To be honest, it was one of the more boring baseball games I have ever seen.  The normal chaos that is watching Dominican baseball was surprisingly absent.  The stadium was maybe 4/5 empty and the whistles and air-horns were few and far between, the Philly Fanatic looking blue mascot of the Licey Tigres was MIA, and even the cheerleaders with their short shorts and provocative gyrations were no where to be seen.

Continue reading this post »

It has been a particularly complicated year.  Checking the date of my last fanpost, it strikes me that the world has made quite a few rotations in its annual slow-steady progression around the sun since I last shared anything signficant on this site.  It is interesting to how the blog community works; I still read this page everyday, follow the team, and more or less keep up with the conversations on the site, but once you slip out of the conversation it can be challening to wiggle back in again.

Continue reading this post »

I have just returned home from my local colmado where I witnessed an interesting moment in the Reds' offseason: The people's wagon, Edinson Vólquez, on the mound against the one and only Niño Destructor, Juan Francisco, during a crucial game in the DR winter league round robin playoffs.  The following is a dramatic interpretation of what may or may not have occured within the minds of V-dub and el Niño during thier encounter in the 4th inning of a 2-1 game with one out and Nelson Cruz on third:

(Note: beer was also consumed during this event)

The Wagon: Pues... looks like Nelson cruz just rocked a hanging breaking ball off the wall to knock in a run.  Debo no throw the ball belt high in the middle of the plate to good hitters so much.

Niño Destructor: Soy el niño destructor.  I eat kids for breakfast.  Roar.

The Wagon: ¡Eat this! (throws a fastball low and away that Francisco swings at and manages to pop up off the third base line.  The third basemen sprints toward the stands in shallow left field and the ball drops just out of his reach)

Niño Destructor: Soy el niño destructor.  You can't throw your fastball by me.  Roar.

The Wagon:  ¿Que lo que Niño Destructor? ¿Te gusta another fastball? (throws a fastball, this time belt high but in on the hands.  Francisco swings, fighting the pitch off and what seems at first to be a harmless liner foul over the dugout sails deep into the outfield landing in the bullpen less than 15 feet outside of the left field foul pole)

Niño Destructor: Soy el niño destructor. ¡Put one of those sobre el plato and we will see what happens!  Roar.

The Wagon: Hmmm.  Vamos a change it up a bit.  If he wants a fastball lets give something different. (throws the classic changeup and Juan is way out and front.  He gets a good swing on it but lines it foul well outside of the first base line). 

Niño Destructor: Soy el niño destructor. No puedes fool me with a change up. I am all over that la proxima time. Roar.

The Wagon:  This kid could stand to take a pitch or two. Tal vez if I just throw him garbage I can strike him out sin problema.

Niño Destructor: Soy el niño destructor. ! I like to swing! ! Jim Rice never brought me no pheasant took a walk! Roar.

The Wagon: Vamos a ver, entonces.  (Throws a breaking ball at the dirt that is completely unhittable.  Francisco swings anyway and misses but the ball skirts under the catcher's glove)

Niño Destructor: ¡Coño! Soy el niño destructor and now I have to try and run really rapido to first base.  Maybe I shouldn't eat so many chimis en la calle.  Roar. (The ball rebounds neatly off the backstop and the catcher scoops and fires to first getting Juan easily)

The Wagon: ¿You dare joder con the wagon of the people? ¿Haven't you seen Slyde's graphs of my stuff? .000 porciento de los batters hit that pitch last year.  Ya tú sabes.

Niño Destructor: Soy el niño destructor.  You haven't seen the last of me. ¡Nos vemos en Sarasota en Febrero! Roar.

From the Diaro Libre last Tuesday, November 18:

SANTO DOMINGO. El comité organizador del equipo dominicano que participará en el Clásico Mundial 2009 presentó este lunes a Mario Soto como el nuevo coach de pitcheo de la novena quisqueyana en sustitución de William Castro, quien fue designado en las mismas funciones por los Cerveceros de Milwaukee en Grandes Ligas.

Hablando para los periodistas en presencia del doctor Leonardo Matos Berrido, presidente de Lidom, el gerente general Stanley Javier resaltó que tanto él como Felipe Rojas Alou se sienten muy contentos porque saben el tipo de persona que es Mario Soto.

"Tanto Felipe como yo estamos muy contentos porque conocemos a Mario y sabemos la persona que es", destacó Javier.

Aprovechó para anunciar que fueron integrados, en adición a los ya existentes, nuevos coaches entre los que cuentan Luis Pujols, Luis Silverio, Mariano Duncan, Nelson Silverio y Miguel García. Anteriormente se dieron a conocer los nombres de Alfredo Griffin y Junior Noboa. 

Dijo que otros nombres aún no pueden salir a la luz pública debido a que los reglamentos del Clásico así lo impiden, aunque resaltó que jugadores como Robinson Canó, Santiago Casillas, Edinson Vólquez y Aramis Ramírez firmaron el acuerdo de participación.

El recién designado dio las gracias a todos los miembros del comité organizador y de manera especial a Felipe y Stanley, con quienes dijo tener magníficas relaciones.

SANTO DOMING.  The organizing committee of the Dominican team that will participate in the 2009 World Baseball Classic announced yesterday former pitcher Mario Soto will be their team's pitching coach.  Soto will replace William Castro who was recently named the pitching coach of the Milwaukee Brewers.  The general manager of the Dominican team, Stanley Javier said that both he and team manager, Felipe Rojas Alou are very content with this selection because the understand the value of Soto.

"Both Felipe and I are very happy because we know Mario well and we know the kind of person he is," said Stanley.  Stanley also announced the selection of other new coaches who will join the existing managers, including Luis Pujols, Luis Silverio, Mariano Duncan, Nelsion Silverio, and Miguel García.   Alfredo Griffin and Junior Noboa had already been neamed as coaches on the team.

Stanley mentioned that other names of participants still have not been announced to the public due to the rules of the Classic, but he did highlight that players like Robinson Canó, Santiago Casillas Edinson Vólquez, and Aramis Ramiraz have signed up to play.

Soto thanked the organizing committee of the Dominican team, and gave special thanks to Stanley and Alou.  Dating back to their years as players, Soto said he has a great relationship with both Stanley and Alou.  "I give thanks a everyone who has made it possible for me to replace Castro on the team," said soto. "Everyone is involved the Classic and for that reason the Cincinnati Reds organization didn't have any problem with granting me permission to participate." 

Could this be the experience/recognition that Mario Soto needs to become the next Reds' pitching coach?  After his work with Vólquez and Cueto, and his general ability to teach his devastating backdoor slider ("puerta atras") shouldn't he be a pitching coach somewhere, preferably with the Reds?

How do we feel about Vólquez participating in the Classic?  Weren't a lot of players, especially pitchers, kind of wiped out last time around going straight into the season after the competition?

In other Dominican news, the governement here is trying to push through a a youth emplyment act that is very similar to the law that led to so much unrest in France in 2006.  It is a law that basically says that folks between 18-30 who are enterng their first formal job, should have limited rights including the right to be fired without warning or reason, and also are exempt from severence pain.  The idea is to stimulate the economy by making young people more exploitable, I mean, hirable.  

Here in Justicia Global we are currently working on mobilizing young folks to take action against the law which is now in the senate after gaining approval in the house.  Our goal is to use this event as an entrance point for young people into the work of creating a broader, more long term movement towards more fundamental socio-economic change.

Things seem to be getting pretty bad in terms of unemployent in the States.  What is the feeling like there these days?

Ok, so I am started to really getting into thinking about what is the best statistical measure of offensive ability.

I realize I had a very mistaken impression of slugging.  I thought walks were included, and that slugging measured the average number of bases traveled by the batter with each plate appearance.  That, of course, is not slugging at all.  Slugging is the average bases traveled with each AB, only taking into account hits.

Which then brought me to why I was thinking wrongly about slugging: it seems like a better measure of offensive ability would be to measure (TB + BB)/(AB + BB) .  If I am thinking correctly, this stat would give you the average number of bases a batter travels with each plate appearance on a scale of 0 to 4.  Not sure if it already exists with another name, but for the sake of this post, I will call it a batter's "milage."

The challenge to this all seems to me how much to value getting on base and how much to value traveling more bases on average with each plate appearance.  For example, a player that hits a home run every ten PA but gets out the other 9 would have a score of .4 on the "milage" scale.  Another player, who gets 3 singles and a walk every ten PA, also has a .4 score on the same scale.  Which player is better?  According to OPS the first player scores .500  (.100 obp + .400 slg) and the second .733 (.400 obp + .333 slg). 

Part of me thinks that what matters most is averaging more bases per plate appearance, partly because we know for a fact that the first player scored a run where the second player may or may not have.  On the other hand, we know for a fact that the first player only scored one run, where the second player may have scored up to four.  Similarly, we know that the first player drove in one run for sure, while the second player may not have driven in anyone.  The second player, however, could have driven in up to 7 runners though (3 hits with runners on second and third, and a walk with the bases loaded).

I am actually learning a lot as I write and think about this now, and am starting to see the complexity of measuring individual stats in a team game.  This was Bill James' struggle too right with the RC formula?

Speaking of James and RC, I was looking at definitions of Runs Created and not quite understanding why basic RC, (H + BB)TB/(AB +BB), is calculated the way it is, and not the way that I did "milage" above.  Can someone explain that or point me towards a good simple explanation of the RC stat?

This is me diving head first into this world so please excuse the obvious ignorances to the history of a lot of these things.  I probably should just read that book, what's it called?  Money Ball? 

I also make no claims at doing math well.  I studied peace in college.

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.

Golaso. Goooooooooooooooooooooool.   Gol. Gol. Gol.  Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol.Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol.  Goooooooooool.

Turkey 1, Germany 0.

An attempt at starting an open thread.

I have been in the Cincinnati for a few weeks now and the weather here has been incredible.  I have enjoyed seeing the family, and friends, and have spent many evenings playing soccer late into the night with random folks at UC.

In other big new for me, I just had the letter I wrote to Naomi Klein published in online journal.  I spoke a bit about this in one of our earlier conversations about sabremetrics and the global economy.  You can find the letter here, with an introduction from the Director of the  Peace Education Center at Columbia University, Betty Reardon,  here.

Not to steal the Turtle's thunder about big news from the Dominican Republic, but I saw this in Hoy online this morning.  We are getting to a point with Volquez , knock on madero, where this is not a stretch at all:

Vólquez en ruta para el Cy Young

El dominicano es favorito. El abridor de los Rojos de Cincinnati, Edinson Vólquez ha tenido un gran desempeño en la temporada del 2008 y es el principal candidato al premio Cy Young

Escrito por: DIONISIO SOLDEVILA

d.soldevila@hoy.com.do
Llegando ya casi a la mitad de la temporada del 2008, podría comenzarse a hablar de proyecciones.

Y no solo de lo que serían números individuales sino también para los posibles premios a repartirse en las diferentes ligas.

Y para el Cy Young de la Liga Nacional aparece el nombre de un hombre que hasta el momento ha logrado asombrar por la perfección que ha registrado en el montículo jornada tras jornada.

Ese es el derecho dominicano Edinson Vólquez, quien lanzando con los Rojos de Cincinnati ha presentado unas credenciales de un peso específico tal que ha llenado los ojos de todo el mundo del béisbol.

 Y lo más grande de todo es que en la actualidad, domina dos de las tres categorías que son tomadas en consideración para la Triple Corona de pitcheo.

Con una efectividad de 1.71 carreras limpias por cada nueve entradas, Vólquez supera por casi una carrera completa (0.83) a su más cercano rival en dicho encasillado, que es Tim Lincecum, de los Gigantes de San Francisco.

Igualmente, Vólquez encabeza la Liga Nacional en hombres abanicados, con 110, también superando a Lincecum, siete ponches.

Su labor con los decepcionantes Rojos de Cincinnati ha sido uno de los pocos puntos luminosos que ha tenido la organización de la División Central en el viejo circuito del béisbol de las mayores.

De hecho, cabe señalar que de los 35 triunfos que han conseguido los Rojos este año, 10 de ellos han sido conseguidos por el lanzador que lleva el apodo de “Pequeño Pedro” por el aprecio que profesa hacia el tres veces ganador del premio Cy Young, Pedro Martínez, hoy de los Mets de Nueva York.

Y aunque tiene rivales con nombres de mucho peso como el ya ganador del Cy Young, Brandon Webb, el caso del mismo Lincecum y también del venezolano Johan Santana, Vólquez tiene buenas probabilidades de unirse a su ídolo y compatriota Martínez como los únicos quisqueyanos en toda la historia en conquistar un premio Cy Young, algo que no es nada fácil y muy valioso.

Las claves

1. Mejor efectividad

Edinson Vólquez encabeza la Liga Nacional en efectividad con un promedio de 1.71.

2. Mejor en ponches

  Con 110 rivales abanicados, Vólquez encabeza el viejo circuito en esta categoría de poder.

3. Duro en victorias

 Solo Brandon Webb (11) supera en triunfos en lo que va del año al dominicano Vólquez, quien tiene posibilidades de repuntar.

4. Rivales fuertes

 Vólquez tiene rivales de calidad en la competencia por el premio, pero a pesar de ello sus números se imponen hasta el momento.

5. Salidas de calidad

 Vólquez ha sido el  abridor que más aperturas de calidad ha registrado en la temporada. De hecho, todas sus salidas lo han sido.

Brandon Webb

El abridor de los Diamondbacks es líder de triunfos, con 11.

Tim Lincecum

Segundo en efectividad (2.54) y ponches (103) en la Nacional.

Johan Santana

Tiene 7-5 y 3.04 de efectividad, pero ha sido sólido.

Ryan Dempster

Tiene 9-2 y 2.63 de efectividad y sus Cubs están en la cima.

Ben Sheets

Apenas una derrota, con ocho triunfos y 2.74 de efectividad.

Carlos Zambrano

Suma 8-3 y 3.13 con los líderes de la División Central.

Tim Hudson

Acumula 8-5 y 2.96 de efectividad en lo que va de año.

 

Now the English:

Vólquez en route for Cy Young

The Dominican is the favorite.  The Reds’ starter, Edinson Vólquez has performed very well in the 2008 season and is the principal candidate for the Cy Young award.

Written by: Dionisio Soldevila d.soldevila@hoy.com.do

Arriving at almost the halfway point of the 2008 season, we can begin to speak about projections.

And not just about individual numbers but also about the possible awards that are given in the different leagues.

With regards to the Cy Young award in the National League, a person's name pops up whose perfection on the mound start after start has been amazing.

He is the right handed Dominican, Edinson Vólquez, who, pitching with the Cincinnati Reds, has presented credentials so weighty that he has caught the attention of the entire baseball world.

Most importantly, he currently leads two of the three categories that of the pitching Triple Crown.

With and ERA of 1.71 for every nine innings, Vólquez leads his closest rival, Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants, by almost an entire earned run (.81)

Similarly, Vólquez leads the National League in strike outs with 110, also better than Lincecum by seven.

His work with the disappointing Reds has been one of the few bright spots that this organization in the Central Division has had this major league season.

In fact, it should be a sign that of the 35 wins the Reds have this year, 10 have been made by the pitcher who goes by the name “Little Pedro” due to his admiration for the 3 time Cy Young award winner, Pedro Martínez, who now plays for the New York Mets.

And even though he has rivals with bigger names than him like the Cy Young winner, Brandon Webb, or Lincecum, or the Venezuelan Johan Santana, he has a good chance of uniting with his idol and fellow countryman, Martínez, as the only Dominicans in all of history to win a Cy Young, something not easy and very valiant.

Key Points

1. Lowest ERA

Vólquez leads the National league with an ERA of 1.71.

2. Most Strike Outs

  With 110 punch outs, Vólquez leads the major leagues.

3. Strong In Games Won

Only Brandon Webb (11) is better in number of wins, but the way the year is going, Vólquez has a shot at passing him

4. Strong Competition

 Vólquez is competing with quality rivals for the award, but up to now his overall numbers are better than them all.

5. Quality Starts

 Vólquez has been the starter with the most quality starts this season.  In fact, all of his starts have been quality starts.

Brandon Webb

The Diamondbacks starter is the leader in wins with 11.

Tim Lincecum

Second in ERA (2.54) and strikeouts (103) in the National League.

Johan Santana

7-5 with a 3.04 ERA, but has been solid.

Ryan Dempster

Is 9-2 with a 2.63 ERA and his Cubs are in first place.

Ben Sheets

Just one loss with eight victories and a 2.74 ERA.

Carlos Zambrano

8-3 record and a 3.13 ERA with the division leading cubs.

Tim Hudson

8-5 on the year with a 2.96 ERA.

 

On Wednesday I started my trek from Santo Domingo back to Cincinnati.  I flew through Miami into Richmond, VA where a friend came down from DC (yup, BDuk the friend with the sweet potato butter who knows Ben Olsen) to pick me up.  I had a chance to catch up with him for a day and a half and watch a little bit of the Euro 2008.  Who'da thunk- Croatia and Turkey...

My family swung through DC to pick me up and we headed to Norfolk Virginia to the wedding of my sister.  I say sister not in the traditional sense; this was a student of my mom's at Woodward high school who's family was still Nigeria and was not doing well living with an uncle here in Cincinnati.  So one day when I wa about 13, there was another member of our family.  Anyway, she got married this past weekend.  It was great to be with my entire family again after 6 months apart.

So I  am home in CIncinnati for a few weeks after an amazing year of learning to become a community organizer.  Learning about the subtle and not so subtle differences between being an "activist," or being "pc," or being an an academic with a "critical" perspective, and being an organizer of people towards radical social change has been a challenging and highly rewarding process- a process that I have tried to share openly with this blog over the past 3 or 4 months as I also tried to give some insight into how the Dominican press was covering our team.  Thanks for being open to that, whether or not we always saw eye to eye on the topic at hand.

Finally, I am heading to the game tomorrow with friends and family and was also thinking about going Thursday afternoon at 12:35.  Anybody up for a gathering Thursday with Tang on the mound?