Dbacks just completed a long block road games...of their last 33 games, over 75% were away games...Originally Posted by ftpjesus
and during those 33 games they were 24 W 9 L...
kinda scary for Dodger and Rocky fans
Dbacks just completed a long block road games...of their last 33 games, over 75% were away games...
and during those 33 games they were 24 W 9 L...
kinda scary for Dodger and Rocky fans
Last edited by GrenadaRoger; 06-22-2017 at 02:32 PM.
(long before there was a PFA i had my Grenade & Crossbones avatar at DD)
The AL East is a better division top-to-bottom than the NL West....but part of that is simply because the AL as a whole is better, and has been better for a few years now than the NL. All the tanking teams right now (outside of the white sox) are in the NL. Thus you have questionable teams like the Rockies with such a great record, and a team that was/is quasi-tanking in the Brewers somehow still in first place.
The Padres are fielding a AAA team (lol THREE rule 5 picks) and the Giants are a shell of what they used to be.
As a reminder, before the season started....the AL only had 1 team (white sox) in full early tanking/rebuilding mode, with maybe 1 other (A's) that could join them, although Beane doesnt seem to ever want to fully tear it down.
NL came in with 4 teams clearly at that stage (Padres, Reds, Phils, Braves) and 2 more (Brewers and Marlins) that were kinda there. Mix in the Giants and Mets falling apart with injuries, and the Cubs n Cards being very hot-n-cold.....and there is why the dbacks and rockies have their records. Theyre not that great.
Dodgers 13-1 in last 14.
Kenley Jansen has 50 K and 0 BB.
That's a record (by a wide margin), btw.
http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/p...advanced-stats
He wasn't even supposed to be a pitcher.
He was a good defensive catcher in the minors, but couldn't hit. Someone told him he should try pitching instead.
I am at a point that in the season where I see nothing to be faded and no ATM's. Everything seems to be resolved.
I can't remember the last time the Dodgers went off as the dog. However, my anti Dodgers bias might be costing me money.
The Dodgers were down early (1st inning) several games now. I have the Dodgers broadcast on in the background. Trust me the announcers are not Vin Scully. They almost don't bother to call what to most look like exciting plays. A hit to the outfield is ignored for the moment. They will get to it. The approach is, "we are going to win- don't sweat it". Laid back LA.
In fact, the Dodgers announcers were flatly asking each other, "don't you have confidence every game the Dodgers will find a way?"
Getting back to be down early... I should be banging the value. I know it ain't gonna be much of a discount. Public money bets live too. It's still money.
Dodgers thought for the day. Next time you watch Cody Bellinger ask yourself, "does this guy have that sleepy eye - dopey athlete look about him or not?" The guy looks dumb as a rock.
I take it this is LGBT night in Blue Heaven?
Enjoy the game.
Going tonight with Ben and sitting front row behind the Dodgers dugout.
Kept birding Stubhub like a Jew and waited for the panic selling as it got close to the 1:10pm deadline for purchase.
There was actually a price war going on regarding the front row field seats. There were 3 sellers competing and trying to undercut one another.
However, one of those 3 had seats behind the foul fence (which I hate, and wouldn't buy), and the other front row seats were on the visitor's side (which isn't bad, but I prefer the Dodgers' side), plus that guy didn't seem to be as aggressive about lowering the price.
Anyway, at 12:30 I finally decided I was scared the Dodger dugout front row seats would be grabbed by another Jew, so I bought them.
Since then, the behind-the-foul-screen seats dropped another $30 each in price, which may or may not have triggered my seats to have also fallen, but I decided I was done fucking around, as the price of these seats was starting to approach that of the cheapest non-front-row seats in the same section, so I figured we were close to the floor.
I wasn't a front row fanatic before, but since I started taking Ben, it's a different story. It's nice having no one in front of him (because he's small and even a short adult will block him), and also it increases his chance of getting on Diamondvision, which he loves.
so i was watching the cards/bucs game and was shocked by this kid from Venezuela named Felipe Rivero
this kid is a 25 yr old lefthanded reliever who touched 102 mph against Diaz in the 8th inning - he really looked like aroldis chapman jr.
so anyway, looked up his stats on espn cause i wasn't familiar with him and noticed something weird regarding his WAR
look at his 2015 vs. 2017 seasons - he pitched 10 more innings in 2015 and had a 1.2 WAR, while pretty much every stat is better this year and his WAR is -0.4
while having a 0.70 era and a 0.68 whip in 2017 - literally EVERYTHING has improved since 2015
i think WAR is generally a pretty legit advanced metric, but i how the hell do you explain this?
tl;dr Felipe Rivero is god and cards should trade for him please
Dodgers just keep rolling over the competition.
Tonight, it was a 6-1 beatdown of the Rockies.
Dodgers now 14-1 in their last 15, have won 8 in a row, and are 49-26 overall. They're also 30-10 at home (!!)
Unfortunately, Corey Seager left with a hamstring problem (it's said not to be serious -- at least for the moment), and it was announced that Urias is missing the rest of 2017.
On a non-Dodgers note, I was wondering what the Braves were going to do when Freddie Freeman returned, given that stopgap Matt Adams has suddenly broken out to hit like a superstar.
So were the Braves really going to bench Adams? He's only hit 10 HR with a .325 batting average in the past 3 weeks!
The problem was that Adams could only play 1B and OF, and the Braves are already filled up at OF with Inciarte, Markakis, and Kemp all hitting well.
So they've actually convinced Freeman to move to 3B when he comes back, which will be shortly.
With Freeman back, the Braves will actually have a pretty potent lineup, especially if Dansby Swanson finally gets it together.
Too bad for them that their pitching is still pretty lousy.
Rivero was acquired by the Bucs at the deadline of last year. The main piece in the Mark Melancon deal. At the time of the trade, the Bucs were above .500. The decision to trade the perennial all-star closer for a package headed by a reliever "with a 4 earned run average" was panned by much of the mainstream sports media. But the rationale behind trading roughly sixty days control of Melancon for five and a half years of Rivero must have been that the Cubs were pacing the division and the Bucs were not going to be able to resign Melancon in the offseason given their payroll constraints. They also must have seen something in Rivero
Rivero, in addition to the fastball, which is up three damn ticks from last year, also has a filthy slider and change. The change is rather new. He didn't throw it much with the Nationals. When the press tried to give Ray Searage the credit he wouldn't take it, said the kid was blessed and it's the best change-up he's ever seen. The arm action on it is exactly the same as the fastball and it's coming in ten miles per hour slower with tremendous break, ninety with tremendous break from a lefty. The slider has also improved. Both pitches have become elite for ground balls. He's gone from an average ground ball rate to cy young level Dallas Keuchal ground ball rate. His hard hit rate is cut in half. Three ++ pitches that he can throw for strikes. His walk rate is cut in half. He's not the closer for the simple fact they want to suppress the future arbitration costs, they'll get all five years for less than what the Giants pay Melancon in one.
Clayton Kershaw is having a typical year, 10-2 and a very good 2.61 ERA.
BUT, he has given up a staggering 17 home runs, which is more than he has given up any year in his career and we are still in June. What saves Kershaw is he rarely walks anyone. If he did, he would probably have a losing record this year and an ERA over 4.00 given all the home runs.
He is still the best pitcher in the game, but he may have peaked in his career, giving up home runs at this pace is not a good long term sign. He might be a year or two away from a 10-11 type record with a 4.50 ERA. If I am him, I am thinking about an extension now. His value will only decline probably from here.
He might win the CY Young this year, and finish at the top of home runs allowed, that probably has never happened before.
Maybe not. MLB changed to Statcast from Pitchf/x for reporting pitch speeds this year. That resulted in every pitcher in MLB gaining 2-3 mph.
The difference is caused by the measuring points. Pitchf/x measures speed at a point 50-55 feet from the back of home plate, while Statcast measures speed at the point where the ball leaves the pticher's hand...read the below linked article from USA for more detail
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ast/100205144/
So unless you've adjusted for the change, the increase for Rivero may be no actual increase at all.
Last edited by GrenadaRoger; 06-24-2017 at 05:46 AM.
(long before there was a PFA i had my Grenade & Crossbones avatar at DD)
The problem with the Dodgers is they don't have any moxy. They are pretty boys but when tested they crumble. Look at their playoff failures of late. Great teams but no gumption. When the deck is stacked, they don't just fold they literally run away. This cast of pretty boys and primadonnas won't ever win anything except a bunch of regular season games.
I did no research. When is the last time the Dodgers came from behind? When have they showed heart.
I'll tell you what winners do. They lose 9 in a row early in the season. They lose a CY Young caliber pitcher. Their prized highest paid player in franchise history hits .189 on the year. But they scratch and fight and claw. Getting back to .500 is an insurmountable goal the pundits say. They are 1 game under .500 against all odds, trailing 2-1 in the 9th. They give up 2 back breaking runs. It's 4-1 and most teams crumble. But not a team of tested winners. Guy after guy has quality at bats. Bloop hits, 9 pitch walks by aggressive hitters, and a kid named Whitley who was sent down earlier in the year stroke a game winning double. Winners win. I'd much rather back the scrappy, tested, never say die fighter than the fold at first sign of adversity pretty boys.
It's hilarious that we as a society think everyone can be a dr, a lawyer, an engineer. Some people are just fucking stupid. Why can't we just accept that?
This is just laziness on your part. Everyone says it, so it must be true.
Sale, Scherzer are a good start.
Watching Romo dealing last night made me sick. I am so close to capitulating.
Let's see if Dodgers can put together a run first.
That WAR is incorrect.so i was watching the cards/bucs game and was shocked by this kid from Venezuela named Felipe Rivero
this kid is a 25 yr old lefthanded reliever who touched 102 mph against Diaz in the 8th inning - he really looked like aroldis chapman jr.
so anyway, looked up his stats on espn cause i wasn't familiar with him and noticed something weird regarding his WAR
look at his 2015 vs. 2017 seasons - he pitched 10 more innings in 2015 and had a 1.2 WAR, while pretty much every stat is better this year and his WAR is -0.4
while having a 0.70 era and a 0.68 whip in 2017 - literally EVERYTHING has improved since 2015
i think WAR is generally a pretty legit advanced metric, but i how the hell do you explain this?
tl;dr Felipe Rivero is god and cards should trade for him please
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...iverfe01.shtml
How can you include Sale?
This is just laziness on your part. Everyone says it, so it must be true.
Sale, Scherzer are a good start.
Watching Romo dealing last night made me sick. I am so close to capitulating.
Let's see if Dodgers can put together a run first.
He had one excellent year (2014), and the rest of his years as a starter (2012 through now) have all fallen between "good" and "very good".
I suppose this year is starting to approach excellence, but his ERA is still hovering near 3, where it has been for his whole career. Guess how many starts he's had in the past 10 outings where he gave up 0 ER? Zero point zero.
Scherzer is a more reasonable argument, though he also doesn't have eye-popping ERA numbers. This year he does (2.09), but his best season before that in ERA was in 2015, when he put up 2.79. But at least Scherzer has a lot more completely dominant outings than Sale, and he tends to more often rack up high K numbers (averaging over 250 for the past 5 full years, and none under 231 in that stretch). Scherzer also has been putting up WHIP numbers below 1 for the past 3 years.
Neither compares to Kershaw.
Kershaw's ERAs since 2013: 1.83, 1.77, 2.13, 1.69, and now 2.61 this year.
His WHIPs in that time: 0.915, 0.857, 0.881, 0.725, 0.929.
His K/BB ratios in that time: 232/52, 239/31, 301/42, 172/11, 115/17.
That's what's just amazing about him. He's a starting pitcher who is now consistently averaging about 9 K per BB since 2015.
At the moment, his career ERA/WHIP numbers stand as 2.38/1.003 through about 9 1/2 seasons. Throw out his first mediore (4.26/1.495) season when he was just 20, and you have even better numbers. Throw out the first few seasons when he was actually walking people, and you really have something amazing.
Provided Kershaw doesn't fall apart early, he will enter the discussion of "best pitcher of all time", rather than just "best pitcher right now".
This will especially be true if the increased MLB offense continues. Not to make excuses for the HR he's allowed this year (17), but that might be what's accounting somewhat for his increased HR totals this year. Players are taking a different "three true outcome" approach at the plate recently, and then there's rumors that the ball is juiced. Kershaw may need to adjust to this. Even Scherzer has given up 12 HR.
I don't know what you're talking about.
How are the 2017 Dodgers pretty boys? Because OSA wants to fuck Corey Seager?
The team's three offensive stars right now are two exciting young players (Bellinger, Seager), and an early-30s veteran who picked a dead career off the floor in 2014 (Justin Turner).
The Dodgers haven't needed many come from behind victories because they've been dominating so often on offense that they're usually ahead by the time the late game arrives.
However, when the game is close and late, they do often seem to come up with the dramatic home run or walk-off victory.
This is honestly the best Dodgers team I've seen in many years. It's even better than the 2013 squad which put together that amazing (and somehow largely ignored) 42-8 run. That team got very lucky, and a lot of those victories were close games thanks to contributions by unlikely sources.
This Dodgers team is legitimately very tough. The only question mark involves their starting pitching. Can Alex Wood and Brandon McCarthy really continue pitching like the #2 and #3 starters they've been during the first half? I'm not sure. But, yes, the Dodgers will need some great pitching performances to beat the Nationals in the playoffs (assuming they face them).
Wow. Talking about Kershaw is like talking about Trump or religion.
The question was "is he the best pitcher in the game?"
I took that to mean presently. Not lifetime.
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