Practice Game recap
Chris Volstad pitched three strong inninngs yesterday, extending his spring training scoreless streak to six innings. As with Samardzija and the other starter candidates, small sample size abounds, but I think he's got a good shot making the rotation. Tom Ricketts seemed to think so too during his brief time in the booth with Len and Mick. Former top prospect Jay Jackson also pitched yesterday, surprisingly for three innings. Jackson completely fell off the radar after his disastrous 2010 season in Iowa. Jackson gave up one run and struck out one. Long man/pitching depth candidate Andy Sonnanstine had a rough outing, giving up three runs and nearly the lead in the eighth inning.
Offensively the star was Anthony Rizzo, who crushed a mammoth HR off of Giants reliever Sergio Romo. Josh Vitters hit an RBI triple earlier in the game. Starlin Castro managed to avoid a TOOTBLAN thanks to the stat's originator.
Is there a Cubs game today?
Indeed. Randy Wells takes the mound against the Brewers at HoHoKam today at 3 pm CT. Travis Wood and Casey Coleman are also pitching. Coleman pitching again so soon seems to point to the Cubs bullpenning him this year. Len and Mick have the call, and Randy Wolf will start for the Brewers.
Lineup:
RF DeJesus
CF Byrd
SS Castro
3B Stewart
2B Baker
C Soto
LF Johnson
1B Rizzo
P Wells
Is it just me, or are the Cubs regulars getting a lot more starts than they have in years past?
Great piece about baseball on the radio by wpbc
Concepcion in camp, "not nervous" about playing here
Cubs blog Ivy Envy got a mini-interview with Concepcion, He's very comfortable in camp and the Cubs have made him feel comfortable. Not sure if he reported it in this interview or earlier, but he says he throws a fastball, a circle change, and a "hard" curveball.
Perils of media access
(via hardballtalk). The Mets blog Amazin Avenue has a good piece up about media access and smear jobs. The whole thing is worth a read, but here's the best part:
Rubin says the press can't be expected to not report a story, even if it's an obvious whisper campaign. But the press can and should be expected to report a story in full. If an item appears to be a hatchet job by Mets brass, then reporters should perform due diligence and at least attempt to get all sides of that story before filing. In this case, that effort was made poorly, if at all. Maybe this happened because of the rush to be first, or the accelerated news cycle of the internet age. Whatever the reason, it happened nonetheless, and it shouldn't have.
The only reason I can come up with as to why this story was put out there unquestioned is because it came straight from ownership. So failing to report the "story" could not only mean getting scooped, but losing access as well. I understand that in journalism access trumps all, but what good is access if all it buys you is closer proximity to lies, half-truths, and axe-grinding? And what is a reporter's job if not to question the "official" story?
Chicago media take note.
Finally final Theo compensation in Red Sox hands
Per Peter Gammons
k
qppa
asllda
Seriously though, Gammons tweeted that the rest of this process is in the Red Sox hands, and will be decided by the end of the month. They get to pick one prospect from a list of three, and choose who to send back to the Cubs.
Sveumquotes
Per Sveum, Marmol's main goal this spring training is to work on locating his fastball. He's not too worried about Marmol's slider, and Marmol hasn't thrown many of them this spring. Not surprisingly Sveum is not considering demoting Marmol.
Sveum also commented on the handedness problem I've brought up a few times when talking about Joe Mather and the Cubs corner infielders. His chances of squeaking by Blake DeWitt or Tony Campana look better than they did yesterday.
Bruce Levine chat recap
Some nuggets from Bruce Levine's chat yesterday
- For some reason Bruce doesn't think Maholm has a rotation spot locked down.
- Bruce is also down on Wells, calls him "not a favorite" for the rotation. Lots of hedging though, no decisions are going to be made for another week or two.
- There's been a lot of teams interested in Marlon Byrd. Once May/June rolls around and the Cubs can get the extra year of control for Brett Jackson, they should have an easy time moving him.
- Bruce also says that the smart money is on Mather making the team over Campana, due to the way their options are structured. They can stash Campana in the minors, but Mather can void his deal if he's not in the bigs after the first month or so
- On how tough it is for a player to change his approach: "It's difficult to change a player's style once he gets to the majors. Jaramillo did it with DeWitt last spring and it took DeWitt almost four months to absorb all of Rudy's philosophical teachings. It also [cost] DeWitt his job."
Obstructed View bracket challenge
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Image of the day
Happy Pi Day
Please ignore any of the fools who go on and on about how "purists" think that tau is a better constant. It doesn't matter.
Comments
Done.
GBTSQuote Reply
jherky wrote:
I’ll take your word for it. I was thinking more about the stuff I read online from fans.
mb21Quote Reply
I was told earlier that it is actually “Happy Approximate for Pi day”
WaLiQuote Reply
No Rodrigo in today’s game.
BerseliusQuote Reply
This should become a feature. I refuse to read through those chats.
mb21Quote Reply
Win.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesged/community-relationships-101-41ea?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=buzzfeed
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
No Braun either.
BerseliusQuote Reply
WaLi wrote:
/Profession-Directed Eye Roll
It should be Everyone Is Pedantic About Pi Day
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
I retorted by saying that at some point today it will be Pi. Prove me wrong.
WaLiQuote Reply
Odd that I haven’t heard of this. I generally like to be at the Ground zero of all pedantic debates.
MishQuote Reply
Just when you finally got me comfortable with actually typing out the image tag, you get the button to work. Typical.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Why can’t it be “Pi Day”? It’s not “The day whose number exactly corresponds to the constant pi,” it’s “day for making pi/pie puns and thinking about irrational circles.” It could be any day. 12/1. 4/30. 3/14 just happens to be easier to remember. Let’s just change it to Euler’s day and stare at Euler’s Identity
e^ipi +1 = 0
Holy shit.
joshQuote Reply
@ mb21:
This is why I avoid comments sections at all costs. Except this one.
joshQuote Reply
(dying laughing)
The Cubs beat reporters are now getting scooped by Gammons’ ass.
AndCountingQuote Reply
I set up only one bracket so it’s easier to track what a Nostradumbass I am. I’m glad I picked the two play-in winners so far (dying laughing) Those should’ve been a half-point each as an additional tie-breaker, but I guess most bracket challenges assume they’d be destroyed in the next round anyway.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Mish wrote:
http://tauday.com/
Mostly it’s just one friend of mine, who is convinced that “math purists” all want to change it. Nevermind that I have a fucking PhD and no one I work with gives a shit about the nonexistent debate.
BerseliusQuote Reply
Suburban kid wrote:
We aim to displease
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
So tau is 2pi? Lamest debate ever!
joshQuote Reply
Sveum had his meeting with Marmol today.
“It was nothing more than, ‘You’ve got a long spring to get ready and just be ready for the season”
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
(dying laughing) (dying laughing) (dying laughing)
WaLiQuote Reply
Sveum on Brett Jackson:
Other than the fact that the starting outfield is full up, I guess the Cubs would prefer that he not strike out so goddamned much. But that really goes without saying.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Berselius wrote:
False.
Rodrigo RamirezQuote Reply
@ Rodrigo Ramirez:
BerseliusQuote Reply
I’d heard of Tau, but just hadn’t given a shit until today with you guys talking about it. Now that I know about it I care even less about it. I wish I had the last 10 minutes of my life back. Who can I send a bill to?
mb21Quote Reply
Berselius wrote:
I could have swore I was playing today.
Rodrigo RamirezQuote Reply
(Of course, e^iπ=−1 can be interpreted as a rotation by π radians, but the near-universal rearrangement to form e^iπ+1=0 shows how using π distracts from the identity’s natural geometric meaning.)
My experience was that you use e^iπ=−1 in actual practice, and that the e^iπ+1=0 form was more form demonstration purposes. I don’t know how pi gets blamed for that. I think it’s more to do with people wanting 1 and 0 in the equation.
joshQuote Reply
Do you guys see squigley lines rather than the quoted text?
I’m not seeing the original post when I quote it.
Rodrigo RamirezQuote Reply
I mean, uh, go Cubs.
joshQuote Reply
@ mb21:
If getting sucked into a discussion you didn’t want to be in on the internet were billable, we’d all be rich.
joshQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
The question is whether or not cutting down on those strikeouts is really worth it. He’ll be hitting the pitcher’s pitch more frequently and therefore making more outs. He’ll walk less frequently too. He’ll probably hit the ball with less authority.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Leave Jackson alone.
mb21Quote Reply
@ Rodrigo Ramirez:
Yeah, you have to highlight the text and then hit quote for the text to show up. Don’t know why that it is, but it’s not worth trying to figure out either. (dying laughing)
mb21Quote Reply
mb21 wrote:
I agree with you, just felt that was meme-worthy.
If he hits with power I guess they won’t care that the strikes out 25-30% of the time. Not to mention the fact that he gets on base so much.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
This is my favorite quote on this whole pi/tau discussion:
(dying laughing)
mb21Quote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
I do think the strikeouts are a concern, but I’m not a huge fan of trying to get someone to change their approach. If there are little things Jackson can do to improve his strikeout rate he should, but if it requires he not get into 2-strike counts then I want nothing to do with it. neither should Jackson.
mb21Quote Reply
@ mb21:
Really, the only pro argument they had is the picture WaLi posted. The angles in radians exactly refers to the fraction around the circle you are. That makes it a little easier to learn. I, for one, didn’t even know radians existed until college, after I already had a firm grasp on degrees and was able to make the direct translation. Plus my memory is that there are tons of places in trig where you use just pi, and I’d rather deal with a single number than tau/2 every time. The utility, from what I can see either completely cancels out or swings in favor of pi.
joshQuote Reply
I never thought I’d say this, but could we talk about the prequels instead?
GBTSQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
Jar Jar sucked.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube wrote:
Fixed it myself.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
What prequels?
/berselius
mb21Quote Reply
Apparently Desmond Jennings and BJ Upton just broke themselves in an outfield collision. Yikes.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120314&content_id=27272140&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
Ouch.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
GBTS wrote:
What is this I don’t even
MishQuote Reply
http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/45735/hollywood-prospectus-qa-michael-k-williams-talks-to-us-about-omars-smacketology-victory
mb21Quote Reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0ei3H-ybfM
…
Rice CubeQuote Reply
(dying laughing)
BerseliusQuote Reply
new shit up: http://obstructedview.net/projections/position-battles-welington-castillo-steve-clevenger.html
mb21Quote Reply
mb21 wrote:
Ah ha! Thanks.
Rodrigo RamirezQuote Reply
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carrersQuote Reply