Daily Archives: February 1, 2010

Are the Twins about to sign Joe Mauer to a long-term extension?

The rumors are flying.

[Drawing by Peter Chen]

This week, we’ll hip you to some cool tracks recorded by young uns.

First up, these cats..Fifth graders, y’all.

Just a couple of few things for you.

Ledger beat writer Marc Carig has just started his own blog. Sure to be a regular spot for Yankees fans. Welcome aboard, Marc. Site looks dope. 

Hank Waddles, a regular contributor to the Banter, has just launched a new site for his wonderful series of interviews with writers: Behind the Book.  Check, check it out.

(more…)

Been thinking a lot about the term “recluse” this weekend. There is such a negative association with it. But is it such a bad thing? Anyhow, this caught my eye–a short interview with the “reclusive” creator of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, Bill Watterson, in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Readers became friends with your characters, so understandably, they grieved — and are still grieving — when the strip ended. What would you like to tell them?

BW: This isn’t as hard to understand as people try to make it. By the end of 10 years, I’d said pretty much everything I had come there to say.

It’s always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip’s popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now “grieving” for “Calvin and Hobbes” would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I’d be agreeing with them.

I think some of the reason “Calvin and Hobbes” still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it.

I’ve never regretted stopping when I did.

I think this is a rare quality in a writer, columnist, artist, you name it–the ability to leave sooner rather than later, especially when you are a success. I was duly impressed with the visual wonder of Avatar but I would have been that much more impressed if the movie was an hour shorter.

Waiting for the train at 231st street, Sunday afternoon.

Stupid Bowl this weekend. Then, the countdown to spring training begins in earnest.

Today’s update is powered by a Super Bowl QB, and Pampers . . . its a somewhat bizarre, long-form “commercial”:

• Jay Jaffe wonders where Johnny Damon will end up:

Where does that leave Damon?  . . . Even for Abreu money at $5 million per year, say, he may be too rich for some of these teams’ blood, and other obstacles may lie in his path. For reference, Damon’s park-neutral projection calls for him to hit .274/.353/.425 with 17 homers and 17 steals in 587 plate appearances, not to mention a +3 FRAA in left field (our system has been considerably more optimistic about his defense than other systems), which would be all good for a .271 EqA and 2.4 WARP, half of what he was worth last year. PECOTA simply doesn’t love ballplayers over the age of 35.

. . .  the Mariners and Braves seem to have the most flexibility, in that adding Damon wouldn’t put an established full-time player out of a job. If I had to put my nickel down, it would be on either of those two, with a slight edge for Seattle due to the ability to DH him occasionally. But their interest in him is no given, and I suspect whoever lands him will have to surprise us with another move in order to do so.

• (more…)