Hammer Paul

Ron Paul may finally be reaching the late 1980's rapping crowd. As part of a concerted campaign for the past few months Paul has reached out to this silent but strong minority of music aficionados. (Thanks to Lew)

Forman Strikes Again

He continues to enhance Baseball-Reference's real-time features with game previews. Hell, this may entice me to watch the O's live for the second time all year.

Sobran Writing and Speaking

"How would honest Americans be worse off if the Federal Government, in its present form, just ceased to exist?"

That's how Joseph Sobran ends his article regarding the perversion that is Conservatism today.

Would you agree that Sobran has the best voice on the Mises Media section of Mises.org? Unfortunately, there's only one audio file of Sobran on the whole blasted site.

Big Bucks to Change Major League Coaching Ranks?

I found MLB.com's article regarding how major league coaching positions may be manned in the future interesting. Bill Mueller's recent ascension to hitting coach of the Dodgers is a perfect case in point.

...as relatively easy as it's been for Mueller to get the job, he's not sure he
wants it and he admits the financial security of nearly $25 million of career
salary is a big reason why.

This will probably allow for potential major league coaches to be more demanding during negotiations with ownership. For instance, (as mentioned in the article) a former accomplished players may not have to apprentice in the minor leagues before getting hired in the majors.

Terror List Enjoys Fast Growth

In Justin Rood's piece on the quickly expanding FBI Terror Watch List he makes the following statement,

Privacy and civil liberties advocates say the list is growing uncontrollably, threatening its usefulness in the war on terror.

And later ACLU senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani says,

If we have 509,000 names on that list, the watch list is virtually useless. You'll be capturing innocent individuals with no connection to crime or terror.

Ultimately, the reason for maintaining a list like this is not to catch terrorists or prevent terrorism. Instead, it is to be maintained and expanded simply for the sake of feeding the bureaucracy that controls the list with an ever growing budget and to prove the point that government is able to exert an ever increasing measure of power over its citizens.

The continued existence of the list is similar in form to Andrew Sullivan's insistence that the point of government torture is not to extract information from terrorists but rather, simply, to torture.

Gordon's Comparables Paint Bleak Picture

Alex Gordon's had a very, very rough start to his major league career in Kansas City. But just how rough? Indeed, the .198/.305/.317/.622/64+ line is so bad that it would be of great concern if a utility infielder, career minor leaguer was putting up those numbers in his major league debut. But this is a stud hitting prospect who plays a corner position and has hit well his entire collegiate and professional career.

Using Baseball-Reference's Play Index, Chris J. has put together a list of players throughout the game's history who have played third base predominately in their rookie season, had an OPS+ down in the 60's or worse and had played in at least 50 games during their initial season. Gordon's OPS+ turns out to be the 12th worst on the list.

Most concerning is the list of comparables. Recent comparables are Doug Strange (1989-1998) who comes in with a career OPS+ of 69, George Arias (1996-1999) with a lifetime 66 OPS+ and Tracy Woodson (1987-1993) who managed to retire with a 70 OPS+. These three were 7th, 7th and 3rd round picks in their respective draft years while Gordon was the number two pick in the entire 2005 draft. So he comes in with a bit more in the way of expectations and past success then these three.

Ultimately, the course the Royals may be forced to take is to plop Gordon down in Triple-A Omaha for the second half of the season in the hopes of getting him back on track. Gordon played all of 2006 at Double-A Wichita and then made the big club out of spring training this year. He's never had Triple-A at-bats. Gordon's refined approach at the plate led so many of us to believe that if anyone could skip Triple-A and move directly to the majors it would be him. We may already be at the point where such a belief has been proven to be very wrong.

Well, That Was Quick...

....and surprising. Chad Cordero has become the second fastest reliever to 100 career saves. He's put together four very good full seasons in a row for a perennially poor team. I was mistakenly under the impression that he had a poor season in there somewhere. In fact, Cordero has proven to be a durable (82.2, 74,1 & 73.1 innings pitched 2004-06) and effective (160 lifetime ERA+) closer for the Expos/Nationals.

Pinto's Lincecum Update

Don't stick a fork in the youngster yet!

Movin' On Up

Ron Paul crosses the 30,000 friends thresh hold on MySpace and is quickly gaining on John McCain. Without exact figures to provide you, my impression has been that in the past week Paul's numbers accelerated greatly. I think within the past week he's gained approximately 5,000 friends.

Napolitano Is No Neo-Con

From Daily Paul comes this link to video of Andrew Napolitano talking about Civil Liberties. His intro is a rousing one in support of Ron Paul. (Via the B-burgs)

Full-Time Bloggers

While there are very few people making significant money as full-time bloggers there is a growing trend to hire and retain employees that have blogging skills. The skills desired are writing of course and also maintenance of the blog itself.

One guy's take,

“There’s almost an ecosystem of jobs that have emerged around blogs,” said Paul
Forster, chief executive at Indeed.com, a job search engine with postings from more than 5,000 sources. “It’s an emerging area where there are many more opportunities related to the blog rather than being a dedicated blog writer.”

Perhaps as businesses become more and more enamored with blogging and its marketing benefits, they will create positions within their corporate structure for employees who will blog exclusively. Companies employing such a strategy would have to be careful that these employees wouldn't simply become shills or regurgitating mouthpieces for executive management.

Much of the credibility earned that individual bloggers who write about their companies on their own time is due to the fact that they aren't afraid the criticize their employers. This may be the major stumbling block to effective company blogs in the future. The internet herd can sniff out a bullshitter pretty darn quickly.

Surging Athletic Hurlers

As a staff their ERA+ has touched 138. This weekend's shutdown of the Giants offense to just three runs in three games helped with the ERA+ uptick.

With over a third of the season over I think we can say that we're witnessing something quite historic.

2000 Election

Baseball Think Factory's Hall of Merit is getting ready for its 2000 vote. I would think that Goose Gossage is a lock to earn enshrinement in his first year on the ballot and Nolan Ryan will probably get in this time around.

Up Goes Paul, Down Goes Pajama

Reason's David Weigel has the story.

Paul Raking in Contributions

Liberty's message seems to be garnering a bit of pocketbook attention.

Writers Need Apply

Steve Rubel hits on a workplace skill that I've always found to be very important to my career advancement.

Writing not your forte? That was just fine 10 years ago, but not anymore. Writing is how business gets done. Communication inside corporations will shift somewhat away from email to wikis and blogs, but that doesn't really change the need for this skill.

I feel that my solid writing skills have played a part in earning me a promotion or two. The most positive feedback that I've experienced in my career has centered around my ability to write well about many different topics relating to our business.

I've observed that most people I've worked with have shown little interest in writing and certainly not in trying to craft a nicely flowing piece of narrative. Hence, the opportunity for me to swoop in, put fingers to keyboard and save the day.

Major League Shorties

On his blog Curt Schilling writes about shorter major league hitters...Marco Scutaro in particular.

One of the truisms in baseball is that there has never ever been a big league hitter under six feet tall that couldn’t ‘pull a bullet’. Little guys don’t get to the big leagues hitting the breaking stuff and most of them are fantastic high fastball hitters since their strike zone is somewhat different than most.

Schilling taught me sumpthin' today. Good stuff.

Lincecum then Bailey then...

Baseball's second big-time starting pitcher to graduate to the Major Leagues made his debut tonight. Cincinnati Red farmhand Homer Bailey is now a major leaguer and due to a 4-3 victory over the Indians he has pocketed his first major league victory.

In the five innings Bailey pitched he wasn't super impressive but he got the job done. He walked four batters and threw 114 pitches which averages over 20 pitches per inning. Still, he allowed only two runs and benefited from four Red relievers holding the Indians to just one run over the game's last four innings.

Coincidentally the other big-time rookie starter to make his major league debut in '07 is pitching right now. Tim Lincecum brought a 102 ERA+ in 40 innings pitched with him tonight to face the Oakland A's. He's currently down 3-1 in the 5th inning. Surprise, surprise an Oakland starter is throwing great again. This time it's Chad Gaudin.

Horse Racing's Apex

Frank Mitchell on Seattle Slew.

Oakland Arms

Through last evening's games Oakland pitchers have put up a league leading 3.22 ERA. That works out to an ERA+ of 134.

The closest anyone's come to that figure for a full season since 1949 (that's as far as I felt like going back) is the Cleveland Indians of 1954 when they checked in at a 132 ERA+. That's the year Cleveland racked up 111 wins.

Oakland's sub-par offense is weighting this team down to the point of being only three games over .500.

The Truth Hurts

We'll have to wait a number of months to see if this H.L. Mencken quote applies to truth-telling Republican primary candidate Ron Paul.

"The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth."

Keep in mind that Rudy Giuliani is the current leader among the Republican candidates.

Wither Whiteside

College catcher Matt Wieters has been chosen 5th overall by the Baltimore Orioles in this year's amateur draft. The guy has the glove to get to the majors quickly but his bat probably needs a few years of seasoning in the minors. The hope is that he'll be ready to contribute when Ramon Hernandez's contract is up at the end of the 2009 season.

If signed, he comes to an organization that is severely lacking in catching depth. Only one catcher in their entire minor league system has a +.700 OPS -- Zachary Dillon at high class-A Frederick.

Interestingly, the Orioles drafted him even though Scott Boras is his agent. It's well known that in the past Oriole owner Peter Angelos has done his best to avoid dealing with Boras clients. The decision to take Wieters by the Orioles front office may be a sign that Angelos is willing to loosen the purse strings a little bit more and not let his ego get in the way of getting the Orioles the best players available. Hopefully this is a sign that next off-season the O's will pay (as in $80 million-plus) for the free-agent bat they so desperately need in '08.

New Blog

To all of my readers I have a blog to direct you to. I'm not quite sure what shape or form it will take as it's developed but since it's my very good friend's and his soon-to-be wife's, I thought I'd link to it.

From the initial post I can guess that perhaps pork products will play a pivotal role in the life of the blog. My question for Rush is if he cooked the brisket on his new grill?

Ron Paul in Last Night's Debate

I like the title of this post from ronpaul.rescue-us.org. Six minutes of sanity -- here, here!

Paul's very last words of the nearly seven minute video raised my eyebrows, though. He was speaking of the need to pull out of Iraq partly because we're spending so much money over there. He then said that it would be better spent that money stateside on health care and education. Now, does he mean government spending in these sectors or did he mean that the money could be returned to the citzenry through tax cuts to spend on health care and education as they see fit? If it's the former perhaps we were seeing a bit of pandering by Paul to voters who suck the federal teet for their healthcare and education needs. Regardless, I'm willing to let it slide because the other six minutes, fifty-one seconds of the video he was dead-on.

I think this was Paul's best performance of the three debates by far. He was clear, concise, didn't fumble his words and was forceful without being scary.

Knock Down, Up, Down

No Mas presents its Knockout of the Week and this one will make you laugh out loud. Best line of the written intro describes the recipient of the knockout trying to stay on his feet, "What ensued was some straight-up Three Stooges shit, one of the great walks down Queer Street you'll ever want to see." Watch the video and you'll get the drift.

Ron Paul's New Address

Checkout Ron's new website. Solid job.

And the attached pic is his much improved new picture on his MySpace site.

Habeas Corpus Bill

Arlen Specter has produced a bill to reinstate the right of Habeas Corpus to aliens that was undermined in the Military Commissions Act of 2006. While Specter is a Republican, the other 14 co-sponsers for the bill are all Democrats.

Baseball's June Draft

Baseball America has published a nice rundown of most everything you need to know about this week's first-year player draft in Orlando. Some tidbits taken directly from the article:

• The draft will last no more than 50 rounds, but it could theoretically be shorter. Each club is allowed to select for 50 rounds but is not required to do so. In recent years, just a few clubs have dropped out before the end of the 50th round, but more clubs are expected to do so because of changes that eliminate the draft-and-follow process.


• The most significant rule change with this year's draft involves a universal signing date. All draft picks must now sign by Aug. 15, or they go back into the draft pool. In previous years, players who went to junior college or simply did not return to school were eligible to sign with the team that drafted them until a week before the next year's draft.

Baseball-Reference.com has one-upped itself once again by providing every single draft in total on it's website. That's one more book that Baseball America may not be able to sell very much of in the future. Information is becoming freer and freer and freer and.....

Detroit and Kaifeng

Jsut like two peas in a pod. So says Bill Bonner.

Instead, maybe, the city [Detroit] will join the ranks of the dead, along with Ctesiphon, Mesa Verde, Presepolis, Kish, Harappa, Babylon, Sodom, and Gomorrah. Soon, its apartments and mansions may sell for no more than places in Mapungubwe, Tiahuanaco, Tyre, Nineveh, Troy, Golconda and hundreds of other defunct metropolises.

Ron Paul Killer on Tonight's Daily Show

I caught the whole interview on YouTube via Lew's Blog. A bit too much talking from Jon Stewart but what the heck it's his show and he was respectful to him throughout the interview. Plus Paul was able to delve a little into his domestic agenda.

Secessionist Update

If I remember correctly last year Vermonters that supported secession from the United States was 8%. This year it's 13%.

Granted, this secessionist movement comes from the left -- the far left as in socialist lefties. The true test of this movement will be if a Democrat takes the White House and the secessionist movement will then have a choice. Either delude itself into thinking that finally, finally the Democrats are going to make things right for the Left in this country. Or will they forge ahead realizing that the Democrats are just as corrupt, just as anti-civil liberty and just as likely to push the country into war as any Republican would be.

Ejection Weekend

Major League baseball had one of the more explosive weekends in recent memory due to multiple umpire/player/manager confrontations. Bobby Cox owned last weekend but this weekend a whole new cast of characters dominated the scene. Since college weekends typically start on Thursdays we'll tee things up with Thursday's run-ins first.

Thursday
#1 - In the first game of the four game set in Cleveland, Gary Sheffield disagreed with home plate umpire Greg Gibson's called strike in his 4th inning at-bat. Swinging at the 0-2 pitch, breaking his bat and promptly grounding out to second, Sheffield threw the bat handle in the general direction of Gibson and smarted off to him. Gibson tossed him and Sheffield got right up in his face. Tiger manager Jim Leyland came out to get Sheffield away from Gibson and found himself getting man-handled by Sheffield. With hat askew, Leyland, Ivan Rodriguez and company were finally able to get the furious Sheffield away from Gibson. The following day Sheffield then proceeded to insinuate that there's a MLB conspiracy out to get him.

#2 - The second incident of the night was a real barn-burner. In extra innings the Padres had taken a 3-2 lead in Pittsburgh when Padre catcher Josh Bard hit what was called a home run by second base umpire C.B. Bucknor. Replays showed that it was not a home run and had actually bounced directly off a railing and back into the playing field. The umpires conferred and crew chief Joe West put Bard on second base with a double. All hell broke lose as Bard and manager Bud Black rushed the field. Halfway onto the field Bard was ejected by home plate umpire Ed Rapuano and when Bard brush-bumped him as flew by him that's when things got really heated. Bard was restrained by Black and third base coach Trevor Hoffman and was then ushered to the dugout. Furious, Rapuano wandered back to the plate and could be seen mouthing, "Don't you ever come at me!" to Bard. He also traded barbs with Brian Giles on the Padre bench. He was incensed!

Meanwhile out in the field Black was doing his best to get ejected and took his argument up with Joe West. Realizing that since a Padre home run had been reversed and Black would understandably be upset, West let Black go for quite a while before ejecting him also. West handled the situation very well, in fact, and earned some brownie points with me for being a responsible umpire on this night at least.

Friday
#1 - In Philadelphia Charlie Manuel had to pack up and go into the clubhouse in the top of the second inning after arguing a non-strike call on Giant batter Matt Morris on a bunt attempt. Manuel asked for an appeal to first base umpire Tim McClelland who said Morris did not offer at the pitch. With a step out of the dugout and the word "Bullshit!" emanating from Charlie's mouth McClelland tossed him. Manuel gave him about 25 seconds of his 2 cents worth, kicked at the dirt twice (but not at McClelland) and then went back to the dugout. Throughout the argument McClelland was his usual cool, calm, non-incendiary self.

#2 - The other ejections Friday night occurred in Boston. When Bobby Abreau was thrown out at third base in the 5th inning on a steal attempt Torre slipped down into the clubhouse to watch the replay. What he saw was what everyone saw -- Abreau was safe. During a Red Sox pitching change in the same inning Torre went out to discuss with third base umpire Jerry Crawford and was tossed by an infuriated Crawford. The argument last for well over a minute, was face-to-face, hardcore and clearly got under Crawford's skin. Crawford ended up being the aggressor and by the end of the argument Torre appeared speechless.

#3 - In the same Yankee/Red Sox game Yankee reliever Scott Proctor was ejected by home plate umpire Brian O'Nora in the 9th for a throwing a pitch that hit Kevin Youkilis up and in. O'Nora's ejection was frantic and perhaps a wee bit over reactive. Anyway, I don't want to write about this any further because I'm not a fan of pitchers getting ejected for intent to bean batters and I'm tired of all the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry talk that's been going on the past ten years.

Saturday
Two managing titans got ejected on this day. And boy golly did they get their money's worth!

#1 - Lou Pinella got ejected for the first time as Cub manager on this day. Angel Pagan's stupid running play that got him thrown out at third with no outs and down by a run in the 8th gave Pinella the opening he was looking for to release his season-long frustration. Mark Wegner was the umpire who got to be on the other end of the Pinella tirade and he certainly stood his ground. Pinella tried every intimidation trick in the book: kicking dirt on the umpire, stomach bumping the umpire, getting right up in his face, standing on his tippie toes to try and tower over Wegner and hat kicking. Halfway through the argument after Pinella had twice made contact with home plate umpire Bruce Froemming, another umpire -- Brian Runge -- got physical with Pinella by forcefully pushing him in the chest to get him away from Wegner. It worked and after two more hat kicks he went to the clubhouse. By Sunday, Pinella was suspended indefinitely for what the conventional wisdom is saying was an egregious display of umpire baiting.

This was Pinella's 72nd career ejection. He ranks 7th all-time right behind Tony LaRussa who stands in with 73 ejections.

#2 - Leyland's ejection in Cleveland was a longer one than Pinella's but just as heated. The differences were that Leyland didn't make an ass out of himself or throw his hat or flail his arms. Instead he directed a stream of profanities at every member of the four man umpiring crew of the Indian/Tiger weekend showdown. Residual from the Sheffield ejection earlier in the series and what the Tigers felt was an inconsistent strike zone from plate umpire Tony Randazzo brought Leyland out the dugout and eventually into a rage. Randazzo ejected Leyland pretty quickly and Leyland could be seen mouthing "Who the f*** do you think you are?" multiple times to Randazzo. Crew chief and argument meddler extraordinaire Charlie Reliford then came in to try and get Leyland away from Randazzo. To Reliford, Leyland said, "I told him [Randazzo] to call it both ways and he threw me out". Well, duh, that's reason enough.

But back to Reliford. He annoys me to no end with his showboating during arguments. For Reliford no argument can last more than eight seconds before he inserts himself in-between the participants and forcibly blocks the player or manager from ever coming close to his umpiring partner again. Ultimately no umpire is going to give you a bear-hug to keep you away from another umpire so I've been waiting for years for a manager to give Charlie a big screw you and blow past him to get to the umpire he wants to scream at. Well, finally it happened as Leyland time and again blew by Reliford to say his piece to the other umps all the while Reliford walked stride for stride with Leyland imploring him not to go there. But Leyland did. It was great to see.

Sunday
#1 - Ozzie Guillien received his ejection from home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez after he'd went out to ask third base umpire Chuck Meriweather if the Blue Jay batter who was hit actually swung at the ball. After Meriweather didn't give Guillien the answer he wanted, he ran his mouth at Marquez all the way down the third base line and halfway back to the dugout before finally being given the heave-ho. Marquez didn't have much to say to Gullien, took a little more abuse from Guilllien and watched as he quickly departed the scene.

#2 - Home plate umpire Bill Welke ejected Dodger manager Grady Little after the Dodgers contended that Russell Martin had effectively blocked-off the plate on a tag play. When Martin hotly argued the call (without being ejected), Little popped out of the dugout and within the minute was ejected. Not a very inspired argument but an ejection nonetheless.

Recap
So there we go. Two games per night that contained ejections over a fun four day span. Big names, all different types of plays, Pinella, Froemming, Torre and Bard. A veritable stroll down baseball history lane. Maybe next weekend we can all enjoy a record breaking performance by Bobby Cox.

Map of Middle Earth

In Tolkien's Lord of The Rings I'd always pictured the Hobbit's Shire as being very far away from the evil forces of Middle Earth. It was a comforting thought for me as a boy reading the books and then as an adult watching the movies.

Alas, this map seems to indicate that the hobbits were really never that far from Moldor and the dangers it contained.

Twitter Comment: Steven Wright

"My girlfriend got poison ivy on the brain. When it itched, the only way she could scratch it was to think about sandpaper". 07:45 PM May 31, 2007 from web.

Wither MySpace?

Sturat Brown writes of the Wild West nature of the internet's social networking site arena. Much like how night-clubs can be cool for a few years and then abandoned very quickly for the next new social hot-spot, it's beginning to look like the social networking sites such as MySpace will be vulnerable to the vagaries of social popularity on the web -- but at a much faster pace. Rather than years the changes in popularity could happen within twelve month or half year periods as competition strengthens on the web.

Ron Paul Maintaining Internet Appeal

As the third Republican debate gets geared up to be held this Tuesday, ABC gives a status report of Paul's web support.

The day after the first Republican debate on May 3, the campaign Website had
706,000 visitors and, according to Benton, Paul has the most successful YouTube
channel of any candidate. He is also the most requested Republican on Eventful.com, a site where users request candidates visit their city. Even more striking, Benton says since that May 3 debate, the number of donors to the campaign has increased fourfold.

Let's just say it's booming.

Middlefart, Denmark

Crazy town names from around the world. Warning: Bad language

Some of Ron Paul's Thoughts

Here are some wonderful snippets from a Ron Paul article on patriotism from 5/22/2007. His entire article can be read here. First, Paul's definition of patriotism differs from the neo-conservative viewpoint.

The original American patriots were those individuals brave enough to resist with force the oppressive power of King George. I accept the definition of patriotism as that effort to resist oppressive state power. The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility, and out of self interest -- for himself, his family, and the future of his country -- to resist government abuse of power. He rejects the notion that patriotism means obedience to the state. [my bold]

A paragraph on slavery,

Statism depends on the idea that the government owns us and citizens must obey. Confiscating the fruits of our labor through the income tax is crucial to the health of the state. The draft, or even the mere existence of the selective service, emphasizes that we will march off to war at the state’s pleasure. A free society rejects all notions of involuntary servitude whether by draft or the confiscation of the fruits of our labor through the personal income tax.

And on supporting the troops,

Though welfare and socialism always fails, opponents of them are said to lack compassion. Though opposition to totally unnecessary war should be the only moral position, the rhetoric is twisted to claim that patriots who oppose war are not "supporting the troops". The cliché “support the troops” is incessantly used as a substitute for the unacceptable notion of “supporting the policy” no matter how flawed it may be. Unsound policy can never help the troops. Keeping the troops out of harm’s way and out of wars unrelated to our national security is the only real way of protecting the troops. With this understanding, just who can claim the title of “patriot”?

I Like This Idea

Your stuff in the stairway.

Unexpected Position

With the baseball season a third of the way complete the Baltimore Orioles are in second place. Granted they are .500 and ten games out of first but for as much as they've been savaged by the local press and fan-base they're hanging in there just fine. To finish the season at .500 would be a major victory for an organization whose last winning season was 1997. The Oriole team ERA+ is sitting at 108 and pitchers Brian Burres and Jeremy Guthrie are putting up very effective innings in their unexpected starting roles. Has the Leo Mazzone effect started to take hold in Baltimore?

Baltimore's push to .500 has occurred over the past week with a six game winning streak versus OAK - OAK - KC - KC - KC - LAA. While the offense has turned it up a notch during the streak (most notably Miguel Tejada) it's the performance of the pitching staf that's been the real difference maker.

And for all of the attention given Danys Baez's horrendous spring (72 ERA+) the other three Oriole bullpen signings from this winter have been just fine. Jamie Walker, Scott Williamson and Chad Bradford have posted a combined line of 51.2 IP, 60 H+BB and 39 SO's. The trio has also only allowed one homer and are owners of ERA+'s of 125, 388 and 186 respectively.