- Derrick Goold’s first Birdland post from Jupiter is up. I think I’m looking forward to this Pyro’s Grill place on my first trip to Jupiter. He was able to see Jaime Garcia pitch and offers up this report:
LHP Jaime Garcia … Is coming off a season cut short by a tender elbow. Did not have surgery as the Cardinals’ doctors prescribed rest. Has no restrictions on him, according to the Cardinals. Threw well Monday, and had noticeable zip on his fastball.
That’s very welcome news. The uncertainty about his elbow caused enough uncertainty that he dropped hard in all the prospect lists. Recall that Adam Wainwright was shut down for most of 2004 to rest—without surgery—what’s been reported as a torn ligament. Garcia’s elbow had only been described as sore, from what I know, so it wouldn’t be unprecedented if he were able to put together a solid, healthy age-21 season on the verge of the major leagues. I hope to see him unleash his curveball while I’m down in Jupiter.
- I’m a bit surprised that this article about Richard Zednick’s throat injury made no mention of Clint Malarchuk. I was watching that game live as a wee fellow and was shocked by that injury.
- I enjoyed this article about the sorry state of undergraduate CS curriculum and the essay that inspired it. I can say truthfully and without exaggeration that I have never seen anyone properly comment their code since finishing my undergraduate degree, when I was taught to program (using Ada) by John Neitzke. I’ve still met plenty of excellent programmers, but ones who were clearly taught different from me. It appears that the Truman CS department no longer uses Ada… in favor of Java. Alas, my discipline has slipped mightily over the years to the point where I sometimes have a hard time maintaining my own old code—but the article inspired me to document the software for my dissertation work old-school style: with a uniform, straightforward strategy. The original essay claims, “Ada is the language of software engineering par excellence.” I agree, but notice the writers DO work for AdaCore… In any language, I’m sure Neitzke still holds his students to the same high standards.
- The job on my desk right now is quite a fun bear. A client made a video recording and a tape recording of the same interview. Here’s where I come in: the microphone on the camera wasn’t working and the batteries in the tape recorder were slowly dying. She needs me to synchronize the audio from the tape to the video. Since the batteries were dying, though, the motor pulling the tape over the recording head was pulling more slowly than normal and at a decreasing rate. So I need to incrementally slow down the audio track to keep it synced to the video. Astonishingly, it’s going pretty well. But quite a tricky chore.
- A classic game that I think I link to every winter: Snowfight 3D.
- I’m considering applying for work with this organization.
- Somebody needs to rap their knuckles on Jeff Gordon’s desk and explain to him that Josh Phelps is on a minor league contract to play first at AAA so we don’t need to call on Mike Ferris to replace Pujols in case of catastrophic emergency. Look at this Q-A from his most recent chat:
Ryan: Judging by Mr. Strauss’ article on how the Cards roster looks to shape out after the Spring, it seems that either Brian Barton or Skip Schumaker will no longer be with the club. Barton offers a decent bat and speed at the leadoff position, but hasn’t seen an AB past AA. Schumaker has hit fairly well in the bigs, but never seems to warrant steady playing time. Who do you see as having the most potential and the favorite to make the 25-man roster?
Jeff Gordon: Barton did get a taste of Class AAA ball last year, hitting .264 in fewer than 100 ABs. But he is an unknown. He is younger than Skip, he bats right handed and he could have more leadoff potential—all of which could help him win the coin flip, if it came to that. On the other hand, Skip hit well enough at all levels to merit a good look.
Could both stay? Perhaps, if somebody else (like Spiezio) fell out of the mix.
Gordo alludes to Spiezio being an outfielder in competition with Barton and Schumaker. He twice mentions Phelps making the team as a RH-pinch hitter—which, for non-baseball fans—is NOT a defensive position.
A well-built NL team needs two backups in the infield and two backups in the outfield, plus a backup catcher. One of those backup infielders needs to be able to play the middle infield positions: in a sane world, that would be Brendan Ryan but will likely end up being Aaron Miles. The other bench infielder needs to be competent at third and first with a solid bat: that’s Scott Spiezio, since Phelps can’t play third. At least one of those backup outfielders has to be solid defensively at all three positions and the other needs to be at least good in left and with a strong bat. I can’t imagine any backup catcher not being able to fill in at first—ideally, you’d have someone who can play another position like we had with Marerro, who could play decently in the outfield corners. You need to have such a roster or else you can’t give players a day off without seriously compromising your ability to win that game by putting bad defenders on the field and bad hitters in the lineup.
If Phelps is on the team and Spiezio isn’t, then Glaus doesn’t have a backup. That’d leave us with no decent backup anywhere on the left-side of the infield, assuming Miles beats out Ryan. Spiezio’s ability to play half-decently in the outfield is gravy, but doesn’t make him an outfielder. He’s a backup third baseman who’s about as good with the glove as our starter next year. Spiezio bats better left-handed than righty, but I’d be stunned if the team broke camp with Phelps over Spiezio. Especially considering that Phelps is on a minor-league contract and Spiezio is signed to a $2.3M major-league contract (with a $100,000 buyout on his ’09 option). That is all I have to say about that.
- One of my colleagues is going to PyCon next month. I asked him if his wife was getting sick of him walking up to her out of the blue and engaging in exchanges like this:
Colleague: You think I should pack my bags yet?
Colleague’s Wife: Pack your bags for what?
Colleague flexes his biceps and grunts: FOR THE PYTHON CONFERENCE!!!I’d consider going myself, if only to visit friends in Chicago and to have all those sweet jokes.
- With McCain and Obama looking like the presumptive big-party presidential nominees for this November’s election, it’s all but guaranteed that someone will move from the Senate to the Presidency for the first time since Kennedy in the 1960 election. (I think that Obama website I just linked to is hilarious, and a bit frightening. ALL politicians are scumbags, except for Ron Paul and he’s batshit crazy. Think of it: Obama may not have even won the Illinois senate if Jack Ryan hadn’t tried to force his hot ex-wife, Seven-of-Nine, make sweet love with him in front of an audience at sex clubs. Ryan’s carpet-bagger replacement, Alan Keyes, was pandering fool enough that even I voted for Obama.)