2012 MLB Thread (Cabrera Gets Triple Crown, first since Yaz 1967)

[cartman]

Really Joe Nathan? You convert 31 consecutive saves, but blow a 2 run lead in the 9th with 5 consecutive hits, two of them home runs, to the Indians, which had only won 9 out of their last 35 games?

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Yes, way too much anaylsis. This has nothing to do with comparing the two of them and everything to do with the teams ahead of them.

You really think Oakland is that much ahead of Seattle?

[MrBug708]

No bats

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

The calculations come from BaseballReference.com - here's the full explanation:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/ab...rkadjust.shtml

I was a bit surprised by the results, but park factors tend to fluctuate year to year for a variety of reasons:

- Since these values are relative, any new parks that come online will change the overall baseline for what constitutes "neutral"
- Park dimensions are changed from time to time with fences being moved in or out, wall heights raised or lowered, etc.
- Weather differences from year to year will have an effect

Minute Maid/Enron started off as a "hitter's park", but pretty quickly normalized into a basically neutral park, if not very slightly favoring pitchers.

Crazy. I'd think with the Crawford Boxes that Minute Maid would almost HAVE to favor the hitter.

Between finding this out, and seeing the crazy pitchers park leanings that Safeco and AT&T have this season (moreso than normal), I'm learning all kinds of shit about park effects this yeah.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Yes, way too much anaylsis. This has nothing to do with comparing the two of them and everything to do with the teams ahead of them.

Houston is one of the worst baseball teams I've ever seen play. Seattle is a typical 100 loss team. That won't change in a year.

[JPhillips]

A little Yankees hate from the Chinese.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

You really think Oakland is that much ahead of Seattle?

They might come back to earth a bit, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that Seattle is going to move up. They've got 2 regulars with under a .600 OPS - and one of them is the 1B. And that doesn't count the catcher, who's also under .600. The only guy with 300+ PAs and an OPS over .740 is John Jaso.

Until they fix that, Felix Hernandez can't throw enough 1-0 shutouts to make them a contender.

[cougarfreak]

Title of the Reds season:

2012: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dusty.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

They might come back to earth a bit, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that Seattle is going to move up. They've got 2 regulars with under a .600 OPS - and one of them is the 1B. And that doesn't count the catcher, who's also under .600. The only guy with 300+ PAs and an OPS over .740 is John Jaso.

Until they fix that, Felix Hernandez can't throw enough 1-0 shutouts to make them a contender.

They're just a few games under .500 despite 3 of their core younger players seriously underperforming expectations this year (Smoak, Ackley, Montero). Of those three, only Smoak looks like a lost cause. It's entirely reasonable to expect improvement out of Ackley & Montero, and any increase in playing time for Jaso over Olivo is a win (Olivo is unlikely to be re-signed).

Nobody was expecting Oakland to make the jump into contention this year - they were expected to be roughly the same as Seattle.

[Easy Mac]

Am I looking at this correctly as a Braves fan? All I care about is what happens to the teams below the Cardinals. What the Cards do, doesn't really matter, since them jumping the Braves doesn't matter, as all that matters is the Dodgers... Not passing the Braves.

[EagleFan]

If you're worried about losing a 7.5 game lead to TWO teams with 17 games to play you are seriously pessimistic.

[kingfc22]

Pence with a Grand Slam gives Cain a 5 run lead. Let's go Cards.

Magic number can get down to 10 after today.

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

If you're worried about losing a 7.5 game lead to TWO teams with 17 games to play you are seriously pessimistic.

Did you not watch last year?

[stevew]

I wonder if Smoak would have been a stud if he got to hit in Texas. I'd have to check his advanced stats, but having to murder the ball in order to avoid a long flyout ain't good.

[cartman]

The Rangers beat the Mariners tonight 9-3. Yu Darvish becomes the only other Rangers pitcher besides Nolan Ryan to have three consecutive starts of at least 7 innings while giving up 3 or fewer hits.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Santiago Casilla got an RBI single tonight. If you don't know why that's amazing, I give you two forms of evidence:

Santiago Casilla Pretending to be a potted plant

The Santiago Casilla Instructional Hitting Video

[stevew]

Pirates win dirty. Joel Hanrahan got his first(ugly) save in nearly a month. Amazing that he has 35 on the season in spite of the layoff.

[PilotMan]

Clayton Kershaw of Los Angeles Dodgers scratched, out indefinitely - ESPN Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers scratched Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw from Sunday's scheduled start against the St. Louis Cardinals and announced the left-hander is out indefinitely. The 24-year-old has been dealing with inflammation in his right hip.

Sept 15, I'm calling it. That's the season. Crap!

Go Reds/Braves.

[SackAttack]

I hate everything.

[Crapshoot]

At this point, I feel bad for the Dodgers, and the $200M committed to 14 players next year.

[Ksyrup]

I think we can put a fork in the Phillies. They lose 2 out of 3 to the Astros. No way they make the playoffs, and even if they did, they aren't going anywhere but home by early October.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

At this point, I feel bad for the Dodgers, and the $200M committed to 14 players next year.

No you don't!

[Hammer755]

Originally Posted by RedKingGold

Oh, have I been waiting for this day.

3 games back with 19 to go, you can definitely wake up now motherfuckers.

Seriously though, I recognize they're still a long shot with so many teams still in contention. They probably need to sweep the Astros and win every series thereafter (14-5 record) to get a one game playoff. Still, the most important thing is that their games are relevant on September 13th, and that's great to see as a fan.

I know this gloating is largely tongue-in-cheek, but the way things have played out validated exactly the point I was making. Things could not have gone any better the past few weeks for the Phillies (excluding the trip to Houston) - they got hot and the teams ahead of them got cold. They're only 3 games out of the second WC spot, but they still have to pass 4 other teams to get there. Not impossible, but quite improbable.

[JPhillips]

For the record,

I was terribly wrong about Ryan Ludwick.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

At this point, I feel bad for the Dodgers, and the $200M committed to 14 players next year.

Isn't that like half of what's owed to Zito?

[cartman]

The Rangers do better against their Seattle opponents than the Cowboys did. The O's just beat the A's, so the Rangers have a 3 game lead with 16 to go. 13 of those games are against the A's and Angels.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by stevew

I wonder if Smoak would have been a stud if he got to hit in Texas. I'd have to check his advanced stats, but having to murder the ball in order to avoid a long flyout ain't good.

Looking at his road hitting stats, unlikely. Safeco has been terrible for him this year, but he actually did quite a bit better at home last year than on the road, and his career road stats are nothing special.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Hammer755

I know this gloating is largely tongue-in-cheek, but the way things have played out validated exactly the point I was making. Things could not have gone any better the past few weeks for the Phillies (excluding the trip to Houston) - they got hot and the teams ahead of them got cold. They're only 3 games out of the second WC spot, but they still have to pass 4 other teams to get there. Not impossible, but quite improbable.

The lost 3 of 4 to Houston. I don't care if they are tied for the WC, they are done.

[lordscarlet]

Ugh.. Bad weekend for the Nationals. Still have a 5 1/2 game lead, but I'm considerably less comfortable about the season than I was on Friday afternoon.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

Ugh.. Bad weekend for the Nationals. Still have a 5 1/2 game lead, but I'm considerably less comfortable about the season than I was on Friday afternoon.

I'm hoping the Nats win a bunch until they play the Brewers so they can feel comfortable tanking a series

[korme]

Johnny Cueto needs to work out his issues

[JPhillips]

I wish Dusty would give him a little more rest, but that isn't in the cards.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Isn't that like half of what's owed to Zito?

One more year, baby, then we're free!

Actually, the news I'm thrilled about is Agent Ned getting an extension.3 year, $30M deal for middle reliever to be named this off-season!

[miami_fan]

If Bobby V gets fired, can he go back to announcing? After this season, I would think his credibility was shot, however Matt Millen is back in the booth.

[spleen1015]

I think ESPN would take him back in a heartbeat.

[stevew]

Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington says that manager Clint Hurdle's job is not in jeopardy despite the club's recent slide, according to Rob Biertempfel and Karen Price of the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review.

Are you motherfucking kidding me?

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by lungs

I'm hoping the Nats win a bunch until they play the Brewers so they can feel comfortable tanking a series

There's only 3 games between now and then.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

There's only 3 games between now and then.

Sweep 'em then!

[stevew]

Insanely late pirates game tonight. Did not get started til midnight.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by lungs

Sweep 'em then!

Go Nats!

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by stevew

Insanely late pirates game tonight. Did not get started til midnight.

I know it's been awhile. Usually, Pirates games rain-delayed for hours in mid-late September are just canceled. This one could, technically, matter, so they had to play it.

[Rizon]

Escobar, keepin it classy in the GTA.

[spleen1015]

How does a coach not see that and bench his ass? Do they not know enough Spanish to know what maricon means?

[Logan]

I saw that story yesterday and can't shake the thought that someone switched his strips or something and he had no clue what he was wearing. Who would he be referring to when he says "You are...? I understand the "prank" would make more sense if it said "I am..." but it just seems very weird to me.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, I don't get why he would do that. Was he referring to someone in particular? How could he think that's a good idea, no matter what the reason was?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

How does a coach not see that and bench his ass? Do they not know enough Spanish to know what maricon means?

Honestly, I didn't until this story came out yesterday

SI

[Ksyrup]

I had no idea, either, but you figure someone on staff or in the clubhouse would know it.

[miami_fan]

I think that he was the victim of a prank. However, a male sports locker room is not the place where I expect someone to stop someone else from using a gay slur.

[Logan]

MLB ‏@MLB

Blue Jays SS Yunel Escobar suspended 3 games for displaying an unacceptable message while participating in an MLB game.

[Easy Mac]

They should suspend the Astros for the season then.