Pittsburgh Penguins's Pittsburgh Penguins friend's fan blogs

As the Brewers wrap up a series against the Cardinals and Tony LaRussa's peculiar lineup strategy, I thought it might be worth thinking about what would make certain lineups advantageous.  LaRussa has been hitting the pitcher in the 8th spot, with a position player hitting behind him in the 9th slot, for several years now.  Why?

Well, the aim is to have more men on base for the likes of Pujols as the game progresses.  This seems like a worthy goal, but I think what I'd like to see is a small study done on the benefits of simply getting Pujols (or any elite hitter) more plate appearances rather than trying to put runners on in front of him.  For instance, let's assume that over the course of a season, each slot in the lineup has 20 more plate appearances than the slot below it.  (That is, slot 1 has 20 more PA than slot 2, and slot 2 has 20 more PA than slot 3, etc.)   Then one way to gain more offense is simply to hit Pujols leadoff: he'll have 40 more PA than he does from the 3-hole.  He currently has about 360 PA and 31 HR, so he homers about every 12 PA.  If we round down, we're talking about adding 3 HR to his season simply by giving him more plate appearances.

Continue reading "The Merits of the Pitcher Hitting 8th"

I got into a discussion with Sean yesterday about the post I made a couple of weeks ago concerning when a runner has officially taken possession of a base.  We consulted the rule book (online at baseball-almanac.com, a great site) and found no specific details about the situation.  (Though, admittedly, I did not carefully pore over every bit of it research-style, since we were simply having an entertaining discussion.)  While shifting through various alternative scenarios to try to tease out the answer, this fun one came up:

What happens when a pitch never reaches home plate?  What if it stops halfway there?  Presumably, we decided, it must be called a ball, but how far does it have to travel?  If a pitcher drops the ball while set, that's a balk.  So where is the demarcation between balk and ball?

Continue reading "More Baseball Rules Discussion"

This game typifies why the open base need not always be filled.  Particularly with the winning run on third base, you are asking quite a lot of your pitcher to confine him to the box created by bases loaded.  The Brewers should have gone after Soto--a player coming in cold off the bench--with runners on second and third and 2 outs.  Instead, they blatantly pitched around him for 3 pitches, then intentionally put him on with the fourth pitch to set the stage for the walk-off walk.

By pitching Soto tough, you may still walk him--but you also may get him out.  In fact, Soto makes an out approximately 75% of the time this season, so it seems to me that the odds were in favor of the Brewers if they simply pitched to him.  And the kicker is that this is true of

Continue reading "Brewers - Cubs and Walk-off Walks"

Why are pitching statistics so quirky?  For instance, why does a starter need to go 5 innings to earn a win?  And why should a starter get a loss if his team eventually scores more runs than he gave up? There should be instituted a "Team" category of statistics for pitching.  These would be reserved for special situations, but they appear to be justified.  A "Team Loss" would be assigned when the starting pitcher gives up fewer runs than his team eventually scores.  For instance, say Gallardo gives up 2 runs over 6 innings, but leaves trailing 2-0.  Then, the opposition puts up a 4-spot against the relievers in the 7th, and the Brewers eventually lose 6-5.  Currently, Gallardo gets the loss, but this hardly seems to be an accurate

Continue reading "Team Pitching Statistics in MLB"

Yo, what’s up everyone, this is the first entry. My name is Vince, live in Pittsburgh, and let me tell you, it is a great feeling to call the City of Champions my home right now. I’m a huge, repeat HUGE, fan of both hockey and football, and to win both of their respective championships in the same year brings about a feeling of euphoria that I have yet to experience anywhere else. Anytime I’m in a bad mood or am thinking negatively the image of Santonio beating triple coverage for the game winning TD or Fleury stepping it up HUGE to win the STANLEY CUP instantly makes me smile and forget about my problems. It’s a sensation all to itself. Gotta love the Steel City. But, that’s for later. As for now, a little intro is in order. My names Vince, I go to Pitt. Enlightened with this groundbreaking discovery, if anyone reading this happens to amble on down to Oakland, and would enjoy an afternoon talking sports, playing them, or wanting to drink heavily, drop me a line. My approach to this blog is going to be pretty open/casual… And may offend some people. So, if you have a problem with something I say on here… don’t tell me about it. I really don’t care. Seriously. Just don’t do it. Ill just rip on you and make you feel stupid for even emailing me in the first place. But, if you have some constructive criticism, or compliments, do it. Email me. My goal here is to become a better sports writer, and anything that will help me accomplish this goal will be well received, anything else will not. At all. Let the sports opinions flow my friends.

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When you play fantasy football, you play (almost exclusively) in a head-to-head, points-based system.  When you play fantasy baseball, you play (almost exclusively) in either a rotisserie or head-to-head, categories-based system.  When you play fantasy hockey, you play (almost exclusively) in some form of salary cap, everyone-can-have-player-X-on-the-team sysatem.

Why don't we see rotisserie or category-based football leagues, for instance?  I have a hunch that it's because in fantasy sports, we are all looking for a balance between competing with our friends while still staying as close to the actual game as possible.  Thus, since football uses points, and touchdowns are worth 6, field goals worth 3, etc., we like to carry that over into our fantasy sports.

Continue reading "Why is there "standardization" fantasy sports?"

I thought it would be fitting for my first post to discuss a rules question I've thought about for baseball for quite a long time. Here's the situation: Runner on first, less than 2 outs.  The pitcher accidentally goes into the windup, and the runner takes off for second.  (Or the runner takes off, then the pitcher goes into the windup.)  There is a strange combination of blazing speed in the runner and very slow motion in the pitcher's windup.  The runner reaches second base before the pitch reaches the plate.  The batter hits a lazy fly to the outfield.

Now: does the runner need to tag up at first base or at second base?  The real issue here involves when the runner gains possession of a base and when a "play" in baseball starts.  It could be that as soon as the pitcher begins his motion, the situation is "frozen" and anything that happens after that requires the runner to tag up at first.  Or, it could be that there are no "plays" in baseball, that the action is continuous and that the runner can claim any base he can reach before the ball is struck by the hitter. The second option raises interesting implications for the situation when there is a runner on third with 2 outs.  If he steals home and crosses the plate before the hitter strikes out, does the run count?  That situation is bound to have occurred during some game somewhere, and it should give clues about what the verdict should be in the case with the runner on first with less than 2 outs.

Continue reading "Rules of the game (MLB)"

This is just the trial run for the new blog.

Continue reading "Test Blog"

The Penguins did what everyone said they couldn't do. They beat the Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena in game seven of the finals. Marc Andre Fleury played the game of his life. What a great save he made on Nicklas Lidstrom as time ran out on the Red Wings. But that being said, Max Talbot won the game for the Pens with his two big goals in game seven. The Penguins still found a way to win the game with the best player in the league missing half of the game. Malkin deserved to win the Conn Smythe trophy with all the great plays he made in the finals. I hope they don't lose too many guys in the off season, because I hope they repeat next season. Way to go Pens!

Continue reading "Stanley Cup Champs"

After their improbable World Series run in 2008, many fans and analysts expected the 2009 Tampa Bay Rays club to be as good or better.

They’re not.

Since the Stuart Sternberg ownership era began in 2006, Cool Hand Stu could do no wrong.  Free parking at home games.  Fans were allowed to bring their own food to games, and tailgating in the parking lot on game day was encouraged.  Ballpark attractions on Left, Center, and Right Field Streets beyond the outfield stands really enhanced the stadium experience for casual fans.  There aren’t many ballparks that let you play baseball video games in a lounge area that looks like the Formans’ basement on “That 70’s Show.” 

More importantly, the personnel decisions all made sense for a team that was trying to build a winning culture over time.  Though the Rays had stockpiled a small village of top-5 1st round draft picks through their history, the trade strategy in 2006 was to continue to get younger.  Aubrey Huff brought Ben Zobrist and Mitch Talbot.  Danys Baez brought Edwin Jackson.  Mark Hendrickson brought Dioner Navarro.  Joey Gathright brought JP Howell.  There was a perceivable difference between losing with young talent and losing with established veterans, which had been the hallmark of the Rays for the first 8 years or so. 

Continue reading "2009 Isn't As Great As 2008: Tampa Bay Rays' Bullpen Isn't the Same"