Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Metamagical Themas

So I've been reading a book called Metamagical Themas by Douglas Hofstadter and it is something that I am proud to be reading and a task that I would like to replicate at some point in my lifetime.

Not that the book, in an of itself, is a work that I could replicate, but the idea of combining the things that I enjoy and the thoughts that I have into a volume intrigues me. I am not a writer, although I do write. I will leave the "writing" to those in the family with a knack for seeing the beauty in the written word. What I do enjoy, however, is the process of thinking and of organizing those thoughts into coherent phrases. Most of my thoughts seem random and the themas that I would write would attempt to tie together my seemingly odd interests.

All of my interests revolve around the central theme of God's influence and creativity in the areas of our world that we take for granted. In the wikipedia article of Hofstadter it says "Both inside and outside his professional work, Hofstadter is driven by a pursuit of beauty. He seeks beautiful mathematical patterns, beautiful explanations, beautiful typefaces, beautiful sonic patterns in poetry, and so forth. Hofstadter has said of himself, "I'm someone who has one foot in the world of humanities and arts, and the other foot in the world of science.""

My feet are both firmly planted in Christianity, but my eyes survey the world around me, taking it all in. I don't venture forth, but I am constantly increasing the sphere of influence to see God in various places manifested in seemingly disparate ways. That would be the subject matter of my book and we shall see if it ever comes to fruition or merely exists as yet another extension of my sphere.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Goodbye Sunshine

The Indians have officially "given up" on the season. A bit over a week ago they called the current road trip make or break. Three at Chi Sox, 3 at Twinkies, 3 at Tigers. On June 30th, they were 9.5 games back. A 9 game road trip would, if they swept all 3, put them a minimum of 6.5 games back (most likey 4.5 or less) and right back into the thick of things. Instead they were swept by the White Sox and lost 2 of 3 at the Twins. A make or break trip was turned into a fiasco and CC Sabathia was traded to the Brewers.

Say what you will about the trade (CC for 2 top shelf prospects and 2 mid tier guys) but even if the Tribe was only a game or two back, this is a trade I would have thought about making. CC is a great pitcher, I'm not arguing that, but if you look at the status of the Indians at this moment, they are moving into another rebuilding. Whether or not that rebuilding is more of a reloading remains to be seen but let's look at the facts:

1) The closer situation is just not good. Even before Borowski was DFA, 45 saves last year was the definition of anomaly. One time in my lifetime I want to see an Indians CLOSER. Mesa, Wickman, Borowski. Granted Mesa was good, but he died when the team needed him the most. The problem with closers is that they walk a delicate line. On one hand they want to go out and just blow people away with their stuff (see K-Rod, K-Wood, Rivera, Hoffman, Gagne) on the other hand, you can only blow people away with wicked stuff so long before your arm falls off (K-Wood, Gagne). The Tribe, in building for the future, does not want or need a pitcher who just plain dominates for an inning or two, yet. What they need is what they have had in the past, a regular old guy who goes out and guts it out every night. When winning is on the line, they need a psychopathic guy who is about one hic-up from Tommy John surgery. Hopefully they find him.

2) The "core" of the roster is actually VERY small (even smaller now). Grady, Victor...Grady... are the only ones who have been good consistently for a long time and are continuing to get better. The rest of the guys, as much as I love them, are average to slightly above average guys who have the ability to perform at a high level. The issue this year is that the guys around them have returned to their average ways (see 2001-06) and there is no one in AAA who is any better to call up (Asdrubal, Garko, Fausto last year) When you have a low payroll you have to fight it with depth. You can't afford to pay a full team of All-Stars but what you can do is have a few and then have depth at the other positions in AAA so that when one of them sucks, you just send him down and get his replacement. The Tribe needs to extend that core by finding the guys before they are All-Stars and then having more positions solidified so that they can have more than two guys at the same spot in the order and consistently producing.

The best case scenario for the Indians next year and beyond is to continue to build the core and surround it with flashes in the pan and a few journeymen. A core for me is this:
Catcher, 2IF, 2OF, one ace starter, one setup man, and a closer. That's 9 out of 25. The rest of the pieces are effectively inconsequential.

The rest of the starting pitchers will fall into line with a good pitching coach. Look at the Cardinals every single year: even if they were bad on other teams the Cards bring out the best in their pitchers. All you need is one ace. The Tribe has Fausto (and Clifford Lee) so CC was expendable. Good job guys. Hopefully they got another of the 9 needed parts.

The Cubs may just win the World Series this year with these parts:
C- Soto
OF - Soriano
OF - Edmonds
OF - Fukudome
IF - Ramirez
IF - Lee
SP - Zambrano
MR - Marmol
CL - Wood