SB Nation User Blog: Gray

College football and basketball thread

Gray — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:24:50 -0000

There are some good games coming up this afternoon:

Cincinnati and Pittsburgh just started--and Cincinnati's losing
UNC and Kentucky at 12:30
SEC title game: Florida and Alabama
Big XII title game: Texas and Nebraska
ACC title game: GaTech and Clemson

I figured we'd end up needing a thread to discuss these, so here you go.

Discuss.

Post-Turkey Open Thread and SIS

Gray — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:06:25 -0000

Sure, it's been kind of quiet around here, but I'm sure some of you people have plenty to say. Here's a thread for you! For those of you who haven't noticed: Brendan posted some juicy information in a FanShot. You do notice those, don't you?

And while we're at it, I'll ask a question: What do you want for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice/your next birthday?

2009 World Series: Game 4

Gray — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:17:07 -0000

Next Game

New York Yankees
@ Philadelphia Phillies

Sunday, Nov 1, 2009, 8:20 PM EST
Citizens Bank Park

CC Sabathia vs Joe Blanton

Complete Coverage >

	W-L	ERA	WHIP	K	BB
2009 - CC Sabathia	19-8	3.37	1.15	197	67

	W-L	ERA	WHIP	K	BB
2009 - Joe Blanton	12-8	4.05	1.32	163	59

So the Yankees are up 2-1, and I can't figure out how to get the pitcher stats widgets to display side by side. Exciting, eh?

Weekend Discussion: How much umpire review should we have?

Gray — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:21:48 -0000

More photos » by Eric Gay - AP

This was, needless to say, not the only time someone had a good reason to argue with an umpire in the current World Series.

Browse more photos »

Okay, so everyone can agree that there have been some bad calls this postseason. We can agree that this is not the only time that bad calls have impacted game outcomes.

But what many people in baseball can't agree on is what we should do about it. So follow me beyond the jump for some people's opinions, then tell me what you think.

Jeff Passan at Yahoo! Sports thinks that every manager should have two challenge flags per game. On the other hand, Phil Rogers at the Chicago Tribune thinks that this is a bigger deal in the playoffs, and therefore that MLB should move those two extra umpires into a review booth. No challenges, but those guys review all plays that they think should be reviews. Neil Best at Newsday thinks that replay reviews are a horrible idea because they would take time, and as we all know, the games are too long. Then again, everyone's favorite announcer Joe Buck says that calls on the bases, as well as foul calls and the like, should be up for review--though maybe only in the postseason. And he points out that if you have somebody in the booth, he can review most calls and let you know in, oh, eight seconds or so.

Of course, we've already changed the rules this season to allow for some review--but only for home run calls, and the process takes forever. Then again, even such a half-assed change as that was a Big Deal in this sport--and somehow things stayed more or less the same. The world didn't come crashing down, but we had a few more correct calls.

And I have to note that Bud Selig hates the idea of doing anything for reasons that, as expected, make perfect sense:

"The more baseball people I talk to, there is a lot of trepidation about it and I think their trepidation is fair," Selig told reporters before Game 2 of the World Series on Thursday. "I've spent a lot of time [on this] over the past month and will spend a lot of time in the ensuing months as well. I don't want to overreact. You can make light of that but when you start to think you're going to have more intrusions -- and even if they're good intrusions -- it's something that you have to be very careful about. Affecting the game on the field is not something I really want to do."

Not to mention that the umpires union dislikes the idea, perhaps because it would probably lead to some record of how many times each umpire's rulings are overturned. And that would be horrible.

But, what say you? Should we expand the system we have to more calls? Only think about it in the postseason? Improve the whole review system in some way? Or, stop arguing about something so stupid and accept a few blatantly incorrect calls as part of the game?

Completely Random Discussion Question: Should Vladimir Guerrero end up in the HoF?

Gray — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:53:13 -0000

More photos » by Bill Kostroun - AP

Nobody else seemed to notice the falling anvil.

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There's no baseball for a while, so we need something to talk about.

And lo and behold, I was reading some random column on yahoo in which the author talks about how great it is that Vladimir Guerrero hit that game-winner off of Jonathan Papelbon. And then he works this in:

Guerrero has always quietly been a fantastic player and one day he'll head to the Hall of Fame.

Which made me say, "Whoa there, Mr....wait, WTF is your name? 'Duk? Seriously?" Then I looked Guerrero up on BBRef. And then I said, "Hrm."

So: I expect you to tell me why he should or should not end up in the Hall. Please make your arguments concise and back them up with concrete examples. Charlie Scrabbles and Man Mountain will be assisting in the grading (not that they know this yet).

Reds win another, and college football games are somehow more interesting.

Gray — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:27:42 -0000

More photos » by Pat Sullivan - AP

Run away! It's CORKY MILLER!

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This team just refuses to give up the possibility of a .500 season.

Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

That would be Jay Bruce, who went 2 for 3 with two walks, a double and a HR. Not a bad night for him. Sure, Joey Votto continued to play quite well (three doubles and a walk!), so it's close. Laynce Nic also had a walk and a sacrifice fly to go along with his HR, and even CORKY FREAKING MILLER had a double (and a single!).

To make a long story short, the Reds scored a lot of runs. Lehr tried to give up a ton of HRs again, but only allowed two, plus two more runs in the fifth. He was pulled after that, and then Owings, Herrera, Masset, and Burton combined to pitch four shutout innings.

Final - 9.26.2009	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cincinnati Reds	0	2	3	0	3	0	0	0	2	10	12	0
Houston Astros	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	4	8	0
WP: Justin Lehr (5 - 2) LP: Felipe Paulino (2 - 11)

Complete Coverage >

But mainly, there's still college football going on. Clearly, you'd rather discuss that. But one more thing. Check out this FanGraph:

via www.fangraphs.com

Corky Miller did WHAT?!?

Gray — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:15:48 -0000

More photos » by Tony Tribble - AP

At least this Votto HR made sense to me.

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Okay, there are some things I don't understand about this game:

Kip Wells pitched seven innings of five-hit ball, giving up only one run.
CORKY FREAKING MILLER hit a three-run home run.

At least there are some things I understand, though, like Joey Votto hitting a two run HR.

That said, I'm going to have to say that Kip Wells was the Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game. On top of that other stuff, he didn't walk anybody!

Final - 9.20.2009	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Florida Marlins	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	5	0
Cincinnati Reds	0	0	1	3	1	0	3	0	X	8	11	0
WP: Kip Wells (2 - 4) LP: Sean West (7 - 6)

Complete Coverage >

via www.fangraphs.com

"What's that name? Jim Dover?"

Gray — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:59:38 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

Someday I'm going to figure out how not to crop out his right foot here.

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Yep, the Reds lost. So let's look at the positives:

Maloney threw five innings of one-run ball, allowing only four hits with no walks. He left with a blister on his middle finger, apparently.

...

Okay, that's really all I've got. Here's a FanGraph for you.

via www.fangraphs.com

Game Thread 136, Appendix A: To the 11th!

Gray — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:24:35 -0000

More photos » by John Amis - AP

It looks like I finally added a picture.

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So some idiot seems to have entrusted me with the ability to make Game Threads and the like. Let's see if I can pull this off.

Oh, about the game: this one is in extras. Hooray for free baseball!

Yeah, about that great pitching...

Gray — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:17:56 -0000

So Man Mountain and I went to the Futures game tonight, where we watched the prospects beat the crap out of pretty much every Reds pitcher we threw at them.

Well, okay. Mainly just Arroyo, Cordero and Lincoln. But those are kind of important guys to have not giving up runs to sub-MLB level hitting.

We came to the basic conclusion that the top five guys in the Futures lineup did a pretty nice job of not making fools of themselves against big league pitching. I mean, look at the results:

Heisey: 3 for 3 with a double

Valaika: 4 for 5 with a double

Francisco: 2 for 5 with 2 HRs, one a cheap inside-the-park one

Frazier: 1 for 4 with a walk

Alonso: 1 for 2 with 3 walks and a HR

I can't believe I dragged my camera along for these crappy pictures, but here goes. First, the lineups. Note that nobody wants to stand near Dusty. Also, each team seems to have one weird guy in shorts.

They had the local guy who pitched to Josh Hamilton for the HR Derby throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Then, they had the kid in this picture (who was apparently related to a sponsor) throw out a ceremonial second pitch. Somehow they resisted the urge to add more ceremonial pitches.

Arroyo pitched out of the stretch a lot. He also gave up a lot of hits.

Name this player!

Home run trot view.

Post-HR congratulations. This may have been after the inside-the-park HR. If I could actually identify these guys I might be able to tell you for sure. It was kind of a freak play, incidentally. Dickerson ran over near the line, but not in any particular rush. He didn't catch the ball. Then he managed to flip over a short fence/wall. When he popped up he seemed to think the ball had bounced foul, but no, it had bounced in fair territory. Once everything was sorted out, everyone had scored. But have no fear, Francisco had a real, honest-to-goodness HR later in the game.

More home run trotting...

The wind was doing strange things. This is an attempt to excuse that ridiculous failed catch of the popup in center, but really, he should have gotten it. There was also a dropped fly ball in right, I presume by Bruce. There was a band of sunlight shining on the field, and he lost track of the ball when he ran into that light.