Baseball season started!

[PHILLYQ]

That game was beyond deja-vu(As Yogi might say)

I was so caught off guard with him still out there (Saw highlights during braves game) I thought that surely they brought Pedro in for the 8th inning, not that he was still out there! Damn, the bullpen that tired? He is not Roger Clemens, or Shilling, a pitcher that gets better, throws harder as the game goes on....do you think the Sox get that now???

Oh, and the Braves with a 46 year old first baseman(Who has driven in more runs than anyone his age EVER has) a rookie in left fielder, a catcher with no track record at the major league level, Chipper back at 3rd base and a starting does not have Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Millwood, Jason Schmidt anymore still ran away and hid from the rest of the East....Bobby Cox is a genius, at least duing the regular season...13 straight, with AOL/TimeWarner forever cutting the budget....

Leo Mazzone also deserves some credit- the Braves seem to turn a lot of pitchers around into consistent winners.

Edited September 26, 2004 by PHILLYQ

[Jazzdog]

LET'S GO A'S LET'S GO A'S LET'S GO A'S LET'S GO A'S LET'S GO A'S LET'S GO A'S LET'S GO A'S LET'S GO A'S

sorry, I couldn't help myself. I swear, this team gets less love than the Twins...Crikey!

[BERIGAN]

That game was beyond deja-vu(As Yogi might say)

I was so caught off guard with him still out there (Saw highlights during braves game) I thought that surely they brought Pedro in for the 8th inning, not that he was still out there! Damn, the bullpen that tired? He is not Roger Clemens, or Shilling, a pitcher that gets better, throws harder as the game goes on....do you think the Sox get that now???

Oh, and the Braves with a 46 year old first baseman(Who has driven in more runs than anyone his age EVER has) a rookie in left fielder, a catcher with no track record at the major league level, Chipper back at 3rd base and a starting does not have Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Millwood, Jason Schmidt anymore still ran away and hid from the rest of the East....Bobby Cox is a genius, at least duing the regular season...13 straight, with AOL/TimeWarner forever cutting the budget....

Leo Mazzone also deserves some credit- the Braves seem to turn a lot of pitchers around into consistent winners.

Yes, you are absolutely right...Mazzone is a miracle worker....neither guy is considered a "genius" like Tony LaRussa, but they do more with less than just about anyone else. Yet, I still run into folks in the ATL that thing Bobby Cox is stupid, and the team would really do well with anyone else running it.

[Dan Gould]

Well, Harold, I bet it feels good knowing that if not for another Red Sox Manager Brain Fart, it would have been a sweep in Fenway and a 1.5 game lead heading into the last week (which would be half a game right now with the rain outs). Kind of like Florida State/Miami and "Wide Right"-the gift that keeps on giving.

But I'll bet your feeling pretty antsy about El Duque having his start pushed back with a "tired shoulder" though. And that comes after two starts in which he averaged twenty pitches an inning. One old fart gets his wish and gets positively hammered in Fenway, the other old fart comes up lame. Not good with the playoffs so close.

I admit the likelihood of a division lead collapse is not great, but with three against Minnesota, its quite possible that Toronto and Baltimore will have something to say about the AL East.

[sheldonm]

Well, Harold, I bet it feels good knowing that if not for another Red Sox Manager Brain Fart, it would have been a sweep in Fenway and a 1.5 game lead heading into the last week (which would be half a game right now with the rain outs).  Kind of like Florida State/Miami and "Wide Right"-the gift that keeps on giving.

But I'll bet your feeling pretty antsy about El Duque having his start pushed back with a "tired shoulder" though.  And that comes after two starts in which he averaged twenty pitches an inning.  One old fart gets his wish and gets positively hammered in Fenway, the other old fart comes up lame.  Not good with the playoffs so close.

I admit the likelihood of a division lead collapse is not great, but with three against Minnesota, its quite possible that Toronto and Baltimore will have something to say about the AL East.

Dan,

While your team may not win the division, I will give you credit for hanging on until the end and never giving up. Nothing worse than someone who jumps on the bandwagon at the last second or bails on their team when the chips are down! I'm not a RedSox fan or even an American League fan but I'll pull for your team (at least in the AL)! I'm sure I will be a big help as they drive towards the pennant!

Mark

p.s. I went to Fenway a couple years ago on one of my yearly baseball pilgrimages and it was a blast. Had seats about 8 rows behind the Sox dugout. Made many nice photographs of the stadium; pretty cool place!

Edited September 29, 2004 by sheldonm

[ghost of miles]

I hadn't realized how close Suzuki was to Sisler's hits record--a record I hadn't thought about in a long time.

Of course, there's the old 154/162 saw!

[PHILLYQ]

I hadn't realized how close Suzuki was to Sisler's hits record--a record I hadn't thought about in a long time.

Of course, there's the old 154/162 saw!

Sisler also did it with much fewer at bats, and he hit around .420! However, Sisler did it when there were only white players, you rarely faced more than one pitcher in a game, and travel was rather limited. Interesting that this record hasn't been seriously challenged up until now.

That said, Ichiro hardly walks at all, and his OBP is lower than Jorge Posada's. Posada walks 90-100 times a year and his BA is around .265 now, but with the walks his OBP is about .400. So while Ichiro gets tons of hits, Posada helps his team win more games by getting on base more often.

[PHILLYQ]

Well, Harold, I bet it feels good knowing that if not for another Red Sox Manager Brain Fart, it would have been a sweep in Fenway and a 1.5 game lead heading into the last week (which would be half a game right now with the rain outs). Kind of like Florida State/Miami and "Wide Right"-the gift that keeps on giving.

But I'll bet your feeling pretty antsy about El Duque having his start pushed back with a "tired shoulder" though. And that comes after two starts in which he averaged twenty pitches an inning. One old fart gets his wish and gets positively hammered in Fenway, the other old fart comes up lame. Not good with the playoffs so close.

I admit the likelihood of a division lead collapse is not great, but with three against Minnesota, its quite possible that Toronto and Baltimore will have something to say about the AL East.

Both Boston and the Yanks are in the playoffs, so who wins the AL East is not that big a deal. Keep in mind that Baltimore has given the Bosox fits this year- they may help the Yanks win the division.

El Duque's injury does concern me- I was thinking of a playoff rotation of him, Mussina & Lieber, as Brown seems to be out of gas(& brains-PUNCH A WALL, YOU IDIOT?) & Vasquez is just lost. If El Duque can't make the playoffs as the effective pitcher he has been, it may be a long winter in NYC.

[Guy Berger]

Ichiro is now only two hits away from Sisler's record...

Guy

[Dan Gould]

Well, Harold, I bet it feels good knowing that if not for another Red Sox Manager Brain Fart, it would have been a sweep in Fenway and a 1.5 game lead heading into the last week (which would be half a game right now with the rain outs).  Kind of like Florida State/Miami and "Wide Right"-the gift that keeps on giving.

But I'll bet your feeling pretty antsy about El Duque having his start pushed back with a "tired shoulder" though.  And that comes after two starts in which he averaged twenty pitches an inning.  One old fart gets his wish and gets positively hammered in Fenway, the other old fart comes up lame.  Not good with the playoffs so close.

I admit the likelihood of a division lead collapse is not great, but with three against Minnesota, its quite possible that Toronto and Baltimore will have something to say about the AL East.

Dan,

While your team may not win the division, I will give you credit for hanging on until the end and never giving up. Nothing worse than someone who jumps on the bandwagon at the last second or bails on their team when the chips are down! I'm not a RedSox fan or even an American League fan but I'll pull for your team (at least in the AL)! I'm sure I will be a big help as they drive towards the pennant!

Mark

Thanks, Mark!

Philly,

As I've been saying, both teams want to avoid Minnesota (and Santana) in a five game series, but especially the Red Sox, since as wild card they'd be on the road for three of them. So I guess at this point I have to root for the Yanks to sweep today, and that the A's (or Aneheim) sweep this weekend. I likes our chances if its Yanks/Minnesota and Sox/A's or Angels.

Of course, as worried as the Yanks are about their pitching, we've got to start worrying about Pedro. 10 hits and five earned runs in five innings to Tampa Bay??

[Aggie87]

Astros moved into the lead in the NL wild card race yesterday, with only a home series against Colorado left. I didn't really think they had it in them to get back into playoff contention, but they surprised me. Hope they don't choke against the Rockies.

[Dave James]

Dan,

Well I'm feeling a bit better this morning, although the news about El Duque is a bit unsettling. A couple of nice performances from my boys yesterday...getting past Santana, even if he didn't take the loss, is something not many teams have done of late. Magic number is down to one. Boston is off today while we finish up the series with the Twins. Then it's on to Toronto and the Sox get the Orioles. Someplace in those seven games is the magic "1". Hopefully, that comes tonight so the Yanks can get some rest between now and next Tuesday.

I hear you about Pedro. He really seems to have come up lame. You guys have got to have 100% of him in the playoffs, or that will make the Sox staff a lot more average and a lot more beatable. Shilling can only go so often. Of course, the Yanks aren't faring much better. Looks like Brown is out of the starting rotation, so we're going with Hernandez, Leiber, Vasquez and Mussina. With Brown's stuff, he and Rivera could make a formidable pair of "closers", dare I say along the same lines as the Rivera / Wetteland combo of 1996. When you throw in Quantrill and Gordon, it could, for all intents and purposes, turn most games into six inning affairs. The problem is you've got to get to the sixth inning.

Boy, how much are you looking forward to the A's and the Angels this weekend. The schedulers couldn't have come up with a better plan. Mano a mano, head to head...that's the way it always should be.

Up over and Harold.

[Dan Gould]

Nice pic, Harold. Did you see your namesake serve as equipment boy for the Sox last week? Pretty funny stuff, though I understood that the people he replaced also got the chance to be Baseball Tonite analysts, and I missed that part.

Anywhoo, I'll concede the division, but I think you're still a tad too optimistic in some ways:

For Brown to be a fearsome reliever, he has to find a fastball above 90 mph, and that doesn't seem physically possible. As Torre said, he might get you out of a jam with "courage" but really, how often can you hope for that without any stuff to back it up?

As for Quantrill, he's a disaster since the all-star break, with an ERA over 6 since then. In fact, Quantril is the reason they're hoping Brown can be effective out of the pen, because they don't trust Quantrill and they can't throw Flash every day. In fact, how did the Sox come back on Saturday? Against Quantrill, and they were resting Gordon.

Last, I'm not sure you "got past" Santana as much as managed to win on a day he was on a very short pitch count. I don't think the Yanks win the opener yesterday with Santana pitching deeper into the game. But I say, keep beating the Twins, send them into a tailspin through the weekend. Beating Santana in a short series is a tough job, and I'll enjoy watching the Yanks try.

As for Pedro, I wouldn't say he's come up lame. He actually hit 96 on the radar gun which is a season high. He had no command though. He needs to get his command back pronto, and keep the intensity that he showed when he kicked it up and worked out of a bases loaded no outs situation. In other words, I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Pedro just yet.

It will definitely be interesting to see if the A's can stop the Angels march or not. They're certainly the hot team right now.

[Big Al]

Rangers officially eliminated last night. ‘Twas fun while it lasted. A lot of fun!!!! Hopefully, they can keep these guys together and with a little fine-tuning be a powerhouse of a team next year!

[PHILLYQ]

Rangers officially eliminated last night. ‘Twas fun while it lasted. A lot of fun!!!! Hopefully, they can keep these guys together and with a little fine-tuning be a powerhouse of a team next year!

Considering that they finished last for three years in a row, they had a great year to be in it this late. They just need some decent pitching to go with that great hitting and they'll be a force to reckon with.

Funny how Showalter is not such a bad guy when his team wins, right?

[Johnny E]

So while Ichiro gets tons of hits, Posada helps his team win more games by getting on base more often.

Walks don't drive in runs and move runners along the same way walks do. Plus Ichiro has a canon for an arm and steals bases. Which would you all want on your team, Posada or Ichiro?

No brainer.

[PHILLYQ]

So while Ichiro gets tons of hits, Posada helps his team win more games by getting on base more often.

Walks don't drive in runs and move runners along the same way walks do. Plus Ichiro has a canon for an arm and steals bases. Which would you all want on your team, Posada or Ichiro?

No brainer.

Johnny E,

There are really only two things that you can do when you get up to bat- get on base or make an out. With that in mind, OBP is a lot more important than BA. BA tells you about hits, but not much about how often you get on base compared to appearances. In 1996, the Yanks had Mariano Duncan as their second baseman. He hit .340 and walked 9 times- his OBP was a measly .352, pathetic for someone hitting .340. The goal on offense is to score runs, and runs scored correlate much more highly to OBP than to BA. Barry Bonds is considered by many the best offensive player in the game right now, and he has a slightly lower BA than Ichiro, but his OBP is about 200+ points higher. Walks do matter-they're not outs.

Check out Moneyball(a very good read,regardless- Art Howe comes off clueless!) or a Bill James book. I was at first skeptical, but they can prove it.

Edited October 1, 2004 by PHILLYQ

[PHILLYQ]

So while Ichiro gets tons of hits, Posada helps his team win more games by getting on base more often.

Walks don't drive in runs and move runners along the same way walks do. Plus Ichiro has a canon for an arm and steals bases. Which would you all want on your team, Posada or Ichiro?

No brainer.

Don't know what Ichiro's stolen base percentage is, but below about 80% doesn't really help much, as every caught stealing is an out created.

[Big Al]

Funny how Showalter is not such a bad guy when his team wins, right?

I dunno: whose bright idea was it to start Chan Ho(rrible) Park against the Angels with the season on the line? Guy gives up eight runs and claims that he had "good stuff" after the game! Yeah, the other team's hitters certainly thought so, as they made it souvenir night for the folks in the bleachers!

New chant at the Ballpark:

HEY HEY HO HO

CHAN HO'S GOT TO GO!!!

(Edidet fro slepping)

Edited October 1, 2004 by Big Al

[Dave James]

According to today's Wall Street Journal, it is possible to draw statistically relevant conclusions from an analysis of a team's performance in one run ballgames during the regular season. They've dubbed this "The Nailbiter Index". For six years in a row and seven out of the last nine, at least one team that topped its league playoff draw in Nailbiters has made it to the World Series. Further, in the wild-card era, only four teams with sub .500 Nailbiter records have won a playoff series.

So, without further ado, here are the American and National League indeces. Wins and losses followed by the percentage:

AMERICAN

Oakland 31 18 .633

New York 23 16 .590

Minnesota 22 16 .579

Boston 16 17 .485

Anaheim 18 20 .474

NATIONAL

Los Angeles 32 16 .667

San Diego 24 14 .632

Atlanta 26 17 .605

St. Louis 29 19 .604

Houston 24 18 .571

San Fran 18 25 .419

Chicago 19 28 .404

Up over and out.

Edited October 1, 2004 by Dave James

[Johnny E]

Ichiro:

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG

2004 158 690 99 256 24 5 8 60 49 61 35 11 .371 .414 .455

Posada:

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG

2004 136 447 72 121 31 0 21 81 88 92 1 3 .271 . 400 .481

Come on PhillyQ,

If you add walks and hits Ichiro has 305, Posada has 202. Ichiro has 243 more AB's than Posada, but he also 135 more hits. 135!!! Posada only has 121 total! The OBP is important, but if you think Posada is as much of an impact player as Ichiro, I think maybe it’s because you don't get to watch the guy day in and day out like I do. He's truly is a phenomenon.

[ghost of miles]

Yanks wrapped up the division and broke their own team record for home runs--241 now & counting. Huzzah!

[doubleM]

Aw, Hell Yeah!!!!

[PHILLYQ]

Yanks wrapped up the division and broke their own team record for home runs--241 now & counting. Huzzah!

The game last night had a wonderful,'only in Yankee Stadium' ending. A tie game, Matsui works a walk and Bernie Williams sends one out! It was so nice to see him do well, he's one of the classiest people in all of sports. He had a difficult year, with an emergency appendectomy, shuffled around in the lineup, sometimes benched for Lofton, but didn't whine and moan about it. bernie, this one's for you

[PHILLYQ]

Ichiro:

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG

2004 158 690 99 256 24 5 8 60 49 61 35 11 .371 .414 .455

Posada:

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG

2004 136 447 72 121 31 0 21 81 88 92 1 3 .271 . 400 .481

Come on PhillyQ,

If you add walks and hits Ichiro has 305, Posada has 202. Ichiro has 243 more AB's than Posada, but he also 135 more hits. 135!!! Posada only has 121 total! The OBP is important, but if you think Posada is as much of an impact player as Ichiro, I think maybe it’s because you don't get to watch the guy day in and day out like I do. He's truly is a phenomenon.

Ichiro's OBP is only slightly better than Posada's, yet his BA is much,much higher. Look in the Sunday newspaper, where most papers will have the teams BA, OBP, runs scored. Check how BA does not correlate to runs scored, but OBP is much closer to a very good correlation.

I don't deny that Ichiro is a very good player, but if he walked as much as Posada he would be of much more value to his team because he would make less outs.