2014 MLB Thread

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

I hope there's enough OMGHAMILTON! moments this season to dull the pain of not making the playoffs.

I still think you guys are going to challenge for a playoff spot. One thing is for certain: You let Billy Hamilton get on base 4 times like he did today, you are going to have some major problems.

[JPhillips]

I think we'll challenge, I just don't think we'll get in. We'll be close enough at the deadline that we won't trade anyone, but like last year we won't have the budget to make the team better.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Boys in blue FINALLY got a homerun!

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Boys in blue FINALLY got a homerun!

If you had "Alex Gordon" in the "8th game" with a "candlestick", you're at least 2/3rds right.

SI

[BillJasper]

Boy, Houston is really bad. Morrow just struck out four of their first five batters. Houston's hitters look like they're just sticking the bat out there hoping the ball hits it.

EDIT: Struck out five of the first six.

[BishopMVP]

Boston wins on a questionable Ortiz HR that wraps around the right field foul pole. You can have all the replay you want, there just isn't a camera angle in the world to judge one of those moonshots.

[Neuqua]

Tomorrow I'm headed to the 1:20p Cubs game and then following it up with a 7p White Sox game start. I'm a Cubs fan first and foremost and was given the Sox tickets for free.

I'm trying to figure out proper apparel etiquette. I planned on wearing Cubs gear to Wrigley but I don't live close enough to change in between games. Do I go and be "that guy" who shows up at US Cellular wearing Blue and Red or am I supposed to put a hoodie over it?

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

I wonder what Dusty's doing? Price might be gone by the All-Star break the way things are going.

He's just gardening these days

Dusty Baker out of baseball, into the garden

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

Boy, Houston is really bad. Morrow just struck out four of their first five batters. Houston's hitters look like they're just sticking the bat out there hoping the ball hits it. EDIT: Struck out five of the first six.

Hmm ... what does that say about the Yankees pitching that lost 2/3 to them (giving up 9 runs, all earned in the first two games) or Jered Weaver for giving up 4 homers & failing to make it out of the 6th inning against them?

Yes, I'm actually asking that as a question, not sure you can defend the way the Astros have hit in the rest of their games.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Yes, I'm actually asking that as a question, not sure you can defend the way the Astros have hit in the rest of their games.

Not really much of a baseball fan so I can't speak to what they've done in other games. But in this one, they are atrocious.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

Do I go and be "that guy" who shows up at US Cellular wearing Blue and Red or am I supposed to put a hoodie over it?

Honestly, my gut says throw a hoodie on, weather rationally permitting of course. I mean, you're wearing the Cubs gear as a statement of support (or whatever). Unless you intend to make that same statement at the Sox game -- which doesn't seem to be your intent based on the "that guy" comment -- then I'd probably avoid doing so.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

Tomorrow I'm headed to the 1:20p Cubs game and then following it up with a 7p White Sox game start. I'm a Cubs fan first and foremost and was given the Sox tickets for free.

I'm trying to figure out proper apparel etiquette. I planned on wearing Cubs gear to Wrigley but I don't live close enough to change in between games. Do I go and be "that guy" who shows up at US Cellular wearing Blue and Red or am I supposed to put a hoodie over it?

How about just wearing normal clothing? People do that, you know. Wearing a costume to a ball game is not required or even necessary.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Yes, I'm actually asking that as a question, not sure you can defend the way the Astros have hit in the rest of their games.

Astros are 0 for their last 23 with 2 outs and runners in scoring position.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

Tomorrow I'm headed to the 1:20p Cubs game and then following it up with a 7p White Sox game start. I'm a Cubs fan first and foremost and was given the Sox tickets for free.

I'm trying to figure out proper apparel etiquette. I planned on wearing Cubs gear to Wrigley but I don't live close enough to change in between games. Do I go and be "that guy" who shows up at US Cellular wearing Blue and Red or am I supposed to put a hoodie over it?

Wear Bears or Bulls gear.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

How about just wearing normal clothing? People do that, you know. Wearing a costume to a ball game is not required or even necessary.

A costume?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

How about just wearing normal clothing? People do that, you know. Wearing a costume to a ball game is not required or even necessary.

He's wearing his teams colors, or a jersey, etc...how do you even remotely interpret that as a costume?

and I say throw the hoodie on.

[stevew]

Dunno what the weather is supposed to be but make sure to over wear clothes this time of year. Nothing worse than freezing.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

Tomorrow I'm headed to the 1:20p Cubs game and then following it up with a 7p White Sox game start. I'm a Cubs fan first and foremost and was given the Sox tickets for free.

I'm trying to figure out proper apparel etiquette. I planned on wearing Cubs gear to Wrigley but I don't live close enough to change in between games. Do I go and be "that guy" who shows up at US Cellular wearing Blue and Red or am I supposed to put a hoodie over it?

One, I've always wanted to do the city doubleheader but they just aren't in town together all that often so cool on that

Secondly, I always carry a backpack for my scorecard (yeah, I'm that guy) so if you have some sort of bag, have a neutral t-shirt on underneath with the jersey over the top for the Cubs game but take it off for the Sox game. Or, again, the hoodie works if the bag is not an option

SI

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Lathum

He's wearing his teams colors, or a jersey, etc...how do you even remotely interpret that as a costume?

and I say throw the hoodie on.

Because there is no requirement for one having to wear team gear in order to attend or enjoy a baseball game, no more than having to dress up like Yoda to attend or enjoy a Star Wars movie. If it becomes an issue (as in this case), then don't wear stuff like that. Baseball, esp. at Wrigley, is immensely enjoyable as it is without having fans think they play for the team or pretend they are a certain player.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

Boy, Houston is really bad. Morrow just struck out four of their first five batters. Houston's hitters look like they're just sticking the bat out there hoping the ball hits it.

EDIT: Struck out five of the first six.

It's baseball. Drawing conclusions from one game or even a single series out of 162 is probably a little premature.

Yes, the Astros are bad. But, for instance, I don't think the Yankees will win half as many games as the Astros all season.

SI

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Baseball, esp. at Wrigley, is immensely enjoyable as it is without having fans think they play for the team or pretend they are a certain player.

You should talk to someone about whatever is behind this. Insurance will probably cover it.

[Neuqua]

Appreciate the feedback, even from the grumpy old guy.

I think I already had planned on wearing a hoodie underneath my Cubs thermal sweater. In between games I'll just change and put the thermal on underneath and have the hoodie on the outside.

Originally Posted by sterlingice

One, I've always wanted to do the city doubleheader but they just aren't in town together all that often so cool on that

It's been on my "to-do" list for a while too. I never really go down to US Cellular but I was offered free tickets for any home game in April so a few buddies and I are going to see if we can pull it off.

[Buccaneer]

Sometimes it's actually good to think independently instead of following the crowd and being like everyone else.

[PilotMan]

How in the world did Brandon League make the roster for LA? He is awful.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Paul Goldschmidt's ownage of Tim Lincecum is ridiculous. Before tonight, if you were to take away his at bats against Lincecum, Goldschmidt's OPS literally drops 15 points. For his CAREER. Tonight? 1/1 with a 3-run homer and a sac fly.

And most of that damage was done while Lincecum was winning Cy Young Awards.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by korme

Billy can really make a difference if he gets on base. The Reds had no business scoring a run last inning. But here's what transpired:

1. He led off the 5th with a single.
2. Stole 2nd, Yadier Molina didn't even throw down.
3. Phillips hits a short fly ball to a charging Jon Jay. I would say 99.5% of base runners don't try to advance, Billy does, he's safe.
4. With Billy on third, Jay Bruce hits a pop up outside of the infield to Kolten Wong. Jon Jay, charging from RF, calls Wong off. Billy tags up and scores relatively easily.

No runner in the bigs challenges that pop up, except for Billy. It was pretty fucking cool to watch. Hope there's a gif/video up soon.

I was at the game yesterday.. me and my dad were like.. uhhh.. yeah don't let this guy on base or else it's a triple.

If I remember correctly, he also hit what appeared to be a single, but was on 2nd before the throw came in from CF. You cannot be lazy charging a ball when it's hit by this kid.

We were joking the Rams might want to take a look at him.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I was at the game yesterday.. me and my dad were like.. uhhh.. yeah don't let this guy on base or else it's a triple.

If I remember correctly, he also hit what appeared to be a single, but was on 2nd before the throw came in from CF. You cannot be lazy charging a ball when it's hit by this kid.

We were joking the Rams might want to take a look at him.

Don't forget the first game against us though that shows his Puig-like agressivness can also backfire. The Reds for whatever reason decide to waste a Phillips at bat to bunt his speed over to third and then he is cocky enough to think he is too fast to be thrown out by a fast groudner to first base and ends up in a rundown and costing them a runner at third. He's a lot of fun to watch but is also going to leave a lot of head scratching.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by panerd

Don't forget the first game against us though that shows his Puig-like agressivness can also backfire. The Reds for whatever reason decide to waste a Phillips at bat to bunt his speed over to third and then he is cocky enough to think he is too fast to be thrown out by a fast groudner to first base and ends up in a rundown and costing them a runner at third. He's a lot of fun to watch but is also going to leave a lot of head scratching.

Once he gets on first his plusses are going to far outweigh his minuses. The problem is going to be whether he gets on first enough.

[AENeuman]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Sometimes it's actually good to think independently instead of following the crowd and being like everyone else.

Says the guy who has been proudly wearing his "Colorado uniform" since the late 80's

[panerd]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Once he gets on first his plusses are going to far outweigh his minuses. The problem is going to be whether he gets on first enough.

Yes I agree. I'm a fan. Guys like him and Puig add excitement to the game and I enjoy watching them. I just could see a 75 SB/25 CS season from him.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by panerd

Yes I agree. I'm a fan. Guys like him and Puig add excitement to the game and I enjoy watching them. I just could see a 75 SB/25 CS season from him.

I'd be perfectly happy with that. Add in the 1st to 3rds, the advances on short fly outs, and some errors trying to rush throws and he'd be worth a great deal.

My fear is a sub .300 obp that makes him a very fast Corey Patterson.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

How in the world did Brandon League make the roster for LA? He is awful.

Only 3 years at $7.5 million a year left!

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

My fear is a sub .300 obp that makes him a very fast Corey Patterson.

Though with the speed and baserunning smarts he was, a 'very fast' Corey Patterson could be worth 2.0-3.0 WAR a year.

[cartman]

Hambone out 6-8 weeks with a torn thumb ligament after sliding into first.

Josh Hamilton of Los Angeles Angels out 6-8 weeks with torn thumb ligament - ESPN Los Angeles

[cartman]

On Monday, the Astros drew a 0.0 TV rating in Houston. The first time that happened, they were showing at the same time as a Texans game. But the funny part on this one was that the pre-game show drew a 0.2 rating.

The Astros got another 0.0 rating in Houston on Monday | Awful Announcing

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by cartman

On Monday, the Astros drew a 0.0 TV rating in Houston. The first time that happened, they were showing at the same time as a Texans game. But the funny part on this one was that the pre-game show drew a 0.2 rating.

The Astros got another 0.0 rating in Houston on Monday | Awful Announcing

How does that even happen? Doesn't your average infomercial get a 0.1-0.2?

[ISiddiqui]

And the interesting part is that Houston is 4-6 so far this year! Much more worth watching than last season

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

How does that even happen? Doesn't your average infomercial get a 0.1-0.2?

Sometimes those "flatline", sometimes they pull a tiny number like you mentioned.

[molson]

When you're talking about the bottom of the ratings or dissecting the difference between a 0.0 and 0.2 or 0.4, it really is just the difference of a couple of the 579 Nielsen boxes that were in use at the time of the game in Houston, isn't it?

[JonInMiddleGA]

One thing that irked me with the articles on that 0.0 rating, both basically said that it meant 0 households with the set-top Nielsen box were watching & that's not technically true.

A 1.0 household rating = 1 percent of TV households.
So a 0.1 = 1/10th of a percent.
However, ratings released to the media (or any non-subscriber) only goes to a tenth of a point & they DO round those off. So all we can really know for sure is that the rating was 0.049 or less.

With 579 boxes, 1 percent is 5.79 boxes, half of that means that they could have actually had at least 1 viewer among the metered households & still registered a 0.0 rating.

No, I don't expect the articles to explain all of that. I just think it was sloppy to overreach & say "None of those viewers with Nielsen boxes, however, stuck around to watch" when that's really not proven based on the rating.

edit: upon further review, I think I may have bitched about nothing, having shifted a decimal point wrong myself. I'll leave it here with this edit so as not to look like I just totally bailed on my own fuck up.
5.79 boxes would have gotten them a 1.0.
0.579 boxes would have gotten them a 0.1.
Anything above 0.2839 boxes would have gotten them rounded to the public as a 0.1

So, despite my gripe here, the reporters actually did get it right. I think.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by molson

When you're talking about the bottom of the ratings or dissecting the difference between a 0.0 and 0.2 or 0.4, it really is just the difference of a couple of the 579 Nielsen boxes that were in use at the time of the game in Houston, isn't it?

Basically, sorta. With 579 (I'd seen 549 somewhere and referenced that above, but whichever works) basically 6 boxes is worth a 1.0

The rounding that takes place combines with the uneven number of boxes to make it less than perfectly straightforward thing to say exactly where the breaking point is without doing the math all the way out but you're basically on target here.

Dammit, now I'm wondering if I managed to screw up a decimal point somewhere in my own previous post. Microratings are a bitch unless you're paying attention. (see my original comment for clarification)

[JonInMiddleGA]

A couple of things worth nothing here on the whole 0.0 topic.

1) Part of this rests with the network. There are officially 2,289,360 TV Households in the Houston DMA. According to the articles there are only 500,000 households with access to Comcast SportsNet Houston. If the meters were apportioned on that basis, they really went 0/126 instead of 0/579.

2)It isn't quite as rare as some people might think. Regional sports nets in many places have all sorts of daytime hours that post 0.0s, nighttime flatline is more unusual (since TV's in use are higher) but also not unheard of. The biggest surprise with the regional sports nets is how consistent their typically low ratings are. In Atlanta, for example, there's rarely any difference between the numbers for the various college football coaches shows, you'll get pretty much the same rating for Charlie Strong (at Louisville) as you get for Mark Richt.

[molson]

I think that 500,000 number who had access to the game in the first place maybe says more about the lack of importance of the Astros than the 0.0 does.

And it's kind of crazy that we don't have this Bleacher Report article or this conversation, and instead have a very un-newsorthy 1.0 rating if 5 or 6 measured boxes tune in.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by molson

I think that 500,000 number who had access to the game in the first place maybe says more about the lack of importance of the Astros than the 0.0 does.

And it's kind of crazy that we don't have this Bleacher Report article or this conversation, and instead have a very un-newsorthy 1.0 rating if 5 or 6 measured boxes tune in.

Yeah, that's in part a function of how relatively few people actually know what any of the ratings mean. It's not unusual for me to run across a currently-working radio or TV sales rep that can't even tell you what the most basic terms about ratings actually mean.

Even the Super Bowl, with numbers into the upper 40s, actually means that more households are not watching than are (granted, SB parties & such skew that a little bit in the case of the SB).

[cartman]

I thought it was funny that the pre-game show got higher ratings than the actual game.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by cartman

I thought it was funny that the pre-game show got higher ratings than the actual game.

I wonder what the lead in was, may have something to do with it.

Perhaps Worlds Best Gunracks?

[molson]

It could have just been two guys had the pre-game show on the TV as they were getting ready to go to the game.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I wonder what the lead in was, may have something to do with it.

Perhaps Worlds Best Gunracks?

Bobby Hill: Can I put a gun rack on my bike?
(Hank stops, looks at Bobby and pauses)
Hank Hill: Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to ask me that?

[stevew]

Seems like we could have way more data than only 579 boxes. Doesn't whatever gets watched on DTV/Cable get tracked somehow.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by molson

I think that 500,000 number who had access to the game in the first place maybe says more about the lack of importance of the Astros than the 0.0 does.

And it's kind of crazy that we don't have this Bleacher Report article or this conversation, and instead have a very un-newsorthy 1.0 rating if 5 or 6 measured boxes tune in.

With the Dodgers new TV network in fights with Directv and Comcast, only 32% of homes in the LA market can watch Dodgers games now. Thankfully, I can't stand the Dodgers and use MLBTV to watch my pathetic Rockies most of the time, but it is brutal. The teams starting these big networks are finding out carriers are going to play hardball with them and they won't be quite as profitable as they first thought. (they will still be massively profitable, just not as much)