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.

Just checking. :) But, so far, I would say Zimm has the upper hand in offense for the year? They're pretty close, though.

I think we hear it even mroe because of the Virginia connection.

dola: And becuase Zimmerman is the "face of the franchise" (And I put it in quotes not because it isn't true and not because the fan's don't love him, but just because that's what "everyone" calls him)

And yet they're still 26th in attendance, averaging just 21,000 and change.

Only the absolute hardiest of diehards or complete novices go to a truck race when there's not another Cup event scheduled that weekend. Add in the weather plus no lights (meaning there was little chance of finishing the race if it rained), and the absence of any Cup regulars, hell I'm surprised anybody was at the truck race at all.

edit to add: And you might want to tell the Royals they sold out, the official attendance in the box scores say otherwise. And they were at 35% capacity on Sunday, when folks stayed home to watch NASCAR at Talladega on TV. Although since Ponson was pitching I can't really blame anyone for staying home.

Yovani Gallardo is sick.

8 IP 0 ER 11 K

And he hits a home run, scoring the only run of the game in a win. Not a fluke either, this is his second home run of the year, first was off the Big Unit. Fourth of his short career.

He is definitely someone who is going to be star in this league.

I'm getting a little too overly excited about Strasburg I think.

"In 70 1/3 innings pitched this spring, Strasburg has struck out 135 batters and walked only 12."

From SDSU to scouts and beyond, The Legend of Strasburg has no limit - MLB - CBSSports.com Baseball

SI, are you in DC tomorrow night? :)

Not in any way inferring that this *will* happen, but people were pretty excited over Mark Prior in a similar way.

Gallardo this year:

3-1 2.86 ERA 34.1 IP 34 K 9 BB

Then he has a .333/.333/.833 line at the plate (1.166 OPS).

His career OPS is .766, and has a track record of hitting in the minors too (.871 minor league OPS).

He's 23 years old. He sort of came up when Phil Hughes and Clay Bucholz were the big name pitching prospects, but is looking like a much better bet than them two at this point (though both the former are not busts by any means yet).

Mariners fans take note, your new GM is the guy that drafted JJ Hardy, Corey Hart, and Yovani Gallardo after the first round and hitting on first rounders Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, and Rickie Weeks. Your team is in good hands.

Nope, sorry. On call for work this week so I'm squarely in Richmond :(

SI

Yeah, the article actually compares him to Prior.


Too bad. I have the tickets for tomorrow night, and my buddy that was going to go with me bailed.

Dang. Zack gives up his first earned run this year. Leadoff double but then K and K to get to 2 outs. However, Wells gets a single up the middle to drive in the run.

SI

Had to happen eventually, right? Guy is still amazing.

Edinson Volquez gets the start I have been waiting for.. Reds up two-zip going into the bottom of the 8th. 8.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 6K's. Retired 17 straight batters before giving up a walk in the 8th, and even in that walk was an iffy pitch. He was on tonight.

dola - the Reds offense is still pissing me off, though. Only the Giants have scored less runs this season. Pathetic.

I really enjoyed watching that game so far.

No run support issues for Zack tonight. Royals are absolutely shelling the Toronto pitching. 10-2 in the bottom of the 5th inning. Zack should be able to finish this game tonight with as much rest as he's getting between innings assuming pitch count doesn't become a concern.

They are who we thought they were.

The good news is that Billy Butler is now a triple short of the cycle.

The bad news is that Billy Butler needs a triple to hit for the cycle.

Greinke's ERA up to 0.50 on the year after a start where he didn't have the greatest control

SI

Post SI article from Joe Poz this morning about the SI jinx:

Greinke is too good to be jinxed - Kansas City Star

Gonzalez and Hernandez have started hitting, and it looks like Dusty might be committing to subbing in Nix for Dickerson in left (which will probably improve the defense out there as well), and Rosales is going to play 3rd for a while (hopefully a LONG while). Phillips also showed signs of coming around in the last game. Though Taveras has started slumping now as well.

PLUS, the Reds just got through their own personal hell, 4 games inside of 2 weeks against Roy Oswalt and Wandy Rodriguez, 2 pitchers they can't seem to hit with a boat oar. The offense should improve a bit in the coming weeks with all of these factors coming together. Not saying they're going to be better than league average, but the days of the .208 batting average are hopefully behind them.

Was just looking through some of the standings information this morning in the AL Central. Minnesota is really teetering on disaster. They're at .500, but they've given up 23 more runs than they've scored. That's going to bite them in the backside if they don't get that pitching staff straightened out.

Not that Joe Mauer can be responsible for over a run per game, but remember, he's out so that's a huge problem for their lineup.

On the other hand, I just don't see their pitching. They have a possible 1 who's pitching like a 5 and a bunch of 4s and 5s who have a ceiling of 3s unless I'm just not seeing something there.

SI

Has this ARod thing hit ridiculousness yet?

First it was "Apparently, A-Rod juiced in High School, it's the only way he could gain 15 pounds of muscle in an offseason"

Then "Yankee players called A-Rod "Bitch Tits" because he was apparently juicing with them"

And now "A-Rod had a quid pro quo with other team's players. He would tip them off to incoming pitches during blowouts, so they would return the favor to him so he would get more hits."

None of this with collaboration on the record, mind you. As much as I want to see the Yankees lose, geezus, what a hit job.

A-Rod took steroids while with Yankees, and as teen, claims new book

Details on Alex Rodriguez's alleged pitch-tipping with Rangers - MLB - SI.com

Steroids in high school. Does this seriously surprise anybody? I can only imagine what it's like it more prominent baseball areas than where I live, but I was offered a line on "stuff that'll help you out" at least a couple times a season from the time I was 16 until I quit playing when I was 21. The leagues I played in from 18-21 were a mix of locally born guys on summer break from their ball scholarships at US college's (who were the one's making most of these offers for steroids) who were playing here to keep sharp and guys who lived here year round. If the sample size of scholi guys we had around here were any indication the A-Rod sure as hell had a lot of company.

I hate A-Rod and think he got off lightly in terms of public opinion considering how he lied originally...but if this book is all a bunch of "may haves" and "supposedlys" its a fuckin sham and the publisher should be embarrassed.

Yea, these "may haves" and such are ridiculous. Guess what, he may not have too. And who really gives a shit. One of the head honchos needs to do something with this whole steroid witch hunt. Maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but does anybody really care anymore? We get it, it was part of the game, it happened, rules are in place now, people admitted to it, done deal.

Don't forget his poker habit and dalliances with out of town floozies. The book is trash, but people will read it like they read that rat Joe Torre's book. To me, he used steroids and admitted it, time to move on.

Woo! Royals end April with their first winning April since the magical April of 2003. And they're in first by themselves even if just for one night at the end of one month :)

SI

Worst beat of the year so far in baseball.

I had the Cubs/Marlins under 9.5 runs. It was 2-2 after nine innings. The Marlins scored 6 runs in the top of the 10th.

Those are the ones you just have to laugh at and move on to the next day.

HOLLAH!!!!!!!

:D

Ouch, that Red Sox game was brutal. Watching the "highlights" on ESPN this morning when I was at the gym helped my heart rate climb even higher..

/tk

Three cheers for 5 runs in the 9th by your opponent!

And your former "closer" has a run scored on him WITHOUT THROWING A PITCH. (bulked before his first pitch)

Totally. Now every wants in on the pile on A-Rod wagon that people were drooling on joining.

A snippet from today's Chronicle that I found amusing:


Morning huddle

Flores is... not a good catcher is he? 4 WPs by Cabrera and an error that led to 3 runs in the 9th? That's just looking at the box score.

Oof

SI

The funny thing about that quote is I bet he could hit a guy exactly where he intended to.

Flores is not the best, no. He rarely even tries to pick anyone off at second. Brian Schneider was amazing with that. On the WPs, I just don't know. Could another catcher have blocked them? I really am just not qualified to answer that. Look at the number of walks Cabrera had, though. He clearly was not accurate the whole night.

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. This bullpen is the worst in baseball right now. If I were in the Angels' organization, I would threaten to put everyone on the DL for 15 days (make up injuries if need be) and bring up the AAA relief staff as an abject lesson. Someone in this pen needs to find some sack and get the job done.

I think lordscarlet might have an issue with this statement ;)

SI

He'll have trouble proving it (unfortunately). The Angels, as I have read ad nauseum the past couple days, are statistically the worst bullpen in baseball. I don't think tonight's performance improved its standing.

Mets beat the Phils! Thank you Philadelphia for picking up Chan Ho Park!


And Longoria hits a grand slam to lead the Rays over the BoSox... that's 2 in a row over Boston for the Rays who had a so-so April.

Glad the Braves hit Mike "oh you wanted me to pitch this year?" Hampton pretty well tonight. Atlanta is up 7-2 in the 8th, I'm not sure if they're going to restart this game or just call it at some point.

yeah, big win to start the series considering Johan isn't going this series. I would hate to have lost tonight, there could have been a ton of pressure on Maine considering how inconsistent Perez has been.

from ajc.com, in the recap of tonight's 7-2 Braves win over the Astros

Shouldn't Rockies fans be more pissed? I mean, they ate more of his giant contract and 2 years of absolute suck. Then the Braves said "hey, he's sucked the last 2 years- he sounds like a great candidate for us". I know it's never that simple but that's the glib way of saying what happened.

SI

I will try to do the research, but it would be fantastic if you can find someone that already has. :)

I thought the pen was so good that K-Rod was going to be easily replaced?

(:) just kidding, he's had a couple of those frustrating outings you've talked about)

At least he pitched for the Rockies. I believe the Marlins paid a portion of his salary in one of those complicated, post-WS sell-off trades, and he never even pitched for them.