First Round Pick Update 1969 League

Posted: October 12, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

The season has started in the 1969 draft league and other than the opening series between the Dodgers and Giants all team have played at least one series, some have finished two and I was curious how the 1st round draft picks of each team have done so far.

9 Position players and 7 pitchers were taken in the 1st round

Here are their current stats

PlayerTeamGABRH2B3BHRRBIBBSOSBCSAVGOBPSLGOBS
Rico PetrocelliNYY62424114.167.167.292.458
Willie McCoveyLAD619361172.316.500.368.868
Harmon KillebrewCle515983752.533,6501.1331,783
Carl YazstremskiMont382221.250.400.250.650
Pete RoseSea625510121522.400.444.7201,164
Frank HowardWash6197105961.526.6671.3161.982
Curt FloodStL5194511411.263.333.421.754
Joe MorganMin515113.067.125.067.192

Clearly Rose and Howard and Killebrew are ruling the roost at this point but so far Joe Morgan is not living up to his potential.

As for the Pitchers…

PitcherTeamGGSCGWLPCTSVBSIPHRERHRBBKBAWHIPERA
Jim PalmerSF0
Andy MessersmithBalt22111.5001512884513.2141.134.80
Phil NiekroCSox22102.000162054137.3031.442.25
Steve CarltonNYM117641114.2071.001.29
Jerry KoosmanOak1101.0005666134.2861.8010.80
Ferguson JenkinsAtl1101.000595335.3912,405.40
Gaylord PerryPit115733114.3181.605.40

Amazingly the pitchers taken in the 1st round are a combined 1-5 in seven starts. Only Niekro and Carlton have ERA’s that are respectable and three pitchers (Niekro, Perry and Jenkins) are all allowing batters to hit over .300 against them. Presumably over the course of the season these numbers will improve.

Now there were 16 players on the various rosters before the 1st round of the draft. Each team was allowed to keep one player from their franchise before the draft. Ten Batter and six pitchers were kept. So how have they done?

PlayerTeamGABRH2B3BHRRBIBBSOSBCSAVGOBPSLGOBS
Bobby BondsSF311 22 1 12 21.182.308 .455.763
Rusty StaubMont393321.333.455.333.788
Boog PowellBalt62547 143.280,379.280.659
Tommy HarperSea62366133411.261.346.381.737
Reggie JacksonOak6191521 157.263.440.474.914
Hank AaronAtl31022 1333.200.357.250.607
Ed BrinkmanWash6241 81 15121.333.360.500.860
Roberto ClementePit31013141.300.500.300.800
Rod CarewTwins621351332.238.269.240.509

It’s worth noting that Even though Eddie Brinkman is clearly doing best with Harper and Jackson as honorable mentions he was primarily drafted for his defense. Here are his stats at SS

PlayerTeamPosGGSInnTotal chancesPOAEDPFPCTRange Factor
Ed BrinkmanWashSS6653371423051.0006,28

Not too shabby at all.

As for the six pitchers

PitcherTeamGGSCGWLPCTSVBSIPHRERHRBBKBAWHIPERA
Fritz PetersonNYY111101.0009311125.1000.561.00
Don SuttonLA
Sam McDowellCle22111.50014 2/31955 214.3221.433.07
Tommy JohnCSox11101.0005822142.3642.403.60
Tom SeaverNYM111101.00093 74.2571.780.00
Bob GibsonStL22111.5001710551314.1690.762.65

This is the opposite of the 1st round picks with almost every starter with a win under his belt a combined 5-2.

Report from Louisiana: On Newspapers

Posted: October 11, 2021 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – I have not read a single paragraph of anything uninterrupted in ten years. Perhaps I exaggerate, but not by much. I live with a “talker.”

I adore my spouse; we have a wonderful relationship. We are best friends. We travel, we go out with friends, we have a great deal in common. We have never had an argument.

But bless his heart, he is a talker.

Already, in the few seconds I’ve typed these few sentences, he has chirped up about tomorrow being Columbus Day and therefore no mail and offered commentary on the baseball game currently on television.

Sunday afternoons are quiet and lazy around here, usually. I like to get my stack of newspapers, lie about, and read them. Sunday afternoon I began with the New York Times (I know, I know…). I like the books section. I started there and tried to dive into a review of two new books about the Constitution and the American Revolution. No more than a paragraph into it, my focus had been interrupted so many times I finally gave up and turned the page.

I moved on to the Arts section and tried to read about three ballet dancers returning to the stage after the pandemic.  I had no better luck.

I tried several other articles before abandoning my paper altogether. I have the same issue when trying to read books. I work around it, I manage, because I know how blessed I am to have him and I love our life together. But geez, it’s hard to concentrate on anything.

Now perhaps he has actually done me a favor, right? I mean, The New York Times? Never in the history of ever has there been a more biased newspaper and so shameless about it. But I do enjoy a brief visit to the dark side now and then and sometimes it is terribly beneficial to read differing points of view.  I’m going to dive back into the Opinion section at some point; I really want to read Ezra Klein’s article about the peril of the Democrat agenda right now. It sounds promising. There is another article with the headline “Should You Care What Athletes Think?”  Nope. I don’t even have to read that one. Don’t care.

I truly miss the days of good, thick, news filled newspapers written by intrepid reporters scouting out sources and armed with little notebooks in their front pockets. The state of our media today is shameful and I wonder how, and when, we got to this point. I’ve been around a long time and read lots of papers, but I guess I just quit paying attention.

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and at Medium; she is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation. Follow her on Instagram @patbecker25 and Twitter @paustin110.

Is This a Bug or a Feature? Covid Edition

Posted: October 11, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

As a general rule if I see a story at Hotair authored by Allahpundit I tend to pass it by, but this caught my eye because it touches on something that I’ve been talking about for a while. After looking at the piece as usual it wasn’t worth my time but the basic point that President Trump made concerning the Trust of the Biden administration is worth touching on.

Both the Biden Administration and their sycophants in the media and big tech have been pushing the vaccine to the nth degree and doing their best to demonize and/or punish anyone in the nation who dare defy their demand to receive said vaccine.

That alone is reason enough to be suspicious but there are two facts here that should be pointed out.

  1. The reason we have these vaccines at all is because of the Actions of the Trump administation to speed up their development and suspend the norms usually followed for vaccines: (Remember Kamala Harris’ very public statement that she would not take a “Trump” Vaccine?)
  2. The fact that Donald Trump was president when the vaccine was released and that Joe Biden is president as the Vaccine is being pushed has no bearing on if the Vaccine safe or effective.

The vaccine doesn’t care who is president, whether or not it’s effective or has side effects, short or long term. The vaccines are what they are for good or ill, only the messaging is different.

I guarantee you that if Trump was in office there would be no shortages of media stories questioning the numbers and even the slightest side effect would be front page news.

That we have reached this point is an indictment of us as a society.

The answer to Durbin’s favorite question for SCOTUS nominees is in: Merrick Garland favors restricting personal freedoms

Posted: October 10, 2021 by John Ruberry in culture, education, News/opinion, politics
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Blogger with Durbin in Chicago in 2019

By John Ruberry

When Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland in the final year of his presidency to replace Antonin Scalia on the US Supreme Court he was hailed by some as a moderate. 

Well “Moderate Merrick,” if he ever existed, is gone. 

Garland’s nomination was never acted upon by the US Senate, which was then in Republican control, and President Trump nominated Neal Gorsuch for the Scalia seat–and the Senate went on to confirm Gorsuch.

Had Garland faced the Senate he might have been asked this question from Sen. Dick Durbin, who is from Garland’s home state of Illinois, “Will you restrict the personal freedoms we enjoy as Americans or will you expand them?” Durbin posed that query to John Roberts during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings sixteen years ago and he has asked the same question, as did his predecessor, Paul Simon, during confirmation hearings for other SCOTUS nominees. 

Well we have the answer to the question that Durbin never asked Garland. Joe Biden’s attorney general favors restricting personal freedoms.

Last week, citing unnamed threats against unnamed school board members, Garland in a memorandum declared, “I am directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, working with each United States Attorney, to convene meetings with federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial leaders in each federal judicial district within 30 days of the issuance of this memorandum.”

In short, Garland is unleashing the FBI against parents who have spoken out against hateful and bigoted Critical Race Theory offal that is being rammed down the throats of their children. Do you want someone like Agent Petty from Ozark showing up at your front door? Clearly Garland is plotting to separate parents from their children. After all, leftists from Karl Marx on have viewed parents as an obstacle to pursuing their goal of a perfect society, which of course is a totalitarian state where the elites, who of course are so much wiser than everyone else, guide the rabble. Yes the rabble. You know, people like me and you, part of a multi-million member conglomeration similar to Ozark’s redneck Langmore clan. That’s how our leftist “betters” see us.

Last month at a Virginia gubernatorial candidate debate, the Democrat nominee, longtime Clintonista Terry McAuliffe, let loose this surprising bit of candidness, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

I believe parents should have the defining voice in school curricula—as do undoubtedly most Americans. 

In his farewell address in 1989 Ronald Reagan said, “And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table.” And that is as it always should be.

But in his first inauguration speech as California governor the Gipper warned, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.”

We now have an attorney general–and a White House administration–that favors restricting freedom.

Don’t look for Durbin to call them out on it.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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