April 22, 2015

SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 5 comments

Did anybody catch the premiere of MLB Statcast for last night's Cards-Nats game? I watched the later innings of the game, but I don't have MLB Network, so I only saw the regular local feed.

posted by bender at 10:21 AM on April 22, 2015

I did - and while I absolutely love advanced metrics and predictive data, I found it really distracting during the game to have it on the screen. It is akin to the stock ticker at the bottom of the screen - yes, it`s information, but it`s mostly just forcing my ADD-addled brain to choose between watching a play and analyzing the play in real-time, and quite frankly I do enough of that as it is after-the-fact.

The perceived velocity vs. actual velocity and arm angle thing was kind of new to me (as I could see it not only on fastballs, but other pitches) but I`m not really sure I care that much about lots of the data it`s giving me. A moment-by-moment win probability stat I think I`d be all for though.

posted by dfleming at 10:38 AM on April 22, 2015

Why aren't they calling it grumavision so our man can make some extra coin on the side via name licensing and consulting fees?

posted by beaverboard at 11:47 AM on April 22, 2015

You think the Baltimore Orioles would learn their lesson.

April 12th:
Darren O'Day throws a pitch over/behind Blue Jays star Jose Bautista.
Later in the at-bat, Bautista hits a home run.

April 21st:
Jason Garcia throws a pitch behind Bautista.
Later in the at-bat, Bautista hits a home run.

Will they be stupid enough to throw at him tonight?

If they do, and he hits ANOTHER home run, I hope he flips his bat 20 feet into the air and slowly walks around the bases while waving and smiling at all the Orioles players on the field and in the dugout.

posted by grum@work at 12:12 PM on April 22, 2015

Bautista then goes and flips a proverbial bat in the post-game interview:

"I don't understand why they keep throwing behind us and hitting us. Ryan Goins got hit today, all of a sudden. The guy is painting and hitting his spots, and then all of a sudden one fastball gets away and hits him square in the thigh, nowhere near the strike zone. For a team that complains and whines so much about when their guys get pitched inside, they should manage their pitching a little bit better."

posted by dfleming at 12:47 PM on April 22, 2015

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