2013 Major League Baseball (MLB)

JustAFan said:
Yankees are not spending wisely the last 5 years or so it seems. They spend big but not necessarily on the right type of players. When they had a resurgence in the 90's it was based on a few players that came up via farm system, a few players acquired young, and signing the right kind of big name players. For a good number of years they spent poorly not signing the right kind of players (IE ARod never, ever should have been signed despite his gaudy numbers). The failure of Hughers, Chamberlain and Kennedy to develop hurt them for sure.

But I do not mind, never liked the bastards anyways.
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The Yanks should pay Billy Beane $25m per year and stay out of his way.
 
Eboue said:
Cooperstown is a long drive from civilization.
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I grew up in Alaska and currently live in Fresno (212 miles from LA) so distances from major population centers isn't a problem for me. Also, I consider Cooperstown to be a bit more civilized than NYC or New Jersey, so I'm not sure where you plan to find civilization on the east coast.
The drive from NYC to Cooperstown is just a couple of hours (depending on how often the state patrol pulls you over for speeding).
 
MrMarcello said:
The Yanks should pay Billy Beane $25m per year and stay out of his way.
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I'd be super giddy if we got Beane but I think he's at the A's until he wins it all.

Apparently Cano wants $300 million+ for his contract......yeah, no thanks.
 
Cooperstown is a great little town. Been several times,always found the locals there to be very friendly (and they should be since us visitors are easy filling their bank accoutns, lol). The Hall of Fame is a fantastic place to visit. Beautiful country all around there.
 
Big Papi said:
Rivera only started in the MLB when he was 25. Is that not very old?

Is his total for the Yankees the most games pitched for one club?
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I have read he is the first pitcher to reach 1000 games for ONE club.

I think he signed his first contract with the Yankees when he was 21, so 4 years to get to the big leagues is not unusual. If a player goes to college before becoming a professional it would not be that unusual for him to not get to the bigs until he is 24 or 25 (assumes he is 18 or so when he starts college 21 to 22 when he leaves college). A quick google reveals that during the 2000's the average age of a rookie in MLB has been 24.
 
JustAFan said:
I have read he is the first pitcher to reach 1000 games for ONE club.

I think he signed his first contract with the Yankees when he was 21, so 4 years to get to the big leagues is not unusual. If a player goes to college before becoming a professional it would not be that unusual for him to not get to the bigs until he is 24 or 25 (assumes he is 18 or so when he starts college 21 to 22 when he leaves college). A quick google reveals that during the 2000's the average age of a rookie in MLB has been 24.
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:wenger:
I should google, but some of you lads have a fans-eye-view that I don't think I get via google. Marcello's posts on Willie McGee and the 1994 season is the fans pov, that I can't grasp from over here. So I my questions might be basic, but I ask for patience. We've a yank on a gaa forum here, who somehow got involved in hurling. He has connections to Ireland and has fallen in love with the game. He comes on the forum asking very basic questions, but he's always given time because he's obviously interested.

I have found out the name of that baseball book..."The Progress of the Seasons" by George V.Higgins. I thought it was a great book.
 
Have you read Moneyball yet? If not you should, not only is it entertaining its also educational about the game.
 
Lads, I know I have made comparisons between hurling and baseball, but that is the reverence in which the heroes of both games are held. On the field of play, there is no comparison. We were lucky today, to witness one of the greatest All Ireland finals (replay), which topped even the drawn game and finished off, probably, the best All Ireland Championship ever. Youtube showing 24min highlights of the drawn game....needs to be seen in HD....first half poor, but the second was great and the finish was brilliant.

I will have a look for good baseball books. Any others that capture the essence of being a fan?
 
Big Papi said:
Lads, I know I have made comparisons between hurling and baseball, but that is the reverence in which the heroes of both games are held. On the field of play, there is no comparison. We were lucky today, to witness one of the greatest All Ireland finals (replay), which topped even the drawn game and finished off, probably, the best All Ireland Championship ever. Youtube showing 24min highlights of the drawn game....needs to be seen in HD....first half poor, but the second was great and the finish was brilliant.

I will have a look for good baseball books. Any others that capture the essence of being a fan?
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The Boys Of Summer - Roger Kahn
The Big Red Machine - Joe Posnanski
The Soul Of Baseball - Joe Posnanski
The Great American Novel - Philip Roth
Crazy '08 - Cait Murphy


If you're looking for the romantic aspect, I could recommend you some good blog posts by Posnanski, who is the best writer around today.
 
Eboue said:
Here's a few I found in a quick search.

http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2011/09/baseball-night-in-america.html
http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2012/08/pesky.html
http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2010/10/tony-pena-story.html
http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-earl-of-baltimore.html
http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2012/07/kansas-city.html
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Some fantastic reads, thanks. I liked the Pesky one particularly. More telling than Joe's articles are the comments below them, clearly by fans, who are looking for well-written articles.

Joe writes the best eulogies. He finds these qualities in his subjects, what motivated them, what made them unique, and weaves it all into his pieces. It makes for wonderful reading.
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Weaver's use of Stone as a DH is fascinating. Do defensive positions have any bearing on the players' abilities to bat? A-Rod is 3B for the Yankees...did that impact on where he would bat in the lineup?

Can anyone explain the WAR stat to me in simple language? I was on wiki, but I'd need a degree in maths to follow it!
b.WAR = (P.runs - A.runs) + (A.runs - R.runs)...but doesn't explain what P.runs etc are.
 
The basic concept of WAR is that there are tons of players in the minor leagues for every single team. They are good enough to play in AAA but would be over their head in the majors. Each team has lots of these guys. If another team wanted to trade for one of them, they could do so very easily. These are "replacement players".


WAR is wins above replacement player. So Dustin Pedroia has a WAR of 6.5 this year. That means if you have two teams exactly the same, except one starts Pedroia at second base and the other starts a AAA replacement player, the one with Pedroia should win 6-7 more games, which is All Star level.

The way it is calculated can be pretty complicated, but the basic gist is that "replacement level" is calculated for batting, fielding, base running and position. Let's take a look at Miguel Cabrera. He has 9.0 batting WAR and -1.4 fielding WAR. He's also a below average baserunner. Then you have to include positional adjustments. It's harder to find offense at catcher than it is at first base. It's harder to find offense at shortstop than it is at rightfield. This is the defensive spectrum. Players gain or lose some WAR because of the position they play. Finally, there is an adjustment for park factors. Fenway Park is much easier to hit in than the Oakland Coliseum. Coors Field is easier to hit in than the old Astrodome. So the numbers are adjusted to account for that. In the end, you get one number that tells you how many wins a player was worth.

A few notables from this year:

Cabrera - 7.2
Trout - 9.2
McCutcheon - 8.2
Goldschmidt - 7.1
Kershaw - 8.5
Sale - 7.0
Soriano - 1.5
Tulowitzki - 5.3
Konerko - -1.4
Dempster - 0.0
 
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ohmanohmanohmanohman
 
Please explain why Cabrera (one of the slowest players in the league) thinks he can score from a second on a hard hit to left field with the left fielder coming in and the third base coach showing the stop sign.
 
I still think the Tigers have a chance to win it all, don't get me wrong, but I'm glad the Dodgers lost because I didn't want to see them win. If anyone besides the Tigers are too win, I hope it's the Cardinals. I have a lot of respect for Matheny, and I think a title will only further solidify Beltran's well earned legacy. Don't know why I dislike Puig, but he frustrates the hell out of me. He is young and talented, and mistakes are bound to occur, but a couple of his mistakes tonight were borderline sacrilege, ditto Crawford.

I guess being down runs made them press, but how do they not understand the importance of keeping a runner on first AT first?

Did Ellis just lose his job at second permanently tonight? Or was that already in the cards? I wonder if they'll go for Cano, or even tried to trade for Brandon Phillips...
 
Dodgers will go hard for Cano now. Probably will get him too based on his demands, no chance the Yankees will be handing out 10 year contracts again so soon.
 
MrMarcello said:
Just like their cross-city rivals, the Angels.
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No one has spent as much in a short time span than the Dodgers in the history of the sport. That sort of thing unbalances the sport as a whole. Angels have done it over years Dodgers over one year.
 
Umm, I know this. But the Angels did go out and buy up Pujols, Wilson, Hamilton, et al, to leapfrog Oakland and Texas and they have zero postseason games to show for their lavish spending. At least the Dodgers have something to show for their spending.
 
Have my subscription for Setanta sorted now. Will get to watch the World Series for the first time in a few years! Glorious!!!

If only I can get that Sky+ box to work, I can feck off to bed and watch it tomorrow morning.
 
Things I hate about Boston:

1) David Ortiz
2) Beards
3) Red Sox "Nation"
4) John Lackey
5) Jon Lester
6) Ryan Dempster
7) Their fans
8) The way they constantly whine about the strikezone


Things I hate about St. Louis:

1) It's so humid
2) Yadier Molina
3) Tony La Russa
4) Carlos Beltran
5) Matt Adams
6) https://twitter.com/BestFansStLouis



I guess that means I am rooting for St. Louis.
 
I can't root for either club but if I had to wager it would be on Boston. Can't stand the Boston bandwagon and every Cardinals fan I've had the displeasure of coming across is a massive, smug, know-it-all jackass. The only coolest thing about the Red Sox I like is the Sweet Caroline song. Worst is this continuance of God Bless America the networks and MLB conspire to cram down our collective throats constantly. So when I watch I simply mute or change channels during the seventh inning stretch.
 
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