Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Tarot predictions continued... the AL No Guts
Cursed Bambinos (Ken)
the Pitch: Three of Bats (Single)
the Swing: VIII Control
The Three of Bats represents building success, the promise of advancement, the building block. Control represents willpower, harnessing opposing forces towards a goal, direction. The Pitch for the Cursed Bambinos is they just brought Ken his first division win. Though, he didn't win the league championship, it is a great building block for the future. How can the Bambinos take the next step up? The Swing suggests that the ability to maintain a steady focus, to have a "be here now" awareness, and focus on the goal. If Ken can stay on top of any injuries and see when good players are stuck on his bench, this may be his year.
Burninators (Mike)
the Pitch: Two of Bats (Take)
the Swing: MVP of Bases (Practical Accomplishments)
The Two of Bats represents waiting to see, evaluating options before making a move. The MVP of Bases represents practical accomplishments, real-world success, pragmatic achievements. The Pitch for the Burninators is to not rush to any decisions. They are in last place in their division after two weeks and the urge is there to change things up from the plan. But the Swing suggests a commitment to a long-term plan will bring success.
Whistles Go Woo (Byrd)
the Pitch: Nine of Balls (Strikeout)
the Swing: Six of Bats (Home Run)
The Nine of Balls represents mourning a loss, surviving sorrows, and accepting pain. The Six of Bats represents acting with confidence and the pleasure of success. The Whistles Go Woo had a rough season last year. The Pitch reminds us that Byrd and Lou need to accept that defeat and move on. The Swing suggests that Byrd forget all of that and move confidently forward. The surge of talent transferred from the NL squad should help the Whistles reach that goal.
Wookies (Jeff)
the Pitch: Five of Mitts (Error)
the Swing: XIX The Pitcher
The Five of Mitts represents accepting imperfection, not avoiding loss, but grieving well and looking to the future. The Pitcher represents clarity, contentment, comprehension, success, and happiness. The Wookies got a pretty clear Pitch. They have a team weakened by a draft last season that was focused almost entirely on prospects instead of established levels of major league performance. This left the team with a lot of holes going into this season. The Swing for Jeff couldn't be more positive, really. There isn't much to analyze there. Better times are coming.
Errant Shadows (Matt)
the Pitch: XX The Rule Book
the Swing: Eight of Mitts (Fielder's Choice)
The Rule Book represents criticism, guilt, forgiveness, conscience, and final answers. The Eight of Mitts represents taking a new path, evaluating the situation and acting strategically. The Pitch for the Shadows is that they face judgement. Matt has had a hard row to hoe with the only expansion team in the NL and had a chance to see how he'd do with a fresh and even start in the AL last year. But the Shadows did poorer than his NL team, which had to be a big disappointment. Maybe Matt is having doubts about how he has been doing things and I worried he might not want to continue in the league. But he seems to be following the suggested Swing by making some challenge trades in the off-season and some high risk-reward draft picks. Hopefully they will turn out well.
TriBonds (Randy)
the Pitch: Four of Bases (Hugging the Base)
the Swing: Eleven of Bases (Steal)
The Four of Bases represents ensuring security, clinging to safety, and possibly missing new opportunities. The Eleven of Bases represents daring to commit, even though there are no guarantees. Ominously, the Pitch for the TriBonds is the same for Randy's NL team, the Atarijin. Randy has put his fate in his embrace of the past. But the Swing this team is more encouraging, telling Randy to take some risks and that the act of which will be its own reward.
Bingo's Fuzzy Puppies (Slave)
the Pitch: Ten of Bats (Bases Loaded)
the Swing: Ace of Mitts (Internal Beginnings)
The Ten of Bats represents carrying responsibility, a scenario both promising and ominous. The Ace of Mitts represents a beginning in the areas of emotion, intuition, and spirituality. The Pitch for the Puppies is directly related to the big name trades he has done in the off-season. With A-Rod and Vazquez in tow, Slave has possibly moved himself into the position of favorite, which isn't a great spot. If he succeeds, it is expected. If he fails, it was his fault somehow. The Swing tells Slave that the best way to worry about it is not to worry about it, and to instead focus on what he really loves about playing the game. Perhaps in his first championship season, he can relax about the game results and have more fun.
Highway Kind (Carl)
the Pitch: Three of Mitts (Triple Play)
the Swing: Eleven of Balls (No-Hitter)
The Three of Mitts represents celebrating cooperation. The Eleven of Balls represents determined attention. Well, that's strange. I drew the same two cards for Carl's AL team as I did for his NL team, only reversed. The Pitch for the Highway Kind is teamwork, the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The Highway Kind have a lot of talented players in the mid-tier area, giving him a strong and balanced team. But the Swing implies that without attentive monitoring and getting his hot hand in there, amongst his group of similarly talented players, they won't reach their potential.
Predicted Orders of Finish based on the Baseball Tarot
The Fielder
Cursed Bambinos
Whistles Go Woo
Bingo's Fuzzy Puppies
Errant Shadows
The Forster
Burninators
Wookies
Highway Kind
TriBonds
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Cursed Bambinos (Ken)
the Pitch: Three of Bats (Single)
the Swing: VIII Control
The Three of Bats represents building success, the promise of advancement, the building block. Control represents willpower, harnessing opposing forces towards a goal, direction. The Pitch for the Cursed Bambinos is they just brought Ken his first division win. Though, he didn't win the league championship, it is a great building block for the future. How can the Bambinos take the next step up? The Swing suggests that the ability to maintain a steady focus, to have a "be here now" awareness, and focus on the goal. If Ken can stay on top of any injuries and see when good players are stuck on his bench, this may be his year.
Burninators (Mike)
the Pitch: Two of Bats (Take)
the Swing: MVP of Bases (Practical Accomplishments)
The Two of Bats represents waiting to see, evaluating options before making a move. The MVP of Bases represents practical accomplishments, real-world success, pragmatic achievements. The Pitch for the Burninators is to not rush to any decisions. They are in last place in their division after two weeks and the urge is there to change things up from the plan. But the Swing suggests a commitment to a long-term plan will bring success.
Whistles Go Woo (Byrd)
the Pitch: Nine of Balls (Strikeout)
the Swing: Six of Bats (Home Run)
The Nine of Balls represents mourning a loss, surviving sorrows, and accepting pain. The Six of Bats represents acting with confidence and the pleasure of success. The Whistles Go Woo had a rough season last year. The Pitch reminds us that Byrd and Lou need to accept that defeat and move on. The Swing suggests that Byrd forget all of that and move confidently forward. The surge of talent transferred from the NL squad should help the Whistles reach that goal.
Wookies (Jeff)
the Pitch: Five of Mitts (Error)
the Swing: XIX The Pitcher
The Five of Mitts represents accepting imperfection, not avoiding loss, but grieving well and looking to the future. The Pitcher represents clarity, contentment, comprehension, success, and happiness. The Wookies got a pretty clear Pitch. They have a team weakened by a draft last season that was focused almost entirely on prospects instead of established levels of major league performance. This left the team with a lot of holes going into this season. The Swing for Jeff couldn't be more positive, really. There isn't much to analyze there. Better times are coming.
Errant Shadows (Matt)
the Pitch: XX The Rule Book
the Swing: Eight of Mitts (Fielder's Choice)
The Rule Book represents criticism, guilt, forgiveness, conscience, and final answers. The Eight of Mitts represents taking a new path, evaluating the situation and acting strategically. The Pitch for the Shadows is that they face judgement. Matt has had a hard row to hoe with the only expansion team in the NL and had a chance to see how he'd do with a fresh and even start in the AL last year. But the Shadows did poorer than his NL team, which had to be a big disappointment. Maybe Matt is having doubts about how he has been doing things and I worried he might not want to continue in the league. But he seems to be following the suggested Swing by making some challenge trades in the off-season and some high risk-reward draft picks. Hopefully they will turn out well.
TriBonds (Randy)
the Pitch: Four of Bases (Hugging the Base)
the Swing: Eleven of Bases (Steal)
The Four of Bases represents ensuring security, clinging to safety, and possibly missing new opportunities. The Eleven of Bases represents daring to commit, even though there are no guarantees. Ominously, the Pitch for the TriBonds is the same for Randy's NL team, the Atarijin. Randy has put his fate in his embrace of the past. But the Swing this team is more encouraging, telling Randy to take some risks and that the act of which will be its own reward.
Bingo's Fuzzy Puppies (Slave)
the Pitch: Ten of Bats (Bases Loaded)
the Swing: Ace of Mitts (Internal Beginnings)
The Ten of Bats represents carrying responsibility, a scenario both promising and ominous. The Ace of Mitts represents a beginning in the areas of emotion, intuition, and spirituality. The Pitch for the Puppies is directly related to the big name trades he has done in the off-season. With A-Rod and Vazquez in tow, Slave has possibly moved himself into the position of favorite, which isn't a great spot. If he succeeds, it is expected. If he fails, it was his fault somehow. The Swing tells Slave that the best way to worry about it is not to worry about it, and to instead focus on what he really loves about playing the game. Perhaps in his first championship season, he can relax about the game results and have more fun.
Highway Kind (Carl)
the Pitch: Three of Mitts (Triple Play)
the Swing: Eleven of Balls (No-Hitter)
The Three of Mitts represents celebrating cooperation. The Eleven of Balls represents determined attention. Well, that's strange. I drew the same two cards for Carl's AL team as I did for his NL team, only reversed. The Pitch for the Highway Kind is teamwork, the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The Highway Kind have a lot of talented players in the mid-tier area, giving him a strong and balanced team. But the Swing implies that without attentive monitoring and getting his hot hand in there, amongst his group of similarly talented players, they won't reach their potential.
Predicted Orders of Finish based on the Baseball Tarot
The Fielder
Cursed Bambinos
Whistles Go Woo
Bingo's Fuzzy Puppies
Errant Shadows
The Forster
Burninators
Wookies
Highway Kind
TriBonds
First game of the year
Last night I saw the Cubs and Pirates at PNC. It was a beautiful night though it rained slightly from the 5th through the 7th. I got there early during BP and hung out at the wall as Greg Maddux ran all over the place covering all of left field while all the young pitchers stood around. Maddux came over a couple of times and joked with me and some other guys. Mark Prior came right over to me and signed autographs. I feel funny about bothering guys for autographs, etc. so I just wished Prior to get healthy soon. The game itself was a slaughter as the Cubs won 9-1. The small crowd made the hecklers a lot louder so sitting in right field I heard a lot of clever witticisms like, "Hey Sammy, why don't you use some cork?" and "Hey Sammy, you use steroids!" and "Hey Sammy, go back to Columbia." <- this last sentiment is expressed in a white male's impression of a latino accent. Ah, baseball. It couldn't exist without these guys I guess.
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Last night I saw the Cubs and Pirates at PNC. It was a beautiful night though it rained slightly from the 5th through the 7th. I got there early during BP and hung out at the wall as Greg Maddux ran all over the place covering all of left field while all the young pitchers stood around. Maddux came over a couple of times and joked with me and some other guys. Mark Prior came right over to me and signed autographs. I feel funny about bothering guys for autographs, etc. so I just wished Prior to get healthy soon. The game itself was a slaughter as the Cubs won 9-1. The small crowd made the hecklers a lot louder so sitting in right field I heard a lot of clever witticisms like, "Hey Sammy, why don't you use some cork?" and "Hey Sammy, you use steroids!" and "Hey Sammy, go back to Columbia." <- this last sentiment is expressed in a white male's impression of a latino accent. Ah, baseball. It couldn't exist without these guys I guess.
Monday, April 19, 2004
So, no one has given me any predictions for the league yet. With that in mind, I'm going to put to use a set of Baseball Tarot Cards given to me by my buddy John Johnston in Erie last Saturday. Using one of the suggested layouts for short readings, the Pitch and Swing, I will give my predictions for each team this season. The Pitch represents the situation faced and the Swing represents the best course of action. If there are any requests for a more-detailed full reading, I'll be glad to do one.
First, the NL No Glory...
Dancin' Homers (Mike)
the Pitch: VI The Team
the Swing: Six of Mitts (Nostalgia)
The Team represents personal relationships. The Six of Mitts represents a love of the past. The Pitch is right on. After being the team that has kept the longest relationship with its players, the Homers have gone through a major transformation this past off-season, losing long time players Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez, Tom Glavine, and Pat Burrell. Mike also had to make a decision on Trevor Hoffman and he probably wonders for how long Sammy Sosa will continue to succeed. It's a year of turmoil and transition and a good Swing would mean to keep good memories of his departed players but not get hurt by his own nostalgic impulses.
Rabid Woofers (Slave)
the Pitch: Eight of Balls (Choke)
the Swing: Eleven of Bases (Steal)
The Eight of Balls represents the pressure of everyone watching you. The Eleven of Bases is making a commitment to a course of action and the act itself is its own reward. The Pitch is clear, the Rabid Woofers are coming off not only their first No Glory championship but a World Championship, despite being only the fourth best team in the league last season. The pressure is on him to prove it wasn't a fluke. The Swing tells Slave to keep taking risks and to go with his gut, and he will gain reward even if it fails.
Soko Atarijin (Randy)
the Pitch: Four of Bases (Hugging the Base)
the Swing: MVP of Mitts (Accomplishments of the Heart and Spirit)
The Four of Bases represents ensuring security, clinging to safety, and possibly missing new opportunities. The MVP of Mitts represents a spirtual sense of connection. The Pitch clearly represents that the Atarijin are certainly a team that looks to the past in making its roster decisions, almost to a cartoonish extreme at times. But the Swing implies that by looking for accomplishments not related to wins and losses, Randy can have great success this year.
Gas House Gang (Ken)
the Pitch: Three of Bases (Safe)
the Swing: Three of Balls (Shake-Off)
The Three of Bases represents arriving and that you are doing well. The Three of Balls represents admitting unhappiness, the moment when you recognize something is wrong and needs to be changed. The Pitch seems to be saying that the Gang, who had their best season last year, are up in the top of the division and look to be competitive for the future. But the Swing is challenging Ken to notice when there is a problem this season, and to correct it quickly. Last year, with one of the league's best players, Javy Lopez, on the bench all year, a Shake-Off of the decision to start Mike Lieberthal might have led to a championship for the Gang.
Cholesterol Kings (Carl)
the Pitch: Eleven of Balls (No-Hitter)
the Swing: Three of Mitts (Triple Play)
The Eleven of Balls represents determined attention. The Three of Mitts represents celebrating cooperation. For the Kings, the Pitch is a situation of having a tremendously skilled team but a question of having the determination to use that skill to its fullest. Carl's very busy with other things in his life. Will he have the determination and attention to take advantage of the last years of a great player's career? The Swing recommends team work as being the solution. If Carl is too busy to worry about his team, maybe a friend of his could help him out by keeping an eye on things, and together they can win the championship.
Crooked K's (Lou)
the Pitch: Eleven of Mitts (Signs)
the Swing: Three of Mitts (Triple Play)
The Eleven of Mitts represents deepening understanding. The Three of Mitts represents celebrating cooperation. This is a very similar reading to the Cholesterol Kings. The Pitch for the K's is a situation of awareness of the signals and information that is available. Lou can often disappear off the face of the earth and not be aware of what is going on with his team, not getting reports, sending in lineups, etc. The Swing for Lou suggests cooperation. He is already partnering with his brother Byrd to take over his AL team, and Byrd seems up to the task. Maybe Byrd could also help Lou stay on top of the K's and remain competitive.
Autoexec.Bastmen (Jeff)
the Pitch: The Six of Balls (Fastball)
the Swing: The Eight of Bats (Batter Up)
The Six of Balls represents represents positive movement, mental clarity to cut through confusion. The Eight of Bats represents speedy movement, an invitation to opportunity. The Pitch for the Batsmen this year seems to imply that Jeff is really getting a grasp for the game, his team, and for baseball. Jeff has worked very hard to catch up to a level of clarity that the rest of us have had driven into us over the years. With that understanding arriving, the Swing suggests that Jeff take this opportunity to go beyond the past anticipation, planning for future competition, and go for it all this season.
Smoking Guns (Matt)
the Pitch: XV The Goat
the Swing: The Twelve of Mitts (Circus Catch)
The Goat represents doubt, pessimism, stagnation, sense of having no options, a "bad attitude". The Twelve of Mitts represents following dreams, reaching for a seemingly impossible goal. The Guns Pitch is a seemingly bad situation and the Guns finishing in last place for many years seems to back that up. But the Goat is also a great climber, even in the rockiest of situations. The Swing tells Matt that though things seem dark, keep trying for that goal that seems out of reach and you might be surprised at what happens.
Predicted Orders of Finish based on the Baseball Tarot
The Kruk
Autoexec.Batsmen
Cholesterol Kings
Dancin' Homers
Soko Atarijin
The Kerfeld
Gas House Gang
Rabid Woofers
Smoking Guns
Crooked K's
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First, the NL No Glory...
Dancin' Homers (Mike)
the Pitch: VI The Team
the Swing: Six of Mitts (Nostalgia)
The Team represents personal relationships. The Six of Mitts represents a love of the past. The Pitch is right on. After being the team that has kept the longest relationship with its players, the Homers have gone through a major transformation this past off-season, losing long time players Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez, Tom Glavine, and Pat Burrell. Mike also had to make a decision on Trevor Hoffman and he probably wonders for how long Sammy Sosa will continue to succeed. It's a year of turmoil and transition and a good Swing would mean to keep good memories of his departed players but not get hurt by his own nostalgic impulses.
Rabid Woofers (Slave)
the Pitch: Eight of Balls (Choke)
the Swing: Eleven of Bases (Steal)
The Eight of Balls represents the pressure of everyone watching you. The Eleven of Bases is making a commitment to a course of action and the act itself is its own reward. The Pitch is clear, the Rabid Woofers are coming off not only their first No Glory championship but a World Championship, despite being only the fourth best team in the league last season. The pressure is on him to prove it wasn't a fluke. The Swing tells Slave to keep taking risks and to go with his gut, and he will gain reward even if it fails.
Soko Atarijin (Randy)
the Pitch: Four of Bases (Hugging the Base)
the Swing: MVP of Mitts (Accomplishments of the Heart and Spirit)
The Four of Bases represents ensuring security, clinging to safety, and possibly missing new opportunities. The MVP of Mitts represents a spirtual sense of connection. The Pitch clearly represents that the Atarijin are certainly a team that looks to the past in making its roster decisions, almost to a cartoonish extreme at times. But the Swing implies that by looking for accomplishments not related to wins and losses, Randy can have great success this year.
Gas House Gang (Ken)
the Pitch: Three of Bases (Safe)
the Swing: Three of Balls (Shake-Off)
The Three of Bases represents arriving and that you are doing well. The Three of Balls represents admitting unhappiness, the moment when you recognize something is wrong and needs to be changed. The Pitch seems to be saying that the Gang, who had their best season last year, are up in the top of the division and look to be competitive for the future. But the Swing is challenging Ken to notice when there is a problem this season, and to correct it quickly. Last year, with one of the league's best players, Javy Lopez, on the bench all year, a Shake-Off of the decision to start Mike Lieberthal might have led to a championship for the Gang.
Cholesterol Kings (Carl)
the Pitch: Eleven of Balls (No-Hitter)
the Swing: Three of Mitts (Triple Play)
The Eleven of Balls represents determined attention. The Three of Mitts represents celebrating cooperation. For the Kings, the Pitch is a situation of having a tremendously skilled team but a question of having the determination to use that skill to its fullest. Carl's very busy with other things in his life. Will he have the determination and attention to take advantage of the last years of a great player's career? The Swing recommends team work as being the solution. If Carl is too busy to worry about his team, maybe a friend of his could help him out by keeping an eye on things, and together they can win the championship.
Crooked K's (Lou)
the Pitch: Eleven of Mitts (Signs)
the Swing: Three of Mitts (Triple Play)
The Eleven of Mitts represents deepening understanding. The Three of Mitts represents celebrating cooperation. This is a very similar reading to the Cholesterol Kings. The Pitch for the K's is a situation of awareness of the signals and information that is available. Lou can often disappear off the face of the earth and not be aware of what is going on with his team, not getting reports, sending in lineups, etc. The Swing for Lou suggests cooperation. He is already partnering with his brother Byrd to take over his AL team, and Byrd seems up to the task. Maybe Byrd could also help Lou stay on top of the K's and remain competitive.
Autoexec.Bastmen (Jeff)
the Pitch: The Six of Balls (Fastball)
the Swing: The Eight of Bats (Batter Up)
The Six of Balls represents represents positive movement, mental clarity to cut through confusion. The Eight of Bats represents speedy movement, an invitation to opportunity. The Pitch for the Batsmen this year seems to imply that Jeff is really getting a grasp for the game, his team, and for baseball. Jeff has worked very hard to catch up to a level of clarity that the rest of us have had driven into us over the years. With that understanding arriving, the Swing suggests that Jeff take this opportunity to go beyond the past anticipation, planning for future competition, and go for it all this season.
Smoking Guns (Matt)
the Pitch: XV The Goat
the Swing: The Twelve of Mitts (Circus Catch)
The Goat represents doubt, pessimism, stagnation, sense of having no options, a "bad attitude". The Twelve of Mitts represents following dreams, reaching for a seemingly impossible goal. The Guns Pitch is a seemingly bad situation and the Guns finishing in last place for many years seems to back that up. But the Goat is also a great climber, even in the rockiest of situations. The Swing tells Matt that though things seem dark, keep trying for that goal that seems out of reach and you might be surprised at what happens.
Predicted Orders of Finish based on the Baseball Tarot
The Kruk
Autoexec.Batsmen
Cholesterol Kings
Dancin' Homers
Soko Atarijin
The Kerfeld
Gas House Gang
Rabid Woofers
Smoking Guns
Crooked K's
Friday, April 16, 2004
Hey, let's hear some chatter out there!
If you haven't seen it, definitely click on our two Scoresheet league pages - they have redone the ScoreIt! software so you can actually watch your games take place batter by batter, complete with the fielders and baserunners. In addition to watching your own games for the week, there are also "highlighted" games so you can see exciting games in the league that you didn't have to play in.
What are people's reactions so far? For me, the Burninators have been kind of disastrous. I think they will rebound but when you get bad starting pitching, worse relief pitching, and bad hitting... you aren't going to win a lot. The pitching in the AL is remarkably shallow. There are so many bad pitchers out there. And with so many lopsided scores in real life, you have players with monster weeks or bad weeks and not a lot of in-between. One bad start can run your bullpen, too, leaving you dry the rest of the week.
The Homers were the opposite result. It seemed like everyone had such a good week that it hurt my Scoresheet offense. It couldn't reconcile all of the good hitting with the pitching I faced so several guys performed way below what they did in real life. Maybe it will balance out, but probably not.
Here's to week two... and to Pedro pitching in weather above 50 degrees and the Mariners not letting Soriano "get his work in" at the major league level.
(0) comments
If you haven't seen it, definitely click on our two Scoresheet league pages - they have redone the ScoreIt! software so you can actually watch your games take place batter by batter, complete with the fielders and baserunners. In addition to watching your own games for the week, there are also "highlighted" games so you can see exciting games in the league that you didn't have to play in.
What are people's reactions so far? For me, the Burninators have been kind of disastrous. I think they will rebound but when you get bad starting pitching, worse relief pitching, and bad hitting... you aren't going to win a lot. The pitching in the AL is remarkably shallow. There are so many bad pitchers out there. And with so many lopsided scores in real life, you have players with monster weeks or bad weeks and not a lot of in-between. One bad start can run your bullpen, too, leaving you dry the rest of the week.
The Homers were the opposite result. It seemed like everyone had such a good week that it hurt my Scoresheet offense. It couldn't reconcile all of the good hitting with the pitching I faced so several guys performed way below what they did in real life. Maybe it will balance out, but probably not.
Here's to week two... and to Pedro pitching in weather above 50 degrees and the Mariners not letting Soriano "get his work in" at the major league level.
