mlb.com Story

Your typical Quad.5-A player, Dan Johnson (bbref)has just been designated for assignment by the A's.  Call him Ben Broussard w/o the guitar.  Must pass through waivers to be assigned to minors. 

[rosterbation]...better than Richie Sexson...release Cairo...Johnson/Sexson platoon = what should've happened last year...no way Bavasi does this so why bother...probably ends up on Giants...[/rosterbation]

Choice quote about Johnson's roster replacement:

Ask anyone in Oakland's clubhouse about the 24-year-old Smith, and they all rave about his high baseball IQ.

Rookie Dana Eveland, Smith's teammate at Triple-A Tucson last season, calls the Louisiana native "a genius" and a classic lefty who is "very crafty."

"He's the guy you look at and wonder how he gets guys out," Eveland said. "He puts a lot of effort into looking at the hitters and seeing who can do what, what to throw to whoever."

I'm sorry, but 24 is too young to be "crafty".

Hey everyone, new around here and was wondering if there was an RSS feed set up with the new site and all.  I know there was one before the site switched over to SBNation 2.0.  Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

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Does anybody else ever find themselves in public places and checking out other people's itunes lists... and then passing judgment on them as a person? I just looked through someone and saw Aretha Franklin and a couple of Beatles songs, but going deeper down the list reveals Dane Cook and Good Charlotte, which I don't think much of... and then s/he has a couple of Jimi Hendrix tracks. Then again, I'm the guy who listens to Sister Hazel and occasionally Hootie and the Blowfish, so what the hell do I know?

I'm not much of a gamer, but my wife just got us a Wii (my Wiife?).  I have a few questions for those of you that have Wiis:

1.  How are the 2K sports games on the Wii?  I know the graphics processor isn't as powerful as in the PS3/Xbox, but how noticeable is it?

2.  How's the networked gaming?  Xbox seems to have the networked play thing pretty much nailed, and I've heard that the Wii's isn't as good - is this true?  If so, how bad is it?

3.  Any games you'd recommend (sports or otherwise)?

 

I've mentioned this in the past regarding hockey that Jeff needed to get the Center Ice package and a Tivo but he claimed poverty at the time.  But this is unacceptable.

 

As someone who usually works until ~4:45 and drives home until 5:30, these East Coast games present a problem. Either I can try to pick them up live having missed a bunch of innings, which makes writing more difficult, or I can wait and watch the archived video, in which case I have to do what I can to avoid seeing the score. Neither is great, but I always have to choose one of them, and today I chose the archive.

Funny thing about game archives: you can't watch them until the game's actually over. As we approached 8pm tonight with the game still going strong, I knew I was in trouble; a near four-hour contest would take me close to midnight to watch, and in that scenario there's just no hope for getting much writing done, not with an 8-5 job

 

 

 

For all the effort Jeff puts into this blog it's uconscionable that he has these two bad options for watching the game when there is The MLB season pass and TiVo out there that would enable him to watch games at his leisure without all that bullshit described above.  Specifically, in the above scenario he could come home and start the game right away, fast forward commercials and pitching changes, pause and rewind as needed for extra special analysis, potentially catch up to real time in short order, participate in the GTE and have a recap ready in reasonable amount of time after the game AND still get some sleep.  How awesome would that be as opposed to what the alternative is?

So, I am proposing that we, the Lookout Landing community for the embigginment of everyone concerned, chip in and buy Jeff a TiVo and the MLB season pass

There are of course, some possible roadblocks like his current living situation, and potential contract obligations (which may have been an issue when I brought it up during the hockey season last year).  I'm not sure what cable or DirectTV plan he would require (I have Direct TV and the hockey pass - and it's AWESOME), but the benifits would be huge for both Jeff and this blog that we all love so much.

The overall price wouldn't be that huge.  The Mlb Season pass is about $150.00 IIRC, the TiVo is around $100.00 (but sometimes they're almost free) and the cable or DirectTv plan starts at $20.00 a month.  I don't know how long the obligation for the cable or DTV is but lets say a year @$20.00/month = $240.00.  So that's about $500.00.  If Jeff already has Cable or DTV then it's considerably less.  What is that?  50 people chipping in $10 or 100 people in for $5

Now, I'm not web savy enough to set up a paypal thingy but I'm sure someone here could do it, and I would be one of the first to chip in ten bucks for the cause.  Of course, if you, Jeff are content with your situation, or are otherwise unable to accept this offer, I will humbly go back to lurking.  So, if Jeff is Okay with this, please reccomend this diary - um Fanpost (that sounds just as lame) and hopefully we can get this done.

 

Oh Yeah, Go Caps, Go (too bad we didn't face Ottawa in the first round)

Main link is here.

Jon Garland got 23 more outs than his pitching profile would suggest. He also gave up 3 less runs than expected.

Jeff Weaver missed out on 21 outs that he should have been credited with, and gave up 19 runs more than expected.

Armed with this information, please allow me to present Jeff Weaver's 2007, with Jon Garland's luck, in Safeco Field:

4.63 R/9, ~4.3 ERA.

Yeah, that is really funny.

Also, the out thing is yet another strike against Jon Garland. That number is the second highest out of AL starters. Uh-oh.

Link: http://www.coedmagazine.com/entertainment/7358 

I hear there's some kind of length requirements for these new fangled "fanpost" thingies, so here you go:

Haystack Rock is a 235-foot (72-meter) tall monolith (or sea stack) on the Oregon coast in the northwestern United States, the third-tallest such structure in the world. A popular tourist destination, the rock is adjacent to the beach and accessible by foot during low tide. Haystack Rock tide pools are home to many intertidal animals, including starfish, anemone, crabs, chitons, limpets, and sea slugs. The rock is also a refuge for many sea birds including terns and puffins.

Don't be mean, unless you're Graham.

This wasn't meant as a joke. Obviously, as your loving tyrant, I reserve the right to be a total dick, and Matthew has carte blanche when Graham goes to sleep, but everyone else agreed to this when they signed up for the new site, and seeing as it's one of LL's precious few rules of conduct (the others being (1) no politics, (2) no porn, (3) no Corco baiting, and (4) no GTE outside of the designated GTE-approved time period between the start and end of a game), I expect people to abide by it.

"But Jeff," you ask, "what if somebody's talking nonsense?"

Stupid people tend to take being wrong rather poorly. Because they're stupid. That said, see if you can spot the difference between the following two examples.

----------

EXAMPLE 1:

Stupid Person: I think Jon Garland is good.
LL User: Could you be more stupid?

EXAMPLE 2:

Stupid Person: I think Jon Garland is good.
LL User: You're wrong. Garland's a flyball pitcher with a plunging strikeout rate, and that's not a real strong recipe for success.

----------

Example 1 is being an asshole. Example 2 is being right (which is often confused for being an asshole by people who are wrong). Example 1 is bad. Example 2 is encouraged.

You can be wrong or you can be right all you like. But don't be mean, unless you're Graham (or Matthew, or me). If we catch you being mean or condescending or self-righteous for no reason, we'll put a target on your back, and believe me when I say that we're way better at being assholes than you are.

Update: from this point forward, if you attempt to impersonate another user, you're going to regret it. And that's a promise.

His fastball's paying the price, and to top it all off he can also barely throw strikes. Just blew a save against Cleveland in spectacular fashion before deciding that the pain is a little too much and coming out of the game. (The Angels won on a Hunter walk-off. Why? Because fuck you, that's why.)

2007 FB Velocity: 93.6mph (94.8 in 2006)
2008 FB Velocity: 91.9

2007 Strike%: 61%
2008 Strike%: 48%

2007 Slider%: 39.2%
2008 Slider%: not sure but very very low

Happy contract year, Francisco. And more importantly, despite the win tonight, the Angels are coming apart at the seams. Whoever wins this division is going to be like the worst division winner of all time.

 

Tuesday Update: Rodriguez is now having problems with both ankles and a DL stint seems possible, even likely. Meanwhile in New York both Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter are possibly DL bound as well. Oh, and Rich Harden has a rotator cuff strain.
--Matthew

So I just got an email from them with the results of the team name vote. The new name is...

Seattle Sounders FC

Pretty cool that it got picked considering that it wasn't even one of the official options. 49% of the votes were write-ins that had some variation of Sounders in it, and 33% were for Seattle FC, so they combined the two. Sounders was my vote, so I'm pretty happy about it.

http://www.soundersfc.com/