Baseball and Apple Pie

Live Blog: Game 4 NBA Finals

2009-06-11T20:41:00.024-04:00

A few things need to be said before this blog gets going:

1. I DO NOT think Kobe is the best player in the NBA. The objective numbers suggest he is behind LeBron, Chris Paul, and Dwayne Wade. His Hype machine is the biggest though. I may make fun of this.

2. Orlando Magic bandwagon fans have annoyed me to the point that I want LA to win by 1,000.

3. I have had a few beers and will continue drinking.

Let's Go!
The NBA Finals: Where not dressing like a coach happens. Congrats to Stan Van Gundy on being the most underdressed coach ever to make the finals.

Prediction: Lakers by 6. 2 of the 3 "experts" (since when is Michael Wilbon an expert on anything) chose with me.

Side note: David Ortiz Homers off C.C. Sabathia. Most unlikely thing to happen this entire baseball season?

Skip Bayless announces on Twitter he is sticking with Orlando in 7, and that "Cant Count on Sabathia" is surprising pitching well against Boston. You know even though C.C. has been like, the best pitcher in baseball the last 2 years.

9:07: Kobe makes first shot of the game, then a miss by Orlando (0-2 Lee) and a foul.

9:10: The Magic are really crashing on Gasol down low early.

9:11: The first 4 shots are 3 pointers by Courtney Lee (1-4) but an offensive rebound and Howard goes to the line, (1-2) Why isn't his hand on the side of the ball when he shoots free throws? Seriously?

Skip Bayless is an idiot. I will continue monitoring. But just know that.

9:17: Jeff Van Gunday hates foul calls down low that are reflected in the rule book so that "men can be men". He is like 5 feet tall, I'll show him what a foul looks like.

9:19 Good defense and rebound by Howard, then Hedo throws the ball away, but JVG thought it was a "good look by Turkoglu" even though nobody was close. Then an And-1 by Kobe. He's got 7 of 11 Lakers points.

11-12 Orlando first timeout, beer time.

Skip Bayless thinks Dwight's energy is because of Kareem's stupid side remarks. I think it is because he is a pro basketball player in game 4 of the finals. Who do you think is right?

9:24: Magic have a 24 second violation out of a timeout. Good coaching. A couple sloppy possesions after that and then Skip to my Lou knocks down a shot. 14-11.

Then a Howard block and a crazy shot by Alston going out of bounds and barely looking at the basket, must of learned that at Rucker.

9:30: Technical foul on Ariza, gotta hone in that emotion Trevor, this ain't UCLA!

9:33: Stan Van talking about what another coach (Popavich) tells his team during the finals. Way to go Coach!

Jeff Van Gundy says after Dwight's start he should shoot the technical shot. That may be the worst grasp of basic statistics ever in the history of the universe*

*hyperbole, sort of.

9:37: Pietrus grabs the crap out of Bryant and then fouls him. Then he does the good NBA thing and complains about it for no reason. 20-17 Orlando.

9:40: Alston with a gorgeous floater, then a Laker's travel. Mbenga with a huge shot block, and Bryant nails a jumpshot.

9:42: Reddick super bricks the last shot. Magic by 4 after 1 quarter.

** Second Quarter will not have live updates, maybe a couple general thoughts I will be back in the second half.**

UPDATE: Unfortuantely my internet and computer are malfunctioning to the point where live blogging is no longer a possibility.

You had a good run, Magic

2009-05-25T00:02:00.004-04:00

Well as predicted by me, and any sane human being who knows what a trend line looks like, the Nuggets-Lakers series did not consist of seven games where both teams scored 100 points. Magic Johnson did make it to the third game, so I guess that was close.

I actually heard him repeat it after the first game too. Sweet.

This is getting fun! Steve Phillips is stupid!

2009-05-20T17:16:00.006-04:00

Update: a much better writer took Steve Phillips to task for SI.com http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/05/19/carlos.beltran/index.html

From Steve's chat:

I would take Torii Hunter, Grady Sizemore, Curtis Granderson, and Nate McLouth over Beltran, and use the financial difference to improve the team in other ways. Beltran isn't a $17 million dollar a year player. He just doesn't have the kind of impact for that kind of money.

Okay so let's look at how good the people he would rather have over Beltran are.

Torii Hunter: Age-33, 106 OPS+, -2.3 UZR/150, 2008 WAR 2.3 worth 10.4M, 16.M Salary
Grady Sizemore: Age-26, 122 OPS+, 6.7 UZR/150, 2008 WAR 6.3 worth 28.3M, 3.2M Salary
Curtis Granderson:Age-28, 118 OPS +, 6.0 UZR/150, 2008 WAR 3.8 worth 17M, 1M Salary
Nate McLouth: Age-27, 111 OPS +, -11 UZR/150, 2008 WAR 3.6 worth 16.1M, .4M Salary

Now Beltran: Age-32, 119 OPS +, 3.7 UZR/150, 2008 WAR 6.7 worth 30M, 18.6M Salary

As you can see Beltran put up more wins above replacement(WAR)than any of the other players last season. But let's delve into it a little further.

Torii Hunter used to be a great defensive CF but is no longer, his career UZR is actually negative now. He is older than Beltran and not nearly the hitter. Only a person who has no knowledge of statistics or really baseball would want an older player who is a lesser hitter, lesser fielder, and makes about the same amount.

Grady Sizemore I would legitimately rather have than Beltran. He is at the same level of play all around and is younger and has a lower salary. Good job Steve, you got one right.

Curtis Granderson you could make a case for because his defense is legitimately great, and he has show the ability to hit well. He has less power than Beltran and doesn't steal bases as well, and has not been as consistently great. He has one season (2007) where he had 7.4 WAR, however no other season has he gone over 3.8. He is an excellent player but not in the Beltran class. The only real argument would be on salary and age. With the Mets in win now mode this would be stupid.

Lastly Nate Mclouth. Nate had a good hitting season last year and got lots of people excited about him. He has never in 4 other seasons been even an average major league baseball player. Despite the gold glove last year every single defensive metric thinks that he is one of the worst everyday fielders in MLB. It is so silly and short sighted to even think he and Carlos Beltran are on the same planet. He is sort of young, actually right at peak age, which means more of those sub-average years to come than the 3.5 WAR years.

I hope I illuminated how stupid Steve Phillips is. If not look at how good Carlos Beltran is.

He is the most effecient basestealer in the history of the game. Meaning he has the highest percentage of successful steal attempts of any player with more than 200 steals.

His WAR the last 3 years: 6.7, 4.9, 7.0

The only outfielder who has produced more value than him since 2002 is Barry Bonds. Not worth his contract Steve? Sheesh!

Sports analysis, where you can say whatever you want and nobody will call you on it.

2009-05-18T00:07:00.007-04:00

Magic Johnson played basketball at Michigan State, then for the Los Angeles Lakers. He was extremely good at it, I consider him the second greatest player in the history of the game. What he is not good at is basketball analysis. This can be seen with many ex-players (Emmitt Smith!), because players aren't especially good at describing how they did what they did, or who does it the best today. They often overweigh things like "heart" and "grit" instead of just saying that one guy is a much more talented player than another. Also Magic Johnson (and every analyst ever) likes to make crazy predictions that the statistical evidence does not suggest is possible (John Kruk said Randy Johnson would win 30 games at the beginning of one season). I like making crazy predictions too, I did it before the baseball season, but at least I looked at statistical trends beforehand.

So what was Magic Johnson's assessment of the Nuggets-Lakers series. "I think it will be a highly contentious series that will go seven games and each team will score over 100 points every game."

Let's break that into parts.

I think it will be highly contentious

Ok, both good teams. I'll buy it.

I think it will go seven games

They are the #1 and #2 seeds in the west so that sounds good.

Both teams will score over 100 points each game

Umm, huh? That sounds ridiculous, let me spend 30 seconds looking up their past macthups this year.

102-116 Lakers, ok so he is doing well
97-104 Lakers, pretty close but nope (also was before the Billups trade and the Nuggets slowed their posession rate)
90-104 Lakers, Whiff...
90-79 Nuggets, WOW not even close

Sick of Manny crap, Going FireJoeMorgan.com style, only less funny because I don't write for The Office

2009-05-08T15:10:00.019-04:00

Howard Bryant wrote a column called "Manny fallout: no excuses left". I tried my darndest to do the good people of FireJoeMorgan proud.

Just when it appeared there could be no more surprises in baseball's drug-fueled con game of three-card monte, the joker just hit the table.

First off, huge slugger linked to steroids, not so much a wild surprise. Secondly, who really thought we were done with this stupid steroids crap with the illegal list of 103 players floating around.

And what can they all say now that Manny Ramirez -- engine of the Dodgers' resurgence,

Who is they? you haven't introduced any people into the article. Do you know english?

arguably the best right-handed batter since Rogers Hornsby,

That would be a short argument, ready
Bill: Manny Ramirez is the best right handed hitter since Rogers Hornsby
Bob: Pujols
Bill: Oh yeah, nevermind

owner of 533 career home runs, MVP of the Boston Red Sox's first World Series win in 86 years -- has been banned for 50 games for his use of a substance -- the female fertility drug hCG -- that men inject when cycling off steroids?

Actually he was suspended for having possession of it, after having raised levels of testosterone. But fact checking is for sissies.

This is a media story. Why won't the media leave this alone?

Oh I see what he is doing, he is going to talk about excuses that apologists use. And yes, the media does take this WAY too far. You know, like breaking A-Rod's constitutional rights to access a list of players that should not have existed.

This one was a favorite old chestnut of players and fans too blind or too apathetic to confront the truth that their gilded, fallen heroes have been engaged in a deep deception for many years (roping their admirers in along with them).

The ones that the media made into heroes. Sane people don't make baseball players into heroes. Although while you bring this up, why aren't you talking about how players in the 60's and 70's ate amphetemines like they were candy to stay on the field. This must be about only this generations "heroes". I'm starting to catch on.

What has occurred has been nothing more than a naked money grab at the cost of something far more precious than cash

Gold?

The blame-the-messenger approach won't work today. It can't. This time, it wasn't Selena Roberts or BALCO crusaders Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams or the New York Daily News or the ESPN bulldogs chasing down another misunderstood ballplayer.

You know you're right, I should hate Manny Ramirez even more than these people. I'm angry, you ruined my favorite sport Manny Ramirez, how dare you. I will never again enjoy a homerun.

For once, it wasn't even the federal government that stepped in, extinguishing those doesn't the government have more important things to do than hunt down ballplayers? dismissals.

Don't get me started on the government intervening. It's like he loves everything I hate. Mostly infringing on constitutional rights, and ruining effecient government.

This time, it was baseball's own trap -- its much-maligned substance abuse policy -- that snared Ramirez when its testing program revealed that Ramirez arrived at spring training this year with elevated levels of testosterone. That red flag set off an investigation that ultimately led to his suspension for using human chorionic gonadotropin. People keep talking about performance enhancers because the players keep using them.

Look eventually he got the chain of events correct. It's not that the media keeps talking about it, it's how they get on their soapbox and proclaim steroid users liars, cheaters, filthy, theives, and every other word in the book. Then barely cover the fact that Brett Myers beat the shit out of his wife. It is about the shock and awe coverage. Mostly it is about people like you who do a million of these stories in baseball, but it is halfway forgotten when Shawn Merriman tests positive.

All this took place in the past, when there were no rules. Why is everyone digging into the past? We need to move forward.

Legitimately, this is a stupid excuse in a vacuum. However it does seem that the amount is going down right? And we can't even really prove that PED's help you play baseball better.

In December, one year after the release of the Mitchell report, major league baseball was triumphant: No big-name big leaguer had violated the league policy.

See, I told you. But I cheated because I knew what he was going to write, having read the article and all.

In January, journeyman Phillies pitcher J.C. Romero was suspended, under somewhat murky circumstances, for the first 50 games of this season.

"somewhat murky" You mean he took a supplement sold in every health store in the country that had been spiked by a company to show better results, and the ingredient he tested for was not written on the bottle he bought. THE HORROR!

A strengthened testing policy suggested by George Mitchell -- and agreed to by MLB and the MLB Players Association -- was in place, and MLB had created a no-nonsense in-house investigations unit unafraid to look into the dark corners of the game that the combination of fear, politics and denial had led the game's leadership to ignore.

Ok so the new policy is doing well....and you are writing overly dramatic nonsense.

The Phillies won the World Series, and, for the first time in a long time, a calendar year hadn't ended on a scandalous note. Life was good. The steroids era had finally been put to rest, comfortably in the rearview mirror.

Woo the game is clean again (you know like it was when it was filled drunks, racists, drug addicts, gamblers and we didn't have the huge media soapboxing), even though smarter sights like Baseball Prospectus were talking about a new frontier of drugs.

Now, in the first four-plus months of 2009, two of the game's biggest stars -- Alex Rodriguez and Ramirez -- have fallen harder than Enron,

You do know that the proven timeline for A-Rod was comfortably in your "steroids era" right? So it is a little silly to lump it in after talking about the new policy.

and baseball is finding out the hard way what the Olympics have long known: There is no end to the steroids era, only the beginning of a new, permanent age in which sophisticated drugs and high technology are part of the game's ethical discussions.

Right like I said, intelligent people have known this for a while. Highly competetive athletes with millions of dollars on the line will take what ever edge they can get. It is seriously not rocket science.

With Rodriguez, the old argument could have applied. His name had been leaked from the anonymous survey testing link back in 2003, supposedly the Stone Age of steroids awareness

Why do you keep spouting misinformation, and then going back and telling us it was a stupid thing to say right after I tell you it is a stupid thing to say.

But Ramirez represents an entirely different entity. He clearly had been using banned substances as late as this year, suggesting the colossal arrogance (if not stupidity) that players -- even at the level of Ramirez -- still believe they can beat the system.

I would bet a lot of players are beating the system.

Ramirez has proved that the use of performance-enhancing drugs is not a "yesterday" issue but a "today" one.

Right, we already talked about this.

And Bud Selig wins the Pyrrhic battle of the day. He has the satisfaction of knowing that his drug-testing program is not just a showpiece and that he has put his money where his mouth is. He promised no player would be spared under his tough new guidelines, and he proved he was willing to take down one of his biggest stars

See this is a good thing. You finally have me hooked in especially with your fancy words. I am totally with you!

But that victory must go with the salty disappointment of knowing that his players were using and are still using because no one wants to be the only guy on the field who isn't getting extra help. Baseball labor chief Rob Manfred once told me, "The goal isn't to catch players. The goal is to get them to stop using."

See then you just blew it. You know why? Because I saw you on television talking about how stupid and putrid Manny is. How he shamed the game, and villifying him to no end. The goal of the media is obviously to catch players, report it and get on their high horse for as long as possible.

I don't really know what the whole point of this story was. I guess it was to tell us there is still steroids in baseball. Thanks, I guess. A little reasoning would have made that clear. Roger Goodell should thank his lucky stars that the Howard Bryants, and Bill Plashkes, and Jayso Starks of the world write primarily about baseball.

Predictions running amuck

2009-04-06T16:21:00.002-04:00

This is where I post random predictions about baseball this year and then check back after the season to see how ridiculous I look.

Cliff Lee is a huge regression candidate, he will not win 17 games.

Hanley Ramirez goes 40/30.

C.C. Sabathia's ERA will go up almost a whole point, but he will be just as good of a pitcher, it will be because of playing in a division full of good lineups.

Derek Lowe will be the best free agent signing of the off season. Pudge will be the worst.

B.J. Upton will hit 25 HR. Justin will hit 30.

The Rangers will be in contention and trade Taylor Teagarden for pitching help near the deadline.

Kelly Shoppach will be better than Victor Martinez.

Derek Jeter's BA will be below .280.

Dice-K's ERA will go up more than a point. Beckett's will fall.

Cameron Maybin and Travis Snider win the ROY awards.

Miguel Cabrera leads the AL in HR again. Ryan Howard does the same in the NL. However the MVP trophies go to Mark Teix, and David Wright.

Fidel Castro Loves Sabermetrics

2009-03-11T19:49:00.000-04:00

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/03/11/im-a-fidel-player-too/#more-1712

Yeah!

Sights and Smells of my Kitchen now

2009-03-06T19:52:00.004-05:00

Braised pork stew with red wine, chicken stock, herbs, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic

UPDATE: absolutely delicious and some of the most tender pork I've ever eaten. The layers of flavor were evident. Worth the time and effort.

Preliminary Reactions to Projections

2009-03-06T00:53:00.003-05:00

AL East: The Yankees were the favorite by about a game, and I adjusted down a couple games because of Alex Rodriguez's injury. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays are the 3 best teams in baseball on paper. They are all within the the margin of error to win the division

Al Central: I expected it to be the Indians in the lead, with a conglomerate of chasers. I can see every team in the division pushing, but I doubt the Indians will have the bad luck they experienced last year and fully expect them to win the division. Grady Sizemore, for the win.

AL West: I think the Angel's and A's are both seriously in contention and the Rangers are so young that they could make some noise. I halfway expect the A's to take the division honestly because I think Beane will do something at the trade deadline.

NL East: The Mets are the favorite on paper, again. I adjusted the Marlins up because all the pitchers are young, and if they can stay healthy they will be good. Also, I am a homer. Nationals surprised me, and I adjusted them down a little because they have yet to show me they can do it.

NL Central: Cubs, then crapshoot! I expect the Pirates may be better than my projections. One of the teams I think may outdo them, but again they may dump something at the deadline and fall to where I have them.

NL West: I'm counting on a breakout from some D'Backs hitters. But it is the closest top to bottom division. I like the Giants quite a bit, they may get to 81 wins or so, and if the Backs don't breakout and the Dodgers have some injuries....

Baseball Projections 2009

2009-03-05T19:09:00.000-05:00

For my projected standing I use aggregate data of different projection systems that I trust, and I adjust them slightly using anecdotal evidence of scouting reports, and the games I watch. Projections have notoriously had problems with young pitching for instance, so sometimes scouting reports can help when adjusting slightly. Remember these are early projections and the standard deviation on these is like 5 games. Once the ESPN experts come out with their projected standings I hope to compare before and after the season. These also include the A-Rod injury (adjusted for missing about 30 games), and the Manny signing.

American League

Red Sox: 97-65
Yankees: 95-67
Rays: 92-70
Orioles: 75-87
Blue Jays: 74-88

Indians: 87-75
Tigers: 82-80
Twins: 82-80
Royals: 74-88
White Sox: 73-89

Angels: 86-76
A’s: 83-79
Rangers: 76-86
Mariners: 73-89

National League

Mets: 89-73
Phillies: 87-75
Braves: 83-78
Marlins: 81-81
Nationals: 70-92

Cubs: 90-72
Cardinals: 83-79
Reds: 81-81
Brewers: 80-82
Astros: 69-93
Pirates: 68-94

Diamondbacks: 87-75
Dodgers: 86-76
Giants: 78-84
Padres: 76-86
Rockies: 74-88

Like I said returning and this Blog.

2009-03-01T04:47:00.002-05:00

First of all. College baseball, FSU has lost one game 10-9, playing teams that can't hold their jock. but they are holding their own. They will be plenty fine offensively. On defense they will be at least mediocre, and probably bad, which will bear down on Parker, Gilmartin, and Gast.

Spring training is starting. I'm starting to put my numbers together. Gathering forecasts from really smart people (and doing a little adjustments myself.) I consulted a friend on fantasy baseball today and he treated me like I worked for a pay website. It was cool. But I'm starting to realize the Marlins may be a 75-79 win team. It sucks. Every projection has us around 75-77 wins.

Young pitchers are hard to project. If Johnson, Sanchez, and Milller outlive their 50th percentile projection, the Marlins will compete. But, if there is any regression, and the young guys don't pull through, we will be back in the bottom of the NL East.

(The Nats have the boom or bust lineup, Milledge, Dukes, Johnson, etc.)

Baseball and getting back to blogging

2009-02-10T21:47:00.002-05:00

I obviously have not been updating since starting graduate school ,mostly because I am still getting used to the level of work, and trying to get A's in all of my classes. I do have a few observations, and soon I will start pulling together information for pre-season predictions.

-The first previews of the season are out and Baseball Prospectus has the Marlins with 74 wins. I talked a little bit about us jumping 5-6 games from last season because of alignment and transactions. However it seems they are not going to align the team as I had thought, and didn't go after any free agents, and traded away 2 good relievers. I don't think they are going down to 74 wins, but I don't think 90 is a realistic view eithier.

-Everyone has written about A-Rod so all I will say is that the way that the names were linked, and the fact that the names and tests were not destroyed scares the crap out of me. If I were Alex I would want to sue the Major League Union over all of this. He can't for PR reasons obviously but I think this is the real travesty. I don't care if a guy took steroids that much, athletes have been cheating forever and there is extensive research that proves that it helps in recovery and dissipation of injuries but no conclusive results that says it helps baseball skills. At the most it may add a tiny bit of length to long fly balls. Hand eye coordination for hitting, selectivity, fielding all are pretty much unaffected. However the privacy issues that come from how the leak came about are very disconcerting to me as an American citizen.

Back to my roots food.

2009-01-12T19:24:00.002-05:00

I made an old school southern soul food dinner tonight with my own spins.

Fried chicken- Just did the breasts, so I guess they are chicken tenders. Marinated in half and half, egg, and louisiana hot sauce before being battered and deep fried at 375 degrees.

Collard greens- boiled and then combined with onions that have been cooked down, salt, pepper, cream and a little bit of vinegar. Collards traditionally are finished with a little cider vinegar.

Blackeye peas- cooked with smoked Jowl bacon and finished with pepper sauce.

Cornbread- whole corn kernels and 2 diced jalapenos are mixed into the batter.

Comments

2009-01-02T14:46:00.001-05:00

They are turned back on, for those of you that care, or messaged me to say there was something wrong.

My 2009 sports wish list

2009-01-01T19:47:00.002-05:00

Baseball:
To adopt instant replay for more than just homeruns. For those who believe it will take out the “human element” I say it will initiate the “correct call element” and there is no way it takes more time than managers going out and arguing.

For ESPN to put someone who understands statistics, and won’t hail batting average, RBI, and pitcher wins on Sportscenter and Baseball Tonight with regularity. May it be Keith Law, Joe Sheehan, or any number or guys really; it would make the shows more interesting and give more validity to the analysis. There can’t be anything wrong with hearing both sides, right?

Will large market owners please stop whining about a salary cap. They have been proven not to work correctly and are just a redistribution of consumer surplus from players to owners. Oh yeah, that’s why you want one.

I’d like the down ballot voting for the BBWAA awards to be more consistent and objective, although they did a pretty good job of getting the winners correct.

For the Marlins to be in contention.

Basketball:

Flopping, flopping, and flopping. The officials need to get more serious about not calling flops, and the league needs to review tape for egregious offenders and use fines against them. Manu, I’m looking at you.

As I discussed last week, I’d like to see the All-Star game voting looked at and fixed however it needs to be. There should be starting PG, SG, SF, PF, and C. Instead we get G,G,F,F,C.

For people to stop the Deron Williams vs. Chris Paul talk. That one is settled guys, really.

Honestly I think the league would be better off with two less teams. This obviously is not going to happen but I think as a product we'd all be better off if we cut say the Oklahoma City Team Stealers, and the Minnesota Timberyucks and then allowed their players to be signed by any team in the off season.

Lastly but most important, I think the top 16 teams should make the playoffs regardless of conference this year isn’t as bad as last year, but still a very good Western Conference team will get left out while an under .500 Eastern team (or 2) gets in.

Personal rambling

2008-12-31T14:50:00.003-05:00

Note: This is personal and has nothing to do with food or sports, no real need to read on. I don't usually turn this blog into a journal of sorts but wanted to get some thoughts out.

It is slightly amazing to me sometimes how much we turn out like our parents. We take on their ideas, manuerisms, etc even if it is subconsciously. Granted not everything, but there is always this underlying parent in us. My brother and my mom are like two peas in a pod most of the time. I am much more like my father, and sure there are a ton of ways that I'm not like him, thankfully. But I am very similar to him.

This brings me to the idea of circumstantial relationships. The ones that are different with the way one of the people lives. Parents are supposed to love their kids and support them no matter what. That is what my parents have always done, and what I hope to be able to do as a parent. However there are parents who don't operate like this. The ones who, if you make a decision they don't like in your personal life they treat you with spite. They may hold grudges, or even denounce you as a son or daughter all together.

This brings me back to how we are like our parents. I think that after seeing this, and being subjected to this it is a hard concept for someone not to incorporate into their lives. A friend does something that you don't like, or don't agree with in their personal life, away from your friendship, and it is an easy fix. Introduce shame, guilt and grudges into the equation. Exercise the same form of controlling others as your parent(s) did. However the problem is that functional adult relationships don't work that way. It is not fair to your friend if they have to feel judged. Friendships and other adult relationships should not be circumstantial, they should work across all situations.

As I've grown older I have realized this more and more. I used to use such tactics, but realized that it is no way to treat other human beings, especially ones that are supposed to be my friends. However, sometimes it is much to hard not to be like your parents and I think for some people this is a hard thing to see.

NBA All-Star voting, and fun with numbers

2008-12-29T13:06:00.003-05:00

The NBA All-Star game is the most entertaining weekend of the three major sports in my opinion. The Pro Bowl is a joke, and baseball has tried to make their's more entertaining with the "this time it counts" slogan. However I completely disagree with giving home field advantage to the league that wins, also when undeserving players make it simply because each team must be represented it unnerves me a bit. The NBA All-Star game puts on a show, and gives us great moments by some of the best athletes in the world. Like Glen Rice's just can't miss 41 point outpouring, to Jordan coming back and winning the MVP as a Wizard. Also, although I've never done research into it the voting seems to mesh with who the best players are a lot better. Maybe basketball is more transparent, or maybe the stats are easier to understand. I'm not sure. I think it is easier to get closer to the best 30 players than 50 or 75 which helps the NBA as well. Elite players are easier to pick out. There are egrigous errors like Shaq being voted in while not playing more than 10 games once, but there are always stars who get in because they were good at one point, in any sport.

This brings me to my currrent problem. Tracy McGrady is leading Chis Paul (and every other west guard except Kobe) so far for the All-Star starting spot. Here is a brief comparison of the two so far this season:

Points: Paul 20.1, McGrady 15.9
Assists: Paul 11.4, McGrady 4.7
Rebounds: Paul 5.2, McGrady 4.8
Steals: Paul 3, McGrady 1.13
FG%: Paul .497, McGrady .400
FT%: Paul .884, McGrady .826
Player Effeciency Rating: Paul 30.48, McGrady 18.15

I won't even mention that Paul leads the league in assists, and steals, or that 5 rebounds from a 6 foot PG is ridiculous, oh wait I guess I will.

As you can see Paul does every single thing basketball related better than Tracy McGrady. So you ask why is T-Mac still leading. Because NBA voting has become wildly flawed by the global voting. We know that Yao Ming is going to be the starting center every year because the Chinese vote for him. That is not a problem because he is, you know, the best center in the West. However as the game gets more popular the Chinese vote even more, and they vote for Yao's teammates as well. For illustration, Rafer Alston has more votes than Brandon Roy or Chauncey Billups. Yep that Rafer Alston. Skip to my Lou. More. Than. Brandon. Roy.

Oh and how about Yi Jianlian over in the East. The guy averaging 10 and 6, with a PER that is below league average. Yeah he is third behind only LeBron and Garnett. Ahead of CHRIS BOSH, Paul Pierce, Josh Smith, Danny Granger and Hedo Turkoglu.

David Stern needs to intervene, or figure out a cap of votes, or weight votes, or something. This is absurd and it makes me angry.

Marginal wins

2008-12-23T00:11:00.002-05:00

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2008/12/18/692197/marginal-payroll

This outlines a basic view of marginal wins for each team.* The Marlins and Rays were the best, and the Marlins were by far the best. What if the ownership gave the same scouts, and front office guys 2 Million per marginal win? Would we win 90-95 every year. Obviously the idea of diminishing marginal returns applies, but at 291,000 a win one has to believe that buying a few wins would return in spades.

* A marginal win is an easy concept. Basically a team of replacement players (whatever the team could produce for no money by way of AAA, or trade of non-prospect) would win about 48 games, I've seen 50, and I've seen 52. I'd imagine it is probably 2 or so lower in the NL where the talent pool is lower. Any win over that is a marginal win created toward 162. As the margin gets lower, the tougher a win is to create given the idea of diminishing returns. Getting to be a 90 win team on paper is basically the idea, and hope for a little luck.

New Orleans Eats: Supper Day 2

2008-12-17T18:10:00.002-05:00

This seems like a simple idea but if you are running a restaurant, the food should be edible. What I mean is it shouldn't be incredibly difficult to eat.

I bring this up because I returned to The Gumbo Shop today to try the seafood gumbo because I was so pleased with my meal yesterday. The problem was that there were crabs in the dish which had not been cracked and there were no utensils given for doing so. Also they had been cooked in there and mixed around so much that the shell had begun to flake. I got shell in my mouth a few times, and I wasn't able to even finish the whole dish because of it. Don't get me wrong the flavor was good, but I couldn't get around this fact.

New Orleans Eats: Lunch Day 2

2008-12-17T14:52:00.003-05:00

I decided to forego breakfast to get some sleep in after a late night last night. For lunch we hit up Johnny's Po'boys. They make pretty much anything you want into a traditional New Orleans style Po'boy. From in house made sausage, to veal, to seafood. Originally I was wanting to do an oyster Po'boy but when I got there I decided on the crawfish. The crawfish itself was excellent. The tails were much larger than the ones that we get in Florida and that made a difference. They were battered and deep fried, with an excellent crunch to them. However that is pretty much the whole highlight of the sandwich to me (albeit an important part.) It came with mayo, lettuce, tomato and pickle (I left off the pickle because regular dill pickles disgust me.) The bread was a traditional 12" crusty hoagie bread with good crunch on the outside but wasn't really soft and was too dry. It may have been day old, I'm not sure.

There were a lot of locals, and in fact were pointed in the direction of Johnny's by a local in one of the shops. However I feel like it may get by more on the name and tradition these days unlike Cafe Du Monde and especially Gumbo Shop. It was good, but not great and in fact I have had better Po'boy sandwiches. The portions were huge. I couldn't finish more than half of the food.

The sides Jon and I were split on. I got the red beans and rice and they were not all that good. They had smoked hamhock in them but were cooked to mush and not seasoned well at all. Again huge portions. Jon liked his sweet potato fries but I absolutely hated them. They were fried well but had what seemed like pounds of sugar and cinnamon on them. I couldn't eat more than one. So one was over seasoned, and one was under seasoned. The sandwich was worth the money and I could see myself returning one day, especially given the size and quality of the seafood (Jon got calamari), but the rest was below average.

New Orleans Eats: Supper Day 1

2008-12-16T20:09:00.003-05:00

So it may seem like I am just enjoying all of the food I am eating without any discretion of palette. But really I am trying to tell you straight how it is. The food has just been that outstanding, part is because we have taken suggestions, and part is checking out menus that suit our tastes. For supper we went to a restaurant that boasts a CIA trained (and N.O. native chef) and a 17 barrel brewery. The Crescent City Brewhouse did not disappoint.

We skipped appetizers, and the bread was okay, just a crusty french yeast bread with a little sour taste. However the two entrees were outstanding.

Mine: A crispy fried soft shell crab topped with a crawfish-vermouth creme sauce and artichoke bottoms and hericot verts. I felt it was perfectly balanced, subtle and tasteful. I don't even like "green beans" but the sauce made me want them. The crab was not soggy, there was no lack of crawfish tails, and the vermouth barely fell across the toungue. Jon liked it but found it a little bland, where I felt it was perfectly subtle. It needed acid but they supplied a lemon wedge which I used (it could have used maybe a tiny bit more I'm nit-picking.) Truly what I expect from an upscale "creole" restaurant.

Jon's: Crispy Duck with an andoiulle-cornbread dressing, pepper jelly, and southern greens. The dish was not southern fried, but executed how many in asia and france do, by slowly roasting the duck and flash frying it to crisp the skin. EXECUTION PERFECT. The sauce reminded me of asian flavors, but the cornbread dressing was a wildly traditional southern dish. This dish was a great concept, and while not what I expected still great. Jon thought it was perfect, but I thought the flavors were a little bold and strong for my palette (although still delicious, again I'm nit-picking)

Jon also tried a sampler of 4 of their beers, and three of them were very successful (to both of us) and the last was not as good.

New Orleans Eats: Lunch Day One

2008-12-16T14:54:00.005-05:00

After much deliberation Jon and I decided to eat at the Gumbo Shop in the french quarter. Locals have called their gumbo the best in town, and in a town that specializes in cajun and creole food, that is saying something.

For an appetizer I got the special, which was an alligator sausage. It was cut with pork, because I doubt gator would have enough fat to make a good sausage without it. They did a great job of combining the two. It tasted of red pepper, and you could tell it was alligator. It was served with a tangy and sweet sauce, of which I could pick out dijon mustard, honey, and horseradish, as well as cherry pepper bits. The dish was delicious, but slighly over cooked and if eaten with the crusty french bread dried up the mouth quickly.

The star of the show was the chicken and andouille sausage gumbo. Traditional and excellent. Dark roux, cooked okra, flavored with the trinity. The long grain rice was well executed. No reason not to love this if you are a gumbo fan. Although I did add a *touch* of hot sauce for a little heat.

Jon had the chicken Espagnole which was a roasted smothered half chicken with a thick rich mushroom sauce. He said it was tender and good but the bones had been cooked apart and it was difficult to eat in that way. He didn't care for the turnip greens, but overall loved the flavor of the chicken dish.

New Orleans Eats: Breakfast Day 1

2008-12-16T14:51:00.003-05:00

Breakfast this morning was spent at the famous Cafe Du Monde where I had an order of the beignet's and Hot chocolate, all for 4 dollars even. I don't know what else can be said about their delicious french doughnuts, but they were terrific. I didn't buy any of the mix, because I doubt I would execute them the same.

Everyone hates Kevin

2008-12-14T13:54:00.001-05:00

TrueHoop by Henry Abbott of ESPN has an interesting post up about Kevin Garnett. Nobody likes him, or his antics basically except Celtics fans. He has crossed a line, NBA players won't even talk about him on record. His taunting and tough talking are getting on people's nerves and *apparently* he does it to rookies, and scrubs a lot more. I don't watch a lot of Celtics games, but even though KG is talented I have never been a fan. Maybe because he does things like this that make the game look stupid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arh5bmAsWb0

Marlins GM for a day

2008-12-07T18:30:00.001-05:00

With the Winter meetings starting and one of my favorite baseball writers, Joe Sheehan, doing a GM for a day series over at Baseball Prospectus I thought I would offer a few of my thoughts on what the Marlins should do this off season. Joe has already said that he was only doing a handful of these and that he wouldn’t get to all of the teams. I assume that he won’t get to the Marlins because let’s face it not that many people on the site would like to read it.

So here goes it. The Marlins were 84-77 last season however they outplayed their Pythagorean record by a few games which called for a .500 team, as they scored only three more runs than they gave up. However this was a pretty good ball club and has a chance to be better next season. Their starters for the first half were horrible, but once Josh Johnson, and Chris Volstad got to the majors from injuries or promotion the rotation was better. They have already traded away players because they were reaching arbitration and the Marlins didn’t want to pay their substantial raises. Mike Jacobs was traded for a middle reliever, and a fairly competent one at that. This is the first good thing that has happened for us looking forward. Mike Jacobs has a lot of raw power, but his .299 OBP is below bad, so bad that the only time he should be hitting is against right handed pitchers and he should never ever be fielding. He is a butcher at first base. The Fielding Bible has him at -27 runs which was last in MLB. The second trade was of Scott Olsen and Josh Willingham for Emilio Bonifacio and some minor league players. Olsen was an innings eater, throwing 201 of them at basically a little below league average which is valuable as a 4th starter, and Willingham is a patient hitter who has decent power and had an injury riddled season but a pretty good one all around. Both were due big raises most likely in arbitration. Bonifacio is a slick fielding second baseman who can’t hit a lick. These deals leave a lot of questions about how our team will look next year with no 1B or LF and two 2B. Oh, we also traded relief pitchers one for one with the Cubs and got the much better player, Jose Ceda, for Kevin Gregg because the Cubs like the save stat.

On to next year’s club, and the first obvious move is to slide Cody Ross over to LF from CF to make room for Cameron Maybin, our best prospect and a kid that looks to have a ton of talent and potential. This shift does a few things. It makes the Marlins much better in outfield defense. Cody Ross was above average fielding in center, which means he will be a way above average fielder in left field, a place where Willingham was -7 runs. Also Maybin will be way above average in CF, probably close to 10 runs better than Ross. We are probably 30 runs better defensively in the outfield because of this. Offensively I doubt if there will be much difference. Ross is not quite as good as Willingham with the bat, but Maybin should be better than our CF situation last year that saw Alfredo Amezega get 150 plate appearances.

Now onto the infield, I would shift Dan Uggla from second base to third base. He will be much better than Cantu with the bat, and much better than Cantu with the glove. Uggla has been basically a league average defender at the keystone, so he should end up at least league average at third if not adding even more value than that. Uggla is probably 25 runs better than Cantu. So Bonifacio takes over at 2B. Like I said, the kid can’t really hit at all. He is basically a little better than replacement level, but he is only 23, so it may uptick a little bit because of maturation. But he will defend better than Uggla, or at least reports say that he will defend better. 2B defense is really important and we may catch 10 runs from that, but probably lose 30 in offense. So we probably lose 20 runs at 2B. If I had the money, I’d find a way to sign a 3B, or even better, sign a guy like Furcal and move Hanley to third base while retaining Uggla at second. But I have to work in a world where there is no money to be had, and right now Bonifacio, and aligning them correctly is the best I can do. Catcher is the next thing to address. I would try to trade Matt Treanor. He was by far the worst hitter that played everyday for us. Even with the huge positional adjustment for catching he was below replacement level. John Baker proved he can hit in his 233 AB last season after replacing Treanor who had an injury. John Baker is my everyday catcher, but I would like to sign a right handed catcher who can platoon and play 1-2 times a week. Ivan Rodriguez likes the area and if he will take a reduced role then I wouldn’t think twice about giving him two years that don’t weigh down the payroll. Also short-term is the way to think with catcher because our first round pick Kyle Skipworth is in the minors and 2-3 years from now should take over. Baker/Pudge is probably 25 runs better than more than half the starts going to Matt Treanor or the inept Mike Rabelo. Last but not least is 1B. Jorge Cantu is up for a raise too and if I could get value back for him I would trade him as well. His defense will be hidden more at 1B than 3B, and he was a better hitter than Jacobs. He would probably represent 5 runs better than Jacobs, maybe 10 which is good if I can’t find anything out there to get back in value. However free playing time is sitting there in the minors and I think that Gaby Sanchez can play to the same level as Cantu at first base for FREE since he doesn’t have an arbitration raise coming. It is like finding money in your pocket.

The guys who throw the ball were a huge problem for us last year. Only 4 guys threw more than 100 Innings for us last year, and two of them Andrew Miller and Mark Hendrickson had a negative VORP. Scott Olsen I already touched on, and the last was Ricky Nolasco. Ricky was a top 10 pitcher in the NL last year without many people noticing, throwing 212 Innings with a 3.52 ERA. At 25 there is no reason to think it is not for real either. Guys like Burke Badenhop, Mark Hendrickson, and Ryan Tucker were horrible while waiting for Anibal Sanchez and Josh Johnson to come back from injury. Once we got the rotation together it was actually above league average for the last 1/3 of the season. The rotation should set up as Nolasco, Josh Johnson, Chris Volstad, Anibal Sanchez, Andrew Miller with Ryan Tucker there to make spot starts. As GM I would think long and hard about trying to sign a cheap innings eater if I could find it, but it is not likely. Sanchez wasn’t good once he got up but has shown he has the ability to pitch at this level before. Miller and Tucker are both really young, and Miller has a ton of talent and should really improve next year. Replacing those other starts with healthy starts by Josh Johnson and Chris Volstad should severely help. Also since Josh Johnson and Volstad are both dramatic groundball pitchers the defensive improvement will be even more valuable. The bullpen was good, and got even better by leveraging Gregg’s save total to get Jose Ceda and adding Leo Nunez for the OBP black hole that is Mike Jacobs. However they didn’t offer arbitration to Arthur Rhodes who was a good lefty specialist for us. I would try to resign him. Lindstrom is going to close but I’d give high leverage situations to Joe Nelson and Jose Ceda.

Since we played at an 81-81 pace we will apply these run totals to that. With the pitching I could see us being 80-90 runs better which would make us an 89-91 win team which may or may not make us good enough to win the division. It will however make us good enough to compete for the playoffs. If we are still in it at the trading deadline maybe we add a piece that helps. Either way this is how I think they should go about their off-season and alignment of the team next year.

Chris Paul is good

2008-12-07T12:38:00.002-05:00

From Hornets247.com

"CP3 had 21 points, 11 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and only one turnover. In thirty minutes. He shot 8-11. It seems almost ho-hum now, so I should point this out: Chris Paul now has 13 games where he had at least 20 points and 10 assists. The rest of the league's Point Guards combined have 16: B. Davis(3), Billups(2), Nash(2), Augustin(1), TJ Ford(1), Ridnour(1), Bibby(1), Devin Harris(1), Foye(1), Calderon(1), Duhon(1). "

If he continues to shoot over 50%, and do everything else he does, which means lead the league in assists and steals again he may not only have a better season that last he will be wading in the territory of having the best season that we've ever seen by a PG. It is amazing.

The best twice baked potato ever.

2008-12-07T12:30:00.001-05:00

Recipe wil be following today or tomorrow.

The problem with cooking and my happiness (sanity)

2008-12-04T21:56:00.005-05:00

To be a good cook, or a great cook it takes a lot of things. The first of which is an absolute love of food and wanting to gain knowledge of it. Just like with anything, an almost fanatical desire is required to truly be good as a cook or chef, or whatever it may be regarding food. I have seen said desire and to have it. I watch television shows, learn techniques, read books, try new ingredients, etc.

Another thing is being able to follow a recipe, and develop a recipe that can be followed closely. I struggle with this a lot. All of the recipes I write on this blog are not extremely precise, but more guidelines. I like experimenting and I cannot follow a recipe to save my life. This is a major problem. I was reading Professional Chef by the Culinary Institute of America, and it outlines the necessity to follow and develop recipes as an integral part of being a chef, while I was reading it, I remembered why I didn't go to culinary school.

Food is only fun to me when I am creating the flavors myself. It is only fun when I am creating recipes that I haven't seen the exact same way. I have followed recipes before but it wasn't the same. I love to take the classic techniques I have learned and put my own spin on it. Food is more art to me than it is anything else. I could make something that has no feeling in it that would taste fine, but if I try to create something like a painting, when I taste it, it is more important to me. It makes me happier to eat these things. My favorite thing is to take the traditionally southern dishes my family loves and to recreate them, but with a classic focus.

What I am saying is that I don't think I can ever be more than an artist, and I hope that I can be a good one. Following recipes isn't fun to me, and if food becomes something that isn't fun to me, I wouldn't be happy with myself. It is an odd feeling, because all of the good cooks I know can follow recipes, they can make them their own, they can triangulate them, and create something that elevates the food beyond where it was. But to me it is all about the art, creating something from an empty canvas that makes me love food.

Uncooked proteins, dried beans, fresh vegetables, seafood stocks, legumes, pasta... all I see is a paint brush with different colors, and I don't wait to just do a paint by numbers.

Thin Pork Chops Milanesa

2008-11-30T13:56:00.003-05:00

Standard breading procedure. Dredge with flour, into egg wash, then into bread crubms, each can be lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. Then pan fry at a high temperature to create a nice crust on the outside. This can be done with any meat, I chose thinly sliced center cut pork chops sans bone.

Sauce-
1 Bosc pear (diced)
1 Gala apple (diced)
1/2 a bottle of merlot (about 375 mL)
1/3 cup chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste.

Reduce all of the ingredients in a sauce pot over medium low heat until it thickens slightly and the fruit is soft throughout.

Creamed Leeks

2008-11-23T12:28:00.003-05:00

Everyone who knows me knows that I tout the effects of bacon in food quite often. But the truth is, I actually prefer flavoring things with pancetta more. It brings a more balanced pork fat flavor without needing nearly as much fat, also there is no smoke brought to the dish and if I wanted that I'd just use bacon. Not that I don't like american bacon for tons of things, but in laying base flavors I prefer pancetta.

Creamed Leeks

2 Leeks (cleaned well and cut into rounds.)
1 oz whiskey
1 medium thick slice pancetta
a few cracks of pepper
1/4 stick of butter
4 oz heavy cream

Start the pancetta in a pan over medium-low heat and completely render the fat and then take it out and crumble it, returning it to the pan. Add the whiskey to deglaze the pan and suspending all of the pancetta taste. Add the butter, cream, and pepper until it all comes togetherstirring occasionally. Add the leeks and cook down for about 15 minutes. Serve with your favorite protein.

Gordo's Cuban cuisine

2008-11-20T17:11:00.002-05:00

Gordo's Cuban cuisine is a casual resturaunt mostly frequented by the college students at Florida State University, as it is just blocks away from the campus. In full disclosure, it is literally across the street from my house and is a favorite of mine. The reasons it became my favorite place in Tallahassee are simple. The food is good, it is filling, the portions are big, and the price is fair.

There are two Gordo's and the first one was in Tampa, but if I didn't tell you, you would probably think it was just a local shack that was bought by a Cuban family. My favorite dish is the Lechon Asado, which is roasted pork. It is the most famous of all Cuban dishes, and this one doesn't disappoint. It has a spicy taste and has been marinated in lime juice before hand. On it's best days it is moist and juicy, and on it's worst it is just in need of the extra lime juice they give you. It is topped with Onions and come with two sides (all dinner entrees come with the same choice of sides.) The congri which is red beans and rice that are cooked with chorizo, or black beans and rice is the firsdt choice. Fried sweet plantains, or under ripe fried plantains (maduros.) I always go with the sweet plantains, but switch up between the congri and the black beans.

They also have a line of sandwiches that are popular for lunch. They are all pressed, like a cuban. The turkey and ham pressed sandwich, named the Gordo is probably the most popular, and it has a smaller version called the Gordita. They are all served on fresh Cuban rolls and pressed on both sides.

Lastly, they have a few things that go outside the traditional Cuban food realm. The first of which they are famous around town for is their small fresh cut fries with Gordo's sauce. Gordo's sauce is mayo, lime juice, and mojo seasonings. They also have pressed cheesburger's which are their spin on famous american burgers but pressed in the Cuban style.

Everything I have eaten there has been up to par, including the new sliders that are a beef and chorizo and can be eaten as a full meal because the dish is so big, although it is an appetizer. The only knock I have on Gordo's is that the service can be slow a lot of time, so if you don't have the time don't try it.

Week 3 News and Notes

2008-11-19T15:24:00.000-05:00

- First and foremost, did everyone see what Anthony Morrow put up in his first real run as an NBA player? 37 points, 11 Reb. on 15-20 shooting. He followed that up with 25 points the next night. He was an undrafted free agent, Warriors have to be happy with that.

- Staying on the rookie trend, Greg Oden looks special when he is on the floor. Since returning he is averaging 15.3/9.6 with 3 blocks a game. He still looks a little uncoordinated, but David Thorpe of ESPN says that is normal for a big guy his age and experience level.

- Cleveland leading the league in Offensive efficiency is not a sentence I thought I would write in the Mike Brown era, but at 110.5 points per 100 possessions they are 3 points clear of the field. L.A. Lakers still lap the field by 3 points in defensive efficiency at 91.6

-Hornets watch: 5-4 is not where they would like to be. But the positives are that the overall difference is still positive at +2.8 and they have played the toughest schedule in the NBA thus far. Still not up to par on either side of the ball from these eyes though.

Bradford Doolittle of Basketball Prospectus has this to say of the team. “The Hornets have been playing well, but their most deficient categories are the ones in which Tyson Chandler excels. Chandler is back in the lineup and when he works his way back into form, New Orleans will be even better.”

-Chris Bosh last night. 40 pts, 18 Reb. (7 offensive), 2 steals, 1 block, and 4 assists. He did this against Dwight Howard, and somehow the Raptors lost the game.

-Players of the week: No change in the East as LeBron James got it again. Chauncey Billups was awarded the honor in the West.

-Speaking of Chauncey Billups he has them playing a little slower. They are still 4th in pace but down from 100 possessions per game to 98.1. Now the only team over the 110 possessions per game mark is the Flying Dantonis in New York.

-In one week the Spurs went from dead last in defensive efficiency to 19th. John Hollinger believes that Popovich has had to get onto them a little earlier this season because of the injuries, and I think that’s probably pretty true.

- Some pretty long streaks going on right now. Cavaliers have won 8 straight, Minnesota and Oklahoma City are on the opposite end having dropped 8 in a row.

- Running through everything I noticed that there are a lot of mediocre teams right now. Only 14 teams have a record above .500 with 7 in each conference which would leave one team with a losing record getting into the playoffs from each side as of now.

-LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Dwayne Wade look to have a serious shot at playing at a clip of 30.00 PER or higher. That is twice the league average, and is considered especially elite. Only Paul and James finished there last year, but Wade has been fantastic and healthy. Those of you who wonder why I left Tony Parker off (currently 32.78) is because he has PERs of 19, 21, 21, and 18 the last four years and has established his expected level of play. I think that since they may need him a little more this year he may be able to get up into the 23-24 range, but sorry if I’m not buying him into the elite class.

BBWAA Awards round-up

2008-11-18T17:21:00.004-05:00

All of the major baseball awards were handed out in the last two weeks and the old-boy's club did well with the winners (although further down the list there were some bad selections) and that is certainly progress at least for this year.

The winners read as this:
Rookies: Evan Longoria, Geovany Soto
Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, Cliff Lee
MVP: Albert Pujols, Dustin Pedroia

All of these are reasonable choices. I liked Santana over Lincecum by a hair in the NL Cy Young, and had Pedroia a (close) 5th on my Internet Baseball Awards ballot, but they were both good.

Now for the bad. Ryan Howard is barely a major league first baseman against left handed hitting, he can't field, or run, and he finished second because the BBWAA likes RBI's and people on winning teams. Meanwhile the best hitting, and fielding second baseman on the planet plays next to him and finished 14th.

K-Rod, who is a closer, and never pitched in more than one inning at a time, and pitched in about 4% of his teams innings, and only got all those saves because he got so many opportunities...ok end of rant. That guy got a FIRST place vote and finshed sixth in the AL in MVP, AHEAD OF CLIFF LEE WHO WON THE CY YOUNG. And Lincecum finshed 5th among NL pitchers in the MVP voting after winning the Cy Young, behind C.C. Sabathia, who only played in the NL for like 3 weeks (exaggeration.)

This is something I wrote on another website about Delgado finishing ninth in the NL ahead of Beltran and Jose Reyes.

Jose Reyes- OPS+ 118, good not great SS defense.

David Wright- OPS+ 141, best 3B glove in the NL

Carlos Beltran- OPS+ 129, Best OF glove in the game

Carlos Delgado- OPS+127, poor 1B glove

One of these things is not like the other. I won’t even go into baserunning, where Beltran really excels, but basically what I’m saying is that you should have a problem with Delgado getting the votes he did not Beltran. I could make a heck of an argument that Beltran was their most valuable hitter/fielder.

NBA week 2 News and Notes

2008-11-12T12:35:00.001-05:00

-The East is 17-12 vs. the West. It seems the turning of the guard is happening some. Age has gotten to some of the western previous powers obviously, but I can’t help but think that David Stern was right when he said conference power is cyclical.

-Hornets watch: 4-2 after a 1-2 week. They got caught by Eastern teams contributing to that 17-12 record, by way of Atlanta and Charlotte. They are currently playing at the 4th slowest pace.

-Phoenix leads the league in offensive efficiency at 108.8 points per 100 possessions, so much for Steve Nash needing Mike Dantoni’s offense. The Lakers are first in defensive efficiency. Only L.A. and the Celtics are allowing less than 90 points per 100 possessions.

-The Lakers are also still leading in differential, although they haven’t really had difficult games and that is going to start tonight in New Orleans.

-T.J. Ford’s PER-19.40, Jermaine O’Neal’s PER-12.00. So far, advantage Pacers on that swap. Although more time for Calderon is a good thing, and I have read anecdotal evidence that O’Neal has been playing good defense.

- Amare Stoudemire and LeBron James were the players of the week. Both are quality choices who will probably win multiple POW awards this year.

-I said last week that Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus’ system of projecting teams had San Antonio out of the playoffs. I also said it may not be that far off. Well now that looks even more likely with Tony Parker out 4 weeks, and Manu still not scheduled to return until around the same time. They are dead last in defensive efficiency and I don’t see how they create shots outside of Tim Duncan.

-Washington is still the only team without a win. 0-5. They were 0-5 last year and made the playoffs, I’ll go out on a limb and say in the improved East that doesn’t happen again.

-Rudy Fernandez, Jason Thompson, Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo, Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose, Darrell Arthur are all rookies that are playing more than 20 minutes a game and giving above league average PER (15.0 is average.)

-All NBA teams combined are 64-31 at home this season. The only division with a losing home record is the Southwest. The Southwest division’s only home unbeaten…The Memphis Grizzlies.

-The Raptors, Knicks, and Blazers all have been outscored on the season but carry with them records above .500, they are the only three such teams in the league.

-Denver is 3-0 with Billups at the point. Detroit is 1-2 with Iverson, needing a comeback victory over the Kings last night to get that one.

Marlins make a move.

2008-11-11T14:43:00.003-05:00

"The Marlins moved two players in a salary dump, trading Scott Olsen and Josh Willingham to the Nationals, who are in a perfect position to roll the dice on left-hander Olsen while receiving a big upgrade offensively from outfielder Willingham. It's an easy win for Washington, but Florida's only major gain may be salary relief"-Keith Law

The move is obviously just a salary dump, but that is not a surprise. Olsen's attitude probably hurt his value, as he regained his 93-94 mph fastball at the end of the season. He was the fourth starter on this team.

Josh Willingham is a bigger loss to me. He is probably undervalued because he strikes out a lot, and hits for a low average. However he is patient and puts up a good OBP, and hits with some decent power. He is slow in left field but steady. He is at least solid average to slightly above average when he is healthy.

I don't know anything about the kids we got, but nobody seems to be real high on the big league promise of them, anytime soon atleast. However this deal does have it's advantages. It allows Cody Ross to shift to left field where he will be a plus defender and rookie Cameron Maybin to play in CF which will improve run prevention as well. Ross had a good year and Maybin has tons of talent, if he can get some plate discipline. It also allows us more financial freedom to work with when thinking about important arbitration eligible guys like Dan Uggla and Josh Johnson.

Marscapone cream sauce

2008-11-07T18:46:00.004-05:00

I posted a long while ago about a fig, marscapone, and balsamic appetizer. After which I had some left over marscapone cheese. So this is a post about what to do with left over marscapone cheese.

Heat a pan to medium and add any of the marscapone cheese that you have. Then cover the cheese with heavy cream and a couple pats of butter. The consistency should be that of any other cream sauce that you may have created, so it may take more cream than you expect. Add to that a couple cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt, and a few whole peppercorns (which should be taken out upon serving.) Fresh herbs, not woody ones, like parsley or basil may be added at the very end of cooking as well. If truly ambitious, peppery greens like arugala can be chopped finely and stirred in as well. Serve over pasta. It is quick, simple, easy, and delicious.

I also like it with some herb sauteed chicken.

Kobe (Wagyu) Beef Burger

2008-11-06T13:46:00.003-05:00

When in Atlanta for the Florida State vs. Georgia Tech football game last weekend my friends and I ate at the Cheescake factory in the perimeter mall. I had eaten at Cheesecake factory a few times before that, and had a positive experience so I was looking forward to it. I decided to try their "American Kobe beef burger", which is not really Kobe beef but a similar hybrid of original Kobe beef cows and American Angus cows. They are fed and massaged in the same manner to promote tenderness and marblized fat content throughout. The American version is called Wagyu beef.

This was my first experience with Wagyu beef although I had seen it prepared, and read about it before. I was extremely anxious to try it. Honestly the beef was tender and almost melted at impact with my teeth. They cooked it medium and the fat wasn't anywhere near cooked out which kept the burger moist and juicy, The flavor was subtle but beefy still. The only problem I had was just how tender it was. It left nothing "to the tooth" I have a sneaking suspicion that if the burger had been made with 80% Wagyu beef and 20% Angus sirloin it would have been perfect, and one of the best burgers I had ever eaten.

It was served with thick strips of well cooked bacon, deeply carmelized onions, and a toated briosche bun that had been buttered and put on a flat top. It was excellent.

NBA Week 1 News and Notes

2008-11-05T15:40:00.002-05:00

- The Philadelphia 76er's are 2-2, and a lot of people are jumping off their bandwagon, especially because of the bad loss to Atlanta. I would note that at +11.3 they have the best differential in the Eastern Conference. They are also incorporating a new cog, namely Elton Brand, the guy who will lead this team in scoring. So let's give them a month or so, ok?

- Players of the week, Chris Bosh and Chris Paul. I would get used to seeing this. If Bosh played in America I think he'd have a shot at MVP.

- Everyone has thrown in their two cents, but the Iverson trade worked well for both teams. For Detroit they got a ton of free cap space after this year ( Iverson and Sheed.) The Nuggets made their team better by having a real point guard (and genuine threat from 3) that will allow Melo more room to operate in the high post. What I don't belive the Pistons got was a shot at Lebron James. Even if William Wesley ( look him up on TrueHoop if you don't know him) is friends with Joe Dumars. The Pistons still won't be able to offer as much money as Cleveland, and they can't offer the market of NY.

- The Pacers have been impressive. The Lakers have been unreal (+21.7 ?!?), and the Spurs have been bad. Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus has the Spurs missing the playoffs, and who knows if he is that far off. Duncan and Parker have been phenomenal (#4 and #1 in PER so far) and they are still 0-3. They can't get Manu back soon enough.

- My Hornets are 3-0. Two missed games by Tyson Chandler, One by Peja. So much for having no depth. Posey has really anchored that second unit and the others are fitting together nicely. Rasual Butler has been good especially.

- Only 5 teams in the West have scoring differentials that are positive. All but 4 East teams do. The East is closing the gap. There may not be much of one besides the tip top of the West.

- Utah has been really good without Deron Williams, tonight's game with the Blazers will be on the small television in my living room while the Hornets are on. Williams may play tonight. Analysts are raving about how Sloan runs their system and they can plug guys in and get it done. I think they are certainly a much better team with Williams offense out there, but I can see what they mean when I watch them dismantle teams with Ronnie Price running the point. Ronnie Brewer is a really good defender and finisher and is probably a little underrated by the national media. This team is good. Like, could win it all this year good.

- The young Grizzlies are playing good defense. No really, to the tune of 85.3 ppg. Small sample size I know, but impressive still.

Balsamic-Honey Butternut Squash

2008-11-03T17:54:00.003-05:00

1 Butternut squash in approx. 1 inch cubes
Balsamic Vinegar
Clover Honey
Kosher salt
Fresh cracked black pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cover the squash in a small amount of Olive Oil, and put into a roasting pan. Cover the bottom of the pan with plenty of balsamic vinegar. Drizzle lightly with honey, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 375 degrees until tender, serve as a side dish with other savory dishes, or as eat as a snack in the place of chips, popcorn, or candy.

Tuna Sushi

2008-11-02T19:47:00.003-05:00

So my girlfriend bought some sashimi tuna and made sushi. I liked the picture because the cat is creeping around in the background, probably trying to eat the fish. It entertained me.

Mike Jacobs Trade with links

2008-11-02T17:10:00.005-05:00

The Florida Marlins traded first baseman Mike Jacobs for 25 year old middle reliever Leo Nunez. It was basically because we have other guys who can fill the role who are controlled for a lower amount of money. Jacobs is arbitration eligible and is barely above replacement level. He is an OBP black hole, and should only hit against righties, where he is (somewhat) useful. His glove is horrible. I've never seen Nunez pitch, but you can see reviews of the trade at these locations.

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=law_keith

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-mike-jacobs-trade/

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8278

How to make fried rice (well)

2008-10-31T00:20:00.003-04:00

Begin by par cooking whatever your vegetables and meat will be (or if it is just fried rice plain skip this step.) I prefer raisins, diced onions and sweet peppers in mine. Do this in a large pan with a small amont of oil.

Prepare rice that is almost fully cooked, but fully dried. This is important, the rice should have no residual water left.

Add a small amount of vinegar (rice wine) and soy sauce, leave enough to absorb into the vegetables and leave a tiny pool in the bottom of the pan.

Add the rice and stir everything, coating the rice with the liquid in the bottom and stirring the vegetables equally. Then move the mixture into a circle around the outside of the pan. This should leave an inner circle that you can pour the eggs stright into the pan. This is important as well.

The idea of fried rice is to coat each grain but not have esentially scrambled eggs all over the rice. Pour how ever many beaten eggs you would like. It should feel like too little, again no scrambled eggs. I use two eggs to 4 cups yield of rice. The pan should be very hot, but nothing should be sticking because of the vinegar and soy sauce. Once you pour the eggs in allow them to scramble very briefly, about 10-20 seconds seconds or so, then begin to fold the rice into the eggs quickly. You must move the rice and eggs around the pan furiously until they are cooked. If you do not the eggs will not coat the rice correctly, and you will end up with scrambled eggs, rice, and vegetables, no good. Serve Immediately.

Me and My Peja on a stick

2008-10-30T16:55:00.003-04:00

So since the season Has officially begun, I felt I needed a Peja head like the ones they run around the arena with when he hits a three. I made one for waving during games, and there will be more updates with me hanging out with my Peja.

Home Plate officiating.

2008-10-27T22:07:00.002-04:00

Home plate umpires are a joke. Their job is way too difficult to do with the human eye. They are perfectly parallel to a ball coming in at 90 mph.

I bring this up because in the fifth inning Scott Kazmir struck out Pat Burrell twice. 5 should have been strikes. The last two called low, and one wasn't even close. It was eventually called a walk. It is impossible to give big league hitters 6 strikes. This is a joke.

Hornets naming backups

2008-10-27T18:29:00.003-04:00

Everybody knows about the New Orleans Hornets starting five. Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler, David West, Peja Stojakavic, and Morris Peterson make up one of the most brutal (for other teams) starting fives in the league. They may be the best first unit in all the land. However the Hornets have struggled with their second unit. Jannero Pargo, who was a firecracker off the bench albeit an inconsistent one, has left for a bigger paycheck in Europe. That left the problem of who will run the point for about 14 minutes a game while Chris Paul gets a breather. Mike James has won the battle between himself and Devin Brown. After watching some preseason, and having just a baseline knowledge of each of their games I think it is the right move. The Times Picayune reports that Brown will see time at shooting guard, while James Posey will be getting time at power forward.

Coach Scott loves to play multiple ballhandlers together; he did with Pargo and Paul. As Julian Wright progresses as a player, and learns to be more under control handling the ball, I think he will steal a lot of minutes from both of the backup guards and Morris Peterson. Obviously like a lot of others who follow this team I am excited about Posey off the bench. I don't like the back end of the contract but Posey plays hard, smart defense. He is also another shooter surrounding Chris Paul which can't be a bad thing.

Last Year: Pargo, Wright, Wells, and whoever (Hilton Armstrong or Melvin Ely) at the 5.
This Year: James, Wright, Posey, and whoever (Hilton Armstrong or Melvin Ely) at the 5.

Pargo was better than James defensively, but Posey is much better than Wells. Also there is a year of development for the galloping giraffe (Julian Wright) which hopefully will bring great things with him. I like this second unit a little better, and they should be more consistent when the starters are off the court because you never knew which Wells or Pargo was showing up last year.

Live Thoughts on World Series game 4

2008-10-26T20:05:00.033-04:00

I'm going to put some random thoughts that go through my head during the game, talk about how I watch the game, mock the announcers, and really just have some fun with this.

The "scrappy" Phillies got it done last night according to Fox's pregame analysts. Scrappiness always wins out, they shouldn't have to mention that, duh!

Rob Neyer is chatting over at ESPN.com. I like his analysis a lot, so I will probably pull from what he chats about and try to add to what he has to say, or disagree and back it up.

8:07- Patti Labelle is not so much good.

8:22- I think that if Sonnanstine isn't really on his stuff we will see the hook quick and David Price will be asked to go for a while, and maybe Edwin Jackson will be on alert early too. They have to win this game and Maddon should mangae like it.

8:33- They just showed a graphic that said Joe Blanton is "unusually over the top" and I had to explain it to my girlfriend. If they are giving us the horrible Buck and McCarver duo that means they are marketing to the masses not the die hards. They should be explaining what things like this means.

8:35- Blanton goes 1-2-3 in the first and looked good doing it other than a long fly ball to the track by Iwamura. By the way I love when guys behind the plate yell strikeout really loudly, it's funny.

8:40- McCarver just said "cut fastball inside" to the pitch Jimmy Rollins hit for a double. Pitchtrax showed it to be on the outer third.

8:45- Another horrible call. Rollins was out at third, tagged by Longoria. Instant replay, Instant replay, Instant replay. That could decide so much. Instant replay.

9:00- Tampa Bay needs to take more pitches and make Blanton labor a little. Zobrist just swung at the first pitch after a goot at bat by Navarro, getting the Phillies out of the inning.

9:09- Sonnanstine has been pretty decent, but not pitch effecient. I'm predicting Price by the 5th inning. The run was given to the Phillies on the bad call. Blanton has been particularly sharp with 4 K's through 3, and allowing only two softly hit singles to the opposite outfield.

9:18- Iwamura just kicked a ball that was an easy play. Utley should have been out, especially with the shift on. Howard singles hard, and gets Utley to third. Maddon should be on the phone.

Update: Utley scored on a Pedro Feliz single, then Andy (we're on a first name basis now) loaded the bases but got Blanton to pop up. I would start the next inning with Price and hope to get 3 innings from him.

9:34- A friend, Kellan, asked me to comment on the smudge of dirt on Blanton's cap. Obviously I don't know what it is. But with the Kenny Roger's situation of having pine tar on his hat it might come up. (Pine tar allows a pitcher to grip the ball more tightly, thus giving it more rotation upon release.) I'd probably have it checked especially because Blanton has been particularly sharp and Maddon at least could get in his head a little. Although I have not seen him adjusting his cap, and it doesn't seem to be nearly as brown as pine tar is.

Crawford smacked a Blanton fastball offering into the right field seats about a row in as I typed that. 2-1 Phils.

9:45- Edwin Jackson is up. I guess he is the long reliever tonight. I hinted that might be the case. They just interviewed the Ray's pitching coach and he said that if we see Price it would be later in the game with a lead.

I am on the record saying that what they had done with Price thus far was a good idea not just using him as a 3 out closer but for long appearances in high leverage situations. They should not get so tied to the idea of that being his "role." Managers get in trouble when they define roles instead of looking at skill sets. These are high leverage situations, better pitchers for the situation should be in.

Howard is up and there is no way I'd let a right hander face him given his platoon splits (batting against RH or LH piitchers). Trevor Miller is getting loose in the bullpen for a reason.

9:49- Homerun. I swear I wrote that before the swing happened. Maddon may have just cost his team a real damn shot at the game, and with Hamels on the mound in game 5, the series.

9:57- Hinske just nailed a HR deep to center pinch hitting for Sonnanstine (told you no 5th inning). Cliff Floyd got injured and he was added for todays game. That's a nice little addition. But I'd like to say that I think Baldelli should be playing in right field, even though he is right handed and Zobrist is left handed. He is much better in the field, and I doubt if there is any value lost at the plate.

10:05- Edwin Jackson is in for the Rays, and he is throwing 94-95. And as I start to type about how he looks, the pitcher Joe Blanton, hits a ball into the bleachers and becomes the first pitcher since 1974 to hit a HR in the World Series. Wow. The Rays have not looked good as a whole this evening.

10:11- Neyer just said he thinks the Rays are probably about 5 wins or so better than the Phillies next year. They won more games, in a tougher league, and are quite a bit younger. I'd bet the Rays are forcasted for more like 8-10 more wins. Something like 90-82. We won't know until the moves this offseason are made, but that is just my guess. I am no PECOTA.

10:14- Pena and Longoria still yet to get a hit. They are both up this inning. 1 out walk of Pena (Blanton's first). Longoria strikes out on a good outside fastball by Blanton.

10:19- The home plate umpire just called a strike on a ball that was so far outside ESPN pitchtrax had already listed it as a ball. No lie. Strikeout victim number 7 is Dioner Navarro. Only 9 more outs, and down 4 runs the game certainly looks over at this point. The Phillies should go full pipeline with the bullpen, 7 innings from Blanton, Madson, then Lidge. Don't let the 4 run lead change anything, just pretend it is a one run game. Let's see if Manuel is thinking the same thing. Obviously Maddon and I have been off all night.

10:24- Rob Neyer just commented on the substance on the bill of Blanton's cap, and he said the exact same thing as me basically with a few less words. And another lead off batter on base with Werth's double over the head of Carl Crawford.

10:30- Maddon is walking Howard intentionally. I would just bring in a lefty, David Price actually, since the guy can't hit lefties. Then I wouldn't have to have two men on base. Manage this game like it is game seven Joe! As soon as I say that Burrell hits into a 6-4-3 double play making me look bad. But the idea is still wrong even if it worked.

10:42- Walk and a hit and now the top of the lineup. Time for the rally caps, or rally monkeys, or cowbells. Scott Eyre coming into the game. There is one out. I haven't said it because it is fairly obvious but this is pretty much a must win with Hamels pitching tomorrow at home. If this inning is going to be a big one, it will go straight through Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria, who still are yet to have a hit. I wonder if the BBWAA will start talks of how unclutch Longoria is already. I doubt it but it would be like them to forget all he did to get them to this point, in high pressure situations.

10:47- Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus just posted an e-mail where Joe Sheehan said he wouldn't let Howard face a righty when he hit that bomb that opened it up. I am in pretty elite company with that and it makes me smile. Although it wasn't all that hard to figure out, managers still struggle with it. Which makes me wonder about managing and the credentials it takes. Probably its own post so that's all I'll say.

10:52- Upton struck out just before it got to Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena.

10:58- The game is getting a little solemn for those of us rooting on the Rays, or just rooting for a longer series so that we can have more baseball. I can't help ask what if Maddon hadn't let a right handed pitcher face Howard. It most certainly was the type of situation that can allow a game to get out of hand quick. Howard lead the league in HR, and there is just no excuse not to use the knowledge of his platoon splits to your advantage. Iwamura and Pena just made a great double play to end the inning.

The 3-4-5 hitters need to make some noise, to produce runs without making outs and flip the lineup over so it isn't the worst hitters up in the 9th.

11:09- Longoria and Pena strikeout. It is extremely difficult to win ballgames when you lose all the production in the middle of your lineup. Their OPS + were 125, and 127 respectively. That is a lot to lose. Add in the bad call that cost a run, and the managing mishap, and it has been a long night for the Rays. Although it has been a pretty entertaining game. Homeruns, by big stars and pitchers, hat controversy, bad call controversy, managing tactics, etc.

11:19- Jason Werth hit a 2 run HR. 8-2 Phils. This will be me signing off unless something super crazy happens, which I really doubt.

Bullpen usage, the Rays, and David Price.

2008-10-24T22:57:00.005-04:00

So, it has been broken down by many people much smarter (and way too many people who just have an audience) than me, but the Rays won World Series game two. James Shields was OK, but the part I want to focus on is David Price.

It was a two run game. David Price got the last seven outs in the World Series. I applaud Joe Maddon for going outside of the normal managerial box to use a very talented pitcher to get seven outs. Most managers get in a zone of "save their own ass" by doing what is expected, by going with proven relievers and known quantitie closers. Maddon leveraged the situation in his advatage by using his most talented left handed reliever to get out the Phillies best hitters (who are left handed) and stayed with him throughout it.

Further proof that conventional bullpen usage is ridiculous. The save stat, the Baseball Writers, etc, all hurt the overall understanding of the game in the public.

NBA Preseason Picks

2008-10-22T15:14:00.005-04:00

MVP: LeBron James
Defensive Player of the Year: Ron Artest
6th Man of the Year: Rodney Stuckey
Rookie of the Year: Greg Oden
Coach of the Year: Jerry Sloan

Divisional Winners:
Atlantic- Boston
Central- Detroit
Southeast- Orlando

Other East playoff teams: Toronto, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Indiana, Chicago

Southwest- New Orleans
Pacific- Los Angeles
Northwest- Utah

Other West playoff teams: Houston, San Antonio, Phoenix, Portland, Dallas

Western Finals : New Orleans vs. Los Angeles
East Finals: Philadelphia vs. Cleveland
NBA Finals: Los Angeles vs. Cleveland
NBA Champions: Los Angeles

I originally wrote that New Orleans would win it all, which I a big part of me still believes. But if the Lakers can stay healthy they should be the best team. Also I would seem like and huge homer (and feel like I jinxed it if they lost.) I think there are are 4 west teams who can win easily (LA, NO, Utah, and Houston.) I don't think any East team will be strong enough to compete with them, unlike last year.

Dessert Happenings

2008-10-15T18:12:00.002-04:00

Easiest dessert ever, and sort of impressive if you have friends over. Just put sugar on to a banana that has been cut in half long ways and across. Leave the peel on and then place sugar side down in a hot pan and wait. Then toast peanuts for a minute or so in a pan and pour more sugar over, cook until caramel is formed all around and pour onto parchment or other non-stick surface and break apart. Add your favorite ice cream.

Braised Pork Ribs

2008-10-14T12:41:00.006-04:00

Braising Liquid

5 Vine Ripened Tomatoes (quartered)
1/2 sweet onion (quartered)
1 shallot (julienned)
1 red bell pepper (julienned)
kosher salt,fresh cracked pepper
4 cloves garlic (slivered)
1/3 cup Heavy Cream
Handful of Italian Flat Leaf Parsley (fine chop)

Combine everything but the heavy cream and parsley in a large saucepan and cover with water, just above all of the ingredients. Cover the pot. Cook on med-high for about 45 minutes (or until everything begins to fall apart and combine.)Let cool, and then puree in a blender (or puree now if you have a stick blender.) Move to a saute pan without curved walls, often called a frying pan, and reduce heat to simmer. Add cream and parsley.

Salt and Pepper the boneless pork ribs. Bring a saute pan with a small amount of oil up to high heat. Once hot, brown the ribs on both sides to create a crust on the outside. Move the ribs into the braising liquid, and turn the heat up to meduim- medium low and finish cooking the ribs. Flipping them to make sure the liquid is cooking through.

I love Manny Ramirez

2008-10-10T18:26:00.002-04:00

Manny just hit a homerun that was in on his hands out to left field. He rounded the bases and went back to the dugout. He then yelled back to the pitcher, Brett Myers, "if you don't throw 95, don't go there."

Everybody should love Manny Ramirez.

Tyson Chandler's Lucid Thoughts on Taxes

2008-10-10T11:28:00.002-04:00

Tyson Chandler is 7 feet tall, plays basketball for a living, and never went to college. However he is a well spoken and intelligent human being. His blog is on NBA.com and had this to say about paying taxes at a rally for Barack Obama. I'm not trying to illustrate a political point, very far from that. I have tried to keep my political views out of other people's lives. I wanted to illustrate that not every guy in the NBA is a greedy jock who can't think without a line of people doing it for them.

"It's funny, because when Obama was giving his speech, he said he was gonna give a tax cut to 95 percent of the people. He says, "If you make under $250,000 a year, raise your hand." And everybody there raised their hand, except for this one small section of guys. That was our section. And everybody around us was laughing.

But you know what, it's a bigger cause. And the way I look at it is that I can afford to pay more in taxes. But my parents, my grandparents, my cousins ... with what they make, they can't afford to cut back in their household with what they're trying to survive with. I can afford to make cuts and still survive. They can't take that knock.

I think that's what's going on now and the reason why the middle class is struggling so much. The upper class, we can take that hit. Obviously, nobody wants to take it, but we still can. And we can afford to live nice lives.

I've lived in both situations. And not only that, I'm obviously the only one in my family that can say that I'm a millionaire. I've seen my entire family struggle. So, would I rather see my whole family struggle while I get a break, or have me not get a break while the rest of my family gets one? I'll take my entire family getting a break."

Hollinger's PER 08-09

2008-10-08T14:50:00.002-04:00

It is almost time to switch to basketball season from baseball season as my predominate passion. Right now I'm at about 65-35 baseball. But our favorite statistician and yours John Hollinger has come out with his individual PER rating and low and behold who is first. Actually I'll just copy and paste.

2008-09 outlook: Paul projects to lead the NBA in PER this season, a fact that surprised some folks -- like me, for instance; I'd expected LeBron James to be first. But Paul is only 23, is playing a position where development curves tend to be long, and has made substantial improvement in his first three seasons.

In fact, if you compare how he played at ages 20 through 22 you'd be hard-pressed to find a single point guard in history who was demonstrably superior, which might make it easier to digest the possibility of further ascent. It might be odd to think of a 6-0, 175-pound guy as the best player in the league, especially when iconic talents like LeBron and Kobe are in their primes. But if Paul improves much at all from last season, we're going to have to get comfortable with that idea.

I've said it once, I'll say it again Chris Paul was the best player in the NBA last season. NOT KOBE BRYANT. Lebron was (mostly) better than Kobe too, but Kobe's other stuff like playing through injury and not coasting for 20-30 games made Kobe second in my book. I don't truly expect Paul to have a better season than Lebron even though it is entirely possible and those two are probably going to battle for that honor. I'd love to see it, and the Hornets could have just as successfull season if he does live up to these lofty expectations.

Update: Bubble and Squeek

2008-10-08T11:45:00.003-04:00

That is the Kale and red potatoe version. It went well. Served with a flat leaf parsley compound butter. Besides that it was just baked potatoe, kale, salt and pepper. Then made into rounds and "grilled" (it was in a grill pan.)

Bubble and Squeek

2008-10-07T15:19:00.004-04:00

Bubble and squeek is a traditional breakfast side dish in England, usually made from leftovers of a roast dinner. Vegetables (mainly cabbage)are mixed with mashed potatoes in a hot pan. I had it for the first time last week and it was grilled with collards and mashed potatoes.

I am going to attempt to make it soon, two different ways. I'm thinking maybe kale and red potatoes, and sweet potatoes with mustard greens. I will update on how it goes.

Steakhouse Night

2008-10-05T17:49:00.004-04:00

I wanted to make a traditonal "steak and potatoes" dish to take a picture of for my blog so I did and this is how it came out. I served it with a red wine reduction sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, and an green onion infused olive oil.

Bad baseball writing, and the people like me who can't stand it.

2008-09-29T16:10:00.003-04:00

Buster Olney: So there might be one tangible thing the Mets need to fix: They need to get David Wright … well, right. They need to help him work through his apparent anxiety in high-pressure situations. Big-picture: The Mets didn't make the playoffs because of their bullpen failures, as Jack Curry writes, but over the weekend, they mustered a total of five runs, and Wright had a whole lot to do with that. He cares so deeply that he puts enormous pressure on himself, and this trait seems to wreck him in big spots. He seems to leap at the ball when he's trying to hit with the game on the line. They need to address this.

I don't know how they do it. Maybe they get Wright to start talking to a sports psychologist, someone who might get the kind of help that has aided John Smoltz and Matt Garza and others. Wright is a cornerstone player who will be an MVP candidate in most years of his career, so the notion of trading him is silly. But they have to help him find a way to relax -- and if the team's best player relaxes, this will, in turn, take pressure off the rest of the team.

Jay Jaffe of Baseball Prospectus: The phenomenon of a team's best player or players taking an inordinate amount of the blame for their failures is one that Bill James noted back in the Abstract years, and it's even truer today in a more hypercompetitive media. Good Lord, on ESPN Insider today Buster Olney is suggesting that David Wright needs to see a sports psychiatrist to "work through his apparent anxiety in high-pressure situations." Wright certainly deserves his share of the blame given his part in a lineup that managed only five runs over their last three games, but he did go 4-for-9 and hit .340/.416/.577 in September, including .462/.559/.769 in the seven games prior to the Marlins series. Carlos Delgado went 2-for-11, where's his Rx for a shrink, Buster? Sheesh

Fandom. The end of the season.

2008-09-27T01:54:00.005-04:00

I am a realist. A lot of baseball writers would call me an idiot for caring way too much about statistical analysis of the game. But, I am a fan at heart. I am not a statistician who just tries to make baseball a game of numbers. It actually offends me harshly when people who write for huge newspapers (but really, newspapers will be gone in the next few years) and Sports Illustrated, and other large publications use their position to discount what people like me have to say. I am in fact just someone who spends hours and hours trying to understand a game that I truly love. The same game that baseball writers all around the country speak about. I choose to do so by reading about and understanding different statistics.

I grew up looking at RBI, and BA, and assuming that the people who had the highest numbers in these stats were the best players. I have now learned that this is not the truth, because newer (better) statistics are able to separate what certain players contribute without their teammates.

Some people will say that this takes away from the team aspect of the game. That it detracts from the nature of the game and doesn't account for humanistic qualities. Certainly I disagree to this notion.

I have watched at least 100 of the Marlins games this season. I have watched countless other games that do not include my favorite team. I love baseball. Sports fans that I know and love often don't understand the almost chaotic way that I follow the sport. However there is an attack on anyone who would rather use advanced statistics over traditional ones. Many of the more palatable baseball writers that I read have obviously made peace with this. However I have a hard time with people accusing anyone who loves learning about the game in a different way than them of caring only about numbers and not the game.

This brings me to the Marlins. They are outplaying their pyth record (or assumed record because of runs scored vs. runs against, which is proven a better predictor of actual record) by quite a bit. They have locked up a winning record and are going to finish behind the Phillies and Mets, but not that far back considering pre-season projections. However, I love it. I am not some stat freak who would rather see the teams with the most predictable seasons always win. There is luck involved in a 162 games season. There is clutch hitting invloved. However, clutch hitting is not (although many writers will disagree) a repeatable skill.

I am still happy with our season. We played hard. We improved our defense somewhat. We hit the ball hard. Our rotation looks very promising if it is somewhat capable of staying healthy. A winning season was not expected but yet we still found a way to do so, meaning that all my watching had a pretty positive result total. This Marlins team has provided a ton of great moments. From Amezega's homerun fresh off a long rain delay to give us the lead, to Hanley's huge season that will go mostly overlooked, to Uggla looking horrible in teh All-Star games, it will be remembered fondly.

How it won't be remembered is just as a list of numbers. Neither will the live games I was able to watch against Tampa Bay with friends. Neither will be the countless hours I have spent reading Rob Neyer, Baseball Prospectus, The Hardball Times, and other intelligent baseball sites. I wish just one baseball writer of the BBWAA would read this to learn what I mean.

Ultimate Meatball Sub

2008-09-24T19:49:00.003-04:00

I hope there is no copyright infringement on that tagline because of Tyler Florence. You can see my GRE study book in the background of the picture! okay now onto the food.

So Jon (roommate mentioned many times in my food posts) doesn't like meatball subs because they make his bread soggy. He likes meatballs, and subs, just not together. I set out to change his mind.

The bread is fresh baked hoagie roll from Publix Supermarkets, and they are delicious. I don't really bake so....yeah. The meatballs are beef with an 80/20 fat ratio and they were roasted in the oven at 425 degrees until they are still pretty pink and soft in the middle.

2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
bread crumbs to hold moisture
3 garlic cloves
salt, pepper
3/4 of one medium orange bell pepper finely diced.

The sauce was a pretty basic strained plum tomato and garlic sauce with beef stock. It was simmered with merlot and a little bit of (gasp! store bought) vodka sauce to thicken it. Then I put mozzarella chesse on the bread and put it under the broiler to the desired meltiness, braised the meatballs in the sauce to finish them and assembled the sandwich.

Finish the sandwich with some fresh basil. That leaf actually got sprinkled all over after the picture.

Call him a convert.

Great baseball Writers and Jason Bartlett the Pear.

2008-09-23T15:13:00.004-04:00

I have been studying for the GRE, hoping to get into graduate school for the spring. Since I started way too late, I will not be nearly as prepared as I wish I would be. However I can't sit and study all the time, I'm just not that type of studier, I have to pace myself and hope that I got enough of it in. When not at work, and not studying I have been keeping myself busy with sports, fantasy sports, and as always cooking. Today was a good day for baseball reading with a great simple article from Joe Posnanski (who may be the best baseball writer in all the land), and food with a meatball sub for the ages. First thing first. Joe Blog. I'm going to copy the whole article and then just basically agree with him a little.

Jason Bartlett has an 83 OPS+.

Jason Bartlett has a .328 on-base percentage and has struck out three times more than he has walked.

Jason Bartlett has a .358 slugging percentage and has hit 1.00 home runs this season.

Jason Bartlett has missed 32 baseball games, which accounts for his relatively unimpressive total of 43 runs scored and 34 runs batted in.

Jason Bartlett ranks 11th among “everyday shortstops” with an .825 zone rating.

Jason Bartlett ranks 12th among “everyday shortstops“ with 4.22 range factor.

Jason Bartlett ranks 17th among ”everyday shortstops“ with a .969 fielding percentage.

Jason Bartlett scores a minus-1 on the Dewan Plus/Minus fielding system, meaning he has made one fewer play than the average shortstop in baseball this year.

The Tampa Bay Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America voted Jason Bartlett the Tampa Bay Rays most valuable player in this magical season of 2008.

Your honor. The defense rests.

This goes to show that Jason Bartlett is in fact a pear not a baseball player. Okay bad food-baseball joke, but it does show that he is well below average for a SS in today's game. His OPS+ says about 17% worse than average actually. However maybe by the hand of God the Rays won all those games and he was actually their best player lets check. Posnanski, because he is better at this than me used a bunch of fancy stats to show how bad Bartlett Pear is, but for offense I'm going to use my favorite VORP because to me, it is the best overall offensive metric, although OPS+ is very good I still think it doesn't value OBP enough. It may though. Oh well, here we go.

Evan Longoria 33.8
Carlos Pena 33.0
B.J. Upton 30.2
Akinori Iwamura 17.3
Dioner Navaro 15.1
Cliff Floyd 14.7
Eric Hinske 11.8
Jason Bartlett Pear 11.2

He is the 8th best offensive player on his team this year. That's probably only because the next two guys (Carl Crawford and Gabe Gross) lose production points for being corner outfielders, and production is so much more at a premium at shortstop, so his replacement level is way lower. None the less, not even close to most productive offensive player.

As Posnanski alluded to Jason Bartlett ranks only ahead of Edgar Rentaria and Stephen Drew at SS. I used John Dewan's Revised Zone Rating (which handles out of zone plays seperately, and doesn't give the player extra credit for double plays)and he came in at .808. Khalil Greene is about league average at .835.

But wait. There are plenty of pitchers on Tampa Bay who are above Bartlett Pear in VORP as well. Included in them are James Shields, Scott Kazmir, Edwin Jackson, Matt Garza, J.P. Howell, Grant Balfour, Andy Sonnanstine, and Dan Wheeler.

As you can see I went through way too much work to prove a point that had already been proven. However there was no hand of God that allowed a team with a below average SS as their best player to make the playoffs. Actually there are about 14 or so Rays having a better season, give or take a player who is close. Further proof the BBWAA is ridiculous and should be stopped.

MVP Bullcrap

2008-09-18T17:50:00.004-04:00

Everyone who follows or writes about baseball has been talking about the MVP in the National league. PTI just gave Ryan Howard a 60% chance of winning it because "if you look at the numbers that matter, 50 HR and 150 RBI they are there" and "he should win it if his team makes the playoffs. I don't want to dig up the same arguments that anyone who has a brain that has an iota of baseball understanding has said, but I will anyways.

Value, as in the middle word of MVP, is not restricted to teams that make the playoffs. If I am the best player, the most valuable player in the league and the rest of my team stinks, I still have value. So much so that other teams would probably trade the farm for me and pay me a ton of money to move to Boston, or New York, or LA. Whatever games we did win were probably mostly because of me. The money that fans pay for the game are probably to see me. Value, lots, tons, boatloads of value without being on a team that makes the playoffs. Sort like Albert Pujols I guess.

If you want to read about how poor a measure of baseball value RBI's are read something by FireJoeMorgan.com, or Joe Posnanski, or Keith Law of ESPN, or just read Moneyball and start there. But basically the people who finish with the most RBI most of the time are the people who have the most RBI opportunities. It is a statistic that measures teams, not individuals. It might help Ryan Howard because he has Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley on base all the time. Now onto fun with numbers and why Ryan Howard's name shouldn't even come up, WOO!

National League Players with higher VORP

I was going to make a list but there were too many players. He is 33rd just behind Randy Winn and Mark Derosa. And just ahead of the National league only statistics of Jason Bay and Big Marky Tex. This is not to say that Ryan Howard isn't valuable. Just that there are a lot of people playing better baseball. Being a first baseman, he is expected to be able to hit for power. It is easier to get power production out of a first baseman than say, a shortstop. His line of .249/.337/.546 is really good. But Albert Pujols is currently sitting at .354/.468/.640. They play the same position. If you believe the most important things to scoring runs are getting on base, and hitting the ball hard (which I do) Albert Pujols is lightyears ahead of Howard. Hanley Ramirez is currently .296/.398/.538 while stealing 33 bases and playing the much more important defensive position of SS.

Then there is the other half of the diamond, the defense. I mentioned that Pujols and Howard play the same position. But that is only mostly true. They both are by name a first baseman. However, Pujols' Revised Zone Rating (amount of plays made in the zone for the position played expressed as a decimal) is .842 while making 49 plays out of the zone. Ryan Howard's is .766 while only making 31 plays out of the zone. According to Baseball Prospectus that is worth 23 runs, ON DEFENSE ALONE. 23 runs is worth about two wins over 162 game season. Did I mention that Albert Pujols is a much better hitter. Just for kicks Hanley is about 5 runs better than Howard, playing a much harder position and being a much more impressive hitter. As a Marlins fan I love to see Hanley playing about league average defense this year.

Back to Pujols, if Howard wins over him there should be an investigation into the voting. After looking at defensive and offensive metrics here is a list of players who are having a better full season in Howard's own division.

Hanley Ramirez
Chase Utley
Jose Reyes
David Wright
Carlos Beltran
Chipper Jones
Brian McCann
Dan Uggla
Jimmy Rollins
Christian Guzman!
Carlos Delgado

IN HIS DIVISION. THIRD ON HIS TEAM. The same argument also goes for Delgado, he is just slightly better than Howard.

NFL Announcing is horrible.

2008-09-14T16:58:00.011-04:00

On NFL Countdown today Emmitt Smith called Matt Cassel by the name of Matt Hassel at least 4 times in the span of less than a paragraph of analysis. The same Matt Cassel who everyone has talked about until we all knew that he hadn't started since high school, he played baseball at USC, his brother plays for the Astros, etc. However Emmitt neglected to learn his name.

And as soon as I decide to stop watching the Marlins all the time and following everything they do for the rest of this season, they go out and win 5 straight games. Cool, I'm pumped about that.

Sweet potatoes.

2008-09-14T16:58:00.010-04:00

Unabashed, I love sweet potatoes. Most of the time I just enjoy them baked with a little butter, salt, pepper, red pepper, and sugar. However I wanted to start using them in different ways. A couple months ago I made a jalapeno and sweet potato mash that I thoroughly enjoyed. Last week I made a dish that will probably stay in the main rotation for quite a while. Initially they were sweet potato pancakes, but my roommate bought a deep fryer for the kitchen (a post about this is going to come soon) and I made them as smaller fritters. Same batter just smaller and less pancake shaped.

2 sweet potatoes
2 eggs whites
2 roasted jalapenos
2 ears of sweet corn
a pinch of kosher salt
approx 1 1/2 tbsp cracked black pepper
bread crumbs
sugar to taste

Begin by baking the sweet potatoes until fully cooked and then remove the meat from the inside into a large mixing bowl. Add all of the ingredients except the bread crumbs and combine. Add the bread crumbs in small amounts until the batter is no longer noticeably wet. It will thicken up and you will be able to handle it in your hands fairly easily without it sticking. Form into small pancakes (and pan fry) or fritters a little smaller than a golf ball (and deep fry.)

Summer lunch at my brother's house.

2008-09-08T20:23:00.003-04:00

When my mom came up to Tallahassee from Ft.Myers I made lunch for Gi (my girlfriend), Kristen (my sister in law), Sandy (my mom) and myself (me.) I wanted to use lots of vegetables because Kristen, and to a smaller effect my mom love vegetables. Not to say they don't enjoy meat, I just wanted to keep it light. I prepared two things. Asparugus that had been wrapped in proscuitto, and a jicama salad with shrimp.

Aspargus:

I par boiled the green vegetable leaving a bit of a bite to it. Afterwards I shock it in an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Then I wrapped it with the cured ham. After the bundles were assembled I sprinkled them with salt and fresah ground black pepper and sauteed them until they were warm all the way through and the proscuitto was crisp on both sides. It looked like this.

The salad was made of red onion ( I prefer it slightly cooked and in thin long strips, however I left it raw), jicama that has been cut into thick julienne cuts, cucumber that is cut just like the jicama, and shrimp. I used pink shrimp that were 31-35 size. The shrimp are sauteed with garlic before the salad is assembled and shocked just like the asparagus was.

The last part of the salad is the dressing which is a red wine vinegarette. It consists of red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, spicy mustard (I used Boar's Head brand), honey, salt, pepper, and celery salt. I didn't measure any of it but just made it to my taste. Vinegarettes are simple one you learn them so practice is just the key. Drizzle the oil in after everything else has been whisked well.

September call-ups: Marlins

2008-09-02T16:40:00.003-04:00

So it is September, and my team is out of the chase for all intents and purposes. However this is the time of year that rosters get expanded so teams can go to a 40 man roster. Teams usually call up as few people as they can, because of Major League service time, and starting arbitration clocks, and whatnot. The Marlins called up a bunch of also-rans that we have seen pulled up a few times for spot starts. The likes of Andino, Carrol, Miller, De La Cruz, and McPherson get nobody extremely excited. Although I did just learn McPherson was leading minor leagues with 42 home runs.

I fully expected Cameron Maybin to get called up. I was in the line of thinking that getting potential abover average everyday players some time in September was a good idea. I have no idea what his Major League experience is as far as arbitration, but I know he is yet to see the light of day in Florida. I do know that he has been up and down this season but is posting a respectable .375 OBP, and .831 OPS, and it has jumped to .898 since the all-star break, all while playing CF. Cameron still may get called up, and there are tons of things he still needs to work on (like his 120 Ks vs. 60 BB.) But I think that if we expect him to fill the hole at center that is currently filled by 4th/5th outfielders, we need to see what he can do in the bigs.

Mexican night. Every night should be Mexican night.

2008-08-29T16:45:00.007-04:00

Chicken enchiladas, sweet corn with bell pepper and red onion, white rice.
This, if anything, is my signature dish, and it was pretty much perfect last night.

New Uniforms for the Hornets

2008-08-27T18:57:00.003-04:00

Today the New Orleans Hornets renovated their uniforms with an all new color pattern. The design scheme of the jerseys has also changed back to a pinstripe look from way back when they were in Charlotte. Overall I like the uniforms. The text stayed the same and they kept the yellow around a little bit. Personally I prefer the colors from the last couple years. I will love to see what their alternate uniforms are, because I absolutely loved the yellow jerseys from last year. The new apparel is sweet too, especially the NOLA shirt with the trumpet.

All of that was really just a primer to say that it was something they absolutely had to do. We all know they had the lowest attendance in the league for a while last year until they sustained the winning. Eventually they sold the games out, made the playoffs, and dispelled any rumors of leaving the city by the great season ticket sales so far. However, they still need revenue to compete on a larger, year in and year out, scale. Switching designs will make people want the new stuff, and buy up jerseys of guys like Chris Paul, Julian Wright, and David West. Coming off of the season they just had, the timing is perfect to make such a move. The excitement is immense and people are more likely to spend for these types of things now.

I'm going to buy a Chris Paul jersey when I get paid I think. White or Blue?
I just checked, they sold out in a day of both.

Chicken Paillard

2008-08-21T15:57:00.005-04:00

Just a picture I liked of Chicken Paillard, Potatoes Au Gratin, and a Romaine salad from earlier this week.

Links this week.

2008-08-18T17:12:00.002-04:00

Read the Hall of Fame post from today over at FireJoeMorgan. Nothing like people who talk in absolutes when using subjective arguments.

Goodbye Jannero Pargo.

Great article by Joe Sheehan over at Baseball Prospectus. Big surprise. Another big surprise: Josh Hamilton and K-Rod don't stand up to others in the AL MVP debate. Article not free.

I completely disagree with Peter Gammons on this. Soto is not even on my long list of MVP candidates, nor is he the best catcher in his league. Joe Mauer in the AL, I'd listen to that conversation (even if I disagree.) Also have to be an insider.

This one is free and a really good read about curveballs.

Look I can read humanistic baseball stories too.

Shrimp and Grits

2008-08-17T12:25:00.006-04:00

Regionally southern foods have always been near and dear to my heart. My parents grew up in the south part of Arkansas, which is steeped in the middle of the traditional South. Growing up, the food that my parents cooked and ate were dishes that had been a part of their diet growing up, and I would imagine that of their parents as well. Southern food isn't any different than the food anywhere else in the world in that way. Regions take what they have and find a way to make good food out of it, then it is passed on from generation to generation and it evolves and gets better. What the southern United States have is lots of different vegetables, starches, and fruits. Rice fields line highways all throughout Louisiana and Arkansas. Farmers who sell fresh tomatoes, peas, and corn often sit on the side of roads. What else they have is a lot of coastline and access to seafood.

No doubt shrimp and grits was once just a porridge of ground corn, liquid and a highly available seafood. However it has evolved into a dish that great chefs have turned into high art. For me it is often a mark of a great southern restaurant to have done it well. Because restaurants who survive on the premise of doing classic southern dishes should be able to do them well, and do them with their own spin.

The best shrimp and grits I've ever had was at a Bistro 1896 in downtown Asheville, NC. It was a delightful twist with large polenta cakes that had been crisped in a pan instead of hominy grits that resemble a gruel. It was served with large wild United States pink shrimp and a remoulade sauce that was not a slave to the traditional Louisiana spicy aioli. It had lots of fresh herbs and still a fairly present flavor of garlic. I still remember this dish years later because it was that unforgettable.

What made me think about this is that I went to Harry's Seafood Bar and Grill here in Tallahassee and ate some shrimp and grits not too long ago. Their take on the dish included a remoulade as well. It was a much more traditional one but good nonetheless. It included hominy grits that were stiff (which is a good thing) and there was Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese inside and finishing the plate. The dishes were far apart on approach and flavor but both hit the mark.

Shrimp and grits is a great regional dish that I have never attempted, but after having it on my mind I'm sure that I will soon. I'll update when I do.

Awards in Baseball.

2008-08-13T17:29:00.004-04:00

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus said something that I've seen from a lot of guys, who know a lot about baseball. Much more than I do might I add. However it is something that I don't exactly agree with. In his chat this question and answer transpired.

jsmoore (dallas): Does Longoria's injury open up the AL rookie of the year race? If so, does Chris Davis have a chance if he keeps raking?

Kevin Goldstein: Chris Davis has been absolutely outstanding, but lets face it and let's talk about how things really work. Longoria could be done for the season and he'd still win the award. That said, the real question is, why do we care? I've never understood people getting worked up about awards.

As far as who is the best player or who has the best production goes, I am all for figuring it out ourselves and finding new ways to define baseball value. Revised Zone Rating is by far a better measure of defense than fielding percentage. Dealing with objective statistics over subjective opinions on what transpired almost always are. At the same time awards still matter. As currently constructed the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) hold a monopoly on all the major off-season awards. MVP, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, etc. Even if they give the MVP award to Jimmy Rollins when he is not the best player on his team or the best offensive shortsop in his division.

This may seem like a silly reason for it to be important. But, these are the same people who hold votes for the Hall of Fame. THE SAME PEOPLE. When it comes time for the Hall of Fame voting most of these guys aren't looking at OPS, they are looking at accolades and rings and the like. The other reason awards are important is that people still listen to the awards. When I was at a Devil Rays game, one of the people I was with (who I was meeting for the first time through a mutual friend) and I were talking about baseball. I mentioned that batting average wasn't really all that important and I used the word "indicator" in my argument. I guess I was too cliche but I certainly didn't want to start an argument. Apparently he had heard this argument before. He had made the decision to listen to conventional wisdom. Many do.

My point in digressing a little is that most of the general public, which includes a lot of sportswriters who may never see a lot of teams from the other league, still listen to the BBWAA. Perceptions can lead to fan bases who alienate or overrate certain players (Adam Dunn most recently), and lead to big contracts or dismissals. Perceptions can lead to front office types on the hotseat even if they are doing a fine job, and the exact opposite. Perceptions run the Hall of Fame.

Whether we like it or not the awards matter and not for the right reasons. They are awarded by people who think that being "clutch" and "gritty" are measureable statistics, and they change perceptions. Perceptions of people who aren't quite as die hard as some of us who prefer to learn and understand the way our favorite sport works. That happens to be a lot of people.

Appetizer Deliciousness

2008-08-11T16:30:00.011-04:00

Figs, Balsamic, and Cheese is a pairing a lot of people have done. I usually see it as a dessert or salad and almost exclusively with blue cheese. This is my savory/sweet play on the dish.

Ingredients
Black Mission Figs
Balsamic Vinegar
Baguette bread
Marscapone cheese
Coarse Kosher Salt
Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1. Reduce the balsamic vinegar until it is a thick syrup-like consistency.

2. Cut the bread into 1/2 inch crostinis. Toast them on a baking pan with a light drizzle of olive oil.

3. Mix in salt and pepper in the marscapone cheese to taste.

4. Poach the figs in water until they are hot all the way through but not falling apart. Cut them in half and assemble the dish on the serving plate.

Marlins: Going Forward

2008-08-08T17:18:00.002-04:00

On Today August 8th the Florida Marlins are just 1 ½ games back in the hunt for the NL East crown and a birth into the playoffs. To say that this is a surprise is an understatement, especially for anyone who has followed this team on a regular basis.

Let’s take a look at what this team does well, and what it doesn’t to try and figure out if they can compete over the next 47 games.

Pitching

The Marlins starting pitching has been bad all year. Neutral of support the Marlins starting pitching has been last in the National league, and close to the bottom of the entire Major Leagues. But the caveat to this is that the rotation looks a lot different than it has all season, because the Marlins just got Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez back from injury. Also they have called up youngster Chris Volstad from the minors. Volstad (2.94 RA, 3.28 FIP) and Johnson (3.34, 4.04) have pitched very well of late. Ricky Nolasco has turned himself into a reliable middle of the rotation starter and if the other guys can continue to help, this staff can be a lot better than what they were running out there in June and July. The other optimistic piece to the rotation being better is that these arms are fresh, with none of the three new pieces having 120 IP yet to date.

Defense

This is where the talks turn ugly. The infield is extremely bad. Jorge Cantu is next to last in John Dewan’s Revised Zone Rating among eligible third basemen. Mike Jacobs is dead last at first base. Dan Uggla is in the bottom third at second base and Hanley Ramirez has been in the middle of the pack at SS. Although Hanley’s track record beyond this year says that could get worse. Teams with defense this bad don’t usually make the playoffs, and this steals some of the optimism from the new rotation because Chris Volstad and Josh Johnson are big guys who create a lot of downhill plane and groundballs. Their continued success somewhat hinges on the defense being better.

Offense

The Marlins can hit a lot of Home Runs. They are second only to the Philadelphia Phillies in that respect among NL teams. The Marlins also strikeout more often than any other team. Both are signs of a young team with a lot of pop in their bats.

They are sixth in OPS and sixth in runs scored among NL teams. We all know about Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla but Jorge Cantu is sporting a 24.5 VORP. Jeremy Hermida has been on a tear since the All-Star break albeit in a small sample size but they need him to get on base a lot as long as Fredi Gonzalez has him hitting second. The bottom of the order doesn’t boast a lot of production so the guys at the top are going to have to stay consistent.

Outlook

Going forward it is hard to predict that the Marlins are going to continue their unexpected success. They are still being outscored on the season by 19 runs and that doesn’t bode well for projection over the next 47 games. However, the rotation is a different rotation and if they can be consistent down the stretch that will change some projections. They can still score runs and they did just win a big series in Philadelphia this week. I can’t say I expect them to pull it out over the Phillies and Mets but I expect them to be in the race down to the last couple weeks.

Skip Bayless shouldn't talk.

2008-08-07T10:49:00.005-04:00

Caveat to this post: I am no FireJoeMorgan, nor do I try to be.

Home from work today I sat down and caught First Take on ESPN which is something I often like to do. It is a mixture of morning show and sports that is easy to put on in the background while reading, or in the case of this morning while eating a delicious breakfast sandwich I made for myself and my roommate. I also really love to see what Skip Bayless has to say because most of the time it is comical, unintentionally of course (which is the best time of humor sometimes.) After he proclaimed Brett Favre's aura and mystique would take the Jets to 12 wins, the subject turned to baseball. UH-OH!

The question posed to Skip was "Did Steinbrenner ruin the Yankees season by forcing Joba to be a starter?" First things first: starters are much more valuable than relievers. 190 innings of excellent pitching is better than 80 innings, it is really not that difficult to understand. Moving Joba was the right decision.

Skip's response was saying that 1."they reinvented an overpowering reliever; and made him become a starter" and 2."he started becoming curveball happy, throwing one after another, not depending on his overpowering fastball."

As far as reinventing a reliever and making him a starter here are his numbers from college and Minor league Baseball. 50 apperances, 47 starts. Two of those relief appearances coming in his last stop before the majors in AAA. No doubt those two were getting him ready for his relief role with the Yankees. That means his entire professional career before the majors, and his entire amatuer career above high school were as a starter. But was he good in that role? In those Minor league appearances that he started he accumulated a strikeout per 9 rate of 13.79, while walking only 2.76 per 9 innings. He had a WHIP of 1.01. That is really good. They hadn't reinvented a reliever, they merely allowed him to do what he had always done, allowed him to be more valuable to their team. He got tendonitis, relievers get it too. Pitching is a violent motion. Hank Steinbrenner did not give Joba Chamberlain a shoulder injury.

As long as I'm on a roll, The Hardball Times did a study on Joba as a starter versus reliever and how effective he was. They concluded that he threw his curveball at approximately the same rate as when he was a reliever, about 7% of the time. Now, Skip may not know the difference between a curveball and a slider which Joba throws about 25% of the time and is basically unhittable. See, Hardball Times used actual research and Pich f/x identification where Bayless used shoot from the hip assumptions from his living room viewings.

Burger Toppings

2008-08-07T10:24:00.004-04:00

Playing around with burger toppings is something that I really enjoy doing. I won't get into how I make my burgers right now (I stick to 80/20 fat content) but just post a couple toppings mixtures that I have made recently that work well.

Burger one:
Caramelized onions (Vidalia)
Roasted eggplant
Fontina cheese
Balsamic-Garlic mayonnaise.

Burger two:
Thick cut bacon
Over medium fried egg
Sharp cheddar cheese
Spinach (sweat it first)

Note on the second burger: keep your patty a little thinner than normal because you really want it to feel like a brunch type sandwich where everything is the star.

A couple Links.

2008-08-06T17:35:00.006-04:00

-Marlins host second round games for the world baseball classic. They say it is a step toward growing the baseball market and eventually an All-Star game in the new stadium.

-J.C. Bradbury the Baseball Economist was on Stat Speak talking about deadline and waiver moves.

-Twenty Hornets games to watch, thanks Jim Eichenhofer over at nba.com

-Holy small sample size Batman!

-New FireJoeMorgan gear. Awesome.

The Dodger's Outfield

2008-08-06T14:00:00.004-04:00

Everyone from Steve Phillips, to LA Beat writers, to me have assumed they know what to do with the Dodgers. Many say that they have a "crowded" outfield because they have 5 outfielders with the acquisition of Manny Ramirez. I tend to disagree because from what I see they have only three outfielders and two people who are stealing money. Of course I don't have the gift of seeing grittiness, determination, and leadership so I may be missing something. Just for kicks I decided to see what the production has looked like, and what would make the Dodgers the best team going forward. I decided to use WARP as my go to stat for this exercise.WARP (Wins Above Replacement Player) for those who are not familiar is an advanced baseball statistic that judges how many wins a person has earned his team over the average AAA replacement at his position. Many people have heard of VORP or Value Over Replacement Player, WARP is similar but defense is applied where VORP is purely an offensive stat. Here are the lists of WARP for the Dodgers outfielders this season.

Manny:4.9
Kemp:4.2
Eithier:2.4
Pierre:1.3
Jones:-.1

Negative WARP means that Jones is roughly 1/10th of a win worse than the average AAA outfielder that would replace him. Judging by this it is clear that Kemp and Manny should never come out. Eithier is roughly a win better than Pierre, and going forward that gap will undoubtably get larger because he is five years younger than Pierre. By replacing Andruw Jones in the outfield with Manny Ramirez they are getting an above average outfielder to replace basically a AAA player at this point.

There is just under 1/3 of the season left so the numbers need to be prorated over the rest of the season. Manny should contribute about 1.5 wins over Jones the rest of the season, and if they play Eithier and Kemp they should gain 2.19 wins over replacement player the rest of the season. Pierre is expected to contribute about 8/10 of a win.

It should be said as far as Jones goes that a team full of replacement players would be expected to be a horrible team, a last place team. It is clear to me that the acquisition of Manny allows them to play three good outfielders every day and if they do so they will gain about 3 games over playing Pierre and Jones. They are currently 2.5 games back of The Arizona Diamondbacks. Here is hoping for the Dodgers sake that they have someone in the front office who sees it like this.

Managing Baseball for Dummies

2008-08-05T20:55:00.003-04:00

In the sixth inning of tonight's game bewtween the Marlins and Phillies Josh Johnson, the Marlins starting pitcher, doubled into the left center gap. The next batter, Hanley Ramirez, is the Marlins best hitter and had two hits tonight. Of course Fredi Gonzalez decides to sacrifice bunt, giving up a precious out in a 2-0 game, and the bunt goes down and the pitcher fields it cleanly getting the slow running pitcher at third. I don't even want to go into how stupid sacrifice bunting is in general, but even if you think it is an acceptable use of an out to do it with your best hitter to move your pitcher to third with zero outs and the heart of the lineup coming up is indefensible.

I watch baseball most every night and it seems that conventional wisdom reigns supreme in almost every clubhouse at least in the National League. Conventional wisdom is wrong almost every time, and cost the Marlins most likely at least one run in this game. It is still going on, so it is yet to be seen if it will play into the final outcome.

EDIT: They did in fact win 8-2, and it did not change my opinion that it was a ridiculous strategy.

Double Battered Curry fried fish.

2008-08-05T13:15:00.010-04:00

Fillets of Tilapia
Yellow Curry Powder (or if you are ambitious make your own)
Milk (buttermilk if you have it, I used 1%)
Frying oil
Louisiana hot sauce
Honey
Salt and cracked pepper
All Purpose flour
Eggs

1.Marinate the fish fillets in the milk and curry powder, salt, and pepper for a couple of hours before cooking, eliminating fish taste and allowing the curry to permeate the flesh.

2.Create a breading station of alternating flour, egg wash, and flour. Then double bread the fish with the breading station. Dust with the curry powder lightly afterwards.

3.In a frying pan bring the oil up to temperature around the smoke point (use something with a high smoke point like vegetable oil or grapeseed oil.)

4.Fry the fish until golden brown and crispy on both sides checking for doneness throughout, about 2 minutes per side. Then pat dry of excess oil.

5.Create sauce by using 1 part honey and 2/3 part Louisiana Hot sauce (substitute your favorite hot sauce if you like.)

6.Upon serving lightly drizzle the honey mixture on top of the fish without eliminating the curry fried taste but accenting the spice with the sweetness of the honey.

I served the fish with a boiled cauliflower mash that consisted of cauliflower, chicken stock, salt, course ground black pepper and butter. Adjust the mash to the consistency until it is somewhere between thick mashed potatoes and a puree. Then crisp some medium diced Pancetta and serve on top of cauliflower.

Skip Carey

2008-08-04T19:06:00.005-04:00

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2008/08/03/skip_caray_dies.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

Skip Carey passed away this week and there won't be a shortage of people mourning his death. I wanted to write a little bit about it here. My dad was a huge Braves fan growing up, as most Southerners are. He followed the Braves when I was in elementary and middle school everyday, and tried to make me a Braves fan as well. I turned out liking the Marlins who were just starting and were much closer to my Southwest Florida home. However I can remember watching Braves games with my dad back when they were still on TBS every day. I can remember watching day baseball and seeing Maddux move the ball from corner to corner, and David Justice hit the ball what seemed like a mile from the left side of the plate. Skip Carey was a voice of my youth. I couldn't tell you who called Marlins games back then, but even to this day I will watch Braves games to hear Skip Carey sing the praises of Chipper Jones and Bobby Cox. Skip Carey doesn't know the little kids all around the country who became Braves fans during their run of division title, but I can bet that I'm not the only one who is sad about his passing today.

Frustration in Baseball.

2008-08-04T17:57:00.002-04:00

The Florida Marlins are a frustrating team to follow. They have only made the postseason twice since I began following them in the year of their inauguration. However they did win the World Series in those two years. This year they are especially frustrating because they are contending with merely smoke and mirrors. I don't want to get my hopes up that they can actually win ballgames down the line to win the division and then be let down. But they keep contending, despite the -23 run differential.

I got worried that they would get rid of Hermida and Mike Stanton for two months of Manny. Being buyers at this point seems a little ridiculous to me, because I think they are the third best team in the division maybe even fourth this year. I know that Josh Johnson is back up, and Anibal Sanchez is back up, and Ricky Nolasco is pitching a little above his head right now. I just don't buy any of those guys as more than a #2 and that only goes to Anibal Sanchez if he pitches like himself coming off the injury. But they are still contending, and I keep watching and rooting.

They are only average at one position defensively where Hanley had made strides to be around the middle of SS in Revised Zone Rating. Everywhere else is bad. They strike out too much. They don't have anyone reliable in the bullpen. Their best overall hitter is somehow still a leadoff guy. But they are still contending.

I guess I'm happy they didn't become bigtime buyers at the trade deadline. I have supreme faith in Larry Beinfest. I think he does more with less better than anyone in baseball except probably Bill Beane. This frustration is okay because at the end of the season even when we have fallen out of the race I will know that we overachieved (currently 59-53, where our adjusted Pyth record has us around 53-59) and we have some pieces to grow on. Cameron Maybin should be coming, Andrew Miller's development, hopefully Jeremy Hermida's continued development (how is he still 24?), etc. I just wish Buster Posey had fallen one more spot, for obvious reasons.

This must be what people feel like that root for regular middle of the payroll teams that contend often feel like. Man the season is long when you are not out of it before the All-Star break.

Kool Beanz Cafe

2008-08-04T17:37:00.003-04:00

Recently on my lunch break my friend Jon and I decided to eat somewhere good for lunch instead of the usual sandwich, or burger joint. In Tallahassee this can be difficult, because there aren't that many good, original resturants. Jon's favorite here in town is Kool Beanz Cafe so we headed off.

Kool Beanz is a local resturant that hires locally and tries to shop locally for the most part. I enjoy its eclectic New Orleans Jazz infused art and heavily tattooed staff. Especially because I am moderately tattooed. We sat at the bar to watch the kitchen work, and gawk at all of the meals coming off. Kool Beanz' menu changes almost everytime I have been, however there are staples that don't. Jon goes for the chorizo, rice mojo chicken that is his go to dish if he can't decide. I ordered the lamb burger with goat cheese and cherry pepper relish. This may seem a little redundant because the last post was fajitas with goat cheese but it really is a coincedence.

The burger was a beautiful dish served with eggplant fries that were coated in panko. The lamb was thick and juicy and cooked medium without even asking for a temperature, which to me should be asked for on any ground meat. However I would have ordered medium so I was okay with it. Goat cheese can over power lots of dishes however the lamb stood up to it very well and the cherry pepper relish added a touch of sweetness without playing too far into the sweet/savory dance that can be difficult to pull off. It was one of the best burgers I have ever had, and definately the best "out of the box" burger I have tasted. I would suggest anyone who hasn't eaten there to give it a go. Try it for lunch and it is much more moderately priced.

Goat Cheese Fajitas

2008-08-03T16:02:00.006-04:00

Protein
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
Fajitas Seasoning (salt, black pepper, white pepper, onion powder, garlic powder)
Salsa
3 Vine Ripened Tomatoes
1/2 Red Onion
1/2 Poblano
1/2 Anehiem chili
1 Jalepeno (with seeds)
2 Limes
Cilantro (to taste)
Spices (1 part salt,1 part pepper,1 part smoked paprika,1/2 part chili powder)
2 cloves garlic
Also
Corn Oil
Goat's cheese
Red Bell Pepper.
2 Pats of butter
Flour or Corn tortillas

1. To make the salsa combine all of the ingredients into a food processor, or half into a blender and add the other half once it is combined. Taste it and adjust for your palette. Put into the fridge immediately.

2. Cut the chicken into large tenders along the bias, about 3-4 per breast depending on size. Season with the spice mixture liberally. Place to the side.

3. Prepare wide julienne of the red bell pepper and begin to cook them in a small saute pan over medium low heat with the butter (which should be lightly browned first.)

4. Saute the chicken in a small amount of corn oil over a very hot pan until golden brown on all sides and it is fully cooked.

5. De-glaze the chicken pan with the chilled salsa to include the cooking liquid, and also to warm the salsa for serving.

6. Combine chicken, bell pepper, salsa in a small tortilla and cover with the goat cheese. Enjoy.

Starting Over

2008-08-03T15:55:00.000-04:00

I recently decided that I wanted to write again like I used to, so I went back to this blog. I changed the idea from just sports, to mostly sports and food with a little bit of other things thrown in, like links and such. I hope that I can get some creativity out here even if nobody reads it.