MLB 2012

[ghost]

Jared Weaver with a no-hitter.  He's pretty good.

[Sjofn]

Ugh, Sandoval is gone for who knows how long with a similar injury to the one he had last year. The Giants are going to be fucking unwatchable.

[Ingmar]

At least after this surgery, he will have no more hamate bones left to break.

[Sjofn]

OR WILL HE

[Paelos]

At least you kept it close.

[Paelos]

HAI HAEMISH! WE JUST SWEPT THE ROCKIES AND WE'RE COMING FOR JOOOOOOOOOOO!

[JWIV]

This O's-Red Sox game is never going to fucking end

[JWIV]

Nevermind.. Apparently all we needed was to bring in our DH and have him pitch two scoreless innings..  

Edit for video footage. 

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21222181&topic_id=28033182&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_21222181&v=3

[Sjofn]

Matt Cain: still good

[Paelos]

I kinda want Bryce Harper to get hit by a bus so ESPN will get off his jock.

[Paelos]

How is our lone Orioles fan not on here every day losing his mind? 

I'm guessing he's afraid that if he says something, straight into the tank?

[caladein]

Pretty sure most O's fans have taken a vow of silence at this point.

[JWIV]

How is our lone Orioles fan not on here every day losing his mind? 

I'm guessing he's afraid that if he says something, straight into the tank?

Pretty much this.  This season is whipsawing between Why Not 2? and wondering when the wheels are going to fall off.  To go from Josh Hamilton shelling you for 18 bases and 4 homers to deciding to lead off today's doubleheader with your first three batters going yard.   It's absurd and wild and easily the most fun I've had in years.

[Paelos]

Samardjiza is a punk, Haemish! A PUNK.

I hope somebody throws at his head.

[HaemishM]

I didn't see the incident, but just now read about it. I have kind of relegated myself to not watching the Cubs much this season because of how bad they'll be. Still if he intentionally threw at a guy's face, suspend that motherfucker.

And he always has been a bit of a punk, expecting because of his time at Notre Dame to be starting even if he sucks. At least he hasn't sucked this year.

[Fordel]

Here's my contribution to the baseball thread:
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21558485

The best pitcher for the Mets is their catcher. 

[JWIV]

Here's my contribution to the baseball thread:
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21558485

The best pitcher for the Mets is their catcher. 

Okay, this season is just getting silly now.   

[Paelos]

WHAT IN THE HELL?

Why was Rob Johnson pitching in the 8th? Were they just waving a flag?

[HaemishM]

The Mets can't afford a flag to wave, so they figured a backup catcher was cheaper. 

[WayAbvPar]

WHAT IN THE HELL?

Why was Rob Johnson pitching in the 8th? Were they just waving a flag?

He would do less harm there than behind the plate or at bat.

[Sjofn]

You're still my boyfriend, Lincecum, but man do you suck out loud this year.

[Teleku]

Holy hell the new Marlins logo/uniform is so god damn ugly.  Losing to that adds insult to injury.

[01101010]

Go TRIBE!!

[JWIV]

I suppose watching a ball roll down the chalk line for an amazing 55 foot double really goes a long way explaining how a team can give up a 3 run lead in the 7th.   Ugh.  On the upside, Angelos finally realized that if he didn't start spending some cash, there may have actually been a riot at the stadium and finally paid Jones (6 years, 85 million)

[caladein]

You're still my boyfriend, Lincecum, but man do you suck out loud this year.

I hadn't been keeping up with the Giants after the first few weeks so I went over to Timmy's FanGraphs page to see what was new.

So yeah, 59% strand rate.  Fourth lowest among qualified pitchers. That is apocalyptically terrible, so much so that my first thought on seeing it was "No!  Don't do it Timmy, the Luck Dragons are bigger than you!"  He's also sporting a .344 BABIP which is good for ninth highest among qualified pitchers, which comes down to a good deal of bad luck, but some of his underlying stats are genuinely worse.

25.5% line drive rate this year compared to his 19.4% career average, so balls are getting hit harder.  Also of concern is the higher walk rate (11.8% 2012 vs. 9.1% career), but that takes a bit longer to get out of the small sample size noise.  Same thing with the lower infield fly rate (2.2% vs. 7.8%), but that's literally just a difference of 1-2 extra pop-ups making that look normal.

Just looking at his stats for a while is bizarre.  All the per Innings Pitched stats are being warped by that ridiculous strand rate I think, and it's making my head hurt.

[01101010]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

Not bad Cleveland... I guess not even first place in the Central matters in that town. 

[Azuredream]

Flashback to last year when we came roaring out of the gate only to fade as the season went on. There is such an air of sports pessimism that you have to do a lot in this town to prove that you're worth watching. Leading your division not even halfway through the season isn't enough.

[Paelos]

The Braves can't get healthy. We're operating on some shitty lineup that involves our 3rd string catcher we had to bring up from AAA. It's abysmal.

And we're 7 games into the losing streak now.

[Sjofn]

You're still my boyfriend, Lincecum, but man do you suck out loud this year.

I hadn't been keeping up with the Giants after the first few weeks so I went over to Timmy's FanGraphs page to see what was new.

So yeah, 59% strand rate.  Fourth lowest among qualified pitchers. That is apocalyptically terrible, so much so that my first thought on seeing it was "No!  Don't do it Timmy, the Luck Dragons are bigger than you!"  He's also sporting a .344 BABIP which is good for ninth highest among qualified pitchers, which comes down to a good deal of bad luck, but some of his underlying stats are genuinely worse.

25.5% line drive rate this year compared to his 19.4% career average, so balls are getting hit harder.  Also of concern is the higher walk rate (11.8% 2012 vs. 9.1% career), but that takes a bit longer to get out of the small sample size noise.  Same thing with the lower infield fly rate (2.2% vs. 7.8%), but that's literally just a difference of 1-2 extra pop-ups making that look normal.

Just looking at his stats for a while is bizarre.  All the per Innings Pitched stats are being warped by that ridiculous strand rate I think, and it's making my head hurt.

Yeah, my understanding is that there is SOME genuine "man he is not as good as normal" and SOME "wow, shitty luck" which adds up to a lot of "man, what a fucking weird, shitty year for him so far." All I know is that I do not like when he starts any more. 

It doesn't help, I suspect, that the Giants have decided errors are totally cool and are making a fuckton of those too. 

[Ingmar]

His ability to locate pitches is what has seemingly gone out the window. He's constantly missing his spots, Posey will set up with an outside target and he'll miss and put it right down the middle, or throw it so far outside it doesn't fool anyone - this is happening a lot.

[HaemishM]

The Braves can't get healthy. We're operating on some shitty lineup that involves our 3rd string catcher we had to bring up from AAA. It's abysmal.

And we're 7 games into the losing streak now.

My Cubs weep tears of blood at your pitiful losing. 

[Paelos]

8 games now. Ugh.

[WayAbvPar]

Guess how many the Mariners have lost in a row?

No, guess. I have no idea, since I have officially quit paying attention AGAIN THIS YEAR. God this team is fucked.

[HaemishM]

I think I've watched like 1 Cubs' game this year. It's just too fucking painful to bear witness to how bad this team is.

[Paelos]

I'm going to be doing my end of May writeup like I did last year. I'll look at the standings from all the divisions as we head into summer and guess the finish. I was about 50/50 last year from my May guesses. (The Braves and Red Sox shitting the bed cost me)