On the Map

I haven't had a taste of their sauce yet but the name is killer. It could make them a million bucks.

Ok, Ok I Believe it Now

I'm a citizen of a fascist state.

The first high school dedicated to preparing students for the front lines in the Nation's homeland security has gone from theory to planning in Wilmington...
Curriculum choices for students, who are to be called Cadets, range from SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) through prison guard...

Take Two

A better start for Alex Gordon this year as he goes yard for the second time this afternoon versus Jeremy Bonderman. It took Gordon until the 15th game of his 2007 rookie season to hit his second home run and his 43rd game to hit his third.

MAD-don?

I thought that the order of Joe Maddon's first four hitters on his lineup card today for the Rays was interesting.

1. Iwamura
2. Crawford
3. Pena
4. Upton

I say you use Crawford in either the one hole to exploit his base stealing abilities or the three hole whereby you would employ his potential for gaudy extra-base hit totals combined with a high batting average.

Iwamura seems to be to be the perfect number two hitter with his great bunting ability, solid OBP and the weakest extra-base hitting ability of the four. So if you're going to have him in the top four I bat him second. That means Crawford's going to have to bat first since you can't have the strikeout prone Upton hitting lead-off.

Pena is the big fly hitter of the group and the question is do you bat him third or fourth. In this case I think Maddon's got it right having Pena slotted third against the righty. He's a bit more of an accomplished hitter than Upton at this point. But Upton does have a live bat and when you look more closely at their lefty/righty splits Maddon could flip-flop the two between third and fourth in the order whether a lefty or righty was pitching. That probably won't happen, though, as it's rare for managers to flip their third and fourth hitters in the lineup based on handedness considerations.

Another lineup I like is when you bat Crawford third. This is how I drew up their lineup back in the Fall.

1. Iwamura
2. Upton
3. Crawford
4. Pena

Again, the weak link is Upton and his strike outs. In the future I don't think it'll be a big problem because I believe Upton's going to start cutting down on his k's as he moves into his mid-20's. But for this year I think Maddon's right to hide the holes in Upton's bat in the fourth spot in the order.

Picking Up...

...where he left off. Carlos Marmol throws one and a third innings of scoreless, hitless, no walk, three strikeout out ball this afternoon.

Last year he spun ninety-six strikeouts in sixty-nine and one-third innings.

Commonality

Ken Griffey Jr. looked like he was running on two wooden legs today during the Brandon Phillips triple.

I can relate.

The Lineup

I've been anxiously awaiting Jim Leyland's first lineup card of the '08 season. Recent additions Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Renteria were nice upgrades for the Tigers over the off-season and were the finishing touches to what could be one of the great offensive teams of all-time.

The Tigers faced right-hander Gil Meche of the Royals today. Leyland's lineup follows,

Edgar Renteria ss
Placido Polanco 2b
Gary Sheffield dh (4 walks!)
Magglio Ordonez rf
Miguel Cabrera 3b (dinger)
Carlos Guillen 1b (I thought he'd hit second)
Ivan Rodriguez c
Jacque Jones lf
Brandon Inge cf

Inge is back in his super-sub role as he'll probably get the bulk of time in center while Curt Granderson recovers from his fractured finger. Once Granderson comes back at the top of the order I'd guess that Renteria will slip in behind Guillen and push Rodriguez and Jones to the 8th and 9th spots respectively.

Remarkable

In a four minute audio snippet from NPR, Montana's governor goes off on the Federal Government and their threatened encroachment on state's rights pertaining to the use of the Real ID card.

I cannot believe this is an actual United States governor talking. This type of cavalier dismissal of the Feds by a high ranking politician is remarkable in today's fear environment. What's next? Talk of secession?

Onward Status Quo

From Andrew Sullivan yesterday,

In a bunch of conversations - all casual, random, varied - with fellow journalists in Washington this past week, I'm struck when the talk moves to Iraq by one thing. I know no one who believes that either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will actually remove any troops...

...Withdrawal in any meaningful way is off the table, as far as Washington is concerned. And when I have raised the serious possibility that this should happen, I am greeted with That Unserious Look.

And they can get away with it as long as a) Americans are not drafted into the military and b) Americans are financially secure with comfy little jobs and warm homes.

Of course, part b may be coming to an end in the next year or two.

Weaveresque

Mariner manager John McLaren -- member of the Moneyball school.

Take, for instance, McLaren’s acknowledgement of Bill James, the former night watchman who determined baseball’s century-long methods of evaluation – in which gut hunches and snap judgments had precedence over statistics and analysis – were obsolete in the late 1970s...

...‘It’s intriguing,” McLaren said of James on Friday, “because I like baseball. New things, out of the box type stuff, you’d have to be foolish not to take a look at it.”

The Unavoidable

As in the unavoidable Laws of Economics. John Robb lays out a brief synopsis of where America's multi-trillion dollar war is leading us to.

American's are starting to ask: for all of this investment, how do I benefit? How does it help me put food on the table, heat my home, or send my kids to college?

RottenNeighbors.com

Be careful how negative you go on your neighbors. You may have a tad bit of trouble selling your house.

Maryland Taxes the Producers -- Part 6,244

Even statist loving columnists like Barry Rascovar understand the damage that the new 6% tax on computer services companies residing in Maryland will do.

...now, computer services will cost an additional 6 percent, which will make Maryland companies providing these services non-competitive. Their rivals in Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and elsewhere just gained a 6 percent edge in bidding on contracts.

Try stripping away 6 percent from a company’s margin. For many smaller companies, that could send them hurtling toward insolvency. No wonder firms already are making plans to move their jobs and locations to other states.

What lawmakers forgot is that information technology is the most mobile industry that exists. Maryland IT services firms have been trying to match the low, low prices of offshore competitors in India and the Ukraine. This new tax will shut local firms out of huge numbers of business opportunities.

Jim Chow Laws

Whoa doctor! This may top anything that England's done recently.

NFL Europe

I found this clip trolling on the anti- Ron Paul site, TNR

Let Freedom Ring

When it comes to nations smaller is better.

Europe seems intent on slicing itself up into ever smaller pieces. In the next month, Kosovo is likely to declare independence – making it the seventh new country to emerge from the wreckage of Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union has given way to 15 new states. Even in western Europe, there is talk of Belgium dividing in two, while a pro-independence party has taken power in Scotland...

But if the formation of new countries can be achieved peacefully, it is usually a cause for celebration. This is the age of the small state.

Sports Guy

I must say his tie sports an excellent knot. Nice job.

Rudy's Old Stomping Grounds

Are there still people out there that believe Government is in business to protect you?

Three Definites

For the Baseball Hall of Fame that is. I'm a Small Hall guy and for me to pick even three players is stretching it but there are some wrongs to be righted from past elections.

Bert Blyleven

Bert Blyleven was an absolute pitching monster. He featured a devastating 12 to 6 curve ball and a rubber arm that allowed him to log the 13th most innings pitched, strikeout the 5th most batters and hurl the 9th most shutouts in history. Playing for more poor teams than good ones throughout much of his career hindered him in his pursuit of three-hundred wins. He ended his career just thirteen short.

Marvin Miller

Marvin Miller is easily the most influential actor in the economic sphere of Major League Baseball in the second half of the 20th century. Miller served as the head of the Major League Baseball Player's Association from the mid-1960's through the early 1980's. In less than two decades Miller was able to transform the entire economics of the game through his winning of numerous benefits for the players through a series of collective bargaining agreements. When Miller began his tenure the players were slaves to the franchise that drafted them for their entire careers if the club so desired. By the time Miller had retired the right to free agency for players had been in existence for over five years.

Goose Gossage

When talking about relief pitchers three names immediately come to mind: Hoyt Wilhelm, Goose Gossage and Mariano Rivera. All three men enjoyed (or are enjoying in Rivera's case) remarkably long career peaks. Here are their ERA+ figures for those peaks:

Wilhelm (1958 - 1969): 157 - 173 - 115 - 168 - 191 - 132 - 173 - 176 - 190 - 229 - 184- 159

Gossage (1977 - 1985): 243 - 180 - 155 - 173 - 461 - 178 - 171 - 124 - 195

Rivera (1996 - 2007): 239 - 238 - 232 - 259 - 169 - 191 - 161 - 265 - 231 - 307 - 251 - 142

Why Gossage still hasn't been elected to the Hall after all these years is still one of life's great mysteries.

Junk Politics

From the new TV series Junk Food Lobbyists Don't Have Enough Money comes this exciting episode.

Federal lawmakers are considering the broadest effort ever to limit what children eat: a national ban on selling candy, sugary soda and salty, fatty food in school snack bars, vending machines and cafeteria lines.

Slow News Day

I've always wondered about this.

Punchline at 0:40

Paul Reality Check

Stillwell notes that some talking heads are beginning to question whether or not American troops should occupy Korea, Japan or Germany indefinitely. This is a new development for Washington Insiders to broach such a sacrilegious idea because it aims a stake at the heart of where our Federal masters draw so much of their influence and power.

While some of the reason probably is the Ron Paul effect, I think a bigger reason is the dawning realization that the American economy is teetering on the brink of suffering a dramatic downturn. The costs of maintaining a huge military presence in the three countries noted above and the continuing fiasco in Iraq will quickly become too much to bear for the quickly devaluing dollar.

If the economy goes in the tank in '08 the easiest place to look to in the Federal budget to cut will be on the Empire Maintenance line.

Americans will ask, What is the Empire doing for me? And they'll answer, Well, not too much.

Then they'll ask, Do I want to maintain my social security disability pay/my soak the young medicare coverage/my daughter's ability to get Federal loans for college so I don't have to ante up? And they'll answer, Hell yes!

One Nasty Baby

The Patriot Act and Patriot Act II's evil child will soon become law if the House's 404-6(!) vote in its favor passes the Senate and the President's pen. That evil child is the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.

This devilish piece of legislation will officially extend the War on Terrorism to American citizens who are deemed radical violent terrorists. When reading the language in the bill it becomes very apparent that there is no specific definition of what a radical or violent terrorist is. That will allow government bureaucrats to have lots of fun with us in the coming years.

Once again,

404-6

That's a remarkably discouraging vote count. My god, you can really see what Ron Paul and his supporters up against.

Another Spike

Ask and ye shall receive.

Maryland Raises Taxes

Luckily for the Democrats the only people that will move to Pennsylvania and Delaware due to the newly passed tax bill increase are voters who would vote for less government. This demographic movement, which began in the 1950's with flight from Baltimore City into the neighboring counties and then from the neighboring counties into Delaware and Pennsylvania starting in the 1980's, allows the Democrats to continue to hold both houses of the legislature with fillibuster-proof majorities.

Oh, and they slipped the computer services tax back into the bill.

Maryland's sales tax would rise from 5 percent to 6 percent. The sales tax also would be extended to computer services - a key change that would raise an estimated $190 million. The computer services that would be affected include support services for computer systems or data processing facilities, custom computer programming, consulting services regarding computer systems design, and computer disaster recovery services.

Damned if we, our accountant or the Supreme Court will be able to tell if all, some or none of the family business will be subject to this new tax.

Ahhh, but that's exactly the point. The ability to make arbitrary rulings as a result of unclear laws has always been a great tool for those in power to employ.

Bright Red

Images from Moscow during the November, 7th 1975 celebration of some Communist victory. Unlike in America, fedoras still ruled the day.

Shortstop Chain Reaction

Edgar Renteria has already been moved. Now it's Orlando Cabrera getting moved to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for starter Jon Garland. What shortstop could be on the move next?

...the addition of Garland, a 28-year-old who went 10-13 with a 4.23 ERA last season, gives the Angels a rotation surplus that would enable them to package a young starter such as Santana or Saunders in a trade for a slugger such as Florida third baseman Miguel Cabrera or Baltimore shortstop Miguel Tejada.

It would be a great move for Oriole fans if Tejada could be flipped for Ervin Santana and a prospect. Even Tejada for Santana straight up would be acceptable.

Scotland On It's Own?

All the better for the world (including Americans) if Scotland and England break apart. With America's most powerful ally split in two, it's never-ending quest for world domination would be taken down another notch.

Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister, has predicted that Scotland would be independent within a decade.

The surprise forecast is the first time the SNP leader has set a concrete deadline for the break up of the 300-year Union since his party took power six months ago.

Early Prediction

The following are my predictions for Ron Paul in the Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada primaries. I'm going to retain the right to change these after the Boston Tea Party since the money raised from that day for the Paul campaign could be a major event that pushes Paul even higher.

But at the moment I see Paul generating 4% in Iowa, 22% in New Hampshire and 14% in Nevada. Iowa just seems too ideologically moderate and the demographic too old to go for a Paul candidacy. But good percentages in New Hampshire and Nevada seem doable for populations that have strong Libertarian streaks in them.

Smearing Paul

Eating my lunch at work in the cafeteria afforded me the opportunity to watch Fox News on one of the big-screen TV's. For the first time since probably the late 90's I saw a television report on domestic hate/terrorist groups. Neo-Nazis, Timothy McVeigh, Muslims, Militias and other baddies figured prominently in the piece.

Various commentators, politicians and bureaucrats were discussing the looming threat of a domestic terror attack from these groups that "hate" our country. Of course, no distinction was made of the fact that it is the government that is the main focus of their anger. There was also the talk of a possible alliance between the white domestic fringe groups and Muslim extremists from the Middle East.

I found the timing of this report to make perfect sense since the neo-conservative establishment
has recently begun to try and indirectly link Ron Paul to Neo-Nazi groups in an effort to slander his reputation.

This campaign against Paul is only just beginning and I expect it to get hotter in the next few weeks. Ultimately, though, I don't think the establishment will be successful with this line of attack. Since Paul has a palpable decency about him and a nearly pure freedom voting record in Congress these smears will quickly fall by the wayside since they are illogical. Add into that the quick-fire response of the internet to smears and distortions and the establishment will have to move onto a different smearing campaign.

Brave Development

The fact that the Braves are going to be increasing their payroll by millions of dollars is quite the unexpected development. Perhaps a run at Carlos Silva will be in the offing? I think he'd be a nice fit. Extending Mark Teixeira is probably a good chance now.

It's good to read this because the Braves will be able to hang with Philadelphia and New York for the forseeable future on the payroll front. And then there's Washington who's going to be gearing up their payroll over the next few years.

All in all the National League East should be a fun watch for the next few years. Here are ten reasons all under the age of 30 -- Hanley, Rollins, Zimmerman, Escobar, Wright, Reyes, Milledge, Cabrera (for the next two weeks at least), Howard and Teixeira.

Ron Paul Defines Chickenhawkism

From the Rolling Stone interview comes this deliciously accurate quote by Ron Paul.

Giuliani seems to be the warmonger in chief — leading the drumbeat for war with Iran. What would a Giuliani presidency mean for our national security?

If someone is unhappy with the Bush policy, they would find Giuliani's would be even more extreme. But since Giuliani is so anxious to go to war, somebody ought to ask him why he didn't go when he was called up instead of ducking it like some of those other chicken hawks — he took, what, four deferrals?

The kids today are expected to go because Giuliani likes this stuff. But whether it's Cheney or Giuliani, these guys think it's quite proper to go to war when they feel like it. But they never had to expose themselves.

Sabathia's Three Million Dollar Haul

The take on Sabathia's Cy Young Award win today from Baseball Prospectus. It's about the Benjamins, er, the innings.

Sabathia pitched 241 innings to Beckett’s 200.7, an advantage of more than 20 percent. He completed the 7th inning 24 times, as opposed to Beckett’s 15, a critical threshold for a team with a set-up man as effective as Rafael Betancourt, but inconsistent middle relief. As a result, Sabathia finished with a 65.2 Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) to Beckett’s 58.6. The voters have started to look at these statistics, and it’s giving them a more complete picture of pitcher performance.

Bannerman's Island

About 1-2 hours due east of where I grew up in upstate New York there exists a couple of regions whose best years have passed them by. The Catskill Mountains were the home of a great many resorts and weekend getaway spots for upscale northeasterners through the 1960's. And the Hudson Valley (due north of New York City) was home to what passed for much of the prominent landed aristocracy in the United States since the 1600's.

In my lifetime I've only known it as that creepy area between the most famous city in the world and the Adirondack Mountains. While the Catskills are filled with tired towns and empty hotels the Hudson Valley has a bit of old history still haunting the area today.

The B-Burgs may remember this area as the place that we saw the ghost of Mickey Mantle.

Revenue Pigs

A perfect example of the immorality of taxing authority occurred in Maryland over the weekend. Down in Annapolis the Democratic-dominated legislature was trying to finagle the Democratic Governor's $2 billion tax increase past the voters. For a state with a budget around $30 billion that's quite a nice increase for those pigs.

Anyway, there was a controversial tax on landscaping companies and computer service businesses that was set to be passed. The computer service tax rose the eyebrows of my wife and I since she has one of those evil computer service businesses. Well, someone (i.e. influential and vocal citizens/business leaders) got to the legislators before both of those were passed and they were stricken from the tax bill.

Great then! Whoops, not soooo fast. They quickly replaced those two newly stricken tax sources with a brand new one - a tax on all automobile repairs.

The legislature wised up and figured that old people that depend on landscapers as well as regular people might get a bit steamed about the tax increase and choose to lessen their reliance on those businesses. Over the long-term this might decrease tax revenue as Maryland citizens would scale back their use of these services. And in regards to the computer services tax that puppy would strike right at the heart of one of the most dynamic parts of the economy and surely raise the ire of businesses since those types of services can relocate to Pennsylvania or Delaware.

But the auto repair industry? That's an easy one for the politicians. It's a guaranteed consistent revenue stream. Auto repair shops can't easily relocate to nearby states and unlike computer services or landscaping, auto repair is an absolute necessity for consumers. Most people can mow their lawn and some can shop for computer services out of state. But in the case of one's car you gotta have wheels to make money, get those groceries and take grandma to her doctor appointments. Plus, what do the auto repair shops care? They know that their revenue stream is safe because people gotta have them wheels. Therefore, they don't really have a reason to lobby Annapolis and scare the politcians into moving on to some other industry to extort from.

So in the end, Maryland consumers are stuck and the politicians get to stick the tax bill right up their asses.

In the Money

If we assume the vig is 10% and the bets are $100 a game then the B-Burgs are up $80 on the year.

Reliever Romero Signs

J.C. Romero is the classic example of the up and down performance of relievers on a year-to-year basis. The key with this group is to find one who doesn't embarrass himself in the down years and can put up great years when he's on. Romero is one such reliever.

The Phillies just signed him to a 3-year $12 million contract today. For a guy who's thrown less than an inning an appearance the past three seasons that may be a bit steep but the Phillies desperately needed to get Brett Myers back into the starting rotation so they had to make sure their bullpen would be solid enough.

A positive note about Romero's up and down career is the fact that since 2002 he's only had one season in which left-handers have had a +.700 OPS against him.

A Six-Man Ro

I can say with near certainty that no major league team has ever employed a six-man starting rotation over the course of an entire season.

With the recent signing of Curt Schilling, though, it could become a possibility with the 2008 Red Sox. Boston GM Theo Epstein has said he's considering the idea. It would be constructed to provide plenty of rest for the oldsters, Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield, in an effort to keep their arms fresh. While Taylor Buchholz and Jon Lester, the under age 25 set, would get plenty of rest to protect their young arms over the long season. Josh Beckett, the least likely to break down, would be kept on an almost full five man rotation schedule while Daisuke Matsuzaka would start a few less games than Beckett.

One possibility of how the rotation would be constructed would be to start Beckett 32 times with Matsuzaka starting 29 games. Lester would start 27, Schilling and Wakefield 25, and Buchholz would bring up the rear with 24 starts.

The Red Sox are an organization that's brave enough (i.e. handle the media criticism if it doesn't work) to give this a go. They'd also be an organization brave enough to move to a four man rotation if the personnel they had could make it work.

Great Job

By Ron Paul this morning.