Fantastic Chavez

Over at Catfish Stew, Ken Arneson is feeling pious: Praise Be for Eric Chavez, Deity of Fielding

Eric Chavez... is simply having the most astounding season of fielding I have ever had the pleasure to witness. Great fielding seasons don't get the kind of attention that having a bunch of walkoff hits like David Ortiz gets, but after last night's game, it's obvious to me the Chavez is having a season for the history books. This is defense of Ozzie Smith-Brooks Robinson-Bill Mazeroski's ilk, the kind of defense that deserves to be remembered for generations.

...

The latest jaw-dropper took place last night. With one out, runners on second and third, and Texas one run down, Chavez took a chopper near the bag, and quickly tagged out Mark DeRosa trying to return to third base. Now, I can't ever remember seeing a 5-unassisted at third base like that before, but Chavez didn't stop there. After tagging out DeRosa, he jumped over him into foul territory, planted his feet, and fired across the diamond to throw out the batter, Ian Kinsler. Double play, inning over.

I'd have to agree. He's been amazing at third base, but he's still not so hot at the plate. Here's another look at his OPS, this time by month:

Apr: 1.083
May: .770
Jun: .609
Jul: .614
Aug: .451 (to date)

The team is playing well, the defense is fantastic and the pitching has been good. But the A's need some offense from Chavez.

He only has two multi-hit games since June 16 and 5 RBIs over that same strech. We just need more.

Too Many Non-Readers

Marc's "Advice for Authors" post pointed me to Seth Godin's "Advice for Authors", which in turn pointed me to the following stats from Para Publishing:

<> 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.

<> 42% of college graduates never read another book.

<> 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.

I find that terrifying. I have a wishlist on Amazon with over $1,000 worth of books I want to read. I have no storage in my Manhattan apartment, in part because every nook and cranny is filled with books, books, books. I spend my commute on the subway reading books. I'm going on vacation later this month, and I'm excited to have more time to read books.

Who are these people that don't read? What's wrong with them? (And are they asking the same thing about me?)

Motherload Victory!

Well, I destroyed my previous high score and bested Marc. That's 73.8 million in motherload. And with that, I'm announcing my permanent retirement from the game.

The Struggles of Eric Chavez

I'm clearly late to the "Eric Chavez is hurt and struggling" party. But the table below is an interesting look at this year compared to last for Chavez. Both lines are the ten-game rolling OPS for Chavez throughout the season. Last year, he started slow, got extremely hot in early June and then played decent ball the rest of the way, save a little untimely hiccup in early September.

This year, he started hot and has essentially gotten worse every day. July has been rock bottom. Chavez has to get healthy and return to something like his normal self if the A's are going to have any real shot at the postseason. None of this is new, but like I said, it's an interesting way to look at the data.

Damn You Marc!

Yesterday, Marc emailed me a link for Motherload. It's a fun little game that you can really sink some time into.

I played for a while last night, staying up well past the witching hour. I took a little screenshot of my progress before I called it quits:



I thought my score of 1.2mm was respectable, until marc emailed me his high score: 53 million! Good lord, that's dedication.

Great Experience with JetBlue

Over the last few years, I’ve flown JetBlue a lot - their direct flight from JFK to hometown Oakland has been a personal favorite of mine. I love the TVs, the service and the fact that they’re smart. They get it.

JetBlue used to board their planes from back to front. People sitting in the back rows would be called to board the plane before the people in front of them, etc. That always seemed to me like the most efficient way to board the plane. But instead of merely resting on their laurels, JetBlue actually tested that idea. In the last few months, JetBlue has changed - calling everyone to board the plane all at once.

The first time I saw this new method, I thought they had just screwed up. The second time, I thought they were losing their edge – that they didn’t care about their customers anymore. The third time, my wife and I asked a flight attendant what was going on. Turns out that JetBlue tested the two different boarding methods and the “Every Man for Himself” method of boarding the plane is actually faster.

Kudos, JetBlue, for working hard to make things better.

TBS - Good News or Bad News?

Fox, TBS lead baseball's new 7-year TV deal

"Turner Broadcasting System also will televise 26 regular-season Sunday games in 2008 while eventually cutting back on its nationwide Atlanta Braves coverage."

I've got the MLB extra innings package, which gives me access to just about all of the MLB games on TV. The exceptions are for Fox's national broadcasts. The current blackout rules say, "due to the national exclusivity of both FOX and ESPN, there are no games available for distribution via this package on Saturday day or Sunday night, respectively."

So, the question is - will TBS' Sunday games prevent us from enjoying the rest of the Sunday games? And if they eliminate yet another day of the week from the MLB Extra Innings package (going from 6 days each week to only 5), will they also cut the price of the package by 16%?

(Of course they won't, but a guy can dream.)