High & Inside: 11/08/10

by Justin Bopp on Nov 8, 2010 12:01 PM EST in Daily Box Score

Was this the first full weekend without baseball? Felt like it, and by that I mean, "what a horrible weekend." Here's what we're reading:

Now that the free agent market has opened, fans are awash with certain ideas that sometimes sound good, while others are just popular myths. JC Bradbury discusses them here @ Sabernomics. My favorite is the most common and most obvious:

GMs can buy low and sell high — So, let me get this straight: you think you know when a player is playing above or below his true ability—usually due to a small sample or by using a SGT-approved metric instead of a mainstream statistic—but guys who make a living in baseball completely miss it. For this to work, the GM on the other team has to be a colossal moron. GMs have made mistakes in the past and will make mistakes again, but they’re not dumb enough to act on a meaningless hot/cold streak. You can’t sell high or buy low and profit financially because all GMs understand these things.

Kevin Goldstein ranks the top 11 Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects @ Baseball Prospectus. Thanks to @Sky_Kalkman for the heads up.
Andy over at B-Ref takes a look at HR vs. HBP rates and finds something awesome. Thanks to @tommy_bennett for the heads up.
Nice back-and-forth with Bill James, Tom Tango, and a discussion of whether or not to standardize the rules of baseball.
Rob Neyer discusses what the Giants' title means for the A's, and how a proposed move to San Jose could alter the MLB landscape.

Off Topic & Nerdery after the jump.

Genetically altering humans is a tough enough topic, but "intentionally manipulating Earth’s climate on a planetary scale?" Yikes.
Bad Astronomy Blog looks at a magnificent picture of a galaxy, caught perfectly on-edge as if looking at the ridges of a quarter.
NASA budgets $15 million for hypersonic flight.

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Grammarists:

As used in the article, is it “head’s up” as in, “the up that belongs to the head,” or should it be “heads up,” as in, “multiple heads faced upward?”

Obviously, the origination is actually a command, “move your heads upward!” but in giving credit, (“hey, thanks for the ______ up”), for some reason I want to make it possessive. Comments?

This is what keeps me up at night.

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by Justin Bopp on Nov 8, 2010 1:23 PM EST reply actions

my vote is "heads up"

as in plural of “head”, which should be up, assumedly looking for whatever projectile is headed his/her/their way. And when the acknowledging thanks for said “heads up”, you would just insert the original phrase, “heads up”.

BTW, the only way it could be “head’s up” is if it were a contraction for “head is up” or (like you say) if the head were in possession of the up. I don’t believe that calling out “head(’)s up” is a way of saying “take note of the up that should be possessed by your head”.

while we’re at it, both of these reference the plural meaning rather than the possessive:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/heads-up.html
http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2009/04/heads-up.html

The only people who really know where [the edge] is are the ones who have gone over it.

by SagehenMacGyver47 on Nov 8, 2010 4:07 PM EST up reply actions

This reply is my favorite thing about the internet today.

Many thanks!

by Justin Bopp on Nov 8, 2010 4:16 PM EST up reply actions

"but guys who make a living in baseball completely miss it. For this to work, the GM on the other team has to be a colossal moron"

Well I guess it’s a sad day in baseball now that Minaya no longer has a job.

by Opisgod on Nov 8, 2010 5:29 PM EST reply actions

haha!

Ruthless.

by Justin Bopp on Nov 9, 2010 12:26 AM EST via mobile up reply actions

Booo, J. C. Bradbury. Booo.

It’s impolite of me, but I don’t have a lot of time for someone who is severely wrong about baseball analysis and is constantly suggesting much of what has been produced by the online Sabermetric community must be wrong, without showing why.

Tango and MGL are constantly – politely, but constantly – destroying much of his work.

by Patrick42 on Nov 8, 2010 8:10 PM EST reply actions