Happy Birthday to Noah Lowry, 32. 100 GS, 109 ERA+, and done after his age 26 season. It's still a brutal game for pitchers.
How about a little good stuff:
1. More on House races and Super PACs, this time from Eric McGhee. Excellent, on an absolutely important topic. One nitpick; I'd call much (most?) of the Super PAC money coming in party money, even though it isn't controlled by formal party organizations. And if it's not being spent the way formal party organization money is being spent, that's pretty interesting.
2. I see that Jamelle and I were totally on about the same things yesterday -- here he is on Romney's tax plan and the idea that Romney is adopting more moderate positions. Nice post.
3. Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers have noticed that "Romney's Party Isn't Fiscally Responsible." It's true!
4. And Molly Ball talks to John Sides about the debates and the polls.
W/r/t Noah Lowry. He had three fullish seasons with ERA+ of 115, 113, and 114 (in that order). In between the 113 & 14 seasons, he had an ERA+ of 95--a little below average, but nothing unusual. And then the pitcher's worst enemy--the injury demon--apparently struck. This, from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Lowry):
ReplyDelete"Lowry was slated as the number three starter for the Giants in 2008, but the forearm injury that shut him down in 2007 kept him out of the 2008 season. After having trouble throwing strikes early on in spring training, Lowry was diagnosed with exertional compartment syndromeand had surgery on his left forearm on March 7. In September 2008, he also had an arthroscopic procedure to remove a bone spur from his left elbow.
"In May 2009 Lowry had rib removal surgery to relieve the continued pain in his shoulder and neck associated with his recent diagnosis of thoracic outlet syndrome. The new diagnosis brought the original diagnosis of exertional compartment syndrome into question along with the necessity of his 2008 surgery. Lowry's agent, Damon Lapa, claimed that the Giants' medical staff had misdiagnosed the injury and subjected Lowry to an unnecessary arm operation, turning a potential short-term recovery into a lengthy medical ordeal. Lapa said Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Greg Pearl confirmed the diagnosis in separate consultations with Lowry. Lapa said the circulatory issue was the source of Lowry's forearm tightness in August 2007 and loss of control in spring training 2008, but that the Giants' medical staff failed to identify the problem. The Giants, however, denied any wrongdoing."
The good news for Lowry is that he got paid for 2008 & 2009 (total of $6.75 million) anyway.
Yeah, I saw that last bit. Definitely nice. Since he was drafted in 2001, that means he wound up with $9M for his 8 or 9 years of being a professional baseball player (I'm assuming we should definitely count 2008 when he was rehabbing; not sure whether we should count 2009 or not).
DeleteOoo ooo ooo! The new YouGov/Economist Poll has Obama back up by 3. It was taken 6th to the 8th. Quick tell everyone Obama has turned it around! All hands on deck! Quick, tell Sullivan to re-write all his blog posts!
ReplyDeleteAlso happy birthday David Lee Roth:
http://www.biography.com/people/david-lee-roth-20851755
Sorr, I only do birthday wishes for people I like a lot.
DeleteLWL: Don't believe that YouGov poll. Look at the demographics--it doesn't have nearly enough female Latino Buddhists.
DeleteSo I should assume you don't like Brett Favre?
DeleteSee, that's the problem: some days there's more than one excellent choice. Selecting one doesn't mean I have anything against the other one.
DeleteBut, no, I don't particularly like Brett Favre.
Chris Carpenter's recovery should give Lowry hope, since Carpenter had thoracic outlet syndrome and had surgery for it this year, including a partial rib removal. Yet there he was yesterday pitching in the NLDS the same year.
ReplyDelete