Looks like a nice deal for the Cubs, provided Harden is healthy. From his last game: "Harden did not. His truncated evening ended with his most electric moment of the night, striking out Guerrero with runners at first and second with two outs in the fifth, but his final line was pretty ho-hum by his lofty standards: five hits and a walk with five strikeouts. He never topped 93 mph on the radar gun and was far more frequently checking in at 87-89."

SI

Nice to see the Mets keep the offense going now they are back at Shea. And yea, that 2nd AB of the game was probably the one of the worst calls I have ever seen. Since when is it ok to run on the IF grass to avoid a tag?

This Harden trade really has me confused. If I was an A's fan I would be pissed. Haven't checked the standings in a few days but I'm pretty sure they are still very much in contention, and they go and trade perhaps their best pitcher, who's not gonna be a FA next yr and isn't a burden financially. Doesn't make much sense to me.

Harden being healthy is the big key, isn't it? I guess Beane figured might as well deal Harden on the rare occasion he's actually healthy and his value is high.

Btw, what in the Hell has gotten in to Fernando Tatis? Not that I'm complaining..

Beware of this happening:

Rich Harden:Mark Mulder::Sean Gallagher:Danny Haren

Yankees sweep the Rays on Bobby Abreu's game winning hit! Andy Pettitte, Sidney Ponson, and the Yankee bullpen shut down the Rays for the 2 game series. People thought the Yankee bullpen would self-destruct without Joba Chamberlain, but Veras-Farnsworth-Rivera have been stellar at the end of games.

Odd stat from the Braves-Dodgers game tonight.
In the series, the Braves are 0-for-36 in innings 1 through 4.

Very happy with tonight's fangraph:



Yes, DDJ is that clutch so far this season. Leads the league at .468 (29 of 62) with RISP this year.

SI

And in San Diego, Greg Maddux just stole the 11th base of his career at age 42.
Now 11 of 14 lifetime in stolen base attempts.

Just a random fun moment from MLB on a Saturday night.

Lots of fun baseball today. I watched a pair of almost-comebacks today with the Tigers falling short against the Twins and the Rangers falling short against the White Sox. However, I did just see the Cards/Pirates highlights and Pittsburgh did not come up short :D

In the Royals game, along with DDJ's walkoff 2-run game winning homer, Mark Grudzelanek got hit number 2000.

SI

The Mets are playing fantastic baseball. They've allowed 4 runs and 13 hits over the last SIX GAMES.

it's about time.

and I think the upcoming break will help alot of guys get some rest.

Can someone please explain to me what this all means?

The graph represents the Royals likelihood of finishing in last place in the AL Central. From left to right, it goes by date, starting in April...So, you see, it fluctuates a bit from April 1st to April 9th, but then by the 10th it's all over.

Touché. :)

If Karl goes missing, I think we'll need to look at SI.

I think I've posted this before, but I know DeJesus from home (he grew up in the town next to me and I was also at Rutgers with him) and we share a good friend (who happens to be our barber). He's such a legitimately good guy that it's awesome to see him playing so well. He had a legit case to make the All Star team.

The graph represents the probability of each team winning the game at a certain point. When team A hits a home run and takes the lead, their win probability increases. You can find out more at fangraphs.com.

Andruw Jones - Platinum Sombrero

That Cardinals - Pirates game about finished me off for the weekend.. good grief!!!

That warmed my heart to see but it sucks to be on the other end of one of those. We had one against the Yankees earlier this year :(

CR, here's the Cards-Pirates fangraph:



At the top is the Pirates win percentage while at the bottom is the Cardinals. Basically, this is what chance teams have to win any particular game at any given time.

So, of course, each game starts at 50/50. The Pirates actually became close to a 75% favorite to win early on as they were up 2-0 and teams in that position win a lot of games. However, as the game went on and the Cards built a 10-4 lead in the 8th, the chances of the Pirates winning were in the low single digits, hence that line running along the bottom for the 7th, 8th, and part of the 9th. Even getting 2 runs in the 8th was a minor blip as you're still likely to lose 10-6 going into the 9th almost as much as if you're down 10-4.

But then the Pirates tie is and it's 50-50 going into the 10th. However, Glaus's homer in the 10th to give the Cards a 11-10 lead shifts it strongly back in their favor. However, of course, Michael's home run makes it 100% Pirates as they won the game.

Similar to the Royals fangraph from the previous post. They were down below 5% with 2 outs and no one on in the 9th. But it was still only a 1 run game so when Butler walked, the odds shot up a little and, of course, DeJesus's homer ended it.

SI

He seems like a geniunely nice guy. Kindof a kid who realizes he's playing baseball for money and enjoys it. Always has a smile on his face and always enjoys playing- it's great to see. His is the jersey I currently wear to the park after I had to retire my Sweeney jersey after last year.

As an aside, I always love listening to the trades who always try to get him from the Royals for a pile of magic beans this time of year. C'mon, he's cheap, signed a deal that keeps him under club control for a couple more years. Oh, and he's a good leadoff hitter who takes a lot of pitches, is a career .285 hitter with about 10 homers a year, but who's value is diminished in some eyes since he can't steal that much.

SI

Wait, so what you're saying is that we're going to make a miraculous comeback in the second half and win the World Series? Cool :D

SI

Really enjoyed this line from Jayson Stark's midseason column:


http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/column...son&id=3483646

So my girlfriend and myself (a another couple went too, but they aren't of importance) went to the Cubs - Reds game at Wrigley on Wednesday night. We got there early to watch them take batting practice and such. So my girlfriend is a reds fan and we are all standing along the left field line while the reds were taking BP. She made eye contact with Josh Fogg and waved and he waved back and smiled and all this. Next ball out to left, sure enough Fogg walks over to her and hands it to her. It was pretty funny, but it didn't stop there. David Ross came out there after he was done hitting and was talking to Fogg and they turned to my girl friend and waved and motioned "I love you." Five minutes later they ask her to throw the ball back on the field and her pen. I will attach a picture of what they put on the ball.. It was seriously one of the funnier things I've seen. It was flattering in a kind of jealous way because they were actually serious.

Obviously you weren't of importance either. :lol:

THATS AWESOME

hahah - just make sure you keep her in sight the rest of the time they're in town!!

you should send a 300 lb transvestite prostitute to their room

I think FOFC should take up a collection so he can!

Pics of GF plz.

Just to link up a couple of recent posts....this actually happened a couple seasons ago with my girlfriend and Brett Myers. Instead of mouthing "I Love You", he pointed at her and then held up his open palm and started punching hit.

I am kicking myself for not thinking of doing this on wednesday night!

Former Yankees Bobby Murcer passed away. For those that grew up with 70s baseball, he and Thurmon were the only two faces of the Yanks until 1975.

Unfortunatey, Murcer is yet another player from the era of artificial turfs that died of brain cancer.

Oops?

Pelfrey with another great effort tonight, 8 innings of shutout ball, 6 hits, no walks and the bullpen holds in the 9th for the 9th straight win. That's 4 runs over 7 games now, and 4 shutouts in 6 games. Saw a stat earlier that the Mets were the first team since 1900 to have 5 straight games with less than 3 hits allowed.

And yet we still haven't thrown a no-hitter.

Hmm, seems the entire league has been "punching hit" on Myers for a while now.

Did I miss a study on a link between artificial turf and brain cancer?

I believe the early turf had high levels of lead?

There were other chemicals involved as well to maintain those fields. I'll look it up this week.

+2 :).

If you look close in the picture I posted you can see her hands. That is about as much as I'll post on here. :D

Bastard. :D

Big Puma just tore it up in the first round of the Derby...

That was incredible

Wierd name for Josh Hamilton

Can you believe the nerve of that prima donna Jonathan Papelbon suggesting that he's in the same league as hall of fame closer Mariano Rivera? They're in Yankee Stadium, Rivera has better numbers this year, and Rivera is better than Papelbon ever will be so Rivera should absolutely be closing this game, not Papelbon. Papelbon just needs to shutup and stop trying to worm his way into things he doesn't deserve.

He did say that, not that "he's the same league as hall of fame closer Mariano Rivera", but that he thought he should close. Then he remembered (or someone told him) that these days, we like bland athletes who don't have opinions on anything and he corrected himself:

"I'm making a statement right now, saying I don't want it, I want [Rivera] to have it. I said all that earlier, but that's the way I feel about it," Papelbon said.

"This is what I think, of course I want to close the game out. I wouldn't be Jonathan Papelbon if I didn't want to close the game out," he said. "But at the same time, there's also things within this game I have to understand and people have to understand. It doesn't always work out that way.

Yes he would. :confused: :confused:

Would he litterally still be himself, yes. His name would still be Papelbon. I think its just an expression.

Yes. I think he is saying he would still be a guy named Jonathan(sp?) Papelbon, but he would not be the athlete that has risen to the level he is if he did not have that kind of drive and confidence. But I think we all know this and just want to ridicule him for being an athlete that always thinks he can be the best on the field. Man, I'd hate to have a player like that. :rolleyes:

It's awesome to see Kerry Wood back at an all star game

longest introductions ever

Yeah, its pretty bad. Steinbrenner has really gone downhill quickly.

He didn't look good. Is he sick?

Papelbon shouldn't even be an All Star this year.

I think he's been slowing down for awhile now. I don't even think he's been at the Yankees playoff games in the last few years.

Uhhh...Unless I'm missing something, they both deserve to be on the all-star team.

Papelbon should be there before Nathan but after Mariano and K-Rod

oic:cool:

Numbers are worse?:confused:

Joe Buck just kind of insulted me.

He was talking about Hamilton and all his demons and said " he was doing drugs, booze and look at all the tattoos"

Obviously if you have tattoos you are an addict of some sort :rolleyes:

You sure about that? KRod has better save numbers and ERA right now. He also has the record for most saves before the All Star break. Even suggesting Papelbon is having a better year than him is frankly showing off yer Red Sox pantyhose.

As for Papelbon, I stated my point earlier in this thread when the teams came out. There is no sense in having six closers on this team. At least one should have been dropped for a starting pitcher, like Danks or Shields from TB.

Ideally, Sherrill would be dropped--but I am pretty sure he is the O's only rep.

That leaves dropping one of the other five--and Rivera, Soria, Nathan and K-Rod are all having better years than Papelbon.

It's not about whether Papelbon deserves to be on the team. He does. But he shouldn't be on this team, the way this is constructed. He is having a very good year, as usual. But he isn't one of the best five closers in the major leagues statistically right now.

Shh...you might actually get him to research his bias before he posts, and what fun would that be?

You don't even need to look at saves to see K-Rod is having the better year

I was also going to go with W/L's because that's where WHIP actually starts to mean something for closers. Frankie walks a lot of batters, much more so then Papelbon, but who cares? He leads the majors in saves and has fewer blown saves.

Better H/9, and OppBA. Better HR/9. Much, much more saves (which you can ignore all you want, but most of the rest of the world consider it at least somewhat of an important stat for a closer). 0.7 better ERA is STILL better--and Franky had to have a really bad week last week to get you that close.

Save percentage. Another biggie. Even if saves are inflated, blown saves still almost always == losses.

And that's on top of the record thingie.

No, it's not. And that's not even counting the stats I presented above.

And Paps blew his four in nine less chances.

Considering you seem to like using K/9, BB/9, and WHIP, I'd say that it's very important. K-Rod does walk more batters which obviously skews two of those three stats, but when the percentage of them are less likely to score, does it really matter?


You are talking about a probability of over 5% more likely that K-Rod will close out the game then Papelbon will.

Lucky? Or less prone to giving up a critical hit...ie mental toughness

Luck or not (and I would argue that a bit), fact is, there are a lot of numbers in K-Rod's favor. More than in Papelbon's favor and more that are more important to their role in the game and more that are generally acknowledged by the general baseball-following public.

And what's really funny is that Rodriguez, even better than Paps, is probably the best guy to for a Paps fan to do a challenge on. Papelbon is nowhere near where Rivera, Nathan or even Soria are. If it weren't for Sherrill, Papelbon would be the worst reliever on the team (not that being "worst" on an AS team is bad, of course).

Dusty? Is that you?

(I'll take the Mexicutioner, thanks ;) )

SI

When they're right, yes.

I'm wearing Dodger Chonies and probably root for the Angels ahead of just the Giants

I actually agree. There isn't much difference. They're both great closers. But you pretty much categorically stated Papelbon was having a better year, and no one made you make that statement. You have to be prepared to be questioned on it, especially since I would view the above as a significant step back from that statement.

Never said otherwise.

Could you point that out to me? Because nowhere did I call you names.

I stated my case when the teams came out and restated it again above. So at least I didn't just throw out a petty response specifically geared to goad me into this discussion.

And ironically a Red Sox member ties it up.

Hows that WHIP doing right now?

GO NL!!!

Wow. A Padres actually did something good in the AS game for once.

You've yet to come up with an argument on how Papelbon is the better closer...? The only thing worse then a blown save, is a loss. Lucky for me, Papelbon ended this argument pretty easily :)

That's not childish namecalling. That's not even namecalling period.

Even if you want to make it a point about it not being positive, sorry, but this isn't Disneyland, and you don't get to just say what you want and expect no one to call you on it. I called it straight. You presented what I believed to be a biased, unresearched argument that you backed with, well, nothing until challenged, and on top of that, you intentionally baited me. But I guess you're the big man, huh?

I call it like I see it. Sorry you don't like it.

There's a big difference between "namecalling" and being calling it like it is. I would appreciate it if you remembered that next time.

Come on Wilson. I didn't see Lincecum so at least make me a little happy to be a Giants fan.

i feel bad for Timmy

I think it is great that they bring in Wagner with 2 outs and nobody on. Limit the damage he can do.

Go Wagner!

perhaps I spoke to soon

OMG

Should have kept Wilson in. Damn you Hurdle!

Thanks Wagner! :rant:

Damn.. can the NL win one? I have this weird feeling.. :banghead:

Papelbum blows it, then Wagner blows it. Yankees fans are loving this! Too bad Mariano can't get the save here.

Really wanted him to get a chance to shine on the big stage since the Giants won't be there for a while.:banghead:

But he can get the L

Francona should have left K-Rod in. Franky doesn't even start trying until he lets the first two batters get on for kicks.

That Babe Ruth "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" ad is absolutely terrible. I can't mute it fast enough.

DAMMIT. come on NL.

jesus christ. Way to go Uggla.