What a fantastic fabulous wonderful day here at MLJ. Hef atoned for all his past discretions by giving us the Stat of the Day. I opened my soul about the Mets. Spencer continued his tour of College Football stadiums and Fetch told us about his heavy vomiting. He also mentioned tonight’s game. That is right. There is something to watch under the lights here tonight. I truly didn’t know what to do if the White Sox didn’t win last night. I don’t think there are any sporting events of note to watch and shit, I may have had to spend time with my family. But alas, I have no worries. Twins and White Sox for the AL Central. Loser gets to get swept by the Rays. Dane Cook is creaming himself. Let’s take a look at the action: Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for September, 2008
That’s me at 6:30 tonight. I thought about putting up a picture of a guy flipping a coin, since that’s essentially what tonight’s game is, but this is much more true to form.
162 games just weren’t enough to decide the AL Central race. Tonight Nick Blackburn takes on John Danks. Although it’s nearly impossible to predict what will happen in a one game scenario, I’m going to attempt to preview the game.
John Danks is throwing on three days rest, and in his last outing he gave up 7 runs in just 4 innings against the Indians. However, those 4 runs were the first he had given up in his last three starts. Although the Twins’ best three hitters are left handed, only Jason Kubel has shown a true lefty-righty split this year. In fact, Joe Mauer is 2nd in the majors in hitting against lefties.
On the Twins’ side, Blackburn’s last start was against these very Chicago White Sox, when he threw 5 innings, giving up 2 runs in a Twins victory. His previous two starts had been pretty rough, however, so hopefully he is more true to recent form.
One thing that will help the White Sox is the forecast. Winds are supposed to be blowing out at about 15 MPH, and since the White Sox get nearly 50% of their runs via the homerun, this could be a boost for them.
As a Twins fan, I certainly hope Ozzie Guillen continues to play Dewayne Wise and Ken Griffey, and hope Wise hits 2nd like he has been recently. Hopefully AJ Pierzynski hits towards the top as well.
Ozzie Guillen used his bullpen quite a bit yesterday, including a couple key relievers (Matt Thornton, Scott Linebrink, and warming up Bobby Jenks a couple times). Also, the White Sox might be the only team in the AL whose bullpen is worse than the Twins’ so the latter innings could get interesting.
As much as I’d like to believe otherwise, I think the fact that the Twins are so awful on the road is going to come back to bite them, and the Sox will win and advance to the ALDS.
The Pac-10. God I hate USC.
Today’s examination will be on this forsaken conference. Despite not having the geographical and societal disadvantages that make the Midwest and South football crazy, there is a certain zeal and passion that can only be found on the left coast. There is a certain panache that the Pac-10 has when it comes to football, wonderfully simple stadia ensconced in an orange glow of the twilight. We’ll take a look at a sampling of these arenas…and again, I’d like to thank Gurucane, and also our fearless leader BACK FROM THE DEAD, Hef.
I have spent the past 36 hours receiving phone calls, texts, e-mails and one fax asking if I was OK. Those who didn’t know asked where I was. Commenters asked if anyone heard from me. I am here. I don’t feel good but I am here. You see over the weekend, I was shipped to the Disney complex in Orlando, Florida to schmooze clients and get schmoozed by vendors. I had to work at my company’s biggest event of the year. Now we all figured since we were in Florida, there would be the Marlins games on TV at the hotel. Many in my company are big Met fans. We got a few cases of beer with the intention of spending Friday night in a hotel room watching the first game. When we turned on the TV we found out we were wrong. Apparently, Disney only has some local channels and every ESPN ever made so I did watch the Cubs/Brewers game but I only saw one half inning of the Mets last stand this season. The two laptops we had access too had terrible WiFi access which killed getting the games on MLB.tv so we spent an entire weekend watching the MLB Gameday function and rooting on every pitch and talking out every scenario. Read the rest of this entry »
Since this seems to be everybody’s favorite daily feature, we will continue to provide a stat of the day on a (somewhat) daily basis. Be it in football, baseball, basketball, or even hockey (snort!) we’ll try to find some sort of enlightening measurement for you to ponder in your mundane, dreary lives that make you think that maybe death is just another part of life and the portal to a new conciousness [Ed. note: remember kids, if using a razor, it's down the road, not across the street].
Today we have a special grab bag of stats. Nothing too informative, just a some odds and ends from the season.
1. The Indians as a team were hit by a pitch 103 times. The next closest was the Yankees at 78. 78!!! That’s 25 fewer HBPs (32% more than 2nd place). Last place, the Twins, had only 34 HBPs. Weird.
2. Despite having 3 of the top 7 strikeout leaders in all of baseball including all time record setter Mark Reynolds, the Arizona Diamondbacks as a staff struck out almost 100 times fewer than the Florida Marlins. Maybe if Adam Dunn had shown up to the team earlier, the Snakes would have rallied.
3. The Cincinatti Reds had the lowest SB% of 64 and they also were in the top 5 for sacrifice hits and flies. Dusty Baker is the worst manager ever. [They scored the 23rd fewest (most?) runs in all of baseball this year, 201 fewer than Texas].
4. There is no correlation between a low GB/FB ratio and scoring runs. The Dbacks had the lowest ratio of GBs (almost one to one) and their offense was 20th in run scored. The White Sox and Red Sox were 2nd and 3rd on that list (3rd and 7th overall in RS).
5. An interesting snapshot of the season. The five teams whose pitching staffs walked the most batters are: Orioles, Pirates, Giants, Tigers and Mariners. All of those teams lick balls.
Well, what a boffo bangout day we had here at MLJ. Lot’s of things were written and importantly read so that’s nice. Truthfully, I am exhausted and sad and I hurt and I can’t grasp the loss of the baseball season. At least the Mets season. But alas, unlike my brethren in Boston, I am also a baseball fan not just a fan of my team. So in a sick twisted way I am looking forward to the playoffs. I am probably going to be Hef-like the next 3 weeks, picking teams on a whim and liking different things because I enjoy winners but I do know I will not be rooting for the Phillies or Red Sox. I hate them both so I can’t even try. I have no animosity towards the Brewers. I love the story, unfortunately I had to lose my team to make it happen. I may want to see the Cubs do some damage but the thought of Sportsgal IMing me drunk and obnoxious sours me on that a bit. I would enjoy the Mikeychx conversation with himself if it does happen. I do have a little love for the Dodgers because I love Manny. I admit it. He may be a bad guy or just supremely quirky. But I love that talent. I truly do. And I hate the Red Sox. The Angels are good but boring and I am willing to see them go down so K-Rod can rest this offseason so he is fresh for the Mets in 2009. I love the Rays story. Truly great. Kazmir is on that team. I love that guy. Fuck Jim Duquette. And of course, my boy Cliff Floyd is leading the children to glory. So good stuff. There are two more teams left for one spot. I want the White Sox to win this evening. First off, the rain has moved this back to start at 5:10 US Standard time. That means more people will watch. It’s good for baseball. Secondly, if the White Sox win there is a playoff game tomorrow with the Twins. That means Tampa Bo will yell at Fetch and Fetch will spend an entire day hoping not to vomit on the chick with the big hooters in his statistics class. Plus it gives us all something to watch tomorrow. Good times. So here is what is on tap tonight: Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier today, The Big Lead posted this in regards to yesterday’s events and how the Mets fell short yet again. All of this is well and good but at the end of his post he added this paragraph:
Somewhere, Willie Randolph silently cheered, and wondered if he’d be up for Girardi’s job when the Yanks are sputtering at the All-Star break next July. Mets fans, who have to endure two September collapses in a row, enjoy your inept GM for the next four years. Read the rest of this entry »
Alright, friends of religious tolerance, tonight at sundown marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (for people, animals, and legal contracts). As you all know, this is the time of year where Jews (even atheist half-Jews like myself) take the time to make themselves right with the world before Yom Kippur where he must then make himself right with G-d (even though god doesn’t exist). At any rate, taking a page from Stephen Colbert’s hotline which he set up to allow Jews call him up and leave him a message apologizing for their sins against him, I am creating a forum where you may publicly list how I have wronged you. I will then take your grievance (if I believe it to have merit) and send you a private email apologizing for my poor behavior. Be warned, some of you might receive an apology even without publicly airing your grievance.
Shana Tova Umetukah, bitches.
To be honest, I don’t even remember how this thing came about. All I know is that college football rocks…everything from the undying loyalty of the fans to the pomp and circumstance of the game day experience. The stadiums, legendary, fitting arenas that represent the culture of the team and are as much a part of a college football program’s identity as their uniforms and past stars and that’s what we’re here to celebrate.
This series is a collaborative effort from a number of people, but most notably, commenter Gurucane, a veteran of many a Hurricane invasion who provided a wealth of experience to this effort, but every contributor deserves to be applauded.
So, without wasting any more time, let’s get to the first installment of this series and take a look at the ACC and Big East, two conferences with a linked history marked by bad blood and even worse football. [Edit: This was made before I realized that the Big East sucks and the only place worth a damn is Mountaineer Field...which is only cool because of the crazy rednecks who go there. Sorry, Big East fans.] Read the rest of this entry »
Randy Johnson may very well have pitched his best game of the year last night in what could possibly be his final outing in a Diamondbacks uniform. RJ went nine great innings, giving up one unearned run on two hits while striking out nine and walking only one. It was Randy’s 11th win of the season and his 295th overall. I gotta be honest, I didn’t think he’d get 11 wins this year after last season’s debacle but he had a hell of a year for a 45 year old former superstar.
At the game, the mood was fantastic. RJ received a standing ovation when he left after the seventh, the eighth and the ninth. We kept standing up to cheer expecting him to be pulled, but it was apparent that he wasn’t going to leave until he got a win. And really, who could blame him? The Dbacks’ stagnant offense was trying to rob him of the run support he needed to earn the official win. Now, as you know, I think measuring wins and losses for individual performances is stupid, but it was exciting to watch someone so committed to achieving their goal. Randy wasn’t going to lose this game to the Rockies if he had a say in the decision. Finally, after leaving in the ninth, and being replaced by a pinch hitter, the crowd roared in support of the offense, trying to help RJ out. It was one of the best moments of the year for me, especially in a town where baseball plays second fiddle (actually, like fifth fiddle) to other sports. Phoenix is not a baseball town so this felt special to see and hear the crowd chanting for him and standing up in appreciation.
Arizona will always have a special place in their heart for Randy. He was the first legitimate superstar to play ball in the desert (sorry Matt Williams and Luis Gonzales) and was directly responsible for the state’s first and only legitimate championship. He’s a first ballot hall of famer who will go in to the Hall wearing a Dbacks lid and he earned his 4000th strikeout while with the club (he’s now second all time in K’s behind Nolan Ryan).
He is now five wins shy of the magic (and arbitrary) number of 300, a number that means very little in the context of Johnson’s career. And if he does end up getting that win on another team next year, it’ll be unfortunate, but I’ll watch it and cheer for one of the fiercest competitors I’ve ever seen in person.
