Joe blows up.
This has been a big week for Joe Posnanski on the blogs.
Who’s Joe Posnanski, you ask? He’s a sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, a paper with a history of developing big time writing talents.
I’d never heard of Posnanski before this week. I probably should have heard of him, since he was recently voted the best sports columnist in America. But I hadn’t.
Now it seems like his name is everywhere (online).
First, I read where Yahoo’s Jeff Passan called him “among the best writers in the business” in an interview published on The Big Lead.
Then, I saw the U.S.S. Mariner and Vegas Watch both linked to his blog, which argues that Curt Schilling’s new contract could be the end of the Cy Young Award.
(If you get a chance, check out that blog entry. It’s long and it’s smart and you’ll be a better person for having read it.)
November 1st, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Well, I will indeed go ahead and answer Coley’s question in the comments section =)
The Elias rankings are used to divide free agents into Class A, Class B, and Class C, which determines how many and what kind of draft picks their former team gets as compensation from their new team when they are signed away.
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November 1st, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Following in Nick’s footsteps, these “Classes” are determined by what percentile each free agent falls under. If they’re in the top 20% at their position, they’re a class A. Top 21-40% players are Type B.
And “position” is defined as the following five categories:
1B/OF/DH; 2B/SS/3B; SP; RP; Catchers
Because it includes the DH, the 1B/OF/DH “position” doesn’t include defensive stats at all.
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November 2nd, 2007 at 8:14 pm
I know this really doesn’t go with the post but in reading umpbump everyday in my office I have picked up that there are alot of red sox homers here, which doesn’t bother me because I love how they interact don’t seem to be too “big league” as I like to put it… Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could put any truth to the rumor I heard about Varitek sitting in his driveway passing out autographs to trick or treaters on Halloween… If it’s true then I have an even bigger amount of respect for this guy than I did before…
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November 3rd, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Red Sox homers on Umpbump? Perish the thought.
RE: Tek
True Story.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/02/fans_catch_treat_at_varitek_home/
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November 3rd, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Well, honestly, we really only have one Red Sox homer on this site, and that’s Sarah. But she’s pretty good at it!
I’m a Dodgers fan, Coley is Phillies, Alejandro is White Sox, Paul is Mets, and Zvee is Braves.
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November 3rd, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Yeah, before I ended up pissing away the rest of the week (actually “working,” you know) I was fully intending to post something about that Varitek thing. But really, what else is there to say? He is a superhero.
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