mcgoobs

Steve Carlton's 1972 season should be mentioned somewhere in that discussion. 346 IP (#2 was Fergie Jenkins at 289) 30 CG (#2 was Jenkins again at 23) 1.97 ERA 182 ERA+ 2.01 FIP (average for the year was 3.86) 12.2 WAR (#2 pitcher was Bob Gibson at 7.6) What he lacked in ERA vs the league he made up for in simple raw innings pitched.

This season will likely be very comparable to his 2009 season, it's just his ERA is now on the favorable side of his peripherals.

So Jeter's numbers these past two years could actually have been worse. "Shortstop Derek Jeter would have been affected most, with just four of his 20 homers leaving Citi Field. For Robinson Cano, who hits most of his home runs into Yankee Stadium's short right field, the number is 18 of 40. Even Alex Rodriguez, one of the all-time best home-run hitters, would have lost 41% of his homers if he played his home games at Citi Field." Link

Now proven by Fangraphs. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-pedro-cerrano-all-stars/

Starting pitching a little unlucky? Starters' ERA: 6.24, last in the NL Starters' FIP: 4.80, 15th in the NL Starters' xFIP: 3.90, 9th in the NL Even though the Cubs' starters are giving up a near league average 18.6% LD rate, their BABIP is by far the league worst at .336. Additionally they have the league worst HR/FB ratio of 15.2%. Early victim appears to be Dempster with 17.6% LD, .344 BABIP, 23.7% HR/FB. Garza's numbers are a little out of whack with a 27.7% LD, .414 BABIP, and no home runs allowed. Hopefully some moderation in the unluckiness will be seen soon.

Decent article in today's Tribune about how the Bears ran stunts/loops on passing downs during the Vikings game. One way to counter situations when there are two blockers on Peppers.

I know all the reasons why, and I don't disagree with the thinking, but it's funny to see steroid use as a reason not to put somebody on the Hall, but not knowingly giving another person AIDS.

They aren't that important for a variety of reasons. The most obvious one is because pitching talent is what determines how well a pitcher pitches. Coaches are important at lower levels, but at the higher levels they are there for babysitting purposes more than anything. Pitchers generally come up and pitch to their ability and then slowly decline as their arms age. Your team's quality of pitching will be determined by the talent of the pitchers. Not the pitching coach. I agree with you directionally, and believe there isn't enough evidence to point to any value from most pitching coaches. But there are enough examples of pitchers turning around their performance once under the watch of coaches like Duncan or Rotschild that the talented ones provide some value. You can even look at Kerry's performance before and after joining the Yankees to see a recent example.

This. Owners of professional sports have in recent years only moved to more regular and playoff games, not less. My guess is the 162 game season remains, but they change the LDS to best of seven games. MLB could simply reduce the number of off days in between playoff games and keep the same calendar.

We signed Jaramillo to a 3 year $2.4 million contract, but let Rothschild go for 3 years and $2 million. Unless Rothschild really wanted to go to the Yankees, I don't understand how we let this happen.

My thoughts exactly. The first time in my life I'm pulling for the Yankees.

Peppers looks like he's got a bit of a gut. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/gallery/enlargePhoto?id=5428266

Not a great debut for Wood. 1 IP, 1 H, 2 BB. Left the game with the bases loaded. He's wearing #39 and with the weight-loss and clean-shaven face looks younger than he did when he came up in 98.

People have been saying that for about 90 years now. Well, they did have a stretch from the mid 60's to the mid 70's and from the early 80's to the early 90's where they weren't very good. The Yankees have been down before, but they always get right back up. They have a significant financial advantage that isn't going to change. The only way to negate a significant financial advantage is through actions like an inept front office that ladens its team with inflexible contracts.

Lewin's OK, Tim Grieve may be the worst color guy in the league though. I can't believe there are people that like Costas and people that don't care for Scully. Bottom line is that it's basically all a matter of taste. Costas is great when he's doing standard play-by-play. He's had a tendency to fall into lengthy explanations like he's still on Ken Burns "Baseball" documentary.