I took some photos at the titletown extravaganza. But, truthfully, they aren't very good. Only about half of them are even somewhat decent. There were just too many heads popping in and out of my camera view.
So, instead of posting my pictures...I'll just link you to better pictures.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Titletown!
We won! ESPN's summer promotion, Titletown, concluded today at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium at 2 pm eastern (it aired about 15 minutes ago on the 6:00 Sportscenter). I'm glad they didn't do it live, that was crazy.
With only 48 hours notice, the word quickly spread that ESPN's Wendy Nix was coming back to Valdosta (of course this lead to the assumptions...would they come all the way back for second place?). We were all there. Valdosta High, Lowndes High, Georgia Christian, Valwood, Valdosta State, Open Bible. It was awesome. During football season we are as segregated as can be, Valdosta hates Lowndes and vice versa. But there was none of that today. We assembled in that stadium, supporting our different school colors, but we are united this time. We are Titletown.
It was extremely hot, but no one seemed to care, at least they didn't show it. My experience at the stadium ultimately defines "organized chaos". It was chaos organized by ESPN. ESPN told us to scream when the camera came by our faces (I was on the 40 yard line). Then they told us to be quiet so Wendy could interview Jesse, then ESPN told us to go crazy again. Then ESPN told us to watch at 6 pm. Then ESPN told us the trophy will be displayed on the field for us to take pictures. Then, after I reached the field finally and headed towards the long crowd around the trophy, they told us the trophy had to go in 5 minutes....? Wow, thanks a lot.
We took some pictures but have not yet downloaded them. I'll share as soon as I get the chance (which, quite honestly, will probably be Wednesday, I'm slammed tomorrow).
Oh, and for those of you traveling to (or just passing by) Valdosta on I-75, you'll see a new sign. What does the new sign say?
Welcome to Valdosta.
Titletown, USA.
With only 48 hours notice, the word quickly spread that ESPN's Wendy Nix was coming back to Valdosta (of course this lead to the assumptions...would they come all the way back for second place?). We were all there. Valdosta High, Lowndes High, Georgia Christian, Valwood, Valdosta State, Open Bible. It was awesome. During football season we are as segregated as can be, Valdosta hates Lowndes and vice versa. But there was none of that today. We assembled in that stadium, supporting our different school colors, but we are united this time. We are Titletown.
It was extremely hot, but no one seemed to care, at least they didn't show it. My experience at the stadium ultimately defines "organized chaos". It was chaos organized by ESPN. ESPN told us to scream when the camera came by our faces (I was on the 40 yard line). Then they told us to be quiet so Wendy could interview Jesse, then ESPN told us to go crazy again. Then ESPN told us to watch at 6 pm. Then ESPN told us the trophy will be displayed on the field for us to take pictures. Then, after I reached the field finally and headed towards the long crowd around the trophy, they told us the trophy had to go in 5 minutes....? Wow, thanks a lot.
We took some pictures but have not yet downloaded them. I'll share as soon as I get the chance (which, quite honestly, will probably be Wednesday, I'm slammed tomorrow).
Oh, and for those of you traveling to (or just passing by) Valdosta on I-75, you'll see a new sign. What does the new sign say?
Welcome to Valdosta.
Titletown, USA.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
The Author Speaks (a.ka. - the mystery game)...
I've been busy defending myself on the web. It was an honest mistake. Here's the story.
As many of you know...Valdosta is in the running for Titletown, USA at ESPN. On the voting page they just happen to choose my essay as the featured essay (truthfully though, it's only about 1/3 of it, as they cut off all of the good meat, leaving only my introduction).
I felt kind of honored (I guess) that my essay was the one chosen. But there is a slight problem with this...there is an error in my introduction. The two teams never actually played each other (I'll get onto why I said they did in a little bit). Although I didn't know this at the time (I mean, c'mon, I wasn't even alive in 1971) but the High School National Championship game is just voted upon, never actually played.
OK, so what made me think that they did play? Did I just make that up? Well, no. You see, before typing an essay like that I want to make sure I have all my facts straight so I don't make a fool of myself (uh...too late for that???). I stumbled across a webpage that featured a downloadable boxscore (scroll down on the page) for Valdosta High School Wildcats vs. T.C. Williams High School in 1971.
Long story short, I leave town for a week, come back, check the voting, and I'm getting all kinds of interesting replies (mostly individuals from Virginia upset that their team lost a game that wasn't really played, but you can throw in a few upset Valdostans because I "made a fool of the Valdosta Titletown page").
Turns out...I should have read the website more carefully. If I would have read the other matchups more closely, I would have noticed some of the 2004 Team X verses 1995 Team Z box scores.
Anyways, I'm kind of embarassed to say the least. But I guess I want you to know that I wasn't tipsy, or as one comment read, "a red-neck football fan in the south with just 4 teeth".
I was actually using a source (though - not a very good one). That's what I get for being in a hurry I guess.
Sorry to the Valdosta fans for "ruining the Titletown page" and sorry to my friends in Virginia (but they probably won't call me a friend) for claiming that your team lost a game it really didn't.
I hope I have explained that the mistake I made was an honest one. I did not look at the other matchups with boxscores until it was too late.
I have sent an email to ESPN asking them to select another essay as featured article and kindly take mine down, but being that there are two days left in the voting, it's probably too late.
It's a weird sequence of events - Friends ask me to write essay, I write essay, friends get upset at my essay. Oh well.
I do want to thank those of you who have kindly understood and accepted my apology. As I have noted, I didn't pull anything out of the air, I mistakingly thought I had a reliable source.
To the few of you in Virginia who haven't accepted my apology and insist on continuously insulting me in the comments section, on your own blogs, or wherever else...all I can say is...well...the ball is in your court. I've apologized, so what you do with that apology is up to you.
Sorry peeps!
I'm probably the last one you want to hear this from, but Vote for Valdosta - Titletown. Rumor is we are doing well.
As many of you know...Valdosta is in the running for Titletown, USA at ESPN. On the voting page they just happen to choose my essay as the featured essay (truthfully though, it's only about 1/3 of it, as they cut off all of the good meat, leaving only my introduction).
I felt kind of honored (I guess) that my essay was the one chosen. But there is a slight problem with this...there is an error in my introduction. The two teams never actually played each other (I'll get onto why I said they did in a little bit). Although I didn't know this at the time (I mean, c'mon, I wasn't even alive in 1971) but the High School National Championship game is just voted upon, never actually played.
OK, so what made me think that they did play? Did I just make that up? Well, no. You see, before typing an essay like that I want to make sure I have all my facts straight so I don't make a fool of myself (uh...too late for that???). I stumbled across a webpage that featured a downloadable boxscore (scroll down on the page) for Valdosta High School Wildcats vs. T.C. Williams High School in 1971.
Long story short, I leave town for a week, come back, check the voting, and I'm getting all kinds of interesting replies (mostly individuals from Virginia upset that their team lost a game that wasn't really played, but you can throw in a few upset Valdostans because I "made a fool of the Valdosta Titletown page").
Turns out...I should have read the website more carefully. If I would have read the other matchups more closely, I would have noticed some of the 2004 Team X verses 1995 Team Z box scores.
Anyways, I'm kind of embarassed to say the least. But I guess I want you to know that I wasn't tipsy, or as one comment read, "a red-neck football fan in the south with just 4 teeth".
I was actually using a source (though - not a very good one). That's what I get for being in a hurry I guess.
Sorry to the Valdosta fans for "ruining the Titletown page" and sorry to my friends in Virginia (but they probably won't call me a friend) for claiming that your team lost a game it really didn't.
I hope I have explained that the mistake I made was an honest one. I did not look at the other matchups with boxscores until it was too late.
I have sent an email to ESPN asking them to select another essay as featured article and kindly take mine down, but being that there are two days left in the voting, it's probably too late.
It's a weird sequence of events - Friends ask me to write essay, I write essay, friends get upset at my essay. Oh well.
I do want to thank those of you who have kindly understood and accepted my apology. As I have noted, I didn't pull anything out of the air, I mistakingly thought I had a reliable source.
To the few of you in Virginia who haven't accepted my apology and insist on continuously insulting me in the comments section, on your own blogs, or wherever else...all I can say is...well...the ball is in your court. I've apologized, so what you do with that apology is up to you.
Sorry peeps!
I'm probably the last one you want to hear this from, but Vote for Valdosta - Titletown. Rumor is we are doing well.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Valdosta - Titletown, USA
I was at camp all this week, but that didn't stop me for looking for some of you on the TV cast which can be found all over the web.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Titletown USA
Reminders like this have been going around Lowndes County like crazy today, so if this is the 27,000th time you've been reminded about this, my apologies.
But don't forget - ESPN will be at Bazemore-Hyder stadium at 5:00, tailgates start as early as 3:30 from what I hear.
They'll be here filming the Valdosta segment of Titletown, USA, since Valdosta is one of the top 25 finalists.
But don't forget - ESPN will be at Bazemore-Hyder stadium at 5:00, tailgates start as early as 3:30 from what I hear.
They'll be here filming the Valdosta segment of Titletown, USA, since Valdosta is one of the top 25 finalists.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Bad deal
It's been awhile, and I don't really have time for an extremely informative post, I'm a little bit behind after my recent trip to see the last 3 Braves games.
Well, I hate to end on a sour note, and I especially hate to have a negative reaction on Mark Teixeira since he was the hero of last night's marathon. But have you seen what the Brewers gave up for Sabathia? Compare that with what the Mets gave up for Santana, and yes, well, we gave up way to much for 1.5 years of Tex.
Well, I hate to end on a sour note, and I especially hate to have a negative reaction on Mark Teixeira since he was the hero of last night's marathon. But have you seen what the Brewers gave up for Sabathia? Compare that with what the Mets gave up for Santana, and yes, well, we gave up way to much for 1.5 years of Tex.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Putting the Braves in perspective...
It's been awhile since I've posted anything. Sorry, for those of you who missed me. If you didn't miss me, then why are you reading?
The Problem
I heard someon mention at our softball game yesterday that they now no longer care if the Braves win, as long as Chipper gets 2 hits. That's a pretty good intro...
Look, I'm not the biggest fan of Pythagorean Records. Why? Well, the Braves' Pythagorean Record tells us we are one of the better teams in the league.
Um, sorry, but we aren't. I don't need a math formula to tell me otherwise.
Sure, it's nice to know where our record "should" be. But it all boils down to the fact that we aren't there.
We have a super utility and a backup infielder splitting time in LF. We have the league's worst right fielder. We only have 1, arguably 2-3 if you count the LOOGYs, reliever who can be labeled "reliable." We have only one starter who can go past the 6th consistently. We only have 2 starters that can go past the 5th consistently.
Sorry Mr. James, but the above is not a formula for success. Common sense beats the calculator here.
Is it that bad?
Probably not, but we'll see in September. I hear a lot of moaning and groaning about 1 run losses. There is some validity in those groans (we do need a better bullpen, for example) I like how Bobby worded it in an interview yesterday when he said "we're in every game". By that he means, we don't get blown out, yesterday's game excluded which is bound to happen every now and then. I do think it is a positive sign that we really don't get destroyed that much in our games this season.
The injuries are going to happen. In the 90s it seemed like we never lost a key player for an extended period of time (Justice, Galaragga, and Smoltz are the only ones I can think of in about 10 seconds of thinking.). Since we were a bit injury lucky in the 90s it seems to be catching up with us in the current decade. Is it random chance? Possibly. However Smoltz of this decade is 10 years older than Smoltz of last decade. Plus, Leo Mazzone has a better (I'd argue - The best) philosophy of pitcher maintenance which he documents in his book (oh and by the way, he's available to return to coaching). Still, injuries are going to happen.
Where do we go from here?
We probably need to think about restocking on prospects more than we have been. I'm not saying we should forfeit the season, but there are going to be a lot of changes in the next 2 offseasons with a lot of money to spend. Plus, IMHO, we haven't fully recovered from the prospect drainage in the Tex trade.
We paid too much for him. I'm sorry to those who disagree, there are plenty who do. If you don't believe that we paid to much, compare that trade to the Johan Santana trade, or the Bedard trade. The Dan Haren trade?
Yeah, we gave up too much. Oh, and don't look now but Salty has been sporting a nice OPS+.
So where do we go from here?
I do think there are a few things that could be done to get a few more wins out of this squad.
The first issue I see is the Lineup. If you ask 10 different Braves fans what the lineup should be, you'll probably get 10 different answers, regardless if the fan is a Bill James junky or not. It's tough to build a lineup on stats when stats are changing after every game. Still, the Braves have a problem in this area. Our two best hitters (Chipper and McCann) rarely hit in the same inning. Frenchy is continually occupying the middle of the order (anybody else noticed he hit 3rd yesterday with Chipper out?) while being a GIDP machine. What a rally killer. Even with Tex heating up we seem to be stranding runners on base like crazy.
I used Baseball Musing's Lineup Simulator, plugged in the stats (I used Hudson's hitting stats for the pitcher spot and I used Infante for the LF spot), and it came up with this lineup:
Chipper
Tex
Infante
B-Mac
Yunel
Frenchy
KJ
Pitcher
Blanco
The simulator is several years old. There might be a better one out there now. But that's the lineup it came up with and its pushes out 5.649 runs/game. You may or may not agree with this. On first glance it looks as if Chipper won't get very many RBIs with the Pitcher and Blanco hitting in front of him. But hey, I can't argue with Chipper getting more at-bats.
The other thing that could use a bit of tweaking is bullpen management. It's tough to say what the future holds for Soriano. Sometimes he feels pain, sometimes he doesn't. I think when Mike Gonzalez comes back many of our problems will be solved. But I question the use of Manny Acosta. He should either be bumped to low leverage situations or demoted to the minors. I'd suspect a move will be made even after Mike Gonzalez returns. There is way too much unreliability out there. Bennett and the 2 LOOGYs are the only ones that don't drive me crazy right now.
Soo...
The longer we stay at .500 the tougher the road is for us in August and September. Right now we've played 65 games. Not exactly the halfway point but close enough. If the Phillies play .500 ball for the rest of the season they'll end up with 87 wins (I had the Phillies at 90 wins at the beginning of the season).
For the Braves to end the season with 87 wins they'll have to play win .567 of the time. Can we play .567 while they play .500?
I guess we'll have to wait and see.
The Problem
I heard someon mention at our softball game yesterday that they now no longer care if the Braves win, as long as Chipper gets 2 hits. That's a pretty good intro...
Look, I'm not the biggest fan of Pythagorean Records. Why? Well, the Braves' Pythagorean Record tells us we are one of the better teams in the league.
Um, sorry, but we aren't. I don't need a math formula to tell me otherwise.
Sure, it's nice to know where our record "should" be. But it all boils down to the fact that we aren't there.
We have a super utility and a backup infielder splitting time in LF. We have the league's worst right fielder. We only have 1, arguably 2-3 if you count the LOOGYs, reliever who can be labeled "reliable." We have only one starter who can go past the 6th consistently. We only have 2 starters that can go past the 5th consistently.
Sorry Mr. James, but the above is not a formula for success. Common sense beats the calculator here.
Is it that bad?
Probably not, but we'll see in September. I hear a lot of moaning and groaning about 1 run losses. There is some validity in those groans (we do need a better bullpen, for example) I like how Bobby worded it in an interview yesterday when he said "we're in every game". By that he means, we don't get blown out, yesterday's game excluded which is bound to happen every now and then. I do think it is a positive sign that we really don't get destroyed that much in our games this season.
The injuries are going to happen. In the 90s it seemed like we never lost a key player for an extended period of time (Justice, Galaragga, and Smoltz are the only ones I can think of in about 10 seconds of thinking.). Since we were a bit injury lucky in the 90s it seems to be catching up with us in the current decade. Is it random chance? Possibly. However Smoltz of this decade is 10 years older than Smoltz of last decade. Plus, Leo Mazzone has a better (I'd argue - The best) philosophy of pitcher maintenance which he documents in his book (oh and by the way, he's available to return to coaching). Still, injuries are going to happen.
Where do we go from here?
We probably need to think about restocking on prospects more than we have been. I'm not saying we should forfeit the season, but there are going to be a lot of changes in the next 2 offseasons with a lot of money to spend. Plus, IMHO, we haven't fully recovered from the prospect drainage in the Tex trade.
We paid too much for him. I'm sorry to those who disagree, there are plenty who do. If you don't believe that we paid to much, compare that trade to the Johan Santana trade, or the Bedard trade. The Dan Haren trade?
Yeah, we gave up too much. Oh, and don't look now but Salty has been sporting a nice OPS+.
So where do we go from here?
I do think there are a few things that could be done to get a few more wins out of this squad.
The first issue I see is the Lineup. If you ask 10 different Braves fans what the lineup should be, you'll probably get 10 different answers, regardless if the fan is a Bill James junky or not. It's tough to build a lineup on stats when stats are changing after every game. Still, the Braves have a problem in this area. Our two best hitters (Chipper and McCann) rarely hit in the same inning. Frenchy is continually occupying the middle of the order (anybody else noticed he hit 3rd yesterday with Chipper out?) while being a GIDP machine. What a rally killer. Even with Tex heating up we seem to be stranding runners on base like crazy.
I used Baseball Musing's Lineup Simulator, plugged in the stats (I used Hudson's hitting stats for the pitcher spot and I used Infante for the LF spot), and it came up with this lineup:
Chipper
Tex
Infante
B-Mac
Yunel
Frenchy
KJ
Pitcher
Blanco
The simulator is several years old. There might be a better one out there now. But that's the lineup it came up with and its pushes out 5.649 runs/game. You may or may not agree with this. On first glance it looks as if Chipper won't get very many RBIs with the Pitcher and Blanco hitting in front of him. But hey, I can't argue with Chipper getting more at-bats.
The other thing that could use a bit of tweaking is bullpen management. It's tough to say what the future holds for Soriano. Sometimes he feels pain, sometimes he doesn't. I think when Mike Gonzalez comes back many of our problems will be solved. But I question the use of Manny Acosta. He should either be bumped to low leverage situations or demoted to the minors. I'd suspect a move will be made even after Mike Gonzalez returns. There is way too much unreliability out there. Bennett and the 2 LOOGYs are the only ones that don't drive me crazy right now.
Soo...
The longer we stay at .500 the tougher the road is for us in August and September. Right now we've played 65 games. Not exactly the halfway point but close enough. If the Phillies play .500 ball for the rest of the season they'll end up with 87 wins (I had the Phillies at 90 wins at the beginning of the season).
For the Braves to end the season with 87 wins they'll have to play win .567 of the time. Can we play .567 while they play .500?
I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
