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Taijuan in an MLB Dunk Contest

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Q. Does it increase Taijuan's All-Star chances that he could win an MLB dunk contest?

A. Taijuan would not win an MLB dunk contest. He might not finish in the top 20. Well, not based on the video I saw, at least.

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MLB players, well over 50% of them including pitchers, could play basketball and football at a high level. The same is not true in reverse: NBA and NFL players can't play baseball. As fans, we have very little concept of how remarkable the MLB player is, as an all-around athlete.

Here is a great June '11 read from Tim Kjurkian. Take a sec and check it out; you'll be glad you did. ... We'll wait ...

... back already? Okay, yeah, Mike Cameron deadpans that 70% of MLB players have dunked a basketball. Cameron Maybin can dunk any way you call, meaning reverse, windmill, etc., I guess. Dustin Moseley, a 30-year-old pitcher for the Padres, was asked if he could dunk and he was offended at the question.

Joe Mauer was asked about his (sterling) basketball career and said, "I was a defensive specialist." Go look up his points scored? 22 per game. Heh!

The article says that Grady Sizemore ran for 3,081 yards his senior year of high school; is that a typo or do some guys get 300 yards a game as a prep?

CC Sabathia can dunk; David Wells, at his heaviest, could supposedly dunk. Okay, that's for starters.

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Q. You're seriously saying that MLB players are as strong and fast as, say, NFL players?

The Lesson Of Laura

In the winter, spring, and summer of 1998, I always walked to a brown and tan rambler that stood a couple blocks over on Larchwood Drive in my old neighborhood in Minnetonka.

Oh how I always trod up its tan gravel driveway that lay cocooned beneath snow and ice in winter, or was dry as a bone in spring, summer, and fall.

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Ichiro A and Ichiro B

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IceX, one of our resident NPB hyper-experts, notes

What if this isn't about Figgins batting first, but Ichiro batting third.

Ichiro has bigtime RISP and Runners On numbers and his prowess is well known throughout the league.

Now, few really believe Ichiro is totally done, but by shoving the entire context on Figgins, batting Ichiro third gives you two things... Everyone's looking at Figgins and Ichiro gets to quietly become the extra OBP motor with Ackley infront of Montero and Smoak. The other thing is, Ichiro is probably going to get better pitches to look at with Ackley on base (Figgins on base... hahahaha) than empty leadoff.

We wandered over to B-Ref.com to see what Ice meant by "big time" and, hold on to your lug nuts it's tiiiiiiime fer an overhaul:

ICHIRO CAREER	2 out, RISP	RISP	Men On	Bases Empty
PA	792	1,660	2,794	5,266
OBP	.475	.436	.400	.354
BB	149	254	294	202
K	64	145	234	518
EYE	2.33	1.75	1.26	0.39

Let this statistic sink deeeep into your ears.

Why, oh why, would Ichiro's EYE be 0.40 with no RBI available, but 1.75 when RBI are available? ... well, more in a minute, but for now chew on this: do you remember all those times that Dave Henderson busted Ichiro's chops for simply wanting to get on base, during a rally, as opposed to grabbing the "Big RBI"?

Edit to add, after good spots by alert readers, Ichiro's EYE is 46/64 -- 0.72 -- with RISP and 2 out. This is still double his bases-empty EYE and confirms the 11-years-long observation by broadcasters that Ichiro is "strangely passive" with RBI available. Check that: he's calculating with RBI available.

His lifelong K% is 10.0 with bases empty and 8.7 with men on, which is another reflection of his more-controlled approach with men on.

We wouldn't say that Ichiro becomes George Brett during rallies -- his AVG and SLG don't go up that much -- but he certainly does eliminate his fishing for sucker pitches and he applies his "toughest Ichiro AB's" to the pitcher's dismay.

Putting the Worst Bat #1

C'mon, there are lots of people can't hit like me and Edgar

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Let DaddyO go first:

We can't afford a real 3B, but we can afford to risk blowing off April/May 2012 and start-of-the-season momentum if Figgins hits .250 / .310 in spring training, just enough to sustain life support on hope that we can get value out of him.

Yeah, let's dive underwater in the middle of the Atlantic, try and seal the leaky hull with Carlos Guillen and George Sherrill and Kevin Millwood and everybody for a 2012 sailing into the playoffs ... maybe push Paxton and/or Hultzen in there, Carp in LF, pedal to the metal, see if we can't surprise ... and then point the cannon into the bottom of the keel and let fly with a Figgins experiment.

First AB of the entire season, and many thereafter, will be a clarion cry from the Crow's Nest ... "Land NOT Ho!"

Gary Carter

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We've been asked to lead many funerals. One of the most important questions you ponder, as you're getting your material together, is "Did this person lead the life that they wanted to lead?"

The greatest example of this in my experience was my wife's father. He was a roughneck in school, joined the Navy, saw the world, went to college, became an engineer for Boeing, took care of his money, parceled it out patriarchally, tolerated no disobedience or even disagreement, had the respect if not the extreme love of his family, owned nice cars and motorcycles, vacationed to inexpensive but friendly little fishing resorts, retired as a highly-appreciated consultant to Boeing, pursued his aviation hobbies, and died at 67 -- with absolutely zero regrets, except for the time of his departure.

He took 15-20 vitamin pills per day, his entire life, running circuits around his tile basement every morning before work. It didn't stave off the pancreatic cancer. Perhaps his working in the Minuteman silos had trumped the vitamins.

The key to my wife's comfort, then and now, was this realization. From cradle to grave, her dad had lived exactly the life that he wanted to live.

Gary Carter lived 57 years, and they were 57 years that 99% of American boys dreeeeeeeeeaam of living. Is that preferable to 75 years of a life that isn't the life you'd prefer to live? It's an interesting philosophical question, isn't it? Which lifetime would you take?

POTD Erasmo Ramirez, 1

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Short people got ... noooooo reason .... :: randy newman ::

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Q. Does SSI grok Erasmo Ramirez as comparable to Doug Fister?

A. Possibly. They seem to share the traits of truly elite command within the strike zone. Beyond that, we'll see if Erasmo has the supplemental weapons that separate him from the pack.

There are any number of right hand pitchers who walk 1 batter per game in the minors. What Doug Fister did that made him different was this:

His 1 BB rates were based on wondrous location -- based on superlative mechanics for a tall guy -- and not on over-challenging
He seemed to have a swing-through, plus-plus, changeup at the time he came up

As it turned out, what SSI saw as a very cool changeup turned out to be something 10 degrees different: a nice talent for offspeed pitches in general, and for setting up hitters.

Erasmo Ramirez also seems to be walking 21 men in 151 innings not on the Blake Beavan-style "every pitch a strike" basis, but on Moyer-like command. That makes him different.

Never Call Your Girl a Slut

I know a few women who remain with men who have called them absolutely horrible names—bitch, slut, ho; the list goes on and on. By remaining with someone who calls you these things, you are acknowledging that it’s okay to do so and that you are okay with a man treating you this way. Let me be perfectly clear: it’s not okay. In fact, I don’t care if you are an actual paid prostitute; if your partner calls you these things, he or she does not deserve you.

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Stuck At Home

Recently I read an interesting article on MSN entitled “How to Date When You Live With Your Parents.” *

I read something in it by a dude named “Joel” who was identified as being 26 and stuck back home for three years after a job layoff. This part especially caught my eye:

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Great Date Movies This February

Given that Valentine’s Day is in February, it’s no surprise that the month is full of great movies to watch with a date. Whether you’re looking for something scary (that will make you cuddle!), something sappy (that will make you cry and subsequently make out), or a thriller to make you sit on the edge of your seat (and perhaps clutch a new date’s hand?), there is something for you this month.

The Scary Movie: The Woman in Black

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Gulliver’s Travels Wasn’t Half-Bad

Jack Black is a lot like Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, and other comedic men who start off making us laugh, then somehow get stuck in a rut churning out the same movies with the same plots and schtick that eventually lead us to make fun of them—which makes them still funny, but in a much less nicer way. I used to love goofy Black’s movies, until they started to get formulaic due to his own level of goofiness.

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