WicketMaiden

58 minutes ago, Angelsjunky said:

See my post upthread. Strikeout rates were very different back then - the league average went as low as 6.9% in 1925. Only Arraez among qualifiers has a K% below that (a ridiculous 5.0%). Ruth's K% was 16.0% that year, which is more than double the league average and second after Gabby Hartnett (17.4%) among all hitters with at least 400 PA.

Or to put it another way, between 1871-1945 (through WW2) there were 310 hitters with at least 5,000 PA. Ruth's career K% of 12.5 is 6th highest. Jimmie Foxx, also one of the greatest hitters of all time (156 wRC+), was 2nd with 13.6%, and Hack Wilson (141 wRC+) was 4th.

Let's find a similar sample size. During the 21st century (2000-23) there have been 322 hitters with at least 4,000 PA. Trout is 54th with 22.3%.

Or to put it another way, this notion that "great hitters don't strike out a lot" or Trout's rate is abnormally high, relative to his era:

Excellent research @Angelsjunky. Good point, well made.

4 hours ago, Tank said:

Thanks for this suggestion. I’ll add it once I find it. 

It's very good, @Tank, and very sad when one considers the lives lost over a such an avoidable series of events. 

Escobar stats:

2019: 158 games; 35 HR; 111 OPS+; 2.9 fWAR

2021: 146 games; 28 HR; 109 OPS+; 2.6 fWAR

2022: 136 games; 20 HR; 107 OPS+; 2.3 fWAR

That reads like a very solid player who is now on a slow decline. Not bad for a couple of depth arms and $250k. Nice job, Perry.

16 minutes ago, angels1963 said:

really don't think much of this trade, I think we have guys at SLC that could put up the same numbers....bad deal !!!!!

Who?

51 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

What I like about this is that the opening statements will include the Defense giggling, waving their hand at the paralegals who are dying but trying to do it discreetly, while saying "do it! You have to do it!"

And the Defense will open with "Mr. Bubba. Will you please tell the court about how you made Mr. Coles balls sticky?"

And Carpino is like "oh, real mature."

And the Judge bangs the gavel, saying "order in the court", but he's laughing too.

Reminded me of this.

Stars on Mars - low-level celebs in a Big Brother on Mars type scenario.

Pluses: it has a great set.

Minuses: everything else.

37 Days - One Month in Summer - a dramatisation of the events leading up to the first world war.

This is very well made and very informative. A must see for anyone interested in how major conflicts begin, or in that particular time in history. Well worth your time.

17 minutes ago, T.G. said:

Bacon 

...Butty

18 minutes ago, HanfordGuy said:

A hotly contested debate for the past 150 million years…

Number 2 surely? A necktie sits at the base of the neck, not under the chin. Sheesh. Diplo-dumbus over there.

40 minutes ago, Tank said:

GB posted a link about it being missing, which includes a video on what the sub looks like and how it works. in hindsight, it looks like a lot of bad decisions. 

i hope they're found before it's too late.

It is being reported over here that even if they find it, they won't be able to rescue it immediately. The small submersibles used to find the submarine haven't got the kit, they will have to arrange for another submersible to go down and grab it once it's been located. That will add several hours to any rescue attempt.

Great debut, @Swilly, that's a very nice piece of work. Cracking choice of subject too, Neto certainly looks like he belongs, and I'm sure there are plenty of us who are looking forward to watching him develop over the next few years. He's been a very pleasant surprise.

Welcome, well done, and keep them coming.

31 minutes ago, Redondo said:

Vodka

Freezer

*the best place to store your vodka.

29 minutes ago, Hubs said:

Still found two epic ways to lose last week. LOL.

Selective memory Hubs, my mind has pixelated the KC debacle so I can focus on the wins.

2 hours ago, disarcina said:

YES -- Halos really have no real choice here. -- cannot risk losing Ohtani (best MLB player of all time) leave for draft pick compensation.

NO -  Arte keeps his word but risks being the guy  who not only let Ohtani get away, but get away for virtually nothing in return.

This is just fuckwittery. And very old fuckwittery, too.

They are about where I thought they'd be, now that they've recovered from that stretch of finding unusual ways to beat themselves and are now playing up to their talent level. More to come from Trout and maybe Walsh too. Fun times.

Just curious to see where the fan-base really stands on Nevin.

(Moderators - please check Swordsman's IP for multiple votes. Thanks.)

38 minutes ago, gotbeer said:

Lol.  Women.   Look I found a golf ball that is moving.  I'm going to pick it up.  

She was just tidying up.

4 hours ago, steveuk said:

Thanks. So at the simplest, crudest level someone on +1.0 is a better player or has more value than someone on -0.1.

Therefore, the suggestion - for example - the Angels should have brought up Fletch instead of Stefanic is wrong.

But I suppose that's where stats can be subjective

No, not necessarily. WAR is several counting stats that are built up over a period of time, it's an aggregate of a players actual impact on the game, not an assessment of value. So, a player who has 1.0 WAR after 100 games is having a lesser impact than another player who has 0.5 WAR in 20 games.

It is a metric to measure a player's total actual impact on the games already played, but offers no projection of a player's value or future performance.

22 minutes ago, Tank said:

Bread

... and butter.

38 minutes ago, steveuk said:

Interesting read, particularly WAR v Salary. I'm not very au fait with these advanced stats. Wins against Replacement Player. Is that Wins against a league average replacement or against some random minimum wage scrub found on the street? 

Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is judged against a replacement level player, so think of a AAAA type player, a guy that just about holds his own in the big leagues. A guy like that would likely score 0.0 WAR over the season. Several dozen stats, aggregated over several seasons, are used to calculate WAR. Here's a couple of links if you want to know more: https://www.baseball-reference.com/about/war_explained.shtml  and https://library.fangraphs.com/misc/war/

All-Star calibre players are 4 - 6 WAR players over a 162 game season.

MVP's are generally around 9 - 10 WAR, and there are usually only a handful of players in any year who are above 8 WAR. Trout has had several of them and is flying up the all-time leader-boards.

Channel Islands

Shohei Ohtani is the best in baseball and this season it's not even close.

His 4.7 bWAR is a huge lead over Wander Franco with 3.9, and is tracking at 10.4 bWAR for the season.

Fangraphs tells a similar tale, Shohei leads in fWAR with 4.4, another huge lead over Corbin Burnes with 3.4 (Franco T3 with 3.3 fWAR), and that is tracking at 9.8 fWAR for the season.

He has been a little wild though, he also leads MLB in wild pitches (11) and hit batters (9).

Trout is next on the Angels with 2.1 fWAR (tied for 18th in the AL), and 2.1 bWAR.

Mickey Moniak is still tearing it up with 1.5 bWAR from just 23 games - that is tracking for 10.7 bWAR over a full season. Great stuff!

Here's the rest, courtesy of baseball-reference.com...

1 hour ago, HanfordGuy said:

My father had an earlier version of the stereo stack - this bad boy below. It seemed so high-tech at the time with all those bouncing needles and switches to flick that my brother and I used to pretend they were the controls to our spaceship. Looking at it now I realise we had a pretty rubbish spaceship, but we loved it.

8 hours ago, Jason said:

To know the level of inappropriateness, is the hot dog going in or out?

A Schrödinger dog would be doing both.

On 6/12/2023 at 5:25 PM, gotbeer said:

Meanwhile, my drive through Koreatown yesterday.

 

Nice tune playing in the background. E.L.O., 'Mr Blue Sky'. Electric Light Orchestra were/are a very under-rated band.