SB Nation User Blog: VORP is too nerdy

Giants sign Renteria

VORP is too nerdy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:12:35 -0000

As MLB.com and MLBTR mention.... the Giants have basically closed a deal with Edgar Renteria.

The move, to me, is a little puzzling for the Giants. I was under the impression that they were trying to become leaner, younger, and meaner. Renteria is the definition of inconsistent, as the guy seems to fluctuate between "leage average" and "all-star quality" every other year. Last year, however, he declined fairly steeply and only put up a .270/.317/.382 line.

The implication for the A's, of course, is that the Giants were one of the primary competitors in the market for Rafael Furcal. Their signing of Renteria indicates that they effectively dropped out of the Furcal running awhile ago. It looks like the A's are indeed the frontrunners in the Furcal sweepstakes.

Fire Joe Morgan calls it quits

VORP is too nerdy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:31:27 -0000

For those of you who are interested, the famous sabermetrically-inclined blog, Fire Joe Morgan, announced last night that they are going to call it quits.

I began reading the site sometime in 2006, and frankly, it was a breath of fresh air at the time. There were virtually no media outlets through which I could relate my frustration with sports media except for my friends. Fire Joe Morgan analyzed, dissected, and made fun of media stupidity.

Joe Morgan was at the center of this stupidity, and rightly so. The guy is an Emmy award winning broadcaster on the #1 sports network in the world, and he seems to know next to nothing about baseball. I'm not talking about how to play baseball, as Joe has a wealth of information there, but he seems to have no idea about what's going on in baseball. His numerous weekly gaffes were inexcusable.

But FJM also highlighted and exposed bad sportswriting, of which there is no shortage. Multiple times a week FJM would feature poorly-written and thought out baseball articles which they would then "disprove" and make fun of.

It came out some time ago that the writers of the blog are actual television writers.

I have to admit that I did not consistently read FJM over the last year or so for a number of reasons. First, the blog did not post as regularly as it had before. Second, it was getting kind of stale. It was no longer unique. You can only make fun of the media obsession with David Eckstein and other similarly short, crapy players for so long. I think that bad sportswriting is more universally recognized now throughout the internet.

The Joe Chat transcripts featured every Tuesday were epic. Baltimore Oriels.

In any case, for those of you interested in at least checking out the blog...

Fire Joe Morgan

The 2008 Angels: The Pinnacle of Class (Irony) in MLB

VORP is too nerdy — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:37:32 -0000

I appreciate irony. I love irony. I find it hilarious.

The irony of 2008 baseball is the fact that the team with the best record, the LA Angels, was not the best team in baseball. At all. Their actual record was an MLB-best 100-62, but their expected W/L record was the worst among AL playoff contenders at 88-74. Thus, the Angels were not the best team in the AL, but they were easily the luckiest.

Except in the 2008 playoffs, their luck ran out, sort of.

So what do you do when you have the best record in baseball, the ESPN analysts orgasm over how awesome your team is, and you get beaten by the clearly better (but less lucky) Boston Red Sox? You take it like a professional, congratulate the other team, and vow to exact revenge next year.

Unless you're the Angels, then you just blame the umpires, the Boston Red Sox, and the economy for your suckitude.

Without further ado, I present the Angels whinefest of 2008

Highlights:

It's way different than last year," said Lackey, who was 0-1 with a 2.63 ERA in two starts this postseason. "We are way better than they are. We lost to a team not as good as us."

[On Sunday] they scored on a pop fly they called a hit, which is a joke," said Lackey, referring to a popup that was misplayed into three runs. "[On Monday], they score on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball anywhere else in America [except in Fenway Park]. And [Pedroia's] fist-pumping on second like he did something great."

In conclusion, John Lackey is a grade-A douchenozzle.

Twins sweep the White Sox, take half game lead in the AL Central.

VORP is too nerdy — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 03:59:53 -0000

I just wanted to open up a thread about the exciting race going on in the AL Central. I have a particular interest in thw Twins because their history is somewhat similar to the A's. That is, they're a relatively low budget team that has been consistently successful over the last few years. Secretly, I always root for the Twins to be successful, except when they play the A's.

On the other hand, I have always disliksed the White Sox, particular since Frank Thomas left Chicago. I've been a huged Big Hurt fan my entire life, and I was sickened by their treatment of him in Chicago. I'm also sick of the offensive antics of Ozzie Guillen, A.J. Pierzynski, and the ridiculous homerism of Hawk Harrelson. Nick Swisher is the lone bright spot in the vortex of suck that is the Chicago White Sox.

The last game was especially ridiculous because Hawk Harrelson spent the final 2 innings doing nothing but complaining about the umpires throughout the series. It was totally unprofessional.

The Twins just swept the White Sox to take a half game lead in the AL Central. In the last series of the season, the Twins will face the Royals, and the White Sox head to Cleveland to face the Indians. Undoubtedly, these matchups are in the Twins' favor.

Unfortunately the A's season is almost over, but some exciting playoff races are just heating up. Any thoughts or predictions?

Rich Harden and the Cubs - Are they hiding an injury?

VORP is too nerdy — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:12:29 -0000

This fanpost may not be directly-related to the Athletics at this moment, but I think Rich Harden's career with the Cubs is definitely a subject of interest for most of us here at AN. His performance this year, especially with the Cubs, is what I think A's fans have been dreaming of from him for the past several years. However, the behavior of Cubs management recently has me wondering if he may not be entirely healthy. Note that this post was not intended to discuss the trade itself. I think an injury to Rich Harden may change a few minds about his trade, but this post is intended merely for discussing his health and future implications.

Since being traded to the Cubs, Harden has been utterly dominant, putting up a 1.65 ERA through 60 innings and 10 starts. He has 78 strikeouts compared to 19 walks, and only 11 earned runs. In 8 out of his 10 starts, he earned only 1 run or less. Most incredible about this, I think, is the fact that he only has 5 wins.

As we here all know, Rich Harden has a long and detailed list of injury woes. However, for the Cubs this year he was able to string together 9 straight starts until the Cubs gave him an "extended breather" on August 29th. He made his return last night, September 11th.

A breather itself is relatively benign. After all, the Cubs are essentially guaranteed a playoff spot at this point, and given Harden's past it may not be a bad idea to give him a rest now and then. However, 13 days is essentially a stint on the DL.

I had a particular interest in his return last night because I am from St. Louis, it was a Cardinals/Cubs rivalry, and Rich Harden was by far my most-loved and most-hated A's pitcher. Harden's performance, however, was disturbing.

Toward the tail end of his time in Oakland we saw Harden's velocity diminish slightly, from regularly hitting 96-97 to 91-93ish. Last night, however, was downright bad. His fastball was barely hitting 90, and was regularly sitting around 88. His changeup, however, complemented his fastball fairly well at around 77-78. His GO/AO was exceptionally low, at about 1:4... as it has been all year. His strikeouts were way down as well, as he only mustered 3. On paper, however, he was still effective; he only gave up 2 runs, 5 hits, and walked 1. I think part of his effectiveness may have been in the hitter's expectation's. The Cardinals were repeatedly out in front against Harden, clearly expecting harder stuff. I know one game is an incredibly small sample size, but the pitching stats aren't the issue here. The issue is the huge deviation in his pitch speeds from what he was displaying earlier this year and has showed throughout his career.

So what I'm wondering is.... why has Harden's fastball diminished so much over the past few months? Is it an indicator that he is hurting? Is it an indicator that he may been testing a new pitching strategy?

Note:

MLB.com story on Harden's Return

"Harden has been surprised at the constant questions about his status."