Wine and Food Pairings!!!

After lying dormant for a couple years, I'm bringing this blog back to life. Not as a baseball blog. If you want my baseball words, they're here, and I'm writing two to three new articles per week. Instead, I'm going to talk about wine here.

I like wine. A lot. And like most wine lovers, I can go on and on about it. But I won't do it here. Promise.

I consider wine to be part beverage, part food. It's a beverage, sure, because we drink it. But a good wine can go amazingly well with food as well, elevating both the food and the wine.

Those matchings--wine and food pairings, as they're called--are one of my favorite things in the world. So I'm going to share them with you.

In each post, I'm going to discuss one dish and several wines that I tried with the dish. I'll tell you which one worked best, and why. And I'll keep it brief. You don't need 1,000 words to tell you that Cabernet Sauvignon goes with a charred steak, or Zinfandel with barbecued spareribs.

Oh, and there's one limitation--I don't eat meat. So we'll have to take those two pairings on faith. I'm not going to test them.

I'm not going to recommend a specific vintner, or vintage, or anything like that for the wines. Go to your cellar or your wine store or supermarket and find something you like. I will suggest styles, but not labels. Spend what you want. It's your call.

As I said, I'll try to keep these short. I hope you enjoy them. Leave comments if you want. I'll read and respond to them. And thanks for stopping by.

Emerging from a Long Summer's Nap

I haven't posted here in a long time. The reason is that I've been focusing my efforts on two other sites, Baseball Prospectus and Banished to the Pen. I will probably post a few things here from time to time (read: every few months or so) but to find my current baseball writings, check my author archives:

• Baseball Prospectus
• Banished to the Pen

You can also catch my appearance on Effectively Wild, the fantastic Baseball Prospectus podcast (the fans of whom started Banished to the Pen), here.

And enjoy the rest of the regular season.

Trailing 30 - Independence Day Edition

Here's my Trailing 30 report for July 4, focusing on the best and worst performances over the past 30 days, with a focus on the extremes in the American League West. 

Baseball 45 Years Ago

Motivated by a remark in the Joe Sheehan Newsletter, I wrote a retrospective on the 1971 season for Baseball Prospectus, focused on the differences between baseball then and now. Featuring Gomer Hodge.

Latest from Banished to the Pen

Here are the top and bottom five performers for the 30 days ending Sunday, June 26, featuring the strangely alluring second-worst OPS hitters in each league.

I did a National League Central podcast with Alex Crisafulli (@alexcards79) and Eric Roseberry (@Ericdroseberry) last night. It's here. 

On Hiatuses and Not-So-Fun Facts

I've been blogging here a lot less this year than last year. You probably think it's because the Pirates aren't nearly as good as they were last year, and therefore I've lost interest. That's not it. The simple answer is: I've been busy! I've been writing a fair amount for Baseball Prospectus, which is an incredibly exciting honor, but it's a lot of work. Here's what I've been doing:

• On June 6, I researched whether a league with really bad teams creates a fertile ground for really good teams.
• On June 13, I wrote about how baseball sabermetrician Bill James's disdain for groundball pitchers, i.e., pitchers who generate many more groundballs than flyballs. I rose to their defense, pointing out that, in aggregate, they allow fewer home runs and, therefore, fewer runs than flyball pitchers.
• On June 14, I discussed an online poll in which, in response to the question "which off. stat is most important to a hitter's value," viewers chose on base percentage. I took issue with that assessment, illustrating how the voters' last pick, slugging percentage, was actually the best. 
• On June 15 (it was a busy week!) I listed players who led their teams in various categories, like RBI and strikeouts, with really unimpressive totals.
• Today I delved more into groundball pitchers, finding that their superiority over flyball pitchers hasn't been a constant over time.

I also wrote my regular weekly Trailing 30 report at Banished to the Pen on Monday. 

I'll try to at least post more contemporaneously.

Now, for a fun fact (which, full disclosure, I heard on MLB.com's Statcast Podcast): Here's a list of the top four outfielders (by plate appearances) for the Miami Marlins and the Pittsburgh Pirates. I've ranked them by OPS:

   Player                 PAs   BA    OBP   SLG   OPS
   Matt Joyce, Pit        117  .292  .419  .594  1.013
   Marcell Ozuna, Mia     287  .321  .373  .565   .938
   Christian Yelich, Mia  270  .316  .404  .491   .895
   Gregory Polanco, Pit   291  .295  .379  .510   .889
   Starling Marte, Pit    268  .331  .373  .498   .871
   Ichiro Suzuki, Mia     151  .353  .427  .398   .825
   Giancarlo Stanton, Mia 252  .211  .311  .427   .737
   Andrew McCutchen, Pit  304  .238  .316  .403   .719

Two of the biggest stars in baseball, at the bottom of the list. 

Trailing 30 - June 6

I'm linking to my Banished to the Pen post because it looks better for those of you viewing this on mobile devices. Comments for the week: First, the top tier of National League starters is ridiculous. The top seven starters by ERA in the National League all had lower ERAs than the top starter in the American League over the past 30 days. Second, Justin Verlander seems to have gotten in together again (second in ERA, first in WHIP and strikeouts over the past 30 days), right? His trailing 30 ERA is the lowest it’s been since early 2014, his trailing 30 K/9 the highest it’s been since late 2013, and his trailing 30 batting average allowed the lowest it’s been since late 2012.