2012 MLB Regular Season Running Thread

Gotcha, shottie. Thanks.

 

Where's BYH? It's a perfect night to rip Joe Girardi.

 

It'll get lost in the shuffle because of the ninth inning and Viciedo's home run, but that was a helluva spot start by Dylan Axelrod tonight.

 

Yeah and also if no one mentions an easy double play on a comebacker getting thrown into center field. And the fact that Soriano pitched 4 of the last 5 days and he wasn't going to use him.

 

For a second, I thought Jeter had won it with a two out, two run HR.

 

I think it's a fair assumption that the Yankees angle will be adequately covered, nationally.

 

I hated that pitcher.

 

i was just saying that despite his good start he wasn't getting the win and the white sox weren't either if Rapada doesn't throw away a double play ball

how great was that game. can't remember any pitchers' names (played a lot of times after 10-12 beers so not a surprise) but i do remember Paste, Bay and Norkus mashed. two of them i think were on the same team.

 

If it can't be used to evaluate or rate players, what the heck is the point?

 

Batting average on balls in play. Basically, batting average with home runs and strikeouts taken out.

The reason people cite it is that while even though hitters have a decent amount of control over it and pitchers a little, it is prone to wide fluctuations due to just plain good/bad luck about balls falling in or going right at fielders. I think Crash Davis put it best:

"Know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It's 25 hits. 25 hits in 500 at bats is 50 points, okay? There's 6 months in a season, that's about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week - just one - a gorp... you get a groundball, you get a groundball with eyes... you get a dying quail, just one more dying quail a week... and you're in Yankee Stadium."

He's talking about the difference between good and bad BABIP luck.

The real life example I use is Greg Maddux. In 1999, he had a 3.57 ERA, the highest of a 15-year stretch from 1988 to 2002. When reporters asked him what was different, he said he was pitching the same but a lot of balls were finding holes at bad times. His BABIP against was typically around .280, but that year it just happened to be .331, by far the highest of that 15-year stretch. It went back down the next year and so did his ERA.

 

If anyone thinks the many posts on Jetes are insufferable, turn on YES Network and watch CenterStage with Michael Kay interviewing Joe Buck.

 

But that's why we don't watch CenterStage with Michael Kay.