I feel a hot wind, on my shoulder

I always wondered what happened to Grimes. He went to my highschool and hung out with the kid that lives next door to my parents. He seemed like a nice kid.

Wall of Voodoo?

I can't understand just what does he say.

http://me.woot.net
Back on the Delgado topic.

Delgado isn't being rah-rah like most fans (us included) would like him to be regarding future contracts. I imagine this is intentional; Delgado is what many like to term a "consummate professional," and he's fully focussed on the field at this point in time.

I believe, however, that he's also a good businessman; for this reason, he's not going to do something to jeopardize his bargaining position. When the time comes, he'll take the best offer available—but this doesn't imply he'll take the most money put on the table. As he says, "I've got more money than I could spend in two lifetimes."

http://economics.about.com
Wall of Voodoo?

Yup. I'm a big fan of one hit wonders. Tomorrow's reference is to another 80's one hit wonder. Yes, Gitz, I have these things picked out ahead of time. Please inform me about how lame I am. :)

Cheers,

Mike

I quite liked Stan Ridgway's solo album "The Big Heat".

Just drive, she said.

I was in Mexico on my honeymoon last month and could NOT get the song out of my head ... and one morning eating breakfast by the pool, what do I hear instead of Bruce Springsteen or other MOR crap? "... no comprende, it's a riddle"!

Re. Delgado:

I was sitting in a post-squash daze last night, talking baseball with several guys and they all seemed to think that JP has privately made a final-offer extension package to Carlos and that Carlos has angrily turned it down. I pointed out this would not seem to be in character for either side and the fact that Delgado doesn't want to negotiate has more to do with him not wanting the distraction during the season than greed.

Carlos will make less money per year with his next contract - almost for sure. I doubt he will give the Jays a huge home-town discount, but I insisted that his first choice would decidedly be to remain in Toronto - and that he might do a deal with heavy deferred money (getting a million bucks a year in deferred money ten years after he's retired probably sounds good to a man with more money than he can spend already).

Most of those gym-rats assume Carlos will be a Yankee next year (unlikely!). One guy tried to explain 1) Carlos is not as good as Giambi; 2) Jeter is a very good shortstop because he's seen him make spectacular plays. Urgh.

I may not be a stat-head, but it can get irritating talking baseball with casual fans who think they know more than they do .... *sigh* The world is too full of received (conventional) wisdom.

2005 prediction: Carlos is still a Jay, as he has added value beyond the bat, you see - he has become the face of the Fightin' Jays for me.

Can't wait for Oingo Boingo.

The world is too full of received (conventional) wisdom

By their words ye shall know them. Conventional fans follow (not surprisingly) conventional wisdom.

Frustrating? Yeah, but the only way to change it is to give your point of view. The truth (or at least, the better analysis) is a seed that, when planted, will grow. Once you explain that Jeter's not a good shortstop because he has limited range and can't get to balls other shortstops do, the next time that person sees another infield dribbler "just by a *diving* Jeter into centerfield" it'll click.

Tomorrow's reference is to another 80's one hit wonder.

I am rooting for it to be something I can share with my sister. (Her name is "Eileen.")

http://economics.about.com
I am rooting for it to be something I can share with my sister. (Her name is "Eileen.")

Hahahaha.. that wasn't it, tho I quite like that song. Perhaps I should be taking requests at economics.guide@about.com .

I quite liked Stan Ridgway's solo album "The Big Heat".

I've never heard it. I love listening to albums for the first time, so I guess I should be taking recommendations as well.

RE: Delgado. I have a feeling he'll be a Jay next year. I don't know what I'm basing that on.. A gut feeling, I guess.

Cheers,

Miek

Name this tune ...

He had a dream one night
That the tree had lost its middle
So he built a trunk of chicken wire
To try to hold it up.

http://economics.about.com
I'm drawing a blank, though knowing me, I'll be kicking myself when I hear the answer. :)

Cheers,

Mike

Name this tune ...

Thats REM - but I can't remember the song

Wendell Gee - 1985 - R.E.M.

How about:

"Head in the clouds on school reports ... He played a tight elastic band ..."

Maybe not Mike,

It's a rather obscure song.

"...To try to hold it up
But the wire
The wire
Turned to lizard skin
And then it fell on its side..."

A great favourite of mine...

Since this thread has degraded into a discussion of music, I thought I'd post the URL of this stream I'm listening to:

(160 kps Real Audio)
http://207.250.122.242:8000/

It's not bad. I only started listening to it this morning ( I found I wasn't getting work done listening to Kornheiser). Since then I've heard The Stone Roses, The Clash, Belle and Sebastian, Sleater Kinney, Husker Du, Tones on Tail, The Shins, PIL and a bunch of good modern indie that I'd never be able to name. No comercials, no djs, just music.

Give it a try...or don't.

Great tune on now: Sundown - Jesus and Mary Chain.

(ok back to werk)

http://economics.about.com
Ahh.. I probably wouldn't have gotten it. My knowledge of early REM isn't all that great. I had a girlfriend about seven years ago who was really into that period of REM, and ever since then I can't listen to the stuff without thinking about her. So I don't. :)

Thanks for the RealAudio link. I'll check it out tonight.

Cheers,

Mike

Tomorrow's reference is to another 80's one hit wonder.

"You're too / Shy, shy / Hush, hush / Eye to eye . . ."

http://economics.about.com
"You're too / Shy, shy / Hush, hush / Eye to eye . . ."

OH NO.. IT'S IN MY HEAD... GET IT OUT.. GET IT OUT!

Hijack Central - Don't walk on past

They may not have been one hit wonders, maybe two hits. Were these guys from the London area?

Major league baseball NEEDS Jose Canseco to hit 50 home runs this season.

According to the Globe and Mail (on their sports site), Pete Walker has been sold to a Japanese club.

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040226.walke26/BNStory/Sports/

Walker will be a teammate of Kaz Sasaki with the Yokohama BayStars.

Wendell Gee - 1985 - R.E.M.

That's not fair. With R.E.M. from that period I could never make out what Stipe was singing.

http://economics.about.com
Completely OT (as if this thread wasn't already): I found this article on how much the net has changed in the last 8 years really fascinating. I had forgotten how the net was dominated by .edu sites when I first started going on the ol' Interweb (1994).

Cheers,

Mike

Fordin's notes story, on the Jays website, contains an insert for a HOTEL.COM sweepstakes that is only open to US residents.

Are they trying to tell us that the Jays may be moving?

Eddie,

Thanks for the audio link. When I connected, Orbital was playing which made my day. I'm still angry that NME Radio went off the air. I still tune into 6Radio from the BBC regularly so I can hear modern Brit indie music. Lately I've become a big Franz Ferdinand fan. If you guys want to leave the 80s behind and aren't afraid of the RCIA/RIAA, check them out. Your link is definitely going to be saved as a favorite of mine.

What album is that R.E.M. song on? 1985 strikes me as being Murmer or Reckoning -- Fables of the Reconstruction?

And I'm impressed that we had a Shins reference here; they're a solid indy band, on a great label -- SubPop -- and they're good in concert.

1985 would be Fables of the Reconstruction/Reconstruction of the Fables bur I'll have to check my vinyl to confirm.

It's the final song on Fables of The Reconstruction, following "Good Advices".

'80s one-hit wonders? Here's one:

I know what's on your mind, you've got lots to lose/
Your shallow acquaintances -- what's there to choose?/
You won't get too deep even though I'm worth so much more

http://economics.about.com
'80s one-hit wonders? Here's one:

Well, I'm 0 for 2.

Cheers,

Mike

That would be "I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden" by Kon Kan. I never did like the band. Their name reminds me to much of Can Con which is something I always complain about. Come to think of it, I bet Can Con was directly responsible for Kon Kan. I'm going to quit this post before I start ranting.

OH NO.. IT'S IN MY HEAD... GET IT OUT.. GET IT OUT!

In grad school at conferences we termed this phenomenon "Manilowing." You Manilow someone by sticking a tune in their head. It earned this name because every single song ever recorded by The Great Barry Not-Bonds can be Manilowed at will.

One of the truly great moments in my life to that point (recall, this was grad school) was at a conference in El Paso, Texas ("down in the West Texas town of El Paso ... I fell in love with a Mexican girl ... Night time would find me in Rosa's cantina ...) when a group of us were actually talking about the phenomenon of Manilowing, when we walked into the hotel elevator to find ... wait for it ... Barry Manilow Himself.

He wore sunglasses in the dark elevator and did not acknowledge us, but we did confirm that he was playing El Paso's Convention Center (big career move there) and staying at that hotel. So we consider the sighting verified.

The Bee Gees is dangerous Manilowing music.

The Bee Gees is dangerous Manilowing music

My favourite Manilow of all time is actually a Bee Gees-written tune... Islands In The Stream.

You will all hate me for the next five hours.

I now have "El Paso" in my head. By the way, I'm pretty sure the original Marty Robbins lyric is "*out* in the West Texas town of El Paso"...

http://economics.about.com
Heheheh.. this could make a great thread. Evil songs to Manilow on people. Here's my pick:

Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - Couldn't escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo

[shudders]

The worst song for getting stuck in your head is 'Karma Chameleon'.

The worst song for getting stuck in your head is 'Karma Chameleon'.

With all due respect, "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" is way more annoying.

Dang it, is that how you spell Karma Chameleon? I'm not a big '80's music guy, so I went along with things when in Scattergories someone took two points for that for 'K.' Duped!

I'm doing tax returns listening to Whitesnake, it has caused some raised eyebrows when some of my clients walked in and I'm listening to stuff like that. It ticks off all the country music lovers I work with as well.

Mick, you'd wear sunglasses in a dark elevator too if you were responsible for "Mandy". To think that parents continued (continue?) to name their kids Amanda after that. The Barbarian Invasions indeed.

http://economics.about.com
Baseball Prospectus has the new Jays PECOTA Cards out for subscribers.

Check out Vito's comparables.. PECOTA has no idea what to make of him. His top 3 are impressive, tho:

1. A decent major leaguer
2. Carlos Delgado
3. A Hall of Famer

Unfortunately, there's also a bunch of guys on there nobody has ever heard of.

Cheers,

Mike

I'm all for having fun with projection systems but it may be taking it a bit too far to be running them on players who are in short season A. It's not surprising that the result say that he could be anything from a Hall of Famer to a fringe player. Having said that, barring something unusual Vito's earliest arrival date in the majors would be 2006. Given he's already 22, not many Hall of Famers start their big league careers at 24-25.

I think Vito could get a late season call-up next year. If he hits up a storm he could end this year in AA.

Robert - fair enough, but its still '06 as the first time he could possibly see regular AB's. I also agree that he could see AA this year but my sense of JP's philosophy - for developmental reasons and for arbitration eligibility reasons - is to move prospects slowly rather than rush them.

http://economics.about.com
I'm all for having fun with projection systems but it may be taking it a bit too far to be running them on players who are in short season A. It's not surprising that the result say that he could be anything from a Hall of Famer to a fringe player.

It's even wider than that.. it says he could be anything down to a guy who never gets out of AAA.

The comparibility scores are incredibly low because of the sample size involved, though, so it shouldn't really be taken seriously. More for fun at this point.

Cheers,

Mike

Don't know if this has been discussed in other threads. I know references to Delgado have been made earlier in this one.

When Ricciardi likens the Delgado situation to Halladay's (i.e., waiting until the end of the season to discuss future contracts), I understand why he's doing this but I believe he's being a little disengenuous. Still, as a GM he's got to say certain things so I can't fault him for that.

In Halladay's case, I believe that Ricciardi wanted proof that 2002 wasn't an aberration, so he didn't lock him up as he did Hinske and Wells. Of course Halladay showed his mettle and cost more as a result, but that was a risk Ricciardi was willing to take. And a "mistake" that he was happy to pay for.

In Delgado's case, Ricciardi is gambling again on a repeat performance as he did with Halladay. This time, though, the options are different. Should Delgado post a 1000 OPS with 140 RBI, and find a deep-pocketed suitor as a result, Ricciardi lets him walk. However, if, as is most likely, Delgado drops to his career norm or lower, Ricciardi is in a better position to negotiate with such a 32-year old than the 31-year old coming his second best ever season.

I agree with Mr. Moffatt in thinking that Delgado will stay. I think he'll get a 3-year deal worth about $10M or $11M a year. I'm a Delgado fan and would enjoy seeing him return, but even at that money in this market, Delgado could not be considered underpaid. And I don't think his pride would be hurt drawing such a paycheque.

How's this for a creative headline: CBS Sportsline has "Cy Squared" on their MLB front page, with Scott Miller filing a report on Hentgen's T.O. return.

Anyone read SI this week? Not sure if the column is online, but Michael Lewis writes a response to the release of MONEYBALL and how it was received within the "Club" ... A good page or so about the Blue Jays, mainly about the media here in Toronto, the whole "white jays" Toronto Star incident and even some talk about the fool that is Richard Griffin ... Worth picking up the magazine this week if you aren't a subscriber ...

Cheers,

Nate

oh god the white jays... I didn't read it, but I know what yer talking about... All I have to say about that is the only racial profiling that is being done there is by those who're writing the bloody article... I saw the article on the newsstands, looked at the headline and the picture and immedietly assessed it as being the trash that it was...

The REAL discrimination I see going on right now is with the lovely new proposed constitutional amendment... All the right wing rhetoric I hear justifying this is nothing more than thinly camoflauged bias and ignorance. It's like the era of racial segregation happening all over again only with a new point of division... Just terrible..... History apparently hasn't taught us a damned thing....

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/features/040227top100_chat.html
Baseball America has a look at the top 100 prospects, the top 10 (Rios comes in at #6)are available to non-subsribers as is a look at how they came up with their ranking. COMN. Very interesting and some nice things said about the jays.