Beaneball

I saw this post over at BlackProf about a rather brilliant law professor who posted an outline from his property class online while he was a student. Problem: the outline contained racially offensive shorthand. As you can see at the bottom of the post, I left the following comment, which still, a little time later, sums up my feelings on the matter:

That's disgusting. How does someone like this end up being allowed to teach at places like Harvard and Stanford? It doesn't matter how smart he is: if someone is going to be so blase about using such slurs (he didn't even apologize!), then they aren't smart enough to realize what kind of effect that language can have on actual people, and they don't deserve the chance to have any kind of effect on the "next generation" (i.e. the students at whatever law school is so callous and hungry for researchers as to hire him).

I do want to note, however, that I don't think the Yale Law Journal ought to reject his article. I've noted before that it's ridiculous that law reviews put any weight whatsoever on who the author of the article is instead of paying attention entirely to the content. Arguing here that Camara should be punished for his views with a ban on publishing would be hypocritical. And wrong.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Law at 18:44 | |

Over at Athletics Nation, there was a lot of debate about whether the signing of Esteban Loaiza was a good idea. You know my feelings on the matter from my earlier post. Here's a link to the most recent thread that I was involved in on this debate. The last comment that I responded to was this:

Roger Clemens Pedro Martinez John Smoltz Jose Contreras Randy Johnson Kenny Rogers Tom Glavine Paul Byrd All of them are as old or older than Loaiza. All of them were amongst the most effective starting pitchers in the league.

"Cherry-picking will make any group look good," is the gist of my response. Let's instead take a look at all the pitchers in the league last year who were 34, 35, or 36 (the ages Loaiza will be through the life of this contract).

Player	Age	IP	DERA
Alvarez, W	35	24.0	5.57
Astacio, P	35	67.0	5.23
Astacio, P	35	59.7	3.24
Batista, M	34	74.7	4.56
Borowski, J	34	11.0	6.27
Borowski, J	34	35.3	3.47
Bottalico, R	35	41.7	5.06
Byrd, P	34	204.3	4.23
Carrasco, H	35	88.3	2.69
Castillo, F	36	4.3	10.65
Christiansen, J	35	3.7	2.64
Christiansen, J	35	42.0	5.55
Creek, D	36	22.3	7.01
Darensbourg, V	34	22.3	2.93
DeJean, M	34	25.7	6.63
DeJean, M	34	36.7	3.00
Eischen, J	35	36.3	3.77
Embree, A	35	14.3	8.16
Embree, A	35	37.7	7.09
Fox, C	34	8.0	6.42
Guardado, E	34	56.3	3.71
Hasegawa, S	36	66.7	4.18
Helling, R	34	49.0	2.51
Herges, M	35	21.0	4.56
Herges, M	35	8.0	12.23
Jarvis, K	35	3.3	13.32
Kida, M	36	2.0	4.47
Koo, D	36	23.0	4.76
Lieber, J	35	218.3	4.35
Ligtenberg, K	34	9.7	12.73
Mahay, R	34	35.7	6.12
Martin, T	35	2.3	18.65
Mecir, J	35	43.3	3.53
Miceli, D	34	18.3	5.10
Mussina, M	36	179.7	4.39
Myers, M	36	37.3	3.08
Nomo, H	36	100.7	6.76
Percival, T	35	25.0	5.61
Quantrill, P	36	32.0	6.29
Quantrill, P	36	31.7	3.74
Quantrill, P	36	5.3	11.58
Reyes, A	34	62.7	2.52
Rhodes, A	35	43.3	2.95
Rincon, R	35	37.3	4.56
Rivera, M	35	78.3	2.06
Rueter, K	34	107.3	6.29
Seanez, R	36	60.3	2.99
Sele, A	35	116.0	5.80
Shouse, B	36	53.3	5.39
Springer, R	36	59.0	5.24
Sturtze, T	34	78.0	4.66
Takatsu, S	36	28.7	5.72
Takatsu, S	36	7.7	2.58
Trachsel, S	34	37.0	4.92
Villone, R	35	40.3	3.20
Villone, R	35	23.7	7.50
Walker, P	36	84.0	3.54
Weathers, D	35	77.7	3.96
Weber, B	35	12.3	7.51
White, R	36	75.0	4.63
Wickman, B	36	62.0	2.75
Williams, T	34	76.3	3.80
Yabu, K	36	58.0	5.20

Players appear more than once if they pitched for more than one team. For what it's worth, the only team without a player on the list is Kansas City. And they didn't skate by with someone too old to qualify, either: no pitcher for the Royals was older than 33 this year. That's not really a list of impressive numbers. Let's cut it down and see what the list of starting pitchers looks like.

Astacio, P	35	67.0	5.23
Astacio, P	35	59.7	3.24
Byrd, P	34	204.3	4.23
Castillo, F	36	4.3	10.65
Helling, R	34	49.0	2.51
Lieber, J	35	218.3	4.35
Mussina, M	36	179.7	4.39
Nomo, H	36	100.7	6.76
Rueter, K	34	107.3	6.29
Sele, A	35	116.0	5.80
Trachsel, S	34	37.0	4.92

So: Astacio was good half the time, bad half the time, and hurt half the time; Byrd was ok; Castillo wasn't good enough to pitch in the majors, throwing 143 innings in AAA; Helling spent most of the season in AAA, though his major league performance was good; Lieber was mediocre; Mussina was mediocre and injured; Nomo was bad; Rueter was bad; Sele was bad; and Trachsel was mostly injured, but unimpressive when healthy. That's a really unimpressive group of age-comparable pitchers, and that's exactly why I'm so unoptimistic about Loaiza's chances.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 14:42 | |