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This is loving Also, it can't help but remind me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4SleSgaixs
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Jun 4, 2019 23:54
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 18:14 |
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CommissarMega posted:I actually do have a question, and it's baseball-related too! If a player has a high WAR, would there be a reason to replace him in a high-level game that isn't injury-related? "Cos the writeup in the last update seemed to indicate that it could happen. If this sounds dumb, my apologies; I know nothing about baseball, sorry. Yes! The most common example would be if you're a great pitcher, but you're late in the game and you've already thrown over a hundred pitches and there's a real good reliever who could replace you. So like Jacob deGrom last year won the Cy Young award, but only had 1 complete game because he'd pitch 7 or 8 of the 9 innings. This is a huge change from back in the day when pitchers just pitched complete games all the time, Old Hoss Radbourn finished every single one of his 73 starts in 1889. Even as late as the 1980s you'd see guys finishing more than half their starts, and as recently as a decade ago guys still had 10+ complete games a season (out of 30-35 starts a year). For a non-pitcher the most common reasons would be a pinch runner (e.g. you hit a single in a close game where one run will win it, but despite being a great hitter you're slow as molasses so a speedy but less good player takes your place) or defensive replacement (same deal, except you're in the field and you get pulled for the dude who's a defensive specialist). If a player is really great as a hitter you probably won't see them get pinch hit for, but if they're much better against right handed pitchers and not that great against left handed pitchers they might get pinch hit for. WAR isn't the be all and end stat, the defensive side of it especially tends to bounce around a bit from season to season and should be looked at over a couple-three years to smooth out the statistical noise, but it's a good baseline. Plus, even the "old" stats still have some use- it's hard to be an actually bad player if you hit .300 with 30 home runs and 100 RBI. You might not be as good as those numbers would make someone think, but you're still gonna be well above average. In that example there's 440 player seasons in history where a player had at least 30 dingers, 100 ribbies, and hit .300. Of those 440 seasons, only Dante Bichette's 1995 and 1996 seasons were below average according to WAR, and that's because he played in Colorado where your granny could hit 20 dingers in 600 at bats thanks to the thin air. All but a dozen of those 440 seasons were worth 3 WAR or better, and 3 WAR is a solidly above average but not great season. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 13:09 on Jun 6, 2019 |
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Jun 6, 2019 13:06
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Breadmaster posted:I'm not a baseball fan of any sort, but I was kind of surprised by the clip where Colon's bat broke. Like, in retrospect, it shouldn't be surprising, since those things are used to hit balls traveling at 80+ mph. It just never registered in my brain that they could break. How often does that happen? It's not infrequent. You might see a broken bat once every game or two. Some pitchers break more bats than others, because a broken bat most often occurs when you fool a hitter and they make contact with either the very end of the bat or close to the handle- Mo Rivera of the Yankees was famous for sawing off a ton of bats with his cutter. Usually a broken bat is a good thing for a pitcher, since it's hard to hit a ball with a lot of authority when your bat literally breaks... but there are some dudes who are so fuckin' strong they can still hit a dinger despite the bat flying to pieces. For example, Bryce Harper. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 11:34 on Jun 11, 2019 |
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Jun 11, 2019 11:32
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Yeah, broken bats into the stand can be extremely dangerous to spectators.
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Jun 11, 2019 14:15
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Night10194 posted:How the hell do batters hit these things. There's a reason the very best contact hitters of a generation only manage a .330 career batting average. That's getting a hit about once every three at bats. Of course, sometimes those pitches don't break like they're supposed to, or the pitcher develops a tell and starts "tipping" their pitch so the batter knows what's coming and can tee off against it. If I could have the talent to play any position in any sport at the top level, it'd be as a starting pitcher. My ideal repertoire would be junk. A not so fast but incredibly heavy two seamer that batters would beat into the ground for easy outs. A circle change that would look just like my two seamer except a solid 10 mph slower. A 12-6 lollipop uncle charlie. A screwball. A forkball. A goddamned eephus. Man, now I want to buy a PS4 so I can play Road to the Show again. Speaking of the Eephus, it's the weirdest pitch in baseball. You almost never see it, because no one's got the stones to toss up a 50 MPH pitch that goes 20 feet up before dropping down. Most of the pitches in the video below are just sick-rear end slow curves, but the one at the start is a true eephus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfWXADedncM&t=42s habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Jun 11, 2019 |
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Jun 11, 2019 16:49
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I was thinking about Tony Gwynn, actually. But Ichiro is too good for this sinful world. I love him.
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Jun 12, 2019 18:18
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TheMcD posted:
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Jun 19, 2019 21:00
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Why do I run... when my only true destination is the grave?
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This game is wonderful. I outright cackled.
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Jun 22, 2019 03:57
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Ratoslov posted:I don't know much about Baseball at all, but I know knuckleballs are weird. You just sorta throw the ball with lots of velocity and zero spin. About half the time the wind will grab it and make it do something funny that's basically unhittable, but the other half it's essentially a really slow easy-to-hit fastball. An exceptionally good knuckleball pitcher makes that more 60-40. So it's a weird niche throw that almost nobody does, and thus nobody practices against it because in order to do so, you need your own knuckleballer. That's what I heard. You meant "less" velocity instead of "lots" which was probably an autocorrect that entirely changed the meaning of the sentence. But you're mostly right. On a good night the knuckleball will dart around like crazy and utterly baffle batters (and catchers... (and umpires (and the pitcher themselves))). On a bad night it gets teed off on. The ratio is a bit better than you're suggesting, but again it depends on how well the pitcher is throwing his knuckler. You can be a real good pitcher for a real long time with just a knuckleball and an 80 mph (decent high school pitcher speed) fastball. Some of those years you'll be amazing- like RA Dickey when he won the 2012 Cy Young Award with the Mets using his knuckleball 85% of the time. You also need a catcher who knows how to catch a knuckleball, the Red Sox once traded away their knuckleballer's designated catcher, Doug Mirabelli, and the guy they brought in could simply not do the job... so they had to trade for Mirabelli and give up a not-terrible prospect to get him back in the nick of time for the knuckleballer's next start. There was a whole investigation into a state cop providing a motorcade for the limo carrying Mirabelli from the airport to Fenway Park so he'd make the first pitch of the game. edit: Here's the wikipedia entry on that motorcade: Dougie's Going Deep posted:Mirabelli was reacquired by the Red Sox on May 1, 2006, in exchange for catcher Josh Bard, setup man Cla Meredith, and $100,000 cash. This reacquisition occurred because Bard had trouble catching Tim Wakefield's knuckleball, committing 10 passed balls in just 7 games. The day the trade occurred, the Red Sox were to play their first game of the year against their rivals, the New York Yankees, at Fenway Park, and Wakefield was scheduled to start. It took a private jet and a Massachusetts State Police escort to get Mirabelli to the field in time. His plane from San Diego touched down at Logan Airport at 6:48 pm, he arrived at Fenway Park at 7:00 pm, and took his place behind the plate just in time for Wakefield's opening pitch at 7:13 pm. In an effort to conserve every second possible, the Red Sox sent a uniform along with the police escort for Mirabelli to change into while en route to Fenway Park from the airport. A special glove (which is actually a woman's softball catcher's mitt) which Mirabelli had used in previous years to catch Wakefield had been left in Boston by Josh Bard for Mirabelli. Soon after, the Yankees admitted they had tried to acquire Mirabelli from the Padres in an attempt to keep him from the Red Sox. Anyone who has ever driven in Boston knows that to get from Logan Airport to Fenway in 12 minutes is almost literally impossible. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Jun 27, 2019 |
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Jun 27, 2019 01:09
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Holy poo poo, THAT is how the Millville Meteor nickname came about? I'd always liked that nickname and wonder who coined it!
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Jun 27, 2019 21:09
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In no surprise, Mike Trout is once again on pace for one of the best seasons in baseball history as we approach the half way point. Through his first seven full seasons, he's had four of the top 100 seasons in Wins Above Replacement for a non-pitcher. He was actually not quite as good as Mookie Betts* of the Red Sox last year but that was because Mookie is incredible.** * If Mike Trout didn't exist everyone would be talking about how Mookie Betts was on pace to be one of the best players ever after his first four full seasons. Also, he's good enough to hold his own at professional bowling tournaments despite being a full time baseball player. Also, unlike the physical specimen 6'2", 235 lbs Trout, Mookie is 5'8" and 180 lbs. Mookie is so cool. ** By WAR Mike Trout in 2018 had the 48th best season by a position player in ALL OF BASEBALL HISTORY. You'd think that would be enough to win the MVP award, but Mookie had the 21st best season. This year, though, Trout is on pace for another top 50 season, while Betts is "only" on pace for a borderline MVP quality season of about 7 WAR.
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Jun 28, 2019 01:36
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Nissin Cup Nudist posted:As a person living in Denton TX, Plano loving sucks. HOLY poo poo WEED MOUSE this game rules, Millville Meteor rules, god bless. Jake Arietta is prob the past ball plyer who would be a secret weeb. Also proof the Orioles are a trash org for bad people The Arrieta signing was a good one, it wasn't huge money or long years and right when the Phillies are getting good again. And he's been solidly above average, if not the genius he was a few years ago.
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Jun 28, 2019 02:11
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Sydin posted:Because he's only been sort of good this year. Yeah, but he finished behind Aaron Judge in the runoff voting, and Judge has been hurt most of the year. Can't really argue with Betts not being in the ASG, since Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers are bigger snubs from the Sox imo. Plus, they've only announced starters so far. Most of the picks well be revealed Sunday iirc.
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Jun 28, 2019 17:23
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He's still got a >.800 OPS so it's not like he's fallen off a cliff, but particularly given how juiced the ball is this year his offensive numbers aren't AS worthy.
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This was wonderful. Thank you for LPing it, McD!
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Jul 8, 2019 01:44
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Btw, in the aftermath of this game someone is going to have to ride herd on Zizek because you know at a certain point he's going to start thinking about using applied ontology again.
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Jul 11, 2019 12:52
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Oh gently caress, I know what I'm doing.
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Jul 19, 2019 16:49
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gently caress, there's no way I can put together a Towa City Demon Hunters vs. Macho Men baseball mogul video without spending the whole weekend on it because  .YOU WIN AGAIN, SMASHER DYNAMO.
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Jul 21, 2019 00:00
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 18:14 |
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The thing is, most of the time as a runner you have a first or third base coach watching for you to make sure you don't get tricked, the hidden ball trick only works when both the player on base and the coach are looking away at the time of the fake throw. Second base the player on base is on their own, but the coaches can still yell to them. The hidden ball trick works a few times a season, and is always, always hilarious.
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Aug 22, 2019 13:11
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