Storm the Field

Paywalled story. I don't really care if you're in favor or opposed to this particular project. I am; however, a bit concerned that a new mayor can come in and direct the permitting department to no longer issue any permits for projects he doesn't like, even if they've already been funded and passed through the years-long design and approval process.

I don't give a fuck. Sure, he's gonna strike out ~40% of the time. He's fast, not terrible on defense, and will hit for extra bases when not striking out. That's an improvement.

Heading out to the Sonoma area later this week for a wedding. Just realized my hotel is only 10 minutes away from Russian River! It's been almost exactly 10 years since my first and only visit.

Heading out to Sebastopol, CA on Thursday for a friend's wedding weekend. Gonna be brutal:

Just read that Whitmire slammed the brakes on the southern half of the Shepherd/Durham project. From what I gather, they're going to finish re-doing the portions from 15th to 610, but are no longer doing anything from 14th to I-10.

Lulz. I had the "nailed it" gif locked and loaded for later today. In related news, GOOGL joins the $2T market cap club, hitting a new all-time high this morning.

2.8% actual vs. 2.7% estimate. Markets were wincing in anticipation of a big overshoot (>3.0%) based on yesterday's GDP report, breathed a sigh of relief at only a small hiccup.

Hah. Similar experience. We watched the first one together late Sunday night. I enjoyed it and got plenty of laughs, but was getting really sleepy by the time it ended and headed up to start getting ready for bed. Wife stayed up and watched another 2 episodes and I could hear her howling laughing multiple times as I was falling asleep. That's a rather uncommon occurrence. If anything, I'm usually the one audibly laughing when we're watching something truly funny.

Yep, I'll be playing this one in 2025.

Nitro Cold Brew was excellent.

SIAP, but have recently discovered a new favorite guitar channel on YT. If you haven't seen Jamie Robinson, he's an insanely talented player, but also a professional instructor and comes up with some great technique exercises that both sound cool and are fun to play. Also, he's got quite a collection of custom guitars.

Sweet. Gonna pop in tomorrow morning on my way home from the Y. **For a coffee and quick bite, probably not a pre-work beer.

Had the pleasure of attending yet another loss today. I haven't seen a home win in person in ages. This one at least actually felt good for a while. When it was still tied with 2 outs in the Top of the 10th, I thought we might finally break the cycle. When you're the home team and hold the visitor scoreless in extras, you have a very good chance of winning in the bottom. Nope. It never fails lately. On any given night, 1/3 of the team doesn't show up, and just badly enough to lose. Either the starting pitching doesn't make it out of the 3rd with under 5 runs, bullpen shits the bed in the 8th or later, or bats never show up. Fucking Groundhog Day: Starting pitching good = We lose 2-1 or 7-1 (6 runs scored after 8th inning) Stating pitching mediocre = We lose 5-2 (We get a 2 run lead in the 1st, never get man past 2nd base through next 8 innings). Starting pitching bad - We give up 11 through 3 and eventually lose 12-7. Extra Innings = Guaranteed Loss.

Becoming a big fan of Caratini.

6th career HR against Eovaldi.

So tempting to call him up right here, right now, but I wince when I see that K rate in AAA (22K in 54 AB).

SIAP, but some interesting offensive stats that eventually have to swing back in our favor. Astros are 4th in MLB in AVG. 3rd in HR and 4th in 2B. And yet we're mediocre (15/30) at producing runs, with just 52 RBI. Our "average" game so far has seen us tally 9.5 hits, 1.2 HR, but just 3.7 RBI. It takes an average of 2.6 hits for us to produce a run. The only team with a worse ratio of hits/RBI are the dreadful White Sox (27 RBI on 81 hits). Vast majority of teams are below 2 hits/RBI. We're not striking out a ton, with just 96 through 14 games. Only a handful of teams have fewer K's. And we're middle of the pack at taking walks. The main culprit is obviously our abysmal .605 OPS with RISP. We've had 145 PA with RISP (5th most in MLB) but tallied just 30 hits. In those 145 plate appearances, we've had a whopping 1 sacrifice fly! It's simply not possible to be this ineffective with men on base for an extended period of time. Over the course of the last decade, ~.650 OPS with RISP is right at where the worst team in baseball finishes each full season. During the Astros run between 2017-2023, we always finish somewhere between .820 and .845. Hey, it could be worse, the Twins are currently an impressive .416 OPS with RISP!

Yikes. Was about to post the Workaholics "a little racist" gif, but that would probably be underselling it.

Finally getting to eat some crawfish for the first time in the year of our Lord 2024. Buddy of mine having a small boil tomorrow. Our mutual supplier that drives a refrigerated truck over from LA on the weekends is down to $3.75 for large mix. Still high, but comfortably in the realm of "tolerable" and there's usually very little dead loss or undersized mudbugs in his sacks.

A rather dubious record to own.

Brown off to a great start this year. 7.2 IP, 23 hits, 7 BB, 14 ER.

An Insurance Exec complaining that there are too many lawsuits??!?!? Now I've seen everything. What's next, Doctors moaning about malpractice suits? Surely we can go back to the old system where meritorious claims are paid out in full and only non-meritorious claims are denied.