Wednesday, September 17, 2014

"Scout's Honor" by Dad


     Baseball scouts have been, at least since Moneyball, a subject 

of real debate within the greater baseball community. On one side, 

of course, are the stat heads, the sabermetricians who put their full 

faith in increasingly arcane sets of numbers. On the other side sit 

the traditionalists, who believe stats are no substitute for the eyes 

and experience of a veteran scout.

     As a guy who’s been a baseball fan since the 60s, and a stat-

driven roto ball player since the 80s, I don’t come out on either 

side. But I will say that sabermetricians will never be as truly 

funny, as witty and actually, quotably  wise, as scouts have been 

over the long years of their long road trips.

     This line of thought came to me the other day as I was reading

whatever I could find online about a pitcher named Hunter 

Strickland, a low minor leaguer the Giants made a September call 

up. In researching whether to make him a call up on my own roto 

team, I came across this: “The guy throws 98 and would strike out 

an orphan without feeling bad.”

     I’m not sure whether the line was from an actual scout, or 

simply from a blogger, but it struck me as a perfect example of 

classic scout talk.  And there are a few other examples I don’t 

think I’ll forget, even if I’m hazy on some of the specifics. 

To whit:

     Some six or eight years ago, the Nationals had a surprisingly

successful closer named Chad Cordero, the surprise being that he 

did as well as he did without a great fastball or a true out pitch. He 

seemed to succeed on guile and nerve.  All of this was summed up 

by a scout writing, “The kid’s got stones, but his stuff is short.”  

That’s almost poetic in its power and brevity.

     And now a scout on an outfielder whose name I can’t recall, but

whose lack of fielding prowess I’ll never forget. For the 

uninitiated, an outfielder is said to run a good or bad route to catch 

a fly ball based on how quickly and directly he runs to where the 

ball will come down. The straighter he can run his routes, the more 

balls he can reach and catch. Writing about one apparently terrible 

outfielder, a scout vividly and unforgettably wrote, “He runs his 

routes like a guy being chased by bees.” Bad outfield play will 

never be described better.

     Finally, Bill James has written about having seen a scouting 

report on Phil Plantier with the puzzling letters, “TSH.” When the 

scout was asked what the letters meant, he explained, “Toilet seat 

hitter.” Anyone who remembers Phil Plantier will likely also  

remember that he did stand at the plate as if sitting on the john.

    So I guess I have to say that I’m glad there seems to still be a 

place for scouts, because no numbers will ever replace their words.

Monday, September 1, 2014

"NFL Picks" by Bojo and Dad


Well, to quote the great Jimmy Cannon, nobody asked us, but… Here are 2gensportsden’s picks for the upcoming NFL season.
Interesting that when we started this whole thing, we wrote that we would disagree about “nearly everything.”  Turns out that, for at least the two of us weighing in here, we agree on way more than we disagree. We’ll see in February how right we were, but for now, here’s how we’re calling things:

NFC

North
BOJO: Packers
Reason: Jay Cutler, Matt Stafford, and whoever ends up
taking the majority of snaps in Minnesota will never surpass the A-Rod of football.

DAD: A-gree.

East
BOJO: Giants
Reason: I am a homer/Giants fan.

DAD: Eagles
Reason: I love the Giants as much as my dad did and my sons do (there’s 3 gens), but they’ve stunk up the pre-season, despite the 5-0 record. Plus, it’s hard to argue against Foles and McCoy.

South
BOJO: Saints
Reason: Carolina and Atlanta both take a step back, and Tampa isn’t ready to take that step yet.

DAD: Agree here, too. Only better coach/QB tandem than Payton/Brees would be Belichick/Brady.

West
BOJO: Seahawks
Reason: 49ers fall apart this year, you heard it here first.

DAD: Love the Seahawks. They’ve reinvented team defense.


AFC

North
BOJO: Bengals
Reason: I think Andy Dalton steps up and shows he is at least as average as Joe Flacco, and is capable of playoff wins.

DAD: Steelers
Reason: Roethlisberger has become a sort of “way smarter than he looks” heir to Bradshaw.

East
BOJO: Patriots
Reason: What else is new.

DAD: Yup. Brady is still Brady and they’ve invested picks and free agent money (see "Dollars for Darrelle") revamping the defense.

South
BOJO: Colts
Reason: Tennessee might reel off a couple wins but this division is pretty weak.

DAD: Agree, although you can only go so far on Luck.


West
BOJO: Broncos
Reason: Peyton will find a way.

DAD: Agree here, too.  Bronco off season story is much like the Pats. Knowing they have a superstar QB with limited time left, they went out and bought a defense to round things out.

NFC CHAMP
BOJO: Seahawks

DAD: Absolutely. Love this team.

AFC CHAMP
BOJO: Patriots

DAD: Reluctantly, yes. Hate this team.

SUPER BOWL WINNER
BOJO: Seahawks

DAD: A big yes.

#1 NFC QB
BOJO: Aaron Rodgers

DAD: Agree.

#1 NFC RB
BOJO: Adrian Peterson

DAD: Yup. Year after year, you can’t top this guy.

#1 AFC QB
BOJO: Peyton Manning

DAD: Tom Brady

#1 AFC RB
BOJO: LeSean McCoy

DAD: Agree.

NFL MVP
BOJO: Russell Wilson

DAD: Yes, and I hope we’re right. There’s everything to like about this guy.