Wednesday, February 23, 2011
I'm a D-Backs Fan
This morning at 0630 I was driving Bobby to work and of course felt like crap so I turned the radio to 620am the local sports radio. They were talking about the DBacks and their "rebound" year and I of course rolled my eyes and almost tuned the radio back to PM to hopefully catch a George Straight song. I decided to keep listening as they interviewed Daniel Hudson (gonna be a stud) and began to here a certain attitude coming from the DBacks club house. The next guy they interviewed was JJ Putz....BADASS!!
I might buy a Putz jersey. First of all he grew up in Michigan and his day was a Green Beret in Vietnam, NBD. He was a stud pitcher and an All-State QB until his Junior year when he quit football to commit everything to pitching. Then he went to the University of Michigan (gross) and lived in the same dorm and partied with Tom Brady. He LOVES the military and America. He only reads war books and just got done reading Lone Survivor. He's considered leaving baseball to join the Army a bunch of times but his dad always talks him out of it.
When he comes into the game to close out the games (hopefully gets SOME opportunities with the DBacks) they play "Thunderstruck". Possibly one of the greatest songs ever written, ever. Every strike out they play Thunderstruck again. He's 6'5" and they call him "Big Guy". He's the man, I hope he gets 50 saves this year.
Point being...I can't resist any longer. Living down the street from the stadium, listening to the local radio and reading local articles it's just to hard to resist. Now with a great American like Putz anchoring the bullpen then I'm in. I already own a DBacks hat so it's on like donkey kong. I hope they do well this year and at least finish .500...let's just pray for the best.
I might buy a Putz jersey. First of all he grew up in Michigan and his day was a Green Beret in Vietnam, NBD. He was a stud pitcher and an All-State QB until his Junior year when he quit football to commit everything to pitching. Then he went to the University of Michigan (gross) and lived in the same dorm and partied with Tom Brady. He LOVES the military and America. He only reads war books and just got done reading Lone Survivor. He's considered leaving baseball to join the Army a bunch of times but his dad always talks him out of it.
When he comes into the game to close out the games (hopefully gets SOME opportunities with the DBacks) they play "Thunderstruck". Possibly one of the greatest songs ever written, ever. Every strike out they play Thunderstruck again. He's 6'5" and they call him "Big Guy". He's the man, I hope he gets 50 saves this year.
Point being...I can't resist any longer. Living down the street from the stadium, listening to the local radio and reading local articles it's just to hard to resist. Now with a great American like Putz anchoring the bullpen then I'm in. I already own a DBacks hat so it's on like donkey kong. I hope they do well this year and at least finish .500...let's just pray for the best.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Unsung Heroes of Baseball
A cool article about clubhouse managers, what a job to have.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/dan_shaughnessy/02/21/baseballs.unsung/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_sports
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/dan_shaughnessy/02/21/baseballs.unsung/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_sports
Friday, February 18, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Pujols-why the Cards should let him walk.
WAR
Wins over replacement.
Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an attempt by the sabermetric community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic. You should always use more than one metric at a time when evaluating players, but WAR is pretty darn all-inclusive and provides a handy reference point. WAR basically looks at a player and asks the question, “If this player got injured and their team had to replace them with a minor leaguer or someone from their bench, how much value would the team be losing?” This value is expressed in a wins format, so we could say that Player X is worth 6.3 wins to their team while Player Y is only worth 3.5 wins.
From 2001-2010 Albert leads MLB with a 80.6
But, 30 million a year?
Did you know? With 400 at bats, the difference between hitting .287 and .302 is 10 hits.
Do you know how Pujols has done in the post-season? With Pujols last year they stunk. In two World Series (2004 + 2006) Albert has a .267 avg. 1 HR, 2 RBI
He is 31, he is already SLOWLY declining, avg has dropped the last three years. Bat speed.
He still is amazing, but 30 million?
What wins Championships? Pitching, defense and speed.
If they weren't paying big Al 30 mil, they could get more pitching, speed.
Wins over replacement.
Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an attempt by the sabermetric community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic. You should always use more than one metric at a time when evaluating players, but WAR is pretty darn all-inclusive and provides a handy reference point. WAR basically looks at a player and asks the question, “If this player got injured and their team had to replace them with a minor leaguer or someone from their bench, how much value would the team be losing?” This value is expressed in a wins format, so we could say that Player X is worth 6.3 wins to their team while Player Y is only worth 3.5 wins.
From 2001-2010 Albert leads MLB with a 80.6
But, 30 million a year?
Did you know? With 400 at bats, the difference between hitting .287 and .302 is 10 hits.
Do you know how Pujols has done in the post-season? With Pujols last year they stunk. In two World Series (2004 + 2006) Albert has a .267 avg. 1 HR, 2 RBI
He is 31, he is already SLOWLY declining, avg has dropped the last three years. Bat speed.
He still is amazing, but 30 million?
What wins Championships? Pitching, defense and speed.
If they weren't paying big Al 30 mil, they could get more pitching, speed.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Watch out for the Pirates
Pirates on the rise.
check out the video.
http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13107441&topic_id=8877442&c_id=pit
check out the video.
http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13107441&topic_id=8877442&c_id=pit
Arbitration and the Demise of Baseball
A guy goes 1-11 making $439,000.
The Pirates make him an impressive offer, 1.4 million. (Why?)
The arbitrators awarded him 2.025 million. Why? They didn't want to punish him cause he played for the Pirates and on any other team he would have had more wins.
Who are these jokers called arbitrators?
The Pirates and starter Ross Ohlendorf went to an arbitration hearing this week, and a club official confirmed Wednesday that the three-man panel of arbiters sided with Ohlendorf, who will make $2.025 million in 2011.
Ohlendorf made $439,000 last season and was eligible for arbitration through "Super Two" status. The Pirates had countered his demands with an offer of $1.4 million, and the two sides were unable to reach an independent agreement.
"While disappointed with the result, we respect the process and the work that the arbitrators do for the parties," Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said. "We look forward to a healthy and winning season from Ross in 2011."
Ohlendorf, 28, went 1-11 with a 4.07 ERA in 21 starts for the Pirates this year. He was hampered by back and shoulder injuries. In 2009, Ohlendorf went 11-10 with a 3.92 ERA in 29 starts. The Pirates acquired Ohlendorf in a 2008 trade that sent Damaso Marte and Xavier Nady to the Yankees.
Six Weeks of Contenders
I LOVE this time of year. I love everything about it.
Two days from now is the start of six weeks of contenders. A time when every team has promise, every team is in first place and every team is a playoff contender. Free Agent signings in the offseason, trades, players that are going to "rebound", players coming off injury are going to "return to form" and the blind ignorance of being a die hard fan that make us all believe that our team is going to the playoffs this year.
It's when the Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training. Arguably the best day of the year. I remember in Vermont throwing a baseball on the frozen road in February with my brother because it was the only place that wasn't covered in snow and if the ball went off the road it would bounce down the road and we could still find it. When Pitchers and Catchers reported, we went outside in the freezing cold to throw a baseball. Why? Because it was "Baseball Season", the greatest sport in America has awoken from it's wintery slumber and it was time to fall in love with the game all over again.
In Arizona it's a little different. The weather is already great and possibly perfect every single day. It's warming back up and the grass on the baseball diamonds are perfectly green. Noah and I when we first moved here used to just walk onto the San Francisco Giants practice fields (which were 100x nicer than any baseball diamond either of us had EVER played on) and we would play homerun derby with our friends. You don't realize how nice that grass is until you run down a long drive to left center, almost hoping it was a little out of your reach so you would be forced to lay out on that grass. It's simply perfect. Nowaday's the fields are a little more restricted and you can't just play on them but you can sit there in the park and just watch the guys practice on the four fields. Running bases, throwing drills, hitting drills. Their facilities are amazing but watching the process for all the guys is really entertaining for a true baseball fan. Families sit out there with their kids watching the "pros" (who are really just invitees and minor league rookies at this point) and to them it's the greatest thing in the world. Just as it should be.
Spring Training isn't just the promise of a winning season. I'm a Diamondbacks fan, thru and thru at this point. Grew up LOVING the Yankees when Don Mattingly was the MAN, Danny Tartabul was racking in dingers and they didn't make the playoffs ever. But now after living in Arizona for ten years the Diamondbacks are my hometeam. Horrible as they are they are promising and I'm really excited to see what each of their new players can do. On paper they are better but are they really? They are until April 2nd when the season starts but until that day I'm going to watch them day in and day out. I'm going to read every single article in the paper, on the internet and on the back of a magazine. Who's doing well, who's getting shelled, who's making the team, and who's getting the red tape in their locker. It's the greatest thing about Spring Training. It's not just a bunch of games to practice or to go get a beer under the sun. These games all mean something to these guys that are not locked in. Every pitch is potentially their last and every at bat could be their last shot at making it to "The Show." When you think of it in those terms the stakes are a lot higher for the guys and a lot more exciting to watch it develop.
I'm still looking forward to the 82 degree sunny days in March at the new Diamondbacks complex sitting on the perfect green grass drinking a $9 American beer watching an American game eating an American hot dog. Few things in life to me are better than that but doing that while watching my team under an unbrella of promise playoffs? I'll take that all day long, even if it only lasts until April 2nd...
Two days from now is the start of six weeks of contenders. A time when every team has promise, every team is in first place and every team is a playoff contender. Free Agent signings in the offseason, trades, players that are going to "rebound", players coming off injury are going to "return to form" and the blind ignorance of being a die hard fan that make us all believe that our team is going to the playoffs this year.
It's when the Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training. Arguably the best day of the year. I remember in Vermont throwing a baseball on the frozen road in February with my brother because it was the only place that wasn't covered in snow and if the ball went off the road it would bounce down the road and we could still find it. When Pitchers and Catchers reported, we went outside in the freezing cold to throw a baseball. Why? Because it was "Baseball Season", the greatest sport in America has awoken from it's wintery slumber and it was time to fall in love with the game all over again.
In Arizona it's a little different. The weather is already great and possibly perfect every single day. It's warming back up and the grass on the baseball diamonds are perfectly green. Noah and I when we first moved here used to just walk onto the San Francisco Giants practice fields (which were 100x nicer than any baseball diamond either of us had EVER played on) and we would play homerun derby with our friends. You don't realize how nice that grass is until you run down a long drive to left center, almost hoping it was a little out of your reach so you would be forced to lay out on that grass. It's simply perfect. Nowaday's the fields are a little more restricted and you can't just play on them but you can sit there in the park and just watch the guys practice on the four fields. Running bases, throwing drills, hitting drills. Their facilities are amazing but watching the process for all the guys is really entertaining for a true baseball fan. Families sit out there with their kids watching the "pros" (who are really just invitees and minor league rookies at this point) and to them it's the greatest thing in the world. Just as it should be.
Spring Training isn't just the promise of a winning season. I'm a Diamondbacks fan, thru and thru at this point. Grew up LOVING the Yankees when Don Mattingly was the MAN, Danny Tartabul was racking in dingers and they didn't make the playoffs ever. But now after living in Arizona for ten years the Diamondbacks are my hometeam. Horrible as they are they are promising and I'm really excited to see what each of their new players can do. On paper they are better but are they really? They are until April 2nd when the season starts but until that day I'm going to watch them day in and day out. I'm going to read every single article in the paper, on the internet and on the back of a magazine. Who's doing well, who's getting shelled, who's making the team, and who's getting the red tape in their locker. It's the greatest thing about Spring Training. It's not just a bunch of games to practice or to go get a beer under the sun. These games all mean something to these guys that are not locked in. Every pitch is potentially their last and every at bat could be their last shot at making it to "The Show." When you think of it in those terms the stakes are a lot higher for the guys and a lot more exciting to watch it develop.
I'm still looking forward to the 82 degree sunny days in March at the new Diamondbacks complex sitting on the perfect green grass drinking a $9 American beer watching an American game eating an American hot dog. Few things in life to me are better than that but doing that while watching my team under an unbrella of promise playoffs? I'll take that all day long, even if it only lasts until April 2nd...
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