Archive for Uncategorized

Q: Mike Moustakas: Did he hit 20 home runs?

A: Yes. Exactly.

Q: Who do you think led the league in saves?

A: Jim Johnson. Hold me to it.

Q: Adam Dunn: Good bounce-back candidate?

A: Definitely. He was. Guaranteed.

Q: Was Gio Gonzalez a good pickup now that he was in the National League?

A: Without a doubt. I’d stake my reputation on it.

Q: Will Travis Snider have been traded as of the end of the season?

A: Yes, to the Pirates. So if you were in an AL-only league, you should have watched out.

Q: Can Jake Peavy really have been a useful starter for a whole season?

A: Indeed! I will make the bold prediction that he was have been would be is!

Q: Tim Lincecum: big dropoff, or bigger dropoff?

A: Big dropoff.

Q: Can I have won with Josh Beckett and Jacoby Ellsbury leading my team?

A: Probably not.

Q: Sleeper picks of the year?

A: Mike Trout. He would have been my number one pick, if the 2012 draft was today.

Q: What do you predict for 2011?

A: Much better season for Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, among others.

Q: Any long-term projections?

A: Take Maris in ’61.

In a clever ploy to ingratiate himself to all those namby-pamby, metric-spouting, pizza-faced milquetoasts who make up the MVP electorate, thrice-coronated man’s man Miguel Cabrera has produced his own telenovela. We here at Notgraphs recognize that his rival, Mike Trout, probably needs no such gimmickry given that voters have already spent the last five months fondling his UZR like a Diablo III preorder receipt. But we here at Notgraphs also believe in a fair shake, and so we’ve set aside our distaste and put something together for Mr. Trout.

Trout Creek follows four close friends in the picturesque mill town of Millville, New Jersey, as they struggle through the trials of adolescence. The show centers on Mike, a precocious fast-talker with wide-ranging interests, who finds his security challenged when brash, brawny Miggy moves to town. As Miggy captures the hearts of Mike’s friends with his good looks and old-fashioned charm, Mike begins to wonder if beauty is really only skin-deep — and if there’s any place in his hometown for an oddball with a unique skill set.

Was your team terrible in 2012?

Now that the regular season is over, it’s not too soon to start thinking about 2013, and finding even the thinnest of reasons to be optimistic.

Like this guy, plucked from Twitter:

So, the expansion #Mets seem to reach the WS every 13 years or so (’73-’86-’00) 2013 is David’s & “Cy Young” R.A.’s contract year… #amazin

— David Malantic (@dmalantic) September 28, 2012

“every 13 years or so!” Wow. 13, 14, what’s the difference? But, really, if the pattern holds, we should be thinking about 2015, not 2013. 13 years, 14 years, x. Everyone who has ever taken an IQ test on the Internet knows that x = 15 years in this case.

I’ve been visiting my best friend Matt, who now lives in in Spokane, Washington, for the last few days. Yesterday, we drove through the Cascades and into Seattle. We ate at a cheap and delicious noodle place for lunch, then wandered around downtown, eventually making our way down First Avenue to the “famous” Triangle Pub. Before we got to the pub, we ran into my fellow NotGraphs-er Patrick Dubuque, and then, in the pub, the young and dapper Kyle Davis, whom some of you might know as one of FanGraphs most supportive readers, and whom you should know as baseball blogger if you do not already, was waiting for us in the sun-drenched triangle part of the Triangle, which we monopolized for the next two hours, drinking, alternately, local IPAs and cheap happy-hour Rainiers.

We talked about Seattle, how the city has changed since Patrick was a kid, neighborhoods to avoid (based on density of douchebags — not based on crime or anything like that), the shittiness of The Killing (one of the few television shows set in Seattle).

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The first in a new series:

What happens if you only read the first half of a headline?

In this case… poor Chase Utley.

Much-consolidated excerpt from actual article:

MIAMI – In the end, there was too much risk and too little time. [For] one month… the Phillies staved off formal elimination. [But] before the Phillies dropped a 2-1 decision to the Miami Marlins that ended their postseason chances, GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and manager Charlie Manuel informed Utley… [h]is work [on Earth]… was done.

“I don’t know if it’s a matter whether or not he can [recover],” Amaro said. “I think it’s more a matter of practicality and what’s really best for the team overall.”

Amaro, for one, said [Utley] was… “dead.” … [I]t appears the team is fully headed in another direction.

“It’s tough to put the guy in that position right now,” Amaro said.

I decided to type in “Manny Acta” followed by each letter of the alphabet (“Manny Acta a,” “Manny Acta b,” etc.) to see what Google Autocomplete thinks about the recently-fired Indians skipper. Here are the results. (I’ve bolded some highlights.)

Manny Acta all star coach
Manny Acta all star game
Manny Acta all star
Manny Acta and wife
Manny Acta bio
Manny Acta bowling
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You know this player: it’s Chipper Jones, the shoe-in Hall-of-Famer who’s about to play the final regular season series of his career.

It was a different time, you understand — 1992, or ’93.

You also know this couch: it was in your parents’ basement when you were growing up. It stinks of something sticky, of Doritos, of sex. Or, in spite of the sticky puffed, the Doritos crumbled, the sex had upon it, it still smells of something older, from long before you.

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Lost in the commotion over Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown candidacy is the fact that another player is in contention for an equally historic accomplishment. I’m referring to the remarkable Jemile Weeks of Oakland, who — although it’s a very long shot — could theoretically still join the very short list of Triple Dunce Cap winners. To win the Triple Dunce Cap, of course, one must finish last in one’s league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in. This feat, and Mr. Weeks’ run at it, has not gone entirely unnoticed, although it’s been treated somewhat more prosaically elsewhere. In any case, nowhere to my knowledge has the proud history of the Triple Dunce Cap been properly historiographed. I’ll just come right out and say it: it’s my intention to do so right now.

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One of these men is Cy Falkenberg in his prime. The other is the Lord.

Quick! Name the pitcher who posted the fifth greatest season (by fWAR) in modern baseball history! Hint: it was greater than any season ever posted by Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, or Randy Johnson, to name a few. Hint 2: it was said of this pitcher that he had “broken preconceived notions into a million scattered fragments.” Hint 3: the season was 1914. If you said “Cy Falkenberg,” then either a) you peeked at the leaderboard or b) you’re a dirty lying liar, because you couldn’t possibly have known such a preposterous thing.

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We are used to seeing Joe West throwing things out of various contexts. Here, we witness Joe West pre-throwing out — though we can be sure that whatever Joe is looking at, he is about to throw it out of his sight, once and for all.

What remains uncertain is the object of his glance — and the nature of said glance. (Does it suggest surprise? Horror? Does Joe West take offense? Is that just the way Joe West shrugs? Is a pig’s house about to be blown in? Is this a glance of fear? Fear of a burgeoning, medieval flatulence of which only Joe West is capable, only after certain meals? Who knows? Perhaps we can never know.)

But, after y’all vote, we will know what he saw. (Everyone knows that a public majority creates truth.) Please vote.

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