That’s racist?

How long have you been wearing women’s clothing?
Is your alter ego named Penny
Does she like bugs too…

and nobody knows for sure.

was from Gori, no?

Judging from their website, it looks like this year’s resolution was the following:

Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, at least eliminating nearly all of the domestic subsidies, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, corn, cotton, dairy, fisheries, rice, soybeans, sugar and/or wheat.

I’m not sure if this was actually resolved for this year’s regional competitions, national or whether it is actually what’s been put forward for 2009.

The friend who sent this to me had a close friend who was there. Here is, APPARENTLY, what happened:

In debate you have the opportunity to “strike” two of the five judges from judging the debate. (I have a feeling some of you out there were high school or college debaters and can lend some more insight into this) Captain Insano’s team from Ft. Hays State (Kansas) “struck” Shanara Reid-Brinkley from Pitt, as she had given them one of their low scores at some point prior. This is pretty standard but becomes a bit of dicey issue because of Reid-Brinkley’s race and gender. There is a very prominent theory about “the extension and protection of white privilege” as it relates to public discourse. That to remove Reid-Brinkley would be to cut off the lone representative of a particular avenue of discourse. Reid-Brinkley had objected to her being struck on these grounds.

Either concurrent with this or unrelated to this, the Towson State team was bringing subjects into the debate that Captain Insano and his FHSU team thought were extraneous to the resolution. A childish game of facial gesturing and posturing broke out between Reid-Brinkley and Shanahan and that’s where we pick up the action.

As of this writing, the video has been removed from YouTube. There are probably many reasons why it was taken down, but, despite all their verbiage to the contrary, never underestimate the professoriat’s capacity to bully, manipulate and intimidate. It’s quite breath-taking.

but I think my response sums things up pretty well. Here’s what I told her:

Do you know John Erardi? I don’t see how you can say he’s “total dbag” without even meeting him… especially when I know a few of the guys who’ve contributed to his articles, and they’ve had nothing but good things to say about the guy. Talking to other people to research your articles isn’t a bad thing, as you insinuate… maybe Paul Daugherty and John Fay should do a little more of that so they don’t keep getting called out for writing terrible columns.

I’ll remember to pick that name up on my way out.

I did hear that the people who Erardi talks to are total d-bags. Maybe it’s that d-bagginess that is coming through Erardi’s columns… -j

Unless that violates the EPO. :)

PH’s comment also makes the error of thinking that certain positions (1B, LF, RF, etc) have to have offense to be productive. You can have an outstanding left fielder who has a below-average bat but a brilliant glove. The reason we tend to put our top defensive players up the middle is that they get more opportunities and thus can leverage their defensive skillz to a greater effect. But there’s nothing that says a player can’t contribute a lot of his value on defense in a corner position. A run saved is just as good as a run scored.

The question is whether or not Eddie’s fielding skills are well-served at third base. His arm isn’t particularly accurate, for example, though it does have strength. He also has a tendency to hurry his footwork and to sidearm throws, which he might be less prone to do if he has more time to set up or if he has to throw a greater distance. This all might mean that his throwing skills (at least) are a better fit for the outfield than third base. Ryan Braun is a plus LF’er after being perhaps the single worst defensive player on a per-inning basis in baseball last year at 3B.

I don’t know if it would work with Eddie, but I definitely agree that I’d like to see the Reds try it. Makes more sense to me than moving both Eddie and Votto to new positions as I think PH is proposing.

As for replacements…maybe Keppinger. Maybe a free agent. Given that we don’t have any top candidates for LF either, I don’t think it makes much of a difference if we go into the offseason looking for help at 3B or LF. Heck, if nothing else, it might give the Reds the flexibility to look for help at both positions and see what works out.
-j

The numbers I have stated are for starting position players, not the “average player”. The offensive difference between starting players vs. all position players is always going to be substantial. I’ve run the starting players’ stats for several seasons within the past 6 years, and they seem to gravitate to the same averages by my count, but I have not been terribly scientific in this approach. It all depends on what you determine to be a “starting player”, be that qualifying to be a league leader based on plate appearances (a pretty consistent metric), or you could choose the single player from each team that had the most PAs at each position (poor statistical approach). To summarize this point, my study of numbers I believe to be accurate, and it IS important to look at starters by position, rather than factoring in the Juan Casto-types into the equation. I am sure JinAZ can do a much better with the exacting numbers, cuz he’s great at it. But if you go look at the qualifying league leaders by position, I think you’ll find that the numbers hold pretty true.

Average starters’ OPS by my crude measure:

SS .733
C .734
2B .756
CF .780
3B .832
RF/LF .850
1B/DH .861

Perhaps EdE is a defensive liability, but I am skeptical to draw a firm conclusion based on either defensive metrics or my eyewitness account, as both are usually unintentionally flawed.

Yes, EdE’s OPS is the highest of his career…by a statistically insignificant 0.9%. Compare his OBP or SLG or OPS, which stay in roughly the same range in each year or his career since he was a rookie, and he hasn’t shown me reason to expect offensive improvement. I hope I’m wrong. But bragging that he might edge out his career high in doubles sort of proves my point. His BA and OBP are significantly below any of his full seasons, while he’s up in other areas. I don’t see enough improvement in any area to declare that this as a path to offensive growth. I DO believe players who work on their defense DO improve over time from where they are at age 25. I have nothing to back this up, so discard the notion if you’d like. We’re all reading tea leaves about the future, anyway. If an asteroid approaches earth tomorrow and Ben Affleck isn’t primed and ready with a rocketship and a giant drill, we’ll never find out anyway.

I don’t like Slyde’s infield of Keppinger, Phillips, Ellis, and Votto. Kep would be below average at 3B both offensively and defensively. Ellis hits like my sister, but without the beer-breath she normally sports while slugging guys in the parking lots of bars throughout Middletown…AND BEYOND!

And my post of “EdE at first” should have read EdE at third. We’ll score that one E-ME.