Checking in with the Triumvirate of Death ...
First off, to answer TJ's question, I have not been watching the "Walker: Texas Ranger" marathon on Spike. There's no need really. Any man with a pair between his legs owns "Walker" and has a TV devoted to running it on loop 24/7, interspersed with periodic viewings of Lone Wolf McQuade, Missing in Action, The Octagon, Delta Force, and most importantly, Sidekicks.
The only fight he ever lost or just a carefully orchestrated illusion?
In the meantime I've been feeling like I somehow Zambranoed my right arm since I've been having elbow pains like hell. Apparently too much "chatting" on the interwebs is hazardous to one's health.
Tonight I'm downloading porn at 14.4 kilobytes pers second. I'm just kidding, I got a cable modem back there.
Also, we're about an hour past UGA coming out of the losers bracket and pulling the double gut punch against FSU to make it to the super regional against South Carolina. Hopefully now that we've narrowed it down to 16 teams I can get some better coverage than the lame ass Fox Sports announcers and info on espn.com that doesn't update scores til the next day and gives wrong game times.
And lastly before we crap on the Braves, if anyone could explain to me the purpose behind last night's "season finale" of The Sopranos, I would greatly appreciate it.
So after roughly 60 games, I think it's time to break down the early season Triumvirate of Death (ToD) of Pratt, Jordan, and Diaz against McCann, LaRoche, and Langerhans. We'll take this by position and provide some rough offensive numbers for comparison, namely:
AVG / HR / RBI / OPS
Catcher
McCann (121 AB): .347 / 5 / 21 / .953
Pratt (62 AB): .226 / 1 / 8 / .612
This comparison really isn't fair to Bobby's mis-managerial skills since McCann has been gone for 2 weeks now with an injury. A pretty harsh blow considering all the 1 and 2 run losses in the last 2 weeks. It's a safe bet that McCann's bat could have made a difference in a couple of those games. In the end, we're going to have to live with 1 or 2 Pratt starts a week regardless since Bobby will never start a catcher 6 or 7 games a week.
First Base
LaRoche (168 AB): .250 / 9 / 33 / .836
Jordan (72 AB): .222 / 3 / 9 / .650
Unfortunately this is like picking between the lesser of two crap piles. LaRoche's numbers may not be setting the world on fire, but still, there's no reason for someone with Jordan's anemic numbers to have 45 or 50% of LaRoche's at bats. On the other hand, LaRoche's ability to seemingly constantly ground out to end the inning or game in bases loaded situations, such as in tonight's game, coupled with his periodically unexplainable slack ass play in the field, such as whiffing on Nick Johnson's grounder to kick start Washington's 5 run inning tonight gives plenty of anecdotal evidence as to why it's ok to stick Jordan out there. Of course then you come to your senses and remember it's Brian Jordan and his inning killing bionic knees. I really don't envy Bobby here, at this point I'd like to bench them both and replace them with something robotic, perhaps the AWESOME-O 4000, thereby combining Jordan's knees and LaRoche's total lack of affect in one entity.
Left Field
Langerhans (160 AB): .244 / 4 / 16 / .709
Diaz (79 AB): .329 / 2 / 12 / .861
This one has pretty much reversed itself since the year began. Langerhans has cooled down from his hot start and Diaz has actually shown himself to be a viable major league hitter. Given the numbers I have no problem with platooning Diaz against lefties and Langerhans against righties.
So to total up, Bobby's lost his choice at catcher, although if Pratt gets any meaningful starts after McCann gets back I'm going to place him in the wrong. He's left with a crap shoot of, well crap, at first, although the numbers still bear out that LaRoche should be getting the lion's share of the time. And Bobby has proven me wrong in left field where Diaz has proven to be just as effective (more so really to this point) than Langerhans.
We could also touch on Giles struggles to adjust to hitting in the leadoff spot and the possibility of flip flopping him and Renteria at the top, that way, even if Giles continues to hit .250 for the rest of the year, at least some of his outs might move Renteria along instead of starting games with an automatic out. Plus it could improve his situation, I can't help but think that batting leadoff has gotten into his head a bit. He has upped his walk total, but I'm wondering if it's at the expense of his aggresiveness that was key to his approach. And if we really wanted to think creatively here, we stick McCann in the 2 hole (nullus) after Renteria when he gets back and move Giles down to the 6 spot.
Of course this is all meaningless because right now I boil the Braves down to two key things. First, this appears to be the season where we're cursed to only hit in games where our pitching staff is being battered and only get good pitching in games where everyone is employing the patented Andruw Jones, step-in-the-bucket swing, circa, well every year before last season. The second and most telling metric though is that any team employing Chris Reitsma under the condition that he retire batters without allowing runs is operating under a gross delusion. It's reached the point that now not only can he not save a game, he can't even hold a deficit anymore. We send him out there to hold a 1 or 2 run deficit in the bottom of the 8th and top of the 9th, just to give ourselves a chance to get back with a big shot in the next half inning, and he turns it into a 4 run deficit every time now. The man is complete clown shoes.
The only fight he ever lost or just a carefully orchestrated illusion?
In the meantime I've been feeling like I somehow Zambranoed my right arm since I've been having elbow pains like hell. Apparently too much "chatting" on the interwebs is hazardous to one's health.
Tonight I'm downloading porn at 14.4 kilobytes pers second. I'm just kidding, I got a cable modem back there.
Also, we're about an hour past UGA coming out of the losers bracket and pulling the double gut punch against FSU to make it to the super regional against South Carolina. Hopefully now that we've narrowed it down to 16 teams I can get some better coverage than the lame ass Fox Sports announcers and info on espn.com that doesn't update scores til the next day and gives wrong game times.
And lastly before we crap on the Braves, if anyone could explain to me the purpose behind last night's "season finale" of The Sopranos, I would greatly appreciate it.
So after roughly 60 games, I think it's time to break down the early season Triumvirate of Death (ToD) of Pratt, Jordan, and Diaz against McCann, LaRoche, and Langerhans. We'll take this by position and provide some rough offensive numbers for comparison, namely:
AVG / HR / RBI / OPS
Catcher
McCann (121 AB): .347 / 5 / 21 / .953
Pratt (62 AB): .226 / 1 / 8 / .612
This comparison really isn't fair to Bobby's mis-managerial skills since McCann has been gone for 2 weeks now with an injury. A pretty harsh blow considering all the 1 and 2 run losses in the last 2 weeks. It's a safe bet that McCann's bat could have made a difference in a couple of those games. In the end, we're going to have to live with 1 or 2 Pratt starts a week regardless since Bobby will never start a catcher 6 or 7 games a week.
First Base
LaRoche (168 AB): .250 / 9 / 33 / .836
Jordan (72 AB): .222 / 3 / 9 / .650
Unfortunately this is like picking between the lesser of two crap piles. LaRoche's numbers may not be setting the world on fire, but still, there's no reason for someone with Jordan's anemic numbers to have 45 or 50% of LaRoche's at bats. On the other hand, LaRoche's ability to seemingly constantly ground out to end the inning or game in bases loaded situations, such as in tonight's game, coupled with his periodically unexplainable slack ass play in the field, such as whiffing on Nick Johnson's grounder to kick start Washington's 5 run inning tonight gives plenty of anecdotal evidence as to why it's ok to stick Jordan out there. Of course then you come to your senses and remember it's Brian Jordan and his inning killing bionic knees. I really don't envy Bobby here, at this point I'd like to bench them both and replace them with something robotic, perhaps the AWESOME-O 4000, thereby combining Jordan's knees and LaRoche's total lack of affect in one entity.
Left Field
Langerhans (160 AB): .244 / 4 / 16 / .709
Diaz (79 AB): .329 / 2 / 12 / .861
This one has pretty much reversed itself since the year began. Langerhans has cooled down from his hot start and Diaz has actually shown himself to be a viable major league hitter. Given the numbers I have no problem with platooning Diaz against lefties and Langerhans against righties.
So to total up, Bobby's lost his choice at catcher, although if Pratt gets any meaningful starts after McCann gets back I'm going to place him in the wrong. He's left with a crap shoot of, well crap, at first, although the numbers still bear out that LaRoche should be getting the lion's share of the time. And Bobby has proven me wrong in left field where Diaz has proven to be just as effective (more so really to this point) than Langerhans.
We could also touch on Giles struggles to adjust to hitting in the leadoff spot and the possibility of flip flopping him and Renteria at the top, that way, even if Giles continues to hit .250 for the rest of the year, at least some of his outs might move Renteria along instead of starting games with an automatic out. Plus it could improve his situation, I can't help but think that batting leadoff has gotten into his head a bit. He has upped his walk total, but I'm wondering if it's at the expense of his aggresiveness that was key to his approach. And if we really wanted to think creatively here, we stick McCann in the 2 hole (nullus) after Renteria when he gets back and move Giles down to the 6 spot.
Of course this is all meaningless because right now I boil the Braves down to two key things. First, this appears to be the season where we're cursed to only hit in games where our pitching staff is being battered and only get good pitching in games where everyone is employing the patented Andruw Jones, step-in-the-bucket swing, circa, well every year before last season. The second and most telling metric though is that any team employing Chris Reitsma under the condition that he retire batters without allowing runs is operating under a gross delusion. It's reached the point that now not only can he not save a game, he can't even hold a deficit anymore. We send him out there to hold a 1 or 2 run deficit in the bottom of the 8th and top of the 9th, just to give ourselves a chance to get back with a big shot in the next half inning, and he turns it into a 4 run deficit every time now. The man is complete clown shoes.
posted by The Drizzle at 10:52 PM
10 Comments:
The purpose, as I saw it, was for David Chase to kick us squarely in the nuts. That was quite possibly the most frustrating "season" of television I have ever seen.
Is it possible that Carl is the best character on television today?
I'll address both, taking the second part first please.
Although I obviously have a deeper personal liking for Master Shake, objectively speaking, yes, Carl is the best character on television today. 2 Wykked some would say.
And that's what I got out of it too. I didn't have quite the issues with the season as a whole that some people did, but basically he said, hey, you sat through 3 months of this, so I will reward you with an hour of convoluted time lines, Chris relapses, and A.J. banging a "Dominican" chick. I'm pretty sure the only redeeming feature of last night was Paulie's joke about the chick in the Santa hat and Tony kicking A.J. while they're putting up the Christmas tree.
Maybe if David Chase didn't make me wait 2 years for this crappy season i wouldn't be so pissed.
The OC season finale was more violent than the Soprano Family Christmas episode. The only saving grace is that Entorage starts next week.
Agree on Aqua Teen. I love Master Shake, but Carl is, objecively, a better character. My only problems with that show right now: 1) It's all reruns; 2) I can't get the sound of Meatwad doing MF Doom's "Beef Rapp" out of my head.
A.J.'s girlfriend is gorgeous. And I didn't mind this season; I thought that at times, it was really good. For instance, the episode in the hospital when Tony is finally awake--with the rappers, the Christian zealot, etc.--was one of the single funniest hours of television I can remember in a long time.
Well I've got a little something to offer vis a vis Aqua Teen. A friend of mine met a guy who works for the show, one of the animators I think, a month or so back. We're stuck with reruns for a little while yet, sometime in the fall or winter, can't remember exactly strangely enough, and the movie is apparently progressing. More interestingly, I found out they got paid something like 2 or 3 million for that random new Boost Mobile episode they put out a few months ago.
As far as Sopranos, if I go too deep I might as well write a real post about it, but to summarize I'd say, season as a whole I didn't have a problem with. Several episodes I really liked, a few boring ones as well. If I had to hear about that damn spec house one more time, I was liable to lose it. But as always, A.J. episodes are appreciated and laughed at heartily. I don't really know where I'd put it in the grand scheme of seasons. I haven't rewatched any of them since the last one ended two years ago, so they've pretty much amalgamated into one big mess in my head. At the least, it was better than the one preceeding it. The "finale" left me pretty non-plussed though. It was basically the Sopranos Christmas hour, and I guess a segue or set up for the final 8, which considering those are 6 months away at least, I really don't appreciate. A.J.'s girl was pretty hot though, for a woman who ostensibly had a kid.
As Bol said though, if I was Tony's son, I would think I'd try to do better than a girl who'd probably had her stuff "ethered" by several Paulie types and already birthed a child.
Definitely looking forward to new Entourage though. The back to back reruns before the Sopranos every week has gotten me in the mood.
Shake's line explaining the appeal of Boost--something turgid about the street-savvy urban consumer--in that episode was priceless. It also prompted me to yell "Where you at, dog!" at my friends for a while, and they weren't so into that.
Agree with all sentiments about Sopranos and Entourage. Also, I gotta say that I'm psyched for Deadwood, which apparently is ending with a two-hour movie since this is the final season.
As a Cincinnati Reds fan, I agree wholeheartedly about the lameness that is Reitsma, perhaps it's the Reds revenge for the Phils getting a decent season out of Eric "I Never met a Home Run I couldn't Give UP" Milton before passing him onto the reds, where he dropped a lovely 6.50 era last year. What hacks those dudes are
It boggles the mind really. I might be 7 years removed from baseball, and hell, 2 years removed from intramural softball even, but watching Reitsma and the rest of those clowns makes me feel like breaking the glove back out and starting to long toss in the backyard.
Obviously the threshold of efficacy in the Braves bullpen is so low that the major league dreams I gave up around 10 might not be that far away.
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