Even if you don’t love Bambi, you’ve got to love springtime—aside from the allergies, there’s new growth, warmth, flowers, and birds returning home from a season of migration. All of the critters are out bouncing around, the air is fragrant with the natural perfume of newly blossomed buds, and the non-offensive touch of pastel is everywhere. Okay, so some of this can be a bit annoying, but otherwise it’s definitely a time for love.
Something that I’ve noticed as a conventionally non-pretty girl is that pretty girls seem to have the right to act human while us non-pretty girls don’t. For example, if Courtney Cox wants to eat an entire bowl of ranch dressing, people can say that it’s quirky or funny or whatever—but if she were thirty pounds heavier, do you think the comments would change?
The same hot summer day my “Miss Shamrock” story took place a side note with another occurred as well with a pearl white skinned brunette in a black bikini whom I’ll call “Miss Brunette.”
I used to “cruise” for dates at local beaches (such as they are) for the longest time, almost always without good luck.
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RockiesJeff sez,
Is that what makes baseball fun to watch? Who would have guessed when the Phillies signed Lee that they would get a longer vacation? Maybe go on a short getaway with the Yankees? It makes it fun to wonder what player will go from a Baldwin into Boardwalk, especially when you know many will go the other route.
.....Dr. D has always pushed the big rotations in October, but I've got to admit that the 2011 season was a beanball. Under the earflap, that is.
Bill James, maestro of the 30,000-foot historical view, once said "Baseball history is woven on the tapestry of Hall of Fame starters," or somesuch. Give me a GM job, and a challenge to win the playoffs, and I pile my Stars & Scrubs money into a huge 1-2-3 rotation. Guarantee you.
I don't say that a Stars & Scrubs team always beats a Civics team, of course. I maintain only that Stars & Scrubs teams have a big advantage in the postseason, in part because the play gets consolidated into your 5-6 best pitchers.
(And, of course, Stars & Scrubs positions you -- over the course of several seasons -- to create a better roster in the long term. But that's another subject.)
There is probably no more vivid, colorful way to illustrate the difference between SSI, and Fangraphs, than to watch a Mega-Rotation take on a team of no-names in October.
Their WAR/$ theory maintains that a WAR is a WAR is a WAR, and that 25 players who add up to 60 WAR are equal (even in an O.K. Corral matchup, with the bright lights on and the advance scouting piled 10' high) to any other team with 60 WAR. Whether or not that "other team" has Lee, Hamels, and Halladay.
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We had several mega-rotations bring their Imperial Walker stomp into the O.K. Corral's final eight, and in this particular playoff round, the Imperial Walkers did not laser as many Clantons (much less Ewoks) as they'd hoped.
The scorecard:
=== Throw Another Hog On the Barbie, Uncle Elmer ===
=== Future's So Large I Gotta Wear Shades, Dept. ===
It hits me tonight that what I hated about the recent Mariners teams was the tiny players at every corner slot:
SLOPS TO THE LOST CHANCES AT 32/32 QUALITY STARTS - I was kind of hoping for a 23-4, 1.99 season with 32 quality starts. Reality sinks in and we may have to settle for something more like Justin Verlander's best season (19-9, 3.45).
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Image from HitTrackerOnline.com. G-Money was impressed by Smoak's lefty homer into the LF bullpen:
=== Jack Frost with a .310 OBP ===
Heard on the Weather Channel that 31% of the U.S. is covered in snow. Couldn't be warmer from Dr. D's war room in Bonney Lake, though. Baseball's here :- )
