Uncategorized — Page 90

→ April 6, 2019
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 4/6/19.

No ESPN+ content from me this week, although I have a draft blog post to file tonight that will cover what I saw at NHSI this week as well as potential first-rounder George Kirby of Elon. I did hold a Klawchat on Tuesday.

Meredith Wills helped me do some of the research that went into Smart Baseball, and, in addition to being an astrophysicist and general baseball expert (who realized that a change in the thickness of the baseball’s laces likely explains the current home run surge), she’s also a knitter and generally quite crafty. She’s disassembled many baseballs to look into their construction and is now selling crafts made from the leather on these baseballs, repurposing material that would otherwise go to landfills.

And now, the links, with a note. I didn’t get through all the longer reads I’d saved this week, so I may post a bonus roundup tomorrow or Monday. We’ll see how my weekend goes.

The best thing I read this week, one with particular relevance to me and many people close to me, is the New Yorker‘s piece on Laura Delano and the poorly-understood challenges of going off psychiatric drugs. I take one of those drugs, escitalopram (Lexapro), at the lowest ‘therapeutic dose’ of 10 mg/day, to help manage my anxiety.
Irin Carmon, now of New York magazine’s Intelligencer, writes of how the Washington Post, including famed editor-in-chief Marty Baron, spiked her work (with Amy Brittain) revealing that 60 Minutes boss Jeff Fager had a history of sexual harassment. CBS and Fager barraged the Post with threats of lawsuits and implied that they’d leak information to sink the story and some individuals’ careers, so the Post excised Fager’s story from their exposé of Charlie Rose; Ronan Farrow eventually published these allegations last July, leading to Fager’s belated firing.
The BBC looks at the murder of Iraqi Instagram star Tara Fares, part of what appears to be an increasing campaign to silence “liberal” women with significant social media profiles in the country.
Two of the links this week are very difficult reads about the deaths of children. The Washington Post goes deeper on the story of the grieving mother Susan Stevens, whose daughter’s death by overdose been used by Trump as ‘evidence’ we need a border wall, but whose story is far more complicated, with abuse and sexual assault possibly contributing to her daughter’s drug use.
The second is a photo essay on NPR covering the life and death of 12-year-old Lola Muñoz from a brain tumor, documented by photojournalist Moriah Ratner, who spent over a year with Lola and became very close to her subject before Lola’s death one year ago.
Vox asked fifteen experts about what modern practices or beliefs will be “unthinkable” in fifty years; I thought Lux Alptraum’s answer on sex work and its possible decriminalization was particularly insightful. When we turn sex workers into criminals, we are often revictimizing the people we charge with crimes.
The Anti-Defamation League called out anti-vaxxers for misappropriating the Holocaust-era Star of David badge to try to make themselves into some sort of victims.
The HPV vaccine has led to a dramatic drop in cervical disease, referring to the precancerous cells found in cervixes as a result of HPV infections.
I may have included this once before, but Undark’s profile of 18-year-old Ethan Lindberger, who was unvaccinated until he gained his majority and whose mother is still off in cloudcuckooland when it comes to vaccines, is worth your time.
From McSweeney’s: “I’m Vaccinating my Child the Natural Way – With Measles.“
The Administration is draining that swamp by letting pork producers have more control over inspections. Getting food-borne illnesses to own the libs?
Texas billionaire and Trump ally Andrew Beal is trying to get courts and regulators to stop California’s clean energy goals so he can profit, with zero apparent concern for the effects on our environment. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be born without a soul.
The Fifth Circuit Court’s recent ruling in Gibson v. Collier abandons the rule of law so the majority could weigh in against trans rights, according to plaintiff’s attorney Max Kennerly.
Probiotics do little to nothing for your overall health; they may even be bad for your immune system. Want a healthier gut? Eat more fiber.
The Atlantic has a fun interview with songwriters Norm Stiles and Chris Cerf, who wrote many of Sesame Street‘s most famous songs and later co-created Between the Lions. I do dispute the writer’s assertion that Sesame Street‘s best-known tune is “Put Down the Duckie.” That’s not even the show’s best-known song about a rubber duck; “Rubber Ducky” was so popular it hit the top 20 on Billboard‘s pop singles cart in 1970.
In a video essay for the New York Times Venezuelan-American writer Joanna Hausmann says the American Left is wrong to glorify Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro, and that protests against U.S. action in the collapsed South American state seem to ignore the wishes of actual Venezuelans. She also points out that Venezuela’s economy collapsed due to decades of corruption, with Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chávez looting the state for personal gain.
BuzzFeed writers have unionized, but the company is refusing to even recognize the union. You can see the union’s open letter to management on its Twitter feed.
Political science professor Leah Stokes looks at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that corporate money, not public opinion, is the real opposition to the Green New Deal, and finds evidence to support it.
Wine Enthusiast has a guide to amari, potable bitters, mostly from Italy that I’m seeing more on dessert menus at fine restaurants. The piece mentions my two favorites for drinking straight – Meletti and Montenegro.
Nationals pitching prospect Sterling Sharp is running a pledge drive to benefit youth baseball in Detroit where you can donate a flat amount or do as I did, pinning your donation to the number of groundball outs Sharp records this year.
Renegade Game Studios announced pre-orders for two upcoming titles, Artsee and the trick-taking game Time Chase.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: climate change, depression, food safety, links, liquor, longreads, mental health, the swamp, vaccines

→ April 4, 2019
→ By keith

Between You and Me.

Mary Norris has been a copy editor at the New Yorker for several decades, and, based on her book Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, is what I had always imagined copy editors to be before I became a professional writer. If you’ve seen the last season of The Wire, you know the archetype I’m describing: The human dictionary, someone not just familiar with the finer points of grammar and syntax but who revels in those distinctions, and thus becomes both indispensable to harried writers who might not find the right word or who err in their usage as well as the sworn enemy of the same writers who, like me, would prefer to believe that their copy was perfect when it was filed.

Norris does a lot of that, it seems, and some of those language quirks serve as the starting points here for individual chapters that meander through questions of usage or linguistic evolution but also through fun or interesting stories from her forty years at one of the most revered English-language publications. The New Yorker has published works, fiction and non-fiction, from some of this country’s most esteemed writers, and Norris was able to edit and work with many of them, with her working relationship with Philip Roth earning significant mention in the book (a weird coincidence, since I just read a fictionalized version of a romantic relationship with him in Asymmetry). The publication is also well-known for maintaining standards on language, grammar, and orthography that, depending on your perspective, are either a noble attempt to fight the erosion of linguistic excellence or pretentious prescriptivism that leads people to say grammar is just something white people like. (I admit to sympathizing with the former sentiment more than the latter, but even the New Yorker loses me by putting a diaeresis in coöperation.) George Saunders has praised her editing, as has longtime editor in chief David Remnick.

The best parts of Confessions of a Comma Queen, for me at least, are the anecdotes about battles, internal and internecine, over editing decisions. I often answer people on social media or in chats by saying that “words have meanings,” a bromide that I think gets at a deeper truth: any modern language has a panoply of ways to describe just about anything, and in most cases these different words or phrases will differ slightly in denotation or connotation, so that in most cases there will be one or two optimal choices. Yet the subjectivity of language and its limitations in expressing the variety of human thought also mean that rational, intelligent people may even disagree over which words are the right ones. Norris details some of those battles and even more trivial ones, devoting much of one chapter to the hyphen, another to the semicolon (perhaps my favorite punctuation mark, but one she derides), and of course quite a bit to the comma, although I think she ultimately comes down on the wrong side of the debate over the serial, Oxford, or Harvard comma.

There’s a wonderful chapter on profanity that is appropriately filled with f-bombs, as well as a strangely fascinating chapter that is mostly dedicated to Norris’ quest for more #1 pencils, which I only knew existed by imputation, since I was always required to use #2 pencils for standardized tests and had seen #3 pencils (useless) but to this day have never laid eyes on a #1 pencil. The story of the pencils has no inherent drama but Norris manages to turn it into a comic escapade, complete with a delightful back-and-forth with the CEO of the pencil company whose pencils she ultimately obtains. There’s a discussion of the singular they, and other (failed) gender-neutral pronouns, that has become even more salient today than it was when Norris wrote about it, and of course the title’s phrase looms large in another discussion of how people misuse pronouns by saying things like “between you and I” or “me and Joey Bagodonuts both went 0-for today.”

I only had one real quibble with Between You and Me and it might not matter if you read the printed version. I listened to the audiobook, and Norris’ attempts to read Noah Webster’s writings, which used ?, a character known as the medial s that looks like an f but actually isn’t one, comes off like she’s mocking someone with a speech impediment; treating that character as an f is funny once, as a joke, but Norris carries it too far while ignoring the fact that it’s not an f at all. That gag slightly sours another wonderful chapter that explains how much of even contemporary English usage derives from decisions Webster made unilaterally on what was “proper” English, as well as other changes he advocated that never caught on. It’s a great read for the stickler in your life, or any writer/editor who might enjoy reading about the editing life and culture of one of America’s great and most distinctive magazines.

Next up: John Banville’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Sea.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Grammar, highly recommended, history of language, non-fiction, writing

→ April 3, 2019
→ By keith

Childhood’s End.

My daughter has five ‘cycles’ in her English & Language Arts class this year, with a choice of four books in each cycle, usually tied together by a common theme in their subjects. We got the list last August, and I was pleased to see Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End, a book many of you had recommended but which I’d never read, on the list for her final cycle, coming up next month. I’d previously read three of his novels – 2001, Rendezvous with Rama, and The Fountains of Paradise, the latter two of them Hugo winners – but never this one, which I think many readers consider his strongest work.

It is … fine, I guess. It’s got an interesting conceit, certainly asks you to open your mind to some giant philosophical questions, and is heavy on the science. Like his two Hugo-winning novels, however, it’s written in such a detached way that there are no interesting characters and thus no compelling individual storylines. You read because you want to see how Clarke wraps up the big picture, but in my case, I never felt any emotional connection to anything or anyone in the book itself, not even when the entire human race is threatened with extinction.

Earth is visited in Childhood’s End by a highly advanced extraterrestrial race known only as the Overlords, who appear over Earth’s major cities, make contact via voice, and proceed to tidy things up for humanity, putting an end to war, famine, and disease around the world, acting as benevolent dictators with just a brief show of force to make their power clear. Their intent, however, is far less so, and under this Pax Overlordia human progress slows, both in the sciences, where the Overlords put a stop to all research into space exploration, and in the arts, where prosperity and lack of want quell the urge to create. One human manages to sneak aboard an Overlord ship bound back for their home planet, after a ‘séance’ that reveals the star system in question, but while he’s gone the true purpose of the Overlords’ visit and de facto occupation of Earth becomes apparent.

Clarke was something of a futurist, and major themes associated with that school appear in each of the book’s three connected yet clearly discrete sections, which function as novellas bound by setting rather than a single narrative whole. He was a staunch atheist who opposed both organized religion and the tenets of religious faith, incorporating the death of religiosity into this novel as he did in Fountains of Paradise. With the question of gods thus dispensed, he asks readers to consider what other meaning humanity might find in a universe without intrinsic purpose, using that as a loose segue to a middle section where he dances around the question of art – why we create it, and whether our urge to do so is a byproduct of the lives we live, ones with agony and ecstasy, with doubt and uncertainty. It’s a wonderful question, but Clarke abandons it before getting far enough to even create an interesting discussion within the novel itself, focusing instead on the closest thing the novel has to an overarching theme, which ties into the resolution of the main story.

I think after reading four novels I have a good sense of my own opinion of Clarke. He was absolutely brilliant, and able to bring complex ideas into his writing without making it inaccessible to most readers, but he had little to no interest in character development, and his prose was parched. This is the sort of novel I loved when I was a kid, because I could get caught up in the setting and the science. I enjoyed genre fiction at the time for its genre, and cared less about the quality of the fiction. I can’t read that way any more, and Childhood’s End struck me as childish, not in the quality of Clarke’s content, but in its aims. I ask more of a novel of ideas than Clarke is able to deliver.

Next up: I’m about halfway through Bill Lascher’s Eve of a Hundred Nights, the true story of his grandparents’ courtship and work as journalists in the Far East in the years before and during World War II.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: british literature, hard science fiction, science fiction

→ April 2, 2019
→ By keith

Klawchat 4/2/19.

Keith Law: Cause only when I try am I happier to see. Klawchat.

Tyler Y.: All SSS caveats apply, but the A’s have already gotten one uncharacteristically good turn out of a mediocre (at best) rotation. After last years chicken salad out of chicken sh#$ performance, is there something Oakland is doing to coax a better performance out of the Brett Anderson’s and Aaron Brooks’ of the world than anyone could possibly expect? Or is this all just defense and ballpark (in which case, maybe they are smart to invest less in SP).
Keith Law: No, I think it’s ballpark, defense, and good luck. Their ERA through that one turn is far better than their peripherals might imply.

Jay: I suppose I understand why some people are upset at the upcoming 3 batter minimum rule, but, count me amongst the fans of the rule. Commercial breaks in the middle of an inning are the worst. And, even really bad RPs with terrible splits have a 35% chance of a 1-2-3 inning
Keith Law: I thought a 2 batter minimum would do it. I agree that mid-inning breaks are the worst actual pace-of-play problem (as opposed to overall game length, which I think is what many people mean when tey say “pace of play”).

CH: Do you think Keuchel and Kimbrel end up sitting out this year? Seems more likely by the day.
Keith Law: No, and I don’t think it’s becoming any more likely, either.

Boilermaker: Keith, thanks for the chats. If mlb goes to robot umps for balls and strikes, what does that do to the value of catchers who are good pitch framers? Assuming it nullifies that value, do you think teams are considering that when they negotiate catcher contracts now?
Keith Law: It will nullify that value – as it should – but I don’t think teams are thinking that far in advance.

Jay: My memory is not what it was, but I remember Hunter Greene being a top SS prospect at the time of the draft. Is pitching that scarce when it’s more beneficial to accept near certain injury and a lost year of development than it is to develop a prospect as a position player that can be in the MLB quicker and more than likely have a longer career?
Keith Law: No, he was a great defender at short with some power but a below-average hit tool. He was and still is a much better prospect on the mound.

Greg: If you ran the Red Sox what kind offer would you make to Mookie?
Keith Law: I’d start at Trout and expect him to want far more. He’s worth it, but then again, I think Trout’s deal undervalued him a little bit too.

Jerry: Could the flurry of extensions and the adding of Tatis, Jr, Jimenez, etc to opening day rosters be a bargaining move by the owners to try and fend off a work stoppage?
Keith Law: I do not believe so. I don’t see how that would work anyway, since there are, what, a minimum of 750 MLBPA members?
Keith Law: (I’m blanking on whether all 40-man players are in the union or if they need a day of service.)

Marshall MN: Hi Keith, my mom was recently diagnosed with an incurable terminal illness (I am not fishing for sympathy), and it is insane how quickly the naturopath quacks come out of the woodwork to offer remedies to solve this. It is always done with “best intentions” of course, but it is getting very hard to keep my temper in check with these fools.
Keith Law: I’m very sorry to hear that news, Marshall, but please, lose your temper on those quacks. Naturopathy is woo. It’s just bullshit to separate desperate or gullible people from their money.

Jerry: Has your opinion on Kyle Tucker changed any? I believe the underlying numbers that show he was unlucky in his brief time in the majors in 2019. At the same time I’ve read that some in the organization are souring on his long term outlook. I feel like it would be a panic move and big mistake to move him.
Keith Law: My opinion hasn’t changed, but if they trade him for someone who helps them right now, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a mistake. It all depends on the return – maybe two years of a good major league starter now would justify trading six years of Tucker.

Darren: Hi Keith, so Eric Lauer was the opening day starter for the Padres, which was unexpected. Good young pitcher, but what do you see as his upside?
Keith Law: Fourth starter. Maybe a little below-average over the course of his career. But a starter.

Jerry: What’s your impression of Laureano? Was he projected to be this good? Could the Astros have gotten more for him?
Keith Law: Ramon? 2 WAR player last year. That’s probably about right. I said good things about him after his AFL in 2016, but didn’t put him on my top 100. The Astros’ mistake was altering his swing, which led to the bad 2017 and loss of his value.

John: Thoughts/reactions to the news that Hunter Greene is getting Tommy John surgery?
Keith Law: Disappointed, but hardly surprised – of the three major prospects I can think of who had similar elbow issues last year, two have had TJ (him and Dunning), and Sixto is heading to extended rather than to double-A. I don’t think this is a huge hit for Greene other than pushing his timetable back a year. The funny (peculiar) part is that, as so often happens with guys right before TJ, he apparently looked fantastic in Arizona. Puk had that last year too and then blew out.

Jerry: Nick Tanielu. Possible MLB contributor or just Spring Training noise?
Keith Law: I don’t even look at spring training stats so I don’t know what the noise would be. I don’t think he’s even a bench bat.

Steve: Twitter sometimes recommends tweets liked by who I follow, and frequently recommends tweets that you like. I know “liking” a tweet does not necessarily mean endorsement, but have noticed you like several pro-abortion tweets of late, and was curious how you use science to inform your stance on that issue. Can a mother abort her fetus at 4 weeks, 8 weeks, or 32 weeks? Where do you draw the line (if anywhere)?
Keith Law: I’m not “pro-abortion.” I am pro-choice, and I oppose any intrusion of religion into our secular government. As for your second question, you didn’t give me enough information to answer. If that fetus at 32 weeks is nonviable or going to die shortly after birth, shouldn’t that be a decision between the pregnant woman and her doctor, with no input from you or me?

Scott: Red Sox fan from Delaware…..heading to Frawley Stadium this weekend to see Salem…anyone on their roster that would be of interest?
Keith Law: You can cross-check the Salem roster against my Red Sox prospect ranking: https://klaw.me/2GtRDcK

Evan: True / False: Michael Conforto will end the year as the most valuable player on the Mets? Pitchers included.
Keith Law: I’ll go with true. Always been a huge fan of his bat.

J.P.: Thoughts on the Acuna extension?
Keith Law: Feels like a bad deal for him. I understand any player that age taking the security of the deal, but even considering his lack of leverage in 2019-20, if he becomes the player we all expect him to become, this will be a huge windfall for Liberty Media.

Kyle: KeBryan Hayes is on a June call-up path or does he need a full season remaining in the minors?
Keith Law: June sounds good to me. Don’t think he needs a full season or close to it.

Tadd: If Andujar does need the season-ending shoulder surgery, is there somebody on your Yankees radar who would be an obvious replacement?
Keith Law: Internally? I don’t think so. I guess Estrada could slide over there but he’s not what they would want.

Juwan: If Robles develops 25 hr a year power, is he a superstar?
Keith Law: Yes but nobody I spoke to about him this winter thought he’d end up with that kind of power.

Deke: How hard is it for you to overcome initial evaluations on a player that don’t pan out? I was right with you on Hosmer as a prospect, and to this day I find myself willing it to still happen, but you’ve pretty clearly turned on that.
Keith Law: There’s no ‘right’ time to change an evaluation, but I do think we have to start rethinking probabilities of projections even into a player’s first season in the majors … that 40% chance of a player becoming a star might only be 20-25% a year later. And then…

Marc: Lucas Giolito had some success with a shortened arm motion in his first start. Can these type of adjustments work long term? Any injury concerns?
Keith Law: …you get Giolito working with a shorter but clean arm stroke that had him locating his fastball to the corners along with what might be the best changeup I’ve seen him throw. Prospects are still humans; they don’t develop on our schedule.

W&M: Be glad you didn’t go to college at William and Mary. Terrible record on mental health and punishing students who open up about mental health and anxiety issues. If I could do it over, I never would have gone.
Keith Law: Is that true? Any public record on this? They’re a state school, which makes this even more disappointing.

grant : Do you have any opinion on what education a college kid should get if their trying to go into baseball? Trying to decide if i should study something like stats or computer science
Keith Law: That combination sounds like a perfect one to me.

Kevin W: Has ESPN ever asked you to tone down your twitter feed (and I’m so glad you don’t)?
Keith Law: Sort of. I won’t.

Mac: Is Nick Lodolo going to pitch himself into the top 10 picks?
Keith Law: Possible but I would not take him there.

Patrick: How about my team’s start? Look like division winners! Absolutely I can project their finish from this excellent first half-week!
But seriously Keith, as April snows hit today, I ask–how much can/do you take weather into account when checking out collegiate players? Do you consciously avoid cold-weather scouting trips?
Keith Law: I do – I’d rather see a pitcher on a day with at least moderate weather. I did see Logan Gilbert last spring on a 42 degree day in Newark, which got me a fair look at him but was miserable for everyone involved, myself included.

Dr. Bob: If a team was bad at something last year and they still are through 5 games can any conclusions be drawn or are we still just in SSS-verse?
Keith Law: If the personnel hasn’t changed, then you can carry forward the conclusion you drew from last year.

Dalton: Time worry about the Braves youth on the mound?
Keith Law: It’s April 2nd.

Luke: Does Pete Alonso’s start mean anything to you or too much of a SSS to mean anything?
Keith Law: It’s April 2nd. Sam-ple size doo doo do do do do…

Nelson: Ive been trying to read Booker and Pulitzer winning fiction, but I find most are just not very fun reads. Its like Oscars for best picture, maybe great works of fiction, but not the most fan friendly. Any recent winners that your recommend in a page-turner type of way?
Keith Law: All the Light We Cannot See, The Sense of an Ending, The Underground Railroad, Lincoln in the Bardo, The Sellout, The Orphan Master’s Son.

Dr. Bob: The transactions made by Toronto the past couple of weeks raises the question: What is Toronto’s plan?
Keith Law: I’m not quite sure, to be honest.

Nick: I know its super super super early and I think he only has 1 walk, but it looks like Amed Rosario’s is really starting to turn a corner from a plate discipline perspective. In his game winning hit yesterday, he laid off 2 nasty breaking balls before ripping a 2-0 fast ball for a hit. No doubt last year he would have swung at least one of those sliders. If Amed reaches his potential and learns to get on base more, he adds some seriously needed athleticism to that roster and can make the Mets have a pretty darn scary lineup.
Keith Law: Although I generally agree with you, he needs to try to elevate the ball more – when I saw him in March, he was still coming down at the ball at the point of contact enough that I think he’s going to hit too many groundballs.

Jeff: How do you normally finish off a sous vide bath? Smoking hot grill? Sear on cast iron?
Keith Law: Cast iron/carbon steel.

Michael Conforto: I haven’t seen much downside for Mayor Pete. I don’t even love his “religious left” platform, but the justification is thoughtful and admirable. What have you seen?
Keith Law: I’d agree. I admit that I find his overall intelligence extremely appealing, and might be overreacting to the lack of intelligence of the current occupant. I would like to see Elizabeth Warren getting at least the same kind of adulation for her own, similar practice of putting policy proposals first.

Danny: You see the Mets Columbia roster? Szapucki, Woods-Richardson, Mauricio, Newton, Vientos!! (side note: what are they going to do playing-time wise? Newton get OF reps?)
Keith Law: I would guess Newton slides to 2b. Mauricio needs to play most of the time at SS. Continued positive reports on him from minor league ST.

Sarah: If Vlad Guerrero Jr is up in two weeks does he hit 30 HR? 300 BA?
Keith Law: I’d guess 20-25 HR, .300ish AVG, OBP in the mid-.300s.

Carl: Re: your linked-to deadspin piece on ballparks pricing out fans. Do you think this is detrimental to the long-term health of the sport, even if they are maximizing profits now?
Keith Law: I do. You can absolutely alienate too much of your fan base like that, and if those people stop watching or buying merch or paying for MLB.tv, the sport is in trouble.

Amy: Is anyone left to be a FA this fall? These extensions are fascinating, and probably too comforting for the owners. Thoughts?
Keith Law: I don’t think any extension so far has looked like a bad one for the owners. Some have looked fair, others too team-friendly.

Sage: Trying to teach myself guitar. Struggling with chord change speed. Any recs?
Keith Law: Repetitions, and make sure you’re using the optimal fingering to make those changes. Most chords can be played in 3+ ways, so you can set up the next chord change with how you finger the current one.

Patrick: Oh, sure, just as I’m about to ask a music question, I see you dropped March’s new playlist. See you later, going down that rabbit hole…
Do you ever catch live shows? Anxiety not make it comfortable? Or prefer time w/ the family and ‘consuming’ music at your own convenience?
Keith Law: Haven’t been to a show in a year-plus for a variety of reasons. Just met someone recently who shares a lot of my tastes in music and we’ve talked about hitting shows together once my draft travel slows down. She insists I’m going to learn to like Josh Ritter, though…

Debo: Thoughts on Joe Biden giving kisses?
Keith Law: I was done with him as a candidate before then. I guess I’m extra done now. And shame on Alyssa Milano for failing to back up Ms. Flores, instead talking about what a nice guy Biden is. Just because a man didn’t harass or assault YOU doesn’t mean he never did it to anyone else.

MikeM: Im hoping Mayor Pete will use this platform to get some visibility and turn it into a senate seat the next time one is up in Indiana. The Senate is really important and Democrats seem to overlook everything but the presidency.
Keith Law: Yes, and yes, although I too find it hard to think about anything but the presidency when the President is lying about everything on Twitter (no, we did not send Puerto Rico $91 billion in hurricane relief, we sent a paltry $1.5 billion, and he once again implied it’s not part of the US, which it is).

Kevin W: I used to believe this country would never elect somebody named Barack Obama (especially so soon after 9/11) so it gives me hope most people can get past a gay man.
Keith Law: Fun intellectual exercise: Would American voters sooner elect a gay white man or any woman? I think the former.

Ben: Good recs re the Man Booker/Pulitzer list, but is Sense of an Ending a page-turner, or just short? It’s so bleak!
Keith Law: His prose is gorgeous. I tore through it. The movie was solid too although it can’t pack the same punch as the revelation at the end of the book.

Jonathan: Anything to David Hess, other than a really good start last night?
Keith Law: No, I think he ends up a long man or 5th/6th starter.

Alan: How is Carter Stewart faring these days? Do you view him as a top-10 pick this year?
Keith Law: I saw him last month and wrote it up here: https://klaw.me/2Hk6dF1
Keith Law: BTW I’ll be at the NHSI tournament this week, along with Kiley from Fangraphs and some of the BA guys. Top prospects there include Riley Greene, CJ Abrams, Rece Hinds, Brennan Malone, Kendall Williams, and Jack Leiter.

MikeM: How worried should the Yankees be about Hicks’ back? Its been 2 weeks since his 2nd cortizone shot and he still hasnt started baseball activities.
Keith Law: I’m worried. And I have long been a huge Hicks fan.

Amy: Does the Andujar injury make the Yankees seriously regret not being in on Manny?
Keith Law: You could never have foreseen this injury, so in some sense it would be wrong to say that’s the reason they should regret not trying harder to sign Machado. The better reason is that Manny was an upgrade over Andujar in the first place, and they chose not to get better when they had the financial wherewithal to do so. The cost of doing nothing at third base just doubled.

Kretin: Do you use any programs such as Rocksmith for practicing guitar? Highly recommend if you haven’t checked it out.
Keith Law: Thank you. I just practice by playing/learning new songs (and then playing snippets on Instagram, thank you all for humoring me).

Jay: Speaking of mlb.tv, can we PLEASE do away with blackouts? I’m annoyed I can’t watch my local team without paying for cable
Keith Law: Shame on MLB if they don’t negotiate an end to blackouts for that product. Just air the games and send some of the payments to the local RSNs.

jimmyb40: Keith, no question here. Just want to say that I appreciate all of your writing, at Paste, ESPN, and here. I don’t interact much on chats, I don’t interact on Twitter, and I’ve never met you at a game, but I still appreciate everything you do. I hope the bad apples aren’t getting to you too much, and there are us quiet types that want to be respectful and move conversations forward.
Keith Law: Thank you. I appreciate the kind words.

Ted: Is it too soon to conclude that Oakland completely blew it by drafting Beck and Murray with top 10 picks in the past 2 drafts?
Keith Law: Too soon on Beck but he looks terrible. Murray, I just don’t know what they knew at the time, but I know our draft experts at ESPN didn’t think Murray was going to be a first rounder, much less a potential #1 overall pick. (me, not a football fan: “Oh, like Dan Wilkinson? Or Ki-Jana Carter?”)

Juwan: For posterity, mark me down as a Nats supporter that doesn’t blame Harper one bit for not accepting the Nationals’ two low ball offers, doesn’t begrudge the man one bit for signing the best contract he was offered irrespective of location and how it would impact his former club, and a guy that won’t boo him even once for anything pertaining to his free agency decision.
Keith Law: I would like to think most Nats fans feel this way, but that we just hear from the most vocal ones.

PD: Has anyone tried to determine the risk premium charge that players pay to get the long term security from an extension? Yes, players want to get paid for what they’re expected to produce but there’s value to the player in knowing you’ll get paid long term versus the uncertainty going year to year.
Keith Law: I haven’t seen any research on this (feel free to send me a link if any of you have seen one, even in an academic paper). I completely agree on your second point. If that’s my kid, I’d say negotiate for every last dollar, but plan to sign.

Wayne: How concerned are you about Soroka’s shoulder? And, do you think we see Ian Anderson this year?
Keith Law: Very concerned about Soroka’s shoulder since it’s his second bout of soreness and I’d raised concerns about his arm swing prior to any injuries. For most teams I’d say no on Anderson, but we saw Wright and Touki and Wilson last year before I expected, so maybe for Atlanta yes.

Dr. Bob: Manny Machado 222/263/222 28 OPS+. See? Guys get comfortable after they sign big contracts. (Or was it, He doesn’t play hard? I forget.)
Keith Law: I will not out the writer, but someone posted a troll tweet after Harper had a bad game in the opener, and how Atlanta got so much more out of Matt Joyce, who signed for nothing. Not only was it unfunny trolling, but it was spiteful towards Harper. The fact that he signed that enormous deal should not color our opinion of his value or production.

Nick: re: Marshall MN’s comment and naturopathy. My mom was diagnosed with cancer over the summer (thankfully she is in remission now) and a few people suggested certain naturopath treatments and I straight up told them it was bullshit and that the only way she’ll get any better is by listening to her doctors. It shut them up, at least around me.
Keith Law: Good for you. Fire all those mountebanks into the sun.

Rob: Any hope for Alford as a regular?
Keith Law: He has the physical tools to be a regular, but neither the performance nor the history of durability to suggest he will become one.

Jason: I’m not looking forward to the Democratic primary at all. I can’t imagine a time in history when uniting behind a strong candidate who can win the election matters more, but yet you can already see through early donation amounts and social media people uniting behind Sanders, Warren, and Mayor Pete. As much as we might like their core policies, they aren’t going to resonate with most of the country. Am I crazy to think that a Biden or Klobuchar, while flawed certainly, is the way to go here?
Keith Law: I know too little about Klobuchar to say, but I am out on Biden – the harassment issues didn’t even come into play, as I don’t think Biden’s policy history is promising, and to be quite honest, I’d like someone who won’t turn 80 during his term, you know?

Craig: Obviously Knebel’s upcoming TJ surgery puts a dent in the Brewers bullpen. Other than Kimbrel (who they are wisely unwilling to overpay for) is there anyone they should be targeting for additional bullpen help?
Keith Law: I think/hope they’ll give Zack Brown relief innings as they did Burnes and Woodruff last year.
Keith Law: Maybe look for their Ryan Pressly, too.
Keith Law: (A guy they think they can tweak to improve, someone we would look at now and say is fine, but not the high-leverage solution you seek.)

JR: Pretty cool that Alonso and Tatis, Jr got their first MLB HRs on the same day. Hope they both have solid seasons and make for an exciting NL ROY race.
Keith Law: I wish Tatis’s had been earlier – actually even Alonso’s was after 10 pm, I think, so I’m guessing a lot of fans didn’t see them. I was out by the time Tatis homered. MLB needs to get those clips out on social early and often to push those kids in front of fans.

Jonathan: How is that not age-ism against Biden? Bernie is nearly the same age no?
Keith Law: When did I ever say I wanted Bernie? Age-related cognitive decline typically begins in a person’s 70s. Being younger than that would be a BFOQ.

Gritty: As a Nat’s fan, I’m going to boo Bryce Harper because he’s a phillie, not because he chased the $$$
Keith Law: Well that’s fair.

Brian: Posed this question to my Dad the other day and he basically laughed in my face – Schoop at $6 million to man 2B until Hiura is ready or Moustakas at $10 million to do the same? I still feel like Schoop is the better choice.
Keith Law: Same. Think you’ll get a lot more on defense.

Jco, San Fran: How long does Farhan need to rebuild the big league club and secondly, the system?
Keith Law: I think this one is a 4-5 year rebuild. System is still very thin above short-season ball.

ck: How do teams find out about DFA or waived players. Is there a group email or website or something? Also, how do you reach a player? Does a team have an index with phone numbers of all players and their agents or what? Thanks for all your content. Sorry if this was a dumb question…
Keith Law: When I was with Toronto we’d get multiple PDFs every day (I think three?) with transactions, including all players on the three types of waivers we had at the time. I imagine it’s a bit more streamlined now?

Rick Sanchez: When does Mize crack the majors? Do you view him as a future ace?
Keith Law: June 2020 and yes.

Matt: With the way the Indians OF situation looks, how soon does Mercado make his debut? Is his defense good enough to handle CF everyday?
Keith Law: Early this year and yes.

Chris: It must be in the West Palm Beach water, but but by pure coincidence (I hadn’t read your restaurant dish post) we tried The Leftovers and had the same exact experience with absolutely no seasoning on the fish. We also tried Captain Charlie’s (we were told that the owner of Leftovers and Food Shack used to be the head cook there) and my daughter had the same problem with her fish (mine was blackened and not noticeable). Seriously, how has this not been addressed before?
Keith Law: A slew of people recommended the Leftovers too, and the quality of the fish and other ingredients wasn’t a problem. But bah god i need some salt!

Alex: If you were a baseball fan growing up, would you say working in the industry deepens your appreciation for the sport, or does the work become too “work-like”? Asking because I am interested in getting a job in baseball, but don’t want to lose my passion for the game in the process
Keith Law: Baseball is work. I love what I do, but I have a hard time going to a game to just watch the game, and can’t get caught up in outcomes any more.

Joe: Is Adley R. major league ready now?
Keith Law: Absolutely not.

Ryan: Can Zimmer be a lock down closer, if the Royals decide to use him that way?
Keith Law: Teams typically expect closer to be able to pitch on back to back days, but I don’t think Zimmer has ever done that.

Jonathan: What was the positive development, that almost made you decide to stop writing? (If you can tell us)
Keith Law: I was saying that I felt much less of the typical desire to write because of some good and bad things that have happened recently. I don’t plan to stop writing entirely – a longtime reader emailed to ask if I was taking a team job and I said no. I don’t think I’ll ever go back at this point.

Ira: I know this seems like an oversimplification but regarding abortion shouldn’t the legality of the practice depend on the viability of the fetus? Isn’t that a fair line to determine a woman’s choice to abort?
Keith Law: Who makes that determination? And fair according to whom? I’d leave it to the woman and her doctor, and would rather see public policy focus on providing food, education, and health care to the many, many children who don’t have enough of those.

Mike: Looks like the Mets are going to staple Dom smith to the bench this year. Any chance he’s a solution for the Red Sox in a year? They don’t have any obvious in house candidates for that job next year, and moving Devers seems like quite a waste.
Keith Law: Interesting thought. Not sure I could see the Red Sox going unproven there, but I like it. I think Smith ends up with a second division team and then breaks out.

Ryan: As of right now would you rather have Mookie or Acuna?
Keith Law: Mookie but they’re both stars.

Joe: No way Pache makes it to the MLB this season right? Even if there were a spot for him I still feel there’s a year or more worth of development to go for him. Maybe he hits so much he proves me wrong, but there are fans acting like he’s taking over for Markakis in a few months
Keith Law: Ideally, no. I think the approach has to improve first, and that may require time and some struggling in AA/AAA. His defense was ready a year ago.

Harrisburg Hal: Do you have a good list of short story writers for someone who has read non-fiction exclusively for 25 years, but willing to dip his toe into fiction?
Keith Law: The best short story writer ever, in my NSHO, is F. Scott Fitzgerald. The rest are vying for second place. I read and enjoyed George Saunders’ Tenth of December. The Collected Stories of John Cheever is long but contains some absolute classics, including “The Swimmer.”

Josh: Any way Dom Smith can play OF as a regular?
Keith Law: No. They’ve tried this.

BD: Crazy for Luis Garcia to start at AA Harrisburg?
Keith Law: Crazy, no, but not ideal.

Ben: After seeing the rosters, which minor league team are you most looking forward to see thus far?
Keith Law: I haven’t seen all the rosters. Are they even all out? It’s not like I’m going to any minor league games until the Dash come here Monday anyway.

Brandon: Since someone mentioned Mercado I am wondering if you have seen Jhon Torres and have any thoughts on his long-term outlook?
Keith Law: I had notes on him in my Cards wrapup but I have not seen him in person.

Newt: Ever see a high-speed career implosion like Denise McAllister’s world-record performance on Saturday night?
Keith Law: I rather enjoyed that, since she’s just another preacher of hate. Of course, Bethany Mandel has tweeted some vile transphobic stuff and still has her gig, so (shrug).

Mike: Do you consider 70 games a small sample size? Because Jeff McNeil won’t stop raking and he’s added some pop this year as well. I think the guy’s for real
Keith Law: Yes, 70 games is a small sample size. I’m glad you think he’s for real.

40-man players: We ARE union members…
Keith Law: Yeah, I thought so, but I was second-guessing myself. So 1200+ members.

Frank: Bummed on Andujar. Likeable, hard working and seemingly bright future. From your experience, how bad is a labrum tear (throwing arm) for a third baseman?
Keith Law: I really can’t say. And I would imagine it depends on how bad the tear is, and thus how significant the surgery is. Plus he loses a year of reps in the field and at bats. But as for the surgery, I just don’t know enough to say.

Chris: My 11-year-old son plays little league, and I’ve been managing his teams for the past 4 seasons. He’s not great. But he’s not terrible. He just loves the game. On the other end of the spectrum, we have 3 players on our team that play for the local travel team. Since 3rd grade, they’ve been “conditioning” beginning in January through August, and work with former minor-league players at developing skill sets. 2 of these players are already at the point where they’re tired and just don’t want to continue. And that’s a shame. I feel like we’re doing kids a disservice by forcing them into this where they want to quit. Where’s the line? [ends Jack Morris rant]
Keith Law: That’s insane. It seems like the parents are just pushing the kids rather than letting the kids decide any of their own fates (like, do they want to play another sport too?)

Steve O: If Andujar does require season ending surgery, does that change his long term outlook? Other than losing a year of development, of course.
Keith Law: Probably not but I might reduce the probability of him becoming an average defender at any point.

Joe: Is there enough subjectivity in judging certain prospect tools to create a difference among scouts? For example, it is possible that a scout could be outstanding at judging a hit tool but not as good as another scout at judging the glove?
Keith Law: This is absolutely possible. The question is whether we could tell this about a given scout in time to make use of this knowledge.

Buck: Not trying to be snarky, honest, but can’t you just use the salt shaker on the table to get your fish flavored right?
Keith Law: No. There’s a big difference between salting food before/during cooking and doing to after. Salt draws moisture to the surface, and then some of that same moisture will be reabsorbed into the meat/fish, taking salt with it. If you salt at the table, you get salt on the surface but that’s it.

Mike: Surprised Jordan Balazovic is opening back in High-A?
Keith Law: He only pitched in low-A last year. High-A is what I expected.

Matt: I cancelled my MLB.tv account. I’m a Yankees fan. I’m supposed to shell out $150 for a “season package” when 1/3 of their games are blacked out? No thanks.
Keith Law: I can’t blame you.

Mayor Pete: Warren will be in her 70’s by the next election. Do you think she should also be disqualified?
Keith Law: Nine years younger than Biden. And I never said “disqualified.” Is this what’s next? Bad enough I get strawman-toting baseball trolls.

Riley: Edwin Diaz or Josh Hader best RP in baseball?
Keith Law: Why are those my only choices? Blake Treinen is offended.
Keith Law: That’s all for this week. I think I’ll be back to Thursday next week, given potential travel & some actual home games here at Frawley Stadium. Thank you all as always for all of your questions and for all of your kind words this week. Hir yw pob ymaros.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: klawchat

→ April 2, 2019
→ By keith

Music update, March 2019.

March was a big month for new albums, but I’d say just average for new singles. I had included a bunch of other tracks by groups like Hotel Lux and FEET and Sad Planets and Blood Cultures but decided to move the bar up a little bit and keep this playlist tighter. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the Spotify playlist directly here.

Dinosaur Pile-Up – Thrash Metal Cassette. Dinosaur Pile-Up made has one appearance on my monthly playlists, landing at #28 on my top 100 songs of 2016 with “Nothing Personal,” a hard-rocker that reminded me of peak Nirvana. This song is catcher and much snottier, and I love it, even the screaming in the chorus, because it seems to perfectly capture a mood and a moment that I remember but I can’t believe these English lads – all a good bit younger than I am – actually do.

Crows – Wednesday’s Child. I’ve gotten halfway through Crows’ new album, Silver Tongues, and so far it’s really strong, best categorized as post-hardcore but with some wiggle room in that label. The title track is also strong.

Foals – In Degrees. Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost is shaping up to be my favorite Foals album ever

Talk Show – Fast and Loud. This is not the Stone Temple Pilots side project of the same name, but a new quartet from London’s Peckham district with members who seem too young to be producing music that would fit alongside early post-punk icons like Gang of Four (who appear below) and Wire.

Big Thief – UFOF. These folk-rockers were critical darlings in 2016 around the release of their debut album Masterpiece, but I found the songs off that album and its followup Capacity too tame and uninspiring. This title track from their forthcoming third album is my favorite song by the group so far.

Anteros – Let It Out. Anteros’ singles so far have mostly been power-pop gems, but this is a slow burn of a track with backing strings, a huge crescendo, and a showcase for singer Laura Hayden.

The Faint – Source of the Sun. I’ve heard a lot of songs over the last fifteen years from The Faint, but I’ve found their music more interesting than memorable; other than “Southern Belles in London Sing” I don’t think I would recognize any song you played for me from the band. They’ve also turned to a completely different sound with this new album, Egowork, or at least I never thought of them as this sort of indie-electronic outfit. The droning hook in the chorus puts this one over the line for me, and I appreciate the dark, almost gothic feel to the sparse backing music.

Two Door Cinema Club – Talk. 2DCC can be too poppy for me, but this is just the right amount of poppy.

Ten Fé – Coasting. Ten Fé’s second album in two years, Future Perfect, Present Tense, is full of more soft-rock gold, including this song, “Won’t Happen,” “Echo Park,” “Here Again,” “Not Tonight,” and the ballad “To Lie Here is Enough.”

Modest Mouse – Poison the Well. I have a very clear line when it comes to Modest Mouse songs – I like them or I can’t stand them. I like this one.

Honeyblood – Glimmer. I didn’t realize until I wrote up this post that Honeyblood is a solo project – it’s guitarist/singer Stina Tweeddale, who parted ways with her drummer Cat Myers in February and decided to continue on her own. The indie-rocker, who writes with a strong sense of melody, will release her third album under the Honeyblood name, In Plain Sight, in May.

Gang Of Four – Change The Locks. If you’d told me after 2011’s Content that Gang of Four would continue without singer Jon King, I would probably have said thanks, I’m good, but new singer John Sterry has filled in admirably and guitarist Andy Gill has managed to keep enough of the band’s signature song while also evolving so they don’t sound dated. None of this will make you forget Entertainment! but this is another very credible, catchy single from the band, this one ahead of their crowdfunded album Happy for Now.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Boogieman Sam. If you’re one of those people who told me I was wrong to denigrate Greta Van Fleet as a Kingdom Come cover band, well, I was right, but also, here’s proof I don’t mind bands that quaffed deeply of the blues-rock icons of the 1960s and 1970s – but King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard do so without sounding so derivative.

Freddie Gibbs with Madlib & Agent Sasco – Bandana. Gibbs is one of the best MCs I’ve heard in contemporary American rap, both for flow and lyrical content (warning, this ain’t for the kids), although some of his more adventurous projects since Pinata haven’t hit my ears the same way. “Bandana,” however, is scorching. Agent Sasco is the Jamaican DJ formerly known as Assassin. Yes, I had to look that up.

Jafaris – Stride. Ever heard an Irish rapper before? Jafaris is indeed from Dublin, a person of color from a country with a population that’s just 1% black, although I’d never guess his Irish roots from his flow. His debut album, also called Stride, just dropped last week.

Skryptor – Raga. Progressive, instrumental metal from three industry veterans, whose debut album Luminous Volumes has seven songs ranging in length from 58 seconds to over 9 minutes.

Diamond Head – Belly of the Beast. I had no idea these NWOBHM stalwarts had a new lead singer and released an album in 2016, but they did, and now they’re back with this lead single from what will be their eighth studio album in forty years, going back to 1980’s seminal Lightning to the Nations, which gave us “Am I Evil?” and “The Prince.”

Fury – Angels Over Berlin. This relatively new hardcore act from Orange County just put out this two-sided single, with this the B side but more accessible than the more grating A-side “Vacation.”

Amon Amarth – Raven’s Flight. Amon Amarth do very competent, safe – I know it’s odd to use that term in this context – melodic death metal with Viking lyrical themes. I tend to like just about all of their riffing, but would probably put them in the second tier, not up with groups like Tribulation, Children of Bodom, and At the Gates.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: indie, melodic death metal, metal, Music, progressive metal, rap

→ March 31, 2019
→ By keith

Arizona eats, 2019 edition.

The larder & the delta was in the now-closed Desoto Central Market food hall, but has since reopened in its own space and I think it’s going to be a standby for me when I’m in Phoenix and looking for something more vegetable-forward than most of the restaurants out there. The menu draws inspiration from southern cuisine, but vegetables are more front and center than meat. My friend and I got four dishes, all from the small plates sections of the menu, including the can’t-miss vegetable beignets, which are stuffed with mixed vegetables and are huge, airy, and just faintly sweet, served with green goddess foam, a black garlic-mustard topping, and some ‘vegetable ash’ that is just for show. The hamachi crudo with citrus, herb oil, and some not very spicy Fresno peppers was also superb, almost entirely because the fish itself was so fresh – citrus is a great complement to hamachi but this fish was good enough to eat with just a pinch of salt. The hoe cakes – a type of savory, unleavened pancake that traces its roots to slaves in the American South (and likely beyond) – come with a house-fermented chow chow (a type of spicy pickle, like a chutney) and a celery leaf salsa verde, which brings the same kind of contradictory sensation as the beignet: you associate the starch with sweet flavors, and here you get acidity and heat and a slightly heavy base from the density of the cakes. My least favorite dish, although it wasn’t any worse than average, was the baby beets salad, with more citrus, escarole, fennel, and almonds, which I think suffered because it has such a muted profile compared to the other dishes. The new space is small, but with quite a bit of seating on the patio and a long bar where we ended up sitting, and they do happy hour specials from 3-6 on weeknights that looks like pretty good value.

Fellow Osteria has a menu designed at least in part by Claudio Urciuoli, now running things at Pa’la and formerly of Noble Bread/Noble Eatery, with an emphasis on fresh pastas, some made in-house and some imported, as well as pizzas and a few very traditional southern Italian plates. Their charcuterie plate includes sopressata, speck (smoked prosciutto), three cheeses, basil pesto, peperonata, and flat breads, all good but I could have taken that entire bowl of peperonata and drank it like a shooter. The orecchiette di grano arso, one of the pastas they import from Italy, is a traditional Apulian pasta made from ‘burnt’ wheat that is toasted, providing a nutty, caramelized flavor, cut with some untoasted wheat so the finished product will still have enough gluten to hold together. Fellow serves theirs with a slightly spicy sausage from Schreiner’s, a local purveyor, and broccolini; even with the big flavors of the sausage, this dish is about the pasta itself, which was perfectly al dente and also had a very satisfying, deep semolina flavor that tasted more complex than regular white pasta.

Restaurant Atoyac Estilo Oaxaca has been a bit of a white whale for me since I lived there; like its previous incarnation, Tacos Atoyac, it’s a bit out of the way of my travels for work, not very close to any ballpark except maybe Maryvale, without nothing else nearby that would bring me to the area. They do very simple, no-frills, authentic Oaxacan cuisine, with superb homemade tacos. There’s a lot of red meat here, which is a minor limitation for me, but I did fine, getting three tacos, one with chicken, one with shrimp, and one with fried fish, as well as sides of rice and refried beans, which proved more than enough for me – I could have skipped the beans, but when in Rome, etc. I’d get all three again, but the shrimp was probably the least flavorful of the three (I concede that shrimp is hardly a Phoenix staple), and I was pleasantly surprised at how much flavor the chicken had, given how much that meat is an afterthought at restaurants that focus on beef. That said, if you eat cow, they have beef cooked many ways, including asada, al pastor, lengua, and more, and also offer burros and other plates beyond tacos. Atoyac’s location is a little hard to find – I drove right past it – without a ton of parking, and it’s a barebones spot, but clean, which is all I really ask of a restaurant.

The Normal is actually two separate restaurants in the Graduate Hotel in Tempe, on Apache, close to ASU’s campus, and their new menus incorporate some dishes from the couple behind Tacos Chiwas and the just-closed Roland’s (more on that below). The morning I went to their diner for breakfast, they were out of the fresh flour tortillas required for some of their dishes, and their take on chilaquiles, with a salsa rojo, had a solid flavor profile, with a little heat and a strong earthy flavor from whatever pepper (maybe a red New Mexico?) it included, but the dish needed far more of the sauce to keep it from drying out.

I didn’t get to Bri this trip, unfortunately, but that was ‘next’ on my list of places I wanted to try. I visited a few old favorites, including FnB, which is still my favorite high-end restaurant out that way; Soi 4; Noble Eatery; the Hillside Spot; and crepe bar, which now has a sweet crepe with sunflower butter, grilled figs, bananas, and coconut flakes that is delicious and so filling (that’s a lot of fiber) that the first day I ate it I didn’t need lunch. Roland’s Market closed shortly before I got to Arizona, although the location has already been converted into a new, larger outpost of Chris Bianco’s Pane Bianco, while also serving coffee and breakfast, open from 8 am till 3 pm. I also got word that Giant Coffee, one of my favorite spaces in Arizona, has switched to using beans roasted by ROC, a local roaster whose coffees are way too dark for my tastes, which is a huge disappointment, so I stuck to Cartel and crepe bar (now using Tucson’s Presto) for coffee on this trip.

You can find some of my previous Arizona food posts here: from March 2018, one writeup from May 2016, from March 2016, and my 2016 Cactus League dining guide, a bit out of date but still mostly relevant.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: arizona, breakfast, italian cuisine, pasta, scottsdale, southern cooking, tacos, tempe, vegetables

→ March 30, 2019
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 3/30/19.

For ESPN+ subscribers, I posted my second Cactus League scouting notebook, covering prospects from Cleveland, the Giants, the A’s, the White Sox, the Cubs, and the Padres; my first scouting notebook from Arizona went up the previous week. I also posted a draft scouting post that looked at four of the top college position players in the draft class, including Adley Rutschman and Andrew Vaughn, the top two players on my first draft board. I also wrote up my predictions for this year’s standings, playoff outcomes, and postseason award winners, which has already upset Yankee fans (who cares, my picks don’t affect anything) and had one Mariner fan trying to told-you-so me because they’ve scored a lot of runs through (checks notes) four games.

At Paste, I gave the first perfect score (10/10) I’ve given to any board game in the 100+ reviews I’ve written for them in the last five years, awarding the honor to Wingspan, an incredible, smart, beautiful, and scientifically accurate new game from Elizabeth Hargrave that, coincidentally, is one of the only games I know that was designed and illustrated entirely by women. It’s so well-designed, yet easy to learn and doesn’t take that long to play once you understand a few basic mechanics. The game has sold out its first two print runs but the next one is expected in early May.

I didn’t chat this week for a few reasons, and am behind on my email newsletter for the same, but hope to pick all of that back up in the next few days. I appreciate your patience. That sounds ominous but they’re mostly good things that have simply demanded more of my time.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: This is from February, but this New York/The Cut longread on the rise and fall of Tulum, Mexico as a vacation destination is fascinating, and a lesson in how some of the ills of western prosperity are causing environmental destruction and economic harm in the developing world.
The surgeon who writes and tweets as Doc Bastard has compiled a list of rebuttals to 73 common anti-vaxxer claims, including some I’d never seen before.
Mother Jones looks at how crowdfunding has made catastrophic medical care into an online popularity contest.
Alex Jones is being sued – I hope into oblivion – by parents of victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, and in his deposition he claimed he had a “psychosis” that led him to say Sandy Hook was a staged, false-flag operation, and frequently denied saying or doing things he actually did.
Nevada Lt. Governor Lucy Flores details getting an unwanted kiss from then-VP Joe Biden in 2014. I have zero interest in a Biden candidacy for President anyway, but I hope this finally ends it.
The New Yorker‘s Helen Rosner describes Julia Child’s commitment to progressive politics, which became more public as her profile grew.
Ginny Searle, writing for Deadspin, takes a critical look at the increasingly fan-unfriendly policies implemented across MLB, often with the outright complicity of media shills like Darren Rovell.
The Economist tweeted and then deleted a teaser that asked, rhetorically, if trans people should be sterilized. The Daily Dot examines the transphobic history of editor Helen Joyce, arguing that this was far from an isolated or accidental incident.
The NRA had quite a week: They fought against renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, arguing that domestic abusers shouldn’t lose their rights to own guns, and then a Huffington Post investigation revealed that NRA executive Mark Richardson solicited a Sandy Hook hoaxer, asking him to do the same for the Parkland mass shooting.
The Atlantic describes the chytrid fungus Bd, responsible for the decline or extinction of over 500 amphibian species, making it the deadliest pathogen in recorded history.
My friend Adnan Virk is starting a great new gig at DAZN, co-anchoring their nightly whip-around baseball show. He spoke to the Washington Post‘s Ben Strauss about his new job and how ESPN treated him, up to his firing in February.
NPR profiles Bob’s Red Mill, especially how it became a force in gluten-free products. I counted three Bob’s bags in my pantry just now, and need to pick up two more items – their GF flour mix and their almond flour – today. Their products are great for any bakers, since they’re often the only source of things like tapioca or potato starch, both superior to corn starch for hot fruit pies, Mike.
The CDC helped fund the development of a drug that can prevent HIV transmission even during unprotected sex, so why is a private company reaping all the profits and pricing it as a monopolist?
A California GOP delegate appointed a white nationalist to an ‘associate’ delegate position, and seems rather pleased with himself.
An African-American attorney in Maryland says he was detained in a Harford County courthouse because the deputy thought he was pretending to be a lawyer.
Here’s this week’s roundup of vaccine news and anti-vaxxer madness. Maryn McKenna, writing for WIRED, looks at the real costs to society of the anti-vaxxer movement. We all pay more for health insurance because of these idiots.
VICE‘s Joseph Cox says Instagram’s algorithm pushed him into an anti-vaccine ‘rabbit hole’ within ten seconds of him following one prominent denialist account.
Maine’s rate of pertussis infections is eight times the national average because of Mainers’ higher than normal rate of refusing vaccines.
I’ve included a few links recently on California doctors selling questionable or outright fraudulent ‘medical exemptions’ to the state’s tight vaccination laws; now Dr. Richard Pan, a state Senator there, has introduced new legislation targeting such doctors, who put personal profits over the good of the community.
New York’s Rockland County has declared a state of emergency due to a massive measles outbreak caused by anti-vaxxers, with over 150 reported cases of the highly contagious, dangerous disease. Prof. Peter Hotez, writing for the BMJ‘s opinion blog, calls the outbreak nightmarish, especially how anti-vaxxers targeted orthodox Jews with their messaging. This is an increasing problem – anti-vaxxers find vulnerable groups and bombard them with bullshit, but face no consequences when outbreaks occur.
Someone ran around Cook County (Chicago) with the measles, sparking a warning to the public of possible exposure at fifteen different locations over the past week. I hope this person is held accountable for the costs of their actions, but I doubt it.
There’s a mumps outbreak near me in Philly, spurring officials at Temple University, where the outbreak is centered, to give students booster shots to try to counter the waning immunity teenagers seem to experience from that specific vaccine.
Deadspin’s Albert Burnenko asks Which Online Edgelord Mishaps Will Derail Trevor Bauer’s Season?.
Oceans, a new standalone game with similar mechanics to its parent game, Evolution, is now on Kickstarter; I demoed this at PAX Unplugged in December and found there were some aspects I preferred, especially the mechanics around feeding.
Dire Wolf’s upcoming Game of Thrones: Oathbreaker social deduction game is now available for pre-order.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: climate change, Cooking, environment, gluten-free, guns, health, hoaxes, metoo, mexico, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ March 25, 2019
→ By keith

Comanauts.

Comanauts builds on the mechanical foundation of the 2018 title Stuffed Fables, using a similar framework with a more involved and more adult-oriented story, with spectacular artwork and a high-quality ‘adventure book’ that guides players through the story. It’s a shame that gameplay is so convoluted and the rules so poorly written; I am not sure I’ve ever had a more frustrating experience trying to decipher how to play a game, especially when it came to looking for named components or getting answers to specific game situations.

Comanauts players work together to try to solve the game’s core mystery of what happened to Martin, a scientist who may have been about to prevent the end of the world when a lab accident (perhaps not an accident) left him in a coma. The players will explore his psyche and go through events from his past, real or imagined, to try to figure out what happened to him and how to prevent the approaching cataclysm. Each player gets an avatar with a few unique skills and items, and can play up to three over the course of the game before the players lose with the death of the third one. Gameplay unfolds like a Choose Your Own Adventure game* as players move to a new area, explore a small map, uncovering clues, facing challenges, and usually fighting enemies before they achieve some exit condition and leave for the next place.

* There is an actual Choose Your Own Adventure Game, and I have had it for months, but we’ve never played it because it isn’t quick and requires multiple sessions to play a story to completion. I’ll get to it eventually … I think.

It is unfortunate that the Comanauts designers married some good writing and narrative game structure with some truly dismal mechanics decisions. On each turn, a player draws five dice from the game’s common dice bag; dice come in eight colors, and specific colors apply to specific tasks. Black dice power hostile characters when they appear. White dice give you light bulb tokens you can use to reroll dice or to use your character’s unique power. The other dice may apply to certain skill tests … but if you happen to run into a clue that requires you to roll a yellow die to see if you succeed or fail, and you didn’t draw a yellow die in that round, tough luck. It’s just dumb – it’s pointlessly random and will do nothing but frustrate players. Arkham Horror handles these tests in a much smarter fashion, giving players a fair chance to pass such tests without making it too easy.

The game’s combat system is also a failure pretty much from start to finish. Enemies generate either when you hit a certain space on the map and fail a test or when you’ve drawn too many black dice during your turns on that page, after which, you will probably get your asses handed to you, because there isn’t a great way to defend yourself beforehand, and defeating enemies outright is difficult. You have to draw the right colors of dice (purple dice are wild, which helps a little), and then usually roll two of them for a high enough total to vanquish one hostile character – and those enemies come in threes. You can store one die on your card for defensive purposes, but if you roll against an attack and fail, not only do you take damage but you lose that die, so if you get attacked by all three enemies in a round, and you fail the first test, you’ll lose all three of your health tokens and die. It’s just not a well thought-out system, and while the game does give you the backup of two additional avatars to churn through in a game, discarding a character and setting up a new one is not play, it’s administration.

I lost count of the number of times I had to go back to the rulebook for the explanation of something, which absolutely kills my enjoyment of a game. Some of this was as simple as the adventure book saying we should take a specific avatar from the supply and put it on the board, without telling us what the avatar looked like (none of them have names on the cutouts). Some questions were more involved – when we escaped from the Noir scene with a new avatar we’d rescued, does that avatar come with us, since she came in the base game with a card of her own and special skills? Does she join our gang, so to speak? Even simple questions like when dice are ‘discarded’ and when they’re returned to the bag aren’t adequately answered in the rulebook. I can only think the designers assumed Comanauts players would already be familiar with the mechanics because they’d played Stuffed Fables, but I have only seen the earlier game without ever actually playing it, so I was at a loss from start to finish here – and finish is pushing it, as we gave up after over an hour that probably had us just 60% of the way through the scenario.

There’s a campaign mode here as well that would let you follow the storyline through multiple scenarios, but that’s for folks who grasp the core gameplay here far better than my daughter and I did. Unfortunately this one’s not a keeper, a shame given Asmodee and Plaid Hat’s history of strong titles.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: board games, cooperative games

→ March 24, 2019
→ By keith

Portland eats.

I had less than a day in Portland this past weekend, but it was my first visit to the city in 20 years, so I had a little catching up to do, and very little time in which to do it.

I had two particular food targets for my weird trip through Portland – I was headed to Corvallis to see Oregon State play, and thus had small parts of two days in Portland after I flew in Friday morning and before I flew out Saturday evening – in Apizza Scholls and the ice cream parlor Salt & Straw. Apizza Schools has come recommended to me for years, by industry people, by baking teacher and cookbook author Peter Reinhart (whose The Bread Baker’s Apprentice is still my go-to source for making any kind of artisan bread), and by many readers. It was a little different from what I expected, but still very good, a solid 55 on the 20-80 scale.

Apizza Scholls’ pizza splits the difference between Neapolitan pizzas, cooked fast at around 900 degrees with a very airy crust that has some charring at the exterior, and both New York and New Haven styles, so their pizzas’ crusts are more evenly browned without charring, and have a hard crunch without the softer bread-like interior of Neapolitan crusts. Most of their menu combinations contain meat, and I was looking to avoid that, so I went with their “plain” pie (which still has sauce and fresh mozzarella) and added mushrooms and arugula, which meant a huge portion of the latter. The center of the pie wasn’t wet as in Neapolitan styles, but the crust was thinner than New York slice, closer to New Haven, while the toppings as a whole were correctly seasoned. I appreciated that, for lunch at least (only served on weekends), they offered an 11″ option for one person.

Salt & Straw now has locations in a few other cities – I know it’s in LA – but I’d never been to any of them before this trip. They’re legendary for the quality of their product and for the way the servers outright encourage you to sample all the flavors you want; I think I tried five before settling on one of their two most popular flavors, Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache, and one of their special flavors at the moment, Wild-Foraged Berry Slab Pie. The surprising part was the the ice cream itself wasn’t heavy or dense – more like a semifreddo in texture than super-premium ice cream. The flavors were absurd; actually everything I sampled was excellent, although the Chocolate Gooey Brownie wasn’t really my thing, since brownie bits get too dense and chewy in ice cream.

Canard was one of two places recommended to me by Jeff Kraus, the chef-owner of Tempe’s Crepe Bar (which you should all try when you go to that area of Arizona), and was open for lunch on Friday, allowing me to hit an extra spot before going to Powell’s Books, which was a bucket-list item for me. (It exceeded expectations by a few orders of magnitude.) They had a placard out from suggesting the “duck stack,” and if you’ve read this blog before you’re aware of my affinity for the meat of the Anatidae. This dish was a bit different, though: it’s a small stack of pancakes topped with some grilled onions, a rich duck gravy, and a duck egg cooked roughly over-medium. The gravy has ground duck – I’m almost certain this was only white meat – with a little bacon, some reduced duck stock, a little brown sugar, and a lot of salt and pepper. It was delicious, but I don’t think I would have known that was duck if I hadn’t ordered it. The flavors I associate with duck were muted enough in the gravy that this could have been any other lean poultry. It was expertly made, just not quite what I expected.

Eem was Jeff’s second recommendation, a cocktail bar and restaurant with Thai-influenced dishes, including a handful of curries and many small plates. I asked my server for a few recommendations without red meat, and ended up with the roasted beet salad and the stir-fry with mushrooms, long beans, cashews, and one of the most convincing meat alternatives I’ve ever tasted. The beet salad was good, as they were cooked properly and came with puffed rice that gave the dish some needed textural contrast, but that stir-fry, which came with a rich, deep brown sauce that was some sort of umami bomb, salty and complex and a little sweet, was superb. The meat alternative was soy, but it was much firmer than any tofu product I’ve ever tried; it seemed to be compressed and braided to mimic the texture of chicken breast prepared in the same method. I arrived at 5 pm, right when they opened, and there was a line already there; I got one of the last open seats at the bar and by 5:10 the host was telling parties of two there’d be a 35-40 minute wait.

I tried two Portland coffee places, which seemed like a better way to experience the city than getting a tattoo and a man-bun. (In truth, I did see far too many men with man-buns, clutching their yoga mats. It was a bit too on the nose, really.) Coava Coffee was recommended by writer Matthew Kory, recently of The Athletic. Coava uses Chemex for pour-overs; the Guatemalan Finca las Terrazas I tried had a great semi-sweet chocolate note with very low acidity. I was already familiar with heart roasters, having had their coffees at several other shops around the country, including Crepe Bar (which now uses local roaster Presto) and midtown Manhattan’s Culture Espresso. Heart offers a single-origin espresso in addition to their Stereo blend, so I tried that, just for something different; the Kenya Kiachu AB beans they used were fruity but not citric so it had good body without that lemon-drop flavor you can get from a lot of Kenyan or Ethiopian beans when made as espresso.

Townshend Tea Company has a huge menu of loose-leaf teas, steeped to order and with a CBD infusion available for another $2. I skipped the weed and just went with a hojicha, my favorite green tea because it’s roasted, usually made from leaves harvested after the first two flushes. The roasting removes the grassier notes in some green teas, and also reduces its caffeine content, although for reasons I’ve never understood I don’t get the same caffeine hit from any kind of tea that I get from coffee.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: coffee, duck, food and wine pizza crawl, ice cream, pizza, portland

→ March 23, 2019
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 3/23/19.

I had two ESPN+ pieces this week – my annual breakouts column and my first scouting notebook from Arizona, covering prospects from the Padres, Dbacks, A’s, and Royals. I’ll have a draft blog post up this weekend looking at four potential first-rounders, including presumptive #1 overall pick (today, at least) Adley Rutschman. I also held a Klawchat on Thursday.

There will be a fresh email newsletter in the next 2-3 days as well. You can sign up free and never miss a word.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: The New Republic looks at the nihilist governing philosophy of Mitch McConnell and how it has broken our federal government for decades to come.
Our diet has declined in quality as it has increased in quantity, and the results are killing us, literally, according to the Guardian’s The Way We Eat Now column.
The California Sun has a great profile of Olympic ski jumper Elizabeth Swaney, who was excoriated last year for her performance at Sochi and the unusual way she qualified.
We should be eating a lot more fiber, and a lot of different kinds of it. I exceed the daily recommendation when I’m home, eating homemade granola (with oats, almonds, coconut, and pepitas) with yogurt every day for lunch and usually getting plants into my dinner every night.
An Oregon pediatrician with over 15,000 patients claims vaccines cause autism and has said he would rather his grandchildren not be vaccinated. This has to become cause for loss of your medical license in every state. With Oregon in the grip of a measles outbreak, state Republicans are rallying around the bullshit argument of “vaccine choice,” because the GOP hasn’t met an anti-science position it won’t adopt.
Marie Claire has a piece on the perils of sharing your name with an infamous person … by a writer named Elizabeth Holmes.
The great Jasper Fforde writes about how living in Wales influenced his latest book, the novel Early Riser.
Pete Buttigeig’s interview in the Washington Post is too short but shows why he’s sort of come out of nowhere to capture some early support; his answers are thoughtful and on the issues he discusses he mostly lines up with my personal positions, at least.
Expiration dates are a myth, and public reliance on them is a major cause of food waste. My test: use your eyes and your nose. You’ll know if food is spoiled.
One San Diego pediatrician is responsible for a third of all “medical exemptions” in the city, because, it appears, she’s realized she can gain patients by doing so – even though she’s granting them for bogus reasons.
A Kentucky student who refuses to get vaccinated against chicken pox (because of a bogus belief about the vaccine) is suing to be allowed to play basketball, since he obviously thinks his “right’ to play supersedes other students’ rights to not get chicken pox. Kentucky’s governor didn’t help matters this week, of course.
GoFundMe will no longer allow anti-vaxxers to raise funds on its site. Although this is just one outlet and the direct impact may be small, the more major sites do this the better chance we have that others – including Twitter, still a holdout in clamping down on denialists – will follow suit.
Anti-vaxxer groups on Facebook have been mobilizing to spam doctors’ pages with fraudulent information and even threats against the physicians, so some physicians find themselves unwilling to speak out about vaccines or even reach out to patients to let them know when flu shots are available.
After one such coordinated attack on the public pages of a Pittsburgh pediatrician’s office, researchers examined the comments to find common factors among the trolls – and found that the attacks were coordinated from inside those closed anti-vaccine groups on Facebook.
Dr. Paul Offit, inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, explains the mumps outbreak at Tufts and why herd immunity matters in a 13-minute audio interview with WHYY.
The Globe & Mail’s editorial page is just the latest to argue that the media needs to stop providing false balance by listening to anti-vaxxers, who rely on debunked ‘studies’ and refuse to debate in good faith.
These so-called “fetal heartbeat” bills are medically illiterate, and the press needs to catch on and call them fetal pole cardiac activity bills, because that’s what tests are actually detecting, not a heartbeat.
For The Athletic subscribers, this piece on wearable technology is a good introduction to the topic, although I think it leaves a few key questions unaddressed, and I have an issue with the use of “genetic” here to describe physical characteristics (nobody is checking players’ genes, at least not that I know of).
There’s a new Kickstarter up for an expansion to Valeria: Card Kingdoms, a dice-rolling tableau builder, which also includes a new standalone title within the Valeria family of games.
There’s also a Kickstarter up for a new campaign for the RPG Symbaroum.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: kickstarters, longreads, nutrition, vaccines

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