Random Poll

I’m just curious about something. There were some complaints* in the comment section of Joe Posnanski’s latest post about some humorous takes on the Tiger Woods crash from a few days ago. You can read that if you like. Here’s a brief recap:

* Edit: I have been notified that those posts were actually originally trackbacks from other blogs. Because I linked to Poz’s post above, my blog also tracked back to his post in comment #27. These posts were deleted and just so happened that the majority of them were replaced by humorous takes on the Woods crash, apparently.

Woods crashes car at 2 am into a tree outside his house. Alcohol is not involved. Multiple reports from the media come out the next morning, but very few seem to confirm the same sequence of events. Eventually, we learn that his wife (who is a model) runs down to the car, and supposedly breaks a rear window with a golf club and pulls him out. For the past few days, Woods is approached by police but refuses to talk to them about the incident. Then, he finally talks, but rather on his website instead of to the police.

So, I would like your opinion on this after knowing that information above. By the way, check out the post below this as well, as it is part of a two part series on OTM.

Joining An ERA/FIP Fistfight

Part one on the debate between traditional statistics and sabermetrics.

If any of you noticed,* Parker Hageman of Over The Baggy wrote a post about FIP** and why we should care about it on Nov. 18th. This led to an argument** over the usefulness of ERA vs. FIP between TT of Granny Baseball***, Parker, and David of Twins Fix. I entered the battle of vegetating baseball nerds in the defense of young, righteous FIP by posting this in the comment section:

* It only took me half a week after he posted this for me to actually read it, despite knowing about it the day it was originally posted.

** These are the two most crucial links that you should click on.

*** If you’ve never visited Granny Baseball, its main premise is to defend the older statistics in baseball prior to sabermetrics.

Do I have enough asterisks here? Maybe this is a preview to what the MLB record book will look like in 30 years.

Span’s Cry

Disclaimer: 1

I recall a single Twins game that I was at this past season where I had lower level tickets. I don’t remember the opponent or who won, but rather a single incident in the game. You see, Denard Span was standing on 2nd base, eager to come home and score. However, he knew that Orlando Cabrera, the #2 hitter, would not succeed in achieving such a goal, so during the entire Cabrera at-bat (he fouled off 10 pitches or something), you could hear Span singing a little song from the infield to the tune of Semisonic’s “Closing Time.”

Proving A Point…Sort Of

Edit: It’s the next morning, and I feel like I lost my cool a bit when I was typing this up late last night. I apologize for that, but I’m going to leave the post up anyways. At the very least, you’ll be happy (or shudder) when you see how QB rating is calculated.

From my previous post, you saw that I had a heyday on blasting Patrick Reusse because he included Star Tribune sports colleague Joe Christensen on his annual list for Turkey of the Year simply because Joe C. uses OPS as a statistic. Reusse called it a “make-believe statistic,” which greatly annoyed me. Maybe he was alluding to the fact that OBP and SLG have different denominators, thus it makes no sense to add the two of them together (I’ll explain in a second). Maybe he just thinks it’s a complicated statistic, which is a bit ridiculous considering how easy it is to calculate it. Or maybe (like I believe why many people dislike new or sabermetric statistics) it’s because he didn’t grow up with OPS, so he doesn’t see why he should believe in it. Whatever the case, I just want to show that while OPS and other sabermetrics maybe be complicated to calculate, baseball is not alone in using stats with extensive calculations.

Podcast Review (A Notepad Scribbles In Disguise)

I was attempting to type in the title for this post, but I accidentally ran my mouse pointer over a drop-down menu and subsequently nearly reported my own blog as a spam site. The only way that would have been true is if you didn’t care to read about the Minnesota Twins…which if you didn’t, then I’d have to question why you were here in the first place. Also, this was supposed to be short. It ended up being Joe Posnanski-curiously long post length.

To review tonight’s podcast with Jack Steal, we discussed:

1. Joe Mauer winning the MVP and his future contract extension.

2. ? (I seriously forgot. Uh oh.)

Quick Note

As of right now, I will be joining Jack Steal and Topper Anton again for tonight’s podcast. It sounds like I will be on around 9:10 and they will finish their interview with me, and maybe this time I’ll answer some questions on who the Diamondbacks will acquire. In addition, I have a little song in the post below that I think you might find very humorous. I highly recommend you check it out.

Edit: Topper announced on his blog that he will try to call in tonight, but might not make it.

Konishi’s Lament

Disclaimer: 1

After many people clicked on their links stating that Joe Mauer had won the AL MVP and read through the subsequent article, they noticed a peculiar anomaly. Mauer had only received 27 of a possible 28 first place votes! After some research or scouring the Internet, it was soon determined that the rogue voter was Keizo Konishi of Kyodo News in Seattle. Upon learning of this, I personally emailed him and (probably because my email wasn’t hate-laced) got a response back from him admitting that he regretted giving his 1st place vote to Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers instead. With the email, he attached a file of himself singing an apology for his vote to the tune of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” If you don’t know the song, use this as a reference, and then listen a second time and follow along with Konishi’s lyrics. Here is the translated version:

Congratulations, Joe

“Best, you’ve got to be the best

You’ve got to change the world

And use this chance to be heard

Your time is now.”

- Muse, “Butterflies and Hurricanes”

Congratulations, Joe Mauer, on receiving the American League MVP award. It only took a month and a half after voting ceased for both you and us to confirm that you had won. Upon taking the field in May, you started it off by hitting a home run on your very first swing, filled up the middle of the season with a chase after the .400 batting average and career highs in many statistics, and finished it off with some help from the BBWAA. Joe Mauer, your time is now.

A Theory on Derek Jeter and the MVP

As I promised on Jack Steal’s podcast and in earlier posts, here is my (controversial?) piece on why I think the media and some Derek Jeter fans want to see him beat out Joe Mauer for the 2009 AL MVP. Now this is an opinion of mine, so:

1. Understand that this is not fact.
2. There are probably plenty of media members and Jeter fans that would disagree with me. That’s fine. I’m trying to explain either why people keep using certain arguments to support Jeter, or just to find an alternative reasoning as to why he deserves the MVP.
3. I want Mauer to win, so I’m not trying to support Jeter here.

A Team of 40

I was originally going to have my Derek Jeter post up sometime today but when I saw who was added to the Twins’ 40-man roster, I got giddy with excitement and decided to save that one for sometime this weekend.

Today, the Twins announced their changes to the 40-man roster in lieu of the upcoming Rule 5 draft. The players are, by position:

P Alex Burnett, Deolis Guerra, Rob Delaney, and Loek Van Mil (!)

3B Danny Valencia

SS Estarlin de los Santos

In addition, the Twins outrighted 3B Deibinson (D.J.) Romero to Triple-A Rochester, so he is no longer on the 40-man roster.