Monthly Archives: December 2008

The No-Deal for Teixeira

Imagine my shock when my friend Matt messaged me that Mark Teixeira signed with the Yankees. While I wasn’t exactly thrilled with him possibly going to the Red Sox either, Teixeira going to the Yankees was a momentary kick in the gut I didn’t want two days before Christmas.

In the short term, it is a great deal for the Yankees. They get a big upgrade at 1B offensively and defensively over the departed Giambi.

In the long term? I really think they are going to regret that contract. Signing any player at the age of 28 or higher for 8 seasons is insane (don’t get me started on a pitcher getting nearly the same deal, like CC Sabathia was given), especially if it has a no-trade clause involved. Way too much can happen in that time frame. For example, Jason Giambi was better then Teixeira when he signed with the Yankees. Steroids, injuries, investigations, and who knows what else significantly altered him and he was never the same player.

Ok, getting onto the Sabathia deal, it is flat out insane to sign a pitcher for 7 seasons with the workload Sabathia had in his past. He’s a prime candidate to lose at least 2 of those seasons to injuries and have at least a couple more seasons of being an average or barely above average pitcher.

Of course, when the Yankees move from their original plan of developing young talent and being smart spending wise, I am always happy. Whatever resources they have tied up into single players, that makes things easier for the Red Sox, who are becoming quite good at bargain hunting with prospects, diamonds in the roughs, and then occasionally splurging to fill a gap.

Power back on

Power was turned on at my condo about 3 hours ago. The condo is slowly heating back up, we just hit 60 degrees (it was just below 50 at its low point). We had to throw out all of our food earlier today and once we had power back, did a trip to the local grocery store to get the essentials from the next few days.

According to PSNH, about 173,000 are still without power (after a peak of nearly 400,000 just 2 days ago).

Speaking of which, my winners/losers in the media for their coverage of the ice storm and its aftermath.

Winners:

  • PSNH (local power company) – I had decided a few weeks ago to follow PSNH’s twitter account. It seemed like it was only used occasionally for press releases, but they were my power company so why not follow them? Turns out, they used their twitter account non-stop the past few days, passing along any updates that they had in outage reports and in a few cases, actual outage information. For those of us who’s only contact with the outside world was our phones for awhile, this was invaluable. They were remarkably candid as well, clearly admitting that the damage was unlike anything they had seen, that they had manpower shortages, and the limits of their resources. The person(s) using the account were very personal, replying to many people’s questions. Perfect use of twitter and a company understanding the web.
  • Union Leader (local newspaper) – I hate their politics and their web site is really bad design wise, reminding me of the late 90s (that is not a good thing). But I have to hand it to them, they had a fantastic blog (that is a link to today’s blog) on their web site that they posted frequent updates to from towns around the state as soon as they got the information. Their staff really stepped up to the plate and delivered. There web site by Friday afternoon and Saturday morning had links to other stories, such as how safe is your food in the refrigerator without power and so on. Along with PSNH’s twitter account, nearly all of my information came from them.

The Loser:

  • WMUR (local TV station) – Most of Friday morning in the aftermath of the ice storm, they were completely off the air (and as far as I can tell, there is still no explanation on their site saying why this occurred). Not a good start for what is essentially only TV station in NH. Not much of an improvement afterward though. Their web site hardly ever had fresh content, with no storm blog that was constantly updated as tidbits made their way in. It was common to read 5-8 hour old stories on their web site with little town specific information, unlike the Union Leader which seemed to have updates from towns across NH every hour or two at times! No live video or audio feed on their site either! Combined with a very confusing and cluttered web site (go into storm mode, with only storm related info on the page, get rid of the rest of the crap), it is clear they don’t get that this is the 21st century!

Power outages continue

In day two of the Ice Storm of 2008 here in Manchester, New Hampshire.

My wife and I are alright and staying warm at my parents house. Finally got a hold of the condo office and they said there is still no power there for 36 straight hours now. Over 380,000 people are still without power in New Hampshire. A road right next to our street is closed with downed power lines and we suspect that is the cause of our power outage.

Our food in the refrigerator is probably spoiled at this point or rapidly approaching that point and will all have to be thrown out. Don’t want to risk getting sick from it later.

Thanks for the thoughts, we are fine and quite warm, well fed from my fantastic parents, and will do our best until power returns. Stay warm everyone, temps are dropping tonight again.

Don’t know what we are going to do tomorrow night if there is no power still. We both have to work on Monday. Concord is easy to get to from Sunapee, but Bedford is a lot harder, over a hour drive each way. We will cross that bridge when it arrives.

Ice Storm of 2008

Here in New Hampshire we woke up to a major ice storm. Over 200,000 people are without power (including my home) and there are downed trees everywhere. While ice on trees look beautiful, it is so destructive! Temps at the moment are 34 degrees, which is just 2 degrees above freezing. So much water everywhere, if the temps drop again tonight tomorrow isn’t going to be pretty either.

Interstate 93 from Manchester north to Concord was clear though and I was able to get to work, going about 50mph with heavy rain falling. It looks like at least in the central part of the state that some of the main roads have been cleaned up, although the secondary roads have got to be a mess.

Stay safe everyone.