Shorebird of the Week – August 14, 2008
In their recent seven-game roadtrip, Shorebirds infielder and this week’s SotW Ryan Adams smoked the ball around the home parks of division-leading West Virginia and Lake County to the tune of a .500 mark (15-for-30) with 2 home runs and 10 runs knocked in. Ryan has become the leading Delmarva hitter during the second half of the season, bringing a batting average which was an anemic .243 at the end of April up to .313 for the year since then. For the month of August, Ryan is batting a scorching .404 (19-for-47.)
Looking at two key stats though makes me wonder if the highest draft pick currently on the Shorebirds roster (drafted #2 in the 2006 draft) isn’t pressing just a little bit. Far and away, Ryan has committed the most errors of any Shorebirds defensive player – granted, he’s had more chances than most and seems to have very good range at his position but 47 errors for a second baseman is a truckload. This is a bit surprising because Ryan was drafted out of high school as a shortstop and second base is an easier position. His home/away batting splits are also wildly skewed in favor of playing well on the road – hitting .395/8/32 away from Perdue Stadium but just .222/2/16 within our not-so-friendly confines.
The 21-year-old Louisiana native obviously has high expectations placed on him, and these issues (particularly fielding) will take some work over the offseason to overcome. This is Ryan’s first full season experience after two seasons at Bluefield and Aberdeen so the Orioles brass is being a little cautious with this prospect. It’s more than apparent that Ryan has the batting stroke to progress through the organization, the question going forward appears to be whether he’ll be a position player or more strictly a designated hitter in the mold of current Oriole Aubrey Huff.
The slippery slope has a solar panel on it
While this isn’t the newest story, the New York Times and writer Nicholas Kulish recently told the tale of the small German city of Marburg and their efforts at greening the town through government regulation. I read it and thought to myself, “gee, this is something like Maryland would do” - definitely the story piqued my interest.
Probably the most intriguing parallel between the city of 80,000 and our state is that people tend to be in favor of the principles behind the ordinance, but think it goes too far because this is a dictate on what people can and cannot do with their private property. Witness the example of the homeowner who already has a small solar panel on his roof but would be forced to place a newer and larger one there as part of reinsulating his home. His point is that the regulation may discourage him from redoing his insulation (and it is a valid argument) but then again he could go ahead and pay the 1,000 euro fine, factoring it into the payback cost of the insulation. (However, at that point the city may amend the law as Maryland has with its new Critical Areas laws, making each day a nonconforming situation exists a separate offense.)
While the object in question isn’t solar panels the Marburg regulation reminds me of an idea, some form of which has been attempted in at least the last two General Assembly sessions, of charging homeowners who wish to improve their sites an impervious surface fee. (As I’ve blogged about several times before, the state of Maryland already subsidizes solar panel installation with grants and a sales tax waiver.) Not only does it satisfy the fringe environmentalists’ ideas about limiting development, it also satiates the liberal thirst for more dollars to redistribute because at one point the idea was floated as an annual fee on homeowners. Look for it to rear its ugly head once again in 2009.
As is generally the case with legislation which breaks new ground into usurping personal rights, there’s unintended consequences that I like to bring into the light. In the Marburg case, the regulations would prevent one homeowner from making the investment in reinsulating his house (and having a fairly short payback period on his investment) because he’d also have to pay for a solar panel which would be of dubious benefit to him because he already has similar technology in a smaller panel. Akin to this, all of the Critical Areas legislation and money invested in cleaning up Chesapeake Bay hasn’t shown itself in results which would satisfy the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other similar environmental groups because they’re not going to be happy until the Bay is restored to its pristine state circa 1600, when the only pollution in the Bay was from natural causes (read: poo from the few people and plentiful wild animals which were here then.) Those of us in Maryland are still paying plenty for the near-impossibility of trying to get the Bay back to that state in both money and personal freedom.
Fortunately for Marburg residents, it appears that the next level of government (equivalent to our state) will turn thumbs-down on the solar panel proposal, citing that it’s poorly written. In our case, I happen to think a self-imposed moratorium on new environmental regulations (and revenue generation) in Maryland is in order, this to give those regulations in force right now an opportunity to be studied to gauge their effectiveness. If Chesapeake Bay isn’t getting cleaner in five years’ time under the maze of regulations we already have in effect, then perhaps it’s time to see what can be done at that time in concert with the other states in its watershed. But we all need a breather – it took decades to place the Bay in its state, so how can we expect instant results?
Crossposted on Red Maryland.
Blowing the whistle
In my recent post, Referee in a catfight, commenter Joe Albero smugly brags that Salisbury News has “always” been in the top 10 since becoming involved with the Blognetnews website. Unfortunately, Joe’s a little bit incorrect in that rash assertion because I have tracked the numbers since the Influence Ranking’s inception in June 2007. And the numbers don’t lie – there was a period of several weeks last fall when Joe’s site was outside the top 10 and one week it wasn’t even ranked. (On the other hand, I can correctly note that only two sites have been ranked in the top 20 each week since the ratings were introduced – mine and Brian Griffiths’.)
The other factoid I think is worth pointing out was following up on ShoreThings’ note about the conservative and liberal blog rankings. Joe can only dream about the streak of #1 ratings my readers and commentors have allowed me and my humble little monoblogue to compile in the conservative blog rankings - how about 14 times in 16 weeks?
While I hesitate to cast myself anywhere close to William F. Buckley, the comparison of National Review vs. National Enquirer comes to mind when I compare my site to Joe’s. Two different styles for two different audiences. (And we both read each other’s sites for different reasons too.) I just didn’t want to leave the loose end too long since I took my short vacation so soon after the catfight post came out.
So I ask the indulgence of my readership in setting this straight and thank them again for helping me to achieve the solid record I’ve compiled thus far. Because I did this post so late, you may get three today as it’s SotW night as well.
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