A view of the Boston Red Sox from Singapore, 12 time zones and half the world away.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
A-Rod Passing Out
Meanwhile, I thought this quote from Cynthia Rodriguez, on A-Rod passing out when his first child was born, was funny:
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Meanwhile, I thought this quote from Cynthia Rodriguez, on A-Rod passing out when his first child was born, was funny:
“As tough and big as he seems, he is real wimpy around doctors or any type of medical situation,” Cynthia Rodriguez said. “I don’t know why I thought the birth of our child would be different.”Tough and big? Um, there's a reason A-Rod gets referred to as "Slappy".
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Knuckling Down
That was the best Wakefield start I've seen for a while. Nice for the team to get the shutout on a day that Paps and Okajima weren't available in all likelihood.
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That was the best Wakefield start I've seen for a while. Nice for the team to get the shutout on a day that Paps and Okajima weren't available in all likelihood.
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Saturday, May 03, 2008
On creative baseball usage, and Owings
The Wall Street Journal (of all papers) explores creative usage in baseball this season - I had noted the game in which Girardi elected not to start Ian Kennedy in case of rain, but missed Chris Resop playing both pitcher and LF in the same game, which sounded like a great move, even if it didn't pan out in this instance.
Now that Micah Owings has a 1.044 career OPS - only around the same level as, oh, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams - it will be really interesting to see what happens in interleague if he's scheduled to pitch. Do they choose to DH for another player? And in his regular NL games, does he stay at the bottom of the lineup?
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The Wall Street Journal (of all papers) explores creative usage in baseball this season - I had noted the game in which Girardi elected not to start Ian Kennedy in case of rain, but missed Chris Resop playing both pitcher and LF in the same game, which sounded like a great move, even if it didn't pan out in this instance.
Now that Micah Owings has a 1.044 career OPS - only around the same level as, oh, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams - it will be really interesting to see what happens in interleague if he's scheduled to pitch. Do they choose to DH for another player? And in his regular NL games, does he stay at the bottom of the lineup?
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Slump Busting
Finally, crooked numbers for the Sox; finally, runs. That Moss homer to straightaway centre was beautiful (I love those homers to dead center). One of my favourite moments in the game, though, was Buchholz's 3 straight Ks to get himself out of that 2-on, no-out jam. That curveball was making some of the Rays hitters look silly.
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Finally, crooked numbers for the Sox; finally, runs. That Moss homer to straightaway centre was beautiful (I love those homers to dead center). One of my favourite moments in the game, though, was Buchholz's 3 straight Ks to get himself out of that 2-on, no-out jam. That curveball was making some of the Rays hitters look silly.
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Friday, May 02, 2008
Pitch Perfect
I'm loving the starting pitching, but not loving the offense. 5 great starts: Masterson, Beckett, Lester, Dice-K, and Wakefield, and yet the only wins in that span belong to a certain J. Papelbon. Um, the older J. Papelbon, that is. I'm wondering what the Fenway park factor looks like this season - surely it'll look depressed by a woeful offense and masterful starting pitching?
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I'm loving the starting pitching, but not loving the offense. 5 great starts: Masterson, Beckett, Lester, Dice-K, and Wakefield, and yet the only wins in that span belong to a certain J. Papelbon. Um, the older J. Papelbon, that is. I'm wondering what the Fenway park factor looks like this season - surely it'll look depressed by a woeful offense and masterful starting pitching?
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Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Ways to Make Jays Pay
What a great win today, following a frustrating series of losses. For once a great pitching performance from a Sox starter wasn't wasted. Amazing work from Lester... sorry, Doc Halladay.
Meanwhile, is it just schadenfreude that makes one happy that the NY Daily News seems to be alleging that Clemens is an ephebophile? Sure, I can't say the Daily News is a paragon of great reporting (when I was in New York in 2001, I met a guy who was a stringer for them, and his job was to camp outside Gracie Mansion trying to see what he could find out about Rudy Giuliani). But still. All that, and I got to actually use the word "ephebophile" in a sentence.
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What a great win today, following a frustrating series of losses. For once a great pitching performance from a Sox starter wasn't wasted. Amazing work from Lester... sorry, Doc Halladay.
Meanwhile, is it just schadenfreude that makes one happy that the NY Daily News seems to be alleging that Clemens is an ephebophile? Sure, I can't say the Daily News is a paragon of great reporting (when I was in New York in 2001, I met a guy who was a stringer for them, and his job was to camp outside Gracie Mansion trying to see what he could find out about Rudy Giuliani). But still. All that, and I got to actually use the word "ephebophile" in a sentence.
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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
We're No Angels: Sox Hammer Halos
We're No Angels featured a great director (Neil Jordan), two of the greatest actors around (De Niro and Penn) plus some of the best supporting actors (John C. Reilly, Wallace Shawn), and a great screenwriter (David Mamet). And it still fell flat on its face.
Which is to say, sometimes you don't need to have all your parts being great. Sometimes you look on paper and go, hmm, Beckett's out and Pauley's pitching in his place. The bullpen doesn't have MDC available. Light-hittin' Kevin Cash is the starting catcher. Ortiz is still hitting below the Mendoza line.
And yet... what a game. Ellsbury with 2 homers and scoring from 1st on a hit to left field. Lord that man is fast fast fast. (I suppose since I was referencing random films, I could've gone with this one.) Backup catcher (!) Pedroia is exactly what you don't expect from a guy his size: power and not that much speed. Between his hit today and his hits into the triangle against the Rangers, how can you not like him? Except that as a fellow 5"7' man, it makes me sad because I no longer have the "I was the wrong height to play baseball" thing to go by.
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We're No Angels featured a great director (Neil Jordan), two of the greatest actors around (De Niro and Penn) plus some of the best supporting actors (John C. Reilly, Wallace Shawn), and a great screenwriter (David Mamet). And it still fell flat on its face.
Which is to say, sometimes you don't need to have all your parts being great. Sometimes you look on paper and go, hmm, Beckett's out and Pauley's pitching in his place. The bullpen doesn't have MDC available. Light-hittin' Kevin Cash is the starting catcher. Ortiz is still hitting below the Mendoza line.
And yet... what a game. Ellsbury with 2 homers and scoring from 1st on a hit to left field. Lord that man is fast fast fast. (I suppose since I was referencing random films, I could've gone with this one.) Backup catcher (!) Pedroia is exactly what you don't expect from a guy his size: power and not that much speed. Between his hit today and his hits into the triangle against the Rangers, how can you not like him? Except that as a fellow 5"7' man, it makes me sad because I no longer have the "I was the wrong height to play baseball" thing to go by.
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Monday, April 14, 2008
Finish Him - On Whether the Save Rule Contains Redundancies
Great game, even if Timlin's performance was nailbiting. I must say I can't remember Javier Lopez ever pitching this well.
But anyway, on SoSH there was some discussion about whether Delcarmen would qualify for a save (no), which moved on to discussion over whether parts (a) and (c) of the save rule were redundant:
My theory is it would be possible for the finishing pitcher to not have 1/3 of an inning is if he comes on with a lead, and the game is called due to rain before anyone is out. Let's say a game is 8-5, Yankees at Sox. Top of 9th inning, bases loaded, no outs. Timlin comes on (this is a hypothetical, after all) and walks in a run. At this point the heavens open and it's impossible to continue, and they call the game. Timlin would be the finishing pitcher in a game won by the Sox (8-6), but have zero innings pitched. I presume the seemingly redundant 1/3 inning clause is what prevents this completely ineffectual outing from counting as a save.
Which led to further discussions on when called games end, since others argued that the game would revert to the 8th inning in this scenario. But rule 4.11(d) states that"A called game ends at the moment the umpire terminates play, unless it becomes a suspended game pursuant to Rule 4.12(a)". (emphasis mine)
Take this Indians-Yankees game from 2001. Cleveland was leading 5-4, scored 2 runs in the top of the 6th; the Yankees managed to get a Posada AB (which led to a Diaz error on a foul fly), and then game was called due to rain. So inning #6 was not finished, and the record stands that Cleveland won 7-4 including Diaz's error in the bottom of the 6th. Interestingly enough, in the game above, Rincon got the save for pitching the top of the 5th inning. My guess is if someone had come out to pitch to Posada in the 6th, Rincon wouldn't have got the save, and neither would the other pitcher.
The rule on reverting to the previous half-inning was apparently changed in 1978 as a result of this Yankees-Orioles game, in which the Yankees scored 5 at the top of 7th that were wiped off the board because the game was called. Presumably the rule change was to prevent teams in the Orioles' position from just stalling until the game was called in their favour (under new rules, the situation would produce a suspended game).
If you look at Retrosheet's list of 'lost homers', i.e. homers that didn't count in the records due to games being called and other reasons, you'll notice that pre-1978 people 'lost' homers in late innings (see the game of 8/25/1975: "Under existing rules, if a lead had changed and an inning was not yet complete, the score reverted back to the last completed inning." - the wording of which seems indicate the rules on reverting were different from now) but after that all 'lost' homers came only in games that were called before the regulation 5 innings were played.
So I would guess my scenario still holds, allowing a pitcher to finish a game in which his team won without 1/3 innings pitched. Which is to say, MLB's save rule is not necessarily the best of stats, but it isn't redundant.
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Great game, even if Timlin's performance was nailbiting. I must say I can't remember Javier Lopez ever pitching this well.
But anyway, on SoSH there was some discussion about whether Delcarmen would qualify for a save (no), which moved on to discussion over whether parts (a) and (c) of the save rule were redundant:
The official scorer shall credit a pitcher with a save when such pitcher meets all four of the following conditions:i.e. could someone be the "finishing pitcher in a game won by his team" but not get credit for at least a third of an inning pitched?
(a) He is the finishing pitcher in a game won by his team;
(b) He is not the winning pitcher;
(c) He is credited with at least a third of an inning pitched; and
(d) He satisfies one of the following conditions:
(1) He enters the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches for at least one inning;
(2) He enters the game, regardless of the count, with the potential tying run either on base, or at bat or on deck (that is, the potential tying run is either already on base or is one of the first two batters he faces); or
(3) He pitches for at least three innings.
My theory is it would be possible for the finishing pitcher to not have 1/3 of an inning is if he comes on with a lead, and the game is called due to rain before anyone is out. Let's say a game is 8-5, Yankees at Sox. Top of 9th inning, bases loaded, no outs. Timlin comes on (this is a hypothetical, after all) and walks in a run. At this point the heavens open and it's impossible to continue, and they call the game. Timlin would be the finishing pitcher in a game won by the Sox (8-6), but have zero innings pitched. I presume the seemingly redundant 1/3 inning clause is what prevents this completely ineffectual outing from counting as a save.
Which led to further discussions on when called games end, since others argued that the game would revert to the 8th inning in this scenario. But rule 4.11(d) states that"A called game ends at the moment the umpire terminates play, unless it becomes a suspended game pursuant to Rule 4.12(a)". (emphasis mine)
Take this Indians-Yankees game from 2001. Cleveland was leading 5-4, scored 2 runs in the top of the 6th; the Yankees managed to get a Posada AB (which led to a Diaz error on a foul fly), and then game was called due to rain. So inning #6 was not finished, and the record stands that Cleveland won 7-4 including Diaz's error in the bottom of the 6th. Interestingly enough, in the game above, Rincon got the save for pitching the top of the 5th inning. My guess is if someone had come out to pitch to Posada in the 6th, Rincon wouldn't have got the save, and neither would the other pitcher.
The rule on reverting to the previous half-inning was apparently changed in 1978 as a result of this Yankees-Orioles game, in which the Yankees scored 5 at the top of 7th that were wiped off the board because the game was called. Presumably the rule change was to prevent teams in the Orioles' position from just stalling until the game was called in their favour (under new rules, the situation would produce a suspended game).
If you look at Retrosheet's list of 'lost homers', i.e. homers that didn't count in the records due to games being called and other reasons, you'll notice that pre-1978 people 'lost' homers in late innings (see the game of 8/25/1975: "Under existing rules, if a lead had changed and an inning was not yet complete, the score reverted back to the last completed inning." - the wording of which seems indicate the rules on reverting were different from now) but after that all 'lost' homers came only in games that were called before the regulation 5 innings were played.
So I would guess my scenario still holds, allowing a pitcher to finish a game in which his team won without 1/3 innings pitched. Which is to say, MLB's save rule is not necessarily the best of stats, but it isn't redundant.
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Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Home Opener
What an awesome home opener. Bill Buckner throwing out the first pitch was a nice touch (1986 was always McNamara's fault), although I did like the poster on Boston Sports Media Watch who suggested that the correct thing to have done was for Buckner to come out and for McNamara to come out and replace him with Dave Stapleton...
As for the game itself... Dice-K looks like he's found his groove - the thought of Dice and Josh Beckett fighting to be #1 excites me no end. I suppose nationalists and xenophobes will call for the Sox to keep playing in America, since all the losses came in Japan and Canada.
Posted by Daryl | Permalink | 0 comment(s) | Email this post
What an awesome home opener. Bill Buckner throwing out the first pitch was a nice touch (1986 was always McNamara's fault), although I did like the poster on Boston Sports Media Watch who suggested that the correct thing to have done was for Buckner to come out and for McNamara to come out and replace him with Dave Stapleton...
As for the game itself... Dice-K looks like he's found his groove - the thought of Dice and Josh Beckett fighting to be #1 excites me no end. I suppose nationalists and xenophobes will call for the Sox to keep playing in America, since all the losses came in Japan and Canada.
Posted by Daryl | Permalink | 0 comment(s) | Email this post
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