Talkin Baseball: Fielding Like A**holes

49er16: Man the Giants. What's with them and these streaks they go through where they play like assholes on defense? And they're simple mistakes. Missed pop up's, bad throws, really bad throws. I mean it's little league stuff they're screwing up. Why have they gone through these stretches?

The Colonel: I wish I knew. It's embarrassing how bad they've played this past week. Even worse is how much their bullpen is getting worked over. With these starters not getting deep into games, the bullpen is getting overused. This is the reason why I believe Bochy is pushing Bumgarner (their most consistent starter) harder and harder.

49er16: And there's a couple of guys in that bullpen that make me cringe when I see them. Mijares particularly, but also Lopez can be scary when he enters the game. He can only face left-handed hitters. He can't face righties anymore.

The Colonel: And don't look at their farm system. What a baron wasteland. Their most promising prospect is Joe Panik and he's projected basically to be another Marco Scutaro instead of another Chase Utley. Sad. I hope they finally start drafting some high school positions players.

49er16: I love how they kept Gary Brown over Zach Wheeler. Ugh, let's move on.

This Week In Baseball

The Tipping Point: The Classical had this great piece on David Eckstein and how he was the tipping point for the sabermetric movement. While the author states Eckstein was always a pretty good player (he was in the top ten of WAR in 2002 in the AL) the unabashed love columnists sprayed on Eckstein for his grit, heart, etc. was the tipping point for Sabermetrics to break out and lead to people looking at baseball more analytically.

Upton Revenge: A lot was made of Justin Upton's departure from Arizona. Snakes manager Kirk Gibson wanted a team that was "gritty" and somehow Upton didn't fit that description. You know despite the fact that Justin Upton is only one of the best power hitters in the game and damn near won the MVP in 2011 while Gibson rode his coattails. You can now only imagine the glee from people like myself when we saw Upton crush a home run against the Diamondbacks on Monday to help the Braves thrash Arizona.



Knuckleballs lose Velocity?: According to Fangraphs they do and that could be a huge reason why RA Dickey has struggled so far in Canada. It could also explain why Dickey is striking out less batters and walking more. Velocity is such a tricky thing.

Farewell Office

Tonight The Office on NBC airs it's final episode and I'm not prepared to say goodbye. When I was a kid I loved sitcoms. I loved everything from Seinfeld to Home Improvement to The Wonder Years. Sitcoms in the 90's were great and bleed through into the 2000's with Friends. Since then though I've watched fewer and fewer sitcoms and more drama's except for The Office.

I know there have been other great sitcoms like Parks & Rec, 30 Rock, and Community but I just could never get into those shows. The Office was the only sitcom I would watch every week and now it's leaving. I have no idea if I'll watch sitcoms again (like I said I mainly just watch dramas now with the occasional outdoor show). Maybe I'll try harder to like Parks & Rec or some other future sitcom. They just won't be The Office. In the meantime, farewell Office you've been a great show*.

*Except for these last two seasons which have been dreadful. This was expected though because most sitcoms stay around too long and gradually become worse. It happened to Seinfeld and it happened to The Office. 

Here We Stayed (Updated)

The Kings are staying in Sacramento.

The NBA Board of Governors have officially voted down the Kings moving to Seattle.
— Bryan May (@BMayNews10) May 15, 2013

Now I just got to find out though who will own the Kings. I'll update after I get that information.

No word yet on the sale of the Kings to the Sacramento group but sounds like there will be talks coming up.

"We will talk to the Maloofs within the next 24 to 48 hours to see if we can facilitate an agreement between Maloofs and Ranadive group"
— Akis Yerocostas (@Aykis16) May 15, 2013

“We will talk to the Maloofs…& seek in the next 24-48 hrs…whether we can help facilitate agreement to be signed between @vivek and the Ms”
— Sactown Royalty (@sactownroyalty) May 15, 2013

Lol, Stern is such a mob boss. "I anticipate that the Maloofs will become open to the idea of selling to Sacramento" lol
— BAP BAP BAP (@ARoyalPain) May 15, 2013

That last quote by David Stern is amazing. If I'm the Maloofs, I would stay away from any toll booths for the next couple of days.

Stern: Maloofs have right to retain ownership of the franchise b/c all we did was vote on relocation.
— Bryan May (@BMayNews10) May 15, 2013

Stern: It is my expectation that we'll be able to make a deal to transfer ownership to Ranadive group.
— Bryan May (@BMayNews10) May 15, 2013

Stern: If there is a signed document we would convene by conference call which has vetted Ranadive group
— Bryan May (@BMayNews10) May 15, 2013

I'll have more on this as more news comes out.

MLB Classics

Because MLB has no idea how to promote stuff, very quietly MLB has uploaded entire games on YouTube recently with very little buzz. You can watch classic games like the one where Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's longevity streak or classic championship series games and classic World Series games including the famous Jack Morris-John Smoltz duel. Here's my favorite classic game that MLB has uploaded.



Here are some of my favorite things about this video:

- Talk about the Cubs being destiny's team. This is funny because the Niners smoked the Bears in the NFC Championship game a few months prior when the Bears were called destiny's team.
- Marv Albert hosting the pregame for Vin Scully. Mike Schmidt appearing on the pregame and doing that Dennis Miller head bob thing.
- Tom Seaver basically creaming his pants talking about Will Clark's swing.
- Will Clark reading Greg Maddux's lips before hitting a grand slam.
- Will Clark breaking the RBI record in the NLCS in game 1.
- The Giants winning the game and then winning the series.

Go go to that first link I provided and lose yourself in the classic MLB games.