SB Nation User Blog: MarkE

SABRanyan?

MarkE — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:18:36 -0000

SABRanyan?

LL Night TONIGHT (Weds)

MarkE — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:46:12 -0000

Wednesday update:

For anyone thinking of coming down, this is still on, although numbers may be low following a few dropouts. Rock up, and assemble in Section 340 around Row 20. If it's as quiet as last night we'll have zero trouble finding each other and can relocate somewhere after maybe.

Anyone who's not posted but fancies coming should head down anyway. You get to grill Eyebrows' split loyalties and mock my ignorance.

See you there.

---- initial post -----

A few weeks ago I selfishly touted the idea of an LL meet when I happen to be in Seattle next week, and the concensus went with this coming Wednesday, 20th May, first pitch @ 7:10pm

Sadly the rotation didn't hold, and we have Chris Jakubauskas vs Joe Saunders (corrected: now Ervin Santana) instead of Felix who's pitching the night before, but to hell with it - I hope we're all still game?*

Given as I've not been to an organised LL gathering before I'm not sure what the protocol for meeting is - would anybody like to suggest something? I'll repost the initial rollcall in a comment, but obviously the more the very merrier - it'd be great to put some LL names to faces.

The first thread was here but it's since been closed to new comments and arrangements hadn't really been concluded I figured to create a new one - apologies if that breaks LL etiquette, but I couldn't find an alternative way to reopen it.

Ms-Angels, Wed 20th May. LL Night

MarkE — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:30:57 -0000

----- 14th May update -----

Okay, so the rotation didn't hold and it'll likely be Jakubauskas against Joe Saunders but concensus stuck with the date, so would be good to go for it.

There's a rollcall further down the comments list - any more are obviously quite welcome. Anybody like to advise the deal for gathering - do we just rock up in a certain section on the day and congregate inside?

Should be great, am looking forward to it.

----- 2nd May update -----

If the rotation holds then Weds 20th Felix should be pitching against LAA, so I've provisionally suggested this as the date.

----- Original Post -----

So in desperation for a break (and some live baseball) I've brought forward my plan to hit the States again in the summer. I was going to leave it until one of the Ms/Sounders double-headers, but things haven't worked out and so I'm going to be in Seattle May 19-25.

I've been to Seattle a few times before and I know the area, so I'm not on the prowl for tips etc. But, it would be excellent if the community was planning any LL nights at Safeco around this time to put some faces to names and a very different, I'm sure, ballpark experience.

I know it's 3 weeks away, but I thought I'd get my oar in early in case anyone was planning any kind of meet around that time. The homestand begins with the RedSox (but, whatever), and then it's LAA followed by the Giants, and I'm in town for the latter two.

Anyone up for an LL night at Safeco for one of those games? With the exception of the last game with SF on Sunday 24th, the remainder are all 7:10pm starts.

Felix & The Intangibles

MarkE — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:08:07 -0000

Hey kids. A couple of comments in this thread got me thinking about one of the additional impacts that a lot of this offseason's changes will have brought.

Assuming that the Bedard/Jones thing goes ahead and, were it to happen, Wlad promoted to becoming a RF fixture, then Felix has a whole bunch of cushioning suddenly implanted around him. Think about it:

His best friend in baseball is on the team on a perm basis

One of his colleagues in the rotation is an experienced guy from Venezuela

He has the pressure of being the keystone in the rotation lifted by playing second fiddle to someone with a more phenomenal reputation

These pieces may provide him with a whole lot more personal comfort and a two year gap where he can focus more on himself that worry about being the central focus of the organisation's future. Then, come 2010, should Bedard leave then he'll have been given every possible opportunity to become as good as some of the most optimistic expectations.

Is it realistic to consider the benefits to Felix as (minor) factors in some of these moves, or is it just a coincidental and collateral bonus?

Baseball 101: Lineup Orders

MarkE — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:56:56 -0000

Righto, I'm being as patient as possible and trying to learn as much as I can from listening, reading and researching. However, sometimes you just need to ask the guys who know.

So over the last 18 months since I got into baseball I've gradually appreciated the generic principles around ordering a lineup - you whack a guy with a decent OBP at the top to leadoff, and clutter the #3-#5 spots with sluggers to bring the early guys home.

The rest would appear to my untrained eye to be much of a muchness, save for the streaky guy who bats at #9 and manages to get on base a bunch (e.g. Burke, YuBet (am I being too harsh?)) and is almost a relief #1.

I am certain, however, that there's more to it than that, but I suspect you'd only pick it up from the wise sage, so here it falls that I refer to the collective wisdom of the LL Community. I can't fathom why Lopez flips between #2 and #8, or the relative cost of promoting Beltre to #3 from #4, say. My curiousity has been brought to a head by following Jeff's 1986 team as, presumably, he also has to assign the hitting order there too with a degree of educated application.

So, guys - how do you go about contructing the best conceivable lineup from the nine guys you field in a game?

Cheers,

Your humble apprentice from across the pond.

2008 Schedule

MarkE — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:05:52 -0000

Huzzah!! It's here

Initial reaction: Decent Interleague schedule. Like that. Not so excited about the eight games against the Angels in two weeks at the end of September, though...

---

Apologies if something of this kind has already been posted, I'd not seen it for looking.

M's '08 Tentative Schedule

The following are road series game dates that I've been able to collate from other teams' tentative home schedules released on their official sites. The Ms haven't published theirs yet, but a bunch of AL sides have.
A few NL teams have too, but none that appear to be hosting us (i.e. SD plus two others). I figure that this year's Interleague matchup will be back against the East, given that Texas have home games against both Philly and Atlanta (Marlins and Nationals series would both be welcome!)

One other season tidbit - RedSox are rumoured to be hosting Oakland in Japan for the international game. Here's hoping for that international game to come to the UK in a season coming soon.

Have I missed any others that've been published? I'll try to keep this list updated as and when news/inklings are posted.

April
31-3 vs Texas (?)

May
12-14 @ Texas
16-18 vs/@ San Diego (?)
21-23 @ Detroit

June
13-15 (I-League)
17-19 (I-League)
24-26 vs/@ San Diego (?)
27-29 (I-League)

July
11-13 @ Kansas
14-16 ASB
28-31 @ Texas

August
18-20 @ Chicago WS

September
1-3 @ Texas
15-18 @ Kansas

---

Ten road games in Texas presumably means we'll be at home to them for nine but will host at least Angels or As at home for one extra game, which has to count for some virtually-negligible advantage.

No indication on Cleveland yet... please not in April!

Scoring Baseball

MarkE — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:15:07 -0000

Okay, so it's the ASB and as a little something different and having kept meaning to for a variety of things I thought I'd actually post a diary (woo!).

Some may have noted my incessant references to being a newbie to the game itself, let alone the Mariners or even this blog and this week after 14 months as a bona fide Baseball fan I finally got around to scoring a game myself. It wasn't particularly authentic as it was from the comfort of my own home whilst watching on MLB.tv but it's a start.

It's a very different way of taking the game in but pretty enjoyable and I'm already noticing after only doing it twice a few subtle differences in the way I appreciate play as it goes through gametime.

Anyway, I'm sure there are some veteran scorers amongst you all who are pretty experienced and wise in this art who may be able to provide a few tips? Any obvious pitfalls to watch out for?

Here is my second effort, taken from this weekend.
http://www.mtedwards.co.uk/baseball/det_bos_070708.pdf

I ripped the basic scorecard from www.baseballscorecard.com and a few tips from "The New Ballgame" (excellent book, by the way). I would appreciate anything that I might be missing that would be useful to add or suggested alternate ways of handling/noting certain situations. I have since adapted the template to look a little prettier but it's still essentially the same.

Some of the basic rules I tried to stick to:

record outs inside the diamond

record reaching base safely in bottom right

record the general direction of any hits in top right

ball/strike/foul sequence recorded on left side, top to bottom

progress on bases marked with solid lines

breaks on base progression marked with a dot

advancement on bases due to bb, hbp, balk, errors etc duly credited

CS/putouts on runners marked with a half-base line that is squared off

new pitcher marked with a horizontal line after last batter faced

new batter marked with a vertical line after last at-bat

new inning marked with diagonal line in bottom right corner of last batter faced, parallel to 1st baseline

I'm interested on any thoughts on the following, too:

Should the introduction of a PR be marked on the diamond/base progression anywhere?

Can you attribute progression on the bases to particular incidents, or is it usually open to the interpretation of the reader as to which subsequent hit generated which progression?

Cheers