Daily Archives: September 12, 2005

Andruw Jones for MVP?

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andruw jones2.jpgI enjoy the writing of Chronicle sportswriter Richard Justice, but he occasionally gets carried away, as with this note on his blog today:

“Andruw Jones will be the National League’s Most Valuable Player. The balloting won’t be close if voters have been paying attention. He’s leading the NL in both home runs and RBIs. He carried the Braves while their young players were establishing themselves. He’s the man.”

Andruw Jones for National League MVP? Yes, he did hit his 48th and 49th homers yesterday and is having his best season, but Jones (32 RCAA/.360 OBA/.612 SLG/.972 OPS) is not even close to being the best hitter in the National League this season. The best hitters are the Cubs’ Derrick Lee (84/.422/.670/1.092) and Albert Pujols (76/.434/.631/1.065), both of whom have created over 40 more runs for their respective teams than Jones has for the Braves. Heck, Andruw Jones is not even clearly the best hitter named Jones on the Braves — Chipper is hitting 30/.418/.570/.988. There are at least eight other players in the National League — including the Stros’ Morgan Ensberg (34/.384/.564/.948) — who are having at least as good or better a season hitting the baseball as Andruw Jones.
Inasmuch as Pujols has been the best player in the National League not named Bonds over the past several seasons, he should win the National League MVP this season. Lee would not be a bad choice, either, although my sense is that he is having a career year and Pujols deserves it more because of his previous MVP-quality seasons. However, one thing is clear — despite all those taters, Andruw Jones is not the National League MVP this season.

Woody Hayes’ advice to defense counsel in the Enron cases

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woody.jpgPeter Henning over at the White Collar Criminal Prof Blog is skeptical that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake’s letter-writing campaign is going to induce any of the recalcitrant witnesses in the criminal case against former Enron executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Richard Causey to come forward in the face of the prosecution’s intimidation tactics and confer with the defendants and their counsel. Professor Henning concludes as follows:

It’s a little bit like the old Woody Hayes view of passing: only three things can happen if you meet with the defense lawyers, and two of them can be bad, so why take the risk? I will be surprised if many of the 38 letter recipients agree to meet with the defense team.

Many folks down here in Texas believe that former Texas coach Darrell Royal popularized that pithy quote about passing in football, but I believe that Professor Henning is correct that Coach Royal picked it up from Coach Hayes.

Bush = Carter?

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jimmy_carter.jpgThe inimitable Professor Bainbridge is not happy with President Bush for a variety of valid reasons, and recently observed that the President may be becoming the Republican Party’s equivalent of what former President Jimmy Carter has been for the Democratic Party.
The Professor’s criticism of President Bush has merit. Regardless of what one thinks about the Administration’s venture into Iraq, the Bush Administration has overseen a tremendously damaging criminalization of business interests, largely ignored health care finance reform and income tax simplification, increasd farm subsidies, installed tariffs for various products (including steel, lumber, and even shrimp), created a massive new prescription drug benefit, promoted dubious amendments to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and nationalized airline security by folding it into a huge and ineffectual bureaucracy. That’s not exactly a slate of accomplishments that exudes Presidential greatness.
But as bad as Jimmy Carter? No way. Refresh your memory of just how bad Mr. Carter was (and continues to be) in these reviews (here and here) of Steven F. Hayward‘s book about Mr. Carter, The Real Jimmy Carter. Even as bad as President Bush has been, he cannot limbo under the low bar that Mr. Carter established.
Along these lines, this Opinion Journal piece discusses a recent poll of historians who ranked Mr. Bush’s performance as average among Presidents. Mr. Carter ranked as below-average, just a cut above “failure.”

Delta is ready to file a chapter 11 case

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DAL-logo2.gifFollowing on this report from about a month ago, this Wall Street Journal ($) article reports this morning that Delta Airlines will pull the plug this week and file a chapter 11 reorganization case. Let’s hope that this prediction on the timing of the filing of the chapter 11 case is a bit better than this one, and that Delta’s stay in chapter 11 is bit shorter and more pleasant than this one.
Delta is certainly a prime candidate for reorganization. The airline has lost almost $10 billion since 2001, has debt of about $20 billion and expensive pension obligations. As of the end of this year, Delta faces $470 million in maturing debt, $550 million in interest payments, $460 million in operating lease payments and $135 million in pension payments. Not many companies have a spare $2 billion in cash laying around to spread around such obligations.

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2005 Weekly local football review

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Carr.jpgVince young.jpgTwo local quarterbacks had very different tales during the first full week of college and pro football of the 2005 season.
Texas Longhorns 25 Ohio State 22

In a magnificent early-season game between two storied college football programs, Texas’ WR Limas Sweed made a tremendous catch for the winning touchdown in the closing minutes on a 24 yard pass from QB Vince Young as the Longhorns held on to beat Ohio State before a record 105,000 crowd in Columbus. Although the gazelle-like Young was the media-picked star of the game, it was the Longhorn defense that actually won the game for the Horns as that plucky unit held the Buckeyes to three field goals after three Longhorn turnovers deep in their own territory gave the Ohio State offense multiple opportunities to build an insurmountable lead. Also, it looks to me as if the Horns have a couple of emerging stars in freshman RB Jamaal Charles and MLB Aaron Harris. About the only negative for the Horns was their kick-off team, which continued the abysmal trend that first appeared in last season’s Rose Bowl game against Michigan. The Horns have a couple of warm-up games against Rice at home and Missouri on the road sandwiched around an off-week before the Oklahoma game on October 8th in Dallas.

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