Kalamazoo Badgers Talk Radio  

Everyone is aware of the April 15th Tax Deadline in the good old US of A - and a lot of you probably dread it.  Sadly, I'm sure there are people in the PEBA or LRS that we're preparing their returns last night or even today --- make sure you get to the post office in time today!  But anyways - there are a select few of the population who LOVE this day.  Count me in as one of them.  This marks the end of the most difficult and stressful time of the year in my profession.  I'm in accountant (CPA in progress) - and I work a broad range of topics from business valuations to audits - but from Jan until April 15, I exclusively prepare tax returns.  Individuals, Corporations, Estates, Partnerships - you name it, I prepare that sort of return.  Not going to lie - this time of year sucks for me - I'm working a minimum of about 60 hours per week but the hours can range all the way up to about 80 per week.  Guess what - now I'm only working 40 hours (only?) so I'll be able to become the member of the PEBA/LRS that I've always (well since January) wanted to be.

This is my first scouting league, so its all new to me - but the offseason was particularly difficult because my scouting director went and retired on me - so I lost all of his reports.  Needless to say, as a newb to the league I wasn't about to rely on OSA ratings or plain old stats to make trades or sign free agents.  I recently signed a new scouting director.  Can't remember his name offhand, but his ratings are so-so, probably below average for this league, but he was the best thing out there.  I also jacked up my scouting budget from 1 million to 5 million.  I cleaned house with the coaching staff - fired a few guys, changed the job of a few guys.  Sadly, I probably bit alot of money unintentionally - I clicked to fire them, and nothing popped up saying it was going to cost me any money so I kept doing it to all of my "subpar" coaches (most of the ML and AAA).  I figured this was one of the issues with coaching that people complain about as its not realistic to be able to fire guys at no cost - but hey, I think I figured out that it did cost me a lot of money.  Apparently the error is the game doesn't indicate that "Releasing Coach X with cost you Y amount of money."  That money could have been used for a serviceable OF or catcher, things I really need!  Oh well, I'm sure I'll continue to make little goof ups like this since the Scouting and Coaching system is totally new to me.  New doesn't mean bad though - I think I'm going to really like it - seems much more realistic than knowing everyones rating.  I just wish we could move to 1-10 for potential and 1-5 for actual ratings to enhance the "fog of war".  But then again, is that really true to what a scout would tell us about a player?  Probably not because scouts will always give very in detail analysis.  The fog of war is already built in due to scout inaccuracy - but still, for some reason - I dig the 1-10 potential and 1-5 actual. 

Anyways - the point of this post was to let you know that I'm going to be a lot more visible in the PEBA/LRS community from now on.  You can catch my next podcast on this site on Friday afternoon.  (Yep, I'm off on Friday!)  I'm not on AIM a ton, but anyone who is, feel free to add me (OfficerTimFisher) - I'd like to talk to all of you, and not really even about trades - just in general to say hello and get a feel for this community. 

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We've heard all the names... A-Rod, then Gay-Rod, and now A-Fraud.  But is Alex Rodriguez a fraud because he used PED's?  In my opinion - No.  And I'm one of the biggest anti-Yankees people out there.  I don't really like Rodriguez and I definitely can't stand his agent - so why am I defending him? 

I wouldn't say I'm defending him as much as I'm discrediting baseball from about 1990 up until the present.  Why should we be surprised about anyone taking steroids in this era anymore?  We shouldn't be - just look at the headlines.  When you see names like Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte on there, you really have no idea who is using.  As much as I don't like A-Rod, I always assumed he was clean because of how much a natural he seems to be.  He broke into the ML around age 18 or 19 and didn't need any help then - so why would I believe that an older, in his prime Rodriguez would need the PEDs to help?

Well - it's not so much about needing the help as much as keeping up with the Joneses.  I know when I started my job I did everything by the books - but when I saw other more experienced people cutting corners in acceptable ways, I started doing it too.  Why?  Because, I figured, if they can do it - so can I.  I didn't want to fall behind and be considered a "slow worker" because I was taking the time to do some minor things that other people weren't doing.  Baseball - while it's a game to us - is the job of a guy like Rodriguez and he strives on being better than everyone else at his job.  When he looked around and saw guys using with no penalty, I'm sure he thought to himself, "Wow, I wonder how good I could be if I did this too.  It's not really cheating if everyone else is doing it - I'm just keeping up."  Right or wrong, I'm sure all of you have similar experiences whether it be in school, at work, at the gym or even on the field of whatever sport. 

Back to the point of this blog entry - if HoF voters are going to keep McGwire out of the Hall, and eventually Bonds - they better come up with some better reasons than steroids.  You can use the Capitol Hill stuff for McGwire and perjury for Bonds all you want - but I still the HoF is for the best baseball PLAYERS not the best character guys.  McGwire, Bonds and ROSE all deserve to get in.  If steroids is the sole determinant, then why not ban EVERY player who played in the ERA, because, as guys like Pettitte and A-Rod showed us, you just never know who is using.  Look at Cal Ripken, the Iron Man - how did he play all those games without missing one?  Did he get some help along the way - Probably.  Was it steroids?  Who knows.  Sure, Cal is a great guy - but if you ask me, so is Pettitte.  Great people take shortcuts to get ahead too, especially if everyone else is doing it.  This is the last you'll hear me say about steroids for a while, becuase as far as I'm concerned, most people were using.  I don't need names - I don't really care, because even if I don't hear about a positive test, you'll never be able to convince me that any particular player DID NOT juice.

Meet the new Badgers GM Bobby Fuhrman!