SB Nation User Blog: lizardlad01

Self-fufilling prophecy or Law of Average

lizardlad01 — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:12:59 -0000

Brad Hawpe situation blows my mind or rather
his critics blow my mined People said he couldn't hit lefties but there wasn't a huge difference in his batting average between lefties and righties in 2008, 2009 and 2005. To me it seems that the law of average says any batter would eventually hit his ~b.a. regardless of whether the pitcher was a rightie or a leftie. As another example look at Pujlols stats. Sure there are some batters who have drastic deviations in the b.a. when it comes to lefties and righties but those are really rare, in my opinion (i.e. I should probably research my opinion). Anyway my point is how do we not know that Brad Hawpe was in the start of a slump in 2007 when he goes against leftie pitching? What if the critics were just saying that he couldn't hit left handed and it became the self-fuffiling prophecy for 2007. Now all of sudden in 2009 he's an All-Star, please who didn't see this coming, he's a great player!

Anyway, for lack of a better conclusion. I think more analysis is needed on the lefty vs righty b.a. differences. Coming soon to you an Excel spreadsheet!!!!! Let me know if anyone of you guys want to join in on this madness.

The Greg Smith Conundrum

lizardlad01 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:27:26 -0000

If you are Clint Hurdle and you have Greg Smith as a flyball pitcher in your rotation and Coors Field as your park....

A) Do you pitch Greg Smith on the 5 day rotation or...

B) Do you just try to make Smith pitch on the road and/or against teams that suck at hitting homeruns when he has to pitch at home or...

C) Hope to God Dan O'Dowd trades him quick.

I'm leaning towards option B/C but I don't know if anything like that has ever been done in baseball.

Pitching Rotation...

lizardlad01 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:42:46 -0000

Bronson Arroyo, Aaron Cook, Jeff Francis, Ubaldo Jimenez and Glendon Rusch....seems like a decent rotation in the playoffs if we trade for Bronson. However, Bronson is more of wild card than the other four pitchers. Even if we don't trade for him, the Rockies are in great shape pitching wise in AAA. What do you guys think?

FYI, I post few and far between....

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/23/rockies-5-dodgers-3/

Writing the Giants Off

lizardlad01 — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:58:25 -0000

I think everybody is underestimating the Giants. I think we have forgotten how much of a chain Barry Bonds is around the Giant's neck. Once you remove the ailment from a team they generally start playing better, harder and faster.

Bottom line: The NL West is going to be the toughest division of all-time this upcoming season. Every team is loading with talent.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/giants/2008-02-19-giants-offseason_N.htm?loc=interstitial skip