Flex’s blog

Here’s a little plug for my company - Language Weaver. The folks at the Christian Science Monitor wrote up an excellent article about the company entitled "Language Weaver: fast in translation". Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“The ability to translate lots of information quickly is becoming one of the important concerns of a global economy,” says Mark Przybocki, computer technologist and MT team coordinator with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in Gaithersburg, Md. “Especially when you consider the huge amounts of information accumulating on the Internet…. Effective machine translation is becoming more important every day.”

Enjoy!

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This Onion piece put a smile to my face today despite another ridiculous loss by the Mets last night. Unfortunately.. I don’t think even “Carlos Voltron” can help save the sinking ship. 

In reflecting upon this season, it’s clear to me that the Mets have some rebuilding to do. It’s not a complete rebuilding.. but it’s nevertheless rebuilding. But before I get into that, let me tell you why I think there’s absolutely no way the Mets will get very far in the playoffs - IF they make the playoffs.

As we’ve seen over the last decade, no matter how good your starting lineup is, it’s really all about the quality of the pitching staff. Come playoff season, it’s about the best pitching staffs facing off against the best hitting lineups and we all know good pitching beats good hitting. Thus, in the first round NLDS which is limited to a best of five format, you’re basically going to see at most your top three starters in the rotation from each team. Thus from the Mets perspective, you’re going to give the ball to Johan, Pedro, and probably Mike Pelfrey (it would have been Oliver Perez had he just been more consistent over the last few months). Every team will then move the rest of their starting staff to the bullpen.. and in some ways this will help the Mets because of their woeful bullpen. So we move Oliver Perez and John Maine (well we hope he’ll be ok enough to last the postseason) to the bullpen.. and we leave the closer and set-up man positions to whomever is somewhat OK. Heck - promote Brian Stokes to be the closer!

But back to my point - no matter how good the batting lineup is.. you’ll be facing the very best pitchers out there so it’ll come down to a battle of the bullpens eventually. To that end, the Mets are at a major disadvantage - even during the NLDS and ESPECIALLY during the NLCS. Once you move to a 7 game series format, the fourth starter might actually be needed to start a fourth game. Things get a bit more dicey and well.. those flaws in the bullpen will be even more apparent.

We’d like to think that we could blame the entire season on last night’s game against the Cubs.. but the truth is - it’s been building up the entire season. Sure.. you can say the hitting has been inconsistent and yes.. it has..but the hitting is under tremendous pressure to produce because no one ever knows if it’s enough for the sorry state of the bullpen. I mean seriously folks.. if you have a 10-1 lead.. it should be easy from that point out. If you’re the pitcher in that game - throw strikes!!!

So.. don’t blame David Wright.. don’t blame Carlos Delgado.. or Carlos Beltran.. or Jose Reyes. Heck.. don’t blame Luis Castillo…

Put the blame on Omar.. good ol Omar.. who’s decided to whittle away the farm system for big name players. Who made big bets are old players that were sure to break down. Who decided to fire a manager at three in the morning east coast time. Sure - some of the trades have certainly worked out (no one will ever doubt the trade for Johan) but many more have not. Did it make sense to sign up Castillo for four years? Did it make sense for us to have Moises Alou in the outfield when he gets hurt simply by going to the shower?? What about paying all those big bucks for Scott Schoeneweis? Come on!!! While other teams have bright young prospects coming up through the farm system.. what do the Mets have other than Niese and Martinez? I suppose the blame can also go with Mets ownership too - for allowing the Omar business to continue .. and continue now for four more years.. ugh.

Granted.. no one could imagine that Billy Wagner would go down when the season started. No one could imagine that Aaron Heilman would suck so bad.. No one could have imagined that John Maine would also get hurt..

Yet.. we all knew a couple of other things. People knew Pedro might be iffy (though who would have guessed he would have a hamstring injury?). People knew Duaner Sanchez was no sure bet. People knew Luis Castillo was hobbling around.. and people knew that Moises Alou would get hurt despite being healthy.

While the Mets might make it through the NLDS.. there’s no way they’ll make it through the NLCS.. not with their holes and weaknesses.. not with the crummy 3rd base couch that they have.. not without a real setup man.., and certainly not without a closer.

Thus looking forward to the off season, the Mets need to rebuild. They have an excellent left side of the infield…. they have center field locked up.. right field isn’t bad with Church (if he can cut down on his strikeouts)… catching is pretty sweet (though it would be nice if Schneider hit for a higher average).. but left field needs a player.. unless we stick with Daniel Murphy which isn’t a bad idea.. and most importantly.. the bullpen. We need a new closer - go get K Rod for goodness sakes. We need a real setup man.. we need a real bullpen period. Say goodbye to Scott.. say goodbye to Pedro F.. and say goodbye to Luis A.

Of course it’s easy for me to criticize the Mets and to suggest all these moves.. but hey.. if the organization is willing to spend money on a new stadium.. spend money on a TV network… then the organization needs to take a good look at itself and see how it can improve itself - with or without money. Just look at the Yankees.. spending big money like the Yanks have over the last four years didn’t really help them did it? Neither will it help the Mets necessarily. With the right mix of players and home grown talent - maybe..  but the fix is in the bullpen right now.

In the meantime.. enjoy Carlos Voltron.. I think he’ll be the best thing that the Mets have going for them right now.

From a fan who’s still grumbling about how Murphy was at third with NO ONE OUT and still didn’t score.. FRACKING A.. ANYONE EVER HEAR OF A SQUEEZE BUNT?!?!?!??!!?

Oh yeah.. sorry for any typos here.. I didn’t bother to check.

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While I’m keeping my eyes closed and my ears shut to the rest of this Mets season (which amounts to five more games), I figured I’d share this YouTube clip of a rendition of Lisa Loeb’s song, “Stay”, sung to lyrics about Met’s starting pitcher John Maine. Thanks to V for this linky…

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I thought this was an utterly hilarious story. Construction workers at the new Yankee Stadium unearthed a buried Boston Red Sox jersey with David Ortiz’s name on it. Apparently another construction worker, who was a Red Sox fan, had buried it within two feet of concrete while on the job in the hopes of jinxing the Yanks. The Yanks plan on donating the jersey to charity while also pursuing a lawsuit against the worker. Hilarious..

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Ever wonder when it’s appropriate to try and start a wave at a baseball game? (Never wanted to? GOOD!). Well here’s “The Drunk Jays Fans Guide to the Wave“. It’s a hilarious read folks.. just great. I for one can’t stand the wave but yes.. when it’s going, you might as well join in and hope and pray some section in the crowd will simply ignore and kill the wave. Just don’t perform the wave at a critical point in the game folks!

Thanks to Kevin for the linky.

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