.
Monday saw Petti’s return to the sexy Clubhouse. Below is the data concerning his blinking patterns.
RotoGraphs editor Eno Sarris has demonstrated — during any number of appearances on FanGraphs Audio and/or VIP-type meetings among the site’s VIP-type managers — has demonstrated a singular ability to mispronounce every name there is, mostly.
With the existence of said ability having been established, NotGraphs presents here an excerpt from Sarris’s Entirely Unhelpful Guide to the Pronunciation of Certain Baseballers’ Names — with audio clips of Sarris himself abusing the spoken language much like one might a disobedient horse.
While we make no effort here to say what the right pronunciations are of the following prospects’ names, we will say that all of Sarris’s attempts are very likely wrong.
And former major-leaguer Ramiro Mendoza is pitching for Panama. Against Brazil. In a World Baseball Classic qualifier.
Here’s the video link: video. And the box score: box.
With the advent of the offseason, FanGraphs managing editor Dave Cameron has resumed his role on MLB Network’s Clubhouse Confidential, hosted by the vigorously coiffed Brian Kenny.
One thing Cameron hasn’t resumed is blinking — although mostly because he did little of that sort of thing in the first place.
Below, I’ve recorded Dave Cameron’s blinking stats from the above-embedded discussion of the American League Cy Young award. Beg and End mark the beginning and end marks of Cameron’s time on camera. Time is total time, in minutes and seconds, on camera. Blinks represents the number of blinks during the relevant interval. (Note: there are errors, likely. Scorer’s bias, indeed!)
| Beg | End | Time | Blinks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:05 | 0:08 | 0:03 | 0 |
| 1:02 | 1:09 | 0:07 | 0 |
| 1:28 | 1:33 | 0:05 | 0 |
| 1:57 | 2:32 | 0:35 | 0 |
| 2:52 | 2:58 | 0:06 | 0 |
| 3:18 | 3:22 | 0:04 | 0 |
| Tot | — | 1:00 | 0 |
| Blink/Sec | 0.0 |
It is possible that we, the Baseballing Public, will one day tire of seeing the practitioners of our favorite sport — will tire of seeing them engaged in various states of cosplay.
Today, right now, is likely not that moment in our collective lives.
Pictured here, courtesy his own Twitter feed, is diminutive Braves right-hander Kris Medlen dressed for All Hallows’ Evening as the diminutive Po — “the smallest and youngest of the Teletubbies,” according to popular e-resource Wikipedia.
You have challenged the Internet not to bore you, reader. The Internet has responded!
Brought to the author’s attention by other popular e-resource, Steve Simonsen.
Just when I think the Internet can’t get any dumber, it goes and does something like this — JWerth Riding Things — and totally redeems itself.
If you are one who is knowledgeable of classical music, you have most likely heard of Charles Ives. If your knowledge of the genre is more cursory, however, his name may be foreign to you. Charles Ives was an American composer who lived during the early 20th Century. Unlike Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart – all of whom had fame and therefore benefactors that allowed them to compose full-time – Ives was not well-known during his life. He did not have benefactors. He made his living as an insurance salesman. But Charles Ives was a master and a pioneer of modernist music in America. Yet, for a myriad of reasons, his work lived in obscurity until well after his death. He was never around to receive his just recognition. Had the Internet existed in the time of Ives, all of this may be different. Had he a channel to distribute his music, other than a spattering of little-attended concerts put on by brave souls, he may have had a chance to reach people who were able to appreciate him for who he was.
Luckily – for all of us, really – infielder Omar Vizquel did create his music during the Internet Age. His work can be digitized, catalogued, and distributed to his adoring fans to this day still. The following video comes from the CD/DVD combo released in 2005 titled Oh Say Can You Sing?, a title I’m going to assume is rhetorical. If one were able to track down this work, one would be able to listen to the likes of Coco Crisp, Aubrey Huff, Ozzie Smith, and the venerable Scott Linebrink sing or otherwise perform music from the popular vernacular. Not to be forgotten in this cavalcade of stars is one Omar Vizquel, performing both vocals and drums on Broadway by the Goo Goo Dolls. Never has a pairing of artist and song been so incongruous, yet entirely magical. Vizquel displays his mastery of not only the voice, but drums as well. His performance injected with all the life and fervor of a wounded deer, Vizquel is able to somehow make this song less enjoyable than in its previous form. Such skill should not, and cannot, be denied. The overlay of highlights of him hitting, fielding, and just generally looking around, sadly serves as but a distraction to the aural bliss that can be found underneath. This is both wonderfully terrible and terribly wonderful.
Charles Ives may not have gotten his due, but technology now allows us to appreciate Omar Vizquel in the moment. Not only for his contributions on the baseballing field, but for his addition to the modern musical cannon.
(h/t to Eric Freeman for bringing this to my attention)
Amid the the wild conclusion of the 2012 MLB regular season, you — dear reader — will be forgiven for having not noticed an equally important race, that of the quite dead, large-headed presidents of these United States (those United States for foreign readers).
Yes, ol’ train-lassoing Teddy Roosevelt, who charged the San Juan hill, who earned the presidency via assissination, who got his mug carved into a mountain and who liberated the Cubans and Filipinos from the dangers of freedom finally got his due:
Well done done Teddy. Maybe someday you can win without the help of the Philly Frenetic.
The bitter tone of this piece was brought to you by John Sayles’ epic Spanish War novel A Moment in the Sun. Read it and then watch as your already unimpressive opinions of 1800s America sink to even more crushing lows.
SIDE NOTE: Yo, check it out. Listen to how Teddy sounded.
People talked differently, right? They also used bigger words — presumably because they had no intent of speaking to the lower class persons.
