Mostly because the last one hit over 1000 comments, primarily due to a spirited discussion about meaningful things.You won't find that here, though, bucko.

Anyone watch the new version of "V"? Was there anything more to it than Morena Baccarin's cool new haircut?

Anyone going any where near the scarifying rotoscoping of A Christmas Carol?

Is Anthony Lane one of the most entertaining film reviewers working today?

"Please make sure, when you buy a ticket for “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” to pronounce the title in full. I know you will. There was a plan to call it “Push,” until another movie got there first. But why not call the new one “Precious,” and leave it at that? After all, Deborah Kerr didn’t star in “The Innocents: Based on the Novella ‘The Turn of the Screw’ by Henry James,” and Dustin Hoffman didn’t star in “Rain Man: Based on the Overwhelming Desire to Win an Academy Award by Dustin Hoffman,” so why the change in rubric?"

I'm going to start this off by saying thank you for everyone's amazing insight. I have always been an average fan (not really into advanced statistics) until i started reading the insights of Jeff and Co. My question has to do with the future. What is the plan for Ackley? Saunders seems to have found a home in left. Gutierrez is an absolute stud in center. And, of course Ichiro in right. I know Ackley played first at UNC but he is a projected center fielder. Is Saunders going to be the odd man out? Jeff compared him to Randy Winn a while ago and seems pretth high on him. I guess this is a good problem to have. It would be awesome to hear your guys thoughts on where things might sit come September call ups and how our outfield might look in the future. Sorry if the post isn't up to par with the site, I was never one to be great with words.

That was a ripoff, One of the worst World Series' I can remember.  I really wanted to see Philli win, Raul would have gotten his long deserving rings, Utley or Lee would have gotten the MVP.  Matsui only played in half of the series, he didn't diserve it, Plus I always kinda liked watching A-Rod not get a title.

BTW:

Is Anyone else going to make fun of this picture? I think it needs to be done.

I wrote this.

I'll take it down if y'all think it's stupid.

________________

This summer, Major League Baseball revealed its newest statistical plaything, hit f/x, which records the speed of batted balls. This technological toy may not exactly revolutionize the way the game is played, but it does add a critical variable to a hitter’s value – how hard he can hit. Now teams can determine which batters truly hit the stuffing out of the ball.

Strangely, this hit-tracker data seems to go against conventional baseball wisdom. Hit-tracker results have recently revealed that players with lower batting averages actually hit the ball harder than those with high batting averages. Does that mean that to achieve a high degree of success, a hitter needs to hit the ball softer that he otherwise would? Looking beyond the numbers, we discover that this conundrum is an issue of logic.

It is generally accepted in the literary world that plot and character vary inversely; rarely do we find a book with an in-depth plot and intricately developed characters. Similarly, in the world of baseball, speed varies inversely with power; there are exceptions, but it is unusual for a power-hitter to steal 20 bases in a season, or for a lanky speed-demon to hit 30 homers.

A substantial percentage of the batters with batting averages over .300 in the 2009 season had around 15-18 infield hits. There were outliers, of course, but the trend stuck for the most part.  Let’s take a look at how some of baseball’s top hitters (in terms of batting average) might have fared without that extra bit of speed.  Obviously this is not completely indicative of how they actually would have done, but it’s an interesting experiment.

A table:

	# of Infield Hits	Batting Average	Batting Average Minus Percentage of Infield Hits
Ichiro Suzuki	50	.352	.273
Jacoby Ellsbury	26	.301	.259
Pablo Sandoval	16	.330	.302
Denard Span	23	.311	.271
Jason Bartlett	15	.320	.290
David Wright	13	.307	.283
Scott Posednik	27	.304	.254
Skip Schumaker	13	.303	.278
Hanley Ramirez	17	.342	.312
Nyjer Morgan	15	.307	.275
Derek Jeter	22	.334	.299
Erick Aybar	16	.312	.280

Notice that this trend only serves to prove the importance of speed in the batting averages of players who have an abundance of it.  David Wright and Pablo Sandoval still retain high batting averages despite when we subtract a portion of their speed.

Because power-hitters tend to be physically larger and thus slower than other hitters, they don’t beat out as many groundballs as quicker hitters, decreasing their batting average by approximately 17/550, or almost .031. For example, Wladimir Balentien, formerly of the Seattle Mariners, had the fastest average batted ball speed during April 2009 (according to Matthew Carruth http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2009/6/6/901100/mariner-hitters-batted-ball-speeds), but a paltry average. Ichiro, on the other hand, had the lowest average batted ball speed but his usual high average during that stretch.

In reality, batters that hit the ball hard often aren’t quick enough to reach first base on a weakly hit ground ball, knocking a significant amount off their average.

Contact rates actually player a larger role in this issue than does speed.  Players, like the aforementioned Balentien, who swing for the fences all the time usually have low contact rates.  And you’re certainly not going to get a hit if the ball doesn’t leave the catcher’s mitt.  Here I generalize quite a bit – not all power hitters are free-swingers, but those that do see that batting averages drop quite a bit despite hitting for power and a high hit f/x value.

What does this mean?  Honestly, I don’t know.  Infield hits are flawed because in using them to make a point, one must assume that the official made the right call (error vs. hit).  Plenty of power hitters are disciplined.

Any thoughts?

Mont. jury awards $850,000 in aluminum bat lawsuit

I'm sure opinions will vary, though most people I've talked to fall into two catagories. One being, what the hell was this jury smoking? And the other being that this will help get rid of "dangerous" aluminum bats in little league/high school/legion ball.

I

Is anyone interested in some FootbaLL at Cal Anderson Park or Seattle U this upcoming Saturday at 1ish?  I may be a tad late because I have tree planting again.  November 7th is the 4th annual Green Seattle Day, and a number of parks in Seattle (Cheasty Greenspace and many other forested locations across Seattle.
Locations include: Carkeek, Golden Gardens, Ravenna Park, Burke-Gilman Trail, Discovery, St. Mark's Greenbelt, Leschi Overlook, Seward, Maple School Ravine, East Duwamish Greenbelt, Westcrest, Lincoln, Camp Long, Orchard Street Ravine, and West Duwamish Greenbelt) are having sponsored events, so if you have time and don't want to play football (or want to play football after planting trees and pulling up rootballs and thistles, go ahead and sign up at your local park.  It's a lot of fun.

On the 24th we had flags, courtesy of tworsandtwols, and had good games of 4 on 4 and 5 on 4.

(Edit: Flags no longer available)

 

In:

PlaySportsinSeattle (aka Ocho Cinco Wes Welker)

Katal

JamMasterJesus

Baker + 1

Timdor

Jaejo

BrettJMiller

John Bai (Flippy Floppy) + Softball Wife Lindsay

KirkHarbaugh (If he wakes up)

While in college, I was an active seeker of music. It was easy to dedicate the time needed to research, listen, and be discerning in what I listened to. After college, however, my music stagnated for a while. I had a lot of music, just nothing new.

However, when I finally discovered how great podcasts are, I immediately subscribed to some music podcasts (KEXP's Song of the Day, and Music That Matters; NPR's All Songs Considered) and started rediscovering my hunger for new music.

Here's a list of artists I've discovered in 2009 that I really really enjoy:

• Alaska in Winter - Fascinating indie electronic. Check out the song Close Your Eyes - We Are Blind. Heavenly.
• Asteroid No. 4 - I actually started listening to one of their albums in 2007, but didn't really appreciate it (and their other albums) until this year.
• Bon Iver - Spare, ever-so-delicate indie folk.
• Choir of Young Believers - Folk + dream pop + indie pop = awesome.
• Dead Man's Bones - Ryan Gosling's band. Dark indie folk. Surprisingly good for a celebrity band.
• Dr. Dog - Bright indie pop that's sort of a throw-back to the Beatles and the Beach Boys.
• Faunts - Incredible indie electronic. These guys fucking rock.
• The Low Anthem - Indie folk that is occasionally quite rough around the edges, but is frequently beautiful.
• Malajube - Bright indie pop from Montreal.
• Patrick Watson - Crazy instruments and deep layering make for a very rich listening experience.
• Sarah Siskind - Folk. She has one of the most incredible voices I've ever heard.
• Sholi - Complex melding of dream pop and post-rock.
• Vitality - Spare, strange. Sort of rap, but not really. The "rapper" kind of sounds like Dan Aykroyd.

Who have you discovered this year? Any new favorite artists? Any previous favorite artists who have disappointed you this year?

 

CONTEXT

The Seattle Sounders FC and the Houston Dynamo will face each other in the 2009 MLS playoffs, which begins tonight in Seattle.

KEY PLAYERS

Seattle:

Roster

Houston:

Roster

Both the Sounders and Dynamo are filled to the brim with possible difference-makers.

KEY QUESTIONS

Can the Seattle Sounders outscore the Houston Dynamo?

They can.

Can the Houston Dynamo outscore the Seattle Sounders?

They can.

Will one of the Seattle Sounders and Houston Dynamo outscore the other?

Most certainly likely!

X FACTOR

Jaqua

CONCLUSION

GO SOUNDERS!!

 

h/t Jeff for the template

It's new OTD time again, folks. In lieu of the usual OT fare of video games, books, making fun of celebrities and yuppies, etc. I've decided to go with a different theme for my occasional contribution to this wonderful site - home improvement.

This is a topic that has been the bane of my existence for the past month and a half, as I bought quite the clunker and am determined to make it livable on a budget. I won't go LLFB and detail every change I've made so far, but here are a couple things that I've done, and a longer list of neat stuff I'm looking to do.

Done -
* New kitchen cabinets
* Bedroom tear out, replacing wiring (drywall going up soon!)

Neat stuff that I may want to build/do in the future -
Catwalk on the ceiling - I don't even like the cat, but I think this would be awesome, especially the carpeted pole in the front room (maybe have the carpet removable so it can serve double duty without the rug burns)
Spray foam insulation - I can't do it now because of time constraints, but this is something I will be coming back to in the near term. It's the wave of the future, and it's not a flying car this time. R-Value of 21 for a 2x4 framed wall with built-in leak sealing and vapor barrier? Yes, please.

Normal projects in the pipeline -
Make a real front door
Built-in office desks and shelving
Tear down and rebuild shed
Replace deck/patio

Links to sites that I read about housing/remodeling/design -
http://diydiva.net/
http://www.inhabitat.com/
http://www.doityourself.com/

So, now comes the sharing portion of  the show. What things have you done to make your place more livable? Good ideas that maybe you don't see everywhere? Any questions about work you want to do? I know I have quite a bit of experience in roofing, siding, electrical, insulation and tree work. I'm sure there are other people here that know about other things as well.

As always, normal OTD rules apply - talk about whatever within the rules.

The recent OTFPOTD has exceeded the critical mass of 1000+ posts.  I was going to save this one for Monday, but eh, I've never done one of these and I'm way overdue anyway.

Possible Questions:

* Fall has been a topic of late, both in Seattle and NYC, where we are jumping wildly from low-60s to low-40s and back again on any given day.  We've talked holidays and nature and football and BEER, so here's another question with a different spin on it: do your music listening habits change with the leaves?  Do certain bands or albums typify fall for you more than any other season?  Extra credit: what about reading?

* Strangest book you have ever read?  Strangest movie you have ever seen?  Explicate.  Was it worth it?

* What non-curse, non-buzz word would you care to never hear again? 

* Via MarinerJohn, what's your favorite archipelago?

* Via waldo rojas, most overrated board games?

* Let's talk disappointment... in music.  Who is an artist that you were really excited about back in the day that never followed up in the way you expected, or otherwise got mired in prolonged periods of mediocrity?

* Movie series reboots have probably been done.  What about video game series reboots?  Any particular successes, failures, or ones that generated mixed reactions?

Go.