SB Nation User Blog: hmlee

The unseasonable weather is killing our offense. Literally.

hmlee — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:09:31 -0000

As I am currently out of the Cubs viewing area I decided to look into something during today's dismal performance. We seem to have been having serious trouble scoring runs since about mid to late may. Coincidentally, Chicago has been experiencing unseasonably cold weather from that time frame, so I decided to do a little experiemnt.

Using a variety of sources (weather reports from weather.com, the national weather service, farmer's almanac as well as game summary data from the official Cubs site and game time information from here) I decided to graph our recent run scoring perforamnces (home games since mid-to-late May, as well as the 3 games at the Cell since they were also played in Chicago) vs. the difference (in degrees) of the game time temperature for that day and the normal (as defined by the national weather service) termperature for that day.

I did a little rounding to eliminate decimal points, but what I found was rather interesting. Simply, the Cubbies don't do so well when its unseasonably cold out. Almost all of our offenseive droughts have occured on days when the game time temperature is 5 degrees or more below the normal temperature for that date. With one exception, all of the games in which we've scored a plethora of runs (5 or more) have happened when the game time termperature outside has been at or above the "normal" temperature for the date.

So, I guess, from now on instead of shouting "Let's get some runs!" during the 7th inning stretch, we should instead be shouting "Let's get some sun!"

Here's a quick and dirty chart of the data:

via farm4.static.flickr.com

The Dodgers are not the best team in baseball!

hmlee — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:48:18 -0000

The Dodgers are not the best team in baseball!

All right... this is slightly OT, but I just have to post a mini-rant. I am getting so tired of seeing the Dodgers atop the ESPN Power Rankings or highly touted by the commentators on Baseball Tonight or even sometimes the MLB Network. Dodgers vs. the NL West: 30-12 (18 games about .500) Dodgers vs. everybody else: 22-18 (4 games above .500) Sigh.

Is M.B. the T.O. of Baseball?

hmlee — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:51:24 -0000

Is M.B. the T.O. of Baseball?

Discuss....

Foxilla!

hmlee — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:11:32 -0000

Okay, so admittedly I am no SWL, but I was so inspired by Jake Fox's performance today that I decided a new image was in order. I really think that Lou needs to find a spot for him in our everyday lineup. His defense really doesn't look that bad... why don't we keep him around at 3B until Rami gets back, and then as a super utility player after? We could put Miles on the DL if we have to. Or unconditionally release him or Farney. I think I will cry if Jake Fox doesn't get into the lineup on a regular basis...

Anyway, here's the picture:

via farm4.static.flickr.com

Ron Santo mistakenly redacted from U of I documents

hmlee — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:46:26 -0000

Ron Santo mistakenly redacted from U of I documents

I thought this article was amusing... I get that some people don't follow baseball, but (to paraphrase Ron) gee whiz! http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-talk_santojun23,0,3649834,print.story

MLB At Bat app to get live streaming video Thursday 6/18

hmlee — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:54:04 -0000

Well now this is interesting. I just saw that the MLB application for the iphone will feature live video starting tomorrow, June 18th. At first there will be only two or three games offered per day, free of charge. The video stream will work on both Wifi and 3G (unsure about Edge for the older iphones, but, most likely it will work there with poor quality). MLB says that it plans to slowly expand the slate of games offered through the course of the season, and it may start charging on a per-game basis, though that has yet to be settled and no price has been set.

A few caveats apply:

Must have iPhone OS 3.0 for this to work (3.0 came out today)

Blackout restrictions apply. Boo.

No MLB.TV subscription required.

Heilman can't be that much worse...

hmlee — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:25:39 -0000

Heilman can't be that much worse...

Than what the Indians have now, considering that after Herges walked the bases full and allowed a Braun RBI single, Fielder promptly deposited the first pitch he saw from Perez into the outfield seats for a grand slam, thus pulling the Brewers ahead 13-12. Yeeeesh.

"But one thing about Wrigley Field, I puke every time I go there," Guillen said Sunday morning....

hmlee — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:09:49 -0000

"But one thing about Wrigley Field, I puke every time I go there," Guillen said Sunday morning. "That’s just to be honest. And if Cub fans don’t like the way I talk about Wrigley Field, it’s just Wrigley Field. I don’t say anything about the fans or anything now. But Wrigley Field, they got to respect my opinion. That’s the way I feel."

Joe Buck. Ew.

hmlee — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:51:11 -0000

Joe Buck. Ew.

Why are most of the top draft prospects pitchers?

hmlee — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:59:23 -0000

Why are most of the top draft prospects pitchers?

There must be a reason for this, but I admittedly don't know enough about the baseball draft to know why...