Hemstitching: DJ, EJ, Aging Hitters, and Ashley

In the weaver’s world the word hemstitching is used for two purposes: to tie up loose ends (literally, because an “end” is a thread in a warp) and for decoration.

• Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune did an interesting piece on Dan Johnson, with a nice photo accompanying it. For the first time in the years of running this blog, however, a paper refused permission to reproduce a photo, so you will have to click the link to see it. For Bulls fans who have been following Dan a long time there’s two new bits of info (new to me anyhow). First, he and his wife Holly have a new baby girl (congrats!). Second, he was playing with an injury essentially all of 2011 (he was hit by a pitch on April 15 and never quite recovered). He’s looking for work. Here’s hoping he finds it and does well. He’s brought Bulls fans a lot of pleasure over the years. [Thanks for the tip on this one, DRR]
• I don’t quite know what to make of Adam Sobsey’s adaptingT. S. Elliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock to celebrate (?) former Bull Elliot Johnson’s failure to lay down a bunt. Baseball certainly attracts the literati, but I simply can’t figure out if Sobsey is mocking Johnson, trying to make some obscure point about the difficulty of being a low-roster guy, or just showing off. Seems a bit invasive of EJ’s space to me. But then in my day it was our affectation to scorn expatriate T.S. Elliot in favor of the “new guys” like Alan Ginsberg, Gregory Curso, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, so I probably never quite got the point of Prufrock either.
• And then there’s the chart above copied from fangraphs. Fascinating bit of statistical analysis that seems to show that hitters mature even earlier than may be usually thought. [And thanks to DRaysBay for the hint on this item]
• Lastly, Bulls catcher Nevin Ashley has been "designated for assignment" to take him off the Rays' 40-man roster. We'll have to see if he passes through waivers.