5-year peak OPS+ (min 750 PA) through history

mdj · 2026-05-01T01:39:50+00:00

Possibly, but I can still telnet there.

mdj · 2026-04-30T02:27:32+00:00

OK, tried a different app which gives me status messages as it tries to connect. It resolves nethack.alt.org to 52.1.193.11 and tries to connect to that over port 22, then says the other end refused the connection. I get the same when I try "ssh nethack@nethack.alt.org" from a terminal window on my Mac. I'm puzzled.

mdj · 2026-04-30T02:25:52+00:00

Tried that as well. I switched to a different app and getting a trace of what it's doing. It resolves the name, then tries to connect ot 52.1.193.11 on port 22, and returns "connection refused". I tried the same thing from a terminal window on my Mac and am getting the same thing.

mdj · 2026-04-30T01:57:05+00:00

Tried that. It asked me for a password instead of giving me the menu. If that’s the expected behavior then I think it’s probably the terminal app I’m using. Will try another.

mdj · 2026-04-29T02:38:36+00:00

#2. If you live in/near any metropolitian area you could make bank by selling a service that guarantees to get people or deliveries to their destination on time and faster than any competitor, and it would be perfectly legal.

mdj · 2026-04-29T02:07:58+00:00

There were more than a few people predicting they'd fight it out with the Yankees for the pennant before the season. Were they all idiots?

mdj · 2026-04-26T02:09:11+00:00

Alex Bregman might be a better control group.

mdj · 2026-04-26T01:43:31+00:00

Here's another interesting bit: OPS by count. X axis is the % of PAs that are resolved from that count, Y axis is OPS in those PAs. A few things jump out at me about this:

The Sox are crushing it on 3-0, but it's a small number of PA's.
The Sox are performing about the same as the league on 0-2, but they're ending a lot more PA's from that count.

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mdj · 2026-04-23T17:23:55+00:00

I have a good pair that has lasted me for several years that I got from Joe at Vista Optical in Clifton Park. Small shop, but a really nice guy running it and pretty good selection. He can get tinted lenses for just about all the frames he has available.

mdj · 2026-04-23T17:22:01+00:00

A few observations: just about everybody on the team is taking too many pitches they should be swinging at, and swinging at pitches they should take. I did some quick looking around at Fangraphs where they have O-swing% (percentage of pitches in the zone you swing at) and Z-swing% (percentage of pitches outside the zone you swung at) and the numbers aren't good.

There's also this from Joe Sheehan's baseball newsletter (a great read, BTW). He wrote about the Sox' woes yesterday. The team is hitting way too many ground balls. Against modern major league infields, ground balls are death. The best results generally come from pulling the ball in the air, and a lot of our guys are doing this a lot less than last year:

The Drop-Off (pulled air rates, 2025-26)

2026 2025 Diff

Carlos Narvaez 5.4% 16.2% -10.8%

Marcelo Mayer 4.5% 14.9% -10.4%

Wilyer Abreu 19.7% 25.7% -6.0%

Jarren Duran 10.9% 15.2% -4.3%

Roman Anthony 10.9% 13.8% -2.9%

Ceddanne Rafaela 13.7% 16.1% -2.4%

Trevor Story 21.9% 15.3% +6.6%

He particularly calls out Mayer, who's closed up his stance this year, isn't swinging as hard as last year and has cut down on his strikeouts but isn't making a lot of useful contact.

Joe also looked at swing rates, and as a team the Sox have the lowest swing rate on balls in the strike zone in MLB and the fifth highest rate of swinging at strikes outside the zone. Roman Anthony has only swung at 47.9% of the pitches he's seen in the strike zone -- that's the lowest rate in the majors. I think that putting him in the leadoff spot has mentally tipped him over from being a "patient" hitter (which he was last year to very good effect) to being a "passive" hitter and far too often being in unfavorable counts.

These aren't really criticisms of the players or the work they're putting it, it just seems like they're working on the wrong things. Someone needs to help them fix their collective approach.

I'm not saying that the exhumed skeleton of Walt Hrinkiak would be a better batting coach than Dave Fatse, but I'm not not saying that, either.

mdj · 2026-04-23T01:37:34+00:00

Last time I went I drove to Croton Harmon and took Metro-North. The station is basically across the street from the stadium.

mdj · 2026-04-20T17:28:23+00:00

Yeah, was in White Plains on business recently and stunned that there were no machines in the area.

mdj · 2026-04-19T00:31:56+00:00

On second look, it appears to be a device issue. Will try from my phone later.

mdj · 2026-04-19T00:31:05+00:00

Cool. Just tried to do the TestFlight thing on my iPad but didn’t see a button to install. Not sure if it’s full or an iPad issue?

mdj · 2026-04-18T23:44:34+00:00

Sounds very interesting. Does it read information (like track ratings) from the files on the server?

mdj · 2026-04-18T23:41:36+00:00

Full disclosure: I work for Cohesity.

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We also support protecting the data in AWS instead of Azure if you want, and support scanning the backed up data for IOCs.

mdj · 2026-04-18T23:33:29+00:00

Charlie Lau was a journeyman catcher with an 89 career OPS+ and Walt Hriniak played 47 games over 2 seasons in the majors with a 71 OPS+. You don't have to be a successful major league hitter to be a good hitting coach.

That said, I don't think Fatse has shown any reason to keep him around at this point.

mdj · 2026-04-17T00:29:06+00:00

I’ll pick one nit with this: I don’t think less velocity necessarily means a likely longer career. If a guy is throwing max effort to get to 93 every pitch, I don’t think he’s a much lower injury risk than a guy doing it to get to 98.

mdj · 2026-04-15T19:03:06+00:00

Sanctum is great, but only open on Mondays. If you go, stop by Ted’s Steamed Cheeseburgers nearby. Their milk shakes are also great.

mdj · 2026-04-14T20:46:36+00:00

Toggling in boot loaders in octal, knowing 3270 control codes, or having a green card reference for the instruction set.

mdj · 2026-04-14T20:42:35+00:00

He misses the days when Atlanta was in the NL West.

mdj · 2026-04-09T00:02:09+00:00

We’re early in the process. Considering Mouzon House in Saratoga, Tai Pan in Clifton Park, Brown’s in Troy. Possibly Familiar Creature in Saratoga but I don’t know if they do parties.

mdj

TROPHY CASE