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Take Me Out To The Ballgame: MLB 2012 Thread

Jedi Shrimper

formerly Drastic™
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
8,970
Location
SS1
It's Opening Day today, so high time for a 2012 thread for the select band of baseball fans on SZ.


It's been a pretty eventful close season for my Cubs, the biggest signings all being off the field. Out went manager Mike Quade & GM Jim Hendry and in came Theo Epstein (the man that ended Boston's drought) as President of Baseball Operations, Jed Hoyer (formerly Padres & Red Sox) as GM and Dale Sveum as team manager. The cubs didn't spend any big money on players but instead got rid of Carlos Zambrano, Aramis Ramirez & Carlos Pena, the principal plan being to restock the Cubs farm system. The mood on the northside is pretty positive for the future but remarkably realistic for the coming season or two while the club is rebuilt, no-one is expecting to win the division simply an improvement on the last year or two.

Any predictions? Will Pujols lead the Angels to the World Series? Will the Marlins buy themselves success?

Newcomers state your allegiance.
 
I think this year could be really close -- lots of teams pretty evenly matched after the summer moves. Im seeing the Angels up close and personal when they come to yankee stadium next weekend, but for the AL in particular anyone of 6 or 7 teams can win it all.
I'd love to see another Red Sox collapse though
 
Have always thought baseball was a great sport but never really got into it. What channel is it normally on so I can watch it and get into it.
 
Heavily into Baseball right now - enjoying watching it more than (the albeit limited amount of Sky-less) football at the moment.

Subscribed to MLB.tv and watch at least 1 game a day since spring training started :)

Really want to play, but the nearest outfit is Chelmsford, which is a bit of a pain being car-less.

Still, loving it! Trying to find 'my' team at the moment - I'm like a kid in a sweetshop as most teams have something I like about them.

Leaning towards the Giants and/or the Dodgers, but whatever, I am enjoying Boston getting their *** handed to them on a regular basis so far :omg: Valentine is such a knob.
 
Heavily into Baseball right now - enjoying watching it more than (the albeit limited amount of Sky-less) football at the moment.

Subscribed to MLB.tv and watch at least 1 game a day since spring training started :)

Really want to play, but the nearest outfit is Chelmsford, which is a bit of a pain being car-less.

Still, loving it! Trying to find 'my' team at the moment - I'm like a kid in a sweetshop as most teams have something I like about them.

Leaning towards the Giants and/or the Dodgers, but whatever, I am enjoying Boston getting their *** handed to them on a regular basis so far :omg: Valentine is such a knob.

Mrs Drastic is a Dodgers fan (as well as Cubs) and is loving their fantastic start to the season. You'd think being a Cub fan I'd be pretty depressed right now bottom of the NL Central, but Operation GetaHighDraftPick is right on course, and for once the Cub fanbase all seems to be on board with the plan. Marlon Byrd has become the 4th big name to leave (to the Red Sux), and with Dempster on the Disabled list (and neither replaced) it looks certain Cubs hot prospect Brett Jackson will be given a chance at some point.
 
Only just noticed this thread. Due to some negogiating with SKY I now get ESPN America and caught some games recently, including the Yankees overturning a 9-0 defecit to beat the Red Sox. Like Pbroeham its quite hard to 'get' a team....the first game I watched live was the Yankees some 12 years ago. A couple of years later I was in the US during the World Series time, saw matches leading up to the World Series, where there were some great matches and a great time had watching the games in various bars in various states as I travelled across the Country. Ultimately the Anaheim Angels took the Series and so I have a soft spot for them. However I now go to Florida once a year and went to the Tropicanna Field for the first time 2 years ago and will be going again soon, so have ended up a Tampa Bay Ray. It's just a slight shame it means I have Tuberculosis on the front of my cap....
 
Only just noticed this thread. Due to some negogiating with SKY I now get ESPN America and caught some games recently, including the Yankees overturning a 9-0 defecit to beat the Red Sox. Like Pbroeham its quite hard to 'get' a team....the first game I watched live was the Yankees some 12 years ago. A couple of years later I was in the US during the World Series time, saw matches leading up to the World Series, where there were some great matches and a great time had watching the games in various bars in various states as I travelled across the Country. Ultimately the Anaheim Angels took the Series and so I have a soft spot for them. However I now go to Florida once a year and went to the Tropicanna Field for the first time 2 years ago and will be going again soon, so have ended up a Tampa Bay Ray. It's just a slight shame it means I have Tuberculosis on the front of my cap....

Just be glad you didn't go to see the Marlins instead....


:sick:
 
Rays are a sound choice (as I'm sure Rusty will attest) as it means you get to oppose the Yankees and the Red Sox. You also have the best manager.

Mixed start for the Reds. The bats have been slow to warm up and the bullpen has been decimated by injury (losing our new closer Ryan Madsen was a huge blow, especially when Masset is also injured) but things are slowly coming together. Votto is awesome as ever and has been pretty much carrying the entire offense other than a bit of Cozart in the opening weeks and Stubbs of late.

In Madsen and Masset's absence Aroldis Chapman and Logan Ondrunsek have been quality out of the 'pen and it's frustrating to think just how good that 'pen could have been.

Still with Votto and Brandon Phillips having recently signed extensions and the likes of Cueto and Latos at the top of the rotation under control for a few more years, it looks as if the Reds are going to be contenders for a few years now.

It's always promising when your biggest need is a bat off the bench and a mid-innings reliever (although I've heard good things about JJ Hoover).

Completely the wrong US sport to be talking about at the moment though!
 
Caught my first foul ball at the Yankees Angels game. Being a non american i didnt make a big deal of thrusting my arm in the air in celebration and taking in the 5 seconds of fame --- what this did however was confuse many americans in our section, who, under the assumption that because no one was trying to garner attention the ball must be on the floor somewhere so proceeded for the next minute and a half to leap over seats and wrestle each other trying to find it. Pretty amusing just sitting watching with the ball safely nestled in my hands.

And for all those looking for a team the Yankees arent all that bad...... Boston sucks
 
Ha, that does sound amusing.

Supporting the Yankees is however the equivalent of supporting Man U.
 
Amazing game between Baltimore and Boston last night. 17 innings, 6-6 and both sides ran out of relievers, so had to use position players on the mound.

Darnell McDonald of Boston eventually giving up a 3 run homer to allow the Oriels to nick it 9-6 after 6 and a half hours! :happy:
 
I saw a couple of Rays games whilst I was away recently, win against Mariners and extra innings loss to A's.

However, having not grown up with the game whilst I understand the rules, I am struggling with some nuances of the game and tactics. Hopefully someone here can educate me, even though I know I will probably sound like my wife did the first time I took her to a cricket match and was asked a plethora of questions like 'why do they rub the ball', why are they running to the other end etc....so I apologise in advance....

I'm sure more will spring to mind, but at moment,

1)why do teams bring on a closing pitcher for the last innings when the previous pitcher has been doing a good job? Effectively it seems like that pitcher has just been warming up to just throw the last innings. In cricket you would rarely bring on a bowler for the last over of a limited overs match if he has not bowled up til then?

2) What is the best guide to batting ability in terms of the statistics and how is it calculated. Obviously the number of home runs is a simple guide, but it seems to me that other runs scored (either a hit to get someone else round, or getting when someone else hits) is entirely reliant on there being someone else there or someone else hitting......
 
Good questions.

A closer is a relatively recent development. I think it was as late the 70s that the role became one innings specialist.

The short answer is that they are their best pitcher and in a save situation the game is on the line.

There are some other factors like workload (by the end of the 8th the pitcher is often at his pitch limit), match-ups, and in the National League the desire to use a pinch-hitter for the batter that may go into it as well.

[As an aside the moneyball thinking is that closers are now overvalued due to the save statistic. A few strategists are suggesting that you should use your best reliever (who's usually the closer) in the highest leverage positions, which isn't necessarily the start of the 9th innings. If it is a save situation, it's going to be a high leverage position with the game on the line, but the argument would be that if in the seventh or eight with an one run lead and a man in run-scoring position (ie on 2nd or 3rd base where a single is likely to score them) that's an even higher leverage position and you should use your best pitcher then.]



OPS (on base plus slugging) is probably the best single easy stat for batting.

You'll often see batting stats presented as "the slash line". eg .275/.340/.450 This is Average/OBP/Slugging

Average measures how often someone has a hit, but doesn't distinguish between someone hitting a single and someone hitting a home-run, nor if they get on base via a walk.

On-base percentage (OBP) is a better representative of someone's usefulness to an offense than average as it measures how often a batter gets on base - drawing a walk was a very underrated ability that was exploited by Billy Beane and the Oakland As and OBP was a key statistic for them.

Slugging measures power as it is total bases divided by total at bats. Eg A home run is 4 bases, a single is one base.

OPS just adds together the last two of these to give a single figure. The elite batters have an OPS of over 900.
 
Well the Cubs 'Operation Get A High Draft Pick' has gone a bit awry of late as they've won 13 of their last 18 games :stunned:

Which seems to have happened since Anthony Rizzo was called up from AAA. Rumours are that Dempster and/or Garza could be traded.
 
Drastic™;1414259 said:
Well the Cubs 'Operation Get A High Draft Pick' has gone a bit awry of late as they've won 13 of their last 18 games :stunned:

Which seems to have happened since Anthony Rizzo was called up from AAA. Rumours are that Dempster and/or Garza could be traded.

I would love to have Garza back with the Rays. Straight swap for Niemann?
 
Talking of trades, anyone got a spare third baseman/left-fielder who bats clean up?

We can give you a whole batch of relievers in return.
 
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