Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Jon's other site:
Screen Jam
TV and more ...
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
The much-not-talked about season premiere of baseball at Mt. Lookout takes place tonight, with a rare - perhaps unprecendented - appearance of a designated hitter at Dodger Stadium, not to mention Jeff Kent finally making an appearance at second base and Juan Pierre fourth among outfielders in the starting lineup announced by the Dodgers this evening:
Rafael Furcal, SS
Russell Martin, C
Andre Ethier, RF
Jeff Kent, 2B
Andruw Jones, DH
James Loney, 1B
Matt Kemp, CF
Juan Pierre, LF
Blake DeWitt, 3B
Chad Billingsley vs. Bartolo Colon
* * *
Kevin Roderick of L.A. Observed gave his Coliseum perspective for KCRW today.
* * *
Update: Joe Torre has named Esteban Loaiza the No. 5 starter, reports Brian Kamenetzky of Blue Notes.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN200706100.shtml
heh...my mistake, must have been the games I missed :)
I thought I wouldn't stay up for exhibition
games on the west coast but here I am and its almost time. I thought the Coleseum game might be a day game, but either way it is going to be memorable. Good or bad I'm not sure.
Maybe we should petition to switch to the AL?
Dang right.
Oh, and JP? Love the work ethic and great 'tude but the writing, my man... the writing be on the wall.
James Brown asked shouldn't a 2 against a 3 be close then 20. How about a 10 against a 3?
I only got snippets because we were shown the lopsided Stanford game. If I was going to watch a lopsided game, I would rather have seen the upset.
http://tinyurl.com/233fsc
nice.
LA sports teams have got a bad case of the injury bug.
Women, almost universally, cannot believe that men can do such things.
Every time you hit a ball in the air you owe me 20 pushups.
Tony Jackson on the lights:
"I can't even begin to put into words how much brighter it is here than in the past. I'm not sure I like it yet. It just doesn't look like Dodger Stadium. It has this weird, green flourescent sort of feel to it. But I'm sure the 83 games I'm going to see here over the next six months will be enough for me to get used to it. It's just that it sort of overwhelms the senses the first time you see it. ...
http://www.insidesocal.com/dodgers/archives/2008/03/blinded_by_the.html
The first sign of spring in Los Angeles is a Tony Jackson complaint about Dodger Stadium.
And people say we have no seasons here.
His breaking pitches look real sharp and has a nice cutter working, too.
... Ethier is by far my favorite Dodger.
You still owe me pushups.
But more importantly, 7k in 4 IP. If he could do that in under 77 pitches during the season, that would be great.
nevermind. it's just the sideburns. and i need a new scrip for my glasses.
Kobe's got 47 points with 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.
Lakers are also losing at home to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Lakers are losing to Memphis... and they don't look impressive at all. If they don't get Gasol back soon, they're toast.
d
Without Gasol, Bynum, Mihm, AND Ariza, the Lakers are essentially turning back the clock to 2006.
16-31 FGs attempts.
9-15 from 3 pt range.
Grizzlies up 84-75.
Kobe may need 60 for the Lakers to win tonight.
By the way, I can't wait until Carl's Jr. switches ad agencies. The sooner the better. Makes me angry.
Thats a concern.
"At third base, the manager said, "Right now Blake DeWitt looks like the solution.""
I like it!
Pack Bush! Flat Rat!
The Bison didn't look too pleased. That's all we need to solve our outfield "situation." Luckily, he's fine.
Boo!
http://www.beloblog.com/Pe_Blogs/prosports/2008/03/touchy-subject.html
...and Kevin Pearson wonders why Ethier gave him the short shrift.
132. Ian Capilouto
He led the league in outs for one year, in 2006, but he also led the league in at bats that year. Statistically, that would happen to anyone who has that many at bats.
163. GoBears
That's just plain wrong. A better hitter, given the same number of plate appearances, would make fewer outs. That's how we know he's a better hitter.
166. Ian Capilouto
163 How is that plain wrong?
2008-03-28 11:17:40
167. ToyCannon
163
You can still be a good hitter and lead the league in outs. Pete Rose lead the league in outs several years. He was also quite a good hitter during those years. The problem is not that Juan Pierre lead the league in outs, in a nutshell that means nothing. The problem is he lead the league in outs and didn't provide enough offense for the times he did get on base to negate the number of outs he made. I really really dislike the "he lead the leauge in outs" as a reason for why Juan Pierre is not a good baseball player. Anyone can lead the league in outs if given enough at bats, even HOF players.
168. Ian Capilouto
Thanks I appreciate that reply.
I guess I wasn't clear, because ToyCannon clearly missed my point. I know that counting outs is not really all that important. My "plain wrong" assertion was in response to Ian's claim that "Statistically, that would happen to anyone who has that many at bats." It wouldn't. First, Pierre had that many at bats in part because he rarely walked. But let's assume Ian really meant plate appearances. Would anyone with Pierre's number of PAs lead the league in outs? Of course not. Ian claimed that "statistically that would happen to anyone." That's wrong.
It's fine to disagree about interpretations and opinions. But math is incontrovertible. Lots of better hitters would make fewer outs with Pierre-level ABs (and especially PAs).
Nothing ToyCannon said was wrong. It just missed my point. That is my fault, for being unclear.
And, although this isn't the point that TC responded to, I'll reiterate my main point about the "leading outmaker" criticism. It's a criticism of management - for putting a player as poor as Pierre in the position to lead the league in outs. He shouldn't be getting half as many ABs as the league-leader in outs. In that sense, TC's points about HOFers owning that dubious stat is right on. The likes of Juan Pierre shouldn't be allowed to try often enough to fail that often.
Again, sorry for Bogarting the bandwidth.
vr, Xei
I just woke up and we won!. Kevin Pearson washes Plashke's socks by hand.
This is my favorite line so far:
Juan Pierre hit zero home runs last year. Mythical fairy creature David Eckstein hit three, for Chrissakes, and he swings a three-inch bat carved out of a candy cane.
Yeah, but Eckstein only did it because he plays in front of the greatest fans on Earth. If only JP got that kind of love...
Other Hall of Famers who have done it:
Red Schoendienst (three times), Luis Aparicio (twice), Nellie Fox (twice), Pee Wee Reese, Billy Herman (twice), Lloyd Waner, Sam Rice, Rabbit Maranville (three times), Harry Hooper (twice), George Wright (twice). Miller Huggins and Charles Comiskey also led the league in outs, but they weren't named to the HOF as players.
Alex Rodriguez led the league in outs in 1998.
I refer you to 125
Penny 32
Lowe 31
Kuroda 30
Billingsley 22
Loaiza 12
Schmidt 10
Park 6
Kuo 5
Kershaw 8
McDonald 4
Stults 1
Hull 1
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.