SB Nation User Blog: Sam Miller OCR

How one Angels writer sees the Giants

Sam Miller OCR — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:43:03 -0000

How one Angels writer sees the Giants

(That writer being me.)

I do these at the start of an Angels series, and feedback is always nice, since you know more about your guys than I do and because you -- yes, you -- are very funny.

How one Angels writer sees the Tigers

Sam Miller OCR — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:29:50 -0000

How one Angels writer sees the Tigers

(That writer being me)

Was wondering what you think of this assessment, especially because I'll be doing another when you play the Angels again in a month.

Why does PECOTA hate Kendry

Sam Miller OCR — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:25:44 -0000

Why does PECOTA hate Kendry

Not a plug, a solicitation: Do you think PECOTA has a blind spot when it comes to Kendry, and if so, what is it? I tend to mistrust PECOTA on unique-type players, so is there something that makes Kendry unique? Projects .253/.295/.389 w/ 11 homers this year.

Bees' owner dies

Sam Miller OCR — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:55:57 -0000

Bees' owner dies

Larry H. Miller, the owner of the Salt Lake City Bees, died at the age of 64 today. He had recently had complications from Type 2 diabetes. Miller also owned the Jazz and famously blocked Brokeback Mountain from playing in movie theaters he owned.

Napoli > Mathis at calling games

Sam Miller OCR — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:16:35 -0000

Napoli > Mathis at calling games

Or at least the same. Updating a previous Fanpost, in which I found Mathis' Catcher ERA was better than Napoli's even when controlling for quality of pitcher, I've got a new post at OCR that finds the differences are entirely driven by BABIP luck. Mike Napoli, I apologize for that earlier stuff. Play on.

Catcher ERA

Sam Miller OCR — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:29:50 -0000

So I was writing ~~more Whicker bait~~ a post about catcher ERA with the presumption that the difference between Napoli's CERA (4.45) and Mathis' (3.66) would be completely explained by the different pitchers they caught. Mathis was Santana's catcher, Napoli caught most of Garland and all of Adenhart, etc. But what I found actually surprised me.

Yes, Napoli caught by far the lesser half of the Angels' staff. His expected CERA should have been something like 4.50, while Mathis' should have been something like 4.00. But even when lining up their CERA for each individual pitcher, Mathis was better than Napoli for everybody but Saunders, and even that was close.

Now, I assume this is a fluke. The sample sizes are small, CERA is a pretty lame stat to begin with, etc. But I mostly listen to games on the radio, so I wanted to see whether any of you who watched games in person or on TV had any explanation for this besides just calling it a fluke. Is it possible that Mathis actually is much better at calling games? If it is possible, does this matter at all, or is the difference in offense far more important?

Here's the chart:

Pitcher	ERA	Napoli ERA	Mathis ERA	Edge
Weaver	4.33	5.24	3.77	Mathis
Garland	4.90	4.99	4.7	Mathis
Santana	3.49	4.44	3.18	Mathis
Moseley	6.79	7.09	5.59	Mathis
Saunders	3.41	3.29	3.52	Napoli
Adenhart	9.00	9.00	N/A	N/A
Lackey	3.75	3.83	3.61	Mathis

OCR and the Angels blog

Sam Miller OCR — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:47:27 -0000

OCR and the Angels blog

If you have an opinion about the future of the Register's Angels coverage, join the conversation.
-sam-

OT: Open-Music Thread

Sam Miller OCR — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:06:16 -0000

So with Christmas coming up, a lot of us are probably asking for CDs or MP3s, and a lot of us are probably buying CDs or MP3s for other people, so I thought we could share some recommendations of great music that came out this year, or that came out earlier but that you discovered this year.

Here are mine:

Department of Eagles, "In Ear Park," an offshoot of the band Grizzly Bear. The songs are a bit peculiar and dreamy, but they're also playful and layered and occasionally have a great Phil Spector sorta vibe.

Nick Cave, "Dig!!! Lazurus, Dig!!!" The title track might be my favorite song out this year, but the whole album is just ferocious.

Fleet Foxes, self titled. Sorta 70s, sorta My Morning Jacket, sorta Shins.

Hot Chip, "Made in the Dark." It's electro-pop, but with a lot of instrumentation that gives these songs room to breathe. Super fun, and never monotonous.

and an album I just discovered this year is Michael Hurley's "Long Journey." Hurley was a songwriter whose recordings on the side were mostly overlooked, but this 1977 album is incredible. I learned of it because one of the songs, "Hog of the Forsaken," was used in Deadwood. You hear the song and it's pretty hard not to want to hear more of this guy.

Anybody else have some picks?