October 2017
AFL guest piece by moethedog
Posted by jemanji on 10/31/17
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moethedog accidentally put his AFL article under the "ALL" domain, as Dr. D also accidentally does, about twice a week. We moved it to the baseball subdomain here, so the "byline" unfortunately appears as jemanji. Keith wrote it.
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Farmhand Eric Filia is still leading the Arizona Fall League in hitting. His .410-.500-.641 line means he is leading in OBP and OPS, as well.
So I got to thinking: What does it mean to win the batting title in the AFL? Well, as it turns out, it is decently meaningful.
The AFL batting champion in '16 was Gleyber Torres. He's now ranked as the #3 prospect,... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 10/31/17
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James' article today concerned the JonBenet Ramsey case. He has made it a public quest to exonerate Patsay Ramsey and he presents his own analysis of four handwritten documents. The "question" is whether a person like James, who has no "credentials" in handwriting analysis, is entitled to present his own arguments as to whether Ramsey's handwriting matches that of the ransom note.
I doubt there is any Denizen here who feels it is a bad thing for James to present detail arguments, for the layman's consideration, on any subject. Obviously his detail arguments are subject to rebuttal,... Read More
As a rule, the Mainframe does not object to adding Grandmasters to the team
Posted by jemanji on 10/30/17
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Matt sez, in response to the fact that SportSpyder captured some headlines referring to Dr. Martin,
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Want some chatter on Martin. No...not Leonys. Lorena.
After years of complaining that the Mariners are HORRIBLE at keeping players both healthy and maximally productive for their ability, the Mariners are trying something new and bringing in a guru in combining sports psychology, sports performance analytics, and training science into a big-data-driven department to oversee player conditioning, mental skills training, and conditioning science.
She wrote a book...any of you want to read it... Read More
popcorn-machine winds, icy rain and gopher balls have left a landscape rather different than 5 years ago
Posted by jemanji on 10/30/17
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10 Comments
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Chucky wrote a comment, thanks for throwing a 'tater in the pot bud, and we realized it could feasibly make for a lively chat ...
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Totally Agree!
[Rick sez] Btw, outside of Root sports during the season and the statistics sites for statistics, doc, this is the only place I go for Mariner information anymore. You’re a great gatekeeper. To borrow from Simon and Garfunkel: I get all the news I need from the Jemanji report. The other great thing is the community vetts and augments your stuff so well. This has gone, for me anyway, from the best Mariner site to the only Mariner site.... Read More
Dr. D isn't sure what a Gnostic is, exactly, but Mel Jr. might know
Posted by jemanji on 10/28/17
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The first half of David Laurila's fine interview sounded, to many of us, a little too much "I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you," especially in view of Seattle's 30-ish run differential over the last two years combined. The second part of that interview was more specific:
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On pitching philosophy and park effects: “(Pitching coach) Mel Stottlemyre, Jr. has a great plan with his pitchers. More importantly, they have trust in him. This is the guy you want to go into battle with. He’s a trenches guy. Stot has been on major league mounds almost since he was born. He grew up in a great... Read More
Is total baseball knowledge now represented by 1,000 bulbs... or 7,000?
Posted by jemanji on 10/28/17
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2 Comments
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Sad as it may sound, Dr. D was noodling through the February 2012 Hey Bills. He enjoyed the cogency of this remark:
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Would it be fair to say that, while stolen bases are, in general, net neutral and the sacrifice is, over all, a net negative, that they can be valuable in creating a specific run at a highly leveraged time? That teams need players who can do these things because you never when you'll need to play "small ball" to carve out a run? Or do teams lose just as often as they win when trying to push across a key run?
Asked by: DanaKing
Answered: 2/27/2012
Teams lose just as... Read More
much sound and fury, no doubts there... signifying, what?
Posted by jemanji on 10/28/17
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8 Comments
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At Fangraphs, David Laurila did this entrance interview of Dipoto and how he would differ from Zduriencik. Looking back with the advantage of 24 months' evidence into the hopper:
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Jerry Dipoto has a plan. Importantly, he also has the autonomy to implement it. Free from the shackles of Anaheim, he’s now able to do his own thing, with his own people, in Seattle. That’s good news for Mariners’ fans.
Dipoto is doing more than simply replacing Jack Zduriencik as Seattle’s general manager. He’s enacting philosophical change. The erstwhile Angels GM is a former player with a scouting background... Read More
you got to give a little...taaaake a little... and let your poor heart breaaak a little
Posted by jemanji on 10/28/17
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In the BJOL series on Organizations and Eras, James seems to list four ways to acquire talent that comprise about 80%, 90% of the route to acquiring talent and contending:
Trades.
Picking up scrubs and players other teams have rejected.
The minor leagues.
Free agency.
For some reason, most baseball fans consider #3 the "pure" way to add talent, the "right" way. Dr. Detecto has absolutely no bias towards this method. I mean, he'd rather have Houston's farm system than ours -- but then again, he'd rather have Pat Gillick's eye for a journeyman MLB player than Woody Woodward's. And which,... Read More
If you were wrong, how would you know?
Posted by jemanji on 10/28/17
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thescore.com has Jerry Dipoto on record, confessing as to the WORST trade he ever made: Chris Taylor:
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"It's clearly the worst deal I've ever made," DiPoto told Matt Calkins of the Seattle Times. "And it resonates every time he hits a home run."
... "I whiffed. There’s no other way to categorize it," DiPoto added. "He’s young, he was under club control - that was one I wish I could undo."
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Wellllll .... when we say "How could I have gone so WRONG?" there are definitely your Darren Dreifort contracts out there. But the irony here is that Dr. D was just about to write up a post... Read More
we've released players for much, much less than THIS, need
Posted by jemanji on 10/27/17
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SABRMatty axed, re James' rookie-tier system,
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The quality of a season should probably be up-rated the younger a player is when having it...not sure to what level...my guess would be that you'd have to do some back-of-the-envelope math to determine how starting age correlated with average rookie OPS or somesuch and adjust your ratings accordingly.
Re: Game and Heredia and Haniger...I think Heredia's rookie year was misleading...he got poor ratings because he played the last half of the season with a dislocated shoulder recurring regularly without telling anyone on the team about it,... Read More
we've dealt much more harshly than this for much less, Ben
Posted by jemanji on 10/27/17
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SABRMatty axed, re James' rookie-tier system,
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The quality of a season should probably be up-rated the younger a player is when having it...not sure to what level...my guess would be that you'd have to do some back-of-the-envelope math to determine how starting age correlated with average rookie OPS or somesuch and adjust your ratings accordingly.
Re: Game and Heredia and Haniger...I think Heredia's rookie year was misleading...he got poor ratings because he played the last half of the season with a dislocated shoulder recurring regularly without telling anyone on the team about it,... Read More
and his partners in crime
Posted by jemanji on 10/27/17
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Mo' Dawg sez,
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Wild that Gamel beats Haniger by a level.
I am big on Gamel as I think he ups his HR totals as he learns to poach pitches, But Haniger is the likely beter bet, in my mind, anyway.
But if I did the math correctly, Gamel's rookie season was better than 95% of historical rookie seasons.
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Don't know if it adds up to 95% ... hmmm. There were 15,907 rookie seasons, some of which were by the same person. James wittily pointed out that Carson Kelly of the White Sox had one of the seasons in 2016, had another such season this year, and will have yet another one if he... Read More
Part-time or Full-Time?
Posted by jemanji on 10/27/17
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1 Comments
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WHENCE HEREDIA?
Diderot sez,
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What level of offensive does he need to produce in order to be our starting CF? I am a huge fan.
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To which Matty sez,
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I'd say 95 OPS+ with better baserunning. Heredia would be a better weapon if he learned how to run the bases...with his speed, he still manages to be horrible at base-stealing and mediocre at baserunning advances on balls in play. He fixes that and hits .280 with decent walks and low Ks, and he's a starter.
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Heredia sank back to 0.0 WAR as a center fielder on Fangraphs -- "a man who can play major league baseball" as Fangraphs put it --... Read More
All Rise, dept.
Posted by jemanji on 10/24/17
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At BJOL I guess they had a spare 20 or 30 minutes, and they scratched up a formula on the back of a baseball envelope to determine whether Aaron Judge is a superstar. (He is.)
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METHOD
James classes all 15,907 position player rooks into 10 categories, using something a la the idea of a standard deviation -- 50% of all seasons were Level One seasons, that is, 7,490 of them. Level Two has about 53% as many players as level one. Level Three rookie seasons are 53% as common as level Two, and so forth -- James' plan was to have 25 Level Ten seasons, so he massaged the 53% to get there.
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THE... Read More
Destiny Draw, Dept.
Posted by jemanji on 10/24/17
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9 Comments
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LEVEL THREE ROOKIES
There were 19 level Three rookie seasons this past year, including Mitch Haniger. It's POSSIBLE to rank as a Level Three based on youth and speed score. Regular PT and excellent hitting aren't requirements for this level; we're not talking Level 8. In fact only 18% of these Three rooks got 100 games or more, Maniger NOT being one of them at 96 games. LOL.
He finished at .282/.352/.491 with a 126 OPS+ and with Dr. D's unretracted Best Bet status. Based on the idea that he's going to be a plus fielder, that with his speed he doesn't have to hit specially to get 3 WAR... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 10/21/17
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Dr. D is not a Seahawk expert. Few here are. He has, however, been watching pro sports for quite some time. Many here have. And therefore "Many" here will agree that when you have these two conditions together:
(1) An NFL team boasts an All-Pro at virtually every starting position
(2) The same NFL team has every beat writer wringing his hands and saying this is the year the wheels come off the locomotive
Then you can assume ONE of the following two things also:
(3) That the locker room is full of athletes who will be serving rather lengthy terms of incarceration, by the end of 2018,... Read More
February thinking in October, Dept.
Posted by jemanji on 10/21/17
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3 Comments
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This article is from summer 2017, but still a pleasant take for those of us who live only about 4,800 miles or so from where Shohei Otani does:
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Earlier this year, a National League general manager tasked a few trusted employees with a secret mission: Find out everything you can about Shohei Otani. One of the employees came back a few days later with some sparse details but a useful nugget of information: If Otani really does bring his 102-mph fastball and powerful bat to Major League Baseball from Japan during the upcoming winter, he wants to play for a big-market team with a large... Read More
Dr. D's running aspiration? or Erasmo's WAR? You be da judge
Posted by jemanji on 10/21/17
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3 Comments
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What Erasmo Ramirez used to be, was a mediocre-average starting pitcher, 95ish ERA+. He walked only 2+ batters while fanning 7+, but yakked up 83 homers in fewer than 600 big league innings. That's 'cause Erasmo is vertically challenged, he throws a little sidearmish into the bargain, and his natural pitch shape puts the ball right onto the hitter's launch angle. So when he misses (missed) center-cut, well, you got the 1.3, 1.4 homer rate.
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What Erasmo Ramirez is now, is anybody's guess. He came up with the big gloveside cut fastball. You know what they say about Samuel Colt making... Read More
one of which had 36 whiffs in 31 innin's
Posted by jemanji on 10/20/17
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2 Comments
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In late 2014, Hey Bill had this question and response:
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Hey Bill - I've been re-reading Weaver on Strategy (1984). On the pitching staff, he says ten are too many, he'd rather go with eight or nine, and the extra bench player will win you more games than the tenth pitcher. Do today's large pitching staffs reflect changes in the game, better information and understanding, or was Earl just wrong at the time?
Asked by: russelfe
Answered: 1/31/2014
Some of each, I think. Earl--like myself at the time, like all other sportswriters at the time, I think--had not focused on the sprinter's... Read More
sittin by a rock at the Bay, Dept.
Posted by jemanji on 10/19/17
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12 Comments
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In football, you have to watch the amount of pressure that you put on Marshawn's off-tackle stomp play. In baseball, you have to work around the temptation to throw Felix' "dry spitter" every single pitch. And in the blogging bidness, you gotta watch the Clickbait shtick, seeing as that every cheap ploy for 43 responses comes with its own set of costs associated.
That said, the Think Tank never ceases to amaze, and one of these days Dr. D is going to begin seeing the crew for what it is ....
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What's Trending in Seattle right now includes
Cliff Avril
Spirit Day
Russia (with a new... Read More
how many days till the season starts, didja say
Posted by jemanji on 10/19/17
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3 Comments
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IMAGINE SIRI'S VOICE CHIMING OFF YOUR COMPUTER MIC
Brooks baseball has had a beta feature this year, one that translates its F/X pitch numbers into English prose. It's one of the first things Dr. D looks up when trying to remember what the F/X said on a recall like Andrew Moore.
For James Paxton, we get scoops of butter pecan flanking Gold Medal chocolate and three kinds of topping. Sez Siri / Brooks:
BETA Feature:Basic description of 2017 pitches compared to other LHP:His fourseam fastball is blazing fast and generates more whiffs/swing compared to other pitchers' fourseamers.
His curve... Read More
and not a moment too soon, kiddies
Posted by jemanji on 10/18/17
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Jeff Sullivan follows on the Fangraphs trend, that we are entering an era of "Superteams." He runs the OPS+ and the ERA+ for all four teams left, finding that 34 of 41 current playoff hitters are above average. There is an image in the text of team OPS+ in the Wild Card era - okay, wRC if you want to be technical; the difference isn't much - and it bounces between 105 and 112. This year it's 111, so, not super sure where we were going there, but
More impressive is the collective 76 adjusted ERA, or FIP-. If you get a team with a 111 offense and a 76 pitching, you're looking at a... Read More
do they still call them the Beaneaters?
Posted by jemanji on 10/18/17
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BJOL continues the series on Organizations and Eras. He calls the 1991-2006 era the "Tom Glavine era" and records this wonderful little piece of lore:
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I have always loved this about Tom Glavine: that his father’s hero was Warren Spahn, and Glavine grew up to be so much like Warren Spahn. He is more like Warren Spahn than anyone else has ever been like Warren Spahn. We have seen this story many times in baseball history, in less perfect form. Mickey Mantle was named for Mickey Cochrane, who his father admired so much, but Mickey Mantle was not really the same type of player as... Read More
Including one you might not have seen befo'
Posted by jemanji on 10/18/17
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4 Comments
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IMAGINE SIRI'S VOICE CHIMING OFF YOUR COMPUTER MIC
Brooks baseball has had a beta feature this year, one that translates its F/X pitch numbers into English prose. It's one of the first things Dr. D looks up when trying to remember what the F/X said on a recall like Andrew Moore.
For Felix Hernandez, it suffers some from the "smoothing" that Felix went through, being injured and then coming back, but was still worth a look. Sez Siri / Brooks:
Basic description of 2017 pitches compared to other RHP:
His change dives down out of the zone, is much firmer than usual and has slight cut action.... Read More
Replacement Level Killers, Dept.
Posted by jemanji on 10/14/17
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2 Comments
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Hardball Times has an article up discussing Replacement Level Player. You might be surprised to find a few strong visuals in the piece. For example:
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... “replacement player” conjures a fuzzy image: a man who is good enough to play major league baseball, but only if the team can’t get somebody better. If Kemp got hurt and the Atlanta Braves called up a middling outfielder from Triple-A Gwinnett to fill in for 10 days, a zero-WAR performance is what you would expect; not a star player or a prospect, just a guy who can field his position and hit a little bit. He’s not going to win many... Read More
well, they'd be happy ones if there were such a thing as a neutral fan
Posted by jemanji on 10/14/17
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6 Comments
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BJOL has a concept up. "How much does a team DESERVE a championship?" In other words, how long have they been waiting, and how close have they been to getting there?
James lists 10 years that the #1 most deserving team actually did win the World Series. He calls these Happy Years. Last year the Cubs won in a Happy Year. I was surprised to see that 1975, the Big Red Machine, won in a Happy Year. 1921, the Giants won in a Happy Year...
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James points out that many coaches get labeled as the "Guy who can't win the Big One" - Chuck Knox was that. Marty Schottenheimer, Bud Grant, Dusty... Read More
which is a little different from the 1975 Steelers, or the 1985 Bears, or...
Posted by jemanji on 10/14/17
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5 Comments
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Field Gulls has a writer who identifies themselves as "3 ---- 1". This writer just wrote a 7,000 word article called Seven stories on the Seahawks' identity. It's full of cool little anecdotes and powerful visuals; hey, it was written with such cool factor that I almost missed the fact that I disagree with the author on 80% of everything there is to believe about sports.
;- )
The main point is that if you haven't read it, you'll probably enjoy reading it.
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IDENTITY POLITICS
The writer's idea is that from 2013-15, Marshawn Lynch was the Seahawks' identity. By "identity" he seems to... Read More
his advisers are on a hot roll here
Posted by jemanji on 10/14/17
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34 Comments
MisterJonez sez,
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I really wish I felt more invigorated to talk Seahawks.
But this anthem protest stuff has unexpectedly soured me on the NFL :-( I wouldn't have thought, prior to the year's start, that I'd have been so down on the league for fostering what are reasonable protests. But the introduction of politics into one of the FEW escapist outlets I take pleasure in has almost made me turn my back on them (I haven't watched a Seahawks game since Week 2. I honestly don't know if I'll watch another game this year...).
And I even applaud the players for taking the stand, knowing (at... Read More
slow news day. good click thru.
Posted by jemanji on 10/14/17
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HELMET CONCEPTS
Usually this kinda article is too cheesy for me. Strike one. And THIS article makes you click for every new paragraph, Yardbarker style. Strikes two and three. But 90% of the art is great. Whoops, that was a foul tip, get back in the box.
This seems to be the "title page" of a click spam. But tell me those Patriots and Steelers helmets wouldn't look a little better than the 1930's retro shtick they put on every other Sunday. Pay attention because this is probably the only Yardbarker style clickthru that Dr. D will ever point you to. And if you weren't trepidatious... Read More
And non-CEO Dr. D quibbleth
Posted by jemanji on 10/13/17
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The Seattle Times interviewed John Stanton twice regarding Mariners past (2017) and future (2018), once by Ryan Divish and another by Larry Stone. The 'Frame will Query, will Quoth and will Quibble in order to extract the essential info for the Denizens' time-pressed needs. All in its own irreverent little brand of shtick, of course.
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QUERY: Are the M's about to go big-game hunting?
QUOTH: "I'd rather have Mitch Haniger than Richie Sexson. With great confidence that Mitch will be an All-Star and people are gonna want 17 on the backs of their jerseys and the like."
QUIBBLE: Dr. D is... Read More
our sister city in the expansion draft
Posted by jemanji on 10/13/17
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James has done his evaluation of the Toronto Blue Jays' UP and DOWN cycles:
DOWN 1977-1981 The Fledglings. They lost a ton. In fact 1981 was a split season and they finished last twice that year :- )
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UP 1982-1993 The Pat Gillick Years. James gives this as THE ONLY time in baseball history that a franchise went from the very weakest franchise in both leagues to --- > the very strongest franchise in both leagues, in only 11 seasons. (This is quite a differerent accomplishment from what we remember in Seattle, Gillick's taking a talented Stars & Scrubs roster and "finishing" it... Read More
8 Mariners off to the AFL
Posted by moethedog on 10/11/17
6 Comments
Eight of the best Mariner farmhands have reported to Peoria and "Played Ball!" yesterday and will again today, in the Arizona Fall League. Who are they and what do they have? Read on, read on.
Kyle Lewis (of course): Returning from his blown knee, Lewis had what must be called a so-so return. Playing in 49 games overall, 11 in the Arizona Rookie League and 38 in Modesto at A+, Lewis didn't show the booming bat that he had during his rookie campaign, prior to the knee exploding. In A+, he was .257-.329-.412. Despite the knee injury, a .155 ISO in the Cali League isn't much to laud. He K... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 10/09/17
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Whoever heard of lining up teams by their mascot names alphabetically ... grumble, grumble. And could swear this is the first time I ever saw James do that. The one time I cared. mumble, crumble. But here's to Diderot!
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James' method is to assign each year's team a "strength score," like this one he has on the Astros:
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
196-
7.21
6.56
5.97
5.37
5.29
5.01
4.96
6.51
197-
6.79
7.05
8.91
10.18
11.26
10.15
10.17
11.25
10.77
13.34
198-
15.90
17.87
17.00
17.73
17.07
17.67
20.08
18.94... Read More
And some good ones, too
Posted by jemanji on 10/09/17
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7 Comments
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GRATUITOUS NFL REPORTING
I thought yesterday's game was one of the most exciting I've seen. The Rams looked Super Bowl-worthy, got the 'Hawks way back onto their heels. But the Seahawks pulled 10 different highlight film plays, fought with the hearts of champions, and perhaps fired up a rivalry to replace the 49'ers. I saw the game as a spirited battle of titans.
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GRATUITOUS M'S SHTICK
Here's an article on Felix' strategy for becoming more durable as an old, and big, man. It's going to be away from weights; it says that much. Also there's an idea that Felix can cut his pitch counts (... Read More
Posted by jemanji on 10/09/17
Posted to blog
1 Comments
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Whoever heard of lining up teams by their mascot names alphabetically ... grumble, grumble. And could swear this is the first time I ever saw James do that. The one time I cared. mumble, crumble.
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James' method is to assign each year's team a "strength score," like this one he has on the Astros:
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
196-
7.21
6.56
5.97
5.37
5.29
5.01
4.96
6.51
197-
6.79
7.05
8.91
10.18
11.26
10.15
10.17
11.25
10.77
13.34
198-
15.90
17.87
17.00
17.73
17.07
17.67
20.08
18.94
19.30
19.90
199-... Read More
guess at age 68, it's time to get serious about understanding baseball
Posted by jemanji on 10/08/17
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8 Comments
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James is going to spend the winter publishing 30 articles about each franchise, its history, and its turning points. He states his intent as follows:
The general purpose of this study is to represent the history of each organization in such a manner that we can see clearly the turning points, the moments at which an organization began to decline or began to get better. I would take it to be obvious why we should do this. "Why do organizations get better?" and "Why do organizations decline?" are fundamental questions of baseball research. Do organizations get better because they hire... Read More
Helllooooo are there any hommmmmers in therrrrrrrre
Posted by jemanji on 10/07/17
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8 Comments
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SABRMatt sez,
Remember when Doc complained about Mike Hargrove's player template...said slappy singles hitters who draw walks but can't run the bases have very little actual value?
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Well, sure. If Vogelbach is going to max out at 9 homers a year, then you can safely write him off, unworried even about any freakish OBP outcomes.
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Diderot sez,
If Vogs loses 30 pounds, I still don't think he can play first. It's an athletic thing to me, not a weight thing. So i agree with Matt.
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Right. Everybody agrees he's a DH first, hopefully able to provide your backup 1B glove. I'm right with... Read More
lessee, how can I talk that guy into catching me in a short rib
Posted by jemanji on 10/06/17
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2 Comments
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On March 8, 2016 in Israel, Yontan Azarihab was wandering out of a shop when --- > a card-carrying member of The Religion of Peace jumped onto his back, starfished him tightly all four appendages, and invited him to chicken-fight the passersby in the street. Possibly to indicate his insistence on the matter, the stranger began plunging a blade into the side of Azarihab's NECK. Satisfied with his progress, the stranger ran into the store and left Azarihab to stumble out onto the sidewalk and collapse.
Whereupon Azarihab focused his vision enough to realize that his piggyback friend had... Read More
Rohrschach test, Dept.
Posted by jemanji on 10/06/17
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16 Comments
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I got to chipping out a little response to the Dan Vogelbach shtick and realized I had no bearings on the idea of fat players in baseball in 2017-18. Is there ANYbody on SSI that cares about a ballplayer's weight -- beyond what is measured as bad defense and bases lost on the basepaths? Would be eager to hear if, and why.
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It is a good point that Ruth was a football player type. The Yankees as we know are wearing pinstripes because they were embarrassed about Ruth's body. That dude was very often 50 lbs. overweight compared to a "cut" athlete.
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But like you say, a man can have a... Read More
mmmmmmmmmm i think that one's got the distance
Posted by jemanji on 10/04/17
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20 Comments
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If you are blowing off your +15 runs CF, that being Jarrod Dyson, to put -5 defense Mitch Haniger into CF so you can pursue J.D. Martinez ... ? And simultaneously pursuing a -7 defense Big Bat at first? That young, athletic thingy was a nice trip to the Bahamas, right?
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Greg Johns flatly states that Heredia and Haniger will handle CF. That would be so that the M's can pursue a bat in the corner, and there are a lot on the FA market: J.D. Martinez, Justin Upton, Jose Bautista, Andrew McCutchen. Or, both Boomstick and Ohtani get into the same lineup in a Haniger scenario.
(TELL me... Read More
SSI being a decidedly highbrow M's blog
Posted by jemanji on 10/04/17
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4 Comments
Originally filed under the "All" subdomain. Sorry. - Jeff
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WOLF PACK PITCHING
This M's-site article rat cheer has several interesting takeaways for the discerning SSI Denizen. First of all, by "Wolf Pack" the GM is referring to a larger group of SP's -- maybe 7-8 primary SP's -- who go 5+ innings. He's talking about this as a default paradigm. CONTRAST his attitude BEFORE this season, in which he and Servais underlined -- time and time again -- the need for 6.1 innings because the bullpen's job was then consistently do-able.
Here also is Shannon Drayer, not typically the first person to... Read More
give him some more time? but of course
Posted by jemanji on 10/03/17
7 Comments
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The idea was floated that the Mariners benched Dan Vogelbach because --- > they didn't want him to go 1-for-12 with 6 K's and scuff up the paint. Okay, that's probably what happened. If Dr. Detecto ever made GM, he would think of these cases as Moneyball opportunities. Sure, it's emotionally unpleasant to watch a AAA star fail in his cups of coffee, even if those are only 12 and 28 AB's long (which they were). But I'd like to let other teams bake the cake while I eat it ...
'Bach is who he is. He BB'ed 78 times this year, fanned 98, hit .290 with power, flashed some long HR's. He... Read More
and in the comments section, "Rewatchable Movies"
Posted by jemanji on 10/02/17
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James Paxton blew down the Angels for 6 innings, with three hits and 9 whuffs. This left him at 4.6 WAR on the season, which is #5-6 in the league tied with Chris Archer.
We've noticed before that Zeus doesn't SHOW UP on the WAR chart unless you remove the requirements for being "qualified," like you gotta throw 162 innings to "qualify" for the ERA title. Obviously you need a playing-time minimum for a batting average race; obviously you DON'T need one for HR and RBI. It would be hilarious for somebody to finish 5th in RBI at 300, 350 at bats.
So here's the question. If you could have... Read More
what is there that could possibly reward M's fandom?
Posted by jemanji on 10/02/17
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EYE OF THE TIGER, Dept.
Bill James, at age 65 or 73 or whatever he is, continues to come up with the freshest, most interesting baseball thought on the internet. Week in, week out. That in itself is a topic that would reward serious study: how does a man become more productive as he gets older?
Put another way: how do you avoid becoming a cranky old guy yelling Get Off My Lawn. How do you retain your gratitude, your enjoyment, and therefore your happiness?, as it applies to a subsector of life such as sports.
....
It's a big problem. Me myself and I, at age 54 the juice just ain't... Read More
not that the M's are loaded with hopefuls ...
Posted by jemanji on 10/02/17
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We started out to write a piece on Bill James' latest project, and wound up with the Sports Is Life post. Ah well. Who was that TV artist with the Afro, the Happy Little Accidents guy? Dr. D may not love baseball, but he does love him some philosophy :- )
James' project is: (1) Identify the 50 "true superstars" of the game, and (2) figure out how much they REALLY changed the courses of their franchises. As compared to some "weak" Hall of Famer, let's say. In other words, how much does a Randy Johnson warp your space-time continuum as compared to a Mike Mussina? How much of a "... Read More
nice dreams more common than nightmares
Posted by jemanji on 10/02/17
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We mentioned that Bill James mentioned that he dreams baseball every night and TJM mentioned, he dreams very frequently about playing baseball.
Which brought me to a stop. Come to think of it I never remember dreaming about playing sports a single time, despite being a very enthusiastic weekend warrior, park-and-rec league guy in at least six sports. Never a dream in any sport...
Almost all of mine seem to be about PROBLEMS. Hmmmmm, is that a suggestion that Caleb was right about being half crazed :- ) ... quick check around the 'net sez, that may be dreaming's primary function, to offer... Read More