Well, gee, Bert, that really is odd. Why on earth would you have a better record when you score first? It's a puzzler, all right.
I've never understood the thing about, "If you're going to miss, miss out of the strike zone." If you could control where you missed, you wouldn't miss, would you?
I'm not sure if you are joking here or not.
No, I'm not. A "miss", by definition, means the ball did not go where you wanted it to go. How do you control where it goes when it doesn't go where you want it to go?
Thats a pretty light reading of that comment. Its not as though the ball is going "anywhere"
It's not going "anywhere", in that it's probably not going three feet away from the target (although we've both seen that happen). But it's still not going where you wanted it to go. If you're aiming for the outside corner, how do you make sure that if it misses, it misses six inches off the plate rather than six inches over the plate? Maybe there's a way you do it--I'm no pitching expert. But I'd like to know.
Depends on the pitch's movement. I think you can control (at least in some degree) a missed location.
How? I'm not trying to be a smart-aleck. I'd just really like to know how you do that, because I hear announcers say this all the time, and I don't understand it.
The way I think about pitches is you have an average trajectory with many possible outcomes. Each type of pitch is a bit different, but essentially a heat map depending on the release/aim.
I could be wrong, but thats the way I visualize the game.
Hope it's either a short dealy or it's called off entirely. If Gibson has to come out in the first inning, well, a bullpen game by the Twins isn't likely to be very pretty.
So FSN was apparently completely unprepared for the possibility of a rain dealy and is simply re-doing the segments from the pre-game show.
And a nice Atteberry interview of TR, followed by reports that the tarp was coming off and now several minutes of dead air time. Oops
Free game of the day, by the way.
Blacked out!!
I really don't get the whole "pitcher batting eighth" thing. I'm not particularly upset about it. I just don't see the point.
If you have one batter that is significantly worse than the other eight, then it makes sense to bat that player eighth. That way, when the lineup rolls around, the 1-2-3 batters have a much higher probability of having a baserunner. If the pitcher batted ninth, then the lineup will more often be such that the 1-2-3 are leading off an inning but maybe with an extra out or two.
The Cardinal's way, I'm not sure if they're trolling or not
Better yet, they won't have an excuse to pitch around BB to pitch to the pitcher. He'll get legitimate strikes.
I agree, if the only other option is to bat Buxton eighth. But there are other options.
Then why not just bat the ninth hitter first, so there's a chance the 1-2-3 batters have a baserunner on in the first inning? Again, I don't think it makes a lot of difference. I just don't get it.
Because you want the greatest number of plate appearances for the best hitters. The situation where this matters is when the lineup rolls over. If the pitcher bats ninth, then the number of baserunners on when 1 bats is lower than if the pitcher bats eighth.
Then you're saying that the ninth hitter is not a good hitter. So he's probably not going to be on base much when the 1-2-3 hitters come up anyway, and the pitcher will come up a batter sooner and will get more plate appearances. Still doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but whatever.
simulations show that the difference batting your typical pitcher 8th nets you a few more runs per year. Nothing worth caring about too much either way
It's more than that, but it isn't huge. For an AL team, it's pretty much irrelevant. For an NL team, unless the pitcher is a great hitter, it makes sense since it's such an easy change.
I saw Molitor quoted as saying he didn't want to stop Buxton from stealing. If Buxton were on base with 2 outs and a pitcher up, it would risk forcing the pitcher to lead off the next inning.
Also, batting Buxton 8th could cause pitchers to pitch around him.
Overall, I fall in the "don't care" camp.
In general, you want to order the batters such that it goes from best to worst because the higher in the order a batter is, the more plate appearances they get. The exact ordering #1-4 is a bit different because of different strengths of the batters and the rules of baseball but doing best to fourth-best is reasonable. #5-9 on an AL team should be (fifth) best to worst.
In the NL, there's a problem. The #9 hitter is no longer a bit worse than the #8 hitter, he's significantly worse. The average #9 hitter in the AL has an OBP of .269 and some of that is probably from the pitcher. Meanwhile, pitchers in the NL have an OBP of .150. They're really bad and AL pitchers are even worse.
The quirk to why batting this terrible batter eighth has to do with the lineups rolling over. If it was always 1-9 and never rolled over, then the pitcher clearly bats ninth. But since it does, by having the pitcher bat eighth, you can force more innings to end there, allowing the better #9 hitter a chance to get on base before the best batters. If the pitcher was #9, then more innings would end there, biasing the #1 batter to bat with the bases empty more often and the #8 hitter would be have a higher probability of not scoring.
This scheme only works because of how bad the pitcher is. It's that large gap that drives this. In the AL, that gap doesn't exist so it's "normal".
also, the starting pitcher typically only gets 2 PA (current average is 2.25 per game, compared to 1.78 PA/g for PHs in the NL) before being replaced with a PH. If your PHs are significantly better than your worst starting position player, then you may actually gain from having the pitcher's spot bat 8th. this logic is, of course, complicated by double-switches....
I loooooove that you responded to a June 16th game log in July 16th.
Heh... The things we talk about stay with me for probably longer than they should.
not a WGOM buck, given the pertinent empirics. Maybe a WGOM cent-and-a-half.
I'll take it
I think it's just overthinking the importance of lineup construction beyond who is in the lineup.
Yep. That's why it doesn't matter if Fryer is batting ahead of Arcia.
Time to get the bats going, boys!
It strikes me that the Twins' batting slump seems to have roughly coincided with them playing teams with good defenses.
roughly
There are three Dan Gladdens at the park? It seems to me that one is at least enough.
Looky there, Gibson with the lumber!
Athlete!
So that's why you bat him eighth!
The way the Twins are hitting, maybe they should've batted him third.
That did not look like a strike on video.
Gahh - after the past couple games, I was/am worried, so I took a look. Joe's career average: 83 strikeouts per 162 games played.
Other than a drop in 2010, his K's/162 games gradually increased from his best year ('08 - 55.5K/162) to 129.6K/162 last year.
At his current pace, with roughly 40% of the season in the books, he looks to drop back down to 108K/162 this season. Not great, but certainly not as dire as I was imagining
One thing I noticed so far this year is a career low .299 BAbip for a career average .346 batter in that category.
Mlb audio seems to drop out during rain dealies. Luckily, I can get the games on the actual radio.
They also cut out right at the end of the game on radio broadcasts now. They use to playing well through the post-game scoreboard.
Odd, since they carry all of the pregame show.
I heard postgame yesterday, but shut it off today so can't tell.
This is on my phone, I should say. I don't recall if it's happened with a computer.
Twins radio playing audio highlights of the 1965 season, narrated by Ray Scott. I love it!
Game on!
Run(s) on a Suzuki double!
I was pretty sure the game was just going to be called, with a RISP. I mean, it's the Cardinals. They cheat.
National League baseball!
Looks like a line drive single in the book!
We've got a baserunner!
Molina'd.
It wasn't even close.
Figures. That would have been 1st and 3rd with one out.
Third? No sir.
Your faith in The Buxton is waivering so soon?
I think he meant he would have scored.
ahh. Watching on radio, so, perhaps!
So was I. I just assume he'll score from first. Three base movements seem to be standard for him.
Damn. Sounded close.
thank goodness we have such a good option on the bench for PH.
I get home from work and I see twitter is filled with Mauer makes too much money tweets. What did I miss during the game that caused this?
Hey! There's a Twins game going on!
Well, gee, Bert, that really is odd. Why on earth would you have a better record when you score first? It's a puzzler, all right.
I've never understood the thing about, "If you're going to miss, miss out of the strike zone." If you could control where you missed, you wouldn't miss, would you?
I'm not sure if you are joking here or not.
No, I'm not. A "miss", by definition, means the ball did not go where you wanted it to go. How do you control where it goes when it doesn't go where you want it to go?
Thats a pretty light reading of that comment. Its not as though the ball is going "anywhere"
It's not going "anywhere", in that it's probably not going three feet away from the target (although we've both seen that happen). But it's still not going where you wanted it to go. If you're aiming for the outside corner, how do you make sure that if it misses, it misses six inches off the plate rather than six inches over the plate? Maybe there's a way you do it--I'm no pitching expert. But I'd like to know.
Depends on the pitch's movement. I think you can control (at least in some degree) a missed location.
How? I'm not trying to be a smart-aleck. I'd just really like to know how you do that, because I hear announcers say this all the time, and I don't understand it.
The way I think about pitches is you have an average trajectory with many possible outcomes. Each type of pitch is a bit different, but essentially a heat map depending on the release/aim.
I could be wrong, but thats the way I visualize the game.
Hope it's either a short dealy or it's called off entirely. If Gibson has to come out in the first inning, well, a bullpen game by the Twins isn't likely to be very pretty.
So FSN was apparently completely unprepared for the possibility of a rain dealy and is simply re-doing the segments from the pre-game show.
And a nice Atteberry interview of TR, followed by reports that the tarp was coming off and now several minutes of dead air time. Oops
Free game of the day, by the way.
Blacked out!!
I really don't get the whole "pitcher batting eighth" thing. I'm not particularly upset about it. I just don't see the point.
If you have one batter that is significantly worse than the other eight, then it makes sense to bat that player eighth. That way, when the lineup rolls around, the 1-2-3 batters have a much higher probability of having a baserunner. If the pitcher batted ninth, then the lineup will more often be such that the 1-2-3 are leading off an inning but maybe with an extra out or two.
The Cardinal's way, I'm not sure if they're trolling or not
Better yet, they won't have an excuse to pitch around BB to pitch to the pitcher. He'll get legitimate strikes.
I agree, if the only other option is to bat Buxton eighth. But there are other options.
Then why not just bat the ninth hitter first, so there's a chance the 1-2-3 batters have a baserunner on in the first inning? Again, I don't think it makes a lot of difference. I just don't get it.
Because you want the greatest number of plate appearances for the best hitters. The situation where this matters is when the lineup rolls over. If the pitcher bats ninth, then the number of baserunners on when 1 bats is lower than if the pitcher bats eighth.
Then you're saying that the ninth hitter is not a good hitter. So he's probably not going to be on base much when the 1-2-3 hitters come up anyway, and the pitcher will come up a batter sooner and will get more plate appearances. Still doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but whatever.
simulations show that the difference batting your typical pitcher 8th nets you a few more runs per year. Nothing worth caring about too much either way
It's more than that, but it isn't huge. For an AL team, it's pretty much irrelevant. For an NL team, unless the pitcher is a great hitter, it makes sense since it's such an easy change.
I saw Molitor quoted as saying he didn't want to stop Buxton from stealing. If Buxton were on base with 2 outs and a pitcher up, it would risk forcing the pitcher to lead off the next inning.
Also, batting Buxton 8th could cause pitchers to pitch around him.
Overall, I fall in the "don't care" camp.
In general, you want to order the batters such that it goes from best to worst because the higher in the order a batter is, the more plate appearances they get. The exact ordering #1-4 is a bit different because of different strengths of the batters and the rules of baseball but doing best to fourth-best is reasonable. #5-9 on an AL team should be (fifth) best to worst.
In the NL, there's a problem. The #9 hitter is no longer a bit worse than the #8 hitter, he's significantly worse. The average #9 hitter in the AL has an OBP of .269 and some of that is probably from the pitcher. Meanwhile, pitchers in the NL have an OBP of .150. They're really bad and AL pitchers are even worse.
The quirk to why batting this terrible batter eighth has to do with the lineups rolling over. If it was always 1-9 and never rolled over, then the pitcher clearly bats ninth. But since it does, by having the pitcher bat eighth, you can force more innings to end there, allowing the better #9 hitter a chance to get on base before the best batters. If the pitcher was #9, then more innings would end there, biasing the #1 batter to bat with the bases empty more often and the #8 hitter would be have a higher probability of not scoring.
This scheme only works because of how bad the pitcher is. It's that large gap that drives this. In the AL, that gap doesn't exist so it's "normal".
also, the starting pitcher typically only gets 2 PA (current average is 2.25 per game, compared to 1.78 PA/g for PHs in the NL) before being replaced with a PH. If your PHs are significantly better than your worst starting position player, then you may actually gain from having the pitcher's spot bat 8th. this logic is, of course, complicated by double-switches....
Alright, if they're going to be the currency, someone had better start giving me WGOMbucks!
I loooooove that you responded to a June 16th game log in July 16th.
Heh... The things we talk about stay with me for probably longer than they should.
not a WGOM buck, given the pertinent empirics. Maybe a WGOM cent-and-a-half.
I'll take it
I think it's just overthinking the importance of lineup construction beyond who is in the lineup.
Yep. That's why it doesn't matter if Fryer is batting ahead of Arcia.
Time to get the bats going, boys!
It strikes me that the Twins' batting slump seems to have roughly coincided with them playing teams with good defenses.
roughly
There are three Dan Gladdens at the park? It seems to me that one is at least enough.
Looky there, Gibson with the lumber!
Athlete!
So that's why you bat him eighth!
The way the Twins are hitting, maybe they should've batted him third.
That did not look like a strike on video.
Gahh - after the past couple games, I was/am worried, so I took a look. Joe's career average: 83 strikeouts per 162 games played.
Other than a drop in 2010, his K's/162 games gradually increased from his best year ('08 - 55.5K/162) to 129.6K/162 last year.
At his current pace, with roughly 40% of the season in the books, he looks to drop back down to 108K/162 this season. Not great, but certainly not as dire as I was imagining
One thing I noticed so far this year is a career low .299 BAbip for a career average .346 batter in that category.
Mlb audio seems to drop out during rain dealies. Luckily, I can get the games on the actual radio.
They also cut out right at the end of the game on radio broadcasts now. They use to playing well through the post-game scoreboard.
Odd, since they carry all of the pregame show.
I heard postgame yesterday, but shut it off today so can't tell.
This is on my phone, I should say. I don't recall if it's happened with a computer.
Twins radio playing audio highlights of the 1965 season, narrated by Ray Scott. I love it!
Game on!
Run(s) on a Suzuki double!
I was pretty sure the game was just going to be called, with a RISP. I mean, it's the Cardinals. They cheat.
National League baseball!
Looks like a line drive single in the book!
We've got a baserunner!
Molina'd.
It wasn't even close.
Figures. That would have been 1st and 3rd with one out.
Third? No sir.
Your faith in The Buxton is waivering so soon?
I think he meant he would have scored.
ahh. Watching on radio, so, perhaps!
So was I. I just assume he'll score from first. Three base movements seem to be standard for him.
Damn. Sounded close.
thank goodness we have such a good option on the bench for PH.
I get home from work and I see twitter is filled with Mauer makes too much money tweets. What did I miss during the game that caused this?
0 for 4, same ol' same ol'