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Posted by

jemanji

12/29/15

From a BJOL answer years back:

Is the contract year phenomenon real? DO players really play better in the final years of their contract?

Asked by: Steve9753

Answered: 7/27/2013

There's a divergence. They play better and worse. Overall about the same, but there are more big years and more absolutely awful years.

I wonder where that leaves Adam Lind and Chris Iannetta? Actually, come to think of it, Iannetta just DID re-enact this maxim on the downside, didn't he? Who else ya got on the 2016 roster?

.....

One more archived BJOL thought:

Hey Bill, I am currently an assistant coach with a colligate summer team. When being an assistant coach at any college level I have always been surrounded by "traditionalist" baseball minds, as I am sure you can relate to more than anyone, what approach did you use when expressing your ideas to others? I dont want to force anything onto anyone but sitting back watching my team sac bunt every game is killing me.

Asked by: Florko

Answered: 7/27/2013

You have to look for people who are receptive. It may be 2%; it may be 10%, but you have to find those people and talk to them.

The people who are committed to old ideas will not change them, ever, and it's worse than a waste of time to try to persuade them to do so. It makes enemies. You just have to look for the openings; look for the topics on which they are uncertain, look for the people who will listen. Good luck to you.

At Forbes.com they've got a Plato quote on the marquee: "As there are misanthropes, or haters of men, so also there are misologists, or haters of ideas." Which is true. Some people can get hopping mad about a thought that other people share. As Robert Heinlein once said, "You want to control the thoughts of my mind?" Even God doesn't do that.

One thing I'm very thankful for, is the fact that people at SSI can trade ideas in a friendly way. Am not sure I know of *any* other place on the internet that can do so as well. Give yourself's a hand, bro-dawgs :- )

Daniel Amen (the brain scan guy who does psychiatry) says that there's a very simple thing we can do to improve our own happiness. Simply notice the things you like about what other people say. You think we're capable of that this next year? Here, I'll start:

There is no doubt that America remains the premier political, economic, military power in the world, and I both expect and count on it remaining so, because I think that's certainly in our best interest but also the best interests of the world. - Hillary Clinton

That quote surprised and pleased me. It's an idea that would send a whole bunch of professors screaming into the night, but she was clear.

Also, Michael Medved went to school with Bill and Hillary, if I'm not mistaken, and he once gave a rather touching recount of Bill being the Big Man on Campus and Hillary being a rather plain, shy young person who learned to handle everything and push herself up, through self-esteem limitations, through dogged persistence. You could make a Disney movie out of that.

.......

I wasn't aware that if Steve Cishek finishes (closes) a lot of games, he'll make more like $17M than $10M for us. He's got huge $500K incentives for games-finished plateaus that are only 5 or 10 games apart. For some reason far beyond my perception, Jerry DiPoto is quite confident that Cishek is going to save 35 games a year for us.

Happy holidays,

Jeff

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Comments

The Sac bunt has gotten WAY too bad a rap...

Just like Dipoto is trying to do with the roster this offseason...

True, it definitely lowers your ceiling, but it also greatly raises your floor.

Maybe this is more important in the college game, but I watched The Oregon State Beavers bunt their way to TWO national championships, while the other guys waited and waited and waited for those walks and three run homers that never came.

The beavs would just single run inning you to death while you put up zero's waiting for the big home run to come.

It was always gratifying to hear the announcers sulk over the beavers bunting a man to second them bringing him home with a single and complain about only getting one run in the inning, and then the next half inning the enemy team gets a guy or two on and the next batter either strikes out or grounds into a double play over swing for that extra base hit... but that was the "right way to play"

And no one EVER brings up the pressure a bunt puts on the defense, even in the majors we see 3b or P or C or 1B throw away easy bunts... Because they are nerve wracking!

Oh well, it's an argument Pat Casey and I will never win, but I am sure he consoles himself just fine by nodding, agreeing that he is wrong and then looking at his multiple Pac-12 and National championships ;) I guess that will do for me as well.

As for Hillary...

If the republican party is really going to push a buffoon like Trump through the primary, then I guess we better get used to parsing her words and looking for silver linings!

In the long view, I am heartened by the opinion my (much smarter, better looking, etc, etc) wife has on the matter:

"With the media and the general public constantly thrashing around with a microscope in the weeds, under the trees, we are all missing the forest. We live in the BEST time, under the BEST circumstance, with the BEST future... In all of recorded history. And no one human, as important as the president is will be able to stand in the way of that momentum and inertia"

Even if Hillary, or Trump, or Voldemort is elected president, we will still all get to live in a great country where every day we get the opportunity to shape at least some small portion of it for the better, and who knows, maybe any one of those candidates will step up to the plate, close their eyes and pull a Pitcher Grand Salami out of the bag like Felix did against Johan Santana (had to get back to baseball somehow ;) )