Scattered thoughts on Super Bowl XLIII

• I really dislike how much nonsense there is around the Super Bowl.  I don’t mind the excessive amount of writing, stories, and such the week before, but I don’t want it interfering with the game itself.  The insane amount of pre-game coverage, non-football related sideline reports, and just all the stuff distracting from the game itself is what I hate.  Worst of all is the half time show.  I have never once been interested in the Super Bowl halftime show and I doubt this will change.  This is even more true now that the NFL has instituted an old-white-male-rocker-only policy with regards to who they have.  Actually, I guess Prince isn’t white, but he’s from Minnesota, so that’s close enough.  Anyway, because of all this, I will be turning on the TV at 6:25 and leaving during the halftime show.  I wish the Super Bowl was treated more like the AFC/NFC Championship games.

• I really only like Dave Dameshek in the context of Bill Simmons, such as Wednesday’s B.S. Report on the Super Bowl.  Dameshek is a bit too “radio” for me with the goofy sounds and segments.  Sorry, Dave.  I think that’s why I like Simmons’ podcast so much; he’s funny and fairly insightful (especially so with regards to basketball) without any of the reactionary retardation that comes with being on the radio (*cough*Jim Rome*cough*).  Also, I’m completely with Dameshek and Simmons on Mike Tomlin being the coolest coach.

• Apparently, the football Hall of Fame announced their selections.  No one really cares about the football Hall of Fame the way they do about the baseball Hall of Fame.  It’s fascinating how much was written about this past baseball election, but how little was written about this past football one.  The NFL is (has always been?) much more focused on the present.  Rod Woodson got in though, which is nice.  Bob Smizik says that anti-Steelers bias kept out Dermontti Dawson, which is absolutely braindead.  If anything, it’s a bias against linemen in general.

• What would have happened if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had gotten to the Super Bowl?  Would they still be holding the Super Bowl in Tampa?  That clearly wouldn’t be fair in the least.  Shouldn’t the NFL have some sort of alternate site set up in case the city hosting a Super Bowl makes it there?  Having home field advantage for the biggest game of the year would be a huge, undeserved advantage.

• A few interesting Super Bowl related links:
  • Joe Posnanski’s thoughts on the Steelers AFC Championship as someone who grew up in Cleveland
  • Craig Calcaterra’s comments on a couple Super Bowl things
  • Cracked’s 10 Worst Choices for the Super Bowl halftime show.  Gloria Estefan was in TWO Super Bowl halftime shows?  Really?
  • The B.S. Report – see “1/27″ and “1/28″ for Simmons’ Super Bowl podcasts.
  • The Onion has a whole slew of Super Bowl stories this week, but this one is my favorite.

Arbitrary song of the day: Nobukazu Takemura – Anemometer

The most poignant ESPN poll ever

I’m surprised it’s this close – it’s obviously going to be tails.

Arbitrary song of the day: Charles Mingus – Fables of Faubus

The Best Long Songs

Long songs can be awesome, but a lot of the time these contain filler, empty space, and such. This list does not contain those songs.  But before we go about naming some of my favorite really long tracks, I should explain how I came up with this list.  Here are the rules I used to help me build the list:

1. There isn’t any strict rule as to what “long” constitutes here, but I figured that I should give more leeway to rock songs as they tend to be shorter than electronic compositions.  This rules out something like Hi-Fi Bugs – “Lydian and the Dinosaur” (12:12), which would be quite long for a rock song, but is less impressive for an electronic track.
2. Multi-part songs are not allowed.  This knocks out stuff like Sonic Youth – “Trilogy” (14:02) and Type O Negative – “Christian Woman” (8:58), which would have been the shortest track on this list anyway.  I also considered Herbie Hancock’s “Sleeping Giant” (24:38), but it’s essentially a five-part piece, so that was ruled out, too.
3. Only one song per artist.

Here we go, from shortest to longest:

The Smashing Pumpkins – Starla (10:38)

I was a bit surprised that this was the longest proper* Pumpkins song, as they’ve done quite a few epic ones.  Originally released as a B-Side to their first single “I Am One” in 1992, “Starla” is an example of how mature The Smashing Pumpkins were early in their career.  The first half builds into a mass of guitar fuzz and retreats until it’s quiet enough to hear a police siren picked up in the background of the recording (~5:28).  The final five minutes are basically Billy Corgan showing that he is awesome at guitar.  Also of note is The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans” – a beautiful, spiraling piece that’s one of my personal favorites.

*”Pastichio Medley” is longer, but as the title suggests, was not eligible.  Also, I’m sure there are demo tracks out there that are longer, but that’s not what this is about.

Global Communication – 14 31 (14:31)

Global Communication only produced two albums, but their 1994 album 76 14 was incredibly influential.  Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton have each done a lot of work separately since – in fact, they reunited for 26th entry in Fabric’s mix disc series, but that was, of course, not original material.  Anyway, “14 31″ is quite regulated with the steady deep ticking of a clock acting as a metronome.  Despite this, the track is very organic, growing in bursts of light keyboards and swooshing synthesizers.  The crashing waves-like sound and the sound of a distant aircraft landing work perfectly.  A little game I like to play with this piece is trying to pay enough attention to the clock in order to pick out the moment that it drops out.  It’s not an easy game.

Brian Eno – 1/1 (17:21/16:39)

For anyone trying to Google this, “1/1″ is the first track off of the seminal Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1979).  The version I’m listening to now has a length of 17:21, but my CD of it has the length as 16:39, which is why I listed both above.  “1/1″ is very minimal, sparse, and repetitive, making even the smallest variations and additions significant.  You can find yourself composing melodies to fill in the blanks, analyzing the piece’s structure, and enjoying every tiny bit Eno is willing to give.  Unlike the other pieces on Music for Airports which sound more like auditory experiments, “1/1″ is very elegant and emotionally satisfying.

Space Cat & Elysium – Liquid Dub Connection (19:36)

“Liquid Dub Connection” isn’t a particularly well-known track, but it’s incredible nonetheless.  Most of the track is based around a warbling melody and a piano line reminiscent of The Orb’s “Oxbow Lakes”.  There really aren’t many layers here, but the duo keeps it interesting with clever percussion and effects used to achieve variations.  It’s not minimalism (not even close), but I still think that any more layers would hurt the track more than help it.

Kraftwerk – Autobahn (22:42)

Speaking of variations-on-a-theme, “Autobahn” might be the best example of this.  Kraftwerk stretches and expands their sparse technoscapes to explore every aspect of the song.  The classic electronic sounds sound fresh again as recent “lo-fi” musicians have embraced Kraftwerk’s aesthetic of old school Moogs and contemporaries.  “Autobahn” may capture Kraftwerk at their warmest and most fun.

Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells, Part 1 (25:17)

Everyone knows the first four minutes or so of “Tubular Bells”, but the rest is just, well, insane?  I don’t know how to describe it, so just click here if you want a description.  I used to think that the guitar part at about 14 minutes came out of nowhere and was ridiculous, but that’s pretty much every part of this piece.  It all culminates in eccentric Briton Vivian Stanshall introducing instruments as they enter in fugue form.  The entire piece is fantastically random, yet with some sort of method behind it.  If you haven’t heard this before, you owe it to yourself to listen to it all the way through once.  You’ll probably want to listen to it again.

The Orb – Blue Room (39:57)

We couldn’t make it through this without The Orb, could we?  The masters of spinning ambient dub created what many consider their magnum opus with 1992’s “Blue Room”.  Clocking in at just under the UK Charts Company’s 40 minute limit as to what they would consider a “single”, “Blue Room” became the longest single to chart in the UK peaking at #8.  While I don’t think most people can be expected to listen to the track in one sitting, The Orb’s sprawling epic deserves appreciation for its sampling wit, cohesiveness, and overall ambition.

Arbitrary song of the day: Friendly Fires – Paris (Aeroplane Remix)

What you’ve missed this offseason…

Well, these are some arbitrary bits of it anyway:

Pat Burrell signs with Devil Rays for $16M/2Y

The Devil Rays had a couple of the easier holes to fill this offseason: RF and DH.  Burrell should be able to be a great DH and almost competent RF.  The Devil Rays had a terrible DH situation last year.  I fully expect Burrell to continue to an effective hitter for the next 2 years.

Jason Giambi

Yeah, the A’s got him on a decent contract for 2009 with a 2010 club option, but he’s not really what they needed.  A lot of folks at Athletics Nation still say the A’s should have signed Rafael Furcal, but if I had to guess, I would say that two years from now, they’ll be glad the A’s didn’t sign him.  Anyway, I like the deal a lot more if Giambi is the DH and pushed Jack Cust out to LF (rather than Giambi playing 1B).  There are a lot of views that can be taken about Daric Barton’s 2008, but the bottom line is that they need to give him more time to prove/disprove himself.  Unrelated, but why won’t some team give Matt Murton a chance to start?  What has this guy done to deserve being ignored like this?

Devil Rays trade Edwin Jackson to Tigers for Matt Joyce

Joyce is a legitimate prospect and getting him for the spotty at best Jackson is a heist.  I would guess that Joyce could be become a decent regular in RF and Jackson will have an ERA over 5.  I don’t understand what scouts have seen in Edwin Jackson that makes them say that he has such high potential.  He has a “meh” strikeout rate (that’s a technical scouting term) and has the control of, well, someone who has very little control.  Like, say, a field mouse piloting a cheetah.  Let’s go with that.

Rockies trade Matt Holliday to A’s for Greg Smith, Huston Street, and Carlos Gonzalez

This has to be the most intriguing trade of the offseason.  Greg Smith has limited upside (he’s 25 already), but could still turn into something decent.  Huston Street is a very good reliever, but the A’s already have a lot of other great bullpen arms, including Santiago Casilla and Joey Devine*.  Carlos Gonzalez has tools, but given that the A’s already had a lot of toolsy OFs without much power, he’s not that huge of a loss.  But if anyone makes this deal look bad for the A’s, it will be Gonzalez.

*Could the Braves have handled Joey Devine any worse?  They rushed him to the majors at age 21 where he bombed.  They then juggled him through minor league levels until they sold him low to the A’s for Mark Kotsay(!).  And his ERA the first year with the A’s: 0.59(!!!).

The Yankees

I love this, I really do.  MLB would be a lot less fun without the Yankees making these huge F-U free agent splurges.  And what’s really ridiculous about this, is that the free agent compensation system makes this advantageous for them.  With each signing they are losing a draft pick, but the picks they’re losing are getting worse and worse (1st on Teixera, 2nd on Sabathia, etc…).  At these low prices, how could they afford not to sign AJ Burnett?  Also, I love the trade for Nick Swisher.  I think he’s a good bounce back candidate and they gave away almost nothing.

The Giants

I’m not the huge fan of the Edgar Renteria signing as some of the writers are, but it probably won’t be horrific.  I know Keith Law and Rob Neyer liked the Jeremy Affeldt signing, but I’m not that enthused with him.  Up until last year at age 29, Affeldt hadn’t done much since a solid year in 2003 as a starter.  Also, Giants fans better hope the team doesn’t put Jonathan Sanchez in the bullpen.

The Pirates

Neal Huntington has really done much this offseason, but, really, what is there for him to do?  He made his big moves at the deadline last season.  It appears that Huntington won’t be paying for replacement level guys and at above replacement level prices (*cough*Luis Rivas*).  This is in direct contrast to the next club…

The Royals

Oh, god.  They’ve acquired Mike Jacobs, Willie Bloomquist, and Coco Crisp to go with Jose Guillen, Miguel Olivo, and the rest.  It’s like they hate getting on base.

Arbitrary song of the day: Layo & Bushwacka! – Love Story

10 Awesome Cheesy Trance Tracks

Mostly, I like to think that I listen to “good” music.  But sometimes, listening to some corny trance tracks from the late-90s/early 00s can be an effective guilty pleasure.  The overly dramatic crescendos, the over-the-top samples, and huge build-ups designed to kill ravers – all of them are just so goddamn entertaining.  So, listed below for your general perusal are some of my favorites (in something resembling chronological order):

Robert Miles – Children (Dream Version) – 1996

“Children” is the king of all poppy trance tracks, so that’s a good a place to start as any.  The piano hook is hyperbolically infectious, which is probably a big reason why it was one of the most commercially successful trance singles ever.

Paul van Dyk – Forbidden Fruit – 1996

I wasn’t sure whether to include this track, because it actually is good (actually, I would say it’s great).  But, it’s uplifting and has a lot of similar sounds to other tracks on this list, so I think it fits.  Out of seven minutes, more than four of them are build-up, which mostly consists of layering more and more melodies on top of each other.  Just lovely stuff from PvD.

Ayla – Angelfalls (Elemental Force Mix) – 1999

Speaking of build-ups, this mix of “Angelfalls” has a massive one.  Going from some quiet chords and soft piano to a full on screeching trance-splosion via a crescendo-ing snare is extremely energizing and delightfully over-magnaminous.

Absolom – The Air (Prophecy Mix) – 1999

The key to this track is the vocal sample, which is about as over-the-top as you can get: “Every night I see the most horrible things: murder, rape, genocide, torture… terrible wars with weapons we can’t even imagine today… they will destroy everything!”

Cygnus X – Superstring (Rank 1 Remix) – 2000

This is one of the more understated tracks on here as it doesn’t really have any big melodies or huge drama.  It’s just a few different little melodies and a catchy main synth line that I’ve been humming in my head for the past 8 years.

Guardians of the Earth – Starchildren – 2000

I liked this track before Paul van Dyk boosted its popularity by including it on his Politics of Dancing (2001) mix album.  The lyrics are, of course, nonsense, but I nonetheless prefer the original vocal version over the dub mix.  For some reason, Mike Olson, the guy behind GotE, has had extremely limited output over the past five years.  That’s too bad, as I’ve enjoyed almost all of his work.

PPK – Resurection (Space Club Mix) – 2001

This has to be one of the oldest MP3s I have on my computer.  I have this from back in the old mp3.com days, probably from before 2001 (the “official” label release date for the single).  I’m pretty sure this was the case, as I remember artists still naming songs “2001″, like it was the future.  Anyway, this is a pretty good combination of bad Russian spelling and spacey, layered melodies.

Rank 1 – Awakening (Ferry Corsten Remix) – 2002

This track bares a pretty good resemblance with the Cygnus X one listed above.  Small synthesizer screeches are well contained here by Corsten, who gets the most out of Rank 1’s melodies.

Three Drives – Air Traffic (Original Mix) – 2003

Three Drives warbles a wonderful swoosh of a melody over some normal trance rhythms and bass.  The main melody is all the track has going for it, but really, that’s all it needs.  Helluva melody by the guys who have the most variations on a single artist alias.

Ferry Corsten – Rock Your Body – 2003

To finish this up, we have what could be the cheesiest track here.  Corsten brings all of what makes cheesy dance tracks together.  We have:

• Robot-like vocals
• Commandments to dance
• Gratuitous filtering on the primary build-up
• High flatline sound that adds to the drama
• Criminally catchy main melody

BONUS (this list goes up to 11): Raymond Wave – Starglider (Extended Edit) – ????

As you can see, I’m not sure what year to mark for the year on this, as this track wasn’t ever released on a label or anything.  It has classic NASA samples mixed into the track breaks, a staple of 90s dream trance.  You can download the song for free from the artist’s website here.

Arbitrary song of the day: Felix da Housecat vs. Sasha – Watching Cars Go By (Sasha Remix)

Top 5 Music Acts I’m the Least Optimistic About

As a follow up to my 5 Most Exciting Music Acts post, I’m going to go through some of the artists whose next album I’m pretty pessimistic about (at least, relative to their previous output).

5. Nine Inch Nails

I consider myself a Nine Inch Nails fan, but taking a bit of retrospective on the past 10 years, I’m not sure if I’ve really liked anything since The Fragile (1999).  Now, I loved The Fragile.  It’s probably on my top 10 albums list and maybe even top 5.  But I’ve been successively disappointed with each new release: With Teeth (2005), Year Zero (2007), and The Slip (2008).  I kind of liked Ghosts I-IV (2008), but my lofty expectations for a NIN instrumental album were probably out of proportion and thus, not met.  The albums have been well-received by critics, but the albums just don’t seem to be that ambitious.  All the songs are in between 3.5 to 5 minutes and all have the same ingredients.  I especially don’t understand this for The Slip.  For a self released album, it seems like Reznor should have used the opportunity to make something more experimental and push some proverbial envelopes, but this didn’t happen.  While other bands get flak for changing their style, the truth of it is that you have to change.  Reznor might be stagnating, though this could be the effect of him releasing more than one album every five years.

4. Gnarls Barkley

We all know how big of a chart smasher “Crazy” was, but the rest of St. Elsewhere (2006) was pretty good, too.  “Go-Go Gadget Gospel” and “Gone Daddy Gone” brought Danger Mouse’s plucky, understated melodies with Cee-Lo’s soulful vocals.  “Feng Shui” and “Transformer” were unusual bites of genre-less music and overall St. Elsewhere brought together a bunch of different sounds and made it work.  The Odd Couple (2008), on the other hand, was much more polished and uniform.  I see what the duo was trying to do here, but I like Danger Mouse most when he keeps it simplest as he did for “Crazy” (the song really is simple in terms of the voicing, which is part of what makes it so strong) and Gorillaz’ “Kids With Guns”.  Though I don’t think it would be reasonable to expect Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse to pull off another “Crazy”, I don’t know if they get another spark to make anything as original as St. Elsewhere.

3. Sasha

Despite it’s misplaced numeric character, Invol2ver (2008) was an album I was an album for which I had lofty expectations.  After all, Involver (2004) was one of the most clever mix albums I’ve listened to.  The tracklist was bold, featuring an array of diverse artists such as Shpongle, Ulrich Schnauss, and Felix da Housecat.  Sasha mostly just tweaked the tracks enough to give them the feel he was looking for and left most of the melodic elements intact.  Invol2ver had a similarly exciting set of artists with Thom Yorke, Ladytron, and Telefon Tel Aviv.  But Sasha seemed to get caught up in the God-like powers that Ableton Live gives you and just demolished each one of the tracks in his tracklist.  He reassembled only bits and pieces of each track, rendering each one of the tracks almost unrecognizable.  Severely disappointing.  I must admit I’m a little optimistic though, as his material released on emFire has been decent.

2. The Smashing Pumpkins

I’m never not going to be interested in The Smashing Pumpkins, but that doesn’t mean I have to optimistic and their next album.  Hopeful – yes, but not optimistic.  I’ve made my feelings clear enough on Zeitgeist (2008).  I really thought Zeitgeist was a step backwards from where they had left off in 2000 (a step forward from Zwan, but that isn’t saying much).  I would like to see The Smashing Pumpkins tone it down on the tech angle or at least refocus it to something more existential like Machina (2000), rather than overtly political like Zeitgeist.

1. Interpol

I was a bit late to the Interpol party, but even I can recognize that Turn on the Bright Lights (2002) is still the band’s high point and one of the definitive post-punk revival albums.  Antics (2004) was a respectable album with some solid singles and decent album songs, but nothing inspiring.  Our Love to Admire (2007), on the other hand, failed to have any sort of true standout tracks (“The Heinrich Maneuver” was pretty good, but didn’t bring anything new to the table).  The whole of the album is forgettable and I’m not optimistic on Interpol rediscovering the magic.

Arbitrary song of the day: Ricardo Villalobos – Enfants (Chants)

The Gambler’s Fallacy

The gambler’s fallacy is one of the more well-known fallacies, but people still fall victim to it in everyday analysis.  This is not to be confused with the gambler’s phallus, which, unfortunately, people still fall prey to as well.  In some sort of shell most appropriate for a nut, the gambler’s fallacy is assuming that past events influence statistically independent future events.  So, if your friend beats you five times in a row at war, you might incorrectly assume that you are more likely to win next time since winning six times in a row is very unlikely.

Ok, so what does this have to do with, y’know, interesting things?  Well, today the Pittsburgh Steelers play the Baltimore Ravens.  In the regular season, the Steelers beat the Ravens in both of their encounters.  I’ve heard many analysts use the old standby of pointing out how difficult it is to beat an NFL team three times in a single season.  By using the gambler’s fallacy, they surmise that beating a team a third time is somehow more difficult than beating a team a first or a second.  That’s like flipping a coin and saying that it’s more likely that you’ll get heads the first time than the third time.  Actually, it’s even dumber, since football games are more predictable than coin tosses.  If a team beats another team twice, wouldn’t that signal to you that one team is better than the other and would thus be more likely to win a third time?

The numbers support this, albeit in a limited sample size, with the two-game-winning team possessing a record of 11-7 since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.  I’m not saying the Steelers will win, especially since the two regular season games were very close.  I’m just saying that I’d rather be the 2-0 team than the 0-2 team.

For some bonus statistics enjoyment, check out Jeff Atwood’s write-up of the Boy or Girl problem.  While his phrasing of the question may not be perfect, his explanation is thorough.  Check it out if you enjoy things like the Monty Hall problem.

Arbitrary song of the day: Klaxons – Atlantis to Interzone

Modern musical minimalism and you

Minimalist electronic music is about as far from accessible as you get without getting into pure experimental composition.  In order to understand or at least appreciate genres like microhouse and minimal techno, one needs some sort of understanding of their influences and goals.  Like modern art, it just seems like nonsense until you dive deeper.  I think it was Resident Advisor who compared minimal techno to free jazz in terms of accessibility.

There’s a whole lineage that can be traced back through various artists and genres; if you want a more complete history I’d recommend the links above, as I won’t be delving into the historical aspect much.  Basically, I think there are a few genres that cross-pollinated each other, had a few subspecies split off, and more or less ended up at the same place.  One group comes from the Detroit techno camp, which includes the duo Basic Channel.  Hailing from Berlin, they became a large part of the “Berlin sound” which emphasized dark, metallic, atmospheric drones.  Meanwhile other German producers were more influenced by glitchy EDM and eventually formed the squelchy, stark backdrop known as microhouse in the early 2000s.  Coming at it from the more “conventional” progressive side is an artist like Fairmont, who put out the excellent album Coloured in Memory on James Holden’s Border Community label.  And, as is unavoidable in atmospheric music, there are also Eno-influenced soundscapes and Kraftwerk-induced stoicism.

Deepchord Presents Echospace - The Coldest Season (hint: it's winter)

A nice example of the cross-pollination of genres is Deepchord Presents Echospace – The Coldest Season.  Deepchord, a Detroit act, was influenced by the Berlin scene, which basically looped these influences back on themselves and came out with one the driest albums you’ll ever hear.  The Coldest Season sounds like how you think it would.  With blisteringly cold sweeping synths and relentless reverb, the album is a penetrating and unique experience.  The Coldest Season is something that really needs to be digested as its gestalt.  In contrast to the coldness found here, there’s The Orb’s Okie Dokie It’s the Orb on Kompakt.  While Okie Dokie is still melodically distant, the harmonies are warm and bubbly.  Combining Thomas Fehlmann’s rigid German discipline with a touch of Brit Alex Paterson’s whimsy, you get tracks like minimal yet melodic “Traumvogel” (listen) and the shuffling “Cool Harbour” (listen).  Fehlmann has also done other work on Kompakt such as Visions of Blah and Honigpumpe, which Pitchfork describes as being “sneakily better than” From Here We Go Sublime by The Field.

From Here We Go To Sublime is the type of album that gets stellar reviews due to its crossing of a cult-like subgenre with more accessible melodies and indie influences.  A Swedish gentleman, The Field injects a little emotion and some quirky cut-up melodies into minimal techno.  This is probably one of the easier albums for someone to start with if they have a background in something like trance or IDM.  While nowhere near as disparate as The Coldest Season, The Field does bring a little chill to the table with “Sun and Ice”.  Ricardo Villalobos is another DJ/producer who is seeking to expand the domains of minimalism.  Apparently, the genre is now popular enough for the Chilean Villalobos to poll as the number 1 DJ in the world.

Arbitrary song of the day: The MFA – The Difference It Makes (Original Mix)

Future Hall of Fame Candidates (Young ‘Uns)

On to the young baseball players who will be future Hall of Fame candidates.  You can find part 1 here and part 2 here.  Clearly, these are extremely speculative, but fun nonetheless.

Almost Certainly

Hanley Ramirez – Even with terrible fielding, his kind of offense at SS is extremely valuable.  His skill set will age extremely gracefully.

Probably

Evan Longoria – Yes, his first season was that impressive

Scott Kazmir – A big red health flag, but as good as stuff as any pitcher in the league

Tim Lincecum – Already won a Cy Young award, you have to like his chances

Felix Hernandez – Only 23 next year and can still improve a lot

Cole Hamels – The NLCS MVP and WS MVP from last year will definitely help him out 20 years from now

Maybe

Nick Markakis – He’s been steadily improving each year and he still has a good deal of potential left

Justin Upton – As a great a set of skills you’ll see on any prospect

Matt Wieters – He’s absolutely devastated minor league pitching in his first pro year.  He’s possibly the best offensive prospect in the minors right now.  That, coupled with the fact that he plays catcher really tempted me to bump him up to “Probably”, but that would be way too eager and optimistic.

Brian McCann – Extremely underrated offensive and defensive catcher

Prince Fielder – He could become known as the best 1B of his generation

Dustin Pedroia – Well-rounded skillset, still too early to tell if he can stay this much better than everyone expected

Jon Lester – Being on the Red Sox will help, as will the craziness of having crushed cancer

Chad Billingsley – It’s going to keep on coming together for him

Unlikely

Ryan Braun – I’m still not entirely on the Braun-mobile, but it would be nice to add another Jew to the Hall

B.J. Upton – I think his 2007 was a bit of a fluke, but he still has a lot of potential

Edinson Volquez – Control is a huge question mark

Johnny Cueto - It’ll really be interesting to see whether Volquez or Cueto turns out better.  I know one thing though: I wouldn’t trust either of them to Dusty Baker

David Price – Everyone loves him, but still a lot of question marks with a young pitcher

Wow, that was quite the epic three-part list.  If you made it all the way through, congratulations!  Also, you should probably find better uses for your time.  Not that I’m much better since I spent much more time writing it…  Anyway, if there are any particularly notable omissions, I’d be glad to hear any opinions.

Arbitrary song of the day: Gorillaz – Kids with Guns

Future Hall of Fame Candidates (Players in their Primes)

Let’s continue with HoF candidates who are currently in the primes of their careers.  You can find the previous entry about players getting to the end of the line here.

All-Time Greats*

Albert Pujols – Pujols is probably the best bet here as he has the most well-rounded skills as anyone, albeit at first base

Alex Rodriguez – He might go down as the Dan Marino of baseball, but still one of the best players ever on the left side of the diamond

David Wright – As consistent as Pujols, but with more defensive value in exchange for less offensive value; playing in NY doesn’t hurt his chances either

Joe Mauer – Could have been a 2-time MVP already if things had broken slightly differently for him.  I would have voted for him this year.

Miguel Cabrera – A great set of comparable players for Cabrera and he’s already picked up the American League to resume his fine career

Solid Choices

Chase Utley - A regular MVP candidate, but a late start gives him a big handicap.  He’ll need to play well later into his career than other players to make it, but his well-rounded skill set should serve him into his late career.

Vladimir Guerrero – A uniquely great bad-ball hitter who has been incredibly consistent over the past 12 years

Johan Santana – Sticking with the Mets certainly won’t hurt either

Brandon Webb – Arizona is such a great hitting environment, which hopefully the writers will realize by the time his career is done

Roy Oswalt-  Just needs to keep on doing what his been doing; a less sucky team surrounding him would help though

Roy Halladay – I was down on him coming into this year, but he was dominant.  If he continues, he has a good chance of making it

Barely In

David Ortiz - He’s only been a great player for about five years and it already feels like he’s pretty far on the downside of his career, so I’m cautious at best about his chances.  I’m sure everyone “feels” that he’s a Hall of Famer though.

Todd Helton – I have a feeling that the voters are going to penalize him too much for Coors Field

Lance Berkman – I can’t decide if he’s overrated or underrated, so let’s just put him here

Gary Sheffield – I really don’t know, but I think the media is interested enough in him to come up with some good Sheffield stories to get him in

Grady Sizemore – When will he make “The Leap ™”?

Ichiro Suzuki – He’ll make it, but his MLB stats won’t be good enough on their own to warrant it.

Jake Peavy – There is a lot hinging on how his numbers hold up once he’s off of the Padres

C.C. Sabathia – Been around awhile, but didn’t really figure it out until 2006.  Clearly, his years as a Yankee will be the deciding factor

Jonathan Papelbon – Already 27 with only three years under his belt, but he’s possibly the best current reliever out there

Joe Nathan – He could stick around another 10 years for all we know

Not Quite

Mark Teixeira – Good years in NY are worth more than elsewhere, but I don’t think he hits as dominantly as he needs to in order to be a top class 1B

Justin Morneau – Incredibly overrated, but hopefully the writers will realize that by the time his candidacy comes up

Adam Dunn – Bad defender without enough firepower to compensate, not that the writers are voting in a .247 lifetime AVG anytime soon

Carlos Beltran – He has some sort of negative reputation for not fulfilling his potential and/or being too streaky, but I think that’s undeserved

Alfonso Soriano – Even the writers will realize he’s overrated after awhile

Aramis Ramirez – Just nothing particular HoF-great about him; still a terrible trade by Littlefield

Derrek Lee – Same as Ramirez, minus the Littlefield bit

Ryan Howard – Too late of a start, not going to have enough great years

Jimmy Rollins – Don’t see it happening for the dubious MVP winner

Jose Reyes – He still needs to improve another level to sniff the Hall

Josh Beckett – Extremely health-dependent; he’s been better than his career ERA so far

John Lackey – A bit of a late-starter and I don’t think he holds up well enough into his 30s

Carlos Zambrano – Still only 27, but his control hasn’t improved enough since he entered the league and he doesn’t seem to be improving any more

Tim Hudson – He’s been underrated, but the TJ surgery kills his chances of building up high enough numbers to make it

Brad Lidge – A little bit of a late bloomer (he hasn’t even reached 500 IP yet), which makes me hesitant to bump him up any higher.  His 41 saves out of 41 opportunities this year gives the writers a nice accomplishment to define him with though.

Francisco Rodriguez – No, just… no.

*I don’t really feel comfortable calling a pitcher until his career is almost over.  They can get injured and lose their stuff way too fast.

Arbitrary song of the day: A Perfect Circle – Sleeping Beauty