2011 MLB Thread

[Scratch]

You know, Baseball Reference just gets more and more awesome. I was checking Pete Rose's career when I noticed a link in the Standard Batting section to find stats versus individual pitchers. You can get numbers for individual matchups from 1919 to present. Cool.

Apparently, Mike Schmidt owned Jerry Reuss. In 108 plate appearances versus Reuss, Schmidt hit .393 with an OBP of .491 and SLG of .831, an OPS of 1.322. Bob Knepper, another lefty, also got destroyed by Schmidt to a tune of 1.351 OPS in 93 plate appearances.

A pitcher Schmidt didn't like to face was Tom Seaver. Schmit hit less than .200 versus Seaver and only hit 2 home runs in 103 plate appearances.

Pitchers that Manny Ramirez loved to face -- Jamie Moyer (1.379 OPS), Jason Johnson (1.291 OPS) and Tanyon Sturtze (1.259 OPS). Pitchers that did well against Manny -- Scott Kazmir (.596 OPS), Roger Clemens (.697 OPS) and Rodrigo Lopez (.714 OPS).

 

[downtown]

ESPN's baseball blog has a story on Cleveland right now (I'm going to keep talking about this until the Indians are 12 games under .500), and whether they're for real or not. Schoenfield is skeptical of their pitching staff's ability to sustain success, given how low their strikeout ratio is...eventually, they think math will catch up, more of those grounders start finding gaps, and boom. Back to average you go.

While that makes sense (Mitch Talbot ain't throwing 8 shutout innings every start...or every 5th start), I think the offensive improvement in the lineup may be more sustainable...and by the time Brantley and Hannahan come back to earth (read: suck), Sizemore should be back in the lineup, and Choo should be hitting north of .250 again.

Winning 8 in a row is impressive either way though. At the very least, this is the latest Ohioans have been talking about Baseball since 2006.

(I know i know, but Cincinnati is in Kentucky)

 

[El Justo]

would he have put up those outstanding numbers and been considered one of the best right handed hitters of all time had he not used? i doubt it. it is speculation. but logic says no. also, does this taint the world series title won by boston in '04? maybe. in my eyes it does. but i don't matter. it'll be the hof voters who no way, no how vote him in.

 

[downtown]

Steroids wouldn't really help your batting *average* that much, would it? Manny would have exceptional hand eye coordination without them.

 

[illram]

It does not taint the '04 series, you silly person. I think roids can have some effect on AVG only because if you're stronger you have a better bat speed and hit the ball harder, and thus your BABIP is probably slightly higher. However that is totally speculation and roids does not give you the amazing hand eye coordination it takes to a) see the ball (Manny was excellent at taking pitches and swinging at pitches he could do something with) and b) hit a ball hard on a line with backspin as opposed to a hitting a ball really hard into the grass. (Which means, you are hitting the ball on the right part of the bat, and on the right part of the ball, and you are hitting it hard. Roids probably only really helps with one of those.)

Do we know it was roids? Or what kind or roid? I don't really know the difference. Does it make a difference? Do we know he was taking it his entire career? Didn't they start testing like in '03 or something?

 

[Scratch]

Steroids wouldn't really help your batting *average* that much, would it? Manny would have exceptional hand eye coordination without them.

Well they can help batting average if they improve the quality of the batted ball. Harder hit balls are more likely to be hits than balls not hit as hard. Although I don't think they would offer much improvement to the distribution of ground balls, line drives, fly balls and pop ups, distribution would probably be around the same. But harder hit ground balls, line drives, and fly balls are more likely to have favorable outcomes.

 

[El Justo]

it is all speculation, no doubt. but if dude gets suspended a second time for a substance that is on the PED list, then yea, i would consider it roids or some type of enhancer. coul dit have affected his BA? maybe. maybe he doesn't muscle it into the gap or his legs are fresher and he can leg out a few more hits per year. again, speculation but logical and plausible in any debate as is the notion of a tainted WS title with a lineup centered around a guy who allegedly tested positive for a ped in '03 and then again in '09.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Steroids are an interesting subject and I'm really unsure how to evaluate or judge all of its controversy...

Really good post, Scratch.

I don't entirely agree with all you've said (I think there's a clear difference between using, say, calisthenics and using steroids, and you'd have to be exceptionally self-delusional or gullible as a player not to realise you were crossing a line which probably shouldn't be crossed), but, that said, it was a good and thoughtful post on an issue where it's often easy to get swamped by holier-than-thou outcries.

 

[El Justo]

seems our old friend j-dub has left his heart in philly

i'll be honest, i wouldn't boo him, not the traditional philly style. he helped the club to a WS title and 4 straight division crowns. he's the RF on the best stretch of phils teams ever. the fans here in philly surely recognize that. but i will tell you this - he'll get his cat calls for sure when he comes to philly and for those that are invading that stadium for the current phi@wash series he surely is better revered in philly than pat burrell was/is and he was greeted very warmly when he played against philly last year (2nd AB he hit a hr and got booed). nonetheless, philly fans may have a bad rep but they are knowledgeable and recognize a dude's werth

 

[Scratch]

Still no tweeting from Charlie Manuel this season. We could have used that last night.

Polly flies out 2 rite Werth booed

Benfran flies 2 rite Werth booed

Chooch out 2 rite. Werth gets Philly cheerz

Well, Blanton was ineffective last night. We just might have to accept that the Phils will go 0-30 in Blanton's starts, but with the other 4 winning 100 games, we shouldn't have to worry.

 

[dgfred]

I swear I could hit Blanton .

 

[El Justo]

and i started him in 2 of my fantasy leagues. what was i thinking? i try to squeeze blood out of that stone every year and normally fail dude needs to keep the ball down. when he's rolling, he keeps it down and hits the spots. not happening so far. they've got a semi-decent arm at AAA (worley). maybe he'll be the 5th guy by year's end?

 

[sophie]

and i started him in 2 of my fantasy leagues. what was i thinking? i try to squeeze blood out of that stone every year and normally fail dude needs to keep the ball down. when he's rolling, he keeps it down and hits the spots. not happening so far. they've got a semi-decent arm at AAA (worley). maybe he'll be the 5th guy by year's end?

Looks like we're in the same boat .

Anyway. Wilson is back, baby. He looked absolutely filthy last night. Better than ever. Romo had a good outing as well. We just looked very solid last night, very good sign.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Yeah, a few more of those innings against 8-9-1 in the line-up and he'll soon have his ERA in single figures

 

[Strider]

It's been great to see a bit of power from Berkman the past few days.

 

[Darkness]

It's been great to see a bit of power from Berkman the past few days.

Absolutely.
It seems the improvement of the Cards seemed to have coincided with Holliday's return. Who would've guessed...

 

[El Justo]

roy halladay is a beast.

 

[Scratch]

Halladay pitched pretty well last night. It seemed like the ump's strikezone was a bit tight at times.

Hopefully Lee bounces back with today's game.

 

[sophie]

Yeah, a few more of those innings against 8-9-1 in the line-up and he'll soon have his ERA in single figures

You mean like...yesterday?

 

[El Justo]

pedestrian effort by lincecum yesterday. what do cards fans think of carpenter stinking up the joint? and al is flirting with Señor Mendoza