The Astros strike back, Gold Glove "finalists," policing fandom, BlueSky codes, RFK Jr. is eating his overlords, Banksy, and one more day of Midwest content
With ALCS Wide Open, I am Torn about whether or not the Rangers created Their Own Prison by starting Scherzer. Starting him was an Ode to his past greatness, but now they are only up 2 games to One. They should have sensed trouble when Altuve took him Higher, but now they gave the Astros life and before you know it they could be down to One Last Breath. If the Rangers blow this series, they’ll be wondering What’s This Life For?
I've been in for a while, and it's, well, it's ok. I have to say don't follow Neil Gaiman or John Scalzi, they're fine writers and all, but you'll drown in your timeline with those two in it. In fact, Idk how they get any other writing done at all.
Yeah, real writers are often like that. They write almost automatically, whether or not they're writing for a specific project. For them it's like breathing. I'm a more garden variety academic writer, which means I have to psych myself do it every single time.
To quote the novelist character Jimmy from *You're the Worst,* "Writing is very seldom actual writing. Maybe on the outside it looks as though I'm drinking and playing darts and eating craisins out of the box in my pocket, but this is part of the process. It's all writing. And I need you to respect my process."
Zero surprise that Max had a bad night. The long layoff, his age, and what he did last year in big games all added up to a dud well before the game started. I guess we might have a series now.
The shocking thing about someone who roots for both the Vikings and the Chargers is that anyone roots for the Chargers.
I don't really put much value in the Gold Gloves but at least they have some metrics now. I think maybe the days of a good hitting, bad fielding star like Jeter winning it are over. Maybe.
I heard Smoltz say during the telecast last night that someone other than Montgomery or Eovaldi will eventually have to win a game for the Rangers this postseason, but I'm not sure who they've got. They're planning a bullpen game tonight.
Heaney is probably the best of the rest, though maybe they give Dunning a start. If they can survive this series, it could be Scherzer if he shakes the rust off in time. It's really too bad that deGrom is out--would have loved to see October deGrom.
Nah, I think it's a move Bochy made BECAUSE he was up in the series. Like Smoltz said, they're trying to find someone else to win a game. They had the luxury of seeing of Max was that guy.
Seems a bit like counting chickens before they're hatched. I definitely would not want to give Houston an opening to get back in the series. I would have to think that Heaney on a short leash is a better bet than Max, but I also don't have all of the information the team has (maybe Max looked awesome in a bullpen session).
I don't think there's a way that Houston doesn't win at least 2 games. Up 2-0 gives you some leeway. Tonight feels a little more pressured for Texas, but I also don't know if I fully believe that either.
I'm curious how Pressly looks tonight if he's pressed into action-he hasn't been as effective on back to back days this season.
I don't think Jeter winning Gold Gloves was all about his hitting. He made the balls he got to into outs and looked smooth doing it. And the jump throws looked cool. He was stylish enough doing it that I can see people being tricked before the days of advanced metrics exposed him.
I think it was the smoothness and that signature jump throw. You really can't notice the lack of range unless you watch someone a ton and note the misses others would get too.
Speaking of Jeter, I posted this last night on BlueSky:
Not sure what’s worst about that Derek Jeter Wagoneer ad: 1) the notion that his car is there when he’s going HOME; 2) the suggestion that he’d drive through a primeval forest with WOLVES; or 3) that his wife would let him drive the kids to school after pulling an ALL-NIGHTER. Triple Crown of dumb.
My favorite comment is the top one on that video. "This is such a great commercial that all of us regular people can relate to. I hate when a storm grounds my private jet and I have to drive my 100k luxury SUV back to my mansion where my super model wife is waiting for me to take my kids to private school. Ugh! Thank you Derek! Thank you for looking out for the little guy!"
Ooooof, man, I don't know if I can get on board with that. Or that one from a few years ago where there were TWO brand new GMC vehicles in the driveway. Just the worst.
You didn’t need advanced metric to expose Jeter’s defense, simple ones would do. In addition to what you noted he had name recognition and was “the guy who won last year”.
Scherzer last night was a repeat, for ATL fans, of Fried in G2 of the NLDS: great pitcher who was just a bit off after missing a good bit of time.
I know that it’s just a list of finalists but the inclusion of Eddie Rosario is funny. He was often replaced for defensive reasons and, but for the even worse Ozuna, should be a DH.
I still love Eddie as a concept even though he was a challenge when he played for the Twins 5-6 years ago. Got to a lot of balls but then threw to a random base.
Rosario is the type of player I virtually never like. Mid range power, wild swinger with no plate discipline, no secondary skills. But for some reason I can't point to, he is someone I really root for far outside of the merit of his performance.
He made that insane over-the-shoulder no-look catch in the 2021 playoffs. Beyond that, he's a pretty mid defensive player. That was such a weird inclusion.
Some years ago Rawlings realized the negative publicity around the Gold Glove winners meant their sponsorship wasn’t actually good for the company or perhaps they were actually embarrassed by some of the results. They made a number of changes to the process and the winners have been pretty good for some time. (Maybe the second best CF wins but not a below average one.)
Reputation plays a big factor -- Happ was not god defensively this year and I doubt Rizzo was top three having missed so much time -- but they had enough collective wisdom that Arenado didn’t make the top 3. Never would have happened 20 years ago.
Finally broke thru on Bluesky - thanks for the code! I am not hating Threads, tho, TBH. And it seems to be gaining steam. Anybody care to give me their elevator pitch on why Bsky vs Threads? And why aren’t the baseball people using Threads /he screamed/?
I am not going to flee Elon Musk just to give Mark Zuckerberg even more of my personal information. Plus, my understanding from people who’ve been there is that Threads is very corporate and somewhat inane.
Also, both Threads and Blue Sky eventually have to show massive profits to justify their existence. Enshittification is a given, so enjoy the honeymoon period. It probably won't last nearly as long as it did on FB or Twitter.
I do the Sheehan Slack account during baseball...especially the playoffs. Sometimes its a lot of fun, but it's not consistently silly like old Twitter.
But, I enjoy the lack of snark on that Slack channel. It's the never ending snark that eventually drove me from Twitter.
I figured anti-Zuck/FB was part of it but ... eh, I guess, for me? They have all my data already so it doesn’t feel like a leap. Also, I am on threads. If some think it’s inane, sure, but so is/was Twitter. These are not sites for deep, fireside academic discussion, nor do I need them to be. I have this thread for that lol
Threads has obligate auto-play on embedded videos, including war footage. I'd prefer not to have my social media quite so in-my-face.
That said, institutional baseball seems to be on Threads, so I get random highlights, also auto-playing as I scroll, but the baseball (and other sports) regular observers (aka fans) seem to be split between Bluesky and Mastodon. But, as Mastodon is the same kind of *work* as internetting with a Unix shell account, Bluesky is more relaxing, and I find myself involved in more conversations there than anywhere else (except Ravelry, a knitting/yarncraft site).
If you are an active IG user you’ll probably like Threads because it’s easy to curate a similar set of people you follow. It’s open so anyone can join and most of the brands are there. I’m not a FB/IG user so I really haven’t curated my feed and thus get a bunch of random stuff. Its biggest strength (number of active accounts) is also its biggest weakness. A B-list celebrity posts something and quickly has dozens of replies.
The invite only of BlueSky makes it much more calm and you can actually have a conversation there. There’s not much of a baseball culture yet but feel like 50 readers of Cup of Coffee recently joined. The flow and feel is a lot more like Twitter than the mess (my view) that Facebook is. Neither really has a restrictive enough content policy, and BlueSky really relies on filtering -- you can set what you see -- rather than rules to block awful things.
I think a lot of people are cross-posting to multiple sites. I’ve mostly tried to lock up accounts in a bunch of places and will see what survives.
The last bit reminds me of one of the news stories that made me happiest this year, that American Football (and their label) actually purchased that house to turn it into a museum of sorts: https://polyvinylrecords.com/news/5931
Rooting interests: 4-1. That’s better. It would be hysterical if the ALCS was like the 2019 World Series, where the visiting team won every game. The fact that it would mean the Astros lost is just a bonus.
PS I don’t care who Banksy is. I’m just glad that Banksy is.
PPS Carlo’s point about Minnesota having its own identity beyond Midwestern-ness is incredibly astute. Never considered that before and damned if he isn’t right.
Also, I am going to keep copying those BlueSky codes for my friend Jessica, who is sharing them with student journalists, so keep them coming!
There's 3 Minnesotas: Southern and western up to Moorhead, which is the midwest; Mpls/St Paul, which is generic city with a dose of passive/aggresive; North of the cities which is Canada with gun nuts.
Adames is second at short in statcast OAA behind Swanson, and Yelich is 1st in the NL at LF (though at only 4 OAA--LF is pretty meh this year). So they should by OAA have two nominees and one winner. Otherwise, they just seem to be slightly above average everywhere.
But he had all those assists (which is usually an indication that opponents don't respect your throwing ability because if they did they wouldn't run on you in the first place)!
That’s the common wisdom but a look at the historical league leaders pages suggests otherwise. Clemente, Valentine, Guerrero, Furillo, Heyward ... great arms and high assist totals.
What if those guys you mentioned got a reputation for having great arms based on assists they collected due to teams not respecting their arms?
I haven't dug all the way into Baseball Reference so I don't know if the stat is there, but the best way to measure this would be assists versus times the runner made it, wouldn't it? Example: Run on a guy 50 times, 25 assists versus 25 safes would probably be a great arm. Run on him 200 times, 25 assists versus 175 safes not so much.
Heyward doesn't belong in your list here; he's never had more than 11 assists in a season while the rest all had seasons in the 20s, so he either doesn't have a great arm or he has the respect of other teams to not try to run on him.
The data is available at, IIRC, Baseball Savant. It is similar to how baserunning is tracked. Number of times a runner is on first with a single hit to RF; compare stopping at 2B, reaching 3B safely, being thrown out going to 3B ... then add all the other permutations, tagging on a fly, scoring from 1st on a double, etc.
Heyward does count as his play was during a period when players were more stationary not risking as many outs on bases. The all time leaders in OF Assists all played >100 years as the risk/reward calculus changes over time. But the best arms are the best arms. And he had (has?) a reputation as a brilliant fielder AND frequently lead his league in RF assists.
The argument about no one with a good arm having lots of assists when translated to other categories: Aaron Judge has less power than Oswaldo Cabrera; I know that because if teams thought Judge had power, they wouldn't pitch to him - that he gets lots of homers proves he lacks power, that Cabrera has has few is only because teams don't pitch to him. Spencer Strider gets lots of strikeouts only because teams know he can't overpower anyone so they swing freely; Bryce Elder gets few because batters are afraid of him so they choke up and take defensive swings. Ronald Acuna is a better base stealer than Matt Olson; if Acuna was actually a risk, they'd hold him closer. Sometimes the simpler explanation is warranted.
There are two different cases for a runner going from first to third on a single to the outfield:
1. The outfielder made an attempt to throw to third base
2. The outfielder made no attempt to throw to third base
I would submit that only case 1 should figure into any calculation of whether or not an outfielder is in possession of a good arm. We can't use assists by themselves as an indicator without knowing how many attempted assists the outfielder had. Reputation for having a great arm and actually having a great arm might be the same thing, or it might not be.
My argument wasn't intended to translate to other areas. An outfielder does not have to make an attempt to throw out a runner every time he/she fields a ball; Jimmy Dugan made Evelyn Gardner cry over just that point in A League of Their Own.
Pitchers, on the other hand, will try to get hitters out every time unless we're talking about early 2000s Barry Bonds, and they'll succeed more than 70% of the time. Batters have to swing at strikes in an attempt to reach base, because the percentage play of taking up to six straight pitches in the hopes of drawing a walk is not generally in their favor. Stolen base success rate can easily be measured in a way that outfield assist rate isn't (or maybe can't - Would you give an outfielder an attempted assist on a throw home that's cut off by the first baseman so he can try to get a different runner at second?)
I think "great arm" is just a subjective quality. If you think it can be objectively measured, then we'll have to agree to disagree.
Is this true for catching though? Yady has fewer overall CS than Piazza, but Piazza has over 800 more SB against him. I think stealing is different because it's not a split second decision on whether to go or not.
If you look closely at some of those guys like Clemente and Guerrero, their assists drop off in their late 20's early 30's. Is that because they've lost some velo or because runners finally catch on (you would think they would catch on after at most a season). I also wonder if today's focus on percentage baseball places a cap on assist totals.
Clemente lead the NL in RF assists when he was 20 and when he was 32 and four times in between. After 32, he was missing 20-50 games a year with various injuries, but still finished #3 in 3 of those four final seasons. He remained an excellent fielder to the end.
Vlad the Impaler basically had no knees by the time he got to California. I suspect that he could roll out of bed and still lace a line drive into the gap even today. Heck, he may not even need to get out of bed and the pitch wouldn't need to even be in the bedroom for him to swing at it. But he became a near full time DH his last few seasons.
Physically, the two players looked so little like one another. Clemente was lean, lithe, athletic looking. Guerrero was bulkier even when young with broad shoulders and a muscular upper body. But on the field, they were so similar. Particularly, but not limited to the batters box where they couldn't be walked and wouldn't be put out.
I was an Angels fan when Vlad signed and he was such an interesting player. He had lost a lot of his speed, but was still okay his 1st year there. And had the cannon but would occasionally throw a ball into the next state. Had the best bat to ball skills I've ever seen. If he didn't swing at everything, I bet he would have struck out less than Gwynn.
To the best of my knowledge, no, not in baseball. An assist is awarded to the player who throws the ball to another player who then makes the putout (strikeouts excepted).
So even the easy-peasies where the runner thought there was 2 outs, etc? But I guess it would be better than scorers, who haven't assigned an error correctly in decades.
Yup. Anytime the scorebook shows a play with a result of X-Y (e.g., 6-3, 8-5, whatever) player X gets an assist and player Y gets a putout. (except in those weird cases where a ball caroms of a pitcher and the batter is recorded as retired 1-6-3 or whatever)
"Yesterday’s item about the map of the Midwest led to way, way more argument and debate than I ever would’ve expected."
Really? As soon as I saw it in your newsletter yesterday, I grabbed the popcorn. And I don't even like popcorn! Honestly, I think Craig loses his Midwestern card just for not knowing that there would be a raucous debate about who is and isn't a Midwest state. My wife (Ohio) and I (Illinois) had an argument about whether Ohio was Midwest or not when one of those maps started floating around a few years back. I gave her the win, though, and have come around to her way of thinking.
I'm not an elite.....just kidding. This comes from someone who has a niece who still believes Wyoming does not exist. Anna is cut from a different bolt of cloth.
My experience in Wyoming (outside of the National Park areas/Jackson Hole) was there were very few people over 18 but under 45. Those 18 and under openly plotted their move to Billings, Bozeman, or Colorado. There were a lot of middle-aged and older bachelors, divorced guys, and widowers who stayed or moved there to hunt, fish, and ride ATVs without anyone bothering them.
As the resident Pit Dad, when it comes to Best Emo album ... yeah, I got nothin'. Emo hit when I was busy raising kids, and like most parents, when it came to playing music in my car, I fell back on the music of my youth - Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax and Judas Priest. "You've Got Another Thing Coming" was our family sing-along song. I'm dead serious. My youngest eventually got in My Chemical Romance, Panic! At The Disco and Twenty One Pilots, which was his way of rebelling against his old man by listening to people who can actually sign, I guess.
So, I'm gonna have to take Carlo's word for best emo album, although he's probably 10-15 years too young to have the definitive opinion on the topic. It's like asking a 25-year-old what was the best grunge album.
So could Mookie bets or Ha-Seong Kim theoretically win two Gold Gloves in the same year? Or perhaps the voting rules prevent voters from voting for the same player at two positions. That would both make winning two Gold Gloves almost impossible, and also hurt their chances of winning any because their votes would be split.
Good point. If there is a one GG-only rule, fairest would be to allow votes in both categories and give the runner up the GG for the category where the votes were closest.
Ha-Seong Kim is incredible defensively, and I say that as a Dodgers fan who only saw him in the games played against my team. He should win all the Gold Gloves
I am quite unobservant as I can't say I ever noticed the color of the links being green until it was pointed out in this newsletter. My brain just went "there's a link" and didn't even think twice about the color.
I'm in the android app and they look black like the text to me, when I open up my laptop I'll have to check in a browser because I also never noticed green.
I'm a goofball because in my email they are definitely green which I had never clocked before. And now, at my desk looking in chrome, yep, green links. Well what do you know.
Looking up "Best Emo Albums of All Time," and came up with a Rolling Stones list. Pinkerton at #14! Never considered that an emo album. #1 was Sunny Day Real Estate's diary, and I guess that would count as emo in hindsight (Jeremy Enigk's solo Return of the Frog Queen is definitely emo). I listened to The Cure and The Smiths in high school and would consider those more emo, so what do I know. Have heard of maybe 5-10 bands on that Rolling Stones list.
Wouldn't call myself an emo expert but from what I do know, these lists are the best ones I've found. There are a few things on one (or both) that I feel are better classified as "post-hardcore" but music genres are made up so who cares:
That song sure, but the album as a whole seems too tongue-in-cheek to be called emo (Good Life, Pink Triangle). I'm not the emo police though, and I have no idea how to define it.
Though I doubt his polling will continue to remain this high, coocoo for cocoa puffs RFK Jr. would qualify for the U.S. Presidential debates at 15 percent or above. Of course, the RNC has quit the Commission on Presidential Debates - since they can't get the moderator to be Sean Hannity or the corpse of Rush Limbaugh.
I wonder if there will even be debates. Trump avoided the ones so far, and I doubt he would think he has anything to gain by debating Biden. Plus a lot more politicians - mainly GOPers but also many Dems - would rather not risk losing control of the message for a second.
ask the Mets how "Who Let The Dogs Out" worked out.
With ALCS Wide Open, I am Torn about whether or not the Rangers created Their Own Prison by starting Scherzer. Starting him was an Ode to his past greatness, but now they are only up 2 games to One. They should have sensed trouble when Altuve took him Higher, but now they gave the Astros life and before you know it they could be down to One Last Breath. If the Rangers blow this series, they’ll be wondering What’s This Life For?
Stapp while you’re ahead
Ok I’ll Stapp. For this newsletter, that is My Sacrifice
::Robert Redford nods approvingly dot GIF::
Cummerbund!
Some Bluesky codes to share:
bsky-social-nfwph-gyinf
bsky-social-3qeiq-y4g7r
bsky-social-ltuhj-3t5dv
bsky-social-3j6ps-phsvo
Here's a couple codes that, in the spirit of Craig's comment, "fell off the truck".
bsky-social-gn2po-x6mon
bsky-social-qbbzq-gmtdc
And one more:
bsky-social-tenuo-jwah2
I'm 0-1,000,000 using codes from here. Maybe I should blame my long layoff from typing into my phone.
bsky-social-4xxyn-56x4a
bsky-social-hrcrs-x5abc
bsky-social-awrfl-ty4er
bsky-social-4xxyn-56x4a
All these codes are yours.
Use them in peace.
Except for Twitter.
Attempt no landings there.
Thank you! Finally got in.
I've been in for a while, and it's, well, it's ok. I have to say don't follow Neil Gaiman or John Scalzi, they're fine writers and all, but you'll drown in your timeline with those two in it. In fact, Idk how they get any other writing done at all.
Yeah, real writers are often like that. They write almost automatically, whether or not they're writing for a specific project. For them it's like breathing. I'm a more garden variety academic writer, which means I have to psych myself do it every single time.
To quote the novelist character Jimmy from *You're the Worst,* "Writing is very seldom actual writing. Maybe on the outside it looks as though I'm drinking and playing darts and eating craisins out of the box in my pocket, but this is part of the process. It's all writing. And I need you to respect my process."
Thanks. I got in!
thank you - finally one what worked!
And here's more. I have no idea what else to do with them:
bsky-social-jf757-2jszg
bsky-social-qp22c-qgkgo
bsky-social-eijqe-dqiqq
I've been hoarding these and/or I have no friends to give them to
bsky-social-uu3el-divkm
bsky-social-4usvm-dxlck
bsky-social-xhw7x-5zxse
Zero surprise that Max had a bad night. The long layoff, his age, and what he did last year in big games all added up to a dud well before the game started. I guess we might have a series now.
The shocking thing about someone who roots for both the Vikings and the Chargers is that anyone roots for the Chargers.
I don't really put much value in the Gold Gloves but at least they have some metrics now. I think maybe the days of a good hitting, bad fielding star like Jeter winning it are over. Maybe.
Yup. That reeks of a desperation move, not one you make when up 2-0.
I heard Smoltz say during the telecast last night that someone other than Montgomery or Eovaldi will eventually have to win a game for the Rangers this postseason, but I'm not sure who they've got. They're planning a bullpen game tonight.
Heaney is probably the best of the rest, though maybe they give Dunning a start. If they can survive this series, it could be Scherzer if he shakes the rust off in time. It's really too bad that deGrom is out--would have loved to see October deGrom.
This is the perfect post-season for the world to truly come to grasp the legend of Dane Dunning.
He can't do worst than the guy he was traded for did....
Why?
I mean why does anyone else have to win a game. If those 2 win 4 and then win 4 more...
I said the same thing to my TV when Smoltz said it, then I told myself I was wasting my breath asking him anything.
Nah, I think it's a move Bochy made BECAUSE he was up in the series. Like Smoltz said, they're trying to find someone else to win a game. They had the luxury of seeing of Max was that guy.
Seems a bit like counting chickens before they're hatched. I definitely would not want to give Houston an opening to get back in the series. I would have to think that Heaney on a short leash is a better bet than Max, but I also don't have all of the information the team has (maybe Max looked awesome in a bullpen session).
I don't think there's a way that Houston doesn't win at least 2 games. Up 2-0 gives you some leeway. Tonight feels a little more pressured for Texas, but I also don't know if I fully believe that either.
I'm curious how Pressly looks tonight if he's pressed into action-he hasn't been as effective on back to back days this season.
I don't think Jeter winning Gold Gloves was all about his hitting. He made the balls he got to into outs and looked smooth doing it. And the jump throws looked cool. He was stylish enough doing it that I can see people being tricked before the days of advanced metrics exposed him.
I think it was the smoothness and that signature jump throw. You really can't notice the lack of range unless you watch someone a ton and note the misses others would get too.
Speaking of Jeter, I posted this last night on BlueSky:
Not sure what’s worst about that Derek Jeter Wagoneer ad: 1) the notion that his car is there when he’s going HOME; 2) the suggestion that he’d drive through a primeval forest with WOLVES; or 3) that his wife would let him drive the kids to school after pulling an ALL-NIGHTER. Triple Crown of dumb.
Ok, I haven't seen this ad, but now I think I have to!
Here you go: https://youtu.be/2d53eIHropc?si=1c-twnrjiCZkj-4j
My favorite comment is the top one on that video. "This is such a great commercial that all of us regular people can relate to. I hate when a storm grounds my private jet and I have to drive my 100k luxury SUV back to my mansion where my super model wife is waiting for me to take my kids to private school. Ugh! Thank you Derek! Thank you for looking out for the little guy!"
That commercial is worse than the "I bought you a Lexus for Christmas!" commercials.
Ooooof, man, I don't know if I can get on board with that. Or that one from a few years ago where there were TWO brand new GMC vehicles in the driveway. Just the worst.
The wolves scene gets me every time! Doesn’t that exorbitantly expensive land yacht have decent navigation apps so he doesn’t get lost like that?
Turns out Jeter has way more range than we knew!
You didn’t need advanced metric to expose Jeter’s defense, simple ones would do. In addition to what you noted he had name recognition and was “the guy who won last year”.
Scherzer last night was a repeat, for ATL fans, of Fried in G2 of the NLDS: great pitcher who was just a bit off after missing a good bit of time.
I know that it’s just a list of finalists but the inclusion of Eddie Rosario is funny. He was often replaced for defensive reasons and, but for the even worse Ozuna, should be a DH.
I am embracing my inner sicko and rooting hard for Eddie.
I still love Eddie as a concept even though he was a challenge when he played for the Twins 5-6 years ago. Got to a lot of balls but then threw to a random base.
Rosario is the type of player I virtually never like. Mid range power, wild swinger with no plate discipline, no secondary skills. But for some reason I can't point to, he is someone I really root for far outside of the merit of his performance.
He was incredibly valuable as a $1 pick in my NL-only fantasy baseball league lol
He made that insane over-the-shoulder no-look catch in the 2021 playoffs. Beyond that, he's a pretty mid defensive player. That was such a weird inclusion.
I think the inclusion is that "we needed someone from a Top 3 team in this spot."
Have you completely forgotten the most laughable Gold Glove winner of all time, Rafael Palmeiro?
If Rizzo wins it after playing 92 games in the field it'll be weird too
Some years ago Rawlings realized the negative publicity around the Gold Glove winners meant their sponsorship wasn’t actually good for the company or perhaps they were actually embarrassed by some of the results. They made a number of changes to the process and the winners have been pretty good for some time. (Maybe the second best CF wins but not a below average one.)
Reputation plays a big factor -- Happ was not god defensively this year and I doubt Rizzo was top three having missed so much time -- but they had enough collective wisdom that Arenado didn’t make the top 3. Never would have happened 20 years ago.
There are still die hard fans here in the 619- i just chuckle internally and walk on by.
Can the Midwest have winding roads?
Though Carlo's takes are solid and learned, I also feel we'd benefit from the input of Anna-the-Cartographer.
Also, here are some more Bluesky codes:
bsky-social-7lszi-hw73j
bsky-social-iod4t-tpqt6
bsky-social-vfjfo-j3wrs
bsky-social-khajl-3dzvr
Hope to see you there!
Finally broke thru on Bluesky - thanks for the code! I am not hating Threads, tho, TBH. And it seems to be gaining steam. Anybody care to give me their elevator pitch on why Bsky vs Threads? And why aren’t the baseball people using Threads /he screamed/?
I am not going to flee Elon Musk just to give Mark Zuckerberg even more of my personal information. Plus, my understanding from people who’ve been there is that Threads is very corporate and somewhat inane.
Also, both Threads and Blue Sky eventually have to show massive profits to justify their existence. Enshittification is a given, so enjoy the honeymoon period. It probably won't last nearly as long as it did on FB or Twitter.
Sadly, true. At some point I'm probably just going to have to curate everyone's phone numbers and start a massive text chain.
I do the Sheehan Slack account during baseball...especially the playoffs. Sometimes its a lot of fun, but it's not consistently silly like old Twitter.
But, I enjoy the lack of snark on that Slack channel. It's the never ending snark that eventually drove me from Twitter.
I'm also on Sheehan's Slack. It can be hard if you want to just jump in in say like the 4th inning but I enjoy it
I figured anti-Zuck/FB was part of it but ... eh, I guess, for me? They have all my data already so it doesn’t feel like a leap. Also, I am on threads. If some think it’s inane, sure, but so is/was Twitter. These are not sites for deep, fireside academic discussion, nor do I need them to be. I have this thread for that lol
The issue is that your feed is all what their algorithm decides it will be. It’s not determined solely by who you follow/what you want to see.
That’s a hard no
Threads has obligate auto-play on embedded videos, including war footage. I'd prefer not to have my social media quite so in-my-face.
That said, institutional baseball seems to be on Threads, so I get random highlights, also auto-playing as I scroll, but the baseball (and other sports) regular observers (aka fans) seem to be split between Bluesky and Mastodon. But, as Mastodon is the same kind of *work* as internetting with a Unix shell account, Bluesky is more relaxing, and I find myself involved in more conversations there than anywhere else (except Ravelry, a knitting/yarncraft site).
Thanks - and yeah Mastodon is ... not for me.
If you are an active IG user you’ll probably like Threads because it’s easy to curate a similar set of people you follow. It’s open so anyone can join and most of the brands are there. I’m not a FB/IG user so I really haven’t curated my feed and thus get a bunch of random stuff. Its biggest strength (number of active accounts) is also its biggest weakness. A B-list celebrity posts something and quickly has dozens of replies.
The invite only of BlueSky makes it much more calm and you can actually have a conversation there. There’s not much of a baseball culture yet but feel like 50 readers of Cup of Coffee recently joined. The flow and feel is a lot more like Twitter than the mess (my view) that Facebook is. Neither really has a restrictive enough content policy, and BlueSky really relies on filtering -- you can set what you see -- rather than rules to block awful things.
I think a lot of people are cross-posting to multiple sites. I’ve mostly tried to lock up accounts in a bunch of places and will see what survives.
The last bit reminds me of one of the news stories that made me happiest this year, that American Football (and their label) actually purchased that house to turn it into a museum of sorts: https://polyvinylrecords.com/news/5931
i never heard of this band before today, hence my confusion with the term American Football. Pretty good stuff. #showshisoldguycard
I'd heard of them and even streamed a few songs, but had no idea they were from C-U!
Rooting interests: 4-1. That’s better. It would be hysterical if the ALCS was like the 2019 World Series, where the visiting team won every game. The fact that it would mean the Astros lost is just a bonus.
PS I don’t care who Banksy is. I’m just glad that Banksy is.
PPS Carlo’s point about Minnesota having its own identity beyond Midwestern-ness is incredibly astute. Never considered that before and damned if he isn’t right.
Also, I am going to keep copying those BlueSky codes for my friend Jessica, who is sharing them with student journalists, so keep them coming!
There's 3 Minnesotas: Southern and western up to Moorhead, which is the midwest; Mpls/St Paul, which is generic city with a dose of passive/aggresive; North of the cities which is Canada with gun nuts.
I sent mine to Jessica. She said you're the best. I'm withholding judgment.
You interact with me more often. Let me bask in her ignorance a while longer.
Amazing that Milwaukee led the National League in defensive runs saved without any gold glove nominees. Must have done it with smoke and mirrors
Adames is second at short in statcast OAA behind Swanson, and Yelich is 1st in the NL at LF (though at only 4 OAA--LF is pretty meh this year). So they should by OAA have two nominees and one winner. Otherwise, they just seem to be slightly above average everywhere.
And LOL at Lane Thomas in RF. His glove is easily the worst part of his game.
But he had all those assists (which is usually an indication that opponents don't respect your throwing ability because if they did they wouldn't run on you in the first place)!
That’s the common wisdom but a look at the historical league leaders pages suggests otherwise. Clemente, Valentine, Guerrero, Furillo, Heyward ... great arms and high assist totals.
What if those guys you mentioned got a reputation for having great arms based on assists they collected due to teams not respecting their arms?
I haven't dug all the way into Baseball Reference so I don't know if the stat is there, but the best way to measure this would be assists versus times the runner made it, wouldn't it? Example: Run on a guy 50 times, 25 assists versus 25 safes would probably be a great arm. Run on him 200 times, 25 assists versus 175 safes not so much.
Heyward doesn't belong in your list here; he's never had more than 11 assists in a season while the rest all had seasons in the 20s, so he either doesn't have a great arm or he has the respect of other teams to not try to run on him.
The data is available at, IIRC, Baseball Savant. It is similar to how baserunning is tracked. Number of times a runner is on first with a single hit to RF; compare stopping at 2B, reaching 3B safely, being thrown out going to 3B ... then add all the other permutations, tagging on a fly, scoring from 1st on a double, etc.
Heyward does count as his play was during a period when players were more stationary not risking as many outs on bases. The all time leaders in OF Assists all played >100 years as the risk/reward calculus changes over time. But the best arms are the best arms. And he had (has?) a reputation as a brilliant fielder AND frequently lead his league in RF assists.
The argument about no one with a good arm having lots of assists when translated to other categories: Aaron Judge has less power than Oswaldo Cabrera; I know that because if teams thought Judge had power, they wouldn't pitch to him - that he gets lots of homers proves he lacks power, that Cabrera has has few is only because teams don't pitch to him. Spencer Strider gets lots of strikeouts only because teams know he can't overpower anyone so they swing freely; Bryce Elder gets few because batters are afraid of him so they choke up and take defensive swings. Ronald Acuna is a better base stealer than Matt Olson; if Acuna was actually a risk, they'd hold him closer. Sometimes the simpler explanation is warranted.
There are two different cases for a runner going from first to third on a single to the outfield:
1. The outfielder made an attempt to throw to third base
2. The outfielder made no attempt to throw to third base
I would submit that only case 1 should figure into any calculation of whether or not an outfielder is in possession of a good arm. We can't use assists by themselves as an indicator without knowing how many attempted assists the outfielder had. Reputation for having a great arm and actually having a great arm might be the same thing, or it might not be.
My argument wasn't intended to translate to other areas. An outfielder does not have to make an attempt to throw out a runner every time he/she fields a ball; Jimmy Dugan made Evelyn Gardner cry over just that point in A League of Their Own.
Pitchers, on the other hand, will try to get hitters out every time unless we're talking about early 2000s Barry Bonds, and they'll succeed more than 70% of the time. Batters have to swing at strikes in an attempt to reach base, because the percentage play of taking up to six straight pitches in the hopes of drawing a walk is not generally in their favor. Stolen base success rate can easily be measured in a way that outfield assist rate isn't (or maybe can't - Would you give an outfielder an attempted assist on a throw home that's cut off by the first baseman so he can try to get a different runner at second?)
I think "great arm" is just a subjective quality. If you think it can be objectively measured, then we'll have to agree to disagree.
Is this true for catching though? Yady has fewer overall CS than Piazza, but Piazza has over 800 more SB against him. I think stealing is different because it's not a split second decision on whether to go or not.
If you look closely at some of those guys like Clemente and Guerrero, their assists drop off in their late 20's early 30's. Is that because they've lost some velo or because runners finally catch on (you would think they would catch on after at most a season). I also wonder if today's focus on percentage baseball places a cap on assist totals.
Clemente lead the NL in RF assists when he was 20 and when he was 32 and four times in between. After 32, he was missing 20-50 games a year with various injuries, but still finished #3 in 3 of those four final seasons. He remained an excellent fielder to the end.
Vlad the Impaler basically had no knees by the time he got to California. I suspect that he could roll out of bed and still lace a line drive into the gap even today. Heck, he may not even need to get out of bed and the pitch wouldn't need to even be in the bedroom for him to swing at it. But he became a near full time DH his last few seasons.
Physically, the two players looked so little like one another. Clemente was lean, lithe, athletic looking. Guerrero was bulkier even when young with broad shoulders and a muscular upper body. But on the field, they were so similar. Particularly, but not limited to the batters box where they couldn't be walked and wouldn't be put out.
I was an Angels fan when Vlad signed and he was such an interesting player. He had lost a lot of his speed, but was still okay his 1st year there. And had the cannon but would occasionally throw a ball into the next state. Had the best bat to ball skills I've ever seen. If he didn't swing at everything, I bet he would have struck out less than Gwynn.
Assists are awarded subjectively by the official scorer, right?
To the best of my knowledge, no, not in baseball. An assist is awarded to the player who throws the ball to another player who then makes the putout (strikeouts excepted).
So even the easy-peasies where the runner thought there was 2 outs, etc? But I guess it would be better than scorers, who haven't assigned an error correctly in decades.
Yup. Anytime the scorebook shows a play with a result of X-Y (e.g., 6-3, 8-5, whatever) player X gets an assist and player Y gets a putout. (except in those weird cases where a ball caroms of a pitcher and the batter is recorded as retired 1-6-3 or whatever)
And here I thought we were thumbing our noses at journalists who focused on the opinions of college students to drive a story
Pay the man, Shirley.
Carlo is clearly stating facts, not expressing opinions.
"Yesterday’s item about the map of the Midwest led to way, way more argument and debate than I ever would’ve expected."
Really? As soon as I saw it in your newsletter yesterday, I grabbed the popcorn. And I don't even like popcorn! Honestly, I think Craig loses his Midwestern card just for not knowing that there would be a raucous debate about who is and isn't a Midwest state. My wife (Ohio) and I (Illinois) had an argument about whether Ohio was Midwest or not when one of those maps started floating around a few years back. I gave her the win, though, and have come around to her way of thinking.
Do you win or lose if you live on either coast and refer to "The Middle" as "Flyover States"?
When a coastal elite refers to the "Flyover States" an angel gets its wings.
I'm not an elite.....just kidding. This comes from someone who has a niece who still believes Wyoming does not exist. Anna is cut from a different bolt of cloth.
Oh, I don't know. I think I agree with Anna. And I've actually been to this supposed "Wyoming".
My experience in Wyoming (outside of the National Park areas/Jackson Hole) was there were very few people over 18 but under 45. Those 18 and under openly plotted their move to Billings, Bozeman, or Colorado. There were a lot of middle-aged and older bachelors, divorced guys, and widowers who stayed or moved there to hunt, fish, and ride ATVs without anyone bothering them.
You’re from a flyover state my dude.
As the resident Pit Dad, when it comes to Best Emo album ... yeah, I got nothin'. Emo hit when I was busy raising kids, and like most parents, when it came to playing music in my car, I fell back on the music of my youth - Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax and Judas Priest. "You've Got Another Thing Coming" was our family sing-along song. I'm dead serious. My youngest eventually got in My Chemical Romance, Panic! At The Disco and Twenty One Pilots, which was his way of rebelling against his old man by listening to people who can actually sign, I guess.
So, I'm gonna have to take Carlo's word for best emo album, although he's probably 10-15 years too young to have the definitive opinion on the topic. It's like asking a 25-year-old what was the best grunge album.
So could Mookie bets or Ha-Seong Kim theoretically win two Gold Gloves in the same year? Or perhaps the voting rules prevent voters from voting for the same player at two positions. That would both make winning two Gold Gloves almost impossible, and also hurt their chances of winning any because their votes would be split.
Good point. If there is a one GG-only rule, fairest would be to allow votes in both categories and give the runner up the GG for the category where the votes were closest.
Dubon has the chance as well 2B/Utility
Ha-Seong Kim is incredible defensively, and I say that as a Dodgers fan who only saw him in the games played against my team. He should win all the Gold Gloves
I am quite unobservant as I can't say I ever noticed the color of the links being green until it was pointed out in this newsletter. My brain just went "there's a link" and didn't even think twice about the color.
I'm in the android app and they look black like the text to me, when I open up my laptop I'll have to check in a browser because I also never noticed green.
I'm a goofball because in my email they are definitely green which I had never clocked before. And now, at my desk looking in chrome, yep, green links. Well what do you know.
Looking up "Best Emo Albums of All Time," and came up with a Rolling Stones list. Pinkerton at #14! Never considered that an emo album. #1 was Sunny Day Real Estate's diary, and I guess that would count as emo in hindsight (Jeremy Enigk's solo Return of the Frog Queen is definitely emo). I listened to The Cure and The Smiths in high school and would consider those more emo, so what do I know. Have heard of maybe 5-10 bands on that Rolling Stones list.
Wouldn't call myself an emo expert but from what I do know, these lists are the best ones I've found. There are a few things on one (or both) that I feel are better classified as "post-hardcore" but music genres are made up so who cares:
https://thehardtimes.net/lists/we-put-on-a-sweater-vest-and-a-pair-of-thick-rimmed-glasses-to-rank-the-top-50-emo-songs-of-the-90s-while-we-looked-up-our-ex-from-high-school-on-facebook/
https://www.vulture.com/article/best-emo-songs.html
Thanks for the lists. I'm definitely not emo based on my lack of knowledge of 95% of those songs.
The best emo album is probably LP1.
My personal favorite is Hotelier’s “Home, Like Noplace Is There.”
You are
Eighteen year-old girl
Who live in small city of Japan
You heard me on the radio
About one year ago
And you wanted to know
All about me
And my hobbies
My favorite food
And my birthday
Why are you so far away from me?
I need help
And you're way across the sea
I could never touch you
I think it would be wrong
I've got your letter
You've got my song
They don't make stationery like this where I'm from
So fragile, so refined
So I sniff and I lick your envelope
And fall to little pieces every time
I wonder what clothes you wear to school
I wonder how you decorate your room
I wonder how you touch yourself
And curse myself for being across the sea
Why are you so far away from me?
I need help
And you're way across the sea
I could never touch you
I think it would be wrong
I've got your letter
You've got my song
At 10, I shaved my head
And tried to be a monk
I thought the older women would like me if I did
You see, ma
I'm a good little boy (good little boy)
It's all your fault, momma
It's all your fault!
Goddamn, this business is really lame
I gotta live on an island to find the juice
So you send me your love from all around the world
As if I could live on
Words and dreams and a million screams
Oh, how I need a hand in mine to feel
Why are you so far away from me?
Why are you so far away from me?
I could never touch you
I think it would be wrong
I've got your letter
You've got my song
I've got your letter
You've got my song
"Across the Sea" off Pinkerton
Haha I don't man but those lyrics seem pretty emo to this 40 year old who loved that album
That song sure, but the album as a whole seems too tongue-in-cheek to be called emo (Good Life, Pink Triangle). I'm not the emo police though, and I have no idea how to define it.
Pinkerton is often the album credited as sort of starting Emo. I can’t listen to it anymore, but I definitely see it.
Though I doubt his polling will continue to remain this high, coocoo for cocoa puffs RFK Jr. would qualify for the U.S. Presidential debates at 15 percent or above. Of course, the RNC has quit the Commission on Presidential Debates - since they can't get the moderator to be Sean Hannity or the corpse of Rush Limbaugh.
I wonder if there will even be debates. Trump avoided the ones so far, and I doubt he would think he has anything to gain by debating Biden. Plus a lot more politicians - mainly GOPers but also many Dems - would rather not risk losing control of the message for a second.