Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
Russell Martin's throwing error in the first inning Sunday has been rescinded in an official scoring change and a stolen base awarded to Marcus Giles in its stead, the Dodgers said today. No further explanation was provided, but presumably the scorer decided not to assume that Giles would be thrown out from the get-go, and since no other advancement took place, there was no error.
In other notes, Matt Kemp began a rehab assignment in AAA Las Vegas Wednesday, playing right field for five innings and going 0 for 3 but with no health repercussions.
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A toast to the bride and groom at Bronx Banter:
More importantly, somewhere on a beach in Bermuda right around the time of the first pitch, our man Alex and his lovely bride Emily are going to become husband and wife. Please join me in wishing them a long, full lifetime of happiness, health, and prosperity together. Mazel tov!
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Bob Welch at Cardboard Gods - I can't decide which part to excerpt, so go read the whole thing.
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Remember, today's game is at 12:05 p.m.
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Want another great pregame read? It's not baseball, but check out this book excerpt at SI.com of Sally Jenkins' The Team That Invented Football.
The game, like the country in which it was created, was a rough, bastardized thing that jumped up out of the mud. What was football but barely legalized fighting? On the raw afternoon of Nov. 9, 1912, it was no small reflection of the American character.
The coach of the Carlisle Indian School, Glenn Scobey (Pop) Warner, strode up and down the visitors' locker room, a Turkish Trophy cigarette forked between his fingers. Warner, slab-faced and profane, wasn't one for speeches, unless cussing counted. But he was about to make an exception.
The 22 members of the Carlisle team sat, tensing, on rows of wooden benches. Some of them laced up ankle-high leather cleats, as thick-soled as jackboots. Others pulled up heavy football pants, which bagged around their thighs like quilts. They shrugged into bulky scarlet sweaters with flannel stuffed in the shoulders for padding. Flap-eared leather helmets sat on the benches next to them, as stiff as picnic baskets.
Often Warner was at a loss to inspire the Indians. He didn't always understand their motives, and he had put his boot in their backsides on more than one occasion. Jim Thorpe could be especially galling. The 25-year-old Oklahoman from the Sauk and Fox tribe had an introverted disposition and a carelessness that baffled Warner. But on this Saturday afternoon Warner knew just how to reach Thorpe -- and his teammates. Carlisle, the nation's flagship institution for Native Americans, was to meet the U.S. Military Academy in a showdown between two of the top football teams in the country.
It was an exquisitely apt piece of national theater: a contest between Indians and soldiers. The officers-in-training in the home locker room represented a military legacy that taunted the Indians. The frontier battles between Native Americans and the saber-waving U.S. Army "long knives" were fresh in the players' minds -- Warner had been reminding them of the subject all week. "I shouldn't have to prepare you for this game," the coach had told them. "Just go to your rooms and read your history books."
Only 22 years earlier, on Dec. 29, 1890, the U.S. Army had massacred Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee in the last major confrontation between the military and American Indians. Feelings between the Army and tribesmen still ran so high that this was just the second time they had been allowed to meet on a sports field. "When Indian outbreaks in the West were frequent the Government officials thought it unwise to have the aborigines and future officers combat in athletics," The New York Times reported. ...
Furcal, SS
Pierre, CF
Nomar, 1B
Kent, 2B
Gonzalez, LF
Martin, C
Ethier, RF
Betemit, 3B
Hendrickson, P
btw did anyone see the attempted steal of home last night by Albert Pujols in the top of the 12 inning? Had he not not stopped midway he would have been safe as Molina dropped the ball in his haste to tag the runner. Crazy play, and although rationally it was misguided, I really liked the attempt.
"They're actually getting hitched there, on the beach, just the twos of them. They're basically eloping except they told everyone about it."
Got it.
Speaking of which, Dodgers.com is already promoting Martin for the All-Star Game. Any chance he actually gets elected?
Rich Donnelly fans, did you see how the Seattle-Minnesota game ended last night, with Beltre getting thrown out at the plate by a mile? Here's what the M's skipper had to say about it:
"A good third base coach is not doing his job unless he is getting guys thrown out at home plate," Hargrove said.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=270418112&prov=ap
I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one.
A good waiter is not doing his job unless he is dropping plates of food.
I like it.
Seriously, I get what he's trying to say, but it's a pretty poor way of saying it. There's a difference between having a guy thrown out on a close play and having him thrown out by 30 feet.
I did a quick google search but only found an article on how to apply sabrmetric principles to dating.
the pitcher starts him off with 2 balls, then he swings at the 2-0 pitch that is a foot inside and misses, then procedes to hit a weak dribbler to the right side, and not run it out to 1st base.
1. Death
2. Taxes
3. Juan Pierre grounding out to second
I remember suggesting here last year that someone should keep track of such things. Why not have stats for coaches, if we can?
WHAT? THE GAME'S NOT ON LOCAL TV?
AND it's blacked out on Extra Innings?
I swear, being a Rockies fan is about as rewarding as being a member of the Libertarian Party sometimes.
Donnelly rates third to last in
Equivalent Ground Advancement Runs (EqGAR). Measures the contribution of baserunners above and beyond what would be expected in opportunities they have for advancing on outs made on the ground. For example, advancing from second to third on a ground out to shortstop or getting gunned down at home on a grounder to second.
Obviously no manager wants to see runners getting cut down at home very often but if it happens now and then and (this is important) the outs are close plays then the manger knows his coach is encouraging aggressive baserunning. If the play is not close then the coach misjudged it. He should have his judgement skills honed in other places than the major leagues.
I did not see the play but if it wasn't close and the runner didn't hesitate then the coach made an error. (E-10?)
Last night, Vinnie was appalled that Nomar might get an error for a ball that bounced off his glove, and then that Furcal might get one for a ball that went under his glove. Sure, both were tough hops, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have been handled by guys who get paid millions to be better than the average fan.
I see at least 5 problems with the Error.
First, too many announcers and fans see it as some sort of moral judgment.
Second, (and I realize I'm repeating myself) too many people fail to hold major leaguers to major-league standards. The standard seems to be "Would I have had trouble making that play? If so, he's absolved!"
Third, there's the obvious disincentive for an official scorer either to take a hit away from a home batter, or to assign an error to a home defender. In some way, the assignment of an error hurts a home team guy's stats, and so the benefit of the doubt always goes to the fielder.
Fourth, since extra bases always have to be accounted for, errors are a function not just of the execution of the play, but of its results. That seems wrong. A screw-up is a screw-up, even if you're lucky enough that it didn't matter.
Fifth, errors of omission are ignored. Among other things, there are no baserunning "errors." Mental "errors" (e.g., throwing to the wrong base) are waved off.
Players make mistakes, even when they try hard. Either count them consistently or don't. Perhaps the problem is with the term "error," which has a much more general meaning in common parlance than it has in baseball.
I guess a 6th problem (again, obvious) is how that stat is used. Some stats are merely for accounting purposes. Others measure performance. The Error is kinda both, and kinda not both.
I generally agree, though I feel I should point out that not assigning an error to a home fielder is simultaneously assigning a hit allowed to the home pitcher, and thus possibly subsequent "earned" runs instead of "unearned". So, there's a tradeoff.
I would also add that errors don't do a good job of accounting for variation in range, etc. Players with good range who get to more balls probably make more errors than players with bad range. Also, like you said, if you bobble a grounder with a slow runner, you might still be able to throw him out (and thus not get an error). But with the exact same bobble and throw versus a fast runner, all of a sudden you get an error.
I think my mind had implicitly rendered yesterday's game obsolete, if for no other reason than that Lieberthal was batting cleanup
Who knew.
Make it two runs, and I like Saves a lot better.
Questions:
1)What are his 4 pitches?
2)Where's his FB usually clocked? I know he's not considered a power pitcher but am curious. Guess he's a sinkerballer?
3) What have most of his strikeouts come on? He has about a K per inning so far and had a relief appearance late last year where he struck out 8 in 4 innings.
Don't forget head-first slides, and the related head-first slides into 1B
Unclutch!
Boom Boom!
Does anyone think they'll reverse that error tomorrow?
0-3 when Marky Mark makes an appearance.
10-2 when Marky Mark DOESN'T make an appearance.
As much as I want LaRoche or Nomar at 3rd, I'm really pulling for Wilson to do well cuz he's the guy there now.
Four - Three
I've always considered Hendrickson and rule #1 to be a better match
If so, it was undoubtedly of the low-carb variety
I meant to say "whatever sports psychologist Ken Ravizza taught Mark Henrickson..."
I hate bad managing, even by the opponent.
{Polite applause}
Clarify that please. 11 ground ball outs, 2 strike outs, only 5 hits and one run over 5 and a third innings is a quality outing in my book.
Yes, it's a stupid, stupid stat.
I always liked A-Rod, was always sad the Dodgers were forced to draft Dreifort instead of him. Hearing the Yankee fans complain about A-Rod did put me even more firmly in his corner.
Just like Saves, I guess. Let's make an arbitrary runs/innings rule, and create a stat around it. I mean, it doesn't bother me that it's used, I just have no use for it.
I was thinking he looked like Vincent Gallo on a bad day (which is probably everyday).
You are the Grady, who do you send to the bullpen when Schmidt comes back?
http://tinyurl.com/29zocb
Despite his fine performance Mark H doesn't get a QS stat because he came up one out short. I have a problem with the logic.
Hope Willy can get through this and I wish him the best.
117
Yes, that was a good 8 minutes for him.
http://tinyurl.com/28xmby
And I will take an examination of the 2006 results from last year but I think the percentage will be higher than the current 12.5%, its not going be something like 50% either. And it makes sense that teams win the majority of the time when their starter pitches 6 innings or more.
If the Dodgers win today, it will mean that the starters have been involved in all but 2 games which the last time I checked, is tied as the lowest number of decisions that the bullpen has so far in 2007.
Did the Rocks just give him a really big alley?
leading off with 91-93 mph fastballs.
So, Mark Grace's The Biggest Man Alive is on for the, what? Un-save? The Sustain?
I can't wait for Jim Tracy to come back to LA, and the inevitable Plaschke article slipping in snide comments about DePodesta. Good times.
GO to kershaw
strike 3 looking curveball
GO to kershaw
Bueller, Bueller?
(I just love that joke)
They have a night game on Saturday so I don't think they will mind staying up for a while.
walk 4 straight pitches (he needs to stop doing this)
GO to 2b, runner advances to 2nd.
CS at 3b
3-2, pitch to the backstop, 2nd walk
Kershaw picks him off.
so far
2IP 0H 0ER 2bb 1k
I sat through Eric Gagne bobblehead doll night in the rain. For about five innings.
Then I started to lose feeling in my hands and feet as I wasn't dressed properly.
I went home.
I don't regret it.
I was highly critical of him last year and had hoped the Dodgers would dump him in the offseason. But you've got to give credit where credit's due: he has a 1.62 ERA in 16.2 IP, and is holding opposing batters to a measly .167 BA.
I don't know how much more of this we can expect, but I'll continue to enjoy it while it lasts.
Who gets the wag of the finger?
Can't wait to see what his ERA is when he has pitched 162.0 innings.
1-2 swing n miss K
GB single up the middle on a 2-2 91mph fb
0-2 bloop single fisted to RF
1-2 cb K
1-2 single on cb, 1 run scores, runner picked off between 2nd and 3rd
after 3
3IP 3H 1ER 2bb 3k
from listening, his fb velocity has been consistently 91-94 and hes getting alot of 2strikes on the hitters but hes not getting many bites or swing and misses on his cb.
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