• Upton update

    With yet another Rays loss last night, I went fishing for some good news.

    BJ Upton, one of the Rays’ top twenty fielding short stops this year, was moved to third base 12 games ago. The move was made possible with the acquisition of another short stop prospect via trade with Houston. Prior to the trade and subsequent move to 3B, Upton had an error per game rate of .318 (28 errors in 88 games played). Since the move to third base, he has an error per game rate of .167 (2 errors in 12 games played).

    Could this be a sign of things to come? Will Upton make Rays fans forget names like Smith, Sandberg, Castilla, Gonzalez, Blum, and Huff?

    Then again, are either 27 or 51 projected errors in a season acceptable?

  • How do you spell relief?

    Our new to nine daughter was conversing with her mother when the topic turned to dinner. (This was last night, by the way.)

    MOTHER: “Would you like something to eat for dinner Beth?”
    BETH: “No thanks.”
    MOTHER: “Are you sure? Not even a little something from the freezer?”
    BETH: “No, no thanks. If I eat anything else I’ll feel bloated.”
    FATHER (laughing): “Hold on Beth, do you even know what ‘bloated’ means?”
    BETH (snooty): “DAUH!?! It’s when your belly gets so full it starts to stick out and you feel uncomfortable because your pants don’t fit anymore.”

    See there… who says television can’t be educational – even retail advertising.

  • It’s all about me

    Some might say I’m lazy. Some might have the occasion to look at the state of affairs in my yard and agree. I can’t immediately disagree (although we do have the most evenly mowed weeds on the block), but I’d prefer to re-characterize this trait – in the great tradition of the Grand Old Party. Accordingly, I prefer to think of myself as an “economist of effort.”