Random Baseball Musings

[Derwood]

Jose Abreu is a monster.

 

dude needs to pee in a cup every inning or I call shenanigans

[Clem Fandango]

Jose Abreu is a monster.

 

He strikes out a lot and doesn't walk all that much and doesn't hit for average and so far has been rated as a below average defensive first baseman.

 

He hits for power. That's about it. He's basically Adam Dunn without the patience as far as I can tell.

[bukie]

Jose Abreu is a monster.

 

He strikes out a lot and doesn't walk all that much and doesn't hit for average and so far has been rated as a below average defensive first baseman.

 

He hits for power. That's about it. He's basically Adam Dunn without the patience as far as I can tell.

Just noticed the 1-2-3 hitters for the Sox have a .257, .231, and .319 OBP, respectively. Meanwhile, the 8-9 hitters have a .390 and .344 OBP.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Jose Abreu is a monster.

 

He strikes out a lot and doesn't walk all that much and doesn't hit for average and so far has been rated as a below average defensive first baseman.

 

He hits for power. That's about it. He's basically Adam Dunn without the patience as far as I can tell.

 

I nailed it picking him over Braun in the HR derby, though.

[jersey cubs fan]

Cincinnati Reds ‏@Reds 2m

Jay Bruce has surgery to repair torn meniscus in left knee. Could miss a month. Roster move tomorrow.

[OleMissCub]

If the All-Star teams were picked according to current highest rWAR

 

http://i.imgur.com/QfDsy3G.png

 

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

[Andy]

Heyward must be a hell of a defender, because he's pretty much done jack [expletive] on offense this year.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

baseball-reference has his dWAR at 1.5 already, what the hell.

[PackLandVA]

So I'm watching the White Sox game yesterday, and they're losing....which is the best time to watch a White Sox game. And the game is in the 3rd inning or so and Hawk is lamenting about what a different team the Sox are without Adam Eaton in the lineup, and how they just don't seem to have the same energy. He's only missed one full game to that point, right??

 

Anyway, I assume he's laying the foundation as to why they aren't scoring runs in the event they lose. So Steve chimes in about one of the great things about Eaton is he makes the pitcher work, that in a 4 AB game, Eaton is gonna see 24-25 pitches. Well that just didn't seem right to me. I watch plenty of Sox games and I hadn't noticed him being so selective at the plate. Of course, I'm no sabermetrician either. So I looked to see if I could find the # of pitches Eaton sees per AB. And low and behold, right there on the interweb, I found out that Eaton is averaging 4 pitches per plate appearance, and that's the highest in his short career so far.

 

Well, before I could get too wound up about it, Hawk breaks in with some story about a discussion he had with the late Dwight Eisenhower, John D. Rockefeller and the Living Jesus Christ himself over a round of golf back in his KC Royals days. So I forgot about Stone's comment.

 

Fast forward to this morning, and I'm listening to the Score on the radio, and who comes on - the Stone Pony. And sure enough, the topic of Adam Eaton comes up. This time Stone is again discussing his importance concerning the number of pitches he sees each at bat and how this not only helps his teammates, but tires the pitcher. Stone stated that it's not uncommon for Eaton to "see 7 or 8, 9, even sometimes 10 pitches to start a game".

 

Now c'mon Steve. Is it really necessary to make sh!t up?!?! Whatever happened to the days of actually giving insightful commentary that was actually relevant and true??

 

I always thought Stone was better than that. I guess I answered my own statement - he was better than that.....and then he teamed up with that talentless hack next to him. MAybe I'm nitpicking, but if he can arbitrarily throw out that statement, what else does he say that's just flat out wrong???

Edited May 6, 2014 by PackLandVA

[SABR Gamer]

4 pitches per plate appearance is really good.

[PackLandVA]

Sure, but it's not even close to the two points he completely inflated.

[Banedon]

Wow, is Jhonny Peralta that good?

[mul21]

Wow, is Jhonny Peralta that good?

 

With Cardinal pixie dust, all things are possible.

[Andy]

Wow, is Jhonny Peralta that good?

 

With Cardinal pixie dust, all things are possible.

His OPS is nearly .800 despite a .226 BABIP. So once that normalizes he figures to be an MVP candidate.

[DiamondMind]

Laz Diaz is a horrible umpire and should be fired. Not for his bad calls, but for having a [expletive] narcissistic attitude and always finding a way to make the game about himself. I was kind of hoping Girardi would shank him.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2014_05_05_nyamlb_anamlb_1&mode=video&content_id=32640051&tcid=vpp_copy_32640051

 

"I mentioned to Laz in a respectful way that I thought the pitch was up to Kelly Johnson earlier in the game, and he gave me the Mutombo," Girardi said, imitating a wagging index finger. "I don't appreciate that. I'm not a little kid. I don't need to be scolded. Obviously we're trying to work together, and I just thought there were a lot of inconsistencies tonight.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Remember when Laz Diaz was awesome for beating the crap out of some crazy white trash White Sox fans?

[Cubswin11]

I just noticed, while looking at box scores, the Braves have the pitcher batting 8th and Simmons 9th tonight, have they been doing this all year?

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

I just noticed, while looking at box scores, the Braves have the pitcher batting 8th and Simmons 9th tonight, have they been doing this all year?

 

No, it's just some dumbass thing they're doing recently because they haven't been scoring. They've lost 7 straight, I think.

[Andy]

I just noticed, while looking at box scores, the Braves have the pitcher batting 8th and Simmons 9th tonight, have they been doing this all year?

 

No, it's just some dumbass thing they're doing recently because they haven't been scoring. They've lost 7 straight, I think.

I wouldn't call that move dumb at all.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

what would you call it?

[Andy]

what would you call it?

I like the idea of the pitcher batting 8th. It probably makes little difference in the long run, but IIRC there are statistics that show it can be to a team's benefit.

[hawkeyecub]

Tulo's overall line so far is .421/.522/.794 for a 1.317 OPS.

 

In 51 AB's at home, he's hitting .608/.677/1.098 for a 1.775 OPS.

[sneakypower]

Tulo's already eclipsed any 2013 Cubs player in fWAR

[NewUserName]

what would you call it?

I like the idea of the pitcher batting 8th. It probably makes little difference in the long run, but IIRC there are statistics that show it can be to a team's benefit.

 

Cardinals did it for a full season not that long ago. Or it seemed like a full season, not sure if there was any great work done to show if it had benefits or not.

[NewUserName]

Sure, but it's not even close to the two points he completely inflated.

I think a lot of Steve Stone's genius was that when he first started he was way ahead of the curve for your ordinary color man, and he worked with Harry Caray. I don't mean this as a criticism of Harry, but making insightful observations, that are somewhat sane, while working with Harry will make you look like a genius of some sort. He is still miles ahead of Hawk with actual baseball insight, but the quality of color men has improved a lot in 30 yrs. Shows you how sad it was to be my age watching baseball.