FJM is a closed forum, but we welcome reader feedback. We're especially interested in corrections of our work, and research (usually number-crunching) that we may not be able to do ourselves. Please check the comments section as well, where we often post readers' opinions, and, less frequently, announce that we were wrong about something.
You can e-mail dak,Ken Tremendous,Junior,Matthew Murbles, or Coach individually.
So, after a few conversations with various other bloggers and like 28 minutes of low-grade soul searching, the editors of this site have decided to reveal our identities.
The reasons for this are:
1. We figured whoever reads this site has a right to know who's writing it. 2. The people we make fun of have a right to face their accusers. 3. We don't want anyone to be able to write off what we say as the un-credited ramblings of people too afraid to stand behind them. (The ramblings.) 4. We figured no one cares that much one way or the other, so why not?
So, if you are interested in learning who we really are, you can click on the "About Us" link at the top. If you're a true romantic, and want to believe that we are cloaked cyber-Zorros who exist only within the internet, ignore the link and go about your business, secure in the knowledge that whenever Woody Paige makes a terrible pun, we will be there.
If only out of respect to the sort-of-recently deceased, I feel like someone should point out that Junior was, um, joking when he said that Coach was Robert Altman.
For those of you who enjoy reading FJM on your iPhones or iPods Touch or whatever, I've added a nice little smiling-Joe-face icon to our site. So if you choose the "Add to Home Screen" option (available only in the latest software update) you can have a nice little picture of Joe smiling at you in your pocket at all times.
You guys have been asking us to enable them for years now. It's been on ongoing debate among team FJM for a while now -- it was like our NAFTA or something. (I have no idea what NAFTA actually is, or what happened to it.) One of us was pretty hardcore in favor of 'em, and the other two didn't really care that much. Then suddenly we had a breakthrough: if two of us don't really care about it, why not just try it out and see what happens? As you can imagine, it was a pretty exciting moment for all of us.
So, that's what we're doing. We're opening up comments to all readers.
BUT, be good, people. Obviously we reserve the right to delete any comments for little or no reason. And if we see enough dogshit, we'll shut the whole thing down.
So, what is good shit and what is dogshit? Just be cool. Move the discussion forward. Bring up a different point of view. No 4chan memes.
DOGSHIT: 1) "You guys suck. You are all arrogant pricks who are guilty of the same pig-headedness that you rail against." We know. Everyone knows.
2) "You guys are f*#$%!##@ing hilarious and your arguments are right on the money!" Several problems: (a) This is boring. (b) There's no reason to censor yourself; this is the fucking internet and we like to swear. (c) If you're going to censor yourself because you're a God-fearing weirdo or whatever, don't use like nine symbols. And why are three of them "#"?
3) "Paging Dr. Saltalamacchia!" I don't get it. And even if I did, I don't think I'd like it.
GOOD SHIT: 1) "I have done some research that I think might add to the discussion. Let me share it with you..."
2) "I have a different way of interpreting the data at hand. Let me share it with you..."
3) "Why are you guys still using WARP to evaluate players? Can't we all agree that..."
4) "I have a really, really stupid pun involving Manny Acta and his disinclination to bunt. Let me share it with you..."
5) "I think you guys missed a food metaphor label opportunity."
Be smart and kind. Have fun. Enjoy.
If you're not used to looking at the comments, we use an antiquated "drill-down" method where every time you refresh the page, it tells you how many new comments there are. Sometimes. If it's working. So get ready to apple-R a lot.To read the comments, just click on the link that says "4 new comments" or whatever at the end of each post. To "collapse" the comments, just click on the link again.
I don't really like mayonnaise, and I never ate it. And over time I guess I forgot why I didn't like it, because I thought, it couldn't be so bad, everyone else likes it. So I tried it, and it was shit, and then I remembered why I never, ever ate it.
Aw man, I have been waiting for this on this site since I first learned about it. But given the first six or seven comments, I am pretty sure this will last for all of 10 minutes.
In other news, I was dinking around on baseballreference.com, and... did you know Miggy Cabrera has an effing .930 career OPS at 24 yrs old??? I wish the Twins were one of those teams that "spent money" or "liked good players."
I don't like that you are allowing comments. I don't like it one bit. You are taking FJM from its other-worldly elitist pedestal and placing it amongst the pedestrian rubble. Very bad move. Serious.
Speaking of food metaphors - which you were, tangentially - anyone catch the Sports Illustrated article on the Heisman race between Tebow and McFadden? The writer compared the vote to "choosing between an ice cream sundae and a banana split. Either way you pick, you'll regret not having the other one..." or something like that. Bonus points for it not really making sense. Celizik would be proud.
Count me in as one who's not crazy about the whole reader comments idea. Most people simply do not have anything interesting to say, but that doesn't keep them from submitting comment after comment on their favorite blogs, even if it's just to say, "I agree!" or -- even worse -- to complain about something that they have no control over.
Was "God-fearing weirdos" a necessary term? Also, Bill James wrote an interesting article about the clutch debate in SI. I'm not completely convinced on its validity, but hey it's worth a looksie.
In re: Bonds post below- Giants underperformed about 6 games last year, so given a tiny bit of luck, Jenkins will see them improve significantly next year- and his idiocy will become more ingrained...
I'm not sure Joe Morgan should be fired. He's the foundation of most of the happiest moments I spend during the workday. If anything, his brand of wacky non-sensicleness (that's a work right?) should be expanded to other sports.
Just imagine a KT write-up of a Joe Morgan luge-related chat.
JM: "Hard to say not having seen the Norwegian women much this year, but they are consistent and it's really anyone's event at this point, as long as the US starts Sheff . . . "
KT: /Wince
You get the idea. Someone get my conversation hat and get Norby on the phone. (Too many gets?)
Is there a way to have two comment sections? Maybe one Blogger (for FJM members) and one Haloscan (for us peons)? That way people can sift through you guys' comments alone in the website or sift through all the $#!+ we put up in a separate window.
These comments make it very hard to concetrate on the post, because they are very inconsistent. I can't comment about the consistency of comments on other blogs, because I haven't read them, but Dave Concepcion always was good for an insightful comment.
Can you please please please write more about Jim Rome? Every time I watch his show I want to blow up his head. The things that he says are asinine and untrue, and he seems like the kind of guy this website would rail on. Yet, I have only found ONE article about him (which was hilarious, by the way).
PLEASE rail on Rome. He's the Darin Erstad of sports journalism.
I can't believe you did this. This is taint city. Your blog was perfect before this. Just by my sheer commenting, I am poisoning your blog because I lack the sheer ability to critique sportswriters as you do. And see what I did there? I used the word sheer twice in a sentence. Would you ever do that? Eff-uck no you wouldn't, you'd have more sense.
Don't allow the pagans entrance to the gates. They shall not pass.
Emmitt Smith Vs. Joe Morgan in a "Who Can Say the Least in the Least Coherrent Manner While actually Speaking for an Extended Period of Time"- constest. Who wins?
I have to say I thought I'd enjoy reading more comments. I'm less sure now that I've had a chance to read more comments. Maybe there's some way to put the comments elsewhere and have someone include the best ones on the site?
See the trend I started by using "concetrate" and "consistent" in the same sentence? I posted mine, then 2 others followed suit with virtually the same sentence. I must be funny!
I agree that this is a bad idea... While I understand that it absolutely makes your lives easier, well, that doesn't really concern me, now does it?
Honestly, though, you're going to end up with the same problems you had when you shut down comments the first time. A lot of pointless drivel with no real discussion.
Might I suggest a forum for you guys? You can set up forums for free, something like (http://www.vbulletin.com/).
If you don't like reading the comments, then ... don't.
I know, it's totally out there, but I think just maybe it can work.
Also, those who are judging the experiment by this one post ... come on. It's the first one, and the story itself that everyone is commenting on is itself about the commenting. This particular "discussion" can't be used to judge anything of interest.
Why would someone bitch about comments being inane, or a waste of time?
You realize you're not being forced to read this, right?
If you don't like the comments, don't read them.
Fuck... why is that too difficult for some people to understand.
"I HATE EVERYTHING! I DON'T LIKE THIS, AND I WANT TO RUIN IT FOR PEOPLE WHO DO ENJOY IT, EVEN IF ALL I HAVE TO DO TO IGNORE IT IS *NOT* TO CLICK ON THE LINK! I'M STUPID!"
Look... RE: "OMG, if j00 dunt lyk them dunt read them!!!11eleven"
I don't know about any other lunatic who follows this web site, but I enjoy reading the webmasters' comments, and think their descretion was good as far as what got posted and what didn't. I want to continue to see what KT, DAK, Junior, and co. have to say about the articles. But when this is swamped with inane posts, it makes it hard.
Once the shock leaves I think the comments will calm down and be better. You guys need a new player to go after. Eckstein is getting boring. Maybe take a poll to see who will be the next "Eckstein".
Listen: I know very little about how forums / online stuff works. That said, I'm interested in the possibility of setting up forums. I just don't want to get involve in heavy lifting. I totally see how it could be a viable alternative to this mess.
So if you know of an EASY way to set something up, beyond the name of a website that hosts forums -- or if you're willing to help set something up for us -- please tell me.
dak and Junior flew in last night, and came over to my place in Partridge today to watch the Red Sox-Yankees game. That's fun, right? No it is not. Because we get the Dodgers-Snakes. Because who wants to watch Yankees-Red Sox on a Saturday in September? At Fenway? Beckett-Wang? Boring.
And then, we're treated to this gem from some dummy on Fox, in re: Juan Pierre:
Some folks talk about his on-base percentage -- it's a little bit lower than some fans would like. I'll take him on my team. Especially with regard to his leadership ability and his work ethic -- as well as those stats!
You can have him, friend. On our team, we will take anyone else.
Just put up a glossary of terms. It's probably incomplete. We'll keep adding to it, I hope.
Should help a little, though I swear there are much better places to go for statistical information. Still, people have continued to e-mail asking us for some explanation of the terms we use. So I guess what I'm saying is: this is your fault.
A surprising amount of speculation about our motives and identities has been raised on other blogs, forums, and web-o-places. So we thought this might help to set the totally irrelevant record straight. Enjoy.
There'll be a permanent link at the top, and oh! This is really exciting. I made the non-A letters in the word "Archives" lowercase instead of all caps.
So, yeah. Things are really taking off around here.
We're working on a little glossary, too, since many people have e-mailed us asking for one.
Finally, I just heard one of the Angels broadcasters call a Coco Crisp double a "no-doubter."
Ken Tremendous (Michael Schur), Junior (Alan Yang), and dak (Dave King) are all TV writers. We live in Los Angeles, in places other than our mothers' basements.
Please do not send e-mails to us about anything other than sports journalism.
Ever since Fire Joe Morgan was founded back in 1881, FJM readers have been clamoring for a glossary of the statistical terms, acronyms and abbreviations we toss around here. Such a thing already exists, but we're going to write a new one anyway.
FJM is far from a comprehensive or even occasionally accurate source of sabermetric information, but we will mention OPS+ from time to time, and if you don't know what that is, our site won’t be as informative or amusing. If you do know, the site is nearly always balls-to-the-wall genius, so it’s really in our best interests to help you all learn our terminology. A lot of sites, like ESPN.com’s MLB stats page, and baseballreference.com’s stats page, keep up-to-date records of many of the stats we use here, if you want to go and look up stuff for yourself.
So, here's a glossary of terms, statistical and otherwise, that you might encounter from time to time while reading the site. Like the Constitution, the FJM Glossary is a living document that will be updated as necessary, but unlike the Constitution, its contents can be used to befuddle the greatest second baseman of all time if you happen to run into him.
Let's get started.
BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) Exactly what it sounds like -- a player's batting average on the balls he puts into play. BABIP doesn't include strikeouts or home runs because those balls aren't in play. Make sense? This stat is helpful to show the effect of luck on a player's batting average. For instance, if two weeks into the season, Yuniesky Betanco
