It's That Old-School Prestigious Way of Baseball [BASEBALL]

[Thermofusion]

LPTJ Baseball Thread the Third, Continued from previous thread, subject borrowed from Cole Hamels' wonderfully opaque explanation of why he struck Bryce Harper on his first pitch:

"I was trying to hit him. I'm not going to deny it. It's something I grew up watching. That's what happened. I'm just trying to continue the old baseball. Some people get away from it. I remember when I was a rookie, the strike zone was really, really small and you didn't say anything. That's the way baseball is. Sometimes the league is protecting certain players. It's that old-school prestigious way of baseball.

A few comments after the first month of baseball:

Teams I'm buying (aside from the Rangers/Cardinals): Dodgers (Matt Kemp), Braves (Scoring at will), Rays (Always sneaky), Orioles (tentatively buying, would open my wallet a little wider if they can eke out a home split against the Rangers this week)

Teams I'm not sold on: Nationals (excellent pitching, sure, but they have the 3rd lowest total runs in baseball. Losing Werth hurts), Tigers (oh, Valverde)

Things that confuse me: the AL Central

Pick 6 for today:
Weaver/Wieters/Reynolds/Peralta/Trumbo/Axford

[El_Josharino]

I don't want to like Harper, but the fact that he followed up Hamels beaning him by stealing home is pretty fucking badass.

Apparently on the Astros' jumbotron at Minute Maid Park, they were showing run expectancy the other day. Also, the Cubs tv broadcasters were talking about run expectancy on air yesterday. Wild stuff. Sabermetrics are catching on.

Nats get Zim back this week, and will have Morse back in June (I think?) They've got the potential to score some runs. If some of the O's pitching can hold up, they could be interesting.

Saturday night, Chipper Jones had 5 RBIs for the Braves. At the end of the day Saturday, Albert Pujols had 5 RBIs for the Angels. For the whole season.

[El_Josharino]

Oh, and today's Pick Six:
Tommy Hanson/Jonathan Lucroy/Billy Butler/Allen Craig/Ryan Braun/Jonny Venters

[El_Josharino]

The Twins as a team are 14 for 146 in their last 5 games. That's good for a .096 team batting average. Point. Zero. Nine. Six.

[Thermofusion]

I don't want to like Harper, but the fact that he followed up Hamels beaning him by stealing home is pretty fucking badass.

Apparently on the Astros' jumbotron at Minute Maid Park, they were showing run expectancy the other day. Also, the Cubs tv broadcasters were talking about run expectancy on air yesterday. Wild stuff. Sabermetrics are catching on.

Nats get Zim back this week, and will have Morse back in June (I think?) They've got the potential to score some runs. If some of the O's pitching can hold up, they could be interesting.

Saturday night, Chipper Jones had 5 RBIs for the Braves. At the end of the day Saturday, Albert Pujols had 5 RBIs for the Angels. For the whole season.

I like Harper! Brash, cocksure teenager gets called up to the majors, instantly becomes the youngest player in the bigs, tosses off his helmet on his first hit to reveal a grotesque mullet-mohawk, makes that crazy body-crushing catch at the wall in Anaheim, steals home on a check throw to 1st in the same inning he gets beaned by Cole Hamels in the name of preserving the traditions of the ancients or whatever Hamels was on about. What's not to like!

A couple of the Pirates broadcasters were talking WAR a week or two ago.

As far as Pujols goes, I'm sure he's hitting under mean right now, but I really hope his lackluster performance injects some sobriety into the free-agent-superstar market.

And, for the Twins, well. Man. I feel pretty good about starting Weaver against them tonight.

[Thermofusion]

Oh, and today's Pick Six:
Tommy Hanson/Jonathan Lucroy/Billy Butler/Allen Craig/Ryan Braun/Jonny Venters

So, does Venters come out only when it looks like Kimbrel will be in a save situation in the 9th, or is he deployed a little more willy-nilly than that? Like, will Venters come out tonight at all if the Braves have, say, a 4 run lead headed into the 8th?

[El_Josharino]

In the past it was definitely more willy-nilly, but after his 80-something appearances last year, Fredi's been a little more cautious and it's mostly been like you said when Kimbrel looks to be in a save situation. I think he was sore or something the last few days, because he didn't pitch at all in Colorado, or in the last game against Philly, so I figure they might throw him out there tonight at some point just to have him get some work in.

[El_Josharino]

Got a good chuckle at some postgame comments by Moyer and Chipper. Moyer accused Chipper of stealing signs, and Chipper was like, "Dude, you throw 78, why would we need to steal signs?" Man, I love Chipper.

More from Chipper:

"At that point, I told [Todd] Helton and Tulo to tell [Moyer], because he was already out of the game by then after those 900-foot homers with nobody on base," Jones said. "I said he could meet me in the tunnel to discuss it and I never heard back."

(The 900-foot homers being Diaz and Heyward's back-to-back blasts that both traveled a good long distance)

[Thermofusion]

In the past it was definitely more willy-nilly, but after his 80-something appearances last year, Fredi's been a little more cautious and it's mostly been like you said when Kimbrel looks to be in a save situation. I think he was sore or something the last few days, because he didn't pitch at all in Colorado, or in the last game against Philly, so I figure they might throw him out there tonight at some point just to have him get some work in.

Gotcha. Who knows, it could be close tonight; they're playing the Cubbies, granted, but Samardzija's been pretty good so far.

Anyway, it's ORIOLES time. Man I wish I didn't have to log into a Gabonese proxy server every time I wanna watch them play.

[El_Josharino]

Oh man, poor Brewers. First Gamel and Narveson both get knocked out for the year, now Alex Gonzalez. Carlos Gomez is on the DL also. Boy are they lucky Braun's not missing 50 games...

[El_Josharino]

Hey guys, quick request. If you ever find yourself talking about Adam Dunn, try to refer to him as Count Donkula. I really want that to become his nickname.

[El_Josharino]

Holy crap Josh Hamilton

[Ignatius]

ORIOLES time

[Thermofusion]

Amazing stuff! The Rangers are juggernauts, and the scary part is how sustainable they look to be. We're all going to be really sick of them a few years from now.

Also the Rod Barajas walk-off homer against the Nats was incredible because it came from the player you'd least expect to ever hit a walk-off (barring pitching staff). The BLS post mentioned the TV broadcasters' overzealous reaction, but I was listening on the radio and the radio guys were quite literally screaming at the microphone.

[Thermofusion]

Today:

David Price/Joe Mauer/Robert Andino/Brandon Inge/Shin-Soo Choo/Joe Smith

[Thermofusion]

Oh, shit, Érik Bédard is hurt in the 2nd inning. 4.5 mil/1 year. Eep.

Dejan Kovacevic is the Pirates beat writer for the more conservative of Pittsburgh's two main dailies, best way to describe his written disposition is "Keith Law on a particularly grumpy day, after getting his nuts kicked in." Dude loves to grouse about the Bucs and loves even more digging up the stats to back it up. His column today featured some astonishing ones:

Only once in the 126-year history of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club has the offense averaged fewer than three runs per game. That was 1917, Honus Wagner’s farewell season. The average was 2.96.

The current group, which makes contact with a baseball about as often as the ghost of the great Dutchman might, is averaging 2.86 runs.

The Pirates’ total of 83 runs isn’t just last in the majors. It’s the lowest — better sit down for this — of any team in professional baseball. Yeah, all 150 of ’em, from the Savannah Sand Gnats to the Greensboro Grasshoppers. Only the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings are even close, with 91 runs.

The No. 7 spot in the order is batting .179, which ranks 28th of 30 teams. And the No. 8 spot is batting .167, which is dead last and, tellingly, tied to the decimal point with the Pirates’ No. 9 spot.

Recite with me the list of [Pirates GM] Huntington’s free-agent hitting flops: Ramon Vazquez. Chris Gomez. Ryan Church. Bobby Crosby. Eric Hinske. Lyle Overbay. Matt Diaz. Go ahead and count Aki Iwamura, too. His rights were acquired from Tampa Bay as part of an agreement to sign him the same day.

Those eight, plus Barajas, Barmes and the .211 return of Nate McLouth, are all of the outside hitters Huntington has signed on major league terms.

The 11 players’ combined contribution over 1,735 at-bats in Pittsburgh: .223 average, 20 home runs, 150 RBI. That’s a home run a month, basically.

Their combined cost: $30.35 million, including $7.13 million in buyouts or assumed cost to get rid of Vazquez, Iwamura, Overbay, Hinske and Diaz.

[El_Josharino]

Funny, Hinske and Diaz seem to do fine with Atlanta...

[El_Josharino]

I almost took Bedard in pick six today. Glad I didn't. Although I did recently grab him on the cheap in my dynasty.

Today's pick six: Jarrod Parker/Matt Wieters/Paul Konerko/Ian Kinsler/Jason Heyward/Kenley Jansen

[El_Josharino]

Oh boy, so apparently Parker isn't pitching today, and Weiters and Kinsler got rained out. J-Hey put up a goose egg this afternoon. Come on Konerko and Jansen, bring this one home for daddy.

[Thermofusion]

If it makes you feel any better, I made my picks but forgot to save them!

Also, the Cubs beat the Braves 1-0 behind Paul Maholm?

[El_Josharino]

Fuckin' soft-tossin' lefties anyway.

[El_Josharino]

Also, Andrew McCutchen is awesome:

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/19002637/andrew-mccutchen-scores-from-second-base-on-ground-ball

[Thermofusion]

Absolutely incredible. He had an insane evening, 4-for-4 with two RBIs and his second home run in as many nights.

[Thermofusion]

Okay, I figured out what happened with my Pick 6 yesterday. It wasn't that I didn't save my picks, it was that I accidentally made picks for today's games instead of yesterday's. No wonder I was confused when neither Price or Sabathia pitched in the Rays/Yankees game last night.

[El_Josharino]

Ha. Saved yourself 2 minutes this morning I guess.

That's one thing I like a lot about pick six: It takes next to no effort to play it.