Daily Feature, Second Attempt
Yesterday, in these electronic pages, I suggested that a daily feature might be an appropriate addition to the site. In particular, I noted that, owing to the pretty serious amount of content we’re generating here these days, it might make sense to include a digest of the previous day’s posts.
What follows represents a second attempt at the daily feature. Mostly what’s different is, per Joe Tetreault’s advice, I assigned each of the previous day’s articles to subject headings (which, in some cases, I took liberties in defining).
Moreover, if I’ve done it correctly, these links should bring you directly to the relevant portions of this post:
Yesterday at FanGraphs
Notable Tweets
One Night Only: Weekend Edition
As yesterday, feel free to make suggestions in the comment section, which I’ll read with bated breath.
Yesterday at FanGraphs
File Under: Current Events, Ruminations On
Roger Clemens Indicted; Steroid Era on Trial by Alex Remington
File Under: Draft Coverage, Present Day
2010 Draft Review: AL West by Bryan Smith
2010 Draft Review: NL West by Bryan Smith
File Under: Draft Coverage, Past Day
First Round Compensation (Part One) by R.J. Anderson
First Round Compensation (Part Two) R.J. Anderson
File Under: Player Analysis, Game-Specific
Just Octavio Being Octavio by Jack Moore
File Under: Player Analysis, General
Niese a Nice Find for the Mets by David Golebiewski
File Under: Transaction Analysis, Ad Hoc
Brad Hawpe Hits Free Agency a Few Weeks Early by Joe Pawlikowski
File Under: Transaction Analysis, Ex Post Facto
Free Agent Signings That Worked by Dave Cameron
Notable Tweets
From AnswerDave Syzyn Wyldmyn: “I’m in Rawjah Clemens’ jury box.”
From KenTremendous: Seems like Roger Clemens is in the twilight of his “not-in-jail” career. http://es.pn/boRvZT
One Night Only: Friday, August 19th
WAS (Jason Marquis, N/A) at PHI (Roy Halladay, 10) | 7:05pm ET
• Given his druthers, our Full-Time Employee would start a franchise with Ryan Zimmerman. Consecutive 6+ WAR seasons is a pretty good reason why.
• Given my druthers, I’d start a franchise with Chase Utley. The cut of his jib is an even better reason why.
• If I had my druthers: My jib would be cut a lot like Chase Utley’s.
SD (Wade LeBlanc, 4) at MIL (Yovani Gallardo, 8) | 8:10pm ET
• Q. Hey, Marc Frigging Normandin — the sort of joy the Padres are bringing you these days, what’s it like?
• A. Like a baby tiger and a baby panda holding hands together in a meadow full of flowers — and both of them hate the Dodgers.
• Yes, Marc Normandin emailed me those words. No, he’s not a 14-year-old Japanese girl. (Or, at least, to the best of my knowledge he’s not.)
One Night Only: Saturday, August 20th
TEX (Cliff Lee, 10) at BAL (Brad Bergesen, 4) | 4:10pm ET
• Oriole coach Buck Showalter versus comedian Michael Showalter — who would win???
• Left-hander Cliff Lee versus General Robert E. Lee — who would win???
• “Probably Cliff Lee” is the answer — to both questions.
NYM (Jonathon Niese, 7) at PIT (James McDonald, 10) | 7:05pm ET
• James McDonald will very probably not maintain the 10.19 K/9 and 2.66 xFIP that he’s posted through his first three Pirate starts. But the possibility of something like a front-line starter — make that a young front-line starter — on a Pittsburgh team populated almost exclusively by tiny babies is excellent.
• If I had my druthers: GM Neal Huntington would actually sign tiny babies to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
One Night Only: Sunday, August 21st
ATL (Mike Minor, N/A) at CHC (Randy Wells, 6) | 2:20pm ET
• Carson Cistulli isn’t qualified to tell you about Mike Minor. Luckily, Bryan Smith is — and he wrote this whole post about Minor’s major league debut, etc.
• If you’re too lazy to read that article, something you should know is this: Mike Minor went seventh overall in the 2009 draft.
• Another thing is this: the pick was soundly criticized at the time, on account of Minor’s lack of velo, which generally settled in the upper-80s at Vanderbilt.
• In 33.1 Triple-A innings this year, Minor posted 37 K against only 12 BB.
• He’s currently throwing somewhere in the low-90s — and just generally bringing the pain.
LAA (Jered Weaver, 8) at MIN (Scott Baker, 8) | 8:10pm ET
• Baker’s strange: his 9.5% swinging-strike rate is above average for a starting pitcher, but none of his particular offerings (fastball, slider, curve, change) are really particularly whifftastic. Per Texas Leaguers, his slider is best, with a 15.7% swinging-strike rate. League average is 13.6%.
• “Peter Bourjos is a great fielder”: this is what I used ca. 1000 words to say the other day.
• There’s a strong chance Jim Thome will never, ever, never, ever get bad at hitting. Here’re his nerd numbers at the moment: .269/.389/.585, .412 wOBA, 162 wRC+, 2.2 WAR. That’s a guy who signed for $1.5 million.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Well Suzyn, in life all good things come to an end.
Still doesn’t seem worth it. If I click on “blogs” I can see a list of all of the recent posts. I’d rather read more original content from Carson C. if he’s going to invest this much time each day.
Shouldn’t the “first attempt” at the Daily Feature be indexed in the “second attempt,” or would that just create a paradox vortex?
But seriously… I agree with Detroit Michael.
I would rather have “One Night Only” as a stand-alone piece. I don’t need the stuff before it at all.
Kind of agreed on the post digest, but if you wanna just add notable tweets to One Night Only, not thinking anyone would complain.
Carson, I love me some Cliff Lee as much as the next stat nerd, but I think you’re severely underestimating Robert E. Lee’s VORG here.