krAbs

@Tank, how'd the meeting go?

https://old.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/dy60ag/2020_baseball_hall_of_fame_ballot/f7ynyw1/ 2020 HOF Ballot sorted by JAWS (career WAR averaged with their 7-year peak WAR) Rk Name YoB % of Ballots WAR WAR7 JAWS 1 Barry Bonds 8th 59.1% 162.8 72.7 117.8 2 Roger Clemens 8th 59.5% 139.2 65.9 102.5 3 Curt Schilling 8th 60.9% 79.5 48.6 64.1 4 Larry Walker 10th 54.6% 72.7 44.7 58.7 5 Derek Jeter 1st 72.4 42.4 57.4 6 Scott Rolen 3rd 17.2% 70.2 43.7 56.9 7 Andruw Jones 3rd 7.5% 62.8 46.5 54.7 8 Manny Ramirez 4th 22.8% 69.4 40.0 54.7 9 Todd Helton 2nd 16.5% 61.2 46.5 53.9 10 Sammy Sosa 8th 8.5% 58.6 43.8 51.2 11 Bobby Abreu 1st 60.0 41.6 50.8 12 Gary Sheffield 6th 13.6% 60.5 38.0 49.3 13 Andy Pettitte 2nd 9.9% 60.2 34.1 47.1 14 Jason Giambi 1st 50.5 42.2 46.4 15 Jeff Kent 7th 18.1% 55.4 35.7 45.6 16 Cliff Lee 1st 43.5 39.8 41.6 17 Omar Vizquel 3rd 42.8% 45.6 26.8 36.2 18 Rafael Furcal 1st 39.4 30.7 35.1 19 Eric Chavez 1st 37.5 31.1 34.3 20 Josh Beckett 1st 35.6 31.2 33.4 21 Brian Roberts 1st 30.4 28.1 29.2 22 Alfonso Soriano 1st 28.2 27.3 27.8 23 Paul Konerko 1st 27.7 21.5 24.6 24 Carlos Pena 1st 25.1 24.1 24.6 25 Billy Wagner 5th 16.7% 27.7 19.8 23.7 26 Chone Figgins 1st 22.2 22.5 22.3 28 Raul Ibanez 1st 20.4 20.1 20.2 29 Brad Penny 1st 19.0 21.4 20.2 31 Adam Dunn 1st 17.4 17.7 17.6 33 J.J. Putz 1st 13.1 12.9 13.0 35 Jose Valverde 1st 11.5 12.0 11.7 40 Heath Bell 1st 7.1 8.8 8.0 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Full Player Stats Generated 11/18/2019.

My first thought as well. I'm hoping he can get it together this next year and turn some heads. He's been learning 2B this last year - I think the most optimistic case is that he is just spending a lot of time on that side of his game, and has let his hitting slide a bit. Maybe - maybe - if he is able to get comfortable there, he can spend time bringing his hitting back up to par and become a factor for us moving forward. But at this point, he looks like he's drowning in AA.

Astros’ Trash Can got fucking robbed.

Holy shit. Flood gates are opening.

THE Scott Botas?

Sportrac is estimating 4/94. Expensive, but pitching is expensive, sooo...idk.

The top reply to the /r/baseball reddit thread on it is a joke: "Update: Mike Trout now bats 9th" "And left-handed because that decreases your time to 1st base" Obviously a joke, but the point is, Maddon likes to play as hard as he can to statistics and to what spreadsheets say. I believe he was the first manager to heavily employ the shift, for example. Often it works out, and especially often it works out over a large enough sample size. But when he does something that goes against baseball "common sense" and it doesn't work out...That's the kind of thing that pisses a fan off. Edit - don't get me wrong, I'm SUPER excited about him, and I think he's the guy who can lead us to the next level. But, he seems like the kind of guy who makes choices that really rub a certain kind of fan the wrong way, and I think we have a lot of that certain kind of fan here. I expect a lot of head-scratching bullpen choices that will lead to a lot of "Fire Joe!" threads.

I'm stoked about this, but I think a lot on here are going to Facking HATE him.

Whose on first?

Your user name just took on a new and exciting second meaning.

Oof. A part of me wonders if this is connected to our inability to stay healthy over a season...If it really is as rampant as this article sounds...geeze.

It really seems unfair when you think about it.

IMO, it was not obvious that either Cole or Verlander were gonna be as good as they have been for the Astros. Both had bad numbers just prior to coming to the Astros, and I subjectively remember question marks being raised about both before they came. Who was the "spin rate guy" who the Astros were able to turn into someone good for a while? Is he still doing anything? I think he was one of their top pitchers last time they went to the world series. Edit - I think I'm thinking of McCullers. I remember seeing think pieces on how they took one of those dudes who no one saw anything in, and crafted a solid started, based on spin rate data. It could have been McHugh or Peacock also. None of them are looking all that hot, though.

I mean...I kinda want to watch the Astros stomp on the Dodgers. Granted, maybe that makes us less likely to get Cole? IDK.

Lol as I talk up the Astros, Greinke gets hit hard.

The silver lining is that you can see SOME question marks around the future of the Astros rotation. Verlander is getting old, as is Greinke (and Greinke is actually starting to show it). If Cole walks, then your rotation is held down by two aging pitchers. Not sure how their farm looks for starting pitching, but they still certainly have young, talented hitting. But, SOME cracks, at least (as opposed to now, where the team looks kinda perfect).

This Astros team is incredible. Gotta think they area head and shoulders above every other team out there right now, especially in a playoff format. That hitting, combined with that 1-2-3 pitching, with good relief. Forget about it.

Redemption!

Interesting. Edit: Not that interesting:

Maybe - but this is basically just asking "Does a given pitcher have a better ERA when using one catcher or when using another, in way that predicts future results," and the answer was no. I mean, its possible that some others stat could show SOMETHING; but in the end of the day, if it doesn't help prevent runs (over any kind of time horizon- I'm aware of the problems with ERA, but you would expect it to stabilize with sample size if there was anything 'real' there), I'm not sure what the point of a better catcher is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catcher%27s_ERA#targetText=Catcher's%20ERA%20(CERA)%20in%20baseball,catcher%20in%20question%20is%20catching.&targetText=With%20it%2C%20Wright%20developed%20a,when%20playing%20with%20different%20catchers. "However, Baseball Prospectus writer Keith Woolner found through statistical analysis of catcher performance that "catcher game-calling isn't a statistically significant skill".[2] Sabermetrician Bill James, too, performed research into CERA, finding that while it is possible that catchers may have a significant effect on a pitching staff, there is too much yearly variation in CERA for it to be a reliable indicator of ability.[1] James used simulations of catchers with assigned defensive values to directly compare CERAs, which influenced Woolner to perform similar simulations but instead using weighted events to calculate pitchers' runs per plate appearance.[1] Through this, Woolner concluded that even if catchers do have an effect on pitchers' abilities to prevent runs, it is undetectable and thus has no practical usage.[1] He also stated that "the hypothesis most consistent with the available facts appears to be that catchers do not have a significant effect on pitcher performance"." ^^This is extremely damning and underrated research about the effect of defensive catchers.

I can't imagine how painful it would be to know that this is out there about a close family member. Especially if this really was out of character for Skaggs. Dealing with the fact that everyone thinks he is someone who you know he isn't...god...

Yeah they are

I Facking love them. I would also accept bright red in place of the grey. The Astros is are is too much white for me, though.