fafblog, as usual, captures things better than I can. But damn. The Sox pitching… just abysmal. I guess as a sports fan I’ve been spoiled, going from growing up a Dolphins and Hurricane fan, to Duke basketball (men’s and women’s) with a nice icing of Marlins, and then came to Boston, where within a few months of getting here the city won a Super Bowl (I loathe the Patriots, unfortunately) and a Stanley Cup-by-proxy. And then I got another Marlin’s series win. So I’m spoiled. But… damn. Tonight still sucked. Objectively.
Mike: realistically; I’d hope most people aren’t writing merely for ‘enterprise’ distros, since that’s not what the vast majority of linux users are running. (And the serious enterprise distros will all have 2.4 within a matter of a few months, anyway.)
Bryan: Nutshell of the Bonds/Suzuki issue is that for most intents and purposes, particularly for a leadoff hitter, a single is the same as a walk. So, sure, we can completely ignore power, as you ask. But if you do ignore power, the right stat to look at is on-base percentage, not hits. And in that category, not only was Bonds 50% better than Suzuki (.609 v. .414), he had the greatest year of any player, ever. Better than Ruth, better than Williams (who holds the best non-Bonds season of all time at .553). He didn’t beat the previous record-holder by a couple percent, in a couple percent-longer season. He crushed the record by just a shade under 10%. So, sure… Suzuki had a great season, and it should be recognized. But by a more important statistic, not only did Bonds have the greatest season of all time, but the next best seasons aren’t close. Oh, and if you factor in power, using OPS, you’ll note that Bonds is 40% better than the next best player in the league, and Suzuki is 42nd. And if you think that these new-fangled stats are too complicated… Suzuki was the best hitter in MLB this year, I’ll grant, but only by .010… over Bonds. So it isn’t exactly like Bonds was a slouch who only hits for power- he hits for average nearly exactly as well as Suzuki does. If people actually pitched to Bonds as many times as Suzuki was pitched to, he’d have had around 85 home runs, and in the neighborhood of 250 hits. So, I sort of rest my case. If you think Bonds is only a power hitter, you’re not paying attention.