10.30.2010

Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

What a beast of a book. This one languished on my shelf for some time. Partly because of its heft and partly because it takes some mental prodding to tackle a large book because you know you are going to be reading it for a while. When this came out, it won some awards and was lauded for the story. Without reading too much of the reviews, I generally thought I knew what I was getting into when I started to read it....And of course once into it, it was totally a different animal.
Overall the story started kind of slow. Thus it was difficult to get into it. I thought the footnotes were neat but when they continually showed up, the weight of this world that the author created started to bog down. It was an amazing thought out world. A parallel world to our own where sorcery (errr magic) was practiced. Kind of felt like I was reading Dickens. The characters were fantastic. Although the patience required to get to the real ride was trying at times the overall book was good and enjoyable...and to think when I started to read it I had just visited Yorkshire...what a coincidence!

10.27.2010

Haiku Wednesday

Elections

Popularity
But this isn't a Contest
Issues take back seat

10.25.2010

Playoff Talk

The Week That Was
Don Baylor, you could say, was relieved of his duties as hitting instructor. Depending on how you spin it, it could be taken that the Rox expect him to be managing somewhere else or that the lackluster offense, especially in key situations, helped make the decision. Rox welcome Carney Lansford.



Baylor and Lansford have some similar numbers although Lansford played in only 15 seasons. Baylor was more of a power hitter, at least that is whay you would call it in the 70s! Have to think this was done more for a new voice then in bringing in someone with better credentials. I also think Lansford was in the Minors for a lot of these players, maybe he can reach them (Fowler, Stewart, Anyone?).

100 Pitch Limit and 2010 Over/Unders
Last week I tried to determine what exactly 100+ means to a pitcher. 100+ is the magic number where pitcher's arms magically fall off and hitters enter the land of paradise. The graph below shows batter's OPS when the pitcher's have thrown 1-25, 26-50, 51-75, 76-100, and 101+. From the graph it would seem to indicate that the 76-100 pitches is the danger zone. This is also usually the time that the lineup turns over for the third time so hitters have adjusted to whatever the pitcher has for the day. Makes one wonder why a pitcher then doesn't change it up in the 6th inning and make his own adjustments? Of course if a pitcher is going well and makes it through this zone then they probably have all of their pitches that day and therefore they cruise past the 101+ point as indicated by the white line below. So it seems somewhat arbitrary to me on why 100 pitches is the warning sign. Hard to believe that the last 20 years we have set ourselves an imaginery plateau.

Final item for the week is the final over/unders for the year. Obviously the Padres win hands down for the most "come out of no where" team. Going 18 game better then projected was amazing and heart breaking for the Rox. I mean I didn't even consider the Padres to even be remotely in the picture at the start of the season. Although I bet 2011 they will come back to earth. Definately look at taking the under for them next year...it's called returning to the mean!

Second point is that it would absolutely suck playing in the AL East. I mean the Blue Jays had a great year. 85 wins is incredibly respectable and to think you were still 11 games behind in first place and another 10 out in the wild card. Yikes. By the way if you put money on the over for the Rox boy you must have been just a bit angry...no comment!

10.20.2010

Haiku Wednesday

Treat

Costumes and Candy
Whatever happened to Tricks?
Kid rated haiku ;)

10.18.2010

Rox Talk

The Week That Was
Yeah there was no week that was. I am still angry with Rox, therefore they get no love from me. And to think the Giants are still playing. Rox were 20-21 against playoff teams this year (including Twins). I think we belonged...nuff said

Texas Rangers
I am a huge fan of Nolan Ryan. The man was pitching. Sure statistically he doesn't fall into the category of the game's best but for his longetivity and his power to strikeout opposing batters made him a sight to see. He owned a 9.5 strikeout per 9 innings pitched for a career. Led the league in strikeouts 11 times and the last season he did this was when he was 43!

In the New York Times Magazine (10/3/10 edition), there is a nice article about him taking over the Rangers. In the article, it mentions that he is trying to fashion the Rangers' pitchers into his own image. Increasing the innings pitched and balls thrown per game. So in 773 starts, Ryan pitched an average of almost 7 innings a game. Pitch counts weren't used for his whole career (data only available from 1988 on) but from the time he was 41 until he retired at 46, he pitched 161 games averaging 6.2 innings and 108 pitches thrown. The graph below shows pretty clearly that when you went to Nolan's game you got your money's worth seeing him pitched; and to think these games were in the twilight of his career (41 - 46)!

So yeah Nolan liked to labor. So do the new look Rangers follow this pattern? Hard to say at this point. Without looking too closely I did track down on baseball-reference the number of times a pitcher in the big leagues threw more than 101+ pitches and then compared this to the overall number of starts. The graph below shows this along with the Rangers last ten years.


The grey dots represent the MLB. So for instance in 2010, 4860 games were started and of those 2243 games had a pitcher go 101+ pitches. In this same year, the Rangers went 87 starts with 101+ innings. Since 2008 the Rangers have shown an increase in the number of pitches thrown but their trend is also seen with MLB as a whole so maybe everyone is trying to emulate the Express?

10.15.2010

Space 1999

Coming of age (actually starting to remember what I watch on TV) in the late 70s and early 80s there was one show on Sunday or maybe it was Friday night that I watched religiously. Face it I was the generation that was sandwiched between the original Star Trek and the Next Generation. The shows I remember most were Space 1999, Lost in Space (OK Saturday morning reruns...remember the show when the robot grew or maybe the crew shrunk and they traveled inside him?), Battlestar Galactica (remember the one where they saw a transmission of the moon landing?), and finally Star Blazers (that is probably a whole another post....).
Just recently I rented Season 1 just to relive some of those old memories. Wow amazing how your taste changes over time. While it was fun to watch some of the adventures of Moon Base Alpha sometimes the memories are better than the actual real thing. I should note that Season One did not contain the alien Maya so perhaps that was it. The thing that gets me is how trippy the show looked. Sci-Fi in the 70s is just frightening. Space 1999 is what you get when you cross 60s Star Trek with British TV production and a lot of LSD...

10.13.2010

Haiku Wednesday

Ghost

Ethereal creatures
Wandering souls with bedsheets?
No just kids next door

10.10.2010

Haiku of the Day

Date is ten ten ten
Binary is forty-two
The answer to life

10.08.2010

Lightning Bugs

I was back East for work when one night walking I saw the unmistakable flash of a lightning bug. Upon seeing the light, childhood memories flooded into my brain. As a kid I loved watching the blinking lights. We used to chase lightning bugs and catch them in jars. We would then feed them and then watch them blink at night (is this curiosity as a kid OK or is it just being cruel?). Either way the bugs are magical.

Flying lighthouses
Science says luciferase
I think it's Magic

10.07.2010

Haiku of th Day

When it's dark outside
Men see more than just stars
They see forever

10.06.2010

Haiku Wednesday

Squash

It a vegetable?
Or call it a racket sport
To me it's gourding

10.04.2010

Rox Talk

The Week That Was
A 0-7 week against the Dodgers and Cardinals. The Rox finish at 83-79. Nine games back from division winners San Francisco in third place and eight games behind in the Wild Card chase. A record of 52-29 at home and 31-50 on the road, the Rox outscored its opponents 770-717 (expected wins is 86 versus historical wins at 77). Playoff indicator (Runs scored/Runs Against ratio) is 1.07 (>1.16 indicates high playoff potential).

Really no comment. I think how this team finished is an embarrassment to the organization. To be in it with 2 weeks to go and then finish 1-13 is a smack in the face for anyone who is a fan. I really don't care what the team thinks but you go out and play to win everyday. To quit, give up, and lose 13 of 14 just shows to me this team isn't ready to move to the next level. To have the expectation to win the division and then to finish 9 back is pathetic. I hope this team is embarrassed and that it leaves an awful taste in their mouth over the next 6 months. Let it fester so that come April 2011 this team plays with some heart.

The Season That Was
Top 10 Gut Feelings on Why Rox Underperformed (no particular order)
1. Road vs Home splits
2. Random injuries throughout the season
3. Inconsistent outtings from the bullpen
4. Starting Pitchers stamina
5. Todd Helton, Clint Barmes, Dexter Fowler, Ian Stewart, insert Left Fielder's Name
6. No right hand bat
7. Entire Team Effort
8. Padres
9. Inability to beat bad teams
10. All Star Break

Top 10 Surprises in 2010
1. CarGo, Mora, Giambi, Belisle, Chacin
2. Dynamic Duo of CarGo/Tulo
3. U-Ball ascent to potential staff ace
4. Ability to beat the top tier teams
5. First No-Hitter
6. All Star Game Starter
7. Some National attention
8. Playoffs are an expectation rather than a dream
9. Winning record against NL West
10. Perhaps its the fastball most affected by altitude rather than the breaking pitches.

10.02.2010

Haiku of the Day

It's Mello Yellow
Yellow sun, blue skies, white sand
Sucks to be away

10.01.2010

Haiku of the Day

Dragonflys swarming
Ocean breezes a-blowing
Yuengling cold and wet