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Potpourri for $1200 please, Alex

Random things worth linking/writing down.

The Hardball Times trio

The future is now

I remembered these commercials from the very first digitally compressed, grainy frame. Back in 1993, AT&T was trying to sell us on the future. Many of the things they showed us are part of our everyday lives, some... are not.

My Hall Ballot (No, I don't expect to ever have one)

  1. Ripken - Duh
  2. Gwynn - I hate hearing these two grouped together because they were "good guys." They get in on their own on-field merits. This isn't the Hall of Really Nice Guys.
  3. Gossage - Better than the recently elected Suter.
  4. Blyleven - For Lederer, who recently wrote a good piece about pitchers' strikeout rates and batted ball types.
  5. Alan Trammell - Often overlooked.
  6. Albert Belle (is he still on the ballot?)- Peak of a HOFer, career cut short by injury. He'd be in already if he had the image of either of the top two on the list.
I'd leave off Dawson (Hall of Very Good), Baines (same), and McGwire. I'm torn on McGwire. He's probably a HOFer by the numbers, and he'll be on the outside looking in this year. If I had a ballot, he'd be off mine, but just for this year. I'm OK with sending a message by not allowing him to be a first ballot guy, but I don't think he should be left out based on well founded suspicions.

Mailbaging

I found this question in on the MLB's Texas Rangers site quite funny.

The Rangers could have traded Jon Danks and Nick Masset to the White Sox for Jon Garland, but the club opted not to. Do you think who they traded these two players for now [Brandon McCarthy] is any good?
-- David L., Mount Pleasant, Texas
This is exactly the same (or is it opposite?) reasoning that I used to explain why I didn't like the McCarthy trade.

Even scarier, I often found myself agreeing with Scott Merkin's responses in his latest Q&A.