ESPN.com Idiot Roundup

Trolling around the WWL as I wait for a hurricane to demolish me. Here are two ESPN articles with the actual link headlines, which I did not even fake, even though you might think I faked them.

Article #1:
The final month of the regular season starts Monday, and the one big question that has loomed throughout the season remains: Will the Rays fade? John Kruk provides the definitive answer.

Things John Kruk has a definitive answer on:
1. What does it feel like to look like an idiot on television?
2. Did you really mean to admit that you quit baseball because you "wanted to spend the rest of the year "eating at the Sizzler's buffet" ?
3. Did you intentionally quit baseball abruptly because you wanted to preserve your exactly .300 batting average and exactly 100 home runs?
4. What does it feel like to have one ball?

Things John Kruk has a pretty bad answer on:
1. Will the Rays fade?

But this Rays team has had physical altercations with both teams during the course of spring training and this season, and each time it was the Rays' dugout that got onto the field first, ready to scrap.

I would like to see someone do a direct correllative study to see if there are any connection between fights and wins. It would be awesome if this were true, but it sure doesn't sound like it has any real evidence to support it. If it were true, I would immediately advocate the Reds trading for A.J. Pierzynski and Kyle Farnsworth.

That may not sound like a big thing, but it is, because if a team is scared to be on that field

How often does this happen in the Major Leagues? What are they scared of?

or doesn't think it deserves to be on the field with the opposing team, then you'll see some hesitation.

I wonder what this hesitation looks like. Kruk claims we can see it.

There has been no hesitation from the Rays at any point during this season.

Well, if there had been any hesitation, we sure haven't seen it from those scrappy Rays!

To be fair, Kruk did mention the Rays' rotation as a reason for their impressive season; however, I find it stupid that me mentios the rotation only in passing and focuses instead on their "lack of visible hesitation".

Article #2:
Mr. October? D-backs acquire Eckstein from Jays

I did not make that heading up.

NEW YORK -- David Eckstein as been traded from the Toronto Blue Jays to the Arizona Diamonbacks, giving the NL West leaders a late-season spark plug with impressive October credentials.

In one hundred and seventy-six postseason at-bats, David Eckstein has forty-three singles and six extra-base hits. He just happened to cluster exactly half of those xbh into one game, earning him a bullshit WSMVP and ridiculous adulation years later.

A Bit of Credit Where a Bit of Credit Is Due

I'm not saying he's the next F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I was very pleasantly surprised with the conclusion of this piece by Jayson Stark. Hey, how come home teams have been winning games at a surprising pace so far this year? (And speaking of which, how come David Eckstein has a World Series MVP trophy? How come Alex Rodriguez's playoff stats aren't that great since he became a Yankee? How come I sometimes flip a coin five times, and it comes up heads every single time?) Is it any one of a bunch of bullshit, anecdotal explanations? Most writers would be tempted by these foolish and almost definitely WRONG options. But not Jayson. (At least, not this time.) His conclusion- it's probably a matter of small sample size.

I like it.