The A's are not exactly doing a bang-up job of making them potentially attractive to their suitors in Vegas. I realize it's more about profitability than quality, but if you want to put butts in the seats one of the first things you're going to have to do is basically replace the entire roster with men who can, you know, play baseball.
Because as of right now, the 2023 A's could legitimately go down as the worst team in modern baseball history.
With a 10-39 record, they're on a pace for just 33 Wins, well below the 1962 Mets' 40 Wins. Seven of the team's 10 wins are 1-run games (they're 7-8 in those, in case you needed yet another data point to reinforce that one-run game records are meaningless with regard to team quality), and four of their ten wins are walk-offs, which means they could easily have gone either way. That of course means that they're 3-31 in games decided by multiple runs. Yikes.
Amazingly, they actually have a winning record against one team: The Royals. How bad did KC feel about themselves after losing two out of three to - not just the worst team in baseball - possibly the worst team in modern baseball history!? At HOME??!?! That KC series marks the only time all year the Oaklands have won consecutive games.
The offense is terrible, but not historically so. Heck, the Marlins and Guardians have actually somehow averaged slightly fewer runs per game this year.
And the pitching staff IS historically bad. Its collective ERA currently sits at 7.02, which would be a record for the AL or NL, if they keep it up, and one to which no team in either of those leagues has ever come particularly close. The current record is 6.71, held by the 1930 Phillies, and that was in a crazy run scoring environment, both the time period and the ballpark. They had an ERA+ of 82, which is admittedly terrible, but nowhere near as dreadful as the 59(!) currently sported by the 2023 A's. The 1930 Phillies allowed well over 1000 earned runs and would have had to allow almost 60 more just to match the futility of the 2023 A's pitchers. Just astonishing.
Late to the dance here but I had a bout with kidney stones 20 years ago, on Father’s Day weekend to be exact. I spent a night and most of a day in the hospital. Pure unadulterated agony. Puked up morphine when I got home.
Although, I can't help feel that the metaphor is mixing eras. I feel like the nerdy girl removing her glasses was primarily a trope of 90's era teen rom-coms and James Spader is firmly planted in the 80's. Of course, I was a teenager in the 90's and have never done a Posnanski-esque deep dive into 80's/90's era teen rom-coms. My only point of reference is really She's All That, which I've never actually watched in one continuous sitting.
As a multiple time winner in the lottery of kidney stones, I never go anywhere without Vicodin. For me, the sign of an impending kidney stone is the overwhelming urgency to urinate. At that point, I pop a Vicodin and hope for the best. It’s worked so far.
"Surely," I thought to myself as I read this, "Albert Pujols, the career GIDP record holder, must have made a valiant effort at the single-season number at some point."
Nope. His peak was 29 GIDPs in 147 games, in 2011. Well, y'know, Henry Aaron never hit over 50 homers in a season, either. There's something to be said for consistency over a long career.
Perhaps it is gauche to comment on the Poscast using Substack, but... the restaurant salt package rant was absolutely the best / most meaningless thing yet
I sympathize with most of Tango's bêtes noires, but I think he has a blind spot about "on pace." It doesn't mean that that's what we expect or anything, just that it's the current rate!
I do sometimes see people use "on pace to X" interchangeably with "is projected to X" though, and the latter is indeed wrong and to be avoided. Perhaps it's that exact confusion that makes him hate "on pace," but I think knowing what someone's extrapolated current rate is is a useful and interesting thing if you don't take it to mean something it doesn't.
"I’m sure there’s greater pain in lots of things — like childbirth, hello? — but I’ve never felt greater pain."
When I had my gallbladder out, I felt like a wuss until the nurse said to me, "oh, gallbladder? That was worse than when I gave birth!" Apparently, gall stones, kidney stones and childbirth are the worst.
As to the double plays, can we please stop citing just the raw totals without mentioning the number DP situations they batted in? I mean, just one time can we note that while Rice led the league in GIDPs for four straight years, he was also came to bat in 736 DP situations in those years, over a hundred more than the next closest guy? Or that he never, not even one time, led the league in GIDP rate? Pretty please?
Coming to bat so often with runners on base is also how he got the gaudy RBI totals that helped put him into the Hall of Fame, so I think Jim Ed can live with this one. But thanks for the info - I hadn't actually known that. I don't think we associate GIDP leaders with being the weakest or slowest hitters - just relatively slow-footed guys who hit in the middle of the order.
Who does tend to lead in GIDP rate? I'm going to guess maybe catchers - slow guys with low median exit velocities/launch angles who aren't on the team for their bats. The Molinas and Bo Diazes of the world.
Yeah, back then it was the Ted Simmons’ and John Wathans of the world, along with some surprises, like Al Cowens. And I agree with your RBI point. The nit I’m picking is with the folks who say “Rice was overrated, he had all of those RBI because of his teammates”, but then also say “Rice hit into too many double plays.” Can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to discount teammate-dependent stats, you have to discount all of them, including the GIDPs.
Ah kidney stones. I’ve had about twelve or so operations. I’ve lost count. Passed a good number too. 5 operations in one year because I had so many it took that many operations to take care of all of them. I mean I’m a kidney stone factory. Opioids do nothing for the pain. I know opioids have helped a lot of people and hurt a lot of people. I might as well be eating Skittles for all the good they do me. And I’ve never had the fortune to pass one in a day. A week was my record short time- got one just before going to Hawaii and passed in airport on way home. Not my favorite vacation. When I feel the first stirrings I immediately go into a state of denial, then I start crying just knowing what is coming next. I drink water like crazy. Have made major changes to my diet (made changes before but went full bore this time around) since my last experience two years ago when I had major complications and had 4 months of misery. I’m hoping my diet change at least reduces the frequency of me getting them. 2 years is usually about as long as I go without one or more so we’ll see how it goes. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
The A's are cursed. A phenomenal history in Philadelphia with some of the best and most powerful teams ever, and they get booted out of the city by the Phillies. How did that happen? Weren't the Phillies the final team to win a World Series?
They end up in Kansas City, which never treated them well -- although they never treated KC very well either, basically becoming a farm team for the Yankees.
Off the Oakland, which loved them when they were winners but otherwise treated them as a poor stepchild to the Giants across the Bay. And the stadium? Horrible stadium and in the middle of nowhere. Whoever sited that park must've looked around the San Francisco metropolis to find the one chunk of industrial, depressing land. Not to mention hard to get to.
It’s nice that all the Brilliant Readers have formed a community here but it’s a little sad that we’re all bonding over kidney stones. IIRC, I’m a 4-time loser and every time I get a little twinge in my lower back I start praying that it’s a serious injury so I don’t have to go around again.
I heard this story from a man. He said he was in the men's bathroom in some public space and a man was crying in pain. Kidney stones. The man crying was a retired Special Forces Operator. Operators are taught to endure a lot.
As for Kirkus reviews. Those are the reviews that librarians use to put books in libraries. Libraries are useful places for cheepo people like me who don't really buy books anymore but it spreads the word of your wonderful writing.
First, kidney stones. I have them. Mine are really tiny and referred to as sand or gravel. They can indeed be excruciating. My sympathies to Joe.
Now, Las Vegas and the A's. I am a nearly lifelong Las Vegan. I didn't think professional sports would ever come here or make it and it has. I feel badly for Oakland. I feel badly for my state because we will give away the money in the end, and of course if Harvard had offered us a branch campus with half of its Nobel and Pulitzer winners in return for that kind of money, the state would turn it down. But I do detect an ever so slight case of thinking that Las Vegas isn't quite civilized enough for professional sports because, oh, dear, we have gambling ... like 47 other states and a lot of MLB teams now.
Finally, Keibert Ruiz. He was the top Dodger catching prospect and they gave him up in a trade. So we had to settle for Will Smith--the one who doesn't slap Chris Rock.
"But it’s becoming more and more clear that the city of Oakland actually wants the A’s a lot more than Vegas does."
I don't know where that comes from. It has been obvious for some time that the leaders of the city have zero desire to have any sports franchise. Within the last 5 years, they have lost the Warriors and the Raiders, and not only are A's pretty much gone, the city seems content to be without a team, and has cut off negotiations with the team, and the Howard Terminal rights for them have expired.
The fans of Oakland would like them to remain, the city leaders do not care. They give lip service to it occasionally, but don't want to come up with funds for a stadium. I am not saying this is not a valid choice. I hate welfare for billionaires as much as the next guy. But is has been a conscious choice, there will be another team that will build for them, and they will be without a team, and seemingly content to not have one.
The stadium was a joke 25 years ago. They have been actively trying to work a deal for a couple of decades. It is not happening, and other than the fans, no one even seems that upset.
It was a shame when San Francisco lost the 49ers. And do you remember when New York lost both the Jets and Giants? What a mess of governance there. And when the city of Dallas let the Cowboys leave? Really showed what a disaster that city is. And can you believe DC let their football team leave?
Also, when will Boston get a football team? I think the market can handle it.
Except they seem to think it is up to Vegas to build a stadium. The taxpayers of (pick a city) should not be the ones financing a professional sports stadium. I'd prefer to see my tax money go toward actually important things.
Kidney stones are painful, but not the worst pain I have had. In 2020 I had two small hernias twist up and completely block my intestinal tract. At first it was a small pain, but when stuff backed up to my stomach and it started stretching across my entire abdomen, it was pain I can't even describe.
I remember sitting curled up in the shotgun seat as my Wife drove me to the hospital, crying and moaning and pretty much out of my mind. I must have looked pretty bad, because when I stumbled into the ER, they immediately took me back. They didn't even ask much in the way of questions first.
I lost 2 and a half feet of intestine. They said if I had waited even a little bit longer, I might have a bag instead of being normal. 20 to 30 minutes more and I would have died.
Although Joe gives caveats, and kidney stones are about as painful of a thing that a large number of people experience, it is not the 10 when they ask you where your level of pain is.
The A's are not exactly doing a bang-up job of making them potentially attractive to their suitors in Vegas. I realize it's more about profitability than quality, but if you want to put butts in the seats one of the first things you're going to have to do is basically replace the entire roster with men who can, you know, play baseball.
Because as of right now, the 2023 A's could legitimately go down as the worst team in modern baseball history.
With a 10-39 record, they're on a pace for just 33 Wins, well below the 1962 Mets' 40 Wins. Seven of the team's 10 wins are 1-run games (they're 7-8 in those, in case you needed yet another data point to reinforce that one-run game records are meaningless with regard to team quality), and four of their ten wins are walk-offs, which means they could easily have gone either way. That of course means that they're 3-31 in games decided by multiple runs. Yikes.
Amazingly, they actually have a winning record against one team: The Royals. How bad did KC feel about themselves after losing two out of three to - not just the worst team in baseball - possibly the worst team in modern baseball history!? At HOME??!?! That KC series marks the only time all year the Oaklands have won consecutive games.
The offense is terrible, but not historically so. Heck, the Marlins and Guardians have actually somehow averaged slightly fewer runs per game this year.
And the pitching staff IS historically bad. Its collective ERA currently sits at 7.02, which would be a record for the AL or NL, if they keep it up, and one to which no team in either of those leagues has ever come particularly close. The current record is 6.71, held by the 1930 Phillies, and that was in a crazy run scoring environment, both the time period and the ballpark. They had an ERA+ of 82, which is admittedly terrible, but nowhere near as dreadful as the 59(!) currently sported by the 2023 A's. The 1930 Phillies allowed well over 1000 earned runs and would have had to allow almost 60 more just to match the futility of the 2023 A's pitchers. Just astonishing.
Late to the dance here but I had a bout with kidney stones 20 years ago, on Father’s Day weekend to be exact. I spent a night and most of a day in the hospital. Pure unadulterated agony. Puked up morphine when I got home.
James Spader... bwahahahahahhaha!
Although, I can't help feel that the metaphor is mixing eras. I feel like the nerdy girl removing her glasses was primarily a trope of 90's era teen rom-coms and James Spader is firmly planted in the 80's. Of course, I was a teenager in the 90's and have never done a Posnanski-esque deep dive into 80's/90's era teen rom-coms. My only point of reference is really She's All That, which I've never actually watched in one continuous sitting.
They took off their glasses in the 80s, too.
As a multiple time winner in the lottery of kidney stones, I never go anywhere without Vicodin. For me, the sign of an impending kidney stone is the overwhelming urgency to urinate. At that point, I pop a Vicodin and hope for the best. It’s worked so far.
"Surely," I thought to myself as I read this, "Albert Pujols, the career GIDP record holder, must have made a valiant effort at the single-season number at some point."
Nope. His peak was 29 GIDPs in 147 games, in 2011. Well, y'know, Henry Aaron never hit over 50 homers in a season, either. There's something to be said for consistency over a long career.
Perhaps it is gauche to comment on the Poscast using Substack, but... the restaurant salt package rant was absolutely the best / most meaningless thing yet
I sympathize with most of Tango's bêtes noires, but I think he has a blind spot about "on pace." It doesn't mean that that's what we expect or anything, just that it's the current rate!
I do sometimes see people use "on pace to X" interchangeably with "is projected to X" though, and the latter is indeed wrong and to be avoided. Perhaps it's that exact confusion that makes him hate "on pace," but I think knowing what someone's extrapolated current rate is is a useful and interesting thing if you don't take it to mean something it doesn't.
"I’m sure there’s greater pain in lots of things — like childbirth, hello? — but I’ve never felt greater pain."
When I had my gallbladder out, I felt like a wuss until the nurse said to me, "oh, gallbladder? That was worse than when I gave birth!" Apparently, gall stones, kidney stones and childbirth are the worst.
As to the double plays, can we please stop citing just the raw totals without mentioning the number DP situations they batted in? I mean, just one time can we note that while Rice led the league in GIDPs for four straight years, he was also came to bat in 736 DP situations in those years, over a hundred more than the next closest guy? Or that he never, not even one time, led the league in GIDP rate? Pretty please?
Coming to bat so often with runners on base is also how he got the gaudy RBI totals that helped put him into the Hall of Fame, so I think Jim Ed can live with this one. But thanks for the info - I hadn't actually known that. I don't think we associate GIDP leaders with being the weakest or slowest hitters - just relatively slow-footed guys who hit in the middle of the order.
Who does tend to lead in GIDP rate? I'm going to guess maybe catchers - slow guys with low median exit velocities/launch angles who aren't on the team for their bats. The Molinas and Bo Diazes of the world.
Yeah, back then it was the Ted Simmons’ and John Wathans of the world, along with some surprises, like Al Cowens. And I agree with your RBI point. The nit I’m picking is with the folks who say “Rice was overrated, he had all of those RBI because of his teammates”, but then also say “Rice hit into too many double plays.” Can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to discount teammate-dependent stats, you have to discount all of them, including the GIDPs.
Ah kidney stones. I’ve had about twelve or so operations. I’ve lost count. Passed a good number too. 5 operations in one year because I had so many it took that many operations to take care of all of them. I mean I’m a kidney stone factory. Opioids do nothing for the pain. I know opioids have helped a lot of people and hurt a lot of people. I might as well be eating Skittles for all the good they do me. And I’ve never had the fortune to pass one in a day. A week was my record short time- got one just before going to Hawaii and passed in airport on way home. Not my favorite vacation. When I feel the first stirrings I immediately go into a state of denial, then I start crying just knowing what is coming next. I drink water like crazy. Have made major changes to my diet (made changes before but went full bore this time around) since my last experience two years ago when I had major complications and had 4 months of misery. I’m hoping my diet change at least reduces the frequency of me getting them. 2 years is usually about as long as I go without one or more so we’ll see how it goes. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
I just had surgery for mine. Some kind of sonic sound wave thing. Cool now.
The A's are cursed. A phenomenal history in Philadelphia with some of the best and most powerful teams ever, and they get booted out of the city by the Phillies. How did that happen? Weren't the Phillies the final team to win a World Series?
They end up in Kansas City, which never treated them well -- although they never treated KC very well either, basically becoming a farm team for the Yankees.
Off the Oakland, which loved them when they were winners but otherwise treated them as a poor stepchild to the Giants across the Bay. And the stadium? Horrible stadium and in the middle of nowhere. Whoever sited that park must've looked around the San Francisco metropolis to find the one chunk of industrial, depressing land. Not to mention hard to get to.
It’s nice that all the Brilliant Readers have formed a community here but it’s a little sad that we’re all bonding over kidney stones. IIRC, I’m a 4-time loser and every time I get a little twinge in my lower back I start praying that it’s a serious injury so I don’t have to go around again.
I heard this story from a man. He said he was in the men's bathroom in some public space and a man was crying in pain. Kidney stones. The man crying was a retired Special Forces Operator. Operators are taught to endure a lot.
As for Kirkus reviews. Those are the reviews that librarians use to put books in libraries. Libraries are useful places for cheepo people like me who don't really buy books anymore but it spreads the word of your wonderful writing.
First, kidney stones. I have them. Mine are really tiny and referred to as sand or gravel. They can indeed be excruciating. My sympathies to Joe.
Now, Las Vegas and the A's. I am a nearly lifelong Las Vegan. I didn't think professional sports would ever come here or make it and it has. I feel badly for Oakland. I feel badly for my state because we will give away the money in the end, and of course if Harvard had offered us a branch campus with half of its Nobel and Pulitzer winners in return for that kind of money, the state would turn it down. But I do detect an ever so slight case of thinking that Las Vegas isn't quite civilized enough for professional sports because, oh, dear, we have gambling ... like 47 other states and a lot of MLB teams now.
Finally, Keibert Ruiz. He was the top Dodger catching prospect and they gave him up in a trade. So we had to settle for Will Smith--the one who doesn't slap Chris Rock.
"But it’s becoming more and more clear that the city of Oakland actually wants the A’s a lot more than Vegas does."
I don't know where that comes from. It has been obvious for some time that the leaders of the city have zero desire to have any sports franchise. Within the last 5 years, they have lost the Warriors and the Raiders, and not only are A's pretty much gone, the city seems content to be without a team, and has cut off negotiations with the team, and the Howard Terminal rights for them have expired.
The fans of Oakland would like them to remain, the city leaders do not care. They give lip service to it occasionally, but don't want to come up with funds for a stadium. I am not saying this is not a valid choice. I hate welfare for billionaires as much as the next guy. But is has been a conscious choice, there will be another team that will build for them, and they will be without a team, and seemingly content to not have one.
The stadium was a joke 25 years ago. They have been actively trying to work a deal for a couple of decades. It is not happening, and other than the fans, no one even seems that upset.
Did Oakland really lose the Warriors?
It was a shame when San Francisco lost the 49ers. And do you remember when New York lost both the Jets and Giants? What a mess of governance there. And when the city of Dallas let the Cowboys leave? Really showed what a disaster that city is. And can you believe DC let their football team leave?
Also, when will Boston get a football team? I think the market can handle it.
And I couldn't agree more. If the f***ing Oakland A's think it's up to the city to build them a stadium to play in, I'd say sayonara, go to Vegas.
Except they seem to think it is up to Vegas to build a stadium. The taxpayers of (pick a city) should not be the ones financing a professional sports stadium. I'd prefer to see my tax money go toward actually important things.
Kidney stones are painful, but not the worst pain I have had. In 2020 I had two small hernias twist up and completely block my intestinal tract. At first it was a small pain, but when stuff backed up to my stomach and it started stretching across my entire abdomen, it was pain I can't even describe.
I remember sitting curled up in the shotgun seat as my Wife drove me to the hospital, crying and moaning and pretty much out of my mind. I must have looked pretty bad, because when I stumbled into the ER, they immediately took me back. They didn't even ask much in the way of questions first.
I lost 2 and a half feet of intestine. They said if I had waited even a little bit longer, I might have a bag instead of being normal. 20 to 30 minutes more and I would have died.
Although Joe gives caveats, and kidney stones are about as painful of a thing that a large number of people experience, it is not the 10 when they ask you where your level of pain is.
Holy shit. Just reading this comment section makes me think I've had a really easy life, or I'm a wimp, or both.