Why, on second thought, I dislike the Jacobs Deal
88Daylight Savings Time fascinates me. It utterly fascinates me that everyone in the entire country — or at least all the affected areas of our great nation — will agree twice a year to change time. Here we all are, every last one of us, saying: “OK, yeah, you know what? It’s not 10 o’clock anymore. Nope. From now on, it’s 9 o’clock. No, really I’m being very serious here, turn your watch back. It’s 9 o’clock now, and until further notice this will be 9 o’clock. No, I don’t care what you think. We’ll make it 10 o’clock again later, but it’s 9 o’clock now. Yeah. That’s right. Show up for work tomorrow at the new 9 o’clock.”
We live in a country of such diversity — nobody agrees on ANYTHING. But everyone changes their clock. I’m stunned that there is not a major group out there somewhere that simply refuses to abide by DST. You know what I mean? I guess they would rebel by showing up an hour early for everything all winter long.
“You said you would be here at 8 p.m.”
“It is 8 p.m. on the button.”
“No, it’s not. It’s 9 p.m. You’re an hour late.”
“Um, no, I don’t think so. My watch, my phone, the clock on that wall, they all say it’s only 8 p.m.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, you must be one of those DAYLIGHT SAVINGS slaves. One of those mindless watch-changing sheep who believe whatever they are told.”
“Um, you know, I think e-Harmony might have messed up.”
“I’m sorry, heh heh, I should have told you, I don’t believe in that stuff. I believe that human beings cannot change the clock for their own greedy purposes. Anyway, please don’t be late again.”
“I’m not late.”
“If you had been any later, we might have missed the movie. It starts at 9:15.
“The movie doesn’t start for another hour.”
“Damn it! Why is that? The imperial clock people rule our great nation. Well, what can we do now? I wish the restaurant was still open.”
“It is open for another hour.”
“Really? How odd.”
Undecided presidential voters fascinate me. I know lots of people wonder how anyone could be undecided at this point. But I’m more curious about how long they plan to keep this undecided thing going. Do they plan on being undecided as they walk into the booth? Or will they make their final choice on the car ride over? And what exactly helps them decide? I’m thinking that they are probably putting their choice in the hands of fate at this point: “OK, if I pass more blue cars than red cars on the way to the voting booth, I’m viewing that as a sign and I’m definitely going with Obama. There’s a blue car, that’s one and … oh, wait, there’s a man walking with a cain. A CAIN. McCain. That’s gotta be a sure sign, OK, when I get there I’m pulling the … oh wait, look at that giant rock on the side of the road. A rock. Barack. Well, wait, there’s a bathroom, and another name for bathroom is …”
Adults who dress up for Halloween fascinate me. I’m not opposed to it, exactly, I’m just not entirely sure what it is that drives people to do it, especially the people who, like, hire Hollywood makeup artists and spend seven or eight hours trying to look like Heath Ledger’s Joker*. Our neighbors had a Halloween block party, and there were women dressed like witches and men dressed as convicts and so on, and hey, it’s fine with me, I’m a pretty open guy, but I’m just thinking that people might want to keep that stuff in their homes, if you know what I mean.
I will say that if I ever did dress up (a very, very unlikely scenario, I admit) I would want to find one of those incredibly cheap Superman costumes from my childhood, you know, the kind that came in a thin cardboard box with the cellophane front, the kind that had the incredibly cheap plastic mask that was held together by a rubber band and two staples, the kind that included the paper thin costume that would rip if you even THOUGHT about scissors. I don’t see those costumes anywhere now. I fear the cheap costumes of our childhood — like Pong, Gnip Gnop and the Banana Splits (tra-la-la, la-la-la-la, tra-la-la, la-la-la-la-la) — are gone forever.
*Classic opening to The Office this week with everybody dressing up like Heath Ledger’s Joker. And it reminds me, as a couple of brilliant readers pointed out, that I have not mentioned the classic Bruce Springsteen scene on The Office last week. I won’t relive the whole thing except to say that Michael lists off his ten favorite Bruce Springsteen songs and these include three Huey Lewis and the News songs, “Fast Cars ” by Tracy Chapman and “Short People.”
This is brilliant and leads to one point I’ve been thinking about with Bruce: I’m a big fan of Pandora, a new kind of Internet radio that claims to play only the music that you like. You type in an artist you like and Pandora is supposed to magically come up with a long setlist of music, featuring all sorts of artists who are similar, and you will have hours of musical enjoyment. It works too — or at least it has worked really well for some of the music I like: Death Cab, the Hold Steady, Ben Folds, 10,000 Maniacs, U2, REM, David Gray, whatever. But the Springsteen channel, for me, is like death. I don’t like hardly ANYTHING on it. I’m not sure what it says about me that I love Springsteen completely but cannot tolerate virtually every other artist who is supposed to be in his genre. Weird.
Finally, there is something about a baseball trade that fascinates me. It is this: I have come to believe that a successful trade, in the end, is not necessarily one where you get a better player than the one you gave up. Yes, that’s how you trade baseball cards, and it’s how you trade in rotisserie baseball. And it’s how trades are generally analyzed — who got the better of the deal.
But I think now that this is pretty flawed thinking, that a successful trade is one that improves your baseball TEAM in a measurable way. And the longer I follow baseball — and all sports, really — the more I suspect that those are two very different things.
I’m going to use the Royals-Marlins trade to try and get at my point here. Last week, the Royals traded relief pitcher Leo Nunez to Florida in exchange for “first baseman” Mike Jacobs. Here is a very brief breakdown of the two men.
Nunez: Middle reliever, slight build, throws pretty hard but doesn’t strike out many, won’t be 25 until next August, went 4-1 with a 2.98 ERA in limited innings this year, seems pretty frail, throws strikes. Seems like a pretty decent seventh-inning choice. Could develop another pitch and emerge Ryan Madson style I suppose. Was called the batboy when he first came up because, OK, he looked like he was the batboy.
Jacobs: Designated hitter in a league that doesn’t have them. Banged 32 home runs last year, slugged .514, doesn’t walk, I mean at all. Hit career-low .247 last year but BABIP suggests he was unlucky. Hits .269/.329/.521 against righties and has been less than useless against lefties. Has had league average OPS+ or better every year because of his power. Arbitration eligible so he should pull in a couple million this year. Is not Jewish, despite the Jewish-sounding last name, which led to much hilarity when they gave out Jacobs’ jerseys on Jewish Heritage Day in Florida.
OK, so my first reaction to this trade follows exactly the way I USED to feel about baseball trades, which is this: The Royals made a perfectly fine trade. I don’t see Nunez being especially tough to replace, and the Royals clearly need power (they finished 13th in the AL in homers), and Jacobs did crank 32 homers in only 477 at-bats. He could, if nothing else, fill the Steve Balboni role* on the club, and if you hit him seventh he might help you despite his obvious limitations.
*OK, my wife ran across this on YouTube — don’t even ASK me how she found it. It’s a show called ”BackOnTopps,“ which is about two heirs to the Topps Baseball Card fortune. I have not fully absorbed the plot to be honest with you but I can tell you that Episode 7 is called ”Balboner“ and it is everything that any great Steve Balboni fan (and who isn’t one) could ever want.
It begins like so:
Leiland Topps: OK, best power hitter with the worst average in our lifetime …
Leif Topps: Ask me an easier question. Dave Kingman.
Leiland: Oh really. Why don’t you tell that to Steve Balboni and then watch him beat you about the face and neck with his obscenely large forearms?
Leif: He’s not going to beat me in the …
And it goes from there. Let’s just say that the episode includes Steve Balboni’s brother Sal (played brilliantly, of course, by Ed Helms) and an exercise device called the Balboner. I don’t think I need to say any more. You will not even read the rest of this blog post.
Point is, I was OK with this deal. Not thrilled, of course. You can’t be thrilled by a .299 on-base percentage or a first baseman who scores a -27 (MINUS-TWENTY-SEVEN for those of you who prefer word puzzles) on the Dewan fielding scale. That -27 made him the 35th best first baseman in the sport that has 30 Major League teams. But, again, the Royals really didn’t give up very much. And in a very conventional way — measuring one player against another — I figured the Royals would probably make out OK, maybe even come out ahead if Jacobs could have a few more balls fall in for hits in 2008 (his BABIP last year was .260 — well below league average and by far the lowest of his career.)
Then, however, I started talking to baseball people, and I started to think about this, and I started to see the trade very differently. Does it really make any sense for the Kansas City Royals to add a low-OBP, no defense, semi-first base slugger? Does this kind of move make the Royals better as a team or does it, in fact, take them the other way?
You often hear people in baseball making somewhat vague statements about how you cannot ”abandon the plan“ and you have to ”stay consistent,“ and how championship teams build ”great chemistry.“
I’ve long thought that people said that stuff just because it sounds pretty good and you can take it to mean whatever you like. But you know what? If you break those things down, I think you find they do mean something in real life:
1. Do not abandon the plan: When the offseason began, Royals general manager Dayton Moore was frank and unequivocal: The Royals HAD TO improve their on-base percentage. Well, it just made sense. The Royals batters finished dead last — DEAD LAST — in walks last season. That would be 30th out of 30 teams. The Royals had plenty of other offensive problems, of course — power being one of those problems — but a team with a big ballpark and a small budget just cannot afford to walk fewer times than every other team in baseball. Moore seemed to understand this.
So this was the plan: On-base percentage. On base-percentage. On base per-centage. Put the hyphen wherever you want. When I talked to Dayton at the end of the season, he must have used that phrase 20 times or more. On-base percentage. That was the plan.
And then — he went out and traded for a guy who had a .299 on-base percentage last year.
That’s officially “abandoning the plan.” The Royals have done this stuff for years. They talk about how they want to build the team around defense, and they get lousy defensive players. They talk about how they need to manufacture runs, and then they put a lineup out there for slow players who can’t get on base. They talk, they can talk, they can bicker, they can talk, they can bicker, bicker, bicker, they can talk talk talk, and then their actions go counter to what they’re saying. They don’t know the territory.
See, thing is, nobody wants to abandon the plan. Nobody abandons for the fun of it. No, baseball people abandon plans for very specific reasons — because their resources get cut, because they collapse under media and fan pressure, because an owner changes his mind midstream or — and this is the big one — because they are tempted by the fruits of another. Dayton Moore REALLY REALLY REALLY wants to improve the Royals on-base percentage. I don’t doubt that one bit. But, hey, then the Marlins are looking to trade a first baseman with some slug who doesn’t get on base. And he thinks, “Ah, to heck with that on-base percentage thing. Give me the power hitter.”
Now, you can say, the Royals already have Billy Butler, Ryan Shealy, Kila Ka’aihue, Mark Teahen, Alex Gordon, Ross Gload, all who can play first base. As one baseball insider told me as he disgustedly talked about this move: “You don’t accumulate talent at first base.”
But Jacobs can slug the ball. He’s sluggerific. Also he will occasionally, you know, slug one out.
Now you can say that if you really wanted an ultra limited, can’t get on base, can’t play a position slugger, you could surely get one for a LOT cheaper than you could get Mike Jacobs.
But … Sluggin’! Slugger! Slugga!
And that’s how you abandon the plan.
2. Stay consistent. Last year, the Kansas City Royals started Ross Gload at first base 100 out of 162 games. They did this even though Ross Gload’s slugging percentage for the season was .348. Why Gload? Well, the reasoning goes — agree with it or not — Gload is a reasonably slick fielding first baseman. He will give you a professional at-bat — from June 22 on he hit .301. He doesn’t complain and he doesn’t say much and he doesn’t generally do stupid things that will embarrass anybody.
At the time, the Royals had options. They had Billy Butler, a brilliant young hitter who they hoped could become a decent first baseman. They had Ryan Shealy in the minors, a guy they got by trading TWO pitchers with live arms in the belief that he would bring the club a power bat (Shealy came up in September, finally, and banged seven homers in 20 games). They also had 24-year-old Kila Ka’aihue, a first baseman from Hawaii who has always stuck out in the Royals system because even in his bad years he showed pretty remarkable patience (a lifetime .382 on-base percentage in the minors despite a few VERY low batting average years). He had a rather sudden and impressive power surge in 2008 (37 homers in AA and AAA and one more in the big leagues). They also had Mark Teahen, who could play first base if they wanted to open up the outfield a little bit. And Alex Gordon who some think will end up at first base.
What did they do? They stuck with Ross Gload. Now I’m not discussing the absurdity of this move right now (I already explained the Gloaden Rule) I’m just saying that the Royals plainly were willing to sacrifice power potential at first place in order to get that relatively slick defense and professional hitting and whatever else it is that Ross Gload brings to the table.
The first day in the off-season, they trade for Mike Jacobs. You tell me: Is that consistent?
3. Build team chemistry. I’ve thought about team chemistry a lot — what is it? Does it exist? Is it a baseball myth? That’s probably worth a whole series of blog posts.
In short, my theory is that I do think chemistry exists, but I don’t think it has anything to do with how well the guys pal around in the clubhouse or how much leadership players bring with their competitiveness and will to win.
Instead, I think team chemistry represents getting a group of players together who do SOMETHING very, very well. Take a bullpen — you often hear how great bullpens have great chemistry. Well, my feeling is that if you get me a lefty who can get out lefties, a strikeout righty who can pitch two innings, a nasty closer who throws strikes and a couple of other solid pitchers who know and appreciate their roles, I’ll promise you a bullpen with “great chemistry.” I don’t care if there’s a Hatfield in there, a McCoy, a La Russa, a Rolen, a Palin, a McCain, a Ben, a Jennifer … doesn’t matter. The way I look at it now, it’s not personality that makes chemistry. It’s how their talents mesh.
The Twins pitching staff has chemistry because they all throw strikes. You know what I mean? The ‘75 Reds had chemistry (did I mention I’m writing this book?) because they would take a walk, they all played good defense, they could run a little bit, the pitchers all felt under-appreciated and disliked Sparky.
So, my point is that when you’re building ”team chemistry“ I don’t think you’re mixing and matching personalities in some sort of grand science experiment. No, I think what you are really doing is building a team in the image that you believe in.
And let’s face it, in baseball, you can go countless ways. Do you want pitchers who don’t walk anybody and pitch to contact? OK, that’s fine, but if you want team chemistry you probably need to put a good defense behind them. And if you want to build a good defense, you probably need to sacrifice something on offense — power? On-base percentage? Batting average? Something.
Maybe, instead, you want power pitchers with high strikeouts and walks. OK, then you might want a catcher who can control the running game somewhat and outfielder who can go chase fly balls because maybe your high strikeout/high walk pitchers naturally give up fly balls. Of course, it also depends on the ballpark you play in, and the altitude in your city, and the wallet size and commitment of your owner, and your basic plan to score runs. And it also depends on the philosophy of the manager you hire (unless you want to hire another one) and then you have to build a minor league system with coaches who buy into your philosophy and so on and so on, and it’s really a very involved process. Or it should be.
You can go a million different ways. But, in my view, you HAVE TO CHOOSE. That’s getting at the core of what I believe about baseball now. I think you need a plan that is much more involved than just grabbing a bunch of good players with varying skills and just hoping that it all works out for the best. Mike Jacobs might hit 30 home runs for the Royals this year. He might get his on-base percentage up into the respectable range. He might have his best year. He might. He might. And it isn’t like the Royals traded away a star to get him.
But, more I think about it, I don’t see how he fits into any sort of plan. At all. And the more I think about it, the more I feel certain that this is precisely the kind of move you do not make.
* * *
Oh. One other thing. According to dnScoop, the value of this site has, um, gone up a lot. You can make your checks payable to …
bravo. Well said.
Wow. Thanks for weighing in on the Jacobs trade, we have been waiting. Nice Music Man reference. Very funny. I do think that Dayton Moore has some more stuff up his sleeve during this off-season to get rid of the junk at first base. I would bet that Teahan and Gload are gone by spring training.
“Adults who dress up for Halloween fascinate me. I’m not opposed to it, exactly, I’m just not entirely sure what it is that drives people to do it, especially the people who, like, hire Hollywood makeup artists and spend seven or eight hours trying to look like Heath Ledger’s Joker*.”
On the radio, they were speculating that Halloween allows women to dress far more provocatively than they normally would. And allows men to just not dress at all (how many of you came as a bum? Yeah, I thought so.)
Standard time is in the Winter, right? Daylight Saving time is in the Summer. So DST rebels would insist on showing up an hour late in the summer, right?
Man in Black may be right. More might be thinking trade value here. If he’s got Billy Butler, Ryan Shealy, Kila Ka’aihue, Mark Teahen, Alex Gordon, Ross Gload, and now Mike Jacobs all who can play 1st base, you’d think he’s not going to keep them all. Sometimes the value of prospects is in trades. With respect to Jacobs, somebody always needs a power bat, even if it’s for a platoon or bench player. Even the Royals could use him.
Oh yeah, radio people, we girls are just dying for a chance to dress provocatively; we get so few opportunities to be ogled.
I like dressing up for Halloween because costumes are fun. Masks are fun, crazy makeup is fun, cloaks and fancy dresses and random hats and jewelry are fun, wearing things that you aren’t normally going to wear, coming up with a creative theme, and going to parties where other people have great ideas are all fun. My last full-on Halloween costume was Keith Richards.
“I feel certain that this is precisely the kind of move you do not make.”
But he hit 32 homers last year! I don’t like the trade, either. I don’t mind trading away Nunez, who is too prone to injury. And I appreciate getting some value out of a guy who can be easily replaced (Dayton has proven to be good at building a bullpen.) But as Rany points out (http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/2008/10/memo-to-dmgm-wtf.html), it seems like the writing is on the wall that one or more of our young first basemen are about to be traded away. (And I don’t mean Ross Gload.) I’d rather see the progression of Billy Butler, the reemergence of Ryan Shealy, or see Kila Ka’aihue get a chance to prove he belongs in the big leagues. I’m not especially looking forward to a season full of Ross Gload at first and Mike Jacobs DHing. I just hope I’m wrong, and that’s not what we end up seeing.
The daylight savings time thing was great. I live in Arizona and we are your DST rebels who don’t change their clocks. It can be confusing this time of year.
Oh, and there is a really funny Corner Gas episode where one of the characters refuses to change his clock for DST.
We rebels do exist…
Joe, I have to say that I disagree with you about this Jacobs thing. At the beginning of the offseason I clearly recall DM saying that what we need is ” a power bat, regardless of position” , as well as increased obp. I don’t think its possible to make both of these upgrades in the same transaction, unless you are paying Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn, or Mark Texiera 20 mil a season. Jacobs is relatively cheap, and currently is our best power hitter. Gload (DFA) and Kila(AAA) will not be on the roster, and I am still not sold on Shealy as a starter(remember his 7 hr’s came in September, with 40 man rosters and many fledgling pitchers running out there). We could still stick a (hopefully) slimmed Butler out at first and DH Jacobs, with Shealy coming off the bench to DH against lefties or spell Butler at first. This seems like an ideal situation which will make the lineup better.
LOVED the Music Man reference.
And Joe - that is a lot of money. You NEED to sell some ad space on this site. I am serious. No pop-ups, because those suck, but you deserve some fruits for your labor.
Plus, if you really could make a million dollars here, you could quit your newspaper job and write here full time.
Well done, Joe, as always. At Royals Review most of us have been gnashing our teeth, not only about Mike Jacobs suckitude, but about what this says about Dayton’s Moore’s ability to build up a franchise in the given condtisions.
You kindly do not say that despite his slightly-above average bat, that when you combine the positional adjustment for first base with his defensive “abilities,” Mike Jacobs is a below-replacement level player — a lot like Jose Guillen was this year. A lot like pretty much every position player Dayton Moore has acquired through free agency and trade (yeah, maybe Callaspo has a chance, but his defense canceled out his bat this year. Bizarrely, TPJ has been the best so far, at least in 2007, before reality set in this year. Gathright was also onlly slightly-below average last year, before reality etc.)
1. KK - Omaha
2. Jacobs/Butler/Shealy - 3 headed 1B/DH platoon monster. Jacobs sits against LHP, Shealy against RHP. I think they can pull this off if they carry 11 pitchers (possible? maybe. likely? maybe not)
3. Gload - gonzo
4. Teahen - utility 1B/3B/OF (or gonzo)
5. KK proves 2008 was no fluke (power not OBP), maybe he’s up mid-season and a couple of the 1B at #2 above are shipped out.
6. Of course, its probably more likely that Butler/Shealy/Jacobs/Gload/Teahen plus a pitching prospect or two are shipped out soon for another OF or 2B/SS type (whichever not addressed in Free Agency). Hopefully Pimentel, Wood, Johnson, Rosa have not lost all value (trade them all before they become Chris Georges!)
Here’s my experience with Mike Jacobs.
I took my daughters to a Diamondbacks game at the Ballpark formerly known as Bank One (I forget what its called now), they were playing the Marlins. We had seats about seven rows back behind first base. As Mike Jacobs took the field in the Bottom of the First, a Call and response chant arose from behind me.
2 Drunks: What’s the matter with Jacobs?
1 Drunk (obviously the mastermind): He’s a Bum.
This went on throughout the inning and throghout the game, gaining more and more chanting drunks, culminating in his at bat in the top of the Seventh. By this time nearly all of our section and half of the surrounding sections were joining in on the “He’s a Bum” part. Jacobs was having a tough at bat, he fouled off the first pitch, took ball one, then fouled off the next 2. The chant rose to a fever pitch, expecting a strikeout, the pitcher threw an inside fastball. Jacobs turned on it and sent the ball screaming foul (really one of the hardest hit fouls I have ever seen). The ball rocketed over our heads and sent everyone scattering, beer, popcorn and peanuts flew everywhere. The Ball smacked solidly on an empty seat and caromed back into the field of play. I look up and Jacobs seems to have a wry smile on his face, I look back and as people return to their seats, I see three red faced drunks pulling themselves up off the soiled cement. It seemed this line drive foul was hit directly at them, the chant was not heard the rest of the game.
Besides Arizona, Hawai’i does not use DST. Also “parts of Indiana” … what parts? You’d have to ask a Hoosier.
I’ve never seen or heard of BackOnTopps, but it smells of Sklar brothers to me. One of the funniest things I have ever seen is when they went on a year-long campaign to get Jose Oquendo into the Hall of Fame. Eventually, Cooperstown let them place a plaque on the door of the utility closet.
I would be willing to make the same wager on Shealy/Jacobs that Joe made on Emil Brown/Jose Guillen this year. Given the same number of plate appearances, I believe Ryan Shealy will produce the same or better numbers as Mike Jacobs, only with passable defense. I don’t get this deal on several levels.
Agree completely on the Jacobs thing, one possibility that I hope for is that this is actually a plan to have a tradable chip at the deadline in 2009. if jacobs shows some pop, it is possible he could be worth more than Nunez for teams in contention.
When I’m Earth Overlord (someday), I’m getting rid of all these time shenanigans. In fact, I’d go a step farther and abolish time zones altogether. There would be only Standard Time, all over the world. Of course, 22 would mean something totally different depending on where you are (no more a.m./p.m. in my future). You might be going to bed, you might be opening the shop, you might be eating lunch. The average workday in your region might be something like 4-12, depending on how the daylight fell. But there would be no more resetting of watches. No more resetting of oven clocks that don’t automatically switch over. Travel schedules would be simplified. I tell ya, it’d be utopia.
Isn’t their part of Indiana that does not change for DST?
I seem to remember this when I visted Purdue years ago.
“Isn’t their part of Indiana that does not change for DST?”
I know Ft. Wayne doesn’t change. I lived there for a couple of years as a kid, and it screwed up every East Coast transplant (like us) for months.
When you talk about GMs who make deals that look fine taken in isolation, but show evidence of a complete inability to find a plan and stick with it, your Exhibit A is always Jim Bowden. I agree that this deal is very much a Jim Bowden style move. Which is not a good thing for Dayton Moore to have on his resume.
A black Chicago sports radio personality suggested on Friday that Halloween was a day for “Men to dress like women, women to dress like sluts and brothers to stay home”. He then explained that black people are not all that enthusiastic about a holiday where white people run around in masks and costumes and thus are emboldened by their anonymity. I guess he has a good point.
Indiana is a very screwy state. In the northwest part of the state (the counties by Chicago), they are on Midwest time, so Midwest standard time in the winter and Midwest daylight time in the summer. Most of the state is on Eastern standard time year round (or Midwest daylight time year round if you prefer). Then a few counties down by Kentucky are on Eastern time, so Eastern standard time in the winter and Eastern daylight time in the summer. Pretty confusing if you ask me.
Thanks for making my morning Joe. First I find out my $12 1B has been traded to the AL* and then I find out that my website is worth $92.
* I own(ed) Mike Jacobs in an NL only Roto keeper league. I turned off my baseball antenna to focus on football and hockey so I was unaware until moments ago that Jacobs had been traded. Doh!
All of Indiana does Daylight Savings Time now, Mitch Daniels changed it a couple of years ago.
The Banana Splits are not gone for ever, they are back !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7567840.stm
Well, according to hittrackeronline.com, 12 of Jacobs homers were ‘just enough’, which is 37%, slightly better than the league average of 27%. He might have been a bit lucky.
I like what your saying on chemistry, although I’m not sure you actually need all the same ‘type’ of player. A bunch of OBP guys followed by Adam Dunn would probably be pretty effective. I think you need to have a strategy(and it’s hard to make one out of multiple first basemen), but I’m not sure you really need consistency. The 2004 Red Sox had a straight up power pitcher(Schilling), a power/finesse guy(Injured Pedro), a sinkballer(Derek Lowe), and a knuckleballer.
Is the problem with the Jacobs trade that he is a low OBP slugger or that he is a first baseman? If he played a different position, it probalby would be less of a problem.
The 4 tried and true ways to build a dynasty in recent years:
1. Yankees in late 90’s - combine financial muscle with productive farm system
2. Atlanta method - use limited financial resources to focus on pitching and focus on position player development in the minors
3. Oakland method - focus on undervalued skills to get value for dollar. Be aggressive with moving talent before it gets expensive
4. Royals method - load up on marginal talent from the left end of the defensive spectrum by every method possible (draft, trade, FA) and then let it all fall into place.
I believe I heard Indiana gave in to the DST Clock Overlords a year or two ago. Unless I’m wrong…
I worry for the direction of this franchise, and I’m close to giving up on the Royals completely. People think I am a Royals freak, but they are about to lose a fan if they trade Butler or Ka’aihue.
I’m proud to say I was *in* that scene in our high school’s production of The Music Man. Unfortunately I’m now in my mid-40s and can no longer remember which part I played. I do still have a photo of myself wearing an oversize green derby & squinting because truly committing to a role means you don’t get to wear your glasses.
And if you need a Banana Splits fix, watch Boomerang cartoon network; they play the tra-la-la video sequence pretty frequently, or at least often enough that I’m reminded why I never watched them when I was a kid. Seriously, was everybody stoned in those days & I just didn’t know it?
w/r/t Halloween, I always found it rather peculiar that people would go to great lengths to procure a costume and decorate their house (I went to a party where the guy rented out a professional smoke machine - you couldn’t see the hand in front of your face.) Then it dawned on me that this is their chance to be the star. As a musician, I play dress-up quite often. I’ll go to great lengths to make a ‘costume’ work because I’m supposed to be the *star* of the show. I’ll do pretty much anything to be compelling, which is necessary if you want to have success in this business. Which is why Halloween seems anti-climatic to me. I don’t dress up because I don’t get the payoff (of being the star). All those other folks, however, have their one shining American Idol moment in the sun.
And, yes, chicks dress slutty because they have their one get out of jail free card to (try) be like Shakira and be talked about the following day around the alleged water cooler.
thanks Joe!
Even Hoosiers are not sure which parts do not use DST. I was much happier without DST until the state government forced it upon most of Indiana a few years ago.
DST is pointless.
Actually, check that … I’m a night person … we should be on DST all the time! Why even bother changing our clocks back to normal in November for just four months?
Justin is correct. DST is in the summer.
I’m a late-riser, so I wish we’d go to a permanent DST. I’d be the rebel that Joe describes, except that I’d be rebelling against standard time (not against DST), if that makes any sense.
Hawaii doesn’t use DST.
Indiana changed the entire state to DST in ‘05. however, the choice of whether to be on central or eastern time is up to the county. So there are 2 different times in the state. It was easier when we didn’t have to deal with it.
I live in Arizona. We do not do the daylight savings thing! Everyone should stop the daylight savings nightmare!!!
How much time is wasted changing clocks?
The name is so stupid! Are you really saving daylight?
I do like the point that Ron made about being able to possibly trade Jacobs to a contender at the deadline. I hadn’t really thought about that aspect of the deal, but their complete lack of affordable veterans who could be serviceable to a contender did hurt them at the deadline this season.
As for Pandora, I haven’t done the Springsteen station yet, but I’d imagine it’s filled with Mellencamp, Petty, Seger, and the soundtrack to Eddie and the Cruisers–the latter two being completely awesome and the first two sucking hard. Then again I’m listening to my Eddie Money station and have spent the last week blogging about Phil Collins and Mike and the Mechanics…
The Navajo Nation observes DST in Arizona.
JoePo - You got this stuck in my head…
http://listen.grooveshark.com/song/Tempted_By_The_Fruit_Of_Another/4300378
You need to throw some simple google adds up here, you can get some of that million to defray the cost of the site.
When are GMs going to stop trading with smarter GMs? How many teams has Florida hosed in trades? How many teams has Tampa ripped off (the Twins) or Billy Beane in Oakland. Eventually other GMs are going to realize that they are not getting the deals they think they are getting when dealing with a crafty (see better) GM.
I keep thinking back to Tampa getting Bartlett and Garza from the Twins for Young and Harris las toff season. How many shrewd moves has Tampa made to build their team (Kazmir for Zambrano)? Other GMs should at least know enough to avoid trading with a craftier GM.
I guess I’m going to have to stand up for all my fellow Halloween Dresser-Uppers out there. For us, the mystery is not “Why do people still dress up for Halloween?” but rather “Why don’t people still dress up for Halloween?” Dressing up for Halloween is FUN! It doesn’t really get much deeper than that. I don’t mean to be overly snarky, but I just feel sorry for people who are too old or too cool to dress up.
Arizona is home to a bunch of DST Mavericks, and the state does not observe time change.
I don’t like the move. I thought Nunez did a good job this year and could show promise with more innings. If he put on a few pounds I think he could add some MPH to his fastball. More so, I don’t like adding another player who can barely play first. It seems like a waste because eventally Gordon will to first when Mustakas comes up to play 3rd. We need to go after a power 2nd baseman.
Moore has done well so far, so hopefully he knows something I don’t.
I think the Pandora Springsteen problem says a lot less about you and a lot more about Bruce. I think that says a one-of-a-kind artist, one you just can’t duplicate, no matter if you believe he uses a lot of minor chords, talks about real people in his songs and leans on folkish elements. That’s kind of like saying, “George Brett was a good hitter with power, so therefore you’d be just as happy with Harold Baines.” Um, no.
You have to pin Bruce down for Pandora to work, and you just can’t, which I think is why you like him.
So, what Paul said about Shealy (”remember his 7 hr’s came in September, with 40 man rosters and many fledgling pitchers running out there”) made me wonder how true that was, so I looked it up. The 7 pitchers he hit HR off of this year:
Gio Gonzalez (SP) - not quite a September call-up, he was brought up on Aug. 6. In his first MLB experience, he had a 7.68 ERA and gave up home runs in 34 innings (2.38 HR/9).
Bryan Bullington (SP) - brought up in September, but with previous MLB experience. This season, he finished with a 4.91 ERA and allowed 4 HR in 14.2 innings (2.45 HR/9). In his career, he’s got a 5.46 ERA and has allowed 7 HR in 33 innings (1.91 HR/9).
Jeremy Sowers (SP) - on the major league roster most of the year. Season 5.58 ERA and 18 HR allowed in 121 innings (1.34 HR/9). Career 5.14 ERA with 38 HR allowed in 276.2 innings (1.23 HR/9).
Tom Mastny (RP) - September callup with previous MLB experience. This season he had a 10.80 ERA and 6 HR allowed in 20 innings (2.70 HR/9). In his career he has a 6.13 ERA with 13 HR allowed in 94 innings (1.24 HR/9).
Brandon Morrow (RP) - on the major-league roster most of the year. Season 3.34 ERA with 10 HR allowed in 64.2 innings (1.40 HR/9). Career 3.73 ERA with 13 HR allowed in 128 innings (0.91 HR/9).
Ryan Rowland-Smith (RP) - on the major league roster most of the year. Season 3.42 ERA with 13 HR allowed in 118.1 innings (0.99 HR/9). Career 3.55 ERA with 17 HR allowed in 157 innings (0.97 HR/9).
Freddy Garcia (SP) - late-season signing by the Tigers, but with extensive MLB experience. This season he had a 4.20 ERA and allowed 3 HR in 15 innings (1.8 HR/9). In his career he has a 4.07 ERA and 206 HR allowed in 1716.2 innings (1.08 HR/9).
So it’s a mixed bag. Some young guys getting their first MLB experience, but some pretty accomplished pitchers, too. Count me in the camp that would like to see what he would do in a full season, rather than assuming he’s not worth a roster spot.
Mike Jacobs had an OPS+ of 109 last season. There are no indications it was a fluke; he has been at 100 or above all four seasons. The Kansas City Royals had exactly two players with 100+ PA and an OPS+ above 104, and neither of them plays first base. Plus Jacobs just turned 28 last week, so it’s likely he is entering his prime. If he hadn’t been given roughly 1/4 PA against LHP, he’d have been even better. Yes, the Royals have a bunch of other first base types, but none of them hit as well as Jacobs if they had 100 major league at bats. On the face of it, Jacobs is a substantial upgrade, a legitimate slugger on a team that needs one.
Since it is so easy to find RHB who hit LHP, and anybody can DH, and since Jacobs has averaged 20 dingers a season while playing less than full time (probably because he’s not much good against LHP) Jacobs seems right now today the kind of player I call a “useful piece”. His upside is maybe an All Star (OPS+ of 179 his rookie season in limited PA). His downside, his worst season in the majors, is better than all but three Royals regulars from last year. Guys like KK and Shealy may prove to be better prospects in the long run, but Jacobs is younger than Shealy and far more proven than KK. Given the ages, Shealy would have to improve, or at least prove that last year was no fluke, and Jacobs not improve any, for Shealy to make Jacobs a bad trade. Jacobs is not a fluke: over 1500 MLB at bats, 100 or higher OPS+ every season. Shealy, older, with roughly 1/3 as many at bats over the same four season, has a career OPS+ 14 points lower than Jacobs. So it would be highly against the odds for Shealy to wind up enough of a better player to make the Jacobs trade seem bad. As for KK, he’s younger, true, but his minor league career OPS is comparable to Jacobs’ major league career OPS.
And look at it this way: Jacobs was tied for 22nd most home runs in all of MLB. That means he would have been the team leader on a *lot* of teams, including the Royals. He would have led two playoff teams in homers if you count playoff rosters (three, if you count homers hit for one team, as Manny and Texeira drop). That’s legitimate power. That’s *tradeable* power. So in a worst case, the Royals will trade Jacobs for a team that loses a slugger to injury and almost certainly get more than they paid for him. In a best case, Jacobs starts gaining the patience older players tend to develop, gets his OBP up to .330 (not a huge leap given his youth and career) and it’s all good.
Also, “The Pandora Springsteen Problem” would be a good name for a band.
Vote McCANE!
Sorry, Jacobs hit more homers than anybody on the Cubs or the Rays. Put Manny on the Dodgers or the Red Sox and Jacobs hit more dingers than the other one. Limit Texeira to just his time on the Angels and Jacobs would have led half the playoff teams in homers. This is legitimate power. To get legitimate power for a middle reliever is always a good deal.
Three things.
1. @CURT - that’s similar to Florida (parts of the pan handle are in Central Time), and if you live close enough to the time border, you actually get to drink an hour later every night.
2. Shouldn’t it be a McCain, or an Obama. Or Maybe a Palin, and a moose?
3. Seriously, get some banner ads and rss ads on this site (deadspin style), and make some cash off your hard earned work. This is one of my favorite places on line, and you deserve a lot of money for it.
DST is great. Standard time with it getting dark at 4 p.m. is the problem.
Maybe Moore is loading up on 1B like in a fanstasy draft so everyone will have to come to him with trade offers to fill their rosters, no?
I’m from Indiana. We did change to DST. I FREAKING hate it. There was a reason we didn’t have it for years: Indiana doesn’t need it!
Now, it doesn’t get dark in the summer until 10:00 pm. In the spring and fall, it doesn’t get light until 8:30 am. It’s terrible. If you’re in the far west of your time zone, you don’t need DST. But, we changed anyway.
“Put the hyphen wherever you want.”
No, no, NO. Please, do not encourage bad punctuation; the world already has too much of it.
And while that was a great Music Man reference, sublime even, I found myself reading the rest of the piece in that steam-train rhythm.
Very disconcerting. Very disconcerting. Very disconcerting.
Alright, I’ll cast the first write-in to the electoral poll at the top: Ron Paul.
I know, I know, he’s a 3rd party candidate, but Joe, come on. I’ve only heard of about 6 people on that list, and you leave out Ron Paul? At least put up an “Other” category.
A quick comment on undecided voters…
I consider myself an undecided voter, even though I know for sure that I am not voting for one of the two major candidates.
The state I live in is about as blue as B.B. King in a St. Louis hockey jersey, Kansas City Royals cap and Carl Perkins’ shoes. It IS going for Barack Obama (I learned today that apparently John McCain doesn’t even have a real office in the state).
So, my choice is to either vote for my choice of the two major candidates, which will be essentially irrelevant, or to vote for my third-party choice which I would almost prefer and which would make me feel better.
And for the record, if the Orioles can’t sign hometown hero Mark Teixeira I will be driving the “trade for Kila Ka’aihue” bandwagon.
Ya we got trouble,
Right here in Kansas City!
With a capital “J”
And that rhymes with “A”
And that stands for ‘annuallymakingbadmovesintheoff-season’.
Here in Egypt, the government decided that daylight savings time was going to happen two months earlier than everywhere else to accommodate Ramadan - and probably just because they can do stuff like that here.
The logic behind making daylight hours go later into the evening for a month in which one has to fast from sunrise to sunset continues to baffle me.
Also, there is a local bottled water company here called “Baraka”. To show my support half-way around the world, I will be drinking nothing but Baraka water all day tomorrow.
I know the point of the post was the Mike Jacobs trade, but the Indiana daylight savings time thing is too much fun to pass up on.
The whole state is now on DST summers and Standard Time winters. Before, most of the state was on Eastern Standard Time year round, but small parts of the state (around Louisville–on Eastern Time; around Chicago–on Central Time; around Evansville (no one ever knew what Time Evansville was on) switched to DST in the summer. So everyone was confused. Was northwest Indiana on the same time as Indianapolis? sometimes yes, sometimes no. Was New Albany on the same time as Richmond? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
And it’s still an issue…should we hold onto DST? Some say yes, some say no. Some of us are just amused.
I like how Joe pointed out the concept of complete compliance with DST as well as the idea of somebody rebelling. Now that I think about it, reason #942 why I love living in Arizona is the fact that we as an entire state rebel against the DST overlords.
We have just enough daylight as it is, thank you very much.
Richard Aronson -
I think you unwittingly made the point of everyone panning this trade. He hit more homeruns than any single player on the Red Sox, Rays, and Cubs. Incidentally, those were three of the four best teams in baseball this year. Here are their respective OBPs: .358, .340, and .354. KC was at .320. OBP is the problem, not SLG. And Jacobs is not the answer to that problem anymore than Guillen was. When a player has to hit 32 homeruns just to keep his OPS+ slightly above-average, you know you aren’t dealing with a very productive hitter.
Kansas City does not *need* a big homerun bat right now. They have a bunch of players that have doubles power and the potential to grow into HR power as their games develop. They need to realize that they have dug themselves into a massive hole and short-term fixes like Jose Guillen and Mike Jacobs will not fix that hole. They have young talent in the majors now and more coming in the minors. Let the talent play. Every young hitter isn’t Hanley Ramirez and every young pitcher isn’t Jonathan Papelbon. Most players need time in the majors to develop. Worry about patching holes in a few years when the holes are patchable sizes. Right now it’s like GMDM is saying “It’s only a flesh wound,” and trying to band-aid his team into contention.
Also, someone else said that Jacobs is definitely a useful piece (paraphrasing.) Yes, on a contender, he would be a useful piece. Because on a contender he would a big left-handed bat off of the bench that probably wouldn’t play in the field more than once a week (if that often.) In KC, he’s going to be expected to be a major part of the offense. And judging by Hillman’s inane lineup juggling and defensive rotations last season, he’d probably play in the field more often than not.
First, let me say that I lived in Arizona for over four years, and while the state likes to think of themselves as ‘rebellious’ for not observing DST, it’s actually more of a convenience, because it means for half the year they can watch California TV and not have to mentally adjust the time of shows by an hour. Bunch of L.A. wannabes in Phoenix, let me tell ya…
As for the Jacobs deal, I can see where you dislike it, but I have to say I’m encouraged, because it increases the odds that the Royals will put Mark Teahen on the block and that the Twins will trade a starting pitcher for him and play him at third. (Hey, sports is ultimately all about being selfish, ain’t it?)
Arizona doesn’t go to DST in the summer because who the heck wants an extra hour of daylight when it is 109 degrees outside? Everyone can’t wait until sundown so it gets at least bearable outside. In Hawaii, the day length only changes by two hours from December to June, so DST is pointless. Indiana should just give it up and go to Central time except for the Cincinnati and Louisville suburban counties.
Based on the last few elections I think we should add a choice of “no faith” onto the ballot. If a high enough percentage of “no faith” votes is totaled then no candidate is valid. A “steward” will temporarily run the nation- kind of like when the line of kings was broken in Europe. Then both parties must find more qualified leaders. Quit putting poor choices that are not representative of the nation in front of us.
Is it too late to add Stephen Colbert to the “So … I’m voting for” poll?
Isn’t there a Seinfeld when Kramer just decides to go on DST?
And Saskatchewan, the province where Corner Gas is set, doesn’t have it … something to do with the farmers and Sasky being in the western part of the Central Time Zone … so in the summer they’re on Mountain and thus have more daylight … in the winter they go back to Central. Do I have that right?
Reading the portion about voters undecided about tomorrow’s presidential election reminded me about something Joe wrote a few months earlier. After some rummaging around (and using the Search feature, which actually works, I guess), I found it:
“But the undecideds — I don’t get it. Why would you go to the trouble of filling out a poll like this to say you’re undecided about the offside rule? I understand that people want their opinion heard. But when did it become urgent for people to have their non-opinion heard?
I thought about this when I put the “Not qualified to be a GM” option in the Barry Bonds poll. I figured a few people would punch the button as a joke. I did not realize that 91 people would … and I’m really curious why. Maybe these are the most honest readers I have — I mean, they’re right. I’m not qualified to be a GM either.”
Now, this probably doesn’t have that much relevance when it comes to polls regarding who you’re going to vote for in the presidential elections, because, after all, it *is* the presidential election–pretty much everyone has to have an opinion, one way or the other. Even if that opinion happens to be Undecided.
But on a larger scale, this is one of the great mysteries that I’ve never been able to solve about Americans, being a Japanese student studying in Florida. I’m not going to say the obsession about expressing one’s “Undecided” or “Don’t Care” opinion in polls is a *bad* thing–there’s bound to be someone who would argue that I just don’t know enough about American culture, and they’d be absolutely right. But being vocal, and expressive of one’s views, and opinionated is one thing. Why do people consider it so important (especially on online polls, in recent years) to voice their “Don’t know”, “Don’t care”, or “Undecided” opinions? I mean, how important could that kinda contribution possibly be?
I don’t mean to offend anyone who honestly sees a purpose in this kind of act, but I just don’t see it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with clicking on these kind of choices on online polls just for kicks, or out of sheer boredom, but lately I see way “Don’t know” and “Don’t care” with way too large a share on too many polls to attribute it to people clicking away just for lack of anything better to do.
Great post, by the way, Joe.
Well, not only does everyone in the U.S. agree to the time change, but Canadians do too! I think it is a prime example of the fact that there is no Blue America, Red America, just the United States of America + Canada.
@Marcel -
Thanks for making some sense in an arguement. I think that OPS and such stats underrate the value of the walk. Obviously, a walk isn’t “better” than a double or a HR, but the way OBP affects a lineup at Kaufman it is more important. Also, look at the hole this lineup creates:
Dejesus
Aviles
Gordon
Guillen
Jacobs
Butler
Teahen
Buck
Callaspo
Unless they bat Butler 5th, but Hillman won’t be able to resist putting a slugger in the 5 hole. From Gordon to Jacobs are K MACHINES. This doesn’t look good as far as sustaining rallies. Not really the best 3,4,5. Honestly, I think Jacobs can be productive if used STRICTLY as a DH against only RHP. Butler can play 1B when he DH’s, then against a lefty Shealy plays 1st and Butler can DH or Guillen can get a day off from the field, etc.They would have to carry only 4 Of’ers, but with Teahen on the bench this can be worked out. 11 pitchers is also a worthy idea. Teahen, to me, looks to be a spectacular super-sub/pinch runner/defensive replacement. Drop Gload, German, & Pena and lets sign a LF.
oh, and I’d also vote for Ron Paul in this election, but Missouri does appear to be a swing state and I’ll cast a vote agaist Obama. I would like to cast my vote for Paul and feel good about my choice, but it appears it might actually mean something if I waste my vote on an ideal candidate. go figure.
I refuse to vote for both Democrats and Republicans as a matter of principle. It is my firm belief that, within the confines of the present 2 party system, in order to be elected to public office, a person must first sell his or her soul to the Devil. Of course, an actual pact with the Prince of Darkness is not a necessary qualification for the aspiring career politician. It may grease the wheels a bit, but it’s not a prerequisite, per se.
Incidentally, I’m in a bit of a quandary. The Libertarian candidate, Bob Barr, while likeable (from what little I saw on a PBS interview), is a former Republican and has changed positions more times than (HOF custodian?) Jose Oquendo. If it takes 60 years for a man to conclude that Thomas Jefferson was right, then he’s either lacking the necessary aptitude to govern, or he simply isn’t the real deal.
I can’t seem to get behind Ralph Nader, either. I want to save the environment as much as the next apathetic, disinterested, hypocritical American, but other than that I have nothing in common with the dude. He’s a rich man’s Noam Chomsky.
Hey, If my vote is going to be symbolic, it may as well symbolize my frustration. A vote for Colbert is a vote for America.
arizona, hawaii, eastern 2/3 of indiana all skip the DST methodology of time management..
My only question is why you ever thought th eJacobs trade masde any sense……never made any to me.
Still waiting for an “on second thought” consideration of Tyler Thigpen…….
arizona, hawaii, eastern 2/3 of indiana all skip the DST methodology of time management..
My only question is why you ever thought the Jacobs trade made any sense……never made any to me.
Still waiting for an “on second thought” consideration of Tyler Thigpen…….
And now Olivo is annointed the “starting” catcher.
For the record, that would be 1B: Jacobs OBP .299; OF: Guillen, OBP .300 and C: Olivo, OBP .278. Yep, they are definitely focusing on upping their OBP this year.
My grandfather tells a joke that entails a farmer who writes his state representative when the daylight savings time issue is coming up for a vote and pleads for the representative to work as hard as he can to not make the time switch. His rationale? The crops just can’t handle that extra hour of sun.
Grant, corner gad takes place in Saskatchewan, which does not have daylight savings time. either you misunderstood or corner gas screwed up
When you’re in a swing state and your vote kinda counts, you might be undecided about whether you can vote for the Libertarians, Greens, or Nader, etc. instead of who would be worse to you of the two majority candidates. As it is, I’m going to have to write in my choice in this afternoon. Where’s Pat Paulsen when you need him?
Kila Ka’aihue came to play against the Tulsa Drillers at the back end of the 2007 season, going into the last game of the season his batting average was .199.
Some wag in the crowd immediately christened him $1.99, it didn’t help that it was 50c beer night either, but boy did he ever get some abuse.
All honor to him that he got 3 hits, raised himself over the Mendoza and won the game for his team. But the first time that guy hollered “Hey $1.99!” he visibly flinched.
What a thrill it was to see him get into the majors and see his only homerun on TV. Apparently he was a pretty good quarterback back on the islands?
Two quickies:
Music - I understand the Bruce/Pandora thing completely. I’m a big YES fan, but can’t seem to get excited about other “Prog Rock” artists. Maybe it’s because I expect them to sound like YES, but they’re not, and they don’t. What Bruce does, he does very well. What YES does, they also do very well. But to try to find something that sounds like them doesn’t work.
Undecided Voters - GMA showed that Obama has now been campainging for 1 year, 10 months, x days, etc… If you haven’t got it figured out by now, please turn in your voter card. I don’t want this election decided because you saw more blue cars in the parking lot.
One last thought on election day… Since there’s allegations of votor issues/supression/dead people, etc eery year, what would be so wrong with the “purple finger” solution they used in Iraq? If your finger isn’t purple, come on in and you can vote and if you’re not registered, we’ll figure it out. If your finger IS purple, don’t even try it or that nice gentleman with the badge will escort you to a different gov’t agency for processing. If they did this, there’d be no complaining about ACORN registering bugs bunny to vote.
Richard Aronson,
A 109 OPS+ from a first baseman is not good unless he fields like Keith Hernandez or Hal Chase.
Since 2005 the entire state of Indiana observes DST however 18 counties observe Central DST and 74 counties observe Eastern DST.
Thanks for adding Ron Paul, Joe!
Now, how about Kang or Kodos?
no daylight savings here in arizona, thank the holy heavens.
i also find it fascinatingly ironic that out of all of arizona, the only people that use DST are the navajo nation.
wtf is that about?
At least the Royals are about to get back on the OBP track by trading for Jeff Francouer.
Yuniesky Betancourt too.
This is remarkable. They’re going to acquire every player in the league with a sub-.300 OBA.
I wonder if maybe GMDM is confusing OBP with ERA. Boy, that’ll be awkward when someone tells him that HIGHER OBP’s are actually better.
Free Mark Teahan
Totally right. Drawing walks is by far the best thing a Major League hitter can do. If a guy isn’t up there trying to draw walks, what’s he doing playing in the Majors?
Trey, is that you?