That was awesome.

10 in a row for Boston after a sweep of the Yankees.

Days like today I miss living in New Jersey.

awwww :(

Seriously? Up 11-7 isn't enough in the 8th inning. Joel Hanrhan blows ANOTHER save. He is now been successful on 2 of 5 save opportunities.

Two 4 run leads, and the Nationals go down with another one in the L column.

I finally remembered to put on the MLB Network to check out what's going on and you guys were right - it's awesome. Just got the live look-in to see Pit tie it up vs Mil in the 8th.

Just set the DVR to record the final edition of Roundtripper every night.

Although there's something they can improve...they just showed Dexter Fowler of Colorado, and how he has tied a rookie single-game record of 5 steals so far. Would seem like they should mention what the record is, who holds it, etc.

Good to see Bannister gut out a good start in the cold and rain. Brutal conditions. 2 hitter by the KC staff is nice to see against a hot Toronto team. That was Toronto's best chance for a win with Meche, Greinke, and Davies coming up in the next three games.

Ping: Dayton Moore. Luke Hochaver is 4-0 with a 1.44 ERA in Omaha. Get him here already. KC's got a heckuva staff when he comes up to the big leagues.

Hochevar, at this point, would likely be taking Bannister's spot. Banny flirted with trouble all night like he did in the previous game. I think his final count was 45 strikes, 47 balls but somehow he escaped disaster.

Hey, I'm not excited about Ponson in the rotation. But I'd like to keep him around, if possible. Who is our next option when, not if, someone goes down with an injury? Horacio? Excited to see Ducky or Bruce Chen starting a crucial game in KC? Ponson is the best option out of anyone else we have our there.

SI

OK, so. More bitching from the Nationals fan.

12 H, 11 R, 5 HR. Ready for the real shot in the balls? 20 runners left on base.

Last night was certainly not the night to evaluate Bannister's stats. It was in the 40 degree range and mist/rain was falling most of the game. Both of the pitchers were complaining after the game that the ball was slipping out of their hands. Bannister looked like a knuckleball pitcher out there due to the fact that he doesn't put a finger on the seams for his fastball. It was slipping out all over the place, but the movement was incredible. The fact that he only gave up one hit only solidifies his comments after the game. He didn't know where it was going, but the batters weren't having any success because they didn't know where it was going either.

I'd agree that Ponson is good insurance, but he isn't in our top 5 right now.

Holy crap. I don't know if we can even top that number this season. That means you *averaged* more than 2 per inning.

Wait, looked it up- you had a team LOB of 11. That's more in line with what the Royals like to do. The 20 (actually 21) is the individual batting stats so you get doubled and tripled up sometimes (i.e. leadoff guy singles and doesn't get home- each of the next 3 batters get a LOB for him).

SI

Ah, my bad. That's what I get for looking quickly in anger. Only 11 LOB. Shew. Nothing to worry about. :lol:

I was wanting to look up team LOB- found it on CBS (wasn't on any other site):

Washington- 11th best OPS+, 3rd on LOB. The rest of the top 5 in LOB are all in the top 5 in hitting, which makes sense. So, yeah, the Nats are unlucky.

SI

Would you consider that luck? I am someone that didn't truly get into the meat of baseball until the Nationals came to town. I played it as a kid,b ut I never really got engrossed in it until 2005. Can situational hitting be taught/learned/perfected? Or is it really just a case of bad luck? I really don't know. Everyone on the blogs/boards seem to think the bad situation hit is poor performance, not bad luck.

Where did you find OPS+ on CBS? I only see OBP, which puts the Nationals (I typed Natinals by accident.. hah!) in 6th. LOB 3rd, of course.

I guess what you're saying about "makes sense" is making sense to me.. the more people you put on base, the more you'll strand there.

I think this is what's telling, the top OBP teams (LA, STL, BOS, NYM, TOR) are all in top 5 runs scored, excep the NYM (they are 16th), whereas the Nationals are in 19th in runs scored. So they are 6th in OBP, 11th in OPS+ (I just can't find that one :)), and 19th in runs scored. Seems that runs scored should be a little higher if you're doing that well at getting on base. Looks like the Mets have the same problem, though.

dola: 2 of 8 on save opportunities for the Nationals.

I grabbed OPS+ from baseball-reference. It took me 3 or 4 sites to find LOB (no on b-r, yahoo, or cnnsi) so I just went back to one of the tabs I had opened.

As for situational hitting- someone else can take this a lot further than I can, but the simple answer is that "clutch" is more or less an illusion. Some players can have really clutch at-bats over part or maybe even all of a season but it regresses to the mean over a career. I don't remember if there were many, if any exceptions to the studies done.

The idea is that a good hitter will seem more clutch while a bad hitter will seem less clutch but that's mainly because one is a better hitter than the other. People will remember the anecdotal evidence they want to remember and supports their claims.

There is a little more nuance to it than that and I think there's more to that relationship such as some players are more or less affected by pressure so that it brings their performance down but that's another argument for another day.

SI

I won't dispute the studies because I'm not aware of them, but why is baseball hitting the one experience in human existence where pressure/importance doesn't impact performance either positively or negatively? I've never been able to wrap my mind around that.

I don't believe that people can perform better than their true talent level in a pressure/importance situation, but I do believe that some can perform much worse. Perhaps what we see as clutch is only someone's baseline performance that is unaffected from a loss of focus due to the importance of the situation.

Yeah, that was kindof my argument in the last paragraph.

However, I thought the studies that are out there even disproved that.


Me neither. But it's out there.

SI

I don't think someone can perform better than their true talent level in pressure situations, but I think some clearly perform better then than at any other time (there's plenty of people that work better with a deadline, for example).

I think its true that people can't perform better than their talent level, however, who operates at 100% optimization all the time? I would think this was impossible.

In theory, it's that hitting a baseball is so difficult, you can't do it without max effort.

Take weightlifting for example. Whether it's the Olympics or your gym at home, you can't "try" any more or less.

Or it could mean that the Nats never get men on the basepaths...

huh?

So what about when I'm watching a game and they say he's a lifetime .280 guy, but hits .310 with RISP or something like that? I do recall reading something is Baseball Prospectus or the like that says "clutch" is BS, but my above example makes me wonder.

I think clutch is a product of focus. Certain guys dial up their focus on a notch in certain situations.

I think the fallacy is that everyone is playing to their full talent level all the time. In a 162 game season, I certainly don't think that's the case. I'd guess that it hovers around 80-90% in most situations, and some guys can dial it up to that 100% in clutch situations, while others choke and drop to 60 or lower.

Oops. When the statistic was first quoted I assumed the Nats had left the 3rd least runners on base, not the third most runners on base.

Here's a simple article about it:
Baseball Prospectus

Do you ever hear people talk about lifetime RISP? Usually on broadcasts, it's a yearly number (or last year if it's early in the current year) or, my personal favorite- playoff numbers- which are going to be such a small sample size when compared to a player's entire body of work.

SI

http://query-origin.andohs.net/8000A...ons090428a.mp3

i'm by no means a Bill Simmons fan, but his convo with his yankee-fan friend here is crazy amusing

And the Tigers Bullpen blows up in normal fashion tonight...


E Jackson 6.0 IP, 0 ER
R Perry 0.1 IP, 2 ER
N Robertson 0.1 IP, 4 ER
B Lyon 1.1 IP, 2 ER
J Rincon 1.0 IP 1 ER

Tigers bullpen was atrocious. Who gives up a grand slam to Jose Molina? On a brighter note, Phil Franchise was back with a vengeance tonight. 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 6 Ks. Hopefully Bruney and A-Rod get back soon, not sure what happens with Wang if Hughes keeps pitching well.

Dear Cole Hamels - seriously, just take care of yourself, OK?

Also, I love Raul Ibanez.

There really are $2600 seats at Yankee Stadium?

apparently so...nuts!

Carlos Zambrano became the 16th pitcher since 1954 to single, double and homer in a game.

17th pitcher in that time span to flirt with a cycle - Warren Spahn singled, tripled and homered in a 1955 game.

Yeah, I know he's injury prone, but this is getting ridiculous.


Phillies MVP thus far and one of the few reasons we're above.500.

Gil Meche left the game early yesterday with stiffness in his back. It was obvious that he wasn't feeling well during his 4 innings. It looks like there's no structural issues. He may skip a start while they figure out the problem.

Greinke and his 0.00 ERA hit the mound tonight agains the 15-7 Blue Jays. Blue Jays are starting a relief pitcher with 8 career starts. Should be interesting. Loved Greinke's comment the other day when asked about being on the Sports Illustrated cover this week.......

Sports Illustrated putting Greinke on cover - Kansas City Star



Another good article about Greinke below. It has several quotes from Royals players and staff where they mention how they've never seen anything like what Greinke is doing right now........

Royals’ Greinke can’t hide from success - Kansas City Star

Uh oh... Greinke pissed off the NASCAR crowd.

The guy is a total quote machine. He's got an extremely dry sense of humor that can leave you rolling on the floor. I rarely watch the post game interviews after a Royals game on TV, but I never miss a Greinke interview. It's nice to see a player who is a great player AND is very likeable.

I thought about that immediately and then realized he said it in Kansas City, nobody noticed ;)

KC just built the NASCAR track so we could get the rednecks out of our way a few weekends a year. Saturday was awfully peaceful this past weekend during the NASCAR truck race.

Considering their attendance, the Royals might wish someone had consulted them on that decision.

I'm happy that Greinke is getting all this coverage. He's earned it.

Amazing--can anyone recall if there's a starting pitcher that's gotten a quality start but his team ends up losing by 10 runs?

Uh, you do know that the Royals sold out on both Friday and Saturday, when the Trucks were racing, right?

Hey look, it's David Wright!!!

I don't know if you guys even look at the comparison, but we do. David Wright and Ryan Zimmerman grew up together in Hampton Roads and started their careers in MLB a year apart. Oh, and play the same position in the same division. So far, in this 19-20 game season (way too early to tell anything)

Wright: 78 AB, 15 R, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 2 SB, 11 BB, 25 SO, 98 OPS+, 1 GDP David Wright Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com
Zimm: 82 AB, 13 R, 4 HR, 13 RBI, 0 SB, 8 BB, 18 SO, 123 OPS+, 3 GDP Ryan Zimmerman Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com

We hear about the Wright-Zimmerman bromance everytime the teams play each other.