Around Baseball 2017

[saskjayfan]

So there's a beat the streak guy that is currently on 51 games. Does he get the 5.6 millions or nah?

 

he had harper who was without a hit until the 9th. 2 out in a 4 to 4 tie and a runner on first and Bryce hit a 2 run bomb. Should have walked him and the streak would be over!

[Boxcar]

That Escobar pick was real head scratcher.

 

Cozart, Castillo, Owings, Margot, Escobar, Cozart again. Lol f*** off

[Grant77]

That's too bad, as I've heard the people are the exact opposite, although a dump an adventure and nostalgia in itself takes a life of of it's own? As a ball game experience?

 

Superficially, the ballpark is great and it's a unique experience to be so tightly packed and close to the action. I enjoyed that experience immensely, especially since the Jays won

 

Don't leave your seats though because the concession areas smell like vomit and urine, are cramped, and are full of garbage. For the women, you won't get into the washroom for the entire game.

 

I can live with all that, it's an old ballpark and I hear that they have done some work since I was there in 2005. The fans though just ruin the experience though. As I said, they don't even know the basic rules of the game or any players outside of their own team. They also use more obscene language than I have ever heard at a game. It's not a place for children and we were a little afraid after leaving the ballpark, lots of threats of violence.

 

My suggestion is to go on a Sunday afternoon getaway day. Take in a nice afternoon game, as you don't want to be in Boston at 10 PM. Then the next day, take an actual tour of the park. The history is overwhelming and incomparable, even better than Wrigley. Old Yankee stadium would have been close, but it's not the same now.

[John_Havok]

I've never got past 13 in BTS. It's crazy luck to get that far let alone 56

[Bobthe4th]

Superficially, the ballpark is great and it's a unique experience to be so tightly packed and close to the action. I enjoyed that experience immensely, especially since the Jays won

 

Don't leave your seats though because the concession areas smell like vomit and urine, are cramped, and are full of garbage. For the women, you won't get into the washroom for the entire game.

 

I can live with all that, it's an old ballpark and I hear that they have done some work since I was there in 2005. The fans though just ruin the experience though. As I said, they don't even know the basic rules of the game or any players outside of their own team. They also use more obscene language than I have ever heard at a game. It's not a place for children and we were a little afraid after leaving the ballpark, lots of threats of violence.

 

My suggestion is to go on a Sunday afternoon getaway day. Take in a nice afternoon game, as you don't want to be in Boston at 10 PM. Then the next day, take an actual tour of the park. The history is overwhelming and incomparable, even better than Wrigley. Old Yankee stadium would have been close, but it's not the same now.

 

I was at Fenway last season for a Jays game and had a great experience. It was the game that had a rain delay in the last series of the season.

 

Didn't have any of the negatives you did, didn't even hear anyone swear (and even if I had you should try watching soccer in England - it's often the first time kids will hear swearwords when their dads take them to a game).

 

I loved Boston as a city as well - and the people didn't appear any better or worse than anywhere else in America.

[Grant77]

I was at Fenway last season for a Jays game and had a great experience. It was the game that had a rain delay in the last series of the season.

 

Didn't have any of the negatives you did, didn't even hear anyone swear (and even if I had you should try watching soccer in England - it's often the first time kids will hear swearwords when their dads take them to a game).

 

I loved Boston as a city as well - and the people didn't appear any better or worse than anywhere else in America.

 

Make sure you catch games in both Pittsburgh and Denver. I haven't been to every ballpark, but those two stand head and shoulders above the rest as great places to watch a ballgame.

[John_Havok]

Make sure you catch games in both Pittsburgh and Denver. I haven't been to every ballpark, but those two stand head and shoulders above the rest as great places to watch a ballgame.

 

San Francisco is #1 in my books.

[Bobthe4th]

Make sure you catch games in both Pittsburgh and Denver. I haven't been to every ballpark, but those two stand head and shoulders above the rest as great places to watch a ballgame.

 

San Francisco is #1 in my books.

 

Unfortunately I doubt I'll ever visit either Pittsburgh or Denver, but I'm planning a San Fran / San Diego trip in March / April next year and will be catching games at both (as well as a warriors basketball game).

 

Seattle is probally my favourite ballpark I've seen a game at. But I've only done Mariners, Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox and Jays home games as I'm in England and only get to North America every few years.

[MunenoriKawasakiMVP]

s*** Devenski got f***ed by the Yanks

[Grant77]

San Francisco is #1 in my books.

 

I have always avoided California because I can't do absurdly hot weather, but I will have to bite the bullet one year and go in September. I'll go back to Pittsburgh again before I ever do Arizona, Houston, or Arlington, that's for sure. Busch Stadium was very nice, but the weather kind of ruined it for everyone since it was like 40 C.

[metafour]

I have always avoided California because I can't do absurdly hot weather, but I will have to bite the bullet one year and go in September.

 

San Francisco is NorCal; its not even hot, in fact it can actually be pretty chilly. September is like jacket weather in San Francisco LOL.

[John_Havok]

I have always avoided California because I can't do absurdly hot weather, but I will have to bite the bullet one year and go in September. I'll go back to Pittsburgh again before I ever do Arizona, Houston, or Arlington, that's for sure. Busch Stadium was very nice, but the weather kind of ruined it for everyone since it was like 40 C.

 

The San Francisco should be up your alley. It's nothing like SoCal weather. Some days in the mid summer it's downright cold.

[Grant77]

San Francisco is NorCal; its not even hot, in fact it can actually be pretty chilly. September is like jacket weather in San Francisco LOL.

 

I'm going to try to hit all 4 stadiums if I go. California holds little interest for me outside of baseball. Cold weather would be a nice treat for sure!

[burlingtonbandit]

Pretty cool ceremony in NY for Jeter.

[burlingtonbandit]

I'm going to try to hit all 4 stadiums if I go. California holds little interest for me outside of baseball. Cold weather would be a nice treat for sure!

 

San Diego has the most pefect weather. Its like 75 Degrees there every day. (25-28 C)

[Jonn]

Pretty cool ceremony in NY for Jeter.

 

Maybe it's just me but I felt it was strange to do the jersey retirement ceremony on Mothers Day. You would think they would pick another day.

 

Astros spoiling the party. 6-0 already!

[Gary]

Aroldis Chapman out at least a month.

[baseballsss]

Maybe it's just me but I felt it was strange to do the jersey retirement ceremony on Mothers Day. You would think they would pick another day.

 

Astros spoiling the party. 6-0 already!

 

Jeter was aloud to pick any day and he chose today for his mother.

[Plat]

Yankees getting mollywhopped

[Grant77]

Aaron Laffey called up by the D-Backs. At least our pitching situation never got THAT bad!

[Brownie19]

Couple of interesting articles

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/what-on-earth-happened-with-jake-arrieta/

 

I wanted to ask:

 

1. Has Arrieta always thrown across his body THAT much? Maybe it's the angle, but I never thought it was that pronounced.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jake-arrieta-has-not-been-good/

 

Fangraphs stealing my material again. Pats self on back. Man I'm observant!

[King]

 

Here is the guy who had Zeke and Pillar in BTS last night.

 

TLDR - Picked Zeke because of his batting average, "wasn't sure about Pillar"

[Orgfiller]

His reasoning to pick Carrera is retarded but I bet if you crunch some numbers, it's actually a really good pick. Carrera doesn't walk and Colon doesn't strike people out so you're basically guaranteed 3 balls in play in that matchup alone. The odds of one falling in were probably pretty decent. Then you get 1 or 2 more ABs rest of game.

 

He's also a career .261 hitter who projects around the same mark. You also can't say "he's been hot so it's a good pick" because one game is all it takes to turn a hot streak into a cold streak and vice versa. At a high BABIP, you should expect regression. When in doubt, don't pick the career scrub with millions on the line.

[Orgfiller]

Actually the guy over at BaseballMusings who tried to write a program for BTS had Zeke and Pillar as his top 2 options for yesterday. It does make sense to pick guys who don't walk or K vs a pitcher who doesn't walk or K.

 

I can see the argument for Pillar. He's been a high contact, low walks player his entire professional career. The guy picked Carrera because he had a high average but wasn't sure about Pillar. If you were going with that reasoning, why not pick Kendrys Morales instead? Actually strikes out less, walks just a tad more, but unlike Carrera he's actually a good hitter and would have been a better bet against a mediocre pitcher who throws only fastballs.

[metafour]

I can see the argument for Pillar. He's been a high contact, low walks player his entire professional career. The guy picked Carrera because he had a high average but wasn't sure about Pillar. If you were going with that reasoning, why not pick Kendrys Morales instead? Actually strikes out less, walks just a tad more, but unlike Carrera he's actually a good hitter and would have been a better bet against a mediocre pitcher who throws only fastballs.

 

Wrong. Kendrys is notorious for losing an absurd amount of hits every year due to shifts and the fact that he can't run worth crap. He hits a lot of balls on the ground for outs that would be hits for guys like Carrera. He'd actually be among the worst picks for a BTS type game for these reasons.

 

Again, his pick on Carrera made sense...even with the obvious risk. You don't get to 50+ picks in those things by picking guys like Trout every day, regardless of how much sense it makes to pick "elite hitters".

[Daniel Labude]

I can see the argument for Pillar. He's been a high contact, low walks player his entire professional career. The guy picked Carrera because he had a high average but wasn't sure about Pillar. If you were going with that reasoning, why not pick Kendrys Morales instead? Actually strikes out less, walks just a tad more, but unlike Carrera he's actually a good hitter and would have been a better bet against a mediocre pitcher who throws only fastballs.

 

I can't fault him too much. He picked the worst starting pitcher on the day and took the 2 best hitters (based on avg) on the team. Carrera had a hit in 16/17 games (could be off a game on that) and Pillar has the most hits in the AL and 2nd in baseball on the season.

 

If he knew more about the Jays hitters he probably should have gone with Bautista and Travis (which I did lol). Given the high use of fastballs and slow velocity Bautista would have been a better pick. Likewise Travis has been hot and Colon throws few breaking balls Travis was a smarter pick as well imo.

[metafour]

Also, Zeke is currently sitting at a 91.7% contact rate on balls in the strike zone (86.7% last year). He also makes more contact than Morales in general.

[Orgfiller]

Wrong. Kendrys is notorious for losing an absurd amount of hits every year due to shifts and the fact that he can't run worth crap. He hits a lot of balls on the ground for outs that would be hits for guys like Carrera. He'd actually be among the worst picks for a BTS type game for these reasons.[/Quote]

 

And despite those reasons, he still projects for a better batting average than Ezequiel Carrera. I wonder how that could be?

 

Again, his pick on Carrera made sense...even with the obvious risk.[/Quote]

 

It really didn't.

 

You don't get to 50+ picks in those things by picking guys like Trout every day, regardless of how much sense it makes to pick "elite hitters".

 

This might be the dumbest reasoning yet. You don't get to 50+ picks by not picking the best possible players? What? Do you actually believe yourself with that? You get to 50+ picks by being extremely lucky, which he was as evidenced by previous egregious picks and then going with a guy like Ezequiel Carrera. If you honestly believe it's a better bet to pick scrubs over legendary hitters then I guess we have nothing more to argue.

[Laika]

The best tactic for winning BTS, without constructing some complex daily projection algorithm that factors in everything from handedness to weather, is just to pick Trout/Murphy/Altuve/Betts/Miggy (highest projected AVG hitters) every single day--whichever one is facing the best pitching matchup. There's really no argument for straying from that unless, like I said, you have a really complex model with sound assumptions that happens to spit out some still-good-player like, say, Francisco Lindor on some random day when Cleveland is facing Aaron Laffey.

 

It would never make sense to pick Carrera, let alone Pillar.

[Orgfiller]

Also, Zeke is currently sitting at a 91.7% contact rate on balls in the strike zone (86.7% last year). He also makes more contact than Morales in general.

 

This doesn't mean anything. Sure you want your picks to make contact often, but that has to translate into good contact if you expect to get anything out of it. You can't expect your guy to hit a couple of bloops and hope they will fall. Luke Maile's strike zone contact is the same as Mike Trout's this year, sure there's an element of speed involved but simply put one guy hits the ball hard and the other doesn't, guess which one hits for a higher average. Carrera has a higher contact rate than Mike Trout, which should tell you all you need to know.