- 09:03 PM
- 11/07/09
| Location: | Canada |
|---|---|
| Member since: | February 21, 2002 |
| Last visit: | November 06, 2009 |
grum@work has posted 84 links and 3875 comments to SportsFilter and 15 links and 836 comments to the Locker Room and 1 column.
First of all, a trivia question. What are the 11 different ways for a baseball player to reach 1st base safely? Answer at bottom of page. I'm the saddest fan of them all: Toronto Maple Leafs Buffalo Bills (but not so much since the Holy Trinity retired...Kelly, Thomas, Reed) It could be worse...I could be a Boston or Chicago baseball fan. The most memorable sporting event was a hockey game back in the late 80's (not sure exactly when). A friend of the family got me really nice Leaf tickets during the Xmas holidays. They were playing the Bruins, so I took my friend Joe who was a big Boston fan. After two periods, the Leafs were getting killed, 5-1. My friend was really laying on the taunting thick, and I was contemplating how I could kill him on the way home. Then, to start the 3rd period, Wendel Clark scored a quick goal. Hey, at least they'll make it respectable, is what I figured. And then another goal is scored. And another. Well, lo and behold, the Leafs tie it up and send the game into overtime (the last goal was scored with an extra attacker, by Wendel again). Then, with about a minute left in the overtime, Wendel Clark blows one past the goalie and the place EXPLODES with noise. I must have gone hoarse from the shouting. The stunned/saddened look on Joe's face the entire ride home was like icing on the cake. ... Trivia Answer: 1. Hit 2. Base on balls 3. Hit by pitch 4. Catcher interference 5. Dropped third strike 6. Error 7. Fielder's choice 8. Hitting a baserunner with the batted ball 9. A ball, pitched to the batter or thrown by the pitcher from his position on the pitcher's plate to a base to catch a runner, goes into a stand, or player's bench, or over or through a field fence or backstop, or is touched by a spectator. (Obscure rule 7.05(h)) 10. The third strike becomes lodged in the umpires equipment (not touched by the catcher). (Obscure rule 7.05(i)) 11. Pinch Runner
"Whatcho talkin' 'bout, ump?!":
Kudos to the team for taking a potentially dull publicity stunt and ratcheting it up a couple of notches on the entertainment meter.
posted by grum@work to baseball at 08:19 AM on August 02 - 1 comment
Robot Bob Sheppard?:
There is a suggestion by some that Bob Sheppard voice (announcer at Yankee Stadium) be converted into a text-to-speech program so that he may always be the announcer at new Yankee Stadium.
One gentleman has compiled a result of what it might sound like.
posted by grum@work to baseball at 05:42 PM on July 19 - 4 comments
First Class?:
Excellent baseball writer Joe Posnanski proposes a question:
"If you could start over, who would make up your Hall of Fame first class?"
posted by grum@work to baseball at 07:55 AM on June 30 - 14 comments
Four-time World Champion admits to using steroids.:
posted by grum@work to football at 11:26 AM on June 26 - 36 comments
It's been 10 years?!:
That's right, 10 years since Kerry Wood tied the major league record for strikeouts in a 9-inning game.
You can watch the video highlights of the 20 strikeouts here.
posted by grum@work to baseball at 08:05 PM on May 06 - 11 comments
Establish a salary cap with a reasonable floor as well as a maximum and that should solve that problem.
A salary floor is just going to lead to silliness where the Royals/Marlins/Pirates sign some aging/useless veteran outfielder for WAY over market value, just because they HAVE to.
"Mr Griffey, I know you want to retire, but we're $8 million short of the floor. Can you do us a favour and play for us this year for that amount?"
Personally, I don't think the Yankees cheated, I just feel that the payroll disparity cheapens the win.
I used to let that eat me up as well (being a Jays fan), but the difference this year compared to the previous 8 seasons is that they spent their money wisely this time.
I didn't really care when they were blowing cash on bad investment (Wright, Pavano, Igawa). But they've spent it on GREAT players this time (CC, Tex).
Of course, the single biggest advantage the Yankees have had since 1995 is that their "core four" (Posada, Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte (although he left and came back)) have performed amazingly well for 15 seasons. It's really hard to find any teams since free agency that can claim to have had that sort of reliability in that many players for that long.
posted by grum@work at 08:13 AM on November 06
If this goes 7 games, I think there is a VERY good chance Lee will be available for 2 innings of work (say, 7th/8th) if needed.
It was only 8 years ago that we had a chance to witness something even more impressive.
posted by grum@work at 08:54 PM on November 04
Jeter was, is and will be over-rated. I don't get it.
I'm pretty sure that I've been on both sides of the "Jeter is overrated" argument.
The best way to describe it is:
Jeter is a hall-of-fame shortstop who has performed at a high level for almost his entire career. He has fantastic defensive plays, amazingly timely hits and clever baserunning on his resume.
He has not, however, walked on water, healed the sick or revolutionized the sport in any way, despite how the New York and national media feel the need to portray him. Everything he does is not perfect. Sometimes, he makes mistakes and fails in the clutch, so it doesn't reduce his luster if the media would mention that, once in a while. He also sometimes performs exactly like an average player would in that same situation, so please stop telling me how AWESOME he is when he fields a 4-hopper and makes a throw to first base.
He's not the best Yankee ever (probably not even top 5). He's not the best shortstop ever (probably not even top 5). He's not the best player in the league right now (not even top 5).
But he's definitely one of the best players of his generation, and I have no problem saying that.
posted by grum@work at 09:13 PM on November 03
Speaking of lights-out guys... can someone please explain why Mariano Rivera is still so wildly successful?
It's the same thing as a Nolan Ryan fastball; you know it's coming, but you still can't hit it.
The ball has so much movement that the batters just can't adjust properly.
It's one thing to say "I'm going to swing lower than I normally do", but it's another thing entirely to convince your brain/body to do it.
If you've trained yourself for 20 years to swing a bat by reacting to how the ball looks .5 seconds after it leaves the pitcher's hand, it's probably impossible to override that instinct just for this one pitcher.
3. Generous strike zone. All star pitchers get it. Rivera does more than most. You can see it almost every game he pitches.
One way to examine that is to determine if he gets a higher number of called strikes in his career compared to the league average over the same time period:
Strikes (Looking) as a % of Total Strikes (career):
Rivera: 24%
League: 28%
Less than the league average.
Doing some quick calculations from that table:
Percentage of strikes (looking) of all pitches thrown (career):
Rivera: 16.32%
League: 17.36%
Again, less than the league average.
If he's getting help from the umpires, it's not showing up in any statistical fashion.
posted by grum@work at 07:46 PM on November 03
In the postseason (can't find an aggregated line and too lazy to do the math), he did poorly last year with Milwaukee against the Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS (he had pitched the last day of the regular season)
Don't short change him.
He pitched 5 times in 16 days.
(September 16, 20, 24, 28 and October 2)
That's a lot of games (4) in a row on 3 days rest.
The last three games of the regular season were the first times he'd pitched on 3 days rest that season.
posted by grum@work at 09:18 PM on November 02
Girardi got away with Sabathia on short rest where he's always sucked, and he's got Burnett doing the same thing (same comment).
Huh?
Burnett never pitched on 3 days rest in 2009 during the regular season. Over his career, he's only done it four times. 4-0 with a 2.33 ERA and a 24/10 K/BB ratio.
He's done it once in these playoffs, and in that case it was literally just one bad inning (the 1st) and one bad reliever (Hughes).
So I don't think it's right to say that Burnett has "always sucked" on short rest.
posted by grum@work at 03:22 PM on November 02
I was on another baseball site and as soon as Lidge came to the mound, the Phillies fans (pretty much to a man) were bemoaning this move. Hell, some of them were saying things like "I'd rather see Mitch Williams"
Joba Chamberlain, while wallowing in misery in the dugout for blowing the lead on the Feliz home run, got the win.
Example #45000 why using wins as any sort of judgment of pitcher quality is a farce.
posted by grum@work at 10:01 AM on November 02
And a side note, dviking above is right, players need to be placed by ability, not age.
According to some, age IS ability:
The book begins with Gladwell's research on why a disproportionate number of elite Canadian hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year. The answer, he points out, is that since youth hockey leagues determine eligibility by calendar year, children born on January 1 play in the same league as those born on December 31 in the same year. Because adolescents born earlier in the year are bigger and maturer than their younger competitors, they are often identified as better athletes, leading to extra coaching and a higher likelihood of being selected for elite hockey leagues.
posted by grum@work at 02:04 PM on October 31
The jury disagreed that the dangers of aluminum bats were common knowledge. The manufacturer lost because they failed to properly warn about the dangers of their bats.
Why would a warning label on the bat help the pitchers or fielders? They can't read it, and the batter is in no danger from using the bat.
The warning label should be on the baseball!
"Warning: If pitched towards a batter wielding an aluminum bat, the resulting hit may be dangerous. Please take extra precautions."
But then it makes it difficult to find space for autographs...
posted by grum@work at 02:00 PM on October 31
But that number doesn't take into account the intentional vs. the unintentional vs. the unintentional intentional walks.
Well, for their entire careers, intentional walks accounted for 11.3% of McGwire's total walks. For Hal McRae, it accounted for 10.5%.
That's not that big of a difference.
The walks were not always a part of his game.
Huh? For 1000 consecutive games (18 seasons, 1992-2000), his OBP was .434.
He's ALWAYS been about the walks and the HR, even when he struggled with his batting average.
posted by grum@work at 12:47 AM on October 27
McRae struck out less than half as much (779 vs 1596) as McGwire while playing 100+ more games.
Well, I can't just leave that hanging. There used to be a phrase for this sort of thing around here...
McGwire:
PA: 7660
Walks: 1317
OBP: .394
McRae:
PA: 8058
Walks: 648
OBP: .351
McRae had a decent batting eye (22 points above league average for his career in OBP), but McGwire had an amazing batting eye (62 points abvoe league average for his career in OBP).
Of course, one of the greatest batting eyes in baseball history (122 points above league average for his career in OBP) was a TERRIBLE teacher/manager, so who knows how this will work out.
posted by grum@work at 08:55 PM on October 26
I'm sure if he can impart any pitch recognition skills upon the lesser lights of the Cardinals, he'll prove to be quite useful.
He should, however, stay away from Pujols.
That's a dude who really doesn't need to change anything.
posted by grum@work at 01:21 AM on October 26
I will admit that I haven't visited SpoFi that much since the switch. The site design is just terrible now, and it makes it too hard to read all the comments.
As well, it always asks me to sign in, and I don't have the option to do multiple previews of the comments I do make.
Thanks for all the fun I had here the past few years, but unless something changes I'll probably be just following sports somewhere else.
posted by grum@work at 01:57 PM on September 27
As an alumni of Waterloo, I couldn't be more proud.
Wait, that's not the word I'm looking for...
posted by grum@work at 08:37 AM on September 05
Girardi risks his life helping accident victim after the series celebration
Wouldn't it be reasonably likely that Girardi has a few in celebration with his team?
He probably did have quite a few...poured on his head, sprayed in his face, drained down his back.
You don't see the guys drinking that much of the champagne. The bottles are usually wielded like super-soakers instead.