8 days of rain - SUCKS

First some sad news for some of you that no longer live in Columbus - Alice Schmidt passed away a few weeks ago.  I was waiting for some official announcement because I considered her a very  important person in Columbus and am surprised and saddened that this sad event seems to have come and gone quietly.

Alice being interviewed by a Chicago Tribune reporter

She was a good friend and was my treasurer when I ran for City Council.  The last time we talked it was about beer because she did love a good porter and I turned her on to Edmund Fitzgerald which I consider the best porter readily available.

I will miss our long talks and her life was an amazing adventure.

She worked very hard on the 1915 George A. Hasey popcorn wagon and I went with the group to the burbs of Chicago when the other cart was discovered.

I'm wish more would have been done about her passing but perhaps that was her wish.  Columbus lost a very very fine person.

*************************************

WITH THAT SAID - OH - the joys of reading the Chicago Tribune this morning.  Let the crocodile tears flow.  boo hoo.

I actually watched every pitch of that game last night and have sleep depredation this morning with my cold waking me up early.  What a weird weird game. I've never seen a base runner actually hug a fielder holding the ball DURING a play and nobody does anything.  WHAT?

So, the Brewers, who 3 years ago won 68 games and 3 years later have the best record in the NL.  THAT my friends is a fine rebuilding job.  I do love how a 30 year old took over the front office with his sciencey methods and created a winner.  I loved Council from the get go when many friends were complaining about him.   I knew Council would embrace analytics and look what happened. BINGO!!

What SUCKS is that MLB decided the Brewers were not good enough for prime time and put their first 2 games against my second favorite team, Colorado, as afternoon affairs.  WTF!

But, back to ME!   this is a little funny so just bare (bear?) with me for a few sentences.

Next year will be the 8th year for our Strat-o-matic baseball league.  The constitution says that you can draft a player, keep him for 4 years and then sign him to a long term contract for MUCH more  for 3 or 4 more years.

So next year is the first year stars become free agents.  The best team that did not make the playoffs gets first dibs on free agents and it goes down the line.

I managed to be the 1st or 2nd best team (undetermined yet but probably 2nd) so - I finally looked to see who I can get as I have a lot of Free Agent cash I can use.    I have 2 candidates.

Mike Trout (WAR = 9.2)- Baseball Prospectus  compares to the following

Mickey Mantle
Frank Thomas
Willie Mays
Ken Griffy

hmmmmmm - seems like a good group of players to be compared too.

OR - more likely I will can

Manny Machado (WAR = 5.8) a slick fielding SS with power which Baseball Prospectus  compares to the following

George Brett
Ryan Zimmerman
Puddin Head Jones.

PUDDIN HEAD JONES?    I'll let others look him up but I had to see where "Puddin Head" got his name.

Relatives say he LOVED liver pudding and ate it all the time.  mmmmmm liver pudding.  Makes me long for the old days.   McLiver Pudding pie's would be awesome.

I was looking him up and comparing an analytic called WAR. For any baseball fans not familiar with what WAR actually is. 

WAR stands for Wins Above Replacement player.  There are many WAR's out there and it is probably the most abstract sabermetric theory.  It takes everything into account. It creates one number on how many WINS a player is compared to a "replacement" player.   To get an idea - Yelicch's WR is 7.7.  Lorenzo Cain was 5.8

Here is where it gets interesting,  "replacement player".

A "replacement player" is basically a top tier minor leaguer.  As described - if you have a team FULL of replacement players that team would win 50 games.

WELL. The Baltimore Orioles won 47 games  LOL  The Orioles were worse then a team of replacement players.

Nuff said about baseball.

****************

Weather - WATCH OUT!   Probably around 7:00 tonight a strong cold front will swing through the state with a bombogenesis** occurring.  Strong strong thunderstorms will develop in front of and along the front.

The high today will be near 80 and the high tomorrow will be about 54.  We will have one sunny day and then expect 8 days of on and off rain.   Get the lawn mowed tomorrow.  Expect up to and exceeding 5 inches of rain  in the next 8 days.

** rapidly strengthening weather system is a process called bombogenesis, which creates what is known as a bomb cyclone.     

Have a day!