Thanks, guys
It’s no secret that a Certain Other Baseball Site Dave Writes For is doing a major series right now that is generating a lot of, uh, discussion. (yeah, let’s call it that)
So, I just wanted to say, on behalf of all of the USSM crew:
Thanks to all of our regular commenters. Sometimes we take you for granted, and it takes something like watching a total trainwreck somewhere else to really make us appreciate what a good overall community we’ve managed to collect here at USSM.
(LL people, you’re awesome too, even if you won’t let me make Carlos Silva fat jokes anymore)
I’m not going to be as political as you are.
Fuck those guys.
Talking behind our backs aye?
The Ms are my AL team, so I read this site, and I’m not impressed…
Do you all really think you are headed for multiple division championships and 90 win seasons? What is wrong with a little humility?
Jeff,
Carlos Silva fat jokes???? Please do enlighten me, I’ve yet to hear such nonsense!!
If I were a fan of baseball comment thread train wrecks, which of the ones in question would be a good place to start?
To clarify one thing:
My point in making this post wasn’t to bring the comment silliness over here. That is what it is, and I’m hoping it can stay where it belongs.
It was to make sure that you guys know that, even if we occasionally delete your comments and/or make fun of you, overall the USSM crew really appreciates that the Mariners blogosphere has some of the best educated and level-headed fans anywhere.
We’re lucky to have the audience we have.
What trainwreck are we talking about? I am a relatively new blog reader so I apologize in advance if I dont know.
If you cant say thats ok.. I was just curious is all.
I believe they’re referring to the Seattle Mariners ranking over on FanGraphs.
And any crazy discussion about that ranking should probably happen over there.
Not here.
But Carlos Silva is fat? Tell us more! Should we repeat the story about him and Brandon Morrow going to In’n’Out Burger?
I heard they had to change the name to “We’re Out Of Burgers” after Silva left.
And yes, I don’t want this to come off as “Fangraphs sucks.” It doesn’t, and the guys who write for Fangraphs are doing some serious yeoman’s work at trying to bring advanced analysis into the mainstream. After USSM and LL, it’s the first site I check every day.
This is all about the fact that you guys rock, and I decided we hadn’t taken the time to say that in far too long.
Thanks, but you guys rock more. Even if you all are blind Zduriencik fanboys or wait I mean beyond pessimistic Mariner haters, oh wait…
Seriously Dave, DMZ, mods. What you do to increase our knowledge is beyond great. Hope you get a nice baseball related job of your choosing because of it.
Thanks Jeff. I like reading the posts and comments here. I have been reading for years and appreciate how this blog has enhanced my enjoyment of baseball.
More than anything, thanks to you guys. It’s so refreshing to follow a blog that values an educated fan base and proper communication among it. But most importantly, I appreciate how much the crew has taught me about assessing baseball talent, the value of sabermetrics, and sports management in general. To be honest, I heavily underestimated the value of defense before becoming an avid follower of USSM. USSM has made my Mariner fanaticism a more educated and even a more worthwhile experience.
Kudos to the crew for creating what has become a necessary utility for many Mariner fans.
I haven’t been reading those ranking posts (the details of one baseball team is about all I have room for in my brain) but I have been watching them go by on Fangraphs. Once #10 came and went with the M’s still to be ranked I knew there would be a fracas of feces brewing*, and it would get thicker and deeper with each ranking that wasn’t the M’s. I still haven’t gone over to read it — I once saw a real trainwreck as a kid and I guess that kind of killed my interest in the metaphorical sort.
* Starbucks offers these in several sizes, but this one I think is called Daventi.
This is a total troll move, but come on. This is pretty self-aggrandizing and condescending to about 3/4 of the commenters at Fangraphs who a) understood the purpose of the Organizational Rankings exercise (to be one about which organizations are healthiest in the near term and have the structure to be successful over the long term), and b) sincerely disagreed with the ranking because it was far more speculative than the previous 25.
While there are numerous scenarios in which the Mariners could be successful this year, three years from now, and down the road (because of their FO), there’s an equal number of scenarios in which they aren’t successful. Dave admitted as much in the writeup, which is nice, but didn’t provide a lot of evidence to offset it.
If I’m wrong about the object of the rankings exercise, fine, but good grief, I check USS Mariner fairly routinely because of the insightful writing and this just reeks of being five, taking your ball and going home.
Yeah, I was dreading it all week.
But, again, this post is more to thank you guys for being awesome than it is about what’s going on over there, so I’d really rather focus on that.
Those of you who registered for the first time to comment here, you weren’t being censored; first time posters here go in a queue until someone approves them. Apologies.
A Daventi, lol joser. I like the ranking at fangraphs, but will follow Jeff’s lead and try not to stir up a Daventi here by discussing its merits in any detail.
Well, to be fair, the chances of that discussion NOT spreading here in some form were pretty much nil, whether I made this post or not.
You’re welcome, Jeff!
And you have done a great job of selecting a great audience, so back atcha. 😉
My reaction was midway between Livingston’s (quoted above) and joser’s train wreck/brewed feces/Daventi reaction. I went to the Fangraphs article, saw that there were 288 comments, and was thus amply forewarned. I read the first few dozen comments and had the same reaction as Livingston: yeah there was some stupidity, but there were some people agreeing with Dave’s article, and even more who disagreed but for valid reasons.
But, yeah, 288+ comments of that ilk gets old fast, and I could easily imagine the conversation going downhill into Daventi coffeehouse mold, so I stopped reading after that. As others have said (including me), one of the strengths of USSMariner is the high quality of the comments.
Right back at’cha, Jeff.
The awesomeness of this site is like the importance of Elvis Presley or James Brown to contemporary music- virtually impossible to overstate.
Coming to and commenting on this site is one of my little pleasures in life, I know that.
I’m just lucky that I get this much rational thought on my favorite team from somewhere…and don’t have to deal with single-brain-cell-operative thinking along the lines of “mariners sux, they should trade for puhols and holiday and then theyll be good” type of fare when I’m here.
Now if I can just make a USSM event this year, I’ll be ecstatic. Every one we had last year was roadblocked by something or other that I couldn’t maneuver out of…
Thank you for the appreciation, you can bet your bottom dollar it’s reciprocated.
I finally had a chance to read over the FG threads (all three on the M’s org rankings). The details of the comment storm over there can stay over there, but an observation:
Commenters got so distracted bitching about the M’s ranking that they ignored the actual baseball content discussed in the posts. It read like a giant “my dad can beat up your dad” 4th grade spittlefest. Of all the useless things to argue about, where a group of writers ranks a baseball team has to be one of the most useless. But alas, such is life between the Super Bowl and Opening Day. What else we gonna talk about? Curling?
But, back on topic, reading the threads over there, I kept thinking “man, this site needs some moderators.”
So, thanks Mods!
I’ll chime in with more of the, “no, YOU guys rock” stuff. I can think of no better encomium than to point out that my MOM goes to USSM to learn about what’s going on with the M’s. She has to listen to the games on a crackly AM spectrum (hey – anyone know any better options than KFXX out of Portland for someone living in Hood River? The signal apparently doesn’t travel down the Gorge very well.) but she feels like USSM helps her to grok the team a lot better. Come on: if your mom is on board, how can you not be?