A quick note on the Frosty Mug

by KLSnow on Jun 6, 2008 1:22 PM CDT

If you don't really care to read about my personal life but would like to know something that impacts the site, skip down a few paragraphs, to the one that starts with the sentence in bold.

Ok, if you lost your excuse decoder ring, here's why I haven't been writing the Frosty Mug for the last four days:

Tuesday: Sick
Wednesday: Traveling
Thursday: Internet was out
Friday: See below.

Today I start a month of vacation. I took a month of vacation for a variety of reasons, but I decided to come home to Wisconsin for 2 weeks for two reasons. One, I had only been home for less than 24 hours since last June. Second, I have a puppy to train.

Two weeks ago, I was given a 8-week old miniature cashshund that I've since named Gorman. He's adorable but also a little fireball. This morning when I was trying to write he was getting into all kinds of untold mischief. This afternoon, while I'm trying to write, he's out of sight and quiet...and that scares me even more.

Anyway, to get to the point, I'm putting the Mug on indefinite (but hopefully temporary) hiatus until I get back to the point where I feel like I can do it consistently again and at the level I've grown accustomed to (slightly above terrible).

I'll probably still be lurking from time to time, but not as often as usual, as I struggle to train a puppy, enjoy the summer and get the most out of a vacation before being back behind my desk on July 7.

Take care, and thanks for reading,

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Enjoy the break

and good luck with the puppy. Hopefully when the Mug returns the Brewers will be 5 games up in the division!

by molitorfan on Jun 6, 2008 1:33 PM CDT 0 recs

Thanks for your work

Anyone want to try their own version of the Mug on a daily basis? I usaully need something to read or talk about during the day, before the Brewers play. It adds a lot to the site, a nice roundup of what is happening with the Brewers and the MLB.

I gave it a shot the other day, but maybe some kind of rotation could be put in place?

Good luck KL, you deserve a nice break and training a puppy is not easy!

The designated hitter rule is like letting someone else take Wilt Chamberlain's free throws.

by Kyguy922 on Jun 6, 2008 1:40 PM CDT 0 recs

If some other people are down with a rotation too, I'll take a day or two

He's extremely quick and good.

by battlekow on Jun 6, 2008 1:56 PM CDT up 0 recs

I could contribute some stuff- links or whatever

now that it is summer.

Whenever prince is at first, he should charge the mound and yell "MEAT!"

by jihad on Jun 6, 2008 2:11 PM CDT up 0 recs

...or get in on a rotation

I may not be an English/Journalism major yet, but that will change in a couple years. Does that make me qualified?

I also won my 7th grade class spelling competition.

Whenever prince is at first, he should charge the mound and yell "MEAT!"

by jihad on Jun 6, 2008 4:52 PM CDT up 0 recs

I think I speek for all of us when I say,

we need a picture of the pup!

by Braunstalker on Jun 6, 2008 1:41 PM CDT 0 recs

Slacker

You don’t see the guys over at JS Online taking a month off, do you? And it’s not vacation, we really know that your mom is remodeling the basement and you have to pack up the either the computer or your Star Wars figurines.

You made the logical choice.

by Getting Yosted on Jun 6, 2008 1:44 PM CDT 0 recs

Save Greedo

In his original packaging, he’d be worth a mint (green).

Greedo

"I will agree that the attitude [at BCB] is ridiculous and they have done so much to instigate animosity and then block us from responding. Real mature!"

by roguejim on Jun 6, 2008 2:18 PM CDT up 0 recs

When you can't hear or see them...

...that’s when you know you’re in trouble!

Good luck with the pup! I went through training two puppies in a row and while it was very rewarding, I’m going to enjoy the next fourteen years of my dogs not being crazy tornadoes much more.

by warwick5s on Jun 6, 2008 3:04 PM CDT 0 recs

nice dude. thanks for all your hard work. you deserve some time off!

presumably you are using this time off to pick up poop.

to each his own…

go get em' seth!

by Jamie in LA on Jun 6, 2008 3:14 PM CDT 0 recs

this may be a good thing

all this morning drinking has had a definiate negative impact on my work

"You guys know me. I take a long time to analyze things."
- Ned Yost

by SunglassesAtNight on Jun 6, 2008 4:02 PM CDT 0 recs

and spelling.

"I will agree that the attitude [at BCB] is ridiculous and they have done so much to instigate animosity and then block us from responding. Real mature!"

by roguejim on Jun 6, 2008 4:16 PM CDT up 0 recs

Good luck KL

hope to have you back soon.

...and on a completely different note

dixie: can you back me up with data on the following.

Brewers pitchers who have a lot of “action” on their pitches tend to fare poorly in Denver, and moreover, suffer for a while (either in terms of action or just ERA) in their next few starts when going back to normal altitude.

This was especially the case (at least in my mind) with Y. Gallardo last year. So, would it behoove us to just send a bunch of fastball pitchers out there to play in Colorado, both for the sake of our series there, as well as the next few after? And in the future should we consider calling up a couple of AAA or AA pitchers so we don’t mess with our main boys?

by PagsBrewCrew on Jun 6, 2008 4:54 PM CDT 0 recs

Hmmm

What an interesting idea.

"I will agree that the attitude [at BCB] is ridiculous and they have done so much to instigate animosity and then block us from responding. Real mature!"

by roguejim on Jun 6, 2008 5:38 PM CDT up 0 recs

That is a really interesting concept

I can’t give you the numbers but here is what I can say about the physics. I am actually intending to do a THT piece on this relatively soon. So we all know about the thin air at Coors but how does that affect the pitch? It turns out that pitchers have identical release points and initial velocities on the ball just the acceleration of the ball in flight is altered. This makes sense because air resistance plays almost no role when the pitcher still has the ball and is imparting the ball with it’s initial speed. So how much does the lowered air resistance effect the acceleration of the ball? It turns out the ball’s acceleration is only about 75-80% of what it is at sea level (at standard temp). This is why curves don’t curve and, in general, the ball doesn’t drop as much as it should so I can show that pitchers coming in to Coors tend to throw more up in the zone because they have trouble adjusting. Obviously that leads to more fly balls and, in that park, more runs.

So that is the bad news but there actually is good news for a pitcher. That lowered air resistance means the ball is in the air for a shorter time. So pitchers with a lot of speed on their 4 seam fastballs should see some benefit (I am having trouble calculating this right now). Also, the absolute difference in time between fastballs and change ups is larger in Coors because the air resistance is a multiplier. Think about 10 times 10 is a 100 but 8 times 10 is 80 so the absolute difference is huge in that case. So pitchers with a good change up should do relatively well. So the Rocks should value pitchers with a good straight fastball and a nasty change up (think Jeff Francis).

Colorado was very late to get PITCHf/x last year so I won’t be able to use much 2007 data to look at your idea but maybe when enough 2008 data comes I can do a study. It certainly is possible that pitchers adjust to throwing in thin air then have trouble adjusting back. The problem will be disentangling that with pitchers who were shelled and now nervous about throwing the ball over the plate.

Visit my baseball blog ...or else!

by dixieflatline on Jun 6, 2008 6:16 PM CDT up 0 recs

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