Signings, awards, a mailbag about baseball reporters, Henry Kissinger’s rotting corpse, my Spotify Wrapped, Geddy Lee's great idea, and a poop-filled Pringles can-flinging attorney from Ohio. Not me.
Like Craig said, I don't believe in heaven or hell or any of that. I think it's nonsense. I look at the fact Kissinger lived to 100 and didn't die in a prison cell as more proof there is no god.
Per Statcast, a bunch of Severino's outcome numbers (avg exit velo, barrel rate, hart hit %, etc.) were the worst of his career, and obviously among the worst in the majors. The biggest difference in his raw stuff from when he was dominant in 2017-18 to now is that his 4-seamer is about a mph slower, and his slider is about 3-4 mph slower, and he throws them both considerably less.
To compensate, he mixes in more change-ups and cutters and an occasional sinker, but which is the cause an which the effect I have no idea. In any case, it's not working. It doesn't seem like a guy who can still throw 95-96 and has three or four other pitches, including a (modestly slower) slider with elite movement, should be so terrible, so maybe it's just a matter of him learning to pitch with this new arsenal? Lots of guys remake themselves from power pitchers to finesse guys in their 30s, though it still feels weird to think of a guy who throws 85pmh as a "finesse" pitcher.
I always liked him, and wish him luck. May he fare better than Betances did when he tried the same transition.
Hopefully Severino can stay healthy and ball out for the Mets. He was pretty damn good for most of 2017 and the bulk of 2018. Injuries, man. I think him leaving does make Judge the longest-tenured Yankee now (by MLB debut. Higashioka has been in the organization since 2008!).
Nothing is forever. I always thought he’d be the bulldog gutting it out in a World Series game. Maybe he’ll get that chance with the Mets ... or whoever the Mets trade him fo in July. Hopefully when the Yankees get their heads out of their asses and emotionally invest in Old Timer’s Day, Sevy will be there.
Simon, I actually am strangely optimistic about the Joey Wendle signing. I have no idea why though. Lol.
I was really surprised when I looked at Wendle's stat line and saw that he turns 34 this coming Spring. I would have guessed at least five years younger. At his age and with his performance line the last few years, the simplified Marcel projections have him around 85 OPS+ with mildly positive infield defense. Or a useful 26th man if he adds value off the field but more or less a replacement level player.
There are those of us of a certain age who had friends and family members sent to Vietnam after Nixon, with Kissinger's help, sabotaged the peace talks in 1968. Four more years of war, 20,000 American troops lost (not to mention the millions of Vietnamese) because Kissinger wanted to play a major role in the Nixon administration. I wish I believed in hell because I want Kissinger to spend eternity tortured by the faces of those whose deaths he was directly responsible for.
Related, when friends of mine who were Obama supporters exulted at his Peace Prize, I reminded them that the Nobel Committee keeps using that word; I do not think it means what they think it means.
I remember seeing the Ken Burns doc when they talked about the NSA bringing proof of the contact between Kissinger and the South Vietnamese to LBJ the weekend before the '68 election (with LBJ choosing not to have it released publicly), and
1. Not having heard it before being absolutely stunned
2. Wondering why in the goddamned world he didn't act, because whether or not it would have changed the election it definitely would have affected it and
3. I know the word "treason" gets thrown around a lot these days, but this really sounds like a textbook definition of treason.
Yesterday was discussion of Angels. Today, it’s Pagan. Tomorrow does Tim Teufel make an appearance?
...
ATL had a couple of small signings. They brought back Jackson Stephens and added SEA’s Penn Murfee. Both right handed relievers are on non guaranteed split contracts so it’s likely that I get to watch both in Gwinnett.
Stephens expressed his gratitude (although that's not the right word, his labor is what the money is for) by pitching Ohtani on Atlanta, which I appreciated and would add that I am available to squire Shohei along the Buford Highway corridor for some great Japanese food at any time of his choosing.
While I appreciate all the international cuisine along the route, it is a shame that we can't keep coming north up Buford Hwy to Praise the Lard in Buford itself to show him some solid southern meat 'n three too. But the pandemic took away that classic.
Never had the opportunity, sounds like I missed out. As it happens, I am heading to Buford tomorrow for lunch at Rico's World Kitchen, which friends have raved about. Filipino egg rolls, here I come....
Rico's is (or at least was--haven't been there in a while) very good! (As is their sister restaurant, Brunch Apothecary, Dacula.) PTL was on my list of places to visit. I didn't realize they'd closed. If you like beer, Tannery Row Ale House, which is close to Rico's, has a great selection.
You absolutely should not take my word that it’s only a baseball twitter thing -- it could very well happen elsewhere, I just live in small twitter bubbles, and I too am full of crap and blinded by old beefs!
I absolutely love that you had sharp elbows and weren't afraid to wade into the sludge and get a bit muddied. I hated what you call legacy media and all the old cronism. Coming from another country that didn't quite have the baseball legacy that this country has I had an interest in baseball but didn't understand how gate-kept America's favorite pastime. One of those guys read me for filth when I asked too many questions, told me I was wasting his time and pretty much squelched my interest in baseball for 40 years. Even though I qualify as a boomer, I really hate them and their hypocritical lives. They went from protesting the man to becoming the man and turned their backs on progress to make another dollar.
The Boomers were never a monolithic generation for every granola protester in 1968, there were 10 kids every bit as ‘square’ as their parents and just as eager to carry water for the rich.
It was kind of amazing to read some of the stuff that happened in those days. Rob Neyer got a couple of calls from Bud Selig himself (!) in the late 1990s who felt like he had to personally straighten Neyer's tie on a bunch of issues, so it wasn't just gatekeeping by the media members. Some of the writers were more willing that others to take or respond to criticism (I feel like Jayson Stark never seemed to mind too much). I never got anything like that for whatever complaints I made about writers.
Closest thing I experienced was when Jose Canseco's ghostwriter for 𝐽𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑑, Steve Kettman, emailed me personally to say that a couple of the things I had pointed out as being erroneous in the book were more plausible than I'd realized. And he asked that I not mention that he had written to me. Which I didn't, for like 10 years.
Doug Pappas wrote on the business of baseball at Prospectus and elsewhere. Unlike most, Doug was willing to dive into the details, some of which was publicly available. Selig, on at least one occasion, called him to criticize his reporting around the time of the threatened contraction of the Twins. Doug wrote about that call too. I believe most of his work is still available and relevant any time we get into CBA negotiations.
Doug, unfortunately, passed away very young. He went on a hike in the desert without adequate precautions and suffered heat stroke. There is an annual SABR award in his memory.
Yeah, I knew of him online and I remember when he passed away, since almost all of us had been familiar with his work. That kind of stuff - the business end - was maybe even more sensitive to them than the baseball stuff. Baseball owners had been crying poor with impunity for over a century, so when people like Pappas and Andrew Zimbalist and others started pointing out how full of shit they were, it must have really grated on them. I guess Selig was doing what he thought was his job, protecting the owners, but man it was a bad look.
Emilio Pagan is no bargain at $8,000, less $8 million. He blew at least 9 saves in 2022 - including crucial games -- so in 2023 the manager only brought him in for safe situations. Twins fans are delighted to see him go.
FWIW, I've been accused of being in the latter camp of the MSM baseball writers vs the bloggers even though I have the former's credentials. But I get why they're defensive -- it's because they HAVE had their jobs taken from them, though it's not because the bloggers are necessarily better (like all things in MSM, it's because they're cheaper).
Still, there was a perverse pleasure in getting to tell BA's John Manuel that yes, I had worked in a newsroom, but unlike him, had gone to J school...twice (and graduated both times!)
As a fellow pre-interwebs J-school alum, I also appreciated those who took the traditional route. And there are elements of trained tradecraft I continue to value, even as the mainstream media (not just in sports, but especially so) deemphasizes feature writing. I'm probably biased, as he's an old poker buddy, but Mark Schlabach at ESPN.com does some fine work in this vein.
This is why I struggle(d) to get too upset with them, although I'm sure my outlook would be different if I'd lived it and been on the receiving end. It's difficult coming up with one set of rules, navigating them, and then having those rules change.
Speaking of New Order, they recorded their first album at Strawberry Studios in Stockport.
One of Stockport's most famous sons is Paul Morley: he grew up writing about the Manchester music scene, while longing to escape as a proper music journalist. He wrote an astonishing Joycean wide-ranging book called "The North", not fiction, but certainly not non-fiction in the conventional sense. I enjoyed it greatly but my brother thought it was all a bit much.
I may be the only person here who this year spent a night at the Stockport Travelodge...
Someone’s gonna spend a couple hours today writing 2,000 words on Shane MacGowan, Irish politics in the 80’s, Irish whiskey, and a passive/aggressive takedown of Bono. Can’t wait!
Re: Nelson Cruz & the Gigantes del Cibao. He did play for them, playing one game in each of the six DR stadiums, finishing with the home stadium for the Gigantes. He had retirement gifts and ceremonies after each game.
For the last one, at the Gigantes, he grounded out to end the bottom of the seventh. They then *stopped the game* and did his retirement ceremony, complete with gifts, giant portrait, family, politicians, and tears all around. Long live Dominican baseball, with all its quirks and passion.
Starting this year, the folks that run the DR feed through MLB have been running commercials for MLB rather than letting us see the Dominican commercials. But whoever's running that sometimes misses their cue, so I've seen a commercial for Mexana with Cruz with his dad and son.
The Pringles!
OMG
The sons of bitches of the world have lost their leader.
Never gets old when it fits.
Like Craig said, I don't believe in heaven or hell or any of that. I think it's nonsense. I look at the fact Kissinger lived to 100 and didn't die in a prison cell as more proof there is no god.
Even if there •is• a god, most people are praying to the wrong one.
For Steve Cohen, Luis Severino is a tiny risk. But I am still not quite sure what the chances it pans out will be.
Per Statcast, a bunch of Severino's outcome numbers (avg exit velo, barrel rate, hart hit %, etc.) were the worst of his career, and obviously among the worst in the majors. The biggest difference in his raw stuff from when he was dominant in 2017-18 to now is that his 4-seamer is about a mph slower, and his slider is about 3-4 mph slower, and he throws them both considerably less.
To compensate, he mixes in more change-ups and cutters and an occasional sinker, but which is the cause an which the effect I have no idea. In any case, it's not working. It doesn't seem like a guy who can still throw 95-96 and has three or four other pitches, including a (modestly slower) slider with elite movement, should be so terrible, so maybe it's just a matter of him learning to pitch with this new arsenal? Lots of guys remake themselves from power pitchers to finesse guys in their 30s, though it still feels weird to think of a guy who throws 85pmh as a "finesse" pitcher.
I always liked him, and wish him luck. May he fare better than Betances did when he tried the same transition.
Except when he faces the Yankees. ;-)
One ballot yesterday, featuring an A-Rod vote: https://x.com/shutthedore/status/1730080178334728341?s=46&t=Ieu9DerBVxNuynJKHAphOg
Hopefully Severino can stay healthy and ball out for the Mets. He was pretty damn good for most of 2017 and the bulk of 2018. Injuries, man. I think him leaving does make Judge the longest-tenured Yankee now (by MLB debut. Higashioka has been in the organization since 2008!).
Nothing is forever. I always thought he’d be the bulldog gutting it out in a World Series game. Maybe he’ll get that chance with the Mets ... or whoever the Mets trade him fo in July. Hopefully when the Yankees get their heads out of their asses and emotionally invest in Old Timer’s Day, Sevy will be there.
Simon, I actually am strangely optimistic about the Joey Wendle signing. I have no idea why though. Lol.
I haven't given much thought to Wendle. I have seen him basically called a replacement for Guillorme, but no opinion about him yet.
I was really surprised when I looked at Wendle's stat line and saw that he turns 34 this coming Spring. I would have guessed at least five years younger. At his age and with his performance line the last few years, the simplified Marcel projections have him around 85 OPS+ with mildly positive infield defense. Or a useful 26th man if he adds value off the field but more or less a replacement level player.
I would have kept Guillorme. OPS basically the same as Wendle, and Guillorme is a better fielder.
There are those of us of a certain age who had friends and family members sent to Vietnam after Nixon, with Kissinger's help, sabotaged the peace talks in 1968. Four more years of war, 20,000 American troops lost (not to mention the millions of Vietnamese) because Kissinger wanted to play a major role in the Nixon administration. I wish I believed in hell because I want Kissinger to spend eternity tortured by the faces of those whose deaths he was directly responsible for.
Related, when friends of mine who were Obama supporters exulted at his Peace Prize, I reminded them that the Nobel Committee keeps using that word; I do not think it means what they think it means.
I did not know about him sabotaging the peace talks. I have no words for such an action.
I remember seeing the Ken Burns doc when they talked about the NSA bringing proof of the contact between Kissinger and the South Vietnamese to LBJ the weekend before the '68 election (with LBJ choosing not to have it released publicly), and
1. Not having heard it before being absolutely stunned
2. Wondering why in the goddamned world he didn't act, because whether or not it would have changed the election it definitely would have affected it and
3. I know the word "treason" gets thrown around a lot these days, but this really sounds like a textbook definition of treason.
The delay in the release of the hostages in Iran is probably related to this ploy by Kissinger (fuck him).
This is why my late father, a Vietnam vet from 70-71, always despised him.
One of a multitude of reasons, of course.
That's the same range of years that my dad was overseas.
Not to imply that there are certain demographic truths about Craig's readership, but me too!
https://youtu.be/OQNV3KGQiS0?si=OudPlmgAqLSJrMDm
Yesterday was discussion of Angels. Today, it’s Pagan. Tomorrow does Tim Teufel make an appearance?
...
ATL had a couple of small signings. They brought back Jackson Stephens and added SEA’s Penn Murfee. Both right handed relievers are on non guaranteed split contracts so it’s likely that I get to watch both in Gwinnett.
Stephens expressed his gratitude (although that's not the right word, his labor is what the money is for) by pitching Ohtani on Atlanta, which I appreciated and would add that I am available to squire Shohei along the Buford Highway corridor for some great Japanese food at any time of his choosing.
While I appreciate all the international cuisine along the route, it is a shame that we can't keep coming north up Buford Hwy to Praise the Lard in Buford itself to show him some solid southern meat 'n three too. But the pandemic took away that classic.
Never had the opportunity, sounds like I missed out. As it happens, I am heading to Buford tomorrow for lunch at Rico's World Kitchen, which friends have raved about. Filipino egg rolls, here I come....
Rico's is (or at least was--haven't been there in a while) very good! (As is their sister restaurant, Brunch Apothecary, Dacula.) PTL was on my list of places to visit. I didn't realize they'd closed. If you like beer, Tannery Row Ale House, which is close to Rico's, has a great selection.
Old downtown Buford along the railroad tracks has really cleaned up over the past decade. We are about 10 miles south along PIB.
Perhaps Jim Gott will make an appearance.
How about a reference to Bing Devine?
I was a little surprised MN didn't kick in a million just to ensure that Pagan got out of town quickly. We won't miss the arsonist.
Thanks for answering my question!
You absolutely should not take my word that it’s only a baseball twitter thing -- it could very well happen elsewhere, I just live in small twitter bubbles, and I too am full of crap and blinded by old beefs!
Definitely not just a baseball thing - you see it in hockey media too.
A little less so, since Bob McKenzie retired.
I absolutely love that you had sharp elbows and weren't afraid to wade into the sludge and get a bit muddied. I hated what you call legacy media and all the old cronism. Coming from another country that didn't quite have the baseball legacy that this country has I had an interest in baseball but didn't understand how gate-kept America's favorite pastime. One of those guys read me for filth when I asked too many questions, told me I was wasting his time and pretty much squelched my interest in baseball for 40 years. Even though I qualify as a boomer, I really hate them and their hypocritical lives. They went from protesting the man to becoming the man and turned their backs on progress to make another dollar.
The Boomers were never a monolithic generation for every granola protester in 1968, there were 10 kids every bit as ‘square’ as their parents and just as eager to carry water for the rich.
It was kind of amazing to read some of the stuff that happened in those days. Rob Neyer got a couple of calls from Bud Selig himself (!) in the late 1990s who felt like he had to personally straighten Neyer's tie on a bunch of issues, so it wasn't just gatekeeping by the media members. Some of the writers were more willing that others to take or respond to criticism (I feel like Jayson Stark never seemed to mind too much). I never got anything like that for whatever complaints I made about writers.
Closest thing I experienced was when Jose Canseco's ghostwriter for 𝐽𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑑, Steve Kettman, emailed me personally to say that a couple of the things I had pointed out as being erroneous in the book were more plausible than I'd realized. And he asked that I not mention that he had written to me. Which I didn't, for like 10 years.
Doug Pappas wrote on the business of baseball at Prospectus and elsewhere. Unlike most, Doug was willing to dive into the details, some of which was publicly available. Selig, on at least one occasion, called him to criticize his reporting around the time of the threatened contraction of the Twins. Doug wrote about that call too. I believe most of his work is still available and relevant any time we get into CBA negotiations.
Doug, unfortunately, passed away very young. He went on a hike in the desert without adequate precautions and suffered heat stroke. There is an annual SABR award in his memory.
Yeah, I knew of him online and I remember when he passed away, since almost all of us had been familiar with his work. That kind of stuff - the business end - was maybe even more sensitive to them than the baseball stuff. Baseball owners had been crying poor with impunity for over a century, so when people like Pappas and Andrew Zimbalist and others started pointing out how full of shit they were, it must have really grated on them. I guess Selig was doing what he thought was his job, protecting the owners, but man it was a bad look.
Pagan’s weakness is giving up home runs. What could possibly go wrong with him pitching half his games in the Great American Ballpark?
Fine article about Kissinger, thanks.
Emilio Pagan is no bargain at $8,000, less $8 million. He blew at least 9 saves in 2022 - including crucial games -- so in 2023 the manager only brought him in for safe situations. Twins fans are delighted to see him go.
FWIW, I've been accused of being in the latter camp of the MSM baseball writers vs the bloggers even though I have the former's credentials. But I get why they're defensive -- it's because they HAVE had their jobs taken from them, though it's not because the bloggers are necessarily better (like all things in MSM, it's because they're cheaper).
Still, there was a perverse pleasure in getting to tell BA's John Manuel that yes, I had worked in a newsroom, but unlike him, had gone to J school...twice (and graduated both times!)
As a fellow pre-interwebs J-school alum, I also appreciated those who took the traditional route. And there are elements of trained tradecraft I continue to value, even as the mainstream media (not just in sports, but especially so) deemphasizes feature writing. I'm probably biased, as he's an old poker buddy, but Mark Schlabach at ESPN.com does some fine work in this vein.
This is why I struggle(d) to get too upset with them, although I'm sure my outlook would be different if I'd lived it and been on the receiving end. It's difficult coming up with one set of rules, navigating them, and then having those rules change.
Speaking of New Order, they recorded their first album at Strawberry Studios in Stockport.
One of Stockport's most famous sons is Paul Morley: he grew up writing about the Manchester music scene, while longing to escape as a proper music journalist. He wrote an astonishing Joycean wide-ranging book called "The North", not fiction, but certainly not non-fiction in the conventional sense. I enjoyed it greatly but my brother thought it was all a bit much.
I may be the only person here who this year spent a night at the Stockport Travelodge...
Someone’s gonna spend a couple hours today writing 2,000 words on Shane MacGowan, Irish politics in the 80’s, Irish whiskey, and a passive/aggressive takedown of Bono. Can’t wait!
Don't forget to put "Streams of Whiskey" on your playlist.
I’m looking forward to going to the substack page and finding out how long they think it should take me to read today’s post.
I thought for sure it would wrap up after Spotify.
I take those reading times as a challenge.
Re: Nelson Cruz & the Gigantes del Cibao. He did play for them, playing one game in each of the six DR stadiums, finishing with the home stadium for the Gigantes. He had retirement gifts and ceremonies after each game.
For the last one, at the Gigantes, he grounded out to end the bottom of the seventh. They then *stopped the game* and did his retirement ceremony, complete with gifts, giant portrait, family, politicians, and tears all around. Long live Dominican baseball, with all its quirks and passion.
Starting this year, the folks that run the DR feed through MLB have been running commercials for MLB rather than letting us see the Dominican commercials. But whoever's running that sometimes misses their cue, so I've seen a commercial for Mexana with Cruz with his dad and son.
The Mets is not the place I’d advise an oft-injured pitcher to sign