Archive for the ‘Loser’ Category

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Random notes: September 24, 2013.

Tuesday, September 24th, 2013

Paul Bergrin is going to spend the rest of his life in prison with no possibility of parole. Unless his conviction is overturned, or his sentence is reduced on appeal. (Previously on WCD.)

According to the HouChron and Nielsen, nobody in the Houston area watched the Astros game against Cleveland on Sunday. (Of course, that game was on opposite the Texans game, the Astros are getting closer to 110 losses this season, and there’s some margin for error in Nielsen’s calculations.)

While I was digging out the Bergrin posts, I stumbled across this old post about Hot Wheels, Legos, and imaginative play. The discussion of Legos, and their emphasis on pre-packaged sets tied to pop culture events, reminded me of something I saw over the weekend: LEGO Lone Ranger sets. I kind of like the Constitution Train Chase but I don’t like it $100 worth (or $81.40 worth, for that matter): I look forward to seeing these sets being blown out at Wal-Mart for $10 or less. (Heck, I might even go $20 for the train.)

Posted in Clippings, Law, Loser, Sports, TV, Wondering | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 3, 2013.

Monday, September 23rd, 2013

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Pittsburgh
Jacksonville
Washington
NY Giants
Minnesota
Tampa Bay

Notably absent from this list: Cleveland.

I don’t pay that much attention to sports news during the week. I check FARK’s sports tab, but that’s about it. (Well, and TMQ in season, but I’m not sure I consider that “news”.) So the first I heard about the Richardson trade was a text message from one of my relatives in Cleveland, who was absolutely apoplectic to the point where they planned to sell off their season tickets. They (and I) were convinced that the Browns were tanking the season, again; everyone expected this to be their year, or at least for them to do something decent. Heck, I think folks would be happy with 8-8; that would at least show some improvement. And trading your first round draft pick after just a year? That’s crazy as a soup sandwich.

Or is it? When FARK got around to posting their thread, I read through it. And there are actually some good arguments in the other direction. CavalierEternal’s comment early in the thread specifically made me rethink my position; his argument is that Richardson didn’t do that well last year, is injury prone, shows “major signs of being a bust”, and trading him now while they could still get value for him was the best thing the Browns could have done.

So who’s right? I don’t know, but the Browns won yesterday. Quarterback change? The Richardson trade put the fear of God into the remaining players? Or, conversely, the remaining players are putting in maximum effort, hoping to get traded out of this chicken-(stuff) outfit?

Or are the Browns so inept, they can’t even suck for first pick in the draft correctly?

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | 1 Comment »

A brief loser interlude.

Wednesday, September 18th, 2013

The Astros have reached the 100 loss mark for the third season in a row.

Projections all seem to be hovering around 107 losses this year.

Posted in Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 2, 2013.

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Pittsburgh
Cleveland (Quote blatantly stolen from a family member in Cleveland: “Apparently, the Browns now have to suck for Teddy Bridgewater!” And what’s even worse: “Suck for Bridgewater!” doesn’t even have the ring to it that “Suck for Luck!” did.)
Jacksonville
Washington
NY Giants
Minnesota
Tampa Bay
Carolina

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 1, 2013.

Tuesday, September 10th, 2013

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Buffalo
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Baltimore
Cleveland
Jacksonville
San Diego
Oakland
Washington
NY Giants
Green Bay
Minnesota
Tampa Bay
Carolina
Atlanta
Arizona

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

For the future is where we will spend the rest of our lives.

Sunday, September 8th, 2013

I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction:

This is Mack Brown’s last season coaching at the University of Texas.

The big questions in my mind are: who else does he fire, and does he finish out the season or get canned part way through?

(By the way, NFL loser update resumes Tuesday, for obvious reasons.)

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update: All-Star break edition.

Monday, July 15th, 2013

At the break, Houston is 33-61, with a .351 winning percentage. Straight multiplication projects out to 105 losses. Cool Standings projects “103.6” losses (how do you lose .6 of a game?), Baseball Prospectus projects 101.7, and FanGraphs projects an even 101 losses.

Miami is at 35-58, with a .376 winning percentage. Straight multiplication projects out to 101 losses. FanGraphs projects 100 losses, Baseball Prospectus 97.4 losses, and Cool Standings 99.5 losses.

Posted in Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

Random notes: June 10, 2013.

Monday, June 10th, 2013

LAT obit for Iain Banks.

As best as I can tell, there has been no mention of Banks’s death in the NYT yet.

At dinner Saturday night, Lawrence, Andrew, and I were talking about how bad the Marlins (and Astros) are. I remembered that someone on FARK posted a link to a site that provides updated win-loss projections for each MLB team, but I was unable to find that site in my history, on FARK, or in Google.

“DeWayne Mann” on FARK was kind enough to respond to my inquiry with three links, which I provide here for bookmarking purposes:

CoolStandings, which currently projects Miami at 106.9 losses and Houston at 103.1.

Baseball Prospectus, which has Miami at 102 losses and Houston at 99.5.

FanGraphs, which has Miami at 104 losses and Houston at 99.

(As Dewayne notes, all three sites use a more sophisticated model than (winning percentage * 162). Based only on that calculation, the Marlins project out to 115 losses, and the Astros to 106. For comparison purposes, the 1962 Mets lost 120 games and had a .250 winning percentage. The 2003 Detroit Tigers lost 119 games, and had a .265 winning percentage.)

Posted in Bookmarks, Books, Clippings, Loser, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update.

Monday, May 20th, 2013

Lawrence sent over a link to an interesting article at Grantland: “The Joy of Tanking: Hoarding prospects and being horrible with the Houston Astros”.

And finally, we come to the modern-day Houston Astros, who lost 106 games in 2011, 107 games in 2012, and six weeks into this season are on pace for their worst season yet. They are a threat to become only the second team ever, after the Amazin’ Mets, to lose 106 games three years in a row. The Astros don’t simply personify awful. They embrace it, they lovingly caress it, they whisper sweet nothings to it.

But the main point of the article is that the Astros actually have a chance to be good several years from now:

And once this season is over and the Astros can end their charade of being the worst team in baseball every year, they can use the free-agent market to actually upgrade their roster. The team has incredible payroll flexibility — they have $5.7 million in contract obligations on the books for 2014, and few of their young players will even be arbitration-eligible next season. There’s no reason the Astros can’t be competitive next year, at .500 by 2015, and then become legitimate contenders in the AL West in 2016 and beyond.

Currently, Houston and Miami are tied for the worst record in baseball: 12-32, with a .273 winning percentage. That puts both teams at a projected 117 losses.

Posted in Clippings, Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update: April 19, 2013.

Friday, April 19th, 2013

I wasn’t planning to do these as a regular thing this season. But I figure with everything else going on, folks could use a distraction while we wait.

Surprisingly, the Astros do not have the worst record in baseball. The Marlins are at 3-13, for a .188 winning percentage. That works out to an estimated 132 losses this season if trends continue: not quite Cleveland Spiders level, but good enough for third on the all-time list.

Houston is at 4-11, for a .267 winning percentage. That works out to an estimated 119 losses, which would be a record for the Astros, and would get them on the list right around where the 2003 Detroit Tigers are.

Posted in Clippings, Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

This Sporting Life.

Monday, April 8th, 2013

The Houston Astros won their opener…and have lost five straight games since.

(There are no MLB teams that have gone winless in this first week of the season. Houston, Miami, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and San Diego are all 1-5. Also, the blog widget I was using to display MLB standings hasn’t been updated in two years, and doesn’t seem to work with the current version of WordPress.)

Why should competing against men — “pushing the envelope,” as Griner called it — be a yardstick for her when the question people should be asking is: how will she fare next summer in the W.N.B.A. against the likes of Tina Charles and Sylvia Fowles?

Perhaps because nobody pays attention to the rapidly dying W.N.B.A.? This entire NYT article strikes me as condescending: Brittney Griner can make her own decisions about where she plays, and who she plays against. She doesn’t need the NYT telling her what to do.

(Seriously, I don’t understand why people are paying so much attention to Mark Cuban’s comments. He didn’t say anything that every other owner in the NBA hasn’t thought. If Fred Phelps could hit the 3-point shot and sell tickets, Cuban would be waving bundles of cash under his nose. So would every other NBA owner.)

Magnus Carlsen is the top-ranked chess player in the world, and “the first world No. 1 from a Western country since Bobby Fischer“.

Carlsen sits at the center of a campaign carefully constructed by him and his handlers to use his intelligence, looks and nimble news-media-charming skills to increase his profile outside the sport, as if he were a tennis or golf star. Not since the days of Fischer, Kasparov and Karpov has a player managed to move so deftly beyond the world of chess into the world at large.

More:

Carlsen has been profiled on “60 Minutes”; has modeled (along with Liv Tyler) for a major clothing label; has met Jay-Z at a Nets game; and has been offered a role, as a chess player, in the coming “Star Trek” film (the role fell through because of work-permit issues).

I’m waiting for him to show up in a commercial for Citizen Eco-Drive watches, myself.

Posted in Admin, Clippings, Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update.

Friday, March 15th, 2013

For the record: Grambling played their SWAC tournament game Wednesday night…and lost, finishing the season 0-28.

Meanwhile, Liberty University (of Jerry Falwell fame) started the season 0-8. But:

With four consecutive upsets, each one a little more astounding than the last, Liberty won the Big South tournament and barged into the N.C.A.A. tournament with a 15-20 record.

(I don’t place bets before the brackets are announced, but I’m thinking this is Gonzaga’s year. Just an aside.)

Posted in Clippings, Loser, Sports, Wagers | Comments Closed

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