Random MLB News And Discussion 2013

[Patrick425]

Rick Ankiel has put nine balls in play through 38 AB's. he has 23 k's.

 

4 of those 9 have been homers. The walks are obviously completely absent, but 27 out of 38 is a tremendous 3TO percentage.

 

Hmmm...as I look at his stats (on CBS sportsline), I see he has 9 hits (not 9 "balls in play") and 5 of those hits have been HRs. Still incredible.

[JohnBriggs12]

Billingsley to have TJ surgery ending his season. With the Nats not looking so invincible and the Dodgers with half their rotation on the DL, it certainly opens up things up in the NL.

[owbc]

It's early but the Braves look like the favorite in the NL right now.

 

The AL is interesting with the Rangers, Royals, and Red Sox all unexpectedly leading their respective divisions.

[Patrick425]

Billingsley to have TJ surgery ending his season. With the Nats not looking so invincible and the Dodgers with half their rotation on the DL, it certainly opens up things up in the NL.

 

Nice timing for the Brewers!

[craigharmann]

Wainwright pitches 8.2 innings, 118 pitches. Gotta love that the Cardinals bullpen is awful, because it forces Matheny to wear out his starters....in the end, that won't be good.....for the Cardinals. Will be good for the Brewers!

[ewitkows]

Manny being Manny. Comes in , in the 10th and gives up a homer to Barney of all people

[JohnBriggs12]

The odds of Manny still being around by the time the Brewers see the Reds appear slim. Then again maybe he's got pictures of Dusty like he had of Doug Melvin.

[owbc]

Hawk Harrelson invents new stat: TWTW

 

LINK

[dlk9s]

Harrelson is the WOAT.

[Ennder]

I will just use this space to express how boring watching NBA games is and how insane I find it that anyone actually watches the NFL draft coverage which put me to sleep almost instantly last night.

[MJLiverock]

I love the NFL draft. I used to skip school as a kid to watch it. I DVR the draft now so I can skip the interviews and some of the commentary but love watching the film breakdowns and discussion about team needs and expectations for players. I tend to remember a lot about the draft day discussions and enjoy seeing the guys play or fail in the NFL. I prefer the NFL Network coverage to ESPN as they seem less bombastic and less overhyping of favorite college teams/players, plus Mayock blows Kiper and McShay away in my view.

 

Gotta agree with you on the NBA, although I did watch a lot of the finals last year because I thought the match up was good and they both would actually be trying all the time for the whole series, unlike 80% of the regular season where teams seem to sleepwalk.

[topper09er]

I will just use this space to express how boring watching NBA games is and how insane I find it that anyone actually watches the NFL draft coverage which put me to sleep almost instantly last night.

 

Agree.

 

The worst thing ever used to be having to miss an April Brewer game watching from Madison because the Bucks were playing at the same time, and then calling a bar to ask them if they will have the Brewer game and they always said yes because they usually have them and I told them today was different because of the Bucks and blackout restrictions and they would still say yes and then we would go and guess what, no game.

 

Engineers are really good at run on sentences.

[owbc]

Loria upsets Marlins players by meddling with rotation for Tuesday's doubleheader.

[Funketown]

I will just use this space to express how boring watching NBA games is and how insane I find it that anyone actually watches the NFL draft coverage which put me to sleep almost instantly last night.

 

I was talking the other day about how the excitement of a system to determine a league champion seems to be so strongly negatively correlated with the excitement of said system. If I had to rank some sports on how well their championship determines the best team, I'd go something like {1. European Soccer (league), 2. NCAA Football (pre-playoff), 3. NBA, 4. Champions League, 5. MLB, 6. NFL, 7. NCAA Basketball, 8. NHL}. My rankings for which are the most exciting (not the sport, the system, as I've arbitrarily decided I can disentangle the 2!) {1. NCAA Basketball, 2. NHL, 3. NFL, 4. Champions League, 5. MLB, 6. NBA, 7. BCS, 8. League Soccer}.

 

So, as I've proven with this very scientific study, crowning the best team as champion is boring.

[craigharmann]

Loria upsets Marlins players by meddling with rotation for Tuesday's doubleheader.

 

Can he be forced to sell the team "in the best interest of baseball"?

[Ennder]

That could be Funketown, I just find the NBA really bland to watch in general. The players don't look like they are even trying, nobody plays defense anymore and the pacing of the game is just dreadful because of it.

 

Hawk is a bit moronic but he is correct that the stats aren't really mature enough to take completely seriously yet. Though obviously that doesn't mean just throw the stats out completely!

[TooLiveBrew]

Harrelson is the WOAT.

You can put THAT on the board

[craigharmann]

Harrelson is the WOAT.

You can put THAT on the board

 

YES!

[brettac1]

I love Hawk Harrelson, even with how huge of an idiot he is. When I watch White Sox games on mlb.tv, I always watch their broadcast. I think it's just from watching lots of him as a kid when the Sox were on WGN all the time.

 

He gone.

[Thurston Fluff]

I just noticed the Brewers have a positive run differential for the fist time since April 2nd. Small steps to the top.

[Patrick425]

So, I was wondering how N. Morgan was doing in Japan so I went to the home page of the team I believe he is playing for (Yokohama DeNA BayStars) and did a translation through Chrome. As you can imagine, the translation tool gave some pretty interesting results (looked like something from engrish.com). I could not find any page that looked like statistics and did not see Morgan's name anywhere. I did find a lineup for one of the games and it looked like this:

 

Starting lineup

One Yu Ishikawa

Two Two Uchimura

Three Left Ide

Four One Blanco

Five Three Osamu Nakamura

Six Right Kinjo

Seven Medium Matsumoto Kei

Eight Catch Tsuruoka

Nine Investment Well paid

 

Should I make the assumption that Morgan is batting 9th.."Investment Well paid"?

[jerichoholicninja]

In 13 games and 48 PA's he's got a line of .132/.250/.132.

[kalle8]

In 13 games and 48 PA's he's got a line of .132/.250/.132.

 

 

T - blush

[hawing]

How would you introduce the Pirates' starting lineup if you were the PNC scoreboard crew?

 

 

I guess you wouldn't want them wearing uniforms or any type of Pirates gear.

Props for their thinking outside the box, at least.

 

I find it irrationally hilarious that Neil Walker's appearance has a Noodles & Company in the background. Now that's vibrant! Wandy also looks hi-larious.

[monty57]

Hawing, it looks like the PNC scoreboard crew spent the weekend watching a Saturday Night Live marathon.