Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Sum Of Their Parts
Complete lyrics to "House of Jealous Lovers," by The Rapture:
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
Shakedown
House of jealous lovers
One hand ties the other
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
Shakedown
House of jealous lovers
One hand ties the other
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
1,1
2,2
3,3
4,4
5,5
6,6
7,7
8,8
Written out like that, it's not exactly William Shakespeare. It's not even Trip Shakespeare. But pulsing through the headphones from my iPod shuffle during an early-morning workout, it is a great song. (And, truly, it is -- one of the best singles from the past 5 years, dance-punk at its best.)
Sometimes things are more than the sum of their parts. Tuesday's St. Louis Cardinals, for example. Scott Seabol, a 30-year-old journeyman whose major league experience prior to 2005 consisted of a 2001 cup of coffee with the Yankees, batting 6th? Mark Grudzielanek batting cleanup? And yet, these Cardinals rapped out 15 hits against the Diamondbacks in the D-Backs' 8-2 loss to the Cardinals Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, our own Diamondbacks managed just 5 hits against Jeff Suppan and generally looked bad. I'm not quite sure what it is -- the top 6 Cardinals have a VORP of just 31.8 greater than the top 6 Diamondbacks, the equivalent 3 wins not a significant component of the 19 more wins the Cardinals have. The Cardinals looked good in every way the Diamondbacks looked bad -- getting timely hitting instead of double plays, turning two instead of turning the game as one local radio wag called it into "Kelly Stinnett Souvenir Night." Things haven't clicked much for the Diamondbacks lately. And their pitching? Currently they have a total of 55 Win Shares, or barely 18 wins attributable to the pitching staff. Now, that's still better than 2004, when the pitching staff only had 57 Win Shares for the entire year. Given that there's still a quarter of the season left to play, another 18 or so Win Shares is not unreasonable. But still, I expected the pitching staff as a whole to do better...
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
Shakedown
House of jealous lovers
One hand ties the other
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
Shakedown
House of jealous lovers
One hand ties the other
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
1,1
2,2
3,3
4,4
5,5
6,6
7,7
8,8
Written out like that, it's not exactly William Shakespeare. It's not even Trip Shakespeare. But pulsing through the headphones from my iPod shuffle during an early-morning workout, it is a great song. (And, truly, it is -- one of the best singles from the past 5 years, dance-punk at its best.)
Sometimes things are more than the sum of their parts. Tuesday's St. Louis Cardinals, for example. Scott Seabol, a 30-year-old journeyman whose major league experience prior to 2005 consisted of a 2001 cup of coffee with the Yankees, batting 6th? Mark Grudzielanek batting cleanup? And yet, these Cardinals rapped out 15 hits against the Diamondbacks in the D-Backs' 8-2 loss to the Cardinals Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, our own Diamondbacks managed just 5 hits against Jeff Suppan and generally looked bad. I'm not quite sure what it is -- the top 6 Cardinals have a VORP of just 31.8 greater than the top 6 Diamondbacks, the equivalent 3 wins not a significant component of the 19 more wins the Cardinals have. The Cardinals looked good in every way the Diamondbacks looked bad -- getting timely hitting instead of double plays, turning two instead of turning the game as one local radio wag called it into "Kelly Stinnett Souvenir Night." Things haven't clicked much for the Diamondbacks lately. And their pitching? Currently they have a total of 55 Win Shares, or barely 18 wins attributable to the pitching staff. Now, that's still better than 2004, when the pitching staff only had 57 Win Shares for the entire year. Given that there's still a quarter of the season left to play, another 18 or so Win Shares is not unreasonable. But still, I expected the pitching staff as a whole to do better...
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