Richard Justice says, don't worry about Big Puma.
Forbes Magazine released it's annual Baseball Team Values edition. Drayton made roughly $17 million in 2008. As usual, we were in the middle of the pack (15th overall).
Peter Gammons compares the Nationals potential signing of Stephen Strasburg after this year's draft to the Rangers signing Mark Teixeira after the 2001 draft.
How does a pitcher raise his ERA nearly eight runs in just one appearance? Matt Lindstrom could show you how.
Bud Norris pitched a gem this past Thursday: he allowed two runs over seven innings, and struck out eight.
The Lancaster JetHawks scored seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning on Friday night to force extra innings, en route to winning 11-8 in ten innings.
Has anyone been better than Zack Greinke this season? Furthermore: has anyone performed in any more anonymity?
Given our 6-11 start (this is being written before the end of last night's game), Baseball Analysts has the Astros as finishing with just under 68 wins, good for last in the bigs.
Bruce Bochy loves playing with fire, apparently.
Game of 4 of the Rockets series vs. Portland is tonight. The Dream Shake has you covered for info on the series and tonight's game.
I think this article on Shane Battier from The New York Times Magazine was already posted on this blog, but if you haven't read it, I recommend you take a look. Even if you're not a huge basketball fan, it's still a tremendous read.
0 recs | 9 comments
the baseballanalysts article is interesting....
I have to think about what he did to even understand it…so I’m not sure about his method of updating the BP projections. One thing which doesn’t make sense is that the updated winning percentage for the Pirates is .408—less than the Astros’s predicted .426 and worst winning % in the majors—yet the Pirates are projected to win more games than the Astros. Also, I suspect that a lot of people will have a hard time accepting his proposition that the Baseball Prospectus projection is more accurate that 162 actual games. Put another way, he is saying that the BP projections will be right if you made the teams play, say, 250 games, thereby meaning that the full season actual record is inaccurate.
I also think that it’s hard not to predict the Nationals as the majors’ worst teams. Besides the fact that they have the worst record, it also appears that the Nationals have a lot of clubhouse and team conflicts. Here is a NY Daily News account of the Nationals:
Well, the Washington Nationals aren’t cute or cuddly at all. They are a 3-13 disgrace, embodied by their clumsy center fielder and chief curmudgeon, Elijah Dukes.
Dukes cost his team three unearned runs and another game yesterday in the very first inning, losing Carlos Delgado’s easy fly ball in the sun during an 8-2 giggler for the Mets. Afterward, an earnest Nationals public relations official suggested that Dukes speak with the media in the visitors’ clubhouse, causing an ugly outburst from the outfielder in the presence of a few reporters.
“If they don’t like it they can (expletive),” Dukes said. “Why should I talk with them if they don’t know what the (expletive) happened?”
So much for the spirit of Casey Stengel and Marv Throneberry. If he can’t help turn around his ballclub, then Nats manager Manny Acta ought to at least make mandatory reading of Jimmy Breslin’s “Can’t Anybody Here Play this Game?”
After closing the clubhouse door for 20 minutes, Acta told reporters to ask Dukes about the dropped ball, because he had no answers. When Carlos Beltran once lost a ball in the same sun, ex-Met Mike Cameron noted, “The sun has been there for 500, 600 years.”
Sorry about the long quote, but I’ve always loved that old quote from Mike Cameron, who apparently isn’t a rocket scientist (or at least I hope he isn’t, given that view of the sun).
clack - April 26, 2009
sorry the block quote didn't work right above...I tried several times....
clack - April 26, 2009
wow
Hadn’t heard about the excitement for the Nats. I was hoping they’d be a little better. Meanwhile, Cubs fans are panicking although with some legitimate concerns and Cards fans have visions of a World Series win in their head.
ol Pete - April 26, 2009
as for the Nats....
apparently there is some division between Acta, the manager, and the new front office. Acta favored staying with Milledge in the outfield, and the front office preferred Dukes over Milledge—-and they quickly sent Milledge down to AAA when he started slowly. Now Acta is faced with a circus act with a head case like Dukes butchering CF. The Nationals are worst fielding team in baseball, which is colorfully recounted in that article.
The Cubs’ fans can look forward to their next explosion from Bradley. After Bradley was told to submit to a media interview, he told the reporter, we don’t like each other, “So let’s not pretend we’re buddies.” The Cardinals look good, and LaRussa is doing a good job. But I see some weaknesses in the Cardinals…I don’t think they can keep up their current pace.
clack - April 26, 2009
That Bradley comment would make a great little sound clip.
ol Pete - April 26, 2009
1) No, no one has been better.
2) I’m going to take this opportunity to gloat about how I got him in like the 10th round of our draft.
3) Haha. Hahahaha.
I told y’all Clemens was legit. Of course, we don’t know how he’s doing behind the plate, but, given the MLE he spat out last season, I think he’s got a decent chance of making the jump to AA.
Only_A_Lad - April 26, 2009
My year-end projection for the Astros
(Mathematically based and semi-scientific) is 69 wins, down 6 from a week ago.
On an objective numerical scale of 1 to 100, I rank them 30, down 18 from a week ago.
I allocate the wins and losses as follows:
Offense: 2.2 Wins contributed, 7.9 Losses contributed (.218 pct)
Pitching and Defense: 3.8 Wins and 4.1 Losses (.481 pct)
bwhite2323 - April 26, 2009
Would care to expand upon that
Maybe in a fan post, I’d love to hear more about that.
Stephen Higdon - April 26, 2009
I'll try
bwhite2323 - April 26, 2009
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