Chain Reaction

by

 

I apologize for the lack of content over the past month. To make up for that lull, there should be several posts coming soon.

A roster post should be up in a couple days detailing all the moves the Indians had to make to deal with the bullpen implosion. I’ll also take a look at the decision to designate Giovanny Urshela for assignment rather than Erik Gonzalez; hopefully by then the DFA process will have played out, and I can take that into account. 

Also I hope to finish the next part of the 1948 Treasure Trove series in the next week or so, which will cover the Sketch Book. 

After a month of baseball, the Indians are in first place, but they are not running on all cylinders. Were the Indians in any other division, they’d be in at least second place, and in one instance (NL Central) last place.

The culprits are twofold. The team at first struggled to score runs, and of late have given up runs in the late innings. The latter happened, not coincidentally, after Andrew Miller went on the Disabled List. I don’t think Miller’s injury directly caused the rest of the bullpen to implode, but Miller’s presence allowed the Indians to get away with a lot of substandard relief pitching, and with that gone the rest of the bullpen was exposed. Zach McAllister, for example, had not exactly been a stalwart as Bryan Shaw’s replacement, but Terry Francona had Miller out in the bullpen as a security blanket. But without Miller, there was only Cody Allen to bring in if something went horribly wrong, and you can’t expect Allen to be able to throw multiple innings more than a couple times a month without it eventually affecting his performance.

A Game-by-Game look at the bullpen

Let’s go game by game since Miller’s injury, looking at both usages and performances by the bullpen. I’ll ignore instances of the Indians trailing when the starter left the game, though those instances didn’t exactly feature stellar relief performances either.

April 25th: Indians 4, Cubs 1

Starter: 6.2 innings (Trevor Bauer, 111 pitches) – lead 3-1

Andrew Miller: entered 6.2 (0.0 innings, 0 runs, left with injury)

Tyler Olson: entered 6.2 (1.0 inning, 0 runs)

Nick Goody: entered 7.2 (.1 inning, 0 runs)

Cody Allen: entered 8.0 (1 inning, 0 runs)

This is how games usually went the last couple of years; the starter gets the game to the 7th inning or later, the back end of the bullpen shuts the other down to finish the game. Goody and Olson were pitching in unaccustomed roles, but they rose to the occasion.

April 26th: Mariners 5, Indians 4

Starter: 6.0 innings (Mike Clevinger) – trail 4-0

Dan Otero: entered 6.0 (1.1 innings 0 runs)

Jeff Beliveau: entered 7.1 tied 4-4 (.1 innings, 0 runs)

Nick Goody: entered 7.2 tied 4-4 (.1 innings, 1 run)

Zach McAllister: entered 8.0 trailing 5-4 (1.0 inning, 0 runs)

Goody, who entered into a tie game, was the culprit this night. Had Miller been available, he probably would have finished off the 8th inning.

April 27th: Indians 6, Mariners 5

Starter: 8.2 innings (Corey Kluber) – lead 6-2

Cody Allen: entered 8.2 (.1 inning, 2 runs)

Allen allowed an inherited run to score along with two of his own.

April 30th: Indians 7, Rangers 5

Starter: 6.2 innings (Trevor Bauer) – tied 2-2

Tyler Olson: entered 6.2 (.2 inning, 2 runs)

Cody Allen: entered 7.1 trail 4-3 (1.1 innings, 1 run)

Jeff Believeau: entered 8.2 lead 7-4 (.1 inning, 0 run)

Allen entered in the 8th inning, a spot that Andrew Miller would certainly have filled. Allen would throw 41 pitches before being relieved in the 9th inning. You usually don’t see that kind of workload in a single game in the regular season.

May 2nd: Indians 12, Rangers 4

Starter: 7.0 innings (Corey Kluber) – leading 10-3

Dan Otero: entered 7.0 lead 10-3 (1.0 inning, 1 run)

Ben Taylor: entered 8.0 lead 12-4  (1.0 inning, 0 run)

No drama here. Otero and Taylor (making his Indians debut) did well in mopup duty.

May 3rd (Game 1): Blue Jays 13, Indians 11 (11 innings)

Starter: 5.1 innings (Carlos Carrasco) – tied 7-6

Nick Goody: entered 5.1 lead 7-6 (.2 inning, 2 runs)

Zach McAllister: entered 6.0 tied 7-7 (1.2 innings, 1 run)

Ben Taylor: entered 7.2 trail 9-7 (.1 inning, 0 run)

Cody Allen: entered 8.0 tied 9-9 (1 inning, 0 run)

Dan Otero: entered 9.0 tied 9-9 (1 inning, 0 run)

Tyler Olson: entered 10.0 tied 9-9 (1 inning, 4 runs)

This mess of a game was set in motion because of a short outing by Carlos Carrasco. In what has become a recurrent theme lately, the Tribe offense mounted a furious comeback, only to see it given away late by the bullpen. That this was the first game of a doubleheader affected some of the pitching moves by Terry Francona only somewhat; Francona is never shy about going for a game in front of him, leaving the next game until tomorrow (or in this case, an hour from now).

May 3rd (Game 2): Indians 13, Blue Jays 4

Starter: 7.1 innings (Adam Plutko) – lead 13-3

Evan Marshall: entered 7.1 lead 13-3 (.2 inning, 0 run)

Jeff Beliveau: entered 8.0 lead 13-3 (1.0 inning, 1 run)

Thank goodness for Adam Plutko, as his performance (along with the Tribe offense) allowed Francona to get through the game without having to use any reliever in both games. Not that that would help any in New York.

May 6th: Yankees 7, Indians 4

Starter: 7.1 innings (Mike Clevinger) – lead 4-0

Cody Allen: entered 7.1 lead 4-0 (.2 inning, 3 runs)

Dan Otero: entered 8.0 tied 4-4 (.1 inning, 2 runs)

The curious decision to go with Cody Allen in the eighth inning of a game that the Indians led by 4 runs seems to be a product of the previous week’s worth of games. Francona had seen just about every reliever on the staff implode at some point or another, and that includes several pitchers that had since been cycled back to the minors. With a off-day looming, he thought he could push Clevinger to 110 pitches or so, then rely on Allen to get the final 3 (or possibly 4) outs. As it turned out, the tiring Clevinger couldn’t stay in the strike zone, and so Allen had to be brought it to get 5 outs. Cody couldn’t spot his curve, and so became a one-pitch pitcher. By the time he ran out onto the field for the bottom of the ninth, it was a one-run game, and he’d thrown over 25 pitches.

Dishonorable mentions:

In the game on May 1st, which Mike Clevinger left trailing 2-0, the bullpen would give up 4 runs to push the deficit to 6-0, only to have the offense rally for 6 runs in their final two at-bats. The game went into extra innings, and the Rangers would score two runs off Nick Goody in the 12th inning.

In the game on May 4th against the Yankees, the Indians would score 6 runs in their final two at-bats to tie the game, only to see the Yankees win it with a run against Cody Allen in the bottom of the ninth.

It isn’t just Andrew Miller’s absence

Thankfully the starters have for the most part pitched deep into the game, even in games that they left losing. That means, aside from Cody Allen, who has been used way more than he should given how early in the year it is, nobody else in the bullpen should be tired. Granted, the Indians have accomplished this by making as many bullpen roster moves in the last week as they seemingly made in the last three months of 2017; the last couple years you knew exactly who was in the bullpen, but now you need to head to the online roster an hour before the game to see who will be pitching in the late innings tonight.

Which brings me to the point of this exercise. Having Andrew Miller back by week’s end (barring a setback) will undoubtedly be a good thing for this bullpen. But he isn’t going to fix the overall issues the Indians have there. Teams even with good starting pitchers need at least four reliable relievers during the regular season slog, and the Indians the past week didn’t have one thanks to Cody Allen’s struggles. Zach McAllister, who inherited Bryan Shaw’s role this season, has been awful from the get-go, Nick Goody is now on the Disabled List, and Tyler Olson has turned into a mortal. All these things are par for the course with relievers, whose effectiveness can turn on a dime.

The Indians have constructed their excellent bullpens largely with reclamation projects or waiver claims over the last 2-3 seasons, and this year (at least so far) the magic has wore off. Maybe that’s because Mickey Callaway is now managing the Mets, or past heavy usage is showing up, or the league has watched enough video on guys like Olson. I think it’s a combination of all these things.

The Indians have recognized that they’re going to have to rebuild their bullpen on the fly. Oliver Drake, acquired from Milwaukee, is the next pitcher the Indians will try out. Alexi Ogando will get a few more opportunities to show that he can still get big-league hitters out. Perhaps Nick Goody will be as good as new after his stay on the Disabled List. Maybe Zach McAllister will figure out how to throw his secondary pitches for strikes. If all that fails, the Indians will need to trade prospects for relievers, but trading season usually doesn’t happen until June at the earliest.

Injuries in the outfield

by

(you can see the live version of this here)

I’ve intentionally left the results of the first 10 days off the chart above. For starters, the baseball-reference WAR isn’t listed for the current season. But even if it had been there, I’d still leave it off because we’ve only had a small sample of games to use for it. Basically, the numbers wouldn’t be very meaningful.

If the numbers were listed there, they’d show a very poor offensive showing but a very promising pitching performance. Only one regular had an OPS (on-base percentage+slugging percentage) over .700 at the time of this writing, with a second (Tyler Naquin) having just been recalled from Columbus. I’m not going to delve that much deeper into this, other than to say that those with decent or fine histories should eventually turn it around, and those with suspect histories need to turn it around (or else they won’t be in Cleveland for much longer).

What I am worried about is the depth in the outfield.  Michael Brantley was back in the lineup for Friday’s home opener, but by the early innings of Saturday’s game Lonnie Chisenhall had re-injured the calf that had caused him to missed most of the second half of last season. The early prognosis is that he’ll miss 4-6 weeks, but that’s just an estimate. Tyler Naquin is going to be the everyday right fielder, and now has the opportunity in 2018 that he didn’t get last year (he was hurt when Lonnie Chisenhall last injured his quad). Behind Naquin the outfield depth isn’t very good, and a lot of Tribe fans would place Naquin himself in that “not very good” category. I don’t think either Brandon Guyer or Rajai Davis can credibly fill an everyday corner role for longer than a week or two, though that might be what the Indians have to do if Brantley has to miss any time.

Greg Allen is only other outfielder on the 40-man roster, and is not going to provide much offense, which is what a corner outfield spot requires. After that, the Indians would either have to move someone from another position (Yandy Diaz, Francisco Mejia, even Jason Kipnis) or players that aren’t on the 40-man roster (Richie Shaffer, for example). So yes, the only thing that’s standing in the way of a full AAAA outfield is Michael Brantley’s health, which hasn’t exactly been sterling the previous two seasons.

Speaking of outfield depth, current/former Tribe outfielder Anthony Santander hit his first major-league home run yesterday. Let me explain the “current/former” descriptor: Santander was selected by the Orioles in the Rule 5 draft after the 2016 season, and because he spent most of 2017 on the Disabled List, is still property of the Indians. But given that the Orioles just need to keep Santander on their 25-man roster another month, there’s almost no chance that he’ll be returned to the Cleveland organization. I’ve typed way too many words on the Santander situation at Let’s Go Tribe, but I think it’s worth reiterating here:

 

Sidebar: The Gray Area of Rule 5

The Orioles in recent years have utilized the Rule 5 draft more than any other team. They’ve selected at least one player in Rule 5 since 2006 (15 in total), and they usually try to keep them on the roster. They selected TJ McFarland from the Indians in 2012, and the move paid off; he remained on the Baltimore roster the entire 2013 season, and would remain with the Orioles for three seasons afterwards. McFarland is an example of a player who was blocked in his organization, and was able to get to the majors more quickly with another team. Situations like McFarland’s are the reason Rule 5 was implemented.

The Santander selection was different. He had undergone shoulder surgery in the fall, so the Indians faced a dilemma: place the talented but injured Santander on the 40-man roster, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to contribute to the major-league team or even a minor-league team in 2017 (taking up a valuable 40-man roster spot), or gamble that no one will take him in the Rule 5 draft. As it turned out, every major-league team passed on Santander one time, but the Orioles snapped him up with their second selection (clubs can take as many players as they have open 40-man roster spots).

Still recovering from the shoulder surgery, Santander played a bit with the team in Spring Training before coming down with elbow soreness. That led to him being placed on the major-league DL, and allowed the Orioles to keep him without having to use a 25-man roster spot. He would return to the active roster in the middle of August, meaning that the Orioles only had to keep him on their 25-man roster a grand total of 15 days (on September 1, teams can expand their active roster, meaning there was no real cost to keep Santander on the roster in September).

Normally a team has to keep a Rule 5 selection on their active roster for the entire season (or 180 days), but in cases where the player spent time on the Disabled List in the season after his selection, teams just have to keep him on their active roster for a total of 90 days. To me, that creates a perverse incentive for clubs to select players in Rule 5 that are likely to miss time due to injury (as it’s much easier to comply with Rule 5 with an injured player), and therefore making clubs have to protect talented but injured prospects on their 40-man roster. As a recent example, had the Indians known that Julian Merryweather would need Tommy John surgery in October, they might have gone ahead and protected him anyway, because a club could have selected him in the Rule 5 Draft and stowed him on their DL in 2018 without any penalty, then try him out in 2019 after he recovers.

To get back to Santander and the Indians’ present outfield situation, had Santander remained in the Indians’ organization, he probably would have been added to the 40-man roster this winter, and would have been a legitimate major-league option for the Indians in the outfield, especially considering the injuries (and Abe Almonte’s fall from grace). Santander does have a year of service time thanks to Rule 5, but he didn’t get a real opportunity any faster with the Orioles than he would have had with the Indians. That’s why I think the minimum amount of time spent on an active roster to satisfy Rule 5 requirements should be expanded to 150 days, which would equal the amount of time clubs have a roster limit of 25 players during a single season. That would take away the temptation to draft injured players, and also ensure that Rule 5 players, if injured after their selection, get a legitimate opportunity to play in the majors.

A Postscript from March 26

In my last Indians (current season edition) post, I guessed that the Indians would follow this order in clearing 40-man roster spots for Rajai Davis and Matt Belisle:

  1. Abe Almonte DFA
  2. Rob Refsnyder DFA
  3. Julian Merryweather to 60-day DL
  4. Giovanny Urshela DFA
  5. Ryan Merritt DFA
  6. Ben Taylor DFA

The Indians went with (2) on March 27, trading Refsynder to Tampa Bay, then used the open spot to claim left-handed reliever Jack Leathersich off waivers, who is now pitching in Columbus. They then went with (1) and (6) to clear spots for Davis/Belisle on March 29. Almonte would be claimed on waivers by the Kansas City Royals on April 2, while Taylor would clear waivers and remain in the organization (Columbus).

Merryweather remains on the Disabled List, but on a minor-league roster, which means he is not earning MLB service time.

Both Urshela and Merritt remain on the 10-day Disabled List, and the Indians will have to make difficult decisions on both once they are activated, as neither player has an option year remaining.

 

A 1948 Treasure Trove – Introduction

by

 

Several years ago, I received a very generous gift.

My great-aunt, whom I had never met (she had moved out of state long before I was born), had recently passed away, and found in her effects were several pieces of Cleveland Indians memorabilia. Given my reputation as an Indians fan, I was offered these pieces by my aunt in Florida. I accepted, though I had no idea what I’d be getting.

Here’s what I got:

I was surprised, to say the least. There is one item that is from a different season, but all the rest of these items are from the 1948 championship season. The only exception being the score card, which is from the 1954 season (and which is special in its own right).

Let’s start from the top left and work our way around clockwise:

Cleveland Indians Sketch Book of 1948. A promotional book that I believe was sold separately as well as given away for at least one game (the doubleheader against the Yankees on May 23). Includes pictures and profiles of players, coaches, and the front office, as well as some historical features on teams of the past.

Cleveland Indians scorecard, September 1954. To be more specific, this is from the September 25 11-1 victory over the Tigers, which was the 111th and final victory of the season. My great-aunt scored the game, making several notes on player moves and other details.

A scrapbook full of newspaper articles from August-October 1948. The articles and photographs are mostly from the Plain Dealer, though there are a couple of Cleveland Press clippings. I’m not sure I can show these because they are still covered under copyright, but at the very least I’ll describe them in a later post.

Ticket envelopes and forms from 1948. The postmark on the return envelope was marked October 2, 1948, which was four days before the World Series began, so I assume either it contained ticket(s) for Game 5 (which my great-aunt attended) or a refund. One of the photos in the scrapbook showed a long line of fans at Cleveland Stadium attempting to get tickets for the World Series, and my great aunt noted that she was in this line, so maybe she got the ticket that way.

1948 World Series program, Cleveland edition. This is from Game 5 of the World Series, as it contained a completed scorecard from the game. There is also a second World Series program in the scrapbook.

Indian News from March 1948. A four-page pamphlet on the coming season, with details on ticket packages. This is going to be what I’m covering in detail next time; the remainder of the items will be covered of the course of this season, which is appropriately enough the 70th anniversary of the franchise’s last World Series championship.

The plan for this series is to showcase these items in the context of what was happening with the team at the time, and to glean what details I can about how Cleveland fans were feeling about the amazing 1948 run. And, on a selfish note, try to find out a bit more about a relative I never knew but also have something in common with.

So without further ado, a closer look at the Indian News pamphlet.

Read more

Dramatis Personae

by

An audience watching a play may know the characters who will be in the performance, but not what they will do, whether they live or die, succeed or fail. However, the author of the play and the performers on stages knows exactly what will happen from the time the curtain rises to the final exit. The entire thing, from the script to the set to the costumes, is meticulously rehearsed, and a successful performance is one that has almost no deviation from the plan. If you watch two performances, spaced two weeks apart, almost nothing will have changed, which is by design.

Baseball is not a play. Its players may rehearse repeatedly, just like their thespian counterparts, but neither they nor those who manage them know what the outcome will be even if all goes perfectly. And it almost never goes perfectly. The main difference separating baseball from the stage, of course, is that baseball is a sport, or more appropriately for this subject, a public competition. The object is not the perfect spectacle, though sometimes that can happen if the stars align, but to win the game.

At the beginning of a baseball season, neither the fans nor the performers nor the management of the club knows what will happen or even who will be standing on the field in the final scene, the final game of the season. Sometimes even individual games are like this, with players leaving the field unexpectedly, giving way to hitherto unknown understudies. The 25 players who step onto the field before Thursday night’s opener will almost certainly not be the same players who (hopefully) step onto the field before the Indians’ first playoff game in October. Some changes will be those everyone was sure would happen, but there will be at least a few that no one saw coming. It is this sense of mystery, of persistent unknowns despite all attempts to systematize it, that keeps me enthralled with baseball.

(you can see the live version of this here)

Here is what the roster looks like 4 days before the season begins. I’d first like to point out that some moves haven’t officially been made, hence the reason for there being 42 players listed on the 40-man roster. The Indians will be adding Rajai Davis and Matt Belisle to the roster before the season begins, but we don’t know who will be departing the 40-man roster to make room for them. One of those players could be Rob Refsnyder, though he could make the Opening Day roster himself if Brandon Guyer isn’t ready to go. Both Giovanny Urshela and Ryan Merritt will be placed on the Disabled List in the next couple days, so the Indians can keep both of them for the time being. The Indians could place Julian Merryweather on the 60-day Disabled List to free up a spot, though that’s not a move without drawbacks;  Merryweather would be earning service time for the entire season if the Indians place him on a major-league DL.

I think one player who will be DFAed is Abraham Almonte, who received public criticism from Terry Francona earlier in the spring and was optioned very early in the spring, especially for a veteran who has over 300 MLB games under his (tight) belt. With two injured outfielders (Brantley and Guyer) and an open reserve spot available heading into camp, that early demotion stood out to me.

If I had to rank the likelihood of roster moves to clear spots this week, it would be this (the Indians will need to make two moves):

  1. Abe Almonte DFA – early demotion, several players above him on depth chart even at a thin position.
  2. Rob Refsnyder DFA – out of options, no spot on 25-man if Guyer is cleared for Opening Day
  3. Julian Merryweather to 60-day DL – would allow the Indians to clear a spot without losing a player, but would accrue a year’s worth of service time.
  4. Giovanny Urshela DFA – out of options, no spot for him, and there are many other middle infield options in the organization.
  5. Ryan Merritt DFA – out of options, no spot in the bullpen or rotation unless there’s an injury or a flameout.
  6. Ben Taylor DFA – has options, but the Indians may think he’ll clear waivers.

All four players headed to the 10-day Disabled List shouldn’t stay there that long (I say, knowing full well the storied history of Tribe setbacks). Brantley was on the cusp of playing on Opening Day, but the Indians are trying to be absolutely sure that he’s ready. Danny Salazar threw off a mound a couple days ago, which is usually the last thing that happens before rehab starts begin. Merritt and Urshela don’t seem to have serious injuries, but their status (both out of options, with no obvious spot on the 25-man roster) will ensure that their rehab stints are as thorough as possible.

The Salazar return would create the biggest roster conundrum, as the Indians are still adamant that Danny is first and foremost a starter, not a reliever. That means either Josh Tomlin for Mike Clevinger would be shunted to the bullpen, while a reliever would be shunted off the 25-man roster or the Tribe goes with a three-man bench. File this concern under “good ones to have,” as usually these pitching surfeits only exist in the most optimistic of baseball fanatics’ minds.

Even with these initial injuries and roster concerns, the Indians still look to have the easiest path in the American League to make the playoffs. The Twins will be a serious threat, and the Royals will be competitive, but the AL Central looks to me the weakest division in the AL, and perhaps overall. But the part where the Indians waltz to a third-straight AL Central title has not been written; we’ll have to find out how this drama ends along with everyone else.

 

 

10 minutes of a Haydn oratorio

by

And now for something completely different.

There’s a good chance you couldn’t name more than a couple of works written by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), and probably not this particular one.  That’s perfectly fine. Before I go into any more detail, I’d invite you to listen to the first ten minutes of the piece, (until the video reaches the 10:49 mark). An embedded version can also be found at bottom of this post. You’re more than welcome to listen past that point, as it’s an incredible work, but what I have to say afterwards only concerns those first 10 minutes.

You’re back? Awesome, wasn’t it?

It’s extremely difficult to describe a piece of music with words, much less how that music affects you. Music is a language that is universally intelligible, but it is very hard to capture its effects in other languages, whether spoken or written. But I’m going try anyway, because it’s well worth the effort. The Internet allows me to illuminate this post with both visual and auditory aids, so I’ll add links to certain places in the recording or refer to the score as needed.

I’ve listened to the first 10 minutes of The Creation 25-30 times, with most of those times happening while preparing this post, and still get chills down my back every time the words “and there was light” is sung. It could be a different version (there are many others on YouTube), or it could be playing on my potato laptop speakers; just hearing that stretch of music ending with that C-major chord is enough to have a physiological and emotional effect.

I’ll go over the music itself later on, and why I think Haydn was so effective in eliciting that feeling, as well as provide a bit more historical context, but for now I’ll use more descriptive language. After all, even the most analytical of baseball fans don’t immediately go to Statcast data to describe a dramatic home run or strikeout just after it happened.

A Description

The Creation/Die Schöpfung by Joseph Haydn – Hob. XXI:2 (written 1797-1798, published 1800)

Selected sections:

2:05 The Representation of Chaos (instrumental overture)

7:47 “In the Beginning” (accompanied recitative)

10:15 “And there was light” (the resolution)

The first section of The Creation is called (roughly translated) “The Representation of Chaos”. As you might suspect, the ultimate source material is the first few chapters of the Book of Genesis, and the oratorio’s overture is meant to evoke a feeling of nothingness before the first chapter begins. After the initial fanfare, the music subsides to a slow, discordant section with no musical resolution. Let me explain: when you listen to a piece of music, whether from this period or something released last week, you subconsciously expect the music to progress in a certain way, whether through consistency in tone, in melody, in dynamics (loud/soft), or in its ending. This overture does none of these things, and so creates a feeling of discontentment, of uncomfortableness because there is seemingly no direction to it. At times there are a couple points in which you think the mood will change (which I’ll go into below), but immediately the music reverses course. The section ends much as it begins, with a soft and depressing whimper. Even to our modern ears, the entire overture is strange and weird; just think what the first audiences, long accustomed to the Classical ideal of “melody first” (think of examples like this and this) thought while listening to it.

You have doubtless noticed how I have avoided the resolutions that one most expects. That is because nothing has yet assumed form.

-Haydn, on the Representation of Chaos

The recitative (a type of choral music in which a singer half-sings/half-speaks the lines) begins in much the same way as the overture ended: in a minor key, with the orchestra providing discordant accompaniment. But when the full chorus comes in (9:21), you finally have the first inkling of a resolution, which in my mind makes the payoff that much better; it’s not a sudden change from chaos to order, but a gradual buildup to it. The combination of the ethereal voices with the pulsing orchestra is a fantastic effect, giving you a sense of expectancy even if you’ve never heard the piece before. But Haydn doesn’t give it completely away, because there is no dynamic change leading to the final resolution, just a tone shift.

When the resolution happens (10:15), you get blindsided by three different changes: (1) minor to major key change, (2) a dynamic change (very soft to very loud), and (3) and, most importantly, the sudden appearance of a strong melody. Also, some performances will speed up the tempo, which gives it that extra bit of impact. It is then that you realize the previous 8-9 minutes of uncomfortable music was absolutely necessary for this moment. Had Haydn started the piece without the dark and ominous overture, the “let there be light” line wouldn’t have near the impact on the listener.

How can a concourse of sounds correspond to an emotion? That last word is not the right one. For example, in Haydn’s Creation there is a strong modulation to C major on the the words “Let there be light.” The notes as such have nothing to do with light. But the change of key – and to that key – produces a visceral sensation (for want of a better word), a sensation of discovery, of openness, release, relief – it has no name; it is not one of the emotions.

-Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence

Historical notes

Haydn was already the most famous composer in Europe when he wrote The Creation. While on his second trip to England, he had heard several of Handel’s (he composed Messiah, among many others) oratorios, and contemplated composing an oratorio of his own in Handel’s style. This marked a new challenge for the 66-year-old Haydn, who had excelled in (heck, practically invented) many other musical genres (the symphony, the string quartet, just to name a few) during his long career as a composer. The libretto (or text of the oratorio) originally came from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and was originally intended for Handel himself to use. The libretto was translated into German for its debut, though it would be published in both English and German shortly thereafter (the English version is considered subpar, so that’s why you’ll often see it performed in German even in front of English-speaking audiences). The Creation premiered in Vienna in 1798, and quickly became an international hit.

The work as a whole is optimistic in tone, a marriage of Haydn’s deeply religious beliefs with the Enlightenment values of his era.

An Analysis

Now to do the unpleasant but necessary task of breaking down a piece of music into its component parts in order to better understand why this first part of The Creation has such an emotional impact. It is difficult to quantify the emotional effect music has on an individual person, never mind all of humanity (or even just cross-section of it). However, there are some general effects that music tends to have on people. For example, a piece played in a minor key is considered “sad” music, while music in a major key is more closely associated with happiness. There are other structural components that have similar impacts. I’ve listed them below, along with a comparison how the overture and the resolution are structured.

Tempo (speed or pace of the music) 

Representation of Chaos: Lento/Very slow (sadness)

“And there was light”: Adagio/Slow (in some versions) (more happiness)

For reference, Lento is generally understood to be 40-60 beats per minute. In the version I’ve linked the tempo is about 50-52 beats per minute for the overture, with the music speeding up after the resolution. The tempo is still on the slower side, but the accelerando (speeding up) of the music does have an impact.

Mode (the type of scale – major/minor)

Representation of Chaos: c minor (sadness)

“And there was light”: C major (joy)

Tones that are closer together sound more dissonant, creating tension. The minor scale’s third tone is a half-step lower than its major scale analogue. In this case, the third tone for the opening key (c minor) is E-flat, while the third tone for the resolution key signature is E-natural (C major). You can see this in the score (which I’ve added in a later section).

Loudness/Softness of the music

  Representation of Chaos: generally soft (torpor)

“And there was light”: very loud (excitement)

In the overture, there are some small loud sections, but for the most part the music is marked as p (piano/soft) or even pp (pianissimo/very soft). The section just before the resolution (where the chorus come in) is marked pp, while the resolution is marked fff (fortississimo/very very loud), which is basically as large a dynamic change as you can have in music.

Melody (complementary or clashing)

Representation of Chaos: clashing (unpleasantness)

“And there was light”: complementary (peaceful)

In the Classical era, melody came before just about anything else. So to contemporary audiences, the lack of a coherent melody (which was by design) had to be the most jarring facet of the overture. It is only when the chorus enters (9:18) that you get any kind of melodic structure that Haydn’s contemporaries would recognize.

Rhythm (regular/smooth vs. irregular/rough)

Representation of Chaos: irregular (uneasiness)

“And there was light”: regular (happiness)

Haydn used a number of rhythms in his overture, often playing them off against one another. For example, in measures 6-8 (see below for the score), he used three consecutive runs of triplets offsetting longer notes elsewhere in the orchestra. But once the chorus comes in, everything in is lock step.

Programmatic Features

Program Music, or music composed with an extra-music theme in mind, really didn’t become widespread until the later Romantic era, but works like this do I think qualify as such. It has a specific theme, and the music is obviously written in a way to capture both the overall theme as well as the words sung. The audience would have known the subject matter forwards and backwards, and that would have added to the emotional payoff at many points, particularly at the resolution.

Conclusion

This is a vast departure from what I’ve written before, though in some aspects there are some parallels. Like with baseball, music can be enjoyed by anyone, even those with no real prior knowledge. You don’t need to know any music theory or historical background to be moved by a masterpiece like The Creation, but even a bit of deeper understanding makes it a much more rewarding experience. I’ll be back with a regularly-scheduled Indians post next Monday.

Below: The score, and some resources for further reading/listening.

Read more

The case for Ryan Merritt

by
25-man/40-man Roster – 11 March 2018

(you can see the live version of this here)

As happens every spring, the Indians are going to have to make some difficult roster decisions as they break from camp. And by difficult decisions, I mean dropping a player from their organization because he’s out of options and there isn’t a spot for him on the 25-man roster. Yandy Diaz and Tyler Naquin won’t be making the Opening Day roster, but they’ll stay in the organization because they still has options left. But Ryan Merritt, Erik Gonzalez, and Giovanny Urshela don’t have options left, and will almost certainly be claimed on outright waivers if exposed. Rob Refsnyder also does not have any options left, but I don’t think he had much of a chance of making the team, which is why I’m mentally placing him in a separate category.

I think the Gonzalez/Urshela decision is fairly straightforward. One of the two players will be the backup infielder, and the other will be traded or lost on waivers. If it was my decision, I would keep Gonzalez, as not only does he fit the immediate team need (is a better fit as a utility infielder than Urshela) but also has a better upside as a hitter (and at a more premium defensive position). Urshela is a world-class defender at third base, but he’s shown no promise at all at the plate over two lengthy stints in the majors. The Indians also added three middle infielders to their 40-man roster this winter, so they aren’t lacking for depth on that front.

But when it comes to Ryan Merritt, I’m less certain. He is not one of the five best starting pitchers on the team, or even one of the five best healthy starters. So in order for him to make the team, he’ll have to make it as a reliever, and to make room for him in the bullpen, the Indians would have to make an equally difficult decision. On the chart above, I have provisionally placed Josh Tomlin in the bullpen, but he’s going to take the spot of Danny Salazar in the rotation. So it’s not Tomlin that Merritt would displace. It would be instead Matt Belisle, or even Nick Goody; Belisle would most likely leave the organization (as is his right because he’s has enough major-league service time), while Goody would stay in the organization, as the Indians do have an option year left on him. The Indians also could option Tyler Olson, or even go with eight relievers in the bullpen at the expense of a three-man bench. But in any of those cases, I think the Indians wouldn’t be fielding their best possible 25-man roster, trading a player useful in the role he’d play for a pitcher who would not be that useful in the role he’d play.

So why the hesitation in consigning Merritt to the waiver wire? If the Indians want the best possible 25-man roster, they’re going to have to get rid of him, right? My concern is not with the Opening Day roster, but the overall starting pitcher depth over the course of the season. With Danny Salazar already out, the next starter up if there’s another injury would probably be Shawn Morimando, and after him it would be Adam Plutko (or vice versa). Those are the only other two healthy starting pitchers on the 40-man roster (Julian Merryweather is out for the year, as he needs Tommy John surgery). Last year, 7 different pitchers started games for the Indians, and that was the lowest number in the American League. Most teams used 10 or more starters a season; the Seattle Mariners last year used 17(!) different starters. Some of that has to do with performance, but some of that is going to be because of injuries, which can affect both good and bad pitching staffs.

Last week Jeff Sullivan wrote about teams spending more money on relievers this winter. He thought the demand was going up on relievers because teams are using them more often, both in terms of innings by relievers and number of relievers used. The Indians have bucked this trend because they’ve had outstanding starting pitching (both in terms of quality innings and number of innings pitched) over the last several years, but it only takes a couple injuries or bad starting pitcher performances to wreak havoc on a pitching staff from front to back.

Merritt’s shown that he can be a durable and effective pitcher in the minors. I don’t know whether he can hold down a spot in the rotation because to this point he’s only been a spot starter, but he has shown in those starts that he can navigate through a lineup a couple times. Which is more than we’ve seen from Plutko or Morimando. By the end of the season the Indians will probably use all three, but I’d rather have Merritt make more of those starts.

The various projections generally give Merritt a slight advantage over Morimando and Plutko. But the issue is not Merritt vs. Morimando, or Merritt vs. Plutko, at least at this point of the season. The issue is how much starting depth the Indians want, and the cost they’ll have to pay, in terms in potential runs, to keep another starter around. If they go with an eight-man bullpen, you shift the formula from more runs prevented to fewer runs scored. Which actually might make sense for reasons other than Merritt’s status, as starters usually won’t throw more than 100 pitches in their first couple starts of the season. That would allow the Indians to postpone any final decision for a couple weeks, perhaps even a month. If Danny Salazar returns, and there’s no other health issues on the starting staff, then Ryan Merritt will be designated for assignment and then probably traded. But maybe things work out; maybe another starter has to miss 2-3 weeks with a nagging hamstring. Or maybe Mike Clevinger has several bad outings, and needs to head to the minors to figure a couple things out.

I think it’s worth it for the Indians to postpone a final decision on Ryan Merritt, because there’s a very good chance that they can use him this season.

 

In Search Of…

by

The Internet to me is an almost magical place because I lived a significant portion of my life without it. I learned to write letters (as in pieces of paper that you sent to other people via the Postal Service) in school because that was a key form of communication, went to the public library to research for school projects, and watched (grainy) television or rented videos at physical stores for entertainment. Nowadays you may think about these things as hardships, but 20-25 years ago they were the best technology we had at the time and were not thought of negatively. In fact, things like going to the rental store for a weekend movie was quite a novelty, at least where I lived.

By the time I reached high school, I had access to dial-up internet, and there were a couple of a computers at school connected to the Internet, but it wasn’t really until I got to college that I experienced anything like the Internet we have today. The ability to have your own constantly-connected high-speed portal to the Web was an exhilarating experience, my generation’s version of experiencing the widespread availability of electricity.

The delivery mechanism was the revolution that came with the Internet. We still communicate, we still research, and we still consume entertainment, it’s just that now we do these things from our computers instead of through physical means. Time and distance no longer matters; all you need is an Internet-connected device. That device allows anyone in the world to access the same information that a couple of decades ago was only available to people in universities or in large, wealthy cities. This democratization of access is one of the major breakthroughs of the last century, and we see the effects of that unfolding before our eyes every day. No longer does the average man or woman just consume information, but contributes it as well.

Surfing the web was the main pastime for me in the early days on the Internet. The joy was in the search, and occasionally you’d find a gem. The Internet, even in those days, was a massive, massive place, and although you rarely found exactly what you were looking for, you’d often find something that you weren’t looking for but was interesting nonetheless. Many of the sites that I follow to this day I found unintentionally, usually while I was searching for something completely different. Some I found because someone I regularly read recommended them.

When I first started this site, a huge chunk of my time and energy was spent figuring out how to be seen by other Indians fans. There were portal sites that you could submit your blog to, and ways to get noticed by the search engine spiders, but the more effective way was simply trading links with other sites; someone e-mailed you about their blog, you checked it out, then you posted a link on your site to his blog and he posted a link to you on his blog. In that way you created a connected community of readers, in this case Indians fans.

Nowadays, the best way to get noticed quickly is to just stake out a spot in the walled gardens of the large social networks and try to play by their rules, because that’s where the readers are. If you’re a consumer of content, you’re going to go to one of the big sites, because that’s where the content is; you just have to allow these sites to know your search history and some personal information in exchange. This begins a positive feedback loop resulting in much of the content being concentrated in fewer and fewer places. For example, Vidme, one of the few competitors to YouTube, shut down last year, noting the extreme difficulty in monetizing user-generated video content. This comes in the form of the hardware needed to stream millions of videos concurrently, the algorithms needed to curate these videos, and catering to the needs of fickle advertisers. For a place like Facebook, you add the difficulty of poaching users: you can’t just convince individuals to jump to your platform, but entire circles of people, because people aren’t going to go somewhere new if their friends aren’t there.

A Sidebar: The Ad-Based Revenue Model

The modern digital currency is not the dollar, yuan, euro, or bitcoin, but personal information. This currency is the backbone of the ad-based Internet, and the reason why Google and Facebook are two of the largest companies in the world today.
When you visit any kind of website that is both free to the reader and has advertisements, you are the product. The content provider makes its money via advertisements, and they get more money with more impressions. The more people visit the site, the more impressions the advertisers get, and the more money the content creator gets. This model itself is not new, as newspapers, television, and radio all have operated under this for decades. The difference with this new medium is that advertisers have immediate feedback on how much traffic they received as a result of that ad. Instead of getting partial feedback (for instance, the prevalence of discount codes tied to specific advertising campaigns is an attempt for companies to judge its effectiveness), companies know exactly how many people clicked on that banner ad, plus perhaps other information on those people.

Digital content companies like Google and Facebook have taken this a step further. Because of the data they have on their users, they have the ability to place ads in front of the people who are the most likely to be interested in them. They have massive user bases, and more importantly information from those users to be able to tailor advertisements to them. This is accomplished through a computer algorithm, which is a fascinating topic in and of itself. In brief, these algorithms sift through the massive amount of content on a site like YouTube and determines what you see on the site based on the criteria they are given. For example, the YouTube algorithms could be operating with a goal of maximizing the average time spent on the site, and the algorithm takes it from there, even if it affects the makeup of the audience and the type of content that is preferred. Google’s AdWords is the dominant advertiser on the Internet, with ad revenue accounting for $95.38B for the company in 2017.

Another important distinction between the “old” and “new” method of advertising is that the actual content on the “new” sites is not being created by the company, but by its users. Google/YouTube, for example, provides the infrastructure to handle streaming videos, as well as the algorithms that attempts to give people videos they want to see, but they (for the most part) don’t make the videos themselves. If the local newspaper followed the Google/Facebook model, they would own the printing equipment and the distribution network, but not write any of their stories.

I was one of the first people to adopt many Google products, including Blogspot (which Google had just purchased in 2003) and Gmail (which is the reason I have a rather unique e-mail address), but I have begun to recognize the downsides of the algorithmic ad-based model. Many YouTube content creators, stung by demonetization, have gone to Patreon or similar sites so that they can get  a consistent income without going behind a paywall. Some new sites, like The Athletic, have committed to a pure subscription model. There are also browser-based models being tried out, which shifts the walls from the site to the browser. I hope one of these competing models succeeds.

The algorithm is just a tool, neither inherently good nor bad.  But even if it works well, it still removes much of the agency of the user, and in order to fully utilize the algorithm, you need to provide these sites personal information you wouldn’t want anyone outside your family or close friends to have, never mind available to the Internet. There has always been a trade off in this arrangement, but over the past several years that trade off has become much less tenable to me. I’ll use these major sites as ways to find content, but once found, I’ll read/watch them via an RSS reader, which I think is a way to consolidate what you want to consume, rather than relying on a site telling you what it thinks you want to consume.

So if I’m not on  Facebook as much as I used to, or suddenly move this blog to a different platform, you’ll understand why.

While writing that last sentence, this popped up in my Facebook feed. Maybe the algorithm knew I was writing this post…..

See below for videos mentioned in this post:

Read more

The Offseason

by

(you can see the live version of this here)

If ever there were an team’s offseason to sit out as a fan, it was this one. Of the projected 25-man roster, 24 of the players were in the organization at the end of the 2017 season. Heck, if you want to go a step further, 38 of the players on the 40-man roster were in the organization at the end of the 2017 season, free agent Yonder Alonson and waiver claim Rob Refsnyder being the only two newcomers. So if you turned off the TV in frustration on the evening of October 11, didn’t catch a single piece of Indians news this winter, then turned on STO to watch Friday’s Cactus League opener, you hardly missed a thing.

The Indians had a similar type of offseason in the winter of 2016-2017, but the difference here is that in 2017 the Indians did lose multiple key players to free agency. Carlos Santana, Bryan Shaw, Jay Bruce, and Joe Smith, all of whom played major roles down the stretch in 2017 left, with the Indians only attempting to replace Santana via free agency. The rest of the holes, at least for now, will be filled by existing players. Most of the 40-man roster spots vacated by departing free agents were filled by homegrown prospects.

One departure that may have quite an effect on the roster isn’t a player: Mickey Callaway, who oversaw some of the best pitching staffs in franchise history, is now the manager of the New York Mets. Mickey is leaving one talented pitching staff for another, so it will be fascinating to see how both will fare from this point forward. It’s always difficult as outsiders to determine exactly how much of an impact an individual coach or manager has on a group of players, but this change is as close to a controlled experiment as any.

The Indians have had an extended continuity of people in charge of baseball operations. John Hart replaced Hank Peters as general manager of the team in 1991, and since then every subsequent GM (or its successor title –  President of Baseball Operations) had previously been a part of the Tribe front office. The reason I bring this up is that this quiet offseason is reminiscent of that overall continuity. The lessons learned in the wake of the 2008-09 crack-up is that you need a continuous wave of young players to take the places of key players who get too expensive to keep on a mid-market payroll. The Indians could still trade some of that young talent during the season (a corner outfielder would be need #1, especially if Michael Brantley has any kind of setback), but for now they’re going to see if they can get by with what’s already here. They could have easily attempted to maximize the potential for winning over the next 2-3 years at the expense of having to tear everything down after 2020, but didn’t (at least yet).

I mention 2020 because that’s how long they have their top five starting pitchers as well seven of the nine projected starting position players under control for. The Indians will lose important players before that point (Cody Allen, Andrew Miller and Michael Brantley are free agents after this season, for instance), but the Indians can still remain at least a playoff contender even with those losses. After 2020 and 2021, though? If the Indians remain competitive, they’ll be so with an entirely new slate of players. After the 2020 season (assuming all options are picked up) Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, Edwin Encarnacion, Yonder Alonso, Danny Salazar, and Jason Kipnis can become free agents. After 2021, Francisco Lindor and Corey Kluber can become free agents. Now some of those players by then won’t be worth retaining, but even so they’ll need an equivalent of their 2017 value to slot into that roster slot. If the Indians can’t develop the next group of core players by then, 2021 isn’t going to be much fun even if Kluber and Lindor are still here.

They’re going to see if Tyler Naquin can still become a viable major-league player (especially as a corner outfielder), and whether Ryan Merritt can make the jump to a major-league rotation. In other words, can Naquin become the next Lonnie Chisenhall, and can Merritt become the next Josh Tomlin? That goes for higher-upside players like Yandy Diaz or Francisco Mejia, both of whom could allow the Indians to trade more expensive players because they want to and not because they have to. It’s also going to be important to develop the next generation of the high leverage group, as neither Cody Allen nor Andrew Miller will likely be pitching for the Indians in 2019. If the Indians have to go out and pay retail for their 8th/9th inning pitchers or third outfielders or 5th starters, they won’t have that money in hand to try to extend the one or two of their core players in 2019 or 2020 that they really want to keep. I think it’s important to look as closely at the margins of a roster rather than the centerpiece, because a productive homegrown margin allows you to spend on your stars. Just think of what the Indians have gotten out of Josh Tomlin over the years, and what they would have had to spend (whether in prospects or in free agent cash) had he not developed into a decent starting pitcher.

I see the conservative offseason as partly an attempt to forestall an apocalyptic 2021. This franchise, barring some radical change as to how MLB payrolls are structured, is always going to operate on the notion of postponing a rebuild as long as possible. It’s going to happen someday, but if you always have that delaying idea in mind, you won’t be suddenly forced to sell everything off some July in the future after you tried to win at all costs for a couple glorious seasons.

Constraining myself – a schedule

by

After writing my goodbye to Let’s Go Tribe, I thought that I would immediately start back up in this place, exploring things that interested me but had be shunted to the side in favor of baseball writing. Now the possibilities were endless, the space limitless, and time abundant. You can see those sentiments in the post below. So why was nothing posted here since then?

 Habits are hard to break, but new habits are even harder to form. I spent 12 years formally (and a couple years before that informally) writing about one subject, and it had become a deep and smooth groove. And no, I wouldn’t call it a rut; that word evokes feelings of drudgery, and while at times I felt frustration at the process, at no point did I dread thinking or writing about baseball. In fact, I’d like to continue to do so.

Once I pushed myself into a LGT post, I was able to quickly finish it, as I had all that well-worn experience to draw on. The happenings of the previous three hours may have been new, but there was always a past piece of specific writing to tie to it, no matter how bizarre the events. It was a baseball game that had a beginning, a middle, and an end. There were key plays, key decisions, and key performances that accounted for the outcome. There were larger issues to talk about (the division race, a positional battle, an injury), and there were player and manager reactions to parse. If you stretched things you could bring in non-baseball content, but you couldn’t let the non-baseball overwhelm the baseball.

Time was also a useful constraint, as it forced me to quickly grasp the important bits to convey without dithering about perfection. The recaps, which was most of my output at LGT, generally needed to be up less than an hour after the final out, or it wouldn’t receive the optimal number of views. At worst it needed to be up by the following morning, and since I needed to sleep, that generally meant I needed to either finish the recap in the couple hours between the end of the game and the end of my waking hours, or to get up early and finish the recap before heading to work. Deadlines tend to focus the mind and the writing, which I count as overall a good habit, though subtlety and polish necessarily had to be left out. There is only a first draft in writing on a short deadline.

Climbing out of that groove to see the expanse of topics surrounding me was both exhilarating and terrifying. The structure that both constrained and comforted me was gone, and in its place was complete freedom, or what I would later learn was really chaotic freedom. I wasn’t constrained by something else any longer, but neither was I constrained by myself. I was making grandiose, open-ended plans, but hadn’t thought much of the practical steps needed to accomplish them. Perhaps I liked the idea of having freedom rather than using freedom.

To get more specific, over the past couple months I started many different posts, all with broad themes, but never could seem to stay in focus. The paragraphs would dart off in every sort of direction and couldn’t be tied neatly together at the end. I was trying to go everywhere at once but ended up going nowhere. And so, while I have plenty of ideas to mine for the future, I didn’t have anything I felt comfortable in exposing to the world.

So that’s why I’m placing some constraints on myself. I’m going to start out with baseball while making feeble forays into other subjects. My plan is to do one post a week (on Mondays), with baseball posts alternating weekly with other things. Next Monday (February 25th) will be something about the Indians, while the Monday after (March 5th) will be about something else (which is down to a just a couple specific subjects).  I know that most of you came by this place, whether many years ago or in the past several months, because of the Indians, and I still want to write about them. This schedule also gives me an opportunity to write about other subjects as they pop up. The relaxed time frame gives me a deadline but allows enough time to be more contemplative.

I’ll be posting links to my posts on my Twitter feed if you want to follow that way, or you can use the RSS feed if you have a feed reader. I would also appreciate any feedback you might give, whether it be on potential Indians subjects or anything else.

Well, I’m back

by

In the Year of Christ 1571, Michel Montaigne, at the age of 38 on his birthday, the day preceding the Calends of March, already long wearied of the servitude of the law-courts, and of public offices, has retired, with faculties still entire, to the arms of the learned virgins, there to pass in all quiet and security, such length of days as remain to him, of his already more than half-spent years, if so the fates permit him to finish this abode and these sweet ancestral retreats consecrated to his freedom and tranquility and leisure.

-Inscription (translated from Latin) above fireplace in Montaigne’s study

As anyone who is reading this knows by now, I am no longer writing for Let’s Go Tribe. After 12 years of writing on a schedule, I am retiring (as an Internet writer) to this personal blog. I treasure the time I spent at LGT, not the least of which were the people I was able to meet. To be given the opportunity to create a Cleveland Indians community is something that I still marvel at, and that amazement should only grow with the years. But as I noted in my farewell, I had said everything I wanted to say in that format, and didn’t want to endlessly repeat myself to the detriment of the site and its visitors.

The constraints that a modern content portal demands tends to limit the scope of what you can write, both because of regimented schedule and the amount of time that writing stays available to the reader. Even so, those constraints can still allow for great content, and will continue to do so; it is not my intent to denigrate the format of the medium, which is necessary in order for those types of sites to be commercially viable. But now that I no longer have to follow those constraints, I’d like to spend my time exploring formats and subjects that just weren’t possible before. That’s both exhilarating and terrifying.

I’m not sure where exactly I’m going to go with this place. The blog itself is in major need of renovation, having been kept in its 2005 format until recently. Even now it still needs a lot of work. As for content, I will be writing about the Indians (though in different formats), but that won’t be the only thing I’ll write about. No, I’m not going to do current [deleted – politics], that’s way too boring and annoying, but I have a couple of other subjects in mind. Perhaps I will write a lot of words about Person of Interest, perhaps I delve into books or history or music or video games. Whatever I do, I would like to take advantage of the unlimited space a personal blog allows, and write longer pieces, so that necessarily means the posts won’t come frequently. I will let you know when I do post on my Twitter feed, and if you’d like to use the traditional RSS feed, that is also available.

Ugh. Only 394 words if you don’t count the opening quote. I need to unlearn a lot of things.