Sunday Roundup

Wow, I really love Sheldon Q&A, the guy is a A-hole. When someone asks a good question, he goes into his better than you tone, because he doesn't know the answer.  

More and more, it becomes obvious that the depth and quality of the baseball blogs such as letsgotribe.com make the comments of Sheldon Ocker and his colleagues of the baseball press more and more irrelevant.

I have been more stimulated, excited, and informed by the stats, information, and opinions of Ryan and Jay of letsgotribe.com and other baseball blogs in their short history on the Web than by the years of columns by Sheldon Ocker and his fellow local sports columnists.

It's not even close.

Frankly, I'm surprised the old curmudgeon even allowed that question to be printed.  He sounds like a damned fool trying to explain how players contribute to run scoring.  

The interesting thing is that Coco had 90% of his ABs in the #1 or #2 slot -- Michaels only 53%.  Hard to believe that Coco got to second base more than Michaels did when he had Peralta, Pronk and VMart batting right behind him.  

Also, as I'm sure you all know, Bro Jay included, was that Michaels' RC/27 was higher than Coco's last year -- 6.08 to 5.80.  

I wrote Sheldon this afternoon to show him these things.  I also directed him to this blog.  It would be kind of interesting to see him as a member.  

BTW, missin' the idle banter on the Tribe List Jay...  It's just not the same anymore.  Although I do enjoy the blog.  Keep up the good work fellas.  

Glad I wasn't the only one flummoxed by GSB%.  Huh?   We should get Bill James on that one pronto. And if we want cool nicknames, who had a better one than the Bogalusa Bomber.  No need for a PR firm.  Just bring back Mudcat Grant.  He could do an Animal House-style lineup and just apply nicknames to all the newbies.  Pinto anyone?  That'll bring the fans back.

Poppycock.  Fans didn't come last year until August.  And Coco was live and in person every night.

I'm curious also about this supposed "box" that Dolan is in.  It sounds like it boils down to people wanting someone else to spend money recklessly on something YOU want. And hurting "us" in ticket sales?  How lovely, the Royal We!

Ocker sounds like part of a throng egging on jumpers off the Golden Gate bridge.  "Jump, jump, jump (on Kevin Millwood for $60 million, or Trevor Hoffman...give the man $30 million...why do I care!)"

Then after Dolan overpays for the next Lawton, he'll be first in line to stone him.

I'm not in Cleveland, but what is this hard-on Ocker and the pundits have against Dolan?  From this vantage, the team appears to be spending quite wisely.

Really feel a need to share this one.  It's a paste from my old Tribe blog.  I apologize for the length.  

The Most Public Of My Many Humiliations

Posted By Joe Gartrell On 25th July 2004 @ 11:30 In Tribe Report | No Comments

I'm not my favorite Cleveland Indians writer. Sheldon Ocker of The Akron Beacon Journal is. Sometimes I write to Sheldon. A lot of people do. We write to Sheldon, he gives us the golden word, and sometimes he publishes our letters and his responses in the Sunday edition of The Journal. We write to Sheldon, say, on a Tuesday afternoon, when a Tribe question seeps out of our bones and rattles around in our skulls. We type up a letter, send it off, and then all week we worry that maybe we misspelled a word or fired off an embarrassing malapropism. We worry that Sheldon will think we're stupid, or, worse, that we don't know bunk about the Indians.

Finally, Sunday dawdles around. We fix coffee and are wearing sweatpants. Our hair is an unruly mess. We open the paper and see our name. We feel like Lou Merloni when the fans bellow, "Loouuuuu." But quickly, we realize, the fans aren't saying, "Lou." They're booing. Sheldon has disgraced us in the paper.

On a Sunday morning in April, Akron residents awoke to find me impaled, another Ocker victim, in their town square. To them, my skewered head must have been an unsettling sight. The look on the face seemingly frozen while shifting from elation to terror.

For you, reader, I have copied and pasted that horrific transaction with Ocker:

Mr. Ocker:

I've written in the past, suggesting sobriquets for Indians players (example: Jim Humble Assassin Thome, Juan El Conquistador Gonzales) and am assuming you'd like to know how central Ohio will be addressing our first baseman/ DH Travis Hafner. Hope you like it: Travis Half Empty.

Joe Gartrell
Columbus

Dear Joe:

First, your assumption is incorrect.

Second, I think you should tell Travis his new moniker face to face. Maybe he could come up with an appropriate name for you, like Joe "Black Eye, Broken Nose, Fractured Jaw'' Gartrell.

S.O.

Baseball Between The Numbers (look out, it's the NERRRDS!) has a great chapter on player salary and team revenue called "Is Alex Rodriguez Overpaid?"  

The basis for many of the calculations ties into Brad's stock question - from 1998 to 2000 the Indians had to file financial disclosures with the SEC in conjunction with their stock offering.  

For anyone who wants to peek inside the numbers of a baseball team, here are the SEC filings of the Tribe when made its financial disclosures.  I bring your attention to the 10K especially, because it is usually the most comprehensive.  The 8K does quarters.  That is the sum of my financial wherewithall, even after B-school. But if you want to understand an industry, find a company that is a pureplay (i.e., their primary business).  The 10K forces them to review everything, cost structure of the business, revenue streams, litigation, etc.  Don't think companies are being altruistic here...if they aren't forthcoming, the shareholders can sue them into oblivion.  Checks and balances are nice. Are there other publicly-owned teams?  Be cool to compare.

http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=Cleveland+Indians&CIK=&filenum=&State=&a mp;SIC=&owner=include&action=getcompany