Letting You Do the Work For Us

We've tried very hard here at LomHenn.com to have our own identity in the 14 months or so that we've had this blog. We've also made it no secret that we are fans of the late FireJoeMorgan.com, and a lot of what we do has been influenced by that great site.

And now yet another thing we can take from FJM: Gallimaufry!! As defined from FJM, gallimaufry is a "hodgepodge of reader emails cobbled together" to make a post when the blogger is feeling lazy. This post is technically not gallimaufry, since I'm only going to use one reader email (as opposed to a hodgepodge). But you get the idea.

The reader in this case is William S., who sends us this juicy article by Darren Everson from the Wall Street Journal. I've included William's critique of the article. Anything I interject will be preceded by SB; otherwise the criticism will be William's--unedited by me.

So, heeeeere's William S.!

Baseball's Winning Glue Guys
The Gritty, Gutty Players Who Hold Teams Together—and Help Them Succeed

Already starting out great with that title.

There are aces, closers, sluggers and Gold Glovers. And then there are the really important people in a ballclub: the glue guys.

Really? You know, I think I'll take the aces, closers, sluggers, and Gold Glovers (granted that they aren't of the Derek Jeter variety). Also, I think I will crush you with them.

“Glue” guys, in baseball parlance, are the players whose oft-overlooked performance quietly holds winning teams together—and without which, presumably, the team would fall apart. Statisticians don’t buy that they exist, but psychologists do. And players and managers swear by them.

"Presumably," hmm... You presume that. I presume that the aforementioned aces, closers, and generally awesome baseball players would continue to be generally awesome baseball players and keep winning without David Eckstein...I mean glue guys.

“He’s the scrapper,” says Charlie Manuel, manager of the defending World Series-champion Philadelphia Phillies. “The guy who plays every day. Who gets big hits. Hustles. He’s the guy who, in his own way, whether it’s quiet or spoken or whatever, he leads.”

C'mon, you know you wanna say Eckstein, just do it. By the way, "The guy who plays every day. Who gets big hits." That sounds awfully like, oh, I don't know…good ballplayers? Not scrappers. But what do I know? Also, I think whiteness factors into how scrappy a guy is. Eckstein, nearly albino. Guy I saw in the movie line the other day, either the scrappiest motherfucker I've seen, or he was a goth. Either way, I'll take him on my team. I bet he can out-grit those sluggers.

Jason Bartlett is a glue guy. Before he joined the Rays last season, Tampa Bay had baseball’s worst record in 2007, due greatly to having the majors’ worst defense. Then Mr. Bartlett came over from the Twins and took over the shortstop position. The Rays’ defense became the best in baseball last season and they reached the World Series.

You sort of eliminate your whole glue guy argument by acknowledging that he significantly enhanced their defense statistically. If there was any justice in baseball, he would fall into the "Gold Glover" category that you so casually discarded earlier. Also, he missed over 30 games, thus deviating from the "guy who plays every day" description, not to mention the "gets big hits" description (.690 OPS last year). Side note: he's generally crushing the ball this year to the tune of a .930 OPS. I'm absolutely certain this has nothing to do with his .393 BAbip.

SB: Never mind that the Rays did a bit more than just add Jason Bartlett from 2007 into 2008. Perhaps some guy named Evan Longoria (.874 OPS) and a very good pitching staff had more to do with it than just adding Bartlett.

Tim Wakefield, the Red Sox’s knuckleball pitcher, is a glue guy. As Boston’s pitching staff has evolved over the past 15 years—with youngsters coming, veterans going and pricey additions like Daisuke Matsuzaka not always delivering—the dependable constant has been Mr. Wakefield, a first-time All-Star this year at 42 who has made at least 15 starts each season.

Wakefield is good at what he does, which is basically giving you average to above-average pitching over about 180 innings. There's value in that. Not Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and '08 Dice-K value, but not terrible for $4 mil a year. Also, hate to rip on him in small sample sizes, but where has the glue been in his last five playoff series, in which he hasn't posted an ERA below 6.75? Does it dry up in October? *rimshot*. Okay, that was a lame joke.

As baseball enters the second half of the season Thursday, the top contenders all have a glue guy or two whom they attribute part of their success to. With the Tigers, it’s All-Star third baseman Brandon Inge, who not only has a surprising 21 home runs but is also hitting .348 in close, late-game situations. With the Yankees, as usual, it’s shortstop Derek Jeter, who owns the highest on-base percentage among the American League’s starting shortstops despite being its oldest (35). And the Phillies insist slugger Ryan Howard is a glue guy—despite not fitting the tag’s small, scrappy stereotype—because he quietly never takes a day off.

Ah, glue guy means "surprising player." Also, no one cares about your close, late-game situations stat. What's that? Some people do? Well they're idiots who don't understand sample sizes and statistical fluctuation. His career OPS in those situations is .616, 26% lower than his normal OPS. Barry Bonds doesn't even think that's an impressive OBP. But he's also a dick, so whatever. Inge's drastically improved value this year primarily stems from 19.4% of his flyballs leaving the park. His career number is 8.4%. Reply to Derek Jeter: He's a good baseball player. This is fairly simple. Good? Yes. Overrated? Hell yes. Glue guy? I don't really give a shit. You know who has a higher OBP? A-Rod, who was also a (better) shortstop. He wears eyeliner and changes positions for inferior egotistical shortstops, so he can't be a glue guy, right? I mean he can't even "stick" to one position. . .get it?

I've covered this paragraph enough, so I'll just say that Everson left the word "white" out of this selection, "[T]he Phillies insist slugger Ryan Howard is a glue guy—despite not fitting the tag’s small [white], scrappy stereotype." Fixed.

“They’re the reliable guys,” says Braves president John Schuerholz, “who, in the toughest of circumstances, in the biggest of moments, deliver the goods.”

You're just defining good players again. Are you sure you're trying to prove the existence of glue guys?

Michael Jordan famously said in a 1997 Nike commercial that he’d missed 26 potential game-winning shots. “He’s probably been successful about 50 times,” then-Bulls coach Phil Jackson said at the time. But when Mr. Jordan retired from the Bulls in 1999—seven months after making his iconic shot to beat the Jazz for the championship—the total number of game-winning shots he’d hit was 25.

He was the greatest god-damn basketball player of all-time. He's going to take more game-winning shots, and, roughly at the same pace as his shooting percentage, he's going to make more game-winning shots. That's like saying Mariano Rivera gets a lot of game-saving strikeouts. No shit, are you gonna give the ball to Jose Veras instead? Or John Havlicek? (Side note: I totally want to see Havlicek close out a game)

SB: Me, too.

This paragraph contributed nothing.

Skeptical about whether winners exist, statistician Scott Berry of Berry Consultants studied the matter in 2005. Taking the statistics of more than 14,000 players who had played in Major League Baseball, he created a formula to find the ultimate winner: the player whose teams exceeded their win-loss expectations the most when he happened to be on them.

I am totally convinced this statistical study will confirm their existence. . .and that they are small, scrappy guys that use grit and guts more than the average man.

The winners’ winner? Dennis Cook, a journeyman lefty reliever in the 1990s. Several players whom fans widely regard as winners and glue guys did fare well: Mr. Jeter, the Yankees shortstop, was in the 97th percentile, and David Wells, a noted big-game pitcher in the 1990s and 2000s, was in the 99th. But the presence of the relatively unknown Mr. Cook at the top, Mr. Berry says, proves his point. “Announcers refer to players who just have the will to win,” he says. “The fact that he comes out on top pokes fun at that notion.”

You've got Dennis Cook and two guys that played for the fucking Yankees in the late nineties. Glue guys, all the way.

But Mr. Cook does believe in glue. Although he admits he was lucky to bounce from one winner to the next—including the 1996 division-winning Rangers, the 1997 world-champion Marlins and the 2000 National League-winning Mets—Mr. Cook says his teams won in part because they invested in overlooked roles like middle relievers.

He was also let go after the '96, '97' and '00 seasons. RESISTING..."STICKING"...WITH...TEAM...JOKE.

“A long man who eats up 100 innings a year, he saves the rest of your pitching staff,” he says. “Those guys don’t get recognized, but they’re every bit as important. Baseball people see that, but number-crunchers don’t.”

Fuck you, Dennis Cook. "Baseball people see that, but number-crunchers don't." They're not mutually exclusive. Aside from that, you're obviously not familiar with number crunchers. I'll sure as hell recognize a reliever that pitches 100 innings in a year, as that is pretty impressive, granted that he doesn't suck out loud during those 100 innings.

SB: In fact, "number crunchers" tend to give more value to middle relievers than traditional "baseball people." Old-timey baseball people like to look at Wins and Saves as be-all, end-all stats to evaluate pitchers. Number crunchers look at things like ERA+ and even Holds to evaluate pitchers, which tend to give more value to middle relievers.

Psychologists say there is indeed a spill-over effect with glue guys that helps their teams win, one which goes beyond quantifiable contributions. John F. Murray, a sports psychologist in Palm Beach, Fla., says that teams are much like fraternities or high schools in that players spend a massive amount of time in close proximity to each other. Because of this, “they’re constantly influencing one another,” he says. “One of the keys to confidence is social support and modeling. If you have some outstanding role models who deal with pressure effectively, that glue is going to spill out of the bottle and help everyone.”

You would say that, John F. Murray, your entire profession depends on it.

In my Dennis-Cook-induced rage I failed to note that he exceeded 100 innings three times...all of them when he was a starting pitcher. The most he pitched as a reliever was 70.1 with the previously mentioned '96 Rangers. Way to not even match your hypothetically underrated, douchebag reliever, Cook. Also, guess how many relievers exceeded 100 innings last year. 0. The year before, 0. In fact, since 2000 only 6 pure (no start) relievers have had 100 innings in a season. Some were good, like Guillermo Mota in 2003, posting a 1.97 ERA and a .990 WHIP. Others were Steve Sparks. Steve Sparks was bad enough to be released by the 2003 Tigers. They won 43 games, obviously because their front office didn't know to keep glue guys like Sparks. What’s that? He was 0-6 with a 4.72 ERA? Never mind.

*In all seriousness, he was one of their more effective pitchers, for no obvious reason, as his peripherals sucked. Their pitching was laughably bad.*

A huge hole in the reasoning of glue believers is that it’s impossible to know in retrospect how teams would have fared without their glue players. For example, the Rays won 58% of their games (11 of 19) earlier this season when Mr. Bartlett, their slick-fielding shortstop, was out with an injured ankle. They’ve won 54% overall. But the first-place Phillies’ abundance of glue, according to both them and their opponents, appears to be what’s put that franchise over the top—just a few years after it had a reputation for underachieving. “It’s not about just one guy,” says All-Star second baseman Chase Utley.

You're not helping your case with the Bartlett situation, and I'm sure the Phillies' emergence had nothing to do with having 7 regulars OPS+ over 100. Catcher was the only weak position and that’s a position where few people care about offense. Chris Coste was great (for a catcher) as their backup. Jamie Moyer pitched like he was 38 again and Cole Hamels had the best year in his career (so far). Oh yeah, their bullpen had a 3.22 ERA. Brad Lidge didn’t blow a single save, but closers can’t be glue guys, according to your opening sentence. The bullpen came into 145 save situations. They blew 15 saves. Middle relievers are more prone to statistical fluctuation, and this bullpen fluctuated towards fucking awesome. It happens. They didn’t do it because of glue guys; they did it because they were damn good.

The Phillies’ most-talented players also happen to be their glue guys, including Mr. Utley, who has led the majors the past two years in times hit by pitch, and Mr. Howard, who has played in 362 of Philadelphia’s last 363 games. Unlike many left-handed hitters over the years, he even refused to take a day off against Randy Johnson once last season.

“He’s definitely a leader, just by keeping his mouth shut,” Mr. Manuel says. “I call him the Big Piece. As in the big piece of the puzzle.”

If he'd done this when Randy Johnson was throwing 99, snapping off a slider that often struck righties in the back foot AFTER they swung at it, and striking out 13 per 9 innings, I might have appreciated it. 44-year old, topping out at 92 mph Johnson, not so much.

SB: It also helps that Howard OPS'd .882 last season. If Howard had a .675 OPS, nobody would have cared if he had taken a day off, and they would have tied him to the bench when Randy Johnson was starting against the Phils--in fact, earlier in 2008, Howard did not start against Johnson, probably because he was hitting well under .200 heading into that game.

Incidentally, Howard went 0-for-3 against Johnson on the night referred to by Everson and is hitting .187 against lefties (.574 OPS) in his career. So perhaps Howard, as a glue-guy, should "stick" to the bench once in awhile against lefties.

Yeah, I was feeling left out with the glue jokes.

In conclusion, I guess I’m saying that your article has very little merit.

SB: Or, very little "Stick-to-it-ness." I know...enough.

Swing and a Miss

OK, I understand that the game of baseball has changed since the beginning of the 20th century and it can be difficult to compare players over different eras, to a certain degree. We've gone from putting the ball in play and stealing bases to smacking home runs back to speed and getting on base to chicks digging the long ball and now to hitting for power while also striking out a lot, which Tim Kurkjian wants to point out to us.

Swinging hard ... and missing often

Players are definitely striking out much more often than their baseball ancestors of yester-year. A price they are paying for aiming over the wall on every at bat. Whether you want to blame that on SportsCenter, steroids, Mark McGwire or David Eckstein, I really do not care.

You can be mad like Timmy that current players have become numb to striking out 100+ times, or even 200+ times, every year. But before you hop on the Kurkjian bandwagon, let's understand a few things first.

• Tim likes to compare the everyday player to Joe Dimaggio, Babe Ruth, and Slut's all-time favorite baseball player, Ted Williams. Not exactly a fair comparison, but I understand the point he was trying to get across.



• As he points out, during Dimaggio's 56 game hitting streak, he faced 53 different pitchers. Now a batter can face a different pitcher in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. In 1941, the year of the streak, Major League pitchers had 1,027 complete games between the 16 teams. In 2008, we had a whopping 136 complete games with 30 teams. In 1941, there were 1,331 home runs. So there were nearly as many complete games pitched than there were home runs!



• Adam Dunn is the poster child for striking out.



• The ultimate kicker is this:

It's also rising because of today's emphasis on on-base percentage, working deep counts and taking walks. Granted, Ruth and Williams were walk machines, but they are the two greatest hitters of all time, and they were way ahead of their time. Dunn is a perfect example of today's hitter. He is in his ninth season, and he has, by a healthy margin, more strikeouts than Williams and DiMaggio combined. But he also has a career on-base percentage of nearly .400 thanks to all his walks.

Yes, you heard it hear from Tim Kurkjian first - strike outs are rising because of On-Base Percentage. The dreaded OBP! So tell me Tim, how does an emphasis on having a better OBP result in more Ks?!?!?!?

And if Adam Dunn is the poster child for striking out, then why do you praise him as the perfect example of today's hitter? While Dunn strikes out more than most, he has hit at least 40 HRs each of the last five years and still is in the Top 10 or 20 in OBP each year. He gets on base which is what players are SUPPOSED to do. If Dunn's OBP was hovering around .300, then you have a better argument. But the fact his lifetime OBP is .382 and his OPS is .901, I would seriously consider having him on my team.

And just exactly how were Ruth and Williams ahead of their time? Not that Tim gives us an explanation of how they were ahead. Were the initial players who used steroids ahead of their time as well?

This article is very Kravitz-ian in that he has a valid point regarding players are striking out more than ever, but like Kravitz, he is either wacky on how he backs up his point (OBP is causing more Ks?!?) or has issues making a point (Dunn sucks because he strikes out too much, but his high OBP makes him the perfect example of today's hitter).

Tim, why don't you go back to your day job! Oh, wait...this is your day job. Aww, shit. Sucks to be you!

Its Here!!! Well, Almost.

Baseball season is finally here, at least sort of. Its Spring Training season and players are all reporting to Florida or Arizona this week to begin prepping for the real thing in April. So I thought I would take a moment to ramble on about a few things to start off the pre-season.

Nate McLouth re-signs with the Bucs

I was a big fan on Nate’s when he was with the Indianapolis Indians and have enjoyed following his progress in the Majors. Nate batted .276 with 26 HRs and 46 doubles, which was tied for first in the NL last year. I am both happy and sad that he stayed in Pittsburgh. I am happy to see him get a nice contract and will hopefully have a nice long stay in the Majors. I am sad that he is on a team that has not had a winning season since Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla were playing for the Pirates. Congrats, Nate, and I am looking forward to another great year out of you.

Adam Dunn signs a two-year contract with the Nationals

I have never really figured out why so many sports writers are so negative against Adam Dunn. Yes, I know that he strikes out quite a bit. Adam had 164 strikeouts lat year, but that was only third best on his team! However, he has hit 40 HRs each of the past four years and ranked ninth in the NL with an OBP of .386. So while he does strike out a lot, he still gets on base more than most and can clobber the ball as well. At 29 years old, he still has a several good years left in him and should be a boost to the Nationals. Although sadly like the Pirates, they will probably suck as well this year.

David Eckstein signs with the Padres

The poster child for short, white, average skill baseball players signed a one-year contract with the Padres to help give the team someone with playoff experience and a couple of World Series rings. Because that is the only reason I can see a team signing the Eck. And do not go mentioning he has a boatload of intangibles, GRIT factor or how he isn’t afraid to get dirty. If the man was 6’2” he probably would be in the minors at this point. But since he is short, white and has a couple of rings, GMs seem to have a hard on for the man.

Remember this comment from last year

If the Dodgers do make the trade and they somehow win the World Series, I will kill something.

Allow me to update it for this year:

If the Whale’s Vagina Padres win the World Series with Eckstein on the team, I WILL kill something.

Steroids

I am torn on the steroids topic at this point. I am tired of the whole discussion on the Steroids Era and whether records and statistics should be thrown out or whether the players from that era should not be voted into the Hall of Fame or whether Jose Canseco needs an apology from MLB. Yet I am not sure how I feel about Alex Rodriguez’s most recent explanation of why, how and what he took from 2001-2003. If you are going to come out and tell the truth, then tell the whole truth. His interview was full of contradictions from his first interview, suddenly there was a “cousin” involved, the stuff he took was supposedly available over-the-counter in the Dominican Republic, the two drugs he tested positive for, primobolan and testosterone, could not have come from one drug, he sad attempt at shedding a tear while looking at his teammates, the list goes on and on. I want to know more, but at the same time, I don’t care anymore.

This happened several years ago and he has not tested positive since. He won two additional MVP since the first one he won in 2003, so he is still a very good player without the PEDs. People have pointed out that his home run totals during the three years he said he took PEDs are higher compared to the years after he stopped. However, you cannot necessarily point to steroids as the main factor in the increase. A-Rod signed with Texas in 2001 and Arlington Stadium is a hitters ballpark. After the 2003 season, A-Rod was traded to the Yankees. Yankee Stadium is not suited for A-Rod to hit as many home runs. So this would have also attributed to the decrease in home runs after 2003.

Bud Selig

You’re still a fucktard!

Wrigley Field

I have had the pleasure the past couple of years to bask in sun in the bleachers of Wrigley Field. There is nothing like sitting in the bleachers with a group of great friends with a beer in one hand and a brat in the other, baking in the sun and watching a baseball game in one of the greatest stadiums around. As a Cardinals fan, I’m definitely not a Cubs fan, even though I would like to see them actually win a Series so they can go another hundred years without one. But Wrigley is one of those places where it doesn’t matter what team you are rooting for, you are there to take in the whole experience of “the friendly confines”. I am looking forward to making another trip or two this year.

Like every other fan of our national pastime, I am so looking forward to the two words we long to hear every year:

“PLAY BALL!”

Mr. Grit Heading for the Coast?

Our favorite gritty player is back in the news!

Padres target IF Eckstein

The Padres have shown an interest in free agent SS Mr. McGritty, David Eckstein. I guess they are floored by his .351 OBP. Or maybe it is his .349 slugging. Or the fact they are hoping to get him dirt cheap and he wants to stay in the Majors.

Is it a requirement of every article on David Eckstein to reference the fact he was on two World Series winning teams and/or the fact he was the World Series MVP in 2006? I'm not sure if I have ever seen an article on him in the past couple of years that does not mention at one of those points. Have you?

I am shocked that I did not see any mention of some kind of intangible that David possesses. David is not known for his power, speed or even height, yet, most writers seem to fixate on his intangibles - hustle, grit, sweat, amount of dirt on uniform, etc. He is obviously a good enough player to have made it to the big leagues. However, I wonder why some many team execs are so enamoured by a short, slow, white dude that plays average baseball at best?

I hope that David sticks around for a while longer, otherwise we will have to anoint a new Grit King of Baseball.

You Mean Someone's Gonna Die?

Remember this about Gritty McGritterson?

Seems that he may make the postseason after all.

David Eckstein traded from Toronto to Arizona

Pretty straightforward article by AP writer Mike Fitzpatrick, but there are the normal gems:

David Eckstein quickly called his wife, then finished a fast interview and bounced around the clubhouse exchanging hugs with ex-teammates. The scrappy infielder always hustles, but this was a little different.

Scrappy McGritstein always "bounces" because he is made of rubber.

The trade, made just before the deadline for playoff eligibility, gives Arizona a late-season spark plug with impressive October credentials.

A "late-season spark plug?" That would be great if he was joining a NASCAR team. On second thought, that's a bad idea since his feet wouldn't reach the pedals.

The 2006 World Series MVP with St. Louis, Eckstein batted .277 with a homer, 23 RBIs and a .354 on-base percentage in a part-time role for Toronto. Known for his all-out effort at 5-foot-7, he also helped the Angels win the 2002 World Series.

You ever notice that baseball writers only cite on-base percentage when they are either (a) making fun of new-fangled stats, or (b) using it to justify the acquisition of a decidedly mediocre hitter?

(I think I was channeling Andy Rooney there).

"Known for his all-out effort." It is well known that no other major league baseball player runs....ever. Some amble, some mosey, some even sashay. But only Tiny Mckecklestein runs--with itty-bitty little legs that sound like the wings of a hummingbird.

In all honesty, this isn't a bad trade. The Diamondbacks gave up a class-A pitcher, which isn't a lot. As mentioned already, Eckstein has a .354 OBP, which isn't awful (though his .358 SLG won't turn any heads). And while Eckstein is overpaid, Arizona only has to pay him for a month. Plus, the D-backs plan on playing him at second base rather than shortstop, so his anemic arm won't be as much of a liability.

Of course, one reason he was acquired is because he's played pretty well in two World Series. And if that happens a third time, well...we may all see Zinglebert's wrath.

That alone is something to fear.

Quick Hits

Once again it seems the entire group is either on vacation or too swamped to keep the entries going. So while I have a few minutes, I thought I could at least throw out some comments on various topics or articles.

U.S. Open/PGA

Personally, I like the 18-hole playoff format the U.S. Open uses even before the climactic outcome of this year’s tournament. It is unique to that major and adds to its mystique. It was obviously a boon for the PGA to have Tiger Woods in the playoff this year. I wonder how people would have felt if the playoff had been between Rocco Mediate and Lee Westwood?

Also, according to this article, Rocco Mediate is the David Eckstein of the golf world.

NBA

Congratulations to the Celtics! The NBA still puts a horrible show on the court and until the league understands that, they will continue to fall further behind the NFL and MLB. At this rate the NHL may be closing the gap.

Next year’s Oscar nominees should include Paul Pierce for his extraordinary acting performance when he “injured” his knee in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. I haven’t seen acting in sports like that since Reggie Miller retired.

Instant Replay

I had intended to do an in-depth blog on instant replay and some of the sorry excuses some writers against replay were giving. However, time just has not been on my side as of late. Hopefully I will be able to get to it before they actually implement it.

Indianapolis Indians Coverage

I know that the Indians are only a AAA minor league team in the International League and there are five MLB teams within a five-hour drive (Cards, Cubs, White Sox, Tigers and Reds), but I have been ashamed of the coverage the Indians get in the Indianapolis Star for a long time now. The Star typically gives the Indians only two or three paragraphs and the box score. The Indians give a 16-page press release on game days and the Star can only give them a couple of paragraphs?

There is a shit-load of material the Star ignores. You almost never see information such as hitting streaks, call ups or send downs, hot streaks, cold streaks, how Indians alumni are doing for the parent Pirates, or hot prospects on the move in the organization. Looking at the Pittsburgh Gazette, it gives a daily update of all of the teams in the Pirates organization.

I guess a newspaper that employs a columnist like Bob Kravitz doesn’t really care all that much about sports unless it is a big-time professional sport, or deals with IU, Purdue, Notre Dame football or high school basketball.

Ken Griffey, Jr.

Why does Mr. Nice Guy Ken Griffey, Jr. seemingly get a free pass on the steroid front while Mr. Locker Room Cancer Barry Bonds is still steroids poster child for “allegedly” taking steroids?

And lastly…

Vegas

Remember…what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!