Okay, so let’s say you have a vote in one of this year’s postseason awards. We’ll go with the AL MVP, because there are at least four realistic candidates, maybe more. I haven’t done any research on the candidates and I don’t really care about the American League, so this is purely hypothetical. Let’s say… Read More »
Two disclaimers: 1) I am a huge Dodger fan and Matt Kemp fan. I also happen to believe that, objectively speaking, Matt Kemp is the National League’s Most Valuable Player this year. 2) I also happen to REALLY like Ryan Braun, and I am happy about the Brewers’ great season (other than Nyjer Morgan, who… Read More »
Since the strike in 1994, there have been 54 instances of a pitcher winning 20 games in a season. In 37 of those seasons, the pitcher received more than 5 and less than 7 runs of support per start, on average. Another 13 were between 4.5 and 5. So that leaves us with four other… Read More »
So I got into a fight on the Internet today. Not really a fight, I guess. A spirited debate, we’ll say. It occurred in the comments of this blog post by Craig Calcaterra, about Nyjer Morgan starting a bench-clearing incident in the 9th inning of last night’s Brewers/Cardinals game. In the course of the debate,… Read More »
I’m not gonna lie to you: I love baseball statistics. I find them fascinating and sometimes extremely useful. I think that, in general, well-used statistics paint an accurate picture of history and can be reasonably useful predictors of the future. But in the wrong hands, they can be very dangerous. A few thoughts about the… Read More »
Yesterday evening, Roy Halladay threw a no-hitter in his first career postseason game. I turned the game on in the sixth inning, and when I saw that the Reds hadn’t scored yet, my first thought was, “I wonder if Halladay has given up any hits.” With Roy Halladay, that’s a logical thing to wonder. It… Read More »
In this blog entry about how the A’s blew it when they traded Andre Ethier for Milton Bradley, someone named “baseballgirl” says this: In contrast, Andre Ethier has been an absolute stud for the Dodgers the last four years; he is also the walk-off rival of Marco Scutaro, except with the career .294/.364/.495 line instead… Read More »
Over on his blog, Rob Neyer discusses the Tigers’ decision to have Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen switch positions, with Cabrera moving to first base and Guillen moving to third. Among other things, Neyer had this to say: Presumably, at some point Leyland or someone else connected with management will favor us with the rationale… Read More »
The other day, in my National League favorites post, I had this tangent while talking about Roberto Clemente: And speaking of Clemente and jerseys, I just gotta say how dumb I think Yankee fans are. LaTroy Hawkins wanted to wear number 21 to honor Clemente, but he met a huge backlash from Yankee fans because… Read More »
I did the American League the other day (background is in that post, too); today we will look at the National League. Los Angeles Dodgers Favorite: Russell Martin* Why: There’s an asterisk there for a reason. Russell Martin is my favorite current Dodger, and one of my three favorite current players (along with Albert Pujols… Read More »