I talked to James Ihedigbo about the Jets and trash talking today at the SNY studio. It looked like this:
James Ihedigbo dresses much better than me
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Daily Archives: November 17, 2009
Anonymous sources say the darndest things
James Kannengeiser at Amazin’ Avenue, obviously as giddy as I am about the Georgetown hoops game that starts at 4 p.m. today, posted a pretty amazing rundown of things he heard from his anonymous sources.
My favorites:
– My anonymous sources are familiar with the thinking of people who have knowledge of a league official’s inside man.
– My anonymous sources are trying to find the words to describe Bengie Molina without being too disrespectful.
He included a few from my Twitter feed, which I appreciate, though I should note that I completely stole the idea to tweet about anonymous sources from James’ Twitter feed.
Anyway, here’s some more undeniable insight from the MLB Hot Stove, courtesy of my giant network of baseball insiders:
– According to a person familiar with the Cubs’ thinking, it doesn’t happen very often.
– An MLB insider close to Brian Sabean says he has terrible B.O.
– A well-placed source with connections to the Mets organization says, “I’m Keith Hernandez.”
– According to a Yankees insider, Brian Cashman has suggested to ownership that the team trade Derek Jeter, and even maintained a straight face for about 10 seconds before cracking up.
– According to a Japanese baseball expert, Hideki Matsui 大人のビデオの印象的なコレクションを持っている。
– An anonymous MLB source tells me he was just speculating, and that it was really irresponsible of me to spin that into an entire column.
Art Attack: The Berg Manifesto
Little-known fact: I did my master’s studies in Arts and Humanities, an interdisciplinary arts program I began immediately after giving up my dream of a career in sports journalism. I had no solid plan in mind for turning it into an actual job, but it seemed like — and was — a damn fine excuse to move out of my parents’ house, meet interesting people, and learn a whole lot about a bunch of different stuff I found interesting.
It was through my coursework there that I developed my still-unfinished plan for Dawn of the Awesome, the art manifesto aimed to foster appreciation for the spectacular and unsubtle, one I detailed in greater length in July.
Anyway, to better utilize my long-dormant arts background and to forward awareness of my art movement, Awesomeism, I’m starting a new non-sports feature on this blog in the vain of From the Wikipedia and Culture Jammin’: Art Attack.
The debut Art Attack installment: The Berg Manifesto
The Berg manifesto, amazingly, was not written by me. In fact, unbelievably, it’s not even about me. It’s about The Berg, a proposed 1,000-meter tall manmade mountain for Berlin, Germany by architect Jakob Tigges.
The Berg would stand about 1,000 feet taller than any other currently extant man-made structure, a literal mountain of unapologetic Awesomeness right in the heart of Berlin.
Oh, and it’d be great for skiing, apparently. And a safe haven for mountain goats, too.
Needless to say, this has to get done. Naysayers in the Popular Science comments section say things like, “oh, it’ll affect the weather.” Damn right it’ll affect the weather! It’s a f@#$ing mountain! You think people haven’t been living beside huge awesome mountains since the dawn of civilization? Think of the goats, guy!
A bunch of others bring up more practical applications for the money that would need to finance the Berg, and one even says, “Just because we can do something, does not mean that we should.”
What? No! That’s exactly why we should do something. Do you even understand the fundamental tenets of Awesomeism? Sometimes tremendous and awesome things don’t need a reason. That’s the whole point.
This absolutely needs to happen. It’d be, at the very least, the most certain way the city of Berlin could earn my tourist dollar, not to mention my utmost respect.
Still, because people somehow doubt that this would be a good idea, proponents of the mountain have penned The Berg Manifesto. And to make it even more awesome, it’s all loaded up with Schadenfreude:
Hamburg, as stiff as fat, turns green with envy, rich and once proud Munich starts to feel ashamed of its distant Alp-panorama and planners of the Middle-East, experienced in taking the spell off any kind of architectural utopia immediately design authentic copies of the iconic Berlin-Mountain.
Suck it down, Hamburg! You too, Munich! Yield to our ridiculous homemade mountain! Do you have a giant mountain in the middle of your city? No, I didn’t think so. And yeah, Dubai, we et that you’ve got some pretty awesome buildings, but do you have any giant mountains? Bow down to our architectural utopia.
Joel Pineiro particularly intriguing
According to Adam Rubin, the Mets are “particularly intrigued” by Joel Pineiro.
It makes sense, because Joel Pineiro is particularly intriguing. Not necessarily as an answer in the Mets’ rotation, but just in general.
Looking at Pineiro’s counting stats, I’d immediately dismiss him as a potential free-agent fit. After all, he’s 31 and coming off his only decent year since 2003. Plus he doesn’t really strike anybody out.
But Fangraphs paints a more interesting picture, as it often does. Turns out Pineiro pretty decidedly changed his approach in 2009, confirming various reports. He threw way more fastballs (sinking ones, no less) than he ever did before — which probably contributed to his miniscule walk totals — and so, predictably, induced more contact.
His groundball rate went from hovering in the mid-to-high 40s to an outstanding 60.5 percent, dropping his line-drive and flyball rates accordingly. He cut his home runs per flyball rate in half.
There’s probably some luck and randomness in there, but Pineiro pretty clearly figured out a way to pitch to bad contact more effectively than he ever had before. Simply put, batters just didn’t hit him hard.
Whether that’s sustainable is something else entirely. Pineiro succeeded under Cardinals pitching guru Dave Duncan, and, like I said before, doesn’t have much of a track record to fall back on.
Essentially I just wanted to throw out the idea that Pineiro could be more than a one-year wonder. I’d expect him to regress toward his mean, but, assuming he can maintain his adjusted approach, be a pretty decent pitcher in the next couple of seasons.
The Mets could do a whole lot worse, in other words.
Also, for what it’s worth, I had a video game once in which Pineiro always ended up a Hall of Famer when you played in franchise mode. So there’s that.
Items of note
Howard Megdal votes no on Chone Figgins. Sam Page is ambivalent, and points to Figgins’ “really cool name,” an excellent point. I refuse to pronounce it “Shawn,” for what it’s worth. I much prefer to say it phonetically with a terrible cockney accent, along the lines of “I’m Chone Figgins, I am, I am” and maybe throw in a “guv’nah” in there, too.
Also, someone clearly needs to put Chone Figgins, Lastings Milledge and Norris Hopper on the same team to field an All-Dickens-name outfield.
Rich Zuckerman, SNY.tv Knicks columnist and lauded ass-kicking machine, says Allen Iverson is not The Answer for the Knicks. I think it just depends on the question. If it’s “Would I be more likely to watch Knicks games if Allen Iverson was playing?” then, well, yes.
Scientists say people who believe the world will end in 2012 are crazy. Darren Daulton replies, “STEAK! STEAK! RADIO!”
Tedquarters 