Tag Archives: MLB

Mr. Octobers of Yesterday (October 28, 2013)

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The Mr. Octobers of yesterday are David Ortiz (who went 3-4 with an RBI) and Jon Lester (who went 7.2 innings of 4-hit ball, with but one run given up- Matt Holliday‘s home run).

Standings (PP= Position Player, P= Pitcher):

PP David Ortiz– 38

P Jon Lester– 23

PP Matt Holliday– 18

PP Carlos Beltran– 16

P Koji Uehara– 16

P Justin Verlander– 14

P Michael Wacha– 13

P Clayton Kershaw– 11

P Max Scherzer– 11

PP Shane Victorino– 11

P Zack Greinke– 10

P Carlos Martinez– 10

PP Yadier Molina– 10

PP Jonny Gomes – 10

P Felix Doubront– 10

P Adam Wainwright– 9

PP Jhonny Peralta – 8

PP Adrian Gonzalez– 8

PP David Freese – 6

PP Miguel Cabrera– 6

P Anibal Sanchez – 5

P Hyun-jin Ryu– 5

PP Yasiel Puig– 5

P Carlos Martinez– 5

P John Lackey– 5

PP Austin Jackson– 5

P Doug Fister– 5

PP Mike Napoli– 5

P Sonny Gray-3

P Gerrit Cole– 3

PP Pedro Alvarez– 3

P Mike Minor– 3

PP Hanley Ramirez– 3

PP Yoenis Cespedes– 3

P Jason Grilli– 3

PP Carl Crawford– 3

P Chris Capuano– 3

PP Seth Smith– 3

P Dan Otero– 3

PP Jose Lobaton-3

P Jake McGee-3

PP Juan Uribe-3

PP (Position Player) Russell Martin– 1

P (Pitcher) Francisco Liriano– 1

PP Desmond Jennings– 1

P Alex Cobb– 1

Headlines from around the Continuum: October 29, 2013

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Baseball-related headlines from the Newseum:

(Note that I try to copy the style of the paper as well, hence why some are in ALL CAPS while others aren’t. Also, I ignored extremely basic headlines like “World Series Preview” or “Cardinals Win”. I’ll occasionally make an exception for the team’s “home” newspapers)

Headline: Red Sox take 3-2 lead in Series heading back to Fenway

Boston Globe: Fenway-bound, 1 win away from title

Boston Herald: OUR TIME!

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: DOWN AGAIN

The Herald (Monterey, CA): SOX IN COMMAND

The Record (Stockton, CA): RED HOT

Hartford (CT) Courant: Riding High Back To Fenway

Naples (FL) Daily News: BEARDS ON BRINK

News-Gazette (Champaign, IL): BACKS TO THE WALL

Herald News (Fall River, Mass.): ONE TO GO

Standard-Times (New Bedford, Mass.): LESTER DELIVERS

Taunton (Mass.) Daily Gazette: HOME STRETCH

Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass.): Rack up number three!

Joplin (MO) Globe: UPHILL CLIMB

Springfield (MO) News-Leader: UH-OH

Times-News (Lehighton, PA): JON-NY ON THE SPOT

(The various foreign papers generally had a variation of the Red Sox being one win away)

Headlines from around the Continuum: October 28, 2013

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Baseball-related headlines from the Newseum:

(Note that I try to copy the style of the paper as well, hence why some are in ALL CAPS while others aren’t. Also, I ignored extremely basic headlines like “World Series Preview” or “Cardinals Win”. I’ll occasionally make an exception for the team’s “home” newspapers)

Headline: Red Sox tie series at 2 on Gomes’ HR and wild walk-off pick-off

Boston Globe: Resilient Red Sox tie it up

Boston Herald: JONNY ROCKET!

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: CARDS’ TURN TO CRY

La Opinión (Spanish-Language Los Angeles): BOSTON VOLVERA A CASA (Boston will return home)

San Mateo (CA) Daily Journal: ON TO GAME FIVE

Hartford (CT) Courant: GO… JONNY… GONE

Stuart (FL) News: IT’S A BEST-OF-3

Press Journal (Vero Beach, FL): DOWN TO THE WIRE

News-Gazette (Champaign, IL): ROOKIE MISTAKE (on Kolten Wong)

Journal Star (Peoria, IL): RED SOX GET EVEN

Herald News (Fall River, Mass.): GETTING EVEN

Cape Cod Times: JONNY ON THE SPOT

Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass.): Homer high-fives all around

Joplin (MO) Globe: TWO APIECE

Springfield (MO) News-Ledger: FIT TO BE TIED

New York Times: No obstruction for Boston

The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City): A BIG HIT (Image of Gomes)

The Citizens’ Voice (Wikes-Barre, PA): DEUCES WILD

El Norte (Monterrey, Mexico): !Cañonazo! (Roughly “GUNSHOT!” or “CANNON SHOT!”)

Vanguardia (Saltillo, Mexico): !Boston reacciona y empata! (“Boston reacts and ties!”)

El Expreso de Campeche (San Francisco de Campeche, Mexico): NO SE RINDE (“NO SURRENDER”)

Mi Diario (Panama City, Panama): Serie pareja (roughly “Series even” or “Series level”)

 

Mr. Octobers of Yesterday (October 26, 2013)

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Well, lost in the madness of the final play of last night’s game are those players who excelled in it, the Mr. Octobers of yesterday.

Both of them are hitters: Matt Holliday, who went 2-5 but who contributed three RBIs, and Yadier Molina, who was excellent behind the plate and also had three hits and an RBI.

Standings (PP= Position Player, P= Pitcher):

PP David Ortiz– 28

PP Matt Holliday– 18

PP Carlos Beltran– 16

P Koji Uehara– 16

P Justin Verlander– 14

P Michael Wacha– 13

P Jon Lester– 13

P Clayton Kershaw– 11

P Max Scherzer– 11

PP Shane Victorino– 11

P Zack Greinke– 10

P Carlos Martinez– 10

PP Yadier Molina- 10

P Adam Wainwright– 9

PP Jhonny Peralta – 8

PP Adrian Gonzalez– 8

PP David Freese – 6

PP Miguel Cabrera– 6

P Anibal Sanchez – 5

P Hyun-jin Ryu– 5

PP Yasiel Puig– 5

P Carlos Martinez– 5

P John Lackey– 5

PP Austin Jackson– 5

P Doug Fister– 5

PP Mike Napoli– 5

P Sonny Gray-3

P Gerrit Cole– 3

PP Pedro Alvarez– 3

P Mike Minor– 3

PP Hanley Ramirez– 3

PP Yoenis Cespedes– 3

P Jason Grilli– 3

PP Carl Crawford– 3

P Chris Capuano– 3

PP Seth Smith– 3

P Dan Otero– 3

PP Jose Lobaton-3

P Jake McGee-3

PP Juan Uribe-3

PP (Position Player) Russell Martin– 1

P (Pitcher) Francisco Liriano– 1

PP Desmond Jennings– 1

P Alex Cobb– 1

Headlines from around the Continuum: October 27, 2013

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Baseball-related headlines from the Newseum:

(Note that I try to copy the style of the paper as well, hence why some are in ALL CAPS while others aren’t. Also, I ignored extremely basic headlines like “World Series Preview” or “Cardinals Win”. I’ll occasionally make an exception for the team’s “home” newspapers)

Story: Obstruction play helps Cardinals win Game 3, take 2-1 lead

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A LEG UP

Boston Globe: Cardinals win in wild finish

Boston Herald: FOR THE BIRDS!

The Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, CA): What a trip!

The Herald (Monterey, CA): WILD ENDING

Belleville (IL) News-Democrat: CARDS TRIP UP RED SOX

News-Gazette (Champaign, IL): SAFE AT HOME

Journal Star (Peoria, IL): WILD CARDS

Portland (Maine) Press: An ugly finish for Sox

The Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, Mass.): A tangled web in Game 3

Herald News (Fall River, Mass.): BITTER END

Cape Cod Times: WILD, WACKY, PAINFUL STUFF

Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass.): A long night (The game wasn’t done by press time for the Telegram & Gazette)

Burlington (VT) Free Press: OBSTRUCTED

Novedades de Quintana Roo (Cancun, Mexico): Triunfo cardenal de alarido (something to do with a howl or a screech, may mean “Cardinals screech to victory” or something like that)

Vanguardia (Saltillo, Mexico): POLEMICA VICTORIA (“Controversial victory”)

El Universal (Caracas, Venezuela): LOS CARDENALES TOMARON VENTAJA (“The Cardinals took advantage.”)

Quote of the Night (Obstruction)

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OBSTRUCTION is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner.
Rule 2.00 (Obstruction) Comment: If a fielder is about to receive a thrown ball and if the ball is in flight directly toward and near enough to the fielder so he must occupy his position to receive the ball he may be considered “in the act of fielding a ball.” It is entirely up to the judgment of the umpire as to whether a fielder is in the act of fielding a ball. After a fielder has made an attempt to field a ball and missed, he can no longer be in the “act of fielding” the ball. For example: If an infielder dives at a ground ball and the ball passes him and he continues to lie on the ground and delays the progress of the runner, he very likely has obstructed the runner.

The 2013 World Series Preview/Prediction Spectacular

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It’s time to preview the 2013 World Series!

…After the jump, of course:

Continue reading →

The “Slate” tool to find out the connections between Athletes is WRONG!

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You’ve probably seen this page pop up on your Twitter feed today. It’s a cool thing from Slate in which you can find how sports players are connected. For example, they use the example that Tom Brady and Kevin Garnett are within six degrees of each other, due to playing with people who had played with multi-sport athletes.

However, it is far from perfect. For example, it treats Jim Thorpe as two people (a baseball player and a football player), a grave error considering that he is one of the greatest athletes of all time. For another, there is an outright false statement that is seemingly also built into the tool. And I quote:

Hockey is the opposite, as there has never been a pro hockey player who also played top-level basketball, football, or baseball. As a result, hockey is a closed system. But once you get off the ice, it’s possible to link every pro baseball, basketball, and football star.

This is, of course, completely wrong, as there has actually been one player who played both baseball and hockey on the highest level. In fact, I wrote about him at one point: his name was Jim Riley.

Sadly, as of this writing, author Ben Blatt and Slate have yet to fix this. But, I can’t blame them, can I? I mean, Jim Riley is very obscure, and if not for the fact that he is the one person to play in both MLB and NHL, he would have been completely forgotten.

Still, I hope that they fix it. After all, I want to see how all of the ProStars connect together.

Headlines from around the Continuum: October 20, 2013

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Baseball-related headlines from the Newseum:

Story: Red Sox win Game 6, advance to World Series

Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): A GRAND VICTORY

Honolulu Star-Advertiser: VICTORINO GRAND SLAM SENDS BOSTON TO THE WORLD SERIES

Boston Globe: The improbable dream team soars into World Series

Boston Herald: VICTORINO LAP!

Herald News (Fall River, Mass.): WE’RE BACK, BABY

Metro West Daily News (Framingham, Mass.): AIN’T IT GRAND

Cape Cod Times: GRAND FINALE

Detroit Free Press: SLAMMED SHUT

La Prensa (Managua, Nicarauga): Del sótano a la Serie Mundial (Roughly “From the basement to the World Series”)

(There were also plenty of other front page headlines, including some from Mexico, Venezuela and Asian countries, but they were all either rather generic or in a script that I can’t put into a Google translator. Oh, there was also some headline from Mexico that seemed to be about how a government official was in Boston watching the playoffs, but I wasn’t sure enough to include it.)

My Votes in Baseball Prospectus’ “2013 Internet Baseball Awards”

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Baseball Prospectus runs the Internet Baseball Awards, the oldest such internet-voted awards in baseball, open to anyone with any type of account at Prospectus. Amazingly though, this is the first year I’m actually voting in them. I have no idea why. I think it may be because I never got around to getting one of the free accounts at BP. I am ashamed.

Anyway, here’s how I voted this year (using a combination of statistics, my own eyes, and a bit of my gut), and keep in mind that you too can vote:

AL MVP (in order): Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, Josh Donaldson, Chris Davis, Robinson Cano, Max Scherzer, Evan Longoria, Manny Machado, Felix Hernandez, Ben Zobrist.

I pick Cabrera over Trout, Donaldson and Davis due to his importance to the team, despite the fact that under advanced statistics Trout and Donaldson both had better years, WAR-wise. In addition, I have to wonder how well Cabrera might have been if he was healthy all season instead of completely hobbled in the final weeks. Also, it’s what my gut says. And my gut is stupid like this.

NL MVP (in order): Andrew McCutchen, Paul Goldschmidt, Carlos Gomez, Matt Carpenter, Clayton Kershaw, Joey Votto, Yadier Molina, Jose Fernandez, Cliff Lee, Andrelton Simmons

This is far less based on gut and far more based on statistics. Andrelton Simmons’ place in 10th is more because of his great fielding play, by the way.

AL Cy Young (in order): Max Scherzer, Felix Hernandez, Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuma, Anibal Sanchez

Not that much I have to justify here. Note: Iwakuma would have won the “Cy Underrated” award, if such a thing existed.

NL Cy Young (in order): Clayton Kershaw, Jose Fernandez, Cliff Lee, Adam Wainwright, Matt Harvey

Like the AL Cy Young, there isn’t much I have to justify here, especially at the very top. I was originally thinking of having Fernandez be four or five and perhaps Wainwright be two or three, but I’m feeling confident in this ordering and the stats more-or-less back me up. More-or-less.

AL Rookie of the Year (in order): Wil Myers, Jose Iglesias, Chris Archer, Sonny Gray, David Lough

The AL batch of newcomers this year was sort of “meh”, especially when compared to the National League.

NL Rookie of the Year (in order): Jose Fernandez, Yasiel Puig, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Gerrit Cole, Julio Teheran

Michael Wacha would probably be on this list if I included the postseason.

AL Manager of the Year (in order): John Farrell, Joe Girardi, Terry Francona

NL Manager of the Year (in order): Clint Hurdle, Don Mattingly, Mike Matheny

Manager voting is more-or-less based entirely on gut and impressions… so, uh, this is what my impression of how these guys did and what my gut tells me.