drat fink

billdingsroman

"Bill James: What has happened in the last fifteen years is that the expansion of the bullpens has all but eliminated platooning. Teams used to carry nine pitchers, not 15 years ago but 35 years ago. You have nine pitchers on a 25-man roster, that’s leaves 16 players for eight positions, and you can platoon at three or four positions. Bobby Cox in Toronto in the early eighties was platooning at five positions. Now, teams carry 12 pitchers. You’ve got 13 position players for nine positions, you’ve got a backup catcher and a utility infielder, your options for platooning are very limited.
But what we’re doing now doesn’t make any sense, because you can gain many more runs by platooning than you can save by having an extra left-hander in the bullpen. Eventually, people will realize that what we’re doing now doesn’t make any sense, and then they’ll start cutting back the pitching staffs and expanding the benches, and then we’ll go the other way for 30 or 40 years until something else happens and history tears off on some other tangent."

this one first

"You see, futility does have its advantages."

garbo rants

billmon talks, and all was good.

oh no, not again

The Feelies - Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except Me And My Monkey)
Hi-Fidelity Dub Sessions\Hi-Fidelity Dub Sessions Vol. 4 - London
Nirvana - Blew
Nina Simone - African Mailman
Mozart - The Wind Concertos, Serenades & Divertimenti (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra)\CD6\14 Divertimento Es- dur KV 252 (240a) 1. Andante
The Overtakers - Beware (Trojan Rude Boy Box Set\cd2 - rudies all round)
Beth Orton - Blood Red River
Petula Clark - Let It Be Me
REM - There She Goes Again
Bob Dylan - Wild Mountain Thyme

waldmart

the creator of Outfoxed has a blog. here he talks with barack obama about progressives concerns with obamas recent centerist panderings.

hearing aide

Martha Reeves & The Vandellas - Come And Get These Memories 1963
Horace Andy - Dub Down Rome
Komeda - Focus
Shorty The President - President Mash Up The Resident
Yardbirds - I Aint Done Wrong
Augusto Pablo - Thunder Clapp
Johnny Cash - Let The Lower Lights Be Burnin
Senor Coconut Y Su Conjunto - Blue Eyes (Bolero)
Madlib - Gog Was Wrong
Townes Van Zandt - Loretta

shuffle bored

e'ry one luvs dem random shuffles.

velvet underground - jesus (closet mix)
the human league - i am the law
danielson family - big baby
herbie hancock - dolphin dance
nina nastasia - the body
amon duul ii - soap shop rock
diana ross - just say, just say
buffalo springfield - special care
hank williams - moanin' the blues
wire - outdoor miner

jump the blog

not exactly a watershed moment but blogworthy -- harry shearer is guest blogging for josh marshall as josh goes off to perform some prosaic ritual. i look forward to joshs guest spot on the simpsons next fall.

oooh, papa mao mao

i havent linked to billmon since his resurrection but this one was too good to pass up.

just peachy

"She came up the stairs briskly that first day, looking like a girl just out of Bryn Mawr--the whitest of white gloves, the whitest of blouses, the grey tailored suit, the tailored hat, the most immaculate scrubbed look! We're used to a certain amount of careless dressing in Hollywood; nothing about Grace was careless. Even better than the clothes was the quiet, shy, interested manner; she becomes articulate and gay as she gets to know you, and hers is a childlike ability to be pleased. In the pale frothy negligee of Rear Window, she positively giggled at her image in the mirrors. "Why, I look like a peach parfait!" she said."