Miscellaneous Stuff

[tzill]

Riot with 12 AB in the last month...2 singles. The disappearing man?

I sense he's going to come up with a huge AB/play in the NLCS vs. the Braves.

That's right...the Braves. I think they upset the Nats in the DS.

 

[calsnowskier]

Riot with 12 AB in the last month...2 singles. The disappearing man?

I sense he's going to come up with a huge AB/play in the NLCS vs. the Braves.

That's right...the Braves. I think they upset the Nats in the DS.

From your mouth...

I am not totally confident we will get past the Reds, though. We struggle against them.

We also do not match up well against DC, but we OWN Atlanta...

 

[gp956]

Crunching some crude numbers... looking at how the giants match up against the Reds.

The likely starting 8 position players for the Giants have an OPS+ of 118
Reds likely starting 8 have an OPS+ of 114

That's pretty close to even. Now looking at how the starters matchup against each team's position players:

	      Giants OPS
Mat Latos 	0.534
Homer Bailey	0.646
Johnny Cueto	0.731
Bronson Arroyo	0.864
Mike Leake	0.925
		
	      Reds OPS
M. Bumgarner	0.53
Tim Lincecum	0.786
Matt Cain	0.809
Ryan Vogelsong	0.817
Barry Zito	0.836

Pitching seems to favor the Reds.

 

[msgkings322]

Crunching some crude numbers... looking at how the giants match up against the Reds.

The likely starting 8 position players for the Giants have an OPS+ of 118
Reds likely starting 8 have an OPS+ of 114

That's pretty close to even. Now looking at how the starters matchup against each team's position players:

	      Giants OPS
Mat Latos 	0.534
Homer Bailey	0.646
Johnny Cueto	0.731
Bronson Arroyo	0.864
Mike Leake	0.925
		
	      Reds OPS
M. Bumgarner	0.53
Tim Lincecum	0.786
Matt Cain	0.809
Ryan Vogelsong	0.817
Barry Zito	0.836

Pitching seems to favor the Reds.

It's now entirely possible we face the Nats first. How do we look vs them?

 

[gp956]

It's now entirely possible we face the Nats first. How do we look vs them?

Worse? Good thing Strasburg is shutdown.

              Giants OPS
S. Strasburg	0.438
Gio Gonzalez	0.551
J. Zimmermann	0.587
John Lannan	0.667
Ross Detwiler	0.806
Edwin Jackson	0.956

               Nats OPS
M. Bumgarner	0.554
Barry Zito	0.638
Matt Cain	0.681
Tim Lincecum	0.777
Ryan Vogelsong	0.898

 

[gp956]

Former Giants prospects Fred Lewis, Nate Schierholtz, and Kevin Frandsen all got hits tonight in the Phi-NYM game.

 

[gp956]

Nate vs. Hunter. Closer than you might think - even though Nate is totaly marginalized in PHI and playing with a broken big toe.

          BA     OBP     SLG     OPS    PA
Nate	0.212	0.263	0.308	0.571	58
Hunter	0.225	0.297	0.376	0.673	203

 

[msgkings322]

Nate vs. Hunter. Closer than you might think - even though Nate is totaly marginalized in PHI and playing with a broken big toe.

          BA     OBP     SLG     OPS    PA
Nate	0.212	0.263	0.308	0.571	58
Hunter	0.225	0.297	0.376	0.673	203

The money lies in the RBIs, I'll take Hunter.

You're dangerously close to HanRam = Arias territory here, gp.

 

[gp956]

The money lies in the RBIs, I'll take Hunter.

You're dangerously close to HanRam = Arias territory here, gp.

I'm simply playing with the numbers, perhaps making a comment on the vagaries of the game. Lots of baseball fans like to look at curious "runs" in small sample sizes.

Nevertheless, since you brought it up, by any objective measure, Pence has been bad with the Giants , but not actually useless. He's walked, gotten hits, hit a couple of HR, and, thankfully, had a lot of men on base in front of him.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Surprisingly, even with his poor overall numbers, a few days ago Pence was leading the team in RBIs since the trade (well, since Aug 1st). That may still be the case, I'm too lazy to look it up again.

 

[msgkings322]

I'm simply playing with the numbers, perhaps making a comment on the vagaries of the game. Lots of baseball fans like to look at curious "runs" in small sample sizes.

Nevertheless, since you brought it up, by any objective measure, Pence has been bad with the Giants , but not actually useless. He's walked, gotten hits, hit a couple of HR, and, thankfully, had a lot of men on base in front of him.

I'm just saying, sometimes a guy is obviously a legit starting MLer and sometimes a guy is a bench player who occaisionally has a good run or two. Pence and HanRam are starters, Arias and Nate are bench guys.

And 100 points of OPS difference is a lot, and not more than I would think, because I know Pence hasn't really been playing to his potential with the Giants yet.

 

[gp956]

Surprisingly, even with his poor overall numbers, a few days ago Pence was leading the team in RBIs since the trade (well, since Aug 1st). That may still be the case, I'm too lazy to look it up again.

He was right there for sure.

But his second half numbers are scary bad: .216/.284/.343/.627 , and against lefty starters for the year: .207/.294/.378/.672.

 

[gp956]

I'm just saying, sometimes a guy is obviously a legit starting MLer and sometimes a guy is a bench player who occaisionally has a good run or two. Pence and HanRam are starters, Arias and Nate are bench guys.

And 100 points of OPS difference is a lot, and not more than I would think, because I know Pence hasn't really been playing to his potential with the Giants yet.

My point is that you don't NEED to say it. I wasn't making a case for Nate over Hunter. Nevertheless, both Arias and Nate have shown they have tools to be starters on many teams. I'm never comfortable labeling a player with tools (and no huge holes) a "bench guy" simply because he hasn't broken through yet - not before they're 30, anyway.

 

[calsnowskier]

I asked the question at the time of the trade on who would end up putting together better numbers, Nate or Herk.

Nate would be playing in a bandbox while Herk would be playing at AT&T, so I thought it was a legit question.

Regardless of the numbers, I believe Herk is the better player. Variables may give Nate the better numbers, though...

 

[gp956]

I asked the question at the time of the trade on who would end up putting together better numbers, Nate or Herk.

Nate would be playing in a bandbox while Herk would be playing at AT&T, so I thought it was a legit question.

Regardless of the numbers, I believe Herk is the better player. Variables may give Nate the better numbers, though...

Going way out on a limb there?

 

[calsnowskier]

Going way out on a limb there?

To be 100% honest, though, I am not 100% certain of this. Herk has played in MinuteMaid and Citizens. Nate has played in AT&T.

There is a decent chance that Herk has simply been the beneficiary of park variables. His mechanics are CLEARLY ugly as hell, while Nates are smooth.

Remove the variables, and Nate MAY actually be the better player. Who knows...

 

[gp956]

Pirates front office:

Here’s the deal: Since I brought this topic to light in a column last Friday, many, many more people have come forward to express their disdain for Neal Huntington and his assistant, Kyle Stark, for adding three days of soldier-level training to their Instructional League regimen.

So let’s start with the SEALS activity list I was texted. And bear in mind, these are baseball players:

• Wake up at 5 a.m.

• Organize room/locker

• Pushups and sit-ups

• Serpentine on the grass

• Crab walk

• Running along the beach with a telephone-type pole, carried by five or six players

• Pushing a truck tire through the outfield for 90 feet, then flipping it

• Being sprayed by a hose

• Diving into a sand pile

All with a drill sergeant barking orders throughout.

On June 28 at 5:22 p.m., Stark sent an email to his minor league managers and coaches, copies of which were forwarded to me from within the organization. Huntington, who promoted Stark to assistant GM last winter, was copied on the email. I confirmed Thursday that neither Bob Nutting nor Frank Coonelly was.

“So what do we need to get done in the second half?” Stark opens the email.

He then stresses developing “boys into men” for the purpose of reaching the majors, listing three points: “Dream and be creative like a Hippie. Have the discipline and perseverance of a Boy Scout. Be crazy and take risks like the Hells Angels.”

I guess we can assume the Pirates are taking their name seriously.

 

[gp956]

To be 100% honest, though, I am not 100% certain of this. Herk has played in MinuteMaid and Citizens. Nate has played in AT&T.

There is a decent chance that Herk has simply been the beneficiary of park variables. His mechanics are CLEARLY ugly as hell, while Nates are smooth.

Remove the variables, and Nate MAY actually be the better player. Who knows...

Now you're going out on a limb. I like it. Unfortunately, Nate broke his toe and has played little since then (only 58 PA, total, with Phi). So this is a lost year for him, at a point in his career where he couldn't afford it.

And, btw, Pence's home/away splits for his career are pretty even, so I don't think his numbers are an artifact of the parks he's played in.

 

[tzill]

The money lies in the RBIs, I'll take Hunter.

You're dangerously close to HanRam = Arias territory here, gp.

I see what you did here, fucker!

 

[gp956]

I see what you did here, fucker!

He hurt me with that too.