→ January 23, 2016
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Stick to baseball, 1/23/16.

My lone Insider piece this week was on the Tigers’ deal with Justin Upton. I’ve been sick pretty much since noon on Monday and am still down with disease, trying to do as little as possible this weekend.

And now, the links…

  • J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is back with another great post on 22 things you should never buy at the supermarket, meaning you should make them at home instead. I’d add mayonnaise to the list myself, because store jars are huge and I never finish them.
  • Ruhlman weighs in too, by pointing out that no food is actually “healthy,” not even kale. Some of this is semantics; people are healthy, but food, by virtue of being already dead, is not. Food can be healthful – full, or not, of nutrients – but not healthy. The bigger problem, however, is the rush to categorize foods as good or bad for you when there’s a huge range in between, something that depends on what else you eat and your individual genetics.
  • Most of you have likely seen this, but the BBC/Buzzfeed joint investigation on possible match-fixing in tennis is damning, even though it seems like much of this will be difficult to prove to an extent where we’ll see suspensions or expulsions.
  • Ted Cruz isn’t up to speed on the Flint water crisis, even though Flint officials knew about the tainted water over a year ago, per this New Yorker editorial on politicians’ “contempt” for their constituents. Al-Jazeera America, which is about to shut down, ran a damning exposé on Flint water an entire year ago … and still Flint did nothing. And Michigan did nothing. Flint’s Director of Public Works, Howard Croft, refused to admit that there’d been any mistake made whatsoever in that piece; he resigned his post in November.
  • EDBDS’s Spencer Hall gets a bit personal about his own depression.
  • The Atavist has the story of Jewish-American lawyer who successfully sued the government of Iran for funding terrorism, including the attack that killed his daughter in 1995.
  • The half-billion-dollar battle over the toy rights to Disney’s princess characters saw Disney (my employer) pull a license Mattel had held for twenty years and hand it to Hasbro. The reasons are complicated and fascinating.
  • You can become a math person, mostly because the whole “math person” thing is bullshit. Point #4, about teaching math as a language, is the most important in my view – math is like the world’s easiest language because it lacks the irregularities and colloquialisms that trip up most language learners.
  • A heartbreaking story of fetal alcohol syndrome in a 43-year-old woman.
  • Liz Finnegan, erstwhile video game writer for The Escapist, explores the unbalanced nature of “consent” on college campuses, especially once alcohol is involved. I don’t see how you can say that an inebriated person (the woman, in these examples) is incapable of giving consent, but that the other inebriated person (the man) is capable of determining whether the first person is capable of giving consent – that is, not so drunk that clear, affirmative consent is still not sufficient. You couldn’t use that standard in court, but colleges play by their own rules when policing student behavior on campus.
  • Loved Melinda Gates calling out Donald Trump on his anti-science vaccine denial views. Of course, I don’t think he’s got much of a shot with the intellectual crowd anyway, but it would be nice to get this particular lie out of the press for now.
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→ January 22, 2016
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Top Chef, S13E07.

Second strong episode in a row, with almost complete emphasis on the craft of cooking, which is good because next week’s (Instagram users voting?) looks like a trainwreck.

* We start out with lots of scenes of the chatter among the ten remaining chefs, who are driving back up to LA in two vans. Most of it was just small talk, until some of the chefs started ribbing Kwame about his crush on Padma. He doesn’t even flinch: “what guy wouldn’t be attracted to Padma?” I can’t really argue with that, although at 5’9″ she’d tower over me even without heels. I did like his chianti-dry delivery of his supposed date line to Padma, saying he’d show up with flowers … and a Yorkie. “‘Surprise, I got you a dog!’ That wouldn’t be weird, right?”

* Season 4 and All-Stars contestant Antonia, now at Scopa and Black Market Liquor Bar in LA, is back to judge the Quickfire. Each chef gets to choose one ingredient, and thosee ten in total are the only items available to all chefs (although they don’t have to use all ten). We’re also back to immunity rather than sudden death, which is welcome. The chefs go one at a time, each getting twenty seconds to go grab an ingredient.

* Phillip grabs prime beef loin. Isaac grabs … a whole chicken? Marjorie asks (in the confessional) “why are you choosing another protein?” That made no sense to me either. I think only one of the chefs was really glad to see chicken, as it turned out. It’s versatile because it’s pretty flavorless.

* Chad grabs jalapeños, of course. Jeremy gets kosher salt, to which Isaac says, “thank God.” (I mean, if none of the chefs picked salt, would they really have denied that ingredient to everyone? How can you cook anything, especially any protein, without salt?) Marjorie grabs rice vinegar … I might have gone for lemons but any acid is good. Karen gets olive oil. Kwame takes garlic, which he says he can’t cook without. Amar takes cremini mushrooms. Carl gets a big basket of heirloom tomatoes. Jason, picking last, kind of annoys a lot of the other chefs by taking celery rather than an herb or other flavoring agent. I was surprised no one went for black pepper, butter, bacon, or onions. I’d never think to grab celery before onion, for example. I wouldn’t even take garlic before onion.

* Carl points out that this challenge is like “cooking at home” with just a few things in the fridge. Granted, our homes don’t have equipment this nice, but it’s nice for once to see a challenge that at least somewhat reflects the limitations home cooks face – and the common challenge of “I need to make dinner with what’s in the house already.”

* Amar says Charlie Palmer, one of his first bosses, always judged chefs and restaurants by how they cooked chicken. Now that I can see: it’s probably an easy dish for restaurants to half-ass, because if you go to a high-end place (especially a steakhouse) and order chicken, the kitchen is just not going to take you very seriously. I’m not saying that’s right; I’m saying that’s how it is.

* After picking chicken as his ingredient, Isaac cooks steak. I mean, he has the right to do that, but why not pick an ingredient you know you’ll use heavily?

* Jason is unapologetic about the celery and seems to enjoy the fact that other chefs are a little miffed. He’s right about its versatility and I could not agree more with him about the leaves. I buy whole stalks (sometimes called “heads” … sometimes “stalk” refers to a single rib) because I want the leaves and tender ribs in the center, and whatever I don’t use ends up in the next batch of poultry stock.

* Amar mocks Jeremy for yet another raw preparation – tataki style beef, which is kind of like a Japanese carpaccio, usually very lightly seared or grilled just to warm the exterior, raw in the center, and seasoned with vinegar and a paste of ginger. Jeremy just heats the surface with a blowtorch, but Amar is correct that Jeremy leans a little too much on the raw preps.

* Karen says she doesn’t want to complain about the ingredients they had and in doing so manages to complain about the ingredients they had while Padma and Antonia are tasting her dish.

* Least favorites: Isaac’s seared carpaccio with shaved jalapeños and mushrooms and tomato concentrate was both unappealing to look at and underwhelming to taste. Antonia says Karen’s flavors in her grilled steak salad with grilled and raw celery and jalapeño vinaigrette were “beautiful,” but that there was “no focus” to the dish. I’m trying to figure out how a jalapeño vinaigrette would taste like anything but pain.

* Favorites: Jeremy’s tataki-style steak with shaved mushrooms and crispy garlic vinaigrette worked as planned, especially the slight texture change that came from warming the top of the meat (I guess starting to denature the proteins without fully cooking them?). Amar’s wood-roasted chicken breast – that takes stones, serving the most boring part of the chicken in a competition like this – with roasted tomato vinaigrette and mushrooms à la Grecque (with olive oil, lemon juice, and herbs) showed great finesse and technique. Jeremy wins. Amar looks pissed, and why not? He actually cooked. Jeremy just sort of prepared, no?

* Elimination challenge: Ten years ago this year, Top Chef premiered (pre-Padma!). Each chef must create a dish representing who s/he was ten years ago.

* Jeremy was in a metal band … and had hair. Anyone catch what kind of guitar that was?

* Kwame talks about how ten years ago, he was starting high school and it marked the beginning of the end of his relationship with his strict father. Over the rest of the episode he makes it clear that the relationship never recovered and they haven’t spoken in years.

* Jason ten years ago was in his first management job, but says he was kind of awful to staff and used to chew out cooks who screwed up the restaurant’s signature trout dish, which was actually quite difficult to make.

* Marjorie wants to make green curry, but the Whole Foods they visit is out of lemongrass (in LA? Really?). She buys jarred green curry paste instead, which struck me at the time as a colossal mistake, because chefs get killed all the time for buying anything that’s that processed rather than working from scratch. Turned out I was wrong about it, but that’s what I thought in real-time.

* Carl does a pretty good Tom impersonation but we need to see more of this to put a grade on it.

* Chad quit drinking a year and a half ago and has since dropped 75 pounds, which in and of itself seems like a good reward for getting sober, although of course he talks about the improvements in his life too. I would have liked more on how he quit drinking – a good success story needs that aspect too as a way to encourage others, I think.

* So Recipe for Deception premiering last night means we never have to hear that “I just got a culinary boner” dipshit again, right? I do appreciate Bravo warning me that I want no part of that show. If that’s the line you chose to use in the commercial that introduces the show to the audience, it must be all kinds of awful. Also, boner jokes are only funny if your age hasn’t reached double digits yet.

* Jason is dressed like a clown. Yellow pants, red shoes. He’s talking about his look as if it’s some kind of fashion statement, but looking like you bought Ronald McDonald’s hand-me-downs and got dressed in the dark is not a fashion statement.

* Marjorie decides to grill some lemons to pull out the bitter aromatics in the rind and use that as a substitute for lemongrass. The two plants are not related: lemons are a true citrus tree (Citrus limon), while culinary lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) is a flowering rhizome that is typically harvested as soon as its stalks are mature. Both contain the aldehyde citral, also called lemonal, which has the strong aroma of lemon but is only found in small amounts in actual lemons, showing up more in lemongrass, lemon verbena, and other lemony plants. So she might need a lot of grilled lemon to replace what she lost when she couldn’t buy lemongrass, but at least she has that one chemical similarity as a hinge between the two ingredients.

* Michael Voltaggio is one of the guest judges, yet when he asks Phillip how the experience has been, Phillip says right in front of Tom that he has had to “cook food that makes the judges happy,” which makes Tom make that WTF face he makes when someone says something incomprehensibly stupid. Marjorie says in the confessional that she thinks “the kid is delusional.” It’s hard to argue with that.

* Amar makes a dish for his former mentor from ten years ago, Long Island chef Gerry Hayden, who was very sick at the time with ALS and passed away in September, probably not long after the episode finished shooting. Tom gets very choked up as they talk – visibly so, and the editors just let the moment “breathe,” with the camera on Tom while he tried to keep some composure. All reality shows want real emotions like that and end up trying to manufacture them through challenges, false drama, and other silliness. This was one moment that I think will stand out for a long time from season 13. (The episode ended with a brief full-screen honoring Chef Hayden’s memory.)

* Kwame’s dad is half Jamaican. One of the only decent memories Kwame seems to have of that period was going to jerk chicken shacks with his dad, although even talking about that seems to weigh him down further. I don’t know what it’s like to have such a terrible relationship with a parent – I have a couple of good friends who’ve had to sever parental ties, for reasons such as a history of abuse, and I can at least see the shadow it leaves on a person’s soul even after s/he has made the right decision to end the relationship. Anyway, we don’t know exactly what Kwame split with his father over, but it was clearly something worse than we’re hearing, and it’s got Kwame in a bit of a mental tailspin here. In hindsight, he probably should have pulled back for another memory, maybe an earlier or later year – it’s not like the judges know where he was in 2006 – but once he’d committed to this dish he was pretty well stuck.

* Blais is wearing a blue camo blazer for the upcoming war with invading aquatic creatures from Kepler-22b.

* Talk about a table where I’d love to just sit and listen: In addition to the five judges, we get Mei, Antonia, Zach Pollack, and iconic baker/restaurateur Nancy Silverton, who looks like my great-aunt Antoinette in that black and white outfit and with her hair up in clips. (Don’t laugh: “Aunty” was once President of the Amateur Astronomers’ Association of New York and longtime physics teacher who died about eight years ago at age 100.) Chef Silverton’s La Brea Bakery, and associated cookbook Breads from the La Brea Bakery, often show up in discussions of what and who started the artisan bread revival in the U.S.

* The dishes … Marjorie made a seared halibut with grilled and roasted vegetables in green curry sauce; so it turns out the lemon trick worked out great and I had it all wrong. Blais even said her vegetables were so good that maybe she didn’t need fish. (Am I dumb for expecting rice? Probably. Stupid American.) Chad made a shrimp ceviche with tomato concassé, shrimp cracker, pickled serrano, olive, and caper. Both dishes were hits.

* Isaac made a duck gumbo with roasted jalapeño andouille sausage, crispy rice cake, and duck cracklings. Man, I want to make this and then eat it, especially now since I’m still fighting some sort of bad respiratory infection. Jason made poached trout with toasted beets, spring vegetable salad, and goat milk vinaigrette, but he didn’t season the fish correctly before poaching it and had to top it with what looks like an excessive amount of finishing salt before service. Tom clearly does not like it – he turns like he’s debating the etiquette of spitting it out. Volt says the fish is perfectly poached, but it “stopped right there.” I’m very much on board with having him back as a judge more frequently – his comments are very specific and, at least this week, never denigrating. Anyone seen the cookbook he and his brother wrote a few years ago, VOLT ink.?

* Karen made orecchiete with pork ragù and broccoli rabe. She left some radicchio leaves whole, which meant they stayed fairly bitter, but I think the judges liked the concept. Still, it’s fresh pasta in a pork ragu with earthy vegetables – it’s not that novel so it has to be executed better than this. Amar made a butter-poached lobster with sauteed bok choy, tapioca curry, and tempura onion rings. Volt likes the homage to Chef Hayden and everyone seems to agree that the lobster is cooked perfectly. I assumed he’d be in the top three at this point.

* Carl made a fricassee (a meat dish that starts like a stir-fry but finishes like a braise) of California vegetables, burgundy snails, and fried eggs, along with a spring garlic puree. This is a clear hit from plating to tasting. Phillip made a ceviche mixto with tiger shrimp, halibut, razor claims, and pressure-cooked squid. Chef Silverton says it lacks brightness of true ceviche, but then Volt drops the cleaver by saying it was a “not-so-fresh fish taste” per Volt. If someone describes your seafood dish with a catchphrase from a 1980s douche commercial, you should probably log off your knives and go. Instead, Phillip just blames the judges again for not appreciating his genius.

* Jeremy lobster ravioli with a shellfish sauce (looks like a foam to me) and king salmon. The salmon is well cooked but unnecessary, and everyone just seems kind of whelmed – not underwhelmed, but there’s no praise here – until Padma drops this non sequitur “good thing you have immunity” bit. Either they edited out Tom saying it tasted like the before picture in a Febreze commercial or that was a real overreaction. Kwame made jerk broccoli with corn bread pudding and smokey blue cheese, and presents it with no conviction or any emotion other than exhaustion. Tom says “this is just confusing the hell out of me.” Silverton says a dish “has to look visually appealing” and this doesn’t. Volt, with pretty good insight for someone who just walked in, infers how Kwame’s emotional connection to food in general and the specific nature of this challenge probably worked against him. Padma dismisses the two with a curt “see you later,” although “off with their heads!” may have fit the mood more.

* Top three: Marjorie, Chad, and Carl. Chad’s ceviche was very acidic and bright. Marjorie’s was technically well executed. Tom liked her story, liked the dish, and liked the audible she called with the lemons. Carl’s was very classic and timeless, per Gail, although that doesn’t usually win a challenge. Marjorie wins. She kind of does this Eeyore thing when talking to the camera but she’s been fairly consistently in the top 3 just about all season now, other than that weird hiccup in the beer challenge, where Blais loved the dish but the beer she used didn’t come through in the sauce.

* Bottom: Kwame, Phillip, and Jason. Kwame “tried to bring a good memory out of some bad memories” and it didn’t work. Phillip is really acting like a narcissist at this point, saying, “I know this panel likes … really spicy” foods, like it’s just not possible that he’s cooking inferior dishes to those of these other very talented chefs. Tom, with his customary impatience for bullshit, cuts that off with “We just want good food up here.” Simplest dictum there could be. Jason just flat-out underseasoned the fish, which is typically a fatal error on this show. You do not give Tom Colicchio protein that is overcooked or underseasoned.

* Jason is eliminated. I would have preferred Phillip, especially given the whining, but given the face that Tom made while eating Jason’s dish, it had to have tasted pretty bad. Underseasoned fish is atrocious to eat.

* LCK: Take bland ingredients and make something flavorful, using the sponsor Soy Vey’s Teriyaki sauce (soy sauce; sugar; dried garlic, onion, and ginger; and sesame seeds and oil), which, while very sweet – and let’s face it, Tom ain’t using this in his restaurants – does at least include a lot of the base flavors you’d want in stir-fry dishes. I don’t know what will happen if you end up reducing it, though – it could get very sticky, or very salt, or maybe even both. Soy sauce is great but if that’s your only real source of umami you may end up with too much salt by the time you get enough glutamates.

* Angelina made terikyaki shrimp with potato and onion hash and a celery and orange salad. Shrimp a little overcooked. Jason made a salmon fillet with soft-cooked egg with broccoli and grilled sweet potato salad. Tom screwed with him a bit, asking if that’s how he liked the salmon cooked as if it were overdone, but Tom (like me) prefers his salmon around medium. Jason wins, just because Angelina’s shrimp was a tick overdone. I understand the need for sponsorships to pay for the web series, but this is too blatant a product promotion for my tastes (no pun intended).

* Rankings: Kwame, Marjorie, Carl, Jeremy, Amar, Chad, Karen, Isaac, Phillip.

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→ January 20, 2016
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The Executioner’s Song.

Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1980, is the longest work to take home that award, a strange historical footnote in the prize’s history because it’s almost certainly not a work of fiction. Mailer, who had previously won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for Armies of the Night, had access to an unbelievable depth and breadth of source material on Gary Gilmore, the very real subject of The Executioner’s Song, and just about everyone else involved in his life, crimes, imprisonment, and eventual execution, producing a work that moves as quickly as any thousand-page book I’ve ever read*. It would have been more than enough for Mailer, using the recordings and notes compiled by his collaborator Lawrence Schiller, to produce a work of great academic scholarship by providing all of this detail on Gilmore’s life and ultimate desire to rush from sentencing to the firing squad. Instead, Mailer manages the nearly impossible task of humanizing Gilmore without making him the least bit sympathetic, while populating his world with countless well-described, three-dimensional characters, into whose private struggles we gain access thanks to their candor with Schiller and to Mailer’s ability to turn their thoughts into richly developed portraits.

* N of 6.

Gary Gilmore was a lifelong ne’er-do-well who had spent much of his childhood in reform school, then ended up in jail, and just a few months after he was paroled at age 36 after serving about four years of a term for armed robbery he committed while on conditional release, he killed two service workers in the course of two separate armed robberies, with both murders taking place after he’d already obtained the money. The Supreme Court had suspended the use of the death penalty across the United States in 1972 after a 5-4 ruling in Furman v. Georgia, which held, among other things, that sentences of death were applied inconsistently based on the races of the defendants – black defendants were much more likely to be sentenced to die than whites, which three of the five justices ruling for the plaintiff held to be a violation of the Eighth (cruel and unusual punishment) and Fourteenth (equal protection of the laws) Amendments to the Constitution.

(Two other justices held that the death penalty was per se unconstitutional, which I think should be blindingly obvious but, sadly, is not. The death penalty is not a deterrent to capital crime, and is not cost-effective, which means its use is merely a case of the government providing vengeance for the victims’ families.)

Shortly before Gilmore committed the two murders, the Supreme Court ended the suspension of capital punishment in Gregg v. Georgia, as long as the trial in question contained two separate phases for the determination of guilt and for sentencing. Gilmore’s case was egregious and his lawyers, recognizing that they had no defense (there was a witness in one of the cases who saw Gilmore leaving the scene with the gun in his hand), merely hoped to get him life imprisonment. However, Gilmore not only accepted the death penalty but attempted to waive all appeals, asking the court to carry out the sentence as quickly as possible – within 60 days, as required by the Utah statute at the time (which, by the way, did not include a mandatory appeal of any death sentence, because Utah). That stance turned Gilmore into a national celebrity, drew in the ACLU to give Gilmore a defense he didn’t want, and resulted in some darkly comic scenes of legal wrangling that went on right up until a few minutes before Gilmore was executed in January, 1977, the first person to be put to death for his crimes in the United States in nearly ten years.

Although Mailer’s name is on the book’s spine as the author, Schiller, a filmmaker and screenwriter, gathered all of the source material. Several journalists descended on Utah after Gilmore’s sentencing and pronouncement that he wished to die in search of a story; Schiller came out victorious, using various schemes and intermediaries to gain hours of recorded dialogue with Gilmore, Q&As that Gilmore filled out, and interviews with dozens of people relevant to the case, including the widows of the two victims and the girlfriend whose relationship with Gary was, he alleged, the reason he snapped and went out in search of someone to kill. (It’s a facile explanation not supported at all by everything Mailer and Schiller give us in the book.)

Gilmore himself was a complex character, which Schiller realized, driving him to keep attacking Gilmore with questions – asked by his intermediaries, Gilmore’s attorneys – designed to provoke more revealing responses about his childhood. Schiller was clearly looking for something, like a history of abuse or repressed sexual urges, that would explain the killer’s psychopathic behavior, including his controlling, manipulative hold on that girlfriend, 19-year-old Nicole Baker, herself a badly damaged child with a history of drug use and sexual victimhood. But Gilmore was in no way sympathetic, and Mailer doesn’t try to make him so; if you feel anything on Gilmore’s side of the battle over his sentence, it will be for his family members, including his invalid mother, and some of the people who poured their emotions into stopping a punishment that they believed to be morally wrong, only to lose thanks in part to a last-minute flight from Utah to Denver to overturn a judge’s stay. Indeed, the rush to kill Gary Gilmore does nothing to rehabilitate his image, but paints Utah in particular as a state so driven by bloodlust that it comes across as a sort of nightmare totalitarian society. (Mailer also seems to have little use for the domination of the state’s government, including its courts, by Mormons, other than Judge W.W. Ritter, who twice ordered stays to Gilmore’s execution; the book includes Gilmore’s accurate paraphrase of the speech given by Brigham Young where the preacher and openly racist Governor of the Utah Territory said that it would be right and just if he, finding one of his wives in the act of committing adultery with another man, ran them both through the breast with a knife, sending them to the afterlife where their sins would be cleansed. I don’t think you include that passage unless you want the reader to know just where you stand on the Mormon church.)

The first half of the book proceeds like a disaster unfolding in slow motion; we begin with Gilmore’s parole, and get an almost daily look into his struggle to assimilate himself into normal life outside of prison, especially in relations with women. When he meets Nicole Baker, who comes across as a space cadet throughout the book and is always described as stunningly beautiful (you can judge this for yourself, but I don’t see it), he finally gets the reliable outlet for his sexual desires – including disturbing threesomes with an underage friend of Nicole’s – but enters into a relationship toxic in both directions. Nicole, pressured by family members concerned about Gilmore’s manipulative tendencies and violent temper, breaks it off with Gilmore, after which he commits the two murders that ultimately send him to jail.

The second half diverages from your standard true-crime, non-fiction novel, however, by making the chase for Gilmore’s story the actual story. Schiller enters the pages and never lets go of them, while we also get a cast of lawyers with conflicting interests, other journalists, Hollywood producers seeking film rights, and enough clowns to fill a clown Escalade. The media takes a special beating in the book, largely well-deserved. Geraldo Rivera was apparently a soulless hack at the time, trying to do a live TV interview with Gilmore’s cousin Brenda right after the execution while she was still in the hospital recovering from major surgery. (He actually asked to do the interview in the hospital room itself.) Newsweek cited a couple of verses of poetry that Gilmore wrote, failing to recognize that the verses were from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “The Sensitive Plant.” Reporters and photographers throw all ethics out the window to get images of Gilmore or Nicole, or a quote from anyone in the case, even barging into people’s houses without permission. While I’m sure such things still happen today, the frequency of such events in this book – with no apparent repercussions – is nauseating.

Mailer and Schiller even manage to humanize the many lawyers involved in the case, those seeking to uphold the death sentence and those trying to at least delay it and push through what we would, today, consider a standard process of appeals. Gilmore became a peculiar folk hero and a target for letters from women and girls across the country (gah) because of what was perceived as his stoic acceptance of a just penalty, but as the first execution after nearly a decade-long gap, the last four years under a Supreme Court moratorium, Gilmore’s trial and execution had ramifications for many capital cases to follow. He may have been okay with the sentence handed out to him – and his lack of emotional response to it would seem to support Schiller’s belief that Gilmore had some sort of mental infirmity, like dissociation – but groups like the ACLU needed to fight for his rights to try to establish rights for future defendants.

I don’t see how anyone could read this book and avoid at least feeling a tug toward the side of the debate that opposes capital punishment. It is a brutal sentence, and an expensive, wasteful process to adjudicate it and carry it out. It is also increasingly seen in the developed world as barbarous. Only one other country in the entire Western Hemisphere actively uses the death penalty, and that one, St. Kitts and Nevis, has executed one person in the last 17 years. The only country in Europe that has the death penalty at all is Belarus, ruled by a repressive dictator and serial human-rights violator. Japan still has the death penalty and executed one person in 2015. The United States has more in common with countries like Iran, China, or Saudi Arabia than with any western democracies when it comes to capital punishment. So while the death penalty is decreasing in usage in other nations to which we might compare ourselves, it has little or no deterrent effect on violent crime, and it’s damn expensive to put into practice, Mailer, without appearing to take a side, shows the real human cost of a death sentence by focusing on all of the people besides Gilmore who were hurt by his execution. And while Gilmore destroyed many lives – the two men he murdered, their wives, the three infants left without fathers – killing Gilmore did not restore what he took away. (Both widows cooperated with Mailer and Schiller in providing their stories with their late husbands, acts of significant grace given the amount of shock and grief they must have been suffering.)

Apropos of nothing else, I caught two quotes in the book with some connection to baseball. Gilmore’s first comment or question to a reporter after he was first sentenced to death was, “Who the hell won the World Series?” (That was the Reds, four games to none.) And both Gilmore and his cellmate after his final conviction, the enigmatic Gibbs, had “used the same drug, Ritalin, a rare type of speed not in common use” as their first experience with illicit substances. Yes, Ritalin and Adderall have valid pharmaceutical uses in the treatment of ADHD, but there are far more MLB players with exemptions to take these drugs – Adderall is a combination of two amphetamine salts; Ritalin is not technically “speed” but is also a CNS stimulant and dopamine reuptake inhibitor like amphetamines – than you’d expect from a random sample of men in that age range. And the evidence that these stimulants are performance enhancers, while still anecdotal, is strong.

I read the book via the Kindle app on my iPad – it’s also available via Apple’s iBooks – since, at nearly 1100 pages, it seemed like it would be a bit much to tote around. It was also on sale for $2 on Christmas Day on amazon, along with the book I’m reading now, Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny.

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→ January 20, 2016
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Not to Disappear.

Daughter, one of an increasing number of alternative artists determined to come up with the least Google-friendly name possible, first hit my radar late last year with the release of “Numbers,” the second single from their sophomore album, Not To Disappear (also on iTunes), which was just released on this past Friday. (Their debut album, If You Leave, came out in 2013 and missed my notice completely at the time, even though it peaked at #97 on the Billboard albums chart.) The English trio’s new album features ten tracks filled with spacey melodies that bring in elements of a diverse group of influences, from the Sugarcubes to alt-J to some vocal similarities to Sarah McLachlan, with musical twists that elevate some rather overwrought lyrics.

Daughter’s songs are all sparse; the band’s three members include a vocalist, a guitarist, and a drummer, with a lot of production effects to give the album that ethereal (I guess some listeners might say “stoned”) sound. The band compensates for the minimalist arrangements with major in-song shifts in texture and volume, such as the sudden tempo upshift that powers “Numbers” or the My Bloody Valentine-tinged wall of guitar in “How.” There’s a Madchester-inspired passage in “Not to Belong” that lasts less than thirty seconds, but elevates the whole song because it breaks up the spaceyness – Daughter never give us space rock (thank goodness) or ambient music, but omitting these tempo shifts would have left an album with a sedative effect, rather than the impact that Not to Disappear ends up having. The one passage that might give you some prog-rock pause, the extended outro on the seven-minute track “Fossa,” ends before it wears out any welcome – and we don’t get any excessive guitar-noodline – but it sets up the last track, the tenebrous “Made of Stone,” to be a bit of a letdown because it’s so much slower and softer than what precedes it.

The one real dud on the album, “Alone/With You,” returns to some of the flaws that plagued their first album, including lyrics best left on the cutting-room floor (“I hate living alone/Talking to myself is boring conversation … I hate walking alone/I should get a dog or something”) and a sense that the music behind the track was never properly finished. It’s a weird mid-album break, going from the worst track to the fastest and shortest song on the album, the Wire-like “No Care,” certainly one of Daughter’s best songs – the one that reminded me most of peak Sugarcubes – but an outlier in tempo and feel on an album that otherwise veers toward the mellow and contemplative.

“Numbers,” which features a little wordplay between the title and the repeated lines that begin “I feel numb,” is still the standout track here, one of two songs here that seem strongly influenced by alt-J’s debut album. (There’s a passage in “New Ways” that sounds extremely similar to the last movement of alt-J’s “Bloodflood.”) But it’s a different sound from most of the acts getting alternative airplay right now, even the surfeit of female-singer/male-band acts who seem like they’re coming right off the hipster assembly line, with this unique blend of influences producing such an interesting – I mean that in a good way – result. Not to Disappear remains an imperfect album, but with enough improvement over their earlier work that it seems to be building toward a substantial breakout in the near future.

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→ January 17, 2016
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Top Chef, S13E06.

Two new Insider posts from Saturday – a draft blog post on Delvin Perez and other Puerto Rican prospects and another post on the Ian Kennedy and Chris Davis contracts.

I thought this was the best episode of the season. The challenges were all well-designed and focused on the food. The dishes on the whole sounded really good – even one of the judges’ least favorites from the elimination challenge sounded like something I’d want to make at home. But there was one moment in the quickfire challenge that absolutely pissed me off.

* First we get some postgame drama from the previous challenge, with Jason killing Phillip in a big group discussion after the judging. Phillip comes off increasingly lacking in self-awareness every week, including his comment to Jason: “What you call gummy, I may enjoy. Does that make me wrong?” He’s shouted down with “yes,” because gummy potatoes are just disgusting (and I think are considered “wrong” by pretty much everybody – any decent cookbook explains that you shouldn’t overwork mashed potatoes for this reason). Plus it’s clear that in a challenge where all the chefs are on one team, they’re embarrassed to have a failure anywhere in the meal, even if it indirectly benefits them in the competition.

* Off to San Diego … their drive down from Palm Springs was totally fake. I can tell because we saw no traffic.

* Chad joined the Navy after 9/11, which is how he ended up in San Diego. He says he joined because he “wanted to kick whoever’s ass did that to us.” That mentality was apt in 1941.

* Javier Plascencia is the guest judge for the Quickfire; I didn’t realize this, but he has a new restaurant in San Diego’s resurgent Little Italy neighborhood called Bracero. Also, I keep wanting to call him Javier Placenta.

* The quickfire challenge is to make fish tacos in 20 minutes, and unfortunately, it’s a sudden death quickfire. I hate these gimmicks.

* In the scramble for ingredients, Jeremy called Wesley a “dick” for taking a lobster from him, which appears to have come because Jeremy was trying to take two and Wesley wanted one. I’m waiting for the inevitable episode where one chef kicks another in the balls over a slab of foie gras.

* And then Wesley can’t seem to hold on to his crustacean, putting it on Marjorie’s station and freaking out when he thinks someone stole it, eventually admitting, “I just misplaced my lobster.” He should be tagged with that in the future; instead of saying where he works, his font should say “Wesley: Misplaced Lobster.”

* Carl says he opened a taco stand in Nicaragua on a whim while staying there with his girlfriend. That’s kind of awesome, and apparently Nicaragua doesn’t have a very high standard covering who can sell food there.

* Chad makes his dish very spicy because Javier “eats habaneros like they’re apples.” More importantly, Chad says it correctly, with no tilde on the n. (Jalapeño, but habanero.)

* Is it really a bad idea to do your own tortillas? Marjorie is. I’ve never had a packaged tortilla that could come close to the worst fresh ones I’ve made. They start to dry out the moment they touch the air. Meanwhile, Wesley is doing a taco without a tortilla, more like a sushi roll, which does not strike me as something you can eat with your hands.

* And then, this happened: Angelina plated right on her cutting board, not on the plates, so she can’t serve anything to the judges. Is that not ticky-tack? If the dishes are done, they’re done, and they’re just a few inches away from the plates themselves. I don’t see any good reason why she couldn’t have served from there. The food was finished – and if it wasn’t, then she’d be judged on that, not on an empty dish. This isn’t failing to use a required ingredient, or continuing to cook or plate once time had expired. She made the dish. Just fucking eat it.

* Which brings me to my second point: Competition rules aside, I have a real problem with wasting food. The fact that Padma and Javier wouldn’t even taste that food – did it just go in the trash? – is beyond insulting. Taste it, give some feedback, and inform her she’s automatically on the bottom if you must. This was equivalent to taking her food and dumping it on the floor. Javier could easily have pled ignorance and just picked up one taco to taste it, even if it didn’t “count” for the show.

* Favorites: Karen’s oyster taco with kimchi-sesame salsa, pickled red cabbage, and avocado; Chad’s very spicy grilled thresher shark with oyster and sea urchin salsa, soy, and sesame; and, of course, Kwame, who made a wahoo taco with truffle cream and chipotle salsa. Winner is Chad, the hometown boy. Canking up the capsaicin appears to have been good strategy.

* Meanwhile, Phillip, from his orbit somewhere beyond Neptune: “Why is it that when I cook something perfect, I’m not in the top? I don’t understand. Am I not supposed to be making yummy food?” Well, you could start by not saying “yummy” because you’re not a three-year-old.

* Bottom: Angelina by default. Wesley goes on camera, saying failing to plate is “just stupid,” and then he knocks three trays and a pile of mangos on the floor. Angelina has to pick one chef to battle to save herself from elimination, and chooses … Wesley, because he “can get into his own head sometimes.”

* The quickfire elimination challenge is Caesar salad-inspired. It was invented in the restaurant Javier owns now, called Caesar, and the chefs must make any dish using only the ingredients he uses in that salad. I was a bit surprised to see anchovies in the dressing; I’m pretty sure Alton Brown said in his episode on the subject that they were not traditional.

* Wesley is struggling to fry an egg cleanly. Angelina calls out Wesley for double-dipping a spoon. This is kind of a race to the bottom at this point.

* Wesley eventually makes a proper fried egg, serving it with anchovy remoulade, grilled romaine hearts, croutons, and lime zest. Angelina made crostini with garlic, olive oil, dijon vinaigrette, lime, grilled romaine, and anchovy. Wesley’s was simple, with a perfectly cooked (!) egg, but Javier wanted more of the “garlic condiment of the lettuce” (I think that’s what he said – I listened three times and that’s the best I got). Angelina had a good idea but Javier says he wanted more sauce. Wesley wins, so Angelina goes home. I also think Angelina’s dish didn’t show much technique at all – it sounded more like layered ingredients but nothing like Wesley’s remoulade or grilled romaine.

* Elimination challenge: Emeril, Tom, and Blais show up with craft beer that they (including Padma) made in conjunction with Stone Brewing, a major microbrewer in the city. Each chef gets one and has to create a dish that includes or emphasizes the flavors the judge added to that beer. Padma’s golden ale includes jalapeño, ginger, and tamarind. Blais’ stout contains beets, chocolate, and ras el hanout (a Moroccan/Maghreb spice mix that includes about a dozen ingredients, like combining the spices for a pumpkin pie with those in a garam masala). Emeril’s beer, type unknown, contained coffee, cayenne, and tangerine. Tom’s wheat beer has lemon, coriander, and banana (for body). Wheat beer with coriander sounds very soapy to me – and I happen to really like coriander.

* They’re cooking at Juniper + Ivy, Blais’ first restaurant in Little Italy – his second, the Crack Shack, just opened right next door – and one of my favorite places to eat in the country. I think I even spotted one of my servers on the show. Anyway, if you haven’t picked up Blais’ cookbook, Try This At Home, I recommend it highly. (That links to my review.)

* If the episode is just an hour long, so 44 minutes of content without commercials, we could do with less footage in Whole Foods and more footage of actual cookery.

* Isaac says that banana is fatty (which it most definitely is not), so he has the idea to make it into a sort of mayonnaise that he calls “#banannaise.” Don’t try this at home, kids. Mostly because it will be gross.

* One of the guests at judges’ table – possibly the guy from Stone – says there are 106 microbreweries in San Diego, further proving that it is the greatest place to live in the continental United States.

* The dishes start with Padma’s beer. Chad made a carrot-roasted opah (moonfish) with ginger hominy, jalapeño purée, and tamarind-glazed carrots. Good marks all around. Amar made a sous vide chicken breast, crispy chicken thigh, jalapeño popper, and tamarind ginger chutney. This gets higher marks, particularly for how it complements the beer.

* Wesley sees that his lamb is overcooked, because he let it rest too long. But remember – Angelina’s mistake was “stupid.”

* The next set of dishes go with Blais’s stout: Karen made a roasted duck breast with cocoa nib beet puree, ras el hanout, and roasted carrots. Wesley served his lamb with roasted beet purée and ras el hanout roasted carrots. The judges pounce, saying the lamb is dry and the beet puree too one-dimensional. Jeremy made duck breast with chocolate granola, pickled beet, and a pickled blueberry hibiscus reduction. The judges like the concept but it needed more fat and more chocolate.

* Emeril’s beer: Marjorie made roasted potato gnocchi with chicken ragù, made with coffee, tangerine, cayenne, and roasted mushrooms. She braised the chicken in the beer, but the flavor of the beer did not come through to the final dish at all, although Blais says he loves it anyway. (The J&I menu always has a couple of hearty pasta dishes along these lines.) Phillip made a roasted duck breast with rutabaga puree, fresh tangerine, and a sauce with coffee in it. Carl made a grilled short rib with ancho chile, coffee, and dried cherry salsa. The pairing with the beer is almost too close, and Emeril says it needed a tiny bit more salt. Just on the description, this sounded the most mundane dish of all – I’ve had short rib preparations with all of those ingredients before.

* Tom’s beer: Isaac made a corn and crab velouté (actually a sauce made with stock and a blond roux) with crispy potato, king crab salad, and his sriracha banannaise. The dish just reads weird to the judges, including the presentation of the crab salad on top of a chunk of a corn cob. Kwame made a chicken mojo with banana soffrito puree, garlic puree, crispy chicken thigh, and garlic green onion. Huge raves, of course. Jason made a pork and squid meatball with a carrot wheat beer sauce, salsa povera, and grilled squid tentacles. The meatball is compared to the stuffing from dim sum dumplings. Blais can’t stop commenting on how weird it is. Tom says, “This is bait, man!”

* Karen, Jeremy, Amar, Kwame were among the judges’ favorites. Their least favorites include Jason’s; Blais keeps calling it weird, Emeril says customers would have sent it back, and Tom says it was too “historical” (based on Jason’s own defense of the dish). Wesley’s was not refined enough, and he killed the lamb. Isaac’s soup was a “muck of a velouté.” Marjorie’s dish was good, but had nowhere near enough beer flavor.

* Judges’ Table: The top three are Amar, Karen, and, The Man We All Know and Love, Kwame. Amar’s dish was “powerful” with the most assertive flavors of the season from him. He went heavy on jalapeño, which seems to have been a winning formula in this episode. Karen’s beet sauce was “addictive” per Tom. Padma loved how Kwame took the banana element form the beer and “made it (his) own.” Tom says, “That dish could stand up anywhere.” Yet the winner is Karen. I really thought Kwame would win based on comments and how clever his use of the banana was; perhaps they’re trying to spread the wins out a little more so he doesn’t Qui the whole season?

* Jason, Isaac, and Wesley on the bottom. Jason’s sounds really terrible. The tentacles were slimy and the whole dish was incredibly strange. Yet Wesley is sent home; Tom says shortly before elimination that the “worst-cooked dish sends you home,” and overcooking your protein is a capital crime in front of the 24-hour short rib master.

* LCK: Grayson, Angelina, and Wesley are in a three-person battle, making hamburgers in fifteen minutes to make the burgers. Angelina says you need 10-12 minutes to make a great burger, which sounds about right; I usually give mine about 10 minutes on a grill to get to medium, 12 for medium-well, although managing the heat is key.

* The first thing to do is start heating the skillet, right? You want that sucker hot when the meat hits the pan. All three chefs make very thick burgers that will require the maximum time to cook.

* Grayson wants to use pork belly in her burger, but it’s not ground yet, which costs her a minute or so. Her burger sounds similar to Bar at Husk’s burger, which is 1/3 bacon. Wesley is doing lamb, my least favorite protein and IMO a terrible burger meat because it’s so lean. Even at medium, it’s probably past eating.

* Wesley serves that lamb burger with a fennel-jalapeño onion slaw, goat cheese, and ras el hanout, although Tom says it’s a little too compacted. Grayson serves her beef and pork belly burger with mushrooms, pickled red onion, and Wisconsin cheddar. It looks gloriously messy but the cheese didn’t melt all the way. There’s that minute she lost to grinding the pork. Angelina’s burger includes beef and pork and comes with avocado, chimichurri, heirloom tomato, pickled habanero, and fresh arugula.

* Angelina wins! Go figure. The previously-eliminated chefs seem pretty happy for her. She did take a bit of a beating in the main show.

* Rankings: Kwame

… Jeremy, Marjorie, Karen, Amar, Carl, Jason, Chad, Isaac, Phillip. I’m making a call on Isaac here, as he’s cooked almost entirely within his Cajun comfort zone and struggles to get outside of it. And while I mock Phillip’s “my food is yumm-ay!” commentary, he’s right about one thing – the judges don’t seem to love his food.

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→ January 16, 2016
→ By

Stick to baseball, 1/16/16.

I traveled to Puerto Rico this week to see the MLB draft showcase in Cayey, featuring likely top-5 pick Delvin Perez, so I haven’t written much anywhere, with just one Insider post, on the Wei-Yin Chen and Gerardo Parra signings. Klawchats will resume this upcoming week, and no, I haven’t seen this week’s episode of Top Chef yet. I did finish The Executioner’s Song on the flight home, and that has to be one of the most addictive books I’ve ever read.

And now, the links…

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→ January 9, 2016
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Top Chef, S13E05.

Sorry this is a bit late, but I spent the entire workday Friday on the phone working on the top 100 prospects package, which will run right after the big hand-egg match in early February. I missed the Lazarito workout because my daughter had pneumonia (she’s better now), but it sounds like it wasn’t a great look for the 100+ scouts who were there.

* Quickfire: Dates! I miss Arizona Medjool dates. The natural-foods grocer Sprouts was my go-to spot for Medjool dates, which are just … better, I don’t even know how to describe it. I carry dried dates with me on the road a lot because they’re so good and high in both fiber and sugar. I also love them Firefly (Las Vegas)-style, stuffed with almonds and wrapped in bacon, with a balsamic glaze and a little sprinkled bleu cheese (although I could skip that last bit). Anyway, the chefs can choose from three specialty varieties here.

* Chrissy Teigen is introduced as the guest judge (did someone really call her “John Legend’s wife,” as if she has no individual identity?) and is showing award-show level cleavage.

* Teigen says, “Dates are sweet and succulent and sticky,” to which Padma offers the forced-risqué line, “Like you.” Slutty talk from Padma seems to be an ongoing thing here but it does nothing for me, sorry. The chefs’ challenge is to tell a story of the best date each of them has ever had in a dish that highlights dates.

* As much as I love dates, I don’t think I’ve ever cooked with them, because pitting and trimming them is among the bigger pains in the asses in the kitchen. Olives are up there too, as are gooseberries (did that once – never again).

* Giselle is somehow struggling with burners, but it’s not clear if it’s her fault or she’s getting edited to look the fool because they’re trying to offer us some #foreshadowing.

* We get a bunch of stories from the chefs, with the longest story coming from Jason, but overall these people had some boring dates. I don’t think I could do any better, though; my other half isn’t a foodie and hates dates (the fruit, that is).

* Angelina has no date story, apparently, saying, “My boyfriend is the restaurant.” That’s … hot.

* Worst dishes: Chad’s pan-roasted halibut with orange salsa verde, pine nut, and zahari date froth, because the orange was bitter. Phillip’s tuna crudo with peaches and zahidi dates didn’t have enough date flavor. Carl made a date milkshake, which I’ve had at Joe’s Farm Grill out in Gilbert, Arizona. They’re really good, but not exactly the kind of thing to win a Top Chef challenge.

* Favorites: Jason’s roasted baby carrots with Deglet Nour dates, brown butter, cumin, lime, and pine nuts; Padma loved the char on everything. Isaac’s chicken ballontine (hey, Ruhlman has a recipe for that!) with medjool date sauce thanks to crispy chicken skin. Giselle’s date salad with pork sausage, arugula, watercress, and spiced walnuts showcased the date particularly well. The winner, however, is Jason, which they kind of foreshadowed with long story about the date he went on with his long-term partner.

* Elimination challenge: Art Smith, who appeared on Top Chef Masters a few years back, is the guest judge, and will be renewing his vows with his partner as one of 25 couples getting married in a mass wedding ceremony. Yeah, it’s a gay wedding, but do we even need to say that any more? It’s not like it’s an alternate-universe wedding. A gay wedding is just like a straight wedding, amirite?

The chefs will prepare the entire meal as one team, but will be judged individually on their dishes.

* Padma got ordained that morning to officiate the wedding, which … um … okay.

* Kwame is making sauces for two different dishes, which seems ambitious, although he has been the most impressive chef so far.

* Giselle is struggling to understand a dish in the discussion on the way to Whole Foods, so they’re clearly setting her up for elimination in the editing. When she says she doesn’t like the sound of Wesley’s idea for their dish, saying, “for me it doesn’t go (together),” Wesley mansplains her down with, “It doesn’t matter, it’s unbelievable.” I get defending your own recipe, but to say that to another professional chef’s face is beyond dismissive.

* Isaac is buying peeled garlic? What?

* A yoga instructor comes to the house to do yoga with the chefs in the morning, other than Isaac and Wesley, who do what I would likely to and go laze around in the shade instead. I’d probably have a book, though. I have nothing whatsoever against yoga, but don’t namaste me, bro.

* The editing of this episode makes Giselle look both incompetent and hapless. She may be below the others in skill – although even assuming that seems like a stretch – but she can’t possibly be as bad as she looks here, or she wouldn’t have made the show in the first place. She’s squabbling with Karen, her partner on the vegetarian dish, but we get Karen’s perspective on their disagreement without Giselle’s. Is Giselle too needy, or is Karen just not communicating well? I feel like a defense attorney this season.

* Angelina doesn’t seem to grasp Jason’s dish (they’re working together too), which, again, would be his fault as much as hers. They’re not on the same page, which means he didn’t adequately communicate his vision to her. What isn’t helping is that he keeps calling it “capunet,” which I think means capuns, a Swiss-Italian dish that sort of looks like what they’re making but usually contains dried beef and/or sausage in the filling, not braised chicken, and is finished by boiling in seasoned milk. What these two are really making turns out to be more like niños envueltos, a dish with which I was not familiar before this episode, a sort of stuffed meat roll but here wrapped in a chard leaf like capuns would be.

* Phillip is making what he keeps calling “mashed potatoes” but is spraying it out of an iSi canister to try to create a foamy sauce, which I can only imagine will make it gummy by overworking the starches. Maybe (this is pure speculation here) he could have whipped cream and folded it into loose mashed potatoes? I don’t know if this would work but it would avoid the gumminess.

* Isaac semi-brags that, “I should probably come with a warning label that says ‘does not play well with others'” yet everyone likes him, so I think he’s all bluster. He’s just crazy, but he doesn’t seem to be getting on anyone’s nerves.

* Padma is dressed almost demurely as the instant minister, although she did have her one look-at-me element with hot purple lipstick.

* Has anyone heard how many heterosexual marriages across the country fell apart after this episode was aired? I feel like the entire institution has been undermined here.

* Enough of that – let’s talk food. First up is Amar/Chad: Sherry-glazed pork belly with smoked orange marmalade, pickled fennel, onion, and smoked salt. It’s a huge hit and of everything in this episode, this is the recipe I’d most want.

* Jeremy, working solo: Citrus roasted carrots with harissa yogurt, shaved radish, and baby kale. He got some kind of color on those carrots, unless my television was on the fritz. Tom and Art both rave.

* Wesley/Kwame: Pickled shrimp with cucumber onion salad, citrus vinaigrette, cashews. Kwame’s nuoc cham, a Thai fish sauce-based dressing that must have been in the vinaigrette, is an immediate hit.

* Angelina/Jason: Niños envueltos – Swiss chard rolled up and stuffed with braised chicken, pancetta, cauliflower, and a sauce made from braising liquid and caramelized honey. Angelina called it “like a dolma,” and Jason gets pissed off and very condescending because it’s not dolma at all. (Dolma are Greek or Middle Eastern dishes of stuffed vegetables or rolled grape/cabbage, which Wikipedia says can also be called sarma.) leaves Judges love it.

* Isaac: Dirty rice and smoked chicken and jalapeno sausage. Tom says it’s “right.” I’m a bit surprised they didn’t ding him for making something in his comfort zone.

* Karen/Giselle: Charred eggplant puree with asparagus, smoked mushrooms, citrus vinaigrette, and kumquats. The asparagus is undercooked, the farro (I missed that in the description, apparently) is underseasoned, and the mushrooms were soggy. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

* Phillip/Kwame: Center cut NY steak with potato “cream” and tomato-eggplant relish. Shockingly, the potatoes suck: they have a gummy texture and a raw taste. The relish is good, of course, and Padma says it “saves Phillip’s dish.”

* Tom and my sister were married on the same day in 2011. Not to each other, though. That would be weird.

* Marjorie/Carl: Grilled apricots with cherries, mascarpone, and hazelnuts. (Stop calling it “mascarpone cheese,” and please stop calling it “marscapone.” It’s “MAHS-car-POH-neh.” It’s like cream cheese, but good.) Apparently this whole dish is fantastic, which will be totally forgotten the next time someone is eliminated for dessert and people start talking about a “curse.”

* Judges’ table: “Today was a proud moment in Top Chef history.” Okay, okay, don’t hurt yourselves patting your own backs. The winner was Wesley and Kwame’s shrimp dish. Kwame added tangerine and ginger juice to the nuoc cham, and used all of the juices in the sauce to pickle the shrimp, so it had big flavors but was very cohesive. The individual winner is The Man We All Know and Love, Kwame.

* Worst dishes: Karen/Giselle and Phillip/Kwame. Kwame acts like he might actually be eliminated, which is positively Swiftian (Taylor, not Jonathan) in absurdity. Phillip explains his dish to the judges as if this was the result he wanted, but then Jason chimes in, “I don’t think that’s how the dish was described to the team.” Marjorie piles on with, “you said mashed potatoes,” so the editors didn’t mislead us here – everyone thought he was doing steak and potatoes. No one is talking about the steak, by the way, which is in and of itself odd since that’s the main component of the dish.

* Giselle said the dish did not include “her” flavors, so Karen retorts that she found it “hard to collaborate” and, more insulting, “at least I was trying.” Will nobody ever learn that these arguments in front of the judges do nobody any favors? Suddenly, Giselle says “it’s shocking that Phillip doesn’t recognize his flaws,” while she and Karen understand what they did wrong … which is sort of like saying the apology is more important than the mistake. Phillip defends himself by saying that was indeed the dish he wanted to make, but Tom says he was “going for something we didn’t care for.”

* Jason is really pissed, even after judges’ table, which might make sense if he were directly affected by the elimination decision.

* Giselle is eliminated. While she was the weakest chef up for elimination, Phillip made gummy potato sauce and I kind of have a hard time with him staying – as if perhaps he stayed on reputation. The only good thing on his plate came from Kwame.

* LCK: Chefs have 20 seconds to look at the cart of ingredients, then have to write down two dish ideas they can execute in 20 minutes. Tom picks one for each to do – Giselle has to do lamb, fig, and pistachio, while Grayson has to do shrimp and jalapeño – but the women negotiate and end up doing their first choices, Giselle’s chicken with summer polenta and Grayson’s lamb with fig and mustard. Tom is having way more fun in LCK this season, and the women both seem to join in by acting a little goofy. The main show could benefit from some of this silliness. I also love how Tom comments on specific cooking times (Grayson’s rack of lamb should take twelve minutes max) or plating (he tells the camera Giselle is plating too soon, with five minutes left, so she changes her plan). He’s a highly successful and respected chef – I want more of his commentary.

* Grayson’s lamb rack comes with a fig and port sauce and a take on aligot potatoes (a French dish of mashed potatoes blended with certain low-fat cheeses). Giselle’s chicken comes with a corn and tomato salad and polenta. Chicken appears to be perfectly cooked but the polenta might not be hot enough. Grayson wins although it appears to have been very close.

* Rankings: Kwame, Jeremy, Jason, Marjorie, Isaac, Carl, Amar, Wesley, Karen, Phillip, Chad, Angelina.

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→ January 9, 2016
→ By

Stick to baseball, 1/9/16.

No new Insider content this week as I was mostly busy with phone calls for the top 100 prospects package, which will run the week immediately following the Super Bowl. I did hold a Klawchat on Thursday, and I have another new game review up at Paste, for the family-oriented game Skyliners, which I thought was kind of mediocre overall.

And now, the links…

  • That TV show about a “special victims unit” is hot garbage, but this NY Times piece on a real-world sex-crimes police unit is gripping, if disheartening, reading.
  • Rakim discusses how John Coltrane influenced his vocal flow in a brief clip with KRS-One.
  • Remember that whole “CDC Whistleblower” meme that the vaccine deniers liked to throw around? Well, a review of the actual documents from that scientist showed there’s no whistle to blow because there’s nothing scandalous or untoward here.
  • A harrowing first-person piece from the brother of the Unabomber, on realizing that the mail-bomber terrorist was actually his sibling.
  • Kevin Folta, who was hounded offline by anti-GMO and anti-science shills claiming the scientist was secretly in the pocket of Big Ag, is resuming his biotech podcast next month.
  • Bill Gates has a blog! Okay, it’s a blog where he posts book reviews and only a total dork would do that.
  • Sports Illustrated ran a puff piece on child-abuser Adrian Peterson, who seems to want no part of the redemption effort.
  • Why the U.S. – and other countries, of course – should stop bidding to host the Olympics. I wouldn’t be opposed to a law that prohibits any U.S. jurisdiction from paying an international organization (like the IOC or FIFA) for the “rights” to host a global sporting event. They’re negative-ROI deals that tend to be boondoggles for the organizers.
  • Eater covers how Texas restaurants are dealing with the state’s open carry law. In a related story, I’m very glad I don’t live in a state with an open carry law. If I’m eating dinner in a place where there’s even a moderate chance I’ll need a gun during the course of the meal, I probably should eat somewhere else.
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,
→ January 7, 2016
→ By

Klawchat 1/7/16.

Klaw: Don’t laugh – I heard it happened before. Klawchat.

Eric, Arlington, VA: Hi Keith, how the hell did David Eckstein get two votes for the HOF? I don’t know what’s more absurd, him getting two or him getting twice as many votes as Garret Anderson, who is probably 10x better.
Klaw: I have two problems with these votes. One is that they show those voters aren’t taking the responsibility and privilege of voting very seriously. If you don’t want to respect the vote, fine – abstain. Surrender your vote. But don’t throw away votes on the Ecksteins or the Jay Bells of the world. The other is that voters might vote for clearly unqualified candidates rather than voting for candidates with better cases. Chaz Scoggins voted for Eckstein; his ballot was otherwise quite good, with 8 players I’d have had on my own list of 10. But he could not possibly argue that Eckstein was the 10th best player on the ballot – better than Edmonds or Trammell, to name two guys he omitted. So he voted for, say, the top 9 players in his opinion, plus someone who was definitely not the 10th-best … and that 10th-best guy would have benefited far more from the vote.

Bruce: Are you starting to load up on stock (or index funds) right now, or waiting to see how much further the markets will drop?
Klaw: I don’t try to time the market. I invest in index funds (basically just my 401k … we’ve put money into renovating our house rather than investing) and just add every month.

Nick: Hi Keith… I have made my way through all of Chandler’s and Hammett’s works and am currently about midway through MacDonald’s Archer stories. Have a recommendation for what should be next for a hard-boiled fan?
Klaw: Big fan of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels, although they don’t have the violent aspect of the other two. You might also like Jim Thompson’s noir crime novels.

Jason: With Oakland trading Lawrie that Donaldson trade looks really really really bad for Beane doesn’t it? I mean one prospect for Donaldson is crazy.
Klaw: It’ll never look like a good deal for Oakland but Barreto might be a star and is at least a damn good prospect.

Jeff: I don’t understand the love for Hoffman and not for Edgar Martinez. How can you bash a guy for not playing defense but applaud a guy for only pitching one inning?
Klaw: Because otherwise rational writers and fans remain obsessed with the save statistic.

Justin (DC): Re: Raines and Bagwell in the Hall of Fame, Raines and Bagwell got very close this year, but do they have a shot next year? I worry that both (particularly Raines) were helped a great deal by the voter purge, but the voter pool will not change as much next year. Without change in the voter pool, will he get the 6% he needs to join?
Klaw: Raines will benefit from his last year on the ballot; I don’t think any player has gotten as close as those two guys did without getting in. We should see those two and at least one of Vlad (whose reputation exceeds the value advanced metrics put on his career) or Pudge (who will probably get blacklisted by some voters over PED suspicions). It’s not out of the question we get Hoffman too.

Mitch Cupcheck: Can you help settle a chili debate? My wife likes to saute the peppers and onions we use before they enter the dutch oven with the meat and other ingredients. My thought is, with chili being more of a stew, throwing them in raw and letting the whole thing simmer for 90-120 minutes will soften them plenty. Which side are you on?
Klaw: Sweat them, don’t saute them.

Mitch Cupcheck: By the way, how is your daughter feeling?
Klaw: Thanks for asking. She feels better, and the fever has been down for over 24 hours now, but she’s still coughing like she’s had a pack-a-day habit since birth. I think she’s also got a little cabin fever since, with the pneumonia and the holidays, she hasn’t been in school in over two weeks.

Michael: What do you think of Vlad Guerrero’s case for the HOF? His fWAR is a lot lower than I would have guessed.
Klaw: I think he’ll get in anyway, but his “analytical” case is a hard one – he gets crushed for bad defense once his legs started going. It’s a bit of the Sheffield argument, although Sheff is also hurt by PED suspicions. If Sheff had been a full-time DH his whole career, he’d have much more support from the online/analytical crowd.

Derek Harvey: How do you like the Chris Carter signing for Milwaukee. Of the 1B FA out there, which would you have taken were you the Brewers?
Klaw: Solid scrap-heap signing. Type of move they should be looking to make while they wait for the farm system to spit out more big leaguers.

Elton: Paul DePodesta to the Cleveland Browns is not a move I would have ever expected but (as a Browns fan) intrigues me a lot. Curious that he would leave baseball though, no?
Klaw: No, I think Depo’s a brilliant guy who enjoys intellectual challenges, and will certainly find one there, probably exceeding anything he was likely to find in MLB.

John: Are you shocked that Edmonds fell off the ballot?
Klaw: No, but I wish he had not. He was at least a borderline candidate, and someone I would have likely checked off if I had a ballot and had more than ten slots.

Anonymous: Rank these sketch comedy show: Python, SNL, Kids in the Hall, Mad TV
Klaw: Python over everyone.

Tom: What was AJ Pollock’s perceived ceiling when he was drafted? It wasn’t this high, right?
Klaw: Right. I don’t think anyone saw this power ceiling. I absolutely did not.

Johnny (Woburn, MA): What is the ceiling of Rafael Devers on the Red Sox? More of a Wily Mo Pena type, or Miguel Sano? Thanks!
Klaw: I think his ceiling is more that of a white guy.

Tom: Not a question, but I did want to tell you that your review of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell caused me to purchase it on iTunes. I loved the book, and I was unsure if the series would live up to it. Thanks!
Klaw: Glad to hear it – hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you hate it, please don’t fire walnuts at me.

JT: Does the Brewers return for Gomez look better now because of the saturated outfield market in FA?
Klaw: I think it looks better now because Houser looked so much better after he got to Milwaukee.

Nick: I’m getting more and more excited about JP Crawford. If he reaches the upper quartile of his potential, do you think he could be a .300/.400/.500 type of guy? Essentially what I’m asking is if you think the power potential is there for something like that.
Klaw: Don’t think he’ll have that kind of power but I do think he could peak at .300/.380/.450. The guy you described is a runaway MVP.

sam: no question this time, just a thanks for the chats, and a comment that (based on the chats & this blog) you’re an interesting dude.
Klaw: You’re welcome, and thank you. I hope to be interesting because it keeps me employed. Plus I don’t want to ever be boring.

BirderBob: Trey Mancini strikes me as a guy whom the prospect analysts don’t love, but who simply gets it done. Am I crazy think he’s the Orioles starting 1B by the end of the year?
Klaw: Scouts don’t like him either. Yes, I think you’re crazy to think that.

Brian: Matt Strahm in the Royals system. Do you like him as a prospect and do you think he is a starter or a bullpen guy? If a starter what kind of upside do you see? Thank you.
Klaw: Chance for a starter but much more likely a quality reliever. Has thrown harder in the past than what I saw from him in the playoffs.

David: So with the recent voter purge for the HOF, I found it odd that the ex-Rockies’ beat writer for the Denver Post published his ballot today, giving full disclosure that he no longer covers baseball and instead has been the Denver Broncos’ beat writer for the last two years. I knew this already since I read him in the Post daily, but just wondering why he didn’t lose his vote… wasn’t the point to eliminate everyone who doesn’t cover the game regularly any more?
Klaw: They eliminated voters who were at least ten years away from covering the game, I believe. I think it’s a great first step although I’d be fine with further pruning.

dlf: I need advice from a coffee snob – how does a moka (not mocha) compare to an espresso and is getting a small moka pot a good addition?
Klaw: Espresso is brewed at a much higher pressure (at least 9 bar) than coffee from a moka pot so it’s a totally different product. A moka pot is a lot cheaper than a real espresso machine.

Jason: Is franklyn kilome a top 100 type prospect?
Klaw: I don’t think so, although I haven’t started assembling the global 100 yet (I do that last).

Fitzy: My theoretical ballot for next year: Bonds, Clemens, Bagwell, Raines, Schilling, Mussina, Edgar, Walker, Pudge, Guerrero. Does this make sense to you?
Klaw: Yes, mine would probably look quite similar.

Joe: How often do you read books a second time? Do you think rereading a book is a waste of time that could be spent reading a new book? Soooooo many books, so little time!
Klaw: I have read about 1100 books in my life and I think I’ve read fewer than 20 books twice. I read mostly fiction and if I already know the plot it’s hard to maintain my interest in reading a novel a second time around.

jay: Can Connor Greene fill a bullpen role in the big leagues this season? or should he be left in the minors?
Klaw: Leave in the minors. Rushing Castro didn’t do him any favors.

Jon: Anderson Espinosa future ace potential?
Klaw: Sure, although at 17 he’s got a lot of physical/health hurdles to clear.

Dustin: What are your thoughts on the Rangers/Marlins talks of Chi Chi for Ozuna?
Klaw: Don’t see why they’d want Ozuna with Brinson close to ready.

Mike: I believe Bagwell/Raines should get in, but it’s a joke that so many people would change their vote. They are either HOF’s in your opinion or not. Just as dumb that Piazza had to wait four years. Also, when I read your tweet yesterday I thought it said Baines will get in next year.
Klaw: I think most of the voting is dumb. We have way too many voters who don’t take the responsibility seriously. That’s how someone like Raines, who was obviously a HoFer when he played and whose career, evaluated objectively, more than meets the established standard, is going to take ten years to get in.

Scott: Can you compare the bats of Jesse Winker and Josh Bell? I know Bell changed positions so the comparison may make a little less sense. But I’m curious about their career paths. Is it as simple as Winker safer floor lower upside and Bell the more pop but average might not stay? Both take their walks. Does Bell give up switch hitting? Thanks very much.
Klaw: Bell has more upside but I don’t think his floor is that different; he has exceptional hand-eye coordination and great plate discipline, but has untapped power Winker can’t match.

Matt: What would be a reasonable stat line for Hector Olivera this season?
Klaw: I’m just not on it – he may have some power but the approach isn’t great and every scout I’ve spoken to about him has killed his lack of athleticism.

Ray Grace: Assuming the deal goes through what is Maeda’s ceiling for the Dodgers?
Klaw: Fourth starter type. Doesn’t seem to be real physical or durable and he’s already had some little arm issues.

Ray: Can Ian Happ handle 2b on an everyday basis? Can he be a .275-20 HR-20 SB type hitter for the Cubs?
Klaw: I think he can although they’ve also considered playing him in CF. He’s a pretty good athlete despite a body that doesn’t immediately look it.

Michael: I don’t think either should be in, but how does Hoffman do so much better than Wagner? Shouldn’t voters who value closers dig a little deeper and see they were pretty similar?
Klaw: Saves. It’s entirely about saves. That one stat weighs far too heavily in voters’ minds.

White haired clown: Obviously, frank isn’t the #1 in Boston, but when I saw the David Price contract all I could think was here we go again with the reckless spending philosophy and long term structural problems. Any comment?
Klaw: I don’t agree – no problem with that contract, and I don’t think Frankie Troglodytidae is making the calls there.

Sam: Your thoughts on jeff Kent as a HOF? Numbers are ver favorable to biggio but no where near the amount of support. Why do you think that is?
Klaw: Poor defensive player with makeup questions and unfair suspicions of PED use?

Colin: Thoughts on Alex Gordon deal?
Klaw: Very good deal for KC. Salary is in line with or even below what offense costs right now, and while I preferred three years given his age, four isn’t unreasonable.

Michael: The Dodgers are really accumulating talent in their front office. Is that a little bit of a market inefficiency?
Klaw: Or they’re trying to reenact the opening credits of “Too Many Cooks.”

Steve: Have any of the people who did not vote for Griffey been identified yet? If so did they explain their logic?
Klaw: No, of course not. There is zero enforced accountability in this process.

Roddy: What is the most optimistic callup time for Benintendi?
Klaw: Schwarber and Conforto reached the majors about a year after signing. I don’t see why Benintendi couldn’t do the same.

Jeff Chisholm: Do you agree that the Oregon “protestors” should face felony charges once their temper tantrum ends?
Klaw: They should face charges but I don’t know what the applicable laws are.

Marshall: Longenhagen, your co-pilot on ESPN for scouting/draft articles, had a great point about the potential growth in popularity of baseball in Korea. Just as comment, wouldn’t it be awesome to baseball take hold as a major sport in Korea, or in a place like Germany should Kepler pan out?
Klaw: Yep, I’m always rooting for players from novel countries – did you know the Twins had a GCL pitcher this year from Moldova? – to succeed for this very reason.

Steve Culber: Just curious…..why are you so high on BBC shows and rarely speak of the (in my opinion) superior HBO shows?
Klaw: Perhaps I don’t think those superior HBO shows are superior? I do find British shows in general focus more on plot and dialogue and less on action or violence to move things along.

Mike: Captain Jetes the first to 100%?
Klaw: I still say no one does it.

Lee Snyder: My favorite porn star is Savanna Samson…who is yours?
Klaw: Find me one who wasn’t previously a victim or rape or sexual abuse and maybe we can talk.

Tom: For all the (well-deserved) criticism that the D-Backs’ front office receives with regard to prospect valuation, is it fair to say they do a good job with prospect development? It seems like they are bringing up a good number of their prospects and that they exceed expectations more than would be expected.
Klaw: The current regime has only been there a year, so I think it’s way premature to credit or blame them for player development results.

jay: who would you prefer over the next five years Dalton Pompey or Kevin Pillar
Klaw: Pompey has much more offensive upside and is a good defender. Pillar is a lot like Kiermaier for me – you have to place an enormous amount of trust in single-year defensive metrics to believe they will continue to be as valuable as their WAR totals from 2015 indicated.

Tyler: Did the John Hart make a mistake by publicly saying he expects the Braves to be back in contention by 2017? At this point, that seems rather unlikely, right?
Klaw: Unlikely given where the Mets are and where the Nats could be. Not totally outrageous given the state of their farm system at the moment.

Corey: If you were made the HoF czar, how many players roughly would you take out (Fingers, Rice, etc) and how many players do you think you would add in who are off the ballot now (Trammell, Dewey, etc) ?
Klaw: Trammell, Whitaker, Edmonds, Evans all would go in. I’d take a lot more out – Rice, Sutter, Catfish Hunter, Lloyd Waner, Maranville, Hack Wilson, Lindstrom, and more.

Patrick: Which sitcoms are you watching these days? I know you were a big fan of Parks and Rec and its great cast. I’m finding Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s cast very good as well.
Klaw: Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Masters of None are it.

JC: Will the Mets hit enough to really contend next year? They’ve lost their 3 and 4 hitters with not much replacing them.
Klaw: But they’ll also get a full year of Conforto, Walker to replace Murphy, hopefully a healthy Wright, even a healthy Lagares would be an improvement.

John MN: What do you think of the game theory voters: I think there are > 10 HoF on the ballot and Griffey is getting in no matter what, so vote for the 10 next.
Klaw: The only rational argument I can see for omitting him – but if that were the case, wouldn’t these three voters have spoken up by now?

Matthew: I have quite athletic 7 & 8 year old boys who really love sports, but they are pressured at this early age to pick a sport and specilize in it all year long (especially here in Hawaii). I don’t want to force them to pick one this early, as I think it will most likely lead to burn out, but if I don’t, they won’t develop. How important is it to develop skills specific to a sport, versus letting them play different sports and increasing their overall athleticism, for future sports opportunities?
Klaw: I don’t have a good, informed answer to that, but several sports-medicine experts have decried such early specialization.

JC: Do you workout?
Klaw: Girl, look at this body.

Steven Avery: Any interest in Making a Murderer?
Klaw: No because it will likely infuriate me. I’m sure it’s an excellent series, but that this shit goes on in the United States – probably all the time – is beyond depressing. We can’t make a ten-part documentary about every single miscarriage of justice, so you know most of them go unpunished.

Anonymous: With minimal salary on the books in the next year, would you look into any of the better free agents left if you’re the Phillies?
Klaw: Yes, but only if they were players likely to either 1) offer trade value in July or November or 2) to help the major league club in 2018.

JC: You should watch New Girl. It’s great.
Klaw: I tried, but I didn’t find it funny.

Marshall: What would the workload/expectations be for Brady Aiken coming into the year? I am not a Cleveland fan, but hate to see young players have their careers stopped by injury, so I am hoping for him.
Klaw: Guessing he doesn’t pitch at all till extended spring, which would be about 13 months off surgery, maybe not till June, which would be 15 months. Can’t rush him given the history there. I want to see him healthy, and for everyone who suspected the TJ surgery wouldn’t work out the same as it would for most pitchers to be wrong. But we won’t know much until he’s ready to throw at full strength and I see no reason for Cleveland to rush that.

Eric: Would you ever entertain an offer to run a team in a sport other than baseball?
Klaw: Can’t see myself enjoying that.

Mike: Why do competitive balance picks exist? The “disadvantaged” D-backs just signed Greinke for almost 200M
Klaw: They’re yet another terrible policy holdover from the Selig years. Both those picks and free-agent compensation should be axed in the next CBA. Just sever the draft from free agency. I will be curious to see if either side tries to alter the top of the draft to discourage “tanking,” however.

Mike P: I understand and agree with the arguments against Hoffman’s HOF candidacy. But I think it’s hypocritical to use the “HOF as a museum” argument to vote for PED guys (which I’m in agreement with) and not apply to Hoffman who succeeded at one stat, that while incredibly flawed and arbitrary, has been celebrated by the baseball establishment. Should “saves” be represented in the HOF? (Again, wouldn’t vote for Hoffman, but I’m not losing sleep about people who did for this reason)
Klaw: The problem I have with that is that the media invented the save (well, one mediot in particular), then celebrated players who racked up a lot of them. It feels awfully self-congratulatory, all while the stat in question has no real meaning.

Eric: In theory, if you could take a dominant reliever like Betances and stretch him out a bit so that he usually pitches 2 innings each time out and maintains about the same effectiveness over 120-130 innings per season, could that be as valuable as say a good #3 starter?
Klaw: Yes, I think it could/would be, although you would probably have to give that pitcher at least one day off after each outing.

Joey: Speaking of players from “novel countries” do you see any hope for Gift Ngope to have a major league career?
Klaw: Could see him get a cup of coffee but that’s probably it. Same as happened to Alex Liddi. Heck, MLB should even encourage a last-place team to do so some September so they can market it back in South Africa.

Tom: Hi Keith, enough with the HoF “controversies.” I’m wondering specifically about Benintendi, and how you see him profiling. Assuming he stays in CF, does he have 60 potential? More? Less? And if he were to move to RF, does he become a bit less, well, special? Thanks.
Klaw: Absolutely stays in CF for me – above-average runner who played CF well in college. It’s star upside, just without a whole lot of track record coming into 2015.

MIke: How much of C. Gonzalez’ salary will the Rockies need to eat to get some kind of meaningful prospect in return for him?
Klaw: I feel like someone would want him at $12 million a year for the next two years enough to give up a prospect for that, which would leave them paying $13 million of the $37MM he’s still owed.

Marshall: The medical community has made great strides in fixing injuries that used to be career threatening, like torn ACL, patella tendon, meniscus, etc. TJ surgery has seemingly even had an increased success rate in the last decade. But it seems like shoulder surgery improvements haven’t quite caught up yet, and maybe that is only my perception as a not-doctor. Maybe the rotator cuff muscles are just more delicate?
Klaw: The shoulder joint is substantially more complicated than the elbow joint and I doubt shoulder surgeries will ever become as routine as TJ.

Ciscoskid: Susac for Ozuna, is there equal value despite the stated desire for SP by all the reports?
Klaw: Probably, although I think I’d rather have the six years of Susac than four of Ozuna, although the Giants don’t have the need for Susac and they have a real short-term need for a RHH outfielder.

Adam: Are you a believer in Ender Inciarte?
Klaw: I believe he exists, yes.

Ciscoskid: If I am the GM of the Rockies I stop chasing the unicorn pitcher who can be dominant in Coors and build the best lineup that bludgeons teams. Is this the better way to build that roster and then hope you find a unicorn of a SP?
Klaw: It’s closer to the approach I would take in that job – build the best lineup possible, without totally ignoring defense (we know the damage allowing a high BABIP can do there), and toss the traditional pitching model entirely. O’Dowd tried to do this but frankly I think he had the wrong manager for it … well, Tracy was the wrong manager on a lot of levels, but especially for implementing an entirely new pitching paradigm.

Rob: In the years Hoffman was a primary closer (1994-2009), he averaged about 36 saves a year. In 2015, 11 pitchers saved that many games. Ten more pitchers saved at least 30. It’s just not that special of a skill–putting Hoffman in the Hall of Fame is basically rewarding him for staying healthy for 15 years.
Klaw: In a role where staying healthy and effective has been difficult. I don’t argue that he was better than many closers, but he was not exceptional in any aspect of the game except for the saves. Hoffman had 28.0 career rWAR in 1089 innings with a 2.87 ERA while pitching most of his career in great pitchers’ parks. K-Rod has 23.9 career rWAR in 892 innings with a 2.69 ERA while pitching part of his career in the AL. Is K-Rod a Hall of Famer? Because if Hoffman is, K-Rod is going to be too.

Paul: Does Addison Russell have another level to him? Does take his game up another notch?
Klaw: Several. I think he’s going to be a star. You don’t see hands like that come along very often in baseball.

Marshall: KLaw you raise an interesting point in regard to manager’s not be willing to implement more radical or “non-traditional” approaches to in game situations. We have to be getting close to a time when a GM’s are no longer forced to choose former ballplayers as their skipper’s, right?
Klaw: Doesn’t seem to be improving much. If anything we are devolving into a time where more MLB executives are hiring their friends than are conducting full searches for the most qualified candidates. It’s a negative trend for the sport overall and particularly damning for minorities working in the sport.

Dave: Some High School players are now being asked to hit the ball of a tee to measure exit velocity…is this really a good way to measure bat speed? Do you use this method.
Klaw: While exit velocity is interesting I have seen no studies that link it to anything we might care about, such as some sort of increased production. Right now it’s a fun toy.

Dana: What is Starlin Castro? A 200-hit per year All-Star or one of the worst offensive players in baseball?
Klaw: He might be both. That’s all for this week’s chat. I may be traveling next Thursday, in which case I might cancel next week and chat again on the 21st; I’ll make sure to tweet and post on Facebook if I am indeed chatting. Thank you all for reading and for all of your questions.

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→ January 5, 2016
→ By

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (miniseries).

I read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke’s 2004 best-selling novel and winner of the Hugo Award, in November of 2008, an experience so immersive and enjoyable that I can remember specific places where I sat and read it. It’s as perfect as any contemporary work of fiction I’ve encountered, with numerous complex characters; a soaring, multi-faceted plot; and the highbrow British-English prose style appropriate to its early 19th-century setting. I’ve read at least a half-dozen novels of a thousand pages or more, including some considered among the greatest novels of all time, but I’d still take Jonathan Strange over all of them, not least because there isn’t a wasted word among the over 300,000 in its text.

That experience with the book raised my expectations for the BBC adaptation of the book to unreasonable levels, even though the network chose to adapt it as a seven-hour mini-series rather than trying to cram its bulkl into a single two-hour film. The resulting series, available on iTunes for about $20 (it’s not streaming anywhere I can see; amazon has the Blu-Ray for $25), is one of the best TV series I’ve seen in years, better even than season one of Orphan Black or Broadchurch, even on par with The Wire for giving viewers so many well-acted, complex characters intimately involved in the central plot.

The titular characters of the novel and series are magicians in the early 1800s who endeavor to restore English magic, which has been lost from the land for about 300 years. Mr. Norrell (Eddie Marsan) is the mousy, pedantic, egotistical magician of learning who sets off the book’s events when he restores a dead noblewoman, Lady Pole (Alice Englert), to life by summoning a creature known only as The Gentleman (Marc Warren), making a bad bargain that reopens the door between England and the otherworld where magic resides. Jonathan Strange (Bertie Carvel) is the young prodigy whose innate talent for magic draws the interest of Norrell, who wishes to tutor Strange in book-learning rather than in “practical” magic, only to set off a rivalry between the two when Norrell’s acts exact a very high cost on Strange and his young, beautiful wife Arabella (Charlotte Riley). Meanwhile, the Gentleman, having regained access to this realm, lays his claim to Lady Pole, enchants the servant Stephen Black (Arikon Bayare), the “nameless slave” who is to become king under the prophecy of the fairy/magician known as the Raven King, who appears only briefly on screen and looks like a refugee from a Norse black metal band.

The series is remarkably faithful to the original text, preserving all of the essential characters, including many I didn’t mention above such as Norrell’s servant (and occasional practitioner of magic) John Childermass (Enzo Cilenti, whose voice I wish to steal) and the vagrant street-magician Vinculus (Paul Kaye), while limiting diversions from the book’s plot to minor changes of convenience. Yet the series is powered primarily by the command performances of its two leads, Marsan and Carvel, with Marsan playing Norrell as a sort of upper-class Peter Pettigrew, simpering yet also dismissive, while Carvel imbues Strange with the passion and exuberance befitting his character’s youth before the character’s disillusionment drives him to madness. The great performances extend to the actors I’ve cited here, playing secondary roles, particularly Warren as the predatory charmer The Gentleman, with clawlike fingernails and “thistledown” hair, and Kaye apparently having the time of his life as the staggering, filthy Vinculus.

The demands on the editors of this series must have been huge, with a variety of sets and settings and impressive special effects for a television series, leading to many potential points of confusion as the focus shifted from Strange to Norrell to the King’s Roads (the “otherworld” of magic and fairies) and back around. I’m of the lay opinion that editing is a lot like umpiring in baseball: you notice it far more when it’s bad than when it’s good, and if it’s really good, you forget it’s even there. It was only while watching the final episode that it occurred to me how seamless the transitions from scene to scene or even shot to shot were, even though the pacing had increased in the final two hours of the series. Once Strange has entered the King’s Roads and descended into the madness that drives all of the related subplots toward one huge conclusion, the story starts flying and the use of more magic within the story could easily create confusion for viewers unfamiliar with the story, but strong editing and camerawork ensure that the viewer never loses the perspective required to keep pace.

One of you mentioned some dismay that Strange’s time serving as the official army magician under Wellington was given relatively less time on screen than on the page, an understandable disappointment at a choice that was likely made either for budgetary reasons or because the writers didn’t want to bog the story down in a segment where Strange and Norrell are completely apart. I thought the portrayal of the sycophantic fraudster Drawlight (Vincent Franklin) was too much of a caricature, and the relationship between Strange and Flora Graysteel in Venice required some more on-screen explanation. On the plus side, the series did a better job portraying the book’s ambiguous conclusion than Clarke herself did on the page, and while I still wanted a happier ending, at least the series turned the vague resolution into clear images the viewer could take away.

I would still suggest anyone interested in the series start with the book, both for background and for the sheer pleasure of the experience. The novel has much dry wit that can’t translate to the screen, as well as copious footnotes that mostly add humor to the story, and Clarke’s prose sparkles in ways that will never come through on film. But the adaptation here is so thorough that I believe any viewer could approach it without the background of the book and still follow the entire story without any trouble, which, for a work this dense, is a major achievement. I know in the time of “peak TV” there’s tremendous competition for your eyeballs and nowhere near enough time to watch everything you want – I might see a tenth of the series I’d like to see – but if you’re going to binge anything this offseason, put Jonathan Strange on your list.

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