Random Baseball Observations

[timwakefield 68]

Shouldn't we be able to make an aluminum or graphite or whatever bat that mimics a wood bat in all respects, except the breaking into spears part? Seems like this is something we could do. I suppose the baseball traditionalists will rebel against not hearing "the crack of the bat," which I can't disagree with too much because that college baseball ping is kind of annoying.

Rob Neyer links to this in his article. The author suggests that people wouldn't be happy without the natural crack of the bat (in cricket or baseball) and I agree. But it's another possible solution which would make aluminum bats unnecessary.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

Rob Neyer links to this in his article. The author suggests that people wouldn't be happy without the natural crack of the bat (in cricket or baseball) and I agree. But it's another possible solution which would make aluminum bats unnecessary.

That link was the first I've heard of Extratec. When it says at the end of the article that MLB should "relax their rules" (presumably about the things you can do with your bat) and give it a try, I immediately see trouble there, since if you google image 'extratec application' you can see that it would require covering the entire bat with the substance.The BatGlove follows all MLB rules and regulations and no relaxing of rules would be necessary, since it only covers the middle portion of the bat.There might be some other invented options out there that I haven't heard of, but there doesn't seem to be ANY drawback to the BatGlove at all, or any viable excuse as to why it hasn't been adopted yet.

[bigkg 0]

The greatest baseball blog ever, Fire Joe Morgan, returned for the day at Deadspin:http://deadspin.com/tag/fjm/

[JoeyJoJo 18]

The greatest baseball blog ever, Fire Joe Morgan, returned for the day at Deadspin:http://deadspin.com/tag/fjm/

So great.From the Eckstein article:Just a few other numbers to throw at you, so you can get the full picture: Eckstein's Hustle is a perfect 100 (for the MLB-record 9th year in a row). His Grit is a 16.6 — meh — but his Having-Overcome-Obstacles clocks in at 41.4771 on the accurate-to-four-decimal-points Lathingham-Norbley Having-Overcome-Obstacles scale. And his Guts grades out at a respectable VVS1. (Remember — Guts are graded on the same scale as diamond clarity).and:Eckstein said that, like his strong points, the Padres' strengths don't translate to paper.The Padres' strengths don't translate to paper, except when you look at this paper right here that I am holding, where I have written the word: Pitching.I have also written "Adrian Gonzalez."

[CaneBrain 95]

Eckstein said that, like his strong points, the Padres' strengths don't translate to paper.The Padres' strengths don't translate to paper, except when you look at this paper right here that I am holding, where I have written the word: Pitching.I have also written "Adrian Gonzalez."

Amazing.I really enjoyed this:He plays second base by positioning and studying opposing hitters and somehow gets to the right place at the right time.A fact that is unique to David Eckstein. Robinson Cano plays second base by running in circles, closing his eyes, and trying to feel the ball off the bat. Omar Infante plays second base by attempting to divine, through augury and calf-entrail-spilling, who will hit the ball to him and when. Ian Kinsler plays second base by putting in a little earpiece and having someone whisper to him what to do, like Brando used to do when he no longer bothered to learn his lines. Clint Barmes plays second base like a guitar, picking the entire second base area up and strumming it lightly, occasionally taking requests from the crowd. (You should hear Clint Barmes play "April Come She Will" on the acoustic second-base-area. It'll bring a tear to your eye.) (That might be the weirdest sentence I've ever written. **** it. I'm leaving it in. It's 12:25 a.m.)

[bigkg 0]

BigD will enjoy this one:Colin Cowherd: This Rob Dibble thing really bothers me, and I'll tell you why....I think radio is raw. I think when radio is at its best, its uncomfortable. If you're not getting hate mail, get out of the business and go sell Hallmark cards. This is an uncomfortable business....What Rob Dibble said on his SIRIUS XM radio show, it wasn't even during a Nationals broadcast, to show you how thin-skinned they were. He was talking about Stephen Strasburg, who let's be honest, the guy's been babied. The guy had some very if not nebulous, kind of abstract injuries — stiffness, inflammation — little abstract. He didn't pull a muscle. Kind of unspecific, vague, abstract stuff....He is quite literally the future of an entire franchise. The team was nowhere close to the playoffs. He was in college like eight minutes ago. You would prefer he be out there tossing 140 pitches a night for no reason?Also, whether the injuries were "nebulous" and "abstract" or not, why the poop (I'm trying not to curse as much) would Rob Dibble — who is not, as far as I know, a licensed physician — say anyfuckingthing (oops) at all, one way or the other, about whether he should be pitching through them? He doesn't fucking know shit (again, sorry) about what's happening inside Strasburg's arm. Not to mention the fact that, if anything, Dibble should have been saying, "You know what? I used to throw 102 and then I had 820 different arm injuries in six years and was out of baseball at like 30, and even though it's cool that I have a lot in common with Kenny Powers, it sucked that I couldn't play anymore, and I really hope this is nothing serious." Instead what he said was: "[unintelligible grunting]."More Cowherd: What Dibble said in the moment, with the information he had was — we're kind of babying this guy — [was] the way a lot of people felt. That was completely legal and completely accurate.It's…sorry, no one is trying to put him in jail. You understand that, right? Legality isn't really the issue. And it was not accurate. They were not "babying" him. They were being cautious with a guy they want to be pitching for them for the next 20 years.Now you go back and say ok we did an examination, and this and that. That's not fair.Sorry, man, that is 50 trillion percent fair. He leaped to a stupid conclusion based on no evidence and ripped the guy apart for being a baby, so when it is revealed that the injury in question is serious enough to require surgery and knock him out of competition for a year or more, we all get to rip Dibble for being a fucking idiot. That's the definition of "fair."That's like your wife holding something against you you said three years ago.No it is not. A better analogy would be: your wife comes home five minutes late and you say, "What the fuck, honey?! You are the worst driver ever! You got lost again, didn't you? God — you are just the worst driver I have ever met in my life!" and she says, "Actually, I am late because I am having an affair because you are a terrible, inattentive husband who jumps to conclusions in a boneheaded and strident manner."I just don't buy that. I don't think his comments are controversial at all. And by the way, if you hire Rob Dibble, that's what you get. You get strong opinions. If you can't handle it, hire somebody who's boring.How about we compromise and hire someone who's interesting, but intelligent? Why isn't that an option?

[Swift_Psycho 1]

The greatest baseball blog ever, Fire Joe Morgan, returned for the day at Deadspin:http://deadspin.com/tag/fjm/

LOL, I've never really looked through this blog before even though I heard about it a lot. Funny stuff.

Jim Caple:If you love statistics (and what baseball fan doesn't?) this is the golden era. Never before have there been so many stats to reveal so much of what goes on in baseball. OPS, EqA, WHIP, Win Shares, VORP, PECOTA, Pythagorean expectation — if you want to measure anything in the game, anything at all, there's a stat for it.Yet as statistics get ever more sophisticated, ever more precise and ever more complicated, I find myself relying more and more on the simplest and most underrated stat of all. The humble run.If you love getting from one place to another, this is the golden era. Never before have there been so many kinds of cars. Big cars, red cars, fast cars, shiny cars.Yet as cars become ever more comfortable, convenient, car-like, and just all-around good at their jobs, I find myself relying more and more on the most underrated form of transportation of all. The horse.A horse is bad at what it does compared to a car. It's slower, it shits everywhere, it kicks people to death with its sharp hooves. But I love it. Cars are built by scientists, who are probably nerds — I don't trust nerds! Give me a horse any day.Jim Caple: I admit the run isn't a foolproof stat. Play on a team without any decent batters around you and your run total is going to suffer. Ichiro hit .352 with a league-leading 225 hits last season but scored a career-low 88 runs (even had he not missed 16 games, he still likely would have scored fewer than 100 runs). Much of that, obviously, was due to the anemic offense surrounding him in Seattle.Yes, you're right that your whole article is bullshit. Well disproved, sir.Jim Caple: I can hear you now. Ichiro's season is the perfect example of why the RBI is more important than the run. Getting on base is only important if someone drives you in later.This is now a guy who supports horses over cars arguing against a fictional guy who supports burros over horses. I'm seriously considering dropping out of Hot Stove U. The only other dude here in class is Chris Berman, and he keeps calling me Junior from Fire "Cup o'" Joe Morgan and then laughing for like 45 seconds before yelling something incoherent about Mike Alstott. What's that, Chris? Yes, thanks, I did know that nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills. Sorry, what was that? Yes, "Well-Dressed" Amani Toomer. Very good.Jim Caple: Save your breath. I am not saying RBIs aren't important.They aren't great, actually. Do you know that? I'm worried that you don't know that.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

Amazing.I really enjoyed this:He plays second base by positioning and studying opposing hitters and somehow gets to the right place at the right time.A fact that is unique to David Eckstein. Robinson Cano plays second base by running in circles, closing his eyes, and trying to feel the ball off the bat. Omar Infante plays second base by attempting to divine, through augury and calf-entrail-spilling, who will hit the ball to him and when. Ian Kinsler plays second base by putting in a little earpiece and having someone whisper to him what to do, like Brando used to do when he no longer bothered to learn his lines. Clint Barmes plays second base like a guitar, picking the entire second base area up and strumming it lightly, occasionally taking requests from the crowd. (You should hear Clint Barmes play "April Come She Will" on the acoustic second-base-area. It'll bring a tear to your eye.) (That might be the weirdest sentence I've ever written. **** it. I'm leaving it in. It's 12:25 a.m.)

My favorite comment from the bottom of that article: "If he was a basketball player, I bet David Eckstein would have a mean bounce pass."

[JoeyJoJo 18]

Fantasy baseball is everywhere. Kim Jong-Il is in a NL-only keeper league. (Team name: License to Il.)Fantasy leagues—which first surged in the 1980s—are big in football and basketball, too. They're part of an enhanced sports experience that includes video games which let you run, move, and even celebrate as real players—so you can feel like the star. It's as if we want more and more to "own" the sports thing, even if we're not a bit athletic. If that Avatar movie ever becomes reality, kids will slip into NBA bodies rather than blue skin.Mitch, don't frighten the old people who are reading this Parade magazine by referencing that scary movie with the big blue monsters. That's just mean. And by the way, slipping into the body of an NBA player Avatar-style would be fucking awesome, and if you had the ability to do that and refused, you would be dumber than I thought.Oh man, that would be fucking awesome. Is James Cameron on this? Where do I send my donations to make this happen?

[Mercury69 3]

Ichiro Suzuki can lead off my all-time squad any day...10 straight 200+ hit seasons = HOF Superstar

[JoeyJoJo 18]

Cliff Lee almost took a broken bat to the face last night (it nicked his ear).Hey baseball, no hurry on keeping your players safe. I mean, what are the chances something bad happens again?

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

Run differentials anyone?Yankees: +170Rays: +156Twins: +124Braves: +121Phillies: +120Giants: +112Rangers: +100...Indians: -105Astros: -107Diamondbacks: -119Mariners: -166Royals: -172Orioles: -176Pirates: -276My god, how bad are the Pirates? 100 runs clear of the next worse team? And it's really worse than that, when you consider the Orioles (who are 2nd worst) are in the same division as the two best teams and have two other teams net postive while the Pirates are in a division that doesn't have any team +100 and in fact only has two teams net positive.Are we talking historically bad?

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

Ahh, Joe Morgan.I think it's a joke to have that kind of debate. What Sabathia has done is be the best pitcher in the AL from opening day to this point. I don't buy into the point that if Felix is pitching for someone else he'd have more wins. They said that about Cliff Lee when he left Seattle, but he's lost more than he's won since he left Seattle. The name of the game is to win and he's won. And if you're looking at a second guy, it has to be David Price. It's amazing to me that we have let computers define him rather than performance. His job is to win the game, not just pitch 5-6 innings. I don't think there should be a debate between Felix and Sabathia.The bolded is the best part, right? Since Felix actually leads the league in innings pitched and all?

[Swift_Psycho 1]

Ahh, Joe Morgan.I think it's a joke to have that kind of debate. What Sabathia has done is be the best pitcher in the AL from opening day to this point. I don't buy into the point that if Felix is pitching for someone else he'd have more wins. They said that about Cliff Lee when he left Seattle, but he's lost more than he's won since he left Seattle. The name of the game is to win and he's won. And if you're looking at a second guy, it has to be David Price. It's amazing to me that we have let computers define him rather than performance. His job is to win the game, not just pitch 5-6 innings. I don't think there should be a debate between Felix and Sabathia.The bolded is the best part, right? Since Felix actually leads the league in innings pitched and all?

I disagree. Not that the bolded part isn't good, it is, but my favorite is the sentence before it. Like nearly everyone who dislikes sabermetrics, he pretty clearly demonstrates by that sentence ("It's amazing to me that we have let computers define him rather than performance") that he has absolutely NO idea what sabermetrics are, and how and why they are created/calculated, but still feels comfortable in bashing them.

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

...he has absolutely NO idea what sabermetrics are, and how and why they are created/calculated, but still feels comfortable in bashing them.

Yeah, everyone knows it was created by Billy Beane when he wrote the book Moneyball.

[akoff 0]

moneyball is great if don't have money and need to be bargain shopping, on the other hand if you have money you can go look for the best of the obvious...like pure talent and pay for it.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

Yeah, everyone knows it was created by Billy Beane when he wrote the book Moneyball.

Haha.

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

Rays over Rangers in 4.Twins over Yankees in 5.Rays over Twins in 6.Phillies over Reds in 3.Giants over Braves in 4.Phillies over Giants in 7.Rays over Phillies in 7.I realize that anything can happen in a short series, so these are really nothing more than wild-ass guesses, but what the hey. If a majority of these things happen, I will declare my brilliance. If they don't, it's randomness.

[CaneBrain 95]

Ahh, Joe Morgan.I think it's a joke to have that kind of debate. What Sabathia has done is be the best pitcher in the AL from opening day to this point. I don't buy into the point that if Felix is pitching for someone else he'd have more wins. They said that about Cliff Lee when he left Seattle, but he's lost more than he's won since he left Seattle. The name of the game is to win and he's won. And if you're looking at a second guy, it has to be David Price. It's amazing to me that we have let computers define him rather than performance. His job is to win the game, not just pitch 5-6 innings. I don't think there should be a debate between Felix and Sabathia.The bolded is the best part, right? Since Felix actually leads the league in innings pitched and all?

The world is a darker place without firejoemorgan.comAlso, twins over Yanks? Do you just think they are due?----never mind just saw the part about wild ass guesses.

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

Also, twins over Yanks? Do you just think they are due?----never mind just saw the part about wild ass guesses.

It's harder to proclaim your brilliance if all you do is pick favorites.Besides, Yorke said the Yankees suck.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

http://www.hulu.com/watch/184048/the-simps...bart#s-p1-so-i0Last night's Simpsons episode on the struggle between traditional baseball thinking and the sabermetrics movement was awesome.

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

http://www.hulu.com/watch/184048/the-simps...bart#s-p1-so-i0Last night's Simpsons episode on the struggle between traditional baseball thinking and the sabermetrics movement was awesome.

I'll have to watch this when I have time. Haven't watched an episode in a long time. That opening is fantastic though.Has there been an unusual amount of errors leading to runs scored this postseason?

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

Joe Posnanski watches the Simpsons with Bill James.

[SuitedAces21 2,722]

this article is hilarious to me:http://www.murraychass.com/?p=2621my favorite part is when he says that felix is the best pitcher in the league, but shouldnt win the cy young.

[El Guapo 8]

this article is hilarious to me:http://www.murraychass.com/?p=2621my favorite part is when he says that felix is the best pitcher in the league, but shouldnt win the cy young.

I actually agreed with almost everything he said.