Monday, April 28, 2008

Zito to the Bullpen

Last week I posted the Barry Zito Salary Calculator, and now the Giants are sending Zito and his 7.53 earned run average to the bullpen. I hope he loses his 0-6 record somewhere along the way.

The Giants didn't really have much of a choice. Not only are they paying Zito fourteen and a half million dollars this year, but a demotion to the minors would probably wreak havoc on the kid's (that's right, he's only 29) psyche. It was either send him to the 'pen or announce that he was "injured" and let him miss a few starts while he got his mind/arm/chakras right.

I can't sit here and pretend SF doesn't need their 156 million dollar man. Even if he was only 3-3 instead of 0-6, the Giants would be sitting at 14-12, in second place in the NL West. Maybe the change of scenery will do him some good.

Then again, if Francisco Liriano comes back from the minors throwing asprin tablets for Minnesota, we'll know the Giants made the wrong decision.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Happy Marshawn Lynch Day!

Marshawn Lynch updated his blog today, for the first time in way too long. I love the kid, I really do. And it's fun to cruise the comments for people who can't handle his Oakland accent.



NL West = Not Good

Here are the current standings in the NL West:

Arizona: 15-6
(Pretty good, right? That's a .714 win percentage!)
Colorado: 9-12
Los Angeles: 9-12
San Diego: 9-13
San Francisco: 9-13

Jesus. What a suck-fest. I don't even have a joke for how...mediocre this all is. So cheer yourself up by playing with the Barry Zito salary calculator. 4,815 orders of garlic fries? Yes, please!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Ummm...





Good lord. What sort of country is this?

Videos from With Leather and The Postmen.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Book Club: Young Avengers: Sidekicks

I wasn't into comic books as a kid. I had nothing against them - I read a substantial portion of the death of Superman storyline, among other things - but they were never really my "thing". As a result, my subsequent forays into the world of graphic novels have always been pleasant, surprising, and short-lived.

It was with delight, then, that I borrowed a copy of Allan Heinberg & Jim Cheung's first installment of the Young Avengers series, Sidekicks. From my admittedly non-expert perspective, the artwork was great, the design tight, and the characters interesting. And, most importantly, I was left wanting to read more. Even though, just like one of the characters said, I hate time travel things. And this incarnation of the Young Avengers is, indeed, a time travel thing.

Reading the book got me wondering about graphic novel's low spot on the literary totem pole. It's an incredibly rich medium with a lot to offer that can't be readily accomplished in books or films, but society tends to view graphic novels with something between disdain and disinterest.

I, for one, don't really like reading graphic novels on subways, where I do a lot of my reading. It's not an issue of embarrassment, though: graphic novels just feel like two-handed affairs to me. I have difficulty slowing down to focus on each page when reading them on subways, the jostling of the people and the train shatter any hope I have of focusing on the details.

I often find myself at a loss when looking for a new graphic novel to read. Whatever system I use to find new books doesn't seem to work in this context. A lack of exposure and opportunity, I guess. The information must be out there, right? There are probably graphic novel (or at least literary) blogs existing side-by-side with the sports, news and politics sites I visit every day.

The general disregard of graphic novels seems to be slowly changing, though, from my still admittedly non-expert opinion. I see more of them in book stores, more being turned into mediocre Hollywood movies. So perhaps the day is not far away when we will suffer from too many graphic novels, where an illustrated equivalent of James Patterson or Nora Roberts will churn out what seems like a new book every week, to be purchased on the cheap at your local Wal-Mart.

God, what a nightmare.

Thanks to this fine gentleman for loaning me the book. Promise I'll give it back soon.

Follow Up: Skeletons in the Closet

After seeing the Max Kellerman rap video I posted recently, my good friend Firefly steered me over to the SI online archives, and a long, wonderful piece about Max's brother Sam, the other half of the music act.

I had been vaguely aware that Sam was dead, but the article was a real eye-opener not just about the circumstances surrounding his death, but about the details of his life. It is absolutely worth reading for anyone that has a brother, and anyone who has ever lost anyone they care about.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Gameday

Matt Cain takes the hill against the Cardinals today. No analysis right now, I just hope the Giants don't blow it for him again.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Ghost Ride the Volvo

This video is old, but since I just discovered it, I figured I'd post it in honor of the A's fans in my life.



Man, between this and two dollar Wednesdays, I'm *almost* ready to convert.

Credit to the omnipresent Fanhouse.

A Little Off the Top 04/17/2008

I've been neglecting my link dump lately, so let's get right to it:

Slate has an interesting look at game theory as it applies to dinner party guests. It turns out, ladies, that I'm getting more desirable with age. Better get me while you still can...

UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law has declined to fire John Yoo, best known for authoring a Justice Department memo justifying the US military's use of torture in Iraq. Though this isn't the place I'dve chosen to make a stand, in some ways it's nice to see the alma mater standing up to the left for once. When I was on campus, events featuring even marginally conservative speakers were often shut down due to protest and general liberal outrage.

Apparently Charlie Hustle wasn't a very good gambler. The Sports Economist provides a link to a break down of Pete Rose's bets.

Last but not least, California Golden Blogs has a mini-breakdown of some of the differences in academic standards between Cal and UCLA.

That should keep y'all busy for a while. A quick shout out to the Golden Bears Men's Baseball team, currently 23-9, and ranked 8th in this weeks Baseball America poll.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

2008 NFL Schedule Released

Replace every instance of 'Seahawks' with '49ers', and I pretty much agree with Ufford's intro to the 2008 season. San Francisco will be terrible, no doubt, but hopefully not as crippled by the weight of every one's expectations as last year. I look forward to another season of not being able to watch them because I don't have Direct TV.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Skeletons in the Closet

This popped up on the interwebs sometime last week, and I figured I'd re-post it, if for no other reason than I listen to the Max Kellerman show at work every day:



Kellerman mentioned the video on his show this morning, and actually handled it pretty gracefully, I thought. Lord knows there's pictures of me out there that I'd rather not be in mass circulation.

I believe I first saw this on FanIQ, via Deadspin.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Giants Waste Cain's Effort

I didn't get to watch it because Fox decided that Red Sox v. Yankees Part 3,412 was more interesting, but Matt Cain pitched a doozy at AT&T Park today. Dude threw six-plus no-hit innings, and even hit a home run to help his own cause out, but still the Giants lost 7-8.

I believe that's two straight defeats for the West Coast G-Men. At least it was a nice day. Frisbee in Prospect Park heals a lot of wounds...as does rum.

The Giants in the News

The Onion sort of nails it. An unlikely series of events, indeed.

On the plus side, the A's have won four in a row. Now if the Dodgers will just keep losing, I might survive another NYC summer...

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Timmy Lincecum, Hero

Absolutely awesome post over at Bay City Ball quantifying Tim Lincecum's bad-assedness. Print it out and read it again later bad-ass.

Full disclosure: I have the sweet smelling munchkin (seriously, dude is smaller than me) on both my fantasy teams, and he is putting in work. However, I was hanging out on Raising (Matt) Cain last night, and posted a comment about how well my boy was pitching. Needless to say, the baseball gods were not impressed.

Lincecum actually pitched really well in the game, but was denied the win. The Giants ended up winning thanks to the heroics of Benjie Molina, who hit not one, but two home runs in the game, including a walk-off in the 11th. That's right, the very same Benjie Molina I trashed in yesterday's post. So, for what it's worth Benjie, I'm sorry I suggested replacing you with a soccer playing Brazilian midget. Keep up the good work, and I promise to find good things to say about you soon.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Oh, the agony

Anyone who's been reading this site (is anyone?) knows that the San Francisco Giants are terrible this year. Even Matt Cain got lit up yesterday. Four runs is a pretty decent offensive day for this crew, but it doesn't do any good when they give up thirteen.

One of my coworkers, a Yankee fan, accurately pointed out that no team with Benjie Molina batting cleanup can even pretend to be decent. Grant over at McCovey Chronicles went so far as to list all the players (believe me, there's a lot of them) on the other National League teams more qualified to fill the four spot at AT&T Park (that is what they're calling it these days, right?). Every other team has at least four players who could bat cleanup on this team.

Honestly, we might be better off with someone from this Giants team, in Brazil.

Update: The Giants have gone up 1-0 on the Padres while I've been hammering out this whine-fest. Prepare yourself for more live Giants-bashing in future games in a sort of elaborate reverse-jinx effort. God I hope they win more than 60 games this year.

Memphis has left the building

I hate to say I told ya so, Memphis, but I told ya so.

They got a whole lot farther than I thought, obviously, but when all the chips were on the table (pointless poker metaphor alert!), the Tigers simply couldn't shoot free throws. With Leather summed it up nicely, and, no, I didn't win the pool (I had Kansas overall, but way too many underdogs that got knocked out early - I'm looking at you, Drake). You can probably find in-depth game summaries over at Deadspin or Storming the Floor, if you didn't watch the game for some reason.

It's a shame, Tiger fans. Y'all could have been kings.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Pig Hunting Corn Haters

After about six months of off and on reading, I finally finished The Omnivore's Dilemma. In it, UC Berkeley professor Michael Pollan traces the origins and processes behind several different food chains: industrial, industrial/big organic, local, and self-obtained. It becomes obvious pretty early on that he has serious reservations about the ludicrous ways American industrial agriculture sets about dealing with the annual surplus of corn, but how practical is it really to expect us all to hunt pigs in the Northern California foothills or gather our own mushrooms in the streets of Berkeley?

Pollan raises more questions than he answers in this peek behind the curtain and, unintentionally or otherwise, it starts to feel like a ploy to get us to buy his latest book, an unofficial sequel titled In Defense of Food. I haven't gotten around to reading this one yet, at least in part because I think its tag line sums up his answer pretty well: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Are pesticides bad for you? Of course. Is fast food healthy? Certainly not in the quantities a lot of people eat it. A lot of it just comes down to common sense, though. If you eat a lot of fatty, processed foods, you're not going to be healthy. If all you eat is spinach, you're not going to be healthy. Moderation and logic will take you a long way...

So, did The Omnivore's Dilemma change my life? I suppose. I'm more cognizant of what goes into some of the processed foods I love (although it's nothing I didn't already know from reading Fast Food Nation or watching Super Size Me). I value local food more than I did before (although like the New Yorker article I linked to a while ago, if the local food isn't season it's probably just as bad if not worse than food that's been trucked across the country).

Oh, and apparently since I live east of Columbus, I'm environmentally better off drinking wine from France than from the Northern California vineyards I grew up near. So there you have it.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Welcome Mike Montgomery!

Word on the street is that Cal has an agreement in place to hire Mike Montgomery to revive their struggling basketball program. Goodbye, ninth place; hello, top of the league!

I first heard about this on ESPN 1050 this morning, but screw them. Here's a link to Ragnarok over at California Golden Blogs.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Just a Little Off the Top 04/03/2008

Don't have much to say today, so a few links for your entertainment:

The inimitable Big Daddy Drew made me laugh today, with his metaphorical take on Davidson's recent March Madness adventures.

Slate has an entertaining story about the all-consuming nature of fantasy baseball. I still haven't told the girlfriend I'm actually in two leagues this year instead of one. Shh!

Speaking of, Sam Walker's Fantasyland is a fun fantasy baseball read (talk about phrases you never thought you'd hear). I mean, it's no Moneyball, but Amazon is selling the hardcover for seven bucks for some reason, so you can't go wrong.

I think that just about catches us up. I'm trying to arrange another guest post, and might have lined up a full time contributor to the site, so there's a pretty decent chance y'all will get a break from my frequent complaining about the Giants misadventures in the N.L. West.

Until I have something interesting to say...

Wednesday, April 2, 2008