Japan

JPN

Profile count: 
2 877

The Legend of Casey McGehee

Casey McGehee was a middle infield benchie journeyman from 2008 until 2012.  In 2012, McGehee washed out of the Pirates and the Yankees with putrid numbers and results.  Then he disappeared.  Those who remembered McGehee (There weren't many) assumed that he had died or retired into the simple life of a hermit.  

McGehee was forgotten, but his baseball life was not gone.  In 2013, he lived, beyond league, beyond time, beyond the Pacific Ocean in Sendai, Japan.  McGehee awoke in Sendai to a strange new world of baseball.  He had a vision: In his own words to the Japan Times: 

Jesus Montero's 'Tude (and 1300 OPS)

.

I/O:  The Mariners let leak that Montero "did himself no favors" with his attitude and actions during his last 5-game visit to Seattle.  

I/O:  Presumably the "actions" in reference were not Montero's .500 SLG and 120 OPS+ during this trip, which caused Corey Hart and others acute embarrassment.

I/O:  Montero's hitting lately, in the PCL, is beyond insane.  Here's the 1334 OPS+ the last two weeks.

I/O:  Sometimes the Mariners have a little trouble scoring runs.

I/O:  Some amigos point out this is occurring in the Rocky Mountains.  (Does this mean we adjust it, or just ignore it?)

I/O:  Mojo had a great line in the Shout Box.  FKey7 (auto-insert daily).  One might presume that Mojo does not freak out over antisocial attitudes.

I/O:  A teammate also threw Montero under the bus, saying for public consumption "he just doesn't get it."

.......

Prioritization

 

I/O:  The Red Sox are behind the Mariners.  Hey, c'mon, everybody wants to win! 

CRUNCH:  One thing we can agree on:  competition at the highest levels is tougher than it sounds.  ;- )

......

Here is my argument against the idea that "everybody wants to win equally."   I could be wrong.  :: ahem ::

OK, wow, we look up this morning and the Mariners have a chance make the playoffs this year!  Dr. D is positively choked with admiration.

What about the last 37 years, gentlemen, shall we consider those also?  The Mariners have a track record, which track record includes "this year's Robinson Cano free agent followup."  Everybody around baseball was mystified by the M's lack of free-agent support for Robinson Cano.  Remember?

And here we are, 10 runs in 7 games or whatever .... what was that year the M's were .500 in July with unbelievable starting pitching (Felix, Bedard, Pineda, Fister, Vargas or somesuch) and then the offense's futility caused them to give up, lose 17 in a row :- ) and throw in the towel?

.....

Maybe this year they win.

Perhaps an incoming tidal wave of young, cheap, cost-controlled players will override their organizational insincerity about fighting for a championship.  Perhaps they'll win despite the fact that they don't want it as much as Arte Moreno does.  It won't prove anything, to me, about their sincerity.

.

Another Layer of Complexity:  the Paradigm of Prioritization

The "mantra" is "everybody wants to win."  Let's nuance that, and recognize that everybody wants a lot of things.  The question is balancing your wants.

Two priorities, among many, for which CEO's are responsible:

  • Winning the World Series*  (or becoming a primary concern, or leading Market X, or "branding" yourself as youthful, or whatever)
  • Maximizing this year's positive cash flow

30 teams want both, yes.  In that sense "everybody wants to win."  But!  Each of the 30 teams has a subtly different prioritization of those two things.

I don't think you can seriously argue that there is a problem with the 1976-2013 Mariners' prioritization of those two things.  Right after the Cano signing and the sound of crickets following, the East Coast -- not me! -- loudly called into question the M's commitment to winning.

I don't think anybody IN baseball DOES argue about whether there's a problem here.  There is.

.

One (Not-So-Great) Investor's Remarks on the Subject of "Cash Flow"

1) Profit, by the way, is realized on sale.  This year's cash flow is not "profit" as my accountant would define it.  The Mariners are realizing a colossal profit, whether or not this year's cash flow is positive.  This year's cash flow is really just an "operating expenses" issue.

2) For those who just joined us:  you buy an 8-plex for $200k, you sell it later for $500k ... whether your rent was +$1000 to your plumbing in this calendar year is incidental.  Slum lords, like Donald Sterling, make sure their yearly cash flow is +$1000 just on principle.  Not because they need it.

3) And, that $300k profit on the 8-plex ... of course you can spend it now.  It's called a "line of credit."  You take out a $100k second mortagage now, spend the $100k on your wife's Xmas, and then when you sell the 8-plex you get back $200k in pocket (rather than $300k) from the $500k sale price.  You can easily move $100k of profit from "sale date" to "today."  Real estate investors in fact DO this.  Constantly.  I've done it several times myself.

I don't know any fellow RE investors who view this any differently than I just explained it.

All 30 MLB teams have these lines of credit -- "early profit extraction" -- and it is why they can take a $27M "loss" for the 2013 season.  

The Mariners prefer to lead baseball in "yearly positive cash flow."  If this means they lose on the field, well .... you have to set priorities, right?  As Chuck Armstrong put it, quote, "You can't get carried away with" the idea of winning.

 

Yankee$ 4, Mariners 2

.

PROPS to Masahiro Tanaka.  Dr. D missed the game.  Not inadvertently.  He checked in via radio for sixty seconds, about the 5th inning, on the off chance that the ballgame would be worth a fast-forwarding.  You might have noticed that it wasn't.  Well, unless you're into virtuosity for its own sake.  Personally, I'm more into the 99c menu of the fastest possible gratification for the least possible effort.  

Like Gordon sez, best strategy here would be to avoid Tanaka starts at all costs.  You and me as fans; the M's as Wild Card enemies.

....

PROPS to youse guys and your Felix comps.  We did check the 12-15 pitches on video and WOW.  Instantly you were gifted --- > the visceral reaction to what it is like to face The King.  Good call mates.

Tanaka used the 88-90 "dry spitter," and the located 91-95 fastball, almost exclusively (per Brooks).  He worked in a few sliders and when he did, the M's tipped their caps.  If that ain't a Felix start, I don't know what is -- had you superimposed Felix' body onto the flight of the pitches I would have thought it was an unusually good Felix start.

Wow.

....

SLOPS to Dr. D, who not 24 hours earlier had presumed that Tanaka-san had to be a slight beneficiary of the "novelty" factor.  What he is a beneficiary of, is a full-on Felix Hernandez splitter and [a 2010-11 Jered Weaver fastball, add 4 feet].

....

SLOPS to this late-April fangraphs article, which --- > prophesied Tanaka for a post-April falloff --- > which followed a preseason prophecy of problems for Cy-onara.

That is what you get for insisting that everything is captured by an algebraic formula, dude.  And the comments section makes for a hilarious read after the fact.  (Note the byline of the article and the most frequent poster.  What is this, Detectovision?!)

Nissan Wins Big with NYC Yellow Cab Makeover

I can understand wanting to improve the quality of taxi cabs on the roads of NYC. It’s always a good thing to help conserve gas and reduce emissions and such. I’m mostly in favor of the way NYC is doing it even, requiring cab companies to upgrade their vehicles. But when they demand a specific car from a specific company - Nissan in this case - it seems like maybe someone is sliding some hidden money under the table somewhere out there.

Image: 

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Japan