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Seattle Times on Olkin
Larry Stone follows USSM and the Oregonian a week late with a nice little piece with choice quotes from Olkin and a good bit of background.
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38 Responses to “Seattle Times on Olkin”
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Twittah
I didn’t realize Stone had heard of the Baseball Abstract, let alone OWNED them.
Stone is the officially endorsed columnist of the U.S.S. Mariner for a reason. He’s a smart cookie.
Got it. I tend to blur all members of Seattle sports media together except Finnigan, who stands out as being especially awful.
Hey, DMZ got the cookie up so I don’t have to change the flag every time! Top notch!
Will/Do the M’s uses statistics in determining which high school or college players to draft or is it limited to pro players only?
So where was Olkin’s input at the time of the Richie Sexson deal? That signing may or may not work out … but it was as un-sabe-friendly a move as was made in baseball this winter.
Bavasi still has the final say, and when he gets his mind set on someone/thing, there is no turning back.
Olkin’s input on the Sexson deal is of little interest in that, other than replacing Olerud, the signing was intended as a clear signal that the Gillick era was over. I’m far more intrigued by Olkin’s intervention in the Beltre signing, in his feeding rigorously positive data to the Ms (he said it himself), possibly enough to give Bavasi ammunition to convince the rest of the FO and to bring Boras to the table more quickly than I had thought possible.
If Olkin had anything to do with any of this, he’s earned a stripe already.
Here at U.S.S. Mariner labs, we never stop working to help you, David C. Corcoran, to allow you to realize your dream of posting quickly and efficently, as many times as you wish.
That’s J, bud.
Thank you, good sir.
Except I am by far your most inefficient commenter. It shouldn’t take me two posts to write 30 words.
Olkin is a brewers fan. Sexson was a fan favorite in Milwaukee. hmmmm.
Why aren’t my comments posting? Am I in a moderation queue now?
Well, that one did. Now I look like an idiot. I guess I must’ve exceeded the hyphen limit in the posts I tried to post.
Sabermatricians are supposed to be Objective! 1000000% objective.
I hope you are wrong, Andy, or I could explode.
Why did that post but nothing else? What is wrong? Do you have an exclamation point limit or something? I am so confused.
I give up.
David are you sure you are not a comment spammer? 😉
No. I am not sure.
On top of the posts you see above, Mr. Corcoran had another 10 or so in the moderation queue, all variants of “why doesn’t this work?” “I wonder if this will work!” “why did the last one? what if I do this?”
While I admire the youthful energy, if someone could please remind me of this next time I consider doing anything to allow DJC to post quicker, that would be great.
I am curious, though. Why did they go into a moderation queue?
Yeah, Xanax may be in order, Mr. Corcoran. Maybe it’s an inside joke that I don’t get.
From the article “Olkin also gives his input on trade proposals, helping to nix at least one deal because his research revealed a negative trend involving the player in question.”
Does anyone have any guesses which player that is referring to?
Pro-zac, sir. I forgot to get my subscription refilled.
Isn’t Zoloft the preferred treatment for OCD?
My current theory is that DJC is actually a script DMZ is running as a sort of stat-head Turing Test.
Stone is the officially endorsed columnist of the U.S.S. Mariner for a reason. He’s a smart cookie.
Hmmm, Dave…was the official endorsement in jeopardy earlier in the week when Larry Stone listed the Reds and the Giants as two of his five offseason “winners?”
Unfortunately, I am not a script. I am a real, live, bona-fide Homo sapien sapien. Sorry to burst your bubble.
And DMZ, I’ll remind you next time you try to efficientize my posterability (I know those aren’t words, but I just woke up)
So, what do you guys think of the PI article on Felix?
Should he be in the starting rotation right from the get-go?
I’m a nice guy. I would email this if I had your address.
I don’t see why I or others should have to scroll through 24 comments on this thread to see 4 that are of actual, substantive value.
I understand the need to add a further point sometimes. That said, to the extent (i) you’re just doing this to get attention; and (ii) that you CAN try to not put 50-90% of the comments in a thread without adding anything of actual substance, please consider trying to place a few more thoughts in each comment. Even a 50% reduction here would make these comment threads much more readable. Finally, before you come back saying this is “the way you are,” no, it’s *not*. It’s a choice. Thanks.
I apologize sir. This thread did start out substantive, and I thought I was posting comments of substance. Then I couldn’t post comments for some reason, and I kept trying to get what I had that was semi-substantive out. Then this thread got off on some kind of tangent where it became about me being nuts. I certainly do not do this for attention (I have better things to do than sit around on a blog all day trying to get attention), and I have been trying to consolidate my comments a little more. My problem is that I will say something, then i will realize I didn’t say everything I wanted to say, and then I go back, and that keeps happening. I apologize, however, if I have caused you any inconvenience.
sigh. and Larry Stone is followed by Blaine Newnham’s column on adding the King to the starting rotation right now….
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2002164665_blai30.html
(my favorite question so far at Fanfest was from the person who asked Hargrove about the rumor that the Mariners were going after Delgado until they signed Grover and he insisted on Sexson…. Hargrove thought it would be nice to have that kinf of power…)
Re 27:
Very good.
I can’t really see the benefits of putting Felix in the rotation. Likely, we aren’t contending anyway this year, and I would rather save the King for a year when we are going to contend. And baseball is not like those other sports, there is a significant injury risk by putting the King in the rotation. There is more injury risk putting a 19 year old flamethrower in the rotation than a 19 year old CF in the starting lineup. Why waste one of Felix’s arb years on limited innings, etc?
Re 25 again:
Also, looking at the comments in this thread of mine that you deem unsubstantive, which I am assuming are:
9,10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, and 24,
1 was thanking DMZ
1 was in confusion
3 were in replies to my spamming.
That leaves 4 that I probably shouldn’t have posted (10, 14, 15, and 19).
I apologize.
#20 A trade for Sosa? With Baltimore getting him for peanuts you never know…
#27 I’m secretly, or not so secretly, hoping he has a horrible spring.
Felix in the rotation has its own thread now.
Followed, almost immediately, by a follow-up post that mentions another topic and then returns to add on more things you wanted to say.
Oh, Mr. Corcoran, you crack me up.
There were 23 minutes in there! I posted that, got in the shower, thought about it, and got back out of the shower and wrote another post.
Also (Not again..this is embarassing),
I drive a lot of people nuts because this is how I talk in person too. I say something. Then 2 minutes later I add something on to what I said, and so on and so forth.
Yeah, but having the middle initial in Dave Corcoran’s name actually makes him sound much more bona fide as a contributing member of society;) I like him the way he is, but it does get a little like taking a dip in frozen syrup when trying to sift through some of the articles he’s more…involved in. *grin*
Felix is a great prospect, and I hope we can hang onto him at the big-league level for as long as is legally possible. But I really see no reason to bring him up this season, unless he’s tearing through AAA, in which case it makes sense to let him “get his feet wet” this season before contributing next year.
Thanks…I think.
My favorite part of the article is the following quote from Bill Bavasi:
I tell you… that guy is starting to grow on me.
As you may have guessed… I am not an html programmer. Here’s the quote:
Group think is good, and I believe in that, but when you all have similar backgrounds, at some point it’s like me banging my head against the wall. It’s like, ‘I need some other thought here.’ That’s where this comes up.
I tell you, that guy is starting to grow on me.