Monday, July 21, 2003
Sports, sports, sports!: Reader No. 1 has some excellent observations on the Celts, Sox and the now famous New Yorker piece on Bill James. Here goes:
"Peter May gives a quick pithy report on the performance of Celtic draft picks Marcus Banks and Brandon Hunter after a week in the summer league. Conclusion: they're doing just about what we thought they would. A Cincinnati hoop junkie familiar with him Hunter say he could be a decent NBA sub, perhaps a poor man's Danny Fortson (that would be OK with me, and a major improvement on the 2002-2003 Vin Baker). He sure had a great week in the summer league!! I nominate him as a Fleet future fan favorite.
"Glad the Celts signed Mark Blount and Walter McCarty; they're good role players and, from a standpoint of financial productivity, Walter was a better choice than Rodney Rodgers, who as others have observed typically played better in his option year with the Celts than in the first year of his new Nets contract. While Rogers would have helped the Celts, I'd argue that re-signing miss looks worse than it really was in light of the Vin Baker disaster.
"Speaking of Vin Baker (again) it is somewhat disturbing to hear in the same Walter returning story that the Celts are thinking about signing Kenny Anderson. It puts up a bigger red flag on Marcus Banks' turnover stats (above) than already exists. Also, last year was Anderson's first as a sub/role player (presumably what he's be this time around in Boston?) and he underperformed for two teams...
"The Red Sox: finally read the Bill James profile in the New Yorker which like MONEYBALL which inspired it, brought back found memories of the early 80s and arrival of a new edition of The Baseball Statistical Abstract. Certainly obvious to see why Dan Shaughnessy enjoyed the article. James and his disciples are as big a threat to sportswriters as they are to scouts, old-school general managers, coaches, etc.
"Good to see SOMEONE (Gordon Edes) observe how much Todd Walker's offense has fallen off in the last 6 weeks. Along with Johnny Damon's season-long ineffectiveness, the weak top-of-lineup goes a long way towards explaining why the team is still 4 games away from the Yanks despite OK starting pitching and much-improved bullpenning. I wouldn't be surprised to see Theo pull a surprise move and add someone at the top of the order on July 31st... check back with the Globe then, but you read it in Hubblog first."
"Peter May gives a quick pithy report on the performance of Celtic draft picks Marcus Banks and Brandon Hunter after a week in the summer league. Conclusion: they're doing just about what we thought they would. A Cincinnati hoop junkie familiar with him Hunter say he could be a decent NBA sub, perhaps a poor man's Danny Fortson (that would be OK with me, and a major improvement on the 2002-2003 Vin Baker). He sure had a great week in the summer league!! I nominate him as a Fleet future fan favorite.
"Glad the Celts signed Mark Blount and Walter McCarty; they're good role players and, from a standpoint of financial productivity, Walter was a better choice than Rodney Rodgers, who as others have observed typically played better in his option year with the Celts than in the first year of his new Nets contract. While Rogers would have helped the Celts, I'd argue that re-signing miss looks worse than it really was in light of the Vin Baker disaster.
"Speaking of Vin Baker (again) it is somewhat disturbing to hear in the same Walter returning story that the Celts are thinking about signing Kenny Anderson. It puts up a bigger red flag on Marcus Banks' turnover stats (above) than already exists. Also, last year was Anderson's first as a sub/role player (presumably what he's be this time around in Boston?) and he underperformed for two teams...
"The Red Sox: finally read the Bill James profile in the New Yorker which like MONEYBALL which inspired it, brought back found memories of the early 80s and arrival of a new edition of The Baseball Statistical Abstract. Certainly obvious to see why Dan Shaughnessy enjoyed the article. James and his disciples are as big a threat to sportswriters as they are to scouts, old-school general managers, coaches, etc.
"Good to see SOMEONE (Gordon Edes) observe how much Todd Walker's offense has fallen off in the last 6 weeks. Along with Johnny Damon's season-long ineffectiveness, the weak top-of-lineup goes a long way towards explaining why the team is still 4 games away from the Yanks despite OK starting pitching and much-improved bullpenning. I wouldn't be surprised to see Theo pull a surprise move and add someone at the top of the order on July 31st... check back with the Globe then, but you read it in Hubblog first."
