{"id":7473,"date":"2019-03-02T11:35:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T16:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=7473"},"modified":"2019-03-02T11:39:51","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T16:39:51","slug":"stick-to-baseball-3-2-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/02\/stick-to-baseball-3-2-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 3\/2\/19."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For ESPN+ subscribers this week, I wrote three pieces, <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2EjC8BI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">breaking down the Bryce Harper deal<\/a>, ranking <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2Ex2666\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the top 30 prospects for this year&#8217;s draft<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2SmvC1W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">offering scouting notes on players I saw in Texas<\/a>, including Bobby Witt, Jr. I held a <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2GPpEWe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Klawchat<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>On the gaming front, I reviewed the Kennerspiel des Jahres-winning game <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2SugZd1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Quacks of Quedlinburg<\/a> for <em>Paste<\/em>, and also reviewed <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2TjFSwy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the digital port of the game Evolution<\/a> for Ars Technica.<\/p>\n<p>I went on the Mighty 1090 in San Diego with Darren Smith to talk <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mighty1090.com\/episode\/keith-law-his-peak-years-will-line-up-well-with-the-padres-wave-of-talent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manny Machado, Olive Garden, and the Oscars<\/a>, and on TSN 1050 in Toronto <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/radio\/toronto-1050\/law-atkins-comments-were-objectively-wrong-about-guerrero-jr-1.1265024\" target=\"_Blank\">to talk about Ross Atkins&#8217; strange comments on Vlad Jr.<\/a>. I also spoke to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.truebluela.com\/2019\/2\/28\/18230777\/dodger-minor-league-prospects-keith-law-interview-part-one\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">True Blue LA about Dodgers prospects<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soxmachine.com\/2019\/02\/18\/podcast-2019-espn-top-100-mlb-prospects-with-keith-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">joined the Sox Machine podcast<\/a> to talk White Sox prospects.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m due for the next edition of my free email newsletter, so <a href=\"https:\/\/tinyletter.com\/keithlaw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up now<\/a> while the gettin&#8217;s good.<\/p>\n<p>High Street on Market&#8217;s Sandwich Battles begin this Monday, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/sandwich-battles-tickets-56923358297\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets available for $25<\/a>. They&#8217;re my #1 restaurant in Philly, in large part because their breads are otherworldly.<\/p>\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Longreads first: <em>GQ<\/em> has a length profile of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gq.com\/story\/secrets-of-the-worlds-greatest-art-thief\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the prolific and highly disturbed art thief St\u00e9phane Breitwieser<\/a>, who stole artworks valued at over $1 billion but never sold anything.<\/li>\n<li>21st Century Fox was hit with a $179 million penalty by an arbitrator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/thr-esq\/fox-rocked-by-179-million-bones-ruling-lying-cheating-reprehensible-studio-fraud-1190346\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">over a wide scheme to defraud the actors and producers of <em>Bones<\/em> of residuals from streaming on Hulu<\/a>. Fox lied about the profits they were receiving from Hulu, of which Fox owns 30%, and at one point a Fox executive signed both sides of a deal between the two companies.<\/li>\n<li>MLB.com&#8217;s Mike Petriello, who was a huge help to me when I was working on <em>Smart Baseball<\/em>, has a superb primer up on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/rapsodo-and-edgertronic-are-changing-baseball\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Rapsodo and Edgetronic devices that are revolutionizing player development<\/a>, especially in the area of &#8216;pitch design,&#8217; where coaches and pitchers can work together to change or develop pitches by using real-time data that show how changes in grips or release points affect a pitch&#8217;s velocity and spin. Driveline Baseball, mentioned in Mike&#8217;s piece, has a blog post up on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drivelinebaseball.com\/2019\/02\/batters-see-ball-review-gaze-research-batting\/\" target=\"_Blank\">gaze research, or tracking how hitters see the ball<\/a>. Technology has allowed teams and players to measure things that were either estimated by scouts\/coaches in the past or that were simply brushed off as unmeasurable.<\/li>\n<li>Little Falls, Minnesota, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/danvergano\/overdose-prevention-little-falls-minnesota\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found success in fighting opioid addiction by treating it as a disease<\/a>, rather than as a crime or a personal failing. It&#8217;s an approach that has worked in other countries \u2013 Portugal is a paragon in this area \u2013 but goes against the Puritanical strain in American culture that sees addicts as degenerates.<\/li>\n<li>What if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/cloud-loss-could-add-8-degrees-to-global-warming-20190225\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">climate change leads to enough cloud loss to further accelerate the warming of the planet<\/a>? The odds of this are higher than we previously realized.<\/li>\n<li>Why is California&#8217;s Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2019\/02\/26\/california-keeps-a-secret-list-of-criminal-cops-but-says-you-cant-have-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">refusing to release a list of cops convicted of crimes<\/a>? Xavier Becerra, running for re-election this year, has even rejected public records requests from his own agency, which has led to lawsuits and would appear to violate open-records laws.<\/li>\n<li>Marcela Garc\u00eda writes in the <em>Boston Globe<\/em> how the should-have-won-Best Picture film <em>Roma<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/ideas\/2019\/02\/21\/roma-exposes-mexico-darkest-secret\/kTzKun8NYAJn5I1IL78CQK\/story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has exposed the deep racism within Mexican society<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>A popular talking point among Republicans right now is that doctors are &#8220;killing babies&#8221; right after they&#8217;re born. The President said it in his State of the Union address, and it&#8217;s been repeated ad nauseam over the last month. Dr. Jen Gunter, an OBGYN who herself gave birth to a son so premature he could not survive, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/26\/opinion\/born-alive-abortion.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">points out what a dangerous lie this line is<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Anti-vaxxer Forest Maready, who likes to depict people with autism as &#8220;tragedies,&#8221; has a new book coming out that resurfaces the debunked myth that vaccines cause autism. Amazon and Apple are planning to sell it, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/amazon-amazon-don-t-sell-anti-vaxxer-forest-maready-s-upcoming-book-the-autism-vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">I signed this petition asking them to pull the title<\/a> from their stores. Meanwhile, an inquiry from Rep. Adam Schiff led amazon <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2019\/digital\/news\/amazon-pulls-anti-vaccination-documentaries-prime-video-1203153487\/?fbclid=IwAR05kOL4G9Fe387GUJalfy_-1KHjmX6r8kRGOpA4dwdH0AxCTnwYLG9NYKo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to pull six anti-vaccination &#8220;documentaries&#8221; from prime video<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Anti-vaxxer groups on Facebook <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2019\/feb\/27\/facebook-anti-vaxx-harassment-campaigns-doctors-fight-back\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are harassing pro-vaccine doctors by trashing their Yelp and Google ratings<\/a> as well as flooding those doctors&#8217; Facebook posts with comments. Facebook has done little to nothing to combat the problem. The <em>Atlantic<\/em> points out that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/health\/archive\/2019\/02\/anti-vaxx-facebook-social-media\/583681\/\" target=\"_Blank\">the Facebook anti-vax community is quite small<\/a>, just loud, and banning them would be easy for the platform.<\/li>\n<li><em>WIRED<\/em> argues that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/facebook-anti-vaccine-disinformation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">amazon&#8217;s anti-vaxxer problem is worse than Facebook&#8217;s<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>A Nova Scotia chiropractor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/nova-scotia\/chiropractor-dena-churchill-anti-vaccination-vaccines-1.5039277\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lost her license for spreading anti-vaccine information and making other unfounded claims<\/a>. We should strive for the same kinds of laws around chiropractors, naturopaths, and even the rare medical doctor who embraces this sort of bullshit.<\/li>\n<li>CNN also weighed in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/02\/27\/opinions\/vaccine-disinformation-amazon-facebook-tech-platforms-garcia\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on tech outlets failing to police the anti-vaxx bullshit on their platforms<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The <em>Washington Post<\/em> looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/health-science\/anti-vaxxers-face-backlash-as-measles-cases-surge\/2019\/02\/25\/e2e986c6-391c-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html?utm_term=.ccffc74387a2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how anti-vaxxers are responding to the overdue public backlash against their efforts<\/a>, as well as bills in various state legislatures to end religious and\/or philosophical exemptions to mandatory vaccination requirements.<\/li>\n<li><em>Scientific American<\/em> presents <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.scientificamerican.com\/observations\/anti-vaxxers-are-here-to-stay\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">public policies we can use to fight anti-vaxxer lunacy<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The <em>St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/em>&#8216;s Kevin McDermott asks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/opinion\/columnists\/mcdermott-why-in-the-st-century-are-we-rejecting-science\/article_b432a6fe-8eec-58ef-822e-9251c8deae78.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">why so many Americans are rejecting science<\/a> in the face of incontrovertible evidence.<\/li>\n<li>Italian researchers used CRISPR to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/goatsandsoda\/2019\/02\/20\/693735499\/scientists-release-controversial-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-in-high-securit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">create a genetically modified version of a malaria-carrying mosquito<\/a>; if released, it should lead to collapses of that specific species and thus reduce malaria transmissions.<\/li>\n<li><em>Paste<\/em>&#8216;s Jacob Weindling noticed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pastemagazine.com\/articles\/2019\/02\/did-cnn-stack-the-audience-for-bernies-town-hall-l.html\" target=\"_Blank\">CNN stacked its phony &#8216;town hall&#8217; for Bernie Sanders with political operatives\/lobbyists posing as regular folks<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><em>LA Times<\/em> movie critic Justin Chang wrote that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/movies\/la-et-mn-oscars-green-book-worst-best-picture-winner-20190224-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Green Book<\/em> is the worst Best Picture winner since <em>Crash<\/em><\/a>, calling the vapid white-savior film &#8220;an embarrassment,&#8221; &#8220;insultingly glib and hucksterish,&#8221; &#8220;a self-satisfied crock,&#8221; and a &#8220;palatable brand of godawful.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Late Night with Seth Meyers rather perfectly sent up the film with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbc.com\/late-night-with-seth-meyers\/video\/white-savior-the-movie-trailer\/3911478\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">their &#8216;trailer&#8217; for <em>White Savior<\/em><\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>And apparently <em>Green Book<\/em> producer <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/msjennimiller\/status\/1099895929681915908\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sent critic Jenni Miller a condescending, tone-deaf email<\/a> where he doesn&#8217;t even know the main character&#8217;s real name.<\/li>\n<li>In a bit of things coming full circle, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metalunderground.com\/news\/details.cfm?newsid=144420&amp;fbclid=IwAR3Qh6oYXkIhXTT7ucga0Spgp_SbHKfARwdI5de3DXBsehELHcG7ss-Kg9I\" target=\"_Blank\">Pig Destroyer&#8217;s John Jarvis has formed a new baseball-themed grindcore band, Kolten Wong City<\/a>, a name that alludes to Kowloon Walled City, whose bassist, Ian Miller, is part of baseball-themed grindcore band Puig Destroyer, whose name alludes to \u2026 well, you get it now.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2019\/mar\/01\/morrissey-collaborators-respond-to-his-politics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Why are progressive artists still working with Morrissey<\/a> despite his embrace of far-right causes and outright racist statements?<\/li>\n<li>Talk Talk&#8217;s singer and main songwriter Mark Hollis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/entertainment-arts-47370626\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">died this week at age 64<\/a>. His last release was a solo album in 1998, after which he retired from music to spend time with his family.<\/li>\n<li>Splinter writer Samer Kalaf <a href=\"https:\/\/splinternews.com\/bret-stephens-tried-to-teach-me-how-the-world-works-bec-1832996576\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released an email exchange he had with conservative <em>NY Times<\/em> writer Bret Stephens<\/a>, without Stephens&#8217; permission, but I think Kalaf comes off far worse here than he realizes.<\/li>\n<li>Roland&#8217;s Market, a collaboration between Chris Bianco and the couple behind Tacos Chiwas, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixnewtimes.com\/restaurants\/rolands-market-closed-why-11221511\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">closed without warning last month<\/a>. The location will be converted into a larger outpost of Bianco&#8217;s Pane Bianco.<\/li>\n<li>The former editor of the <em>Rocky Mountain News<\/em> writes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2019\/02\/who-is-going-to-save-local-news\/583696\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">his fear that local journalism will continue to fade and die<\/a> as newspapers are plundered by hedge-fund owners.<\/li>\n<li>Charlotte Riley describes the game Patriarchy Chicken in a column subtitled &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstatesman.com\/politics\/feminism\/2019\/02\/how-play-patriarchy-chicken-why-i-refuse-move-out-way-men\" target=\"_Blank\">why I refuse to move out of the way for men<\/a>.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The FTC is finally cracking down on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/the-goods\/2019\/2\/27\/18243189\/fake-reviews-amazon-fraud-weight-loss-supplement-ftc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">scammers who buy fake reviews on amazon<\/a>, going after the seller of a bogus weight-loss &#8216;supplement.&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>In board game news, <a href=\"https:\/\/goto.target.com\/c\/207131\/81938\/2092?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.target.com%2Fp%2Fravensburger-disney-villainous-wicked-to-the-core%2F-%2FA-75662692\" target=\"_Blank\">Disney&#8217;s Villainous: Wicked to the Core<\/a> hits Target tomorrow; it&#8217;s exclusive there for a month and will later roll out to other outlets. I&#8217;ve played it, and it&#8217;s as good as the original, but with rules that are much clearer for first-time players, enough that you might do better to start with this before going back to the first game. (This is a standalone expansion that you can combine with the original.)<\/li>\n<li>Renegade Game Studios has Hex Roller, a new roll-and-write game that I haven&#8217;t seen yet, up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renegadegamestudios.com\/products\/hex-roller?mc_cid=500d63e7fb&amp;mc_eid=554c3f460b\">for preorder<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Days of Wonder announced a few weeks ago that their next title will be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.daysofwonder.com\/corinth\/en\/\">Corinth<\/a>, an update\/retheme of the game Yspahan that alters some core rules and eliminates the caravan (which was a dominant strategy in Yspahan).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For ESPN+ subscribers this week, I wrote three pieces, breaking down the Bryce Harper deal, ranking the top 30 prospects for this year&#8217;s draft, and offering scouting notes on players I saw in Texas, including Bobby Witt, Jr. I held a Klawchat on Thursday. On the gaming front, I reviewed the Kennerspiel des Jahres-winning game [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[995,557,821,617,49,582,1080,828,137,190,215,1090,824,907,870,807],"class_list":["post-7473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2018-movies","tag-addiction","tag-anti-science","tag-art","tag-baseball","tag-board-games","tag-california","tag-climate-change","tag-frauds","tag-links","tag-movies","tag-oscars","tag-pseudoscience","tag-social-media","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7473"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7475,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473\/revisions\/7475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}