Evening everyone, just got in from mowing the lawn, or as they say in Nebraska, cutting the grass.
What's wrong with saying "cutting the grass"?
I usually go with "eliminating nature".
Massacring crickets.
Also solid.
Trimming the verge.
Dude, I use a lawn mower, not a grass cutter. 🙂
Do you say "I scissored the paper" or "I knifed my steak"? 🙂
as I own a reel mower, I (or rather the kids) do indeed scissor the grass.
Selecting for shorter weeds.
As someone with a biology degree, this one is my favorite.
Man, Dick totally Gordo'd that one.
FYI I haven't checked to see if there are any Thursday games the next few weeks, but if there are then someone will have to take over on the recaps for me.
Ugh. I went over to MLB.com just to check standings, and got another headline to add to the "I wouldn't hate him so much if it weren't for the sportswriters" file:
On 38th birthday, Jeter reflects
He melted down all of his silver sluggers and mirrored himself?
Writer Genuflects.
Span must play like a real old-school guy, because his Similarity Scores (yes, always taken with big grains of salt) are mostly names I don't recognize - and colorful ones at that:
Goody Rosen
Kiddo Davis
Homer Summa
Happy Felsch
Jigger Statz
Buttercup Dickerson
Elmer Valo
Taylor Douthit
Tillie Walker
Johnnie Grubb
etc.
Those are pretty awesome.
Admit it...you made up every one of those. They're all just anagrams of Denard Span, right??
Actually, I was looking at his page because I don't recall him getting picked off first base much this year and wanted to see if the stats backed me up. Of course, I got sidetracked and never even looked at the PO #s.
That is the greatest list of fake names I've ever read.
I know Elmer Valo is legit -- he played for the Twins.
If that's a real team, I've never heard of them.
I think the umps got the foul call right.
Chicago feed has a terrible angle of that Span knock.
I would be shocked if this is a fair ball.
It probably would be if it was up to the Bullseye's official scorers, though.
music at Target Field during the delay: 'Call Me Maybe'
They need foul poles that darken when in the sun.
Ah, if they only had beer cans that turned blue when cold enuf to drink.
Span takes that pitch? Yeesh.
D.U.E.
Before today, Revere had nine strikeouts in 171 PAs. That PA/SO (19) rate leads the league, just ahead of Pierre's 18.8.
Next is Jeff Keppinger at 17.8, then Carlos Lee at 16.1, and then Juan Rivera at 13.7.
(Note: minimum of 100 PAs.)
generous strike to K Mauer
Mauer got hosed on that call.
I demand robot umps!
Robot umps now!
Word.
Willingham finally swings at the worst pitch of the at-bat. For a second, it was like Cuddyer never left.
SABR president in the booth with Dick'n'Bert.
My head asplode
Examples of "some popular sabermetric measurements": QS, OPS, and WHIP.
If this is the Twins feed preparing the viewers for advanced stats but rolling it out slowly, I'm in favor.
Too bad they're a decade behind.
Definitely, but at least they can keep from falling farther behind.
They show OBP in a batter's first PA of the game, but drop it after that. Obviously, knowing the series stats is more important.
ZOMG! Bert is being informed about SABR!
Of all the things to talk about, they talk about quality starts!?
C'mon, let's change the subject to complete games.
Only a genius could compute something that difficult.
DSpan
2010 - 10 POs
2011 - 4
2012 - 2
# of ABs are obviously not equal.
Dick: "Now, SABR is the Society for the, uh...uh..."
Ass backwards researchers.
Does anyone (except the Rockies) think a starter going 5.2 innings is a "great" start? They love their strawman.
So I see that Liam Hendriks has drunk from the F-Bomb Fountain of Youth.
I think his clock just struck midnight.
Or not.
Bert: "Actually, CYBER helped me get into the Hall of Fame! Er, SABR."
All I could imagine was Bert trying to get some cybersex on a Yahoo chat room.
A/S/L?
We're all thinking it, why not talk about Punto's VORP.
I'd much rather discuss his GORP.
Count...The...Rings.
hang em and bang em.
wow, that was a clout.
Damn Irish elk.
exactly.
Dick asking about "WAR"!
Excellent, succinct reply by Gennaro.
"What is it good for? HUHHH!!!"???
He had to be fed that question.
Shouldn't, at some point, they have bothered to inform all the viewers HOW TO ATTEND the SABR conference?
BTW, sean you headed down there? Anyone else besides Philo and me?
Can't, don't have enough vacation time and I'm really busy this week at work.
Sorry to hear that. I'm missing the actual "conference" but plan to partaking in the evening festivities.
I'm guessing the nerd in the booth got nervous and forgot to plug the one thing he was supposed to plug. Good old nerds.
I assume they'll mention it after the break...?
Also, why didn't they ask him to explain the BOSO?
Yeah, then Bert could have pronounced it CHRIS BOSIO, or something.
Hey, booze helped him get into the HOF.
Lastly, SABR is SOOOOOOOOOO much more than statistics. The two times I went to the convention, I would guess only about 25% of the presentations I attended were stats-focused. It's much more history. Looking at the schedule of presentations for this weekend, it looks like only 2 of 16 presentations on the first day are stats-focused.
Provus & Dazzle's turn with SABR
Ooh, you beat me to it.
SABR guy in with Provous right now- I'm waiting eagerly for Dazzle to chime in.
Frank Quilici - zoinks, Scoob!
I think Mariusz Pudzianowski caught that foul ball.
"...the president of the SABRs"?
lets all put on some rally caps for this inning
ok, maybe next inning
Span set the tone for the next inning by hitting a rocket.
Does that idiot kid even know he has a cup gummed onto his hat?
was that a drinking cup bubble gummed to that Sox players hat?
A Pirate had that done to him the other day. The feed focused on it for most of the inning that it was there.
My first thought was upon reading was "Hey, no one did that to me." My next thought was "Oh, I forgot there are other pirates."
Seriously.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
meh, boo.
Those sound like cheers. Weird.
JWill leads the way.
Morny hits like .800/.850/2.00 against righties, so he's gonna jack one, amiright?
or notted.
that was sucktastic.
Anecdotally, Morneau seems like he's putting bad swings at bad breaking stuff lately.
Yup- I'd really like to see him start laying off that crap like he used to.
Anecdotally, my eyes agree, and I'm fairly sure I've gotten to see a lot more of the Twins this year.
boring baseball clap - clap - clapclapclap
This game is moving in an adverse direction.
Yeah, I'm barely paying attention any more.
I see Jeff Gray still has zero losses this year. Maybe he will be the Twins all star?!?
say what??? Flowers with a steal? You DO run on Joe Mauer?
Tyler Robertson sighting!
He looks tall.
Yep, he is tall.
Neck tat tall?
Tyler Robertson looks like a baseball player.
Middle initial must be K.
Well done, young man.
Tyler Robertson is going to strike out everyone, ever!
If stats have taught us anything...
...they've taught us that Jeff Gray should be DFA'd.
But Wins and Losses are stats!
...is that I'm right.
Right???
Robinson had a well-deserved grin on his face there in the dugout.
I don't know if you guys know this yet but the Minnesota Twins are going to win this baseball game.
If the Twins can score three runs this inning, then Willingham can win it in extras (the only way it is possible for him to come up as the winning run).
Come on new Cheese Man.
Walk off slam for Carroll?
Hey, it could happen.
I'd be fine with "In Play, Run(s)"
Called. It.
!!!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT
Remember that time the Twins won because Rios randomly threw a ball into the dugout? That was hilarious.
Dad got a text from the bro that they met Tony O. at the game tonight. Lucky bastard.
Cool.
I met Tony Oliva in a Dome suite hosted by a technology vendor several years back. Had the FIL along as well. Same night I snuck into the CCO booth and got Herb Carneal to sign my scorecard.
The Twins dropped to 16-12 in one-run games. That's pretty scary how good their record is in one-run games. A lot of that is because of a good bullpen, but that's a lot of luck going your way as well. Hopefully, they start playing better so they don't have to count on luck, because that can turn on you pretty quick.
A loss, but several positives. Liam Hendriks pitched well. Tyler Robertson showed he'll win Rookie of the Year. The Twins battled back well in the ninth. We'll just have to settle for 119-43!
The little bro and his gf are up at the game tonight.
Is Hendricks due? The anagram machine says:
Clanked him, sir
He's rancid milk
Medical shrink
Red China Milk
I'm a clerk's hind
As you can see, none have positive connotations.
Well put, Tit Walker.
Yup, I laughed.
It's impossible to see the word "tit" and not giggle.
Me, too.
Fantastic.
Touche!
And, GreekHouse: Oh! Reuse keg.
semi-hard link
he drains milk
damn Irish elk
kinda like that last one
Doublor strikes again!
The Doublor is always at his best when leading off the inning. He frustrates me sometimes with less than two outs.
20 doubles for Span on the season.
I'm here for a Bitch Sox pimp-slapping
I love trying to turn on the game and finding out I need to do a system update.
So much for Mauer pwning Floyd.
BOOOOOOOoOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooOOO!
Willingham didnt go for that ball very hard.
ahh, he was playing a carom that didnt happen.
That was some crappy defense from Willinghammer.
Evening everyone, just got in from mowing the lawn, or as they say in Nebraska, cutting the grass.
What's wrong with saying "cutting the grass"?
I usually go with "eliminating nature".
Massacring crickets.
Also solid.
Trimming the verge.
Dude, I use a lawn mower, not a grass cutter. 🙂
Do you say "I scissored the paper" or "I knifed my steak"? 🙂
as I own a reel mower, I (or rather the kids) do indeed scissor the grass.
Selecting for shorter weeds.
As someone with a biology degree, this one is my favorite.
Man, Dick totally Gordo'd that one.
FYI I haven't checked to see if there are any Thursday games the next few weeks, but if there are then someone will have to take over on the recaps for me.
Remaining Thursday games: 7/5, 7/19, 8/2, 8/23, 8/30, 9/13, and 9/20 (AM game!).
Shucks.
Torii Hunter is a two hole.
Ugh. I went over to MLB.com just to check standings, and got another headline to add to the "I wouldn't hate him so much if it weren't for the sportswriters" file:
He melted down all of his silver sluggers and mirrored himself?
Writer Genuflects.
Span must play like a real old-school guy, because his Similarity Scores (yes, always taken with big grains of salt) are mostly names I don't recognize - and colorful ones at that:
Goody Rosen
Kiddo Davis
Homer Summa
Happy Felsch
Jigger Statz
Buttercup Dickerson
Elmer Valo
Taylor Douthit
Tillie Walker
Johnnie Grubb
etc.
Those are pretty awesome.
Admit it...you made up every one of those. They're all just anagrams of Denard Span, right??
Actually, I was looking at his page because I don't recall him getting picked off first base much this year and wanted to see if the stats backed me up. Of course, I got sidetracked and never even looked at the PO #s.
That is the greatest list of fake names I've ever read.
I know Elmer Valo is legit -- he played for the Twins.
If that's a real team, I've never heard of them.
I think the umps got the foul call right.
Chicago feed has a terrible angle of that Span knock.
I would be shocked if this is a fair ball.
It probably would be if it was up to the Bullseye's official scorers, though.
music at Target Field during the delay: 'Call Me Maybe'
They need foul poles that darken when in the sun.
Ah, if they only had beer cans that turned blue when cold enuf to drink.
Span takes that pitch? Yeesh.
D.U.E.
Before today, Revere had nine strikeouts in 171 PAs. That PA/SO (19) rate leads the league, just ahead of Pierre's 18.8.
Next is Jeff Keppinger at 17.8, then Carlos Lee at 16.1, and then Juan Rivera at 13.7.
(Note: minimum of 100 PAs.)
generous strike to K Mauer
Mauer got hosed on that call.
I demand robot umps!
Robot umps now!
Word.
Willingham finally swings at the worst pitch of the at-bat. For a second, it was like Cuddyer never left.
SABR president in the booth with Dick'n'Bert.
My head asplode
Examples of "some popular sabermetric measurements": QS, OPS, and WHIP.
If this is the Twins feed preparing the viewers for advanced stats but rolling it out slowly, I'm in favor.
Too bad they're a decade behind.
Definitely, but at least they can keep from falling farther behind.
They show OBP in a batter's first PA of the game, but drop it after that. Obviously, knowing the series stats is more important.
ZOMG! Bert is being informed about SABR!
Of all the things to talk about, they talk about quality starts!?
C'mon, let's change the subject to complete games.
Only a genius could compute something that difficult.
DSpan
2010 - 10 POs
2011 - 4
2012 - 2
# of ABs are obviously not equal.
Dick: "Now, SABR is the Society for the, uh...uh..."
Ass backwards researchers.
Does anyone (except the Rockies) think a starter going 5.2 innings is a "great" start? They love their strawman.
So I see that Liam Hendriks has drunk from the F-Bomb Fountain of Youth.
I think his clock just struck midnight.
Or not.
Bert: "Actually, CYBER helped me get into the Hall of Fame! Er, SABR."
All I could imagine was Bert trying to get some cybersex on a Yahoo chat room.
A/S/L?
We're all thinking it, why not talk about Punto's VORP.
I'd much rather discuss his GORP.
Count...The...Rings.
hang em and bang em.
wow, that was a clout.
Damn Irish elk.
exactly.
Dick asking about "WAR"!
Excellent, succinct reply by Gennaro.
"What is it good for? HUHHH!!!"???
He had to be fed that question.
Shouldn't, at some point, they have bothered to inform all the viewers HOW TO ATTEND the SABR conference?
BTW, sean you headed down there? Anyone else besides Philo and me?
Can't, don't have enough vacation time and I'm really busy this week at work.
Sorry to hear that. I'm missing the actual "conference" but plan to partaking in the evening festivities.
I'm guessing the nerd in the booth got nervous and forgot to plug the one thing he was supposed to plug. Good old nerds.
I assume they'll mention it after the break...?
Also, why didn't they ask him to explain the BOSO?
Yeah, then Bert could have pronounced it CHRIS BOSIO, or something.
Hey, booze helped him get into the HOF.
Lastly, SABR is SOOOOOOOOOO much more than statistics. The two times I went to the convention, I would guess only about 25% of the presentations I attended were stats-focused. It's much more history. Looking at the schedule of presentations for this weekend, it looks like only 2 of 16 presentations on the first day are stats-focused.
Provus & Dazzle's turn with SABR
Ooh, you beat me to it.
SABR guy in with Provous right now- I'm waiting eagerly for Dazzle to chime in.
Frank Quilici - zoinks, Scoob!
I think Mariusz Pudzianowski caught that foul ball.
"...the president of the SABRs"?
lets all put on some rally caps for this inning
ok, maybe next inning
Span set the tone for the next inning by hitting a rocket.
Does that idiot kid even know he has a cup gummed onto his hat?
was that a drinking cup bubble gummed to that Sox players hat?
A Pirate had that done to him the other day. The feed focused on it for most of the inning that it was there.
My first thought was upon reading was "Hey, no one did that to me." My next thought was "Oh, I forgot there are other pirates."
Seriously.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
meh, boo.
Those sound like cheers. Weird.
JWill leads the way.
Morny hits like .800/.850/2.00 against righties, so he's gonna jack one, amiright?
or notted.
that was sucktastic.
Anecdotally, Morneau seems like he's putting bad swings at bad breaking stuff lately.
Yup- I'd really like to see him start laying off that crap like he used to.
Anecdotally, my eyes agree, and I'm fairly sure I've gotten to see a lot more of the Twins this year.
boring baseball clap - clap - clapclapclap
This game is moving in an adverse direction.
Yeah, I'm barely paying attention any more.
I see Jeff Gray still has zero losses this year. Maybe he will be the Twins all star?!?
say what??? Flowers with a steal? You DO run on Joe Mauer?
Tyler Robertson sighting!
He looks tall.
Yep, he is tall.
Neck tat tall?
Tyler Robertson looks like a baseball player.
Middle initial must be K.
Well done, young man.
Tyler Robertson is going to strike out everyone, ever!
If stats have taught us anything...
...they've taught us that Jeff Gray should be DFA'd.
But Wins and Losses are stats!
...is that I'm right.
Right???
Robinson had a well-deserved grin on his face there in the dugout.
I don't know if you guys know this yet but the Minnesota Twins are going to win this baseball game.
If the Twins can score three runs this inning, then Willingham can win it in extras (the only way it is possible for him to come up as the winning run).
Come on new Cheese Man.
Walk off slam for Carroll?
Hey, it could happen.
I'd be fine with "In Play, Run(s)"
Called. It.
!!!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT
Remember that time the Twins won because Rios randomly threw a ball into the dugout? That was hilarious.
Oh man, that was CLASSIC.
Oh yes it was.
Hey! _elm_n homered in that game!
Relevant Video
Doublor is up! Time for a double.
Damn.
"Damn" indeed
Dad got a text from the bro that they met Tony O. at the game tonight. Lucky bastard.
Cool.
I met Tony Oliva in a Dome suite hosted by a technology vendor several years back. Had the FIL along as well. Same night I snuck into the CCO booth and got Herb Carneal to sign my scorecard.
The Twins dropped to 16-12 in one-run games. That's pretty scary how good their record is in one-run games. A lot of that is because of a good bullpen, but that's a lot of luck going your way as well. Hopefully, they start playing better so they don't have to count on luck, because that can turn on you pretty quick.
A loss, but several positives. Liam Hendriks pitched well. Tyler Robertson showed he'll win Rookie of the Year. The Twins battled back well in the ninth. We'll just have to settle for 119-43!