Tuesday, April 26, 2005

You Know He Stinks When...

WaPo Orioles beat writer Jorge Arangure (Why can't their beat writers have easy to spell last names?) chatted today and had the single best (and most telling) exchange of any of the WaPo chats:

Washington, D.C.: Did you see Guzman's error yesterday? I worry about him, because now his "funk" seems to be spreading to his defense too. That's two straight games I've been to where he makes a HUGE/crazy error. What's next for him?

Jorge Arangure: I didn't see Guzman's error. But it must have been really bad since I'm getting a bunch of questions about why he's been terrible.


You know you're bad when opposing teams' beat writers are getting peppered with questions about how much you suck!

posted by Chris Needham at 3:13 PM

21 Comments:

  • Wow, I'm seriously bored. Is it quittin' time yet?

    By Blogger Yuda, at 4/26/2005 3:56 PM  

  • I'm with ya!

    Are you going to the game tonight?

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/26/2005 3:57 PM  

  • We had a two hour staff meeting today. You ever peeled an onion . . . and discovered an entirely different onion underneath and peeled that one and discovered . . . ? Welcome to my world, professionally.

    It'll be nice to kick back and watch the Washington Nationa . . . go to hell, Angelos!

    By Blogger Basil, at 4/26/2005 4:00 PM  

  • Yeah, I'm in my usual seats. Either of you guys going?

    By Blogger Yuda, at 4/26/2005 4:01 PM  

  • That sounds like fun time.

    Here, things are dead, bc a newly installed committee chairman has decided to do nothing but oversight hearings (and very few of them at that!), forgoing any new legislative initiatives.

    So... ummm..... How 'bout them Nats?

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/26/2005 4:02 PM  

  • Nope. I'll be sitting on my ass 'watching' the game chatter.... Assuming anyone wants to play today, that is.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/26/2005 4:03 PM  

  • Well, put that bad boy to use over on my site. If RFK had wifi, I'd probably join you.

    Speaking of SBC Park has free wifi, which might be the coolest thing ever.

    By Blogger Yuda, at 4/26/2005 4:09 PM  

  • Charlie and Dave'ening it tonight, Yuda. If I'm home, which I'm not sure of at the moment.

    I'll also stop by the Ball & Sticks' guys Philly chat for a moment or two, just to represent, yo.

    I can't recall; did you set up a chat thingy, Yuda? Or is it still the Haloscan thing here?

    (One other question, Chris: Do your comments now have "seconds" on them, when they didn't used to? It looks different, for some reason.)

    By Blogger Basil, at 4/26/2005 4:11 PM  

  • They have garlic fries too!

    And ET for a manager.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/26/2005 4:11 PM  

  • I set up http://yuda.org/gameday/

    I'll post a new thread every morning. I'm thinking, for off days, picking a "game of the day" to theoretically watch and talk during, although I'm not convinced anybody will bother. ;)

    I'm working on how to get it to automatically update every day. At the very least, I can set up pending threads that it'll post on its own if I go out of town or whatever.

    By Blogger Yuda, at 4/26/2005 4:12 PM  

  • We'll be breaking Yuda's computers and upping his bandwidth charges. I'll post the link when I get home tonight.

    Yeah, I keep fudging around with the comment display, trying to find one I like.

    This one's a little TMI, I guess.

    I really just want to design a new blog. Oh well.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/26/2005 4:13 PM  

  • Is "firebigsenilefrank.blogspot.com" taken?

    Actually, that sounds pretty cool, Yuda.

    By Blogger Basil, at 4/26/2005 4:16 PM  

  • Chris -- if you want to work on a new design, let me know, we can get coffee some night and make some sketches. I can bang out a blog template, generally, in a few hours once I sit down to do it (much easier starting from scratch than trying to 'fix' a pre-existing one, actually -- I can do that for you, too, if you still want).

    By Blogger Yuda, at 4/26/2005 4:18 PM  

  • Off-topic, but then isn't everything? . . . Too perfect: A guy named "Strong" busted for steroids.

    By Blogger Basil, at 4/26/2005 4:19 PM  

  • On a semi-related note, did you see the Michael Lewis piece in the Times over the weekend?

    I just love his writing... he really knows how to weave a tale. It should kill most of a Metro-ride home.



    And thanks for the offer, Yuda! I don't know if I want to go bigtime yet. I'm actually probably only going to do this til the freakin' web filter catches up to me. It took out Natfanatics.com today.

    It's coming for my head!

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/26/2005 4:22 PM  

  • Didn't read Michael Lewis's piece yet. (Better do so quick, I guess, before it gets archived away forever.)

    Way off that subject: Anyone read Bill James's latest piece, the "Understanding the Fog" article? I printed it out the other day (it's not long) and read it over once or twice with an eye toward a post on it.

    Any thoughts on it, if you've read it?

    By Blogger Basil, at 4/26/2005 4:28 PM  

  • Do you guys have a bored, power-hungry IT guy at work or something?

    By Blogger Yuda, at 4/26/2005 4:28 PM  

  • That's exactly what it is.

    When he first implemented it, he decided what categories should be on or off. Without knowing what the hell anyone's job requirements necessitated. AHole.

    All the directors bitched, obviously, and he unblocked their computers. Now, they don't understand what the problem is, because they can view anything they want. Us peons are screwed. Oh well.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/26/2005 4:57 PM  

  • Thanks for the heads up on both articles, they were absorbing.

    Is there any word on Lewis' follow-up to Moneyball?

    By Blogger Brian, at 4/27/2005 10:04 AM  

  • NY Times also has an interview with Lewis (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/26/readersopinions/questions-lewis.html)

    which references a study of the Moneyball philosophy by two guys from Clemson (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID618401_code334897.pdf?abstractid=618401&mirid=1)

    By Blogger Brian, at 4/27/2005 10:15 AM  

  • I think his followup is set to come out in a year or two. I'm pretty sure that this article will be a chapter -- or at least have the characters featured prominently.

    How's Jeremy Brown doing? He was stinking up the park when I checked last.

    I had seen the Clemson paper when it came out last year. The Sports Economist Blog I link to is written by one of the authors (I think? Or maybe he just knows him or had him guest post? I can't remember)

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/27/2005 11:51 AM  

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