Adam Kaplan

Yeah, unfortunately another grid this week where it wasn’t possible to do all White Sox bc no Japanese born player who had a 10+ win season ever played on the south side. I think the only other Japanese born player who played for the White Sox was Shingo Takatsu.

All Sox grid

Finally, I’m able to complete one this week. Today’s all White Sox immaculate grid.

a man is carrying a suitcase through a living room . ALT: a man is carrying a suitcase through a living room .

It’s been a bad week to complete all White Sox immaculate grids

Bears fans frustration at the refs justified

I don’t really follow basketball, but this is what my die-hard Bulls friend texted me about the hot start

Today’s all South Siders immaculate grid

a man in a green jacket is sitting at a table with his hand on his elbow . ALT: a man in a green jacket is sitting at a table with his hand on his elbow .

Chicago Bulls being 2-0, with both wins coming against projected East playoff contenders….

It’s going to be hard to argue Illinois deserves to be ranked now….

a close up of a man with a beard wearing a red shirt and smiling . ALT: a close up of a man with a beard wearing a red shirt and smiling .

Just bought a quarter-zip sweater at Kohl’s like the middle-aged man that I am

What an embarrassing franchise that Geoff fucking Blum is top 10 in all -time post season home runs.

Wow, just got around to checking out the Dodgers/Blue Jays game. This score is so lopsided, I had assumed Clayton Kershaw started it.

Today’s all South Siders immaculate grid

I’m re-reading Moneyball, and it’s funny how a book written 20+ years ago about how Billy Beane revolutionized the game of baseball ends up making him seem real dumb in hindsight. I love this book (and the movie), but some of these quotes are hilarious:

Today’s all White Sox immaculate grid

Yup! The book spends like 3 pages making fun of the White Sox after the Ray Durham trade (and when they draft Royce Ring over Joe Blanton). So maybe the mockery isn’t totally unfair lol. But Kenny definitely got the last laugh three years later.

I could quote more about the A’s approach to the 2002 draft, but I’ll just end it with this quote from Beane from the movie, “You don’t have a crystal ball. You can’t look at a kid and predict his future any more than I can”

The other position player (besides Swisher) who the As were ABLE to nab: John McCurdy

The other best RHP (besides Blanton) who the As were ABLE to nab: Ben Fritz

“‘We just got two of the three best right-handed pitchers in the country, and two of the four best position players’ says Paul [DePodesta]”

One of the RHP DePodesta mentions is Joe Blanton. The next pick in the draft was high schooler Matt Cain to the Giants. Whoopsies!

I’m not sure how to feel about Billy Beane’s love of Nick Swisher, the A’s first 1st round draft pick in 2002. Swisher ended up having a solid 10+ year major league career, but he was like, fine. One All-Star appearance. He was also a player his “traditional scouts” loved too.

some of which could have been drafted by the A’s:

- Zach Greinke
- Scott Kazmir
- Cole Hamels
- Matt Cain

Beane believed in the Bill James philosophy that “college players are a better investment than high school players by a huge, huge laughably huge margin” Further, the book goes out of its way to shit on drafting high school pitchers. Here are some high school pitchers taken in the 2002 MLB draft,

“Prince Fielder is too fat even for the Oakland A’s”

Prince was never going to fall to Oakland in the draft anyways, but to denigrate Fielder pages after hyping up Jeremy Brown is laughable.

Fielder career bWAR: 23.6, 319 career HRs
Brown career bWAR: 0.1, 0 career HRs

I’m re-reading Moneyball, and it’s funny how a book written 20+ years ago about how Billy Beane revolutionized the game of baseball ends up making him seem real dumb in hindsight. I love this book (and the movie), but some of these quotes are hilarious:

Au Cheval for lunch. The benefits of being forced to come into the office for work.

Today’s all South Siders immaculate grid

Today’s all White Sox immaculate grid

I’m glad the AWS hiccup seems to be fixed so that the most important aspects of the internet can stay in tact - largely my Wordle streak

Today’s all South Siders immaculate grid