SB Nation User Blog: madhatternalice

Sherrill is closing??

madhatternalice — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:06:48 -0000

I must have missed this somewhere, but in today's Spring Training Blog by the WWL, there's a bit about Ray, and the following line:

"George Sherrill, acquired from Seattle in the Erik Bedard trade, will take over for Ray as the club's closer this season."

Did we know this was happening? Honestly, guys...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3265113&type=blogEntry

ESPN's 30-3

madhatternalice — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:55:24 -0000

In this week's silly Page 2 Quiz, the Orioles get a lot of love.

Or no love.

The love of recognition, at any rate...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=quiz/070824

They say that if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? And while I am by no means an Oriole, I am an Oriole fan. And while some of these are actually quite funny (see "Wait a minute, Paul Shuey is back in the big leagues?"), I'm getting tired of laughing. Move on, already! :)

Bedard: AL CY Young?

madhatternalice — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:23:20 -0000

Amy Young has a "fluff" piece on Bedard, over at ESPN.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2978076&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1

You've got to love his attitude towards the media. Honestly, if a bunch of reporters showed up at my office every day at 5pm asking me questions, I'd tell them to fuck off, too.

Bedard has been getting quite a bit of love on BBTN regarding his Cy Young chances. Essentially, it looks like it's going to come down to a two-man race, between Bedard and Beckett. Beckett has more wins (a meaningless statistic), and Bedard has more Ks. In fact, let's just do ourselves a comparison:

W L ERA WHIP Ks BBs H/9 BB/9 SO/9
Bedard 12 4 2.98 1.077 207 52 7.1 2.4 10.5
Beckett 15 5 3.24 1.101 148 30 9.0 1.4 8.7

This isn't even close, really. Despite the fact that Bedard has walked more, his WHIP is still lower. His ERA is lower. And, even though Bedard pitchers in a hitters park, he still blows Beckett away with Park-Adjusted ERA:

Park-Adjusted ERA
Bedard 3.09
Beckett 3.36

Yet, on a recent BBTN segment, Peter Gammons reported that, despite all these numbers, despite the fact that Bedard seems to have, like, eight different pitches, when asked who they'd want to start game 7 of a WS, most of the league's GMs said Beckett.

I'm a huge fan of Beckett. I really am. I marked in 2003 like nobody's business (I went to college in Miami). But this is 2007, and these numbers don't lie. A better bullpen might mean that Bedards W-L record would be improved. But since W-L is irrelevent, Bedard should be this year's Cy Young winner.

Since he plays for the Orioles, though....

Update [2007-8-18 15:15:22 by madhatternalice]:: I can't believe I didn't talk about Haren here. I made up for it in the comments, but I'm adding the pertinent info for both him and Johan Santana here:

W L ERA WHIP Ks BBs H/9 BB/9 SO/9
Bedard 12 4 2.98 1.077 207 52 7.1 2.4 10.5
Beckett 15 5 3.24 1.101 148 30 9.0 1.4 8.7
Haren 13 4 2.54 1.125 138 46 8.2 2.0 6.8
Santana 12 9 3.02 1.048 174 39 7.1 1.7 8.9

Now, those are some nice pitchers. Santana has a better WHIP, but a higher ERA. He's also on pace for his lowest strikeout total since 2003. He also doesn't get a lot of run support (9 losses??) And while smart people don't give a lot of credence to wins/losses, the voters do.

How about Quality Starts? How often does a pitcher not blow up?
Starts Quality Starts Percentage of QS
Bedard 26 20 76.9%
Beckett 23 16 69.6%
Haren 26 24 92.3%
Santana 25 19 76.0%

Haren, far and away, is the most consistent pitcher of the 4. But his higher WHIP shows that he's playing with fire.

Based on pure numbers, and all biases aside, it's a toss up between Haren and Bedard. But I guess that's why they play a full season. Beckett will be considered only because he's playing for a contender. Santana might be playing for a contender; I've maintained since the ASB that Detroit would slide, and Cleveland would take the division, and Minny would take the WC.

One for Fun

madhatternalice — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 02:10:15 -0000

Pick one Major League player (or Minor League, I guess) who you would add to the Orioles roster.

However, you can't pick A-Rod, b/c, quite frankly, he's the best player in baseball.

This is someone that you'd want for awhile. Current contracts and salarys are not an issue. They should fill some sort of hole on the current team.

And please, don't not pick a player b/c you don't like their team. Yes, we need a dependable closer, for example. But don't not choose Mariano simply because he's a Yankee.

My pick? There are so many possibilities; we clearly need a first baseman, and picks like Pujols and Howard are tantalizing. However, I'm going in a completely different direction.

It's clear that Miggy's defense has been slipping, though maybe not his offense. For that reason, I'm picking Hanley Ramirez. He's like a young Juan Pierre, or, if you prefer, a Jose Reyes with power.

I'm not going to yet explain why I wouldn't take other players; I'm curious to see what the CC hive mind has to say...

More Love from San Diego

madhatternalice — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:58:31 -0000

A couple of weeks ago I posted in a game thread about the nuts at Gaslamp Ball (the Padres fansite). We had some fun and some laughs with them...

Well, it appears that they take us too seriously:

http://www.gaslampball.com/comments/2007/6/20/215558/953/202#202

It must be fun to be able to joke around when your team is in first place, and you've got an owner that actually seems to know what he's doing...what's that like?

Cheers!

1st Half Awards (Stark)

madhatternalice — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 00:48:58 -0000

Jayson Stark gave out his "midseason awards," and there are few surprises.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2928073&lpos=spotlight &lid=tab1pos1

The only O's mentioned are:

Jay Gibbons (honorable mention, AL LVP)
Jeremy Guthrie (honorable mention, AL ROY)

For the most part, I agree with Stark's selections. I'm not sure how you pick Holliday as the NL MVP over Prince Fielder, but there you have it.

Any other O'S that should have made this list?

Rhodes signs with Seattle

madhatternalice — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:13:16 -0000

From ESPN:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2743892

The Mariners signed him to a one-year minor league deal worth $1 million.

Now, for some reason, I've always liked Arthur Rhodes. He was never an effective starter, but once he shifted to the bullpen, he became pretty damn good. In '97, he pitched 95 innings, had 102 strikeouts, won 10 games, and had an ERA of 3.02. He was definitely a HUGE part of that last, good season.

He's been a bit of a journeyman since, having only one stellar year (2001, with Seattle). Now he's 36, and he's going to try and help a bullpen that lost a very good set-up man.

Best of luck to you, Rhodes. I'm pulling for ya.

Unless you're playing my Birds. Then you're going down.

Sal Fasano: Person of the Year!

madhatternalice — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 22:21:01 -0000

Yeah, you read that right.

Although it's technically "Philadelphia Will Do Person Of The Year" Sal Fasano, it's still a good article you can check out here.

Be sure to watch the YouTube video, too!

Man, how did we let THAT GUY go??? He's still a free agent, right?

Here's the best part: Sal finished the season as a Yankee. He had a club option, but decided to opt out and become a free agent. He doesn't want to play for the Yankees!

Come home, Sal. We miss ya!

Poll

Sal Fasano or Paul Bako?

BAKO! BAKO! BAKO!

2 votes

SAL! SAL! SAL!

21 votes

23 votes | Poll has closed