***Official 2012 MLB Regular Season Thread (1 Viewer)

[Doctor Detroit]

Beckett leaves game after an injury and Boston fans cheered.

Sounded like they were booing him. But I wasn't paying a lot of attention at that moment. Whether they were cheering or booing,

Jeering

 

[Plorfu]

Absolutely nothing worth mentioning going in the Cubs/Pirates game after 6 innings...

 

[Northern Voice]

The battery in tonight's Pirates game for Snider's debut (Burnett/Barajas) is the same as the one the Jays had the night Travis Snider made his MLB debut in 2008.

 

[shuke]

Span declines a trade to the Reds.

Why?

 

[Raider Nation]

Span declines a trade to the Reds.

Why?

Never even happened, according to him.

The Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline passed on Tuesday afternoon with the Minnesota Twins not making a deal but that doesn't mean things were calm inside the Minnesota club house.

As the deadline approached there was speculation from media outlets that Twins centerfielder Denard Span would be part of a deadline deal. The MLB Network would then report that Span used a no-trade clause in his contract to nix a trade to the NL Central Division leading Cincinnati Reds.

According to this report from 1500 ESPN, Span is relieved to make it past the trade deadline and remain in Minnesota, but he also denied using his no-trade clause to stop a deal.

"You start hearing crazy stuff from reporters," he said. "I don't want to say making stuff up, but miscommunication. That makes it worse. Social media doesn't help. It's the combination of a lot of different things that gets your nerves and adrenaline going. ...

"My brother texted me. I was in bible study. He texted me. This is after the MLB Network came out (and mis-reported) that I rejected a trade. He texted me to ask me how I was doing. I said 'I'm fine.' Then he goes 'Was it an easy decision?' I was like 'What are you talking about?' 'They said you just rejected a trade. What happened? I was like 'That's not true.' I had to explain to him that it wasn't true and all that. It was just a whirlwind."

 

[Annyong]

when will the Nats send Harper down? He's bad.

 

[Don Quixote]

when will the Nats send Harper down? He's bad.

I don't think they'll send him down, but he could use a rest. Maybe when Werth comes back, they can let him sit him a bit. He's had a sore back, an ankle injury, and a stomach virus the past couple of weeks.

 

[TobiasFunke]

So the Diamondbacks are basically a lock to win the NL West at this point, right? Trying to figure out when I can start spending the money I'm gonna make on the futures bet I made at the ASB.

 

[Eephus]

So the Diamondbacks are basically a lock to win the NL West at this point, right? Trying to figure out when I can start spending the money I'm gonna make on the futures bet I made at the ASB.

Yeah, Podsednik pretty much puts them over the top.

 

[TobiasFunke]

So the Diamondbacks are basically a lock to win the NL West at this point, right? Trying to figure out when I can start spending the money I'm gonna make on the futures bet I made at the ASB.

Yeah, Podsednik pretty much puts them over the top.

I'm thinking their run differential to date indicating that they're the best team in the division by a decent margin puts them over the top.

 

[shadyridr]

So the Diamondbacks are basically a lock to win the NL West at this point, right? Trying to figure out when I can start spending the money I'm gonna make on the futures bet I made at the ASB.

Yeah, Podsednik pretty much puts them over the top.

I'm thinking their run differential to date indicating that they're the best team in the division by a decent margin puts them over the top.

yeah but that run differential doesnt include pence and sandoval for most of the year for the giants and doesnt include hanram, victorino, and kemp for a big chunk of the year for la

 

[Eephus]

So the Diamondbacks are basically a lock to win the NL West at this point, right? Trying to figure out when I can start spending the money I'm gonna make on the futures bet I made at the ASB.

Yeah, Podsednik pretty much puts them over the top.

I'm thinking their run differential to date indicating that they're the best team in the division by a decent margin puts them over the top.

yeah but that run differential doesnt include pence and sandoval for most of the year for the giants and doesnt include hanram, victorino, and kemp for a big chunk of the year for la

Pythagorean numbers are fun but they aren't predictive

 

[TobiasFunke]

So the Diamondbacks are basically a lock to win the NL West at this point, right? Trying to figure out when I can start spending the money I'm gonna make on the futures bet I made at the ASB.

Yeah, Podsednik pretty much puts them over the top.

I'm thinking their run differential to date indicating that they're the best team in the division by a decent margin puts them over the top.

yeah but that run differential doesnt include pence and sandoval for most of the year for the giants and doesnt include hanram, victorino, and kemp for a big chunk of the year for la

Pythagorean numbers are fun but they aren't predictive

Of course they are. They're a reflection of the quality of the team to date, which has predictive value. It's ridiculous to say otherwise. Would you bet on the Orioles maintaining a .525 winning percentage over their last 60 games? If you're sane, you say no. Why not? Because they've obviously been getting very lucky and aren't as good as their record indicates, as demonstrated by their RS/RA differential.Sure the personnel moves and maybe even guys getting healthy make a difference for the Dodgers and Giants (although injuries always happen and Sandoval and Kemp have played the majority of their teams' season anyway), but don't overestimate their value.Obviously I was kidding about it being a lock, I have no idea who will win the NL West, especially considering the fact that the Giants and Dodgers both have a lead over the DBacks at the moment which changes the outlook. But if I were a betting man- which I am- I'd say there's big value in DBacks futures.

 

[Eephus]

So the Diamondbacks are basically a lock to win the NL West at this point, right? Trying to figure out when I can start spending the money I'm gonna make on the futures bet I made at the ASB.

Yeah, Podsednik pretty much puts them over the top.

I'm thinking their run differential to date indicating that they're the best team in the division by a decent margin puts them over the top.

yeah but that run differential doesnt include pence and sandoval for most of the year for the giants and doesnt include hanram, victorino, and kemp for a big chunk of the year for la

Pythagorean numbers are fun but they aren't predictive

Of course they are. They're a reflection of the quality of the team to date, which has predictive value. It's ridiculous to say otherwise. Would you bet on the Orioles maintaining a .525 winning percentage over their last 60 games? If you're sane, you say no. Why not? Because they've obviously been getting very lucky and aren't as good as their record indicates, as demonstrated by their RS/RA differential.Sure the personnel moves and maybe even guys getting healthy make a difference for the Dodgers and Giants (although injuries always happen and Sandoval and Kemp have played the majority of their teams' season anyway), but don't overestimate their value.Obviously I was kidding about it being a lock, I have no idea who will win the NL West, especially considering the fact that the Giants and Dodgers both have a lead over the DBacks at the moment which changes the outlook. But if I were a betting man- which I am- I'd say there's big value in DBacks futures.

Neither runs or wins are predictive over a sample size of the 57 games to go. There are teams every year that outperform and underperform their RS/RA expectation. It's a fun number that Bill James made up to measure variation of actual results vs. run differential. It illustrates how lucky or unlucky a team has been but runs are not necessarily a more reliable measure of quality than wins.To show how variable this is Arizona is plus 40 runs in their past 14 games which has skewed their overall Pythagorean expectation up by nearly five wins. If you looked at their run differential at the All Star break, it was much closer to the sub .500 team that they were at time. Obviously, they've gotten hot since then. Will they stay hot? Ask me in October.

 

[JZilla]

Take it to the pool, nerds

 

[TobiasFunke]

Neither runs or wins are predictive over a sample size of the 57 games to go. There are teams every year that outperform and underperform their RS/RA expectation. It's a fun number that Bill James made up to measure variation of actual results vs. run differential. It illustrates how lucky or unlucky a team has been but runs are not necessarily a more reliable measure of quality than wins.To show how variable this is Arizona is plus 40 runs in their past 14 games which has skewed their overall Pythagorean expectation up by nearly five wins. If you looked at their run differential at the All Star break, it was much closer to the sub .500 team that they were at time. Obviously, they've gotten hot since then. Will they stay hot? Ask me in October.

Of course there's teams that outperform or underperform their pythagorean every year. But you can't jump from that to the conclusion that it's not predictive. It's not conclusive obviously, but it is predictive.Put it this way: if there's two teams with identical records on August 2, and one has +25 run differential and the other has a -25 run differential, and someone offers you an even money bet that the team with the -25 record would finish ahead of the team with the +25 record, do you take the bet? If your answer is yes, you either have a serious gambling problem or you agree that run differential has some predictive value. Or maybe both. Point is, given two teams that are close in the standings, if one of them has a run differential more than 20 or so runs greater than the other, I'll take the one with the better run differential every time. And that's what I'm suggesting with the D-Backs.

 

[Eephus]

Neither runs or wins are predictive over a sample size of the 57 games to go. There are teams every year that outperform and underperform their RS/RA expectation. It's a fun number that Bill James made up to measure variation of actual results vs. run differential. It illustrates how lucky or unlucky a team has been but runs are not necessarily a more reliable measure of quality than wins.To show how variable this is Arizona is plus 40 runs in their past 14 games which has skewed their overall Pythagorean expectation up by nearly five wins. If you looked at their run differential at the All Star break, it was much closer to the sub .500 team that they were at time. Obviously, they've gotten hot since then. Will they stay hot? Ask me in October.

Of course there's teams that outperform or underperform their pythagorean every year. But you can't jump from that to the conclusion that it's not predictive. It's not conclusive obviously, but it is predictive.Put it this way: if there's two teams with identical records on August 2, and one has +25 run differential and the other has a -25 run differential, and someone offers you an even money bet that the team with the -25 record would finish ahead of the team with the +25 record, do you take the bet? If your answer is yes, you either have a serious gambling problem or you agree that run differential has some predictive value. Or maybe both. Point is, given two teams that are close in the standings, if one of them has a run differential more than 20 or so runs greater than the other, I'll take the one with the better run differential every time. And that's what I'm suggesting with the D-Backs.

Maybe so, but almost all of their positive run differential has happened in the past couple of weeks. They've not only won but won big since the All-Star break. A plus 20 run three-game sweep over the Astros helped. They're definitely a hot team.They've hung around and find themselves nearly at the same point they were at the beginning of August 2011. If they can find a reliable back end for their rotation and Upton (or somebody else) gets hot, there's no reason why they can't repeat. They didn't really do much at the deadline though to improve their squad.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Maybe so, but almost all of their positive run differential has happened in the past couple of weeks. They've not only won but won big since the All-Star break. A plus 20 run three-game sweep over the Astros helped. They're definitely a hot team.They've hung around and find themselves nearly at the same point they were at the beginning of August 2011. If they can find a reliable back end for their rotation and Upton (or somebody else) gets hot, there's no reason why they can't repeat. They didn't really do much at the deadline though to improve their squad.

Good points about the recent short-term nature of their run scoring burst and a bunch of it coming against the Astros, but Baseball Prospectus has their third-order win percentage (normalizing run production/prevention to remove luck factors and adjusting for quality of opponent) at .542, 3.3 games better than the Giants and 4.2 games better than the Dodgers.This last post is dedicated to Zilla

 

[urbanhack]

Lot's of MLB Facebook pages were hacked today.

 

[JZilla]

Lot's of MLB Facebook pages were hacked today.

Who's Lot?

 

[urbanhack]

Lot's of MLB Facebook pages were hacked today.

Who's Lot?

Salem

 

[JZilla]

Lot's of MLB Facebook pages were hacked today.

Who's Lot?

Salem

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Lot's of MLB Facebook pages were hacked today.

Who's Lot?

Salem

 

[urbanhack]

CJ Wilson hurt?

 

[shadyridr]

####in rain in atlanta cost me an easy win

 

[Swing 51]

CJ Wilson hurt?

I wish then I could bench him!

 

[Doctor Detroit]

CJ Wilson hurt?

Only his feelings

 

[Eephus]

So the Diamondbacks are basically a lock to win the NL West at this point, right? Trying to figure out when I can start spending the money I'm gonna make on the futures bet I made at the ASB.

Yeah, Podsednik pretty much puts them over the top.

The NL West is wide open again

Scott Podsednik has declined to accept assignment to Triple-A Reno and has been released by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

 

[Disco Stu]

CJ Wilson hurt?

Only his feelings

Also, this.

 

[Disco Stu]

Lot's of MLB Facebook pages were hacked today.

Solid prank

 

[Dr. Awesome]

So unhappy Trout is in the AL West. He's going to make things rough on Texas/Oakland for a long time.

 

[Raider Nation]

Yeah, Ichiro is done. Throw Mel Hall out there... won't be much difference.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Yeah, Ichiro is done. Throw Mel Hall out there... won't be much difference.

They might have to play their home games on Riker's Island, Mel got 40+ for raping 12 year-old girls.

 

[Eephus]

Yeah, Ichiro is done. Throw Mel Hall out there... won't be much difference.

They might have to play their home games on Riker's Island, Mel got 40+ for raping 12 year-old girls.

Damn Yankees

 

[Raider Nation]

Yeah, Ichiro is done. Throw Mel Hall out there... won't be much difference.

They might have to play their home games on Riker's Island, Mel got 40+ for raping 12 year-old girls.

Damn Yankees

Crap. I was thisclose to typing Jesse Barfield instead. He's not in prison, is he?

 

[shadyridr]

Yeah, Ichiro is done. Throw Mel Hall out there... won't be much difference.

They might have to play their home games on Riker's Island, Mel got 40+ for raping 12 year-old girls.

Damn Yankees

Crap. I was thisclose to typing Jesse Barfield instead. He's not in prison, is he?

he should be for giving us josh

 

[Eephus]

Yeah, Ichiro is done. Throw Mel Hall out there... won't be much difference.

They might have to play their home games on Riker's Island, Mel got 40+ for raping 12 year-old girls.

Damn Yankees

Crap. I was thisclose to typing Jesse Barfield instead. He's not in prison, is he?

he should be for giving us josh

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Yeah, Ichiro is done. Throw Mel Hall out there... won't be much difference.

They might have to play their home games on Riker's Island, Mel got 40+ for raping 12 year-old girls.

Damn Yankees

Crap. I was thisclose to typing Jesse Barfield instead. He's not in prison, is he?

he should be for giving us josh

lol

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Nice dive Middlebrooks.

So RA Dickey going to start every 4th day? Not a bad idea, play the hot hand.

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

Crap. I was thisclose to typing Jesse Barfield instead. He's not in prison, is he?

Dan Pasqua would have been the first name I thought of.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Crap. I was thisclose to typing Jesse Barfield instead. He's not in prison, is he?

Dan Pasqua would have been the first name I thought of.

Cubs had Tinker, to Evers to Chance.Yankees had Pagliarulo to Tolleson to Pasqua

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Wherever you may be...go over to the window, open it and take a listen.

Can you hear Roy Oswalt crying? I bet you can.

You know what Roy, pitch a little better and maybe you won't have to come out of the bullpen. Couldn't stand what he did in the offseason playing the prima dona like he was Cliff Lee or Justin Verlander, guy is a complete turd.

 

[Dr. Awesome]

You know what Roy, pitch a little better and maybe you won't have to come out of the bullpen. Couldn't stand what he did in the offseason playing the prima dona like he was Cliff Lee or Justin Verlander, guy is a complete turd.

I thought Roy was just whining about being sent to the bullpen. That would be an understandable complaint (even if the team was totally justified banishing him there). But he refused to pitch in a game?

Oswalt pitched two scoreless innings in the Rangers' 7-6 loss in 10 innings to the Royals. With the score tied at six, he set down the side in order in the seventh and eighth innings while throwing only 30 pitches. The Rangers wanted Oswalt to keep pitching. He declined to do so. "He said he couldn't go any further," manager Ron Washington said. "He said he had enough."

I hope they cut him asap.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

You know what Roy, pitch a little better and maybe you won't have to come out of the bullpen. Couldn't stand what he did in the offseason playing the prima dona like he was Cliff Lee or Justin Verlander, guy is a complete turd.

I thought Roy was just whining about being sent to the bullpen. That would be an understandable complaint (even if the team was totally justified banishing him there). But he refused to pitch in a game?

Oswalt pitched two scoreless innings in the Rangers' 7-6 loss in 10 innings to the Royals. With the score tied at six, he set down the side in order in the seventh and eighth innings while throwing only 30 pitches. The Rangers wanted Oswalt to keep pitching. He declined to do so. "He said he couldn't go any further," manager Ron Washington said. "He said he had enough."

I hope they cut him asap.

Uncle Nolan needs to have a sit down with him. Oh to be a fly on that wall.

 

[Epic Problem]

Wherever you may be...go over to the window, open it and take a listen.Can you hear Roy Oswalt crying? I bet you can. You know what Roy, pitch a little better and maybe you won't have to come out of the bullpen. Couldn't stand what he did in the offseason playing the prima dona like he was Cliff Lee or Justin Verlander, guy is a complete turd.

But...but...but ?.. The Rangers are 4-2 in the games he started.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Houston just made one of the worst plays in the field that you could ever see in a big league game. Bunt in front of the plate and bodies were flying all over the place like a WWE match. Man this team is bad.

 

[Swing 51]

Houston just made one of the worst plays in the field that you could ever see in a big league game. Bunt in front of the plate and bodies were flying all over the place like a WWE match. Man this team is bad.

Good stuffAstros lose on 'Bad News Bears' play:http://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/astros-lose-bad-news-bears-play-video/149441

 

[JZilla]

This was pretty sloppy as well. Tie game, Nationals have bases loaded, no outs and a slugger at the plate. 3B Scott Moore is inexplicably playing the bunt, up on the grass. Zimmerman just chops it over his head.

R. Zimmerman singled to shallow left, E. Jackson and D. Espinosa scored, B. Harper to third, R. Zimmerman out at second

Ugly team to watch. Brings back seven years of fond memories.

 

[ctdub]

You know what Roy, pitch a little better and maybe you won't have to come out of the bullpen. Couldn't stand what he did in the offseason playing the prima dona like he was Cliff Lee or Justin Verlander, guy is a complete turd.

I thought Roy was just whining about being sent to the bullpen. That would be an understandable complaint (even if the team was totally justified banishing him there). But he refused to pitch in a game?

Oswalt pitched two scoreless innings in the Rangers' 7-6 loss in 10 innings to the Royals. With the score tied at six, he set down the side in order in the seventh and eighth innings while throwing only 30 pitches. The Rangers wanted Oswalt to keep pitching. He declined to do so. "He said he couldn't go any further," manager Ron Washington said. "He said he had enough."

I hope they cut him asap.

Uncle Nolan needs to have a sit down with him. Oh to be a fly on that wall.

The entire pitching staff is in nightmare mode right now. The clubhouse appears to have some serious tension as an outsider looking in. Hamilton yelling at Pettis (1B coach) and Anderson (3B coach) in the game the other day. Oswalt being a baby, Wash throwing players under the bus. Washington is in full out idiot mode right now. Hard to believe the Rangers have a 5 game division lead right now.

 

[Raider Nation]

Houston just made one of the worst plays in the field that you could ever see in a big league game. Bunt in front of the plate and bodies were flying all over the place like a WWE match. Man this team is bad.

Good stuffAstros lose on 'Bad News Bears' play:http://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/astros-lose-bad-news-bears-play-video/149441

4-31 in their last 35 games. Pretty good.