Slight change of schedule means I’m doing a quick Klawchat today.
Also, Jacob over at Vegas Watch is doing a March Madness day one chat starting … a few minutes ago, apparently. That’s for when you’re done with my chat, of course.
By the way, if you bookmark this link, you’ll always be able to find player videos I’ve posted on the Four-Letter.
Nice. I hope we get grumpy Klaw.
klaw – curious as to your devastating quip directed towards the mets and the impending livan folly. are you bearish on their chances or were you just being a bit hyperbolic to stress how much of a traveshamockery it is for the mets to roll out somebody who could literally roll off the mound?
Keith, why would you separate Puerto Rico from the Rule 4 draft? And why are they a separate team from the USA in the WBC? Puerto Rico is, after all, a territory of the United States, without even the argument that you would find with Taiwan/China.
Also, what do you think of the new law congress just passed placing a 90% tax on bonuses over 50K given by companies who received TARP funds? I’m not against them discouraging giving millions of dollars these companies received from the taxpayers in bonuses, but doesn’t this qualify as an ex post facto law?
I was saying that if Livan Hernandez is your fifth starter, you’re not much of a contender.
Jeremy, including PR in the draft has killed baseball there. The flow of players stopped quickly once it was incorporated as a way of holding down signing bonuses.
Are players from the Virgin Islands and Guam also subject to the Rule 4 draft?
Hey Keith,
Sorry if you have covered this before but does:
“like the poor Friday-night performances”
refer to the fact that college students tend to party on Thursdays? If not, what?
Thank you
College teams start their best pitchers on Friday nights. Alvarez made a living off of Sunday and Tuesday nights; college teams start their #3 guys on Sundays, and typically a big college like Vandy plays someone like Pencil State in midweek games.
I don’t lean heavily on stats or splits when looking at college players, but I know several teams that do, and they brought this up when we were talking about Alvarez before the draft. I’m not surprised by it, however, because I saw Alvarez struggle when the opposing pitcher had big-league stuff, and feast when the stuff was below-average, to a degree that didn’t seem right for the alleged top bat in the draft.
Players from Guam are draft-eligible: John Hattig, the only big-leaguer born in Guam, was a 25th-round pick. Not sure about the USVI, but I’m going to guess “yes.”
That twitter update is adorable.
Jeremy, not only does it come uncomfortable close to being an ex post fact law, it also may be considered a bill of attainder. The simple truth of the matter is that if the government wanted to ensure that TARP money was not spent on bonuses to executives, they should have included such language in the legislation. Once the stimulus bill was passed with the language exempting contracts executed prior to February, 2009, AIG was legally obligated to pay the bonuses.
You have got to feel bad for Liddy in this charade; he had nothing to do with the AIG downfall, took the job for $1 a year, had no choice but to pay the bonuses because nobody in Congress actually read the stimulus bill, and somehow he gets hauled in front of Congress to be the scapegoat. I’m not sure why he didn’t just tell them all to go to hell and quit on the spot.
Keith, players from the USVI are subject to the Rule 4 Draft. Vanderbilt has a pitcher, Kellen St. Luce, from there that was drafted in the 2007 draft.
http://vucommodores.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/stluce_kellen00.html
Keith, thanks for the link to the college splits website. Pretty interesting stuff in there.
That being said, wasn’t Alvarez highly regarded in spite of his hitting performance last season? I thought he was largely given a pass last season because of his hamate surgery. Is there anywhere to find his splits from 06 and 07? As a Vandy fan, I don’t remember him having trouble with Friday night pitchers those seasons, but then again, I didn’t realize that his splits last year were so extreme either.
Yes… let’s feel sympathy for the leader of the company that received billions in a bailout and STILL is suing the United States government in an attempt to retrieve $306 MM in already-paid taxes.
JB: I still ranked Alvarez 5th going into that draft, and even if I redid that now he’d be in the top ten and likely still 5th or 6th. In other words, I regarded him highly too – but I didn’t think he was the right pick for Pittsburgh at 2 with Smoak and Posey still on the board, and I think the reason they took Alvarez instead of those guys is that he was the name.
Perhaps if St. Obama hadn’t broken his campaign promise to put bills online five days before a vote, someone would’ve caught the clause that allowed these bonuses to be paid in the first place. Instead, he chose to use fear (hey, another broken campaign promise — I was under the impression that we “chose hope over fear” in the election) to ram it through.
Alternatively, one of our Congressmen could’ve done his job and actually read the porkulus bill before they rubber stamped it.
What’s also funny is that these clowns in Washington have suddenly become thrifty — spending $180M is suddenly an outrage. Get serious.
I can see both sides of the bonus debate, and frankly I think that dilemmas like this are one of the best reasons arguments against government intervention in the private sector in the first place. But this retroactive 90% tax targeting a small group of individuals is pretty damn scary. We’ve now set the precedent that our government can confiscate individuals’ pay if a pitchfork-wielding mob demands it.
Vis a vis Alvarez, I guess Smoak performed well against Friday night pitching?
Paul:
I considered the idea of it being a Bill of Attainder as well, but I think it wouldn’t quite meet the definition in that, while it is a “punishment,” it is a matter of guilt or innocence. A Bill of Attainder is used only to punish a crime, the same as if a judge/jury had declared someone guilty of a criminal act. I’m glad I’m not the only one who knows their mildly obscure constitutional limits, though. Hopefully the Supreme Court will remember them as well if someone has the guts to challenge this.
Malcom, I think you fail to understand that Liddy was not the CEO of AIG when it was run into the ground, he was only brought on when it was bailed out and the U.S. Government took an 80% stake in the company. He also was not at the helm when the bonuses in question were approved. Since Congress didn’t see fit to put any language in the bailout prohibiting the use of such money to pay bonuses (in fact specific language was inserted to protect bonuses contracted prior to February, 2009), he had no choice legally but to pay them.
Liddy took the position at AIG to help prevent its disintegration, at a salary of $1 per year, and in thanks his government chooses to scapegoat him for a problem of their own making. So yeah, I do feel sympathy for him.
Paul,
I didn’t say anything about the bonuses; we can agree on that point. I still think their lawsuit against the government is insulting.
A John Hattig reference, sweet! Joe Borchard’s mom is from Guam (like mine), but as Hattig once said of Borchard, “he was raised in the States so he doesn’t count.”
Hi Keith,
I’m coaching at 29 Palms HS in CA and have had several scouts show interest a RHP of ours named Donovan Gonzalez. In his last start, we had one of our own sit behind a scout and check out the gun throughout the game and had his fastball at 84-86, hitting 89 once. The scout told Donovan afterwards that he was at 88-91 consistently. My question is if in your experience you’ve known scouts to “blow smoke” towards a kid to try to get him to sign, even if he’s likely to be no higher than a 30-40 round pick.
Brian: It’s funny, I had never experienced that, but just last week had a scout tell an agent an obviously inflated velocity on one of that agent’s clients. (The agent checked with me because I was at the game and I told him the numbers were bogus.) It’s unethical, and it’s reprehensible. Telling the player might cause him to overthrow, which is even worse.
Hightower: Yes, .408/.483/.633. He was better on Saturdays, but the split wasn’t as severe.
The AIG bonuses account for .22% of the TARP money given to them. Not even one quarter of a percent. (if my numbers are correct- $165 million for bonuses, $75 billion in TARP money)
cue public OUTRAGE!!!!!!
Everyday the government announces a new budget figure, program, idea, etc. that pushes the spending higher into the trillions of dollars, yet everyone is flipping out over $165 million.
Chuck,
Your numbers are wrong. AIG has received more than twice that amount in bailouts. Remember, they were bailed out before the TARP was even passed. The bonuses represent less than .1% of the bailout.
Keith, now that you have seen Darvish and Strasburg, how would you compare their stuff? Also, who rates higher overall?
Wow, 99 on your gun. Is he the best pitching prospect you’ve ever seen? If not, who do you rank ahead of him?
H,
Thanks for the correction, I realized after my post I was only accounting for recent bailout money.