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Quickie: Kiss the Sheff April 22, 2009

Posted by tomflesher in Baseball.
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Why is Gary Sheffield employed for the league minimum when Barry Bonds can’t get a job?

Sheffield had a Batting Average, On-Base Percentage, Slugging Percentage and On-Base Plus Slugging of .225/.326/.400/.725 in 2008; Bonds was last active in 2007 and hit .276/.480/.565/1.045 (with the .480 OBP leading the National League). Clearly, something’s wrong. Collusion?

What’s wrong, in my estimation, is still that Bonds represents a negative externality on his team’s production, reputation, and revenue; Sheffield, meanwhile, is less of a threat to ticket sales. Despite being unpopular and saying bizarre things, Sheffield has not yet to my knowledge irritated fans to the extent that Bonds has, nor is he quite the clubhouse menace Bonds is said to be.

Of course, time will tell whether Sheffield produces $400,000 worth of runs for the ailing Mets.

So why doesn't Nick Swisher pitch every night? April 15, 2009

Posted by tomflesher in Baseball.
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Nick Swisher pitched for the first time in the major leagues on Monday night during the Yankees’ 15-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. As you can see from the box score, Swish pitched pretty well. In fact, in 22 pitches, he gave up only one hit and one walk, threw 12 strikes, and struck out a major-league batter (left-fielder Gabe Kapler). So, will Yankees manager Joe Girardi tap him in relief again soon?

No, of course not. Find out why behind the cut.

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The Misery Index April 2, 2009

Posted by tomflesher in Academia, Economics, US Politics.
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The Misery Index is a measure of national economic health derived by adding the unemployment rate to the rate of inflation. It was famously used by Jimmy Carter to declare that Gerald Ford, under whom the rate had risen to 12.5%, had no right to run the country, and then by Ronald Reagan to declare that Carter was unfit for the presidency after it rose to over 20%. (It’s available in real time at MiseryIndex.us.) (more…)