Sabathia Dominant As Dodgers Drop Opener

Puke.

It was like the ump never questioned a pitch from Rivera.

and per Brooks Baseball, all were correctly called strikes:

wilw: Maybe that home plate umpire was secretly auditioning to be a FIFA referee. #occamsrazor

Jerry Sands.

Nuff said.

And this is my first comment on sb. Feels good to finally be devirginzed after months of reading blogs

Classic pitcher’s duel
Gotta be happy with Padilla and Belisario
Tomorrow to the game

Dodger Love!

This team will probably get enough pitching to get by but they will need to either bring up someone or hope the combo of Miller, Troncoso and Sherrill pitch pretty well when called upon.

But they will need Ethier and Kemp to show that they can match or surpass last year’s stats.

Bumgarner vs Buchholz tomorrow in SF

AL leads 115-109 .513

The National league has not won more than 116 games since 2004 when they won 125.

San Diego – 45-28
SF – 42-30
Col – 42-31
LA – 37-36
AZ – 30-44

Either the Dodgers need a boost to their team, or they have to hope the teams in front of them are just playing above their heads.

If San Diego keeps this up the entire season – there will be studies done by BP and ZIPS to figure out how they missed on this team.

Didn’t miss much huh? Just Phil Cuzzi being a bitch…

www.baseballhq.com

Andre Ethier: National League MVP? … In a recent poll at USA Today’s Sports Weekly, there was an unlikely name at the top of National League MVP voting: Andre Ethier (OF, LAD). Not too shabby for somebody who already spent some time on the Disabled List (fractured pinkie) but yet continues to put up monster numbers across the board. The million dollar question? Will it continue?

   

Year   AB    BA    vL   xBA   CT%   Eye   HR  PX   HR/F

2007    447  .284  .279  .276  85%  0.68  13  106   10%

2008    525  .305  .243  .302  83%  0.67  20  129   14%

2009    596  .272  .194  .289  81%  0.62  31  151   16%

2010    214  .322  .271  .318  86%  0.76  12  153   16%    

Ethier, who is known as one of Major League Baseball’s biggest “foodies” writes a blog reviewing restaurants. These days, Ethier is better known for his penchant for feasting on Major League pitching …

    * After a two year slide against LHP (.243/.194) which threatened a future as a platoon player, Ethier has solved his LHP woes (.271) to a certain extent. As a result, Ethier is hitting for a career-high BA (.322) and his xBA (.318) says it is for real.
    * Ethier is making great contact (86%) and his PX (153) says that this skill set has not reached its plateau just yet.
    * Ethier’s HR/F (16%) doesn’t suggest any correction coming. If Ethier continues to elevate the ball, he could still reach 30 HR despite the aforementioned Disabled List stint that cost Ethier some real AB’s.
    * Ethier’s Eye (0.76) suggests Ethier is becoming more comfortable at the plate every day.

Could Ethier win the National League MVP? Sure … it is possible. But one thing we do know is that Ethier is a gamer … a winner … and he would contribute a lot to even the most discering fanalytic owner’s roster.

Data uses BIS btw.

Defensive misplays, league leaders

Baseball Info Solutions has found a way to measure defensive mistakes.
Outfielder Age Defensive misplays on throws
Colby Rasmus 23 7
Nate Schierholtz 26 6
Jeff Francoeur 26 6
Andrew McCutchen 23 6
Nyjer Morgan 29 6
Justin Upton 22 6

If you’re wondering what exactly they’re measuring, its

Doug Glanville writes Thursday about outfield defensive fundamentals, drawing on his own experiences from high school through his nine-year big league career. The University of Pennsylvania alumnus emphasized hitting the cutoff man and getting the ball in quickly to prevent runners from advancing extra bases. These fundamental defensive plays go unnoticed by most fans but are often just as important as the offensive highlights, Glanville says.

Unnoticed no longer. Baseball Info Solutions tracks these sorts of unheralded defensive plays as part of our defensive misplays (DM) and good fielding plays (GFP) records. We track 54 types of defensive misplays, and 28 different good fielding plays. For example, BIS marks missing the cutoff man as "DM 47" or taking a bad route to a fly ball as "DM 26," both examples that Glanville cites.

On the flip side, there are things a fielder does that we don’t always expect, and we record those, too. For example, when an outfielder cuts a ball off in the gap and thus prevents runners from advancing extra bases, he gets a "GFP 22." Using this data, we can accurately determine the best fielders in baseball.

Now, Matt Kemp might be next on the list at 5, but this seems to be similar to +/- in the sense that counting up the sum of good and bad plays. Obviously this doesn’t tell us how good or bad the outfielders really are, (Colby Rasmus in particular is considered one of the best defensive CF in the game, scouting and stat wise.) But I thought it was interesting.

MLB Trade Rumors: Red Sox Have Inquired About Available Outfielders http://bit.ly/cgHIp6

Great game to go to. I love these types of pitching duels. Sabathia is an elite LHP.

Latest Clipper rumor is that Vinny Del Negro is a finalist for the coaching job.

Their worst pitcher by far is Kevin Correia, and we’ve had at least 3 or 4 starters WORSE than him. No one in the bullpen has over a 3.72 ERA. Wow, just wow.