Rotoman

“I just don’t see a future here for me,” Magee said. “I’ve been here three years now and it seems like it’s always something that they have this idea that I’m the fourth outfielder. If that’s the way they feel about me, cool, but I’d like to go somewhere else. I should be given that opportunity to play every day. It’s not like we’re in a race or anything.”

Wendell Magee said that. I cut the quote out of a Rotowire comment. I think it means that Magee thinks he should play because the Tigers aren’t very good. Magee isn’t all that good, but this attitude is a problem. I don’t think Shane Halter, when he was sulking, was saying he should play because the team sucked. I think he said the team sucked because he wasn’t playing. He was wrong, but it doesn’t seem that should matter much.

ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score

The new column at mlb.com should be posted now. It was a day late because I was moving and ended up spending a lot of time driving in the car and then taking care of my daughter, and she fell asleep in the car and so she didn’t sleep when we got to the new house. Which meant I spent my column writing time playing a variety of games and reading a variety of story books.

It was great. Sorry.

In the column I wrote a little about how Jimy Williams feels about Richard Hidalgo. Then tonight I found this quote from Williams at rotowire.com (which, by the way, I think has grown into a very useful service if you have the scratch to pay for it):

Rotowire says: Manager Jimy Williams sort of went off the deep end when asked about the move (benching Hidalgo tonight and starting Orlando Merced). “Yeah. So what?” he said. “What are you getting at? I’m just playing all these players. If you want to make out different lineups, that’s entirely up to you. That’s your opinion. In my opinion, I’m going to put Merced in there, so it’s a manager’s decision.”

Apparently the only thing the media likes about Williams’ style is the single M in his first name. I don’t have a problem with managers explaining their decisions by saying it is their perogative. It is, isn’t it?

But when your team is under .500 the smart thing would be to at least appear to be systematic. Hidalgo is struggling, but the last time Willliams benched him (in mid June) he responded with his best week of the season. I’m sure I’m not the only Hidalgo owner (Jimy Williams included) hoping that history repeats.

ESPN.com: MLB – From terrible Fenway to beautiful Fenway

While I’m ranting, ESPN.com’s new approach to publishing Rob Neyer is an aggravating travesty. They keep changing the date published tag, so things look new. The problem is that if you already read them you’ve clicked to get to something old. (And yes, I usually remember what I’ve read, but that doesn’t always help in this milieu of headline and date shifting.)

Jayson Stark’s stuff suffers from the same duplicity.

I don’t care if there isn’t always new stuff posted. I like to know when there is new stuff posted. But when the story I’ve read on Friday is datelined Monday, I start to feel taken.

Fortunately those Delta Airline pop up ads haven’t infiltrated editorial. Yet.

Delta Airlines Sucks

I can’t promise that I’ll never fly Delta again, but I can promise I will never forget how thoroughly aggravating these pop up ads they’re running over the ESPN box scores are. So, if I have a choice, I’m not flying Delta.

And maybe I’ll endure the less friendly mlb.com interface, since their boxes are better anyway.

Jeff Kent

Whoops. He did it again.

ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score

I’m not convinced we can know everything about a pitcher’s future health from pitch counts, but I do know that taking a fragile guy and having him throw more can’t be helpful.

If you’ve been following the Braves pitch count totals lately, nobody is getting more than 80 per start, as the team is relying on their motley group of ace relievers to carry the starters to the finish line. You can’t argue with the results.

Having Pedro throw 117 pitches at this point is stupid.

Jeff Kent–3 more RBI

I don’t think I can stop mentioning this until Kent stops driving in beaucoup runs hitting in front of Barry Bonds.

ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score

Call this one Blogging a Dead Horse, but Jeff Kent has had another bravura evening hitting in front of Barry Bonds.

I don’t know about you, but I read Jayson Stark’s report on what precipitated the Kent-Bonds shovefest, and it sounds like it was all Kent’s fault.

I happen to have traded for Kent (I gave up Luis Castilla on Day Six of his streak, yeek!) recently and I’m all for continuing this experiment. Dusty!

Yahoo! News – Timothy White, Billboard Editor, Dies

Okay, I’ve not posted much lately, and now I dive back in with some very un-fantasy-like posts.

For about 24 hours once, perhaps 15 years ago, I felt like I was friends with Tim White. I had cocktails with him one evening, during which he turned me onto the darkest, oddest and catchiest roots reggae band I’ve ever heard (Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus, check them out), and then talked with him at his book party the next night at Private Eyes, a goofily futuristic nightclub of the time (1985 or thereabouts) that featured, well, a lot of video screens showing videos.

I’d always admired his writing at Rolling Stone, but my brush with greatness went no further. I don’t think we were ever again in the same room, though I’ve turned many onto Ras Michael over the years. But his passing, by heart attack, in his office at Billboard at 50 seems far sadder than John Entwhistle’s nearly simultaneous passing by heart attack at 57 in his hotel room just before the Who kicked off their latest reunion tour in Las Vegas, simply because there’s this somewhat personal connection.

Of course, that brings us to Darryl Kile. I had no idea Darryl Kile was such a great guy. Was this common knowledge out here in fan-land? Because if it was I missed it.

Back to the personal. It isn’t that I had no connection to Entwhistle. The Who at Forest Hills (with Patti LaBelle) on the Who’s Next tour was probably the best big rock show I’ve ever seen, and I cut out of high school the day The Kids are Alright premiered in New York City, taking the train in from the suburbs to see the first show on the first day at the arty theater on East 57th Street at which it premiered. It was a kickass crowd of other fans who saw no reason to go to school when the Who had a movie opening.

But Darryl Kile… The only thing I can say is that Darryl Kile seems to have lived the life. His friends say he was loyal and forthright, honest and true, and he suffered when he was unable to make things go the way he wanted them to. But he also prevailed so that things went most of the way he wanted, and he left behind a trail of love that should be the envy of anyone.

He died too young, yet I can’t think of anyone else whose accounts were in better balance. Death sucks, but nothing else helps us put living in perspective, does it?

ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score

I didn’t dig into the Kent-Bond brouhaha the other day. Bonds said it was a non-issue, we always knew the two weren’t buds, big deal.

But what I know is that years ago, when Bonds and Kent became teammates, it was clear that Kent would benefit greatly by having Bonds hitting in front of him. And he clearly has.

And today, with Bonds hitting behind him, Kent benefitted again.