MLB Thread 2012

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Yeah, sure. Not as often as I would like though, I watch a game a week or so and follow scores daily.
 
I love the feeling when it feels like Felix Hernandez isn't pitching as well lately as he normally does, only to realize he's leading all of baseball in innings pitched and strikeouts....
 
What the fuck is going on? 21 teams have scored less runs this year than the Seattle Mariners.
 
Joe West is just so atrocious.

zoneplot.php
 
Good lord, that is such horse shit. I need too check out the plot for Rangers/Rays in the morning. I'm not blaming the loss on it (the Gers lost the game themselves), but it was also totally fucked in the same manner.
 
How is he supposed to call balls and strikes properly when all those red and yellow squares and triangles are in the way???

/devil's advocate'd
 
In one of my fantasy leagues, I dropped Mark Buehrle (easily my all-time favorite baseball player) for the Diamondbacks' pitcher Wade Miley just so that I could have a Miley Cyrus pun in my team name.

This is a new low.
 
GirlsAloudFan said:
In one of my fantasy leagues, I dropped Mark Buehrle (easily my all-time favorite baseball player) for the Diamondbacks' pitcher Wade Miley just so that I could have a Miley Cyrus pun in my team name.

This is a new low.
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Least surprising thing I've heard all year...


LuckyNumber7 said:
I refuse to believe this Miami Marlins trainwreck is real.
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...I stand corrected.
 
Maybe The Marlins Just Suck

Maybe The Marlins Just Suck
There's a numbers-heavy post up on Fish Stripes today suggesting that the 8-14 Marlins are due for a regression and an improvement. Let me make this counterargument: they're not. They might just suck.

Now, now, you'll say. Attend to the small sample size. OK. Small sample size matters here. Gaby Sanchez will not hit .205/.234/.342 all year. Giancarlo Stanton won't hit .247/.286/.342, either.

But! The Marlins do not have many good hitters. (Austin Kearns hit cleanup today.) Five of their eight starters have career OPS+ numbers better than 100, league average. (The Mets and Braves have more.) Moreover, two of the Marlins' most gifted offensive players aren't so reliable: Jose Reyes is always one misplaced stride away from a middling season, and Hanley Ramirez failed last season after a disappointing 2010. Factor in, too, that the Marlins have average hitters at the premium power positions. Sanchez, at first base, didn't crack an .800 OPS in either of his first two full seasons, and Logan Morrison didn't last year, in his first full season. Stanton is great, sure, but John Buck isn't. Omar Infante, who has somehow already hit five home runs, isn't great either. How Emilio Bonifacio'll do is anyone's guess.

The Marlins have a roster filled with players who are older and worse than you think they are. Ramirez and Gaby Sanchez are both 28! So are ostensible young guns Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez! That means, based on lots of available data, that they're finishing their career peaks. (Actually, pitchers peak at 27, so Sanchez and Johnson are already on the way down. 29-year-old Ricky Nolasco bears this out: his strikeout rate went from 9.5 K/9 in 2009 to 6.5 in 2011.)

Let's talk about the Marlins' staff for a second. They have a nice rotation, although Carlos Zambrano's skill has almost certainly left him for good. The bullpen, though? Yikes, at least when it comes to the closer. Last year, Heath Bell struck out the fewest batters per nine of his career, fewer even than when he mopped up for the Mets. His strikeout-to-walk ratio was also the worst he's ever had. His home run rate ticked up, too. Oh, also: he turns 35 in September. As you might have expected, he's been miserable this year. The rest of the pen is a parade of mediocrity: Edward Mujica, Ryan Webb, Steve Cishek (OK, he's been amazing so far), Randy Choate, et. al. Aside from Cishek, it's nothing great.

The Marlins may not finish the season last in the NL East. It's early yet. That said, 28 of 49 ESPN experts picked Miami to make the playoffs, and we're reminded once again how easy it is to get caught up in offseason hype.

And, hey, if Miami does wind up in fifth? At least it feels like home.
 
Looks like the Rocket is heading toward a launch of freedom, Saint Andy may in fact have "misremembered"

Andy Pettitte says he may have misunderstood Roger Clemens HGH talk - ESPN

Andy Pettitte unsure of talk?

Updated: May 2, 2012, 10:58 AM ETAssociated Press

WASHINGTON -- Pitcher Andy Pettitte acknowledged under cross-examination Wednesday that he might have misunderstood Roger Clemens when Pettitte said he heard his former teammate say he used human growth hormone.

Asked by Clemens' lawyer if it was fair to say it was "50-50" that Pettitte misunderstood the conversation from about a dozen years ago, Pettitte responded, "I'd say that's fair."

Pettitte is a key government witness as the prosecution tries to prove that Clemens lied to Congress when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs. Pettitte's concession could weaken the government case.

Just the day before, Pettitte had testified, "Roger had mentioned to me that he had taken HGH." Pettitte had made the same claim in a congressional deposition in 2008, prompting Clemens to say that his friend "misremembers" their conversation.

The two men arrived at opposite ends of the courthouse a few minutes apart Wednesday morning, both in gray suits. Pettitte carried a backpack and a bottle of water.

Pettitte clearly is uncomfortable testing against Clemens, his former teammate and one-time mentor.

During breaks Tuesday when the judge and lawyers haggled over legal procedures, Pettitte looked down or straight ahead, never in Clemens' direction. He rested his head in his palm, yawned, looked at his watch and sighed. A few times he rubbed his eyes for several seconds, looking like he couldn't wait for this to end.

Clemens lawyer Michael Attanasio started the doubt campaign late Tuesday when he coaxed Pettitte into agreeing that Clemens' remark was a passing comment made during a workout.

Attanasio also got Pettitte to praise Clemens' work ethic, mechanics and concentration -- not to mention the seven Cy Young awards he had won for his outstanding pitching. The cross-examination got to feel so much like a Clemens infomercial that prosecutor Steven Durham objected at one point.

Pettitte is crucial to a government case that otherwise will rely heavily on the testimony of Brian McNamee, who worked as a strength coach for both Clemens and Pettitte and has said he injected both men with performance-enhancing substances. The government showed the jury photos of the three working out together in Texas during happier times -- "Mac, Roger and me," as Pettitte put it.

Pettitte has acknowledged he received HGH from McNamee; Clemens has not. Pettitte told the jury about the time he used HGH in 2002 while recovering from an injury, but he wasn't allowed to say he was injected by McNamee because the judge earlier ruled that information inadmissible.

Pettitte said he used HGH one other time, in 2004. He said he regretted it both times he tried it, that he doesn't think it helped him physically and that it has tarnished his name.

"I wish I never would've" taken HGH, he said in his slow Texas drawl. "If I hadn't done it, I wouldn't be here today."

Pettitte also recalled the other time he spoke with Clemens about HGH, during the media swirl surrounding earlier congressional hearings -- in 2005 -- on drug use in sports. Both were playing for the Houston Astros, and Pettitte asked Clemens at spring training what Clemens would say if asked by reporters about HGH use.

Clemens responded, "What are you talking about?" according to Pettitte, and said Pettitte must have misunderstood the earlier conversation, said to have taken place in 1999 or 2000.

"He said, `My wife used it," Pettitte said.

"Obviously I was a little flustered," Pettitte said, "because I thought that he told me that he did."

Both Clemens and McNamee have said McNamee injected Debbie Clemens with HGH at the Clemens home in 2003, although they differ over certain details.

Pettitte's appearance Tuesday came a day after he allowed six runs and 10 hits with eight strikeouts over 5-2/3 innings in an extended spring training game in Clearwater, Fla., as part his comeback attempt at age 39 with the New York Yankees.

During prosecutor Durham's questioning, Pettitte described how he admired Clemens as a youngster and considered him a mentor when they played together for the Yankees and Astros. Pettitte said he still considered Clemens a good friend but hasn't been able to talk to him for a long time because of the case. He also said it was difficult to testify against his friend.

But there was almost no interaction between the two large men Tuesday. About the only time Pettitte looked in Clemens' direction was when the prosecutor asked whether Clemens was in the courtroom, and Pettitte pointed to the man in the suit and "greenish tie." Clemens stood and nodded.

For his part, Clemens took more notes than usual on his yellow legal pad.
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If Alexei Ramirez doesn't win the Gold Glove this year I'll...well...actually it won't be that big of a deal because it's just a stupid award. But he should totally win it.
 
Haha. Nice to see you back, Kram. You should post more.

And, for what it's worth, I still think Gardenhire is a good manager. I haven't been able to watch a lot of the Twins yet this year, though. Strange that the first Sox/Twins series of the season isn't for another three weeks or so.
 
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