#slg's late night thoughts

[superluigiglitchy]

I think Meggy's a biter

[vicky82gargoylesfan]

My Thoughts on Gargoyles Issue 8 and Dark Ages issue 2

Spoilers

Gargoyles issue 8 Mayday

Bit late writing issue 8 as i've been busy

Great issue love seeing The Pack again, even though Wolf was in issue 6, we haven't seen Jackal and Hyena since the episode The Green, so it was nice to see them back together. But as Goliath was able to defeat them easily they certainly need another upgrade and possible new members.

I've lost count on how many times Rikers Island has been broken into. even with the extra security.

the prison guard who enjoys shocking Goliath has a redemption moment, he sets Goliath free to stop the Pack.

Love Coldfire, she's the narrator for this issue. love the 2 page spread of her and Coldstone's life.

Brooklyn's still mad at Broadway and Lexington leaving the castle the night before. He's still struggling as leader and in my opinion, I think he should step down as Second in Command when Goliath is back with the clan and give it to Angela or Broadway instead.

There are 2 new characters, Izaak Slaughters associates Murray and lol, Alphabet.

Peter Choy and Rosaria Sanchez are still captured and obviously Dino Dracon, Glasses and Pal Joey are in the Trio masks. I assume Brooklyn, Broadway and Lexington go save them in issue 10.

Can't wait for issue 9.

Gargoyles Dark Ages issue 2 The Draw

Great issue, lots of action and it was heart breaking. Love Drew Moss's art.

New Character Lord Valois, who knows magic, he looks oddly similar to Valmont (SLG issue 10, 11 and 12) and Duval (SLG issue 9). He attacked some Gargoyles with water using magic from a spear, which looks similar to Archmage attacking Goliath, Angela ect with sand in Avalon part 2.

Verity's death, knew it was coming but it's still heart breaking but I was hoping it wasn't going to happen so soon, the art of their reactions of her death was brilliantly done. I wonder if we get to see a Wind Ceremony.

I definitely blame Hyppolyta and Angel for Verity's Death, as they shouldn't been there in the first place. I'm glad that their Rookery Siblings stayed behind.

Angel is captured by Culen, which I knew was coming due to issue 3 description.

Love that Goliath is held back by Mentor.

Culen calls Hudson Rhydderch, I looked it up and it says 'Welsh male given name being a compound of the elements "rhi" (ruler) and "derch" (exalted)' and there is a Rhydderch in 971 in Scottish history, I decided to not look it up just incase it may contain a spoiler.

So Lefty is actually Angel biological Brother, I originally thought he was her biological Father, I assume he was hatched in 898 or 918.

Great issue, can't wait for issue 3.

[karlchristiankrumpholz]

I was honored to be asked to do a presentation about my life and artwork at Lighthouse Writer's Workshop's quarterly event 'Making a Mountain' on Feb 24, 2017. In addition to showing slides of my comics and artwork, I also gave a short speech.

Here is the full text:

LIGHTHOUSE - Making a Mountain.

There was always art in my house. My uncle was a painter. So, as a child, I was always surrounded by art. We would visit his house and I would see these pieces painted on plywood as well as scattered around his studio and think “I want to do this.” Now I could have followed his lead and been a painter and create static scenes filled with color, but I also wanted to tell stories. So, I could have been a writer, but I also still wanted to create images. I chose to be a cartoonist.

There is a quote I once saw, I think it was from the cartoonist Robert Williams, that said “If you ever fail at being a cartoonist, you can still always be an artist.”

How did I find comics? Like almost everyone else as a young child, it started with newspaper strips: Garfield, Far Side, Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes. But then you want more. Soon after, it became Mad Magazine, where I discovered the artwork of Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Wally Wood, and Harvey Kurtzman. Of course, I didn’t know their names. Just their art. The names came years later.

As I hit awkward adolescence, it was superheroes that I found among the racks at 7-11: Batman, Daredevil, and the X-Men. White long boxes filled with comics and backing boards started appearing in my room. I grew older, got into college, and discovered the other side: indy comics like Milk & Cheese, Cerebus, Love and Rockets, Hate, Eightball, Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children, Palookaville, Billy Coorigan, Black Hole, etc. With all of those books came the idea that you can do stories without capes, smaller stories that says something about your life and surroundings.

Eventually, I worked at a comic book store for a couple years where I learned more about the history of the field and discovered older artists that opened my mind up on what the craft could be: Winsor McKay’s Little Nemo, George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, and the names of all those Mad Magazine artists that I knew so well.

It was around this time that I started to get my own ideas of what I wanted to do and started to create my own comics and zines. My original pages were pretty raw stuff about my life and relationships. After a few years, I started moving away from that and into my own fictional stories. Felt that people would not be interested in me talking about how depressing I thought my life was.

Why did comics appeal to me? Well, it’s an open field. You can do anything. Everyone has a different styles, points of view, and approaches on an art as well as story level. You want to do a small story about being raised in a fundamentalist household? You can do that through comics. A teen’s search for meaning and sexuality? Comics. A story about a giant space squid’s bloody invasion of Earth? Comics.

I was doing self-published and distributed zines for about ten years before a publisher picked up my book. That was called ‘Byron’ and it was published by SLG Publishing in 2009. A second series started appearing online, but I found it not to be very fun. Looking back, I was simply doing the exact same thing that hundreds of other cartoonists were churning out. It wasn’t my own voice and I grew bored.

So then, what is my voice? What was it that I have to say that is different from everyone one else. This seems to be something all artists have to come to terms with. When I started thinking about it, the one thing that has always fascinated me, which also seems to put others to sleep is history. The idea of what has happened before and how did we get to this moment. What are the stories that make up a place? I think about this constantly and can easily see another reality where I would have wound up being some sort of teacher in this if I had any sort of patience with instructing students.

Now, these sorts of history stories are usually in two forms: The grand and the small. The grand stories being: This building was built over 100 years ago, several people died in the construction, and Teddy Roosevelt once slept here. The small stories being the streetwise tale of a kid living on the street just trying to make it through her day. Both these sorts of stories are interwoven and make up a community, city, and culture.

The other thing that I find myself drawn to are the rebels, the outsiders, oddballs, artists, musicians, and drunks: The Beats, Howlin Wolf, Joe Strummer, Hemingway, Thelonious Monk, Hunter S, Bukowski, Tom Waits, and the Pogues. How could I bring all this together?

Now, it didn’t come at me overnight. Inspiration originally came from smallest of places: drinking in a bar.

What would make up my current comic career started as a drunken conversation, likely at the Lion’s Lair around the corner. The conversation started randomly, as drunken conversations always do, looking around and asking each other: Who is the King of the City? Since Colfax is pretty much the main artery and right outside the door, it was thought that any such person would likely some sort of hobo king.

This idea about the city being personified moved onto stories about Colfax itself and what makes up a city. As you could likely guess, my friends and I spend a lot of time in the bars. One of the things that seems to seep into you, almost unconsciously, are the stories that surround you in these places. They could be weird, odd, brilliant things that happen while you are there: Some drunk homeless guy wanders in, pukes, and slips in his own vomit. Or things that happened while you were away: did you hear about that one time that the bar back was sleeping above in the crawl space and fell through the ceiling into the bar? or even things with deeper pathos: someone alone at the far end of the place wondering aloud where they are going to stay that night.

All of these are small stories make up the history of a place. So, I started collecting, telling them, and slowly developing my own voice. 30 MILES OF CRAZY! started weekly back in June 2013. The name itself comes from Colfax itself, which is approximately 30 miles long. Though it started out as stories about Colfax and Denver, it’s it quickly moved to stories from other cities as well. Boston, Philly, San Francisco, anywhere. If you have a good story, I wanted to hear it.

I’ve always called my comic “True-ish Tales of the City”, True-ish since there is almost always a slight adjustment for artistic integrity. However, all the stories are true, either witnessed by myself, my friends, or even related to me. I’ve been doing the comic long enough that people seek me out, hoping to get their stories illustrated. In this sense, the comic takes on an almost oral history of life on the streets. And these are not just stories about drinking and bars, though they can have that aspect to it. These are all stories about the city, the events, happenings, characters and strange people that you meet … and yes, in the bars as well. I like to view my slice of life comics as something akin to a Tom Waits’ song or a Bukowski short stories. Things that happen late at night, around last call when people are despairing or lonely. I want to tell stories that may make you laugh, but may also rip your heart out as well.

I’m also using this comic as a stage that I set up to explore some of my own issues, like my relationship with my father, which is all tied up to my introduction to alcohol and bars. Again with comics, you can do anything.

I grew up on the East Coast, spending most of my life in Philadelphia and in Boston. Both cities have a strong historical vein running through them, which could be another reason this subject has always fascinated me. Looking back though, one of the reasons I originally moved to Denver was that I had spent my entire life along the East Coast. Sure Boston and Philly are about a 6 hour drive apart, but culturally they are pretty much the same with slightly odder accents. I wanted to experience a different culture in the West. I’ve been here ten years now. Sure there are superficially differences and points of view, but the people are still the same. The small stories that I hear in Denver are pretty much the exact same ones that I hear back in Boston. I know that it’s only about 2000 miles apart (I know that cause I looked it up), but this still makes me happy. That a Chowdahed on the Bay and some rhinestone cowboy-wannabe at Union Station can somehow relate. That even in slightly different cultures, we still experience the same things, same troubles, and tell the same stories.

This has become my love. Finding and telling these stories. Stories about people, their views, their struggles, and the city.

Now there is also the other kind of stories that I mentioned. The GRAND stories. Yes, I have been here for a decade, but in some ways Denver still confuses me. I still encounter some things that makes me baffled like a dog shown a card trick. One of the ways I found to deal with this confusion is to figure out the grand stories of the city around me. Again, this started out as something that I would do on my own. I’d be out with friends walking through a park and someone would casually mention: Hey, have you heard about all the bodies buried here under Cheesman Park? … sudden stunned amazement. Tell me more… This how it starts to lure you in.

I got my chance to start telling my own versions of these grand stories in 2015 when the Westword hired me to be their new cartoonist. This was the start of The DENVER BOOTLEG. Again, this was something I had to work on and develop. I was originally hired to tell the stories of the various venues in the city: Larimer Lounge, Lion’s Lair, Bluebird, etc. This is why it was named The DENVER BOOTLEG (Denver Boot… Bootleg music… I thought it was clever.) It was only when I pointed out to my editor about a year or so in that there is only a finite amount of venues in the city that I was finally able to move the comic into a more historical direction: The Rainbow Music Hall, Denver’s Great White Way, The Bonfires Memorial Theatre, and Cheesman Park.

Now, it is all great to be able to create and show these comics, hopefully to be read, entertain, and maybe teach someone. In the end, these are still comics. There is a great Jack Kirby’s quote that every cartoonist worth his salt seems to know: “Comics will break your heart.”

So, what are the difficulties on being a cartoonist, aside from ink stained fingers? Well, there are a few.

To start off, there is the basic view of comics that it’s a childish, a thing of superheroes, and adolescent power fantasies. That it’s a low art, something cheap to be found in newspapers. That it’s something cute and free to be found on the internet. That with the decline in publishing, it’s a dying art form. All of this is to say… there is little respect or money in it.

It’s a lot of work as well. You can spend hours working on a single page, only to have a reader zip through that same story in moments.

Also, as much as people like think that you are only drawing funny little pictures all day, there is also the hours you have to spend plugging away your work on websites, various social media sites, and traveling to conventions. There is always the problem with getting your work in front of someone. Either through finding a publisher, or a distributor, or online, or in their hand at shows. I’ve always called this “banging your head on the wall of indifference.” Like most things, you need a degree of luck, a lot of persistence, and wade through many rejection letters. Things are not impossible, but can be difficult.

The great thing about being a cartoonist or any art really, is that anyone can do it. The bad thing about it is that anyone can do it. There is so much out there that it can be hard to be heard over all of the noise.

Then why do I or anyone do it? Cause I love art. I love telling stories. I love comics. And I cannot see myself doing anything else.

Thank you.

[flauntpage]

Carlos Santana’s Resurgence, Phillies’ Offensive Struggles Were Both a Bad Look for John Mallee

Old friend Carlos Santana, out there in Cleveland last night, just making it happen:

Game-winning grand slam yesterday. Walk-off home run today.

Carlos Santana is on 🔥 pic.twitter.com/cCULLbJFxD

— ESPN (@espn) August 13, 2019

Which begs the question: Where the hell was this at last season? 

And in light of John Mallee’s dismissal as the Phillies’ hitting coach and the subsequent hiring of Charlie Manuel to fill that position this morning, here’s another question, which fair or not, will be asked: Did Santana’s resurgence in Cleveland help get Mallee fired?

I mean, Santana hit .229 with a .766 OPS with the Phillies. He’s up to .286 with a .939 OPS and has already surpassed his 24 homers of a season ago with 43 games remaining.

It’s an interesting question and one that can be answered in a variety ways – and yet it’s probably without a single definitive conclusion.

Contextually, here are some ways that Santana’s resurgence can be explained:

He’s more comfortable now that he’s back in Cleveland where he spent the first eight seasons of his career.

He’s back in the AL, which is typically thought to be the more offensively advantageous league.

Or, the local fan favorite theory:

He’s out from the crippling grasp of the Phillies’ offensive teachings (or what was the crippling grasp of the Phillies’ offensive teachings).

First, let’s address what can’t be explained by numbers. Let’s say that Santana is simply more comfortable with the Indians. The conventional wisdom in sports is that increased comfort and confidence will yield better results, so there could be a reasonable correlation made between his improved psyche and uptick in production. That seems like a plausible explanation.

As for the theory that his return to the American League has something to do with his improved performance at the plate, well, that’s somewhat more complicated. Obviously, Santana has more experience and familiarity with AL pitchers, so that, too, could contribute to his comfort, confidence, and production, but the idea that the AL is the far superior offensive circuit is misleading. At least it is this season. Check the numbers:

National League:  .253 BA, .323 OBP, .439 SLG, .762 OPS

American League: .253 BA, .323 OBP, .432 SLG, .755 OPS

Same batting average, same on-base percentage, and an ever so slightly better slugging percentage in favor of the AL isn’t enough to simply write off Santana’s marked improvement as a product of his competition.

That brings us to the last explanation – the one we’ve been hearing about for months as the Phillies’ offensive woes continue deep into a disappointing season. And that disappointment needs to be noted here. This Santana discussion wouldn’t be a thing and Mallee would still have a job right now if the Phillies’ lineup – one that was supposed to mash this season – didn’t currently rank 24th in batting average, 23rd in slugging-percentage, and 22nd in OPS. But it does, so here we are.

The completely underwhelming, and frankly, unacceptable performance of this offense has led to many questions about why a young group of hitters who many thought would continue to ascend have either flatlined, or in some cases, regressed.

Naturally, the attention turns to the on-field hitting instruction as well as the principles being instilled throughout the organization. With Mallee now gone, we will see if the Phillies have altered their organizational hitting philosophies at the highest levels, or if Manuel is simply working with the constraints of certain restrictions and guidelines.

At any rate, pair the Phillies’ disappointing offense with Santana’s All-Star bounce-back season, and fans (along with people like myself) have some convenient anecdotal evidence to indict what the Phillies have been teaching – or at least had been teaching.

The term “launch angle” has become sacrilegious in Philadelphia, drawing a physical reaction that rivals the response to “wide-nine,” and Santana’s case doesn’t help.

Let’s set aside his improved statistical output for a moment and focus on the swing that’s producing it.

According to StatCast, Santana averaged a career-high 15.1 degree launch angle that produced an average exit velocity of 88.8 mph. Compare that to this season in which he’s averaging a 10.9 degree launch angle that has produced a career-best average exit velocity of 91.7 mph. That disparity in average launch angle doesn’t just happen by accident, and one could make the argument that it’s not a mere coincidence that Santana is producing a .293 BABIP in 2019, up from a career-worst .231 BABIP last season.

Batting average on balls in play is often a product of luck and can sometimes explain the disparity in a player’s numbers from year-to-year, or why certain guys who are far exceeding expected outcomes, either positively or negatively, are likely to experience some type of regression to the norm. Santana’s increased production this season can be partly explained by his drastically higher BABIP. Phillies general manager Matt Klentak pretty much did exactly that back in late June. Here he is, per this story by NBC Sports Philly’s Corey Seidman:

You know that I really like the player. Carlos Santana’s career has been characterized by high walk rates, more walks than strikeouts and power, and he’s a pretty good defender at first base. That’s exactly what he is this year. His walk rate is about the same as it was last year. His strikeouts are actually up a little bit. And he’s running a BABIP that’s about 75 points higher. What comes with that is additional batting average points and additional slugging percentage points. He’s the same guy. He’s the same guy.

Mind you, Santana’s numbers are different now than they were when Klentak made these comments, but the first few parts remain true. His walk rates are similar, his strikeouts are up a bit, and the BABIP is significantly higher, but to say he’s the same guy is a bit disingenuous because he has changed his swing. Not only is the average launch angle distinctly different, but he’s also pulling the ball about 4% less this season.

Those changes have led to Santana barreling more balls while producing a considerably higher exit velocity and hard-hit percentage. Santana’s expected batting average and expected slugging-percentage are up, too. Sorry, but you can’t just write off all of that due to luck and an increased BABIP because he’s not the same guy.

Based on that information, could one make the argument that what the Phillies did with Santana’s swing was the cause of his struggles here? Absolutely.

Can one look at Rhys Hoskins’ increase in average launch angle from 18.4 degrees in 2017 to 22.4 degrees in 2018 to 24.9 degrees this season and wonder if it correlates with his year-to-year decline in hard-hit percentage, expected batting average, and expected slugging-percentage? In light of a recent 2 for 24 road trip in which he failed to knock in a run, I think that’s fair.

The reason for concern goes far beyond Hoskins, too. Maikel Franco and Nick Williams never developed. Cesar Hernandez’s on-base skills have eroded. Much-hyped newcomers Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto and Jean Segura have stagnated.

Is that Mallee’s fault alone? Hell no. But this is a results-oriented business and with Santana’s season serving as an irritating side note as the Phillies continue to careen their way out of contention thanks in part to a consistently listless offense, a change probably had to be made. Usually, the on-field coach is where it starts.

What becomes unclear now is how much of what was happening with the Phillies’ swings are (were) happening at the behest of either Mallee and/or the organization. With him now gone, it’s also unclear if a different voice – a voice with about as much clout as a coach can have in this city – will have a noticeable impact on the Phillies’ moribund lineup. What we do know is that things can’t get much worse.

    The post Carlos Santana’s Resurgence, Phillies’ Offensive Struggles Were Both a Bad Look for John Mallee appeared first on Crossing Broad.

Carlos Santana’s Resurgence, Phillies’ Offensive Struggles Were Both a Bad Look for John Mallee published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[shannonmuiranimatedinsights]

Look Back at WonderCon 2007 -- Day 2 (Saturday)

AS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON LIVE JOURNAL

Look Back at WonderCon 2007 -- Day 2 (Saturday)

Mar. 9th, 2007 at 7:39 PM

[COMMENT: I am SO sorry for the delay in these posts! I went to my doctor this past Monday about getting antibiotics but it turned out she left them off the prescription (it had numbers for two items but only contained one) and it wasn't until TODAY that I got her on the phone she finally called in something. So I have been in much misery since Sunday night. But let's lead back into the great times before we got to that point...]

I actually attended only the afternoon of WonderCon on Saturday. My morning plans consisted of getting up relatively early, actually eating breakfast at the Argent, and leaving the Argent at 9am, riding the Powell and Hyde cable car from downtown all the way to the other end of the line at Fisherman's Wharf, have lunch at a place where I'd made reservations right when they opened, then take the historic F-line streetcar which started across the street from the restaurant back to basically out front the block of the Argent while still making sure I had plenty of time not to be late for the panel I was moderating. You'll notice between this paragraph and my mentions of BART last time that I have this thing for public transit. Then again I've lived in LA for a decade and don't drive which quite frankly confounds everyone I meet.

Eating breakfast at the Argent (which by the way has been bought by Westin and is transitioning to the Westin San Francisco this summer) was a bit of a mistake. Due to all their renovations, they were only offering an overpriced breakfast buffet, no lunch, and cocktails at dinnertime. I knew I'd have to figure out an alternative for Sunday after seeing that bill.

The cable car ride was an incredible experience from beginning to end. I was actually in the back half but fortunately seated as my balance isn't always the best. Given the hills, I think I felt a little safer being enclosed. It was interesting watching how the driver worked with the wooden breaks and how he coordinated with the conductor. We got up to the Wharf before 9:30 which left me to do a little walking and exploring, which was fine as that had been the intent. My lunch reservations at Castignola's (which apparently is the oldest restaurant on the Wharf) were at 11. One thing I hadn't planned on was that the main office for Tower Tours (with whom I would be taking a trip Sunday) was right at the Wharf below Ghiradelli Square; had I known that I might have planned a little differently but I'm not sure. What I also hadn't planned on was it being so windy, which on top of the temperature was a bit much. At one point I even ducked into a Starbucks for a Green Tea Latte just to get out of the wind. I continued to walk all the way past the cruise and ferry pier to Pier 39, where there are a bunch of shops. Here I was not only able to get new batteries for my digital camera but they were kind enough to recycle my old ones; I also picked up a postcard of Moscone Center for my parents. Overall I found Pier 39 very boring though, maybe this is because I'm not a heavy shopper or maybe it reminds me of something I've seen before -- Pike's Place Market in Seattle if it were an outdoor mall. Same type of shops and everything, just California merchandise not Washington State.

I make it back to Castignola's with a half hour to wait until they even open, so I buy a book of letter stamps (need them when I get home anyway) and decide to put a little extra postage on the postcard for my parents. I fill that out and then find there doesn't seem to be a post office box nearby. But then who should appear at Castignola's but the local letter carrier! I politely ask him if he can take it, and he does. Cool.

Castignola's was a nice place, with a friendly staff and good food. Did a shrimp, scallion, and crab leg combo plate. This was the one meal I had budgeted to be my largest because I knew that seafood would cost more. Even with that taken into consideration, the cost was reasonable. The waitress, who was Chinese, told me about everyone getting ready downtown for the Chinese New Year parade (turned out she was jumping the gun about that just a little as I had no trouble getting back). Due to her comments, and the fact I'd lounged in the Wharf area long enough, I just hopped the streetcar back to the Argent. For those who don't know, the streetcar is the same type of vehicle that the old Red Car systems down here used to run on, so now I have an idea of what transit here would have evolved from if everything hadn't been ripped out for cars...

Made it back to the Argent earlier than expected, so I relaxed a little but not too long, and also made sure that I had my mock-up of the final cover of the book (for which the publisher had sent me the art file earlier in the week, and then I mounted in pieces at home and completed at the hotel). Decided to arrive at Moscone in time to go down to the SLG Publishing booth one more time and pick up Issues 3, 4, and 5 of REX LIBRIS to finish the arc and then attend the 2PM panel that preceded ours at 3PM. The panel featured artists currently being shown at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum -- Gene Yang, Gene Colan, Linda Medley, and Pia Guerra. A wide diversity of styles and opinions indeed. Also made sure to identify the Con staff member in the room so we could build a rapport for the following hour. Smart move as it made it a lot easier to pick him out later.

And then, after that panel was over, it was our turn.

The Con staffer handed me all the names to put out as I wished (I followed the program and put them alphabetically, which put Adam Beechen closest to me and the podium on the far left of the stage, then Stan Berkowitz, then Dwayne McDuffie, and then Greg Weisman at the end. The alphabet is the great equalizer... heh.) I also put the display board of the book cover between the DVD player on the table -- which we weren't using -- and Adam, as it wouldn't fit with me on the podium. We then proceeded to practically pack the room with probably about 100 people or so (the largest crowd I've ever talked to) and talk shop for an hour, walking the animation process from development to the animation coming back from overseas, which sort of follows the flow of certain chapters in the book but shared the personality and interaction of multiple pros at once versus the spotlight interviews at various portions of my book, GARDNER'S GUIDE TO WRITING AND PRODUCING ANIMATION, which is slated for late April release. So we got the flavor of the book in the panel, while letting it be its own thing. The four guys did great, as for me I can tell places I still need to work on public speaking but as someone highly accustomed to rigid outlines I didn't do half bad.

After our time was done I stayed around for Greg Weisman's spotlight panel moderated by Dan Vado, owner of SLG Publishing (for whom I must again thank for his generosity of letting Greg be with our group as well). Greg mainly wound up talking about GARGOYLES, though in theory the panel was open to anything. Even though I've had chances to interact with Greg, and admittedly knew a fair amount of what was said, there's always that twist that something you could use a good reminder on or something completely new could come out -- like the announcement of the limited issue GARGOYLES: BAD GUYS comic.

I saw Greg briefly after that panel (not that I was looking for him, he found me) and we basically said what I thought would be our goodbyes as I had at that time no plans to be back at the Con Sunday. I was very pleased with the whole day, and even now I'm still happy I went.

Upon returning to the Argent, I discovered that the Chinese New Year parade was happening within the block of the hotel and hung out watching it most of the time, though briefly I had to duck into the Subway down the block for dinner at one point. Interesting mix of the traditional and the commercial, and not everything was Asian or even Asian-themed.

Originally I had planned to try to go out after the parade was over, but watching all those people disperse and realizing I'm a woman alone in San Francisco who got lost in the daytime -- I quickly change my mind and decide this is not a good idea. Had I had someone to go with, I probably would have kept going. But instead I retreated to my room again, knowing I was going to get up early again to check out and go on my 9AM tour.

Several hours later, I wake up. Coughing. I think my throat's just dry and get a drink of water and go back to sleep. Better make that try to go back to sleep. My coughing keeps waking me up, and waking me up. I begin to realize it's going to keep me from going back to sleep. At first it's not as big a deal as I can hear others still returning from the Masquerade, but as it gets later in the night it begins to drive me crazy. I burn through all three of the REX LIBRIS comics and several short stories in the TURN THE OTHER CHICK anthology edited by Esther Friesner that I brought on the plane (one of my finds from last year's WonderCon), making several attempts to sleep between that are short lived. At one point I literally but quietly start pounding on the bed in frustration. I feel for my hotel neighbors, quiet getaway they did not get.

Next rock will pick up at 5:30 AM Sunday morning, with where I went on my tour despite my struggles, how I nearly got seriously lost in San Fran, why I wound up back at Moscone, and late night flight adventures with Mark Evanier...

[flauntpage]

Carlos Santana’s Resurgence, Phillies’ Offensive Struggles Were Both a Bad Look for John Mallee

Old friend Carlos Santana, out there in Cleveland last night, just making it happen:

Game-winning grand slam yesterday. Walk-off home run today.

Carlos Santana is on 🔥 pic.twitter.com/cCULLbJFxD

— ESPN (@espn) August 13, 2019

Which begs the question: Where the hell was this at last season? 

And in light of John Mallee’s dismissal as the Phillies’ hitting coach and the subsequent hiring of Charlie Manuel to fill that position this morning, here’s another question, which fair or not, will be asked: Did Santana’s resurgence in Cleveland help get Mallee fired?

I mean, Santana hit .229 with a .766 OPS with the Phillies. He’s up to .286 with a .939 OPS and has already surpassed his 24 homers of a season ago with 43 games remaining.

It’s an interesting question and one that can be answered in a variety ways – and yet it’s probably without a single definitive conclusion.

Contextually, here are some ways that Santana’s resurgence can be explained:

He’s more comfortable now that he’s back in Cleveland where he spent the first eight seasons of his career.

He’s back in the AL, which is typically thought to be the more offensively advantageous league.

Or, the local fan favorite theory:

He’s out from the crippling grasp of the Phillies’ offensive teachings (or what was the crippling grasp of the Phillies’ offensive teachings).

First, let’s address what can’t be explained by numbers. Let’s say that Santana is simply more comfortable with the Indians. The conventional wisdom in sports is that increased comfort and confidence will yield better results, so there could be a reasonable correlation made between his improved psyche and uptick in production. That seems like a plausible explanation.

As for the theory that his return to the American League has something to do with his improved performance at the plate, well, that’s somewhat more complicated. Obviously, Santana has more experience and familiarity with AL pitchers, so that, too, could contribute to his comfort, confidence, and production, but the idea that the AL is the far superior offensive circuit is misleading. At least it is this season. Check the numbers:

National League:  .253 BA, .323 OBP, .439 SLG, .762 OPS

American League: .253 BA, .323 OBP, .432 SLG, .755 OPS

Same batting average, same on-base percentage, and an ever so slightly better slugging percentage in favor of the AL isn’t enough to simply write off Santana’s marked improvement as a product of his competition.

That brings us to the last explanation – the one we’ve been hearing about for months as the Phillies’ offensive woes continue deep into a disappointing season. And that disappointment needs to be noted here. This Santana discussion wouldn’t be a thing and Mallee would still have a job right now if the Phillies’ lineup – one that was supposed to mash this season – didn’t currently rank 24th in batting average, 23rd in slugging-percentage, and 22nd in OPS. But it does, so here we are.

The completely underwhelming, and frankly, unacceptable performance of this offense has led to many questions about why a young group of hitters who many thought would continue to ascend have either flatlined, or in some cases, regressed.

Naturally, the attention turns to the on-field hitting instruction as well as the principles being instilled throughout the organization. With Mallee now gone, we will see if the Phillies have altered their organizational hitting philosophies at the highest levels, or if Manuel is simply working with the constraints of certain restrictions and guidelines.

At any rate, pair the Phillies’ disappointing offense with Santana’s All-Star bounce-back season, and fans (along with people like myself) have some convenient anecdotal evidence to indict what the Phillies have been teaching – or at least had been teaching.

The term “launch angle” has become sacrilegious in Philadelphia, drawing a physical reaction that rivals the response to “wide-nine,” and Santana’s case doesn’t help.

Let’s set aside his improved statistical output for a moment and focus on the swing that’s producing it.

According to StatCast, Santana averaged a career-high 15.1 degree launch angle that produced an average exit velocity of 88.8 mph. Compare that to this season in which he’s averaging a 10.9 degree launch angle that has produced a career-best average exit velocity of 91.7 mph. That disparity in average launch angle doesn’t just happen by accident, and one could make the argument that it’s not a mere coincidence that Santana is producing a .293 BABIP in 2019, up from a career-worst .231 BABIP last season.

Batting average on balls in play is often a product of luck and can sometimes explain the disparity in a player’s numbers from year-to-year, or why certain guys who are far exceeding expected outcomes, either positively or negatively, are likely to experience some type of regression to the norm. Santana’s increased production this season can be partly explained by his drastically higher BABIP. Phillies general manager Matt Klentak pretty much did exactly that back in late June. Here he is, per this story by NBC Sports Philly’s Corey Seidman:

You know that I really like the player. Carlos Santana’s career has been characterized by high walk rates, more walks than strikeouts and power, and he’s a pretty good defender at first base. That’s exactly what he is this year. His walk rate is about the same as it was last year. His strikeouts are actually up a little bit. And he’s running a BABIP that’s about 75 points higher. What comes with that is additional batting average points and additional slugging percentage points. He’s the same guy. He’s the same guy.

Mind you, Santana’s numbers are different now than they were when Klentak made these comments, but the first few parts remain true. His walk rates are similar, his strikeouts are up a bit, and the BABIP is significantly higher, but to say he’s the same guy is a bit disingenuous because he has changed his swing. Not only is the average launch angle distinctly different, but he’s also pulling the ball about 4% less this season.

Those changes have led to Santana barreling more balls while producing a considerably higher exit velocity and hard-hit percentage. Santana’s expected batting average and expected slugging-percentage are up, too. Sorry, but you can’t just write off all of that due to luck and an increased BABIP because he’s not the same guy.

Based on that information, could one make the argument that what the Phillies did with Santana’s swing was the cause of his struggles here? Absolutely.

Can one look at Rhys Hoskins’ increase in average launch angle from 18.4 degrees in 2017 to 22.4 degrees in 2018 to 24.9 degrees this season and wonder if it correlates with his year-to-year decline in hard-hit percentage, expected batting average, and expected slugging-percentage? In light of a recent 2 for 24 road trip in which he failed to knock in a run, I think that’s fair.

The reason for concern goes far beyond Hoskins, too. Maikel Franco and Nick Williams never developed. Cesar Hernandez’s on-base skills have eroded. Much-hyped newcomers Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto and Jean Segura have stagnated.

Is that Mallee’s fault alone? Hell no. But this is a results-oriented business and with Santana’s season serving as an irritating side note as the Phillies continue to careen their way out of contention thanks in part to a consistently listless offense, a change probably had to be made. Usually, the on-field coach is where it starts.

What becomes unclear now is how much of what was happening with the Phillies’ swings are (were) happening at the behest of either Mallee and/or the organization. With him now gone, it’s also unclear if a different voice – a voice with about as much clout as a coach can have in this city – will have a noticeable impact on the Phillies’ moribund lineup. What we do know is that things can’t get much worse.

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