EVIL~! alkeiper

It's been quite amusing to see the rush by posters here to disassociate themselves from their teams in the National League. Steve Rogers thinks his Mets suck, Czech hates his Cubs and Richard doesn't think the Padres deserve the playoffs. I like the Phillies' chances as much as anyone's, the only issue yet is that they are still fighting from behind. Phillies/Nats at 12pm today. This is the swansong for RFK Stadium as a baseball park.

Yeah, but is that good for Sabathia, or good for Beckett? Sabathia started four more games and still has fewer wins. Of course wins aren't everything, but with four more starts and forty more innings, Sabathia's other numbers should be considerably better in order to beat out Beckett. Frankly, they're not. Carmona's also going to steal some attention away from Sabathia. A great problem for Cleveland to have, but in the end not good for individual award winners. The ERAs are nearly equal. Sabathia has also walked fewer batters in that span. The innings are certainly good for Sabathia, as they mark contributions to the team. Those are innings where the team didn't need to use inferior pitchers. As for Carmona, my experience is that players from the same team usually don't seem to effect the voting. Look at the 2000 N.L. MVP voting with Bonds and Kent.

Ryan Howard is charging fast towards history. Four strikeouts tonight put him at 194, one short of the single season record.

As for the schedule, one thing that makes baseball great (possibly the best thing) is the sheer availability of it. I love that for five months a year, I can decide to go to a baseball game and find something within driving distance. It's like going to the movies. Besides, there is no incentive or reason for MLB to cut games when such a percentage of their revenues is season ticket sales anyway.

The problem with attendance numbers is that they are fluid. The San Francisco Giants drew less than a million fans in 1985. The New York Mets even drew less than one million in 1979. The thing is, it is not the regions as much as their ownership and situations. Tampa Bay is an expansion team that lacks a winning season. Florida has the worst ownership in baseball. Kick Jeffrey Loria out of Miami and give the kids a chance in Tampa Bay for a few years, and things might look very different. Money helps, but ultimately developing your farm system is 90% of the battle.

Real quickly on the Beckett/Sabathia debate. Beckett averages 6.51 runs per game of run support, compared to 5.10 for Sabathia. The big statistic is that Sabathia has pitched 40 more innings this season. Let me address contraction first. I think contraction is a horrible move for any healthy professional sports league. It is a good move only when you are bleeding money to the point where you have to cut off teams to ensure the financial survival of the league. Contracting teams would kill two baseball markets, and then successive markets at each level of the minor leagues. I think the idea that talent is spread thin is demonstratively false if you look closely at the numbers. Alex Rodriguez's next contract will be an indication of how much money MLB currently makes. If the owners claim financial peril, it is only because there is more money to be made for themselves by limited profits by the players. The 1994 strike was a travesty, caused purely by the greed of the owners. It was wholly unnecessary, given that the league survived after the status quo was reinstated in lieu of an immediate settlement. On the first point, I think one of the unfortunate developments of modern sports is the corporate fan. Owners in all sports now realize that the most money comes from the well-heeled fans, and does all they can to cater to those fans. If you have money, MLB has never been better. More comfortable seats, modern amenities, catering, the works. The problem is that if you are a single-game, average fan, you get the leftovers. A family can affordable visit a game in most markets. The problem is that you will sit in the 400 level, or back past center field. Watching the Yankees invade Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was disgusting as the stadium lost all interest in promotions. I wish this could change but if the profits lay wherein, what can be done? The best true baseball experience in this age lays in the minor leagues.

When they weren't old enough to see it then and there's little video footage, it's easy. The only two Hogan/Andre matches I've seen prior to Wrestlemania III come thanks to WWE's own dvd library. I don't mind it. Andre was an easier person to slam in 1980 than in '87. It was six or seven years prior anyway, and it is not like Hogan had pinned Andre in those matches.

I hope not. The only advantage Beckett has over C.C. Sabathia is that 20 is a round number.

The Phillies' uniforms look like the late '40s unis.

I'm still not banking on the Phils until they actually lead. It's unbelievable though that the easiest route to the playoffs now resides in the N.L. East.

I think if a wrestler is deceased he is off the list.

Absolutely. Look for it the day the season ends, or thereabouts.

Wagner's not even in the bullpen, so something is amiss.

I would argue Hamilton has the chance to be every bit as good as Dunn. He hadn't played high level ball consistantly in 4 years and played great this year. If he had 600 at bats this year he'd have 40 home runs as well. He's got a shot. What people don't realize is that at 26, Hamilton doesn't have a lot of development left. Dunn is just a year older. (As a side note, Ryan Howard is only ten days younger than Dunn.) Remember that Hamilton has been protected against lefties as well.

He's saying that although the Phils never made the postseason, he built a quality team. Honestly, he never really made a truly boneheaded move. He traded Scott Rolen but that was after a public feud between Rolen and Larry Bowa that forced a deal. The Curt Schilling trade brought over a couple good seasons of Vicente Padilla. I can't really find a single player the Phils traded under Wade that came back to bite him. Meanwhile, the major pieces of the Phillies as mentioned were drafted under Wade. The Abreu for Stocker deal occured on his watch, as did the Estrada for Millwood deal. Wade was GM when the Phillies took Shane Victorino in the Rule V draft. The only strike is that Wade tends to overpay for middle relief. I miss those days.

I'll remember this night every time I see Matt Maloney win a game for the Reds. Anyone with the Phillies feed ever notice when they run a stat on the screen. Gary Matthews awkwardly reads the stat and pretty much states what it says. They show Jason Bergmann's first/second half split. "Jason Bergmann's ERA in the second half has been higher." Sarge seems like a likeable guy. He adds nothing to the broadcast. Come to think of it, neither does the pitching.

As for Dunn, it's easy to say he could cut back on the strikeouts. Just as I could say Jeff Francoeur should walk more. But it's not so easy to actually do it. Dunn's approach works in its own way. One of Earl Weaver's truisms was that a good manager looks at what a player CAN do, rather than what he can't. Bad organizations look at what a player can't do. Unfortunately Reds' broadcaster Marty Brennaman really gets on Dunn's case and I think that poisons the fanbase.

Hopper's a AAA guy, he's not a long term solution. Neither him or Hamilton are better players than Dunn. Jay Bruce maybe, he's VERY highly regarded.

Why won't the Padres lose? Jesus f'n christ.

It's mostly kayfabed. We go through this every year.

Ed Wade got a bum rap for failing to put the Phillies over the top. Pat Gillick has not done much better. Under Wade, the Phillies turned from a 90-loss team to a contender, and drafted and developed Pat Burrell, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels and Brett Myers. I've had the opportunity to meet him and he is a great person.

here's spooky for you...watch WM7...or is it WM6? Kerry Von Erich vs. Dino Bravo. Musta been WM7 because Von Erich debuted summer of 90 in the WWF. Nah, the worst Kerry moment is the 1984 title win. His 13 year old brother greets him in the ring to celebrate. Both eventually committed suicide.

Let's see if I can't explain this properly. Batting average at one time was THE statistic for evaluating hitters. In the 1910s, Chalmers awarded automobiles to the best hitters in each league, and that was determined simply by batting average. The problem is that hitting success, ultimately scoring runs, involves more than batting average. Studies have shown that the most important factor in hitting is whether or not the hitter makes an out. That is where On Base Percentage comes in. Think about it. If you reverse OBP, you have a percentage of the time a hitter makes an out at the plate. To illustrate the point, look at the 1936-39 New York Yankees. They were simply one of the most devastating offensive forces of all time. Four consecutive seasons, they led the league in runs scored. They never led the league in batting average. Batting average is just a starting point. In order to determine a hitter's quality, you need to look at other factors, namely his plate discipline and power. Adam Dunn is hitting .266 with a .387 OBP. Juan Pierre is hitting .293 with a .331 OBP. Pierre has a higher batting average, but he makes outs at a far higher percentage as well. Now what of the value of simply putting a ball in play? The effects are insignificant. Advancing runners is about 5% of offense. Getting runners on base in the first place is the other 95%. The average team makes an error less than once a game. Again I point to running correlations among offensive statistics. The Phillies are third in strikeouts and first in runs scored. The Giants are last in strikeouts, and second to last in runs scored. What does that tell you about the value of putting the ball in play? You mentioned Adam Dunn hitting with a runner on third. I don't have the out situations handy but I can tell you with a runner on third base, Adam Dunn does strike out less (at least this season). The main problem with a hitter like Dunn is that the opposition is going to pitch around him in a key situation. But if Dunn doesn't strike out, he's either going to walk, or he's going to hit the ball so hard that it will result in a sacrifice fly. Ultimately, there is no single blueprint for a hitter. Some guys are high average, medium power hitters who are highly productive. Dunn is a unique player, but he produces as many runs at the plate as any other hitter in the league.

It's getting late for myself, but sometime in the near future I'll tackle this in a little detail. It's fairly common and I think it could provide for a good educational experience. I don't want to see a poster piled on unnecessarily.

Adam Dunn has struck out 1,089 times coming into tonight. 181 times (16.6%), it was on an 0-2 count. 300 times (27.5%) it was 1-2. That's assuming they don't hit a foul ball with two strikes. Besides that though, we have a concrete measure. Adam Dunn ranks fourth in the NL in pitches per plate appearance. Juan Pierre is not a good leadoff hitter. He led the National League in outs last season and is second this season.