jdm00

Probably, but I don't know how heavily tailgated those Banks parking lots are. Something else that will affect it is whenever the Brent Spence replacement happens--if they take Longworth Hall, that will take out a huge tailgating spot. Good win today. Defense looked better (though the Jags offense stinks) and A.J. Green is the man.

Very interesting stuff. The Cincy numbers in the comparison are pretty fascinating. As you said, a wave, with still pretty high numbers in close, then it bottoms out, then goes back up.

According to the methodology, it's based on "leisure attributes (the number of restaurants, bars, libraries, museums, professional sports teams, and park acres by population); educational attributes (public school performance, the number of colleges, and graduate degree holders), economic factors (2011 income and June and July 2012 unemployment), crime, and air quality." I'm guessing that the things they mention are just sort of picked haphazardly as they highlight what a city has; it does not necessarily sound like they are qualitatively rating things like orchestras or symphonies (either you have one or you don't, basically).

Bloomberg BusinessWeek's list of the Top 50 U.S. cities: http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/2012-09-26/americas-50-best-cities#slide1 Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland all make the list.

Yep--I think that JCP, Kohl's and Sears are certainly closer to Macy's in number of locations and sales, though I haven't looked them up. Dillard's seems like it might be the most direct in terms of concept/product mix, just based on when I am in the stores.

Well there you go, Macy's and Bloomingdale's. Probably the largest department store chain in the nation now unless Dillard's is bigger. Macy's is much larger. Dillard's has a little more than 300 locations (according to Wiki) and revenue of about $6.2 bn. Macy's has approximately 800 locations and revenues of nearly $25bn.

I'm okay with the front four. Not a huge fan of the linebackers right now. And that secondary has just not been good.

Well, after two wins, it appears the Bengals offense is pretty good. The defense, though....

Only a half game behind for best record, but I'm still not even sure that I want the Reds to face the WC winner. Hard to know at this point.

I don't mind the style of the Columbus building, but that picture makes it look like it's built out of legos or something. Weird effect to it.

Tell us how you really feel? ;) I am not a full-fledged SABR fan, but I like a mix of it. I read a lot of Dave Cameron (at FanGraphs) and Jonah Keri (at Grantland). But I also read a lot of Tom Verducci (at SI) and Jon Heyman (CBS). I'm not sure Heyman has ever even heard of WAR. I think there's room for a happy medium. I like that SABR has led to rethinking some old saws; it never made sense to me as a kid (in the 1980s) why a "win" was given so much value, when a guy could lose a game 1-0 and take the loss, but turn around and give up 5 runs in a "win." It's so dependent on other factors. I guess I don't mind having stats to put a lot of old stuff into context, and I will say that the stuff they do as far as pitch location, movement, and everything is really great--and to me is just putting into a more usable form stuff that you would hear from scouts or baseball people in the past.

^Yes.

They also record line drive percentage and a whole bunch of other stuff like pitch type/speed/break/location, etc. To say nothing of the various evaluative stats that people are using now based on all these materials. The best part is that in a lot of ways it's fans that are leading the statistical revolution (though MLB teams are now employing more and more statistical analysis). My favorite site for all this stuff is FanGraphs, but you can't go wrong with Baseball Prospectus or Baseball Reference either.

Arroyo's GB/FB this year is right at 1, by the way.

This is my thinking, except I am not sophisticated enough to talk about pitchers like that. In a lot of ways, Arroyo is just not a pitcher designed to pitch in a place like GABP, which is a home run haven. I say that he is not ideal because of two things: 1) he doesn't strike out a lot of people, and 2) he gives up a lot of fly balls. That's a problem in GABP, because it means that the ball is being put in play, and is being put in play in the air--which is going to lead to a lot of home runs like Arroyo gave up last year. Looking at some of his advanced stats this year, Arroyo has been able to improve on those metrics somehow. He's striking out almost one more batter per every nine innings, and his K% has gone from 12.6 to 15.6%. That's a nice jump. And he is getting more ground balls this year than last. Last year his GB/FB ratio was .91, meaning that he would get .91 ground balls for every fly ball given up--or, put differently, meaning that he gave up more balls in the air than on the ground. Contrast that with a true groundball pitcher like Mike Leake--even though Leake has struggled this year, he still has a GB/FB ratio of 1.83 according to FanGraphs. All of which is a roundabout way of me saying that Arroyo pitching in somewhere like AT&T Park (or Dodger Stadium) is not a scary prospect for the playoffs. He gives up lots of fly balls, but those stadiums are huge compared to GABP, meaning that giving up lots of fly balls does not have the same negative effects it can here. Bailey and Latos both have better GB/FB ratios than Arroyo (though not by that much for Bailey) and both strike out more guys than Arroyo (though again not by that much for Bailey).

This could be an ugly game. Not one-sided, just ugly for all of us watching it.

I really want a matchup with the Giants. We've handled them well, and playing in their park is actually okay for our pitchers--their stadium is great for pitchers like Arroyo. Conversely, our guys are used to pitching in a bandbox, but their guys aren't. And I think the Reds have had Cain's number for whatever reason. A couple weeks ago I didn't want anything to do with the Cardinals. Now, though, Philly is definitely the team I hope doesn't get one of the Wild Cards. The Nats are another team I don't really want to see--they manhandled the Reds this year.

^It's bad luck, mostly, that the WC is going to go with a 2-3 format this year. It's all Bud Selig's fault. They didn't make the decision to do the second wild card until very late--after the TV playoff schedule was set. They couldn't squeeze in the necessary travel time for the wild card winner (particularly because there may be a one game playoff that precedes the wild card playoff) and still make the required dates to start the later series. So the only solution for this year was to let the Wild Card winner stay at home for the first two games of the divisional series. It really stinks for the higher-seeded team (which will certainly include the Reds), but it should go to a 2-2-1 format next year. At this point, I'm kind of hoping the Reds get the second best record. Go on the road to the Giants as opposed to whoever wins the WC playoff (especially since that could be the Phillies at this point).

It's been an awesome season. Magic number is 24.

Has anyone said anything about municipal code superseding state law? I haven't seen it.

^The Downtown Indy Nordstrom did close, corect.

By the way, FanGraphs had an article the other day on the Indians fade this season. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/cleveland-and-the-collapse/

All that said, I think the Indians can certainly take the same approach the Reds are taking. (To be honest, I don't follow them closely enough to know if that's what they are already trying to do.)

You mean like the Jacobs? Simple principles. spend money to make money. If your budget is tight. Sell the team!! I get that owning a pro team is a big deal, but he is failing as the owner, and failing the city. Listen to him talk, he is a complete clown. Business culture starts at the top. Jacobs once told a local reporter (and I can't remember which one, though he repeated on a radio show a few weeks back) that he would never spend more than he took in. And he owned the team at a time when the economy was booming, the Browns were gone, and the front office knew what it was doing. Now all of that being said, the Dolans still stink for pocketing $30 million last year. Between that and some bad decision-making by the front office, the team was doomed to mediocrity this year. However overall, as fans, we need to temper our expectations. The best we can hope for is a Tampa Bay or Cincinnati type situation. Be competitive for a few years, maybe have a shot at a title, and then rebuild for a few years. Both of those clubs have good front offices, so that plays a big part of their success. Market size comes in to play is how consistently and to what extent a team can be competitive. The Reds are taking a completely different approach to things than the Rays. Rays are much more like, say, the A's in their approach--young talent all the time, and get rid of them (for more talent) right when they start to cost money. The Reds seem to be taking the view that they are a middle-market team that will develop most of its own talent but pay to keep it around, and hopefully contend on a year-in, year-out basis. The Reds' payroll right now is $82 million, and they are looking at significant jumps in payroll coming up with the big contracts for Votto and Phillips. They are going to be pushing $100 million within the next couple of years. My guess is that Castellini is looking at it thinking they are in line for a big jump in local TV money (and the Reds ratings have been near the top of baseball for the last couple years (on a percentage basis)). I think they want to be more like the Cardinals, and a lot less like the Rays or A's.

Saw this on Jalopnik this morning: http://www.freep.com/article/20120823/NEWS01/120823048/Detroit-State-Savings-Bank-owner-wants-demolish-historic-structure-build-parking-garage?odyssey=nav|head That looks like a pretty great building.