Is Kevin Garnett Happy?

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/kevin-garnett-crosses-line-with-carmelo-anthony-14958811

I watched the 2nd half of the Clippers vs. Celtics game on Sunday February 3rd. The Celtics were victorious 106-104 after losing a double digit lead. As players of the opposing teams exchanged hugs and semi-elaborate handshakes Kevin Garnett walked alone to the locker room. This made me ponder, is Kevin Garnett happy?

During the 2nd quarter Garnett was involved in two physical plays. Drawing a foul on Matt Barnes, by over-acting. And he earned a technical foul for elbowing Blake Griffin. In both of these situations his teammates came to assist him, but he seemed to not let the issue go. While Griffin and Barnes talked to teammates, Garnett just stood angrily staring into the distance.

The Boston Celtics won, but this did not seem to make him happy. Much has been made lately about his trash talking and how he is a player that you want on your team, but hate if he is on your opponent. Regardless of this, is he happy? It sure does not seem like it. Garnett's playing days are numbered and he will journey into the next stage of his life with a lot of money (close to $300 million in salary), but with how many good memories while playing? Will he be a secluded ex-player or turn into a lovable legend for his dedication to the game...see Bill Russell, Michael Jordan?

I doubt that he will be remembered as well as Russell or Jordan because he has been involved in more drama on the court. Plus, he has not won as much as those two players. If he will not be remember that way then it will be as a over-reacting trash-talking fierce competitor that many fans hate.

We idolize these fierce competitors that will do anything to win. But, is this the message that we want to send to future generations. Do you want your son or daughter to grow up and be like Kevin Garnett?

Perhaps you might, from a athletic standpoint. But what about as a person?

Kevin Garnett legacy will be as great basketball player and ....... the rest is still up to him and I hope it is not too late for him to become a person that future generations should strive to become.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/09/25/nba-to-crack-down-on-overt-complaining/

President Taft

I love the National Presidential Race, even though it is a copy of the Sausage Race in Milwaukee. There was the excitement when Teddy Roosevelt won for the 1st time EVER. The most recent story line in the Presidential Race is that a new President will partake in the race. 27th President William Howard Taft. 

Susan Walsh

Congratulations to William Howard Taft's family, he deserves to be idolized in a way that isn't for getting stuck in the White House bathtub only to be removed by aides using butter for lubrication. William Howard Taft was a great lawyer and a less accomplished President, losing a bid for re-election. He was the only President to later serve on the Supreme Court. 

 But, does Taft deserve this honor? The four other participants of the race are Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. These four presidents have their flaws, but are very highly regarded. Taft's accomplishments do not compare to winning the Revolutionary War, writing the Declaration of Independence, signing the 13 Amendment, or establishing the National Park System.  

 The argument for Taft is that he has strong connections to baseball, he was the first President to throw out a first pitch. Other President's might have done this if the game had been more popular at his time. We are giving credit for a ceremonial duty. What about F.D.R.? A popular president, was elected 4 times. Plus we could show some diversity by including a President in a wheelchair.

C-SPAN Presidential Rankings 

President's Name	2009 Final Score	Overall Ranking
		2009	2000
Abraham Lincoln	902	1	1
George Washington	854	2	3
Franklin D. Roosevelt	837	3	2
Theodore Roosevelt	781	4	4
Harry S. Truman	708	5	5
John F. Kennedy	701	6	8
Thomas Jefferson	698	7	7
Dwight D. Eisenhower	689	8	9
Woodrow Wilson	683	9	6
Ronald Reagan	671	10	11
Lyndon B. Johnson	641	11	10
James K. Polk	606	12	12
Andrew Jackson	606	13	13
James Monroe	605	14	14
Bill Clinton	605	15	21
William McKinley	599	16	15
John Adams	545	17	16
George H. W. Bush	542	18	20
John Quincy Adams	542	19	19
James Madison	535	20	18
Grover Cleveland	523	21	17
Gerald R. Ford	509	22	23
Ulysses S. Grant	490	23	33
William Howard Taft	485	24	24

Historians would agree with me about other Presidents being more deserving of this honor. In a C-SPAN poll completed by historians in 2009 and 2000 ranked Taft 24th. Notable Presidents I would have chosen are F.D.R.(in the wheelchair), J.F.K.(because I love initials, in a convertible), Ronald Reagan (demented and always running the wrong direction), or Andrew Jackson. Jackson, noted Native-American slayer, could be included now that the Nationals do not play in the same park as the Redskins.

Nationals you had marketing gold with Teddy Roosevelt last year and you could have ridden that train longer. Including, Taft is a attention grab that lacks good judgement on your choice of a President. Overall, I applaud the Nationals' effort in adding excitement to the ballpark experience, but choose more wisely. 

Give Kenny Lofton Some Hall of Fame Love

http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2007/07/uploft.jpj.jpg

Kenny Lofton was a damn good centerfielder. After the shambolic votes for this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame were reported, I was sad to see that Kenny Lofton would not be on the ballot again in the future. He deserved a better fate and more recognition. Instead his career got caught up in the incessant arguments about the steroid era and he will never get is due.

Kenny Kenny, as I like to refer to him, was the catalyst to the great Cleveland Indians offense in the mid-90s. I will always remember him with his big hitch in his left-handed swing mashing balls to right and slashing others to left. I’ll also remember him for the swagger he played the game with and especially that awesome gold diamond pendant with the “K” in the middle (That pendant was boss and I’m glad to see it is Kenny’s background photo for his Twitter account). He was a great centerfielder with prototypical leadoff skills.

Kenny broke finally broke into the league in 1991 after being in the minors for a few years and finishing a great college BASKETBALL career at Arizona. Yes, basketball. Kenny Lofton did not even play baseball until his junior year of college and he was drafted that year by the Astros (he played minor league ball that summer, but went back to UA to get his degree and finish his senior season of basketball). Kenny Kenny hit his stride until 1992 when he was traded to the Indians. In 1992, he ended with 6.3 WAR (calculatedby FanGraphs) and followed that up with a 7.3 WAR season in 1993 and a 6.9 in 1994. According to FanGraphs rule-of-thumb WAR chart, those are three MVP type seasons during Kenny’s first three full seasons in the bigs. Pretty freaking good. Kenny followed that up with three more “Superstar” and “All-Star” seasons during his career.

    Kenny Lofton's WAR by Year

           Year  WAR  Caliber

     1993  7.3  MVP

     1994  6.9  MVP

     1992  6.3  MVP

     1998  5.9  Superstar 

     1997  5.5  Superstar

     1996  5.1  Superstar

     1999  4.8  All-Star

     2003  4.4  All-Star

     1995  4.1  All-Star

     2005  3.9  Good Player

     2000  3.1  Good Player

     2007  2.8  Solid Starter

     2002  2.6  Solid Starter

     2006  1.6  Role Player

     2001  1.5  Role Player

     2004  0.5  Scrub

When evaluating a player’s career, I don’t really like to count the number of MVPs, Gold Gloves, All-Star appearances, etc. because they all have qualitative elements that depend on who was voting for those awards. Instead I prefer to look at career WAR and use that to compare players of the generation of interest. I define a generation of players as those who careers either start or end during the career of the player being evaluated. For example, Kenny Lofton’s generation of players are those whose careers included playing between 1992 and 2007. The first season that Kenny Lofton logged more than 130 at bats (thus, making him ineligible for the Rookie of the Year award) was 1992 (the same year he lit Cleveland on fire with a 6.3 WAR). And Kenny’s last season was 2007. Therefore, his generation of players includes any players that played at least one season between 1992 and 2007.

Now that we defined Kenny’s generation of players lets see how he stacks up against them in Career WAR (cWAR). Kenny’s career ended with him accumulating 66.3 cWAR, which is ranked 40^th amongst batters in his generation. By comparison, Kenny’s cWAR is less than Gary Sheffield (66.6) and Dave Winfield (67.7), but greater than Sammy Sosa (64.2) and Andre Dawson (62.9). Not to shabby.

If we look at Kenny compared to other centerfielders of his generation we more of his true value. I always like to compare players to others who played the same position. I think it gives a more fair assessment of how this player compared to his peers. First baseman and centerfielders are going to have very different profiles. When comparing Kenny to other CFs, he has the 4^th highest cWAR of players who careers spanned 1992-2007. Ken Griffey, Jr. is number one in cWAR, accumulating 85.2 wins, followed by Andruw Jones (67.9) and Jim Edmonds (66.8).

Kenny Lofton was a damn good player and a borderline Hall of Famer. I’m going to reserve judgment on whether or not I truly think he deserves to be in the Hall until I get some better perspective on the cWAR of other centerfielders already in the Hall of Fame. I big factor here is whether or not Andruw Jones and Jim Edmonds are Hall of Famers also. Regardless, I will always remember Kenny Kenny for his big hitch from the left hand side, his awesome pendant, and for motoring around the bases with his helmet ready to fall of at any second. I hope one day Kenny gets the recognition from baseball fans he deserves. At the very least he deserves to be in the discussion for the Hall of Fame for more time.

You got what you deserve, Ryan Klesko

I hope you are not disappointed Ryan.  You aren’t a Hall of Famer in my book either.  Every Saturday Doug, Joe, and I rode our bikes to the baseball card store in the blazing heat of a Florida summer hoping to get your autograph on one of the 10 rookie cards of yours that we had.  And every Saturday you never showed up.  After about two months, we began to suspect that Al, the baseball card shop owner, might not be telling the truth about you coming to sign cards for us.  I mean it was the summer and you were obviously a baseball player, so in retrospect I’m not sure exactly how you would have ever made an appearance.  But Al had Mortal Kombat and common cards that we could stupidly purchase for pennies that would allow us to complete our sets of Upper Deck and Topps.  He couldn’t be lying to us.  Well Ryan, whatever the deal was, I have never forgiven you, and I’m glad that when I looked at the Hall of Fame voting today I saw that you did not receive one vote.  You didn’t deserve any.  Don’t disappoint children, even if it isn’t your fault.

3B for the Yankees

With A-Rod out indefinitely the Yankees need to find a replacement. They do not want to spend a lot of money and Jayson Nix / Eduardo Nunez / Eric Chavez will not fill void especially if Nix and Nunez need to fill in for Jeter.

Chavez does well versus right-handed pitchers. He his .299 with a .366 OBP and a .545 slugging. Against lefties he did not do as well .152 AVG, .231 OBP, and a .152 last year. For his career .275, .356 OBP, and a .501 SLG. He needs a platoon partner and my suggestion is Jeff Keppinger.

Keppinger is a free-agent, which is great for the Yankees since they don't have many trade chips. He also should come at a relatively cheap price, 2012 salary was 1.52 million, while posting a 2.8 WAR. His slash line last year was .376 / .402 / .521 vs left-handed pitchers. .302 / .352 / .403 vs righties. For his career he has a slash line of .333 / .376 / .487 against lefties.

Keppinger also provides some position flexibility with his ability to play short and second base.

NBA Notes 10/31

I was not ready for the NBA season to start. I wasn't missing out on any physical preparation, it was being mentally ready to see NBA basketball or any basketball. The World Series just ended and Football is mid-season. Can't the NBA start be pushed back? Last year it seemed as if your team was playing every other night , it was comparable to the circadian rhythm of baseball. This year, as well as most years in the NBA, there is no rhythm to the teams schedule.

I was able to watch some of the 0-1 Lakers take on the Blazers. Steve Nash was out with a sore leg, but it would not have made much of a difference since they seem to not use Steve Nash's set of skills. Pau Gasol did not impress me and hasn't since my brother played NBA 2K 9 and blocked me 12 times in a game with Gasol. I don't see a player that takes over games, I see an okay defender that the Blazers were going at most times down the floor. On offense he disappeared. Metta World Peace did look different with a clean shaven face, but was still old and scary when the basketball is in his hands.

The Lakers looked horrible on defense and I link it to Dwight Howard. I don't think it is Dwight's fault either. He looks injured. He hobbles as he runs the floor and does not seem to have the incredible athleticism that we expect from Dwight. Maybe this is the end of his athleticism, or maybe he will recover from his surgery. Seeing him in purple and gold made me think of Shaq, and not the athletic Shaq, but the out of shape Shaq. The Lakers are a team of flaws especially on the defensive end and Dwight was supposed to make up for those issues. That seems like to big of a task for him to take on at this point.

Talk to me

GO UCF