Wake me up when September ends. That's about when my MLB interest level reaches a decent degree.
MLB 2014
- Thread starter Feeky Magee
- Start date
Just watching Texas-Boston right now. Andrus just made a play at second, looked to push off and then transfer to throw to first, but Nava was called safe when he dropped the ball. Play was reviewed, and call stood. The play was very similar to what happened in the Detroit-Baltimore game. Seems like there is now a much stricter definition of what it means to have control of the ball. Could be interesting throughout the year because if that is how they are going to call it, there are going to be a lot of reviews about these specific plays. Could end up being important sometime down the line this year
Looks like Prince Fielder has found to food in Texas to his liking. He looks bigger. They also should soon figure out he is a DH and not a 1B, just like his dad. Moreland can actually field.
Looks like Prince Fielder has found to food in Texas to his liking. He looks bigger. They also should soon figure out he is a DH and not a 1B, just like his dad. Moreland can actually field.
He looks fatter? But I thought he was in shape and lost all this weight after the trade? Isn't that what he said?
I think Leyland tried him at DH last year a couple of games, and I think from that short sample size he was even worse as a batter. I think he is one of those guys that just doesn't get into the game without playing in the field. Martinez was a better first baseman, although he was a natural catcher, but he was also a much better hitter in the DH spot. Prince is made to be a DH, but I think he'll struggle to adapt to that role, as weird as that sounds
Watching the Dodgers-Tigers game. I appreciate Vin Scully, the man is a legend. I like listening to him because it reminds me of the days when my dad and I used to listen to Ernie Harwell call the Tigers game. But goddamn he is losing his marbles. He needs a co-commentator, someone to help him analysis a game because he runs out of real stuff to talk about after the first inning. Must have mentioned Torii Hunter's childhood about five times already. Just mentioned that Max Scherzer's brother Alex, who killed himself last year, is now working towards his masters in business. He was also talking about needing rain in Los Angeles, a pitch came in, he called it, and then said "anyway" and continued to talk about rain in LA. It was great actually, its like the game was a nuisance for interrupting his rain story.
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Jose Abreu hit his first homer tonight. He then hit his second one in his next at-bat. Avi Garcia homered twice too, 6 total HRs for the White Sox, beat the Rockies 15-3
I like Iglesias, but Garcia is going to be the one that got away for the Tigers. All because he was a horny bugger and Mrs. Fielder was available
I have my concerns about him. As he showed tonight, he has great power potential, but he hits damn near everything into the ground. He's also horrendous in right-field, and never walks. If he can elevate more and realise his power potential the latter two won't matter so much, but if he doesn't he's going to have to hit about .300 to be anyway valuable. Only 22, so time is on his side.
Yeah, still young, but he tore up the minors when in Toledo. A couple of different people I know who go to Toledo games said he was one of the better hitters they've ever seen at Toledo, just struck out a little too much.
Kenley Jansen just blew a save tonight, but he is entertaining. He's got all the makings of a Tigers closer, tbh. Electric stuff, hard thrower and erratic as hell. His cutter has get up and it has late break, he just couldn't control it at times. Threw three or four real hard cutters or fastballs to Cabrera, didn't hit anywhere near his spot, but he still got swinging strikes/foul balls. He is fun too watch, but I could see him being a real frustrating player if you're a Dodgers fan
Kenley Jansen just blew a save tonight, but he is entertaining. He's got all the makings of a Tigers closer, tbh. Electric stuff, hard thrower and erratic as hell. His cutter has get up and it has late break, he just couldn't control it at times. Threw three or four real hard cutters or fastballs to Cabrera, didn't hit anywhere near his spot, but he still got swinging strikes/foul balls. He is fun too watch, but I could see him being a real frustrating player if you're a Dodgers fan
FFS, Nathan just gave up a three run lead in the bottom of the 9th. Can't believe I stayed up for this shit
Aaaaand torn labrum, out for the season
Looks like Matt Moore is heading for TJS, sucks for the Rays.
Jose Abreu another 2 homers. Man's an absolute beast.
f*ck off and die, baseball
Yankees are looking strong. Their starting pitching is deep and young. If the bullpen remains consistent and the team avoids major injuries, they could have a good chance in the playoffs this year. The season is still in its infancy(anything can still happen), but I like what I see thus far.
Let me call you and put me on loudspeaker so I can regale everyone around you about Trout's WAR versus Cabrera's.
Man I really thought Solarte was starting to get found out with breaking balls, he's adjusted well though. Just keeps on trucking, Yangervis!
The piped in music and advertising is oppressively loud. You can't even hear the person next to you. So much worse than last year.
Sucks to be you, White Sox only losing by 9
Left when it was 11-1 and cold. feck that.
I've always been interested in baseball, and have recently started watching it a bit more. Obviously, there's a lot of statistics involved, so I'll need to learn a bit about the game. Any tips?
Well what do you know so far? Feeky is a Eurotrash weirdo who has learned about baseball so he might have a few suggestions. I can answer any questions you have too.
I'm watching the Astros at the moment. I'll post a few questions after it(if I can't find any answers online). I'll watch a few games, I imagine I'll learn quickly that way.I know the basic rules etc. I understand innings too. I'm a little bit iffy on statistics related to it, and why they're important.
For hitters you'll see three basic stats, batting average (AVG), on-base percentage (OBP) and slugging percentage (SLG). They show how many hits a player is getting, how often he's getting on-base and how much power he's hitting for, and make up the classic triple-slash line. AVG is total hits divided by total at-bats, so if a hitter had 100 at-bats and had 25 hits, his average would be .250. OBP is hits + walks divided by total at-bats, so if he got 10 walks as well as those 25 hits, his on-base percentage would be .350. And slugging is total bases divided by total at-bats (single = 1 base, double = 2 bases etc.), so if those 25 hits were comprised of, say, 17 singles, 5 doubles, 1 triple and 2 home-runs, his slugging percentage would be .380 (17x1 + 5x2 + 1x3 + 2x4 divided by 100).
His triple-slash line would then read .250/.350/.380. You can tell at a glance that's a hitter who hits averagely, has good patience and moderate power. A .200/.330/.500 line would be someone who doesn't hit a lot, but when he does he hits for power, and draws a good amount of walks.
There are various other batting statistics that tell you a lot more than the basic triple slash, depending on what you think is most important. Probably the best metric to judge offensive value, and fairly easy to follow (although not calculate) is wRC+, basically how many runs a hitter creates, relative to the rest of the league. 100 is average, 90 is 10% below average, etc.
For a pitcher, the most basic stat is earned-run average (ERA). It shows how many runs a pitcher has allowed per 9 innings. It can be misleading however if the pitcher has been lucky or unlucky, and there are other metrics such as FIP and xFIP that show a truer reflection.
The best statistic of all is Wins Above Replacement (WAR). This shows you how many wins each player is responsible for per year. It's calculated in comparison to a replacement-level player, i.e. any schmuck in the minor leagues that you will be able to call up to replace any player.
For position players, it's calculated by getting a figure of how many runs they added or took away through their offence, their defence and their base-running. For pitchers, it's a complicated formula involving FIP.
Mike Trout is the best player in baseball. In his first 2 seasons he's been worth 10 and 10.4 wins above replacement. This basically means if he got injured at the start of one of their seasons and they had to call up a replacement-level player they should have expected to win 10 games less.
Feeky he's just learning. Cut him a break.
Suck my arse
Oakland just got a home run. Lowrie with the hit. 3-2 to Astros in the 8th inning. I'm learning!
www.fangraphs.com
www.baseball-reference.com
www.mlbtraderumors.com
If you have a team already selected try and seek out an active blog for them, if you are watching the Astros then you probably made a good choice to watch the modern game changing with heavy usage of sabermetrics influencing scouting, lineups, defensive shifts etc. They aren't a great team now but 2-3 years down the line with the talent they have they could quite easily be contendors in that time frame whilst being young and exciting to watch.
Easiest way to learn the absolute basics is to watch lots and hope the commentators are decent. I'd recommend reading Moneyball too. Statistics you can learn a variety of ways but I think you can get out of it as much as you feel you want to, you can go all in on stats out the box or just learn them as you watch/read the game, I don't think it matters too much early on.
I saw them live once. 2004 when I was in Houston, visiting my Uncle. Year before they lost the world series.
Feeky, that wall of text is actually quite helpful. I'm going to copy pasta it into a doc, and keep it open beside any game I watch.
What are the rules on batters sharing bases? Just 2? And on certain bases?
What do you mean?
Two Mets players were on second base together I think. Is that allowed?
No.
Thought as much. Maybe the other guy just hadn't left to walk back. They stood there and talked until the camera moved on.
Must have been during a break in the action.
Bartolo Colon can pitch brilliantly, but I'm wondering about his batting. Is he usually this laughable while batting?
Pitchers don't practice hitting at all. In the American League parks, they aren't allowed to hit.
So, they're forced to bat despite not getting practice?