You're Waiting For a Train...

Friday, January 27, 2012

Flick to Click: Moonrise Kingdom

Opens 05.25.12

Pretty Girl 01.27.12 - Megalyn Echikunwoke

I think that Showtime is trying to capture viewers by over-sexing all of their characters. And I am completely OK with that. Especially if Kristen Bell is next.

Tribe Prospect Countdown: #13 C Chun Chen

6'1", 200 lbs, 23 in 2012
Bats: Right; Throws: Right

2011 Stats (AA Akron): .262, 16 HR, 70 RBI, .782 OPS, 2.84 K/BB

So, following up two AAA National Championship seasons, the pickins will be a bit slim in Columbus this season. Between the failed prospects (Matt LaPorta), utter has-beens (Jose Lopez was an All-Star), and people that I've never even heard of (who the hell is Chris Seddon?), Mike Sarbaugh is gonna have to break out the big coaching guns this year. One ray of sunshine will be catcher Chun Chen. Despite suffering through an injury plagued season (not to worry, none of them should be chronic), Chen led the AA Aeros in both home runs and RBI. True, his OPS was down (.924 in 2010) and his K/BB was way up (1.35 in 2010), but a great a deal of his focus was on improving his defense. While Chun is considered about an average receiver, that's pretty high praise for a kid who hadn't played the position before 2008. In fact, Akron skipper Chris Tremie (formely the organization's catching coordinator) helped him to 34.5% caught stealings, good for 3rd in the Eastern League. Even so, Chen certainly shows more big league promise as a hitter than as a defender. The 16 homers of 2011 were a career high and if he can replicate the gap power a year earlier (38 doubles), he might just be the right-handed bat that the club needs on the lakefront. Alternatively, both his English and Spanish are works in progress and would preclude MLB catching duties if they are not ready when his bat is. Remember that he is young and will likely see only a September cup of coffee in 2012. Regardless of whether he is a year away or where he might play, it is nice to see a talented youngster with a big righty bat, who is not significantly hindered by injuries.

Up Next: #12 - OF Luigi Rodriguez

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Pretty Girl 01.26.12 - Rachel Nichols

Memo to Rachel: More red hair!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Mid Market What?

Yesterday, the Tigers signed Prince Fielder to a 9yr, $214mil contract, the fourth richest of all-time behind A-Rod, A-Rod and the Angels' deal with Albert Pujols. From everything that I had heard recently about Detroit ($8,000 average home value, 14% unemployment in 2009), I could not imagine the Tigres to be any less of a mid-market team that the Tribe. So, I decided to look it up. According to Forbes data that is about 8 months old, the Indians are the #25 valued MLB team at $353mil, while the Tigers are #21 at $385mil. Both team peaked in value during the 2008 campaign (you know, just before the shit trickled down out of the fan into the sports world) at $417mil and $407mil respectively, but Detroit has rebuilt since then while the Wahoos have continued to bleed worth (including a precipitous $40mil drop 2011 over 2010 based on poor attendance, I'm looking at you Cleveland). Larry Dolan has managed to keep his operating income in the black over the past decade, while Michael Ilitch has lost about $30mil over each of the past 3 seasons. He might be willing to spend more on payroll (the Tigers have increased their salaried payouts consistently over the past 10 years and have paid about $150mil in each of the last 3) because he has seen a 370% return on his $82mil investment of 1992. Dolan, on the other hand, has seen just 9% since he purchased the club in 2000 and has chosen to keep payroll under $85mil in 6 of the last 10 years. Is it the chicken or the egg? Just to bring everything up to date, the Tribe's 2012 payroll should be about $80mil and Detroit's around $170mil. So, despite the fact that each Indians fan gives about $47/yr to the organization (as opposed to $31/yr for the Tigers), Larry Dolan is a cheap bastard. A city that has 9.5% unemployment and a crumbling infrastructure has landed a fish a 100x bigger than anything our guys even considered. The brain trust could not even give me Josh Willingham. All I wanted was Josh freakin' Willingham, but they would not promise him a starting job (mostly because they head over heels for Grady Sizemore's cock) and he landed with yet another division rival. Fuck me.

Here's to praying for Dan Gilbert.

Cheers.