EVIL~! alkeiper

You'd think you would at least be encouraged by Kevin Brown's best start all year. Still, it is nice to see the Yankees five games behind Baltimore. While I'm looking at the standings, anyone catch Houston's Home/Road splits? 7-2 at Minute Maid Park, but 1-10 on the road.

Basically they show a question in the third inning, and the first person to e-mail the correct answer wins. This one asked "The Philadelphia Phillies have their best record against the New York Mets. Against which team do they have their second best record?" Or something along those lines. The answer was the San Diego Padres. I knew it had to be an expansion team because we could not possibly have a winning record against any team we played in the 30s and 40s, and after that it was a lucky guess.

As Pinjockey noted in last week's baseball thread, I won the Phillies' Stump the Fans trivia contest last Monday. My package came in today, and consisted of an assortment of Phillies' giveaways. The items... -Phillies repleca nostalgia hat, from McDonalds. Complete with Blue 'P' on the front. -Bull's BBQ apron -Phillies' rally towel, showing the Phillies' and Washington Nationals' hats for Opening Day. -Pride of the Phillies picture mat, featuring Jim Thome's 400th career home run. -Phillies' schedule magnet Plus, I won the Red Barons' guess the attendance prize at this Monday's game, and received two vouchers for upper level tickets.

You know how pitchers have ERA+? I'd love to see a stat like HR+, that compares home runs to the league average. The home run should not carry nearly as much weight now as it did 30-40 years ago. There is a statistic called OPS+, that compares a player's OPS to the league average. Here is a list of the second basemen I am aware of that compiled career OPS's at least 20% better than the league average. Rogers Hornsby 175 Nap Lajoie 150 Eddie Collins 141 Jackie Robinson 132 Joe Morgan 132 Rod Carew 131 Jeff Kent 125 Bobby Grich 125 Charlie Gehringer 124 Paul Molitor 122 Tony Lazzeri 121 George Grantham 121 Joe Gordon 120 Among second basemen, Kent ranks 7th. All ahead of him belong in the Hall, and Bobby Grich really should be in the Hall.

Because any playoff game is important, because the little fuck was not immediate booted from the stadium, and because there is no fucking reason the right field umpire (Rich Garcia) should have missed that call. The call absolutely cost the Orioles the game. It allowed the tying run to score. If not for that game, the series is 3-2 after five, and while the Orioles would have needed to win the next two, that is certainly not an impossible task. In fact, while we're calling for astericks due to steroid use, I demand one of my own. Derek Jeter's postseason line should forever contain an asterick that declares, "Derek Jeter collected a home run instead of a flyball out because of a little dickweed fan."

Essentially, Jeff Kent already has more home runs than any second baseman in the Hall of Fame. If he reaches 350-400 home runs while playing second base it is going to be very, very difficult to ignore his case.

9-0 lead right now. My team looks like an absolute juggernaut.

I correctly predicted the attendance at the last Red Barons' game.

The 1994 Strike, easily. The owners sold the National Pastime down the river just so they could try and get more money back from the players.

I agree with the conclusion, but again Chamberlain racked up those statistics because of the conditions under which he played. He scored a lot of points and racked up tons of rebounds because TEAMS TOOK MORE SHOTS. As for the FG%, look at the leaders in Field Goal Percentage, year by year. Shaquille O'Neal has led the league in FG% eight times. Then we have Eddy Curry, Gheorghe Muresan, Chris Gatling, Artis Gilmore, Cedric Ceballos, Buck Williams, James Donaldson. I don't know about you guys, but those names hardly inspire the image of the great shooters in NBA history. Meanwhile, how many times has the NBA leader in 3 point percentage also led the league in Field Goal Percentage? Never. The leaders in field goal percentage do not earn that distinction by shooting well. They do so because they are power forwards and centers, and therefore they shoot the ball closer to the basket, if not at point blank range.

Did you see the game? The Athletics' radio announcers indicated something about the ball hitting the bat and not Crede, but my girlfriend's mother called and I missed some details.

This game trumps all. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/VNYN01986.htm Jesse Orosco and Roger McDowell were both pressed into the lineup in extra innings, and actually took turns pitching and playing the outfield. Gary Carter played third base.

Nope. He's never played in the infield as a major leaguer.

Crazy game in Oakland right now. Due to a shortage, Jermaine Dye is now playing short.

Chien-Ming Wang: 92.3 IP, 104 H, 27 BBs, 59 Ks, 11 HRs, 4.68 ERA Jaret Wright: 144.7 IP, 151 H, 58 BBs, 115 Ks, 17 HRs, 4.69 ERA

Wang's projections were as good as Wright's projections.

Unless I'm mistaken, he won't get that chance. He'll be sent down when Wang is called up to join the rotation. But I could be wrong. Both deserve a chance. Bean has a career 11.68 K/9 rate in the minor leagues, along with a reasonable walk rate and very low HR rate. And according to Baseball Prospectus, Wang's projections were every bit as good as Jaret Wright's, before Wright's injury. Is that really saying much? Well, when one is paid $7 Million, and one is paid $300,000, it says alot about your franchise.

Unless I'm mistaken, he won't get that chance. He'll be sent down when Wang is called up to join the rotation. But I could be wrong. Both deserve a chance. Bean has a career 11.68 K/9 rate in the minor leagues, along with a reasonable walk rate and very low HR rate. And according to Baseball Prospectus, Wang's projections were every bit as good as Jaret Wright's, before Wright's injury.

And once again, A-Rod fails in a clutch situation.

Nice debut for Colter Bean, who deserves an extended trial in the Majors.

And he'll have a shot or two at number four. It's a good day to have him on my fantasy squad.

They would be better off DHing Phillips and playing Tino in the field, but point taken.

Watching the Phillies/Nationals, I could swear half the crowd are Phillies fans.

A large part of LA's success was the surprise season of Adrian Beltre, and whether or not they re-signed him, it was unlikely they would see that kind of production again in their lineup. Meanwhile, the Padres saw no major losses except for David Wells, and they replaced him with Woody Williams.

The sabermetric community went about 70/30 on the Dodgers, mostly going against them if they picked the Padres instead, who are also fairly good. The ESPN crew and others went against them because of the team chemestry b.s. and blind hatred of everything Moneyball related. That they are still on this poll is a joke. If you asked me before the season who I thought would win the West, and you told me you'd spot me five games on the Padres and Giants, it would be no contest.