2012 regular season general chatter, etc

*espn plays ac/dc*

play ball!

ozzie needs 2 go argue that and get thrown out in the 1st inning of game 1 cmon man

Boo

yow, center field at this new miami field is deeeeeep

josh johnson was doing rlly well there

had no idea this game fucking counted

obv i meant lohse doing rlly well

why is buster posey texting orel hershiser

Human element already affecting my fantasy numbers.

Oh, Angel Hernandez.

<3 the neon lights & fog machine in the background of the bbtn set

one of our own at work here:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/04/mlb_season_preview_blue_oyster_cult_national_league.php?print=true

lol @ francona cowering from a foul ball

O Hudson struck out swinging. 5 0
J Bartlett singled to right. 5 0
K Blanks hit for D Moseley. 5 0
K Blanks walked, J Bartlett to second. 5 0
C Maybin grounded into fielder's choice to shortstop, K Blanks out at second, J Bartlett to third. 5 0
C Denorfia walked, C Maybin to second. 5 0
C Headley walked, J Bartlett scored, C Maybin to third, C Denorfia to second. 5 1
J Wright relieved C Capuano. 5 1
J Guzman walked, C Maybin scored, C Denorfia to third, C Headley to second. 5 2
N Hundley walked, C Denorfia scored, C Headley to third, J Guzman to second. 5 3
S Elbert relieved J Wright. 5 3
C Headley scored, J Guzman to third, N Hundley to second on wild pitch by S Elbert. 5 4
Y Alonso hit by pitch. 5 4
O Hudson singled to left, J Guzman scored, N Hundley to third, Y Alonso to second, N Hundley thrown out at home attempting to advance on play. 5 5
5 Runs, 2 Hits, 0 Errors

METS & ORIOLES BOTH 3-0

http://i.imgur.com/67nUO.gif

Buck Showalter is a genius.

Darvish's debut is tonight.

Darvish Yu is a genius.

is that gonna be a primetime game? I know Brewers/Cubs is a national game today but I would imagine Darvish's first start is broadcast worthy?

Accuscore gives the Rangers a 75% chance of winning. I wonder if they're using Darvish's Japan league numbers.

Runs are way down so far:

http://www.highheatstats.com/2012/04/comparing-2012-offense-to-2011-its-crashing-and-burning-folks/

I don't know how long it takes for a league-wide trend to be statistically meaningful.

Giants/Rockies currently workinonit.

16-7, wow.

and not a single Rockie with a hr!

don't often see a game with two seven-run innings

Haha is this a thing that happens, using sponsor names to diss the visitors, or was it just random (SEA @ TEX):

Here's the Mariners defense today, brought to you by The Three Stooges -- The Movie: in the outfield...

i saw this somewhere else too (don't think it was texas either)

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1056628/GarzaThrow4.gif.opt_medium.gif

hahaha, that should be worth more than one base

If they can stay healthy (and that's the catch), I think that Cardinal middle lineup could even be better than the last couple years with Pujols.

that's a pretty epic if!

remember the heros of april

http://i.imgur.com/9aXNc.png

that's a murderers row right there

guy throws 21st perfect game in major league history

four hours later, the featured story on espn.com is ultimate fighting

4-hour news cycle

Hanson vs. Burnett should be a good one tonight.

does every road team that goes into colo talk endlessly & repetatively abt humidors? mets do this every damn year feel like ive heard it fifty times

theres chatter of a humidor in arizona?!?

harold reynolds is dictating texts he rec'd from his nephew, a jr in high school re: bryce harper

Lucas Luetge vs. Cory "Anal" Luebke

lol at orioles-sox position players covering their mouths when they talk with their catchers

cj wilson vs darvish 2night mlb network 8 est

oh shit, torrealba

rip cj wilsons era

A's fielding their "maybe no-hit us?" lineup today.

OK, two hits.

v quirky -- every team in the al east w/ a positive run differential, every other team in the league, save tejas, w/ a negative one

No off days for any teams this week! It's not a big deal, but I don't think I've ever seen that before.

wtf, there's a weekend of interleague upcoming, and then back to intraleague next week?

they've done that for the past several years - randomly have one interleague series in May and then the rest in June

yeah, it's bizarre

so next year they're gonna do away with interleague month, right? seeing as there'll always be an interleague series happening. god i hope!

damn, I don't remember it being just 3 days for the May segment.

always the weekend before Memorial Day, too. saw Smoltz struggle through an agonizing game at Fenway in 2004 or 2005 and it was like the third week of May. I think that's actually the last Braves game I've seen live. McCann hadn't even been called up yet.

I think they just do this to screw with fantasy teams.

Class action suit against MLB, Comcast and DirecTV regarding blackout policy and "out of market" pricing:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/major-league-baseball-lawsuit-comcast-directv-323064

it's about time

SBNation covered that last week, suggested it's going absolutely nowhere.

That's too bad.

linked on the Giants thread - http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/broadcaster-rankings-radio-10-1
glad to see Nadel get some love, grew up listening to Nadel and Mark Holtz on the radio and still prefer radio baseball to TV

holy shit thanks for that link. this term is amazing and I will use it forever.

“Jose Mota… has an almost mystical belief in Mike Scioscia. According to Mota, Scioscialism… is the belief that a round, lazy, white man was gifted by God the abilities to save an entire baseball-watching nation by teaching players to play the game the right way, have a good clubhouse attitude, and always go for the extra base… Mota informs us that Scioscia is all-knowing and that any success at any time by any player, coach or manager who has ever come accross His path is not because of their own skills, but because they decided to buy into what Mike Scioscia preaches.”

I didn't know the commish had "standards for situation handling."

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/5/18/3028890/bob-davidson-charlie-manuel-each-suspended-for-1-game

wow, weird!

Yan Gomes with the first Brazilian hr in mlb history!

jon niese is feeling charitable

how much do players hate wearing throwbacks?

prince looks like the michelin man

don't care i love throwbacks so much

alert for Monday night watching: Yu vs King Felix

Tim Hudson vs. David Price today should be good.

http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/ipt/verdict_selig_MOD_gettyY_052012.jpg

hamels vs nats tonight

can't wait to see who gets welcomed to what tonight!

Every team in the two Eastern divisions is at .500 or better this morning. I remember years where that'd be true of one division late into the year, but for late May and matching divisions, that's got to be some kind of esoteric record. Toronto's doing their best to make sure it doesn't last long.

HR: COL - C. Gonzalez 2 (10), T. Tulowitzki (7), M. Cuddyer (5), D. Fowler (6), CIN - J. Votto (8), B. Phillips (5), J. Bruce (11), T. Frazier (5)

great american ________

Matt Sebek ‏@MattSebek
The Padres, who haven't scored in 26 innings, play the Cubs today, who haven't won a game since beating the #stlcards on May 14th.

aaaand the padres are on the board

In both the AL and NL East, all five teams are over .500 and three games separate first place from last.

in 2005 the nats finished in last place at 81-81 iirc, it could happen!

Last night's Brewers/Dodgers game had one of the most bizarre half-innings I've ever seen. Hairston grounded out, then Castellanos comes up for his first plate appearance and promptly gets drilled (welcome to the bigs?) He steals second, but the next batter (Van Slyke?) interferes with the throw just barely - totally incidental, but the throw hits Castellanos (again), Van Slyke is out and Castellanos has to return to 1st (never heard of this rule before). Next play they get a grounder and attempt to turn two but the runner at 1st is called safe - both Rickie Weeks and the 1st base ump didn't know there were two outs already.

sreaming of October coin flips:

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/6/1/3055937/nl-east-al-east-standings-wild-card-tie-breakers

dreaming, that'd be

They've outsourced all coin flipping this year.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/10/21/article-1322503-0BB49BCC000005DC-836_468x286.jpg

cc:

in case anyone's interested -- here is a pdf of a 1975 new yorker article by roger angell about steve blass and his disease. even apart from the main topic, it's interesting to read contemporary reports about all the complete games and how strikeouts aren't super important.

The AL & NL East teams all being above .500 kind of reminds me a bit of this year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_in_baseball

The AL East was loaded with four powerhouse clubs and the Twins win it all winning 85 games.

heard it here first folks, twins are your 2012 world champions

That would be a story.

http://onmilwaukee.com/sports/articles/montaouswalton.html?viewall=1

Jayson Stark on Carlos Zambrano:

"He has now hit at least one home run in 10 seasons in a row. That's something only four other pitchers in history have done. The others, courtesy of Lee Sinins' Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, are Warren Spahn (17), Red Ruffing (15), Bob Lemon (12) and Dizzy Trout (11)."

For polyphonic:

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2012/0608/mlb_e_votto_hamilton_hm_b1_576.jpg

it burns

I have to admit, I don't really know what's going on there (red = hit?). I just like all the pretty colours.

pitchers duel in colorado

E Santana 2.0IP 6H 6R 6ER 1BB 1K 2HR
C Friedrich 2.0IP 7H 6R 6ER 2BB 2K 2HR

I guess the heat maps are just a glorified version of this:

http://s1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/?action=view¤t=zone.jpg

(Santans and Friedrich must be painting those red circles in the middle.)

http://s1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/?action=view¤t=zone.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Eksrw4QSSs

Three true outcomes HOF: Adam Dunn is one HR short of leading the league in HR, BB, and K's.

I'm really fascinated with Adam Dunn as a whole, he might have the single greatest season swing ever in WAR for a player w/ 600+ plate appearances each year (-2.9 last year, on pace for about 4.6 this year)

Especially weird considering that we're talking about his age 32 and age 33 seasons

i dont think he had 600 plate appearances last yr?

looking @ his #s - he already has more total bases this yr than last

i dont usu give a lot of weight 2 'he must'ev been more hurt than we knew or even he knew, etc' but i feel like thats gotta play in here

wait a sec; I was one column up too far - you're correct he had only 496. still, it only highlights how terrible he was last year; his slugging percentage is nearly 300 points higher than it was last year

Dunn's dropoff from 2010 to 2011 was certainly historic in itself but this bounceback is just crazy. It's as if he was replaced with a pod person.

well this season is closer to traditional Adam Dunn than last year tho...
so if he's a pod person he was replaced last year and it took the pod-dude a season to figure out how to use a bat!

exactly - I think the 'real' Dunn obviously broke free and destroyed his twin.

last year's problems seemed most mental, guess he figured things out

how so?

(like how did they seem mental)

When a player does to shit overnight like he did, it has to be more than an erosion of skills, especially when it's a player as consistent as Dunn was.

The only other recent comparable player would be Andruw Jones, and it's still not clear exactly what happened there, I think? (other than putting on a lot of weight)

yeah he got fat

no, but a player can "lose his swing" or develop a mechanical problem. was wondering if there was a specific incident or somesuch that directly alluded to a mental issue.

xposts

yeah Andruw definitely had a similar year but Dunn was bad over nearly twice as many PA's and his current bounceback is already better (in terms of WAR) than any post-2008 year Jones ever had

no i don't really know what i'm talking about but mainly just that it was so consistent over the year - seems like it was physical he eventually would have gotten better or worse or they would have rested him instead of just trying to force him to break through it.

Jones fell off a cliff when he signed with the Dodgers and has been able to bounce back decently as a part time player, but I wouldnt really call that a comeback at all.

whatever it is, something similar is happening to Rickie Weeks this season...hitting only .167 over 254 PAs, despite posting the highest walk rate of his career!

Jones went from a HOF career path and being one of the best fielders ever to posting a 35 OPS+ and a liability in the field. Guys put on weight during the offseason all the time but this had to be more than that.

dear lord adam dunn was bad last year

(tho fangraphs does put too much emphasis on defense. bb-ref has a MUCH more reasonable -2.7 last year)

well he did DH most of the year...

oh nvm i was looking at oWAR for some reason. they actually have him at -3.1. and 13.9 over his entire career. wtf bb-ref.

Hard to conceive of someone (like 2009 Dunn) putting up a .920 OPS and almost erasing it with defense

or in bbref's view, actually becoming a drag on the team

tbh the weights they put on defense are just silly

and it also bothers me how much value is taken away for DHing. i understand the logic, but it's also silly.

Dunn is a much better version of Kingman, right? HR rate very close (Kingman hitting in a worse offensive context), Dunn strikes out more, Dunn has a moderate advantage in BA/SA and, the clincher, a huge advantage in OBP.

CARDINALS CENTERFIELDER CARLOS BELTRAN'S STOLEN BASE IN THE SECOND INNING WAS THE 300TH OF HIS CAREER, MAKING HIM THE EIGHTH PLAYER IN MLB HISTORY TO HAVE 300 STOLEN BASES AND 300 HOME RUNS.

The NL East had a real shitty weekend.

hey look remember this dude

Mark Prior (P) BOS – AAA 6/18/2012
Prior worked a perfect ninth inning to earn his first save of the season Saturday for Triple-A Pawtucket, WEEI.com reports. In 6.2 innings with the PawSox, Prior has recorded 15 strikeouts. According to Clayton Mortensen, now with Boston but who roomed with Prior when both were at Pawtucket, Prior is close to being big league ready. “He’s throwing the ball hard, locating his pitches and looks good,” said Mortensen, noting that Prior’s fastball has been 90-94 mph. “His fastball is pretty electric. He hides the ball well. A lot of guys get a lot of downward plane, but he throws that sneaky one that guys always swing underneath all the time, and he’s locating it to both sides of the plate. It’s worked well with his curveball. He’s getting both fastball and curveball strikeouts, which is huge.”

encarnacion homered & hit the slide in milwaukee

and then tonight Rasmus & Bautista go back-to-back twice

lotta homers in new york, milwaukee and arizona today

where can i find heat maps for a given player

ie, does trout have any holes at all

I don't know what I find the most remarkable about Cook's outing Friday night. It's rare that you see a guy manage a complete game on just 81 pitches. Of those 81 pitches, Cook threw 73 sinkers and eight curveballs. To put it another way, Cook threw 90 percent sinkers, and ten percent curveballs. The Mariners swung 39 times, and all 39 swings made contact. Cook didn't generate one single swinging strike. Complete-game shutout. 81 pitches.

wow!

No big deal, but why didn't the Mets give Dickey a chance to finish the shutout last night? He had a huge lead, and I assume he's not on any kind of a pitch count.

Billy Hamilton is now on the verge of stealing his 100th base of the season.

joe buck tryna convince matt kemp 2 be a fox correspondant in the allstar game "how bout a tim mccarver autographed cd of him singing all the standards"

matt kemp "im sorry but i dont even know who that is"

This may be behind a firewall, but here's a speculative look at Mike Trout's chances of hitting .400 based on some precedents:

http://www.billjamesonline.com/can_mike_trout_hit_400/

who had ra dickey & matt harrison as pitchers of the month for june before the season started?

for those of you ignoring my pirates thread:

8 GAMES OVER .500 FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS

that has to be about it for jamie moyer

could be a long night at fenway

cutch > timmy

RIP Lincecum it was fun while it lasted.

Love this--some guy looking up league leaders to find one thing, finds this along the way: "Minnie led the AL in triples in '54, Mickey in '55."

What a goofy stat!

I'll show myself out.

liriano w/ 8ks thru 3IP

ball is jumping in the bronxxx

lol cain and hamels have both homered

11 AL teams currently at or over .500.

I noticed the same thing looking at the standings this morning. "How can that be? Oh yeah, interleague..." So I quickly did the math and came out at +32 for the AL.

interesting battle for the basement of the AL east today with the J's at .500 and the BoSox one game over!

The Jays are stepping up and showing them who the real fourth-place team is. (Frustration speaking.)

ha ha!

being behind the Orioles in the standing can cause alot of stress.

quite a duel between samardzija and bedard tonight

The Marlins have seven walks, seven steals, and one run (through five)?

Yeah, assuming this score holds up, it'll be one of those weird Kurk-gems for Hanson. Last pitcher to win with 7+ walks, 7+ Ks and 7+ SBs was Bob Feller in 1936, who had 9/17/7.

The Marlins have seven walks, seven steals, and one run (through five)?

― Andy K, Wednesday, July 25, 2012 2:34 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i think they're hitting like .145 as a team w/ RISP this month

Team FB pages hacked, couple good ones

http://deadspin.com/5931360

Nationals is the winner.

this angels/texas games are turning into 5 hour long home run fests like red sox/Yankees

mets/pads, feelin the throwbacks

Do you think the Phils might just let Cliff Lee walk if a club takes on the rest of the contract?

Justin and BJ Upton each hit their 100th career HR yesterday. Needless to say it's the first time that brothers have hit their 100th HR on the same day.

have you checked

Not nearly as serendipitous, but on a whim I checked the Forsches, and they both won their 100th games during the '82 season: Bob on June 4, Ken on August 26. And in 1979, the one year that both Niekros won 20, they almost got #20 on the same day: Joe's was on Sept. 22, Phil;s on Sept. 26--when he beat Joe, who got knocked out in the third inning. There should have been some kind of investigation there.

The paper this morning said five other pairs of brothers hit 100 each. I made two correct guesses--Alomars, DiMaggios--and one incorrect, the Giambis. There are two others.

the boones and who else

delmon young is only 17 homers away from joining them

Yes, the Boones. Found an article with all six: also the Boyers (that one I should have figured out) and Bob/Irish Meusel (never would have gotten that one).

the molinas?

oh, looks like yadi's got 29 more to go. i sometimes forget that up until last season he was a single-digits HR hitter

My favourite Molina:

http://content8.flixster.com/photo/11/69/82/11698266_gal.jpg

A lot of pop, always picks excellent AB music, bad drug habit unfortunately.

I am heading to turner field, hope it stays dry enough for BP.

most pitches ever thrown by a team in a 9 inn'g game is apparenty 263 (4/19/93 a's vs det)

pads were gunning 4 it 2night - 212 pitches

i'm only really following the roy oswalt thing because i stupidly put him on my fantasy team a few weeks ago, but has he always been such a whiny asshole?

he holds out on a contract all off-season, and then for the first half of the season, just so he can be even richer, gets signed by the rangers, he does terrible in his 4 minor league warm-up games, he sucks ass in a handful of outings as a starter so they have to put him in the bullpen.

then last night, he's pitches in relief for 2 innings and then refuses to pitch another, even when asked by his manager. whiny voice/ because he wants to be a starter boo boo bear /whinyvoice/

nolan ryan should have a) kicked his ass, and b) dfa'd him

instead, he said a bunch of nothing

total dick move. Glad we didn't get him.

what's the tie breaker for two teams for the last wildcard spot?
is there a one game playoff for the chance for a one game playoff?

Yesterday I learned that Roy Oswalt is the same age as me and it BLEW MY MIND

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_tie-breaking_procedures

hmmm, yep, a one game playoff for the right to play in a one game playoff.

the procedure for a 3-way tie seems kind of unfair:

Three-way tie for the division or wildcard

If the three teams have identical records against each other in the regular season, the office of the commissioner conducts a draw with the teams designated as teams A, B, and C. First, team A plays team B with team A as the home team. The following day, the winner of the that game plays team C with team C as the away team. The winner of the game on the second day advances to the playoffs. The team designations are determined as follows:

so team A or B has to win two games in a row in order to advance, while team C only has to win one (albeit as the away team).

really hope at least one league (looks like the AL) has a 5-way tie just to bite Beelzebud in the ass for doing this with only one open date after the season ends.

at that point i think they just do an all out killfest w/chainsaws

what's with mlb.tv blacking out tonight's primetime games? some late-season ESPN thing?

yeah seriously what is that

pirates just committed three errors in the seventh

got out of it relatively unscathed when chris young took three borderline pitches for strikes, then had to be wrestled (by kirk gibson) away from the umpire

apparently justin upton has been tossed as well, not sure how that happened

Good piece on Hamilton's pending free agency.

Randy Wolf threw the slowest pitch of the season last night, a 49 mph curve that gameday registered as an "eephus"

Wolf sure has sucked this year but I can't say I won't miss him :(

Gary Carter invented the f-bomb??

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/8/14/3241496/the-dictionary-game

Grantland was skeptical about this NFL study that claimed that ex-players lived longer than the general population, so they decided to compare mortality rates of baseball players and football players.

They studied thousands of players from each sport (from the 60's through the 80's) and found that mortality rates of baseball players is *significantly* higher. This seems to go against popular reasoning (i.e. football players are jacked up freaks who have elephant hearts or brain tumours and die when they're 50).

I'm not sure what to make of this.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8274392/comparing-mortality-rates-football-baseball

someone's picking off uniformed ballplayers

Ugandan little leaguers are playing at 5pm EST on ESPN2 vs. Panama

panamanian pitcher pounding the outside corner

ugandans are a crafty ppl

lol at the ump warning the ugandans not to steal signals

5-1. still time.

http://thestar.smgmedia.topscms.com/images/49/df/3244066540b69101bc2462f320bd.jpeg

teach the bunt imo

yeah, i was screaming for the bunt in the 1st inning. it's like watching the f++king Indians

panama might be purposely hitting @ this shortstop

ugandan catcher has game

quick reflexes there

want francona 2 call him the ugandan pedroia

That field is nicer than most of the ones on which I played. No chalk or lime though, obv -- how can they judge OF fair/foul?

lol. gotta call that! nice play tho

weird how many pitching changes so far. i guess there's a count limit

also, there's replay!

man, generous strike zone. greg maddux must be salivating

whoa, "The Hammer" has a nice fastball

welp, things are getting out of hand

watching Uganda try to field smoked hits ~takes me back~

do 12 year old kids have any idea who nomar garciaparra is?

wow at that ugandan homerun to centerfield

9-3 loss ;_:

pirates-cardinals in the 15th

pretty big game tbh

can't even imagine a scenario in which the pirates win -- probably score one in the top of inning x and give up two in the bottom

good bunt

Remember at Busch II when it would be 115 on the field during a day game? There'd be dead people everywhere today. /hyperbole

(new reliever) Joe Kelly is on his 6th inning of work!

"new reliever" as in he was a starting pitcher until jaime garcia came back.

pitcher james mcdonald with a pinch hit single!

if not for yadi, i'd send him

also fu mlb.tv for being at least two minutes behind

86 pitches for joe kelly

on to the 18th!

it's a sign of pirate progress that they only gave up one there

so reminiscent of the bucs-braves-jerry meals game last year

jim joyce is at first, but i look for him to play a key role.

not really -- i look for matt holliday to jack an off-speed pitch

thank u fox sports midwest for reminding me

PEDRO

wandy getting an extra inning win is so epic

i love the shit like mcdonald getting a pinch hit, wainwright drawing a walk, harrison (an infielder) making a catch bouncing off the wall, etc

i wonder who the first position players would have been to pitch

Meanwhile, back in Williamsport, a coach just told his defense to make plays, and then instructed his pitcher to throw strikes.

HEY IT'S INSTANT REPLAY

Braves sign Lyle Overbay to a minor league contract. Time for Eric Hinske to pack his bags.

Red Sox Place Adrian Gonzalez On Trade Waivers

hee hee

chris sale - 13ks in 7.2 - k'd everyone @ least once xcept jeter

this 8 run (so far) inn'g for the angels vs bos has been impressive/pitiful

RANGERS THIRD BASEMAN ADRIAN BELTRE HIT FOR THE CYCLE.

ugh cycles are such bs

how abt 10 for his last 14abs w/ 5 hrs

BOOOOOOOO

Would like to see a list of batters who failed to hit for cycle but had four-plus XBHs including at least one 2B, 3B, and HR.

guy hits two homers, two doubles no one cares

10 for his last 14abs w/ 5 hrs

that's pretty fucking solid tho

so, trout has 8.9 rWAR over 103 games. crazy. over 162 games that would be 14 rWAR. jeezus.

the mind wobbles

10 highest single season rWAR since 1900:

Walter Johnson 1913 15.7
Walter Johnson 1912 14.0
Babe Ruth 1923 13.7
Dwight Gooden 1985 13.0
Walter Johnson 1914 12.6
Pete Alexander 1920 12.5
Cy Young 1901 12.4
Babe Ruth 1921 12.3
Steve Carlton 1927 12.1
Babe Ruth 1927 12.1

i mean, how do you even process this information

he is a leading ROY candidate

WALTER TRAIN JOHNSON >

dying at the idea of 15.7 war tbh

Ok, so how did The Trade go down? Were there no teams who tried to block it, or were they too scared of Aidsy's contract?

dodgers claimed beckett and a-gonz fair and square from the waiver wire.. Im sure punto and crawford cleared waivers outright and were able to be traded to anyone. two of the pieces going to boston (sands and de la rosa) were claimed on waivers and pulled back and were stashed in the minors to become PTBNLs after the season is over.

guy hits two homers, two doubles no one cares

cycle is just a cool thing, and 12 total bases is noteworthy either way

I guess my question is, how or why did the principals clear waivers? Their monster contracts is my best guess?

ade beltre heat check: 2/2, 2b + hr off david price, dude is locked in

great moments in sports television:

watching the cards/bucs game, and between pitches they do a crowd shot. a guy starts to yawn and his mouth gets huge, so they cut to another couple of people. he starts yawning big time, so they cut to a third group of people. an old man yawns, and as his yawn reaches its yawning heights, an old woman two seats away starts to yawn too. in the seat behind the old man, who is nearing the end of his yawn, another person begins to yawn. the old woman is now reaching the climax of her yawn and-

back to the game

~pittsburgh~

ho hum king felix cgsho

Braun hit one out of the park at Wrigley as part of a 9-run 9th inning (they eventually had to send out Joe Mather to pitch, who currently has a 0.00 ERA)

sucks the Brewers are out of contention because they're doing some interesting things right now. they've become the first team since 1900 to record 10+ strikeouts in 7 games straight. actually have the highest K/9 rate in the bigs right now even though their rotation is Gallardo + minor leaguers

to be fair, three of those games were against the pirates

guess what players are most likely to be ID'd by broadcasters as "scrappy hustlers"?

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/8/27/3271969/atlantic-study-race-ethnicity-baseball

Quickly read through The Atlantic piece and don't recall any mention of announcer ethnicity. Seems like something a study would want to take into consideration.

Dave Sims, Rod Allen, Mario Impemba, Buck Martinez, Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, Victor Rojas, etc...

and to bring it all full circle to an lb poster, this is how the work was funded: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2002891608/scorekeeping-tracking-subconscious-racism-in-baseb

had i known i would have chipped in

btw tho Keith Hernandez was nicknamed "Mex," his father was Spanish. Ballplayers.

Americans

Er, white Americans

White people

Quickly read through The Atlantic piece and don't recall any mention of announcer ethnicity.

They did mention it. It wasn't clear how they factor it into their data though.

It'd be interesting to see their raw data to get an idea of the sample sizes.

Some of their conclusions are really questionable though. They say "aggressive" or "impatient" hitters are likely to be non-white, but impatience and free-swinging can be measured statistically (as opposed to "scrappiness").

tough road rest of the way for A's; Tigers (seemingly) have it cushy:

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/9/5/3292591/american-league-playoffs-contenders-schedules

except they've already lost two games to the indians and were swept by the royals last month

yes, Brisbee obliquely refers to that

The Tigers could get a healthy and productive Victor Martinez right now and I wouldn't feel more positive.

They could be due to play the best teams and I wouldn't feel more negative.

Weird team.

yeah, more than any other team I can think of, the Tigers are like a perfect blend of "unstoppable" and "suck"

Old baseball continuing in DC.

"I am wearing all this catching gear. If I'm ever going to start some shit with Mike Morse, it might as well be now."

combined 29 ks tx/tampa game (11 inn'gs)

Round-up of the next wave of candidates for 400 HR--based only on totals through 2011, so there are a couple of obviously silly projections (i.e., Beltran at 0% for 400).

http://www.highheatstats.com/2012/09/who-will-be-the-next-400-hr-hitter/#more-6003

whoa close call in ny/bal lol @ tex

JERRY MEALS

JERRY MEALS SEZ ITS OUT BALTIMORE WINS THE PENNANT

‏@MLBFanCave
We will never forget.

brings a tear to my eye

Baseball Reference has been keeping track of total errors since the beginning of time at the top of their page this season; 499,939 through play yesterday, with the 500,000th expected Sunday or Monday. I think Bill Buckner, Steve Sax, and Lonnie Smith should be brought out of retirement in honor of this milestone.

Rays/O's locked in the top of the 13th, 2-2

Really feeling this game is going to be a turning point for someone

man i hope it's jeter xp

uh-oh. O's had bases loaded, no outs, and even had a 3-0 count (w/ 1 out) and couldn't score

never mind. 13 straight extra inning victories. what a season

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Yadi.gif

posting this here too, since hey it's yaaaaaadi

i imagine there's a way to use baseball reference to get this (and if someone wants to be kind and explain how they'd do it i'd owe them 400 megabucks), but is there a way to get a stat on how often baserunners attempt steals on certain catchers? for example, is there a way to see what percentage of time a steal is attempted against a particular catcher in situations where there's just a runner on first base, with 1 out, or something?

i imagine the rate would be pretty low against yadi.

Kris Medlen has 9 Ks through 4 innings, 6 looking. I wasn't even going to watch the Braves game tonight because they're giving me an ulcer, but I'll watch Medlen pitch whenever. His command of every pitch, all year long, has been amazing.

If you live in a baseball market where your team is already out of it, it’s likely that for a while there has been talk about next year, about “rebuilding.” I played for my share of those teams, and I know that this is the time of year when you can get a sense of what that rebuilt team might look like once they stop rebuilding. Because, as team rosters expand from 25 to 40 in September, this is when many young players get a true shot. They are penned into the lineup and allowed to play, to make mistakes, to compete against the best, every single night. The team is playing for the future, but the future gets to play, now.

DOUG GLANVILLE STOP IT, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

it's like i've gone to hell and al hrabosky is somehow afforded an opportunity to write for the NYT

Maybe he thinks the world is finally ready for another Plaschke?

hey it's yaaaaaadi

fucking cannon even in slo mo

seriously, he can throw it to 2B in slo-mo faster than me in real life.

and i'm a 6-time all-star MLB slugging catcher, so that means a lot

rizzo w/ hrs in back-to-back innings

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees--shameful-that-sub--500-phillies-still-contenders-in-wild-card-race.html

I'd like to go FJM style on this but I think it just speaks for itself, shut up Jeff

"Such anomalies happen."

i sort of agree that sub-.500 teams shouldn't be in the WC race but that mostly has to do with the NL sucking in interleague doesn't it

I get that "the playoffs are a crapshoot and you don't even need to be that good", but really that's the way it's been for a while, the best team rarely wins; the old World Series method (best team from AL and NL make it, no playoff) was more likely to reward the best team, but then the Yankees will win it 3-4 times a decade. Like for MLB as a whole this second wild card is a slam dunk b/c suddenly fanbases like Pittsburgh, Philly, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and hell even San Diego can suddenly be playing meaningful games in September.

I really don't care about this at all. Some years you will have a shitty division winner and a third deserving wild card team will miss the playoffs. This year you have three clear division leaders and one clear first wild card. It's going to be different every year. You look at the AL, and it seems to me that the A's, Rangers, Yankees, and Orioles all completely deserve to make the playoffs. If it's not the case for the NL, oh well. The worst case scenario is the Braves losing the one-game playoff and you have a weaker NL wild card team advancing to the divisional round. Not a huge deal to me.

Also his point about the unacceptability of a second wildcard team projecting to finish with 85 wins is pretty stupid because this season is kind of an outlier in that regard.

If the two wildcard system would have been in place before, here's who would won the second wildcard in the last few seasons:

2011 NL: Braves, 89 wins
2011 AL: Red Sox, 90 wins

2010 NL: Padres, 90 wins
2010 AL: Red Sox, 89 wins

2009 NL: Giants, 88 wins
2009 AL: Rangers, 87 wins

2008 NL: Mets, 89 wins
2008 AL: Yankees, 89 wins

2007 NL: Padres, 89 wins
2007 AL: Mariners, 88 wins

2007 NL: Phillies, 85 wins
2007 AL: White Sox, 90 wins

Sorry, those last two rows are 2006

ultimately baseball is a slow moving sport with 162 damn games every year so anything that adds excitement is welcome, IMO of course

I just hate the attitude of "how disgraceful that a team that sucked for four months and traded some players has an outside shot at the playoffs!!" That's not a disgrace, it's a good story!

And a lot of those hypothetical second wild card teams had records that were better than one or more of the division winners for that season. So you could make a flip-side argument that adding a second card will, in many seasons at least, add another playoff team that actually really deserves to go but is unfortunate to play in a stronger division.

and he's ignoring the fact that the second NL WC teams over the past decade would've mostly had 88-92 wins. at least i think he did, i just skimmed. lol xp.

and at the same time it provides a major incentive to winning your division; getting to the one-game WC playoff I guess technically counts as a "playoff berth" but it certainly doesn't feel the same as say, getting a WC in football

yeah being a WC team sort of sucks now

It will be crazy the first time there's a tie for the second WC berth.

i hate 1 game playoffs, jeff should've been whining about that

or rather, "these teams all suck so much, it's going to be great to see all their hope instantly destroyed in a single game"

I think Passan is paid by the pageview

Man, C.B. Bucknor is an amazingly bad umpire. He blew calls on two plays in a row a few minutes ago -- the home plate umpire corrected him on the first one, but the 2nd one was let go.

nfl serving as a good reminder that maybe the replacements for all the shitty umps wouldn't be any better

I thought we had a postseason thread already, but I can't find it. Anyway, regarding the wild card game, this shit's gonna be weirder than weird.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/18/the-wild-card-game-is-going-to-be-like-baseball-on-mars/

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/play-in-game-strategy-skip-the-starter/

i read skip the starter and the ensuing comments yesterday, good piece. of course it would only work for the Braves. would like to see the Brewers try that.

it's also one of those

win = amazing closers gut it out
lose = manager's fault, pariah in the press, lose job next year

would like to see the Brewers try that.

good plan if you want to see them lose by double digits!!

hey can anyone who knows things about baseball tell me what the hell is up with defensive indifference? I know that run technically doesn't matter but why not try to throw him out anyway? What do you have to lose??

Good:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/baseball/mlb/09/19/melky-cabrera-bud-selig-batting-title.ap/index.html?sct=mlb_t2_a5

"You can't change records because once you get into that it would never stop. It would create more problems than it would solve." That's pretty much all that needs to be said, I think. The NCAA rescinding all those Penn State wins made no sense to me.

I know that run technically doesn't matter but why not try to throw him out anyway?

Why add to the pitcher's stress level and the catcher's wear and tear? You answered your own question - the run doesn't matter.

yes, but outs in the 9th inning definitely do

I keep forgetting the season doesn't end next Sunday.

I thought your season ended last Thursday.

que?

J Carroll grounded into fielder's choice double play, third to catcher to right to pitcher to third, P Florimon scored, M Carson out at home, B Revere out at home, J Carroll to first.

Dee Gordon air mail .gif

BREAKING:

Keith Hernandez to Shave Legendary Mustache

only $5K? pretty sure he could raise $15K on Kickstarter to grow an old tyme Deadball Era handlebar rapist mustache.

Just had a routine 9-7-5 here in Detroit.

Encarnacion, Granderson, and Dunn have all homered tonight.

Ham just hit #43

aand 41 for dunn

To point out the obvious, that's why what Cabrera's trying to do is so tough. He opens up a bit of daylight in two categories, but in the other he's in the midst of a five-way race.

tiebreaker fun!

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/8/9/3231318/mlb-wild-card-ties-postseason-schedule

hawk is so ridiculous

HR: D Solano 2 (2, Top 2 off K Medlen, 1-0, 1 Out, None on; Top 7 off K Medlen, 0-2, 2 Outs, 1 on)

Dylan Bundy pitching for Baltimore

they used him @ some pt last wk also i think

Greinke pitching for the the Angels Angels of Anaheim (13 Ks through the FIFTH).

Hardenesque pitch count, too.

S Perez struck out looking.
M Moustakas struck out swinging.
J Francoeur struck out swinging.
B Pena struck out looking.
J Giavotella struck out looking.
D Lough struck out looking.
A Escobar struck out swinging.
A Gordon struck out looking.
B Butler struck out looking.

TIGERS PITCHER DOUG FISTER SET AN AL RECORD BY STRIKING OUT NINE CONSECUTIVE BATTERS.

was that a Clemens or Ryan record?

wow, the legendary doug fister!

ROYALS GOT FISTED!

bye manny acta

http://i.imgur.com/Rff2E.png

looooool

Almost as entertaining: Prince Fielder hit a chopper just over the head of leaping 5'7" Tim Collins. It took just long enough to trickle into the outfield that Prince was able to streth it into a double -- slid head first, as he always does, and ended up almost on his back, as he always does.

where did that headline appear, it's amazing

why would you fire a guy with six games left jeez

frogs, i think that's hardball talk

was pointed out today the cards and nats could both "clinch" Sunday while playing each other. kinda weird.

at the conclusion of that game the cards and the nats should just start busting out all sorts of sex moves on the field

as a result of the same game?

Yes. Nats could clinch division, Cards could clinch WC#2.

Actually not as a result of that game alone -- would be combination of that game and Mets @ Braves results.

I would think that, say, the Cards losing could knock the Nats out of the WC hunt, because they would have clinched their division, and then as a result the Cards would be assured of the WC. That doesn't apply here but it would be a pretty bizarre scenario.

never mind, that's impossible

It's the big AL scramble weekend

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/9/28/3423056/american-league-2012-playoffs-races-standings

‏@TBTimes_Rays
#Tigers Leyland: "You can tell Fernando Rodney that if he shoots that (arrow) 3 times in the next 3 days, I’ll be his cupid forever." #Rays

"(arrow)"

A's with another walk-off. Rays eliminated.

their elim# is still 2, 1 for division

Ah -- my bad.

francouer is making a good late season run to overtake michael young to not claim worst war 2012

‏@jay_jaffe
15 teams alive with 4 games to go #teamentropy RT @bobtimmermann: Cardinals loss means no teams will be mathematically eliminated tonight

o's/yanks tied w/ 4 to play

Baltimore	91	67	+8
NY Yankees	91	67	+112
Tampa Bay	87	71	+112

it appears as though jered weaver will set the record for fewest innings pitched by a twenty-game winner. i thought that weaver had pitched remarkably few innings for a guy with that (yes, meaningless) stat, and it's true. the record holder looks to be bob grim, who won 20 games as a rookie with the yankees in 1954 and pitched 199.0 innings. weaver has one start left and has pitched 187.2 innings.

He should sit the last one out to make the record even more difficult to break

Medlen/Braves going for that "consecutive wins in one pitcher's starts" record today. Strikes me as one of those Kurkjianesque "well I'll be darned" stats, but still fun to follow along with as it plays out.

so who's all but dead? Dodgers still breathing vs all odds.

with the angels' loss, the rangers yankees and o's all clinched

The remaining AL scenarios:

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/10/1/3437334/american-league-playoffs-wild-card-yankees-orioles-rangers-athletics-rays-tigers-angels

hopefully this will work (copy and pasting from my spreadsheet), i'll explain in a second

PLAYER	        TEAM	GP	ATPS/GP	        SB ATPS	CSB	CS	CS%													
Yadier Molina	STL	134	0.537313433	72	38	34	0.472													
Miguel Montero	ARI	136	0.544117647	74	43	31	0.419													
Jose Molina	TB	100	0.58	        58	39	19	0.328													
Ryan Hanigan	CIN	108	0.592592593	64	33	31	0.484													
Matt Wieters	BAL	131	0.633587786	83	51	32	0.386													
John Buck	MIA	104	0.634615385	66	48	18	0.273													
Russell Martin	NYY	125	0.64	        80	61	19	0.238													
Josh Thole	NYM	99	0.727272727	72	55	17	0.236													
Kurt Suzuki	OAK/WSH	116	0.801724138	93	65	28	0.301													
A.J. Pierzynski	CHW	125	0.824	        103	76	27	0.262													
A.J. Ellis	LAD	129	0.829457364	107	73	34	0.318													
Wilin Rosario	COL	102	0.892156863	91	61	30	0.33													
Brian McCann	ATL	112	0.892857143	100	76	24	0.24													
Geovany Soto	TEX/CHC	94	0.904255319	85	65	20	0.235													
Carlos Ruiz	PHI	104	0.932692308	97	64	33	0.34													
J. Saltalamac.	BOS	101	0.940594059	95	78	17	0.179													
Carlos Santana	CLE	99	0.949494949	94	69	25	0.266													
Rod Barajas	PIT	98	0.979591837	96	90	6	0.063													
Alex Avila	DET	111	1.009009009	112	78	34	0.304													
Buster Posey	SF	112	1.116071429	125	87	38	0.304													
										

phew, worked. so, all the normal caveats about how this is probably a really flawed pseudo "analysis", there's probably something crucial i missed, but maybe someone will find this interesting.

a common catcher stat is caught stealing percentage (CS% in the stats above), but beyond just being able to throw someone out, a strong arm also reduces the number of times a runner runs in the first place. i was daydreaming about yadier molina earlier (as usual), and wanted to see if there was a way to measure the fear that he strikes into the runners of opposing teams. i didn't expect that he'd actually top the list, but i'm kind of happy that he did. <3 yadi.

"SB ATPS" is the total number of times that a runner has attempted to steal so far this season on various catchers, and is calculated by adding CSB (the # of times the runner successfully reached) and CS (the # of times the runner was thrown out). "GP" is the number of games played AT CATCHER (so it excludes the games played at 1B or DH, for example). note that i also stripped out the results for any catcher who hasn't caught at least 90 games at the position this year (so no mauer, i guess).

"SB ATPS/GP" is the key result - number of stolen base attempts on catchers per game played at the position. generally, the results correlate to CS% as you might expect, with catchers with higher CS% generally seeing fewer SB attempts per game.

of course, the caveats - buster posey is at the bottom here, but SF pitchers are notorious for having sloooooow releases.

anyway, it's tough to quantify, but obviously one advantage of having a catcher that opposing runners don't run on very often is that it frees up the pitcher to concentrate more on the batter and to be more flexible with their pitches in terms of pitch type and location.

also lol at rod barajas

Interesting stuff, thanks for assembling that! If the numbers aren't too hard to assemble, could you post David Ross' line? I'd be curious how he and McCann compare. I've gotten the impression that he's more dangerous to run on and is actually the better defensive catcher of the two.

sure, hereya go (i also added in dWAR and CERA). this time i left in anyone with 20+ games at catcher. looks like Ross is near the top.

PLAYER	        TEAM	GP	ATPS/GP	        SB ATPS	CSB	CS	CS%	CERA	DWAR											
Yadier Molina	STL	134	0.537313433	72	38	34	0.472	3.63	2.6											
Miguel Montero	ARI	136	0.544117647	74	43	31	0.419	3.93	0.7											
Jose Molina	TB	100	0.58	        58	39	19	0.328	3.22	0.5											
Ryan Hanigan	CIN	108	0.592592593	64	33	31	0.484	3.05	1.5											
David Ross	ATL	53	0.603773585	32	17	15	0.469	3.56	0.4											
Matt Wieters	BAL	131	0.633587786	83	51	32	0.386	3.84	1.3											
John Buck	MIA	104	0.634615385	66	48	18	0.273	3.89	0.9											
Russell Martin	NYY	125	0.64	        80	61	19	0.238	4.1	0.1											
Josh Thole	NYM	99	0.727272727	72	55	17	0.236	3.79	1.2											
Rob Brantly	MIA	26	0.769230769	20	16	4	0.2	4.07	0											
Kurt Suzuki	OAK/WSH	116	0.801724138	93	65	28	0.301	3.55	0.8											
A.J. Pierzynski	CHW	125	0.824	        103	76	27	0.262	4.11	0.3											
A.J. Ellis	LAD	129	0.829457364	107	73	34	0.318	3.33	1											
Wil Nieves	COL/ARI	24	0.833333333	20	17	3	0.15	4.52	0											
George Kottaras	MIL/OAK	53	0.867924528	46	38	8	0.174	4.53	-0.1											
W. Castillo	CHC	47	0.872340426	41	32	9	0.22	5.02	0.6											
Joe Mauer	MIN	74	0.878378378	65	56	9	0.138	4.94	-0.8											
Wilin Rosario	COL	102	0.892156863	91	61	30	0.33	5.08	0.6											
Brian McCann	ATL	112	0.892857143	100	76	24	0.24	3.38	0.6											
Jason Castro	HOU	77	0.896103896	69	57	12	0.174	4.5	0.4											
Geovany Soto	TEX/CHC	94	0.904255319	85	65	20	0.235	4.16	0.1											
John Hester	LAA	38	0.921052632	35	30	5	0.143	4.01	-0.2											
Michael McKenry	PIT	79	0.924050633	73	61	12	0.164	4.28	0.4											
Devin Mesoraco	CIN	53	0.924528302	49	39	10	0.204	4.24	-0.1											
Hector Sanchez	SF	54	0.925925926	50	38	12	0.24	4.03	0.3											
Gerald Laird	DET	55	0.927272727	51	41	10	0.196	4.07	-0.2											
Carlos Ruiz	PHI	104	0.932692308	97	64	33	0.34	4.18	1											
J.Saltalamacc.	BOS	101	0.940594059	95	78	17	0.179	4.74	0.2											
Miguel Olivo	SEA	72	0.944444444	68	47	21	0.309	3.88												
Carlos Santana	CLE	99	0.949494949	94	69	25	0.266	4.63	0.7											
Wilson Ramos	WSH	24	0.958333333	23	19	4	0.174	3.11	0.1											
Jonathan Lucroy	MIL	86	0.976744186	84	65	19	0.226	4.25	1											
Rod Barajas	PIT	98	0.979591837	96	90	6	0.063	3.75												
Yasmani Grandal	SD	52	1.0	        52	40	12	0.231	4.02	0.9											
Alex Avila	DET	111	1.009009009	112	78	34	0.304	3.61	1.2											
Steve Clevenger	CHC	51	1.019607843	52	45	7	0.135	4.55	0.1											
John Baker	SD	55	1.036363636	57	48	9	0.158	3.95	0.2											
Ramon Hernandez	COL	46	1.043478261	48	36	12	0.25	5.5	-0.4											
Chris Snyder	HOU	72	1.069444444	77	60	17	0.221	4.76	0.2											
Ryan Lavarnway	BOS	28	1.107142857	31	28	3	0.097	5.96	-0.6											
Buster Posey	SF	112	1.116071429	125	87	38	0.304	3.53	0.2											
Lou Marson	CLE	67	1.119402985	75	64	11	0.147	4.95	-0.4											
H. Quintero	KC	43	1.139534884	49	32	17	0.347	4.13	0.8											
Jesus Montero	SEA	55	1.145454545	63	53	10	0.159	3.89	-0.9											
Brayan Pena	KC	52	1.307692308	68	52	16	0.235	4.27	0.5											
Nick Hundley	SD	56	1.410714286	79	54	25	0.316	4.16	1											
																																							
																

ugh, there may be a few other guys missing. i was looking for Tony Cruz (cards backup c) and don't see him.

hey zach, did you read this dave cameron post? http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/yadier-molina-is-having-a-johnny-bench-season/

he also refutes in the comments the idea that there isn't a vast difference in the defense (specifically throwing runner out) of yadi & posey

Thanks, ZS, interesting stuff. Just realized Ross' bWAR is higher than McCann's in half the number of games. :-(

i was daydreaming about yadier molina earlier (as usual)
that seriously made me laugh!

and where's JP Arencibia?!

xpost yeah, that post was actually what made me think about putting the stats together! yeah, i'm definitely not saying posey belongs in the upper tier of defensive catchers, just that having to wait for lincecum's delivery (for example) every 5th day probably doesn't help him much.

and where's JP Arencibia?!

fuuuuuuuck! yeah, again, sorry. i could explain why certain players are doing but i think it would just cause more confusion. let's just say it has to do with the shitty way that ESPN presents their data (requiring going through multiple pages to copy and paste information into a spreadsheet, "qualified" vs "unqualified" catchers, etc)

fwiw, JP Arencibia has 92 games played, 72 steals attempted against him and a .278 CS%. Runners are attempting .78 steals per game against him, which would put him between Rob Brantly and Kurt Suzuki in the list above.

yeah, i started a few sentences with yeah up there, yeah i did

yeah, we don't mind.

also lol at rod barajas

i didn't realize barajas was that awful. when i get home i kind of want to look at the last x number of seasons and see how historically terrible his CS% has been.

also he's hitting .208/.285/.346

seems like a nice guy, albeit one who needs to get on with his life's work

LOL @ AL East conspiracy whispers that the Red Sox will throw the next three games in order to push their 2013 first rounder to the fifth pick.

people are thinking about this too hard.

lol @ the idea that the red sox would have to throw the games to lose

hahaha

two things:

1) yadi just did another absolutely PERFECT throw to second base to throw out jay bruce. on a straight line, landing in the glove about 2 inches above the ground. crazy.

2) this could just be something that al hrabosky (cardinals broadcaster), who is notoriously an idiot, says, but is it true that left handed hitters prefer pitches in the lower part of the plate? he's always saying shit like that - that the ball is low, which is right in a LH batter's wheelhouse, etc. but if that's true, why? why is a left handed batter's swing any different than a right handed batter?

2) is sorta a lore-thing ive always heard also tho xtremely ancedotally, im left-handed and always preferred the ball down. just saw it better i think? idk its been ages since ive even swung a bat

but...how would that be possible? obv the right-handed batter is the same thing as left-handed...just in reverse, right? i'm assuming it has something to do with pitch selection maybe? idgi

LH as well and feasted on knee-high, inner-half of plate.

Do RH prefer knee-high, inner-half against lefties?

Bosox givin it all they got!

once heard a theory that because a lot of left-handed hitters are naturally right-handed, there's something about having your strong hand below that leads to liking the ball down.

(i don't believe this theory, but it's the only explanation i've ever heard for the lefty/low-ball truism)

otoh, no one ever seems to shift the defense around for right-handed hitters (had i reached the majors, i would have been an exception). are lefties more prone to pull the ball? why?

i was taught that you always pitch a guy with glasses down, because he'll have to look through the thick part of the lens, with more distortion, to see it

and that when leading off first, you lead inside the baseline, so that to the pitcher, it looks like you're closer to the bag than you actually are

lotta stupid shit in baseball, but maybe none stupider than that one

Yeah, I can't recall if righties did better on inside/low off me. Not that there's really any comparison between HS and MLB.

I do remember being fucking terrified, as a hitter, about facing fireballing lefties like this guy (though he's listed as RH; maybe it was his brother?): http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/schefaa01.shtml

Yeah, must have been his brother.

OK, so I was terrified to face both of them.

nearly all meaningful games are outta hand now, gotta wait for OAK-TEX

nuh uh, cards are only up 3-1 over the reds. if they lose tonight and LAD win, the dodgers will only be a game behind.

yeah i know. Sorry Z, after they hang on I can't wait for the Cards to get bounced out of the WC game.

Yeah, they really don't deserve it this year, especially. Who do you like in the NL, then? Nats? Reds? Giants? Surely not the braves?

There's a pecking order, w/ my top pref prob being an Oak-DC World Series. Dinosaurs get to fume over Strasburg irrelevancy AND a Beane pennant, then.

BOS@NYY allegedly to start on time, been wet all day

just mentioned on the mets telecast - cubs v astros 2night is the 1st time 2 100-loss teams have played each other since 1962

damn shields is dealing

15ks

that's a tough loss for james shields

i wonder what the record is for highest game score in a loss.

#10 game score of the year

― zachylon (zachlyon), Tuesday, October 2, 2012 9:40 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

becomes the only top 20 game score to result in a loss

― zachylon (zachlyon), Tuesday, October 2, 2012 9:41 PM (45 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ben Sheets last start/game starts in just over an hour.

A victory for the Pirates would give them their winningest season since 1992.

Sheets'

M Bourn walked.
M Bourn stole second.
M Bourn stole third.
M Prado hit sacrifice fly to right, M Bourn scored.

rod barajas, now 6-for-98 on stolen base attempts

(tbf bourn is good and aj sucks at holding runners, but jeez)

I know Barajas lost the handle on the ball during the 3B swipe. Probably wouldn't have made any difference.

intersting factoid: "In Game 7 of the 1996 NLCS, with Chipper Jones on the field, the Braves ended Ozzie Smith's career. Friday night, 16 years later, the Cardinals will have a chance to end Chipper's career."

that makes it sound like they broke Ozzie's legs!

andrelton's got a gun

it was tony larussa that actually ended ozzie smith's career iirc

I wish I hadn't missed Sheets' inning of work -- apparently he really aired it out and hit 95-96, knowing he didn't have to save himself for anything.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/stark_jayson/id/8456932/mlb-postseason-tiebreaker-scenarios

Man, a lot of stuff is gonna get decided tonight. Pretty fun.

clap clap clapclapclap

okay, so if Miggy ties in HRs, does he get the Triple Crown?

yaz was tied with harmon killebrew for homers in '67

you'll have to factor in late-season homers of course

tiebreaker is # of second half HR.

lol dan johnson is trending again on the last day of the season

8th in all of mlb in hits is.......marco scutaro!

‏@joe_sheehan
The regular season is now the All-Star Game. Two news cycles later, no one cares.

No idea where to put this--a list of "clubhouse cancers" through the ages.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1035006-30-worst-clubhouse-cancers-in-baseball-history?source=taboola

Some are obvious, some I really question.

Jan. 23, 2012--breaking story.

That article reads like it was written by a high school freshman.

relevant: 2010 MLB all clubhouse-chancre team NEED HELP

also i count 3 lol comeback better attitude stories in there barring M Cabrera

mlb net has a 100 best plays of 2012 countdown show, it's p good im up to 86, nice plays abound

damn i never saw larry leveling kratz

68 is dickey getting robbed by bryan petersen i remember that play what do i win

lol sic willie blompquist play followed by a rod barajas walk off

is this real life