Tuesday's Frosty Mug
by Kyle Lobner on Jan 4, 2011 9:19 AM CST
in Milwaukee Brewers News
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PrintSome things to read while getting off the web.
If you hadn't noticed the countdown on your right, then let me be the first to tell you that we're now just 42 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale. John Axford started throwing again yesterday to get ready. Meanwhile, Tyler Maas of The AV Club wants your help convincing The Ax to use a new entrance song. (h/t BBTF)
First, though, the Brewers need to get around to filing their paperwork: TheJay noted that, as of yesterday, Takashi Saito's deal still hadn't been officially announced. It's likely he still needs to pass a physical, and that's not a slam dunk for a pitcher with his age and injury history.
Saito is included in Jack Moore of Disciples of Uecker's look at the pitchers on the Brewer 40 man roster.
Once that's finalized, we can start looking ahead to the arbitration filing period, which opens tomorrow. Tom Haudricourt has predictions for each of the five arb-eligible Brewers, headlined by a predicted $15 million salary for Prince Fielder.
If you had asked me three months ago, I would not have predicted this much excitement for Opening Day 2011. Times have changed, though, and the change is reflected in The Brewers Bar's 11 expectations for 2011.
Of course, some things never change. There are still questions about Corey Hart in center field and a Prince Fielder extension in Adam McCalvy's inbox this week. There are also questions about Yuniesky Betancourt and John Axford.
Around baseball:
Blue Jays: Signed reliever Chad Cordero to a minor league deal.
Dodgers: Signed pitcher Tim Redding to a minor league deal.
Mariners: Designated reliever Anthony Varvaro for assignment.
Mets: Signed Chris Capuano and reliever Taylor Buchholz and designated reliever Ryota Igarashi for assignment. (FanShot)
Padres: First baseman Brad Hawpe's new deal will pay him $2 million in 2011 with a $6 million mutual option for 2012 and a $1 million buyout.
Pirates: Re-signed pitcher Brian Burres to a minor league deal.
Rangers: Designated catcher Max Ramirez and reliever Clay Rapada for assignment.
Red Sox: Signed infielder Hector Luna to a minor league deal.
Reds: Signed outfielder Jeremy Hermida to a minor league deal.
Rockies: Have reportedly reached a deal with outfielder Carlos Gonzalez on a seven year, $80 million extension.
If Max Ramirez's name caught your eye, you're not alone: Jaymes Langrehr of The Brewers Bar thinks Ramirez would be a solid option to be the Brewers' backup catcher. Ramirez is 26 and appeared in 28 games for the Rangers last season, hitting .217/.341/.348. If nothing else, his upside is certainly higher than any of the trio of Wil Nieves, Shawn Riggans and Mike Rivera.
Today in former Brewer news: New York Sports Cookie has an interview with Darryl Hamilton. (h/t MetsBlog)
Today's best graphic comes courtesy of Beyond the Box Score, where J-Doug has a look at the average age of major league ballparks through the years.
With help from the B-Ref Play Index and Brewerfan.net, happy birthday today to:
- Wisconsin Timber Rattler Rigoberto Almonte, who turns 24.
- 2009 Brewer Jason Bourgeois, who turns 29.
- 1995-96 Brewer Kevin Wickander, who turns 46.
- 1957-62 Milwaukee Brave Don McMahon, who would have turned 81.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get to the gym.
Drink up.
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he seems to get lost from time to time.
BCB: Pointless Exercises in Devils Advocacy
by Jeo on Jan 4, 2011 9:47 AM CST up reply actions
About 6'3"
I don’t think he’s quite old enough to worry about his height decreasing.
Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.
by sjlee on Jan 4, 2011 10:20 AM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Ramirez
Can you believe that he was the Rangers #10 prospect in 09 and was ranked in the top 100? If I’m not mistaken he had an injury of some sort. He was expected to be a guy who could find a spot somewhere on a team because he was going to be able to hit, but since 09 hasnt really merited anything but a back up role. Would be a toss up between he and Kottaras.
If he's decent defensively...
then I’d say he’d be a better option than Kottaras.
Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.
I think Ramirez was a little more valued than Salome.
If nothing else, I’ve never heard “body type” questions regarding Ramirez.
Now that's great tasting chicken!
I'm not sure Ramirez > Kottaras
But I’m confident Ramirez is a better Kottaras alternative than the current options.
Now that's great tasting chicken!
This.
Though I highly doubt he’d clear all the way to the Crew & have zero idea what TEX would want in trade.
I guess we'll see
He’s not the first backup type DFA’d this offseason, so it’s possible some of the teams that were looking for one have already filled the need. The Padres, for example, traded for Rob Johnson from the M’s.
Now that's great tasting chicken!
that was great.
Too close for missiles, I’m switching to Ueck.
If Axford uses New Noise
by the Refused as his walk on music I am buying a jersey. One of my favorite songs of the last 20 years.
That would be so unbelievably bad ass
I think the only song that would come across as tougher would be “fucking hostile” by Pantera
For your health!
I hope I'm not alone
in not understanding what the language they are singing in is, much less the lyrics.
It's English
But they were a Swedish group.
Can I scream? Yeah!
We lack the motion to move to the new beat
We lack the motion to move to the new beat
It’s here for us to admire if we can afford the beauty of it
Can afford the luxury of turning our heads
Adjust that thousand dollars smile and behold the creation of man
Great words won’t cover ugly actions – good frames won’t save bad paintings
We lack the motion to move to the new beat. Yeah!
We lack… motion
When the day is over – Hey! – the doors are locked on us
Money buys the access – and we can’t pay the cost
And how can we expect anyone to listen if we are using the same old voice?
We need new noise – new art for the real people
We dance to all the wrong songs
We enjoy all the wrong moves
We dance to all the wrong songs
We’re not leading
We dance to all the wrong songs
We enjoy all the wrong moves
We dance to all the wrong songs
We’re not, we’re not, we’re not, we’re not, we’re not, we’re not…
Leading
We dance – all the wrong songs
We enjoy – all the wrong moves
We dance – all the wrong songs
We dance – all the wrong songs
We enjoy – all the wrong moves
We dance – all the wrong songs
Here we go!
We dance to all the wrong songs
We enjoy all the wrong moves
We dance to all the wrong songs
We’re not leading. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
The new beat! The new beat! The new beat! The new beat!
The new beat! The new beat! The new beat! The new beat!
The new beat! The new beat! The new beat! The new beat!
The new beat! The new beat! The new beat! The new beat!
Thank you.
For your health!
It's not like a whole lot of the song would play as he ran to the mound.
Just the cool intro part probably.
For your health!
Not sure about the "We're not leading" part though
I think the original suggestion was to use the latter bit of the song: http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/lets_encourage_brewers_closer_john_axford_to_use_refuseds_new_noise_as_his_/
Anyway, I was always more of an International Noise Conspiracy fan…
Ready and able to turn any discussion into one about Russell Oles Branyan...
Good call!
Winner of a song…
Ready and able to turn any discussion into one about Russell Oles Branyan...
Distasteful, ugly and cheap
that’s how watching the Cubs makes me feel…
Ready and able to turn any discussion into one about Russell Oles Branyan...
For a brief, brief moment
I thought someone might have actually recorded an anti-Cubs version. It might seem far-fetched, but I reckon that even in Sweden there are legions of people who are against everything the Cubs stand for…
Quality song.
Ready and able to turn any discussion into one about Russell Oles Branyan...
Wait, Corey Hart is playing center field?
Someone asking dumb questions again?
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
More like annexed
Wonder what the plus minus would be on Harts bad D in CF versus Gamels better O than Gomez in RF.
never mind him
he just had a pants filler while in church
by PagsBrewCrew on Jan 4, 2011 12:48 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Ah, HOWEVER
The Excess Trade Value created by a CF with Hart’s offensive potentially is much higher than his Trade Value as a RF. Similarly, Gamel’s Trade Value will be substantially higher as a major league RF than a minor league 3B/1B/RF. Since we pretty much know Gomez has hit his ceiling of Excess Trade Value, he’s next to worthless as trade bait. Given the increase in both of the Values of Hart and Gamel, they can be traded for better prospects as a CF and RF which mean the Brewers will have better up and comers in 2014 when they can be traded for prospects in 2016.
Clearly, the Brewers need to make this move. You’re brilliant.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
by ecocd on Jan 4, 2011 1:01 PM CST up reply actions 3 recs
The mockery isn't adding much to the conversation.
Now that's great tasting chicken!
by Kyle Lobner on Jan 4, 2011 1:18 PM CST up reply actions 3 recs
I was going for sarcasm rather than mockery
If we want to be serious about it, though, it really depends upon the value we all believe Gamel has offensively. I think we could come to a general consensus that Hart would be a terrible defensive CF, but if he could keep his 2010 productivity his offensive WAR would dramatically increase compared to his current, rather impressive 3.4+ WAR (Fangraphs has his overall WAR at 3.4, but Fld [UZR?] at -6.4). Offensive WAR takes position into account, right?
After the Bill Hall debacle in CF, we know the Brewers value defense in CF very highly so it’s clear their stat guys are telling them that defense is much more important in CF than the outfield corners. UZR takes position into account I believe, but one could assume the Brewers front office places far more WAR (i.e. value) into whatever defensive metric they have for CF than in either corner position.
From that perspective, Gamel’s D in RF isn’t a real concern unless he’s hideously bad. Gamel’s O is, therefore, relatively speaking much more important than Gomez’ defense at RF. If we assume a reasonably positive offensive WAR for Gamel as an everyday RF, then it’s a no brainer from the Brewers perspective to plug in Gamel at RF over Gomez.
So, predicated on the assumption that Hart is playing CF and Gomez would be in RF, the plus/minus on Gamel vs. Gomez is practically no question at all. Taking into account Hart’s defensive liability in CF, however, his value would likely be a wash at best with the position move and Gomez’s defense in CF would likely outweigh any positive that Gamel could provide in RF. Overall, I would say the move is a slight negative.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
by ecocd on Jan 4, 2011 1:34 PM CST up reply actions 2 recs
his intent
was to say rather than CF = gomez, RF = hart plug in CF = hart, RF = gamel
we’re not comparing gomez in RF to gamel in RF. that’s a no-brainer IMHO.
Let's call this my four part, unified theory on outfield defense.
1) Two outfielders with plus range playing side by side will negatively impact each others’ defensive value. They’ll run into a lot of situations where they can both reach a ball.
2) If a plus outfielder is placed next to a minus outfielder, the defensive metrics will overstate the plus outfielder’s skill, because he’ll get an above-average number of opportunities to venture into the other fielder’s zone to retrieve balls.
3) If two negative defensive outfielders are placed side by side, the loss in defensive value is greater than the stats would suggest because neither outfielder will be in a position to back up the other or quickly retrieve balls they’re allowing to fall in.
4) If an outfielder that’s bad in a corner is moved to center, and someone with nearly no experience in the outfield is placed next to him, the resulting uncovered zone may be large enough to open a car lot. The high threat of car denting will, of course, prevent it from actually happening.
Now that's great tasting chicken!
by Kyle Lobner on Jan 4, 2011 1:49 PM CST up reply actions 4 recs
So...
In the Brewer’s case, with two negative defenders in the corners is a plus CFer’s value essentially “doubled” due the the opportunity to improve defense into both left field and right field?
BCB, the preferred above replacement level sarcasm supplier.
by MadJimiBrewha on Jan 4, 2011 2:02 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Doubled might be overstating it.
But it’s maximized, certainly.
Now that's great tasting chicken!
by Kyle Lobner on Jan 4, 2011 2:05 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
I doubt the effect is very large.
If Gomez’s superior range lets him get to balls that a normal LF or RF would typically get to but which Braun and Hart have too poor of range to reach, UZR gives Gomez very little credit for that play (because most balls in that position are caught anyways). If Gomez catches a ball that is typically fielded by LF or RF but which is hard for anyone to get to, he deservedly gets more credit from UZR.
I think it would only have a significant effect if you were playing next to Hawpe and Dunn or something. Braun and Hart don’t have such atrocious range for it to add up to a lot.
Ryan Braun: He loves it. -- Four pitchers in history with 8.5+ WAR and <250 IP seasons: Greg Maddux (age 29), Pedro Martinez (age 28), Roger Clemens (age 27), Zack Greinke (age 25).
by SRB on Jan 4, 2011 3:57 PM CST up reply actions
Actually, looking at how UZR works, it could even undervalue the CF
If there is a ball that the average LF catches 80% of the time and the CF 10% of the time, the CF only gets credit for catching a ball that’s caught 90% of the time (thus, not very much) even though it was an extremely difficult ball for him to get to.
Ryan Braun: He loves it. -- Four pitchers in history with 8.5+ WAR and <250 IP seasons: Greg Maddux (age 29), Pedro Martinez (age 28), Roger Clemens (age 27), Zack Greinke (age 25).
by SRB on Jan 4, 2011 4:15 PM CST up reply actions
That's taken into account
The base unit of “Balls Caught” in UZR is based on the league average by players at that position. It’s positive if he makes plays other CFs are missing and negative if he’s missing plays other CFs are making. The base unit works out to:
((Balls Caught by CF in Zone A / Total Balls in Zone A) – (Total League Balls Caught by CF in Zone A / Total League Total Balls in Zone A)) * Total Balls in Zone A
Read that through a few times and you’ll realize that if every CF is making it to that extremely difficult ball, then it doesn’t matter that he is, too. He’s simply expected to make that difficult play.
Given that CF is already a premium defensive position, Gomez is that much better than the best outfielder on every team.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
Right, but if only 10% of CFs make it to a ball that is caught by the LF 80% of the time, the CF only gets credit for catching a ball that’s caught 90% of the time.
Thus, if Gomez makes an elite play (even by CF standards) on a ball that an average LF would easily catch (but Braun doesn’t get to) Gomez gets less credit than he deserves.
Ryan Braun: He loves it. -- Four pitchers in history with 8.5+ WAR and <250 IP seasons: Greg Maddux (age 29), Pedro Martinez (age 28), Roger Clemens (age 27), Zack Greinke (age 25).
by SRB on Jan 4, 2011 5:02 PM CST up reply actions
hi echo
“…is based on the league average by players at that position”
not based on the game average of balls caught or not
by PagsBrewCrew on Jan 4, 2011 5:10 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
I don't think that's how it works though
It’s not isolated by position, because the catch % of any ball/zone has to add up to 100%. If a ball is caught by the CF 10% of the time and the LF 80%, it’s treated as a ball caught 90% of the time even for the CF making a 10%-difficulty play.
Ryan Braun: He loves it. -- Four pitchers in history with 8.5+ WAR and <250 IP seasons: Greg Maddux (age 29), Pedro Martinez (age 28), Roger Clemens (age 27), Zack Greinke (age 25).
by SRB on Jan 4, 2011 5:14 PM CST up reply actions
So Gomez is in center in large part because Hart and Braun are in the corners
and Cameron’s $10 million salary in 2009 was more justifiable for a Brewers outfield than an average set of outfielders.
I hadn’t thought about it in terms of total zone coverage. It’s very much the Moneyball approach to building a team. You don’t have to replace a single player so much as his offensive production which could mean improving the offense at 2 other positions, instead (which, btw, is how I think the Brewers will have to replace Fielder between 1B/CF/SS).
Overlapping zones are simply wasted resources for the team much like how signing another slugger for the Brewers would be like adding gasoline to a burning building. The fire would burn hotter, but the house is burning down either way.
This theory wouldn’t really apply to the infield, because even the absolute best 3B/SS/2B combo would rarely have overlapping zone, yes?
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
by ecocd on Jan 4, 2011 2:04 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Right
The difference between plus and minus range in the infield is, at best, probably ten feet. That’s not a big enough difference to create major overlaps.
Now that's great tasting chicken!
How much outfield UZR is too much?
I was getting the itch to check out your theory on zone coverage myself, but after reading up more on UZR and discovering fangraphs already calculates UZR for teams it seems like it might be a waste of time.
It does bring up an interesting point, though. Some kind of total outfield UZR measure would have serious diminishing returns on the positive end, especially when viewed under your UTOD. Fangraphs just adds up the three outfield positions to get the OF UZR, though I don’t know if that’s the same as if they treat the outfielders as one 3-headed monster. Probably not, is my guess.
Assuming it’s a good approximation for the sake of this argument, is there any practical difference between the Giants total OF UZR of +36.4 and the Mariners +25.2? How many more outs is that? It seems like there would be a better way to rate total outfield defense than adding up the individual UZR of the outfielder. Those team ratings might be a bit different.
Incidentally, I had no idea the Brewers had the 2nd best CF UZR in all of baseball last year. Maybe I should remember that the next time Gomez makes yet another out at the plate.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
CF
Except when you drill down into how they arrive at the Brewers’ UZR/150 for CF at 14.9, you see that Gomez had one of the lowest UZR/150 out of the guys who played CF last season.
Escobar
96.5
Gerut
53.2
Edmonds
22.1
Dickerson
18.5
Gomez
8.0
Cain
7.6
Stern
-68.5
Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.
I think it depends on the context of the discussion
In this case, I merely pointing out that Gomez wasn’t really the one who helped get the Brewers the second best UZR for CF last season. It was Edmonds.
Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.
Yes and No
The min is 3 years from the lit online, but that’s to estimate a player’s defensive value. If we’re just looking at a player’s single year of contribution to team defense, then it’s merely a descriptive statistic and 1 season is fine.
UZR/150, however, is purely a defensive value statistic and shouldn’t be used for less than 3 years of a starter. Looking at platoons and UZR/150 is pretty much worthless.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
You're right
I should’ve just stuck with UZR.
Anyway, it still comes back to Edmonds being the biggest reason the Brewers’ UZR in CF was second best in MLB last season (16.5).
Edmonds
6.8
Gomez
3.5
Gerut
2.7
Cain
2.0
Dickerson
1.4
Escobar
0.6
Stern
-0.5
Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.
Again, yes and no
Look at the innings and you’ll see that it’s not even really useful as a descriptive statistic unlike my claim above.
Edmonds 360 Innings 6.8 UZR
Gomez 594 Innings 3.5 UZR
Jody Gerut 70 Innings 2.7 UZR
Cain 306 Innings 2.0 UZR
Whatever plays Gerut made in those 70 Innings probably would’ve been made just the same by Gomez which would necessarily have bumped Gomez’ UZR up to 6.2 given the chance (or Edmonds up to 9.2 for that matter). Gerut just happened to be on the field for some really valuable innings.
While we don’t have the numbers to dig into, my guess is that Gomez and Cain just happened to be on the field for lower opportunity innings than Edmonds.
I suppose you could claim that Edmonds’ innings were more important than Gomez’ or Cain’s, so he gets credit for the defensive value in CF, but I don’t think you could make a strong claim that Gomez would’ve flubbed the plays that Gerut or Edmonds made.
Had Gomez played every inning at CF we can extrapolate from his previous 3000 innings and 14.3 UZR/150 that he would’ve made at least the same number of plays that Edmonds or Gerut made in his place. Dude’s a great outfielder.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
by ecocd on Jan 4, 2011 4:09 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Also, I don’t think there aren’t UZR splits (probably for good reason), but I remember that Gomez’s UZR/150 was negative for the first part of the season. He must have been excellent over the second half of the season to end up at +8.0, maybe after he got used to Miller Park/the NL fields.
I think we can expect him to be characteristically superb going forward.
Ryan Braun: He loves it. -- Four pitchers in history with 8.5+ WAR and <250 IP seasons: Greg Maddux (age 29), Pedro Martinez (age 28), Roger Clemens (age 27), Zack Greinke (age 25).
by SRB on Jan 4, 2011 4:17 PM CST up reply actions
Sorry, that should say "I don't think there ARE UZR splits"
Ryan Braun: He loves it. -- Four pitchers in history with 8.5+ WAR and <250 IP seasons: Greg Maddux (age 29), Pedro Martinez (age 28), Roger Clemens (age 27), Zack Greinke (age 25).
by SRB on Jan 4, 2011 4:18 PM CST up reply actions
In order for Gomez to play every inning at CF...
he’s going to need to improve his hitting.
I agree that Gomez would’ve been able to make all of the plays that the other guys made in CF last season, but again, that’s not what I’m trying to say.
My point is that the Brewers had the second best UZR in CF last season… but it was mainly due to Edmonds, not Gomez.
Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.
clearly UZR thought
that Escobar was playing CF when he fielded a few balls between 2nd and 3rd base on the infield.
you don't remember when he played there?
4 Put Outs in 2 Innings in a laugher against the Cubs. He made a highlight reel catch in the 8th inning.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
That catch was roughly one tenth of his fWAR for the entire season.
Ryan Braun: He loves it. -- Four pitchers in history with 8.5+ WAR and <250 IP seasons: Greg Maddux (age 29), Pedro Martinez (age 28), Roger Clemens (age 27), Zack Greinke (age 25).
by SRB on Jan 4, 2011 4:43 PM CST up reply actions
Uh, in a 16-1 game
If you’re serious, then fWAR doesn’t appear to take leverage situations into account which would be a serious flaw in the “Wins” part of “Wins Above Replacement.” Just semantics, I guess.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
There aren't any leverage considerations in WAR (maybe one of its biggest flaws)
Escobar had 0.6 UZR in 3 plays in CF, most of which probably came from that one highlight reel catch. I don’t think Fangraphs uses an exactly 1:1 correspondence between UZR runs and total Fielding RAR, but that’s about one tenth of Escobar’s 6.0 total RAR for the year.
Ryan Braun: He loves it. -- Four pitchers in history with 8.5+ WAR and <250 IP seasons: Greg Maddux (age 29), Pedro Martinez (age 28), Roger Clemens (age 27), Zack Greinke (age 25).
by SRB on Jan 4, 2011 5:06 PM CST up reply actions
I wouldn't call that a flaw of WAR
It’s based on the assumption that players aren’t clutch, basically; that is, that a player has no control whether he hits a single with no one on in a blowout, or with bases loaded in a tie game. To take leverage into account would make the stat more about how lucky a player was to perform well in more auspicious situations, or about how many such situations the player saw, at which point you may as well just look at RBIs
The wins part of the title comes from calculating how many ruins the
I had a link here to my blog, but it's now defunct and I guess I've lost the URL. Currently taking suggestions for a new signature.
Dammit, on my phone and hit post too soon
The wins part of the title comes from calculating how many runs the player saved or created, and then approximating ~10 runs to each win, which comes from the Pythagorean formula for converting a team’s rin differential to a winning percentage, and is quite predictive on a seasonal level. Point is, while it may seem strange to omit leverage, the data seems to suggest we’re better off that way
I had a link here to my blog, but it's now defunct and I guess I've lost the URL. Currently taking suggestions for a new signature.
That's what I meant about semantics
“Wins” is a misnomer based on how it’s calculated, but a true “Wins contributed” statistic would probably be as useful as the Wins statistic for a pitcher in determining how good a player is at playing the game.
It’s just hard to wrap my head around 10% of a player’s fielding contribution to the team in Runs Saved coming in a 16-1 game playing out of position. It works the other way. If he’d made two errors on pop-ups to center field it would be stupid to penalize him 10% of his fielding value.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
Replying to myself, adding them up does actually make sense
I think the base unit of Balls Caught is additive. While it might not be completely additive if you were to create the 3-headed outfielder, it’s going to be really close. I guess +36.4 really is substantially more than +25.2.
There is some waste on the individual UZRs, though. The Giants OF would probably sum up to more than 36.4 on an average team, because they’re probably “stealing” a little UZR from each other over the course of the season. There can’t be too much team UZR, but there can be too much individual UZR.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
On a slightly different note
Do different parks factor into these ratings? Just thinking out loud here, but a good CF playing at AT&T Park would potentially have an increased opportunity to get to deeper hits to center due to the deep center field, while a CF playing in a homer friendly park or a shallower center field would not be able to get to the same ball because it would be over the fence? I’m assuming he wouldn’t be penalized from it being a HR, but he is negated the opportunity of making a play on a ball that if hit in AT&T park he might have the opportunity of making.
BCB, the preferred above replacement level sarcasm supplier.
by MadJimiBrewha on Jan 4, 2011 5:27 PM CST up reply actions
UZR makes park adjustments
However, it seems like every couple years they update them and whoever was playing outfield in Fenway sees a 20 point swing, so quite frankly I’m not sure how well they work.
I had a link here to my blog, but it's now defunct and I guess I've lost the URL. Currently taking suggestions for a new signature.
Better than without them
They might not be great, but not trying to implement them at all would be a mistake.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
If a ball hits a wall on a fly it is considered an unplayable ball.
That was an adjustment they made in the last couple years.
Give him an offspeed pitch down and in. He will swing and miss.
And don't forget
We didn’t trade Cameron during the season in 2009, even after we fell from contention, which thus negated any residual value we might have obtained in the form of prospects. His $10 Mil salary would have been even more justifiable if we had gotten something long-term for it.
That has nothing to do with zone coverage, of course, but I’m just making the point again for the sake of being complete.
But if we had traded him
the resulting potential of loss of untucking would have had a bad effect on an already poor season.
BCB: Pointless Exercises in Devils Advocacy
by Jeo on Jan 4, 2011 2:40 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Not that this is my goal
But I wonder how many posts I generate. I love the conversations here, and am not purposefully debative. But I would be curious to know how much chatter is generated by each user here.
Nothing to say in particular...
just trying to bump up your score…
Ready and able to turn any discussion into one about Russell Oles Branyan...
by MrLeam on Jan 4, 2011 4:43 PM CST up reply actions 2 recs
I think you generate a lot of positive chatter
Not a lot of agreement, but a lot of enjoyable discussion
I think you could still sell a car dented by a major leaguer
Clearly, this is an untapped revenue stream.
I never use a big word when a diminutive word would suffice.
It's not a dumb question, just an old one
If someone had never mentioned it to me before, I would be curious about the answer, too. I mean, I would be curious if I didn’t already think Hart was a poor right fielder to begin with.
Okay, so maybe it’s a dumb question.
Minecraft is like digital Legos. I like digital things and I like Legos. I am now addicted to Minecraft.
There are no dumb questions
Only questions that make you waste 5 minutes of your life wondering how that person was able to successfully turn on a computer and then connect to the internet.
When there is a scuffle in Ireland, there’s no need to specifically mention in the news story that alcohol was involved
by Getting Yosted on Jan 4, 2011 1:14 PM CST up reply actions
Just noticed that the organization signed OF Brandon Jones to a minor league deal
Was ranked the #70 overall prospect by Baseball America pre-2008 (after an .856 OPS season across AA-AAA as a 23-year-old in 2007). Bonus trivia: he was also the highest ranked prospect on the Braves Baseball America list not traded to Texas for Teixeira in 2007.
Seems like a solid upside minor league depth signing to me. He’s still just 27.
Ryan Braun: He loves it. -- Four pitchers in history with 8.5+ WAR and <250 IP seasons: Greg Maddux (age 29), Pedro Martinez (age 28), Roger Clemens (age 27), Zack Greinke (age 25).
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NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cincinnati
|
25 | 20 | .555 | 0 | Lost 1 |
|
St. Louis
|
25 | 21 | .543 | 0.5 | Lost 2 |
|
Houston
|
22 | 23 | .488 | 3 | Won 4 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
21 | 24 | .466 | 4 | Won 1 |
|
Milwaukee
|
19 | 26 | .422 | 6 | Won 2 |
|
Chicago
|
15 | 30 | .333 | 10 | Lost 10 |
(updated 5.26.2012 at 6:00 PM CDT)
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