SB Nation User Blog: FPTV

"This club swings the bat. We don't walk. That probably plays in our favor." - Bengie Molina

FPTV — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:56:22 -0000

"This club swings the bat. We don't walk. That probably plays in our favor." - Bengie Molina

Duffy used to be a pitcher, and when he watched Barry Bonds, he could tell Bonds liked to set...

FPTV — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 08:10:36 -0000

Duffy used to be a pitcher, and when he watched Barry Bonds, he could tell Bonds liked to set pitchers up. Bonds would deliberately swing badly at certain kinds of pitches, so the guy would throw that same pitch again.

Schwab to Obama: Add 6 million jobs (about halfway down)

I'd never really thought about this so I never noticed if Bonds employed such a strategy. Anyway, the quote caught my attention, but now it's back to the school works for me...

Born to Play (or the Origins of Eugenio Velez)

FPTV — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:25:56 -0000

Born to Play (or the Origins of Eugenio Velez)

The way Joan Ryan's latest post reads, Eugenio Velez was drafted by the Giants when he was 17 (which would have been in the late 90s). As I've always understood it, and as Baseball-reference concurs, Velez was drafted in 2001 by the Blue Jays and we picked him up in 2005. So...uh...what gives?

Frank McCourt

FPTV — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:50:28 -0000

Frank McCourt

Poorly written, yet enjoyable opinion piece from the LA Times about the suffering of Dodger fans this offseason...

So now Pitching, Speed and Defense works?

FPTV — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:08:04 -0000

So now Pitching, Speed and Defense works?

"Over the last three years, the Rays have gone about the task of stockpiling young arms and legs to fit their pitching, speed and defense blueprint."

the origin of "...HE'S A BUM!"?

FPTV — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:57:51 -0000

So in the background of the TV broadcast of the game today, I could hear the "What's the matter with _________?"/"HE'S A BUM!" chant. Does anybody know the history of this? My googling suggests that it's a very Giants-specific chant, and it may date back to the Polo Grounds, which makes sense since the Dodgers used to be called "the Bums" back then (though, IIRC, that name came from the Brooklyn fans...). Does anybody know of a more specific history behind the chant, or is that all there is? Has it always come from left field (even at Candlestick and the Polo Grounds)? Is it technically inappropriate to use with non-Dodger players? Who else loves seeing that lady with the season tickets to the seat at the very front of section 134?

Facts and stories of all authenticities are allowed: "Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

stats tools...

FPTV — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:59:31 -0000

Just curious for the stat heads out there: what tools do you use for your analyses? I see a lot of Excel and/or FanGraphs looking charts online, but I'm wondering if people aren't using more sophisticated statistics-specific software, like Stata or Matlab.

Also, where does your data come from? I can't imagine people are just hand copying numbers from baseball-reference.com. Is there some way to retrieve and parse large amounts of data from the mlb site?

Wilson's Entrance Music...

FPTV — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:04:35 -0000

So the Merc has an article about Brian Wilson's entrance music. Turns out it's some Christian rock song called "Rise Up" which left me feeling a little bleh and--I hate to say it, but--a little weirded out, too.

Anyway, I got to thinking about other closers' songs and some alternative choices. Unfortunately, based on my brief research endeavor, Trevor Hoffman may have claimed dibs on what might be the best entrance music with "Hell's Bells" (that ominous intro + classic riff combo is harder to find that I had thought, and on a purely objective level, I think it's a better choice than "Smoke on the Water", which I will always associate with a particular Kids in the Hall skit).

The best I could come up with would be Danzig's "Mother". Of course, this only works if they play a new version of the video on the jumbotron, where Wilson acts out Danzig's parts. Maybe the parts around 2:16, or 3:00. Who's with me?